Happy Birthday to me : Ice bar Brunei

Yeaayyyy! It's my birthday. Waking up on this re-birthday feeling grateful for my life and all the love surrounds me. I am grateful to Allah for my health, my family, friends, love, animals, healers, and this amazing path that I am blessed to be on.

Life is a beautiful roller coaster. I am grateful for all the ups and even the downs, they make me the appreciate the ups, even more

I started my morning with "Will.i.am - It's my birthday" song. That's my our tradition song every year ^_^. Followed by the morning birthday gift from the loved one.

 Beautiful flowers early in the morning....

So my morning surprised didn't stop there.

Another surprise at work ^_^. Homemade cake from my best friend and thank you for the birthday gifts.

Last minute homemade cake. My favorite banana chocolate cake with more chocolate on the top. what a chocolatey cake ^_^ (excited)

Another cake sponsored for me. Sugar-rush day??? Well that's ok, it's my birthday!

 Delicious Milo crepe cake from Vk's rafia cafe (Vanilla Kitchen)

Night time is time I want to celebrate my birthday with my family. I already booked my family hehe..

Sorry but I like to show that weird faces hahaha! 

we order more than that but I was to busy until I forget to take more picture, but it was fun. steamboat for dinner, why not? but that chicken in the basket is so good!

Another surprise cake from my family.. Thank you and I love you all. thank you for the birthday gifts and wishes. My little nephew helped me blow the candles.

Advance birthday at Brunei Empire Hotel

Empire Hotel Brunei is one of my favorite getaway in Brunei. After I had hectic weeks at work, one of the most magical destination I had was Empire.

This property is few minutes walk to the beach and outdoor swimming pool. Surrounded by coconut trees, this luxurious hotel offers far-reaching views of the ocean. Guests can take a stroll in the landscaped gardens or pampered themselves at the spa & wellness safety.

Various types of restaurant fall into this hotel, such as; Pantai restaurant, Atrium cafe, Lobby lounge, Pool deck, spaghettini and etc.

Beautiful view from Pantai restaurant hear to outdoor swimming pool.

Blessed Birthday week! Celebrated my advance birthday at lobby lounge, one of my favorite hi-tea place.

Table set up for hi-tea at lobby lounge. Indulge in a traditional afternoon tea for two.  A selection of savory and sweet. Hi tea set for today ; BBQ wings, 3 types of sandwiches, fresh scones with jam, varieties of slice cake and tarts, Shepherd pies and quiches.

A glass of grape sparkling water with my favorite earl gray tea.

A year older and wiser. Is it me? or is it the time going faster. I am pretty sure the days and hours just the same. However, I still feel as though there is NEVER ENOUGH TIME in a day or week to do what I need to do.  I took a leap of faith this year, and I am so glad I did.

Great drinking toast, when you're drinking, you sometimes need a good toasts.

It was a lovely day for hi tea. the view is just a bonus.

I'm so thankful for today and blessed with lovely people around me.

mango mouse cake

• I'm back again! I haven't any post any for 2 years.  It's mango season again.. tropical fruit! I have wanted to try mango mousse cake for a very long time and finally I got an opportunity to make it and it came out really well! This cake "gi-normous'!! In hindsight, it wouldn't have been so tall if I had layered it.

This cake looks awesome and tasty and mango-licious, doesn’t it? And it’s true that every part of the cake was delicious. The mango mousse was smooth and flavorful. The mango glaze gave the cake an elegant look and the cake base. It was soft. Not what I thought it would be, which is airy and light.

Light and luscious, this cake is perfect for hot day! I use my favorite vanilla cake for the base, and fill it with our fresh mango mousse and real mango fruits. The cake is then topped with beautiful mango slices and finished with a mango mirror glaze. Eating a slice is like going to mango-heaven! 

So this is the finishing touch with orange ripe and citrus cream.. delicious and stunning for hot days! like in my country..

Forest cake

Forest cake! It's messy decoration and the colors are just the same way as forest that we used to see...

Another Fresh Fruits cake. For Fruits lover like me, Fruit is a must! But, this cake is not for me... I made this cake for my brother's fiance birthday. She requested birthday cake♡(>◡<)♡

I put all her favorite fruits with lots of cream, so she can eat it happily... hehehehe

Thanks to her, I come up with this my new recipe cake! I'm very proud with it... New recipe again! yes!!!





Actually she is not fan of cream, what I'm trying to say is, she actually don't eat cream before. But now yes! She only eat my homemade cream.. I gotten her!

The fruits cake is a soft sponge cake and decorated with medium slices of fruits. I used soft fruits like black currents, kiwi fruits and blueberries.







