Bake-A-Story

Under the Sea

2011-05-04T15:39:00.012+08:00

Never will I take two cake orders on the same day, ever! Unless after my kitchen is upgraded, with a bigger oven that will allow me to bake more than one cake at a time.

The request was for two cakes for two little boys celebrating their first birthday. Each cake to feed 25 people. I could have opted for a single tier 9'' cake, but 'smarty-pants' me opted to make two 2-tier cakes instead. So I had to bake four cakes, one at a time and it took me almost the entire day! I still had to tend to three children in between. Only managed to start decorating at night!

The first cake - Finding Nemo theme.

Little Nemo crafted from fondant. I took care to make sure one fin is tiny, like in the movie.

Here's Dory. I had a hard time trying to achieve the right shade of blue. She needed lots of colour. I tried to give her, her signature wide smile.

The second cake was completed the following day. In between bringing my youngest to KK hospital to see her dietician. Nathalie is still allergic to lots of food items, but she's growing well, Praise the Lord!

I love this second cake even more. Mini diver searching for treasure.

See the sea shell with pearls in the above pic? I dusted the pearl with lustre dust.

I stuffed some chocolate gold coins into the treasure chest.

See how imperfectly the cake is covered? See the creases! I am blaming it to the new tub of fondant i just bought. **Ashamed**

Love the little diver. Notice that the hair is 'standing' and 'swaying' with the waves. :)

I also made a 'half' mini Nemo and stick it to the cake using a toothpick.

Here's a happy looking crab. <3

I am so glad its over, but even more glad to have added these cakes to my 'done!' list.

Angry Birds

2011-04-26T23:09:00.012+08:00

Until now, I've been too busy and un-inspired to do any serious cake decorations. We celebrated our family birthdays in the past few months with store bought cakes. All of a sudden, in April, I baked and decorated three cakes in a week. Thoroughly exhausted! I probably over-strained my hands, as I've been feeling palm cramps and my thumbs hurt and i have a blue-black at the base of my palm. Never had that before and feeling a wee-bit worried.

This first cake is one that I truly enjoyed making. Since I saw a 'playable' angry birds cake on the internet, I'd been inspired. But I had no idea where to get a slingshot and how to fix it on a cake board. So my cake is not playable. Cake was made for brother-in-law.

Love the overall look of this cake. With its rugged 'structures'.

I made most of the birds. Except the green one.

The slingshot was made with chocolate fondant, with wire hidden inside.

I love the naughty pigs too.

I did not make the structures using fondant/gumpaste. I saved time by using wafers and biscuits. With a little royal icing to stick them firmly together. I used these :

Too bad they were no longer crispy by the time the cake was cut, but they held up well.

I used the same wafers to make a treasure chest for my 'under-the-sea' themed cakes. Stay tuned.

Dora Cake

2011-02-19T17:59:00.006+08:00

This cake was made last Christmas. I thought for a long time before I accepted the request. I ended up spending most of Christmas on making this cake.

This cake was for Sarah's 3rd birthday.

Making Dora from fondant was a real feat. The first Dora looked like someone from horror story. If it wasn't for Christmas, I would go out and get a Dora topper. The final Dora looked reasonable.

And of course Dora would need her constant companion, Boots.

Added a few more animals for a jungle theme. A snake.

A crocodile.

A lion and a waterfall. The complete cake.

Cake was chocolate cake from 'Rose's Heavenly Cakes'.

Sheepy Cake

2011-01-08T16:31:00.009+08:00

Made this cake quite a while ago. For one of my cell member's 50th birthday celebration. This was my present to him.

This is my first three tier cake. Took me a looong time to bake all the cake layers, let alone decorate them. It was decorated using his theme of sheperd and sheep.

Cake was a great success. It looked good and tasted good too. I can never go wrong with this carrot cake recipe.

I had great fun creating the different sheep characters. :)

Geronimo Stilton For Gabriel

2010-10-23T16:52:00.015+08:00

Gabriel loves to read Geronimo Stilton books, like many of his peers in primary school. He has a collection of almost 20 now. When I was thinking hard about the design of his birthday cake, he suggested Geronimo Stilton. I researched on the internet but alas, google only returned two Geronimo Stilton cakes and both were 2D. Gabriel was not impressed. So I turned to his stack of books to seek inspiration. This book was chosen.

I incorporated elements of the book into the cake and this is Mr Stilton, complete with glasses and magnifying glass, as in the book.

His party was held at Lilliputt, Singapore's only 18 hole mini golf. Thank God its indoors, the haze situation is BaaaD.

The mini golfers had a great time!!

This is Gabriel and Zachary. The only kid from his class that turned up. I was really upset about the parents not bothering to RSVP to the invite at all. Some of the children told Gabriel they will come, but I never heard from the parents. And true enough, they did not turn up. I believe it is basic courtesy to just RSVP! So much food wasted.

Our lady golfers.

Start with a short briefing. The staff at Lilliputt were so attentive and patient. Great place to hold a party.

The 18 holes were uniquely Singapore and lots of fun too.

This mini golfer too young to play. But the staff were kind enough to lend her a golf ball and she had fun putting them into the various 'mechanisms'.

Singing happy birthday. Can tell by their face how much fun they had.

Nathalie is Two!

2010-10-16T17:51:00.011+08:00

October is a busy, busy month. Its the end of the company's financial year which means work is extra busy. It is also the month that we have two birthday celebrations at home - Nathalie's at the beginning of the month and Gabriel's towards the end. Two other celebrations in between, so a total of four cakes to bake and decorate!

Its amazing how much Nathalie has grown in the past few months. She captures my heart with her every move and speech. And yes, she speaks really well now, in full sentences. She likes to say 'I show you something first', 'Mommy, can I play ipad/phone? can?', 'Ýeah, TV Show!' and many more. She loves to sing Twinkle twinkle little star, Nobody but you, ABC song and is a great dancer. She brings so much joy to me and my family.

Unfortunately, she is still allergic to many food items, which restricts her diet to rice, fish, vegetable and pork. She had not tasted ice cream yet, so while the older children eat ice cream, she gets a cup of ice. But she enjoys it as much as the others enjoy their ice cream. Many a times, she will ask to taste the food we are eating and when we told her how it might give her rashes, she will clasp her hands and bow her head in prayer, to ask God to take away her multiple allergies. Yes Lord, we pray each day for Your mercy on Nathalie!

For her second birthday, we had a small family BBQ to celebrate. I engaged Gabriel to help with the decorations.

This is the signage done by Gabriel.

If you are wondering what's that purple and green animal/thing, its Barney. Nathalie loves Barney.

And he did this on the white board.

I love how he signed off with 'Written and illustrated by Gabriel Tan Jia Xu'.

The girls had some playdough fun. I made my own playdough at home. Its so cheap and easy! No more buying commercial playdough.

Barney and friends came bursting out of the cake to celebrate with us!

I love Barney's purplish-pink colour! I love how the cake turned out.

As we sang 'Happy Birthday', Nathalie happily clapped along. She did not even fuss when Samantha blew out her candle for her. We had to re-light the candle and she did a great job blowing them out.

See how cheeky the other two kids are!

You are my pride and my joy, Nathalie. May God bless you endlessly and protect you always. Amen.

Cake for the Cycling Enthusiast

2010-07-31T13:54:00.008+08:00

Made this cake for a boss who was leaving.

The bicycle was the most difficult part of the cake. It fell apart in multiple places and I just tried to stick it together.

I made the bicycle parts two days in advance. Here, the parts are drying. For the frame, I used spaghetti inside the gumpaste to help keep its shape.

Parts assembled.

A Princess Party!!

2010-07-27T00:04:00.016+08:00

Samantha celebrated her 5th birthday recently. She was trying to decide between a princess or fairy themed party and was still flip flopping two weeks before the party. Finally settled for a princess theme. With the help of my two very talented couple friends, we had a beautiful party. It was such hard work, but lots of memories. Did many things that I had never done before and visited places that I had never been before. Thanks to Kris and Andrew who helped with the beautiful decorations and thanks to MIL and hubby for all the delicious home cooked food.

Here are some pictures from the party.

The princess of the party, dressed up as Belle. Gown lovingly altered by talented Grandma. Together with some of her princess friends.

My other princess came as a ballerina. I love this pic! Taken by my professional photographer friend! (THANKS, YH!)

My boy, a prince (a sloppy one at that) in a home-made cape. I made capes for all the little boys too.

Princess wands were gifts to all the girls at the party.

Now, the decorations.

A castle backdrop. Drawn, cut, and painted by hand. Many nights of hardwork from Andrew.

The children seated at a long table in front of the castle.

The 'better than my wedding' part - each chair tied with lovely chair back, done by talented Kris while I stared in awe. (ok, I tried to help too).

We also have lovely decorations hanging from the ceiling. We had the pictures printed, cut, pasted then hung.

The children played games like Guess the Jelly beans and Kiss the Frog Prince/Princess.

Finally, my cake.

A million thanks to Kris and Andrew, for being so generous with ideas and help. Kris, for bringing me from bedok to middle road to arab street and opening my eyes to so many possibilities. I had so much fun. I can hardly wait for the next party. :-)

Lion overdose!

2010-06-09T16:32:00.007+08:00

This cake order made me so tired of lions.

This is made for a boy who adores lions. I was shown the boy's picture, his lion soft toy and a t-shirt that he was to wear for his birthday party. I incorporated all that into this cake.

I experimented with many 'lions'. Only this one resembles one closely. haha.

The main cake is not what makes me tired. As it took relatively little time. What tires me are 24 of these cupcakes. Here are a sample of 9 of them. It took me a long time to decide how to decorate them.

Nature Cake

2010-05-23T17:35:00.007+08:00

This cake was created for a colleague's daughter. She's eighteen, loves nature and favourite colour is lime green. I was unable to achieve lime green from my set of Wilton's colours but I did manage to add many details into the cake so that it looked interesting.

A monkey, as she was born in the year of the monkey

A tiny red bird to add colour. I later found out from my colleague that Lydia''s favourite colour at the moment is red!

Tiny ducks.

A frog. And butterflies using one of the latest sugar tools I got myself.

I forgot to tell my colleague not to place cake in fridge. The lemon pound cake and buttercream was dense and hard right out of the fridge. I had used the cake recipe from Rose's Heavenly Cakes and buttercream recipe from Okashi. I did not get to try the cake, but the buttercream was light and heavenly. I cannot wait to try it on cupcakes, to make those swirly cream toppings.

Piggy Bank Cake

2010-04-21T18:28:00.005+08:00

The past few weeks had been terribly busy for me and mentally exhausting.

I had to let go of staff for the very first time. Done with much professionalism, but I could not resist holding her hands and praying for her. It was a painful experience for me.

Most of the past weeks were spent preparing for a business review, even weekends. Praise the Lord, the review went relatively well.

Over the weekend, I finally got a chance to get my hands dirty with cooking and baking, how therapeutic! I made, for the very first time, hainanese pork chop. Result was pretty good. But the best part was, I was able to bake and decorate a birthday cake for my brother-in-law. Very pleased with myself for being able to juggle cooking for almost 20 people and making such an adorable cake. :)

Isn't it cute? Idea is not original.. inspired by many similar cakes in other blogs. Mine was a pound cake with cream cheese frosting. Covered with fondant. Chocolate coins and notes from Candy Empire. My children ate up all the chocolates.

The curly tail. And the imperfections.

Happy Birthday, Felix!!

Still Not Black! Black Sesame Chiffon

2010-03-13T00:23:00.007+08:00

Earlier this year, I also picked up the baking book 'Okashi' by Keiko Ishida. I've always been fascinated by japanese sweet treats and the recipes in this bakebook looked wonderfully delicious and more importantly, 'doable'.

I had since tried a couple of recipes from the book with success and so far, the cakes were well liked by cell members and family.

The first recipe I tried was the black sesame chiffon featured on the cover. I loved how the black contrasts with the white frosting, looks so regal! But I tried this cake twice and each time, its a boring grey. How did Keiko get it to be so 'black'?! Colouring?

The recipe calls for black sesame paste. In my first attempt, I did not have sesame paste, so I toasted black sesame seeds and ground them. The result passed taste test but did not look black... boy, was I disappointed.

I went to ISETAN and bought black sesame paste and attempted the cake with renewed confidence, resolved not to resort to artificial colouring but alas, the cake is still not black! I followed the recipe to the 'T', I have since concluded that it must be colouring or photography technique.

The batter, looking too 'white' to be black.

Remaining hopeful that there is black underneath the brown.

Actually... I was not too hopeful.. even the brown is too light.. no mood to frost it.

Every trace of hope dashed.

Did I buy the wrong paste?

Any kind souls who have managed to obtain the same colour as Keiko's, pleeeease share the secret.

Pastor's birthday cake

2010-03-12T23:50:00.007+08:00

Poor Samantha. Not sure where she caught the stomach flu virus from, but she's been vomiting since 4pm today and its like once every half to one hour. I counted total of 12 times already. Seen the doc, but doc say monitor and that's its not serious if she is not running a temperature. Pray that the virus will leave her soon.

Our church paster's birthday happen to fall on P3 night this month, so my cell leader tasked me to bake a special cake for him. I was hesitant as I was not sure about my work schedule. I had wanted to prepare the decorations much earlier but could not squeeze out anytime. The night before, I just had to throw work aside and rushed home to bake the cake. Started at 7pm and ended at almost 2am. With some time squeezed in between for dinner, shower and putting children to bed.

I chose a more familiar theme. The result was rather pleasing. I was especially pleased with the pair of glasses I made out of wire. A first attempt and no special purchase.

Pastor Richard keeps a marine fish tank at home, so that's added to the theme. And in the tank are a couple of black sea cucumbers. If you are wondering what that pickly worm like thing is, one of them made it to the cake.

And this is Pastor Richard.

His hobby is also reading, I have him holding the Bible and dressed in his usual sunday attire of shirt and tie.

Cake assembled. Poorly taken picture. Sigh...

Apple Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake

2010-03-07T15:24:00.010+08:00

I had been absent from the blog for a long, long time! Work schedule had been bad and killed my mood for baking or decoration. It has been quite a long draught for me until recently when I tried a couple of recipes from new books that I bought.

This cake was done just after Christmas last year. I bought a Christmas present for myself - 'Rose's Heavenly Cakes, by Rose Levy Beranbaum'.

This lady is exceptional! I had never seen such 'wordy' recipes! Every recipe is like an essay, with so much detail. Measurement for ingredients are provided both in volume and weight, and for weight, its available in both ounces and grams. So matter what your preference is, she's got that information for you. And if you should visit her blog, you'd read about the amount of experiment that each cake went through, you'd be amazed.

My first cake from this book (and till date, I'm ashamed to say.. the only cake) is the Apple Cinnamon Crumb Coffee cake. I was longing for a coffee flavoured cake but it was only after completing the batter did I realise that there was no coffee in there. It was meant to be eaten with coffee.. what a muddle head I have, haha.

According to Rose, to make the crumb/streusel stay crispier longer, is to make it with melted butter rather than softened butter. Also, it was put on top of the cake after the cake has set (half baked). The resultant crumb is indeed crispier. And the cake is so moist and soft. A total delight on the tastebuds, even if without coffee.

Apple-Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake
(adapted from Rose's Heavenly Cakes)

Ingredients for Cinnamon Crumb Topping

walnut halves 100g
light brown sugar 72g
granulated sugar 25g
cinnamon 1 1/2 tsp
all purpose flour 65g
unsalted butter, melted 57g
vanilla extract 1/2 tsp

Method
Use a food processor to pulse all dry ingredients except flour until walnuts are coarsely chopped. Remove and set aside half for the filling. To the remainder, add flour, butter and vanilla and pulse to form a coarse, crumbly mixture. Refrigerate the mixture for about 20 minutes to firm up the butter and make it easier to crumble.

