BAKERY MUSINGS: storefront

i always love paris boulangeries.
they always have the same storefront with rustic look and loads of pastries in their window display.
sometimes with very pretty canopy.
and that's how i want my future bakery's storefront looks.
rustic, with drool-able window display and soft-pastel colors.














all pictures aren't mine, they are from various websites.

pink birthday cake

this is my entry for whipped




Cupcakes are cute, pretty and irresistible. But sometime layers cakes are just equally cute, pretty and irresistible. Sometime a slice of layers cake is more tempting than a cupcake. Sometime layers cake screams birthday louder than a cupcake. Last Thursday was my 22nd birthday and I had a big and tall carrot cake with cream cheese frosting from my favorite bakery. I couldn’t stop adoring the layers inside the cake, they were so gorgeous and…delish.

Looking back to my birthdays in my early life. I always got a pink birthday cake, with clowns or balloons or ballerina or swans or other vintage figurines on top. The years when such things as fondant and edible picture have not exist. I love those years! When cakes were only vanilla, chocolate or lemon. When there was only vanilla buttercream or chocolate glaze. When colors were so soft.



Cake slice always have a special place in my heart, just next to a cupcake. Maybe if baking a layers cake were less messy and exhausting, I’d bake layers cake more often. Too bad, for me, baking a layers cake is always an all-day baking affair with extra buttercream mess here and there and mount of dishes. And that is why I always opted for cupcakes almost every time.
But it has been a long time since I last baked a layers cake, I couldn’t even remember what kind of cake it was. So, I think my birthday will be the right time to bake a festive layers cake, with pink buttercream and sprinkles. With simple vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream. Lets just forget the carrot cake for a while and after all, there is no such thing as ‘too much birthday cake’ right? A birthday girl can always have two or even three birthday cakes right?



So I fought with all the mess that happens every time I bake a layers cake. I used my favorite-favorite-favorite-go-to vanilla cake from magnolia bakery’s recipe and my always go-to vanilla buttercream. The result? Well, it’s a vanilla birthday cake with pink vanilla buttercream. Its special, in its own way.



click here for the recipe and more from me for Dujour Magazine

yay! simply happy yay!

2nd september was my 22nd birthday!
i dont have a wishlist, a birthday wish.
except, those regular prayer for my family.
but my personal birthday wish? no, nada, zero!
i think i will just live my life the way it is, keeping the faith that someday, i'll have an adventure around the world.
i'll move to New York as soon i finished my design school, i dont know how, but i know i will.
i will live in a cozy and small apartment, in williamsburg, brooklyn. i dont know how, but i know i will.
but before my big fat move to New York, i will travel across india, finding everything before im losing everything.

but before, i will just loving my life :)

butterscotch chip cookies

There are days when all I want is lying in my bed, watching all Grey’s Anatomy episodes, wearing only boxer and baggy over-sized T-shirt, skipping shower and praying that my boyfriend would never see me like that. I call that my comfort day, in my comfort day I only eat comfort food and I wish I would not regret eating the comfort foods.

In my mind, comfort food is something easy, simple and sinful. Talk about chocolate chip cookies we are. I used to get chocolate chip cookies craving every now and then, lucky me, I’m good at chocolate chip cookies baking, I even have my very own recipe that got very good rave from my friends and family. But when you bake too much of chocolate chip cookies, you’ll get bored of the cookies and decided that chocolate chip cookie is no more that appealing.



Although, I was longing for the texture of chocolate chip cookies, how chewy, soft but crunchy at the same time. Longing for the vanilla and brown sugar scent of the cookies, I still haven’t got my chocolate chip cookies craving back. So butterscotch chip cookies it is! So i used butterscotch chips instead of chocolate chips in the cookie dough for non-chocolate chip cookies. It was a very good decision because when im baking the cookies, the kitchen smelled wonderful and the cookie itself is just as wonderful.

For this cookie recipe, I went with the very first cookie recipe I used way back then in my early baking craze. Its just so easy to whipped with very good cookie result. Crunchy on the edge and soft and chewy in the center. this is why I always fancy kid’s cookbooks, yes, the recipe comes from a cookbook for kids.



click here for the recipe and more from me for dujourmag.com

girly and cookie

Joanna hosted a cookie swap in her new york apartment with her girlfriends.
i want to do this too, with my girlfriends of course. but chances are 1.) i end up baking all the cookies 2.) we get scared by the cookies calories.
but maybe i'll host a cookie swap somewhere in the future, with my future girlfriends, in my future new york apartment

pictures belong to Joanna

banana marble cake

I had bananas sitting nicely in my pantry, and I only had milk, flour, sugar, butter and vanilla. What should I make? Banana cake of course. So I browsed my baking books for banana cake recipe and all the recipes I found required brown sugar for banana cake. And when no brown sugar required in a recipe, it required sour cream. Both ingredients I though I don’t have.



And the quest for banana cake recipe continued, until I found Lots-of-Ways Banana Cake in Baking from my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan, fyi, have I told you that one of my future plans Is become just like Dorie? Jetting between Paris and New York, writing books about baking, baking for loved ones and sells cookies? Yeah, that’d be perfect.
Okay, anyway, yeah lots-of-ways banana cake by Dorie Greenspan, it’s the most flexible banana cake recipe, with alternatives ingredients choices. Here is what she says, “the inspiration to bake a banana cake always seems to strike when a bunch of bananas are mottling on the counter, but just because you’ve got the fruit doesn’t mean you have all the ingredients you need, which is why I created this amazingly flexible cake. No coconut? Skip it. No brown sugar? Use white. No coconut milk? Use milk, buttermilk, sour cream or yoghurt.” Isnt it the most wonderful recipe? I wish every other recipes could be this flexible. and by that time, i've found my baking bible.

So I was set on baking this recipe, I opened my cupboard to get flour only to found a bag of brown sugar, looking so pretty. Just beside my fabulous Lindt dark chocolate. There, I changed my mind. I went with my big first recipe crush, this banana black and white chocolate, simply because it involves chocolate and banana. Both my favorite. And no, I wasn’t sorry, how could you be sorry with marbled banana chocolate cake? Its moist and light at the same time, although maybe a bit short in banana flavor.

click here for the recipe and more from me for DujourMag.com

if i ever..

own a bakery, these are exactly how i want it to be, well, of course with majority pink color and a touch of yellow and egg blue here and there!
lovely!






pictures belong to enjoy cupcakes