Happy Cup

Roast Pork with Spicy Caramel Apple

2012-01-09T01:18:00.000+08:00

I have been trying to post this but my old Google browser was outdated, and I could not get the Google Chrome installed. And trying to blog on my Macbook is another whole new challenge. Anyway the process was long and hard, but it is now sorted!!!

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I was watching the re-run of Ladies Nite (女人聚乐部 ) a channel U program when hubby and I were attracted to the recipe "Roast Pork with Spicy Caramel Apple" . It sure looked good, and we were totally sold when TV hosts Michelle and Vivian hugged each other and cried when they tasted the cracking delicious pork. J elbowed me to try making it but with the family vacation line up, nothing much I can then.

We left for our Christmas vacation shortly after the program ended that afternoon, but throughout the trip, my hubby and I have been talking about the roast meat...

Amongst the first things we did when returned to Singapore was to go supermarket to buy all the stuff required for the recipe.

It calls for copious amount of salt, but there's a warning that this salt is required to make the skin cripsy so I was caught between devil and deep blue sea. In the end, I went ahead with the original qty but did use a just slightly damp towel to wipe off the salt from the first round of marination.

The meat is very tender, and the fat is melt-in-your-mouth. The skin, as expected, is indeed very crispy but far too salty for my family. J joked that Michelle and Vivian hugged each other cos they need to hide their grimacing face after tasting the over-salty meat!

The caramel apple is a necessity here - the sweet and spicy balance the saltiness... but you know, it is darn unhealthy!

BTW, I googled and found that another method to baste the port skin with vinegar after the first 30min, then continue to roast until time is up. This way, we do not need excessive salt to get the crackling skin.

I will certainly try this method cos my family completely love this roast meat... I hope to share the results soon.

Roast pork with Spicy Caramel Apples

1 kg pork belly

1 tbsp salt (The recipe stated not to cut down the amount as it helps to make the skin crispy but I really found it too salty after using this amount)

1/2 tbsp oyster sauce

1/2 tsp five spice powder

1 clove garlic minced

Score the skin with a very sharp knife, or ask the butcher to do this for you.

Rub salt all over the skin. Mix the remaining ingredients together and rub it on the meat side only, not on skin or it will burn easily.

Leave it uncovered in the fridge overnight to marinate.

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp salt (again, the salt is important as it makes the skin crispy)

2 cloves of garlic crushed

1 star anise

1 quill cinnamon bark

1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped

1 carrot, coarsely chopped

Water

Remove the pork from the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for at least 30 mins (fridge very cold). Rub the oil and salt into the skin.

Use a deep roasting tray or oven proof container that fit the belly almost exactly. Add the onion, garlic, carrots, star anise and cinnamon to the tray. Place the pork on top and add enough water until the meat is covered, be careful not to cover the skin and fat layer.

Roast at 200°C for 90 mins. Let the meat rest for 10 to 15 minutes before carving.

Spicy caramel apples

3 green apples, cut into wedges (Green apples are tart which is great with the sweet caramel)
1/8 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper

Melt the butter with the sugar, adding a few drops of water if necessary.
Add the apple wedges and cook on moderately high fire until the sauce thickens, about 15 minutes. Be sure to stir occasionally otherwise will be overcooked.

Yummiest Cake - Lychee Martini from Pine Garden

2011-11-27T00:36:00.001+08:00

Lychee Martini was ranked as among the best cake in Singapore, with the likes of Sweet Secrets and Mezza9, in a Sunday Times column many light years ago.

I remembered then I rushed down to Pine Gardens in AMK, and went AGH when i saw the humble shop... uh well, my mum did say never judge a cake by the store :-)

It's must have been over 4 years (or more)... cos other than the memory of the adventure, i can't really remember the taste. Not that it is forgettable, but a baker's pride that only cares for what comes from her oven!!!

I was glad that I had the chance to re-live the taste on Friday night.

My ex-boss is finishing his assignment in Singapore, and his team organized a farewell party for him in a very nice restaurant. So, what has the cake got to do with a Dutch man?

This bag cake was a surprise for the organizer, PL, whose birthday falls in the same period!!! A few thoughtful ladies planned this, and had PL's favorite bag (accordingly she uses this 60% of the time... trust planners to be this precise!) immortalized in a Lychee Martini cake!

In my recent cake-venture, i am taught that fondant covered cake must be firm and dense in order to withstand the weight of the fondant. But this theory was scrapped here!

Pine Garden uses vanilla sponge as a base, which is moist and fluffy. Between the layers is the light buttercream infused with lychee. If there's any alcohol, none of us can taste it! I am assuming that they have macerated the canned fruits in some liquor like rum or limoncello, in which case, the liquor flavor can be made stronger by brushing the sponge layer with the leftover liquor.

My other complaint is that there's really too little lychee bits... the canned fruits should be economical enough for the baker to be more generous!

The covering is made with chocolate fondant which is quite yummy. I wonder if they are using the Pentinice Bakel fondant.

Looking at the pretty (and tasty) cake got me itchy to get back to serious baking and cake decor... Some day, some time...

Pine Garden's Cake
Blk 529 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10
#01-2369/2329
Singapore 580529
Tel: 6457 6159

Operating hours - 8:30am to 9:30pm (daily)
http://www.pgcake.com/

Homemade Caramel Popcorn

2011-11-07T21:35:00.002+08:00

Thanks for Sally's comment and to those who sent me private messages about the school bully. Like many things in life, this is one of those that we just have to learn to manage, like it or not.

My beloved sister took her family over this afternoon... and I was thinking hard what can I prepare in short notice. They love my cakes but little i can do when i haven't got the baking barangs-barangs out of those boxes!

I remembered reading a blog post on King Arthur Flour and so i set out to make the Caramel Popcorns!

Check out the blog for the step-by-step photo... this is really easy!

I used the microwave popcorn that i shipped back from England :-) So convenient!

Carol's Caramel Corn

Pop corn following packaging instruction, then prepare caramel syrup.

Here's my version of the caramel syrup:
1 cup sugar - brown is better, but white works for me cos that's all i have in my kitchen
1/2 cup of butter
1/4 light corn syrup - the Macdonald's pancake syrup works fine as a substitute
1/2 tsp baking soda

Direction:

1. Melt all the above (except baking soda) in a heavy bottom pot over medium fire. I used my Le Creuset Chinese Wok cos it would have enough space for me to stir in the popcorns. Trust me, you can do with 1 less pot to clean up after that.

2. Bring it to boil, stirring occasionally. Careful the syrup can be really hot. The syrup will darken, this is normal. After 5 min, turn off the fire, and stir in baking soda.

3. As you stir in the baking soda, the caramel will thicken and change color, becoming a rich golden beige. The baking soda acts as an acid to make it thinner, which will coat the popcorn better without the awfully heavy feeling.

4. Pour in the popcorns into the caramel (or caramel over popcorn if your pot is not big enough). Keep stirring until all the popcorns are coated evening. You need to do this as soon as the caramel is done because it turns into caramel brittle as it cools.

5. Once coated, turn it into a baking tray and leave it to bake for 30min at 100C, turning at 15min interval. The original recipe says 1 hour oven time but the young ones at home can't wait this long! This step is to dry out the mixture to give a better crunch. But i find that mine already crisp once the caramel cools so perhaps I will skip this step altogether next time.

And btw, someone shared that microwave can do the same trick without the hour wait. Simply dump the caramel corn into a large bowl, and microwave it for one minute. Stir, and microwave for one minute more.

6. Let cool and enjoy. It will be sticky when hot, but crisp wonderfully when cool!

A spicy version that you can try:

add 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp nutmeg and 1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper into the caramel mixture while it is cooking. That little bit of cayenne with the spices gives it the most awesome flavor, according to a baker who shared this variation in the blog.

Note: This portion of caramel is just enough for my pack of popcorn.

The toughest part after making caramel or boiling sugar syrup, is the clean up. You cannot imagine how much scrubbing is needed but i found a little trick that works - simply soak the pot and whatever utensils in water. If you wait long enough, you will find that all the caramelized lumps soften and dissolves into water. If you can't wait, just boil enough water in the pot over low heat.

B just asked when can I make some toffee banana... Ha!

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Updated 9 Jan 2012:
I made this again with brown sugar... this time round, i realized that the mixture takes longer to dry up. So the step in the oven becomes a necessity to crisp up the popcorns.

When I used the microwave, thinking to short cut the drying process as someone had shared, it has hotspot and burnt in those area. Do take note to use a lower voltage and turn more frequently if you are using the microwave. I just turned to the trusty oven to do the job :-)

School Bully

2011-10-11T12:46:00.004+08:00

It must be me... I felt like I just been home given the state of unsettleness! But when I glance at the date on the last post and the date it reads on my computer, I can't believe it has been a good 2 months.

The boxes are slowly disappearing. Yes, I mean s-l-o-w-l-y. To be fair,I don't mind unpacking. In fact, I love it! There's a clear beginning, an obvious work-in-progress, and a definite end game! What can be so crystal clear in life? The amount of efforts you spend on work ≠ promotion or pay rise. The amount of time you spend coaching your child's school work ≠ good results. Huh?!

I digress.

Back to unpacking - this is only but a small part of returning home. The first victim is B - There's a BIG adjustment that he had to make fit into Singapore's cookie cutter education system. Education is alot more fun in England, or many ang-moh countries. The play-based approach and flexibility is something that B had to sadly let go on the first day of school at BBPS.
He cried, but he learnt to adapt.

By the end of the first week in school, he came home with some bruises which we found out later that he has been kicked, pushed and punched by his class bully. We brought this to teacher's attention and the boy's parent called in.

What surprised me is that when I posted the matter on FB, many friends commented at their children had been a victim of school bully at some point. And this is happens too in good school like Rosyth. One extreme case shared was a P6 daughter of my good old classmate who had been so traumatised in school that she has been attending private counselling for the past 2 years!

And that got me wonder, with such behaviour so prevalent, why hasn't MOE taken a stronger stance? I am not saying that the English has the best policy per se, but some of their measures are really effective: they take a zero tolerance toward bully behaviour (which can be verbal or physical). Repeat offenders will be suspended from school until parents provide the written assurance to address the behaviour issues. This way, the parents will be involved in the child's development and not only the school working on it.

I think many bakers here are also parents - what is your experience in this?

PS: In case you are thinking, the boy in B's school - his parents didn't turn up. Grandma deputised but the punishment mated out for him was 'no sweets for the day'!

Home again...

2011-08-12T11:11:00.000+08:00

We are back home, finally.

After being in England for a year, we are back to the tropics. Something that we are looking forward to; J wants to get back to work, Sheen wants to have his cousins' company. And I like to be back with my sis and parents!

So it was an exiting time. A time to get back into a routine, see friends missed over the year, and look forward to the sunny weather and a fresh start.

But once the sea shipment arrived, my newness has worn-off. I have cartons, 127 of them, everywhere in my house. The pix below is just a tip of the iceberg!

I sure have to work hard to keep the positive attitude and productive energy going!!!

Playing Tourist at Venice

2011-06-12T10:09:00.005+08:00

I just landed in London after holidaying in Venice, and gosh, tired I am, but can't hide my excitement and thrills that i had to share my holiday pix!

If you have watched Angelina Jolie & Johnny Deep's The Tourist, you will know Venice.

What I didn't know is that the actual place is alot more beautiful then what I saw on the silver screen!

I wished i have smart suits, heels and coiffered like Angelina to live the scene. LOL.

Apart from the regular morning shower that dulled the sky, we were blessed with bright sunny day in the afternoon on days we were there.

Yeah, Sheen was so excited about McDonald's there... we were there for 8 days, and he grew so sick and tired of pizza, pasta and risotto. He is not a Mac's fan, but when you are desparate, you would rather opt for some familar taste.

BTW, there's only 1 Mac in the whole Venice. That's at Strada Nuovo. If you are taking the vaporetto (the water bus), alight at Ca' d'Oro and walk for 2 min. The price for a upsize meal is Euro 7.90 (~SGD16).

While in Venice, it is worth going Island hopping. Island like Lido, Murano, Burano etc, are all nearby and if you buy a tourist pass, you get unlimited bus and boat rides during the valid period. We paid Euro 23 per adult for 36hours. You can check out the full fare table here .

The magic of holidays in Venice is created by the over-the-top architecture, the ethereal, colourful Venetian glass and ubiquitous and fantastical masks. Go lose your way in the tiny street, riding a gondola down the Grand Canal (warn: this is expensive but a once-in-a-lifetime experience) and enjoy a glass of Prosecco on St Mark's Square!

Oh, the thought of it makes me feel like Angelina Jolie!

Spiced Nuts

2011-05-23T08:00:00.000+08:00

The other day when I was out shopping and picked up a pack of Almond with the thought to roast my own healthier version, using this recipe which i bookmarked long ago.

Spiced Nuts
(Fills 3-4 jars)

1-2 tbs vegetable oil
1 cinnamon stick
4-5 star anises
3 cup of raw almonds (or any other nuts like cashew)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
½ tsp each of powdered chilli, cumin and cinnamon spices

Method
1. Heat the oven to 160 deg C.
2. Heat oil in a wok together with cinnamon stick and star anises. When you smell the fragrance, turn off the fire and add salt and sugar. Add the raw nuts, stirring well to ensure even coverage.
3. Place nuts on an oven tray, spreading them out. Roast for 15 minutes or so. Keep a close eye on them as they burn easily.
4. Scatter powdered spices over the nuts & stir for even coverage. Switch off the oven but leave nuts inside for another 5min.
5. Remove and allow nuts to cool before storing them in clean jars. The nuts will harden upon cooling.
6. Wrap a Christmassy ribbon round the neck of the jars and you have a healthy gift to give away this season.

PS: I find it not spicy enough - will need more chilli powder and cinnamon to make a statement.

When Will wed Kate...

2011-05-02T07:12:00.005+08:00

If you are in London during in the past few days, you will know how crowded this England capital suddenly became! I felt like half the world is congregating in this already jam packed city. Despite many friends who tell me I am lucky to be in the right place at the right time, I think I rather be enjoy the city in peace...

1 think I do appreciate, of the wedding, is a Bank Holiday out of the deal!

I was out at Harrods yesterday, I can't help but feel just a little jealous observing all the indulgent Royal Wedding festivities. Look at how this shopping instution devoted all its window dressing to the royal couple:

Honestly, I think this is mroe suitable for a Bollywood wedding! LOL.

This uni-jack cake is my favourite!

Look at this... even the bus is not spared!

So, where were you on April 29?

Keiko's Japanese Milky Madeleines

2011-04-08T00:05:00.002+08:00

This is one of the few things I managed to bake in London... I only uncovered them while sorting thru my camera.

This is a very yummy cake - very fragrant and milky. The only deterring factor is that it requires several short shelf life ingredients like double cream & milk powder which can be quite wasteful to throw out the rest after 1 bake.

JAPANESE MILKY MADELEINES

What you need:
120g pastry flour (i use sponge flour)
20g corn flour
15g milk powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
15g honey
1 tbsp hot water
100g unsalted butter
50g double (heavy) cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
140g eggs (approx. 3 big eggs)
Pinch of salt
150g Japanese sugar or castor sugar (I used 100g)

Method

Preheat oven to 170 degree celsius. Sift together the flours, milk powder and baking powder. Combine honey and hot water in a small bowl.

Place butter, cream and vanilla in a bowl and heat over a double boiler until butter is melted. Set aside.

In another bowl, beat eggs and salt with a whisk. Add sugar, place the bowl over a double boiler and mix well.

When egg mixture is warm, use an electric mixer to beat on high speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to medium and continue beating for about 1 minute. Add honey and mix well.

Gently fold in flour, milk powder and baking powder mixture with a spatula. Add cream and butter mixture and fold until just incorporated.

Pipe/spoon batter into prepared baking cups. Bake for about 20-25 minutes until madeleines are light golden in colour. Cool on a wire rack.

Store in airtight container at room temp for up to 5 days or up to 1 month in the freezer. I made these when I had visitors over my place, so they were gone on the same day!

Pretty meimei said she loved these madelines!

Heart Cake

2011-04-04T00:47:00.002+08:00

My mind starts to jog when i see this beautiful heart cake at Crummb, my fav baker.

Go to I am Baker, for tutorial how to make this.

I am starting the clock; shall see when I get down to some serious baking!

TWG Macaron

2011-04-03T11:39:00.007+08:00

It must have been the longest break for me! I have been shuttling between Singapore and London since Jan... and perhaps a short (and hoepfully, sweet) post will bring back my momentum.

