seeing double ...because they're twins

I've got to get my eye sight tested. I'm seeing double!

Two teddies,

two bees,

two presents

two daisies!

they are all in pairs!

Wait a minute, they should be in pairs because they are twins!.

Yup. This cute chocolate cake is requested by the equally cute and sweet Sue for her twin friends who celebrated their 22nd birthdays yesterday, Sunday the 30th August 2009.

Wishing As and Myra, happy 22nd Birthday, wish you both double happiness always. Sorry, dekat cake tu tersilap tulis AN, almaklum, buat waktu sahur...zzzzzz, but the actual cake had been amended, the "N" had been replaced with an "S", thank you Sue for your trust in my cakes. Hope your days be filled with beautiful daisies and buzzed with honey bees and as cute and adorable as the teddies...

Additional note:
"mama, where are the teddies?", these were the first question posed by batrisyia when she woke up at around 3pm.

I thot she might ask that question and I was right. I told Sue when she came to collect the cake that Batrisyia would surely be asking about the cake because when she went to sleep the cake was not ready. She accompanied me all night, and thruout sahur making the teddies, bees and flowers and I hadn't decorated the cake when she finally succumbed to her sleepiness.

I thot of waking her up when Sue came but I knew that if she's sleeping, nothing is going to make her wake up unless she is ready to do that. So I let Sue take the cake with a heavy heart knowing how disappointed Batrisyia would be to see that it iwas gone.

So, when she asked me that question, I quickly showed her the photo that I took in my camera and she's contented with that. Phew!

I guess the next time I would make sure that she sees the final touch, the finished version of my cakes before I let them go.

Ice Cream Green Tea cookies and Batrisyia

I love the smell of cookies, fresh from the oven, the aroma, just like the feeling I felt when I walk into F*m*us Am*s place.Now, I got the feeling from the comfort of my own home especially when I baked " biskut Jatuhan mentega" equivalent to choc chip cookies with walnut in it...

these are some of the ice cream green tea which I made the other night with my daughter , Batrisyia accompanying me.

when I first offered her the cookies,freshly baked and warm from the oven ,still free from topping, she refused me, then after a while,she said,
"Batisya nak cookies flower ( referring to semolina cookies which shaped like a flower, with almond slice on top )
"Sorry dear, dah habis, nanti Mama buat lain"
"Sapa makan?Batisya nak cuba yang ni. What is this shape? Rectangle?"
"mama tanyalah batisya delicious or not", she said
"Delicioius or not?"
"Hmmmmm......" she said while thinking, and I waited anxiously for her to give her comment.
"so delicious!' out came the two magic words.
Not just that, she also said'
"mama pandai buat kek ( in this case, she meant cookies)
"batisya nak lagi cookies, Batisya sedaaap, so deliciious" she said, much to my delight.

after a while, she came back, "mama, i want some more cookies, sooo delicious, i want four"
"You take two, first, then only come back for more, okay"

That's the conversation between Me and my youngest daughter. she likes this cookies plain without the white chocolate and coconut topping. she would scrape it off and eat it plain. Just like the semolina cookies where she would just scrape off the almond on top and ate the cookies plain.

Hooi San is 11

She likes the "Tinkerlina" cake ( the lady in green ). So do I. Tinkerlina is sweet, poise and feminine. Her daughter is turning 11 on 25th August, so she decided on chocolate moist cake with Princess like character, not too heavy on the deco and no cream , if possible.





There are so many Princesses around, Princess Aurora ( Sleeping Beauty), Belle ( Beauty and the Beast), Snow white, Cinderella(my all time favourite movie) , Princess Jasmine, Ariel ( Little Mermaid ). The not so real princess but look every inch like a Princess, Barbie, I think it's every young girl's dream to own at least one Barbie doll, or then again, maybe not.

To all mothers, their daughters are their princesses.They are the apple of their eyes, they, or, we, as I am a mother too would dress them up ever since they were little in beautiful and cute clothings and dresses. when you go shoping for little girls' clothes, you would go crazy over the designs, ever so cute and lovely.

So which Princess should I make for her. Since I've been reading a lot of Tinkerbell's stories to my Batrisyia lately, and she , the former, not the latter, has many beautiful and dainty fairy friends at Pixie Hollow and I thot of Rosetta, the garden fairy of Pixie Hollow whose task is to paint flowers. Just to share with you some of Tinkerbell's friends names besides Rosetta:- Fawn, the liveliest one, Iridessa, the radiant one, Silvermist, a water fairy and Vidia, the fastest fairy.

