Cupcake Chic

I haven't blogged for almost a whole week, so sorry, been rather tied up. Last week, we attended a big cocktail party celebrating Australia National Day. Then there was a wedding on Saturday and in between, I was trying to organize other people's lives.

Anyway, here are some photos from the cupcake class during the weekend.

We had to bring 6 cupcake of any flavour so I made a coconut, mango and lime cupcake, a recipe stolen from B. It was divine sounding, that's why I chose the recipe and it was even better to eat. I mean, how can a recipe that calls for 180gm of butter, 200 gm of sugar and only 100 gm of flour be bad ?!

We had to learn the Wilton Rose which was quite tough to do but the results very rewarding.


This clown decoration is quite scary to look at don't you think? The head is a plastic topper of course.

Next weekend is Thaipusam so no class. I will take a break from baking. Have another project up my sleeve so have a good week you guys !!

Birthday cake dummy

Since we weren't going to eat the cake I baked, I thought I give it to B's daughter to play with. Maya only just learnt how to blow out candles and my cake is better posing as a dummy than a dessert so we had fun lighting, and re-lighting and letting her blow out the flame.


I left after an hour but heard she was amusing herself with the cake for hours on end.

Maybe this year for her birthday, I will bake her a cake since by then (June), I should be an expert ! Or better still, throw her a full size party with all the frills and thrills. I could nick ideas of this website


It is a great little website for mothers who need inspiration when it comes to their children. Parties, room decoration, games, toys ... The search menus are easy to use and has loads of options. If you search by Tag, the drop down menu reveals a wonderland of fun ideas.


The party gallery is where I went to drool over. These mothers came up with the most adorable ideas like this Ladybug theme.


Just look at the hanging banner - which is so easy to do with my new illustrator skills, and the paper pom-poms look just like the ones I made to decorate the guest room when L and D visited.


This table setting is incredibly fun to look at.


And finally a tower of ladybug cupcakes.


This is a great business idea, because I don't see parents having time to do all of that and enjoy the party. Hmm now I really have to bake edible cakes.

Domestic Goddess in Training

I signed up for a cake decorating class a month ago and went for the first class last weekend. The first class was not much fun, mostly standing around watching the instructor whip up some icing then frosting a cake. This week, we had to bring our own 8 inch cake frosted in our choice of colour so that we can learn the techniques of piping designs.

So I went over to B's to bake my cake because she's got all the ingredients and the tools anyway. I found a lemon yogurt cake recipe at home and decided to bake that. When it was done, it was not so mueh a fluffy lemon cake as a thick lemon biscuit. Disaster. I suspect B was bit grumpy about me not asking her for a cake recipe that she decided not to say anything when she watched me. Goes to show that not all recipes work.

Anyway, it was fine because I wasn't planning to eat this cake. The icing will send my systems to diabetic shock. We were just told to bake one, ice it and bring it to class.

Here's my cake looking kinda blue-grey.


More practice needed obviously and the frosting is hopeless. The consistency of my icing was way too thick and it was hard to work with. Too late now.

At class we were taught different piping techniques. This lady is actually a baker with years of experience but signed up for classes to upgrade her skills. Just look at her cake, that was the colour I was aiming.

Here's the final line up. None of which by the way are my cake.

This is mine.


Not bad for a first class and what fun!


Next week we are told to bring 6 frosted cupcakes so guess I will be doing more baking then !

I heart HBO

As much as I dislike the amount of American crap I watch on TV, once in a while I applaud their genius and Bored To Death is one series I am enjoying now. Thanks L for introducing it to me.

Season One just finished and I am impatient for the next one. The show is about a novelist who is having problems living his own life, smokes a lot of pot; has a boss (Ted Danson) who is a diehard romantic and also bored with life so smokes a lot of pot; and a best friend who is a cartoonist who also yes you guessed it, smokes a lot of pot.

Jonathon, the novelist escapes reality by becoming a private detective and ropes in Danson and his best friend. They stumble through bizarre adventures usually through a fog of pot smoke and somehow solve mysteries.

Go here if you want to sample episodes.

Brillant.

Designer Course 101

For the past two days, I have been going to school. 9 - 5pm at the Adobe Training centre. I signed up for the Illustrator Course 101 and it was brillant. I finally know how to properly use the tools, well some of them, to create beautiful things.

So this is my latest passion, no more jewellery making or ice cream making, its stationery. Perhaps you will be getting personalized stationery as gifts this year !! Like these beautiful designs !








