My Mom the greatest

When I was young, I was very blessed that my mom was not a working mom. She spent her whole life devoted to bringing up 4 kids. She was an extremely strict mom with plenty of house rules.

Though I don’t have to cook, I was made to “stand” in front of the wok just to observe. Household duties are split among the three older kids. One of us wash, one wipe and store and one sweep is a standard duty after each meal.

My mom wasn't as lucky as I. She didn't get to go to school. She picked up Chinese and a splattering of English on her own. She is always keen to learn.

While my dad is at work and us in school, she will pick up Nonya, Chinese and Malay cuisines at the community clubs. She was also into baking and I was lucky enough to inherit some of her tools.

We were very lucky bunch of kids who always get to savour all these goodies. She attended sewing classes so that she can sew us new clothes.

Even my school uniforms were sewn by her. We never have to shop for New Year’s clothing as she will be the one sewing for us. Now looking back, I have to thank her for bringing me up to be independent, compassion and the eagerness to read and learn.

I remembered I was always feeling proud whenever my mom comes by the school because my classmates were all shared the same comment. "wow your mom is so slim and young".

Time passed, we got married and have our own family. Mom instead of growing fatter got skinnier than before. I guess it was her poor health that she can't put on weight.

She also lost the interest in cooking which I can't blame her. Besides the standard daily meals that she and dad shared daily, I guess she finds no necessary to whip out something special anymore for just the two of them.

That is why we looked forward to festive gatherings where she will cook up a storm once again.

Each time I see her (though not on weekly basis), she gets thinner and thinner. She looks so tiny now. Of late, mom is into cakes. Someone told her that eating more cakes will help with her weight gain. So despite my crazy schedule, I decided to bake her, a rich butter cake.

Decorated with 69 roses and rose buds to symbolise her age.

Happy Birthday mommy.

You are the best. Thanks for always being there for me when I needed help. I love you.

Last but not least?

I think this will be my second last batch of cookie making. Till then, I will have to wait till 7th Jan for my cousin to come over to teach me how to bake her version of pineapple tarts which we all adore.

Initially I wanted to try Fried Green Pea Cookie which is so raved about that I just to try it. I love peas. I love it in practically everything.

For the fried version, I love it coated with wasabi. Yum. I might give up baking this. I waited for an hour for a baking supply shop to open as I don't really fancy going down there in the afternoon as it is hard to find a parking lot. Also I didn't want to go home and then out again just to pick up a bag of flour.

It was a mistake as I should have called them the day before. They are out of stock for this item. Then I went to a nearby supermarket to look for it and it too was out of stock.

Luckily I finally managed to find some in a supermarket. Phew .... not regrets getting out of the way just to make these. My friend, AL and all of us are so in love with this.

Definitely a keeper! Fried Green Pea Cookie rocks

Source : Alan Ooi

What you need:

130gm deep-fried green peas (milled) without coating
100gm icing sugar
1/4 tsp salt
150g plain flour
100g groundnut oil

Method

Preheat oven to 170 ˚C.

Sift icing sugar and plain flour into a bowl.

Add all other ingredients and mixed well except the groundnut oil.

Add in groundnut oil and mix to form a dough.

Roll dough in between plastic sheet and cut out cookies.

Bake for 15-20 mins till well-baked.

Cool on rack and store.

*************************
So stay focus..... Two years ago, my baby sister gave me a set of beautiful cookie press. I never really had a chance to use it because I already owned two sets.

One I bought it and the other set from my mom. With three set of cookie press, I seriously think I must make full use of them.



Heard about Dragon Cookies 龍餅 and I wonder how this taste like. Just nice to put my "new" toy into good use, if not, I am sure my sister won't be too happy.



Luckily I have the piping set, if not I think I will have to double the time to pipe these "dragons" out. Comparing to Kueh Bangkit, I like this more.

Verdict: Will definitely make these again. It has a melt in the mouth texture and not floury at all.

Only set back, it takes time to pipe them out.

What you need:

150g butter
150g icing sugar
2 egg yolks
1 egg white
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
350g corn flour
30g milk powder
60g plain flour
2 – 3 tbsp milk Red colouring, diluted (for the eye)

Method

Sift corn flour, milk powder and plain flour together. Set aside.

Beat butter, icing sugar, egg yolks, egg white and vanilla essence until creamy.

Then slowly stir in flours and mix well.

Add in 2 tbsp of milk and blend well. If the dough is still too dry, add another 1 tbsp.

Fill batter into piping bag with a star tip and cover the rest of the dough with a damp cloth over the bowl.

Pipe dough and dip a little red colouring to represent the “eye”.

Bake at 160 degree C for 15- 20 minutes.