It wasn't as easy as i thought it would be, to make that gorgeous curly locks, the ruffled dress and skirt, the daintiness, well, she didn't look exactly like Rosetta, I just borrowed her dress and her voluptuousness only I guess. her face..hmmm...that's one area that I really......really need to work on, among other things. I am considering of taking another class with a professional cake decorator. A few people have been asking me to arrange classes for them, so I guess I need to equip myself to better able to teach anybody properly.To me, the process of learning is never-ending



I just changed the characters a bit, instead of her other fairy friends I just created a bunny wabbit and a little teddy to be her friends and I created one mushroom or toadstool house with a door and two windows ( inspired by Debbie Brown )for them.

Batrisyia said, "mama, the house is too schmall( small ) for them"
So, mummy said, that's because the house is a bit far away from them, that's why it looks small. " ooohhhhh.."

Annie, the sweet and friendly lady, came over at around 4 pm to collect the cake. I really do hope that she and her daughter Hooi San would like the cake.

Here's Aunty, wishing Hooi San, happy 11th Birthday, may all your dreams come true. When Aunty was your age, we had to sit for our "Penilaian Darjah Lima" which is now called "UPSR" and to be taken when you are in your Standard Six.

To Annie, thank you so much for trusting me with your daughter's birthday cake. Really nice knowing you and your kids.

just saw an sms sent by Annie last night which says,

"Tq for d delicious n beautiful cake. We enjoyed it very much"

such a short and simple message but very meaningful to me. thank you Annie for the kind words.

the toadstool house

teddy.....

Happy 14th Anniversary

It rained from morning till evening......hmmmm ... I wonder why? (Actually, nothing unusual cos it has been raining a lot these past few days, but today is rather exceptional)

then he came to collect this anniversary cheesecake ,earlier than the intended time because we had to leave for Penang and therefore I couldn't wait till 6.30 pm.( sorry about that Khairul)

" It rained non-stop because of the shock", he said as if reading my mind( about the non-stop rain)).

"this is the first time I ordered our anniversary cake after 14 years of marriage" he said.

It's never too late, and there is always a first time for everything and hopefully it won't be the last. It's rare for the husband to remember birthdays or anniversaries and this guy is surely one of the rare species, but a sweet, thotful kinda rare. One lucky woman his wife is.

It was his request for a simple cheesecake, no need to write anything, just some cream with cherries on top just like the one on my business card, right at the top far left corner.However i couldn't resist but want to write something, after all it's his 14th anniversary, if I didn't write anything, it would just be like a cheesecake for makan2 only ( it's just my opinion)/that's why I just wrote a simple "happy 14th anniversary" on that red fondant heart and placed it right in the centre.

To Khairul and Missus, "Happy 14th Anninversary" and may you celebrate more anniversaries for the years to come....

Selamat Berbuka Puasa marble cheese brownies

This is an example of a good future daughter-in-law. I hope you don' mind me saying this Alisya, so thoughful that she decided to give this chocolatey, cheesy and yummilicious marble cheese brownies to her future MIL, insyaAllah for their break fasting yesterday.

I was only too happy to oblige to such a request. Sometimes all these gift giving, be it in the forms of food, jewelleries, flowers , all these material items may not matter most or none at all to them, especially our parents or any parents or parents in laws for that matter, it's the thought that counts. Even if you go and see them empty handed, they wouldn't mind. It's you, your physical being, your appearance at their door step, your being there with them is the most treasured, the most valued, the most appreciated .

I guess I'm feeling blue, as blue or rather as grey as the weather, it's raining outside and I'm wondering what my abah and Umi are doing at this very moment. I may be a mum to my three kids but I am still their daughter, who sometimes yearn for their love, pause.... I'm making a call to 09-7126xxx at this very moment. tiba2 rasa syahdu, rasa sayu, suddenly my eyes welled with tears, tears of missing them.....

just spoken with Umi, she's fine, selsema sikit, Abah, as usual, sakit2 kepala. Umi said abah nak makan siput, so, she's making masak lemak kuning siput sedut tu......mmmm mesti sedapnyer, ...miss her cooking, umi pandai masak, unfortunately me,not too good in that department, still learning how to cook masak asam pedas, etc.....

I guess, having spoken to my Umi has lifted my spirit up a bit. And what Alisya told me the other day when she came to collect this marble cheese brownies sure lifted up my spirit even higher , in fact it soared up to cloud 9.

