White Chocolate & Candied Plum Cupcakes

Finally psyched myself up to bake today. And played with my new camera as well taking pics of the pretty cupcakes. Experimented with the different white balances a little, still can't get it super correct. The cupcakes themselves are quite yummy - tho a little sweet. Tweaked it from a recipe from the Cupcake Blog, it's a White Chocolate & Cranberry recipe but I couldn't find Craisins in NTUC, so substituted with some dried plums. I think they're dried plums anyway cos the lady told me they were called Rosemary, and they tasted like suan mei except not sour and were quite sweet with a hint of rose. I thought they'd go well as substitute for the cranberries. The frosting's a White Chocolate & Sour Cream Ganache. I had expected it to be a lot fluffier, I guess it's because I didn't follow the recipe and add the full amount of sugar (it was already so sweet!!). Think I'll start modifying on my own - I think a white chocolate ganache with whipped cream would have been nice... kinda like a mousse, lighter and not so sweet. Next time. In the mean time enjoy the photos...

Post-wedding Posting Frenzy

Anyway I'm quite sad that no one took a picture of the candy buffet. Luckily our cupcake baker took some pics of the gorgeous cupcake tier she made. If anyone wants to order yummy and pretty cupcakes, pls contact Cotton Candy Bakeshop!

Finally...

Yes a new look. Cos if you've noticed, the images from my previous template hasn't been coming up. Long story but well I decided to change it once and for all. Have upgraded to the new xml templates which allow me to play with widgets on the sidebar (it's about time!!). So this will suffice for now...

What's Up There?

Here's the full photo... to put it in context, they were being made to sing to Jess, who's on the 16th floor, from the void deck. Hence all looking up.

Jess's Wedding Pics

The Big Day is finally over! The happy couple has gone off on their honeymoon in romantic Paris and London. I've uploaded the first batch of photos on Flickr that the photographer Kelvin (from Lighted Pixels) has put together for the morning highlights that was shown during the dinner. Kelvin's really talented as the pictures will show.

Here are just some of my favourite shots - I really like the one of the guys looking up in the top left corner, though it looks much better in Portrait, these have been somewhat cut off due to the mosaic.

3.. 2.. 1...

So yesterday was a crazy day. Went to collect my flowers and met with all sorts of mishaps. Like how the flowers I ordered weren't available, colours all wrong, drenched in rain etc etc. Cos of the rain and my rush, some of my flowers died on me. Don't really care if a few cheap roses die, but my expensive hydrangeas completely wilted. I went into panic mode and went online to search for how to revive these delicate flowers. Basically the advice was to re-cut them and stick them in boiling water for 30 sec and put them back in regular water. That solution worked somewhat, except that they look like they're dying on me again tonight. How are they suppose so survive till Sat? Here are the before and after pictures.

Dead Hydrangeas Somewhat alive Hydrangeas

My plan was to order the flowers early enough so that I'd get the exact flowers I want and for them to have time to bloom. However it's turning to be pretty troublesome. Spent a few hours last night dethorning the roses, cutting the flowers to make sure they absorb water, sticking them into many many red pails and hope they come back alive and bloom. Luckily for me, most of them bloomed, I just hope that it's not the peak yet and they survive for 2 more days. you can see the peonies (2nd picture, pink flowers in the foreground) really in full bloom already.

Before conditioning After conditioning

I also spent some time working on my candy corner last night - doing up the jars and filling them with the jelly beans. The colours are very pretty if I may say so. I made some tags today to stick on the candy favour bags, and made some samples so people will know what to do. Now, if only I can find my candy scoop.

Some of the bridal party also came down to help decorate the church reception venue tonight. It was quite a bit of work, but we managed to get it done. It started looking out very much nicer with ceiling swags that joined (as seen in the picture below), but we soon discovered this was a hazard as they could get caught in the ceiling fans. We tested with the fans on and indeed one of the swags got caught and torn. So we had to take out all those that were close to the fan and just hang them kinda randomly while avoiding the fans.

Tomorrow morning I've gotta do up all the flowers. I really really hope they don't die on me.. and that I can finish it all up in time. The house is a huge mess still, I've no idea how it's going to magically clean itself before the wedding. Need a miracle!!

Goodnight world.