Shern's 2nd Birthday Party!!!

Finally a blog post about Shern's 2nd birthday party!

A lot of preparation needs to be done for Shern's 2nd Birthday Party. And I'm the only one doing everything because I don't have money to hire a party planner. Hehe.

First of all, I need to think of a theme. Once I decided on a Red and Blue Train Theme Party, I set out to do some simple invitation cards to send out. Sourced the main train logo from the internet and handmade the invites. Then only I realized that our local postage has increased pricing to 80cents! ;P

The invite is handwritten by me! Ahem.

Next, I need to source for stuff to be put inside the Party Packs. I printed some train worksheets from the internet and made a small booklet out of them. (I got it from http://homeschooling.about.com). Put in a crayon and a pencil.

I then kinda customize the Party Packs favours according to age and gender. Bigger kids get a pencil box with pencils and rulers inside. Older girls even get a cute ring and a necklace. Toddlers get squishy rubbery toys and etc. And some healthy snacks such as raisins and cereal bars.

And then I got down to making the Party Packs myself. See...so much work is involved to make a theme coordinated bags. And I cut those train tags myself 'til I was so sick of trains. Haha.

But I'm pleased with myself with the final product.

This is how the Party Pack table looks like. Bought the cheap blue cloth from Kamdar for RM2.80 per meter. Cheap and really nice and coordinating to my Red and Blue Train Theme Party!

This is the deco wall.
The 'Happy Birthday' wording is from Young Ones RM4.90.
These bigger sized trains I enlarged them and cut them out.
'Lim Yiu-Shern' is cut freehand by Shu-Min using old magazines.

Another mini 'Happy Birthday' tag from Young Ones.

Cut out 2 more trains and tied them to the front door.

I also made some train-designed tenders using my baking tray wrapped in blue paper. Cut wheels our for them and they hold mini donuts and mushroom sausages.

This is how the train and tenders look like.

I also made some cupcake toppers (for this erm..shd be muffin toppers)! I like how it turns out! They really brighten up the desert table!

What is a birthday party without the must-have red eggs, right?

Mum made this delicious healthy dish with a really delish dip!

Ordered these cookies. I love how cute they are and is most suitable for a kid's birthday party!

One of my favourite desert. Fruit tarts being displayed on the 3-tier-stand!

There are many other dishes of course. Curry chicken, satay, curry puffs, tuna sandwiches, cream puffs, egg rolls, fruits and jelly, etc. This is the food spread for 30 ppl of mostly relatives and some close friends! Haha, more than enough, I know. Well, more is better than not enough at a party, right?

This is how the place looks like. And I love the red and blue tablecloth adds in the theme colour? Cheap and good! ;)

Jamie digging out her Party Pack goodies!

A photo of the 3 of us.

I bought the cake plain and we designed it ourselves. You can read about the cake here.
It's an awesome one-of-a-kind CHOO CHOO birthday cake for Shern!

A group photo with my side of the family.

A group photo with hubby's side of the family.

Group photo with the Mah Family.

More relatives joining in.

Lastly a group photo with friends.

We took a video of us singing the birthday song. The reaction of Shern when we asked him to blow the candles was hilarious. He kept saying 'oh oh...because James the Tank Engine displayed on the cake was sinking'. Haha.

And he stole the Thomas The Tank Engine. He was holding it in his hands. I need to steal it from the cake to give him to pacify him from being overexcited, and so that he cooperate to be good for singing session and cake cutting session! Haha.

Thank you all for your lovely presents and angpows and thank you very much for attending.

The last guests left at around 9pm++ and we clean up and by the time I finished, it was 1am!
It was a tiring day. But I had fun. And I'm glad it was a success!

I'm lagging behind posts

I've got so many things I want to update:

- Shern's 2nd birthday party
- US trip
- My bakes
- Cards I've created
- My new-found interest - creating scrapbooking layouts :)
- Shern's current development

Wah...I've been watching DVDs and scrapbooking every night that I've no time to update. I know is my bad.
Ok, soon. Soon. Soon.