*******************

I also wanted to try something new. I decided to use Bamboo Charcoal on my pineapple tart. Imagine a golden "nugget" amidst a black back drop. Perhaps black is my favourite colour. I think this will look awesome. Dynamic for the year of the Tiger. hehehe.

Unfortunately, my pineapple jam is not golden enough to really bring out the colours I have in mind. You like my Bamboo Charcoal Pineapple tart? mmm.... perhaps i need to give it a more auspicious name. Any suggestion?



Note:

Pardon the picture quality, the tart is black. I don't know why it turned out blue-ish. Okay enough for the day, I am tired.

Oops, I think I side tracked again. Now I have two additional cookies on my list. Maybe I will do the rest tomorrow.

a little nap along the way

Yesterday, after my little meet up with the girls, P and C. I had plans to start my round 2 of cookie baking.

We spent a good afternoon catching up with each other over our pizza lunch. I had a fabulous time in their company. Time flies chatting with them.

Soon it was time to pick up son from soccer. Right after I came home, my rash starts to attack me again. Didn't want to feel horrible while baking, I took my antihistamine.

I ended up feeling so tired that I decided to take a nap. There goes my plan. I was totally wasted, no mood for anything.

I guess hubby was surprised when he came home after his business dinner to find me in bed, half dozing off rather than at my usual spot in the study.

Today, though I am still feeling tired (the after effect of medication), but I still have many more cookies to go and definitely needed to complete them by tomorrow. Thus today I must be hard working.

I love Macau Almond Cookies. Since my last attempt wasn't that great as it cracked as I believe that I didn't use the proper flour, this time round, I was determined to get it right.

Few weeks back, hubby bought home a beautiful pack of almond, it just fall nicely into my wish list.

I didn't expect my nightmare to begin when I decided to turn them into bite size cookies. It was so tedious making them into bite size as I have only one mould! I spent hours just to complete all the dough.

Despite all the hard work, I think these looks pretty..

Here is my bite size Macau Almond Cookies (澳门杏仁饼干).

Verdict: Yummy

*****

I lost the momentum after the Macau Almond Cookies. I wasn't thinking straight anymore. Instead of focusing on my “to do” list, my mind wanders and I was looking for something that is easy.

Mistake! I took a recipe off a forum/blog without doing research on it. The dough turned out to be crumbly and dry. Darn, it is getting late and I really have no more energy to burn midnight oil.

How on earth did she arrive on such proportion, I can only dig deep when I have the time.

Upon reading her blog comment posts, I realised that I wasn't the only one experiencing this. Phew, so it is not my eyes that are playing tricks.

I was desperate as I didn't want to throw a good jar of peanut butter away. I went onto the net to search for a similar recipe. Tada, I finally found the ORIGINAL recipe on the net. Though the ingredients are all in order, the measurement wasn't!!!

I quickly did some top up here and there and finally, here is my Peanut Butter Sandies.



Okay, if you are interested which I strongly encourage you to try Coconut and Lime's recipe

here.

I have made mine less sweet.

What you need:

455g smooth or chunky peanut butter
125g flour
200g light brown sugar

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degree C.

Beat sugar and peanut butter.

Slowly add flour and mix thoroughly to combined.

Roll into a ball and flatten with a fork.

Bake for 8 mins or till light golden.

Allow to cook on sheet before transferring to cooling rack.

Verdict: Hubby who is a peanut butter lover likes it but we found a slight hint of bitterness.

Reason could be I overbaked them. Also the colour is rather dark, I conclude that it could be the golden castor sugar that I used.

I should have just used a regular as peanut butter already dark in colour.

This teaches me a lesson, never wander off course.

Be focus and follow through my own plan.

Tomorrow, I must be more organised and steady.

First twos ... threes?

I didn't want to make an extra trip down to a nearby baking supplies shop to get the pea flour and had ask hubby to pick it up after his gym and on his way to work.

After waiting till 9ish, I think he must have forgotten about it. So I decided to start on the last two items instead. Crackle cookies and Malted milk and oat cookies.

When browsing cookie recipe books, Crackle cookies seems to be a must.

I like the look of it and had always wanted to bake some. So here is my chance. This particular recipe sounded good as there is pecan nuts in it.

Boy I love pecan and thanks to JW who gave me a big bag when she was in town not too long ago.

Recipe adapted from Cookies, a fine selection of sweet treats. I love the cover of this book and the pictures are so elegant looking.



Verdict: This was the hardest to make among the lot. The dough melts really fast despite chilling it for 3 hours plus.

You need some teamwork to get this done, well at least for me.

This is a crunchy cookie.

What you need:

60g dark chocolate
125g unsalted butter, softened
370g soft brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
80ml milk
340g planin flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder (13g)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground mixed spice
85g chopped pecan
Icing sugar to coat

Method:

Melt chocolate. Set aside to cool for 5 mins.

