Quran Party

Well, I don’t know what else to call it. And come to think of it, it is centered around the Quran in terms of what we’re celebrating. S is starting Taleem Quran, and because I didn’t want Z feeling left out, I made him a cake and so I had to come up with an occasion for his cake and I thought I’d make it Quran-ish too. So, I made it a celebration of his Quranic Arabic reading. I piped a few words from his IQRA book too.

We made the Laksa Penang, quite easily, except S overcooked the Laksa so we had a pretty mushy laksa. Z had Nasi Goreng for lunch while we ate the Laksa but we gave him a little bit just to see if he could take sardine. So far, no reactions, so I’m hoping he’s ok with fish! inshaAllah! He didn’t really like it though.

Lai fen – the noodles for Laksa Penang

The sardine from the Asian grocery store. The ones in the western supermarket are horribly bland.

 

Not too great a shot, but we were hungry and I was tired from finishing up decorating Z’s cake, and the Laksa noodles were overcooked so it wouldn’t have made a great food photo anyway. Laksa Penang is I think my best noodle dish, since I always manage to make the other soupy noodle dish too bland. But with Laksa Penang, it’s hard for me to make it bland unless I put too much water when making the soup/broth.

 

 

It was quite a moment when we cut him his cake. He was so shy that it was difficult to take his picture. But we got it eventually. He initially went for the frosting but after a while claimed,

“I don’t like the white stuff.”

He ate his cake but didn’t finish it, and finished it much much later. I did cut him quite a big piece, so…

 

Today, he had cake too and I cut him a thin piece ane he ate it all minus the ‘white stuff’. I don’t blame him for not liking the frosting.

As for the rest of us, we ended up sitting back in our chair and laughing at how fatty the frosting truly is. I don’t need to reiterate what I said about frosting in the previous post. We can’t take too much frosting. Period.

We had Z read the words I had piped on his cake, though with a lot of help. He initially didn’t want to read them. But I said I won’t cut the cake until he did, so we helped him read them.

So, S started her Taleem Quran course today. The party yesterday was just perfect because now it’s back to work and fasting our make ups and Shawwal 6. May Allah bless this journey for all involved for our dunya and akhirah. Ameen!

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Taleem Quran Cake

Yesterday, we made red velvet cakes, two of them, one for Z (allergen-free) and one for us (the regular one). When I asked S what kind of cake she wants for her TQ party, she picked red velvet, so red velvet it is. We didn’t really have enough red food coloring, so we didn’t use as much as directed in the recipe. I didn’t feel too good about using the coloring, and we had gone to the co-op to look for natural red food coloring after tennis. They didn’t have any. We went to Toucan. They didn’t have any either. So we made our red velvet red with whatever red food coloring we had, and for Z, I kept his cake chocolate. I’m guessing that if I want the natural red food coloring, I’d have to buy it online.

For Z’s cake, the recipe calls for rice milk and cider vinegar

 

Z’s cake and frosting

The recipe I used for Z’s red velvet cake is from Cybele Pascal’s Allergen Free Baker’s Handbook.

I love her recipes, and this one was pretty easy to make too. And unlike many other allergen free recipes, her baked goods actually taste good! She even has the frosting recipe, which I have been finding hard to find for allergen free ones. I’m thinking of buying her book instead of checking it out of the library again and again. This is one book I can really use and refer to long term.

For our red velvet cake, I used the recipe from Joy of Baking though we didn’t use her frosting recipe because we didn’t have the heavy cream she specified. So S just made the cream cheese frosting from some other random recipe. We had discussed the design for this cake a while back. Inadvertently, I realized that I suddenly have the ability to do Arabic calligraphy, and so I tried it out on paper. It is pretty good if I do say so myself. I have tried before in the past to do Arabic calligraphy, but they never turned out. This time, I guess I have been looking at some for quite some time and the connections just sparked in my brain and subhanallah, I was able to come up with a decent calligraphic representation of Taleem Al Quran at least. It wasn’t done with calligraphy pen, but it was a start.