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I finally get to TWG @ION Orchard last night - enjoyed a pot of their famous Samovar Night tea and an easily forgetable dessert. Then went home with the highly-raved TWG macarons... see, how pretty the box! At S$2 each, these are far cheaper than what I'd paid for Pierre Herme in London's Selfridges. These macarons are soft & chewy. In fact too soft, I think, to give any contrast in the crispy shell & soft fillings. However, the unique tea infusion wins me over. I enjoy the delicate tea aroma & flavour that is so beautiful, though I have to admit that macaron is not for me -too sweet for my standard.

Before i go, gotta share this quote from Manoj Murjani, TWG Owner: "At TWG you're not just buying tea, you're buying into the experience of the brand that promotes the lifestyle that is evocative of luxury."

Why not, if you can afford the luxury!

TWG Tea Salon & Boutique
ION Shopping Mall
2 Orchard Turn
#02-21 Singapore 238801
Tel: 6735 1837 Fax: 6736 1837
Opening hour: Mon to Sun - 10am to 10pm

5 things to bring from London (to Singapore)

2011-02-21T01:12:00.008+08:00

We had our Chinese New Year all planned away back in Dec. Coming from a traditional chinese family, it was to be the first CNY without our family as we were quite clear we ain't keen in the 14hours flight!

So we hooked up with other expats family to have the big celebration "our way". And had all the necessary stuff prep for the big bang. Yep, big bang, if only I didn't receive a late request from my boss on a business trip to SG.

Well, let's just say there's quite a bit of self interest that i gladly accepted the assignment.

It was less than a week before the trip, so we basically pick up anything in Sainsbury which we can think can interest our Singaporean folks

After we arrived, and gauging from the respond of the recipents, here's what we gathered will be great stuff to bring from London:

1) Scottish Shortbread.

This is basically just butter cookies, but my niece who is a big fan says those from UK beats those from the local supermarket.

2) PG tips tea bags.

We saw some leftover xmas pack on the shelf, and they are the same price as the standard ones.

PG tips was first launch in UK, and believed to aid digestion. I do not know how much truth in the health benefits but i love the revolutionary freeflow pyramid teabag. The bags were developed using unique 'webbed' fibres that allow the water to reach the leaves faster, resulting in a quicker brew. So now you don’t have to wait as long for your cup of PG tips! These are all the technical stuff I read from the box.

This tea is great for home made teh-tarik, I must confess!

BTW, this is not commonly found in Singaporean's supermarket, and if by any chance you do, I was told the price is probably a few times more than it does in UK (it was less than £5 when I got this in late Jan 2011).

3) Lemon Curd

Lemon Curd to English is like Kaya to Singaporean. It's a great cultural exchange. Personally I am hooked to the tangy yet creamy taste!

4) All things Chocolate.

Most people (inluding me) thinks London is expensive, But believe it or not, the chocolates cost a fraction than it would in Singapore.

I checked out the prices of these After Eight in Singapore: we paid £2 (~S$4) while it goes for S$11 in Cold Storage!!!

5) The Nespresso

If you are a coffee lover, you will know this expresso machine.

If you are not, you still got to have this in-thing sitting pretty in your kitchen or living room. As long as your guest can see!

I found out about this good buy when my cousin annouced in Facebook of his latest acquistion. He got this exact model in SG for S$728, while I paid £199 (~S$400)! I am not qualified for the VAT rebate; if you do, you get back another 2o% at airport.

When in SG, I dropped by Ion Orchard and found out that even the coffee capsule cost less in London - I paid about £3 (~S$6) per pack while it retails for S$10 here.

As for this cute Hello Kitty, I am sure it can find it in Singapore, but it I simply can't resist when I saw it in the aisle!

Is there anything else that you would lug from London?

Best Laksa in London

2011-01-27T08:18:00.001+08:00

We have been quite fortunate to meet quite a few other expats family during this period. They are very helpful in giving us the practical advices to help us settle in.

This restaurant, Hare and Tortoise was recommended at one of the many wine & dine sessions. After being away from home for so long, it didn't take long for us to head their for some comfort food.

The restaurant is fairly simple and basic, which means hurried (and sometimes appalling) service is expected. Nonetheless this is fine by us as our sole objective is the food... which fortunately didn't disappoint in our few visits. It serves a combination of Malaysia/Singaporean food + Japanese dishes.

Each time, I will go straight for the Laksa (~£7 or S$14)

The laksa is served in a big deep bowl containing hearty rice noodles with a well spiced coconut curry broth. It has generous slices of chicken breast (Londoners fav, btw), squid & whole prawns. The only thing i dislike is the dried garlic slice sprinkled on top. It seems to have been sat in the store for quite long to develop that nasty taste.

J will usually go for the Char Kway Teow (fried flat noodle) - no picture and I blame it on the yummy noodle that J attacked as soon as it is served! It has such good wok-hei!

The little one is not left out - he was enjoying his tamago (egg) sushi. Decent but I must say that it is over priced (at least to me!) at £2.50 (S$5) for 2 pcs.

All in all, we pay about £10 per person (with green tea); a price rather reasonable in London.

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Hare and Tortoise
Open 7 days a week
Sunday to Thursday : 12noon to 11.00pm
Friday & Saturday : 12noon to 11.30pm

373 High Street Kensington, London W14 8QZ
Tel: 020 7603 8887
Email: kensington@hareandtortoise.co.uk

Homemade Condensed Milk

2011-01-25T06:47:00.005+08:00

There are several things that I take for granted back at home. Mum's traditional coffee made from "socks" and sweetened with condense milk is one. Condensed Milk is another. Both of which I deeply miss when i am in London.

I remembered my disappointment when I couldn't find the familar tins of condensed milk in the local store. At least not till months later. I recalled with excitement when I finally found Carnation condensed milk in the supermarket - I facebook-ed about it relentlessly about my (over)joy! Then, promptly stocked up lots of that.

One day, I was going thru Mary's blog, and found her post on homemade condensed milk! I bookmarked her post for the longest time as I try to run down my "inventory". Finally got to do it last week :-)

The homemade version is alot more economical and flavourful! The flavour, I think comes from the milk powder & butter, so it helps to get the best you can get. The only thing I am trying to understand is the very minute oily spot floating on my coffee, coming from the butter. But this is only the appearance... there's no smell of butter, for sure.

If you are stranded in a foreign land like me, and need some taste of home, do try making this condensed milk yourself. Easy Peasy!

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Homemade Condensed Milk
Recipe from Mary Moh

Ingredients
125g butter
2C sugar
1C boiling water
4C skimmed milk powder (or less)

Put the butter and sugar in the blender and then pour in boiling water. Turn on the blender, and beat at lowest intil well combined.
Add the milk powder 1 cup at a time, blend well after each cup until all is finished. It may look very liquid but will thicken when it cools down.

If it is too thick, it will be difficult to tip it out of the container when left in the fridge. So I used 3 cups of milk powder.

If you need inspiration for recipes using condensed milk - check out here.

My First White Christmas

2011-01-04T06:51:00.006+08:00

Oh what fun, is to lie on the snow. Ask my favourite niece!

When I first arrived in London last summer, my colleagues gave me advices how to bruce myself for the bitterly cold winter but categorically told me forget about the snow. Snow in London is like snow in Sahara, the wise one said.

Haha, lucky lucky me. Last month, there were 2 snow fall in London. The first one in early Dec - when my family decided we should go to Austria Alps to experience the snow. After few days of enduring the snow in Salzburg, we saw snow falling when our returning plane arrived at London Gatwick Airport!

The 2nd time, when i had my family of 11 over for holiday! We were in Paris when I read about the snow alert on Dec 18 from Met Office. I do not know if I should trust the weather forecast but I shared the alert with my brother-in-law who is so keen to let his kids experience snow.

So when we all came back to London on Dec 18, all eyes on the sky before they draw their verdict if they the Met Office is worth their salt.

The first snow flake ascended on us on that Fri afternoon. But so little that there's only muddy patches here and there. Then it snowed thru the night. When we woke up the next morning, you can see the glistering eyes staring at the thin film of snow in the garden.

Snow knew they can't disappoint my honourable guests; it snowed heavier. By late morning, we had pure white sheet when the kids had lunch by the garden. Boy, we got it!

All the parents dressed up the kids in full attire, and were out in full force. See how much fun they are having!

PS: Dot and all, thanks for coming over. Thanks for bringing us so much goodies that I missed from home, and most importantly, thanks for the 2-week fun we had together!

Happy New Year

2010-12-30T07:24:00.005+08:00

I have grossly neglected my this little blog. I know. But truth is that I am so busy with work these days, and by the time i get home with a tired body, i only have enough energy for a quick meal and some family chores. Social life is non-existence on weekdays. Leave alone baking.

Come weekends, things turn for the better. I am always busy exploring the Enlgand countryside with my family together in our little Poppy. Oh btw, Poppy is our new additional, a red mini cooper, my dream car.

Ok, enough of showing off!

Many friends have emailed or Facebook-ed me to ask if the snow in London is as bad as it has been report in the papers... well, I leave you to figure out from this pic.

Before I go, wish everyone who is still holding on to the handle of my Happy Cup, have a very warm and wonderful 2011 ahead!

When the tube is on strike

2010-12-07T00:47:00.000+08:00

Last week, many of the tube services were suspended due to the strike. Needless to say, i can't get to work, and I didn't bring my notebook home, so I had a day rest at home.

The usual Singaporean in ME would have wailed how ridicules it was - how can the country allow anyone to be on strike causing so much disruption!!!

But looking at the right side, I will be happier if I accept the fact, and deal with the consequences. In the case, the consequence is take charge of the kitchen for the day.

I gladly be - i served the simple stired fry lettuce, briased soy pork & potato, baked beans with spam. Sheen was so happy to have me at home when he came back... for that, I have no qualms for anymore strikes!

A New Home, A New Start

2010-12-06T07:14:00.001+08:00

I have slacked again.... taking a long break between post. But all for the better - did some 'soul searching', seen a few places, met some people to finally come to terms with my stint in London.

After all we have been thru you will see why London ain't a bad place after all - it has milder weather compared to some part of UK and European countries. We get the best (probably, since i have yet to travel to all European cities) chinese food, and the variety of food offered in London Supermarket is unbeatable! The most important of all, we have no language barrier here - when everyone and everything here is in English. Imagine my anguish when I was seated in a restaurant in Munich staring at all the German text... not to mention signages in tube station and everywhere else.

Another thing that helped to settle us is that we have stopped living out of serviced apartments. Yeah, after over 3mths, we have moved into our 'own' place. I say 'own' cos it is not really our own, but a rented place but it is good enough to make us feel back home again. We spent much time and efforts (+ financial damages) to decorate the place... now we are proud to have our HOME!

Thanks to all the advices when I whined painlessly - because of your sharing, I was able to reflect and mull over my circumstances. My family and I are now playing happy tourists every weekend visiting the beautiful countrysides in England. We have a long list to go thru, and not sure when we can move on to explore the Scotland... haha, slowly we will get there, maybe next summer!

Happy 6th Birthday, Sheen

2010-11-14T22:06:00.000+08:00

Can't believe my last post was almost a month ago!

Quite a few things happening in the last 1 mth. We have moved into a new place... this time is for good, I suppose, since we have the lease signed for 1 year. I tend to get very excited whenever I come to the topic on this house, but I shall save that for the future post. :-)

With the shipment delivered to my place just few weeks before Sheen's birthday means I am able to keep up with the tradition of baking him a birthday cake!

Unfortunately in the midst of unpacking, we ran out of storage space, so I had to rummage thru a few cartons to pull out things that I needed for to make this birthday cake! It was alot of hassle but gald that all went well, and was able to present the cake just the night before Sheen's celebration in school.

This is the first time I was absence at his birthday celebration but was glad daddy took some pix so that I can share the joy!

Sheen with his teacher, Ms Traylor. Interestingly I learn that in England, they sing the song first, then go to the birthday cake. Unlike in SG where we sing the birthday song at the birthday cake.

Sheen with his best friend Ahmed.

Sheen with his classmates! There are 22 in the class, 21 nationalities... how diversifed!

Jubilant Sheen with his birthday present!

Stir-fry Noddle in a Jiff

2010-10-21T00:51:00.000+08:00

Home cookign can't get any easier than this - I pick up these 3 items from Waitrose for £2.50, and had them cooked within 15min.

All i need to do is to heat up a wok, add 1 tsp of oil to fried the veg for 5min, then add sauce and noodle and dry until they are heated thru.

They have quite a wide choices - you just choose 1 from each category

noodle :egg, sweet chilli, beehoon
stir fry sauce :black bean, sze chuan, sweet and sour, chinese style
vegetables: mushrooms, chinese veg, etc

I have to say that they taste great too: the noodle still have some bite, and the sauce is neither too salty or taste artifical. The best part is that it has lots of vege, I love the fibre!!!

Jason thinks this is a great idea... and I suspect I am going to have to content with the similar noodle in days to come. Agh.

Italian Herb and Sundried Tomato Breadmix

2010-10-15T00:16:00.001+08:00

I pick up this pack of breadmix from Sainsburys in a whim. I remember previously bought something similar from Singapore for triple the price!

It is convenient if you are living in temporary accomodation like me.... without the usual baking stuff.

The pack come in 500gram bags and almost contain every thing you need. I simply added olive oil and water then knead by hand... just follow the instructions on the back and you can't go wrong.... or so I thought.

First the instruction say rub oil with mix until it "resembles fine bread crumbs", - well, I am sure i measured the amount of oil correctly but I never get to that stage. In any case, i am skeptical about the purpose of this step. In the science of bread making - the oil will coat prohibit the formation of the glutten. I dun recall having adding oil as the first step in making bread back at home but who cares, i continue with step 2 even though is it far from fine bread crumbs.

Next, the instruction says to knead for 10min. Ok fine. Then cover and wait for 1 hour. I do not know if they mean 1 hour for the 16C weather in London - my bread didn't rise sufficiently until 3 hours later. Even then, I had to place the dough next to the electric heater.

Once it is proofed, I briefly knead againm and leave the dough to rise AGAIN for another 30 minutes!!!! Nope, 90min to be exact.

By the time, the bread is baked, I was dead tiring. Fortunately the effort was worth it - the bread is light and soft. It is deliciously tasty with the bits sun dried tomato and flavour of olive oil.

The only problem is that the loaf doesn’t keep fresh for long. 24hour is the max. After that the bread is dense and heavy like Lady Gaga's makeup!

Until my shipment of all the baking equipments arrive, I will stick to the Tesco 95 pence loave which is fresh, soft, and effortless!

Eating at Home

2010-10-12T23:28:00.001+08:00

Despite the high cost of living in London, there's actually things that we cheaper than we have back home. Like flowers - these are sold like groceries in the supermarket... each bunch cost about £3-6, depending on the variety.

I was so happy to receive them from my little Sheen - of course he does not have the financial means to buy the flowers, but he was the one pick it out and told daddy to pay when both of them were making their way home after his school.

The little one tried to surprise me when i came home from work... blindfolded me before leading me to the kitchen where the flowers where "hidden".

That's not the point of this post, but these are little pleasures in life that make parenting a sweet journey!

After dinner last evening, we strolled to the nearby supermarket, and saw this Tesco Finest* Meal Deal for Two which only cost us £10. Pretty good deal - we can pick 1 Main, 1 Side, 1 Dessert & 1 Drink and the drink includes wine :-)

May I present the dinner menu:

That's what we have:

The portion may not look big, but it is really substantial - we didn't manage to finish our plate, and so the dessert was kept as snack for Sheen's school next day!

The food is fresh, and honestly, as good as what we get from some restaurants. I got everything heated and served on the table within 20min!

This is going to be a perfect choice for us as the dusk getting earlier and temperature dips faster than you say cold. Like the squirrel stocking up the accorns for winter, I see us stocking up these ready meals hahaha!

Why am I here?

2010-10-12T07:02:00.005+08:00

This pix was taken in summer. Sheen was begging not to walk anymore... cos his feet couldn't take it anymore.

When chatting with my colleague this morning, I suddenly recall this interesting conversation with Sheen when we first arrived -

Boy: why do we need to walk so much? can we take our car?

Ma: this is london, our car is in Singapore.

Boy: then why do we come here?

Yes, sometimes ma also wonder
why we leave our nice new car in SG while we have to depend on the unreliable tube here.
We left our spacious apartment behind to live in this tiny flat.
I ditch my nice and cosy office to be in a workstation.
J put his cushy well paid job on hold to be full time father.
i can go on and on... but what purpose will it serve?

I know I will probably be stoned to death by the English if they see how much all the complaints i have. To many colleagues, £2300-a-week prestigous address (never mind how small) & £22K international school is big deal.