Blend in the milk.

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla till light and fluffy.

Add in the eggs one at a time. Beating until combined.

Add in chocolate and milk and stir to combine.

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, mixed spice and a pinch of salt into the butter mixture and mix well.

Stir in the pecans.

Chill for 3 hours at least.

Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Lined baking trays.

Roll tbsp of the mixture into a ball and roll each in the icing sugar to coat.

Place well apart on the trays.

Bake for 20 - 25 mins or lightly browned.

Allow to cool on the trays for a few min and then transfer to cooling rack.

***********

Next on the list from the same book.

Malted milk and oat cookies. Besides the doggie cookies that I have tried, I hardly come by a recipe using malted milk.

I love Horlicks especially Ice Horlicks. Two of my favourite ingredients in it so definitely can't say no to this one. Best part is that I am using up the oats too.



Verdict:

I enjoyed this the most as the horlick taste is good.

This is a chewy cookie

What you need:

125g self raising flour
100g rolled oats
170g castor sugar
40g malted milk powder (I used horlicks)
28g honey
1 tbsp hot water
150g unsalted butter
65g desiccated coconut (I omit this and replaced with 30g of oats)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Line baking pan.

Sift flour and add in the oats, sugar and malted milk powder. Mix well and set aside.

Place honey, hot water and butter in a small saucepan over a low flame and slowly melt the butter.

Pour butter mixture into the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spooon until a soft dough formed.

Shape tbsp of dough into balls, place well apart on the prepared trays and flattend slightly.

Bake for 12 - 15min or till golden brown. Allow to cool on tray and transfer to cooling rack.

*************

Despite me baking 1 3/4 jars of cookies not too long ago, my little prince practically eaten them all up by himself.

Now there are none left, so it is time to bake more. I think this is the best way to get him to eat oats, put them into cookies!

What about Apricot Oaties this time round?



Verdict:
It has a very strong sesame base. If you like sesame just like my hubby, you will enjoy this one. If you like it with more crunch, bake it longer.

What you need:

125g unsalted butter, softened
230g castor sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
115g sesame seeds
280g chopped dried apricots
125g rolled oats
155g plain flour

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degree C.

Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

Add the egg and milk. Beat till smooth.

Stir in 1/2 tsp salt, cinnamon and baking soda.

Add the sesame seeds, apricot and oats.

Sift the flour and fold into the mixture.

Shape tbsp of the dough into balls and place well apart on lined baking trays. Flatten slightly with a fork.

Bake for 15 - 20 mins or golden brown.

Allow to cool on tray and transfer to cooling rack.

Another phase of my life?

Mom called last week to ask when I will be making my cookies. To be honest, she rang at the wrong time as I was busy fulfilling Cupcake Fantasies commitment.

I wasn't ready to discuss with her about my Lunar New Year cookie list. As this year, my cousin J rang to tell my mom that they want to come over to my parents' house for our annual gathering. Thus my mom will need to prepare more snacks to welcome the guests.

To avoid tiring her, I have been volunteering my "service" to get the cookies tray filled for the past few years. So I spent the Sunday, drawing up my cookie list.

Set aside pineapple tarts, I didn't want to bake any cookies that I know I can sample from other's household. I wanted something different, I remembered there was a year that my cookies list was different but yet I didn't want to reattempt those.

I wanted to try something fresh and new.

Thus here is my list:

Dragon Cookies 龍餅
Green Pea Cookies 绿豆饼
Macau Almond Cookies (bite size) 澳门杏仁饼干 - as hubby bought back some really good almond from Korea.
Ginger fingers 姜饼
Crumbly cashew cookies 腰果曲奇
Crackle cookies Malted milk and oat cookies

Since I am at this, I hope to bake some cakes too if time permits.

Chocolate Fudge Cake (another Lana’s version)
Steam fruit cake (let's see whether I can sustain that 4 hours steaming time)
Sugee cake

So my list is ready and I am itching to bake. We haven't eaten bananas for a long time. When I picked up a brunch few days back, I didn't plan for it to be eaten raw.

I wanted to bake a cake out of it. Yes I was thinking of Chocolate Banana cake!

While I was on the internet searching for a good and reliable recipe, I started to feel sleepy. That is because we had a late night out celebrating my birthday in HH's house.

Soon I will be hitting my menopause year, boy I sure feel that I am getting old and I heard that I will be definitely a difficult person to live with. I better prepare mentally and sound out my hubby and kids but I am not going to remind myself that age is catching up on me. LOLZ.

I am going to live it to the fullest! After a nap, I felt so refresh that I decided to bake not just one cake but two! Yes I want to do a comparison to see which is the best choice.

I have chosen two because I love it when they DON'T provide recipes in cups measurement!!! Weighing is more precise and I don't have worry that I won't be accurate or not.

Here you go, Chocolate and Banana Cake by
Nigella.



What you need:

75g chocolate
110g soft butter
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
125g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 rounded tbsp cocoa
2 medium bananas, peeled and mashed (really ripe ones are great for this)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180oC/350oF/gas 4.

Line with parchment paper a 900g loaf tin.

Melt the chocolate in a low oven, microwave, or in a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water.

Cream butter and add the sugar, and beat well.

Add the eggs one by one, beating all the time.

Add the sieved flour, baking powder and cocoa, followed by the melted chocolate and the mashed bananas.

Stir to bring together.

Pour into the prepared loaf tin and place in the preheated oven.

Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for about 5 minutes before removing.

******************

The second was from my favourite site, Joy of Baking.





What you need:

300g granulated white sugar
245g all-purpose flour
75g cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 medium sized bananas)
240ml warm water
120ml milk
120ml canola oil
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method：

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and place rack in the center of the oven. Butter, or spray with a non stick vegetable spray, a 9 x 13 inch (23 x 33 cm) pan. Set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In another large bowl, whisk together the eggs, mashed bananas, water, milk, oil, and vanilla extract.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir, or whisk, until combined. You will notice that the batter is quite thin.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. When completely cooled, frost with ganache if you want to.

Verdict: In my personal opinion, both are equally good in their own way. I will await JY’s verdict.

To share or not to?

Very often, I have no qualms in sharing recipes. I always believe that a good recipe should pass it on unless the person who shared with me prefers to keep it between just the two of us.

Some, even though they were baking and selling it, they were very generous to share with me (I thank them for their trust in me). For some, they actually paid for the class they attended but they were really nice to share the knowledge with me.

Thus I respect their decision as it is only fair to them as well as to the teachers.

My paternal granny can do a mean Poached Chicken (白切鸡), Fried Sweet Dumpling (角仔)during Lunar New Year and Almond Cream (杏仁糊).

My maternal granny was really good with Salted Baked Chicken (盐焗鷄) and Yong Tau Foo (釀豆腐).

At that time, I was still very young and obviously not interested in food. My aunts and mom didn't think of jotting it down or even pick up the skill from them.

A real pity because the recipes died with them. If you have tried my mom's radish cake, her bean paste or her braised mushroom (which all can be found in my blog). You will fell in love with it. Well at least my sister in law and us did. I have yet to master her skill in brewing tasty soup though. Or have you ever been to a party and fell in love with a dish but host not willing to share the recipe?

Well, once we were invited to a friend's home for dinner. His wife prepared an extremely lovely spread of food. She was an awesome cook and dishes were far from being home cooked type. In fact, it is like dishes that you would have pick from a high end restaurant. Though she is a Peranakan, she didn't choose that cuisine for that night. It was more Chinese style, perhaps there were kids and thus dishes were non spicy.

We enjoyed the dinner very much. Dessert was a light non baked cheesecake. I was over the moon because it was light and refreshing. I hinted very much that I would love to try this at home but the hostess seems to evade my intention.

Ever since then, I have been looking around for such recipe till G came along. I just couldn't hold back not testing it out.

As I was thinking of baking a cheese cake, I have the cream cheese, cream and biscuits on hand. Wait no further!

Light Cheesecake here I come. Thanks G for sharing, this dessert is superb.

(Note: let me check with G whether it is alright to publish this in my blog).



What you need:

120g digestives/dry biscuits
70g melted butter
300g cream cheese
75g castor sugar
50ml lemon juice
50ml freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tsp lemon zest
125ml whipping cream
3tsp gelatine powder
125ml boiling water.

Method

Make biscuit base as per usual in 18cm round spring form pan lined with parchment.

Dissolve gelatine in boiling water, cool then add juices and zest.

Whisk cream to light and fluffy.

In another bowl, beat cream cheese. Add sugar and continue to beat until light.

Stir in gelatine mixture and fold in whipped cream.

Carefully pour mixture into pan.

Chill 7 hours or overnight.

I was told

that we shouldn't eat too much BIG fishes. Reason being it has more toxins in them.

True or not, I can't tell but a friend who suffered from cancer in 6 areas, able to survive for 20 years.

Long enough to see his first born passed his PSLE and fulfil his dad's wish to enter into a good school.

L was a very brave wife. When she married our friend JA, he was already a cancer patient. Throughout their marriage, he went in and out of relapses. After intense research, she changed the diet for the whole family.

The children included were trained to eat raw and bland food. They will not touch big fishes such as salmon, tuna or cod. What they eat were steam small fishes. Vegetable were eaten raw. Water is filtered.

If I am not wrong, salt and sugar were totally out. After years of such strict diet, I guess JA who is a food lover just didn't want to do it anymore. He gave himself some indulgence at times. Perhaps that was the reason why, he finally succumbed to cancer and passed away peacefully on 26 Dec 200.

Being a Singaporean, just like JA, we all are food lovers. I seriously don't know whether I can ever go into such diet.

I guess we just have to exercise moderation in whatever we eat. Abstaining from our favourite food sometime can remove the pleasure in life.

Thus, we live by the day, we treasure each day as if it is our last. Live it meaningfully and with no regrets.

I bought some nice salmon at the market. Since we had been having fried food for the past few days, I decided to steam it instead. Steam Salmon with Lemon was actually taught to me by CC, my kindergarten friend.

She is a wholesome healthy person who is able to eat steam food on a daily basis.

I like it as the lemon really masked the oiliness of salmon and it is so easy to prepare. Thanks mate.

Plans delayed

Last Saturday night, I had plans to bake on Sunday. Spending a lazy Sunday together as a family sounded good for me then especially hubby was away for a good 10 days.

Woke up and as we were eating our late breakfast, hubby said, "Shall we watch a movie?" It sounded good, after all, we heard so much good review on Avatar and it sure been a long time that we watch a movie as a family.

The idea of watching it in 3D added the thrill as well. As I have watch 3D films before, I was keen for the effect.

We have only an hour or so to prepare and off we went. We didn't even have time for lunch as the movie starts at 12:15. Grabbed a few hotdogs to fill us up so that we can watch the movie without a growling tummy as it was about 2 hours 40min movie.

I was actually a little worried that little princess won't be able to sit through it but I was glad that she did. She is definitely a big girl now.

After putting on the 3D glasses for half hour or so, my eyes began to tear. Though I enjoyed the movie, I was also feeling uncomfortable. Should I ever watch this movie again, definitely it will be in 2D.

Overall, even my helper who doesn't understand English and us enjoyed it. It is definitely something different.

As son kept reminding me that the cookie jar is empty and I too wanted to try out a Chocolate Fudge Cake that supposedly to be close to a reputable one.

After completing my Cupcake Fantasies projects, I decided to just in the kitchen to get everything done once and for all. I didn’t know what type of cookies to bake until I found an extra bottle of oats sitting at the top cabinet.

Now I wonder why “this woman” kept it all the way up. You won’t believe how many bottles of Nutella we have in the house right now. (perhaps it is difficult for her to tell us that there is already some in the house and please don’t buy).

I attempted Chocolate/Peanut Butter Chip and Oat Cookies first. It is an extremely easy recipe and the cookies tasted great. My babies love them.



I am going to bake another round for our CNY as I want to clear that extra bottle of oats.

What you need:

200g plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
240g butter, softened
70g castor sugar
180g light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
240g rolled oats
300g chocolate chip and peanut butter chips

Method

Preheat oven to 175 degrees. Lined baking tray.

Sift flour, baking soda and salt.

Mixed in the oats, chocolate chip and peanut butter chips. Set aside.

Cream the butter with the sugars till light and fluffy.

Add in the egg one at a time. Beat till well incorporated.

Mix in the flour mixture till well blended.

Shape the ball to the size of a 20 cents coin.

Baked till golden brown.

Cool of rack.

***************

As for the Chocolate Fudge cake. Years ago, I was given a recipe that is pretty similar to the reputable one. Unfortunately it died together with a friend.

I didn’t have a hard copy as I never would have expected that. Anyway, I am moving on and still continuing to search for THE recipe. This is definitely a very tall cake.

I haven’t been frosting a cake that tall for years. The fudge sets pretty quickly thus I didn’t get a nice finish or perhaps I omitted 50ml water less.



Personally I think this recipe can be improved. The cake is soft but I feel a little dry. But it does go well with the fudge but I will have to cut down on the sugar as I find it a tad too sweet.

Adapted from a forum

What you need:

5 egg yolk
100 ml corn oil
75 ml water
150 g optima flour or sponge mix
60 g Softasilk flour or Hong Kong flour
30 g cocoa powder
50 g cooking chocolate (chocolate dark couverture from Poon Huat)
½ tbsp cornflour
½ tsp bicarbonate soda
2 tbsp chocolate emulco
1 tsp brown coloring (sarsaparilla)

Ingredient B

½ tsp cream of tartar
5 egg white
125 g fine sugar

Ingredient C – Chocolate Fudge Topping

550 ml water
1 tsp instant jelly
150 g fine sugar
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp cocoa powder
60 g hoen kwe flour
100 g cooking chocolate (chopped)
2 tbsp chocolate emulco
1 square cake tin 8”x8”x3” line bottom with grease paper ( do not grease cake tin )

Method

Warm oil and add in cooking chocolate. Stir till chocolate melts.

Combine the rest of ingredient A and pour into melted chocolate/oil. Mix well. Put aside.

Beat ingredient B using high speed until stiff.

Fold ingredient B into ingredient A, 1/3 at a time. Fold well.

Pour into cake tin and bake at 350F/180C for 40-45 minutes. Cool cake on a rack.

Cut cake horizontally into 2 layers.

Method for Chocolate Fudge

Boil water, sugar, instant jelly, salt and chocolate emulco.

In a separate bowl, combine hoen kwe flour and cocoa powder with a little water ( water from 550 ml). Mix well.

When water boils, remove from heat. Pour hoen kwe mixture into water and mix well with a whisk.

Return the whole combination to the stove ( slow fire ). Keep whisking until it’s bubbly (boiling), thick and shiny ( about 2-3 minutes).

Remove from heat. Pour in the cooking chocolate and whisk well till the chocolate melted. Use immediately.

Spread a layer of chocolate fudge topping on top of one layer of cake.

Cover with second layer of cake. Coat the whole cake with the topping.

Let it cool before refrigerate for 2 hours. This is my first time frosting a 4 layers cake.

Not too balance isn't it?

Left home?

My little prince is away for three whole days and two nights. Though I tremendously enjoy the peace in the house, I also miss him.

I bet my hubby will be jealous because I don't miss him that much as compared to my boy. It feels kind of strange not having him around making noises.

With boy's absence, my little princess was able to focus better in her studies. Guess there is no one to fool around or to provoke her.

Sometime, having one and having two makes a lot difference. Anyway, this evening was our visiting day. I really wanted to bake something for my baby.

Since he loves chocolate, I shall bake him some chocolate cakes. As time is a factor, I couldn't afford for long bakes, thus I turned them into cuppies. You see, I wasn't familiar with the route so I decided to take the transportation provided by the school.

Thus I have to leave home earlier. (yes, my sister was saying that I needed a GPS, LOLZ).

A good surprise was that we were given a buffet dinner as well. Awesome service isn't it? Upon reaching the camp site, the boys were performing a skit.

After the skit, we were allowed to mingle with our kids. I got to know his classmates' parents as well. It was great because we can exchange numbers and keep each other posted. *wink*.

As usual, my prince had so much fun that he lost his voice. I bet he must be screaming and yelling on his first day. I can see that he is tired but in good spirit.

When it was time for me to leave, he hugged and kissed me!!!! I was shocked because these days, he doesn't display his affection in other's presence. Kisses and hugs are only kept within the household.

Tonight I am definitely going to bed with a warm feeling. As for the cakes, I have chosen two recipes. Both I am curious to find out the textures. These were taken from a forum.

This, Moist Chocolate Cake by Arlene Diego (a famous baker), was actually published in a magazine but a member who tried it had difficulties.

Thus I was curious to find out. I proceed the steps with cautious. As the recipe given wasn't complete, I have to go by my experience.



After creaming, the butter texture was more "liquid" than the usual. After adding the flour and milk mixture, I was hoping that it will thicken but the batter became even runnier.

Since I have done only half a batch, I was thinking to myself, won't try won't know, after all it is only half recipe.

Surprisingly, my cuppies rose beautifully. It takes slightly longer than a standard recipe to bake but it was good. Moist, soft and fluffy and I love the deep chocolate colour.

Next time I will definitely pair them with fudge. Next was yet another recipe taken from the same forum.

Personally I think the cocoa is a little slightly under proportion. It yields a light chocolate cake. I will not adjust the sugar and add in a little more cocoa the next round.



Overall, it wasn't bad. It is still soft and fluffy. I am glad that my boy likes it very much and so do his little friends ... oops I meant young men.

Be nice!

Warning: This is going to be a long post. I scratched my head and wonder why at times, people can be so nasty. My blog is a place where I document all precious moments in my life. Like a little dairy of what I had accomplished and a glimpse for hubby to know what we had been up to when he is not around. Of course, I can always make this a private space for myself and for my family but because of the generosity of other bloggers. I have learnt to improve on my baking and cooking over the years. Not that I am a guru in these fields but for a homemaker whose basic knowledge is from those that I acquired through Home Economic lessons as well as by watching how my mom cooks. I have the cyber world to thank to. Thus I believe in passing on this kind gesture just like others had. I do receive many encouragements and friendly comments and emails. For some, we even become friends. What I can't comprehend is that for some who hates it so much. You have the option of not visiting my blog. If you don't like what you read, you don't have to come into my blog. It is your prerogative! I certainly do not like strong languages being used and a cowardice act of not even leaving a name when you want to be nasty. By the way, you are not the only one who knows such vocabulary. It not only reflects badly on your personality but it also shown that you have inferiority complex when you behave in such manner. We, human have to deal with Mother Nature such as drought, flood and etc. Why be so hard on mankind which is sometime that you can control? Life is unpredictable and short. Be nice. Do make peace with yourself so that you are less angry or with others. I am sure you have better things to do in life then to spend your time leaving nasty and rude comments. Well, enough being said, I seriously hope that this place is for friendly people. For those whose opinion differs, I welcome constructive criticisms and with a name please. Now back to what we have been doing yesterday. We spent 4 hours biking away, of course inclusive of lunch (they have a really nice potato salad which is spuring me on to locate a nice recipe to try). I really needed to train my little one to build up her stamina. Though she is strong with her upper torso but her lower one definitely needs some training. A near accident by her caused me to have a badly bruised shin. Ouch! But luckily she wasn't hurt and didn't develop a phobia if not; I seriously don't know how we are going to make it home if she did. I am beginning to have a hard time with prince's attitude too. I don't know whether it is the teenager phrase but he seems not liking his sister's company anymore. He has been bossing her around and often with a hard tone when he command her around. Can kids change in such a fast span of time? I kept telling myself that I have to be calm but it is so trying. Perhaps I hate loud noise because it definitely irritates me. I was really looking forward to this weekend as the helper is already on board. At least it ease my mind on housework. Anyway, for the past weeks, mornings are such a rush that it is hard to prepare nice breakfast. All they have been eating are cereals and sandwiches. So when I saw East meet West's Oatmeal Cream Cheese Pancake, I immediately know what is going to be my breakfast this morning. Thanks S, we had a good time making our breakfast. The kids were eager to help out and that is nice. As for the pancake, it was good! I am going to make another batch and deep freeze it so that the kids will have more choices for the breakfast. What you need: 250g Self-raising flour 3 Tbsp Sugar 2 Tbsp Oats 1 small/medium Egg 250ml Milk 2 tbsp condensed milk 125g Cream cheese 1/4 Tsp Vanilla extract A pinch of Salt Method: Mix the flour, sugar, salt and oats. Make a well in the flour and add in the egg. Add in the vanilla extract. Mix with a whisk, adding in the milk bit by bit. Stir in the cream cheese. Set aside to rest for at least 30 minutes before starting to cook them in a lightly-buttered crepe pan. Served with fruits, honey or maple syrup.

First get together

SP is in town. She left Singapore right after her A level and has since settled down in the States. We managed to reconnect back last year and in Nov, she buzzed me to inform me that she will be home for a short visit.

I am so eager to meet her. It is really good to talk about old times and what had happened in our lives. I marvel SP's sheer determination to put herself through university.

How brave and strong she was just to attain her dream and I am amazed by this lady's capabilities to raise her kids, study and work at the same time.

It is definitely not an easy task as there isn't helper like what we are having in Singapore. We are definitely much luckier in this aspect.

It was good too that ML could join us for an afternoon of tea. It is always fun to have her around. Just adores her bubbly personality and she is always entertaining us with her jokes and stories.

This time round, I prepared two cakes. Both recipes are taken from Ms Keiko Ishida, Okashi.

I am happy with the results too and I actually had a good A pass from SP's Italian friend, M who is very much into food.

First was the Earl Grey Tea Cake. I always wanted to bake something using Earl Grey. I love Matcha so I was keen to find out whether I will love it too.



The steps were pretty easy to follow. Next round, I will go really generous with the syrup drizzle as initially I was concern about the sweetness if I pour the whole amount but I was wrong. It will be perfect if I pour all into the cakes.

Next is a Chocolate cake. I haven't really been baking chocolate cake of late.

I find this method refreshing as it is different from the usual American or European recipes. I did a blunder as I nearly forgotten to add in the flour.

Luckily everything turned out well and not wasted.



This cake is chocolaty, soft and has this melt in the mouth texture. This is a true hot favourite.

I enjoyed myself thoroughly with these two ladies as well as the gentleman. Definitely a good start off for 2010.

I hope to be able to see SP again in August. Have a safe trip home my friend.

Note: Okay I found out that I can't replicate all the recipes in one book but I am fine if to showcase a small portion of it. So I am choosing Earl Grey Tea Cake as I had tremendous request for it.

Source: Okashi by Keiko Ishida

What you need:

150g cake flour
1/8 tsp baking powder
100g sugar syrup (50g sugar to 100g water)
2 tbsp lemon juice
150g softened butter unsalted
150g icing sugar
15g glucose
3 eggs
1/8 tsp salt
5g earl grey tea dust (from tea bags)
15g ground almond
1 lemon zest
1 tbsp fresh milk

Method

Preheat oven to 170 degree. Line pan.

