Kiddo's 5th birthday - My Little Pony Cake

Kiddo just turned 5 and I planned a small party for her.  She requested for a My Little Pony rainbow cake and of coz I had to fulfil my little girl's wish. 

So I came up with this idea, thinking that it will definitely cut down on preparation time without compromising on taste and how the cake will look.

So the idea I had was to bake the rainbow layers using Betty Crocker white cake mix and then frost the cake with the Best Ever Cream Cheese Buttercream recipe from Wicked Good Kitchen which I have tried and loved.  However, I added way lesser sugar coz my family prefers desserts that are not overly sweet.  I would then decorate the cake withMy Little Pony figurines that we bought from Toys R Us and top it with cake bunting flaggies which I see lots of online.  

HOWEVER, two nights before the party, as I was preparing the rainbow cake layers using the cake mix, Kiddo squealed at the sight of pastel coloured layers but at the same time turned her nose up and remarked that the cake smelled like play dough.  I thought so too myself, but couldn't put a finger to it.  I asked Kiddo if she would like to try a small piece of the cake and she declined firmly.  I took a small bite of the cake and was rather turned off by how over the top sweet it was and how artificial the vanilla taste was.  *Urgh*... I wrapped up the layers, parked them in the freezer and called it a night.

I had a bad bad feeling as I went to bed... Knowing that with Kiddo's heightened taste buds and sense of smell, I knew that she wouldn't eat the cake no matter how pretty it will look.  So I got out of bed to look for a white cake recipe.  

The recipe that I followed was the Heavenly White Cake Recipe from allrecipes.com 

I am glad I decided to bake the cake from scratch coz it turned out really pretty without the off putting smell of play dough that came with the cake mix that I first used.  The texture of the cake that I made wasn't fabulous though, it was rather dense.  Coz I had to mix in the colours while folding in the meringue mixture which must have caused lots of bubbles to pop. 

So, here's how the cake looks like with all the ideas put together. 

We spruced up the place a little with these pompoms which both the kids and adults loved.

As for food, I prepared Curried Yong Tau Foo... 

Cold tea...

Pumpkin soup....

And we ordered lots of pizza! 

Here's how the inside of the rainbow cake... Kiddo and I both agreed on a less vibrant, pastel rainbow layers. 

The kids loved the cake, but the adults found it much too dense which I totally agree.  Well, I'll still call this a success since the cake turned out the way that I envisioned it to look! (",) 

The first cake that I baked for Kiddo was when she was 3.  

This My Little Pony rainbow cake is the second cake that I've baked for her birthday.   

I wonder what kinda cake she will ask for next year ... I hope I'd be able to fulfil her wish too for her next cake request. 

Talk to you ladies soon!

Pumpkin Cubes - Easy Pumpkin Recipes

Hihi friends of Hazelnutt House (",) 

The pumpkin cubes that I bake is always a hit with kids and adults alike.  Some kids turn up their noses at the mention of pumpkin but once they start popping these cubes into their mouths, they come backing asking for more (",) 

The first time I baked these pumpkin squares, I followed the  Pumpkin Bars recipe from Food Network.

It was atrociously SWEET!  Well, to be fair, not everyone has a sweet tooth... so I decided to cut, cut, cut down on the amount of sugar since pumpkin is already sweet on its own.   I also added chocolate chips coz I think it'll go well with the pumpkin.  So here's my take on the pumpkin bars.  I cut mine up into cubes so I'll call mine 'Pumpkin Cubes' instead.

I make my own pumpkin puree so, if you are interested to DIY, click here.

Cubes

Wet Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 can of pumpkin puree (appx 2 cups)

Mix the wet ingredients together.   

Dry Ingredients 

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda

Mix dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients.

I did all the whisking and mixing with a whisk instead of an electric mixer.

• 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Once the wet and dry ingredients are nicely mixed, fold the semi sweet chocolate chips into the mixture.  Pour mixture into a baking pan (13 x 10 inch).

Set oven to 180 Degrees Celsius and bake for about 30 minutes.

Once the pumpkin mixture is in the oven, you can start prepping the icing.

Icing

• 250g cream cheese (soften) 
• 1/2 cup butter (soften)
• 1 cup confectioner' sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon powder

I used a handheld mixer for the icing.  Mix everything together at low speed until combined. 

