Inspiration For Living in Style

Preparing For the Baby Announcement Picnic Basket

2012-10-26T09:30:00.000+07:00

For Joie's one month baby annoucement hamper, or widely known as Manyue/ Manye, we wanted to give something special and useful for the receiver to keep and use them. My friend Yulni gave a lot of suggestions and I decided on picnic basket. I had a lot of fun looking for things to fill the basket with good quality items and also they had to fit into my budget.


Picnic Basket ordered from Madewithlovelyby Pepperbliss

Colorful frosted mugs from Kandadinda Souvenir and custom print from freebie image from Weddingchicks

Smiley wooden spoons from Aliexpress seller

Gold rimmed 6" ceramic plates from Senin Indah

Japanese inspired honey citron cookies made by Surely+Someday and added Kinder chocolate eggs

Assembled into the box

Fitting into the straps and pockets

Tagging the baskets with free printables from Smitten Blog Designs. Thank you for the lovely freebies!!

Ready to be delivered

Vintage Hankerchief Baby Announcement

2012-10-26T09:00:00.000+07:00

Ordered vintage scalloped handkerchiefs from a Aliexpress seller and had them shipped from China in a big envelope. It said 100% cotton but I have to say it felt more like polyester due to the stiff material.

Found the flower wreath on free DIY printables from Wedding Chicks/
Printed the announcement on iron-on transfer paper. Its easy and fast but it came out to be a plasticy film over the handkerchiefs.I wanted to try stamping but I ran out of time to custom the stamp.

Rainbow Candy Theme Birthday

2012-10-25T21:59:00.004+07:00

The birthday girl had change ofmind from Pirate Princess party to Rainbow theme. My sister was crazy enough to make those bright colorful circle fans for the backdrop for the entire night after we finished with the cake. Cray cray but I guess we will do anything to make our children happy even if we lose our sleep.

I would make more sweeties for my niece but with less than a month baby and breastfeeding timetable, I didn't want to be ambitious to volunteer to the job. My sister found a talented baker, Sugarbites Bake Shoppe, to do the ombre cake, caupcakes and macarons.

Candy Cake

2012-10-25T21:47:00.004+07:00

Sisters effort! My sis found a picture for this candy cake and we tried to make one for her daughter.
I made the square base with the fool proof white chocolate cake recipe and attached a dummy for the top tier.

Sis made those lollies, candy canes and chocolate bar. She considered to stick Kit Kat bars but I told her it would be difficult to stick to the cake.

We took hours by the table to make the balls, yes hours to make those big balls to cover and give the cutesy effect.

Whew! Remember in my previous blog, I made the woodland cake for Grace... I thought I semi-retire myself from making more than 2hrs cake. Right. After this cake, I told my sister that we should bake and decorate our childrens cakes. It was intense, fun, tiring and satisfying. The kids came by to check on the cakes and they love how their mommies are working on fun cakes.

Joie 100th Days! Best Yellow Cake + Hazelnut & Milo Frosting

2012-10-25T21:26:00.000+07:00

Followed Yellow Layer cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen and I have to say this is really really good! Yum yum...

hazelnut spread

Usually I make 2 types of frosting - the regular icing sugar buttercream and Swiss meringue buttercream. The icing sugar is overly sweet and for Swiss meringue, I usually use Wilton's pasteurized meringue egg white powder and it has a fake smell that I don't favor even if I add Madgascar vanilla paste. I wanted a sightly better option and I decided to try the buttercream with flour.

It looked easy. I tried with the all natural, unbleached, gluten-free Bob's Mill AP flour. I failed. Lesson learnt- follow the instructions for first tries.

Whipping the new batch of frosting to a good consistency, I cheated with this - sublime hazelnut spread, added Milo and Hersey's cocoa powder. Ohhhhhh.... it taste great!

