Caterpillar Birthday Cake

Hello my bento pals :) I hope you enjoyed your weekend :):)

I do not have any bento to be posted but would love to share this caterpillar cake I made for my youngest son's 3rd Birthday yesterday.

I only bake once in a while for my family, and decorating cake isn't really my favorite thing to do :P but I had so much fun on Saturday baking and decorating this caterpillar cake.

I got the idea from the internet, and I know my family love chiffon cake so much, so I was thinking on baking 2 pieces of chiffon cake and decorated into a caterpillar. It was a HUGE hit! the boys were so excited. A good friend of mine gave me quite a complement, that I out did myself on the cake!!

The texture of chiffon cake is like an angel cake, very light, soft and spongy, so even though this looks enormous, but for the whole caterpillar cake (frosting not included) only used 300 grams of flour, 300 grams of sugar, 200 ml vegetable oil, 12 eggs, and 1 can of coconut milk. I'll share the recipe and baking technique on my other cooking blog soon.

So here are some pictures, but keep in mind that I am NOT a cake decorator :P

First cut the cake into 2 pieces, and lay them to form a caterpillar like shown on the pictures above. Using sharp knife shape one edge and make it round for the head, cut another edge and make it sharp for the tail.
I baked 2 flavors of chiffon cake, one is the ultimate pandan flavor and another one is strawberry.

I used M&M, mini oreo cookies for the eyes and feet, some twisted candy for the antenna and feet, and some chocolate flakes for some dirt.
I was out of red food coloring, so I used plain butter cream frosting and sprinkled it with red sugar sprinkle for the caterpillar's head.

Here are some more pictures :

Okay, I  hope this would make up for my absence on making bento :P
Happy Monday everyone :):)

(#128) Caterpillar Bento and good news

Inspired by yum yum bento book, I prepared the caterpillar bento for the boys, I cooked the rice in some home-made chicken broth then added fresh parsley and cilantro, so it looks greener. I do this a lot coz my boys love it!!

Inside the box : leftover roasted chicken, sliced cucumbers, orange bell pepper, carrots, grape tomatoes and checkered apple.
Here's the picture of the other one :

Now for the good news :
Today marks the 1st anniversary of my bento blog, I can't believe I've been bento blogging for a year, I still remember how reluctant I was to get started, I was so worry about my English and this and that, but I am glad I did it!! coz I got to know many bento bloggers and get so many ideas, get inspired by them and learn more.
Before I did bento blogging I always post my bentos in my Multiply account which I set it up for my contacts only, so it was very limited and seems to be I was the only bento maker there. So this is great.

And what better way to celebrate the 1st Anniversary than received some bento presents. Special thank you to Kelly, I received the prize I've won on the Awesome Wilton Give Away :

And thank you hubby for getting me this :

 And also this :

And more to come ...LOL ... I hope ...*grind*

Y'all have a fabulous weekend!!! ^_^

Old bento pictures

I have no bento to be posted today, because I only packed the boys same O same O burger bento, and I did not even bother to take a picture. So instead I’d just go ahead posting some bento pictures from my old file, while refreshing my mind and hoping to get some new ideas for my kid’s bento in the future.

Let me start with this nasi goreng bento. We are all love nasi goreng! I make it almost all the time because it’s very easy to make. The ideal rice to be used is off course the rice that stays overnight (left over). You can, however make nasi goreng using some fresh made rice, but I would suggest putting the rice in the refrigerator for at least an hour. That way the rice would not be ends up too mushy.

You can throw almost anything into the rice, whatever protein and maybe vegetables you have in the fridge, seriously! So many times I make nasigoreng with some leftover fried chicken and maaan!!! My boys would go crazy for it! Making nasigoreng is my way to avoid wasting food, and basically that’s the idea according to Ming Tsai my favorite chef on foodnetworkTV.

For this bento, I made nasigoreng with some eggs and fish balls, it might sounds scary for some Americans but fish balls is a very commons ingredient to be used in so many dishes in Indonesia and many other Asian countries. It’s just like meatballs but it’s made out of white meat fish.

I personally off course love the spicy nasigoreng, but since this was made for the boys so I omitted the chilies. First I sautéed some minced garlic and chopped onion into a hot wok with just 2tbsp of vegetable oil (if you do not have a wok a regular pan would do the job). Then I added the fish balls that I cut into ¼ of each, after that, I added 2 eggs, scrambled it so it would not be clumped together. Lastly I add 2 cups of cooked rice and 1/2 cup of sweet corn, a little soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Keep stirring until everything mixed together and cooked.

I arranged the rice in one corner of the box, divided it with a plastic grass divider, next to it are some hotdogs that I cut into a flower shape, I put green pea in the center so it really would looks like a flower. Some grape tomatoes in between and pickle cucumber and carrots packed in a little dish bowl. Next to the bento box I packed some sliced persimmons sprinkled with a little honey and some chocolates kisses. Keep in mind this is Dylan’s old bento! Back then there’s no rule of NO sugar at all on the lunchbox.

Here are some of my other nasi goreng bento pictures from the past :

This one is just a simple fried frice with some eggs, fish cakes and sweet corn. On the next tier is banana cake and sliced navel oranges.

This one is also the same fried rice as above only I added some eggs omelet and I made a car with it. I use nori for the pavement and the red light pose. On the next tier is just oranges, vanilla cookies, fresh red bell pepper, and more omelet.

I got the idea to make a cattepilar bento from the bento book that I just got a while ago, I arranged some fresh cucumbers and carrots on top of the fried rice. I was out of lettuce at that time so the fruit tier looks so empty and I wasn't quiet pleased with the result.

This last one is the same fried rice as the other, I just packed it in the Mr. Zojirushi bento box. I put some teriyaki meatballs, steamed carrots cut into a flower shape and fresh lettuce underneath. On the other bowl I packed some fresh grapes, cherry tomatoes, sliced pears, and sugar peas. Last but not least cheezeIt!