Ingredients for cake batter
1 small tart aple such as granny smith 155g
lemon juice 2tsp
2 large eggs
sour cream 160gms
vanilla extract 1 1/2 tsps
all purpose flour 200gms
caster sugar 200gms
baking powder 1/2 tsp
baking soda 1/2 tsp
salt 1/4 tsp
unsalted butter 170gms

Method (Minus many useful tips from the book)

1. Preheat oven to 175 degree celcius
2. peel, core and slice apple 1/4 inch thick, sprinkle with lemon juice and set aside
3. In medium bowl, whisk eggs, 3 tbsp of sour cream adn vanilla until just lightly combined
4. In a mixer with flat beater, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add butter and remainly sour cream and mix on low spead until dry ingredients are moist. Raise the speed to medium.
5. Gradually add the egg mixture in 2 parts, beating for 30s after each addition.
6. Put 2/3 of the batter into a 9 inch springform pan, smoothen surface, sprinkle the suface evenly with the reserved 1/2 cup crumb topping and top with 2 rows of overlapping apple slices.
7. Put in remainly batter over the apples and spread evenly.
8. Bake cake for 35 minutes
9. Meanwhile, take crumb topping from fridge. Break up the crumbs. They should be no larger than 1/2 inch balls.
10. Take cake out of oven and strew crumb topping evenly on top.
11. Continue to bake for 20-30 minutes
12. Let cake cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes before unmoulding and cool completely.

This is the cake batter, looking so creamy-licious.

The crumb filling and apple slices.

Crumb toppings, prepared while cake is in the oven.

Finished product.

Finished product enjoyed, throughly!

Reflections on January

2010-02-03T20:02:00.003+08:00

What a year it has been so far! I started at an emotional and spiritual high. I was thankful about all that I have and grateful for all the blessings that God has bestowed on me. Even with the seemingly impossibly high sales order targets set , I was certain that God will help me achieve these targets. I felt almost invincible.

But lately, this feeling has been overwhelmed by exhaustion and weariness. I am still thankful for God's blessings, but the work load and pressures has started to take its toll on me. I spent too much time at work and too little time with my children. Even my daughter has given up on me. Everyday, she'd remind me to call her from work and I have not kept my promise for the past 3 weeks! Today she told me that if I don't call, its ok.. then we see each other tonight. I felt terrible.

A dear friend from university days lost her battle against cancer and passed away on 30 Jan. She had fought hard and with such determination for the past 14 months, she will remain an inspiration to all of us who know her. I pray that her family will find peace and strength to carry on without her. Rest in peace, Ai Bee.

My hubby and his mother (my MIL) cannot see eye to eye on many things and that added to my stress.

Can hardly find time to bake. Even when I do, I cannot find the time to post/update this blog.

I pray that things get better this month... I know it will!

Happy New Year 2010!!

2010-01-03T00:15:00.005+08:00

Happy New Year, everyone!!

I am looking forward to a better year in 2010.

On the family front, hubby is between jobs, so I pray that he finds a job that he loves and hopefully, soon. Gabriel is going to primary one this year! The anxiety hit me just yesterday and I panicked as I tried to pack his school bag and found that there are missing books! Samantha will be going to preschool alone this year but I know she'll be just fine. Nathalie is now 15 months and I will be praying really fervently that she outgrows most, if not all her allergies this year.

On the extended family front, I will be praying for salvation for my family. Especially for my mother. Pray that my prayers be answered.

Work wise, I will be much busier this year with two added portfolios plus one 'ECA', but it will be much more fulfilling and a mega learning experience.

These are pictures of my kids taken at Vivo City. See how cheeky they are?

Here's little Nathalie.

Wishing you health, joy, peace and love!! God Bless!

Santa's List

2009-12-28T14:49:00.005+08:00

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to all!!

Santa knows who's been good and who's been bad....

Here's cute little Rudolf, with his red nose. And my new letter stamp put into use..

Cake is chocolate fruit cake adapted from December 09 issue of 'Food and Travel - Kitchen Culture'. Original recipe is called ' Ebony and Ivory Christmas star cakes', containing a dark and light double layer fruit cake. I only made the dark layer. And here's the recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup cranberry
1 cup dates, seeded and sliced
1 cup currents
1/2 cup sultana
1 cup dried prunes
1/2 cup rum
60 gm butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 eggs, lighted beaten
1/2 cup chocolate chips or 2 tbsp cocoa powder
3/4 cup plain flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp bicarbonate soda

Steps

1) Mix dried fruits and rum and leave overnight
2) Pre- heat oven 150 degrees
3) In a second bowl, sieve dry ingredients
4) In a third bowl, mix butter and sugar to combine well, mix in eggs slowly until well incorporated
5) Fold in dry ingredients
6) Stir in rum-soaked fruits
7) pour into a 7 or 8 inch square tin and bake for about 1 hour. Start the skewer test at 45 min. If skewer comes out clean, cake is done
8) Take cake out of oven, use skewer to poke holes and brush with rum.
9) Continue to feed rum if desired

This is my first fruit cake and I used too big a tin, resulting in a very shallow cake. I was also too busy to check the cake and let it bake for an hour straight and the cake turned out a little dry and crumbly. Feeding of rum helped. What I liked about the cake is that its not too sweet.

BOSS cake

2009-11-29T19:07:00.005+08:00

Did this quite some time ago. For my boss. I only did the sugar figurine only as the cake was already ordered from one of the hotels.

Here's wishing for better results in the next financial year.

Its a square piece of biscuit, brushed with a little sugar syrup and then wrapped in fondant. Then I used edible ink to draw on it.

Just wondering if anyone interested to attend a free fondant figurine class? Will be quite free end december, provided I don't go for a last minute holiday. If you are interested, please write me. It will be in Singapore, of course.

Gabriel's mini golf cake

2009-11-01T13:27:00.009+08:00

Whoa.. have not updated this blog for sometime. Had been busy whipping up homestyle pot roast, peking duck, pizzas, cheesecakes, steaks etc... virtually, that is. Had been faithfully playing the facebook game called 'Cafe World', checking-in everday to make sure my customers have food to eat.. haha.

Did not do much real baking during this time, but tried try my hands at cooking new dishes - steamed three-colour egg, 'wah tan hor fun', herbal chicken roll, etc. My hubby says I'm a cookbook cook so the results is highly dependent on the quality of recipes.

We celebrated my son, Gabriel's birthday at McDonalds again this year, with his K2 classmates. I got him to look through the latest Wilton's yearbook to choose a design that he liked. I had wanted him to pick the pirate cake on the cover, but he picked this mini golf cake.

I really must stop getting my children to pick their own designs. I told him 'I don't have that cake stand' and 'that's too much cake for 15 children'. He looked through the book again and concluded 'that's the only cake I like leh'.

So, here is my version of the mini-golf cake.

Yes.. it looked messy and amateurish. I had a big scare that day. The party was after church, so I left the cake at home, covered with shrink wrap as I had no cake box of the right size. The shrink wrap was a huge mistake! I think it trapped the heat inside and caused the fondant to melt! I did not realise it until the cake started to slide badly when my race-car driving hubby drove us to the birthday venue! It slided a good 8 cm, almost off the cake board. The car ride was the worst journey in my life. I tried to balance the cake the entire journey and at the same time. fomulating plan B in case the cake did not make it to the party.

Fortunately, it did. Look at the picture above and you'd see how hole 2 has slided to the side of the cake, the crack on the front and smeared chocolate at the front too. Thankfully, the worst damage was at the back which was not so important.

I had problems making the little golfers stand, so I put little cardboards behind them to prop them up and a skewer to hold them in place.

This little lady golfer right at the bottom had weird looking eyes because one of them fell off during the journey and I had to fix her urgently, without tools. Hahaha...

Anyway, the kids had a great time. And the adults were impressed with the cake.. still. I get too easily stressed up for my own good, signature of the Melancholic.

Happy Birthday Nathalie!!

2009-09-27T17:06:00.010+08:00

Actually her birthday is on 2 October, a Friday. But we had an early celebration yesterday with family members and friends. Nathalie was truly a bundle of joy, she was friendly with everyone and had loads of fun.

I invited a friend and her family to help me with the decorations, unfortunately they could make it. But look what they sent me - a complete decoration pack!!

1) Birthday Banner : 'HAPPY' done by the very creative son, 'BIRTHDAY' done by the artistic dad, 'NATALIE' done by the beautiful daughter, banner assembled by the very talented wife

2) Ribbons : beautiful pink, yellow, green ribbons. Loads of them. One set of them even linked up for the cake table.

3) Balloons : '1st birthday balloon', lots of cute little balloons and complete with balloon pump

4) Table cloth : pink and white table cloth for the cake table

5) Stationery : scissors, double-sided tape, extra heavy duty double sided tape, etc. How thoughtful!

Thanks Andrew, Kris, Wei Ian and Rae. I am so grateful!

As usual, I spent my whole morning and afternoon creating the birthday cake. The main cake is a 10 inch carrot cake. I omitted walnuts this time simply because I ran out of walnuts. I think it tasted better. :-) Nathalie has a favourite lion puppet which I tried to re-create here. Teddy is to fill some empty space. The yellow flowers adorning the side of the cake is marshmellow.

Here's my little princess in the same dress as the sugar figurine.

For our group pictures, she was always smilling and waving. She has this totally adorable 'Miss Universe' type wave. :-)

OK. Back to the cake. A 10 inch cake is definitely not enough for my 40 guests. So I made some chocolate cupcakes filled with M&Ms. The M&Ms were a mistake. The cupcakes were speckled with blots of blue, green, yellow, red.... I though the M&Ms won't melt as they were bakable ones, but they failed me. However, I did manage to dress all 18 cupcakes prettily, each one a different design - flowers, ribbons, animals and even a basket.

Each child had their own favourite and thankfully no clashes. My favourite is the little lion. Took me 1.5 hours to decorate them all. Unfortunately I did not have the time to take a picture of each cupcake.

Here's the cake and cupcake assembled.

Here's my prayer for my little princess.

Lord, we thank you for this little bundle of joy. You have given us the most perfect gift. We pray that you cover her with your mercy, wisdom and protection. Have mercy and heal her of her allergies and relief her from the itchiness and rashes that bothers her ever so often. Give her the wisdom that comes from knowing and fearing you. Cover her with your protection, that she may grow up healthy and strong. We ask for all these in the most precious name of Jesus, Amen.

No Fuss Flaky Apple Turnovers

2009-09-21T01:26:00.009+08:00

A couple of months ago, I attended the Pastry making class at Creative Culinaire. I learned how to make danish pastries and criossants and finally knew the difference between criossants and puff pastry. I had once tried to use ready-made puff pastry to make croissants and wondered why it did not rise. Through the class, I learned how terribly tedious it is to roll, fold, chill, roll, fold, chill (multiply that like 3 times) the dough. I have not had the courage to attempt it at home yet.

So when I come across this recipe from King Arthur Flour, I was really glad its so simple. Its called blitz puff. It uses the blender to cut the cold butter quickly without melting it. King Arthur Flour website is great! It has all the pictures and details so you know if you are on the right track. I must remember to keep going back there for other recipes.

The smell in the kitchen was Sooooooo good when the puffs were baking in the oven that it in itself was worth the effort (also because the effort was so minimal).

You need to work the dough very quickly. Especially in hot and humid Singapore, or else the butter will melt and end product will not be flaky anymore. Further, the dough is really really soft. So soft that you'd think that its impossible to roll. So you need to be really generous with the dusting of flour. Keep picking the dough up and dust the bottom so that it does not stick to the table.

I made mine into apple turnovers, inspired by the very talented Lily Wai.

Mine did not look half as flaky as Lily's nor King Arthur's, nonetheless, it was DELICIOUS! My entire family loved it. The first batch I made was almost wiped out soon after it emerge from the oven and that was about 10pm at night. My son ate two. I made them again for my son and daughter's school picnic.

Replicating the recipe here for your easy reference and mine too.

Dough
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup cold butter
1/2 cup sour cream

Directions
1) To make the crust: Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder.
2) Cut the cold butter into large cubes, blitz it together with the flour using a blender till it's unevenly crumbly, with larger bits of butter remaining intact.
3) Stir in the sour cream. The dough will be craggy, but cohesive.
4) Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface, and bring it together, if necessary, with a few quick kneads.
5) Pat the dough into a rough square, then roll it into an 8" x 10" rectangle.
6) Dust both sides of the dough with flour. Starting with one of the shorter (8") ends, fold it in thirds like a business letter, flip it over (so the open flap is on the bottom), and turn it 90°.
7) Roll the dough into an 8" x 10" rectangle again. Fold it in thirds, wrap in plastic, and place in the refrigerator to chill for at least 30 minutes (or overnight) before using.

Filling
3 tablespoons Instant ClearJel® or cornstarch
2/3 cup sugar
3 cups raspberries, fresh or frozen or apples - peeled and cut into cubes
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, to seal pastries (optional)

*If you use cornstarch, you'll want to dissolve it in a little cold water, rather than stir it into the sugar.

Directions
1) While the dough is chilling, make the filling. Mix the sugar and ClearJel till well combined. If you're using cornstarch, mix it with enough cold water to dissolve.
2) Add the sugar mixture to the raspberries, tossing to combine. Stir in the vanilla and cinnamon (and the cornstarch/water mixture, if you're using cornstarch).
3) Heat the mixture in a saucepan over very low heat, stirring, till the berries soften and fall apart. The mixture will be thick and jam-like, even though it doesn't really warm up much; this will take under 5 minutes. If you use cornstarch, cook and stir till the mixture bubbles and thickens. You can prepare the filling up to several days before; cover and refrigerate till you're ready to use it.
4) You can also do this in a microwave; heat till the berries soften, then stir till they fall apart and the mixture thickens, like jam.

Assembly
1) When you're ready to assemble the turnovers, preheat the oven to 400°F or 200 C. Roll the chilled dough into a 16" square. Cut sixteen 4" squares, for small, triangular turnovers. For round turnovers, use a turnover press to cut nine 4 1/2" rounds. Re-roll the dough scraps, and cut 4 or 5 additional rounds, as many as you can get out of the scraps.
2) If desired, for a tighter seal, brush two adjoining edges of each square (or half of each circle) with 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water.
3) Place about 2 teaspoons filling slightly off-center in each square. Or about 4 teaspoons slightly off-center of each round; a level tablespoon cookie scoop works well here.
4) Fold the turnovers in half. If you've cut the dough in squares, fold in half diagonally, to create triangular turnovers. Press the edges with a fork to seal.
5) Place the turnovers on a baking sheet, preferably one lined with parchment to catch any spills. Bake in the preheated 400°F oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until they're a deep, golden brown; you may see some of the filling beginning to ooze out.
6) Remove the turnovers from the oven, and cool on a rack.

Enjoy!!

'To die for' Blueberry Muffins

2009-09-12T22:12:00.006+08:00

Just came back from a short holiday in Malaysia's Genting Highlands and feeling more tired than before. It really was quite hard work to be on holiday with three young children. Thankfully we had two helpers with us and they were really great help.

Spent all three days at the theme park, both outdoor and indoor. Gabriel's favourite was the junior bumper car and Samantha loved all the sweets that she get to eat while Nathalie enjoyed the ferris wheel rides. When it was time to come back to Singapore, Samantha was the most reluctant. She asked if she could just go home for three days and be back again. :-)

We spent sometime with a cell member, Angeline and her family today. They have a girl aged six and she 'clicked' really well with Samantha. After lunch, Sam was invited to their home and she agreed! As we saw Samantha leave with them, we could not help but felt that our little girl had indeed grown up. Soon, she may be ready for sleepovers, how fun!

I baked some muffins for Angeline and her family. I had baked these previously for a school picnic and they were really good! I found the recipe in Allrecipes and it's called 'To die for blueberry muffins'. The muffin is really soft, with a crisp topping. I love it when it is slightly warm. I just put them into the toaster oven for a few minutes in the morning.

I baked them small for the kids and for some of the muffins, substituted blueberries with chocolate chips.

