My Angels Birthday

Shanae (on the 17th) and Shanice (27th) are the Birthday Girls of this month

I made this cake for Shanae and I thought I may not have the energy to make another one for Shanice.  Hence, I added her name on the same cake to let them celebrate together during school's tea break.

It is a banana cake sandwich with lemon cheese icing covered with white fondant (not enough strength to knead the white fondant dough to pink or other colour...). Borrowed a good book from library about scalping fairy figurine using fondant.


So I tried and made one fairy and I put it up at the left top corner of the cake. I also used some butterfly moulds and made 2 butterflies to fill up the empty space.

This is just a cake with very simple design and decoration but it is surely made with lots of love. I'm now in my last trimester ... with the big belly and limited energy level. That's the best I can give my girls. They're still very grateful and they like the taste of the cake and they said to me, "you're the best "COOKER" in the world...". I felt very satisfied and I couldn't help myself but burst into laughter upon hearing this.

HK CNY Festive Mood

Year of Moo Moo!

There are many CNY decorations in shopping malls and by the road side in HK during CNY. Naturally, the festive mood is comparatively stronger than that in Singapore.

Hongkongers also love decorating their homes with flowers in the new year.  It signifies "Fa Hoi Foo Khai" (Blossom flowers bring prosperity).  Special festive feeling is aroused by these fresh and beautiful flowers.  However, in Singapore, due to the warm weather,  there are limited choice of flowers here and the flowers would not last long.  A few years back, I tried putting up a big vase of flowers and it really died within 2 days even though I served them with icy water!!! Really not a good sight in the new year!!

Goodies tray: The moment you walk into your friends' or relatives' house, they'll bring this out and offer you to "take gold / silver" from the goodies tray.  The dried melon seeds means "money" while sweets/candies means happiness.  I remember my younger days when my mom used to put preserved lotus seeds coated with sugar to serve all visitors.  Lotus seeds carry the meaning of giving birth to adorable children sooner and the more, the merrier.  Don't think this apply to this generation.

We came across a lions dance performance arranged by a famous HK Chui Wah "Char Chen Tien" in Central.  That was my girls first close encounter with this type of performance.  The lions actually danced through the narrow walkway INSIDE the whole restaurant, that was meant to chase out all the bad things.  And they finally performed "Choi Chean" right in front of the entrance (a lettuce hanging at entrance with a red packet attached to it).  The lions were only a few steps in front of us.  There's a short clip below for viewing!!!

Fa See (Flower Market) can be found before CNY at some public parks in HK, Kowloon and the New Territories.  The biggest and the most popular one is of course located at Causeway Bay.  You could find not only flowers but a lot of cheap household items and toys.  I have not been to one in a decade and am surprised that I went there twice this year with my big belly (I'm 6 month pregnant) barging in front... Once with my hubby at night and once with my 3 girls and maid the day before the first new year day.

It was packed with people and we really had difficulties moving around.  Still I want my girls to experience this special occasion and give them some $$ to choose a toy from the fun fair.  See what Shanice chose???  1 big pile of "PINK" inflatable shit hat!!!  What a sense of humor she has!!  By the way, shit means gold.  Let's have more shit in the new year!

Some young folks will pull funds and auction for these makeshift stalls and have it decorated and sell toys or some funny stuff.  They seems to have so much fun by shouting and yelling to the crowds for their attention and try very hard to sell their stuff.  

Some people go to these fairs for flowers.  When you're at these flower markets, you should walk through all these stalls and chase away all bad luck in the old year and hope the nice flowers will bring you better luck ahead.

"Tai Kiat Tai Lai" (Big tangerine will bring good luck)

Back from HK Trip

Finally, we're back! Wanted to post some of the photos and talk about HK CNY festive mood. Having been migrated to Singapore over a decade, my hubby and I had more time this time round to visit the places we often went and revisited some special corners and good food in HK. I hope it will not take me much time to come up with the new post!

Happy Chinese New Year

I'll be away from mid of this month till beginning of Feb. Wish all of you a blessed Chinese New Year!

Pineapple Tart

Never thought there is time for me to bake pineapple tarts this year, one of the most popular CNY goodies in Singapore.  My hands are "itchy" when I  see loads of pineapples being stocked up in supermarkets, despite the fact that I'm busy packing my family luggage to prepare our trip to HK to visit my parents  this coming Sat til early Feb.

 

As I never made pineapple tarts before, for a start and given the time constraint, I only bought 1pc honey pineapple to try it out.  Wasting time you may think!!

 

I asked my helper to grate the pineapple and slow cooked it with some cinnamon and brown sugar in my microwave oven.  I wouldn't even try this recipe if you ask me to stand in front of a cooking stove and keep stirring it ..... My ex-colleague is brilliant.  She told me she used to make her own pineapple tarts’ filling using microwave oven.  

 

I didn’t really measure/weight the ingredient so not sure if I could achieve the same results the next time.  Over the process, I only burnt some of the pineapple paste at the outer layer and managed to cook it dry without much stirring.  I think it took me about 20 mins using 700W to make 15 pcs pineapple tart filling weight 6gm each.

 

The crust is good as it simply melts in the mouth.   The recipe is from one of the Y3K CNY cookbooks.  My hubby usually don't like this kind of stuff but he ate a couple of them.  The filling is a little too sour to him but it is fine with me as I like it sour.

 

May be I can put this up for sales next year!  ;)

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

HK style Minestrone Soup

I miss this minestrone soup from the day I migrated to Singapore.  Only get to "re taste" it once a year when I visit my family back in HK.  Kim Gary @ Vivo also serves this in an authentic HK style.  There's a unique flavour in it when you compare to the western one.

 

Cathy let me tasted her minestrone soup one day and I asked her for this recipe immediately.  Her tips: the most important ingredient is the V8 vegetable juice and you should make a big pot. Because the left over soup  can cook with pasta.  You'll have a tasty and healthy pasta a minute away.  So let's try this if you fancy HK style Minestrone soup.

As beef blend well with this soup, I buy beef cuts or trims from supermarket at good discount and use my pressure cooker to cook the beef broth and tenderize the tendon.  Next, throw everything into the pot and cook until the vegetable is soft.  My soup is done within an hour. If you want to have an extra dish to come along with the soup, you should use Ox tail.  It is rather costly though and it also comes with stronger beef taste.    Don't worry if you don't havea pressure cooker or u don't have time to simmer the soup for few hours.  You can always use minced beef, just lightly marinate them with salt and pepper and add them into the soup last.  It will just taste as good.

However, some people don't take beef.  You may choose to use chicken broth or use pork bones to brew your own broth.  The choice of broth is absolutely up to u.

 Ingredient:

 1 can (1 ltr) V8 mixed vegetable juice

1 can Chicken/Beef broth

1 packet beef trims (300gm) or Ox tail (300gm) or minced beef/chicken/pork

1/2 cabbage

1 - 2 stick celery

1 pc carrot

1/2 onion

1 - 2 bay leave

1 ltr water

 

Method:

 Boil V8 vegetable juice with beef broth/Ox tail and water in a big soup pot.  Dice/cut all vegetable according to the size that you like.  Add Beef trims and bay leaves in the soup. Simmer the soup for about an hour, then add all vegetables and simmer the soup for another hour until beef trims or Ox tail is tender.  Season with salt and pepper.  Soup is ready to serve. 

 For pasta, simply choose pasta of your choice and bring them to boil until soft.  Then add them into the soup and let it simmer for 5 mins.  My girls love it.