Cookievonster makes Cupcakes too

Yeah, I do.... I make cupcakes too.

Only my regulars know this and they usually order the cupcakes with their custom cookie favours for their parties.

I kept it hush hush for the longest time, just because EVERYONE is making cupcakes.

And I wanted to be known as the Cookie Lady, more like the Cookie Auntie as all my friends' kids call me, but... I'm not that old!

So lets just stick with the Cookie Lady.

Or even better Cookie Missy perhaps? Pushing it I think :OP

Cupcakes are EVIL don't you think?

They're so so good, and oh so bad for you too.

But if you eat only one (if you can), guess they're not so evil hehehehe.

I make all my cupcakes with the good stuff!

Butter! Butter! Butter!

Fresh cream, fresh eggs, fresh fruits.

BUTTER!

D describes the frosting as dreamy fluffy 'ice cream' on a cupcake.

Mind you, he really does eat an entire bowl of frosting like he does ice cream all the time.

Double chocolate cupcake with Vanilla buttercream frosting.

Mini Fresh Strawberry cupcakes with roasted Banana cream cheese frosting.

Mini cupcakes - epitome of EVIL.

thee hee heee.... rubs hands together

And I love mini cute things. Especially when they are delicious too.

I can pop about 6 mini cupcakes at any one time. Hmmmmmmm... cupcakes.......

Fresh orange cupcakes with Grandmarnier dark chocolate ganache

I should have dressed it with my marshmallow flowers.... but we ate them all before I could even decorate them, did get this photo though.

Banana cupcakes with mini butterscotch chocolate cups & burnt caramel buttercream frosting & topped with chocolate shavings.

Phew! Say all that without taking a breath.

Playing with some frosting designs. Which one is your favourite?

Mine's with the cluster of rosettes, so .... 'wedding like' don't you think?

Oh no, I feel like a cupcake now. So.... gonna go make me some cupcakes, later! :OP

Summer Flower Cookie Bouquet

Summer Flower Cookie Bouquet, a photo by Cookievonster on Flickr.

I knew it.

This day would come sooner or later.The unavoidable 'Cookie Bouquet'. I've made cookie pops before but no one has ever requested for a cookie bouquet, till now YEAY! Finally!

Shhh.... I secretly always wanted to make one.

I turned to my garden for the inspiration of course. I love my little humble garden that is spotted with blue, purple pink and white flowers, and little pops of yellow and reds. I don't have a well organized garden, I see something I like and I 'll buy one of them,

stick 'em in the ground into any spot I can find and pray over it :OP

Its packed with more plants that my little patch can handle but I still buy plants all summer long. So yes, I have hanging baskets, things climbing on fences and I also turned my solarium into a green house. Everything is so LOVELY!!!!

Bees are buzzing in my garden too and don't ask me why.... but I like to follow them about the garden and watch them enjoy the flowers as much as I do.

So here it is every body. My very first Cookie Flower Bouquet.

Sharing the love .... and calories

I was asked to make a tiramisu for a party today and me being me, can't follow recipes... and I really wanted to make a trifle instead.

Its summer and berries are everywhere and that's always yummy in my tummy!

I really wanted to make a berry trifle!!!

Like seriously, I really wanted a refreshing summer berry dessert.

So I decided to make a Berry Tiramisu instead. It turned out delish!!!!

WARNING!

This is seriously additive, and although its a light and fluffy dessert, try not to eat the entire bowl by yourself. If you did... well... go for a run I guess :OP

I made the Berry Tiramisu in a large trifle bowl piled up high with goodness for the party,

and a little glass for myself for portion control *heh heh heh*

Happy summer! Here's the recipe if you would like to make a yummy dessert for your BBQ parties, or simply just for yourself.

Berry Tiramisu

Ingredients

• 6 eggs (separated at room temp.)
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 cups whip cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 container mascarpone cheese (475g)
• 3/4 cup strong brewed coffee
• 1/4 cup kahlua
• 2 packages ladyfinger cookies
• 2-3 cups of mixed fresh berries (I used raspberries, strawberries and blueberries)
• Chocolate shavings (I used Dark chocolate, but feel free to use any chocolate you prefer, try orange chocolate or hazelnut chocolate)

Directions

1. First make the custard by whisking together egg yolks and sugar until well blended. Whisk in milk and cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils for 1 minute. Allow to cool, cover and chill in refrigerator till cold. Be careful not to scramble the custard while boiling, just make sure to stir constantly and not over cook the mixture. It should be silky smooth and coats the back of a spoon.
2. In a medium bowl, beat cream with vanilla until stiff peaks form.
3. Whisk egg whites till stiff and out aside. Whisk mascarpone till creamy and add in custard until smooth. Fold in egg whites till fully combines. This will make the cheese mix fluffy like clouds :OD
4. In a small bowl, combine coffee and kahlua.
5. Dip ladyfingers with coffee mixture and arrange the soaked ladyfingers in bottom of a trifle bowl. Spread half of mascarpone mixture over ladyfingers, top with a layer of berries, then half of whipped cream over that. Repeat layers and sprinkle with chocolate shavings.
6. Cover and refrigerate overnight, or two if you can wait that long (but the longer you let it set, the yummier it gets).

Enjoy your summer everyone!

Some photos of what Churchill Churned out during the holidays

Valentine's Day

Chinese New Year (Year of the Rabbit 2011)

Christmas and Hannukah

Hey there....

I'm back!

