Sayonara, My Blue-sky Holidays

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Those days of soda and pretzels and beer
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
You'll wish that summer could always be here
You'll wish that summer could always be here

These cuppies were so much fun to make!

I think these are the best cuppies I've made so far. I think they look so nice! Haha... Ok I should stop bragging about my babies.

Made this on the last day of my summer hols. I was actually quite busy and again it was a last-minute notice. But I took it up cuz i guess what better way to conclude my summer hols than to bake a batch of summer-themed cuppies.

At first Sophs just told me to have a beach volleyball theme. i had to rake my brain as to how to make the volleyballs. I didn't want to have a plain cuppies with volleyball pattern on top, like what I did previously with my ball-themed cuppies. That'd be too plain. Besides the bday girl is a grown-up girl. So that wouldn't do. So google google google, get some idea, included my own idea, sketch, scratch, sketch and scratch some more and in the end came up with these designs.

Acutally I came up with a nicer design, but factoring in my time availability and my fondant-sculpting skill, I decided against that. Figured, those weren't feasible. You may think those cuppies are easy to make. Maybe they are, but since I'm still quite an amateur, it took me quite a long time to make. Like almost whole day. The cupcakes itself take less than an hr to bake. It's those decorations that took forever.

The volleyball, especially, was quite hard to make. At first I used fondant ball, but the stupid fondant took forever to harden and by the time it get slightly hard, it wasn't a ball shape anymore. Cuz it was soft, it became somewhat oval-ish in shape. Luckily I remembered that I still have some white choc balls in the fridge. So I just covered that in fondant so I can make some pattern, cuz the choc ball itself was quite hard. Took me 3 balls to get it right. The first and second choc ball melted in my hand and had to throw them. Took me sometime to get the stupid pattern right also. haiz... so noob right.

But anyways, I'm quite satisfied with the final product. The design is quite simple now that I think about it. But it's got all the things I love about summer. The blue sky, the sun, the sand, the flip-flop, the water, and the starfish. And am glad when Soph's told me that Dans like all those stuff also. Again, great minds think alike! *grin* :D

Ball-themed Cake and Cuppies

Basketball Cake!

Aunt N called me few weeks ago and asked me to bake for her son's 3rd birthday. She wanted a cake and about 30 cuppies. And she told me only 3 days in advance!

I was quite busy with work plus when I called Soph (my partner in crime heh...) to bake the cake, she couldn't cuz she was busy with school. Oh gosh, I wasn't ready to bake a cake! I only bake cupcakes. My cakes so far were rather pathetic. The last time I tried to bake a sponge cake, it was super bitter and oily, I tossed the whole thing into the bin. And the last time I tried baking devil's food cake, it was so thin and tasted kinda weird too.

Was pretty stressed out cuz time was really tight. I didn't have time to experiment with cake recipes. Moreover, just like last time, she wanted the cakes to be vegan. I only had a little left carob left and was afraid it wouldn't be enough. So far I haven't found a place in Sg that sells carob. Even the organic aisle in the supermarket doesn't carry it. And asking Aunt Di for more carob was out of qn. Paiseh lah... cuz she most probably wouldn't wanna be paid again.

But Aunt N really wanted the cuppies cuz I spose there isn't anyone selling cute vegan cuppies. Sigh... So i just measure everything and make sure I've enough of everything, my time, my carob, my olive oil etc. And then I just used the vegan cupcakes recipe to make the cake and hoped for the best.

Soccer, Basketball and Softball Cuppies

Thank goodness the cake went rather well. Nothing great, but still ok lah. I decorated it as best I could. Took quite awhile to get the icing rather even. At least Aunt N said it was cute. She even added some little balls and colorful candles on top and showed the pic to me. It indeed looked cute. Too bad I don't have those pics. And what's great was that the mini ball decoration she bought was exactly the ones that I made - basketball, softball and soccer ball. We didn't even tell each other. Great minds think alike, I suppose. Haha...

YUI - SUMMER SONG

YUI - SUMMER SONG
Released date: 2 July 2008

1. SUMMER SONG
2. Oh My God
3. Laugh away ~YUI Acoustic Version~
4. SUMMER SONG ~Instrumental~

YUI's 13th single. Just like Laugh Away, I love SUMMER SONG the moment I hear it. The beginning part sounds like a cross between Laugh Away and CHE.R.RY - the accoustic guitar and the keyboard sound. I think the song has been aptly titled as it has a very summery sound and feel to it. The chorus especially has a happy, light feeling. Unfortunately though, I think her voice is a little too squeeky in some parts. The song has unusually many high parts. But I'm not really complaining. The song provides ample fab accoustic and bass sounds, which I love.

The PV is great too. It has all the summer images and colour - the beach, the breeze, sunflowers, a vast field full of little flowers, lemon yellow, grassy green, sky blue, coral blue, baby blue, lots and lotsa blue. Me likeys! The casts are the same from last time and the story is cute. YUI shows more emotion too; she smiles a lot more than usual and even grooves to the music, bobbing up and down while playing her trusty guitar. She looks like having a lot of fun making the video :)

I've got the 2nd track, Oh My God, too. Still undecided on how I feel about it. Don't really like the beginning part. But one thing I'm sure, I love the bass here. It's more pronounced than usual. It's got summer feel also. I think the song will grow on me.

