Monday, July 29, 2013

Cuckoo Clock Cake - Chocolate Walnut Brownie



I’m in the mood of telling story... Is it the food I ate after iftar?... or just trying to find reason on why I’m in a good mood....

I’m going to talk about cuckoo clock and my cuckoo clock cake.

I had a bad encounters with a cuckoo clock  when I was 7 years old. As the story goes, since it was a school holidays, I had spent a night at one of my relative’s  house (can’t remember specifically which one) who had a cuckoo clock. The clock really captivated me when it started to strike, that is, when “ the bird ready to get out from the little house” and I vividly remembered the clock was so intricately carved and the pendulums were so huge.

We ( my cousin and I) slept in the hall where the cuckoo clock just above our head. At 6 am when I was still sleeping soundly, the clock stroke, it’s like the bird pecking onto my brain, my cousin just put a pillow on her ears. I felt like killing the bird so that it will stop cuckooing... “Tok, boleh bunuh burung tu tak? Bising la...(Grand pa, can u kill the bird!!!.its bothering me!!). I was like talking subconsciously, still in the “never-never” land. Somebody answer with a laughter, ....Tok tak boleh bunuh burung ni. Burung ni datang jauh dari Jerman...(I can’t kill the bird, this bird came afar from Germany) ...then followed by some soothing musical tunes that made me fell back to sleep for another 2 hours and the cuckoo bird appeared in my “never-never” land, I was chasing the cuckoo bird with my pillow......

Last year, I had the opportunity to travel through Germany, one of the area that we visited was the Black Forest at Triberg. The first half day we treked the Black Forest (we chose the simple trek) and another half, dedicated to cuckoo clock. We went to the clock museum and visited the cuckoo clock town.
Trekking the Black Forest




A few shops that I remembered are “house of 1,000 clocks” and Oli’s Schnitztube (do know how to pronounce it correctly).  I just love the Oli’s shop, I had a peeped at his workshop which were full of paraphernalia for wood carving and spare parts for the cuckoo clock. Most of the town’s population, I assumed, directly or indirectly involved in the cuckoo clock industry, with the abundant of wood from the black forest and their passion on cuckoo clock.



The shop keeper/owner of Oli’s, actually on the verged of closing when we entered his shop. He informed us since its was EURO 2012 football mania and that day, Germany is competing with...mmm....can't remember because I’m not a football fanatic. His shop got a good selections of wood carving, mechanical cuckoo clock. At last, after browsing several shops my friend, Johar, decided to purchased Oli’s cuckoo clock.....


Now to my chocolate walnut brownies in the shape of cuckoo clock. Actually this cake I made a years ago for my friends’ birthday, Johar and Salmah. Somehow I’ve forgotten to upload on my blog. 








Saturday, July 6, 2013

Brownie for Birthday

Initially my client intended to order a fondant cake for her 3 years old daughter's birthday. She informed that the cake will be brought to her kindergarten to celebrate with her friends. I suggested her to order brownie instead because in my opinion its more appropriate and more manageable considering more than 60 children will be at the event.

Her daughter wanted butterflies and tiara on the cake. These were made of white chocolate.