:O)

Well, I haven't really gone anywhere... oh! hang on, I lie. I went home to Australia and Malaysia for a few weeks earlier this year to visit some family. Make that lots of family!!!

My baby cousin got married *tear* and it was a beautiful beautiful gorgeous wedding.

Congrats cuzzies! *love*

Cookievonster updates... hmmmm.

Where to start.

Let me see.

Lets start with the newest addition to the family - Churchill.

In the peak of my crazy holiday baking, my Cuisinart mixer croaked on me, and it was only a year old! I had worked the poor baby to death! People, take note. Cuisinart mixer, pretty awesome. Has a fabulous big 7 quart bowl, functional shape and size. Whips and mixes better than any Kitchenaid mixer. I know this because when the Cuisinart broke down, I had to use 2 Kitchenaid mixers to do what the one Cuisinart did.

Problem with Cuisinart, it runs on an electronic circut board, its digital, and that's where it loses out to Kitchenaid. Since all functions on a Kitchenaid are manual, its straight forward, strong and durable. Anyway... the circut board on my mixer blew and I was without a mixer at the worst time possible. I had to order parts to fix it, bla bla bla, it was going to take 2 months, bla bla bla...

OMG! ARGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! was all I could think of while I freaked out.

Working with 2 little mixers was a huge juggle and by the end of the 2nd day without my Cuisinart, I was ready to explode, condemn the world, bite anybody's head off, kick in doors and walls, scream till my lungs collapsed,

i.e. be as dramatic as I could be :OP

Then... Christmas came early.

While I was battling with the 2 mixers, stressing out and making doughs in tiny batches, D came home and yelled, "make space on your counter for me now, now!" and runs back out.

I thought to myself... Oh no he didn't!!!!!

Was he absolutely insane, and I must say, brave, to dare ask me to clear my table while I was in the mist of baking.

The next thing I saw were these 3 guys struggling like mad and lugging in this monster of a machine.

Its....its....

BEAUTIFUL!

It is huge, but silent. Strong yet agile and graceful. Its simply impressive and for any home baker,

its plain Awesomeness.

It has such character I had to name it.

So everybody, meet the giant of home mixers who has taken up a quarter of my island.

This - is - Churchill.

D and the whole family, mainly Dad *big hugs*,

had chipped in to get me Churchill for Christmas to save my 'behind'!

BEST

CHRISTMAS

PRESENT

EVER!!!!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

oxoxoxooxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxooxox

As for the Cuisinart. I got it fixed, works perfectly now, better than new too. And its sitting nicely in storage. I kinda feel bad for it, but oh well... I can't move Churchill out of the way even if I wanted to anyway :OP

Sorry Cuisinart, Churchill's here to stay.

Give the Free gift of a Smile & Hug this holiday season... and some Cookievonster Cookies!

What is the most contagious thing in the world?

An ugly ugly Frown.

And there is no pretty kind too.

Yeap, sad to say... human beings are unconsciously 'conditioned' to seek out and react with negative energy.

Start your day stressed, worried, angry, whether it be caused by yourself, a situation or someone else... you are guaranteed to bump into negative situations and people all day long.

That's the simple law of attraction.

What is the most powerful thing in the world?

A Smile.

What is the most powerful contagious thing?

(if we let ourselves be aware of it..)

Still ...a Smile

:O)

Scientifically, there has been many debates about how many actual muscles it takes to frown and how many it takes to smile. This however has been proven, a frown is followed by stress, anger, and all the negative energy you can muster.
What a waste of energy.

A Smile.... it lifts your soul, sets you free and some say, and I believe... is healing.

And... its FREE!

In the world we live in today, we need to spread a little more positive energy.

This holiday season give the positive energy of love.
Love has many different levels.

You can love your partner, your kids, and your parents.

You can also love a total stranger.

Its just an energy that you chose to project.

A Smile is Free, and given genuinely, it spreads like wild fire.

A joyous Smile plus a Hug.....

Volcanic eruption of joy and happiness!

:OP

I love hugging people!

Come visit me at one of my Holiday Markets this season.

Guaranteed a Free Smile from me, and if you like...

Definitely a Free Hug too!

Oh btw...if you smile at someone who frowns, even if they don't share and return the same energy,

it sure will drive them crazy,

which usually sets me off into a hissy fit of uncontrollable laughter!

Dates and details of my up and coming Holiday markets will be posted up soon.

Pls chk bk soon.

SMILE!!!!!

:O)

For your Christmas Cookie orders, please email me at

info@cookievonster.com

Halloween is scarily cute

I have a Halloween experience at least once a week at home.... "I see dead people"... NAH! Only kidding :OP

But if I did, I'd ask them for some winning lottery numbers, like the dutiful daughter I am as my Chinese mother would expect nothing less from me in a situation like that.

Once a week (maybe twice, I know... I know.... I have issues) I'd do a total scrub down of my bathroom. Well, what would you expect, I'm already in the shower, so I might as well clean it while I'm in there right?

Get ready for my weekly freaky experience as I know... some of you can relate to this :O)

Ever reached into the shower drainage hole and .... pull out...

HAIR?!!!!!

And I have long long long dark hair. I'd reach in and yank out this lump of hair that is long , slimy, yucky and gross that goes on and on.... and worse... it looks like I am pulling out a severed head ! Every time I half expect a real head attached to that lump of hair, turn around and gorily evilly smile at me, dripping with blood and slime, GROSS RIGHT???!!!

Did I succeed in making you gag? Squeal? ... a little maybe? ehheheheh... Well....

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

xoxoxo