Gingerbread house & Merry Xmas

My first house!

It all started with a big tub of leftover royal icing. Debated between throwing or finding another use for it. Then remembered the pretty sweet houses by wangirls.

So at a whim and one day before xmas eve, rolled up my sleeves and whipped up the dough, bought some colourful candies and decorated it all in one night.

Since it was my first build, must confess it was rather stressful especially after the first crash. Was suppose to leave the base structure to dry for at least 1 hour before adding the roof but as time was not on my side decided to risk it; fiddled too much with the roof while the 'cement' was still wet and in a flash, was back to square one. Used the template by elsie.

Fortunately, as time went by, the house looked a lot nicer - many thanks to the colourful candies. As I was thinking how to decorate the house, kept thinking of the stories of Hansel and Gretal and the Land of Sweets by Enid Blyton.

All it takes is a handful of candy to draw the child in everyone of us!! lolz

Needless to say Master Prince was thrilled with the final product - he couldn't wait to start munching on the house, probably starting with the marshmallows. Now, that must be another story in itself! *can't imagine how one starts consuming this - where would you start???*

Side view.

Anyway, plenty of lessons learnt with this project. It was a lot of fun and will probably make this a yearly ritual, can't wait for next Christmans now :)

Merry Christmas 2011 to all friends and readers.

Some tips:

1. Decorate the side walls first especially if you are sanding it with sprinkles.

2. It is harder to pipe designs upright on side compared to a flat canvas.

3. Allow the base of the wall to dry at least 1 hour before stacking the roof to avoid any further stress.

4. Marshmallow is the best candy to use as they are light, colourful and easy to decorate with.

5. Some of the heavier candies like the bigger M&Ms needed additional time and attention holding it in place until the royal icing dried.

6. Before cutting the dough, make sure the templates match and line up.

Gingerbread men 2011

The year has gone by so quickly, another batch of gingerbread man - such cuties, who can resist them? I'm such a big fan of them, perhaps that is why I enjoy baking trays of them!!

echo-echo??

Decided that the best style is still the Classic look!

Used the recipe found here.

Banana Bread

Count it a blessing when you find leftover riped bananas sitting rather neglected at your kitchen counter.

This is a easy one-bowl recipe shared by elsie. Really handy especially when you want to make something but too lazy to lug out the Kitchen Aid.

Makes one loaf.

Ingredients
3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
75g butter, melted
125g brown sugar (3/4 cup)
1 large egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
204g all-purpose flour (1 1/2 cups)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

2. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix.

3. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan.

4. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Full of banana flavour and not too sweet. I like it slightly toasted with a thin spread of butter, yum!

Ina's Fleur de sel Caramel

Still remember as a young child, thumbing through a children's cook book and chancing upon a supposedly easy to make fudge/candy to make - put all the ingredients into a pot and boil. Even after boiling for the required cooking time of 35 mins, the thick and sweet mixture remained as liquid as ever and ended up in the bin. Feeling cheated, left the book forgotten at the bottom of the cupboard.

Now, many years on and having read more cook books, realize that to successful make candy it is vital to use a candy thermometer. . Without one, it is hard especially for novices to judge when the hot mixture is ready.

Take note that the hot sugar liquid is very HOT and dangerous, absolutely no licking until it is cooled.

These salted caramel turned out SO ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS that Master Prince gave me 110 marks declaring that this is the best-ever EVER thing I have made!! ...ok, haha not sure whether to be flattered here.

Recipe source here

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups coarse sugar (375g)
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 cup heavy cream (250g)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter (75g)
1 teaspoon fine fleur de sel, plus extra for sprinkling
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup water

Method:

1. Line an 8-inch-square baking pan with parchment paper, allowing it to drape over 2 sides, then brush the paper lightly with oil.

2. In a deep saucepan (6 inches wide and 4 1/2 inches deep), combine 1/4 cup water, the sugar and corn syrup and bring them to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil until the mixture is a warm golden brown. Don't stir, just swirl the pan.

3. In another small pot, bring the cream, butter and 1 teaspoon of fleur de sel to a simmer over medium heat. Turn off the heat and set aside.

4. When the sugar mixture is done, turn off the heat and slowly add the cream mixture a little at a time to the sugar mixture. Be careful, it will bubble up violently. Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon and cook over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, until the mixture reaches 248 degrees F (firm ball) on a candy thermometer.

