entering my third year.....three wonderful years.....

Three years ago, June 23rd or was it 22nd? in 2008, I delivered my first oreo chocolate cheesecake, then after, hubby dearest saw me baking cupcakes, he asked me to bake 100 cupcakes for him. I had only just baked ( or tried to bake ) 12 cupcakes, even so, I had never, ever, made buttercream icing before, so how on earth was I going to bake him the 100 cupcakes and with some deco?
That was me , three years ago with zero knowledge on cake decorating, never before held a piping bag with nozzle and with buttercream icing in it, let alone colurful icing, and now three years later, I heard my daughter said this to me the other night:





" I want to be like you, mama, a cake decorator"
( this, in her own words and sentence and language) yes, we do speak English at home , not because we do not speak Malay or Kelantanese or Kedah dialect, but, because that is one of the ways for me to train her to be fluent in that particular language .( and I do need to practise myself, takut berkarat nanti )


Don't you want to be an architect like Abah?


abah buat apa?


Abah designs buildings, houses, etc


No, I want to be a cake decorator :-)



Three years ago I would not have dreamt of hearing this conversation with my seven year old daughter. Cake decorating was never, had never, been in my career list. But I guess, it is in me all these time, my passion for drawing, my passion for baking , compiling and copying recipes from TV programmes, from magazines, even from inflight magazine during a flight, and my passion for writing, combine all three and that's how Zue's oven aka cekmekzue came to life. From late june 2008, to 2009, 2010 and now 2011. Before I know it, I had been baking and decorating countless number of cakes and cupcakes and brownies, not just using the buttercream icing, but royal icing, fondant, gumpaste,, making figurines, novelty cakes and hantaran set too! not forgetting hampers and fruit baskets too!





Ever heard of the phrase, "Time flies when you are having fun",? Three fun years had gone by and this month, marks the third year , me, spending most of my time , having fun, in my little kitchen, mixing butter and sugar,sifting flour with baking powder, beating the eggs, kneading and rolling fondant, making figurines and flowers, mixing colours in the buttercream icing and decorating cakes and cupcakes , brownies and all those scrumptious, delectable,goodies .





It seems like yesterday that I made this "Powerpuff Girl" cake for my daughter's 5th birthday in 2009 . My first ever free hand drawing cartoon character direct on the cake, not using the tracing method, nor the edible image , just drew ( redah je, as I would say ) on the cake at 5.30 am!





and also these colourful piping jellies deco on these cupcakes. At this time, I did not know that there were classes organised out there for beginners and amateurs like me. I only discovered about them nine months after I started Zue's Oven , nine months aiy, kalau orang pregnant, dah bersalin dah.....hehe......

After a while, I had baked chocolate cakes, cheesecakes, oreo chocolate cheesecake and the plain bake, cupcakes ( vanila.chocolate, just to name a few flavours ) , biskut batik, etc, i then discovered about this marble cheese brownies. The reason why it is called 'marble' cheese brownies is perhaps because of the 'marbly' design on top but, no, not me, I tried something different. After baking a few MCBs, I suddenly came across this pattern, and thought hmmm, why didn't I just draw this on the cheese brownies instead of the normal 'marble' effect and hence, my MCB never look the same again, I have lost count of the number of designs i had created on the MCBs and this particular one was the 'first'.of my non-marble design.

from orders for birthdays, or hari raya hamper, came the order for 'hantaran' and I think this was my first cupcake 'hantaran' set, my earlier buttercream roses, a hantaran engagement set

then came another, and another, and another, and until today i am still making them, hantaran cakes, hantaran cupcakes, for weddings, engagements, etc.....

sometimes I do receive special request from my customers, wishing for something special and different for their loved ones, where their message would be translated via cakes and cupcakes. This very tiny black and white heart box for a cupcake (2009) was made especially for a lady in Penang, for her hubby in alor Star, for his birthday. I didn't know how and where I got this idea from but I thought it would be sweet to send her heart to him, via this fondant heart in a small fondant box.

I attended several classes in these three years, from professional and non professional teachers but equally talented , these classes that I went to, are money worth spent. Idid learn a few things via the youtube before I discovered these classes but I believe in getting a proper technique or training from 'sifu's out there, once you have the basic, , you just explore, and improvised, sometimes these knowledge are not obtainable via youtube or the cake decorating books alone,
These figurines were my first bride and groom figurines made ( my first figurine was the Snow white cake ) fo a lady in Putrajaya, as a gift for someone in alor star..