The day they ordered marble cheese brownies for their dad's birthday, you know the golf theme with big golf ball in the centre, her mum also ordered two set of cuppies for their neighbour. Alisya's sister did tell me that the neighbour was very happy to get the cuppies that she jumped wth joy. can't really imagine how she "lompat2". then Alisya told me the same thing. She must be very happy and excited to see my cuppies ( I hope),happy that her friend is thotful enough to give her those as gift like mother like daughter, very generous and thotful). She told me that even the bride liked it too. those words sound like music to my ear, so sweet, so melodious, that for a moment then, nothing else matters, just me and my cakes and cupcakes and the appreciative people ..that is the satisfaction that I seek, the"feel good" feeling, just like NTV7 feel good channel.

enaf ramblings, I've got one choc moist cake to decorate, and dinner for berbuka to prepare.

ciao. thanx Alisya for this order for supporting me. Hopefully future MIL likes it oo as much as your dad and your family like this marble cheese brownies.Thnax again, dear.Selamat Berbuka!

SELAMAT BERPUASA

Assalamualaikum,

Zue's Oven a.k.a Cekmekzue mengucapkan Selamat Berpuasa kepada pengunjung2 yang dikasihi, tidak lupa juga kepada semua kawan2 baker yang lain, kawan2 yang menyokong Zue's Oven, kawan2 yang dekat mahupun yang jauh, yang mengenali diri ini secara fizikal atau melalui alam maya, ahli keluarga serta seluruh umat Islam.

Ramadhan menggamit keinsafan,
Ramadhan memberi kesedaran,
Ramadhan mengukuh keimanan,
Ramadhan menguji keikhlasan sesama insan...
inilah limpahan kasih Pencipta pada hambanya,
dianugerahkan Ramadhan bulan yang mulia.
Salam Ramadhan al-Mubarak.

purple rain.....I do.....

berdebar-debar rasa hati,
menantikan saatnya,
hari yang dijanjikan,
waktu kitakan disatu.....

Phineas and Ferbs

"Finis and what?" that was what came to mind and said out loudly to my friend. what was that? that was about two months ago. My friend said she wanted to order cakes or cupcakes for her daughter Nina who will be celebrating her 12th birthday on 19th August. the conversation took place on 14th June 2009.

" tu , that cartoon on Astro". Asked my kids and surely they know who these people are. searched or googled in the net and found out that they are Phineas and Ferbs, the triangle head , the former and the rectangle head , the latter, cartoon characters with a sister, Candice was her name,I think and a guy whom she likes who has a little sister who is always trying to make Candice's life miserable.Phineas and Ferbs would always come up with new ideas everyday to make their days interesting.( according to my son )

At any available opportunity i would watch this programme on TV just to be familiar with the characters.Last night was D-day, the day to draw them, not on papers which I had no problem doing, but on cakes, not just any cakes but cupcakes which turned into one big cake and the other on individual cupcakes. I made 25 pcs of chocolate cupcakes with ganache topping and another set of 25 vanilla cupcakes with buttercream. It was really a challenge drawing these cartoon characters. I almost gave up, i was contemplating of re-doing the whole thing! of baking a new set cupcakes and making new buttercream or perhaps I would try to use fondant instead.

My friend gave the picture drawn and coloured by her daughter as a sample to be made on the cakes, wow! She is one talented girl! How can I match with that, to make that on the cakes, not one big cake but on cupcakes. I roughly sketched Phineas, Ferbs and Candice on my sketch book and using these, her picture and my sketch for referral.

Notice the difference between the earlier cake and the finished version. To assemble 25 pcs of cupcakes into one big cake was quite a challenge because I have never done this before. I've seen other bakers did that so I guess, why not? why don't I give it a shot? Me...as usual, redah je....
There's always a first time in everything. With Yus , I did so many" firsts", my first , " bunny in a hole " carrot walnut cake with cream cheese topping, first "love boat with treasure chest", "first basket full of love" for kepulangan cupcakes and now first " assembly of cupcakes into a cake".

here I go I again, rambling on and on. My entry would normally go on and on about my cake, for every cakes and cupcakes has its own stories to tell, the sweet and the sleepy experience associated with them.Sometimes, the frustration, the despair, of thinking that it would not turn out the way i wanted it to be. Like these cupcakes, when I first drew them on the cupcakes, I was very upset of the outcome. It wasn't as easy as I thot. the shape didn't seem right, the colour didn't seem right, fortunately it's my kids who kept giving me words of encouragement, who said that they are nice, ,they are beautiful, it gets better everytime I added colours to Phineas and Ferbs and when I finally did complete them by the afternoon, they gave it a green light and made me felt that Nina would be pleased with it too.