But there must something more than that facade.

OK there is probably a couple good reason to come in the first place. I should go back to jog my memories of the initial dreams of coming here, and continue to chase that dream.

It hurts to think about what we are losing out in our home country but hurt only last as long as we allow them to. If you continue to drag the home cultue around, you cannot enjoy the new experience, like toilet paper stuck to the shoes, or so a wise man said!

For now I have to help myself to get out of that tailspin, and get my family to enjoy the ride with our spirit of adventure!

PS: do drop me a note or 2 if you have anymore wise advice!

Apple Pie

2010-10-10T05:57:00.002+08:00

I have been thinking hard about the fate of my this little space since arriving in London. To some, moving to London may seem like a glamourous exciting time, but for us, settling in a new city has been a challenging task.

Those who have been to UK will know how (in)efficient this place is. Initially we thought its just us moaning meaninglessly. But after meeting up like-mind expats community in London, I realise this is just some reality that we have to learn to cope.

Other than issues we need to overcome in the process of relocations, we are so excited about the country that we had all our weekends and hols all planned; On days I am working, I am busy chatting with the UK folks to find out good places to visit and eat. On days I am not working, my family and I are so busy exploring the city, inside and outside London.

As a result i have a longer "to-visit" list than "to bake" list.

To be honest, i barely cooking or baking these days. If not for the extra apples that we have hand picked from the fruit farm , i doubt i ever get down to have my first bake in London!

Just had to bake this cos i wrongly got the bramley apple (which is not very good for eating) - it tast very "green".

Fortunately it couldn't be any easier to make - I used the ready filo pastry (pix below) from Waitrose. Btw, my current apartment is just above Waitrose, so I have to ditch my fav Sainsbury for now!

There are other types of pastry like puff or shortcrust pastry which are more common, but according to the website, filo pastry is healthier with less fat/butter being used.

EASY APPLE PIE RECIPE
Recipe adapted from here.

Makes 1 6" pies

2 eating or cooking apples, (I used bramley) - removed skin and core.
4 sheet of filo pastry, thaw if necessary
55g butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas 6.

Core and slice apples

Melt butter and brush the tins or moulds. .

To make each pie, brush 4 of the cut pieces of filo with melted low-fat spread. Press the first sheet into the base of the tin, then arrange 3 more sheets on top, at slightly different angles, so that you get points of pastry around the edge of the pie. Alternatively, trim or fold in the sides.

Arrange the apple slices in each pie and crimp the edges of the pastry to cup the fruit.
Mix together 2 tbsp low-sugar apricot jam with 1 tbsp unsweetened orange juice until you have a smooth syrup, then brush this over the fruit. ( i skipped this step as i am not keen to buy a jar of jam just to use few tsp but if you have it gives the pie a shinier look)

Sprinkle some slivers of almond for texture.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until the edges are lightly browned.

Off to School

2010-09-16T08:31:00.007+08:00

Sep 2. Sheen and his parents have a bittersweet time getting ready for school.

Sheen was really excited… Of course he would; he sees himself getting ahead of his friend in Singapore. You see, he is a year-end child, who is always the last to celebrate birthday in the class. It doesn’t help that he is small built and always being called a baby by his classmates. You can imagine how his elation when he learnt he is going to be a primary 1 boy, whilst his kinderland classmates still struggling with the kindergarten curriculum!

Oh well, maybe that’s not a very good reason for Sheen but nonetheless we are happy that he is looking forward to the school days and being a “big boy”!

As for J and I, we are thrilled that he is going to be in a new, challenging, and fun environment. His classmates come from all over the world (there are 43 nationalities in the school) so it is going to be quite an experience for him.

The hardest part for J is that his days of waking up at 10am is over. Sheen needs to be up and ready for school bus pick up at 7.20am. In the first 2 days, J went to school with him in the school bus, and made his way back thereafter. A couple hours later, he had to make his way to school when Sheen’s lesson ends at 3.30pm. The to-ing and forth-ing tube journey is not so fun, J groans at the end of the day.

Oh well, I will cut some slack for this man who is too used to getting about in Singapore in his precious little Toyota!

Living in a new city is a new experience. Attending school in a new country is going to be another new experience, and one certain to enrich our life in different ways

Cookie's Boarding Guide

2010-08-31T03:32:00.005+08:00

Dear Friends

Since I moved here less than 6 weeks ago, I have received 3 guests staying over at my apartment. Thanks for your companionship and friendship, I love to host you and want my family to enjoy having you around as much you do.

However it is extremely important for me and my family to maintain some sanity as we see our lovely guests come and go. So if your family name is not Tan or Ling, the following house rule will apply. I humbly asked that you agree to the following T&C before you make any application:

Unless you are someone who survive on air and water, pls do not apply if you have a daily budget of £2. While we are not looking for any financial benefits of your stay, we are not quite prepared to finance your holiday (i.e. 3 meals a day+free chauffering+whatever you have in mind).

Though we are not running a B&B (Bed and Breakfast), we are more than happy to have you join us for some home-cooked meals. When you do get invited, you are not expected to bring wine or flowers, but it won't hurt if you offer to wash the dishes after the meal. Even a simple gesture of bringing the empty plates to the basin will be greatly appreciated by all of us at home. We have no maid. Period.

You know, this is a home. Not a hotel. I do not mind staying up a little if you are arriving late. But what would you do if you have a guest who tells u she is arriving at 2am (and still subject to train delay), and it is a weekday night when you and your child need to leave home at 7am.

If you think I am too petty or too mean to make these requests, I will gladly help you to book a hotel. I'll probably lose a friend or a relative, but whatever it takes to keep a sound mind!

Chicken Balti

2010-08-25T06:10:00.001+08:00

Balti is actually the name of the cooking pot and serving dish. It is pretty much a British-style type of curry, meaning it is not spicy at all. Living out of a service apartment, I have the provided-Ikea pot as a substitute.

Instead of gathering all the spices, I used the ready-to-use Balti sauce that I picked up from my favourite supermarket (for only £1). It tastes pretty yummy with a right blend of sourness and slight spice! It is a very appetising dish.

I used chicken wing for the dish but any other meat like lamb or chicken breast works as fine - wing is cheaper, that's all. In my case, it costs about £3 to whip up a hearty and satisfying meal.

Chicken Balti
Feeds 2

Ingredients:
8 chicken wings
1 large lime
2 tbsp plain yogurt
sesame oil
1 large yellow onions, chopped

1 night in advance:
Marinate the chicken in the lime zest and juice and yogurt overnight.

To cook:

Heat the sesame oil in a wok or pot and fry the onions until turn translucent.
Toss in the marinated meat and cook for 15 to 20 minutes over a moderate heat until cooked through.
Pour in the jar of balti sauce.
Perfect with naan bread, or basmatic rice.

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Ginger Chicken (炒姜鸡)

2010-08-23T04:04:00.006+08:00

If you have came to London before you know exactly how costly it is to eat out. However, it is fairly cheap if you can cook your own meals as there's an array of items that you can get cheaply from the supermarket.

Chicken wing is one of those good value; last week when I shopped at Sainsburys - i was surprised to see that the fresh (not frozen) chicken wing goes for just £1.70/kg. By comparison, the chicken breast is exorbitantly priced at £14/kg. I asked around, and found that the British does not like anything that has bone, never mind which taste better. Haha, that explained why even the KFC here has boneless chicken in their menu.

One man's poison is another man's meat, so i gladly buy what the brit doesn't want. The first thing came to mind as I was in the aisle was to cook Mary's Chicken and Ginger Stir-fry which i read from her blog recently.

It reminds me of my mum's 姜葱鸡(chicken with spring onion and ginger). Since the spring onion is quite ex (well, for that matter, all asian veg cost a bomb here), i skipped that, and just make do with the ginger. It is also costly but I reasoned that since it can be kept for at least a week or 2, it makes sense to buy ginger instead of spring onion if i can only choose 1.

The below here is what I did but i believe each of us have our own version.

-----------
The portion below feeds 2

Ingredients

8 pc chicken wings
1 yellow onion chopped
10 slices ginger, shredded
cooking oil

Marinade
2 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp chinese cooking wine (or XO/brandy)

Method
1. Stir fry ginger and onions in 2 tbsp of hot oil till fragrant.
2. Add in chicken pieces and fry for about two minutes.
3. Add in the rest of the marindae + 1 cup of water and let it boil for a while.
4. Cover and turn down fire and let it simmer for about 30min or till gravy thickens. Add salt to taste.
5. Serve hot with white rice and enjoy.

Life in London

2010-08-06T06:43:00.010+08:00

Life in London is slowly taking shape.

Our air shipment has approved. We are all adjusted to the timezone, no more waking up at 3am. We are all starting to love the nice cool summer. We are even getting used to paying £12 for a plate of fried rice!!! I still remember when we first went to the supermarket, J and I couldn't stop our exclamations over the prices here!

Now, we've stop the mental currency convertion, and that kindda help us get by with little less stress. So much about climatisation!!!

Amidst the high cost of living here, we still managed to find some good buys. Like the pair of Clarks that I pick up last weekend. My cheapest Clarks, ever!

When it comes to sightseeing in a new city, 1 cost saving tip thing I learnt from my mum is to just board a bus, and let the bus take it anywhere. Alight when you feel like it, and continue the journey as you wish.

It is certainly far cheaper than taking the tourist bus tour. I paid £1.20 (with oyster card, a stored-value travel card in London or £2 if paying cash) per trip. If i had gone with the guided Big Bus Tour, I would be £26 poorer!

There are quite a few really impressive buildings that we came by:

Big Ben

Can't remember the name. Anyone?

Natural History Museum

Of course, there's also House of Parliament which is such an imposing architect.

My work place is just next to London Eye, I took this pix on a quiet cloudy morning before the tourists flock here:

J also start to try his hand at cooking. This is the first meal he has made in his life. It's instant noodle cooked, drained and served with fried egg and fried sausage.

Sheen was astonished that dad can cook, and gave him 2 thumbs up! Way to go, J!

Green's Chocolate Cupcake

2010-08-02T06:41:00.005+08:00

I baked these chocolate cupcake just before I left my matrimonial home.

After the packer's left, I found this box of Cake Mix which i deliberately kept with me. And I really wanted to bake it. Shoud be easy with cake mix, I thought. So I started to organise the stuff I need:

eggs - checked
corn oil - checked
mixing bowl - shipped.
muffin pan - shipped

Instead of the mixing bowl, I found a relatively big soup bowl. Not quite big as the mixing bowl should be, but I will make do.

Muffin pan. Just use the paper pleated cupcake case lah. Haha, no luck it is also shipped. After rummaging thru what's left behind are stuff that needs to be thrown or given away, I found a pack of silicon cases sitting neat and proper in a box! :-)

Happiness is when you get to bake at the end of a hard day work!

PS: I used nutelle for the frosting on top.

So Long, Finally...

2010-08-01T23:05:00.008+08:00

July was a terrible month.

I had been living like a nomad in the last month. I moved from 1 place to another every week. To be precise, 6 moves in 4 weeks!

From my apartment, to my in-laws place, to the Grand Hyatt, to London. Even within short period of arriving London, I am currently living in the 3rd apartment.

It started from early July when my stuff needs to be shipped - the packer came in, and within haf a day, everything in the apartment is gone. It was in a rather unliveable state (except I manage to squeeze in 1 bake ... haha, i will come to that later).

So we moved to my inlaw's place as a transition before we move to London. Sheen had a few crumpy days with granny's place, so we decide to move into the hotel.

Lucky for us we had a nice 2 bed-room suite in Grand Hyatt that was right for my family. There's even space for my sister's family to have a staycation!!! I love every bit about the place, location, interior, facilities etc, only it was time to get to the airport.

When we arrived at London, we head straight to a hotel cos the serviced apartment which we wanted was not available yet. The problem with visitng London in summer is that the time is so right that you have to compete with a million others for everything. That includes accomodation. The suite is not avail, so it was another few days of camping in a tiny hotel room with 9 strewed luggages!

Finally we got the apartment we wanted.

This time round, we happily settle in the nice and cosy place. Also, there's enough room for my friend who will come visiting soon. Soon we discovered the internet in that apartment was not working, plus the washer which we have specifically requested for was conspiciously missing. After discussing with J, we decided it is time to move again.

We have equaly challenge with the current place - there's not a single powerpoint in the 2nd bedroom. I do not know how anyone can live with this! Haha, but we concluded that in London, dun expect 十全十美, so unit 110 is our home until our sea shipment arrives in a month's time when we have to move again!

Till then, I am keeping my fingers crossed that everything turns out well for us in the next couple weeks!

Another backlog...

2010-07-16T01:09:00.001+08:00

This is another backlog from May...

May is a busy month. My family has quite a few tauruses and geminis in this month, and I am more than happy to bake each of them a cake. The only problem is that I tend to bite off more than I can chew!

I had a darn busy day to bake but was too late to back out the promise, so I made a simple sponge cake with fresh mango filling which is Teng's favourite.

The rest of the decor was left to his parents, aka Icing Room! Look, they are having fun!

... and doing a pretty good job!

All kids love birthdays, don't they?

Happy Birthday, Kai Teng.

Steamed Pau - 莲蓉包

2010-07-04T15:40:00.001+08:00

It's been a while since I pick up this packet of lotus paste. I used to think that we use the same type of lotus paste for mooncake and for the pao but obviously I was wrong. So when I saw this packet that was meant for pao filling, I grabbed a pack... and it sat in my fridge until now I need to clear the fridge before we leave SG.

My sister and brother are taking their family over for a swim last evening, so the grand plan is to have the piping hot steam bun ready when they are back from the swim. Imagine holding the scorching hot bun when the body is shivering... Agh, good plan.

Only that I didn't get the timing right. The pao was over an hour late... and the first tray only ready when they are having dinner. Haha, just in time for dessert!

Luckily my family is always supportive and ~~finish up~~ praise eveything that I make. I only keep 2 for my phototaking today (will be uploaded soon).

------------------

Basic Yeast Dough
Recipe Source: cookingmomster

Ingredients:
500gm pau flour, sifted ( I use Blue Key Brand Pau flour )
6gm instant yeast (I used 11g)
100gm sugar
50gm shortening (I used crisco)
250gm water

Method :
1. Mix instant yeast in the water. Sprinke some flour (from 500g) over it. Wait till it is frothy (about 15min). The orginal method provided was to dissove the yeast with sugar and water. But I am a little skeptical so I followed the my same old method. Her method may also work, so it could be just a personal choice.

2. Mixed all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour the yeast liquid. Mix well with a spatula (or your hand). Slowly work the shortening into the dough. knead until it is smooth and elastic. I used a little more than 250g of water but it all depend on the type of flour and few other factors. So "feel" as you work the dough.

3. Leave the dough to proof until it doubles in size. Cooking Monster divide into small piece then proof. Again, I think it is a personal choice.

4. Deflate the dough and divide them into 40gm piece (you can get about 18 portions). Flatten it into a small round disc. Place some lotus paste onto the centre and pleat the top. Place each dough on a piece of baking paper. Set aside and let it prove again until double its size. Estimated about 10 minutes.

5. Steam pau with high heat (with rapidly boiling water) for about 15 minutes or until the pau is cooked. Serve hot.

------------------

Notes:

I added a few drops of Lemon Emulco (from Phoon Huat) to make it the bun pale yellow. This also gives a light citrus flavour.
The lotus paste for pao is softer and "wetter" than those for the mooncake. It is not as sweet as the mooncake lotus paste.

Watermelon Vodka Cooler

2010-06-27T12:59:00.007+08:00

When the weather was unbearably hot last week, I seek solance in a big big watermelon. It was way too big, and my stomach too small... and lucky me found this old recipe from an dated Her World magazine for which I can use up all the balance watermelon!

I got down to make this right away and keep the jug in the fridge. It was amazing I managed to stay sober that afternoon!!!

You can also replace watermelon with rock melon or strawberries. Just don't use apple and banana cos they turn brown really quickly.

I love this drink - frothy and refreshing in a humid afternoon!

-----------------------

Watermelon Vodka Cooler
Makes 2 tall glasses

4 cups red watermelon cubes (without skin)
6 tbsp (90ml) vodka
2 tbsp fine sugar (I skip this)
Juice from 2 limes

1) Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth.

2) Pour mixture thru a fine mesh sieve (this is to remove the watermelon fibre, you can skip this step if you dun mind some roughage in your drink)

3) Serve it very chill.

