Cookie Molds

I ordered some cookie molds a while back. Like two years back I think. And this weekend Ifinally used them. I didnt use them to imprint the cookie dough though. I used them to mold fondant to decorate the cookies instead.

I ordered the cookie molds from House on the Hill. Most of their molds are replicas of carvings from historic molds. They have some mold replicas from carvings as far back as the 1600s. Be careful if you visit their site. Youll be mesmerized by all of the beautiful designs.

The molds are traditionally used for Springerle cookies (you can see examples on their site) which Ive also been wanting to make. I didnt have all the ingredients, so I settled on decorating sugar cookies with the molds.

I used Bake at 350s sugar cookie recipe after trying her cookies last year at Georgia Pellegrinis Girl Hunter Weekend. The recipe is pretty perfect.

Its soft and firm enough to decorate on with royal icing and the recipe has two great pluses. 1 You can use cold butter which is great for me because I always forget to set it out. and 2 you can bake with it right after rolling. No need to chill first. Yay!

Oh and one more thing it tastes great. Thanks Bridget!

After the cookies are baked and cooled, it was time to get to getting.

I got some fondant out and rose gel food coloring.

You can mix your fondant in any color you like. Then work with a small amount at a time for each molded shape and leave the rest wrapped up tightly in plastic wrap. Press it into the mold or roll it smoothly over the mold using a fondant roller.

Holding the overflow/excess, gently remove the fondant shape from the mold revealing a beautiful design.

Then you can use a cookie cutter to trim the design to match your cookies.Luckily the heart mold was similar in shape to a heart cookie cutter I had on hand.

Handy.

Just repeat until you have enough molded shapes for your cookies.

This is the Amo Te Heart mold. But there are bunches more you can choose from.

Apply a thin layer of frosting to the sugar cookie and then place the molded fondant on top.
Gently press onto the surface and along the edge to attach.

Look at all that detail. Crazy!

Pretty cookies and pretty easy, too.

In addition to all the mold designs available, they also come in different shapes.

I used this round one to mold cupcake tops.

Wowzers.

Same process as above. Roll or press the fondant into the mold and then gently remove. Its helpful to have a fair amount extend past the shape so you have something to hold onto. That will make it easier to release the fondant from the mold. Start on the outside and work all the way around so you dont pull too much in one direction.

Now this mold was also similar in size to some graduated circle cutters I had on hand. Cutters I have used before to cover cupcakes in fondant. The mold has a border but the inside border is just the right size for the cutter, so I just removed the excess and used the inside section for the cupcake. Apply a little frosting to the center of the cupcake and gently press down the sides.

Voila. Fondant rose covered cupcakes.

Spectacular.

When I ordered the heart and rose molds, I also ordered this amazing roller.

But that will have to be for another day.

Hope you try this is was lots of fun. And try different molds and themes. There are so many.

And, If you want to use either of these molds to make the cupcakes and cookie! s here, heres what I used.

Amo Te Heart shaped mold
Heart-shaped Cookie Cutter
Sugar Cookie Recipe from Bake at 350

Double Rose Mold
Graduated Circle Cutters
Cupcake Recipe from Martha Stewart

Rose Gel Icing color from chefmaster
Satin Ice Fondant
Fondant Roller

Have fun!

Indian Food @ Restoran Sri Anandan Villas, Alam Damai, Cheras

In the papers last week, we read about the shortage of banana leaves hence banana leaf rice is now served on paper leaves in some restaurants.No such problem here at Sri Anandan Villas though, where the banana leaf rice is still served traditionally on a banana leaf!

Authentic banana leaf rice

More on the banana leaf rice later. Early January, I read another article about emerging food trends in 2012 (for UK if I'm not mistaken), and one of it was Malaysian food. Wonder how the Westerners will cope eating Malaysian food for breakfast? Hubby thought it was weird at first that we Malaysians eat rice and noodles for breakfast -- but now he's morphing into one of us too! LOL.

Roti canai happens to be one of our favourite breakfast food. Sri Anandan starts serving roti canai around 9am, so we only come here if we're wanting a late breakfast. The roti canai here is made fresh to order, which makes it taste much better than the ones we get at the mamak (which sometimes has been sitting around for a bit). Their curry sauce which you can order with the roti canai is really good as well, it has a sourish tinge and very flavoursome.

Roti bom

Curry sauce

I have also tried their mee goreng, which is quite decent. I still haven't found the perfect mee goreng in KL yet, used to get a really mean mee goreng from a Malay aunty in my hometown. Any recommendations?

Original lassi

Ice lemon tea

Teh tarik

We've been here several times for banana leaf rice as the restaurant is pretty clean and also air-conditioned during lunch, so it makes dining very comfortable. The vegetable options are nothing fancy, but I do find them very tasty. Along with rice, there will be three vegetables as well as poppadum with a rasam soup -- all served on a banana leaf. I like to drizzle my rice with sauces provided. I don't usually eat much rice for lunch but I find myself able to eat quite a lot when it comes to banana leaf rice! Must be because of the appetizing sauce, I think.

Tofu in spicy/sweet sambal

Bittergourd - I like!

Just normal choy sam but it taste really good for some reason!

The sauces to drizzle over the rice

Another must-have for us here when to go with our banana leaf rice is the mutton curry. It's ver! y delici ous, plus you get quite a lot of meat (some places give lots of bone or gristle) which is tender and flavoursome.

Opening times: 9am to 9pm.

Price: Reasonable.

Location: Restoran Sri Anandan Villas, Damai 8, No. 15, Jalan Damai Puspa 5, Alam Damai, 56000 Cheras, Kuala Lumpur. (next to KK Kopitiam and Food Court by the market/police station)

GPS Coordinates:3.057312, 101.746117

Gastro buzz: Brazilian chef Alex Atala

My CNY Day 3 From Sg Petani to Kuala Lumpur

Good morning Sg. Petani and it was the third day of Chinese New Year.Before all were awake from their sleep, the grandmother and others were already in Yong Lim's house to gather them for another day.Ho Lin & family.After failing to visit a Dim Sum shop due tooverwhelmingcrowd we went for alternative place, i.e. Restoran Fu Gui.

Here we were in Sg. Petani @ Restoran Fu Gui for Dim Sum.

Restoran Fu Gui serves good Dim Sum in Sg. Petani.

After our breakfast we visited a newly foundarchaeologicalsite at Sg. Batu near Sg. Petani.This archaelogical site was discovered in 2009 and had been verified as theearliestcivilisation of South East Asia.

Interestingly Sg Batu was discovered to be an iron smelting hub with several bricks funeral found. The process of of finding is still on going and hopefully more to be discovered.

Looks like Merbok has the richest record of early civilisation in this country, already Bujang Valley was discovered and more to come.A flow chart of study at Sg. Batu.No everyone is interested in such findings cos not everyone is Indiana Jones.....On our way back to KL we detoured to Ipoh to buy salt baked chicken & duck at this shop.We gave up the idea of eating everywhere was sardine packed.......

Even for a simple Tau Foo Fah, there was a long queue .... really ridiculous.....

Most of us were back to KL and decided to meet at our house instead of going out for dinner. We packed some food for the night.

The Tay's family....

Khek Yang & Charlene with Mr. Teoh Ah Geok.Teng, Evelyn & Ah NgiuJo and her favourite white.