I baked my first batch in my new red silicon muffin cups.

For the mini ones, I baked them in a tray. Not sure what you call these tray, I don't think they are meant for muffins. But it has 12 shallow rounds, which is great for small muffins with lots of topping. :-)

Here's the recipe adapted from Allrecipe.

INGREDIENTS
(Makes about 8 regular muffins)
190 g all-purpose flour
150 g white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
80 ml vegetable oil
1 egg
80 ml milk
145 g fresh blueberries
1 tsp vanilla essence

For the topping
100 g brown sugar (orginal is white sugar)
40 g all-purpose flour
55 g butter, cubed
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
2. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
3. Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. I put it into the mixer with the k beater and mix for a little while.
4. Add vegetable oil, egg (lightly beaten) and milk and mix this with flour mixture.
5. Fold in blueberries.
6. Fill muffin cups right to the top (the second time, I fill it about 3/4 instead so that the toppings do not grop off the muffin when it rises), and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
7. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

To Make Crumb Topping:
Mix together sugar, flour, butter, and cinnamon with fork until it resembles coarse crumbs.
(Note - its quite a lot of crumb topping for 8 muffins, so you may actually halve this recipe)

Relax ..

2009-08-27T18:58:00.006+08:00

When I have to create a birthday cake for someone, I think about their profession, their hobbies, their favourite past time etc.. so that the cake can be meaningful to them. Which is also why I named my blog bake-a-story, as each cake can tell something about the receipient i.e. the baked goods can tell a story.

This cake tells of someone who needs to relax perhaps by having a nice long spa.

I had very little time to create this cake as it was needed on a weekday. I made the sponge cake and while it was in the oven, explored the cakecentral website for ideas. It had to be simple as I had barely 2 hours for the decoration.

This is the figurine I created for the cake.

Me and hubby had a debate about the chest hairs.. whether it should be straight or curly :-)

The ducky companion. My son say adults do not have rubber duckies.

The finished cake. I did not bring my camera.. so picture was taken using my mobile phone.

I added the little feet. You cannot see the tub. I used whipped cream to pipe like a wooden tub.

Cake is sponge cake with super yummylicious durian filling. My brother in law ate three pieces, what a compliment!

Eh... Flower Bread..?

2009-08-24T00:39:00.007+08:00

With the Panda Bread experience, I tried to make a Flower Bread last evening. The result ... eh.. not quite what I had in mind. But little Samantha was very excited and took one slice for supper. She loves anything pink and 'girly' and this bread suits her really well.

The 'petals' were too far apart. It looked like the sun, if only it were all yellow. If I do bake this again, I will make the following changes :

1) Choose a more prominant colour that yellow for the center

2) Increase the pink from 25g to 30 or 35g

3) Instead of alternating white and pink, I'll overlap them a little

4) My hubby suggested green background, I think that's a good idea.

This is how it looked like prior to baking.

And after baking.

This time, I took time to roll the dough to the length of the bread tin. But later, I lost patience and did not wait for it to rise to the top (it was getting late and we had not had dinner!) .

What should I try next?

The Adorable Panda Bread

2009-08-12T10:53:00.015+08:00

When a friend of mine sent me this link http://perfectpandas.com/2008/01/08/panda-bread/, I took a look and my heart skipped a beat. How adorable! The original creator of panda bread is Taro Taro from Japan. Who would have thought that a loaf of bread can hold some much creativity! I told myself I must make this bread and thankfully, Florence from Do What I Like has a translated recipe.

So here's mine.

Not nearly as perfect as Taro Taro's nor Florence's, but I was delighted. As I held the serrated knife, I told myself.. moment of truth.. and the next moment, two pairs of panda eyes were staring back at me! (OK.. maybe my standard is a little low...)

Here's the panda from the other side of the bread. A baby one... all squashed up. :-)

I liked the fact that every slice looked a little different.. surprises along every slice!

Try it! Its fun! Just follow Taro's detailed steps. Oh, by the way, if you look at Taro's site, it has pictures submitted by people who tried, some were ultra creative, others were hilarious.

I have replicated Florence's recipe here for your reference, with minor modifications. The dough is very easy to work with, not too tacky.

Ingredients: ＜600g loaf (206 x 108 x100h)

230g bread flour
70g cake flour
30g sugar
milk + 1 yolk = 210g (I used full cream milk)
4.5g salt
18g unsalted butter
4g yeast
8g green tea powder dissolved in 10g boiling hot water
8g cocoa powder dissolved in 8g boiling water

Method:
1. Heat up milk and yolk to temperature of 38℃. (I beat the yolk lightly with milk and send it to the microwave on HIGH for 30 seconds).
2. Put everything in bread machine and set to dough cycle. Let it knead for 20 minutes. Stop the cycle and restart the dough cycle and let it knead for another 15 minutes. (I did reset to restart the dough cycle and stop only when the dough is elastic.
3. Divide dough (about 560g) into 3 parts: 75g for the chocolate, 210g plain and the rest of the dough which is less than 280g for the green tea.
4. Add chocolate to the 75g dough and knead till the colour is even. Add green tea mixture to the 280g dough and knead till colour is even. (For the choc I did it manually, for green tea, I used the machine).
5. Round up the three pieces of dough separately and cover. (I usually use a big cake box or any other big container turned upside down and cover over it) Proof for about 40 minutes or double in size.
6. Punch air out of dough, round it and prove for another 20 - 30 minutes.
7. Use 90g plain dough for the face and 2 pieces of 27g chocolate dough for the eyes. (Refer to photo guide in Step (7) in TARO's site).
8. Fill the hollow of the eyes with 30g plain dough. (Refer to photo guide in Step (8) in TARO's site).
9. Roll remaining plain dough over the patterned dough. (Refer to photo guide in Step (9) in TARO's site).
10. Divide the remaining chocolate dough into 2 pieces (17.5g each) for the ears. (Refer to photo guide in Step (10) in TARO's site).
11. Use 70g of the green tea dough to fill up the hollow between the ears. (Refer to photo guide in Step (11) in TARO's site).
12. Wrap the rest of the green tea dough all around the patterned dough. (Refer to photo guide in Step (12) in TARO's site)
13. Place dough into a well-greased loaf pan and cover it with a lid and prove for 50 - 60 minutes in an enclosed area eg. microwave oven.
14. Bake at 200℃ for 25 – 30 minutes. (I baked at 180 degrees for 25 minutes)

More pictures.

Green tea paste from mixing green tea powder with hot water. Cocoa paste looks similar.

'Coloured' dough rounded and ready for proofing under a box.

The dough, all stacked up and ready to go into the loaf tin.

You can already see the panda staring at you with its lovely eyes...

Unfortunately, I did not roll the dough long enough, so its quite short lengthwise and was unable to fill the sides of the loaf pan. Or maybe I was too impatient towards the end and only proofed for about 35 minutes.

I was worried when I saw this... looks so lopsided.

This side looks much better.

It looks even better after slicing.

Right now, I have so many ideas of what other animals/pictures I want to create with this new learnt technique. Thanks to Taro! And also to SK who sent me the link.

Nice and Easy Banana Cake

2009-08-10T00:19:00.005+08:00

Took this recipe from Agnes Chiang's 'I can bake'. Made as a supper snack for cell group members after bible study.

The cake turned out very soft and moist. But unfortunately, the bunch of bananas I got from my MIL were not the right type of bananas, so its not as fragrant as it should be. Lesson learnt, do not use the 'kek leng gio' or translated 'Indian banana' for baking.

Recipe adapted from Agnes Chiang's "I Can Bake'.

Ingredients

180g butter/margarine (I used butter)
180g sugar
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed coarsely
1/8 tsp banana essence, optional (I replaced with vanilla essense)
3 tbsp milk mixed with
1 tbsp lemon juice
240g flour
1tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Decoration
2 ripe bananas, sliced
1/2 lime

Method
1. Shift flour with baking powder and baking soda, set aside
2. Cream butter and sugar till light. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition
3. Mix in mashed bananas, essence, sour milk and flour until well combined
4. Pour into greased pan or muffin cups
5. Sqeeze lime over bananna slices. Arrange banana slices over top of cake
6. Bake at 180 degree celcius for about 20-25 minutes until cooked and golden brown

Fondant Ribbon Roses

2009-08-04T15:21:00.014+08:00

I'd like to show you two very simple ways of making fondant roses. These are called ribbon roses. I use them very often in my cake decorations as they are very easy to make and really enhances the aesthetics of a cake.

I've used them on the wheels of the carriage cake and the plaque on the present cake.

First, you tint some fondant with colour.

I use Wilton gel colours. Use a little toothpick to transfer the colour. Knead the fondant till the colour is uniform.

Take a small ball of fondant. Roll it into hotdog shape. Use a small rolling pin to roll it flat. Then trim the sides.

Roll it up. Make sure to slant it just slightly as you roll it. For the tiny rose that I made, I only need half of that length. Then use your finders to slightly open the folds.

Another method, my prefered method, involves folding the fondant strip prior to rolling. The resultant rose has more rounded edges. In my opinion, a softer, more gentle look.

So, which one do you prefer?

Durian Puffs

2009-08-02T17:45:00.004+08:00

I love love durians. Especially the bitter sweet variety. If I can get my hands on durians, they never made it into any cakes or pastry, as I would rather just eat them as is. YUM!

One of my cell member is a great cook and baker. She made some durian puffs the other day. Although I was to avoid dairy products, I just cannot resist! So poor Nathalie suffered for the next few days because of mummy's greed. :-(

I had never tried choux pastry, but I was inspired.

Before I knew it, the stars were all aligned. 1) Borrowed a book from the library about cheesecakes and in it was an easy recipe for choux pastry! and 2) a very generous friend of the family gave us a big tub of durian puree claiming that it was the same ones used in Goodwood Park's famous pastries and 3) there is an idle pack of whipping cream in the fridge.

The choux pastry was easier than I thought and it came out lovely and very well puffed up, with large cavities for lots of durian filling. As for the filling, I took care to make sure that I have more durian than cream for a more satisfying bite.

I ate a couple, if not for allergies, I would have eaten a lot more. It was delicious. But a pastry a tad hard. I would bake for a shorter time next time round.

Recipe for choux pastry adapted from Alex Goh's 'Fantastic Cheesecake'. The original recipe was for eclairs.

Ingredients

Milk 160g
Butter 90g
Flour 100g
Eggs 2 nos

Method

1. Cook milk and butter until it boils
2. Add flour and mix to form a smooth paste. Beat it until lukewarm. (I used the mixer)(
3. Add eggs, one at a time. Bear until well blended and smooth
4. Place choux pastry into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe a small round.
5. Bake at 200 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

I could not find my 1M star nozzle, so I settled on a 1cm round nozzle. The first batch was too big for my liking. For the second batch, I piped about 50c coin round and made small, bite size puffs.

Will be trying eclairs next time.

Pistachio Almond Cookies

2009-07-27T00:31:00.004+08:00

I love the cookies at Marks and Spencers. I was there to pick up some organic Camomile tea recently and browse through its array of cookies. There's my favourite rich tea and ginger snaps and a whole lot of new flavours! What caught my eye was Almond and Pistachio cookies, and Orange and Cranberry cookies. Well.. I did not buy them, but I was inspired to bake some cookies.

When I went home, I searched through the trusty network of food bloggers and found a Pistachio Almond Cookie recipe at Sugar and Everything Nice. The cookies looked so good, I printed the recipe and immediately get going.

I also saw a recipe in Kitchen Culture magazine, Cranberry Almond Cookies and decided to use the same almond cookie recipe base to make both cookies.

The result - I love the pistachio cookies! The cookie is so buttery and light and the pistachio added a nice nutty crunch. The cranberry ones are great too, but they taste much better the following day.

The pictures look so different, because they were taken at different times of the day. I really must work on my lighting. But I am lazy. As it is, I am already like squeezing out time to bake amidst looking after my three young ones on weekends.

Here's the recipe.

Pistachio & Almond Cookies

Recipe Adapted from The Cookie Collection

Makes about 30 cookies ( I made 28)

Ingredients:

225g unsalted butter, softened

140g castor sugar

1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

2 tsp vanilla extract

225g plain flour

55g ground almonds

55g pistachio nuts, finely chopped

1/2 tsp salt

Method:

1) Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon (I use the mixer). Then beat in the egg yolk and extract.

2) Sift the flour and salt into the mixture. Add the ground almonds and stir until thoroughly combined. Halve the dough, shape into balls, wrap in clingfilm and chill in the refrigerator for about 40 minutes.

3) Preheat the oven to 190C. Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment.

4) Unwrap the dough. Pinch some dough, about 1 tablespoon, and roll into a ball. Put on the baking sheet, spaced well part. Flattened each ball slightly with your palm.

5) Sprinkle some chopped pistachio on each cookie. Press lightly so that it stays.

6) Bake for 10 - 12 minutes. Leave to cool on the baking sheets for 5 - 10 minutes, then using a palette knife, carefully transfer the cookies to wire rack to cool completely.

I baked mine for about 13-14 minutes as I like it slightly firmer. For the cranberry variation, I added the cranberry into the dough prior to refrigeration.

Bread!

2009-07-26T22:32:00.005+08:00

Realised I had not baked bread for quite a while. I tried to set aside some time last weekend to bake some. Unfortunately, after kneading the bread, we decided to go out for lunch. So I had to pop the dough into the fridge to prevent it from over proofing. I had not done this before, so was a little worried that all effort will go to waste.

When I came back from lunch, about 3 hours later, the dough had proofed to much that it filled the entire large container that I used to store it. Punched it down and tried to knead it, but it was wet due to condensation... I had to used quite a fair bit of flour on the table to prevent it from sticking. I was concerned that all the excess flour will make the bread hard.

But the final result was as good as I remembered of the results of my last attempt using the same recipe.

I made some hot dog buns (again!), raisin buns and cranberry buns.

Some tips for softer bread

1) the dough must pass the stretch test

2) allow time for final proofing to make sure the dough grows double in size

3) When using dried fruits like raisins, always remember to soak in a little bit of water for at least half hour. Pour away the water before adding into dough.

4) Substitute some bread flour with all purpose flour

Have fun!

Princess Carriage

2009-07-18T22:05:00.009+08:00

Samantha is like any other girl. Loves pink, cute little things and princesses. Her birthday cake last year was a carousel cake, very challenging. This year, I kept it simpler.

I made a cinderella carriage from gumpaste. With gumpaste wheels. With a little gunpaste Cinderella shoe and a tiny weeny magic wand. I had wanted to mould little mice as carriage-man, but I ran out of time.

It is no where near the brilliant ones that I saw on the internet. Nevertheless, I am happy with the final cake.

You can see many mistakes.. like the number 4, which is wobbly and the ribbons are of different shades of pink. The daisies are there to cover mistakes too. The cardboard that I put the carriage on was slightly bigger than the cake, leaving gaps in between. But I had fun.

Here's princess Samantha.

The party was at McDonald's. She had been looking forward to it since her brother's birthday last October. The children had a wonderful time.

The following day, I had my family come over for dinner and have a mini birthday celebration. I baked a black forest cake but had little time to decorate , as I had to help prepare dinner. And Nathalie was not too cooperative. She cried as she was not too familiar with my family. I iced part of this cake while holding her in one hand. I cheated by re-using the carriage from previous day.

See how terrible the icing was done? Was almost too embarassed to post it here. But see how the children love it.

A 'Present' Cake

2009-07-17T00:31:00.008+08:00

How time flies! I have not posted a single entry in more than a month!

Had been busy at work and at home, can hardly find time to bake or cook. But July is a special month. July 12th is Samantha's birthday. She turns four this year.

Most times, she makes me really proud of her. She adores her baby sister and is always the loving, considerate big sister. She knows her 'please' and 'thank yous'. When we share a slice of cake, she'd ask 'mummy, do you want anymore?', before she ate up the rest of the cake. When I complain of aches, she'd immediately massage for me and ask 'Is this better?'. She is a sensible, sensitive little girl.