Set the icing in the refrigerator while waiting for the pumpkin mixture to bake. 

Once the pumpkin mixture is baked, allow to cool for at least 30 mins. 

I shaved off the sides and started cutting it up into cubes.

Start pipping the frosting on each cube (",)

Kim the opportunistic pooch waiting around as usual... I gave her some roasted pumpkins.. though (",)

Mashed pumpkin for my pumpkin recipes

  Here's a short entry on how I prepare my pumpkin puree. 

I usually use a whole pumpkin and keep half of for pancakes or waffles.  The types of pumpkins I use depends on what is available in stores.  I use both the local as well as the Japanese pumpkins.  Both are good in my opinion.  

So, I wash and remove the skin from the pumpkin and cut them up into small chunks.  Set the oven at 200 degrees Celsius and pop the pumpkin chunks in there for about 20 mins.  

I used to use a blender to puree the pumpkin but I find that a fork does the job as well.  So I have been manually mashing up the pumpkins instead of pureeing them in a blender.  I prefer using the fork coz I like my 'puree' to have texture and bite to it instead of being too smooth. 

So, here's the end of this simple pumpkin puree entry (",) 

Click on the titles for pumpkin recipes that I've tried out:

• Pumpkin Squares
• Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Review: Bake Your Own Cupcake Shrinking Craft

Hello, friends of Hazelnutt House, 

I was looking through the Toys R Us catalogue and  this 4M cupcake craft kit which retails at $10.90 for members caught my eye.

I told Kiddo about it and she hunted it down the next time we were at the store.

There is also a Glow-in-the-dark Fairy Buttons kit which I am also tempted to get coz I of the pretty good experience with the shrinking cupcake kit. 

This kit comes with 20 pre-cut cupcake sheets, coloured pencils, some chains and beads as well as jump rings that you'll need for turning the shrunken cupcakes into earrings or pendants. The small cake stand is made of plastic and you'll be able to hang the finished products on it.  

I don't think that the beads and strings that came with this set is enough for this jewellery making project that Kiddo has in mind.  It doesn't matter as she has a Totally Me! bucketful of beads which I have mentioned in an early post.

This is how the cupcake sheets look like and you're supposed to colour in on the rough side.  I tried colouring in with pens and markers but they didn't stay on the sheets.  I guess only coloured pencils work for these sheets. 

When you're done, pop them coloured side up into an oven set at about 170 degrees Celcius. 

Within a few seconds, you'll see the sheets curl up and shrink right before your eyes!

Here are the shrunken cupcakes which are slightly bigger than a 10 cents coin.  The colours became darker and more vivid after the shrinking process.

I noticed that the cutting on most of the cupcake sheets were askewed and that upset me a little.  Coz as you can see from the shrunken ones above, there is a thick white border on some areas while in other areas, they are really close to the outline. 

This picture below shows that the outline on the left of the cupcake has been cut off and there is a wide border on the right.

So for the next pair that Kiddo and I coloured in, I trimmed the sides with a pair of scissors.  We have not placed them into the oven coz it was already time for bed but these with the sides trimmed off should look better than the first two that we made. 

I highly recommending this craft kit, coz it is easy to work on and the end product didn't fail.  Kiddo is already making a list of aunts and friends who will be receiving these cupcake bracelets, keychains or earrings that she is gonna be working on.

At $10.90 and for the fun and success of this kit, it's definitely a hit for me.

I should be getting the Glow in the dark Fairy Button kit the next time we go to Toys R Us.

Easy cinnamon sugar snacks

Hello friends of Hazelnutt House (",) 

Well, I love anything with cinnamon and toasting or baking with cinnamon & sugar is like having natural air freshener in the home.  I bought this tiny bottle of cinnamon sugar in Daiso while in Japan. 

I have a HUGE gigantic bottle of plain cinnamon powder which I picked up at Phoon Huat as backup.  I'm not even sure if I will be able to use it up but since the smaller bottle wasn't available when I wanted it, I had to settle for this giant of a supply. 

So, here are some easy to prepare snacks that Kiddo can help out with.  

First up, 

Cinnamon Sugar Wrap

Kiddo spread butter on the wrap and we went on to sprinkle cinnamon powder and sugar all over. 

