Happy Birthday Karen!!

My apologies to Karen. I know this cake doesn't look so good as Christine's birthday cake http://shiraschoice.blogspot.com/2008/04/mango-mousse-cake.html. It's still a lot better than my own cake... http://shiraschoice.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-very-own-birthday-cake.html

You must excuse me because I was preparing food for the BBQ night too. Quite stressful, I thought I might not be able to complete it on time. Luckily, I still managed to produce a "OK" birthday cake with your favourite butter cream and some simple deco on it. I hope you like it! I promise, next year your cake will look better.

P.S. I know you wouldn't mind I put up your photo, cox you look gorgeous esp if you compare this with the one on newspaper... Ha Ha. Also I've trimmed away the fat arms and tummy before posting it. Clever right?

HK Styled Sweet Corn and Pork Rice

You can easily find this HK-style "Sok Mai Yuk Lup Fan" (Sweet corn with diced pork served with rice) in any "Cha Chan Teng" (HK cafe) in Hong Kong. My mom always cooked this when we were young, whenever our fresh meat stock is running low in the refrigerator.

It took me more time to write this blog than to prepare and cook this dish. 15 mins is all it needs. This is one of the favourite quick meal for our family. We have it almost every other week - easy to prepare yet nutritious and delicious. I use Del Monte cream of corn, the type packed in can, not paper pack, cox I find that softer and taste fresher. Meat and egg are added to complete an energizing, healthy meal.

Ingredient

1 can Del Monte cream of sweet corn
1 egg
200 - 300gm minced/sliced/diced pork marinate with soy sauce, corn starch,

sesame oil and sugar

1 1/2 can water
1/4 cube of chicken stock (Optional)
1 - 2 Garlic diced or pressed
2 tsp Potato Starch to thicken

Method

Stir fry garlic with some oil, add sliced/minced pork and 2 tsp of cooking wine. Let it sizzle for a few min. Add chicken stock cube with cream of corn, mix potato starch with water then bring to boil. Season with salt and little bit of sugar to your taste. Lastly, beat egg in a bowl and stir the batter while adding in egg. Off fire once the egg is added. It should be thick but not watery. You may add 1 more egg or more corn starch to thicken if it is too watery.

Served with a bowl of rice and soup. You'll have a typical HK set meal.

Fondant Decorative Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday, Germaine!

I volunteered to make this cake for my friend's girl for her early birthday celebration. She is going to be 7 year-old, that explains the number of bees on the cake. This is one of the best ways to practise my cake making and decoration skill because it creates pressure and this pushes me to do better each time. Look at my own birthday cake and you'll agree with me (http://shiraschoice.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-very-own-birthday-cake.html) For own consumption, you need not to perform too well! Ha! Ha!

It is a Double Cheese Cake. Only cheese 500gm, sugar 200gm (cream together with cheese), and 4 eggs with some fresh mango and puree inside. I used mango cream cheese to smoothen the surface before laying the fondant. You can imagine how rich the cake is now!! Plus the 3-5mm sugar paste on top, I felt guilty after eating it.

This is my 2nd fondant decorative cake. My friends said that the cake was too rich. They were also alarmed by the bright, artificial fondant colouring. Singaporeans are more health conscious nowadays. Knowing that the 3-5mm layer of sugar lay on top of the cake, they surely feel heavy! The fondant is vanilla flavoured and it actually tasted like chewing gum... honestly I didn't finish all the fondant on my plate.

This type of decorative cake are well accepted overseas. However, it is not so common in Singapore. Phoon Huat started bringing in other brands (more economical, S$ 6.5 for 1 pack) than "Wilton" for these cake decorative material last month. It is a bit costly if I use "Wilton". In my first attempt I travel from CCK to Bukit Timah Road to buy these material at BIY http://www.b-i-y.com/.

Although feedback is not so good, I still find it a successful cake, cox it is presentable and sweet (Kids love the decor and the sugar paste...) I can improve the cake base by cutting down the cheese cake portion to half and use sponge cake next time.

Some encouragement to myself : I never pay a penny to attend any "Wilton" cake decorative courses, yet I can make such cake. Don't give up!!! Those courses are available from S$240 to S$300+, total 3 sessions in order to complete. Most importantly, I find great joy in creating this cake. Me and my helper had so much fun making the little bees and decorating the cake. My rewards are the smile from the kids too! I'll do better next time and carry on doing it until I can be as good as those professional out there - I'm amazed by how great looking their cakes are.