However, i wouldn't be too overjoyed until I saw the reaction on my friend's face and when Yus came in the evening to collect them, with the words, " Satisfied", i let out a sigh of relief....Phew!
But it's not over till the birthday girl herself saw them, then only I would really be contented with my creation knowing that I have made a birthday girl happy

the good news came thru an sms while I was watching the Korean series " Summer Scent" ( when will they admit to one another that they can't live without each other. the story drags on and on I keep on watching, just because , the hero and heroin are beautiful and the sceneries in the series are breathtakingly beautiful ).

"Salam zue, nina punyalah suka! Tak sabar2 nak bwk p sekolah esok kek phineas dia tu. even niza yg kecik tu dah tanya when's her turn gonna be. she wants phineas cake too..."

Okay Yus, like u said, we'll cross the bridge when we reach it.Who knows, come October, she might change her mind for something else plak...Little Einstein ke, Disney Princesses ke, 5 years old kan, like my Batrisyia, who currently tengah suka Tinkerbell and the Disney Princesses and Mickey , and Handy Manny and Digo the Gift Dragon and the list is endless:-) Batrisyia has been asking for her Princess cake also after seeing Tinkerlina that I made for a friend. Her birthday won't be until January next year . Can't wait to try my hands on decorating Barbie's gown using either buttercream or fondant.

In the mean time, my next mission is to create a Princess for an 11 year old who likes Hannah Montana and likes to read.

Thank you so much Yus for supporting my venture and my passion.Like the conversation I had with an old friend this morning, we can only do something and be satisfied with it if we do them with passion and patience. I pray for your dad's speedy recovery, all things happen for a reason, hang in there, insyaallah we shall sail through all the test that is bestowed upon us.

To Nina, Tunku Yusrina, Happy 12th birthday, may all your dreams come true". Aunty wish you all the best in your coming UPSR.

Congratz Areena

"I like that graduation teddy. Zue, can you make that teddy with graduation hat in pink? Areena loves pink".
Areena's mum decided on this order about a month ago after seeing the graduation teddies from the "Kepulangan" cuppies. Her daughter will be graduating on 15th August and she wanted to surprise her with this set of cupcakes. She's been keeping it hussh hush for quite some time even, when she came over with her daughter for another set of cuppies , she didn't say a word about this. We discussed in detail over the phone.






pink teddy wearing the purple graduation robe, still incomplete without her hat.

Kak , my neighbour, also ordered another set of black and white cuppies for the occasion.

This is way past midnite, as usual, I like to start very late and Batrisyia is accompanying me in between watching 612, she would pop in the kitchen, exclaiming "mama, it's beautiful, chiutnyer" whenever she sees my creations. Really inspiring and heart warming.My son would come and make his comments too. my eldest daughter usually sleeps very early and miss all the fun. she would always make the comments in the morning after everything is ready and waited to be collected.but she normally help me with the dishes. thank you all, my angels.

In this photo ,Batrisysia is learning some words using the cutter, helped her to spell, CAT, DOG, BOX, etc..etc....Those Disney Channels , 612, 612 and the others have become her teacher. Her fluency in English and the words and grammar used sometimes really surprised me.

" Mama, where's the eyes and the nose?". I was still working on the teddy and wanted to leave it to dry first when she kept asking me that question.

" Batisya letak teddy kat sini, nanti Mama boleh tengok ,okay", so she left her teddy in front of me.






I finished everything after she had already gone to sleep so she didn't see the final touch.

I have made all the flowers and the teddy is ready, just waiting to be arranged on the cupcakes, I decided to take a short sleep and was awaken at 4 am by my hubby's phone. He's arriving from KL. Woke up and continued with the unfinished deco, till I completed everything, to wrapping both sets of cuppies in black and white ribbon with white butterfly for the black and white set and the other with pink and purple ribbon with small pink roses.

Cleared the kitchen, cleared the table and left the cuppies on the table for Kak to collect them at 9.30 am. Took my bath at 7 am and tried to get my sleep but couldn't really sleep.