Best Yellow Layer Cake

Yield: Two 9-inch round, 2-inch tall cake layers, and, in theory, 22 to 24 cupcakes, two 8-inch squares or a 9×13 single-layer cake

4 cups plus 2 tablespoons (480 grams) cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon (5 grams) table salt
2 sticks (1 cup, 1/2 pound or 225 grams) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups (400 grams) sugar
2 teaspoons (10 ml) pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups buttermilk (475 ml), well-shaken
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and line with circles of parchment paper, then butter parchment. (Alternately, you can use a cooking spray, either with just butter or butter and flour to speed this process up.)
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture will look curdled). Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just Incorporated.
Spread batter evenly in cake pan, then rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. (I like to drop mine a few times from two inches up, making a great big noisy fuss.) Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes, then run a knife around edge of pan. Invert onto rack and discard parchment, then cool completely, about 1 hour.

Frosting Ingredients

5 Tablespoons Flour
1 cup Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup Butter
1 cup Granulated Sugar (not Powdered Sugar!)

Preparation Instructions

Bake your favorite chocolate cake and let it cool.
In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. You want it to be very thick, thicker than cake mix, more like a brownie mix is. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. (If I’m in a hurry, I place the saucepan over ice in the sink for about 10 minutes or so until the mixture cools.) It must be completely cool before you use it in the next step. Stir in vanilla.
While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. You don’t want any sugar graininess left. Then add the completely cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat the living daylights out of it. If it and fluffy. You don’t want any sugar graininess left. Then add the completely cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat the living daylights out of it. If it looks separated, you haven’t beaten it enough! Beat it until it all combines and resembles whipped cream. Grab a spoon and taste this wonderful goodness. If there is any left after your taste test, spread it on a cooled chocolate cake.
Cut yourself a piece and put it on a pretty plate. Grab a fork and prepare to experience the most divine pairing you can imagine. This frosting on chocolate cake is to die for. Sure, the recipe sounds strange — it has flour in it — but it’s sublime. Try it, you’ll see. You’ll love it so much you won’t go back.

Chic, Elegant and Luxe Baby Annoucement

2012-10-25T20:10:00.000+07:00

These ladies are the chic ladies behind the beautiful Brown Tree store and their baby announcements are WOW!

Classy black and white box with beautifully embossed illustrated artwork announcement

Beautiful baby picture on lacquered frame and chocolates for my bedside snacks.

Mint and maroon announcement box and card

Sinfully good chocolate almonds and French hazelnut spread

Mysterious Detective Book Birthday Invitation

2012-10-25T19:48:00.004+07:00

A mystery package arrived

A magnifying glass to look for clues

Sealed with a monogram wax seal

Invitation details

My Other Cake Projects

2012-08-06T01:35:00.000+07:00

Practice makes perfect. I wanted to improve my fondant decoration skills and I volunteered to make for cakes for friends and families.

I used the rose mold for this cake and used water to glue them to the cake (the sides) before realizing its too 'plain' This was for my grandmother to celebrate her 81st birthday, so it had to be more festive, so I used red petal dust to paint the roses.

The problem with painting with the glued flowers was that the colors bleed. Thus, I piped buttercream and painted the swirls with gold.
Lessons learnt: how to cover shaped cakes and don't glue down until sure of the cake design

Challenging myself to make 3-tiered cake. Everything went well except... Making a bright color from colored gel and mixing them to cover the cake was tiring and disappointing. I used Americolors and the Fuchsia color didn't even come close to bright pink. I had to use petal dust to wash color over the cake. Lesson learnt: buy ready made color fondants

Reason why I like to bake and decorate cake: to see the outcome and the children faces when they see the cakes

One of my favorite cakes. Simple and elegant

Used royal icing to make dots and sticking the daisy flowers. Then, I painted pearl petal dust on the dots. The tricky part was attaching the crystal brooch on the cake.

My First Tiered Cake for Cally - 2010

2012-08-06T00:21:00.002+07:00

I know this is backdated a bit. Found some pictures and thought if I don't document these, I won't remember them. Going through my external hard drive brings back some good memories. I realize I haven't blog in 2011, and my last cake project in 2011 was for Grace woodland birthday cake, which then I was off on baking hiatus. And my pregnancy with #3 and growing my company came to prioritize above my baking hobby.

This was my first tiered cake using real sponge cakes and not cake dummies.

Frosted both cakes and chilled them before placing the fondant. I found that using plastic gloves is so much more neater than using the cake smoother or greased hands. I had more control, no sweaty palms, and need I to mention- more hygienic? Next I inserted cake dowels to hold the weight if the top tier.