Shern's CHOO CHOO 2nd B'day Cake

In just a blink of an eye (many blinks actually!), Shern turns two!
His actual birthday is today 6th June, but we threw a birthday party for him last Saturday.

Just like last year's cake, I wanted to personalized Shern's Birthday Cake.
I was still too chicken to bake the birthday cake, so I just ordered the plain lychee flan cake from Ritz. And then we decorated it ourselves, Shu-Min & I.

For this year's party, I chose the Train Theme. Shern loves trains. Actually, he loves all vehicles.
After 1 hour, this is what we came out with.

top view of the cake

*Chocolate Rocky sticks for railway track*
*Upside-down Rocky sticks for the fence*
*M&Ms for YIU-SHERN*
*A plastic tree and crossing for added effect*
*A Happy Birthday tag and a '2' candle*

Side view of the cake

*Oreos for the circle base at the sides of the cake*
*Alphabet biscuits for the words HAPPY BDAY*

And of course the stars of the cake and also my birthday present for Shern:
*Thomas the Tank Engine*
*James the Tank Engine*

Ok, some closed-up photos of the cake:

This is how the whole cake looks like.

Another awesome one-of-a-kind CHOO CHOO 2nd Birthday Cake for Shern!

Nga-Ngau and Yiu-Hern

Somehow, Shern calls Kong-kong and Ah-Kong "Nga-ngau".

It is not that he cannot pronounce 'K'. He can. He can say "kungfu". But somehow he just somehow cannot roll his tongue to say Kong-Kong & Ah-Kong yet. He calls everyone at home properly - Mummy, Daddy, Yee-yee, Yee-phor, Pho-pho, Ah-Ma, Kor-kor, etc.

But he calls Kong-kong and Ah-Kong "Nga-ngau". Consistently. All the time. I don't know how that word came about.

Me: Shern, say Yee-yee
Shern: Yee-yee
Me: Say Kong-kong
Shern: Nga-ngau

This video was taken a week ago, on 22 May 2011.

Heard how he called Kong-kong/Ah-Kong 'Nga-ngau'? It's so hilarious!

Shern also can't really pronounce S properly. 'Swim' becomes 'hwim', 'ssssssss'(to show him how a snake hisses) becomes 'hhhhhhh'. So naturally he cannot say his own name properly yet.

Me: Shern, say Lim
Shern: Lim
Me: Yiu
Shern: Yiu
Me: Shern
Shern: Hern

So for now he calls himself Lim Yiu-Hern! :)

Update: Shern started calling Kong-kong properly yesterday. Though not always, he did said it correctly a few times. Needless to say, Kong-kong is ecstatic!

20 Cards Thus Far

Ok, I admit that I am in a card-making-mania-mood recently. I was making cards almost every day whenever I could steal some time off. Making cards is so addictive. I just could not stop. Seeing the end results after a card is done is so satisfying, almost as therapeutic as baking.

There was a day when I made 4 cards in one day. Even I couldn't believe it.

These are the 11th to the 20th card I've made thus far. And yes, I spent a fortune on scrapbooking materials. I have now set aside a budget to spent on scrapbooking besides my baking stuff.
This is why having hobbies are bad. At least, hobbies that requires money are bad. They eat up all your cash and leaves a hole in your pocket!

My sis asks me what am I going to do with these cards? She said bakes can be eaten. What about cards? Do I plan to give it to away?
Well, first of all, even if I give it to friends, I will only give it to people who know how to appreciate them. (my hubby is definitely not in the list!)

But maybe I will sell them. I don't know. Not sure if I can part with them (money is a big motivation though despite what I just said..haha). Not sure if there are people willing to buy them. And I am also lazy to always have to run to the post office whenever there is a sale.

And I also don't take orders. First of all, most of the stuff I have only 1 design/piece. So for those, I cannot duplicate them. Secondly, this is my hobby and if I take orders, then I feel so stressed out to meet your orders and your requirements. So I just make them and if you like them, then we are best friends! ;)

So I will see how. But if any of you are interested in my cards, feel free to email/call/msg me. I am always appreciative of extra cash! ;)

p/s - my 1st to 10th card can be found here.

