Wonder Pets cake for Wonder Hickey's 1st birthday

What's gonna work? TEAMWORK'



was the first thing that came to mind when she first told me that she wanted Wonder Pets theme for her son's coming birthday,and I was a bit nervous. One thing I have never made or drawn these characters before, two, I thought they , the characters, guinea pig( I have always thought that it was a hamster until I googled the other day ), duckling and a turtle, would be a bit difficult to draw or to make figurines but I said, InsyaAllah, with God's willing, I'd try.When we met during hari raya, once again we discussed about the cake, whether she wanted it with the H shape or number 1 shaped cake.





Instead of Wonder Pets, it became WOnder HICKEY for the one year old Hickey.only thought of this as I was making the figurines. In fact most of the ideas came during the making and baking of the cake itself. I was rather blur on what to make or to deco despite the ample time given to me.

I only drew this on the day I was going to make the figurines using fondant. why did I make all the deco using fondant? Because I would have to send this cake by bus since I was not able to make it to his birthday party in Puchong. I thought fondant would be better as compared to buttercream. however, I was still feeling nervous for the journey would take about eight hours and can Linny, Ming Ming and Tuck stand the journey, would they be able to stand or sit still on the cake or would they stumble and fall into the small river on the cake board?hehe....

I googled and searched for their images but it wasn't much help. I didn't have a 3D picture of them. Pages and pages of cake decorating books were turned. I turned to Debbie Brown, Maisie Parish, Mich Turner,for inspiration

sama tak? boleh lah kan?

H for Hickey . Chocolate cake, double the usual ingredient, cut into H shaped and fully covered with fondant with ganache spread in between the layers.At first I wanted to put the figurines on the cake board but Batrisyia insisted that I put them on the cake itself. yeah, listen to a six year old kid, they know better.....hehe.....

everytime I finished decorating one part of the cake, I'd say to her,

"Syia, ok tak? nice or not?"

She would look at it closely and said, "Cantik"....and kids don't lie!

apa yang penting? Kerjasama.....

Number 1 candle for One year old Hickey whose birthday falls on 26th October 2010 with three fondant presents from Ming Ming, Linny and Tuck the turtle...hehe....

last minute decision to make the waterfall and the river.This wonder Pets usually goes around saving other animals in trouble but this time they are saving a fish? sounds rather strange for a fish to be in trouble ....... in water! Well, I didn't have enough time to make a horse or any other animal and fish was the easiest:-)

What's gonna work?

Teamwork

their famous motto and phrase.

translated in Bahasa Melayu,

apa yang penting?

kerjasama.....

just like the team work between Batrisyia and me where she accompanied me throughout the night till five am to finish ( almost ) this cake. I had to finish it the next morning and get it ready for the 11.15 am bus . I definitely couldn't send this cake via courier or poslaju, not with the figurines all over the cake. My best bet was the bus and I'd like to thank Kak Min and her drivers for the TLc given to my cake. I was informed by my sister in law, Hickey's mum that the cake arrived at Hentian Duta safely, in perfect condition, no Ming Ming or Tuck falling off the cake

completed it at around 9 am.The final touch before placing it in the big box, I think this cake weighed between 2 to 3 kg.

Alhamdulillah , my "Wonder Pets/Hickey" cake survived the eight hours journey by bus from Alor Star to Hentian Duta, where it was picked up by my SIL who later brought it back to her place in Puchong and the following day, 30th Oct, was brought to her son's Taska to celebrate it with her friends and Hickey's friends.

Though Aunty zue couldn't make it your party Hickey but Aunty could see you cutting the cake via the video which your mummy loaded in facebook. Happy 1st birthday my cute chubby nephew and may you always be a bundle of joy to your mummy and daddy. you look just like your daddy , my youngest brother, when he was young.

My first figurine cake made its way outside Kedah, safely and thus would be good news to others not staying in Alor Star and who wish to have Zue's Oven 's cakes for their children's birthday party or whatever occasion it may be, InsyaAllah, kalau ada rezeki.

thank you Mimi and Yin for trusting me with Hickey's first birthday cake. It was a pleasure and wonderful experience making it and hope that I'll be making more cakes for his next birthdays too!InsyaAllah.

Hey, what's cooking.....

clockwise: fried tenggiri with salted gelama, ayam masak minangkabau, sweet and spicy crab. spinach and sambal belacan with cucumber, today's lunch. same old same old..... but as delicious as usual.....