Using cake spatula to place the top tier on. Cover the imperfections with fondant pearls and ribbon

Use piping nozzles to make the circles. Paint glitter on the name

The cake sweated a while after out from the fridge into room temperature but it stabilizes after a while.

Airplane Cake For W - 2011

2012-08-06T00:11:00.001+07:00

My nephew, Walter, is the same age as my daughter, and I asked his mom if I could bake him a cake. She told me he was into airplane and I went online to research for airplane cake.

The inspiration.

The carved cake. Base was double layer cake from loaf pan. Lots of stacking, speckling, and frosting for the desired shape.

Looking like a fish with the fins and all, floating on water

Added windows and clouds

Finish!

Into the fridge for cake and me to sleep

My sister-in-law added the candles and I thought the cake became cuter and happier.

Woodland Party - 2011

2012-08-05T23:49:00.000+07:00

3d decor done by Balloon Imagination

My beautiful girls! The two cousins and BFF.

Baby J & I love the balloons

Better snap a quick picture to document the cake before the kids dig into it!

End of the party, the girls continue to play with the decor. Dresses are by our favorite brand- Luna Luna Copenhagen

Woodland Birthday Cake

2012-08-05T23:39:00.004+07:00

Source of Inspiration - Andrea Sweet Cake

I made some sketches of some woodland animals and tried to make my first fondant 3d characters from scratch. It would be easier if I purchase books on how to make 3d fondant characters step by step... All I can say after this cake is that - I will be on a long hiatus to make characters

The base was my sister's favorite Rose Levy's Grand Marnier Chocolate Chip Cake. I will probably find time some day to post the recipe up. Frosted it with chocolate ganache, then fondant the cake.

The tree trunk needed a extra layer of cake and each layer was frosted with vanilla buttercream.Since I don't have brown fondant, I made chocolate from scratch with marshmallow and cocoa, which was surprisingly not very difficult as I expect it to be. Using toothpick and fondant veiner tools, I tried my best to give textures to make the trunk look somewhat real.

Use buttercream to pipe the vines and leaves

The birthday girl and her woodland friends

More friends. Making the wordings was another challenge.

The cake

Grace, my darling niece, I hope when you are old enough for your mommy to let you use the internet browser, and that you come by to read Auntie's blog, you can feel my love for you. Hugs and kisses from Auntie!

Crimson Laser Cut Invitation

2012-08-05T23:05:00.001+07:00

Lovely laser cut invitation by Siem Offset

Pillow Invitation with Headbands for Baby J & I Birthday 2011 Party

2012-08-05T22:59:00.002+07:00

I first bought the princess crown headbands for my daughter and my nieces from Pasar Pagi (traditional wholesale market in Jakarta) and decided to go back and buy more to give as invitations so all the little girls can be princesses. Since they sold out of the crowns, I went about to buy few dozens of other cute headbands from for average $10 for a dozen.

After making few boxes of these, I decided to save paper and make these:

Pillow case envelope! Inspired by Watermark invitation for my bridal shower

One pillow case envelope only uses one A4 paper. I used local bookstore bought Conqueror 250gr fancy paper, drew and cut a prototype. Once I have the prototype done, its easier from there to draw the sides to cut. Using the blunt side of scissors to pressure carve on the curves so that it will be easier and neater to fold. I the double-taped the sides. To finish the envelope, fold in the curves. One done...30 more to go...

Next to do was printing the invitation. Cut them and used a puncher to punch round corners on the invitation. After that was to put the invitation and headbands in. Ummm... the double tape didn't do much a good job on sticking the sides and the envelope was bursting. I tried to a tape to stick the sides from the exterior then almost decided to overlook the imperfections... then finally, I resorted to staple the gaping envelopes.

Made the name sticker tags with vintage image found under free printables. The envelope looked very plain with just the name sticker so I spruced it up with ribbons. Voila! Invitations done!

J & I Mickey Clubhouse Birthday Party - 2011

2012-08-05T22:07:00.003+07:00

All the decor was done by Balloon Imagination

My children birthdays are only 1 day apart with Baby J turning 3 and Baby I turning 1. Baby I favorite character since infant was Mickey Mouse, so we decided to throw the kids a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme party. Upon Baby J's request, Tinkerbell 3d was also included in the backdrop.