Kak came with her daughters and how surprised and happy Areena was to see her cupcakes. i really was touched with that brief moment where Areena hugged her mama, thanking her for the lovely surprise. After all, the four of them have each other for comfort, in sickness and in health, for better of for worse. all three daughters are so nice, polite and soft spoken ( correct me if i'm wrong, Kak.., I don't think so...:-) ) . Jaga Mama baik2 tau......

Congratz Areena. wish you all the best in everything, thanx Kak for supporting my venture.

Marble cheese Brownies for Golfer Dad

At first, Alisa mentioned that perhaps, it's a carrot walnut cake for their Abah's 5oth birthday , that was tentative. she just wanted to block the date and will confirm the cake flavour later.

sya, her sister then called me, they decided for marble cheese brownies because Abah dearest likes it so much after tasting the one that they bought ealier. the King has spoken! he wanted marble cheese brownies, so marble cheese brownies it is!







The cake is decided, the theme, golf, since their abah is a die hard golf fan ( exaggerate sikit ye En. Zainol, jangan marah, nanti kena jual......)

Now, how do i make a golf theme on a marble cheese brownies.hmmmmm....

after a long pause, yet another hmmmmmm.......

Finally I decided on drawing right on to the brownies and after having seen the result, i decided to use fondant instead. Made the big golf balf using white fondant and also fondant alphabets.i just hope that Sya, Alisya and Athira's abah likes the golf theme.


At the same time, Sya's mum decided to order 50 cupcakes as a gift for their neighbour, a very close friend as I found out from alisya, for their daughter's wedding on the same day.They must be very special and very dear to them. According to sya, design, and colour...up to moi..me, myself and I, as long as they are beautiful and delicious, and within the stipulated budget. They decided on vanilla and chocolate.

I first saw this design on " le cupcake" blog and I guess this particular chocolate cupcake with flower fondant and silver dregees around it is inspired by Kylie Lambert ( tho' a far cry from the actual one). I admire her work so much., very creative, beautiful, immaculate, flawless and captivating with beautiful colour combination and exquisite flowers and figurines

Thank you so much Sya and family for supporting Zue's Oven. I am so glad and happy that the chocolate cupcakes ( Athirah's birthday), marble cheese brownies and the oreo choclate cheesecake are well received by your family.

To the man and king of the house, wishing you "Happy 50th Birthday", En. Zainol. Age is just a number, live life to the fullest, semoga mendapat keberkatan daripada The One and Only. Nice and beautiful children you have here.Thank you again...

POWER PUFF GIRLS

This is my third Power Puff Girls. The first one I made for my daughter's 5th birthday in January, followed by my friend's daughter's birthday in February and now another friend's daughter who celebrated her 11th birthday on 13th August 2009. All three of us have one thing in common, we did our A-Levels at the same place, so we know one another for quite a long time, since 1984.

However, as usual, work, housework, family, wouldn't allow us to meet as often as we would have wished for. We only managed to meet during special occasions like raya or open houses and perhaps, now we could meet slightly more often than before provided the kids are celebrating their birthdays and mummies dearests would order from Auntie Zue, then we will meet more....:-)

I met my other friend, Nani , a hard working boss and a very busy woman ( she has her own practise) just last week when we went to "An evening with Dr Fatimah Az-zahra at Holiday Villa". ( a really wonderful and beneficial evening).

Na, Syafia's mum on the other hand, is like me, 24/7 at home but our time and schedule are really packed with being drivers to the kids, chef, housekeeper, companion. Yup, we wear so many caps with so many different posts at home but it's the post that we willingly took, for we get to be closer to the kids and will always be there if they need us, insyaAllah.








Side view of the chocolate moist cake topped with ganache and further glazed with soft yellow buttercream and hand drawn Blossom, Buttercup and bubbles with ganache and cololured using buttercream instead of piping jelly.



Thank you Na for this order. Wishing Syafia a Happy 11th Birthday". Be a good girl.Hope Syafia is happy with her PPG.

"Beeee gooood....." as E.T. said it to Elliot in the movie E.T.Love that movie. Drew Barrymore was so adorable in that movie. Everytime my son and daughter "bullied' ( menyakat) their adik, Batrisyia, it always reminds of the scene from that movie where the brothers would bully Drew Barrymore, threatening to take away her doll if she let out their secret.

Now, it's meant to be

This is Yong's newly baked marble cheese brownies.This one is meant for her, not the one I made earlier.
She came over to collect it on Friday, guess she came back late yesterday. I made the design somewhat similar to the one that was supposed to be hers.

Thanks yong for this order , the previous ones and the ones already booked for this coming raya.