Aa aah..... That reminds me that school re-opens tomorrow and I've got a blardy monday morning class. It's sad to think that today is the last day of my last summer holidays. *Sobs...* Sayonara atashi no saigo no natsu yasumi (Goodbye, my last summer holidays) :'(

Meanwhile, enjoy SUMMER SONG! :):)


YUI - SUMMER SONG
Uploaded by x-zaza-du-29

Cuppies for Mashimaro

A very belated present for Viny aka the Mashimaro of Statz Farm Family! :D

She only celebrated the bday last sunday cuz well, even during hols i guess it's still hard to get everyone together. I used Vahlrona chocs for the choc cuppies. If you know your chocolates well, you'd know Vahlrona is THE chocolate, it's like the Tiffany's of chocolates.

But as with all things, quality comes with a price, which is why to be honest, I've never used it on my cupcakes before. If i were to use it, it's gonna inflate the price of my cuppies by a lot. haha... Was waiting for a chance to use it and find out what's so great it. Wanted to use it for some special occasion, and I guess Vins is special enough to be the first to try :)

When I opened the packet, sure enough it has the characteristics of a good choc. You see, a good choc has a very sweet chocolatey smell that just with a sniff, you can almost taste it. The first time I got a good whiff of a good handmade choc was when I bought some pralines and truffles froms Sinz choc. So expensive, but omg so so so good! It got the similar smell. And when i taste the Vahlrona choc powder, it's got this nice bitter that tho it's bitter, it doesn't make you scrunch your face and doesn't have that yucky acidic after-taste. Okay, I'm not tt great at describing things, but it's definitely quality stuff. Just take my word for it.

But then again, maybe I'm exaggerating. I think I'm the kind who'll be as happy if you give me a bar of Kit Kat or Godiva (um... ok, Godiva makes me happier :P). In fact, I'm planning to do some choc powder tasting soon. I've got a few brands at home. I'm no choc expert but I'll try to be objective and will tell u the result soon :)

Can You See What I See

Stop and stare
I think I'm moving but I go nowhere
Yeah I know that everyone gets scared
But I've become what I can't be, oh
Stop and stare
You start to wonder why you're here not there
And you'd give anything to get what's fair
But fair ain't what you really need
Oh, can you see what I see

How apt.

Gawd, I don't fucking care anymore.

One Tuesday Evening

Yesterday was the first time I go to Dawn's place. We, incl zw and his friend, were supposed to go to the zoo but somebody was so smart that he forgot to get the free tix despite my countless reminders. Hmph, was so pissed! Despite having lived in Sg for more than 8 yrs, I've never been to the zoo. So yea, was kinda looking froward to the trip.

Anyways, in the end I went to d's place for a swim, dinner and bowling. Her house is like soo far, took me almost an hr to reach but i'm kinda in a desperate need to lose some fat before sch stars as I've been pigging out during the hols. Oh did I tell you some bitch stole my shoes at the school gym 2 wks ago? WTF right?

Who in their right mind would steal sports shoes? Most smoo students are like how friggin rich. Besides my shoes aren't the latest model and they were a bit muddy from hiking. But yea, when I came out from showering, my shoes were gone. How unlucky!

Anyways, d said we would do laps, but in the end we were just chit-chatting in the pool for almost 2 hrs. zw was there also. So while i did a couple of laps, d was happily talking to zw. She even bought this float thing that you can sit on - so much for wanting to exercise. LOL....

Dinner was simple since we already had the sushi that I brought. Sushi didn't turn out as good as the last time I made them. Dunno what went wrong tho. Then we went to Starbowl to find ot that a competition was being held, which took most lanes. So we had to wait. Was quite long and it was getting late. Usu the place is quite empty during weekdays, but just our luck there was a competition. Have I mentioned that I'm unlucky? *sighs...

We almost gave up waiting. One uncle who was plaing alone actually offered us to join him. But that was mayb cuz he saw me n d only. Be when he realised that zw was with us, he regretted giving us the offer. haha...But neways, we didn't join him cuz d didn't want to.

At almost 9.30pm we finally got our lane and played 2 games. d and I were such pathetic bowlers. Our balls kept going to the longkang. So paiseh especially since the competition was still going on. Compared to the score of the guys at our right (the pro's) ours were like -sighs-. I noticed one uncle who was with the competiting teams kept looking at our scoreboard and kept sniggering. *rollseyes* But our second game was better, ok mine was slightly better but d improved tremendously (more than doubled her score) and zw hit the 100. haha...

clockwise: me, dawn, colourful balls and zw

First game

Second

Dejected Dawn and her super eye-catching multicolor socks

Oh btw, the guy at the counted was so anal la. He kept looking at us and told us off, saying that we were disturbing at the competing teams and that we should give way to them. What the? The pros never even complained and they even gave way to us. So friggin annoying! It's not like we played for free. We paid lor! D was saying that the idiot must be single and prolly no gf or even friends to bowl with. I had to agree. *tsktsk...