5. Very carefully (it's hot!) pour the caramel into the prepared pan and refrigerate for a few hours, until firm.

6. When firm, take caramel out for 20 min before cutting it up to smaller bite size pieces and sprinkle with a little bit of fleur de sel.

7. Wrap in glassine or parchment and store in the refrigerator.

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

This has been on my to-do list for a while now. Guess the reason it took me a while to get moving is because it uses two types of flour (cake & bread flour) and also need to wait at least 24 hours for best tasting results before baking. There is a nice crunchy texture and didn't need to bake it twice unlike my normal chocolate chip cookie.

Only thing I didn't get right was the look , which means I need to try this recipe again. Wondering whether it has anything to do with shapping into golf size balls as I opted for a more dainty disk?? Still a mystery to me.

Ingredients
2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds bittersweet disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content
*Sea salt

Method:

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day.

5. Unbaked cookie dough freezes well, perfect to satisfy the next chocolate chip cookie craving.

The ULTIMATE Ina Garten's Brownie

The outcome of the combined combo of Ina's Outrageous Brownies and her peanut butter brownies. If you compare both recipes, it is actually the same except one uses walnuts and the other substitutes it with peanut butter.

Me thinks I've been consuming one too may 3-in-1 instant coffees, haha!

Was all set to try out another recipe when her's rolled up. And since I'm a big fan of hers, the decision was set.

If you are allergic to nuts, just omit the nuts as it is still a good recipe or perhaps substitute it with cream cheese, yum that would be a great combo too!! ;)

Brownies may seem easy to bake but actually it is the more challenging one compared to a chocolate cake. A properly baked brownie is done when it is slightly crisp on the outside but soft, damp and squidgy within. If you have been baking cakes, your automatic logic would usually insist that you bake until the skewer comes out clean instead, if you do, tendency is that you would have over-baked it. So turn off your auto mode when baking brownies. :)

Needless to say, it was gorgeous. But if I had to do this again, maybe I might split the pan to 50:50 - walnuts:peanut butter, just for the yin-yang contrast and let guests decide whether they want theirs with walnut or peanut butter. In my crowd, they'll probably just insist on the combo!!

Ingredients
453g unsalted butter
1 pound plus 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
6 extra-large eggs
3 tablespoons instant coffee granules
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups chopped walnuts

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170C degrees.

2. Melt together the butter, 1 pound of chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water. Allow to cool slightly. In a large bowl, stir (do not beat) together the eggs, coffee granules, vanilla, and sugar. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature.

3. In a medium bowl, sift together 1 cup of flour, the baking powder, and salt. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the walnuts and 12 ounces of chocolate chips in a medium bowl with 1/4 cup of flour, then add them to the chocolate batter. Pour into the baking sheet.

4. Bake for 20 minutes, then rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake! Allow to cool thoroughly, refrigerate, and cut into 20 large squares.

Homemade vanilla mango fruit leather

Homemade ones taste so much better than commercial ones. This is similar to an earlier recipe.

Got a big bag of cheap mangoes so decided to make some yummy fruit leather.

Blend some cut up mangoes in a food processor, 1-2 tbsp of honey to taste and 1 tsp of good quality vanilla, spread out onto a good quality silicon paper and bake @ 100C degrees for 6 hours or until the fruit is dry to the touch. This time I made 5 trays in a row so I got a good haul! :)

Roll them short or long for some homemade fruit goodness!

Easy Double Chocolate Cupcake

One of those good one-bowl mix recipes, don't even have to cream the butter and sugar together. The results was really good for such a simple recipe. Definitely a keeper!

Recipe adpated from here

Ingredients

Cake:

4 cups self raising flour
1 1/2 cups castor sugar
1 cup cocoa, sifted
1 250g pkt milk choc chips
1 1/2 cups milk
4 eggs, lightly beaten
250g melted butter, cooled
2 tsp vanilla essence

Icing:
1/2 cup cream
200g dark chocolate
3 cups icing mixture
100g butter softened

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Set 30 patty pan cases on 2 trays.

2. Mix flour, sifted cocoa and castor sugar together.

3. Combine eggs, milk, butter and vanilla essence.

4. Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and stir gently with a metal spoon to combine.

