love knows no distance

u r not alone,
I am here with u,
tho' we are far apart,
u r always in my heart.

this might be the late MJ song but this song could be their song too, Hani and AcuBik's song.

About a month ago Hani called me enquiring about the cakes and cupcakes, etc and she had a small request, to deliver a set of birthday cupcakes for her beloved husband. Why couldn't she do it herself? That's because she's not here in Alor Star, and she wanted to surprise the love of her life on his special day. Nothing pleases me more than to see twopeople who were so much in love to be connected with my cupcakes!The power of these cute little creations can do, it could bring cheers and smile to many .

Somebody somewhere is in love, that someone is missing her soul mate, being miles away, the distance does not stop their love from flourishing, in fact, absence makes the heart grows fonder.

She is therefore sending her heart on this special day, specially packaged in a black and white box with black ribbon , to tell her loved one that this heart is only for him to keep and on this special day, his 32nd birthday, to wish him happy birthday. Some people say it with H*llm*rk greeting cards, some say it with flowers, perfume, all kinds of gifts, but HAni is saying it with cupcakes, most importantly, she is saying it with love, all the way from Penang to her hubby in Kepala Batas, Alor Star.

My love, there's only you in my life,

the only thing that's right,

My first love,

you're every breath that I take,

you're every step I make

and i...I want to share all my love with you,

no one else with you,

and your eyes, your eyes, your eyes,

they tell me how much you care,

oooh, you will always be....

my endless love.....

A birthday wish from across the Penang bridge. Love conquers all. It knows no boundaries or distances, it will find its way to its rightful owner.

"You are my everything" and

"you light up my life "carrot walnut cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and a simple black blossom fondant and a single silver dregees in the middle.

Hani, you must be wondering why on earth do I use white with purple and pink flowers instead of the black and white as per the cupcake theme. I did it on purpose, remember initially, that was about a month ago, you requested cupcakes with light purple roses and pink swirls but changed your mind along the way to black and white, so I thot why don't I just add a hint of those two colurs into this black and white theme because I am pretty sure that they are yours and maybe hubby's favourite colour too. Hope you don't mind dear.

All these photos are for your viewing pleasure since you are not here to see them.(plenty more from where these came from). It's been fun doing this and am glad to be part of this special moment. May your love for one another grows stronger and may you be celebrating more birthdays and anniversaries together in the future.

A dreamy girl on a swing

Irdina is 13. She's a girl, not just a girl, a girl who has left her primary and now in her secondary school. She can't possily be wanting Power Puff Girls or the Disney Princesses on her cake, does she? I don't think so. Then, what should I make for her?

Her mum wanted it simple, just for makan2 with the family.She wanted marble cheese brownies and I guess, not much could be done cos it's supposed to be marbly but as usual, I like to do things differently. Instead of drawing after the brownies is baked, I decided to draw on it before it went into the oven. Suspen gak, kot la sat lagi gambar dia jadi kembang ke, tersilap lukis ke...but thankfully, it came out okay.

I decided to make it simpler than the actual picture drawn earlier on that piece of paper.Wishing Irdina, HaAppy 13th birthday, wish you happiness now and for many many years to come, entering your teenage life. thanx Irdina's Mum , Puan Amnah ( tak sangka anak lima you...maintain...)for making this request.

Whose box is this and I wonder what's inside?

Whose box is this? What is inside?

somebody is missing somebody very much and she's sending over her love to her loved one just to let him know how much he is missed and loved.

Blue for Bertunang

Blue fondant covered chocolate cake for engagement ceremony.

Not much can be told about this one because this is a very last minute order. Perhaps next time I should refuse a very last minute order for fear of not being able to give my 100% to it because my mind was already occupied with the earlier order for the same day.

They said that weather plays an important role in ensuring the quality of fondant you are making and I guess the weather condition was not on my side that day.I am happy with the result but not too happy as always. I had to resort to using readymade roses because of the last minute.Tried my best to make it a beautiful cake in a beautifully decorated transparent box with the blue and white theme.

Apa2 pun wish the couple "Selamat Bertunang" and to Nurul, who ordered this cake for her friend, Best Wishes in Your New Undertaking ie furthering your studies in Shah Alam.

cuppies for new born

Cuppies for our niece who had given birth to a baby girl. If she is our niece, anak saudara, that makes her daughter our cucu saudara and that will make us their Tok saudara! I am a grandma! A nenek! mak latuk, sulah tua lupa-lupanya...

actually this one is our 5th cucu saudara maa...We have yet to have our own grandkids because my eldest is only fourteen so still a long way to go to be officially called a Granny.. :-)

marble cheese brownies which is not so marbly...

Choc cuppies for makan2

Zue, kak nak order cupcake boleh tak?

boleh.. kak nak bila?

bila2 Zue senang.Esok boleh tak? Nak makan2 dgn anak2 .