Blueberry Cake

2010-06-25T15:52:00.007+08:00

I thought I was going to run thru all the past bake and put them up, but I found that my memory really sucks... I can't recall anything surrounding those bake, and i simply not quite inspired to put up the post if I cannot recall the circumstances.

This afternoon I was longing for a warm mantou, and I knew I have a box of bun flour to use up before i move out. But. Where is the recipe?

I totally forgotten that my favourite recipes and folders have been cleared into boxes by now. Luckily I have few books which were intended to be remain in Singapore

Malaysian Baker, Kevin Chai, has a book where all the cakes can be whipped up without using any mixer. Though this is named Blueberry Cake, I think it is more like muffin than cake.

BlueBerry Cake
Source: Easy Stir n Bake Cakes, Kevin Chai
yield: I get about 5 muffins

100g plain flour
20g nestum (i used quaker oaks)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
80g castor sugar
80ml corn oil
150g blueberry filling ( I used 120g fresh blueberries)
100g canned pineapple (I omit this)

1) Combine flour, nestum, baking powder, baking soda in a mixing bowl.
2) Combine eggs, sugar and oil. Stir into flour mixture together with blueberries and pineapple (if using) until well blended. Pour mixture into small paper cup.
3) Bake in preheated oven at 175C for 25-30min. Leave it to cool.

Tokyo Banana

2010-06-17T03:15:00.004+08:00

Last night my kind sister nudged and reminded that I have long neglected my blog. Haha, lest I know there's at least 1 person in this whole wide world interested in what I write.

With most things being packed up for the shift, I hardly bake these days. Not that I have the time anyway. I remembered that I had quite a few things that were baked early this year, but never been blogged so I took few min to go thru my folder. And the very first photo I saw was this yummy banana cake which my buddy D brought back from Tokyo.

D told me this is a very popular souvenir in Japan - many people lug this home for their friends and relatives.

Each piece is shaped to look like the banana, and individually sealed, which is convenient for the modern urban people like us but a no-no to the environment. Haiz, but who is complaining!

Beneathe the wrapping is a ultra light chiffon (or is it sponge?) cake with banana cream filling.

The banana cream is delicious, a mysterious yumminess... The scientist in me wondered if it is made with real banana or just flavouring simply becos real banana will turn black in few minutes. To find the answer, I involuntarily reach out for another one, devouring after another, in my feeble attempt to reach a conclusion.

Soon enough the box is empty, and I am even thinking of ordering some on line and have then shipped to Singapore... hahaha, but the shipping cost is exorbitant!

D suggested that I made my own version which I think I would need years of research... but thanks for even thinking that I have the skills and knowledge to replicate this airy yummy stuff in my humble kitchen!

Thanks D for the "discovery" in Tokyo, and be sure I will send you a box if I succeed.

London Calling

2010-06-03T05:05:00.005+08:00

I gone MIA again.

This time I was put on a west bound flight right after I returned from my family vacation at Club Med. I was expecting to have a nice warm summer in London, just like the sunny Cherating I basked with my family the week before.

But I was so so wrong, I had a miserably cold summer this morning. For tempearture of 16C, I was shivering all the way from hotel to the office. Lucky me it was a short 3 min walk!

Here's some pix taken at this trip:

nice new lounge at the Terminal 3!

going for healthier choices... or rather wanting to look classier snacking on fruits. :-)

Most ppl I know hates the airline meals, but I am among the few rare species that really enjoy the food served at 40,000 ft!

Buckingham Palace, London

Parliament Sqaure, London

The Millenium Eye, London.
taken this pix from my hotel window.

I was pleasantly surprised that the room is actually quite spacious.

You know what I did in the 13+hour flight? Listened and watched Jerry Yen through and through!

Happy Birthday J!

2010-05-27T01:38:00.007+08:00

J does not like cake. He finds the cream more "yucks" then "yum", so this birthday I thought a birthday cookie will delight him.

I used the usual chocolate chip recipe, and baked it in the Pooh mold. Nutella is used to paint the eyebrown etc... really simpler and faster than baking a cake which will not be appreciated after all. :-)

This celebration means alot to us - I am grateful to him for putting his career on hold so that I can fulfil my dream to live in a the angmoh city! I am not good in saying anything mushy... just want to borrow this part from my fav drama "Down with Love" :

"...能够遇见你认识你喜欢你爱上你

感谢我每滴眼泪... "

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Will post the recipe shortly; am having problem with my word document now :-(

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Updated 30/8 with recipe:

Modified from here :

Chocolate Chunk Cookie

2 cups (260 grams) all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (170 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups (210 grams) chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Place one oven rack in the top third of the oven, and one oven rack in the bottom third of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
In the bowl of your electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy (about 2 - 3 minutes). Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat in the vanilla extract.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and beat just until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Roll the dough into about 1/4" thick. Press the mould over the dough, and remove the excess. ALternatively, put some dough inside the mould, and use a spoon to flatten out the dough, and fill up all the edges.
Bake the cookies for about 15-17 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through the baking time.
The cookies are done when they are light golden brown in color and just set. They will still seem a little soft but they will firm up as they cool. Remove from oven and let the cookies cool a few minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to cool.

Nigella's Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins

2010-05-21T19:37:00.001+08:00

Finally, I am back to my blog.

You see I have been really busy getting ready to move to a new city soon. Trying to stuff a 1600sq ft apartment into a 20 foot container is killing me. I had to go thru all the junks that I have collected over the 8 years, deciding if the item should be shipped, given away or just dump...

In addition, I had to manage a handover to my colleague, onboarding for my new job, running around gathering the daunting list of documents for the visa application.

I am exhausted at the end of the day, leave alone baking or blogging.

I ask for your forgiveness. I lied. Yes I should be busy packing up, doing a orientation for the poor chap who has to take over my work in Singapore. And yes, i should be busy with the visa thingy. But truth is, i have done little in those are where I should have.

What is taking up all my time and energy is the silly Happy Aquarium in Facebook. First I played the game using Sheen's account... then slowly I realised that I need to have more "neighbours" to help me get ahead in the game. So I played with my account, Hubby's account etc. I even went to the extend to research what type of fish helps me make more profit etc. All in the name of a silly virtual pets!

Yo. Absolutely time waster. And I ought to be ashame of myself!

It must be between the fish feeding that I managed to find time to make this muffins. These are the leftover raspberries from my niece's birthday cake which needs to be used up before it is gone for good!

I picked muffin cos it takes very little time to prepare. Simply fold in the wet ingredients into the dry. Bake. Done.

Tartness from fresh raspberries complements very well with the sweet white chocolate. The colour goes very well too!

Enjoy, while I get back to tend my tanks!
------------------------------
RASPBERRY AND WHITE CHOCOLATE MUFFINS
Recipe from here

INGREDIENTS
300g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
150g golden caster sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
225ml milk
50g butter
approx. 100g raspberries
approx. 110g white chocolate
some muffin cases

METHOD

1. Pre-heat oven to 200/gas mark 6
2. Half the raspberries and chop chocolate into large chunks.
3. Sift flour and baking powder into large bowl.
4. Stir sugar into flour mixture.
5. Melt the butter (I find this easiest in microwave for approx. 30 seconds)
6. In separate bowl crack the egg, whisk in the vanilla extract, milk and melted butter.
7. Stir the liquid mixture into the dry mixture.
8. Fold in raspberries and white chocolate (Using a metal spoon is best as this avoids most damage to raspberries.) Be careful not to be too rough, as raspberries will be easily damaged.
9. Cook for approx. 30 minute or until muffins are risen and firm.
10. Enjoy best warm, but careful for hot chocolate!!

Rush Rush

2010-05-09T00:24:00.000+08:00

I know I have been missing for too long... for reasons I will explain in my later post.

For now, I wanna share this raspberry cake which we had for my 3-yo niece's birthday a fortnight ago!

This cake was made in record time. I started baking on Saturday morning, and in between I took Sheen to his swimming lesson and cleaning him up afterthat. It's a wonder I managed to get everything ready when daddy came back to fetch baby and I at 11.30am.

Happy birthday girl Si-Ting with her favourite cousin on her left:

The cake is a 3 layer sponge cake with fresh raspberry filling:

My brother told me his girl loves strawberries, and I was suppose to make just that. The last time, I bought the strawberry 1 week in advance which gives plenty of time for them to turn moldy. So this time, I am smarter: i happily went to supermarket on thursday... All in all, I went to 4 supermarkets in my precinct... Can't believe that no one has any strawberries on the shelf!!!

In the end, i bought raspberry... haha, at least the colour is the same :-)

Holiday I - Tian Tian Seafood

2010-04-16T23:41:00.004+08:00

I went up North in the past week with my family in tow. Armed with a GPS and a well-fueled car, we went to hunt for this "ulu" restaurant that is over 20km away from our hotel. This simple restaurant was introduced by my local colleague at my last trip... we supposed to meet up again to have a nice meal there but he was unfortunately ill at the very eleventh hour. So we were left to venture there on our own.

Apart from the 2 cemetries that we past, the journey is quite pleasant.

This is the restaurant menu:

We ordered stir-fried sliced fish with spring onion (薑蔥魚片), 300g of steamed prawns(清蒸鮮蝦), oyster egg (蠔蛋) and green vegetables (菜心).

Fish, prawns and veg are great - very fresh. The cooking is very home-style, which my family loves. The oyster egg is very special - it is crispy type. The only other place I eaten this type of oyster egg is at Beng Hiang, a local hokkien restaurant. But if you are expecting the big fat oyster that is commin here, then this may be a wee bit of disappointment.

The total bill came up to RM64 (~S$28), including drinks.

There were a few more dishes that we are keen to try, but the lady boss kept telling us 4 dishes was just right for us. 谢谢你, 老板娘!

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Restorant Tian Tian Seafood
Kuala Lukut Chuah
71960 Seremban
Tel: 06-668 1233, 016-926 3881

Chicken Soup for the Soul

2010-04-09T23:58:00.000+08:00

I was feeling a little blue with the daunting thoughts of living in a brand new city shortly. For some it may thing it is a dream comes true. For me, it was more jittery than excitement. And trust me, i am still looking for loophole how I can myself out of the decision I made in haste.

After stumbling upon Mary's blog, I spent hours reading thru all her dated posts and, boy, I was glad I did. I felt rejuvenated and empowered like I just walked out of a session with my life coach! Only that it didn't leave me a cent poorer! Ha.

Aside from feeding my soul, I also picked up a good recipe that fed my stomach well!

Since I have only oranges in fridge, I use that instead of oranges. Here's my version of the orange cake:

Simple Orange Cake

Recipe adapted from here

125g butter

grated rind from 2 big oranges

1C castor sugar*

3 eggs

1/2C milk

1 & 1/2 C self-raising flour

1/4C orange juice (I used the ready-to-drink type)

3 tbsp poppy seeds.

Method:

Put everything (except poppy seeds) into a mixing bowl and beat until smooth and changed in colour. Fold in poppy seed.

Pour into a tin lined with baking paper and bake at 180 degrees Celsius for about 40 minutes or cooked. It’s cooked when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. You can dust with some icing sugar or pour syrup over it.

Syrup - I read from The Cake Bible that syrup helps to keep the cake moist and tender. Simply use water/orange juice + sugar to make simple sugar. Cake that has been basked with syrup also keeps better than those without. If you are not serving the cake to kids, you can also basked with Cointreau or Grand Marnier - I used this - I love liquor in my cake!
* Sugar - I reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup since I used sweetened orange juice (ready-to-drink type).
Poppy seed - I only added 1 tbsp in the cake... that why you do not see many "spots" in my cake. I am gonna triple the amount next time round!

This is a very easy recipe for beginners, and you have only 1 bowl to wash! A simple yet reliable recipe.

If I must complain, I think the orange flavour is too subtle. Maybe I will need to use more orange zest.

Cheddar Cheese Cupcake

2010-04-08T00:04:00.001+08:00

I had been wanting to use up the balance cheddar cheese but have been sitting on it. My excuse? No good recipe.

Well, I found a couple of recipes which are largely based upon a pound cake. I do not like the heavy dense type of cake.

Just before the cheese going to past the shelf good, I decide to improvise a good butter cake recipe.

I packed a few for Sheen's tea break. He came home to tell me that his Kiffer (his classmate) said there are worms on top of the cheese. "I know he said this cos he wants me to let him eat the yummy cake! His mummy dun know how to make this."

That's why motherhood is a never give up job! I gladly slave my life away for my baby.

Most kids love cheese. Hope you try cake this for your baby too... it is so moist and tender. Your love ones will thank you for these cuppies!

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Cheddar Cheese Cupcake
170g unsalted butter, softened
180g castor sugar
200g self rising flour
1 large egg
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
150ml evaporated milk or dairy whipping cream
90g of cheddar cheese, finely grated

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Prepare cupcake cases/muffin pan.

Using a mixer fitted with paddle, on medium speed, cream butter and sugar until fluffy for about 2 minutes.

Beat in egg, egg yolk, vanilla and golden syrup until well-combined.

On low speed, add flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with evaporated milk/whipping cream.

Switch mixer to medium and beat for 10 to 15 seconds, just until batter appears uniform.

Gently fold in 80g of grated cheddar cheese.

Pour batter into cupcake case and sprinkle balance cheese on top.

Bake for about 18-22 minutes, or until it a skewer comes out clean. Do not overbake.

Notes:

I usually use salted butter for butter cake cos I find that little salt actually bring out the flavour better than unsalted butter. However unsalted butter is preferred here cos the cheese has pretty high salt content already.

Cheddar cheese is those comes in block. A blue box that comes under Kraft brand.

Baked Donut

2010-04-05T00:58:00.000+08:00

I bought these donut pans as I was planning to bake some donuts (you know that the usual donut are deep-fried right?).

The first trial didn't turn out will - though the pan has been lightly greased, i had a hard time to remove the donut nicely from their cavities. Agh, these donuts have U.G.L.Y. bottoms!

Hope the next attempt goes better. Wish me luck!

芒果西米露 Mango & Tapioca Pearls Dessert

2010-04-04T01:54:00.001+08:00

The last time I made 杨枝甘露 I only used 1 segment of the pomelo, saving the rest in the fridge. Pretty being forgotten, and ended up in the bin.

This is now the thai mango season. The saccharine sweet and frangrant thai honey mango is so toothsome!

So this time round I made a simplier version, leaving out the pomela. Awesome dessert. My family loves this!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Mango & Tapioca Pearls Dessert 芒果西米露

Ingredients:
Mangoes ~300g,
Mangoes, puree ~200g,
Sago 100g
Marigold or any Mango Drink or mango yougurt 500ml
Evaporated milk 100ml
Sugar, if need

To make:
prepare sago: soak rinsed sago in a pot for 30min. Add it into a big (I mean BIG) pot of boiling water. You need a big pot cos the sago will expand thrice the volume when done. Leave it to boil until the sago turn translucent, off the fire. Run the cooked sago under running water. Drained and set aside. (see notes * below)

If adding sugar: Dissolve the sugar in evaporated milk & mango juice.
Put everthing into a big pot. Chill well before serving.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Notes *:I re-post the points on cooking sago here cos my colleague told me her's turn out to be soft and mushy:
1. do not soak for more than 30min. It will all turn mushy if too long. Can skip this step if no time, its ok; will just take a few more minutes to cook.

2. The water must be boiling when adding the sago, otherwise it will again turn all mushy.

3. The pot must be big – I use my tefal wok to cook 100g of sago. Besides having a large surface area, the back base also makes it easy for me to check if the sago has turned translucent.

4. Once it turn translucent, run it under cold/tap water to stop the cooking. This is to ensure the sago maintains the QQ texture.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-02T23:30:00.001+08:00

Hot Cross Buns are a seasonal yeast bread traditionally served on Good Friday. Like pineapple tarts to Chinese New Year. Tang Yuan to Winter Solastic.

The usual hot cross bun is made with spices like ground cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves and has lots of raisins or other candied fruit.

Sheen & daddy don't like the taste of a real hot cross bun. So I did my own version - using my favourite recipe here with custard filling. Ya, it is more like a pudding bread.

I only added the symbolical "cross" on top of the buns using the custard mixture (see C below) after the 2nd proofing.

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Pudding Bun

(A):
~800g bread dough, of your choice.

(B) Filling:
100g instant custard powder
250g cold full cream milk

Combine the 2 ingredients and mix well.

(C) Topping:
Take 50g of (B), mix with 1tbsp of plain flour.

Method:

divide bread dough into 40g each portion. rest for 10min. roll into round shape and rest for 5 min.
flatten the dough with hand, wrap sufficient filling. Seal well.
arrange the dough in a baking pan. proof until the dough double in size.
Just before baking, using (C) pipe a cross on top of the bread.
bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 20min.