 

I had discussed with S the design for her cake, and so I started decorating the cake yesterday. The thing that made me the most nervous was the calligraphy part, because I have never done this before in cake icing. I practiced on the practice board, and subhanallah, it wasn’t too bad for starters. I thought I was going to do worse than that! Though I do think I did better on the practice board than on the cake. If it was a sheet cake it would have been somewhat easier.

 

 

The only thing that I wasn’t too happy about is the smoothness of the frosted cake. I could have done better, but we were short on frosting, so I had to make do. It was close to dinner time too, so there was rushing, and cleaning up to do. This is one thing I don’t like about cake decorating. I have to schedule it way in advance so it doesn’t run into lunch and dinner time. Anyway, we ended up with two frosted red velvet cakes yesterday. I have to make more frosting for Z’s cake in order to pipe some decorations on it, though I most probably will not color any of it. So it’ll be white, or at the most chocolate, from cocoa. For S’ cake, we need to add the royal icing flowers on it.

Z didn’t know we were making a cake for him. When I told him, he looked at me with the most joyous expression there is. His expressions have always been intense since he was a baby, especially since he has a speech delay. He conveys a lot through his expressions. A slow but sure smile literally grew on his face, and his eyes lit up, and you could just see the delight radiating from his expression. He kept on asking for the cake though after that and I had to tell him that it’s for tomorrow.

But since we’re celebrating S starting Taleem Quran, and since I am also making a cake for Z, I thought I’d make it an occasion for him too. I had wanted to make a cake for him when he graduated potty training, but now, I think, I’ll celebrate his Quran Arabic reading, so as to further motivate him, and to make it also in alignment with celebrating S’ Taleem Quran. I’m thinking of writing some Arabic words on his cake and maybe have him read them. That is today’s project, yet to be done.

 

Royal Icing Flowers

S made the red one, and I made the rose bud

I have left the arena of cake decorating for quite a while now. I used to endeavor in this. It was what I delved into as soon as I graduated. Well, after indulging in reading whatever I wanted that is. I took the Wilton cake decorating classes up to level 3. But, soon, my lifestyle changed and I had no time for it anymore, nor the patience. But, now that my kids are a bit older and more capable, I started revisiting this old hobby of mine.

S asked for a party for her starting Taleem Quran, and I am on a break right now, so I felt free-er to acquiesce to her request, quite happily too. It has been a while since I indulged in one of my creative arts hobbies. So we made the flowers with royal icing last week, on Saturday. I had thought that I still have the knack to make the roses, but I found out that I had lost it. I couldn’t make the rose anymore. So I had S youtube it, and she tried it. Between the two of us, she adjusted the consistency of the icing, and I tried making the rose, she tried making the rose, and we ended up with these roses to show for it, and very tired right hands.

a white rose and a yellow huge apple blossom

I had also forgotten how to make the rose buds, but after making a few, I kind of recalled it and we ended up with a bunch of pretty decent rose buds I think. Our plan was to make roses and rose buds. We didn’t really intend on making the other flowers. But when we found out that I wasn’t able to make the roses let alone show S how to make it, I told her to try making the apple blossoms because they are easier. So in the end we just experimented. N made her own art too, which she insisted I take a picture of and so I did. It looks like internal organs all put together in a work of ‘art’. Eww….

By the end of it, we were somewhat satisfied with our work. It wasn’t too bad. The colors are nice and some of the rose buds are nice and even the roses look fine with the leaves off setting their colors. I love the green that N mixed. Both shades are what my cake decorating mother would approve of for leaf colors. Olive green and moss green. The girls didn’t think it was that nice. N was trying to get a more light, whimsical green but ended up with these. I think she had fun mixing in the colors. I would too. Well, I don’t know when I can do this again with my busy class schedule, but this is fun while it lasted.