My neighbour in the same taman. A sweet lady with three sweet lovely and sopan santun not one but three daughters. People said, to look after one daughter is more difficult than looking after sekandang lembu ( orang tua2 katalah ) and she has three, comel2 pulak tu....

Kak ambik lewat petang sikit boleh, sebab ada brownies and a set of cupcakes Zue nak buat?

No problem, Kak ambik lepas kerja. that settles it.

A set of chocolate cupcakes with ganache decorated with multi-coloured buttercream deco: rose swirl, sweetpea, rosebud and rosette.

Thank you Kak. Hope you are enjoying the cuppies with your daughter and enjoying your weekend at your hometown in Penang.

Engagement brownies

"brownies tu tak jadi potong, kak zue tulis ( as what can be seen ) and deco lah a bit."

On brownies?rasa macam pelik gitu cos I have never deco on brownies. yelah, normally we deco on cakes and cupcakes. Brownies are like muffin, you eat it as it is ( this is what I feel lah, )upon receiving that sms, my mind started running all sorts of images of cakes that I have decoed and started thinking of what I should do. I guess there's no harm in decorating brownies after all you can do whatever you like .

Earlier, I just thought of writing the words, add a few flowers here and there, but when the day actually comes for me to decorate it, it felt bare with just the words, but I don't think I want to put buttercream on brownies..oh no I won't , I think that it might just spoil the taste of the chocolatey and walnutty brownies. With what little time that I had left cos I have other cakes to deco too, I simply piped green leaves buttercream as border to cover the bottom part.

I am quite pleased with the result, in fact I am very pleased cos it turned out just the way I had wanted it to be.

Alia also ordered a set of carrot walnut cupcakes with cream cheese frosting just for makan2.

here's wishing all the best to the newly engaged couple, Izeham and Farynna, may this single step lead to the happiness that is dreamed of by every engaged couple, that is to be joined together as husband and wife and share their life together forever and ever.

Thanx Alia .pantun dua kerat from me:

Ayam berkokok di tepi bukit,

hope you like it.

Tagged?

I've been tagged? By Fiza of chiquecakes. thanx dear but don't know much about tagging.Nanti kena buat homework dulu, being new in this, and not so celik IT, but hey,thanx , it's a nice thought to be tagged . nanti bila dah tahu what I am supposed to do , I'll get back to this post.

Happy 1st birthday Zue's Oven

Zue's Oven is 1!

It all began with a kind remark from a friend and his wife, a cafe owner who would like to have my oreo chocolate cheesecake for their cafe. That was overwhelming. I've only just made this cheesecake for the first time and it tasted truly irresistable and getting that compliment meant a lot to an amateur like me., although baking was not new to me. I had been baking since my student days, trial and error here and there, followed the recipe strictly from the book. When I first created Zue's Oven, I had never never attended any proper hands on classes for baking and yet the passion in me just waiting to be unleashed.

Brought the cheesecake to the office ( then ), and my colleagues loved it. Before this, I have always baked cheesecake, chocolate cake or biskut batik and brought them to the office but somehow i finally agreed to take some orders from them.

It was this date , June 22nd last year that I delivered my very first oreo chocolate cheesecake. It was the start of Zue's Oven's existence and I didn't look back since....from oreo choc cheesecake to plain bake cheesecake, my sister's version of chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, cupcakes , a few cookies and recently i took a liking to brownies and started exploring a few types of brownies recipes like brownies with walnut, double chocolate brownies, luxury brownies and marble cheese brownies and fortunately they all turned out beautifully and yummuliciously and instantly became a hit with whoever tasted them., just like the oreo chocolate cheesecake did.

From just a thing to keep me occupied, I had gotten to like it even more. I look forward to the moment that I would be spending my time in my kitchen with my mixer and spatulas, with butter ,sugar and flour until they became these "heaven on earth" creations to be enjoyed by those who favour them, those who would be willing to indulge in these sweet, chocolatey, cheesy, chewy, gooey, sticky and messy not to mention nutty and carroty ( can be naughty too! )cakes and cupcakes.

From plain baked cakes and cupcakes, came a request for decorated cakes or rather the desire to create something not just good and yummy to eat but equally beautiful to look at .The opportunity came when hubby dearest requested me to bake him 100 cuppies for his office ( i think I have written about this earlier ) . that was the beginning of my cupcake decorating. Actually I have been admiring some of the works and creations of the bakers out there in the cyber world and i had been intrigued and mesmerised by the beautiful and intricate creations that really inspired me.