5. Bake for 12-15 mins or until skewer in the centre comes out clean.

For the icing:

6. In a glass bowl place cream and dark chocolate. Microwave for 1 minute and stir until all the chocolate is melted, making a ganache.

7. Whip the butter until pale and slowly add the icing mixture and ganache. Add a few drops of milk if the icing is too thick. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and dust with cocoa for decoration.

Apple and Rhubarb Crumble

Have always wondered how rhubarb vegetable taste like. Its read in colour and looks very similar to celery but its very tart in taste.

Decided that a crumble would be the wisest choice and adapted elsie's recipe.

Ingredients

Filling:

2 sticks rhubarb, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 small green apple, cut into cubes

1/2 lemon juice

1 1/4 cups white sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Crumble topping:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup of butter (1 stick or 4 ounces), cut into cubes

1/4 cup walnuts, chopped

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C degrees.

2. In a medium sized baking dish, mix together the filling.

3. For the crumble, rub flour and sugar into butter. Add in rest of crumble ingredients and mix until coarse crumbles. Spread topping mixture over rhubarb mixture.

4. Bake in oven for 35-45 minutes, until the filling is bubbly and the topping is lightly browned. Let cool for at least a half an hour before serving.

5. Best eaten with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream!

It was nice, gooey, nutty and lovely with ice cream or cream.
Personally think it tastes even better the next day! Just warm it up in the microwave for a few seconds.

Easy chilled mango with sago & pomelo dessert

A very refreshing dessert, just perfect for a hot day!

Ingredients
2 large ripe mangoes, peeled (reserve half mango to cut into small cubes for toppings)
3 wedges of sweet pomelo, peeled and sac loosen
400 ml of low fat milk
Sugar syrup (as required)

Cooked sago pearls

Method
1. Cook the sago - when water is boiling, throw in sago and boil for 10 min. Turn off heat, cover with lid and leave it to stand for another 5 min. Drain on sieve and run through cold water. Boil sago again until it is transparent (another 15-20 min). Sieve and set aside for later use.

2. Blend mango and milk. Mix in pamelo fruit, extra cubed mango and cooked sago and chill mixture in fridge until required.

3. Divide into bowls when ready to serve. Let guest add their own sugar syrup to suit their taste.

Pirate Sugar Cookies

Just a quick update on the pirate sugar cookies made for Master Prince's birthday that's been stuck in the draft box for ages - opps!

Though I had a great time making them, I realize that the most difficult part (for me) is getting the icing to dry properly and without cracking - they need an air-condition room in our humid weather. Also the Wilton brand meringue powder seems to work the best. Its pricey but well worth it.

pirates wanna be

looking for treasure me hearties?

X marks the spot!

The maps were much easier to make compared to the pirate mates.

Btw, I was so annoyed that I couldn't achieve the nice smooth icing sugar finished that I actually enrolled into a cookies class. Had a lot of fun - as you can see the samples made below. Ahem, also stuff my face quite a bit in the class since I had so many OPPS accident...to cover my clumsiness, just stuff them into my tummy (no more evidence). Fortunately the class was small, cookies were tasty and there were many spare cookies available to decorate!! Unfortunately they didn't set properly either when I brought them back - blame the humidity....my biggest enemy for the perfect sugar cookie! :(

Ais Potong (popsicles)

Remember the days when you could get these at school tuck shop or from the vendor peddling just outside the school gate or in sundry shops located in smaller towns or even at an aunty's/grandma's house if you lived in yesteryear flats (before condominiums). Think my favourite choice would always easily be assam boi!! I also remember getting scolded by my parents for buying these as they were always concern about the cleanliness about the 'water' used.

Anyway (and more importantly) these were really SUPER EASY to make. So easy I feel kind-na embarrassed blogging about it. Plus I had a lot of fun and any young adult can do this.

Tools required:
slim rectangular shaped plastic bags (finally found them at the night market)
funnel
jug

The most difficult choice making these would be choosing the flavour. Because it was a kids party, finally decided on orange mango lassi. The yogurt mixture gives it nice a little creamy finish. You can either blend your own fresh fruit juice or grab a couple of juice cartoons from the cold section. Mix up your blended juice into the jug. Using the funnel, pour the juice about 3/4 or less into the ice cream bag. Do not pour more than that otherwise it will get a little tricky tying the knot at the top without the juice spilling out. Once you are done, all you have to do is freeze them.