But she has an extremely stubborn streak and throws her fair share of tantrum regularly. Meal times are a struggle too, unless its at McDonalds.

So for my little girl, I have baked a total of three cakes for her. This is the first one, for celebrating with the cell group. Its not for her alone, but for all who were born in month of July.

A chocolate cake covered with chocolate fondant (I bought from Kitchen Capers) and decorated with pink fondant ribbons.

It looks too boring, so I added a gift card.

Then I added a little bear.

Bear is totally mobile.

Will showcase the other cakes in another post. Snoozing time....

Chocolate Crinkles

2009-06-13T20:54:00.005+08:00

Today, I baked the Chocolate Crinkles that were featured in the Sunday Times recently. These cookies are also called Black and Whites, a fudge like chocolate cookie that is encased in a coating of confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar.

I forgot to coat mine with icing sugar, so it ended up as cracked little mounts of chocolate cookie. But nonetheless, it tastes so good. I used the best ingredients I have. Valrhona dark chocolate, Valrhona cocoa powder and madagascar vanilla essence. Its so chocolatey that after just one cookie, I could almost feel a sorethroat coming. :-(

These are my crinkles.

Apologies for a ill-focused picture.

The real crinkles are meant to look like this. Taken from Joy of Baking.

Look so much more lovely, doesn't it. I still have some dough in the fridge. Will try to coat the second batch tomorrow.

The recipe is adapted from Field Guide to Cookies by Anita Chu.
Make about 20-22 cookies (I made about 22, with leftover dough for about another 8 cookies)

Ingredients

170g dark chocolate
85g butter
1 Tbs brandy (optional)
185g plain flour
2 Tbs cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking power
115g sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp sea salt

Method
1. Melt chocolate, butter and brandy together bain marie or using the microwave. Stir well and set aside to cool.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Set aside.
3. Beat eggs and sugar until thick and smooth using a mixer. Add vanilla and the melted chocolate. Mix until combined. Add the flour and cocoa mixture and the salt. Mix until well combined.
4. Scoop the dough out into a plastic container with a tight fitting lid. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 170 degree C. Take the dough out of the fridge and let soften for 20 minutes while the oven preheats. (I did not wait 20 minutes, only 5).
6. Line cookie sheet with baking parchment. Scoop out generous tablespoonfuls of dough, roll into balls and place on the cookie sheet about 3cm apart. The balls should be about the size of an unshelled walnut. Place the unused dough back in the fridge.
7. Bake 10 to 12 minutes until the tops are cracked. Remove from oven, let cookie cool for about five minutes then transfer them to metal rack to cool completely.
8. Store cookies in air tight container.

Update:

Tried coating with icing sugar. Need to do it really fast as the icing melts easily coz the dough is wet.

Kitchen Capers store

2009-06-13T17:52:00.005+08:00

Since Gina of Kitchen Capers opened her store in Kallang Bahru, I've been meaning to visit. And I finally did last Tuesday, 9 June, during lunch time.

I picked up quite a few things, had a very nice bowl of soya chicken noodle at the hawker center and had a chat with the very friendly Gina. Gina was very generous with her tips on decoration with fondant when I asked her some questions.

These are the things that I picked up:

Valrhona chocolates!

Never buy them before. Was looking forward to bake the chocolate crinkles featured on Sunday times. These chocolates will be perfect.

Fondant. I've tried quite a few brands and also homemade ones, but not these. I heard these are quite good, but it feels really soft.. am worried that it might be difficult to cover cakes with. But Gina say they work fine, so I bought two packets to try.

Miscellaneous - lollipop sticks -> for making cheesecake pops when I get the time. Silicon cups in rainbow colours... will be perfect for cupcakes and environmentally friendly too.

The Kitchen Caper store is located at:

Kitchen Capers

Block 71 #01-531F

Kallang Bahru

Singapore 330071

Tel: 6392 0159 Fax : 6392 0259

Opens daily from 10am to 9pm

Spare ribs with Garlic, Fermented Black Beans and Pumpkin

2009-06-03T00:33:00.003+08:00

This is one of the first dish I ever cooked and probably the only one that I am totally satisfied. Try it if you have a chance.

Recipe from '100 homemade dishes' by Huang Mei Feng

Ingredients

450g pumpkin

450g spareribs

2 cloves garlic (sliced)

1.5 tbsps fermented black beans

1 sprig spring onion (shredded)

1 tbsp Shaoxing wine

Marinade

1/4 tsp sugar

1tbsp light soy sauce

1/2 tsp salt

ground white pepper

1/2 tbsp caltrop starch

1tbsp oil

Seasoning

1.5 cups water

1 tsp dark soy sauce

1/2 tsp sugar

Caltrop starch solution (mixed well)

2 tbsps water

2tsps caltrop starch

Method

1. Peel pumpkin. Seed and cut into pieces

2. Chop up spareribs. Wash and wipe dry. Mix with marinade. Leave for 15 minuts

3. Heat oil in wok. Stir fry fermented black beans and garlic until fragrant. Put in spare ribs and stir fry until golden brown. Sizzle shaoxing wine. Pour in seasoning and simmer for 20 minutes. Add pumpkin and simmer for another 10 minutes (or until pumpkin is soft). Thicken with caltrop starch solution. Sprinkle with shredded spring onion. Serve.

Exam stress!

2009-05-30T01:41:00.006+08:00

No, my kids are too young for exam stress. They are still in pre-school and enjoying every minute of it. My colleague's children and feeling stressed out about their exams and thought I could bake some cupcakes to cheer them up. She wanted the cupcakes to say a few words of encouragement and this is what I came up with.

I did not have much time to think about the design nor do the decoration, so I tried to make it simple. The bears were added on to add 'life' to the cupcakes.

This bear says 'Perservere'.

This bear feeling the pressure of study...

And this one, my favourite, taking a well deserved break.

I heard the cupcakes were well received. And I've been requested to conduct a cupcake decoration lesson for the girls. Will find time...

If you are feeling stressed about study or work or family pressures, do encouraged by our Lord's promise :

Isaiah 41:10 (New International Version)
10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Have a blessed day!

A new interest - cooking

2009-05-20T00:18:00.002+08:00

I hardly ever cook in my life. My only experiences were instant noodles, fried egg and maybe once, century egg porridge. But I've been reading magazines and books on cooking, just never had the guts to start.

You know, even when I bake chicken pie, the fillings were cooked by my domestic helper. So is the filling for my pineapple tart. I am hopeless when it comes to using the stove. But now we use the induction cooker and I feel it is more manageable. The 'fire' comes in a range of degrees - 120, 150, 180, much like the oven.

I was inspired by the Ngoh Hiang recipe posted on the Sunday times on 10th May. And last weekend, I was hit by the 'cooking bug'! I even visited the wet market (I probably can count the number I times I was in a wet market using a single hand).

On Saturday, I made wantan noodles and Ngoh Hiang.
On Sunday, I made 'Braised pork ribs with pumpkin' and 'three cup chicken'.

I thought it was quite a feat for a beginner and the results were good. Even hubby was impressed. I am extremely motivated. Look out for my posts.

Sweet Potato Ondeh Ondeh

2009-05-18T00:05:00.006+08:00

Yes, I had been baking, but since they are old recipes which I had already posted, I had no updates.

I spent last week and this week trying my hands at making one of my favourite desserts, the ondeh ondeh. I also prefer sweet potato in the dough, so I scored through the internet for recipes.

The first recipe I tried was from AromaCookery.

Sweet Potato Onde Onde

adapted from Amy Beh’s pumpkin onde onde recipe

Ingredients:
150g sweet potato, cubed, steamed until soft and mashed

200g glutinous rice flour
pinch of salt

100ml water

1 tbsp tapioca flour

Filling :100g grated gula melaka combine with 1 tbsp sugar
Combine:200g grated coconut (white part only) and 1/4 tsp salt, then steam for 5 minutes and leave to cool. (This helps it to keep better.)

Method:
1. Bring water, salt and tapioca flour to a boil over low heat. Keep stirring until almost transparent.

2. Pour the mixture immediately into the glutinous rice flour in a largemixing bowl. Stir till it is well absorbed. Add the mashed sweet potato andmix well to form a dough. If dough is too soft, add a little moreglutinous rice flour. If it is too dry, wet your hands and knead the dough.

3. Divide dough into two and roll each portion intoa longish roll. Cut into small pieces.

4. Bring water to a boil in a deep saucepan. Roll the pieces ofdough into small balls with your palms. Then flatten the ball and put abit of the sugar mixture in the centre.

5. Pinch to seal, then roll againinto spheres. Drop the balls into boiling water until they float to the surface (about 2 to 2 1/2 minutes).

6. Remove the cooked balls with strainer.

7. Roll in grated coconut to coat.

The dough was easy enough. The grated gula melaka melted and became a large lump, not sure if it was because it I did not put in enough sugar. It was relatively easy to wrap. But as the balls rest on a plate while waiting to be boiled, the gula melaka melted and seeped through the dough. I was not satisfied with the results - 1) when eaten, the ondeh ondeh did not 'burst' in the mouth as it was supposed to. 2) the taste of sweet potato was not obvious (maybe the sweet potato is not of good quality) 3) its a tad hard. and 4) the gula melaka was of inferior quality and not 'fragrant'.

Most of all above.. is my fault.

So I got another recipe and tried again today.

This recipe is from Baking Mum. Hers is quite different from the above, has more sweet potato than flour and has less steps!

Ingredients:

600 gm of steamed and mashed sweet potato

2 tbsp pandan juice (I omited as I did not have pandan leaves)

250 gm white coconut shreds (add 1/2 tsp of salt and steam)

150 gm tapioca flour

1 tsp green colour (if sweet potato used is orange in colour, omit the colouring)

3 tbsp castor sugar

Filling: 200 gm of gula melaka (cut into small pieces)

Mixed mashed sweet potato, tapioca flour, sugar, pandan juice and colouring (if used) and knead into a dough. If dough is dry, you can add some water (a tbsp at a time) until dough is soft and not dry.

Pinch some dough and make into a small ball.

Flatten it with your palm and put filling in it and wrap it up.

Boil a pot of hot water. When water boils, put the wrapped ondeh ondeh into the pot and let it cook. When ondeh ondeh floats to the top, the dough is cooked.

Roll cooked ondeh ondeh in the steamed white coconut shreds.

This time round, I chopped the gula melaka rather than grate and added quite a fair bit of caster sugar (which is a mistake!). The caster sugar kept the gula melaka from melting, but it also kept it from binding together, so when I filled the ondeh ondeh, it also trapped air in the dough ball! Some of the ondeh ondeh pops, but with little gula melaka, but with much air! Another disappointment.

But overall, I like this dough better. Able to taste the sweet potato and its also soft and chewy. I will definitely try this recipe again, until I can figure out how to put lots of gula melaka in there and not have it seep through the dough. Any advise you have will be welcomed.

Long weekend

2009-05-04T00:31:00.003+08:00

A long weekend feels even longer when the oven's not working. Yes, the oven is down, had been down since two weeks ago. Which explains the long silence on the blog.

Spoilt a batch of portugese egg tarts the other day when after more than half an hour in the oven, the pastry refused to 'puff' up. The oven was supposed to be at 220 degrees, yet I can touch the pan with my bare hands!

The last two weeks had been bad too.. hence no time to call the service center.

Nathalie's rashes had been getting worse. Visited the docs three times in a week! The last visit was to KKH to see an allergy specialist. Took blood test to test for milk, wheat and nut allergy, will know the results tomorrow. The specialist also introduced a 'wet wrap' treatment for her, which includes through mosisturizing, then letting her wear a set of damp pyjamas followed by dry ones. As uncomfortable as it sounds, it really worked. After a couple of days of wet wraps treatment, her skin condition improved tremendously. We stopped only when she seem to have caught a chill.

Visiting the doctor tomorrow for followup and praying for good results to the blood test.

Gabriel appears to have some insect bites and he could not stop scratching, causing an infection. We tried to get an appointment with a dermatologist in KKH and Skin center, but was told that the next appointment will be late June! But God work miracles and sent help our way. We manage to get an appointment for tomorrow! Praise the Lord!

The oven will be fixed tomorrow. Really looking forward to bake something.

Portugese Egg Tarts

2009-04-12T16:59:00.004+08:00

I am really thankful for the long weekend. I was hoping to bring the kids outdoors, but little Nathalie's rashes were getting worse and the advise from the doctor is to keep her cool and keep her indoors.

Nathalie is allergic to milk. Tried supplementing with formula a couple of weeks ago and she vomited and hives appeared all over her body. We spent the night at the hospital.

Not so sure what triggered this round of rashes. She scream when the itch is bad and we won't allow her to scratch. My heart aches each time I hear her scream. There are raw patches at the back of her knee, her wrists and her neck. Her cheeks are really red too. Poor little Nathalie. Thankfully, we have many aunties and uncles in church praying for her, praying for her speedy recovery.

I found some time to bake a simple recipe - the Portugese Egg Tarts. I never thought egg tarts can be easy, but this one uses store bought puff pastry, so really no sweat at all. The result is really good, even my gourmet MIL and hubby likes them.

The lovely custard.

I only dared to eat half... because of little Nathalie, I really have to avoid dairy products.

Here's the recipe, you can find it in many blogs out there too.

Portuguese Egg Tarts Recipe

Ingredients
500g ready made puff pastry

Filling
200g whipping cream
300g milk
80g sugar
3 eggs3 egg yolks
1/4 tsp vanilla essence

Method
1. roll our the pastry to a rectangular shape about 3mm thick. Roll it up like a swiss roll. Chill until firm.
2. divide the pastry into 25g portions, flatten the pastry and roll it into about 3mm thickness. press onto the tart moulds.
3. filling: cook whipping cream and milk until 70c. stir in sugar and cook until sugar dissolves. add into the beaten eggs and egg yolks. mix until well blended. lastly add in the vanilla essence. set aside to cool.
4. pour the filling into the pastry tarts from step 2. then bake at 220C for 20-25mins.

I did not bother to roll up the pastry and chill it. I simply use a round cutter to cut and then lined it into foil cups. I made a total of 12 egg tarts.

Do try it. Its easy and the results .. delicious.

Orange Cotton Cheesecake

2009-03-22T16:29:00.006+08:00

My son Gabriel loves this cotton cheesecake. (He told me to type this)

My hubby bought me this book from Msia - Agnes Chang's 'I can Bake'. It has many recipes, from cakes to cookies to bread. I had this book for almost a year already, but hardly tried anything from there, cause I'm almost always distracted by the wonderful recipes I find online. Finally got to bake this cotton cheesecake for my cellgroup meeting.

The recipe calls for a 10 inch square tin, but my little oven is unable to accomodate a water bath tin bigger than that.. so I settled for a 10 inch round and a 7 inch square. I only managed to take pictures of the square one.

As the name implies, the cheesecake is cotton soft. Very fluffy and nice. Its not too cheesy. Personally, I find it not cheesy enough. But some people prefers it this way, as its less jelat.

It has a nicely browned top.

Fluffy interior.

Orange Cotton Cheesecake

Ingredients
250g cream cheese
220ml fresh milk
100g butter

A:
70g plain flour, sifted
20g corn flour, sifted
60g caster sugar
6 egg yolks
1 orange, grated rind and squeezed juice

B:
6 egg white
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
60g caster sugar

Method:
1. Put the cream cheese and fresh milk into a double boiler. Double boil till the cream cheese has melted. Remove from heat, add butter, stir till the butter has melted and leave to cool.
2. Add A into cooled cream cheese mixture and stir well to form batter
3. Whisk B till thick and glossy (soft peaks form), fold into cream cheese mixture till well combined
4. Pour cake mixture into non-greased 10"square baking tin ( I lined the bottom of the pan with baking paper)
5. put baking tin into a large roasting pan half filled with hot water. Steam bake at 150 degree for 1.5 hours till golden brown and cooked.
6. Remove cake from the oven, invert the cake onto a cake rack and leave to cool completely.

