Christmas Set Meals

This Christmas we didn't go to church's celebration and only invited my girls’ God parents to come by to have a simple dinner with us and to open gifts with them.

My domestic helper for 4 years went home for good middle of Dec and knowing the new one will not be as good as her, I decided not to cook an elaborate dinner.  Instead, I prepare a 3 course western dinner (mostly frozed or pre-cooked) starting with minestrone soup http://shiraschoice.blogspot.com/2008/11/hk-style-minestrone-soup.html.  Main course is roasted beef which I bought from wholesale food factory (1kg @ S$24 really good bargain).  It is pre-cooked and frozen.  All I need to do is to bake with some fresh mushroom and potato for 40min.  Vegetable is a must and that will be my favourite HK style salad http://shiraschoice.blogspot.com/2008/11/hk-style-salad.html.

 It ends with a cheese cake.   I didn't bake the cheese cake myself and it is given free when I bought some baking material at Phoon Huat a few days ago.  However, I complete this ordinary cake by topping it with freshly cooked strawberry sauce and fresh cream. 

It took me 2 hours to prepare this 3-course set dinner and my girls had so much fun opening the gifts that night. 

Santa Claus Butter Cream Cake

I made this chocolate butter cream for Shanice and Shanae christmas party at school on 23rd.  

Glutinous Rice

Ladybird Chocolate Fondant Cake

This is the second cake that I made for AL. It is meant for her nephew, Jovan. He's 2 years old who likes insects and chocolate so I suggested making him a ladybird chocolate cake. I hope he likes it! Happy Birthday Jovan.

I conducted a fondant figurines workshop with my girls 2 days ahead of the actual ladybird cake decoration. My girls enjoy making little bees, ladybird, satay...

Shannea is my sous-chef:

Back to the ladybird chocolate cake, these are the step-by-step photos that I took throughout the process. Although I would like to take as many photos as I could, I was alone at home and I don't want to dirty my new camera. I hope these limited photos could share my experience of how I make this cake.

Fresh Fruit Cake/Pie

AL ordered 2 cakes from me. One is for her son, Bryan and the other for her 2-year-old nephew, Jovan. Jovan preferred chocolate cake and he likes insects so I suggested making a ladybird chocolate cake for him and a fruit cake for Bryan. The fruit cake will serve as a very nice dessert.

I feel that the key success factor for making a fruit cake is the "Fresh Fruits”. So I went to Pasir Panjang wholesale market and specially picked some fresh strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. I also cooked the vanilla custard and baked the cake base.

I am always amazed over the freshness of fruits used on cakes by the local hoteliers and bakeries and I wonder why we can’t get the same quality in the localsupermarkets. The vegetables and fruits at the wholesale market are super freshand I am also impressed by the varieties, price and quality. The local supermarkets can’t compare at all. I guess the hoteliers or bakeries have theirpurchasers who handle their bulk purchase with good supplier source. With that they'll have better bargaining power to buy fruits of very good grade at reasonable price.

The strawberries come in a small carton box and packed in 4 punnets. I know I need them but not that much. Thanks to Chris & Eileen who work 10mins drive away from the wholesale market and they are willing to share the carton of strawberries with me. I kept 2 punnets to make this cake and for my girls’healthy intakes of fruits... they raved about eating the fresh strawberries the moment they saw them ...

Sushi Maker & Assorted Sushi

My hubby and friends wouldn't believe I made these by myself. It took me only about 15 mins to make 60 plain sushi. The whole process took me about 3 hours including filling in the ingredients. 60 are enough to serve about 8 adults. Thanks to the new found sushi maker which I bought from Daiso. It is really efficient and it helps me make professionally looking sushi ;> It is really a good buy!

Yam Rice

Shanice Bento