After these figurines, came the pink couple, the purple couple, another white couple, Tinkerlina, Rossetta, just to name a few.

my cupcake deco has also evolved from just using the buttercream, to using fondant. They are simply stunning and elegant as hantaran or door gifts

When i first started,three years ago, cupcakes were a craze, everywhere you turn, you see cupcakes, cupcakes for birthdays, cupcakes for weddings, for anniversaries, for everything and anything, the 'in' thing at that time, just like the 'in' thing now is the iphone, ipad, ipod, or whatever 'i' there is..................................

Me, dunno about the craze, but I got smitten with cupcakes, beautifully, colourfully decorated cupcakes when I stumbled upon a blog by a lady in Australia. Her creations are just beautiful and mesmerising that I fell in love with it instantly!

from full fondant deco purple and white set and pink and white set, ( 2010)

to teddies bride and groom (2011)

to cookies 'hantaran' set(2011)

and wedding cakes( 2010), my brother's weding cake

and dinosaur birthday cupcakes(2010) , the love of a wife to her husnamd

to red velvet with cream cheese frosting cupcakes( June 2011)

or red velvet 'camera lens' cake (2010)

to 'bowling' chocolate cake ( 2011)

or f"Liverpool ' half ball vanilla cake (2011) from a lady in chennai

and Detective Conan drawing on fondant.(2011)

It seems like yesterday, june 23rd 2008, that I first delivered my oreo chocolate cheesecake to my first customer!

Three wonderful years! In these three years, I met many people from all walks of life, online and offline, make new friends, met other bakers and cake decorators, other bloggers, all because of the love for sweet, delicious, scrumptious, and delectable cakes and cookies. I appreciate their allowing me to enter their lives through my cakes, for their birthdays, their children's birthdays, their parents, inlaws, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, friends, bosses, colleagues,and many more, not just o celebrate or remembering their birthdays, but other occasions too, anniversaries, weddings, engagement, some to say 'thank you', some to say 'sorry' and some just simply to indulge...............

For these opportunities, i thank you all , from the bottom of my heart for your continuous and endless support, without which I might not be entering my third year and I hope that I will encounter many more joyous and wonderful years ahead, making you smile, shriek, happy, satisfied with my cakes and cookies.

Zue's Oven will not be standing here today if not for the 110 or maybe 200% support from my family, my other better half and my three beautiful kids ( they can be quite a handful at times but they are still beautiful )
and for that I heart you.........

happy 3rd Anniversary Zue's Oven!

Red Velvet is Back!

'persembahan' for Raja Perempuan Muda Perlis, a set of Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting.

tried this again, after a request from a friend. i know and I have heard that Red Velvet or RV is on top of the list for cake choice for some people and I was not really sure what the fuss was all about , until I tasted it myself. not that I had not tasted it before, i did, but not really sitting down and savouring it but this time, i did. That was after receiving a very promising comment from my friend, in her words,

"sedapnyer..."

seriously?

yes, sedaaap.....

that's her finished RV cup, she tasted it while waiting for me to wrap up a few for her daughter.it was the first time for her, and she was giving the set for someone special. She was asking for black forest cupcakes but since I had never tried that before and so I suggested this RV instead and I am so glad that she approves of it.

that's mine, emptied within minutes, and that eight RV was for Farah who asked me to call her whenI made the RV. thank you Farah

from carrot to chocolate and orange, o cheese and vanilla

two in one wish, a birthday wish and a Happy Fathers Day wish, carrot walnut cupckes, thank you Nik, to bring back to her father in Kelantan

Her name is Suriani, change the "S" to "Z", it becomes my name, her daughter's name is "Sarah", replace the "S" with "Ts" it becomes my daughter's name, Tsara', what a coincidence. This is her cake for her Sarah,, sharing a corner of her chocolate layered with orange cake with her aunt, Mak Su,

people call me 'Zue' and they call her Yani, thank you Yani, for making me part of your daughter's 'pink' day. By the way, sedap bihun soup yang Yani buat tu, pity I had to leave early, I would have loved to have a second or maybe third helping! hank you for the invite, Batrisyia really enjoyed herself playing with he birthday girl though this was only their second encounter, the first time they met was when Yani came to place the order. Kids, they are so pure and so naive, only good and innocent things are in their mind, that's why they can be connected easily

and this 'Prudential' Happy Fathers Day blueberry cheesetart ( the very first time my BCT had edible image on them.....hehe......) was a surprise for hubby who is so into red and white, even their kitchen cabinet and area has the same colour

red and black hantaran cupcakes. thank you cikgu Lina, who ordered this on behalf of her customer.thank you for trusting me.

det Conan, or is it?

It's my daughter's birthday and this time she wanted Detective conan. The name was not alien o me this time, unlike 'Melody or Dorami previously. Why is that? Because my kids love to watch these series too!