Special thanks to Louise http://www.cakejournal.com/. She gave some helpful advices on how to use cream cheese cake base plus fondant. Her cakes look beautiful.

P.S. My eldest girl keeps saying this cake looks better than hers (photo shown below) and she wanted something better next year... seems I don't have a choice but to perfect my skill...

Coming Next...

Happy birthday Germaine

Let's join our hearts and pray for them...

My heart hurts as I follow the news coverage about the 512 earthquake in China. I felt for them, I wept with them as I watched You tube clips showing how people lost their loved one. Many children have lost their parents and become orphans. Many homes have toppled and many lives shattered. Life is so fragile and it will never be the same for those who survived this terrible earthquake.


So for us who can still comfortably bake and cook at home, please pledge ourselves to pray and give generiously to support the survivors to rebuild their homes and lives.

Bread Making (5th Attempt)

I gave it a special name: "80-year-old granny bun"

My sweet success doesn't last long. I couldn't wait to retry Florence's 65 degree C bread (http://wlteef.blogspot.com/2008/03/65c.html) because I really like the taste and the texture.

This time I was a little bit over-confident due to my earlier success. The bread dough was a bit wet and not very elastic when I sent it for proving rather than kneading them for a while longer. So the dough was not very smooth and was difficult to handle.

Although the yeast worked well, I do not understand why it ballooned up uncontrollably. There were bubbles on the bread surface. I should have taken some photos to show u! So when the final proving was done, I brushed some egg wash on top and the bun surface just shrinked and wrinkled like a granny face...

As usual, the taste is always right but it is my bread kneading skill and the wrong decision made that led to this failed attempt. I'll not work on this recipe so that I could reflect on what have caused this failure before another attempt... I'll not give up!

P.S. I let my eldest little angel choose over the successful sweet sausage bun or this wrinkled bread. Without hestitation, she said she liked this wrinkled bun more but the very hard one was the best!!! Oh... this really helps me carry on. I'm doing some research to get recipe for making hard bread consistently, not those made by mistake... wish me luck...any help out there?

Oriental Duck Salad

I collected some free samples of salad dressing from FHA. The one that I used here is called "Magic Salad dressing" which is sweet and sour with spicy chili. Like the name suggests, it is a magic sauce as you'll never know what is in it that creates the dressing. "Emily" is a brand from Australia. There's a shop along east coast road (too bad I lost her name card) selling their products.

Actually Emily (she's there @ FHA promoting her products) told me to use chicken but I find a bit ordinary so I give this salad a little oriental twist by using roasted duck instead. This is a fusion dish. Honestly it tastes not bad at all!

Mango Smoothie

My girls have been nagging me to make mango smoothie for them, so here comes a refreshing and healthy mango dessert!

I always make smoothie or milk shake at home - economical and lots of rooms to create your very own smoothie by varying different kinds of ingredient like strawberry, avocado or other tropical fruits eg. papaya... I guarantee you'll be satisfied with this healthy smoothie with minimum efforts...

Ingredient:

Mango 1 (Dice)

Milk 500ml (use ice cube box and froze)

Honey 2 tsps

Mango juice (30-50ml)

Mango and Peach Yogurt 1/2 cup (Optional)

Method:

Keep 1/3 diced mango for decoration. Haul everything into blender and mix till smooth and thick. Pour out and serve with Valina ice cream and diced mango.

Bread Making (4th attempt)

Mini Sausage Buns and Mini Lotus Paste Bun

Hurray!!! I got it, I made it and I'm delighted! Wow! To my surprise, this sweet success comes quite suddenly. The bread is soft and nice just like the ones sold in bakery shops.... no no, my hubby says they are better than the "real" bread.

Like those who give long speech after they go onto the stage to collect their trophies or awards, I would like to specially mention David Ong who is professionally trained in bread making as he guided me through endless SMS in this 4th attempt. A little help comes from a new book (Hand-made Bread--Asia) that I bought at Popular book store. It has detailed explanations complete with photos to guide the readers along e.g. speed of mixer and when to add what ingredients etc. Although I don't quite like the recipe and the way they compiled the photos and explanation, it is still helpful.