Easy right???
Keep them cool in an ice box, just perfect to cool down in hot weathers and after a fierce water balloon skirmish and water gun fight!! ;) Must say I had a pretty stressful week not know whether we would be having good weather or the usual evening down pour. Fortunately things worked out (after praying very hard) - we had the best dry weather for the week!

If you need a step-by-step tutorial, mosey over here.
If you are planning a very adults party, think a frozen ais potong margarita or daiquiri sounds good too?

These slim bags were pretty useful doubling up as gift bags too :)

Think they worked well especially after adding the 'Thank you' gift tag.

Easy Ice-cream Cake

This is a belated post.

One of Master Prince's request is to have ice-cream cake as the birthday cake. Came across a simple recipe using ready made ice-cream by mylittlespace.

To put it very simply, all you need is ice-cream of your choice - be it Haagen dazs, Baskin Robbins, etc. Whisk it in semi-cold state until 'soft', pour into container and re-freeze it.

Needless to say the kids simply loved them. First time there were no birthday cake leftovers as the kids readily came back for seconds until all gone - all within 15 mins too, imagine that!! Lolz Even the adults didn't manage to get a slice. Well since it was a kids party, the adults couldn't kick a fuss ;)

Added a layer of marshmallow for the bottom chocolate layer.

The top layer was vanilla ice-cream. Thought it looked a little plain all white so added a swirl.

My freezer was very cold so it took some effort cutting the ice-cream cake up even with a warmed knife. The oreo biscuit base was frozen solid - note to self to use less butter the next time.

Chocolate Rose Cake

This cake is especially dedicated to my niece who visited a few weeks ago. Been wanting to try this since I saw this beautiful cake created by iambaker. A pink coloured rose cake would have been really sweet but since my niece's favourite cake is chocolate, chocolate it is.

Used Wilton tip 2D, but think next time will use 1M tip instead. Hm, think I need more practise with those swirls. Anyway glad I finally made it.

If you haven't guessed the chocolate cake recipe is by Ina Garten as previously shared - its a good hardy recipe so haven't had reason to try others.

Spoonful of Chocolate

Yummy spoons!!

Didn't realise these spoons can levitate by themselves. Must be some 'balancing' power in the chocolate mixture? ;)

This is another kid friendly party bag treat and young ones have so much fun in the process especially with the decorations - just have to make sure they end up more on the spoons rather that the tummy!!! Its envitable - one for the spoon, one for the tummy, next one for my mouth and another cos I'm being such a good helper...etc.

Its really easy to make too, just melt chocolate of your choice (dark, white or flavoured chocolate), divide into spoons and decorate with sprinkles and other bits of candy. Totally forgot the sprinkles until I was editing the photo, fortunately its quite colourful already. (Kids as you know, just love colours).

Master Prince had a spoonful to taste test and gave his thumbs up.
Wrap them up individually in a clear plastic bag with a ribbon or twist wire, store them in an air-tight container.

100% real fruit!!

If you are wondering what I'm holding up, its fruit leather. More specifically strawberry and melon vanilla fruit leather or otherwise known as fruit roll-ups. Made 100% of fruit juice and your kids will just love them, just like Master Prince. He can't get enough of them. Too bad I just made enough for his friends to celebrate his party.

Its really easy to make them.

Trust me.

Blend some any fruit of your choice (though if you are like me and chose strawberry, best to blend and sieve it separately unless you don't mind the seeds), add 1-2 tbsp of honey to taste and 1 tsp of good quality vanilla, spread out onto a good quality silicon paper and bake @ 100C degrees for 6 hours or until the fruit is dry to the touch. If your blended fruit juice (depending on what fruit is used) is very watery, cook it for 5-15 mins on the stove to thicken up a little first.

You get a really SMOOTH finish using a slipat. Wish I owned more than just one.

You can use silicon paper but be prepared for a creased finish. At least it works, had initially written off when I saw it drying out in the oven. Was all prepared to introduce to THE BIN as I thought it wouldn't lift off, sticking to the paper like glue.

Cut them up into strips with a sharp knife or scissors and wrap them in grease proof paper. All rolled up as a great gift for both young and old. You can also roll them up lengthwise but that means you need a taller/longer container; perfer to roll them shorter for easier storage.