50 chocolate cupcakes with ganache and detective Conan theme for Aisyah's 11 birthday, to share with her school friends.

Is it Detective Conan or s it Harry Potter? there's a slight resemblance there, must be the almost round glasses and the blue blazer

free hand drwaings of Detective Conan on fondant. I decided not to colur themm cos I find it rather 'raw' and original this way. Of course not my original design because I used my kids' comic book as referral, these books do come in handy some times

thank you Nani for your continuous support nd wihing Aisyah , happy 11th birthday, semoga menjadi anak yoang solehah.

anyone for golf?

ever heard of Neapolitan ice cream? We used to like to buy neapolitan ice cream, three flavous in one box, chocolate, vanilla and strawberry, and this is my version of neapolitan cake:-)

three layers of different flavoured cake and twice the ingridient for each cake, if one cake weighs more than one kg, what do you think the total weight of this cake, close to ten kg i would say, plus the fondant and the golf set on top!

golf is for pros and by the look of this, I am not a pro in making this, but it did look like a golf bag and golf stick...hehe....

coomplete with a set of cutting knife and server, thank you Su for trusting me with this task, quite a challenge, but a fun and enjoyable one.

your happiness is my happiness,
your sadness is my even greater sadness
my life revolves around you , whether you know it or not,
it's meaningless if ..................................,
no sugar , nor cheesecake or brownies , is sweeter than your smile,
no touch is more sensual than yours,
every caress, every stroke, sent tingles to my body
the delectable sensation of the Giorgio Armani fragrant lingers in the air
drives me crazy,
but most of all, the caring, the giving, the unselfishness in your bones,
makes me feel so special, so loved,

do I have to say the word,
just to prove to you,
how good we are together,
do I have to say the word,

Miss Whatever or ROXY

but my daughter said that this is WINX club......( but it came under ROXY when I googled). ...... whateveeeeer......:-)

newly discovered strawberry cupcake recipe and used it for this order

so sweet.....pink karer ( pink colour )

a request for one teddy to go with the vanila and strawberry cupcakes

free hand drawn 'ROXY' on a fondant,

When the lady mentioned that her niece likes 'Miss Whatever ' or ROXY, I went 'huh' ( silently in my head ) ...come again, Miss What? the same reaction, the same blank /blur face like when I first heard of Doremon's sister, Dorami, or Hello Kitty's friend, Melody or Phienas and Ferb.

She called the morning we were about to leave for our 'sort of 'planned but unscheduled trip to nowhere ( end up in East coast ). On the way, while driving ( hubby dearest did the driving) so Mummy dearest googled "Miss Whatever" using her iphone ( the lost and found iphone ) and didn't find much and left it at there for the time being. Mummy dearest had to concentrate on being the co driver since we were not sure of our destination until we reached Gurun that is.more on the trip in my other entry i suppose.

Her request was for two flavoured cupcakes, vanilla and strawberry flavoured cupcakes.

No problem with the vanilla, but not the strawberry one. I don't think I had made strawberry flavoured cake before, and once again, thanks to the current information technology and the 'GOOGLE' , you guessed it, I googled for the recipe on the net, after not finding any in my cook books ( not that I went through all of them). I found a few recipes and the first one that I clicked looked promising, the comments given were positive and the picture of the strawberry cupcake looked tempting and tantalising enough, and I had all the ingredients required, except for the main ingredient........strawberries.

Off I went to the nearest shop and hoping and praying that it had what I wanted. Went straight to the fruit /freezer section and thankfully, there they were, looking so red and so fresh and soooo expensive too! RM12 plus plus for a small box!Grabbed just a packet because I wouldn't be using many, grabbed a bottle of straberry jam too and also a bottle of strawberry flavoured essence

I am pleased with the taste, I didn't know that strawberry cake taste this good. Thank you to the person who shared this recipe on the net, for decoration, I just used the plain buttercream and colour it in pink and top the strawberry cupcakes with a small slice of strawberries on top, vanilla cupcakes with white buttercream and finally the drawing of ROXY ( which I found on the net) on the piece of white fondant scasttered with pink heart shpaed fondants.

thank you Kak siti, hope your niece, Farah will like this, and here's wishing Farah, Sweet 11th birthday.

selingan....

nice! I like.....good colour combo, coloured by Batrisyia

new flavour- strawberries

Nak cubalah MCB tu....

marble cheese brownies for Farah and

chocolate moist cake with ganache for Farah's SIL,

thank you dear

cookies and luxury brownies ...hamper like

thank you Nik, for your continuous support