Not-So-Classic Chocolate Cake

25 May 2011 - My Not-So-Classic Chocolate Cake

Sorry for my lack of baking posts recently. I did bake a couple of times in the last 2 months, but it was a repeat recipe, like Orange Butter Cake, Chocolate Muffins and Brandy Fruit Cake, so I did not want to bore you with the same recipes.

Anyway, due to my recent hectic life, I was searching for my cupboard for ingredients and I finally settled down to Ju's Classic Chocolate Cake recipe. Mainly because I have all the main ingredients there is - butter, flour, chocolate.

But things went very wrong from the very start. I planned to halve the recipe like Ju did, because I only have a small 19-inch springform pan. But I forgot and started measuring the full recipe measurement. By the time I realized, it was too late. I already poured the batter into the pan. Lazy to take out another pan, I went ahead with it, praying for the best.

During the baking time, my batter rose until the brim of the pan and still rise higher. I knew that this is trouble because the top is getting so near the heating element of the oven. I used a foil and covered the top. It cracked of course, but luckily it did not burnt.

It required 50% more baking time in the oven than required because I used a much smaller pan for a full batter. And my cake was like so high, but thankfully it did alright, although with a cracked top.

My so high cake with a burnt top

So I knew then that I can't just pour the chocolate fudge icing on top of the cake, because basically there is nowhere to pour as the batter rose above the brim of the springform pan.
After the cake has cooled down, I cut it horizontally in the middle using my Wilton Cake Leveller. Then I spread the chocolate fudge icing on the top base of the cake and sandwiched it with the top layer.

Cake cut horizontally in the middle and spread with the chocolate fudge icing

The result is this. But the burnt top looks ugly, so I dusted some icing sugar on top.

Ta da....it now looks like this. Something like a strawberry shortcake but without strawberries and it is chocolate all over. So it ended up as a My Not-So-Classic Chocolate Cake!

So how's the taste? It is rich but not overly rich. And it is not sweet. Not sweet at all. I further reduced the sugar and I used Tudor's 55% Dark Cocoa Chocolate Bar for both the cake and the chocolate fudge icing. It is really good.

Recipe: Not-So-Classic Chocolate Cake (adapted from The Little Teochew)
Serves 8

- 1 1/3 cups (200g) plain flour
- 2 tbsp cocoa
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 200g good-quality dark chocolate, chopped
- 225g unsalted butter, softened, chopped
- 1 cup (220g) caster sugar - (I reduced it to 190g)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup (125ml) milk

* Note: I used Hershey's Unsweetened Cocoa Powder and Tudor 55% Dark Chocolate for this cake.

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C. Grease and line a 24cm round springform cake pan.
- I used a 19cm springform pan, which was why my cake turned out too-high and batter rose over the brim of the pan.

2. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Set aside.

3. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water (don't let bowl touch water). Cool slightly.

4. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. With beaters on medium speed, add vanilla, then add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Pour in cooled chocolate and beat until well combined. Beat in a third of sifted ingredients, followed by a third of the milk. Repeat until all ingredients are incorporated, beating until smooth.

5. Pour mixture into the pan and bake for 45-55 minutes until risen and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then invert onto rack to cool completely.
- Because of my too-small pan, my batter rose over the brim of the pan, so I used a foil to cover the top so that I won't have a burnt top.
- Because of my too-small pan, I ended up baking for 1 hour 15 minutes in the oven. Check for doneness regularly with a cake tester.

6. Cut the cake horizontally into half and spread the Chocolate Fudge Icing (see recipe below) in the middle. Sandwiched the cake back and dust the top with some icing sugar.


Chocolate Fudge Icing
(from Donna Hay)
- I halved the recipe and it is just enough for me to spread it into the middle of the cake.

- 250g dark chocolate, chopped
- 1/2 cup (125ml) pouring (single) cream - (I used Anchor Whipping Cream)
- 70g butter, chopped

1. For the chocolate fudge icing, place the chocolate, cream and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and stir until melted and smooth. Remove and set aside to cool completely.

2. Beat in an electric mixer until thick and fluffy. Spread icing on the cooled cake. Serves 10.