Other variations
- for lemon cotton cheesecake, use one lemon to substitute orange
- for mocha cotton cheesecake, use two tbsp instant coffee dissoved in 4 tbsp hot milk to substitute orange

Polo Buns

2009-03-20T17:01:00.005+08:00

Its the school holidays. Took couple of days off to keep the children company. Plus also use the extra free time to bake. Tried my hands at polo buns. I've heard how tasty they are, but have never tried them.

Mine looks like this.

Not quite as pretty as the ones I saw on the internet. Taste wise, its OK. When fresh out of the oven, the covering dough was a little crispy, but the taste was not as buttery as what I expected. Maybe the quality of butter was not that good, I used the relatively cheap ones from Phoon Huat 'Greenfields'.

The bun was really soft. I used a recipe from Creative Culinaire. Even after two days, pop into the microwave at high for 20 s and its still as soft as before.

Proofed, but before baking:

I mixed some butter and icing sugar and put some into each bun. I've done this before for butter buns and they tasted delicious. But this time, the taste of butter was so mild.... lesson learnt.. don't stinge on butter.

For variation, I made some garlic butter buns too.

To my surprise, little Samantha loved this batch of buns. She polished off almost 4 in 2 days.

Healthy Granola bars

2009-03-19T18:14:00.008+08:00

Had not been baking much. Busy.

Samantha brought back the stomach flu virus and passed it on to almost my entire family. Prayerfully, little Nathalie was spared, thanks to the many prayers from family and friends. Gabriel is still suffering with lots of gas in the tummy.

Nathalie has very sensitive skin. PD confirmed she has eczema. She has rashes on the face, hands, legs and feet. Sometimes its so bad that a sticky liquid oozes out. On some days it bothers her so much that she could not sleep. She used to sleep through the night, in fact she was able to do that in her first month. But ever since the rashes came about, she wakes up two to three times in the middle of the night. Sometime due to the itch, sometimes due to diarrhea. After some research and trials, I realised that she is sensitive to peanuts and milk. When I consume those (I am still breastfeeding), she breaks out in rashes. So I have to stay away from dairy products and peanuts. The diarrhea has stopped, her rashes better, but still flares up occasionally. There is still something in my diet or the environment that she is sensitive to. Pray for wisdom.

My hubby enjoys cycling. He suffered two falls recently. Thank God no major injuries. You can read his blog here. He had been eating just granola bars for lunch for past week and was telling me how expensive good bars are. So I ventured to bake him some.

I searched the internet for recipe and decided to use this. I was sold by the beautiful pictures and it looks easy enough.

Granola Bars
2 1/2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup pepitas

1/4 cup flax seeds

1/4 cup sesame seeds

1 cup whole almonds (or other nut)

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup honey*

1/4 cup natural peanut butter*

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup dried cranberries (or other dried fruit)

Preheat the oven to 325. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Next, line a square baking pan (8 or 9 inches) with two perpendicular sheets of parchment paper that are long enough to leave an overhang. The sheets will form a “basket” for you to lift out the sheet of granola, before you cut it into bars.

Combine the oats, coconut, seeds and nuts; spread out evenly on the rimmed baking sheet and toast for 15 minutes. When the oat mixture has been toasting for about 10 minutes, combine the honey, peanut butter, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and vanilla in a medium sauce pan over medium-low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. If the sugar dissolves before the oat mixture is done toasting, reduce the heat to low.

When the oat mixture is done toasting, transfer it to a large bowl and add the honey mixture and fruit; stir to incorporate. Spread the mixture in the prepared square pan, using the back of a wooden spoon or bottom of a measuring cup to press the mixture into the pan and create a smooth, even surface. Bake the granola mixture for 30 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool completely on a wire rack.

Using your parchment “handles,” lift the granola sheet out of the pan and onto a cutting board. Using a large sharp knife, Cut the sheet into one-inch wide bars. Next, cut the series of bars in half, lengthwise. Store in an airtight container.

I modified the recipe and replaced the nuts with what I have on hand. I used sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and crushed the whole almonds. I also added some wheat germ.

The oats and nuts toasted.

Mixed the nuts with the peanut/honey/sugar mixture. I had problem with it coming together that I rushed to make another half batch of the peanut/honey/sugar mixture. After mixing, put into a 10 inch pan.

Press and press and press with wooden spoon till surface is even.

When cool, cut with sharp knife and the granola bars are ready to be consumed. It was quite difficult to cut. I think its too dry and a little crumbly, not the soft chewy granola bars I am familiar with. Maybe the baking time was too long.

Here's a close up.

Taste wise, its not too bad. Not sweet, very nutty and certainly very healthy.

Next time, will try a more chewy recipe.

Birthday cupcakes

2009-02-28T10:30:00.007+08:00

Baked these lovely cupcakes for a colleague's birthday. Cupcakes were chosen because they are less time consuming to bake and decorate, yet the results were so lovely.

These are cherry cupcakes with low fat chocolate ganache, topped with a simple fondant cutout.

Recipe for low fat Chocolate Ganache

180g dark chocolate
1 tub of light sour cream (200ml)

1. Take sour cream out from fridge, let it warm up to room temp. This is important, else chocolate will seize when cold sour cream is poured on it.
2. Melt dark chocolate.
3. Mix the two together until well blended. No need to use mixer, just a spoon will do.
4. Use immediately.

If you refrigerate the ganache, let it warm to room temperature before spreading on cake. On the same principle, it tastes better at room temp.

Daring Baker February challenge - Chocolate Valentino cake

2009-02-28T09:57:00.007+08:00

I love February. Its a month of celebrations. Chinese New Year, Valentine's day and my birthday.

So when the daring bakers chose a flourless chocolate cake as the challenge, I had to go for it. I had baked chocolate cakes before, but never the flourless variety, so its going to be interesting. The other big plus is that it will work beautuifully for Valentine's day and my birthday celebrations.

Extracted from daring bakers' site:

"The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge."

The challenge also requires ice cream, which was no problem at all. My hubby bought me the Cuisinart Ice Cream maker recently and he had been churning out lots of ice cream which was still in the freezer.

The cake was easy enough. I baked mine in two ramekins (for Me and Hubby on Valentine's day) and a 6 inch cake pan.

I love the rustic look of these little babies!

Topped with vanilla ice cream and strawberry sauce, makes the perfect dessert.

The cake is moist and totally chocolate! Paired with smooth, cold ice cream and a slightly tangy sauce.. YUM!

For the 6 inch cake, I dusted it lightly (or not so-lightly) with icing sugar, stick in a "Happy Birthday" pick and candles. My family was over for dinner. My brother shares the same birth-date and my nephew's just a couple of days away - so a candle for each of us.

Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes

16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C. Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Do check out other daring bakers' take on the Chocolate Valentino cake. I tell you.. these people are really talented!

A birthday cake for a mom and grandmother

2009-02-03T23:43:00.006+08:00

This is probably my fifth cake order. A colleague and friend ordered this cake for her mommy. I learnt that her mommy adores her two grandchildren and her favourite past time is shopping. So I created this custom cake for her.

A teeny tiny teddy for the girl .. probably the size of a 10 cents coin.

And a last minute addition .. the little boy's favourite doraemon. A feeble attempt, really. But my hubby thinks it looks cute in a funny way, so I decided to add that in anyway.

I had loads of fun creating this cake ... but spent way too much time that I felt like a lousy mommy myself.

The Rejected Birthday Cake

2009-02-02T23:33:00.005+08:00

Chinese New Year second day was my mother-in-law's birthday. Baked her her favourite mango cake. Mango is not in season now, so its much more expensive than usual and rather hard to find. But I managed to get some really fragrant Australian ones.

Due to some mis-understanding, the cake was not presented to birthday girl.

However, I am glad that the unhappy episode had since blown over.

Assortment of CNY cookies

2009-01-27T18:50:00.011+08:00

Caught the cookie bug recently. Had been baking nothing but cookies. Here are the assortment of seven types of cookies I baked for Chinese New Year.

First, the pineapple tarts. Tougher dough for open tarts and melt-in-the-mouth-dough for closed tarts.

Peanut cookies and biscotti. I never quite liked peanut cookies, but MIL's old recipe is good. The peanut cookies tastes great after a few days.

Chocolate almond cookies, dried shrimp cookies and melting moments butter cookies.

A very happy Chinese New Year to you. Cheers!

Baptism cake

2009-01-20T00:53:00.005+08:00

Jennifer, our cell group leader's daughter got baptised recently. SHe's a really sweet girl. The big sister who took care of the little ones (including my two children) while we adults have our bible study.

I baked a carrot cake for her to comemorate the occasion and of course, to convey our prayers for her.

Here's a closeup of the little girl

May you grow in the Christ each day, Jennifer.

Pistachio Macaroons

2009-01-18T18:07:00.006+08:00

I had been trying my luck at baking macaroons again. But alas, I had nothing but failures.

First attempt on 1 Jan 2009.

This batch has :

- no legs
- bad colour, not even green

- cracked top

Second attempt, 11 Jan. Same recipe

-With thin legs
- flat-ish
- not cracked, but uneven surface
- dis-coloured, uneven colour

Despite above, still continued to fill it. Tried both cream cheese and chocolate ganache filling.

Unable to figure out what's wrong. Any expert advise from anyone?

Got the recipe from Tartelette

Pistachio Macarons, adapted from Stephane Glacier.
Makes 35
225 gr powdered sugar
60 gr almonds
65 gr pistachios
3 egg whites (about 100gr)
green food coloring (optional) (powdered is better)
25 gr granulated sugar

In a food processor, run the nuts and powdered sugar until the nuts are finely ground. Run through a sieve if needed.
Whip the egg whites until foamy, slowly add the granulated sugar, until they are glossy. Add the green food coloring if using.
Slowly fold the nut/sugar mixture into the whites with a wide spatula. The mixture should remain shiny and flow easily.
Fill a pastry bag with the batter and pipe small rounds onto parchment lined baking sheets.
Let the macarons rest for 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 315 and when they are ready, bake them for 12-15 minutes.
Let cool, remove from the paper and fill with the ganache.

Finally.

These I bought from Bakerzin.

Yummy pancakes for breakfast

2009-01-08T19:03:00.003+08:00

Recently, when I bake, my 5 year old boy would come to me, wanting to help. I would find excuses to refuse because he tend to make the whole baking process much longer and messier.

Feeling bad, I asked him to make pancakes for the family breakfast. He was thrilled. I printed a recipe from the internet and asked him to follow.

He measured the ingredients, sift the flour, mix the ingredients together.. of course with loads of help from mommy. But when we served the pancake, he proudly announced that he made the pancakes with only a little bit of help from mommy. He also keep announcing how delicious it was. :-)

Recipe taken from ALLRECIPE by Dakota Kelly

Good Old Fashioned Pancakes

INGREDIENTS
190 g all-purpose flour
10 g baking powder
6 g salt
10 g white sugar
295 ml milk
1 egg
45 g butter, melted

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg and melted butter; mix until smooth.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Girly cupcakes - update

2009-01-03T16:35:00.005+08:00

Managed to download a few pics taken using my phone. Warning - quality of pics is bad.

The main cake :

The sides :

My first Macaron!!

2008-12-31T11:13:00.007+08:00

I did it! I finally did!!

I had been pondering about making macarons ever since I can think straight after the birth of Nathalie. But I had read many horror stories about this cranky little biscuit. About how it refuse to develop feet, become lumpy or too flat or crack, etc. I just did not pick up the courage to try it.. until yesterday.

Thanks to Pook from dailydelicious who gave me precious advise and also for the recipe that I used from her lovely blog. And my hubby who got me the red bean paste. I made my first macaron - green tea with red bean paste.

I followed the recipe closely. Using the food processor to further grind the almonds with icing sugar and green tea powder. Then painstakingly sift the dry mixture.

After about five minutes in the oven, the little discs developed feet!! I was so glad I danced round the kitchen.. ha ha.

Lovely feet...

Thought the green was too intense, but what the heck.. its got feet! Filled with store bought red bean.

Still in the Christmas mood...

The truth is, I've never tasted macarons before, so I have no idea if mine passes the taste test. I heard it is supposed to be a little crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. Mine was not that crisp, but was indeed moist and slightly chewy inside. Hubby loves it. Friends thought its too sweet. Not too sure if it was the filling that was too sweet or the little discs.

My daughter is now asking for pink ones. So do expect more macarons coming up ... after I age those egg whites.

Happy New Year!

Girly cupcakes

2008-12-27T00:18:00.007+08:00

Was invited to a friend's daughter's birthday party recently. I volunteered to bake the girl's birthday cake. The mother was looking at Cheryl Shuen's cupcakes and adored her beautiful designs. I was afraid of not meeting expectations, so I did lots of research and did these test cupcakes.

Unfortunately did not take pictures of the final cake!! Make a couple of changes - used dark brown and gold cupcake liners for a more polished look. Also added more colours - pastel orange and pink as background.

Made two flavours of cupcakes - orange vanilla and chocolcate with maraschino cherries. The chocolate ones were very tasty, the maraschino cherries gave it a very nice flavour. I think I ate about four of those cupcakes, its a feat for non-cake lover like me.

Choc 'n' cherry cupcakes
adapted from '500 cupcakes and muffins' by fergal conolly
makes 18 cupcakes

Ingredients
225g self raising flour
4 tbsp dutch processed cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
225g caster sugar (I reduced by 25%)
225g unsalted butter, softened
4 eggs, lightly beaten
90 g chopped cherries (Recipe uses fresh cherries, but I put in about 15 chopped maraschino cherries instead)
2 tbsp kirsch (I omitted)

Steps
1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees
2. In medium bowl, sieve flour, cocoa and baking powder. Set aside
3. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
4. Add eggs a little at a time, beating well with each addition
5. Add flour mixture, mix till well combined
6. Fold in cherries
7. Spoon the batter into the cupcake cases
8. Bake for 20 minutes
9. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes
10. Pour a little kirsch over each cupcake
11. If using muffin tins, remove the cupcake and cool on rack

I did not make the topping, as I decorated with fondant. But if you use this topping, it will taste and look like a black forest cake, but in miniature.

For the topping
200ml whipping cream
3 tbsp icing sugar, sieved
18 whole cherries
100g dark chocolate bar

Steps
1. Whip the cream and icing sugar together until slightly stiff
2. Using a vegetable peeler, shave curls of chocolate from the bar
3. Garnish the cupcakes with a dollop of cream
4. Place a cherry in the center and chocolate shreds around it

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-26T00:35:00.007+08:00

Merry Christmas to all!!

I've been busy, busy, busy. Did quite a fair bit of baking for our cell group's party on Christmas eve. I made marshmellow snowman, a nativity-themed cake, croissant butter pudding and Christmas chocolate cupcakes. But alas, was too caught up and did not take pictures!!

So I assembled this easy dessert to wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Strawberries with lots of white chocolate cream, sandwiched between puff pastry and dusted with icing sugar. Yum!

Update (3 Jan) : Managed to retrieve some pics from mobile phone. Here's my nativity cake and christmas cupcakes.

Bread basket

2008-12-12T00:35:00.008+08:00

I love bread. Much more than cake. Although I love and enjoyed cake decoration, I hardly ever eat more than a slice of cake each time. But bread is different. I can have them every day for breakfast, lunch and tea.

Baked double portions of bread the other day. Just normal sweet bun dough, but shaped and filled differently. Ended up with one whole basket of bread! I gave away most. I had great success this time, the bread was fluffy and soft. Most importantly, it remained so for 2-3 days!

Here's my bread basket.

I made raisin buns...

... almond twists

and sausage buns.

The almond twists are a little dryer than the raisin and sausage buns, I guess its because the raisins and hotdogs impart moisture to the dough and keeps it more moist.