I love stationery, don't you ?

Latest Brit Thing

I have been busy for the last two days and will post about it later. But first, if you haven't seen this, prepare to laugh out loud.

A little bird told me...

P from out of town was visiting and I organized a dinner out with the usual suspects. The plan was to head to Tamarind Hills where I last went when Z and D were in town in May 2009. The venue was ideal and it offered the tropical exotic decor with good cocktails and delish food.

I was the first to arrive tonight and found that Tamarind had expanded next door and opened up a new annexe called Neo. At first I thought it was no more than a cool bar as the foyer had a clubby lighting and was flanked by a long black bar with LED lights built into the counter. But on closer inspection, there were several dining rooms where they serve tapas.

I liked it so much, dinner plans at the other place was cancelled, made new reservations and proceeded to pour through their martini list.

The resident mixologist was a french dude who sidled up and offered his suggestions. We decided on a raspberry, red wine vinegar vodka martini but he insisted I try their dry martini served with olive and blue cheese. So before my other guests arrive, I had my martini and he brought me a sampler of the other martini. Both went down well and I was sold. The other martinis flavours were like roasted apple, blueberry balsamic, bourbon apricot.....which I am determined to try next time.


The entrance to NEO.

Snapshot of one of their dining rooms. But we were seated at a different section, which was lot more cosy. The grey wall you see at the end of this room is actually a waterfall.


Food was quite good and very creative but bit expensive. Lamb shank with fig jus and tarragon risotto, snow fish with asparagus and walnut mash etc.


These pics came from their website.

When I googled Tamarind Springs, which is the original restuarant we were going to, the search brought up another place with the same name, in Koh Samui. I clicked on it accidently and it was a hotel / spa with the most amazing photos.

Thought I'd share it with you guys.


This place has apparently won awards for being the top spa in Samui. It is a day spa where one can go to spend few indulging hours or attend a massage academy.


They also offer villas for staying overnight at around USD 150/ night.

Divine isn't it....

If only...

Last night, we met up with J the architect to see what new updates he had for us. The last time we met was our trip to Lanka and since then Christmas and New Year had passed us by.

He had done more detailed drawings and was ready to talk to structural engineers and soon we should know whether his designs would be sound and after that, the tender for contractors can begin.

Our meeting was held over drinks at Skybar and we went through about 20 pages of drawings. The original design has not changed but he wanted us to decide on specific things like baths and pool designs. All very exciting.

He just completed a house in Phuket a few months back and the owner wants to sell it. I have only seen photos and it looks spectacular. Looking at these pictures, we got a sense of his design style because the house he has designed for us will have the same ceilings, wall finishes and the same sized pool ( if we can afford it ).

If you know anyone with USD 2.7 mil to spare, this is the house for him.



Here's one of the 2 guest rooms. This one has its own roof garden.



Breakfast on the terrace with an arresting view. What more does one need?


Views from every room in the house.



At night, the house simply glows. That pool is black terrazo, I have never seen a black pool before. Looks good.

The owners are renting out the rooms so if you fancy a trip to Phuket, we could stay here. The mistress of the house is a gourmet chef and has cooking classes in her kitchen.

Here's the link to the Dama zAmya house for more.

Modern Art

I like art, even those I cannot comprehend. But simple lines and geometric shapes really are my favourite type of art. I discovered Charley Harper about a year ago and since have 5 of his prints on my walls.

I like his ability to simplify what his sees in nature to mere circles and squares yet keeping the essence of the subject matter.




Today I read about another artist Alberto Energian who produced some really clever, posters of iconic TV shows. The posters capture the basic spirit of the shows extremely well.








I think the Californication one is particularly genius, wonder if they would sue me if I did that myself on a tshirt for T. Hee Hee

New Year Spring Cleaning

It's 2010 and a quiet Sunday especially after two solid weeks of merrymaking. My house is now rid of all decorations and glitter and back to looking like its normal self.

This was after the countdown and the balloon drop. The floor was littered with sparkly confetti and white/gold balloons.


This is the back to normal living room. Everything back where it belongs.

Then in the spirit of clearing up, I went on a rampage and decided to do paperwork de-cluttering. Can't be hard right? Just some bank slips, credit card statements, bills, more bills .... it turned out to be a monumental task ! Phase One - just separating my paper from Tey's and into a pile that is Ours, took 2 hours. There is more to do but for now, this will do.

After sorting out all the rubbish, I was feeling unburdened and clean.