Nigella’s Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chips

2010-04-01T02:36:00.001+08:00

(pix from Nigella Lawson)

This recipe comes from an author whom I really like in my early days of baking. These days, I rather look at her less cos I was afraid I will soon end up with her generous size one day!

Well, I think it is difficult for anyone to resist piling on weight if you have a fantastic cookie recipe like this one here. It is so rich that you may think you are eating chocolate! Of course this is what you get when you have almost half a kilo of chocolate in a 150g-flour cookie dough!

These cookie are pretty awesome if you are chocoholic... it is so intense, you can't stop at one. Just good for me, but some of my colleague think it is chocolate overload for them.

Nigella’s Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chips

125g dark chocolate, minimum 70% cocoa solids
150g plain flour
30g cocoa, sieved
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ teaspoon salt
125g soft butter
75g light brown sugar
50g white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, cold from the fridge - I omit this
350g semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 170’C. Melt the 125g dark chocolate either in the microwave or in a heatproof dish over a pan of simmering water.

Put the flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl.

Cream the butter and sugars in another bowl. Add the melted chocolate and mix together.

Beat in the vanilla extract and cold egg (if you are using), and then mix in the dry ingrdients. Finally stir in the chocolate morsels or chips.

Scoop out 12 equal-sized mounds – an ice cream scoop and a palette knife are the best tools for the job – and place on a lined baking sheet about 6cm apart. Do not flatten them.

Cook for 18 minutes, testing with a cake tester to make sure it comes out semi-clean and not wet with cake batter. If you pierce a chocolate chip, try again.

Leave to cool slightly on the baking sheet for 4 -5 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack to harden as they cool.

-------------------
Notes:
I did not reduce the amount of sugar in this recipe cos the chocolate I used is unsweetened & is very very bitter.

Heirloom Sugee (Semolina) Cake

2010-03-22T23:46:00.002+08:00

First it was Tiger Wood. In our backyard, we've got ~~Jerk~~ Jack Neo. These scandals had got me wondering secrets that people keep.

Haha, lucky for my friends, I am only interested in their kitchen secrets.

That day, I was chatting with to my malay colleague... and not sure how the subject went to sugee cake. I said "Yucks", relating an experience I had with the cake after a baking class. I still have the recipe that was handed out but let's just say I am more than happy to forget about cake!

In any case, I have to say that Sugee cake is either a love or hate affairs. No middle ground.

My dear fren, in her feeble attempt to convert me, offered to give me the recipe that her mum have perfected after decades of baking. "This cake is one of her best seller", R said in a very determined tone.

She added her mum uses Planta (a margarine), not butter, to make this cake She swears the cake tasted better than to the one using pedigree butter Lurpak! I have never been a great fan of margarine, so I stuck to my guns.

That is, yesterday, when it was raining cats and dogs on a Sunday afternoon. Can't think of any exciting activity to do on a wet day, so I took out this recipe (with a little skepticism though) and decided to give it a go.

After 30 mins in the oven, I smiled, and knew I am going to thank my dear colleague the next day!

This is the richest, most flavourful cake I have ever baked. Its crumb is so moist and tender. The grittiness from semolina flour adds interesting bites! Even J who does not usually like cakes, can't resist a second helping.

Curosity got the better of me; I took out my workshop recipe and list all the ingredients on an excel spreadsheet to find out what makes this cake a gem.

Basically they contain about the same ingredients, using solid fat (either butter or margarine), self rising flour & semolina flour for structure, castor sugar to sweeten, almond meal for flavour, eggs for leavening and some liquid (one using milk while the other using water).

As for the method, the workshop recipe first mix semolina in butter for the flour to soak up the fat. Egg white and yolk is beaten separately before they are folded together with all the dry ingredients.

My friend's heirloom recipe uses a simply creaming method before folding this into a meringue.

From layman point of view, the difference is really minute... if you count the little more butter, less almond meal, 1 egg yolk and evaporated milk as their key differences

My dear fren, if you are still reading this, I have to apologise to you. I can't post the recipe here, but if you are keen, I gladly bake you a loaf. Just let me know, k.

Farewell Cupcake for Princess Riesia

2010-03-21T23:48:00.003+08:00

I have not been baking much. Not for the erratically hot weather. Not (so much) for work. I am now hooked to the taiwanese drama 就想賴著妳; a modern Cinderella story between a cold hearted lawyer and a clumsy nanny. Very brainless plot, 101% right for my over-worked brain!

While most of my colleagues are discussing the K-drama, I will partake my lunch in silence, with a plan how to find time to catch up those episodes that I have missed for some silly reasons.

If not for a promise made to my fren, I wouldn't have moved my butt to make these cupcakes. These cupcakes were for a small farewell party in her daughter's, Riesia, Shichida class.

I didn't know it is so difficult to find these individual cupcake case. I went to SKP. Then to Phoon Huat. Finally got them at Lee Bee. But when I got home, found that 8 out of 10 pieces had crack lines. Tsk, so it's another trip back to Lee Bee to exchange them which was fuss free, fortunately. But my luck ran out; I found that I lost my transit link card during the hassle and bustle.

Aiyah, to console myself, I tell myself that the person who picked this needed it more than I do. So just let them enjoy the rest of the balance $35 value lah! *heartache*

Yummy Yoghurt

2010-03-19T01:37:00.002+08:00

Someone gave me a pack of this Easiyo which is used for making yoghurt right in your kitchen. Only after buying it she realised that she also needs to buy this yoghurt maker which she reckoned it is more economical to just buy the yoghurt off the shelf... so I get to play with this packet of yoghurt powder.

I managed to make them in my backyard without the so-call Easiyo System. If you are also in the same predicament like my pal, this is want you can do:

Boil 1L of water, and fill into the thermal flask. Leave it to cool until temperature dip to 50 degree C.
Add the packet of easiyo yoghurt powder into the flask, and stir lightly.
Close the thermal flask, and leave it undisturbed for 8-12hours.
If the yoghurt still looks watery after 12hours, continue to let it ferment until it becomes thick and creamy.
Once it is creamy like the commercial yoghurt, pour yoghurt into a clean airtight container and store in fridge.
Consume within 1 week. It is normal if you see a layer of water on top of the yoghurt (that's whey). Just stir it into the yoghurt... remember what don't kill you makes you stronger! Heehee. You do not get whey in commercial yoghurt cos they added stabiliser to keep them emulsified. Yeah, homemade is best!

It was a perfect dessert for me to spring clean my intestine after all the rich and sinful food from CNY.

Here I added some fresh golden kiwi & muesli for a healthy treat! Yummy!

too simple to be good...

2010-03-18T16:46:00.000+08:00

With the little success I had with the previos rolled cake, I went on to try make another rolled cake for chinese new year lunch with my former colleagues the next day.

This is another recipe from the book "Okashi". It has very simple ingredients - flour, sugar and egg. On a workday night, simple recipe is all I can handle.

I had a punnet of blueberries and sweet korean strawberries in my fridge:

Unfortunately, the simple recipe gives very simply disappointing results.

First, the cake sticks to the baking sheet badly. I had a hard time trying to separate the cake from baking paper... and despite doing this very slowly and carefully, I still have spots of cakes on the paper, and the ended up having a terribly pokey surface. It would have been better if I rolled the browned surface out, but as I have already rolled the cake while was hot, I am not able to roll them in a reverse direction without breaking the cake.

Then the cake contains neither butter nor oil. While it this makes it a healthier option, it means the cake is best eaten on the same day. Over time, it dried abit and the cake got crumbly with slightly rough granules.

In the end, I decided not to embarass myself with this less-than-perfect cake. I packed this for my breakfast for the rest of the week!

Mickey and Minnie Cookie Party Pack

2010-03-13T01:59:00.002+08:00

I made this for a friend - it's for her daughter's birthday celebration in school on Monday.

It took me 20min to make the dough, another 3 hours to roll, cut and bake them. When finally done, I decided to make some extras for the just-in-case.

So there goes another 2 hours. By the time I finish up packaging the first batch of cookies into the individual bags , it's 3am.

The next day, I thought just a little more to go. *Scream* See...I do not know how some of the fondant have flatten out overnight???

Oh man, I had to spend another few more hours to make bake, roll and cut... All in all, I took over 12 hours for less than 20 packs of these. I really need to be more efficient!

After all the hard work, these smiling faces make me really happy!

执子之手, 与子偕老

2010-03-05T01:55:00.001+08:00

Here's more pix taken at my brother's wedding:

My brother with his pretty bride.

Sheen completely adores his pilot uncle.

My proud moment - the cakes get to share the couple's auspicious spot.

Sheen receiving an ang-bao from the newly wed.

No one touched the cake.... they said it is too beautiful to be eaten. I like to think they are right.

Sheen with the his uncle Joe at the evening banquet.

One last pix to sum up my gift to the couple:

不要因为也许会改变，就不肯说那句美丽的誓言，不要因为也许会分离，就不敢求一次倾心的相遇。－席慕蓉《印记》

Black Sesame Bun with Luncheon Meat

2010-03-03T21:35:00.006+08:00

Ever since the tainted milk powder saga, I won't touch processed food from China with a 10 foot pole. That means forgoing my favourite MaLing luncheon meat.

We have it with everything during the growing up years. Eat them with bread, with porridge, with beehoon, with fried rice. For breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper!

C'mon tell me who don't grow up with luncheon meat???

Once I bought an ang-moh brand which, despite the high price, lack the x-favour. Recently I saw tins of locally produced luncheon meat on the shelf, I quickly pick up a few tins. There's even a cheese luncheon meat. Yeah, Sheen loves everything with cheese.

This discovery lead me to whip up something with our childhod comfort food again!

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I used the bread recipe from here . Just add 45g of ground sesame powder into B.

Absolutely Cute Sanrio Cookie

2010-03-02T17:26:00.003+08:00

These cookies are not only eye candies, they are absolutely yummy. Some friends told me they hate the plasticky tasting fondant... so I made these to see if they will change their mind.

You bet - they are now converts.

They told me these are better than the plain cookies.

Just the cookie to delight the little princess, IMHO ;-)
If you want these cookies for birthdays or just to delight the little ones, pls leave your contact in the comment below. Your details will not be published.
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Simple Butter Cookie (Eggless)

450 g plain flour } sifted together
50g corn flour }
180 g castor sugar
250 g salted butter, at room temp
3 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract, optional

Method

Cream sugar and butter until light and creamy .
Turn to slow speed and add milk and vanilla extract.
Add in flour mixture slowly in 3 batches.
Roll out dough into 3mm thickness and use cookie cutters to make your desired shapes
Bake cookies in oven at 160 degrees C for 15 minutes or until lightly golden on edge.

...for the very first time

2010-03-01T23:20:00.001+08:00

I had never made a swiss roll in my life before. The thought of it is quite daunting actually. The perspect of facing a broken roll is not very encouraging =p

But I guess for the good name of an adventurous baker, I should at least give it a go. Besides this recipe from Chef Keiko Ishida looks interesting.

It involves cooking the flour in the melted butter first, then blend with the milk and yolk to form a batter. This batter is then folden into the meringue.

I like cakes that are made with meringue as it tends to be lighter and fluffier than cakes made with, say, creaming method.

This is how it looks before being rolled - looks like a reasonable thickness.

I used the ripening banana that has been on the shelf last 2 days, and drizzled with lemon juice (to prevent it from turning black). I also drizzled generously Hershey chocolate sauce (those that we used for ice cream topping... for convenient sake) over the banana. Chocolate and banana is a match made in heaven. Trust me.

Now, rolling time! Horray, it went beautifully... not cracks, not breaks. Unbelivable!

The sponge has is soft and fluffy, and such fine texture. The sweetness from banana, and mild bitterness from chocolate sauce makes this a perfect treat.

My only gripe - its eggy and looks way too thin... a thicker sponge would have made this perfect!

On the 4th day of new year...

2010-02-26T22:33:00.000+08:00

On the 4th day of new year, my 4th aunt invited us to her house for curry fish head. This is almost a tradition started way back a decade.

Her hubby cooks a mean curry fish... on CNY that all of us get to savour the fresh piping hot fish head cooked only upon our arrival!

The fortnight leading to the occasion, the couple would scout all the fishmongers in wet market for the best threadfin head.

When the get home, the 3 poor child labour kids are made to pound the spices in the good old mortar & pestle....

The whole event is made more challenging when you are talking about cooking for a clan of 80 pax or over 18 families! =p

It is such hard work that the family will only serve their heirloom fish head once a year.

This year, I brought along some cupcakes for the family... just a small appreciate for all their sweat, blood (pricked by the fish) and tears (from onion, chili and unnamed spices)!

This recipe is from Keiko Ishida’s book "Okashi- sweet treats made with love'".

I was amazed with the texture - soft and fine that it almost melt in my mouth!!! My only complaint is the eggy smell is quite strong. If only an eggless cake can be this good!

Convinced?

ps: The ganache is made with equal qty of dairy whipping cream + 30% milk chocolate. I like intensely bitter chocolate so this is too mild for me.... but surprisingly, everyone tells me they prefer this ganache to those made with higher cocoa content!!!

sneak preview...

2010-02-23T21:07:00.002+08:00

I should be blogging in chronological order... but I am so excited with what I have just made, I gotta jump the gun.

Will start baking soon!

Just the bread for new year...

2010-02-23T06:43:00.004+08:00

Over new year, my brother visited me in the morning. And this is what I made for our breakfast - Cranberry Wholemeal Bread. Cranberry gives me a festive feeling, besides, the pink hue is just right for chinese new year. Don't you think so?

I used the same recipe from Chef Alex Goh. Actually the book has many many variations of bread, but I am too lazy to take out the book each time. So I kept a photocopy of the basic recipe in my kitchen... and make my own modification along with my whims!

----------------------

Cranberry Wholemeal Bread

A
100g bread flour
70g boiling water

B
200g bread flour
100g wholemeal bread flour (I use Waitrose, avail from Cold Storage)
100g plain flour
80g sugar
6g salt
20g milk powder
9g instant yeast

C
210-220g cold water

D
60g butter

E
60g dried cranberry, soaked in warm/hot water.

1) Add boiling water from A into flour, mix until well blended to form a dough. Cover and set aside to cool. Keep it into fridge for at least 12 hrs.

2) Mix B until well blended. Add in C and knead to form rough dough. (add 210g water first... add more if dough is too dry) Add in A and knead till well-blended.

3) Add in D and knead to form elastic dough.

4) Let it proof for 40mins. (mine took over 90min, thanks to the year end rains and cold nights. Just make sure the dough double in size, no matter how long it takes.)

5) Meanwhile drain E, and lightly pat dry on kitchen towels.

6) Once dough is fully proofed, divide the dough into required weight and mould it round. Rest it for 10mins.

7) Flatten the dough, add some cranberry from step 5, and roll it up like swiss roll. Round the dough, and place it on a baking tray, with about 1cm spacing.

8) Leave it to proof again until it doubled in size again. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 20-30min (timing depends on how big the baking tray).

------------------

Tempting as it does, try to resist eating the bread when it is still hot from the oven. It is difficult, I know, as my family will all be lured to the kitchen when the bread is almost done.... and grab one as soon as it cool enough not to burn their hand.

I am less concern with the old wives' tale that eating bread right off the oven causes diahorrea. But in terms of texture, I find that somehow the bread tends to stick to the gum when eaten fresh in the first hour. It is a much more pleasant chewiness when eating 2 hours later!

Do you have the same experience?

Fancy Nian Gao

2010-02-22T02:04:00.003+08:00

I am finally getting down to catch up on the backlogs - hope I post all the new year goodies before the 15th day of new year!

This is the first time I make a nian gao. In the process of searching for a recipe, I realised that the less I know, the better it would. You see, there are recipe that needs coconut milk, some don't. Some needs wheat starch while others need tapioca flour, some uses a combination of both.... and the differences just go on...

In the end, the exasperated me pick up the simplest recipe which uses neither coconut milk, wheat starch nor tapioca flour.

The results?

You see the fish on the left that had cropped tail; I had much hard time trying to unmould the fish. The tail was left in the mould.

I then use the more complicated recipe which I pick up from a local food magazine. Then I got the nicer fish on the right.

I put my nian gao out on the table as part of CNY decor - it turned moldy within days. So if you are making these for consumption, do store in fridge and finish up with 5 days (or less).

Usually, the nian gao can be deepfried with flour batter, or sandwiched with yam & sweet potato slice before dipping into flour batter and fry. My mom sliced & steamed them until it becomes soft and gooey, then coat nian gao with grated coconut. Nice.