 I think I can't really use harder fruits like apples and pears for obvious reasons that it will be impossible to cut them. Moreover apples and pears can oxidize and turn brownish. But, I like to try them next time with those fruits.

The fresh fruits cake is pleasing to the eyes and palate. what else could you think of using this?

The fresh fruits cake is very light and overly sweet. A great cake for almost any occasion.








Happy birthday sister. Enjoy your cake and have a nice day....

My brother also haven't seen the cake yet.. hehehehe

Hazelnut Chocolate cake with fresh strawberries

Dessert!!! Dessert!! Yes~ Another simple Chocolate Cake with Sprinkle of Hazelnut inside the cake.. For extra crunch! YUM!!

Hazelnut Chocolate Cake, Fresh strawberries, white frosting...... Enough said!

It is all because I'm staring the strawberries at the corner of the market today! (>_<)

Today is dessert, impress everyone with my new recipe. It's a big success again. It's perfect for hi-tea. The cake was moist, slightly, cold and had a similar flavour to a brownies.. 

I was hoping that my Hazelnut Chocolate Cake with Fresh Strawberries would receive a colorful kick (and a tasty flavor) from Strawberries. But with just simple decoration like this, It's really pretty! Good thing the taste more than made up for that. And few fresh Strawberries on top solved the color dilemma.

I love finding the natural ways to color my foods. I once made a Fruit Chocolate Cake with different types of fruits. It only seemed natural with fresh fruits, right?

With it's alternating light and dark layers, rich chocolate and fresh strawberries garnishes will be a hit for any occasion.

What little girl doesn't like Chocolate Cake? The kids is no exception. Really though, They'll eat a shoe if it's covered in chocolate! One of kids favorite fruits is strawberries, so it was a no-brainier to make them a Hazelnut Chocolate Cake with Fresh Strawberries for their Hi-Tea.

I won't lie, this cake really easy and fast to make! This made my life so much easier... I can be a good wife, mom and little girl with this cake.. hehehehe *^^*

I'm very proud with this cake!

This is my go-to chocolate cake recipe! I love pairing the sweet rich cake with the light whipped cream frosting. It's overpower the cake with lots of sugar either. The fluffiness of the frosting also allows your mouth to enjoy the feel of the spongy chocolate cake and Luscious strawberries inside.

Japanese Strawberry Shortcake

 Japanese strawberry shortcake is different from the kind usually eaten in the United State in that it's more like an angel food cake with whipped cream icing and slice strawberries. Among Japanese people, strawberry shortcake are considered a classic dessert. In Sugamo, Tokyo, is a bakery where it is said that the finest shortcake in Japan are produced. The French Pound House Bakery is found in a quiet residential district, only a five minute walk from JR Sugamo train station.

Because they have received a lot of media exposure, their strawberry shortcake is still their top selling item. Even though they try to keep up with demand , they often run completely out of sponge cake.



For such a good reputation, I felt that it was necessary to find out myself but I can't! (=_=;) yes, because they using liqueur!
  
So, I tried to make my own version of Japanese strawberry shortcake without any types liqueur, orange liqueur, cherry liqueur or whatever it is. Even, I know It won't be taste as good as The French Pound House Bakery.

If you like liqueur or can drink liqueurs go ahead. Some people like to use orange liqueur such as Cointreau or Grand Mariner with strawberry shortcake as their love the combination of strawberry and slight orange taste in the background and many people use Kirsch as well, but if you not particularly a fan of it, it's a matter of taste.

I don't drink any types of alcohol drink. I just do some researched of it, for my knowledge. So, It's best to just cut off the liqueur part in my cake. So, this is my experiment of Japanese strawberry shortcake. The strawberry is just sweet and smells so good... yum!

okeyyy! I'm in some sort of strawberry madness, as you can tell by all three layers of strawberry in one cake. When you see bright red color and big sizes of strawberries in the corner of your eyes, you just gotta look, and that's very dangerous as I can hardly contain myself from staring it and end up buying it. It happens everytime, classic. Same goes to blueberry and apple too! Does it happen to you too? Please tell me that I'm not weird (>_<;)




I have confession to make. I own some cookbooks (or dessert book), not so many, but there lots of them, but I rarely or almost never followed any recipe from them. I don't know, I've always been put off in trying one of their recipes because I'm afraid that I won't like them or the recipe is just too long lengthy. Most of cookbooks that I won (all of them) are the kinds that have a very long recipes page with multiple different components, a lot of them has some bizarre ingredients that I've never heard before or the ones that cost me a fortune. So, it's better for me to do some experiment for my own recipe book.