Pop it into the oven and wait... not too long though, coz it will start turning black very quickly.  So, stand next to the oven and watch over it (",)  I'll say it will probably take 5 minutes or so.  If you are using a toaster oven, it will be much faster.

Next up, 

Cinnamon Sushi

Kiddo flattened regular square shaped bread with a rolling pin and went on to spread butter on the flattened pieces.  Next we added cinnamon and sugar and started rolling each slice into a log.  

Lastly, we cut the log up with a knife and that's that... oh yes, we did pop these 'sushi' pieces into the oven for about 5 minutes.  

I used to teach in an international school and there was cooking class every week.  I tried this out with different spreads e.g. chocolate, peanut butter and jelly and butter with rainbow sprinklers and THE KIDS LOVE IT!

Lastly, 

Cinnamon Banana Toast

We sliced the bananas into thin pieces and layered them onto buttered bread.  Sprinkled some cinnamon and sugar all over and toasted it (",) .... a warm and comforting snack indeed, but beware, it is pipping hot once out of the oven!

Oh man... now I feel like baking me so cinnamon rolls!  

Check out my cinnamon roll entry here (",) 

Bakin' - Banana oatmeal muffins with chia seeds

Hihi friends of the Nutt House (",)

I've been baking quite a bit lately, much to the delight of Kiddo.  Usually I will surf for recipes online.  This time round, I decided to try out something of my own using a simple banana oatmeal muffin recipe as a skeleton, taking away some ingredients and adding extras.

This recipe makes 12 (",)

*Note: Sugar is optional as I added lots of mashed bananas.  The chia seeds are optional as well but it helps make this breakfast muffin a lot healthier.  Ok... my bad.... *oops*, a dollop of Nutella in each muffin also amps up the sweetness level.  So, sugar is really not needed.  If you have a sweet tooth, go ahead.  The muffin is semi sweet, the way I like it.  Coz I dislike ultra sweet and rich muffins.

As for the rolled oats, once I added a cup and another time, I added close to two cups. I like this recipe coz of the flexibility with the portions.  Both tries worked fine, with the latter being slightly less moist.

I added a layer of batter into each liner and spooned a dollop of Nutella into each muffin cup.  Try to avoid having Nutella on the sides as it will ooze out during the baking process. 

Last step, not shown in pic - I topped more batter above the Nutella.  Make sure to cover it well.  The idea is to have the Nutella spread in the middle of the muffin. 

The Kiddo approves.

Several of my friends tried the muffins and they gave the thumbs up.  Even a friend with fastidious tastebuds said it was good.

To sum it up, if you like a moist and healthy breakfast muffin, give this a try (",) 

Oh yes! I did not use any electric mixer for this...just your arm muscles and a spatula to mix everything up (",) 

A hassle free and quick baking project (",)

Bakin' - Blueberry cupcakes with Blueberry cream cheese frosting

Hi hi, friends of Hazelnutt House (",)

The Kid wants to do EVERYTHING when we bake... we hustle and wrestle a lot whenever we bake something.  Flour to be sieved, accurate measurements to be taken, eggs to be cracked, batter to be mixed.....

 and it can become quite a war zone when The Kid wants to have a hand at all these. 

Well, with pancake mix, baking with Kiddo is easy breezy...

Cupcakes with pancake mix... YUP! No Mess!

For the cake,  mix the following together:

MAKES 12

• Two cups of pancake mix
• One and a half cups of water 
• Half cup of blueberries (optional)

Study the instructions of your pancake mix, different brands may ask for different amount of water.

Bake for 10-15 mins at 170 degree Celcius.

For the frosting, use an electric mixer and mix together the following: 

• One block of philly cream cheese (250g) 
• Blueberry jam (adjust amount according to personal taste)

The cakes were too 'pointy' and not exactly suitable for frosting.

So, I shaved off the peaks and they are ready to be frosted.

Kiddo scooping the frosting into the pipping bag.

 Made some lil' flaggies using these patterned tapes.

Oh yes, I picked up this packet of pipping bags from Daiso ($2 store) and they worked perfectly.  It comes with 3 different pipping nozzles and the bags are pretty sturdy.

Have a great Sunday ahead, ladies!

Baking made easier with pancake mix (",)