Fasting month and raya kept me busy with orders and friends persuaded me to go online. "Why don't you put your cakes on the net so that it will be easier for us to see what you have done." I wish it was that easy. I had been toying on the ideas for ages because, you see, I am not a really IT savvy gal, infact this modern technology scared me. I was afraid of pushing the wrong button . Somehow I gave it a try and cekmekzue blog was created on 29th January this year. It wasn't that difficult once you have created the blog but how do I go from there, what should I do? How to post the photos and the entries and add all those gadgets. even the name " cekmekzue"was the spur of the moment idea . Somehow that didn't go as smoothly as I had expected., and so I had to create another blog and this time it was called cekmekzue-zue. like they said, and the rest is history.

The desire to create not just flowers piped out of nozzles using buttercream, my way or the youtube way, got the better of me, I wanted more.I came across Wilton's blog and found out that they were organising courses for cake deco. Little did I knew that such things existed,silly me..of course, there are many courses out there and many good teachers who are willing to share their knowledge and expertise for a little price., of course, nothing comes free. In between baking and my own version of cake deco, I did attend a few demo classes organised by the local baking product suppliers but I was not satisfied because I didn't get to do them myself.Of course, my first buttercream roses was made by looking at the youtube!

So thanks to my sponsor, my hubby of course, I registered for that Wilton course and was I glad that Idid because from the course, not only that I learned the right techniques to do cake deco but I got the chance to meet up with other fellow bakers ( a few were already established and in fact I had been going into their blogs and admiring their work from afar , not forgetting my fellow schoolmate Mama Lea who had been my "sifu" over the phone).

I wanted more. I was still hungry for more knowledge. I wanted to do what others could.Never have I felt so passionate about anything before and I guess like my sister once said, " i guess you have found your true calling, zue". So set a date with kak jun of cupcakekasih and learned how to make the fondant figurines and of course the fun time with my fellow srikandis at mama lea's class.

thank you so much to those that I have learned from and a very big, huge, gigantic warm thank you and much appreciations to all those who have ordered from Zue's Oven,who have continuously supporting my passion , from office colleagues to neighbours, to strangers who later become friends. Nothing gives me greater satisfaction than seeing the excited and happy faces when they come to collect their cakes and all the sweet and positive comments not just from them but also from fellow bakers who always give me words of encouragement .It's been a great year and I hope I will be able to continue doing what I enjoy most and at the same time bringing a smile to others with my creations.

Of course, there won't be Zue's Oven without the support of my other half and kids who are always by my side 24/7.Love you guys heaps.......more than words can say....

pink and yellow rose on white....

Pink and yellow cuppies in a box tied with pink ribbon . A very simple yet so sweet design cos I just received the request this morning around 7 am and wanted it by 4 pm this evening....Actually this lady wanted to ask me to join her for a nasi dagang breakfast at the market but I had to decline ( i wish I could )because I was waiting for a friend to collect her Father's day cuppies. We'll take a raincheck okay Kak....
Congratulatory wish to Era for her achievement, she's furthering her studies in a university. How proud her parents must have been. For those who do not make it to universities, do not despair, you too can make your parents proud by being good sons and daughters.
This wish came from her mum's good neighbour who was also my ex-neighbour and now becomes my sister, from different mak and different bapak. Even tho' this lady is younger than me but I call her " kak " because her hubby is older than us :-)someone who you can count on in times of trouble , in sickness and in health, in sadness and in happiness.
last minute deco.....redah je.....asal sedap mata memandang.....
pink rose in bloom but not full bloom (not the 15 petals Wilton roses) and curled pink roses
originally I wanted to do this design on other cupcakes but since I was in a rush, I'd just use it on this set first.

First time Idid my deco while being watched. Luckily it was just the final touch, to arrange the alphabets and to add the blossoms on the cupcakes. she came earlier than expected, with a bunch of rambutans from her tree.

Thank you so much Kak Tuni for this request and for the reason behind ordering this set too. Appreciate so much what you are doing and had done.

the Greatest Dad In the www ( whole wide world)

the wordings sums it all, you are the greatest, we love you....

Fathers Day wishes to two special people

originally i wanted to make this a blue and white theme cuppies since this sweet lady just wanted me to make it nice, as long as all the wordings are all incorporated on the cupppies! So many words, therefore I had to write very thinly and finely on each cupcake. Then I changed my mind by adding red to the colour to make it slightly different from the other set.Variety is the spice of life.....
She has two men in her life, lucky her! Her hubby and her Abah that is.....both are special people to her


saw this deco in wilton's book. try je lah....simple je kan, but nice....

To Ana, sweet lovely Ana, she kept this a secret from her hubby to surprise him. This is not her first time for she has ordered the same cuppies before, always vanilla flavour with buttercream.thank you dear for this order and the previous ones too.

