When You Mum Has High Expectations

Recently, I have taken a lesson on Cake Baking and Decoration and have brought home some of the results to show mum. When she saw them, she suggested to me that since my niece (8yrs old) and nephew (3yrs old) are normally dropped off at her house on Friday afternoons to stay until my brother comes to fetch them at 9ish in the night, she has trouble keeping them out of trouble and usually food does help keep them occupied and out of mischief. So, she asked me to bake these cupcakes and decorate them for the kiddos when they come around this Friday..... which is today.

I told her "Mum.. those cupcakes/muffins which I took back from class.... err.. they may be nice to see.. but they are awful to eat". Her answer was "You "kow tim" it lah" meaning, you fix it lah.. so that the kiddos will eat. And people wonder why my mum's ring tone on my phone is "Mission Impossible".

As I am one of those people who "takes the cake" (pun intended) for procrastinating, I only thought about what I will do about this cake/muffin business as I was going home after work yesterday evening. Sigh... all I know how to do after the class were royal icing and the fondant... which both takes a lot of time to make and plenty of skills to create....sigh....

First thing I did when I got home was to have a quick dinner and started on the cupcakes. Did 2 batches of mini cupcakes and finished the remaining as regular sized muffins with a little blueberry fillings in the center. Dare not put too much jam in case they started leaking out.

Whilst the cupcakes were baking in the oven, dug out everything I've got in the kitchen cabinet. OK, I told myself, what do kids like....sweets, sweets and anything sweet. I've got plenty of those as I have a sweet tooth myself *grins*. No.. no... I've got sweet teeth.. I love all things sweet.

Bare Naked Cupcakes

Then I remembered that I've got a simple recipe for butter cream. Luckily I've still got plenty of butter and icing sugar. Quickly set about doing a simple batch of butter cream and colored it pink... my niece's favorite color.

When the cupcakes were done and out of the oven, I was ready to put my "artistic" abilities into work..*har har*. With what little skills I have and I didn't use any of the ideas from class (as the theme was festive), I decided..what the heck...just "bantai aja". (come what may).

Cupcakes all dressed up with nowhere to go...

This batch is for my other nephew who will be coming on Saturday. He is 12yrs old and he is a rather picky eater.. hence.. needs more complicated bait

Well, managed to get out some reasonably passable cupcakes that will con the children. After that was done, the real fun began for me. Ha Ha.. did I mention that I love playing "masak-masak" (cooking). This will be my very first time playing with butter cream and piping. Since I've only got 2 miserable pipe designs, this is all I managed to come up with. Oh well, I am still looking out for a Cake Decoration Class... reasonably priced one yeah.. please let me know. Thanks!