For me, I eat them plainly. Just leave at room temp until it lose the chill, and become softer. Slice and eat.

--------------

Fancy Nian Gao
Recipe from Gourmet Living Feb/Mar 2008

600g rice flour
600g wheat flour
1.2kg glutinous rice flour
2.4kg castor sugar
1 can coconut cream (370ml)
1 can condense milk (150ml)
200g oil
2.4kg water
few drops of orange and/or red food colouring

Method:

boil 1.2kg sugar in water till dissolve. set aside to cool.
sieve all 3 flours together. pour in sugar syrup (from step 1). Mix well.
add remaining sugar. Mix well
add condensed milk, oil and coconut cream. mix well
put small portion of batter each into 2 separate bowl. add colouring.
pour mixture in mould and steam for 2 hours. (My mould is small - I only steam for 45min).

Note:
I used 1/6 of the above portion.

Delicious Cream Cheese Cookies

2010-02-20T12:20:00.002+08:00

I took Sheen to school last Friday as daddy is away. Sheen is always happy when mum drives cos that means he can take the front seat (with his car seat of course).

We happily set off. Enjoyed a short 15min ride in the car. Reached. Off the engine and walked to the car boot to take his school bag. *SCREAM* agh, I didn't bring his bag!!!

*Tear my hair*

---------------------

I promised Sheen a baking session for the boo-boo. And since I have some leftover cream cheese from the last cookie ; this is just the one! The original recipe requires an egg yolk but that means I have to store the balance egg white... In the end, I decided to omit the egg yolk altogether. The version is after my mod.

Delicious Cream Cheese Cookies (Eggless Cut out cookie)
Adapted from Aunty Yochana
150 gm. Butter
80 gm. cream cheese, room temperature
100 gm. castor sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
200 gm. plain flour
80 gm. cornflour
½ tsp. baking powder

Method:

Cream butter, sugar and cream cheese till soft and creamy. Add in vanilla extract.

Add in plain flour, cornflour and baking powder and mix till a soft pliable dough is formed.
Roll out the dough and chill in the fridge for about 30 mins.

cut into shapes of your choice. Decorate as desire.

Place onto baking tray and bake in a preheated oven @150C for about 20 mins or until lightly browned on edge.

Cool well and store in airtight containers.

Baker’s note:
This makes a very pretty cut out cookie; it has fair & smooth surface. The edge is crisp and sharp.

Vegetarian Poon Choy 佛山吉祥盆菜

2010-02-19T02:05:00.002+08:00

Poon Choy literally means Basin Dish cos in the older days, this dish is served in a wooden basin (盆). I suppose this is how the name of the dish come about.

Poon Choi is associated to events that affect the entire community. It is a symbol of village cohesion, i.e all who eat from the common pot are equals.

All of the poon choy offered by the restaurants are non-vegetarian. So when Chef Warehouse offered this class, I signed up quickly with the grand plan to make this for my family reunion dinner.

Closer the the dinner, I heard my mum telling all my siblings potluck. Imagine every of my 5 siblings bring 2 dishes to the dinner, we are going to run out of space on the dinner table. Poon choy is a "comprehensive" dish. Most of the time, people only need 1 or 2 other dishes to go with the meal.

So I scrapped the idea.

Anyway this is another vegetarian dish that the instructor demonstrated at the class: Stir fried vegetarian liver.

The liver really looks and taste like the real liver but too salty for me.

--------------

CHEFS' WAREHOUSE
Blk 148 Toa Payoh Lorong 1 #01-927
Singapore 310148
Tel : 6252 2260 / 9105 5461 (Mrs Chua)

Happy Lunar New Year!

2010-02-14T09:49:00.002+08:00

Wishing you and your family a happy and prosperous Tiger year.

May the roaring brings you luck and health!

Clown Cupcake

2010-02-01T23:20:00.004+08:00

I bought these clown figurines moons ago... after i went "wow" over the clown perching on the glossy Wilton Yearbook.

I even thought of taking the Wilton lessons to learn to pipe the clown. Well, it remained a thought.

Today, I wanted to cheer myself up so I thought of the clown. I used the ready-to-use decorating icing.

As you can see, it didn't work. Within 3 seconds, the body collapsed...

Now I am gloomier.

Hope your Monday was better!

Mixed Fruit Cake

2010-01-28T01:50:00.003+08:00

My last memory of fruit cake was more than 15 years ago, when I was working in KL. My flat mate, Lora, a bubbly american baked this for us. I remembered it was dry, dense and terribly sweet which I didn't quite enjoy, to be honest. Since then I never bother to waste my calorie on another fruit cake.

My colleague requested for a fruit cake last xmas. I bought the mixed fruits and promptly basked them in a glass jar with cointreau with a view to bake it in time for xmas. But that never happens with the hectic travelling, deadlines, and 2 birthday cakes to go in Dec.

Since I now need to clear some space for the CNY bakes, I decided to bake this off. And I had to do it in the morning cos once I start my medication at noon, the splitting headache will comes. Well, then it's time for afternoon nap! That's why medical leave is for... for beauty sleeps!

I am just glad that I had used a good recipe - this requires mixing of the batter with meringue. A little more troublesome to whip up the meringue but the result says all!

Mixed Fruit Cake
adapted from Gourmet Living Magazine Dec/Jan 2010 (contributed by Yeo Li Li)

A:
180g mixed fruit
60ml cointreau

B:
290g plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp all spice powder

C:
250g butter
100g brown sugar

D:
5 egg yolk
1 tbsp maple or golden syrup
2 tbsp cointreau

E:
5 egg white
50g castor sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

preheat oven to 170C. Prepare cupcake cases or loaf pan. Line loaf pan with greaseproof paper if using.
soak A overnight or longer. I soak mine for a month at room temperature. Though it is not necessary, I want to point out that it will not go bad/mouldy... so no need to store it in fridge.
sieve B together in a mixing bowl.
cream C together until creamy, light and fluffy. Slowly add D and mix well.
whisk egg white & cream of tartar in E until big bubbles form. Continue to beat at high speed, adding castor sugar slowly until soft peak. Mix 1/3 of the meringue into butter mixture (in step 4), add 1/3 of the flour mixture (in step 3). Repeat until all the batter is well mixed. Fold in drained mixed fruits.
Pour batter into baking pan or cases. Gently tap the cake/loaf pan on the table top to release any air bubbles. The original recipe do not have this step, and I found big bubble in my cake which is not so nice. Bake, bain marie, for approx.45 min for cupcakes, 80min for loaf pan.
When done, spray the balance cointreau on the surface of the cake. It keeps the cake moist and it keeps better than cake without this step. Skip this step if the cake is to be served to children.

see the air bubble on the side of the cake?

Notes:

While most fruit cake requires double lining the pan, I bought a thick steel pan which is for making fruit cake. It enables the cake to bake evenly without teh extra lining. Of course, you can still get nicely baked fruit cake with normal pan - just need to wrap the outside with baking papers (or old newspapers).... I only bought the pan out of whim!
bain marie (water bath) provides steam in the oven so that the cake will be moist.
Cointreau can be replaced with any liquor brandy, rum etc.

While the alcohol increases the flavour and shelf life of the cake, do not ever serve spiked-cake to kids; kids do not have a fully developed liver to handle the alcohol... if you must give them, lightly toast them in the oven to burn off any spirit content.

Thank God...

2010-01-23T23:39:00.005+08:00

Weekend here.

Hooray.

This weekend means alot to me cos since the Jan 4 I had been ill on and off. Things turned worse when I had terribly high fever on 2 weeks ago. Doc was dead sure it was a virus flu, so I was sent home with Tamiflu.

For the next 4 days I hang my life on Tamiflu... which didn't see me get any better. Every morning I woke up with the same old fever + shivers. It is quite frightening when the chill comes; I will curl in the blanket and pray to god that I will survive the day! What could be worse than the fever & chill is the side effects of Tamiflu. I believe you have all read about the side effects in the papers. Just say that my luck sucks cos I almost all the possible side effects!!!

To cut the long story short, on day 5, I am referred to the hospital where I laid for a week. Thank god I survived long enough for the healthcare professionals to eventually find out what was wrong. hahaha.

We always say that health is important. But 只有在失去, 才知道如何珍惜。

So I am going to take life easier now.

I will bake less, and enjoy the company more.
I will blog less, and chat more.

享受可以是如此简单。。。

Thank God for the incident to make me realise what is important.
Thank God for my family who travel half the island to visit me every day without fail.
Thank God for my colleagues and friends who visited me with all the nice goodies.
Thank God for everything!

Garlic and Rosemary Focaccia Bread (Bread Mix)

2010-01-13T20:02:00.000+08:00

Once a while my itchy fingers will pick up the ready mix at the supermarket shelf. Not that I can;t make this from scratch, but the thought of assembling the various herbs (garlic powder, dried oregano, dried thyme, dried basil etc) is quite daunting besides there's also economics considerations.

Instead of using those herbs once off, I suppose I am better baking with such bread mix. Excuse excuse and excuse. LOL.

It is really easy, just add water and olive oil. Knead and done.

The only problem I had at baking is that the proofing seem to take forever. I waited for 1.5hour, still the bread is pretty much the same size... so I kept it in the unplugged oven and went to bed.

The next morning, it seemed to be a little puffy though still far from being double. I told myself, Goner.

I went on to bake it nonetheless (but didnt want to waste time poking the signature dents on the bread). Fortunately, there's oven spring, and it rise further when baked.

The bread turns out to be very flavourful and yes, very heady aroma of herbs. I took the whole tray to work as I have no time to wait for it to cool and cut it.

It was quite well received at the office. Very quickly, the happy souls at 4 West spirited away all the bread! I was only left with the cooling rack and knife to take home :-(

For Sales

2010-01-13T12:07:00.006+08:00

Clearing my stuff. These are all new, unopened ones. pls leave a comment (will not be visible to others) if you are interested and I will contact you.

1. Edible Ink Marker.

Can be used for writing on cookies, dried royal icing and fondant.

Pack of 4 in an unopened package. Bought from BIY. Want to sell at $10.00

2. Vegetarian Gelatine *SOLD*

Can't remember where and how much I paid. unopened box with 4 sachets inside.

Want to sell for $1.

3. Wilton Sugar Crystal.
Contains 4 colour: Green, Red, Blue, Yellow. Unopened with shrink wrap in tact. Bought from BIY at $11.50. Want to sell for $8.00

4. Sandwich cutter

Can't remember where and how much I paid. Want to sell for $8.00

Moist Butter Cake

2010-01-12T21:04:00.000+08:00

Since the last failed butter cake, I have been looking and trying... Was happy that I finally found the ONE just before Xmas... So glad that I am able to make amend to my last mistake!

Thanks to Ju at The Little Teochew !

Moist Butter Cake

195g all-purpose flour - I used cake flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
170g unsalted butter, softened
225g sugar - I use 180g
1 large egg, plus one large egg yolk
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
12 tbsp whole milk (180ml)
Optional: A splash of cognac

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees celsius. Butter and line a 9-inch cake pan.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Using a mixer on medium speed, cream butter and sugar until fluffy for about 2 minutes.
4. Beat in egg, egg yolk, vanilla and cognac (if using) until well-combined.
5. On low speed, add flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with milk.
6. Switch mixer to medium and beat for 10 to 15 seconds, just until batter appears uniform.
7. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top with spatula or knife. Tap the pan gently against the work top for tapped air bubbles to escape.
8. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until it a skewer comes out clean.
9. Leave to rest in pan for 5 minutes before serving.

Notes:

The cognac adds a classy flavour to the butter. But I will skip as I am after the distinguishable butter flavour esp so if you have used a good butter like Lurpak or Golden Churn.
Using the cake flour gives the cake some lightness, I find.

Overall this recipe is a keeper given the texture and lightness achieved with only 1 egg (2 if you count the additional egg yolk).

Lemon (Cream) Cheesy Balls - Eggless

2010-01-07T23:50:00.001+08:00

The recipe comes from another new book by a Malaysian publisher. I like to buy Malaysian's book cos I find our taste are more similar. I know i can follow the amount of sugar in the book yet not end up with sugar overdose!

Also, they are so much cheaper when bought in MY. Since I was in KL for business, I thought getting a few of these. This book there cost RM20 which works out to be a little over $8. It goes for $14 in SG!!!

Lemon Cheesy Snowball

A:
130 gm. Butter
80 gm. cream cheese
50 gm. icing sugar
1 tbsp. lemon essence

B:
150 gm. plain flour
30 gm. potato flour

Method:

Preheat oven to 120-140C.

Beat (A) until light and pale.

Sieve in (B). Use a rubber spatula to fold lightly (do not knead). Scale at 7gm each portion, shape into rounds very lightly. Arrange on lined baking trays.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25min. Remove from oven, dust top with icing sugar, cool well and store.

My notes:

if you follow the instruction and divide the dough into 7g each, you will get 80psc. I go for the easy way; using the cookie scoop, I get only 35pcs.

Becos of the much bigger size, it took me double the time to bake my tray of cookies.

I added 20 drops of real lemon juice, still I do not taste the lemon very much. In fact the whole cookie is quite bland - there's not much of cheese or lemon or sugar.

This is a melt-in-your mouth type of cookie.

The first recipe from the book is not-so-fantastic. I wish the instructions can be clearer. E.g on the oven temperature, the author gave a range 120-140C, and says in the book "every oven has different setting". Excuse me, I thought we should be talking of the calibrated oven temperature. The author could have used the oven thermometer to provide the exact temp required, and not depend on what the knob says. Aiyoh...professional baker.

I have 4 more recipe to go... Let's see how the rest fare.

Chocolate Chunk Cookie

2010-01-06T01:16:00.001+08:00

Ever since I received Kenwood Chef as a gift from J, I never do anymore manual creaming anymore. The mixer is incredible, and with the flexi-beater , I didn't even need to stop to scrap the sides of the bowl! God send!

It makes me want to bake more. More More More. I bake much faster than the rate of consumption. Tubs and tubs of cookies go to the people around me. Haha, good for my karma, I hope *LOL*

I made this cookie twice in a roll cos the first time I find they ain't crispy enough, so I gave to people who like chewy cookie.

The 2nd time, I change the proportion of brown/white sugar, and also flatten the dough slightly. Yes, the temperature was also reduced by 10C. Now I have buttery and crispy cookie! Enjoy!

Chocolate Chunk Cookie
Recipe from The Sweeter Side of Amy's Bread via http://joyofbaking.com/ChocolateChunkCookies.html

Excerpt from JOB: “If you are in the mood for a crisp and buttery chocolate chip cookie this recipe is for you. It comes from an excellent book , which features sweet treats from the very popular New York bakery, Amy's Bread. The baking soda used in this recipe aids in the browning of the cookies plus counteracts the acidity of the brown sugar. Chunks of semi sweet chocolate are used instead of chocolate chips to give these cookies a more intense chocolate flavor. You can use any combination of bitter, semi sweet or white chocolate or even those delicious toffee bits. These cookies are giant sized, but if you want to make smaller cookies, keep in mind you will have to reduce the baking time.”

2 cups (260 grams) all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (170 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated white sugar - I used ½c
2/3 cup (140 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar - I used ¼c
1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract - I used 2 tsp
1 1/4 cups (210 grams) chocolate chunks - I use chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Place one oven rack in the top third of the oven, and one oven rack in the bottom third of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
In the bowl of your electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy (about 2 - 3 minutes). Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg and egg yolk, beating until well combined. Beat in the vanilla extract.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and beat just until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Stir in the chocolate chunks.
Form dough into balls, using 1/4 cup (55 grams) for each cookie. Place six balls of dough on each baking sheet. Gently flatten each ball of dough into a 2 1/2 inch (6.5 cm) round. Bake the cookies for about 15-17 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through the baking time.
The cookies are done when they are light golden brown in color and just set. They will still seem a little soft but they will firm up as they cool. Remove from oven and let the cookies cool a few minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to cool.

Black Bamboo Charcoal Bread

2010-01-05T23:13:00.002+08:00

After the last indecisive bread , I finally got down to make a proper one. The charcoal powder is tasteless, so only the look is different. Taste and texture is dependent on the bread recipe you used.