I don't cook like this daily, once in a while, sometimes when I have run out of ideas on what to cook, I would just cook almost the same dish over and over again, fortunately not so much complaints( they'd better not.....hehe....).kalau dah tak dak moood sangat or dah tak larat sangat, we know who to call, the 1-800 numbers for delivery......

ayam masak minangkabau, if no idea what to cook but I want something with thick gravy, not too hot , just nice with cumin, fennel seed, coriander, smell and taste, this is it, home blend mixture, not Adabi, not Babas, not alagappa but Zue's ( resepi masa sekolah menengah)

if there's curry like dish, I must have salted fish/ikan masin. the fried tenggiri is for my daughter but today she chose to eat the roti jala which I bought this morning

a must have for hubby, sambal belacan and today with cucumber cos don't have other ulams, if not, can have the sambal belacan with petai rebus, kacang kelisa, ulam raja, and all kinds of ulam-ulaman. this sambal belacan goes very well with the ayam masak minangkabau.

Sayur bayam, my umi's version, very simple, garlic, and shallot and balck pepper. I like.... I am not a veggie person but this bayam, I like....

Popeye's main dish......Popeye the sailor man, tut tut......

the usual, ketam masak cili ( and tomato sauce and oyster sauce ) but the aromatic smell of lemon grass and curry leaves with butter was the highlight of this dish.

this is the lasagna that we had for dinner last night. I was rather flat, from lack of sleep, slept at five am finishing the Wonder Pet's cake, we already had mee curry for brunch and I had no idea what to cook for dinner. Asked my son what he'd like for dinner and he said 'lasagna', so lasagna it is.

Red warrior's red and white for Apit.

An aunt's gift for her nephew's 11th birthday. Suraya ( Aya )came with her sister, another Su but Suhana to decide on which cupcakes to make. After going through some of my cake/cupcakes photo selection, she decided on the white and red cupcakes which I made for Fatin ( before that for Mira )

eh...at a glance, looks like the Red Warrior's jersey, red and white, wish them all the best for the final against Negeri Sembilan tomorrow night. final football match at Stadium bukit Jalil.

Happy 11th bithday Apit. Thank you the two "Su"s, suhana and Suraya

pink itu menawan

soft, sweet, soothing,pleasing,calming, tranquil,romantic, mesmerised, intoxicated....nah... a bit too much,but close...beautiful,these two colour combos never fail

Batrisyia at it again! me draw, she colours

a pack of 4 cupcakes for her neighbour, a neighbourly gesture

for makan-makan

and this lasagna, also foe makan-makan, with her family.

Thank you farah and sweet Aishah, who loves the lasagna.

jirang ( slang trengganu) ( neighbours)

A week ago, I received the phone call, an enquiry on my cupcakes,, then followed by an e-mail with the deco and design to be made on the cuppies. Based on the sample, i sketched on my sketch book and tried to make it as close or as similar to the given sample.

birhtday surprise from one friend to another. Ejad called from Penang but he will come to collect the cuppies himself.Jad came with Ayie, his colleague. from our telephone conversation I had guessed that he must be from Trengganu, the slang is there but I didn't say anything about it until the day we met face to face. Both of them, Jad and Ayie are my neighbours.....jirang rupanyer.state neighbours, Kelate and Trengganu.Terus keluar my kelate slang . Rupa-rupanya Jad and Ayie ni kawan Yon(Pamela) the lady whom I delivered the carrot cuppies last September on her birthday, a birthday surprise from her sister in Sabah.

no wonder Jad wanted me to make this deco, this is what he does, his line of profession, memang sesuai , to someone as sweet and as nice as him and his friend Ayie. Kak Zue doakan both Jad and Ayie and your friends berjaya dalam practical and exam nanti

I had just received an sms from Jad while waiting for my chocolate cake to cool before I can decorate it with the Wonder Pets figurines:

" TQ kak Zue.Epy ska sgt dpat cuppies 2. Dia tkejut bgun tido tgok cuppies 2, Dia kata syang nk makan.

Yon puji sedap cuppies choc 2. TQ Kak Zue. Its worth it".

I sincerely am happy with his wish and doa too:

Hope in future ur business will obtain more sucess. Keep on bringing d joy 2 others..:)

thank you Jad, for trusting me with your friend's birthday cuppies and for the wish and doa.
Wish you well too..

