Happy New Year 2014

Wish you have a fruitful year with peace, love and joy in 2014!

Wish your life likes this astronaut, be a light shining on the others and keep exploring everything including yourself!

May God bless you all!

You are welcome to visit my facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/gracekallycreation?ref=hl

Cheese icing egg white cake

I love this cake - it has been the 3rd time I made it :) It is light and delicious.

In this recipe I needed to use 6 egg whites - it seems a lot. I usually make this cake when I have to make a dessert with mascarpone or vanilla ice-cream or custard... anyways, the 2nd time I made this cake I used only 3 egg whites.

However, my husband said the cake becomes less soft the next day :( which can be the inconvenient of this cake...







I can't let the cake to be presented without any decoration... I feel like the cake is naked :( poor cake...
Actually I like decorating, to make it more appetitizing, and especially when I am not the only one who eat the whole cake (I don't want to get fat...) Usually I bake for my brothers and sisters at church on Sunday, that motivates me to bake nice cakes hehe.

The piping tip used is my favourite one, I use it to decorate the cup cakes as well, which is simple and nice.
















For info: the piping tip is from Matfer, the model number is F8.

French traditional meal in winter - Raclette

During winter each year, French like having an important traditional meal to keep themselves warm - Raclette. This meal originally comes from Switzerland. 

My husband explained that it is for people who live in the mountain, imagine the weather is cold with the snow outside.... they need something to keep their bodies warm.

According to my parents-in-law, raclette this name is from the movement how we scrap the melted cheese to our plate.

In French, "Racler" = to scrap.

















The main ingredients of raclette are cheese, smoked meat, potatos and pickles!  
AND... Don't forget the wine haha! Which is really important for the French!

I have a friend who now lives in Germany, they said their German friends eat raclette but with different ingredients other than those 4 main ingredients.... I personally prefer French raclette. 

However, be careful of the following issue after having a raclette at home:

1. The whole house will smell cheese.If you like the cheese smell, that will be fine. Otherwise you will feel disgusted... after eating cheese and your tummy becomes too satisfied!

2. Do not drive right after the meal, you will feel sleepy after the meal. I have said at the beginning that this meal keeps your bodies warm... so after eating the raclette, drinking the wine (French wine of course!!) You can go straight to the bed!

You can see on the table there are smoked meat, sausage, different kinds of cheese and potato (oh pickles are hiding behind the wine glass at the left).

In the middle of the table, there is a raclette machine to heat up the cheese.
This machine has been bought since N years ago!! It is the modern version.

On the top you can see the potatos keep heating up.

The wine is not shown here (it's actually on the right side) but we DO have a bottle of French wine! 

Confetti cake? oh NO, it's Strawberry cake!

My friend taught me how to make a confetti cake, but I am not a good student, and because I don't have yellow fimo, so I ended up making a strawberry cake - my favorite cake! (whether in real or fake haha)

I'm very addicted now! I can't wait to make different cakes :)



Do you want a slice?




















The strawberries are so small that I almost can squeeze them & destroy them if I am not careful enough!















I am very sorry for the poor background in the photo :( I have crazy month - working on the craft sale for my church this coming Sunday... so please pray for the sale that will go well!

3 little snowmen - fimo clay

I have another friend who taught me clay (she is really good at making small things, they look amazing!), she is so kind to me, very patient and I love her so much!

It is how I start making these snowmen for x'mas! (Actually the very first clay that I made was pumpkins, they are cute! Then the brownie with chocolate icing on vanilla ice-cream)




So....Voilà these snowmen, I am not totally satisfied... unfortunately have ugly mouth :((( because I tried to use a pen to draw the black dots :( which makes it look horrible... but next time I won't make the same mistake!

I like the one on the left with a hat, so cute :)

The one on the right has arms but it is really difficult to make them, they are too thin!

"Cartonnage" - my 1st trial

Few months ago my friend talked about "cartonnage", she is doing it and she would like to show me what it is. 
So I am invited by her and she showed me everything that she worked on - I'm totally shocked and amazed. They are very pretty and especially they are very USEFUL! I'm fascinated by her work :D

Since she is a generous person, she taught me how to do it - I had my 1st lesson. It took me hours to finish it but I'm really happy with the result!! Yeah!(and because I made 2 in a roll, I was crazy)

I love the combination of the bird pattern and shocking pink color! (When I chose these 2 materials I wasn't 100% sure how it goes)

Now I am very motivated to work on my 4th one!

PS I greatly appreciate my friend, she is a good teacher.