The flavour of the month is Alex Goh's Magic Bread . I only replace the 20g of flour with bamboo charcoal powder

Here's the recipe for anyone who is up for the black beauty!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Basic Sweet Bread dough
Recipe from Alex Goh "Magic Bread"

A
100g bread flour
70g boiling water

B
300g bread flour
80g plain flour
20g bamboo charcoal powder
80g sugar
6g salt
20g milk powder
9g instant yeast (I used 25g fresh yeast)

C
175g cold water
60g cold egg

D
60g butter

Add boiling water from A into flour, mix until well blended to form a dough. Cover and set aside to cool. Keep it into fridge for at least 12 hrs.
Mix B until well blended. Add in C and knead to form rough dough. Add in A and knead till well-blended.
Add in D and knead to form elastic dough
Let it proof for 40mins. (Just make sure the dough double in size, no matter how long it takes.)
Divide the dough into required weight and mould it round. Rest it for 10mins and ready to use.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I realised that people here are not so used to the black food. I packed it for Sheen breakfast. In the evening, he came back to tell told me his teachers and friends stared... one kind teacher came to check if the bread is ok for consumption. *LOL*

Blessed is the man...

2010-01-04T23:52:00.002+08:00

who hears many gentle voices call him DAD!
Dad, who was born on Jan 1st some seventy years ago, has the honour to grace my first entry in 2010!

Haha, I am taking my birthday cakes to the next tier, literally. You see, my mum is vegetarian, I need to ensure the cake is eggless so that she does not miss out on the chump. Yet, my nieces hinted that they would really loved to have the black forest cake. And so, I married the "constraints" to make this tiered cake.

The bottom is the eggless vanilla sponge with sliced peaches, and the top, yeah, the cocoa chiffon with black cherries.

I hope to do better next round: The top is far too tall - all becos I got the portion mixed up. There were too much batter for the 6" pan, and I tried to fill it up as much as I could =p

But Dad being DAD, always have praises what their kids could do... no matter how crappy they are!

WE LOVE YOU, PAPA!

It's Over

2009-12-31T13:55:00.003+08:00

Soon enough, xmas is over. 2009 will be over in about 10 hours!

This is the last of my xmas bake for my good friend DK, using allergan-free cupcake recipe from Martha Steward's new book CUPCAKE.

I made a promise to myself that if I buy a book, I must bake at least 5 recipe from the book. In a way, it is meant to break myself from the habit of buying too many book without really using it. It does not help when i am only allocated 3 shelves in the book cases, and it is already overflowed to the bedside table, dining room, living room... Let's see if I do better in 2010.

I also wished that in 2010 I will bake more and buy less. I often get enticed by the ingredient, baking pan or a fondant cutter... and to use it only once. Many accompished bakers have done alot more fantastic stuff with half of what I own, I bet!

I also wish that I will learn to take things easy - the recent being forgetting to take a photo of the Xmas cupcake which I made for Sheen's celebration. I had not success convincing daddy J to go to school to take the photo for me. I brood over it for 2 days... cos I thought they look too good to have missed the photography session. LOL!

How about you? How have your year been, and what's up for the next decade?

Chocolate Moulding Class at Artistiq Sugarpaste

2009-12-30T04:06:00.001+08:00

I guess I should have known better that this is a chocolate moulding class when I signed up. For only $60, I should not expect to learn about tempering chocolate - a process where temperature control forces chocolate into one particular crystalline form so that when molded it forms a stable solid with a smooth shiny surface.

But again, if it is simply melt and pouring into the mould, I have already done it with Sheen before.

Since I am already here, I might as well have some fun!

These are included in the course fee - 2 chocolate mold + 1 small pack of colour choc candy:

I made these 2 lollies in the class:

and 2 of the bear lollies. Oops, I broke the ears:

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

2009-12-25T17:06:00.002+08:00

Class at Culinary Adventures

2009-12-22T15:17:00.008+08:00

Early this month, I attended a culinary class with my colleagues. It is quite interesting cos it is the first time in my life that i was told NOT to follow the recipe strictly when baking.

For example, the recipe calls for 185ml fresh milk. I only added 50ml, the Irene (the instructor) told me it's enough.

The same go for flour, cocoa powder etc. Everything is added based on "agatation" cos there's no weigh scale for us to check the weight.

How interesting, we add, stir, and whisk with only our instinct. Everything was 跟着感觉走 ! I was so eager to taste the cake once it was out of the oven cos it is the first time I make an "aga" cake. Strange as it can get, the chocolatey cake actually turned out to be yummilicious!

However I do see others flopped. I can see the butter bubbling on the surface of the cake while they are being baked. To me, that's pretty much like frying the cake, then baking!

Whichever the case, I had good fun with J and HI at the class. Thanks Ladies!

Christmas Butter Cookie

2009-12-21T02:50:00.002+08:00

Time really flies... I can't believe it's already Christmas. I have some really nice cookie cutter that I was waiting to use for the xmas cookie but my energy level is not to the elaborate process of cookie art. So I took the easy way out bu making the spritz cookie.

The recipe comes from Betty Saw's Cookie Galore. But i made some major modification to it. I am too lazy to type it out. If you want the recipe, pls leave a comment and I will get down to it soon.

Instead of the piping bag and tip which Betty uses, I used the Cookie Press thinking that this could be easier to manage.

Mistake. It is just as tricky, if not more. Many times, the dough will not drop from the press. Other times, part of the dough dropped. Even more times I had to scoop the dough back into the press!

Having said, Sheen and I had a fun afternoon doing this. He was always eager to help me put the M&Ms, quinns, or sprinkles over the plain cookies.

For me, I had fun seeing how the pretty cookie take shape as they wiggle thru the metal plate.

haha, I burnt the cookies towards the end... cos I was just too tired to watch the oven closely.

Once I empty the cookie jar, I will certainly be back playing with these plates as the crumbly crunchy cookies are so light and buttery. I can already see myself using this recipe over and over again!

UPDATED 25/12:

Butter Cookie
240g butter, cut into cubes
90g icing sugar
270g Top flour (or Hong Kong Flour or Cake Flour)
2 tsp vanilla essence
Some full cream milk

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line baking tray with greaseproof paper.
Cream butter in mixer till fluffy. Add 2 tbsp of milk & vanilla essence. Mix until well combine.
Sift icing sugar over butter, followed by flour. Mix till combined. Do not overmix.
This is the tricky part: Check the consistency of the dough - it should be soft enough to be piped thru the cookie press. If not, add 1 tbsp more milk until it is soft enough.
Fill the dough into cookie press and use as per the press instruction.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes till cookies are light golden brown. Allow cookies to cool.

Recipe Notes:

This is a very simple recipe which needs the best butter you can get. I use Lurpak.
Press and bake immediate.

Marble Black Bamboo Charcoal Bread

2009-12-11T01:43:00.003+08:00

What happens when you can't make up your mind whether to use the black charcol powder?

I stared at the powder, and remembered seeing my neighbour drinking the ashes of a talisman. :-)

Anyway, by the time I decided to try it out, the bread is almost done with 1st proof. So I just try to knead in the as much charcoal powder as I could.

Luckily it turned out to be quite ok. More importantly, Sheen loves it!

High School Musical Cake

2009-12-09T00:36:00.002+08:00

This cake is for my lovely niece Gwen In who turned 8 last Saturday.

She loves HSM, and specifically asked for a HSM birthday cake. I gladly obliged. But this will probably be the last time I make a icing image cake unless I can find a more reliable printer. *

Happy Birthday Fortunately, her smile and appreciation made all the efforts worthwhile!

Since Sheen had some free time on Sat morning, we decided to make some choc coated marshmellow for the small party!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY SWEETEST GWEN IN!

********************
My grouse:
For some reason still unknown to me me, the lady whom I ordered the icing image (with pre-payment) decided to do a disappearing act on the day of appointment. I waited for 2 hours at the workshop near her bugis... Thanks to her neighbouring shop who was kind enough to offer me a seat in his comfy shop that I was spared of the oppressive heat.

She is an on-line baker who have just set up her business, and I wanted to order from her to support her enterprising causes. Now I think I am just too gullible: Her charges ain't a cent cheaper than the more established store, and I had to make interbank transfer first.

All these are trivial now. I was left to fumble and scramble to fulfil my niece's birthday wish!!! I joking told a colleague, when push comes to shove I will print out the picture on the A4 paper. Just tear it off before cutting the cake. hahaha :-)

My Rant and Rave

2009-12-07T22:54:00.002+08:00

This was a long overdue post.

I have been so busy last few weeks arising from organisational change. I had to call up each and every staff to explain the situation, why and how... and the toughest part, managing their morale and emotions.

This is the first time in my career that I faced a gloom prospect, going thru' the same pain that most other firms are or had.

I am a half-glass-full person, I look at the bright side that the organisation is treating each and everyone with respect, and therefore gracious enough to provide the long notice period, and to provide alternatives to them.

Myself, i am just as drained at the end of each day. I am so stressed out by the time I leave the office. And I wanted to blog about it cos it does wonders for me to; I feel much light and relax. But I can't. I knew some funny poeple from the workplace spies here to fuel their next lunch gossips... you know who you are!

WhatI did: I blogged, then saved it in the draft. Only now when it is less sensitive that then I can click "publish". *tsk*

I made this batch of cookies after reading a post by a talented blogger/baker, Ovenhaven. She gave useful baking tips which really yield the nice crunchy cookies I soooo loved. If you read the angmoh recipe books, 99.95% of the recipes lead you to the chewy cookies. And the whole trouble is that I never like the chewy type. To me, they are like stale cookies. You know, like those left out in the dew for a night...

So I am quite thrill to use her method and got crunchy Sonoma's cookies, finally!

Incidentally, apart from following Ovenhaven's tips, I also double stack the cookie tray in the oven so that the cookies does not burn too fast, giving them more time to crisp up in the oven.

------------
PS: This was intended for post in October but due to the work-related content, I kept it in the draft box until now.

my new mini bundt tube pan

2009-12-03T02:36:00.000+08:00

Got this from Pantry Magic in Holland V. It is quite ex... but at the moment I felt I had to have it.

Well, just say that I have the same weakness like all passionate bakers!

Wordless Wednesday: Sheen's new hobby...

2009-12-02T01:56:00.003+08:00

...he is into making jelly.

This 1st creation was sent to my sister's place together with the black forest cake. Here's another batch: Lychee Konnyaku Jelly.

Making magic again...

2009-11-27T11:58:00.004+08:00

Here's another go at the Alex Goh's magic bread :
A little glitch in this session - i acccidentally overdosed the salt - put in almost double the requried quantity!

Though I tried to compensate with a little more yeast, still the proofing took forever. 14 hours to be exact - 8 hours for the 1st proof, and 6 for the final.

A lesson for us is to make sure we pre-measure out all the ingredients carefully. I was lazy so I added everything into the mixing bowl. But luckily, the bread turn out good and well after all the anticipation!

This is the one with sardine and onion filling:

Presenting My First Cake Order...

2009-11-27T11:19:00.009+08:00

This is a birthday cake for my dear brother in law. And technically this is an order. My sister paid for it :-)

She originally wanted the hazelnut mousse which I made for Sheen's 5th birthday but I have no more of the ingredients on hand... so she settled for a black forest cos her girls love it.

I do not want to have a black forest that looks exactly like a black forest... so I did mine with a light twist.

The star in the centre of the cake symbolise this role in the family!

These are the words she wanted on the cake - its her hubby's b'day on the 10th day of the 10th lunar month. I made them on a fondant which she places on the cake when ready:

Since my piping skill sucks, I relied on the letter press. It's just a pity that the letter press is not as easy to use as i wish. Putting the letters into the holder itself is a labourious task!

Looks like i should really work on my piping skills to save all the hard work.

THANK YOU

2009-11-27T11:08:00.001+08:00

I like to thank Anncoo for passing on the reward.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DK!

2009-11-26T01:21:00.002+08:00

This was a 30 sec job.

I saw an old pal's sms just as I was getting ready to leave home. I quickly grab the cupcake I have on my cake server, and slap on the hazelnut ganache and sprinkle the chocolate chips. That's it.

This is a scratchy cake for a good friend's birthday... but as the saying goes "it's the thoughts that counts!".

BTW, for the record, I did try to make something more decent for D. I piped "Happy Birthday, D-----" on the cake and was mms to him. But my handwriting is so horrible, I think I should not post this pix here to save the embarrassment :-)

Chef Alex's Magic Bread

2009-11-22T02:06:00.003+08:00

I had such a tiring day at ICA on last Tuesday. I was there since 10am, and didn't get the papers done until past 6. A torturously long 8+ hours!

Well, just a day before I am due to leave for another work trip, I discovered to my horrors that my passport is just 1 week shy of the required 6 months validity. After making a few checks, I decided to get a Temporary Travel Document from ICA. The doc was supposed to be a couple hours job, but I brought my luggage along thinking it would give me plenty of time to get into the airport and any possible delays at the Immigration department.

The first to get the TTD was the pass the interview. For this, I waited 2 hours for my number to be flashed on the board. When I entered, I the office still talking to another elderly couple. So I back out and waited patiently outside the door.

During the 3omin wait outside the door, I saw several numbers behind me already went in and out of the door. I was quite frustrated that I am still waiting despite having a earlier number.

Finally when the couple left the room, I quickly entered, only to find that the office is not in the room. So again I back off and waited at the door. I peeped my head in and out checking if the officer is back. Finally I decided to do my feet a favour by waiting in the interview room.

Then another guy who walked past saw my sitting alone, and asked why I am in the room. I explained, then he walked away without a word.

15min later, another staff entered. Only then I learnt that the officer had gone off for break without logging off. Alamak, I was made to wait for nothing just becos of someone's silly negligence!!!

Then, the canteen was closed for renovation - so I have no means to get lunch/refreshment in the long hours there. Most people walked out to the nearby coffeeshop but it is difficult for me with the full pack luggage. Good detox day for me, I console myself.

To cut the long story short, the day at ICA must have been 1 of the more stressful one in my 30 plus years! At the end of the day, I just have to call up to make arrangements to cancel my flight and hotel reservations.

When I got home in the night, I head to the kitchen to make bread. I need my therapy!

Fortunately, this recipe didn't disappoint me.

Basic Sweet Bread dough
Recipe from Alex Goh "Magic Bread"

A
100g bread flour
70g boiling water

B
300g bread flour
100 plain flour
80g sugar
6g salt
20g milk powder
9g instant yeast (I used 23g fresh yeast)

C
175g cold water
60g cold egg (I replaced with cold water)

D
60g butter

1) Add boiling water from A into flour, mix until well blended to form a dough. Cover and set aside to cool. Keep it into fridge for at least 12 hrs. (I only left it in fridge for 1 hour)

2) Mix B until well blended. Add in C and knead to form rough dough. Add in A and knead till well-blended.

3) Add in D and knead to form elastic dough

4) Let it proof for 40mins. (mine took over 90min, thanks to the year end rains and cold nights. Just make sure the dough double in size, no matter how long it takes.)

5) Divide the dough into required weight and mould it round. Rest it for 10mins and ready to use.

I made them in my new pullman loaf pan (baking time 50min @180C). Based on the calculations, I should need 665g of dough which it didn't really filled up the pan. I think it's becos I didn't wait long enough for the 2nd proof. They should have raised to at least 80% of the pan before putting into the oven. I waited for over an hour, then decided to call it a night while keeping my fingers crossed.

When I sliced the bread, the centre part is a bit dense, without the airy holes like the sides. Luckily it is only the centre... The overall bread is still good.

On the way to the airport on Wednesday, I brought the whole loaf to my parents. My mum told me over dinner just now that my dad finished up the bread on the very same day. He said the bread is too good... he had to have bread for dinner.

Music to my ears!

It is a great combination - sweetness from bread + spiciness from the otah!

For the extra dough I made them into sausage roll for Sheen. You see, i am still practicing hard on the shaping. Thanks to blessedhomemaker's help, I am making some progress in the pleating.

It's a wonder how much happier one can get after a breadmaking session! Magic indeed!

Flaky Mooncake

2009-11-22T00:08:00.001+08:00

I made these teochew flaky mooncake when clearing the fridge - badly needed more storage space in preparation for Sheen birthday party!

I used the recipe from Anncoo - do see her blog for the photo illustration to get the layering. Actually the colour won't show up if you are deep-frying them. But it's a lot easier for me to differentiate the oil and water dough.

I fried some, and baked some. I felt so guilty to say that the deep fried ones taste much better! Yum!

That day I runied a Butter Cake

2009-11-16T16:57:00.004+08:00

Few months back I was chatting with some colleagues about butter cake. One of the guys mentioned the old fashion butter, you know the know that is utterly rich, arteries-blocking type. And the other said Golden Churn.

That rings a bell. I have bookmarked a recipe from Florence. I made a promise to the group that i will make one for them.

It was months later that I finally get down to bake the cake. And gave it to my colleague TC when we met up at the Cafe.

