Marble Matcha Castella (Kasutera 长崎蛋糕）

The castella cake flu bugs spread so fast, I didn't manage to escape :)

The subtle sweet tastes, the smooth, delicate and bounce texture, I baked it not one, not two but three times in two days! My son rushed into the kitchen asking for a piece of what I baked when he smells the aroma! However, my cake is far from the perfect flawless castella-cake's definition which requires bottom and top of the cake to be flat with not a single ripple; cake texture to be poreless.

There are many different recipes for baking a yummy castella, I can't recall which castella cake was the first one I saw, but recently saw Ann baked her beautiful Matcha Marble Castella, her zebra marble pattern cake is exquisite! Zoe had her Japanese Honey Castella Cake. Sonia finally success baking her Castella.  Angie used spelt bread flour to baked her Matcha Spelt Castella and there is where I came to discover Biren from Roti n Rice recipe. 

Biren baked the castella cake without using the traditional wooden mould. Moreover, she did not use the cake stabilizer. This really increase my interest in trying out the famous castella cake using her recipe. Biren has a detail photos illustration on how to bake this cake, if you are interested in baking castella, hop over to her blog :)

* Note: you may noticed the photos are not so clear, this is because I am using the D80 which I am not familier with, please give me some time :)

Gabriel, Gabriel you are 4!

This post is a bit overdue due to Gabriel was down with tummy flu and then the virus spread to WT and then me... I am glad that this year we celebrate Gabriel's birthday a week earlier (on 17 Mar 2012), he was sick since 21 Mar until now. We are in the process of recovering!

Gabriel insisted to celebrate his birthday with his teachers on 23 Mar, so I baked the 3D fondant cake for him to bring to school. The cake was baked on Wednesday and decorated it on the same day, keep the cake in the box and store at a corner of the room, swtich on air-con and switch it off when thinking of the electricity bill which needs to pay :) It was ok on Thursday, but Friday morning when I checked on the cake, I saw the cake sponge a bit distorted on the side!!! The fondant on top of the cake is way too heavy for the cake sponge to shoulder... luckily, it is time to bring the cake to school!

There is lot of things in life we value, but what is better than seeing the smile on my son face. When his teacher show off his birthday cake to his classmates, I can see his eyes glued on the cake, waiting ...

he loves this moment. Cutting cake by himself!

Serving food to papa, mama and all his classmates before sit down and eat his cake. Good boy, well done!

Nursery and Playgroup classmates 2012.

17 Mar birthday party cake, which I bought from Cupcakedivinity with $200.

Grandpa and grandma flew in from Penang to celebrate Gabriel's birthday party. He was really happy to see them, kept asking Grandpa "are you staying?" ...mama also hope they can stay!

Lunch buffet ordered from Smiling Orchid, the adult food is good but...the kid menu one is not!! As Gabriel invited his classmates to party, so I ordered additional food from Smiling Orchid kids menu items... the mini hawaian pizza looks soggy and the mini tuna croissants are as hard as stone!!

Fondant Birthday Cake

Finally I make it! A 10" Dinosaur Fondant Cake!

Tomorrow is Gabriel 4th birthday and he will be celebrating it at school with his classmates and teachers. He has asked for a dinosaur cake long ago and I have practised to bake/make it many times, sometime it cross my mind to change plan to buttercream cake thinking of I don't have the skills to make the fondant cake.

There are many time I told myself not to stress out as the last resort is just buy a cake and bring it to school :) I baked the cake in the early morning of Wednesday and decorated it with fondant on the same day, it took me a good 8 hours! Until now my arms still feel the muscle pain from too much kneading, sitting there with the head down all the time is no joking, getting a stiff neck and a good laugh from WT mentioned I lack of excercise :)

I appreciate this learning journey, the self challenge bring up another role of me as a mother to this little boy... I need to bake his birthday cake :) Lot of you inspired me, you bake the beautiful cake for your kids even with so much daily errands. Initially I didn't have the confident on cake deco, but after a few rounds of trying, I've indeed fall in love with this activity :) Thank you my friends for helping me to success!

Homemade the "Happy Birthday" banner for the cake.

Farewell to my hand held mixer of 12 years. She stopped half way while mixing the cake batter and I had sense she have some problems few months back, I told her "come on, finish your last mission!" She completed the mixing duty. She has done a good job and her last mission is Gabriel's birthday cake!

To prevent trimming of the cake domb or to get a flat cake top, cover the cake with a piece of wrapping film/ clean cloth while it is just out from oven, gently press down the cake while the cake is still hot. A technique mentioned on "I am baker" blog, it really work!