Tiara Cake

This is a 100% edible cake. Nayli was going to have a princess party to celebrate her first birthday. Mommy Nisha wanna make her a Tiara Cake to blend with the theme. She requested for a simple, yet glamorous cake. I made 2 tiaras with icing - the extra one as insurance for contingency but both turned out well. My girls voted for the colourful one as they liked the pink and gold glittering germs.

So happened that I had another cake project for Kayla who also turned 1 the next day. Since I had made 2 tiaras, why let the efforts go down the drain. I threw in the spare Tiara on top of the chocolate cream cake that her daddy had ordered and I hoped it brought more joy to her party.

Here I wish Nayli and Kayla happy birthday.

Custard Cream Puff with Crème Diplomate

I) Choux Pastry (Recipe I is extract from: Alex Goh baking class)

Ingredient:

A)
100g butter
250ml water
1/2 tsp sugar
Pinch of salt

B)
150gm flour

C)
3 Eggs (May not use all)

Methods:

Cook (A) until boil. Add in (B) and mix to form a smooth paste. Put the paste into the mixer and beat until lukewarm. Add in (C) in several times. Beat it until well blended and smooth. The batter is ready if a finger scrape through and it should combine back slowly.

Place the batter into the piping bag fitted with plain or star nozzle. Pipe it onto a greased pan. Spray water on the batter before placing them in the oven. Bake at 200 decC for 20 - 25 mintues.

II) Custard Base (Yield 650g):

Step 1

Ingredients:

A)

Vanilla Pod ½ pc

Milk 500cc

B)

Egg Yolk 6

Custard Sugar 150g

Cake Flour 50g (sieved)

Method:

Slice open and scrape seeds fm vanilla pod, add them into milk together with the pod, bring milk to almost boiling point (A). In another bowl, whip egg yolk and sugar until light and pale (B). Add A into B gradually, stir well in the process until it is well mixed.

Pour the mixture into a heavy sauce pan and heat with medium fire. It is important to keep stirring it to avoid burning it* . The custard is ready if the mixture falls from the whisk smoothly and the you could hear the bubbling sound.

Pour the mixture onto thin pan, cover with clink film then pour ice on top. This process should helped prevent “skin’ forming on the custard and seal up the air within the custard. The custard should have longer shelf life in fridge. After cool, it should be easily and neatly removed from the the pan. If its become sticky, means the custard is not thoroughly heated. Use them asap if this happen.

Step 2

Take 400gm of Custard base, mixed with 200gm whipped fresh cream, (I used 35% fat non sweeten fresh cream) and mixed well. You’ll have a delicious custard cream (Crème Diplomate).

*If the mixture is burned, remove the batter fm the sauce pan immediately into a microwavable container. Do not scrape any burn particle or the burning smell remains in the custard. Heat the batter with 700w for 40 sec, then give it a good stir. Do this for couple of time until the mixture falls smoothly fm the whisk.

Note: the proportion of Custard base and cream should be 2:1 or 1:1

Mahjong Cake

Made this cake for Uncle Chan's 70th Birthday. Her thoughtful daughter Karen asked if I could make Mahjong cake because he liked playing Mahjong. I also promised to write his Chinese name on the cake too. Here I wish Uncle Chan good health and happy birthday.

Happy Fathers day

A cake just for fun was a good bonding time with Princess 1 during Jun school holiday. I enjoyed bringing up the ideas on how to decorate the cake. P1 enjoying so much on drawing the sticker on the trophy. The trophy suppose to be a surprise and to be presented with the cake, P1 couldn't wait and show daddy, kinda blown the cover... It was still fun though.

Hock Kian Mee

Fig Icecream

This ice cream was an idea from AL who went to FHA with me. She said the fig paste would make great ice cream and asked if I know how. So no harm to try and bought 4 jars. The ice cream taste great, the soothing aroma of the fig gently sip through the mouth. The chewy liquor infused dried fig gives this ice cream a unforgettable texture. Must make another round...