My bread recipe is from Creative Culinaire, where I took my bread baking course. The course is certainly a good investment, gives me a lot more confidence when baking bread.

Little Nathalie not well again...

2008-12-11T17:53:00.006+08:00

Nathalie started running a fever on Sunday evening. Non of us in the family has the flu nor fever, so did not know where she got it from. We monitored her through the night, thankfully the fever never went pass 38.5 degrees.

We waited till Tuesday to bring her to PD, as Monday was a public holiday. PD advised to admit her into hospital! I was shocked, never realised that it was that serious. PD advised that fever might be dangerous for infants and could be due to 1) viral infection (least serious), 2) urine infection, 3) blood infection or 4) brain infection (most serious). As she was still alert, the last possibility was ruled out, praise God!

We decided against admitting her, so we proceeded with urine and blood test.

The urine test did not hurt her, though we had to wait a long time for her to urinate into the bag. But the blood test, a needle inserted into the back of her hand, ouch! My MIL say this is the most painful way to draw blood, double OUCH!

Hubby activated cell group for prayers. We are so blessed to have a group of prayer warriors.

Blood test revealed that she has a viral infection. Thankfully, the fever subsided within the day. But thereafter, she broke out in rashes all over face, body, limbs. Consulted PD again. Since there is no fever, dengue is ruled out, asked to monitor her situation.

Today, the rashes had subsided somewhat. Praise the Lord for His mercy. Will continue to monitor her and keep her in prayers.

Puff pastry stars

2008-12-11T17:34:00.005+08:00

Ready-to-roll puff pastries are so convenient.

When my son's school end party called for some snacks, I relied on the ready-to-roll puff pastries to tide me over this requirement. Since its for little children, I decided against cutting them into strips. Instead, I used a star shaped cookie cutter and made crispy and sweet little stars.

A little more work, but the result was cute. As for the little scraps in between the cutouts, I baked them too and they made it safely into my tummy. Yum!

Come to think of it, if dusted with a little icing sugar, they will make a pretty 'christmas-y' snack.

Croissant Butter Pudding

2008-12-02T15:28:00.005+08:00

We Singaporeans are a lucky lot. The neighbourhood libraries are stocked with the most fabulous books! The network of libraries allow us to borrow a book from one library and drop-off the book in any other branch. We can reserve a book online and designate where you want to pick up the book. We can extend the loan online if it takes longer than expected to finish the book. We can also have SMS reminders prior to loan due date. And all these, for free! Now that the school holidays are in, we can borrow double the usual quantity of books. So between me and my kids (btw, a child can apply for a library card the day he is born), we lugged back 25 books. :-)

One of the books I borrowed was James Martin's 'Dessert'. I had no idea who he is, but the pictures in the book looked really good. Further reading reveals that he is an accomplished chef and now a successful presenter of food shows on BBC. In this book, he mentioned that one of the dishes that made him famous was the Croissant Butter Pudding. And it started out as a mistake! Three dozen croissants was ordered but 33 dozen was delivered! So he invented this dish totally out of necessity.

I was inspired by the story of how a mistake turned good and of course the really nice, delicious looking pictures. So this is the first recipe I selected from this book.

My pictures did not turn out good, but taste wise, its superb! My first pudding actually and my husband loved it. Try it, think you'd love it too.

Ingredients
------------
Serves 4

500ml milk
500ml double cream
1 vanilla pod
3 whole eggs
6 egg yolks
200g caster sugar
6 large croissants
25g sultanas
25g butter, melted
175g white chocolate, cut into shards
75ml whisky
icing sugar, for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees

2. Pour the milk and cream into a pan, add the vanilla pod and gradually bring to boil

3. Place the eggs, egg yolks and sugar in a food mixer bowl and mix gently using the whisk attachment on a low setting

4. while the cream is heating, slice the croissants and place in oven proof dish, slightly overlapping the pieces. Sprinkle with sultanas and pour over the butter

5. once the cream has boiled, take it off the heat. Add the egg mixture and chocolate and stir well. Place to one side off the heat to allow the chocolate to melt, stirring occasionally.

6. Add the whisky to the cream mixture. Using a sieve, strain the cream over the croissants and bake in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until almost set.

7. Remove from the oven and dust with icing sugar. Caramelise the topping using a very hot grill or, if you have one, a blowtorch. This is best served at room temperature, with a spoonful of ice cream.

Moist, fluffy soft banana cake

2008-12-01T16:30:00.005+08:00

When I read this blog entry on Chubby Hubby's blog, written by his wife S, I knew I had to try baking this cake. And I am very glad that I did. I baked all of 24 cup cakes and ate more than half of it myself! Six were polished off when they came out of oven, two by me, two by my children and another two by our two domestic helpers.

The cakes were very fluffy, soft and light. The only misgiving is that I did not have enough bananas as indicated in the recipe, else I bet it will be even more fragrant.

My Mother-in-law’s Banana Cake (MIL refers to Chubby Hubby's mummy)

Makes 20 to 24

21⁄4cups (295g) flour
2tsp baking powder
2tsp bicarbonate of soda
1⁄2tsp salt
1cup (210g) sugar
240g unsalted butter
4 eggs, beaten
4 bananas (roughly 375g), mashed
5Tbs milk
1tsp pure vanilla essence

Sift flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a medium bowl.
Cream butter and sugar until creamy white.
Add beaten eggs a little at a time. Beat well after each addition.
Add vanilla, milk and mashed bananas.
Fold in flour and blend well.
Pour mixture into muffin cups and bake at 180˚C for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Actually I have one question for seasoned bakers out there, there are many varieties of banana , which is the best for baking?

Do teeth die?

2008-12-01T16:17:00.002+08:00

We have our cell group bible study every Friday.

My 3 year old daughter was heard asking one of my cell member's daughter, who had lost her two front teeth, 'How come your teeth die?'.

Ha Ha!

My first Daring Bakers' Challenge - Caramel Cake

2008-11-30T15:39:00.005+08:00

My first Daring Bakers Challenge! I've read about them, gone through the members' blogroll and were amazed at the skills and creativity its members. I was excited to be part of the team and November will be my first challenge and what a challenge!

This month hosts are Doleres (from Culinary Curiosity), Alex (from Blondie and Brownie), Jenny(from Foray into Food) and Natalie (from Gluten-a-Go-Go) and the challenge is caramel cake with caramelised butter frosting. This recipe is from Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater and this is her signature cake. Shuna's notes for this cake starts like this 'This is one of those cakes that is truly about baking. It may sound strange because aren't all cakes about baking? What I mean is that getting this cake to bake is about balancing fat with acid and protein JUST RIGHT........'.

I was worried. I doubted whether I could get it right especially when the recipe was not given in weights but in terms of cups and tablespoons... Furthermore, this will be my very first attempt with caramel.

The recipe indicated that it is for a high 9 inch cake and I had read in the forum that its very sweet, so I halved the recipe and baked in a 7 inch round. Here is the result of my attempt.

My cake ended up very flat! I decided against decorating it like a usual round cake, so I used a cutter to cut a small flower shape, layered it and fill with the caramelised butter frosting. Piped little stars on top and drizzled with caramel syrup. Made a couple of these.

The taste? Too sweet for me and family. The caramelised butter frosting is very sweet, but is very delicious. Never tried frosting made with browned butter before, its really very nice.

The recipe can be found at http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2006/12/24/caramel-cake-the-recipe/

Classic - Blueberry muffins

2008-11-27T23:35:00.006+08:00

I am embarassed to admit that I have never bought/baked with fresh blueberries before. I hardly even see them as I normally frequent NTUC Fairprice for my groceries, especially children's milk and diapers. I was surprised to see them at a neighbourhood NTUC Fairprice, so I bought the last little punnet.

I scoured the internet for blueberry related recipes and boy, there were many! Too many to decide what to choose. I finally decided to do the classic blueberry muffin, with recipe from the book '500 cupcakes and muffins' by Fregal Connolly. Had had this book for ages already, but have not tried a single recipe in there. *guilty*

Here's how my blueberry muffins turned out.

I love how the blueberries burst under the high heat and colour the mufins.

They were delicious! This recipe uses quite a lot of milk and I love that milky taste. It is also soft and moist. I ate two when it was fresh out of the oven (well, I am a big eater now... trained during confinement, now must try to suppress appetite). My children each had one.

Ingredients (makes a dozen)
-----------------------------
125g caster sugar
1 tbsp grated lemon zest
265g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 lightly beaten eggs
225ml milk
115g unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla essense
225g fresh or thawed frozen blueberries

Steps
------
1. Preheat oven to 200 degree celcius
2. In medium bowl, stir sugar, lemon zest, flour and baking powder with a spoon
3. In a large bowl, beat the eggs, milk, butter and vanilla with an electric whisk until smooth, about 1 minute.
4. Add the dry ingredients and stir until the blueberries are just combined. Do NOT over-mix
5. Spoon the batter into muffin cases
6. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes

It can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Poor Nathalie

2008-11-19T10:20:00.003+08:00

Poor Nathalie.. caught the flu bug. Must had come from the sister or brother who were down with flu and fever two weeks ago.

The PD had to insert a little tube through her tiny nostril to suck out the phelgm. She cried till her eyes were puffy and red but the relief was only shortlived. By the time we left the doctor's office, I could hear the phelgm already.

She had difficulty sleeping as she struggle to breath when laid flat. I could hear the thick mucus when she breaths. Had to put pillows under her bed to prop her up, but that means she keep sliding downwards and I had to check on her every half hour (if I can wake up) to adjust her.

She is drinking less too. Too much milk and she might vomit.

Now she had started to cough too.

Yet, as she struggled with the flu bug, she continued to reward me with her beautiful smile. A smile that reminded me that she is God's creation and I should entrust her into God's hands to make her well again.

Please pray for her speedy recovery.

Sweet Blanc

2008-11-17T13:05:00.006+08:00

When I first saw this on dailydelicious' blog site, I knew I had to make it. It looked so lovely and delicious. Bread + cream cheese filling, dusted with icing sugar and topped with a strawberry. Never made such a lovely looking bread before.

For recipe and method, please visit dailydelicious blog.

This is the bread, pre-decoration. It looks like a lovely flower.

I had some really sweet and lovely strawberries, but alas, they were too big.. even the smallest look big.

Decorate with sliced strawberries instead.

Caramel Banana Coconut Tart

2008-11-13T09:55:00.006+08:00

When I saw this tart on a blogger site - Mitong, I knew I had to try it. It looked so lovely and it combined two of my favourite things - banana and coconut, yum!

So I finally got to try it last week.. while my creation did not turn out half as lovely, but it tasted great nonetheless. Understand from Mitong that the recipe originated from a japanese cookbook, she had it translated to Chinese and here's my attempt to translate it to English.

Tart Ingredients (8 Inch)
--------------------------
Unsalted butter 100g
Icing sugar 65g
Whole egg 35g
Almond powder 35g
Plain flour 165g

Tart Fillings
-------------
Whole egg 90g
Sugar 40g (from original 80g)
Cream 80ml
Coconut powder 65g
Lemon juice 10ml
Rum 1tbsp (optional)

Caramalised Banana
---------------------
Banana 5 pieces
Butter 10g
Sugar 2 tbsp
Rum 1 tsps

Method
--------

Tart
-----
1. Take butter from fridge, let it soften
2. Sift icing sugar, almond powder and flour seperately
3. Beat the eggs
4. Whisk butter and icing sugar till pale
5. Add egg in 3 steps
6. Add flour and almond powder
7. Mix till dough come together, wrap in shrink wrap. Keep in fridge for 1 hour.
8. Roll out dough, place on tart tin. Trim the sides.
9. Use a fork to poke holes on the tart pastry, then place tart into fridge for 15 min.
10. Place aluminium foil or baking paper onto tart, add weights on top
11. Bake at 180 degrees for 10 minutes, remove paper with weights, bake another 8-10 minutes till slightly brown.

Tart filling and Caramelised banana
------------------------------------
1. Mix all ingredients for tart filling together. Put in fridge.
2. Cut banana into 2.5 cm pieces
3. Melt butter in saucepan
4. Use slow fire till the butter browns, put in white sugar and cook till sugar melts
5. Put in banana and rum
6. Stir gently till banana is coated with caramel
7. Dish out

Assemble
----------
1. Pour tart filling into tart mould
2. Arrange caramelised banana into filling
3. Bake at 180 degree for 25 minutes

I had no idea what coconut powder was, so I substituted with coconut cream. One tip given by Mitong was, not to knead the tart dough as gluten will develop and the tart will not be crispy.

My son loved the filling and the bananas while my daughter loved the crusts. So between them, they gobbled up two pieces.

Nathalie is one month old!

2008-11-11T15:13:00.006+08:00

How time flies! Our little bundle of joy is already one month old! She's very responsive for her age, even the PD mentioned that. She'll look at us and smile when we talk to her. She's such a joy and blessing to our family.

We celebrated Nathalie's one month milestone on 1 November. And what's a celebration without a home made cake from mummy? Here's my creation for my bundle of joy... and one of my favourite cakes thus far...

This cake was inspired by the many 'clothes-line' themed cakes that I saw in CakeCentral. I love the simplicity of the cake and its soft colours. Initially, I was tempted to pipe lots of 'grass' and have fondant flowers all over. Am so glad that I didn't as that would have made the cake too 'busy'.

Here's a closer look at the basket of baby clothing and blanket. Weaved the basket with long stripes of fondant.

Here's little Nathalie saying 'Hi!'.

Happy Birthday, my little lamb!

2008-10-19T17:10:00.008+08:00

My little boy's birthday is in Oct and every year we celebrate his birthday by having a party at home, inviting some of our close friends and their children. This year, we decided to do it differently, by inviting his friends in school. And since I'm still in confinement, we outsourced it to McDonalds. Both my children are fans of McDonalds.. well, which kid isn't?

But having experienced McDonald's frozen birthday cake, I insisted on baking my own.

Here's my conversation with the birthday boy on cake design :

'Boy, what design you want on the cake?'

'Mummy, what year am I born in?'

'2003.'

'No! I mean which animal year?'

'Year of the lamb.'

'Then put lamb on the cake loh!'

'OK.. I make the lamb read a book.'

'How about the lamb play Wii?'

'Huh? That's too difficult.'

'How about the lamb reading a book, but thinking of Wii?'

So, here's the cake, not quite what he asked for, but close....

Its a 2 tier chocolate cake with chocolate ganache.. but I used whipped cream decorations as I do not want a 'dark coloured' cake.

Here's a close up on the lamb. Notice the Wii remote too? The whole lamb is fondant.

The kids have lots of fun. My boy certainly enjoyed the party.

Happy Birthday, Gabriel. May the Lord shine his face upon you and bestow his blessings on you. May you grow up to love and fear the Lord. Amen.

God's Gift

2008-10-08T23:36:00.004+08:00

Guess I won't be blogging or baking for a while.... here's the little one who's keeping me busy. Each time I look at her, I am overwhelmed with gratitude and love. Her every smile, every yawn, even every cry, tugs at my heart strings. Ah.. the joy of motherhood!

Sausage and cheese buns and others

2008-09-30T13:02:00.008+08:00

Am officially on maternity leave now... have many false alarms.. but baby's still not out yet. Its getting really tiring carry a 3 kg load around with me. But baby rewards me with kicks and punches throughout the day. Am really going to miss this wonderful feeling after delivery. It really is a miracle how it grows from a single fertilised cell to a baby with such intricate organs. If its not the creation of a divine being, what else can it be? Praise the Lord!

I have recently discovered a wonderful blog. I was browsing Happy Home Baker's blog (a wonderful and generous blogger) and followed her links to DailyDelicious. DailyDelicious provides detailed step by step pictures and wonderful recipes from her wide collection of cookbooks. What a precious find! Especially so that she provides recipes from Japanese cookbooks in English!

I was so tempted to try many of the recipes, but was not really in the right physical form to try adventurous ones. So I tried her Sausage and cheese buns and along with it, other different buns with different fillings.

