Kuih Makmur

I am baking 'kuih makmur' this morning. It's a traditional kuih or cookies that is normally served during Hari Raya. 'Makmur' in English is prosperous. These cookies are indeed rich as they are made from ghee and butter. I had baked some before Hari Raya as requested by my niece and sister. More people had asked but I didn't bake for them in view of the tedious process and that I had decided not to spend a lot of time on baking during Ramadhan.

I love kuih makmur and it is not easy to find good ones in the market. So, the best is to make them yourselves. For the best taste, use pure ghee and 100% butter. You will love these melt in your mouth kuih makmur. Just make sure that you keep your mouth close as you eat them ... enjoy, be calm and prosperous :)

For the filling :- 

400 gm of peanuts (grind them coarsely), 100 gm of caster sugar, and 130 gm of peanut butter (melted). Mix and it should look like the first photo on the top left. I then measure out the fillings in half teaspoonfuls, press them out. Actually I do not fill up to the brim of the spoon. When pressed, the filling is just about 1/4 teaspoon.This is to make sure that you have the same amount of fillings for each makmur.

For the batter :- 

250 gm of pure ghee, 250 gm of pure butter, 1 tsp sugar, pinch of salt (add to flour), 2 egg yolks, 1 egg white, and 850 gm of flour. Mix the butter, ghee, sugar until smooth. Add eggs, and then flour (use a little bit more if dough is sticky). Measure out the dough in 1.5 teaspoonfuls. Make each one into balls. Then flatten and put in the peanut filling. Shape it again in round balls or oval ones or leave like shapes ... depending on how 'rajin' you are :) 

Bake at 160C for 20 minutes. Leave to cool and then roll each cookie in icing sugar. Place each one in paper liners and serve!

More Wedding Cakes

It has been so long since I last updated this blog. Thousand apologies. Since my last entry, I have baked more wedding cakes :-

Turquoise green, white and gold wedding cake

I was initially worried about the turquoise green colour for this wedding cake. I was kneading in the colour for two days to get the right colour. Eventually my second daughter said that the colour was lovely and it's the colour that she had always wanted for her bedroom wall.

Each cake was a layer of our classic butter cake and a layer of orange cake.

Pink and white wedding cake

The bride loved our classic butter cake. So her pink and white wedding cake was totally our Classic Butter cake.

The wedding cake at the hall that was beautifully decorated in dark and light pink and silver grey.

The lovely bride and groom about to cut the cake. Such lovely flowers!

Maroon and white wedding cake

This two tier maroon and white wedding cake is our Classic Butter cake as well.

Top view of the cake

This was the first time that I emboss the cake board (as I learn something new each time).

The cake was safely delivered to the wedding site.

Wedding cakes

When I first decided to pursue my baking hobby as a full time career just over a couple of years ago, I was only baking cupcakes and basic butter or chocolate cakes with no icing. Even then, I only knew how to do simple frosting on my cupcakes with sugar sprinkles. 

Over the years, I have moved on to learn more decorating skills. Nevertheless, my comfort zone has been with small cakes, cupcakes and cookies. When my nephew wanted to get married last year, my sis-in-law gave me the challenge to bake his wedding cake.  It was the first time that I had to bake a large cake (by my standard, the 12 inch base cake was already large). The biggest challenge was to cover the cake with fondant. I had successfully covered the 6 inch cake and the 9 inch cake on first try. But it was only on my third attempt (plus tons of wasted fondant) that I was able to cover the 12-inch cake. It was another series of three for me to remember .. three tiered cakes completed by 3 am and I had only three hours of sleep before heading to the wedding venue with the cakes in tow.

Gold and white wedding cake

This was the completed three tier wedding cake for my nephew. The theme colour was white and gold. The cakes were the Classic Butter, our family all time favourite.

All my efforts made worthwhile when I saw how stunning the wedded couple looked while cutting the cakes... 

Pink and purple wedding cake

I continued learning to cover big cakes from there on. This was a wedding cake that I baked for a friend. She wanted a two tier wedding cake, purple and pink theme. As I had read and learned how to cover bigger cakes by this time, they were successfully covered on first attempt :)

The 9 inch top cake :-

The 12 inch base cake :-

The cakes on the stand :-

Purple and white wedding cake

Here's another two tier wedding cake that I baked for a friend's daughter. She wanted a purple wedding cake decorated with orchids.

Top cake (9 inch Classic Butter cake) :-

Top view of the top cake :-

The 12 inch base cake :-

Gold and purple theme wedding

Cake cutting ceremony by the lovely couple.

In conclusion, I would like to share my takeaway from a chapter that I read sometime back in Robin Sharma's book The Greatness Guide where he mentioned this formula "Focus plus daily improvement plus time equals genius." Genius as he mentioned is "what you can excel at. Discover your talents and work like crazy to polish them." I truly believe in continuous learning and improvement. As such, Sharma's formula is stucked in my mind. I still have a long way to go but I have gathered so much joy throughout the journey so far as I am doing something that I love. Are you doing something that you love?

Dora Birthday Cakes

This is our Classic Butter cake that is decorated with edible image of Dora the Explorer. I have piped butter cream icing to cover the cake and for other deco add on.

Hope you had a great birthday celebration at your play school little one!

Here is another Dora cake that I had done. This one is a rainbow cake with Lemony Swiss Meringue Buttercream filling for sweet Eva's birthday :-

This third cake is also our Classic Butter cake, for 3 year old Naily's birthday :)

Our most popular goodies - Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Over the years our chocolate fudge brownies has grown to be the most popular goodies among our customers. The brownies has also grown more sophisticated where it gets dressed and decorated for certain occasions :)


The chocolate fudge brownies before going into the oven...full of chocolate chip cookies.

Once baked and cut, you can see how moist the brownies is...yums!

The brownies is good as a birthday "cake". You can also just say it with our chocolate fudge brownies.

We can also put your image (edible icing) on the brownies

or fully cover it as a birthday "cake"

These are cut brownies, decorated as wedding brownies "hantaran".

These are decorated with edible icing and given out as corporate gifts for new year.

I baked these heart shaped brownies as gifts for the cancer kids during our day out with MAKNA kids

This huge chocolate fudge brownies comprised of three of our regular sized brownies, covered in chocolate icing and edible image .. for a farewell party.

Oh, by the way, we can also do a variation to this brownies. Instead of chocolate chips, we can add M&M ..so you'll have M&M chocolate fudge brownies!

Friendship cupcakes

Getting out of a relationship is never easy especially if the relationship has lasted for so long. You'll feel a sense of loss as the person whom you share and do all the things with, is no longer there by your side. Suddenly, there's no one for you to talk to, to laugh with, to share jokes with.

Support and love from friends and family during this period would ease the pain. The greatest blessing of all is for you to eventually come out loving yourself more, recognising the strength that you have within and acknowledging that you're still beautiful inside and out.

These girl power cupcakes and cookie went out to cheer someone and to celebrate that blessing :)

Peanut cookies

I've baked some peanut cookies today for some orders tomorrow. These cookies are a favorite during any festivity. Hari Raya is just a couple of months away...time flies! But then, if you're a peanut lover like I am, you don't need to wait for Hari Raya to enjoy these cookies. They're simply great for tea or as snacks .. cos they'll just melt in your mouth..yums!

The Cookie Cat's peanut cookies are packed in jars. They're ideal as gifts anytime!