Reception locket area for guests to register names. All little girls received necklaces and the boys watches. Mickey and Minnie photo booth area for the guests to take instant pictures for souvenirs.

Baby J's princess dress is by I Love Gorgeous and Baby I's traditional Korean costume was from my mother-in-law who had it custom made in Seoul.

Mommy's hard work on the cakes. Making full tiered cake was not easy at all. Should have been smrter annd used cake dummies instead. I bought the cake pop online and had them shipped to my NY hotel when I had business trip there. All 200pcs! I had to purchase a new luggage to bring these pops back. My sis made 50 pops for me for the kids birthday and I don't think she will be doing more pops any time soon after this :)
Font used on the sticker was Budmo Jiggler.

Goodybags were custom made art bags by Masterwork's second line, Giving Bag, and inside the bags were Crayola Twistables pencil set. More souvenirs for guests to bring back was custom caricature done by the artist hired for the party. Photo frame was a gift from the artist for the birthday girl.

We were so beat after this party. My husband swore off big birthdays but I told him we have to throw another big party for #3 1st birthday only to be fair. And guess what! 1 year after this party, our #3 is out! And her birthday is the same as her elder sis!

Baby K 1st Birthday - Travel Around The World Party

2012-08-05T19:56:00.001+07:00

Its all in the details and my sis love doing all the decor details by herself. Here's my niece's, K's 1st birthday pictures and the theme is Around the World

Welcome table decor

Globe, framed world art map, family pictures, party hats, and a mini luggage


Candies for little guest

3d and balloon decor by Fairy Floss

My sis own decor. Cake stands, candy jars, and other decor were sourced online. The vintage balloon can be sourced by FB sellers, such as Shiori. Cake and cupcakes by Cupcake Moment.

Crayola goody-bags for the little guests

Carnival Birthday Party -2010

2012-07-28T22:45:00.002+07:00

This birthday was done and hosted by my sis in her house for her daughter and my girl 2 years ago (again, a very late posting). The girls are only 3 weeks apart and they are inseparable; they are in same school, class, and tuition. I just gave birth to #2 so I didn't really helped around for this party.
Will post up our children's party in 2011 and this years soon :)


The invitation designed by my sis


Decor. Tables, chairs, covers and balloons coordinated with Dreamflavors.

Dessert table. Pinwheels was a great idea by my sis. Cake was by Cupcake Moment. My sis prepared drawing paper as the table mat and crayons on cups for the children to doodle. That's my girl there who was practicing her lines.

Ordered Children lunch boxes from Obento

Goodie bag - travel sling bag and a passport cover all custom designed for each child by MasterWorks.

Manye (Full Month) Hamper

2012-07-28T22:41:00.000+07:00

This is part of 2011 images that finally I get to post them up on this blog now.
From a lovely lady and friend - Cupcake Moment

A cupcake tote bag

Look at the cuties! 2 rabbits (for year of rabbit)

More goodies inside...

Jars of cookies and sweets, scented candle, and cupcake

Gotta Snap a close-up pic before my kid snatch it up

Tinkerbell Castle Cake & Mickey Mouse Cake

2012-07-25T16:18:00.001+07:00

Sketches of the cake

Batter almost overflowed. White Cake flavor

Cling wrap each cake layer

Foiling all the cling-wrapped cake layers before freezing

Defrosted in room temperature and iced in Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Smoothing the Fondant and made last minute design changes

Silly me! Tried to put the yellow tier before the heavy white tier and the white tier nearly drown the yellow tier. Had to scrapped them and put the yellow on top. Thus, the unsightly white tier corners and since the yellow tier fondant's top had been skinned off, I had to add a fake layer and unsuccessfully smooth down the edges.

So far alright for J's cake

I gotta rest after tinkering with the cakes for 1 whole night

Using Wilton's Castle Kit

Some of the fondant balls kept rolling off...

What to Wear to Events When You Are Pregnant

2012-07-24T19:23:00.001+07:00

Don't have to wear black when you are pregnant. Rejoice and flaunt your fabulous tummy! Unless of course if you are conservative, have skin problems (my case for both #1 and #2), or like some of us who don't have svelte or toned arms, by all means- throw on a cardigan to cover up.