I made 2 mini loaf - gave 1 away and kept the another one for myself. It was much later in the night I tested it that I realised that it was too dry and too hard. It shouldn't have been given out in the first place!!!

From here I learn my lession - never serve anything before I have tested it!

Sheen's 5th Birthday

2009-11-16T03:30:00.003+08:00

I'm wishing you another year

Of laughter, joy, and fun,

Surprises, love and happiness,

And when your birthday's done,

I hope you feel deep in your heart,

As your birthday's come and go,

How very much you mean to me,

More than you can know

Author: Joanna Fuchs

The original plan was to bake a 10" round cake with edible image, plus another 10 cupcakes with the 10 aliens as cake topper.

This fondant omnitrix was meant to go on top of the main cake. But as I go along, I found that's just ain't enough space to put those cookie-cutter-alphabets on the main cake, leave alone the omnitrix. That's not the only problem.

First, the image sheet I got has only 8 aliens. Ghost freak and Echo Echo is missing. Don't ask why. I also don't know.

Then, the fondant topper didn't dry after 2 days of sitting in the aircon bedroom.

On Friday night, I re-made all the topper, adding gum tragacanth to fondant to firm it up.

After I am over and done with the fondant, I tried practicing piping the writings with fresh cream. Had I been able to make the words any eligible, you would have seen them here. Bo Bian, take out all the fondant tools again, and the letter press set. My saviour:

Fortunately all went well after a night of airconditioning.

Go on baby, make a wish:

Sheen is elated to get a big birthday present:

Happy Birthday to you... and to my 5 fabulous years of motherhood:

Sheen asked for a Hello Kitty Cake for...

2009-11-12T01:38:00.001+08:00

Sheen requested that I made a Hello Kitty for his "girlfriend" cos she likes Hello Kitty too:

He said "when a boy likes a girl, he has to make her happy!"

Yes of course, my boy.

Mummy gladly obliged!

wordless wednesday - playing with my new toy

2009-11-11T00:17:00.000+08:00

Sheen clearly loves fondant.

Bubur Terigu (大麦)

2009-11-10T01:24:00.001+08:00

It is interesting how 1 blog can inspire the 2nd, then the 3rd... Haha, I made this 大麦 after reading her post, which she did after reading it in 阿豐 .

It's good isn't it? I hope more people will take time to cook for their beloved family. I was a little sad when my hong kong colleagues told me the "normal" family do not cook at home. That explains why all the restaurants in HK are doing a roaring business!

Anyway I derailed.

I bought the wheat from NTUC. Had wanted to use her recipe but was too lazy to write it down or to connect my notebook to the printer. I started to thumb thru my collection of the recipe book.

I settled on this from late Mrs Leong Yee Soo's "The best of Singapore Cooking".

******************************************
Bubur Terigu

A
115g sugar*
285g palm sugar
225ml water
8 pandan leaves

B
55g quick cooking oats**
285ml water

680g grated coconut ***
¼ tsp salt **
285ml water **
285g biji terigu
1.7L water

D
Thickening: 3 tablespoon flour to mix with 170ml water

boil A for 10min and strain
mix B and cook for 5-7 minutes.
squeeze coconut for no. 1 milk. Add salt and set aside.
add 285 ml water to coconut and squeeze for no. 2 milk.
soak biji terigu in cold water for 10min, drain. Pound to break up the terigu. Bring it to boil with 1.7L water. Cook until terigu is tender and swelling. Reduce heat.
pour (1), (2) and thickening into the pot. Add no. 2 milk and boil for 2min. remove from heat.
serve in individual bowl with a topping of 2 tbsp No. 1 milk. Serve hot.

My notes:

* I didn't use white sugar. Only use palm sugar cos it has a better aroma. Also I do not like it too sweet.

** I used rolled oats instead of quick-cooking oats cos this is what I have at home. It just take a few more minutes to cook.

*** I used Kara ready to use coconut cream. I always keep a pack at home for cooking in a whim!

******************************************

Adding the oat may seem a little strange initially, I was glad I didn't omit. It makes the bubur more creamy and gooey. There's no oat taste at all, if you are concern.

Although I only made 1/4 of the recipe, it is still relatively huge amount for me since I am the only person eating these. Had wanted to bring some to mum, but only after cooking I found out that she has gone travelling! Wow, she more happening than me.

The balance went to my colleagues; they confirmed this is better than those sold in the dessert stall.

Sol Playground Cafe

2009-11-08T04:29:00.002+08:00

Like to share this child-friendly restaurant with the fellow mummies - Sol Playground Cafe at Turf City.
I used to go the Globetrotter at United Square - they have a separated play area for kids. The best part is that they are being monitored by few staff who are called "play assistant".

Unfortunately the restarant has long gone.

I was quite glad to stumble on the another fun themed restaurant when least expected. It is tucked at one end of the building.

We ordered Sheen favourite pizza, and he gladly sat all by himself on the kids' furniture.

While we were there, we found out that there are face- and hand-painting and balloon-sculpting activities on Sundays. Sheen asked if we can take him there on Sunday again...

Sure, my baby!

Cost of the dinner (including drinks) for my family of 3 = $120.

Freedom to eat in peace = PRICELESS!

-------------------------------

Sol Playground Café

#01-21 Turf City, 200 Turf Club Road
Telephone 6467 8681

http://www.solplaygroundcafe.com/

Lemon Cupcake

2009-11-06T23:08:00.000+08:00

I just ended my over 2-week long vacation on Monday. Even with a workless schedule I find my self very very busy. My usual day is wake up at 9.30am. Wash up, newspaper with breakfast in the next 2 hours. Then I start to bake like crazy, and get ready to deliver the cakes to whichever friends that I am going to meet in the afternoon.

You see I am happily feeding my friends! I wished I have the option to tell J that I am too busy to hold down a fulltime job... =p

This is one of those bakes which I think look better ones.

Lemon Cupcake
Adapted from Carol Durst's book: I know you were coming so I bake a cake.

Ingredients for the cake:
3 cups cake flour
225g unsalted butter
1 tablespoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar (original qty)
3 large eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup (240ml) whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Filling (optional): Jam of your choice. I used this luscious marmalades bought during one of my working trips. It was sitting around for sometime so I need to use it up!

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degF (180C). Grease cake pans and coat the the pan with flour.

Cream the butter, and incorporate sugar. Beat slowly for 2min until smooth. (I used my KW speed#3)
Add the eggs and the vanilla extract and beat for 2 min more.

(Turn my KW to the lowest when adding flour) Combine flour, cornstarch (if using), baking powder and salt in the mixing bowl. Add flour and milk alternatively: Flour -> milk -> Flour -> milk -> Flour, mix until the batter is smooth.

Fill prepared cupcake cases with some batter. Make a dent in the batter with a small spoon. Scoop a small tsp of jam (if using) into the dent. Then fill up the case with more batter until 80% full. Bake about 30-35min, until golden on top and springy to touch: a toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean. Don’t overbake. Bake cupcakes about 20min.

Allow the cake to cool completely before frosting it.

To make frosting: Melt 20g butter with 2 tsp lemon juice. Slowly add icing sugar (100g) until it is lightly flowy. I love this frosting - tangy and sweet!

According to the book, this recipe should yield two 8~9" cake or 24 cupcake or 9x13 sheet cake. My cupcake is probably too big... as I only had a baker's dozen!

saved the 13th cupcake for my baby.

My Notes:

I learnt that the final batter should be smooth and quite runny; to the extend that it readily drop from the paddle when lifted up. Else, add spme milk until the desire texture is reached. It also looked pale and soft like whipped cream.

In some recipe, I need to smooth out the top or else the baked cupcake will have an uneve top. Can skip this step in this recipe; the batter smoothen out itself in the oven.

This is the first time I make the ribbon rose. So easy:

Hello Kitty never fail to excite the young-at-hearts:

The box I used does not come with the cupcake insert. So just before I leave home, decide to make one myself:

the post-holiday itch and pancake mix

2009-11-03T23:49:00.000+08:00

After a week's holidaying, it is now pay back time - all of us at home are nursing a terrible mossie bites since the day we came back. Strangely we didn't get a single itch while we were there. Given the encounter with these blood-sucking creatures at Avillion and Bayan Tree, I was actually quite amazed how they have managed to ward them off.

My happiness was short lived. On the first day we came back, a couple of sites started to itch. Then more spots came to light... these bite are quite usual. Even after 1 week, the swell has not subsided, and they sure itch like hell.

Before you say "whimp", let me say that are quite used to the local mossie bites that we still get from zoo visits etc. We usually do one of these which really work to relieve the itch (in the following order)

circle the bite site with ball point pen. I know this barely sound logical solution but I swear it works. anyway, it cost and hurt you nothing for a potential immediate relieve.
Handiplast Anti-itch gel - in some rare cases when (1) don't work.
prescribed Hydrocortisone cream - you need to get this from your family doctor.

I googled out of desparation and found this easy trick. Though I share it here as we bakers are all certain to have this simple ingredient in our kitchen:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4424377_heal-mosquito-bites-.html

When I first applied to the spot, it sting quite abit (maybe skin broken from the frantic scratching). But it kindda deter me from scratching so I get some relieve after a while. I can't use it on Sheen as he complained the sting hurts.

Verdict - it may work depending on the type of bite if the skin is not broken. Good if you do not stock the other ointment or medication at home.

Strangely the more I write about the itch, the more itchy it is getting to me! Think I better stop.

I made these pancakes out of pancake mix. It is a convenient choice for me cos only Sheen and I eats pancake. We only need a total of 3, or max 5 piece to call it a morning!

It is difficult for me to whip up such small quantities! The ready-to-use mix allow me to make as little as 3 pieces of pancakes. I simply pour 60g of mix into a mug, then stir in 60g of water until smooth.

I tried to add some sliced banano to the pancake but the sugar in banana burns and when that happens, it leaves the ugly burnt marks on the pancake. This mar pannies' good look!

So I caramelised the banana instead. Very sweet, soft and sticky. Lovely.

I wonder how Macdonalds achieve the evenly brown pancake. This is the closest I can get but yet to perfect :-(

SSB - (Eggless) White Chocolate & Orange Cookies

2009-11-01T00:42:00.003+08:00

I just realised that it is almost 2 months since my last post on cookies. Well, I have been refilling the cookie jar, but it has been the same old recipe that hardly justify the need for a post entry.

Glad to see this recipe shared by Sweet and Simple Bakes... orange and white chocolate do look like an exciting pair that I had to check it out!

White Chocolate & Orange Cookies
Recipe is from here

Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients
115g unsalted butter, softened
200g caster sugar - I used 75g brown sugar + 75g white castor sugar

1 egg - I replace with 40g milk + 20g of Cointreau
Grated zest of 1 orange (2 to 3 tsp)
1 tsp vanilla extract - I replace with Orange emulco (a concentrate)
200g plain flour -
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¼ baking powder
¼ tsp salt
225g white chocolate chips (milk or dark chocolate)

Preheat the oven to 190C.
Beat the butter and sugar. Add the egg (or milk+cointreau), orange zest and vanilla extract (or orange emulco).
Sift together the dry ingredients. Stir the dry ingredients and chocolate chips into the butter mixture and combine.
Roll into balls. Use your fingers to flatten onto a non-stick baking sheet 5cm/2in apart.
Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool for five minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.
When cool, store in an airtight container for up to four to five days.

My Notes:

sugar: I used a combination of brown and white; brown sugar has better aroma, and also makes the cookie chewy soft. Since the white chocolate is also sweet, next round I will try to reduce sugar to 100~120g.

Egg: I omited the egg; replaced with 40g of full cream milk. Also added 20g of cointreau for the orangey flavour. But on the hind sight, it could be too much liquid. Next time I will try to reduce milk to 20g.

Emulco: I added orange emulco as I find that the natural fruit is usually muted after baking, hence the need to add the artificial to accentuate the flavour. It works!

Flour: Perhaps due to the egg replacement, I get pretty wet dough which spread too much in the oven. When that happens, the cookie become crisp rather than chewy. I work in another 40g of flour to address this.

I saved some extra chocolate chip... half way thru the bake I sprinkle some on the cookies to make it even more scrumptious.

I get 2 tubs of cookies with this recipe. Sheen loves it and asks that I save a jar for him.

I gave the other jar to my retired boss who stay in my neighbourhood. He loves all things sweet; he couldn't thank me enough for the cookies!

I just glad I have fed another happy soul :-)

Thanks Maria for hosting this SSB - pls keep the great recipe coming!

Rosie, hope to see you bounce back to action soon! Do rest well for now!

Grandpa's 88th Birthday

2009-10-29T21:53:00.003+08:00

I was not suppose to bake on the eve before leaving for my vacation, but at the eleventh hour I couldn't resist making something for my grandpa who was to celebrate his 88th birthday on the coming weekend.

Like the old saying, it's the thought that counts.

It was meant to be the white and dark chocolate mousse cake. As I was working thru the ingredients, no surprise to see that the white chocolate has just passed the expiry. Heartache.

It ended up being dark chocolate mousse cake. You know, it's the thought that counts... (keke)

Black and White Chocolate Mousse Cake
Adapted from Alex Goh’s Baking Code

Bake a 18cm round cake using this recipe or your favourite recipe.

Black Chocolate Mousse:
Milk 50g
Kahlua 1 tbsp
Choc Dark – 60g
Gelatine powder 2 tsp (see notes 1)
Water 30g
Non-dairy Whipping cream 140g

1. Heat milk with instant coffee (if any).
2. add chopped chocolate, stir until it is melted.
3. separately add gelatine powder to water, microware at 10sec interval until gelatine dissolves.
4. Add gelatine to chocolate milk mixture
5. whip cream until soft peaks. Fold into (4).

White Chocolate Mousse:
Milk 50g
White chocolate – 60g
Gelatine powder - 2 tsp
Water 30g
Non-dairy Whipping cream 140g

1. Heat milk with instant coffee (if any).

2. add chopped chocolate, stir until it is melted.

3. separately add gelatine powder to water, microware at 10sec interval until gelatine dissolves. 4. Add gelatine to chocolate milk mixture

5. whip cream until soft peaks. Fold into (4).

To assemble:

Slice the round cake into 2 pieces.
Place the first piece cake in a mousse ring.
Add dark choc mousse. Keep cake in fridge until the mousse set (about 1 hour depending on fridge)
Place the 2nd piece of cake over the dark mousse.
Add white choc mousse.
Refrigerate again until the mousse set.

I save time by putting the cake in the freezer.

My family will be away for the vacation but I couldn't resist making

My mum comes from a humougous family... and I never keen to bake anything for anyone in her clan. On the positive note, I decline to bake for them citing the huge family; I do not want to set a precedent or an expectation.

Secretly, I believe my unwillingness has more to do with my unpleasant childhood memories of these relatives. I still recalled as a primary scholler, one of them blatantly said that I must be so happy over his son's poor results so that I can be the king in kingdom of blind. Another one told me no need for me to work hard cos my poor parents won't be able to afford my education. The 3rd concluded that discussion that I will be better off learning to do some houseworks so that I can at least get a job as chambermaid or dishwasher.

School holidays are always stressful; I got asked about my results 1001 times by different aunties and uncles. Despite being the top quartile in my studies, I still kena "suan" mercilessly for any subject that is less than sterling.

They could be just joking but it left a permanent negative impact on me... always wanting to do better, always eager to please.

Only grandpa is different. He is probably one of

Holiday - final instalment

2009-10-28T12:00:00.000+08:00

In all my routine travels, I am so used to the lavish buffet line at breakfast. So this is a nice break from the tradition. Some items on the buffet table: but mostly are ala carte; you order from the menu and it will be served fresh to you. They have really wonderful fruit juice menu!

We eat on a pavillion like this:

However, lunch and dinner gets a little boring when you have just 2 restaurants to chose from. Thai or Italian.

Room service is not really an option cos the room get pretty hot in the afternoon. The single aircon unit is simply not sufficient to beat the topical heat.

Two, there's no phone for you to dial and place order.

Third, the ants attack any remnant food fairly quickly. We were so so careful when snacking in the room.

The one here is the award winning Tamarind Restaurant. Sheen knows fine dining who he sees one:

the hut behind Sheen is a jetty cum italian restaurant. In the day, this is where the angmoh sunbaths on the deck. At night, it turns into a very romantic dining spot. Imagine eating under the stars with sea breeze and the lapping waves from the surging tide:

I took and cropped this pix. I think it has the professional look:

All things come to an end... time comes when we have to go back to civilisation!

Sheen's face says he's not quite ready to go home:

Bye Bye Tioman:

Back to SG - this is Seletar Golf Course: