Merry Christmas

Mini Wedding Cup Cakes with Cake Stand

Chocolate Cream Ganache Cake

As bakers, sometimes we're so engrossed in how to perfect the baking skill and decorating skill that we forget the purpose of taking up this hobby i.e. the pleasure of the baking process itself and having a taste of the final products. I don't really have much time sitting down and enjoying the results. I wanted to give myself a pat on the shoulder by making a cake for myself. This is to remind me of my passion and I don't wanna lose this and make this a routine.

My loved ones always give me 101% support in the process. Whether to bring the kids out so that I have quiet time to finish up the cakes, or lending me a helping hand in decorating hundreds of cup cakes... My gratitude is beyond word. So I wanted them to get to enjoy not only the process but results. I didn't make anything fancy but one that tasted great. So I used Valrhola chocolate. Even my hubby who doesn't really like cakes is full of praise - he has been very honest in giving feedback on my cooking/baking.

It is just a chocolate sponge cake layered with chocolate cream, coco cranch and finished up with chocolate ganache. I also used some balance icing to practise my piping skill to give this cake some essence. Simple yet delicious ;> That's all I need after rushing to complete some cake orders.

Congratulation Jia Ying & Christopher (Slide Show)

I have more photos of this wedding cake so click onto the slide show and enjoy!

Pistachio Butter Cookies

My Humble Garden

Wagyu Striploin

This piece of steak cost us a bomb... Some times back, I bought a wagyu beef trimmings and I simply stir fried it with salt and pepper. It tasted heavenly. The marble of fat was evenly distributed. It just melt in the mouth. So this time I bought more and picked a better one. Surely we had very high expectation especially because this piece cost more. It turns out having lots of tendon in the meat and it's tough, although the meat taste great but I am really disappointed ;(

Thank You Teachers

Sea Food Feast

The sea food feast we had last Sat was the blog of the month. All thanks to God Ma Diana who generously paid me to cook for her to celebrate her coming birthday. She invited our Pastors, SH and our family to enjoy the occasion - total 8 adults and 4 kids. She emphasized that I must play with ingredients that I rarely tried before and the dishes had to be fanciful and of hotel standard ... ha ha, she has exquisite taste bud...

Some special requests from her : lobsters, crabs... of course seafood feast will be the best choice. I was busy the past week digging through my collection of cook books to look for the right recipes and work out the shopping list and process flow. The main challenge is to stay within budget, cook and be ready within very tight timeframe and serve them hot and be with the guests to have a good time.

Most of the dishes were new to me but I guess 1 of the tricks of cooking seafood is blanch the ingredients in hot oil before the actual cooking. This would seal up the flavour and the meat remain moist and juicy.

Menu:

1) Broccoli fried with Scallop

2) Fresh Oyster fried with Soya Sauce

3) Steamed Soo Hock Fish

4) Baked Chicken Breast with Palma Ham and cheese

5) Lobster baked with cheese

6) Fried Clam with black beans, chili and garlic

7) Black Pepper Crab

8) Meshed Potato

9) Fruit Pie

Shannea's Birthday

More photos to view

Thanks Louise from Cake Journal for the advise and the cake recipe from Baking Mum

Shannea's Birthday Cup Cake

Baked Alaska for "Daddy" (With Video)

"NEW ADDED VIDEO BELOW"

My husband is not a "cake" person so I was not sure if baking him a cake for father's day was a good idea. I always watch "Chef at Home" by Michael Smith. He showed how to make Baked Alaska once. I am really impressed by the way the dessert is presented. Pour some hard liquor on it and set the "cake" on fire... yeah u heard me right - set it "ON FIRE".

You shouldn't really call it a cake because the center of this dessert is ice cream, topped with flavoured whipped egg white, lightly baked in the oven for, say, 10 min. Then pour some hard liquor on it and set it on fire.

No harm trying it out because I had lots of left over egg white as a result of making so much ice cream. I chose mango ice cream because it is more refreshing compared to other flavour. I also did some special effect of some frozen diced mangos placed in the center.

My hubby was quite troubled and worried by the way I was going to play with the cake as I told him I'd set it on fire in the middle of our dinning table... After some explanation on how I intended to do it and with some fire safety precaution like standing by a few wet kitchen rugs and a bucket of water. We all had fun and he was pleased.

Here I wish all the fathers a "Happy Belated Father's Day".

Home Made Icecream (Part 2)

Weather is super warm this month, very good excuse to make lots of ice cream and forget about the diet...

As usual, my girls like the strawberry ice cream best. The parent choice will be a grown up flavour... Rum and Raisin, it is really a perfect match with rum soaking raisins in it, oh can't wait to make more.

Have few ripe bananas, no harm mixing them into the vanilla ice cream... it taste surprisingly good.

Black Pepper Crab (Dry)

This is one of the most famous/popular dishes in Singapore. All friends from overseas must try out this dish.

My brother Alan came to Singpaore two weeks ago and his friend brought him to Long Bridge @ East Coast to feast on the crab. Highly disappointed, he commented that the standard there had dropped. It was fantastic a few years back when he ate there. Seems like the chef just steamed or boiled the crabs and simply pour the black pepper gravy and serve. The crab was so watery and tasteless.

With that craving for good, tasty black pepper crabs still lingering in his mind, the very next day he proceeded to a supermarket and purchased 2 crabs and a bottle of black pepper sauce. He said he could cook it better than Long Bridge - You guys working there please pay attention and really do something about it.

My girls were so excited to see uncle Alan and they witnessed the cruelty of life when this nice uncle, for the sake of filling his appetite, slaughtered the crabs. "What a weird man who eats such ugly thing", they must be thinking.

I guess this is the first time they have such close encounter with the creature - one of them still alive, so I let it crawl on my kitchen floor.

By the way, this is also the first time they've eaten crabs. Shanice loves the dish though it is spicy. I am surprised by her love at 1st sight (or rather 1st mouthful). She had to drink lots of water while eating this spicy dish. She complained that the dish was hot but she kept asking for more.

I must say my family members are foodies and all of us love to cook. My bro kept his word and it turned out to be a tasty treat. I know I should not eat crab cox I had a C-section recently but I just can't help myself seeing good food laid in front of me...

Char Siew (Roasted Pork)

I make this almost every Monday because I promised to cook this dish whenever Shanice has phonic class. She doesn't want to attend the extra classes that we parents signed up for her, so we kinda push and entice her to go on. Char Siew is one of the favourite "meat" dish she like. I think she's born a vegetarian... From very young age, she'll ask for celery, cucumber, sweet pea and all kinds of fruits. It always take her ages to chew on meat except Char Siew...

I didn't roasted this in oven but using a short cut method. You can try this way if you don't have a oven but a small toaster...

First, choose your preferred parts. I prefer shoulder butt which has more fat and the meat is more tender when it is done but my hubby prefer lean so I did both. Just wash the pork and marinate it with salt. Then use about 3 - 4 table spoon of "Lee Kum Kee" Char Siew Sauce, some cooking wine, garlic, shallot and ginger. Stew it with slow fire until the meat is tender and the sauce is reduced and thick enough to coat the meat. It'd take about 45min, I think. Then use toaster or oven (high heat) to bake for about 15min. You'll have a juicy and tender Char Siew..

I always cook extra and chill it, cox my girls like Char Siew with Marcoroni too.

Pig Trotter Vinegar with Ginger

People either love or hate this dish. Some ppl couldn't stand the smell of vinegar but some of my friends can drink a big bowl of the vinegar itself (my ex-colleagues will know who!!!).

I think you can only find this type of sweet vinegar at Outram wet market near Temple Street, so I made a special trip to buy a big jar of this vinegar (in photo) + 1 bottle of HK "8 treasures" sweet vinegar. The hard work is to scrap off the ginger skin. The rest is simple... just boil it once a week so to make the ginger less spicy, and more seasoned to taste. I preferred sweeter in taste so I added a packet of slab sugar to sweeten the vinegar. Then just add the pig trotters whenever you're ready to eat. As usual I used my pressure cooker to cook the pig trotters, or you may have to stew it for hours.

My hard work paid off as most of my friends like it and I've been eating this dish everyday for 2 weeks.

Papaya Soup

4th Princess

I'm pleased to introduce my 4th princess Shannelle. She was born on 2nd Apr. So I'm resting, nursing my child every 2 hours and can't cook for at least 1 month.