Maybe it was my third pregnancy that I don't want to look frumpy and wear those boring pregnant dresses like in previous pregnancies. I want to look good and feel great even in my third trimester. Here's some fancy day looks that bring forth best of Spring/Summer 2012 for pregger ladies who wants to look pretty during events.

Olian long jersey dress
Hatch the Gown
DVF Zarita dress as worn on Kourtney Kardasian

For glitzy look for evening events,


DVF Penelope embellished dress

For some other basic looks, I also post up a review on Trifle Thoughts

2012-07-21T14:31:00.000+07:00

In late 2010, my sister and I hosted my cousin's bridal shower in Hotel Mulia Orient 8's private room. It was a small intimate affair.

Informal gift table area

Guests dress code - Jewel

Bride-to-be gown custom made by Eddy Betty

My little girl, with Ipad to entertain her before the dinner start and she had to go back home

Naughty gifts from friends

Words of Wisdom from married and single friends

A Korean 1Year Old Birthday

2012-07-21T14:20:00.000+07:00

This was my niece's birthday in Seoul and it took place in 2010 December. The Koreans celebrate their 1 year old birthdays festively and my niece's birthday was done elegantly in hotel ballroom with close family friends and relatives. We had sit down dinner and it proceeded with the career picking items before my brother-in-law, his wife and baby, cut the cake.

Reception table

Baby pictures on the reception table

Goody bags for guests to take home after the event

Proud parents

Birthday cake and sweets

A tray for the baby to choose before cutting the cake.

The item she picks will determine what career path she will be in during adulthood. The items placed (clockwise) banker, designer, cook, teacher, lawyer, or doctor.

Traditional rice cakes for guests

Decorative cupcakes

Hello To Baby #3

2012-07-21T13:52:00.001+07:00

Joie!!!

How time flies! I decided to blog again since now I just gave birth and doing my confinement period at home. My initial plan was just to blog on baby product reviews on my other blog but since I will be doing Manyue gifting again for baby #3, I decide to do some posting too :)

Fascination For Cheong Sam Gowns

2010-11-11T14:47:00.011+07:00

While web surfing for inspirations for shower ideas, which one of is Old Shanghai Tang theme, I came across Chinese celebrity Fan Bing Bing wearing not 1 but 2 drool-worthy beautiful gowns. They have the emperor dragon emblem, and both are beaded and embroidered (seen from here).
Be still my heart.
I'm reminded of Roberto Cavalli's Ming-vase gown, which until today I'm still searching for it.

Back to reality zone, there are many cheong sams or qipaos that can be found in Jakarta. Adrian Gan's last year Chinoserie Chic Collection was impressive, and a video on it can be found here. Biyan always produces pretty beaded cheong sam dresses in their stores. Etro FW10 has some cheong sam dresses and tops.

All the cheongsam dresses and gowns need a svelte figure to show off the cut of the silhouette and the intricacies of the embellishments on the dresses, which of course is not for me, for now that is, since I'm still carrying the extra 8kg due to nursing my baby and laziness to work out. However, the Etro Kimono inspired dress on the left is something I can picture myself wearing now, it seems easy on the tummy, cover the arms and easy access for nursing.

Ok back to sourcing inspirations on bridal shower...so easily distracted I am..

Bridal Shower Mood Board

2010-11-11T14:02:00.007+07:00

Months before I planned for Cousin E's bridal shower, I had asked her what flower she like, and she told me she likes daisy. After looking around for inspiration, and a venue, I came up with these mood board - a simple, non-fussy, elegant luncheon with small games with the bride-to-be.
Just a few days before, while chatting with Cousin E, asking what requests she have, something I should have done before planning or deciding on the theme, because it seems that what she wants is completely different than what I had in mind. She like roses now! Deep red ones...Move over daisy, we changing the theme.

From left clockwise: Daisy necklace from Kate Spade (selling in KS store in Jakarta), Collete's Daisy Cake, Cupcake box from Meri Meri, Bunga Rampai restaurant, and gold-sprayed flowers centerpiece seen on Orange Beautiful.