Tag Archives: special occasion

Red Velvet Valentine Crinkles + Happy Hearts Day to all!

Posted in Baking Recipes, Colours of the rainbow, Cookies by

Probably the only thing I really think about when someone says the word Valentine’s is that it’s an amazing opportunity to get creative with the things that come out of your oven. And it’s not because I’m some bitter heartbroken man-hating spinster or anything, it’s just that I think it’s not a particularly special event. It might be a cliché to say that we should make it a point to express how much we love our boyfriends/girlfriends, husbands/wives on a daily basis even in the smallest ways; but to me, it’s an even bigger cliché to pick a particular day to give extra special attention to your partner.

Tell your girlfriend how much you love the colour of her hair when she stands underneath the sunlight.

Tell your boyfriend how adorable you think he looks with that goofy smile of his.

Buy each other flowers and chocolates just because.

Say I love you everyday, and mean it.

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Of long-lasting friendships and not-so-long-lasting cupcakes

Posted in Baking Recipes, Cupcakes & Muffins by

This is a story about a boy named Gilbert. He’s our resident culture boy; the multilingual dictionary we consult when we want to learn new foreign words. He absolutely loves India and its culture, and I’m convinced he had been Indian during his past life. But most of all, he’s one of my longest-standing friends. I’ve known him since before I knew my multiplication table!

I first met him during preschool, when we were 4 or 5. As luck would have it, we were classmates all throughout kindergarten and grade school as well. When high school came along, we got assigned into our separate classes. If anything though, I think this was the time we became closer friends. To be honest, I don’t even know how to describe our friendship, or how to describe the closeness that we have. It’s just always been there, you know?

I remember in high school, he used to pop over to our classroom during lunchtime to chat and have a taste of whatever we were eating. And then he would go up front and perform uncanny impressions of some of our “favourite” high school teachers. I guess you could say that I’m pretty used to having him around, and occasionally, I would even invite him and my best friend out to family gatherings (this was when we became a trio). We saw each other less when we went to college, each of us leading very different lives from each other, but we would still make it a point to meet during special occasions. Specifically, eating out on our birthdays has become a bit of a ritual for us.

When Gilbert texted me about meeting for a post-birthday celebration, I jumped at the chance to make him something as special as this cake I made last year for my best friend Margarette. There were two things that I knew I had to do: First, incorporate Nutella into the cupcakes (he loves the stuff!); and second, I had to have some sort of surprise in the middle of the cupcake.
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A 121st post celebration, with rainbows!

Posted in Baking Recipes, Colours of the rainbow, Cupcakes & Muffins, Foodie Life, My favourite things by

One never needs any special occasion to create things with rainbow themes, but I just thought it very appropriate in this case. Rainbows to me symbolize hope– of better and brighter things to come; of optimism and good cheer. And that’s simply why I chose to make cute-as-a-button rainbow cupcakes to celebrate my 121st post. It’s not a new and mind-blowing idea, but every time someone posts about rainbow anything, I can’t help but fall into a nice feeling. Does that every happen to you as well?

Now the next question (or maybe it was your first question) is: Why 121st?

This number is actually a combination of my birth month and date, January 21st. I remember the days when I used this 121 number combination extensively; when every online username and e-mail address I created had these numbers in them. It was a phase that I outgrew eventually, and although it’s been years since I used these numbers for anything, they still hold special meaning to me. (It is my birthday after all.)

And well, of course, I decided to mark my 121st post because I completely missed my 100th.

I make a bad blogger, don’t I? To make up for that, I’m going to photospam you all with RAINBOWS!
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A tall cake for the tall birthday boy

Posted in At home, Baking Recipes, Layer cakes by

I have three younger brothers:

  • the first one is a year younger than I (more on him later)
  • the middle one has the same birthday as I do, only six years later (I think this is why we can get along the best when things are on the up and up– because we share the same kind of interests and for the most part have similar qualities. On the flipside, we also have the worst kind of fights.)
  • the youngest one is my sweetie pie, because he is the sweetest little boy I know

I’d be lying if I said we all got along perfectly fine, but I’d also be lying if I did not admit that a big reason why I love my life is because of these three doofuses. I’ve talked about my middle brother before because we inevitably make joint decisions on birthday cakes given that we share the same birthday, but today let us focus on brother number 1.