Some tips to share if you plan to start self learning:

1) Do not buy those instant yeast that is packed in small boxes. (They usually come with 5 sachets). I recommend the blue coloured "Bruggeman" dry yeast from Phoon Huat. I believe one of the reasons for my earlier failures comes from the yeast. This time round, I can see the dough prove within the suggested time. Previously it took 2 hours and it still could not "grow" double in size. And smell from the yeast is more pleasant.

2) Make sure your dough knead until it is no longer sticky. It should turn smooth and become stretchable without breaking/tearing.

3) Buy a bread mixer if you'll make bread more than 2 times a week. It helps save lots of time and it is foolproof. Just press a button and it is done.

Credits: Recipe from Y3k by Alan Ooi

Ingredient:

A)
300gm high protein flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsps milk powder
50gm caster sugar

B)
125ml water
1 1/2 tsps instant yeast
1 egg (B grade)

c)
40gm butter

Glazing
1 egg beaten, ketchup or chili sauce

Filling:
8pieces chicken sausage

Method:

1. Combine A in a mixer and mix for 1 min till mix well (low speed). Add in B and beat till a dough is formed est. 2-3 mins (low speed) . Add in C and beat till dough is smooth (medium speed 3) , you'll see and dough slapping the bowl (est. 10-15 mins). Make sure do a stretch test before sending the dough to prove. It should be able to stretch to a thin membrane without breaking/tearing.

2. Leave dough in a big bowl covered with damp cloth or cling wrap to prove. It should rise till 2 - 3 times in size (I proved mine for an hour, cox it was a rainy day, you should leave the yeast do its work and prove to required time)

3. Divide dough into 35gm portions, rest further 15 mins before flatten and roll out reach portion of dough into a longish shape. Place a halved sausage roll in the centre, roll up and seal. Arrange on a greased baking tray, sell spaced apart. Cover and rest for the next 40 mins - 1 hour till buns double in size.

4. Glaze with beaten egg wash and decorate with chili sauce or ketchup. Bake buns in a preheated oven at 16oC for 15 - 20 mins.

Bread Making (3rd Attempt)

This time the bread look less awful and it is eatable. Ironically, my eldest girl said, "mommy, I like your bread this time because it is so hard that I need to keep chewing and chewing. I like it very much." This is the actual quote of what she said that came with her exaggerated facial expression... a mixture of sweet and sour feelings rose from my heart upon hearing what she said...

The last thing I want is a "HARD" bread. It is meant to be soft ... sob, sob again and again. I was once again disappointed not to see a "real bread". However, my little angel brought me laughter over my failure. She's really a true joy that gives me the utmost reason to carry on baking/cooking. Sometimes they really want to try and eat those snacks that I made.

Rest assured, I will keep trying. At least I still have an admirer for the "HARD" bread.

She just told me to make more of those bread tonight, but she asked if it could be a bit softer this time. Ha! Kids never lie.....

Mango and Banana Mochi

Although I felt sad over my bread making failure, this feeling drove me to make some successful desserts to cheer myself up. I know Florence's recipe (http://wlteef.blogspot.com/)is always good.

I read her blog on Thurs nite (1st May) and decided to make this the next day because I can share with my friends. According to her blog, the mochi skin is soft and nice even when it is chilled. It took me 2 hours to make 40 of them - including steaming for 30 mins and some time to cool the batter and to wrap the mochi. So once again thanks to Florence for sharing the recipe.

P.S. The mango I bought was not ripe so I switched to banana. Taste not bad though. If you can't get a good mango, I suggest you rather not do it, cox the filling has to be sweet and tasty.

Bread Making (2nd Attempt)

Aiya .... needless to say much. Just take a good look at the photo and you'll know I have failed again... sob sob... Oh! By the way, it is supposed to be the famous, popular HK "ball low pau" or "polo bread". My helper says she likes the top part of the bread as it is sweet and crunchy - so nice of her. I can't bear to taste it cox it looks like pizza rather than bread...

Something went wrong and I believed I didn't knead the dough to a stage whereby I could stretch it to a thin membrane without breaking it... also the yeast failed to prove... but I'll not give up until I get it right!!!

P.S. For the benefit of those who don't know what "Ball Low Pau" look like... pls see below.... so u know why I sob....

My New Mixer from FHA

I bought this new mixer at FHA Singapore. Enjoyed huge discount (almost 30% off) on the last day of the event. Hey comrade out there, don't miss it the next time (2010) when it is organised! You could learn a lot and get some good bargains to upgrade your tools in the kitchen.