Humza's 2nd Birthday

August 29, 2009.

My nephews who is one of my little taster sous chefs, his 2nd birthday was coming up and I wanted to bake him a birthday cake, my sister could not decided which cake she wanted between Daffy Duck and Winnie the pooh, she kept on changing her mind and till the 2 days before his birthday, i reminded her that i am fasting its really hot and there is renovation going on in the house so she better make up her mind soon so i can prepare the cake a day before but nOOoo!! She just could not make up her so i was left with no other choice then to consult my sous chefs and he likes car's better then pooh or daffy…finally!!

i decided to make Lightning McQueen from Cars. It was my first time making McQueen and I think I didn’t do a bad job! Baked the cake a day before a chocolate brownie cake with white chocolate ganache filling. Then I made some cookie pops in the shape of Lightning McQueen the children really enjoyed helping with the icing and eating.

Challenges from sisters

We are mashALLAH 5 sisters, and since I’ve been in the DB challenges, my sisters have started to challenge me on their own, here are 2 from them..

Date and Walnut Bread

Date and Walnut Bread (Adapted from joyofbaking.com)










1st challenge: cake from pie in the sky which is very famous for the banana walnut bread, and yes I like it too and I thought I should try making one. I had seen a similar recipe on net and kept the link so I used that recipe, I didn’t fold in the whole thing in the batter rather I poured half batter in the pan first then topped with the date and walnut mixture and batter again so it came out like the one in the bakery. The cake was quite soft and crumbly, and tasted even better.

Fudgy Chocolate Brownies Cake with Chocolate Ganache
Adapted from joyofbaking.com


2nd challenge: another cake from a different cake shop called hobnob, chocolate fudge cake with chocolate ganache. Before pouring the ganache I first use a crumb coat of chocolate butter cream and let it set in fridge, then poured chocolate ganache and topped with chocolate shaving, I happily let it sit to set and went about to meet a client when I got back the cake was gone with just 1 slice left (that was even kept for my sis-in-law) I really kicked myself for not taking photos before so I just had this 1 piece and that even my sis-in-law thought I was going to eat it won’t give it to me for the photos, until I explained I need it only to take few images for my blog she agreed (was standing all the time next to me). haha

and I made some cupcakes with the same recipe with different frosting.

Mother's Day

7 Cakes for 7 wonderful ladies






Chocolate mud cake
Chocolate truffle cake with ganache and chocolate curls
Chocolate brownie cake
Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting
Strawberry cake with fresh cream frosting
Coffee cake with cappuccino frosting
Red velvet with cream cheese

This week I was very busy with family, my sister-in-law was back in town and sisters were all over at our place and I was helping my niece and nephews for the finals. This being mother’s day week so all my nieces and nephews (ages from 10 years to 1 year) wanted to bake cakes for their mom’s, as this week they were preparing for their finals we made a deal I’ll back all the cakes they will decorate them. So I baked all 7 small cakes on Friday and put the base coat for them and they came late Saturday evening to decorate them as they wanted to surprise their mothers at midnight.