Should time permit, I hope to share some tips on how to survive the hardest time of my pregnancy (I find it hard compared to child birth and carrying a child) and some confinement food recipes. Until then, wish me well and moo moo away (time to be a milk cow again)...

Beef Stew in chicken broth 清湯腩

My sis cooked this beef stew for one of the CNY gatherings in HK and it tasted great. So I asked for this recipe, copied below in Chinese.

She reminded me to use fresh and good quality beef and I have been hunting for it. Found this economical beef brisket while I was stocking up my regular frozen meat supply at QB @ Chee Bee Crescent. QB is a food factory selling frozen meat, freshly imported good quality beef (eg. Angus Steak, wagyu beef etc.). They also carry diary product like cheese, sausages. I've been visiting them regularly since last year to get my supply of frozen chicken wings/leg, pork ribs, steak, seaweed for sushi and cheese, and also the fresh cream for my ice-cream too. I save a lot as compared to shopping from supermarkets.

Not only that these beef are good quality, this shop also will cut the meat to the size and weight that you want eg. 200gm a slice of rib eye and vacuum packed for you. The price is 1/3 cheaper than supermarket. Not many wet markets sell fresh beef brisket in blocks and you need to cook this in one piece. Bought a kg and only cost me about S$13.

清湯腩

材料 (4人份量) :

1.牛腩 2.5 磅

2.蘿白 1.5 磅

3.薑 4 片

4.冰糖 1 湯匙

5.乾葱 2 粒 (切片)

6.八角 3 粒

7.芫茜/唐芹2 條

8.清雞湯 1 杯

做法:

1. 牛腩原塊洗淨，出水待用。
2. 鍋內注入8杯清水，下薑塊、八角及冰糖煲滾，加入牛腩用中小火煲１小時(用真空煲要2.5小時)，盛起牛腩，待冷，切塊，煮牛腩湯留用。
3. 蘿白洗淨去皮，切塊，放在滾水煮15分鐘
4. 燒熱砂鍋，下油1湯匙，下乾葱炒香，加入牛腩爆香，注入煮牛腩的湯及清雞湯，用中火燜至牛腩腍身，加入蘿白(約15分鐘)，下鹽調味，放上芫茜/唐芹，盛起。

Home Made Ice Cream

Home made ice cream is one of the recipe that I always want to master. Good quality ice cream cost so much a tub...

Found some good and thick fresh cream from New Zealand (it is good to make cream pasta sauce too) imported by one of the food factories @ Jurong West area. Also there's no better vanilla essence than using the actual vanilla bean pod. So I bought some and froze them in my freezer. It is quite costly if you buy only 1 or 2 pcs but if you buy in bulk (10 pcs per packet), it only cost a dollar a piece and it can make almost a liter vanilla ice-cream. It is also good to use for other pastry.







There's many flavour you can add into the vanilla based ice-cream like adding some freshly cooked mango puree and strawberry puree.

To my satisfaction, it turned out to be smooth and creamy just the way I like it. And the sweetness is controlled by you, also there's no added preservative. Need not watch the consumption amount whenever I crave for a big bowl from now on.

Yet to try out a classic chocolate ice-cream... will see

Ingredient:

a) 250ml Skimmed or full cream milk (I preferred full cream milk coz I still have young kids)

1 Vanilla bean pot

b) 4 egg yolks

75gm sugar

1 tsp corn starch

c) 300ml fresh cream

Method:

a) Slit vanilla bean open and scrap out the seed, cook it in a heavy sauce pan with milk. Bring it to just boiling and off fire and let is simmer for another 15mins.

b) Whisk egg yolks, sugar and corn starch until light and pale. Then pour (a) into the batter. Pour back into heavy sauce pan and cook it in low heat. Do not allow to bring it to boil and stir constantly until the batter coat the back of the wooden spoon. Cool and refrigerate until cold.

c) Whisk fresh cream and fold it into (b) then store in freeze proved container and freeze for 2-3 hours. Used a fork to break the batter until creamy. If you have a food processor pls use it and it'll give you a better/smoother result, (it is fine if you just use fork) freeze again. Repeat this step for 2 - 3 time.

Lastly, add whatever flavour you wanted. Like raisin soaked with rum... chopped chocolate. Such a sinful indulgent... at least it is a economical and healthier one.