Sift flour and baking powder twice

Mix syrup with lemon juice. Set aside

Beat butter, icing sugar and glucose together till light and fluffy.

Add in egg slowly and beat well.

Add salt, tea dust, ground almonds and lemon zest and milk. Mix well.

Add flour mixture and fold thru completely.

Pour batter into pan and make a lengthwise dent in the middle with a spatula.

Bake for about 50 mins. Check for doneness.

Remove from pan and peel away parchment.

Place cake on rack and brush with sugar and lemon syrup while still warm.

Leave to cool completely.

Active Singaporean?

Ever since we read that the NP has plans to connect all the parks island-wide, we were pretty excited and think that this idea is really fantastic. It will definitely able to encourage more active Singaporeans. As you see, we enjoyed cycling. When I was in my teens, I loved cycling along the beach. We used to cycle in the rough terrain near our first matrimonial house in Woodlands when it was less developed and had enjoyed it. Today, we wanted to do something more active instead of being couch potatoes. We spent the morning on our two wheelers, trying to figure out how the park connector works. We had good weather and were in high spirit. We started off from Kallang River. It was supposedly to connect all the way to Bishan Park. A distance of 6.8km and according to hubby, that distance on a bike is not taxing. With high spirit, we peddled on. Our joy didn’t last long. First of all, signs weren't prominent at all. It takes a little exploring to see the "connector". With a 7 years old in tow, the journey wasn't as smooth as what we had imagine. In fact, if hubby isn't with us, I doubt I will ever try it again. What we had in mind was something like the East Coast Park cycling track. Unfortunately to use this connector, we had to brave through stairs after stairs, pedestrian walkways and bus stops to avoid going onto the road with our 7 years old. How possible will it be for a little girl to lift her bike and climb up these? Eventually this proved too much for our little princess. There were simply too many obstacles to overcome. We gave up! I really hope that the NP will relook this drawing board to make this a more family oriented so that more Singaporean will be able to use this.

A brand new year

Happy New Year to all my readers, dear friends and family! We are now into a brand new year. Hopefully this year will bring us lots of joy, happiness and good health. Peace and harmony among mankind. I have actually given up on making resolutions. Since I can't walk the talk so there is no point making them. For me, I am definitely looking forward as we will be having a wedding in the family as well as seeing my brother and his family. There have been away for a long time and boy I do misses them badly. I am also looking forward to seeing my son stepping into another phrase of his life. I pray that he will mature and able to deal with life more independently. As for my little girl, she has lots of catching up to do and let's hope this year she will get better teachers than last. Hubby already warned me that this year, he will be leaving town much more often. Thus, I am mentally prepared to be a "single" mom. Also my health wise, I hope to have some time to myself to exercise. Definitely good to be stronger so I believe I can faced up to whatever challenges when he is not around. The new helper will be coming in soon and I pray hard that she will be a good worker with a good attitude. I am definitely looking forward to another journey of our life. Be it sad or happy but let's hope this year will be a more peaceful and loving year. For this month's Sweet and Simple Bakes. I have done a batch of Cranberry, Pistachio and White Chocolate Cookies. Since I had some leftover pistachio, I decided to use that instead of pecan. Actually I already tried it out for my brother in law as Christmas gift. It was so good that I have to bake another batch for our cookie jar. Mine didn't turn out as round as Sweet and Simple Bakes but nevertheless, we still love it. What you need: Makes 30 150g plain flour ½ tsp baking powder ½ tsp salt 75g rolled oats (not instant) 125g soft butter 75g dark brown sugar 90g caster sugar (superfine) (I reduced this a little as I feel white chocolate is really sweet) 1 egg (large) 1 tsp vanilla extract 75g dried cranberries 50g pistachio, roughly chopped (Replaced Pecan) 150g white chocolate chips Method Preheat the oven to 180oC. Measure out the flour, baking powder, salt and rolled oats into a bowl. Put the butter and sugars into another bowl and beat together until creamy — this is obviously easier with an electric mixer of some kind, but you just need to put some muscle into otherwise — then beat in the egg and vanilla. Beat in the flour, baking powder, salt and oat mixture and then fold in the cranberries, chopped pecans and chocolate chips.Roll tablespoonfuls of dough into a ball with your hands, and then place them on a lined or greased baking sheet and squish the dough balls down with a fork. You may need two baking sheets or be prepared to make these in two batches. Cook for 12 to 15 minutes; when ready, the cookies will be tinged a pale gold, but be too soft to lift immediately off the tray, so leave the tray on a cool surface and let them harden for about 5 minutes. Remove with a spatula to cool fully on a wire rack.