Selamat Hari Bapa to your hubby and Dad too.....

for the Love of A Father

Chocolate cupcakes with ganache and buttercream deco with white and blue theme in a transparent box tied with ribbons with similar colours. This set was requested by a daughter who lives in Putrajaya for her beloved father who is in Alor Staq.

Ida, had e-mailed and smsed me more than a month ago to block this date. After enquering about the prices, flavours and designs and cake selection from cupcakes to cakes to brownies, she finally settled for this cake choice and design. Earlier Ida requested for a white and purple rosette but until almost the last minute but it was not too late because I hadn't mixed the colour yet, she decided to change from purple to blue.No problemo, small matter.
With wordings of "Happy Birthday &Happy Father's Day" to wish her father. Ida might not be here but her thoughts are with him. Such a thotful daughter and from what I heard from his dad's colleagues, Ida sent her Mum a bouquet of flowers for Mothers day last month. How proud her parents must have been to have such a sweet and loving and thotful dotter. It was unfortunate that her father , En. Shafie was not in when I sent the cuppies, and so Ida requested me to leave it with his colleagues. I am sure the cuppies are in good hands!

Ida specifically requested for rosettes designs but I decided to mix with other designs too and I hope Ida doesn't mind.

thank you Ida for trusting me with this Fathers Day cuppies.
Here's wishing Happy Father's Day and Happy Birthday too , to En. Shafie , Ida's father. Just like Mother's Day, today is extra special but treat any other days just as special, for our parents are the special people in our lives.

Happy father's day, or Daddy's Day, or Abah's Day, or Papa's Day or whatever you call them to all the fathers in the world especially to my Abah back in my hometown and to my hubby who is also a father to our kids. You are the greatest! We love you heaps......

brownies for friends

brownies with walnut and marble cheese brownies
a different pattern than the usual ones for my brownies with walnut., dusted with icing sugar.

another pattern for my marble cheese brownies...just for the fun of it....

individually boxed for hubby's friend and also for mine too in Langkawi.( shucks, i forgot to snap the pictures with ribbons around each box ). No special occasion, just thot, hey, why not?

Introducing...Dorami....

Doraemon's little sister.

I never knew she existed until,
"Zue, I want to order cupcakes for my daughter's birthday. Can you pls make me Doraemon's sister" and I went, "Ha? what?", with a totally blank expression ( of course, she couldn't see, we were on the phone).
I didn't know that Doraemon has a little sister and she is called Dorami.
Asked my kids about Dorami and they knew! Sure enough Doraemon has a sister, they even showed me the photo in their comic book. Not only that , do you know that Doraemon also has seven friend who look like him , not exactly like him, but there are seven others, for crying out loud!

Immediately I googled to find out more about Dorami.

This is what I found out:( from the google search )
Dorami is the little sister of Doraemon. The only reason she is not blue is because she didn't have her ears bitten off by rats. She looks a lot like Doraemon, don't you think? Dorami has all the abilities that Doraemon has, including the fourth dimensional pocket. She is nice and not as grouchy as Doraemon. She does not live with Nobita and Doraemon. She lives with the original master of Doraemon in the 22nd century. She only appered in situations that are uncontrollable by Doraemon.

there you go. Now we, i mean, I , know who Dorami is.


this is her brother, the famous Doraemon. I don't think he needs any introduction.

It's been a while since I last use piping jelly for my deco. I remembered doing it the first time, I didn't know what piping jelly is, what nozzle or piping bag is. They were alien to me. This was less than a year ago. I wanted to deco the cupcakes for my daughter's Sukaneka ( last August ) and so I asked the owner of the baking supplier's shop, how to make the deco and he willingly tell me how to use the piping jelly and so I started buying piping bags, colouring and nozzle ( that is for buttercream deco ), trial and error here and there, still not much of an expert though.

This set is for makan2 di rumah because the other 50 cuppies are for Siti Aisyah's friends at ther school.


Siti Aisyah is 9 today.
wishing you , Happy 9th birthday, may you become seorang anak yang solehah.

The whole set, ready to be picked up by my friend. She wanted to collect them very early in the morning before sending her daughters to school.In fact, they were already waiting for me outside the gate before I reached home after sending my daughter to school. She told me that both her daughters woke up earlier than usual today because of the cupcakes. They were so excited to see their Dorami.Exactly, last four months, My friend, Nanie , ordered almost the same set for her younger daughter's bitrthday, Fatimah Az-Zahra only that Fatimah wanted Power Puff girls. i think everybody knows Power Puff Girls.

Here's siti Aisyah with her little sister, Fatimah Az-Zahra( beautiful names) in my kitchen( a bit messy , didn't have time to clear it after the deco last night).I hope I have made their day with their Dorami and certainly have made my day seeing their happy expressions upon seeing the cuppies.

thank you nanie...again...for this order. BTW, Congrats to you and your son too, for his recent achievement.