Sausage and cheese bun
Please refer to DailyDelicious for instructions. Easy to make, looks great and tastes delicious.

Cheese Bun

Filling : Cheddar cheese mixed with some butter
Topping : a quarter slice of cheddar cheese placed on top after brushing with egg wash

Kaya Bun

Filling : Mix some of your favourite kaya with some butter
Topping : just some black sesame seeds (optional)

Still waiting for the arrival of my little princess....

Chunky chewy chocolate chip cookies

2008-09-23T19:16:00.006+08:00

This is one cookie my children and I enjoy. A big cookie with chunky dark chocolate chips. Yum.

I like the fact that its so simple and easy to make. I also like it in large sizes, large enough for me to decorate with royal icing on top. Unfortunately, did not manage to take pictures of those that i decorated.

Here's the recipe, adapted from a cook book. Ah..cannot recall name of book nor author, apologies.

Ingredients
220g brown sugar
110g caster sugar
225g self raising flour
75g plain flour
150g coarsely chopped macademias, toasted (I omitted this)
185g butter, melted, cooled
1 egg, beaten lightly
1 egg yolk, beaten lightly
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
200 g dark eating chocolate, chopped coarsely

Steps
1) Preheat oven to 180degree
2) combine sugars, shifted flours and nuts in big bowl
3) Add combined butter, egg, egg yolk and extract, mix to a soft dough
4) Stir in chocolate
5) Place 2 level tablespoons of biscuit dough, about 6cm apart on lightly greased oven trays
6) Bake about 16 minutes or until browned lightly.

For my version, I cut down the sugar by about 30% as we do not like it too sweet. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Basket full of roses

2008-09-21T21:34:00.007+08:00

Was raking my brains how to decorate a cake that we were to bring to dinner when my husband suggested roses. Its been quite a while since I last decorate cakes with fresh cream roses, so was a little shakey and took a little while to get the hang of it again.

I find piping roses very therapuetic. As you form the rose petal by petal and create the bouquet rose by rose... you just have no time for worries. You can also rest assured that the end product is pleasing to the recipient, especially ladies.

Cake is sponge cake layered with durian cream. My first attempt at durian filling. The secret to great durian cream is to have lots more durian vs cream. I made mine at 2:1 ratio, but I think it'll taste even better to up the durian ratio.

We had a wonderful time of fellowship with our friends. Food was great, company was excellent. They certainly have the gift of hospitality. Praise the Lord! Even our children enjoyed themselves tremendously too.

Lastly to share with you this wonderful Psalm that I wrote on a 'flower pick' and placed on the cake, a Psalm of thanksgiving :

PSALM 100
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with Thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Amen.

Cheese chiffon cake and banana too..

2008-09-21T16:41:00.008+08:00

A certain japanese restaurant is famous for, among other delicacies, their super-light cheese chiffon cake. When I was there the last time, the cheese chiffon was sold out. But oh my! Almost $6 for a slice and $50 for a whole cake. That's VERY expensive for chiffon cake, considering the ingredients that goes in a basic chiffon.

While I did not get to try the famous cheese chiffon, I plough through the internet to look for a good recipe to make my own. I found different recipes, some use shredded cheddar, some use cream cheese. I chose to use the one that uses cream cheese and here's how mine turn out :

My chiffon did not turn out as tall as I wanted it to be, but that was because the pan I had was too big for the amount of batter. It certainly did not look as pretty as the restaurant version, but like all chiffons, the texture was very airy, very light and had a mild cheese flavour. I did not smother any fresh cream on it, so we could fully appreciate the taste of the chiffon.

Taste testers all liked the fact that its soft and light, but nobody raved about it. I guess we are all not cheese fans. The next time I visit the restaurant, will definitely try the cheese chiffon there, well, to compare and taste if its really worth its price.

The first chiffon did not quite satisfy, so baked another... a traditional banana chiffon. This time with raving reviews. Ha.

Bread Mix

2008-09-15T11:18:00.008+08:00

Two weeks ago, as I was loitering at King Albert Park's Cold Storage, I came across a hosts of bread mix on sale. They were near expiry. I had not tried using any breadmix before, so I decided to get one.

The instructions were simple enough.. or probably over-simplified.

I followed the instructions to the tee.. except that I hand kneaded the dough for more than 10 minutes (5 times more than stipulated on the packaging). Still I was not able to do a satisfactory stretch pane test. Then I thought, maybe bread mixes were different?

I left the bread to proof, but instead of doubling in size, it just spreaded a little on the baking tray. I popped it into the oven after more than an hour of proofing and this is what I got.

It certainly looked and smell impressive. The crust was so thick and crispy, like those artisan breads! But it did not quite 'rise' to the occasion, so the inside was rather too dense for my liking.

The fact that it didn't rise could be because the yeast was dead, since it was so near expiry.

I have since decided that baking from scratch is a lot more satisfying and rewarding.

First Puff Pastry

2008-09-06T18:10:00.005+08:00

A colleague of mine recently bought a pack of almond puff pastry and shared with me. It tasted really good. Light and crispy and fragrant. So when I came across the recipe in a book that I borrowed from the library, I just cannot resist trying it. And the best thing is, its SO easy! Especially if you buy ready made puff pastry, which I did.

These are the almond ones, with lots of granulated sugar, as hubby complained that the first batch was not sweet enough.

Also made a batch without almonds as my dear daughter does not like them.

All you have to do is brush show water on the frozen pastry sheet, sprinkle almonds on top then use a rolling pin to roll over so that the almonds stick to the pastry. Then sprinkle as much sugar as you desire and cut into shape. Bake in 170 degree C oven for about 20-25 minutes. Then enjoy!

Brought these to my cell group BS. The children loved it, so did the adults!

Cupcakes for Pastoral Team

2008-09-04T23:41:00.005+08:00

Its teachers' day. Thought I'd show the church pastors our appreciation with a gift of specially decorated cupcakes.

These are the cupcakes I came up with.

Shepherd with herd of lost sheep, plus a bible verse.

1 Timothy 5:17 'The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honour, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching'

Another pic, taken under natural light.

Picture taken using my new camera... now beginning to think that the fault is the photographer, not the camera. Photographer too lazy to compose the picture. Well, still lots to learn about how to use the DSLR.

My first fondant covered cake!

2008-08-28T13:15:00.006+08:00

A friend and colleague wanted a cake for her daughter's 8th birthday. Initial request was for the mermaid cake... but I've made that cake couple of times already and will really love to try something else.

My imagination went a little wild.. then I suggested a castle cake. Friends being friends... not demanding.. phew! I struggled with whether to make it a fresh cream cake or put my new found fondant skills to use and make a fondant covered cake. I decided on fondant. Then I received news that the birthday girl prefers vanilla cake! My..my... I don't think my favourite vanilla sponge cake recipe will suit a fondant covered cake! So I scouted high and low and finally settled on a vanilla butter cake recipe.

Here's the final cake. Due to a lack of the right resources, a castle cake it was not meant to be.. hope the BD girl will not mind...

My figurine modelling skills really need brushing up.

Overall, pretty happy with the results. But I certainly have more difficulty covering the cake this time. The weather was so humid, the fondant was 'sweating'.

Added a few more vanilla cupcakes in case the 8 inch cake is not enough.

Looking forward to the next opportunity to bake - Teacher's day! But more likely won't have time to bake for the teachers in my kids' preschool, but maybe the Sunday school teachers in church.

BTW, just bought a nice new digital SLR!! I hope this means the end of bad pictures!

My fondant-covered cake experiment

2008-08-28T12:50:00.004+08:00

I have always liked the look of fondant covered cakes. They always looked some clean and pretty. However, have not yet mastered enough courage to try make it. Plus I really don't think I like the taste of fondant.

Anyway, I finally tried it and the result is excellent!

Look how smooth the cake is. Cake is a 7 inch moist chocolate cake filled with chocolate ganache. I only spreaded a thin layer of ganache, fearing that too much may 'melt' the fondant.

Wrapped the cake with fondant ribbon.

I kept the cake in a box, on the dining table for about 4 days. Low and behold, the cake still looks as pretty, more importantly, it is still edible, albeit a wee little bit dry. Am very happy with the results of this experiment!

Zodiac animals

2008-08-20T12:44:00.006+08:00

Had been busy and tired, work plus the pregnancy is weighing me down. However, baking and cake decoration is a stress release for me.. although sometimes planning the design adds stress. But the satisfaction of the end results always makes it worthwhile.

This cake was really rushed. Baked and decorated all within 3 hours. When the cake was in the oven, I was still undecided on the design. Birthday boy was born in the year of the tiger. First, I tried to do a fondant portrait of a tiger. It was too difficult and will take up too much time, gave up. Then I thought I'd pipe a tiger, but I burnt the chocolate that was meant to do outline.

In the end, this is what I came up with.

This is a very revealing birthday cake... it tells our age!! One zodiac animal to represent each one of us at the dinner. If you are wondering how come there are birds in the Zodiac signs... no that's meant to be a chick, to represent my little daughter.

Chocolate stones all round the bottom of cake to delight my little ones. Cake is a quick, easy and tasty mango sponge cake with mango filling and iced with fresh cream.

Fellowship cake

2008-08-12T19:41:00.004+08:00

Made this cake for a fellowship dinner. Its a yummy, low fat, chocolate banana cake. Was a very rushed cake so decoration is very simple.

Baked the cake during lunch time and managed to shape 2 sheep while the cake bakes. While the cake cools, rush back to office for afternoon meetings. Dinner supposed to be at 6pm, but managed to leave office at 6:15pm only. Spent the next hour or so making the frosting, frost the cake, shaped the 'bible' and sheep and flowers. Gosh... I was stressed!

Matthew 18:20 - 'For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them'

Amen.

SPA cake

2008-08-06T14:37:00.007+08:00

Made this cake for one of my dearest friends, whom I've known since 1985. Wow, more than two decades!!

We used to enjoy our monthly spa sessions together - facial and/or massage. Now that she's working out of town, we only get to do that when she's back in Singapore.

So, here's a tribute to her and our favourite leisure activity.

Happy Birthday Gwen!

Hi Chef!

2008-07-23T18:25:00.007+08:00

A friend of ours run a successful catering business - Manna Catering. He and my hubby also share a passion for fishing. For his birthday last year, I made him a 'fisherman' cake. This year, I took his profession as the theme and made him a Chef cake.

Happy Birthday, Chef Daniel!

I asked my maid what those brown 'beads' are. She said don't know.. chocolate? I told her those are potatoes. She said potatoes are yellow. Gosh.. here's a closer look... doesn't quite look like potatoes, eh?

Carousel Cake

2008-07-22T19:52:00.010+08:00

So, this is the design my daughter picked, about a month ago.

I tried to talk her out of it by showing her other designs. Usually she is easily distracted, but somehow this time, she remembered really well that its a carousel or merry-go-round cake she wanted.

I read the instructions many times and keep wondering if I can ever succeed. Anyway, don't think friends and family will mind, so I took up the challenge.

I started my preparations one week early, making the horses and flowers. They need time to dry. I made four of these modelling paste (edible) horses. On hind sight, I should have made an extra one to allow for breakage.

Then I made about 120 of the small flowers (40 in each colour) and 16 of the bigger flowers.

On Friday, I fell sick... down with flu and cough, but still have to continue. I baked and decorated the top tier first. I chose my favourite mango cream cake as top tier. As it uses fresh cream, I am not able to use gum paste to make the top. Instead, I baked two eight inch cakes, stacked them, shaped them, then decorate.

Unfortunately I could not divide the top into eight equal pieces, so it was a little lop-sided.

The next day, Saturday, I got more sick.. started to have a fever. Took my panadol and slept until I felt well enough to bake and decorate.

I chose carrot cake for the bottom tier. Have not tried this type of tiered cake before, so thought I'd be better off with a more sturdy bottom tier, rather than a light sponge cake. Here's the decorated bottom tier, the decoration is easy for this one, just add all the flowers and pipe some leaves.

Here's the final cake, finally!

My very kind family and friends gave me lots of oohs and aahs for the cake (thanks!). Some say my decoration skills have reached a higher level (because its a higher 2 tier?). Taste wise, the carrot cake was a hit with my friends. My family felt it was too sweet, prefering the mango cake. The kids came queuing up for the fondant flowers.

What I will do better the next time (if there's a next time...when someone engage me to make this cake..) :

1) use a smaller size flower - more dainty
2) make the horses bigger
3) make the top tier 9 inch instead
4) get a tool that can help equally divide the cake, so won't be lopsided
5) take better pictures, don't think the pictures taken really do justice to the cake...

Another mermaid cake

2008-07-22T19:37:00.006+08:00

Just celebrated by dear daughter's birthday. There were two celebrations - one in the pre-school that she attends and another with family and friends.

Last week had been a really busy week. Its aspire planning time for next financial year, so was having a hard time trying to come up with ideas for the cake. My daughter already has her mind fixed on one cake design from the Wilton decoration book - the carousel design!! Gasp! Kind of regret showing the design to her. She even asked me 'Is it too difficult, mummy?'. Anyway, I tried and will post my version in the next blog update.

So for the school, I made a mermaid cake.. again... Think the previous version is much better. Then, I had a whole Saturday to mold the mermaid. This time round, I only have that few hours after work, because its a weekday.

The teachers were all praises. :-) Raving about how different this cake is from store bought and they love the taste of the cake too. The English teacher even said I made her day! So Sweet!

Korova Cookies... so yummy

2008-07-21T18:02:00.005+08:00

Came across the Korova, or World Peace cookies as they are commonly called, while surfing the internet. These cookies receive raving reviews from all who tried it and it seems so easy I simply have to try it.

I used the following recipe from Dorie Greenspan.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel, or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small bits

Method

1 . Sift the flour, cocoa, and baking soda together and keep close at hand. Put the butter in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until the butter is soft and creamy. (Alternatively, you can do this and all subsequent steps by hand, working with a sturdy rubber spatula.) Add both sugars, the salt, and vanilla extract and beat for another minute or two. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the sifted dry ingredients. Mix only until the dry ingredients are incorporated — the dough will look crumbly, and that's just right. For the best texture, you want to work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.

2. Turn the dough out onto a smooth work surface and squeeze it so that it sticks together in large clumps. Gather the dough into a ball, divide it in half, and working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) in diameter. (Cookie-dough logs have a way of ending up with hollow centers, so as you're shaping each log, flatten it once or twice and roll it up from one long side to the other, just to make certain you haven't got an air channel.) Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and chill them for at least 1 hour. (Wrapped airtight, the logs can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for I month.)

3. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F (165°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and keep them close at hand.

4. Working with a sharp thin-bladed knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) thick. (Don't be upset if the rounds break; just squeeze the broken-off bit back onto the cookie.) Place the cookies on the parchment-lined sheets, leaving about 1 inch (2.5 cm) spread space between them.

5. Bake only one sheet of cookies at a time, and bake each sheet for 12 minutes. The cookies will not look done, nor will they be firm, but that's just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies stand until they are only just warm or until they reach room temperature — it's your call. Repeat with the second sheet of cookies.

NOTE: The dough can be made ahead and chilled or frozen. If you've frozen the dough, you needn't defrost it before baking — just slice the logs and bake the cookies 1 minute longer. Packed airtight, baked cookies will keep at room temperature for up to 3 days; they can be frozen for up to 1 month

Here's my chilled Korova 'log'.

Cut and ready to go into the oven.

Baked Korova Cookies!!

I really like the convenience of having a log of chilled cookie dough and cutting and baking it only when I feel like having some nice, warm freshly baked cookies.

Absolutely delicious, do try it!

Cinammon Sticky Buns

2008-07-07T19:10:00.010+08:00

The other day, a friend brought us some sticky cinammon buns. It was very sweet, but the sticky syrup makes it moist and nice. I've made cinammon buns before, the non-sticky type, using my breadmaker cinammon roll recipe, but the resultant buns are tough after one day.