It was his birthday last Saturday, and of course I made him a cake. After singing him his birthday song, I let him cut the cake and he went, ‘Whoa! This is a tall cake!’

So I told him, as if I did it on purpose, ‘Well, your cake is supposed to be as tall as you!’
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Belated First Blogiversary Purple Ombré Cake

Posted in Baking Recipes, Experiments & experiences, Layer cakes by

What is the punishment for forgetting your blogiversary, I wonder. Do you get banned from tasting your future creations, or get cursed with really bad food photographs? I certainly hope not! Well, I started my blog on the 5th of February last year (World Nutella Day too apparently), but all this time, I thought it was actually the 25th of February! How in the world did I come up with this 20-day gap date? Must be all that sleep I’m losing that is messing with my head. In any case, I went ahead and made my little blog a cake to celebrate. You know what they say, better late than never!

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A cake to match a relationship of epic proportions

Posted in At home, Baking Recipes, Cheesecakes, Layer cakes by

My brother, J- and I have a love-hate relationship that reaches to the extremes of the Universe. So epic is it in fact, that during the times we absolutely hate each other, I would go so far as to give him the silent treatment for weeks at a time and completely ignore his existence. And it’s not only me who doesn’t get along with him, my other siblings often have it out with him as well, but not as… awe-inspiring as my fights with him can get sometimes. When we were younger it was much, much worse. My parents used to joke that we were like cat and dog, though in truth, cats and dogs don’t hold a candle to us. In fact they can even co-exist peacefully with each other, which if you lived in my house you would know is nearly impossible with the two of us. Well most of the time, anyway. And to make it ironic, he and I share the same birthdate. Looks like the joke’s on me after all!

J- was born on the eve of my 6th birthday. He was adorable as a baby, but already showed many signs of the traits he would later on develop as a teenager. I admit, despite him being not the perfect brother, I wasn’t exactly the perfect sister either. I should have been a bit more patient with him, more understanding of the fact that he is but a child. But I guess I was a bigger child than he at some point, the way I would take revenge on him whenever he did something that made me angry. My childhood memories connected to him aren’t stellar and bright; they were filled with petty fights, extremely creative [in a bad way] name-calling, and a little bit of violent shrieking. Looking back, it’s not one of my best moments as a sister. I am actually very close to my siblings; J- however, isn’t quite as affectionate as my other two brothers. Even when he was but a toddler, he would prefer doing things on his own rather than have people “baby” him. It’s a sort of stubborn independence, but one that has made him into a person who prefers to keep his distance rather than be outgoing.

Now that we’re older, I’d like to think J- and I have developed a better kind of relationship. He would come to me when he needs someone to talk to about high school issues, and I would gladly offer him some advice. Sure, we still have our bad times, but we have a bit more good times now, which I’m truly glad for. That’s why when it came time for me to choose the cake I was to bake for our birthday (which was yesterday), this was the first cake that popped into my mind.

I just think this cake perfectly represents the relationship we have: the glaring red velvet layer describes how heated our fights can get, and the whiteness of the cheesecake represents the lighter, brighter moments we have together. And how accurate is it that there are two layers of the crimson cake sandwiching the cheesecake! As if the cake is signifying how often we collide (about 75% of the time, just so you know) compared to the peaceful moments we spend with each other. But the fact that it is all covered with the whiteness of cream cheese frosting to me means that, at the end of the day, we embrace each other for who we are, as family should. This is quite literally the most perfect cake I could make for him. (Bonus: cheesecake is his favourite dessert!)

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