Non-Alcoholic Pure Vanilla Extract

Salam! Hope to find you in good health & spirit :)

Do you know that 95% of food or products that contains vanilla are actually made of synthetic vanilla? Well for me, I was more surprised to find out that vanilla essence is actually synthetic 'vanilla' that has nothing to do with real vanilla. No wonder that on its own, it tastes awful.

After knowing this, I went about trying to find real vanilla extract as I heard that it does wonders to baked goods. 

I first found it in a Cold Storage mart and I did a double take when I saw the price; it was MYR 29.90 for a small bottle of a few ounces. But then again you cannot expect it to be cheap because vanilla is one of the most expensive spice in the world. So before putting it inside my shopping basket, I checked on the ingredients and again did a double take; it contained alcohol :( As a Muslim, I cannot consume alcohol and though I would love to use pure vanilla in my baking, I had to put the bottle of pure vanilla back on the shelf.

That night I went about the internet to find out more about vanilla and vanilla extract. I managed to find out so much more about vanilla beans and why it is so expensive (vanilla beans can only be produced when the vanilla orchids or flowers are pollinated manually by hand, so it is labour intensive) and to my delight, non-alcoholic pure vanilla extract can be made by combining food grade glycerin, a bit of water and vanilla beans. After letting it sit in an air-tight jar for at least 6 weeks, you will have your very own homemade pure vanilla extract.

I have since made two batches of vanilla extract and now awaiting for my third batch to mature by the end of November, and I have never used synthetic vanilla ever since :) I find that using pure vanilla gives more flavours and aroma to my baked goods. 

If you would like to purchase pure vanilla extract from me, I am more than happy to share it with you. However, do note that pure vanilla extract made using glycerin cannot achieve the same deep amber colour of those made using alcohol, but I compensate it by using more vanilla beans per litre of glycerin used. Anyway, they make great gifts too!

Sizes available and price (not inclusive of delivery charges):

200ml (approximately 40 teaspoons) - RM 30.00

100ml (approximately 20 teaspoons) - RM 20.00

To purchase, please email me the following details and I shall send you my bank account number and the amount to be banked in. Once payment has been confirmed, I shall send out the vanilla extract by Poslaju within the same day or on the next business day, insyaAllah :)

1. Name

2. Quantity (please specify size)

3. Address

Non-Alcoholic Pure Vanilla Extract - 200ml (MYR 30.00) & real vanilla beans

Birthday cakes for Minty's babies

My cousin Razmin or whom I love to call Minty recently celebrated the birthdays of two of her eldest children. Shown below are Aristocat's Carrot Walnut cake for little Sofea and Ben10's Chocolate Cake for big bro Zafran.

I couldn't come to the party so I had no photo of the children cutting the cakes but I do hope that the birthday kids and the guests had liked the cakes :)

Thanks Minty!

Carrot Walnut Cake with Cream Cheese topping - 10" square

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate ganache topping - 10" square

Red Velvet Cake for Didi

The beginning of Syawal is a celebration for Muslim after successfully completing a month of fasting in Ramadhan. However, nowadays the celebrations seems to be going on all month long and weekends are usually filled with 'invitations' to open houses. No complaints but sometimes I do feel robbed of a good rest on my weekends :)

Anyway, Didi, my high school friend was kind enough to order a Red Velvet Cake for her office's Aidilfitri gathering recently. The cake was not that leveled so I cut off the top and crumbled it up to be used for the decoration on top. Hope it turned out nice for her and her officemates.

Thanks Di!

Red Velvet Cake - 9" round

Hello again :)

Assalamualaikum!

It's been so long since I last post here~! I have been so busy these past few months and had so many things happening in my life :) Anyway, it may be too late already for me to wish it, but here it goes anyway: Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all... :)

In the short span of a few months, I've had my brother changed from a boy to someone's husband, gained a sister-in-law, took a big financial leap in my life and went for a few vacations. It has been the busiest 7 months of my life :) But all is good and I thank Allah S.W.T. for giving me such a blessed life.

Anyway, my sister-in-law's baby sister celebrated her birthday in July and her sis was kind enough to order a cake from me :)

Chocolate Walnut Heart-shape Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache

My friend Fish had previously ordered cheesecakes from me, so this time around she wanted to try out something different for her husband's birthday. She had requested for a Chocolate Walnut Cake, which I had never made before but knowing that I could also gain from doing something new, I accepted her order. Every order is like a challenge to me...


I scoured the internet for a good recipe, but could not find a good Chocolate Walnut Cake recipes, only Chocolate Walnut Brownie recipes. I could take a moist chocolate cake recipe and add walnut to it, but I'm skeptical if the light batter would be able to support the weight of the nuts, so I scrapped the idea. Finally I decided to try use my brownie like cupcake recipe and add walnuts to it. Alhamdulillah it worked and customary of my family, the test batch was 80% gone within 2 hours of it being served. It's a 1.5kg test batch cake, so now you know why I am surprised :)


Fish had given me a few samples on her preferred decorations and I took a liking to a sample instantly. I was also requested to bake a heart-shaped cake, so here's the final product...


Didn't look exactly as the sample given, but I hope Fish & Rudy had liked it all the same.


Happy Birthday, Rudy!

Chocolate Walnut Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache

Tahlil & A Small Gathering of the Supek Clan @Aunty Adi's

It's been nearly a month since I last posted! Not much has been happening lately, but I do bake occasionally for orders and to be placed in the office's pantry. Other than that the month of February has been quite slow paced.


Anyway, my aunty had a tahlil over at her place sometime this month and though there were many guests, many members of the Supek Clan could not make it :( 


Supek Clan you say? What is this Supek Clan?? Well, that's the term I used for the extended family on my mum's side. The matriarch of the family is of course my grandma, who was affectionately called Supek by my late grandpa, hence the title. Go figure! haha :)


Not knowing the number of invites and thinking that it would be just among family, I contributed about 40 cupcakes for the occasion. I had baked these little Red Velvet cupcakes in those lovely green souffle cups and coloured the cream cheese frosting slightly yellow. I was quite happy with the simple but cute result, but was skeptical whether it would be enough. My mum assured me that it would be, so off we went. We were surprised to see rows and rows of cars parked outside of the house and was even more surprised when we went inside. There were so many people that the front door was blocked; we had to use the back entrance.


It turns out that so many had brought desserts that day, so my 40 cupcakes were just enough for those who had space to spare in their tummy after the heavy lunch treat :)

Reddish cuties in their green 'pants' & yellow cheesy tops!

Red Velvet Cupcakes for Fakhariah

These decadent and popular cupcakes were ordered by my friend from secondary school, Fakhariah. I had modified the frosting slightly by incorporating fresh whipped cream in it to tone down the sweetness. The milky and sourish frosting complimented the slightly sourish cupcakes really well and I hope that Fakhariah (and her unborn baby :)...) had enjoyed these cupcakes.


Thanks Fakhariah & Azri!

Red Velvet Cupcakes pre-frosting. The cake turned out nicely :)

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Milky Cream Cheese frosting ready for delivery!