Mahjong Cupcakes, Anyone?

Mahjong goes way back in history but I won't go into that. Someone else has already done it in Wikipedia. I first came into contact with mahjong was when I was still in Primary School. I used to watch my dad play with his friends. I got all excited with all that '碰' (peng), '吃' (chi), '扛' (gang) and '糊' (hu). It was till later, during tetiary education that me and my mates went crazy about mahjong. We made 'calculated' risk to skip certain classes (calculated because we have a certain quota for non attendance) and semester orientation to play the game. We would also play into wee hours in the morning. These days, due to work and family, mahjong kakis are so hard to come by.

Just a brief introduction to mahjong. It is hailed as 国萃 by the Chinese. The mahjong set consists of 3 suits (筒子, 索子, 万子), from 1 to 9, 4 tiles of each. 3 dragons (红中， 青发， 白板), 4 tiles of each. 4 winds (东，南， 西，北), 4 tiles of each. 4 seasons (春, 夏, 秋, 冬), 4 flowers (梅, 兰, 竹, 菊), 4 animals (鸡, 蜈蚣, 猫, 老鼠), 1 tile of each. If you '碰' (peng) all 3 dragons and some other combination, you will get 大三元. If you '碰' (peng) all 4 winds and some other combination, you will get 大四喜. There are many winning combinations like; 清一色, 一条龙, 么九, 平糊, 对对糊, etc. But ask any mahjong player, the ultimate winning combo is getting 十三么; that is to get 1 tile of 么 (1) and 九 (9) from each suit, 1 tile each from 4 winds and 3 dragons. Total, you will have 13 tiles on hand. However, to win, you need an extra tile (any 1 tile that is similar to what you have on hand) for the eye (眼). I have only encountered getting 十三么 thrice in my mahjong playing career. But each time, I didn't have the luck to win it. I think I have to stop here for now. I'm talking in mahjong and this is a food blog.

Friend A ordered Mahjong 十三么 cupcake theme for her mom and aunt's birthday. Both are diehard mahjong kakis (fans). Cupcakes are in mocha flavour with coffee swiss meringue buttercream. That makes them mahjong and coffee kakis. Makes perfect sense as playing mahjong through the unearthly hours, besides the adrenaline, you need some additional caffeine to keep you going.






















































All toppings are made with marshmallow fondant. Painstakingly 'engraved' and coloured with edible food colouring. I wanted to draw the tiles with edible food pen writer, but I crumpled the end product like I would with paper. Simply not realistic enough. I thought that 么索 (the bird), would be the most dificult part. That is before drawing the 白板 and 九筒.





































I have a couple more pics, closed up ones but I figured posting them all would take too long to load. I'll pass. I'm glad I jumped to the opportunity to make these when A enquired. I finally had a chance to touch my dear mahjong tiles after so many years.

*Note : No tiles were being harmed in the process.