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.