Happy Birthday MCB

Happy birthday zaidah. many happy returns. thank you kak baa'yah for recommending me.

Happy birthday Ita. finaly we met, after a few MCBs and one oreo chocolate cheesecake
thank you for this order. Semoga panjang umur murah rezeki sentiasa.

Manik vs chocolate mousse......................

What's with the beads, thread, needle and swiss army knife?


Are we in the right blog, cekmekzue's blog with cakes and cupcakes, cookies and brownies, hampers and paperbags?,


if in the old days, when there's a slight error with the programme on TV, a fat cartoon man wearing glasses would be seen trying to fix it or swith on the channel , then came a message, " RANCANGAN TERGENDALA SEBENTAR'. please do not change your channel.


There's nothing wrong with this blog either, this is still cekmekzue's blog, the only difference is, it's not about cakes today. Let's take a break from sugar and flour and cream cheese for a while



I was going through my clothes in the closet and saw that there's nothing new to wear, after all, I don't really need new clothes at the moment, and then I saw this purple baju kurung, with the needle still attached to the sleeve. It has been there for the past two years!

two years!!! the needle is now a bit rusty. the beads were sewn halfway. Actually I see it everyday, and I just had to leave it hanging there for I am too pre-occupied with my cakes and that was the reason why it had been left abandoned for the past two years.Actually before venturing into cakes and cupcakes I started with the beads on my baju kurung for they are a bit pricey if you ask the tailor to do them for you and I do understand why . It is such a tedious and painstakingly torturing thing to do ( but not for those who love doing them cos everybody's interest and passion differ) my passion could be the other person's nightmare and vice versa!

Bead sewing and cake decorating are some form of art and there is no fixed value you can put on them. Only those who can truly appreciate the beauty, the intricateness, the creativity involved in making it can truly understand why they are priced as such.

Chocolate mousse.( without the cream )

What's the connection betwen beads and sewings and chocolate mousse?

As I was sewing the beads one by one , my daughter who was sitting in front of me, drinking her Milo,asked me :

"Ma, are you making any cakes tonite?"

nope

"no order?"

yup, not tonite though

and I saw that smile, that meaningful smile

i know that smile and I can read her mind and could have guesed where this conversation is leading to.

Mama , can you make me that chocolate mousse

gotcha! I knew she was going to say that.And I did owe her, months ago. I had been busy
and i always said to her, when mumy is free, when there's no order, Mummy will make the chocolate mousse for her

Today is the day, no more excuses. As soon as mummy finishes with the sewing, mummy will make it for you.but first you need to take out the unsalted butter from the chiller.

but before that mummy has to finish this , it's been sitting there too long

Projek terbengkalai : dua tahun lepas.jarum pun masih lekat di lengan baju

it took me about five hours to complete the unfinished sleeve. whatI had left abandoned for the past two years was completed within five hours, uninterrupted. It's just a simple deco, scattered beads along the sleeve end.

finally!

yeay! yahoo! hooray!
I did it!

Phew!

( a note and reminder to me: to try to make baju kurung or dresses for Batrisyia, the fabric is sitting in the cupboard for as long as I could remember) the sewing machine which hubby bought me is staring at me everyday, only used it twice since we bought it, that's just to sew a straight line on my kain sarung batik.......to write this down in my 'To Do' list, along with ' make chocolate eclairs, make trifle, perform Haj, Tsara's doctor's appointment, design for the new place, ( a new project that I am working on) and the list goes on and on......

my earlier project. I did this one way before I started my cake deco thingy....

not as nice as the experts' but okay for me......


and this one too.................

my first attempt

That's it. At the moment I have to focus on two more important things to do which are cake related. Beads would be shelved until I find another suitable day to start again.

As I am writing this, I am enjoying the choclate mousse with cream with my daughter Batrisyia who finally gets her wish.The bitter sweet chocolate just melts in the mouth with the cream. It is just pure indulgence, sinfully rich, chocolatey and creamy, it is my all time favourite , chocolate is something I cannnot do without.

I think I am going downstairs to get another one......see ya....

All the best...for SPM

SPM or Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia is one of the biggest exams taken by the students here, the others being STPM, SRP or now PMR .SPM is for the Form Five students

four chocolate cakes for the fifth formers of her school.

Plain bake cheesecake for them too.
Thank you Cikgu Salbiah for these orders and wishing all your form five students the best of luck for their coming exam.