So I scoured the internet for recipes. I am so thankful for the internet, you can virtually find anything there. Hmm.. before google.. where did all the questions go?

Anyway, found that the Daring Bakers had a challenge on 'Cinammon Rolls and Sticky Buns' before and all the bakers agree that the recipe was easy enough and the results fantastic. I decided this is the perfect recipe for me to try.

So here's my version of the sticky buns.

I've added toasted almond nibs and dried cranberries. The result is absolutely yummy, especially when slightly warmed.

These are the non-sticky version, but without the sugar glaze. Strangely, my kids prefer this version.

Chocolate chip crumble muffins

2008-07-02T18:16:00.004+08:00

Not quite a fan of muffins.. but when you are dying to bake something but have too little time on your hands, muffins are a great choice.

Used the recipe from Happy Home Baker, but substituted with mini chocolate and butterscotch chips that I have in the refrigerator.

The result is rather delightful, thanks to abundance of chocolate and butterscotch chips. The muffin itself was a little dry. As for the 'crumble', I must have put in too much butter because its not crisp as I thought it should be. But it does make the muffin look more asthetically pleasing.

Here's the recipe :

Chocolate/Butterscotch Chips Crumble Muffins

Ingredients(makes 12)

250g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
50g butter
100g soft light brown sugar
150g chocolate chips
2 eggs, lightly beaten
225ml milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

for the Chocolate Crumble Topping:
50g plain flour
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
40g butter
2 tablespoons caster sugar

Method
For the chocolate crumble topping, sift flour and cocoa powder into a bowl. Mix in the sugar and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Set aside.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and the peanut butter chips.

In another bowl, mix eggs, milk and vanilla extract. Pour the liquid mixture all at once into the dry ingredients. With a wooden spoon or spatula, mix until just combined. Do Not Over Mix. The batter should remain lumpy.

Fill paper muffin cups with batter sprinkle with the crumble toppings. Bake in a preheated oven at 200degC for 18-20mins, or until well risen and firm to the touch. A skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean. Let cool completely.

Recipe source: adapted from Muffins Galore, Catherine Atkinson

Garden Themed Cake

2008-07-01T17:57:00.007+08:00

It was a friend's birthday, a very nice lady. But alas, in the middle of a work week... so really need to plan to squeeze out time to bake her a nice cake.

Was told she love my mango cake, but unfortunately, mango's not in season now.. have to make do with a blueberry cake.

Did a simple garden themed cake with lots of flowers and crawling with snails and ladybugs.

Complete with a birthday blessing taken from the bible.

Hands-on cookie baking for kids

2008-06-27T12:24:00.007+08:00

I did not send my children for any enrichment classes during the holidays at all, felt a little guilty. So when I read in the papers about many parents sending their children for cookie baking and decoration workshops, I decided to try that at home.

Chose a simple recipe from Wilton's year book and let my kids help scoop flour, sugar, etc. They had fun, but they also made a huge mess, with my daughter trying to pick up every grain of sugar she dropped on the table to put into her mouth.

Here is my 'almost three' year old daughter working hard to roll the dough. Notice the beads of perspiration and smudges of flour on her forehead.

And my 'almost 5' year old boy hard at work too...

The results (a sample of them.. forgot to take pictures of the baked cookies) :

Conclusion:

- Its fun and cheap to do this at home, but messy

- Needs patient on part of the parent, no wonder some parents pay others to do this

- The wilton recipe is far too sweet

- Not sure if its over-handling of the dough, the cookie is hard like stone

- Girls seems naturally better than boys on this, my girl proved it

Mermaid cake

2008-06-26T18:31:00.007+08:00

Baked this mermaid cake for my niece for her 9th birthday. I think this is probably the most colourful cake I have ever made. Its fresh cream cake with blueberry filling. Mermaid, flowers, crab and starfishes are fondant.

Here's a closer look at the mermaid. Heee.. a fat mermaid, not quite like my skinny weeny niece.

Back view. Looks a little plain...

Happy Fathers' Day

2008-06-18T18:42:00.005+08:00

On 15 June, I had my family over to celebrate fathers' day.

My hubby and MIL made delicious laksa and chicken rice and I baked a little cake.

Unfortunately, my oven was cranky. I believe the thermostat is not functional. For a 30 minute program, it keep stopping at every 5 minutes or less and my cake got burnt. The sides of the cake were black, so were the to and bottom. Fortunately, the inside was still good, so I managed to salvage the cake, albiet a very little one after shaving all the burnt parts away.

So here's the mango cake we had for fathers' day. Too dismayed to make an elaborate design, so just some simple piping with fresh cream.

Happy Father's day to all fathers. God bless.

Yummy-licious Carrot Cake

2008-06-09T19:21:00.006+08:00

My husband is a fan of carrot cakes and can't stop raving about the carrot cakes from Cedele. Rightfully so.. Cedele carrot cakes are moist and oh-so-generous with their carrots and walnuts. As for me, I am no fan of 'sweets'. I rarely ever finish a piece of cake by myself, usually just pinch a few small bites from hubby.

The last time I baked a carrot cake was for his birthday last year. I remembered it as laborious and extremely sweet, definitely not trying that recipe again. Searched the internet and decided to use the one from Allrecipes.

The result was extra-ordinary!! I had many rave reviews. My hubby said it was better than Cedele's and not overly sweet. Maybe he said that to please me (considering I am heavily pregnant now....). Either way, I am grateful for the compliment. Here's a pic of the cake. The fork in the foreground was my son eagerly waiting to dig-in.

My FIL and MIL enjoyed the cake too. A family friend also commented that its as good as Cedele's. Ha ha.. think I'm surrounded by very kind people who tries to please a heavily pregnant woman!

As for me.. well.. I did manage to polish off a single slice of the cake. Here's the recipe if you are keen to try.

INGREDIENTS
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar (I used 1 cup brown, 1 cup white)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup chopped pecans (I used walnuts instead)

1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.

Note : I recommend to line the cake pan with baking paper. I only greased my cake pan and the cake got stuck. When I tried to force it out of the pan, it broke into many pieces.

Hope you and your family enjoyed it too!

Ballerina Cakes

2008-05-28T19:29:00.008+08:00

Wow, have not updated my blog for more than three months already!

Am expecting my third child and the first trimester wasn't fun. So was certainly in no mood to bake nor decorate cakes. Now that the 'toilet bowl is my best friend' period is over, I can pick up my whisk again!

Apologies to my family for not baking them their special birthday cakes! I will now be able to bake and decorate for birthdays between June and September.

No new pictures to post yet, but here are two cakes that I baked for a friend's daughter. The 3-D cake was a trial cake, the 2-D one is the actual birthday cake.

This cake was inspired by Debbie Brown's ballerina cake. The ballerina figurine is fondant. The dress is a small 7 inch cake. I cut the top of the cake to resemble the folds of the dress. The ruffles underneath are just piped whipped cream. The bottom is just a 10 inch sponge cake, with rosettes and garlands.

This trial cake was shown to my family and drew lots of criticism, hence I dropped the idea of making this cake for the birthday girl.

This is the second cake.

I adore this cake. I thought it looked lovely with two toned stage curtains and a wooden stage. The ballerina looked much more adoable too. I even managed to put some sparkles on the dress.

Phoon Huat stores had been out of Wilton fondant for the longest time. I certainly miss fiddling with fondant. Anyone tried the house brand fondant before? Any comments?

Monkey Queen

2008-02-26T19:10:00.006+08:00

Had not been baking much lately due to work commitments. But for my MIL's birthday, I just had to bake a special one. She's the one that's always standing up for me and being there for me and my children.

She's born in the year of the Monkey, so here's what I baked for her :

Its a mango sponge cake (her favourite) and the monkey is modelled using home-make gumpaste. Only after cutting the cake did I realise that I forgot to give the Monkey a tail!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Pandan Chiffon

2008-01-20T22:15:00.001+08:00

Have not baked a chiffon cake for quite some time. Love the ultra-soft texture of the chiffon cake. So while I still have some coconut milk from the supermarket, decided to try the pandan chiffon cake.

The secret of the chiffon cake is really in the beating of the egg white. Here's what it should look like... a little shiny and gathers around the whisk.

The yolks, coconut milk, pandan paste and flour are mixed together in a seperate bowl.

Put about half of the egg white in the egg yolk bowl and fold it in.

Then pour all of this mixture back to the egg white bowl and fold it in. Here's what it looks like when the folding is complete.

Remember to run the spatula through the cake mix in the tin or drop the tin from about 5cm from table a couple of times, to get rid of big bubbles.

And here's the end result. Nice and fluffy!

New Year's Day Feast

2008-01-02T19:33:00.001+08:00

Did I ever mention that my mother-in-law is a great cook? To borrow a word from my son's vocabulary - the 'bestest'. :-)

To her, to cook is therapeutic, so despite her bad cough, she cooked up a storm for us on New Year's Day. On the menu : her famous Nonya Poh Piah (must stress that its Nonya), mee siam and fish porridge.

Here's the table setup. Ingredients include (clockwise direction), starting from vegetables (chinese lettuce and chinese pasley), raw garlic paste, chilli, ground peanuts, finely chopped hard boiled eggs, prawns, fried eggs, chinese sausage, cubed tau kwa, shredded cucumber and bean sprouts. Oh, and the sweet sauce. The middle bowl is for the turnip.

You see the up-turned bowl in within the larger bowl? That's to help 'dry' the turnip, the sauces will flow into the bowl and keep the turnip drier for easy handling.

This picture's with the turnip. Oh, there's also my favourite deep fried garlic (missing in pic).

Here are some samples of the poh piah creations.My mother-in-law's version that has everything, except peanuts:

My brother-in-law's friend's version. He made the most jumbo of all poh piahs with tablespoons of sweet sauce. One can conclude he has a sweet tooth plus a jumbo appetite.

Another of my brother-in-law's friend's. He's either very creative or just trying to be funny.

Anyway, after its all wrapped up, they all look similar, like this:

Oh, my mother-in-law also made pie tee shells.. which unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of.

Here's the mee siam and silly me forgot to take photos of it in a bowl. Too busy slurping it up. :)

In the evening, my husband, the fisherman who abandoned his wife and kids to go fishing on new year's day, came back with sotong, fish and prawns which was promptly steamed and served. So quickly was it eaten.. there were no photos.

Hopefully, this year I can learn to cook too... at least some simple dishes. I am really hopeless in this department! My wish is to be half as good as MIL. Eh... that's too ambitious, just 1/8 is good enough. Ha ha.

Chocolate Wassant

2007-12-30T18:46:00.001+08:00

I am a fan of the chocolate wassant bread at Provence Bakery, so are a lot of my friends and colleagues. Sometimes, at lunch time, we would detour to Holland Village to pick up bags of the soft, fluffy bread.

And after coming across the chocolate swirl bread at Happy HomeBaker blogsite (sorry I don't know how to create a link), I decided to use the recipe of the chocolate paste and my favourite cream bread recipe to re-create the chocolate wassant at home.

Here's a tray of lovely wassants :

Not quite as lovely as the ones at Provence, but hey, I'm only a novice. This is actually my fourth attempt already. I think the best was my third attempt, which I managed to get three layers (like Provence's, as I observed) of chocolate paste in between before I roll them into tiny croissants.

I rolled out the bread dough into a large rectangle and spread the chocolate paste on it using a spatula. Hmm.. an idea just crossed my mind, next time, I will try spreading nutella, I bet it will taste just as great. The best will be three layers of chocolate, but I only managed two. Roll the dough even thinner, then cut them into little triangles. Roll each triangle like a tiny croissant and they will look lovely like this :

From my last few attempts, I learned that what is key to ensuring that the bread is soft and fluffy is to ensure that you do not bake it too long. My first attempt, I baked at 180 degrees for 12 minutes. It was OK, but not soft enough. In this attempt, I baked the bread at 200 degrees for about 8 minutes. The bread is soft, slightly crisp outside and very nicely browned, without any egg-wash. But I think the best was when I baked it at 180 degrees for 8-9 minutes, almost as soft as Provence's and stayed that way for couple of days.

Nativity

2007-12-28T09:36:00.002+08:00

Two Christmases ago, I saw a nativity cake on CakeCentral and secretly harboured the ambitions to create a similar cake. It was full of beautifully hand modeled fondant figurines that I can only dream of making. This Christmas, I finally made my version of the nativity cake, drawing inspirations from the one that I've seen, for a family Christmas eve party.

Here's Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus....

I used store-bought Wilton fondant to mould the figures. I usually buy the white coloured ones as they are cheaper and I can colour them on my own, using Wilton gel colours. Baby Jesus was suppose to be sleeping on a bed of straws.. I did not have the tools to make the straws so it looked as if he is sleeping on a bed of worms... The two beige round lumps you saw at the back are 'heads'. I was thinking of making the three wise men but I ran out of fondant and had to make two shepherds instead. Then I realised I did not even have enough fondant for two shepherds... so I made my own gumpaste (since this is the only recipe I have on hand that I have all ingredients).

Here's the final cake.

The pictures was not very well taken as I only managed to finish the cake like half an hour before the party and the lighting was bad. But I thought its a very lovely cake, couldn't wish for more. Cake is 12" chocolate banana cake with low fat ganache (recipe from Creative Culinaire).

Closeup.

The thing about fondant is that it 'sweats' when put on top of icing and colour can smear so I usually try to use less strong colours to prevent dis-colouring my cakes.

My favourites are the little lambs.. they are tiny as a twenty cent coin and really cute. I smeared compound chocolate on the cake board, let it harden about 80%, then sprinkled some brown caster sugar on top before placing the figures on top. I like the effect, it looks like sand with a little bit of shimmer. Grass is icing sugar left over from my cookies decoration.

The shepherd with the beard is made with my home-made gumpaste and it dried solid hard but is also brittle, especially the thin parts. The fondant made ones are still malleable. This is my first experience with gumpaste.. will try putting him in the fridge to see if he 'melts'.

Here are some of the cookies that I made. Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you!! Cheers!!

And a very happy snowman!

Christmas!!

2007-12-10T07:54:00.002+08:00

Wow! Has been more than a month since my last post... how time flies...

Had been busy at work and at home with little time for baking. Even had to turn down some opportunities to create cakes.

My little girl is going through the 'terrible twos' phase and her bad temper is ignited by the smallest thing that goes against her wishes. She'd then cry inconsolably for the next hour. I'm almost pulling my hair out!

Anyway, here are some cookies and treats I made last year for the Christmas season. I pray I get sometime to do the same this year.

1) Marshmellow Snowman

Marshmellows coated with white chocolate, on a skewer. M&M buttons and noses. Eyes and hands are piped chocolate. Easy to make and oh so cute!

2) Christmas cookies

An assortment of chocolate cookies (recipe taken from wilton), decorated with royal icing, which I packed in little bags and gave away to dear colleagues in the office.

How long did it take to decorate these? Back-breaking long.

3) Joy to the World!

The Lord is come! Christ bring salvation to the nations and we celebrate with joy, the birth of baby Jesus.

Stained glass effect created using coloured piping gel.

A Merry Christmas to all! May you experience the real joy of Christmas.

Sandals and ipod

2007-11-16T20:21:00.002+08:00

Apologies! Had been so busy lately. Did do some baking on the weekends, but have not even uploaded the files from camera to computer yet.... So I'll share some pics of cake I've done some time ago.

This one's for my nephew's 21 birthday. A 'cool' cake - beach theme, complete with sandals, 'sand' sea shells, starfish, a crab and the indispensable ipod for the young adult. Everything is edible, except the 'screen' of the ipod which is just a piece of paper.

The straps of the sandals of strips of licorice. Sea shells, crab, starfish are all made of fondant. The ipod is biscuit wrapped with fondant. I am especially proud of the ear phones, I thought they look quite real. *argghh* cannot find a close-up pic of the ear phones.

Anyway, a lot of his guests were amazed by the cake and they actually ate up the earphones and the ipod...