Thanks to AL who constantly inspire me in creating new ice cream recipe and gaining extra weight with me ;>

Pan Fried Bocourti Fillet

Grilled Salmon with Poach Egg and Rice

Happy Birthday Shira

Home Made Roasted Pork

This is a must share fool proof recipe generously shared by my neighbor AL. She is a good cook, so we kinda "click". Every time we meet, the topic always stay around food, kids, good bargain... Before CNY, two of us went around the Western part of Singapore and loaded a 7 seater full of purchases, ranging from raw meat, fresh fruit, to dry goods and plants. Scary, right?

She recently told me she could make Roasted Pork. Hmm...that caught my attention because I never thought that one can make roasted pork at home. She said it's super easy. I kept asking her "Are u sure?". As far as I know, roasted pork sold in Singapore are produced in food factory (those with big ovens) which is then distributed to markets and hawkers. Some hawkers do have their own "Chinese ceramic oven" that produces high heat to roast and make the meat crispy and yet juicy. Those shops are authentic and usually many ppl patronize them.

She had tried but failed to crispy one like what her aunt made. So she asked her what the secret is behind it.

Again, thanks to AL for sharing. The trick is that you must rub the pig skin with vinegar and salt, then season the "rib" with herbs of your choice. I use salt, grounded pepper corn, pepper, 5 spice powder to season the meat. Afterwards, you must leave the meat in refrigerator for a couple of days without using clink film or box to contain it so the piece of meat is allowed to dry. The dryer, the better. Set your oven to 200 deg C and bake for 25-30min. A tender, juicy and crispy roasted pork will appear in front of you that you couldn't resist ;>

My hubby immediately asked for a can of beer to eat with it. "Hai Xien" sauce (red sweet sauce which use for "Yong Tau Foo") & mustard will be perfect match.

Awfully Chocolate vs. Shira's Choice

You may be surprised if I tell you I'm not a chocolate person. I don't like those off the shelf milk chocolate bars like Cadbury... never like the gluey and super sweet taste that stick in my mouth. My perception towards chocolate changed when my cousin offered me a fine piece of chocolate which she bought from a store at Landmark - a very high end shopping mall in Central, HK. This very chocolate appeared in one of the top hit HK movies "God of Gamble 赌神". After he had lost his mind, 赌神 could only play cards like God again after he ate these dark chocolate.

To be honest, in my journey of baking cake, I hardly make chocolate cake, be it chocolate cream or chocolate mousse cake. I may have made some brownies once. Even for my cookies, I prefer making those without chocolate chips. But how could a baker not know how to make chocolate cake and do not enjoy eating these popular cakes, I asked myself one day. And the chance came when my neighbour asked if I could make one for her friend. I knew it's time to dig through my book shelf and venture into it. I had a few chocolate cakes orders, one after another in the same month. So there was no room for error. I just had to study hard to master the skill.

To stay objective when you comment on the quality of cakes brought from professional bakery shops is tough because food is all about personal preferences and taste. For instance, I liked Lana Cake located at Sixth Ave. The first time I tried it and I instantly fell in love with it. I heard that they use very good quality Belgium chocolate and they don't produce much every day.

Secret Recipe is my first choice of cake shop in general. If I have a crave, they'll be my choice. Their cheese cake and chocolate cake are generally good (esp. banana chocolate, chocolate indulgent, chocolate mud cakes etc)

Bakerzin's cake was good when they 1st came to the market. But I feel that the standard has recently dropped. I visited their shop @ Vivo a few weeks back. U could tell that the cakes had been on the shelf for a few days cox you could see hairline cracks on the cream. These cracks were so visible and the strawberry skin was so dry...

Recently, I read the report about Awfully Chocolate in ST. It was interesting to learn how they started and stuff like that. I expected quite a lot when my hubby bought home a "banana chocolate cake". Verdict: my kids couldn't finish a small slice and they said they didn't like the cream. Each one of us had one slice and the rest of the cake was stuck inside the fridge for days... my helper and I slowly finished it off ... don't think I will buy from them again.

Today, I could proudly say that my chocolate cream ganache cake is one of my best cake selections. I usually use at least 50% cocoa couverture to make the cream. I don't do much fancy decoration. I would put some icing monogram or fresh fruit.

When it comes to treating my friends, I always pick my best. So I made a chocolate cream ganache cake to Joan's house when she cooked her famous Hok Kian Mee for all of us. This I used Valrhona 60% chocolate. I leave the verdict to those who tried my cake. What's important is that we had a great time together and I liked the cake ;>