Needless to say they do taste great and 100% natural too. Gonna make more soon as the kids have so much fun eating them. In the long term if you wish to make more of these natural sweet treats, probably best to consider investing in a food dehydrator.

Pear Chocolate Cake inspired by Ina Garten

This cake is actually based on Ina's "Beatty' Chocolate Cake".

Every cake almost always comes with a story right?

DH's birthday was last week and MP insisted that we all must have cake for birthdays - that's the BIRTHDAY RULE. So even though I was really tired (had a busy & long week), somehow managed to get my act together. Was hoping for something easier like a brownie. Initially thought I was being nice by asking whether he wanted chocolate cake or brownie? The reply was "durian cake"!!! No, no no...the question was chocolate cake or brownie??? He finally reluctantly agreed to chocolate cake. Decided to pair it with pears since its his special day and likes this combination very much, not as much as durian....oh well, another time when I am not so stressed ok honey?

Ingredients for the Cake

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups sugar (used almost 1 3/4 cups caster)


• 3/4 cups good cocoa powder


• 2 tsp baking soda


• 1 tsp baking powder


• 1 tsp kosher salt


• 1 cup buttermilk


• 1/2 cup vegetable oil


• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature


• 1 tsp vanilla extract


• 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee (that's 1 tbsp instant coffee in 1 cup hot water)


• slices of pear *optional

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 175C degrees.


2. Grease 2 (8-inch) cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.


3. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined.


4. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry.


5. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.


6. Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Gently add slices of pears and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

7. Cool cake completely before frosting it.

Ingredients for the chocolate buttercream frosting

• 6 ounces good dark chocolate


• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted but 6 ounces good dark chocolate ter, at room temperature


• 1 extra-large egg yolk, at room temperature (I omitted this)


• 1 tsp vanilla extract


• 1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (used 1 cup)


• coffee solution of 2 tsp instant coffee powder mixed with 1 tbsp hot water

Method:

1. Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.


2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes.


3. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes.


4. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the confectioners' sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy.


5. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee solution to the butter mixture and mix until blended. Don't whip! Spread immediately on the cooled cake.

This is one of the 'tallest' cake I've baked so far as I used 7 inch cake tins instead of 8 inch.

It was very yummy, soft and moist. Everyone who ate it, liked it - even the yummy chocolate butter cream!!

*sorry for the badly formated post, was driving me nuts but still couldn't fix it satisfactorily even after meddling like forever on it!!* :( sigh...better quickly post it before I seriously consider the delete button instead!

Red Velvet with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Have you tried this cake before?

Taste nice with a light hint of chocolate. Best part with this cake (esp. those new to this cake) is that provokes your senses with it being "RED" in colour!!

If you are allergic to artificial colouring, you might want to omit it, but then why bother as you shouldn't call it red velvet then!!!

Recipe adpated from here (yields about 32 small cupcakes)

Ingredients
390g cake flour
60g corn flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
60g good quality cocoa powder
180g butter, room temperature
245g caster sugar
50g brown sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1.5 cup buttermilk
1.5 tsp white vinegar or red wine vinegar
1.5 tsp vanilla essence
2 bottles (25g each) red colouring

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160C degrees.
2. Sieve all dry flour ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda) together and set aside.
3. Beat butter, salt and sugar. Add eggs and beat until light and fluffy.
4. Fold in flour in parts alternating with the liquid (milk, colouring, vinegar & essence). Do not over mix. Be careful red colouring might stain.
5. Divide into paper cups (do not overfill, 1/2 to less than 3/4 would be best). Bake for 20-22 min or until skewer in the centre comes out clean.

Yes, the batter is red - well, maybe actually more auburn or dark mahogany in colour.

For the cream cheese frosting

250g cream cheese, room temperature

135g butter, room temperature

1 tbsp vanilla essence

210g icing sugar, sieved

zest of 1 lemon

Beat all ingredients until smooth.

Been wanting to pipe a rose swirl using Wilton 2D tip.
For tutorial on how-to-do, check out here.

But the lemon zest got stuck at the tip which resulted in more mutant looking frosting *darn...!!*&$@#%*. Since this was for a party, decided to change last minute the recalcitrant looking ones and opting for a classic magnolia swirl instead lolz.