Yo hooo!

Hi people!

Wow, I did not realise I had not blogged in more than a month. I am still alive and kicking! :)

I had not been baking much, except for a first try at making chiffon cake, which was motivated by a fellow blogger. It turned out well, thank goodness. However, I am not posting here yet, as I am dissatisfied with the colour of the picture.

You see, I bought a new camera. I know, there are tons of post-processing applications to correct the colour, but I am want to avoid that while I am still undergoing the "getting to know you" period with my beloved DSLR. It makes my heart beat faster everytime I think of that handsome machine... :p

And, on the homefront, I am a little more busy these days. Do keep coming back! I will keep my posts up to date soon! :)

Now, off for a short long-deserved vacation!

Lemon Curd Muffins

The round up for the month of May at Sweet and Simple Bakes is Lemon Curd Muffins.

I have my own Lemon Curd recipe, but for this bake, I decided to use the recipe that the ladies have provided. It tasted just as good!

One thing to note about the recipe though, is that I found 120ml of lemon too much overall. I had some left which I did not want to pour back into my jar in the fridge, so I spooned it and ate them on its own...yummy!

I am not sure if I did everything correctly but when the muffins were out of the oven, the insides were still a rather wet, because of the lemon curd inside. I filled my muffin cups this way: muffin mixture-lemon curd-muffin mixture, and it didn't seem to work well for me. Perhaps I understood wrongly? Probably if I try this recipe a second time, I would bake the muffins on their own first, and then squeeze the lemon curd in through a nozzle after they have cooled.

The coating was nice though. Initially I was afraid that the sugar coating will be too sweet. However, when paired with the tartness of the lemon curd, it was perfect.

Unfortunately this time round, I am the only one eating the muffins. Dear is not a great fan of lemon, and my other family members are not fans of muffins with wet insides.

Nevertheless, I think this recipe is a keeper, just that I have to work on the centers of the muffins! Do try the recipe here.

Mother's Day - Mango Mousse Letdown

It is a Saturday morning at about 6 am right now.

On normal weekdays, I would probably need a bed full of nails to get me up from it...nowadays, I have the habit of pressing the snooze button on my handphone alarm every morning. Is this a sign of getting old (lack of energy)? Yet on a weekday morning like now, my mind is so active I have trouble sleeping. This is the second time it has happened. I hate it totally, aarrrrggggh!

I decided to catch up on my blogging and post some long overdue pictures, hoping that you guys out there still remember me! The past few weekends had been a little busy with family BBQ, watching numerous movies and my usual pilates classes.

Some time back, I was looking forward to this year, because I will be turning 30! The big three! You know how female magazines publish articles which make you feel like turning 30 is the greatest thing in life...a woman in her 30s is a confident, sexy woman, blah blah blah. I think that worked on me. I was looking forward to the big 3....until lately when I think I really see changes.

My skin is getting more sensitive than ever, giving me rashes everywhere, probably due to hormonal changes? I am beginning to consider "upgrading" all my skincare products to the anti-aging range. I used to like my freckles but now, but now I feel I am beginning to look like a strawberry...and I've never seen a more obvious effect of gravity in any of my science lab classes than on my body. That's not all, sometimes I feel like having a kid!

Now that is something. I do not always come across as someone who loves kids, not screaming kids especially. I used to glare (with my goldfish eyes) tell off ill-disciplined or screaming kid in public...and probably even glare at their parents for not discipling them. But I have enough incidents in my life to tell me that karma will befall me, so these days, I am more tolerant, as I am afraid I would be glared at in future hahaha. But honestly, I am beginning to realise it really isn't easy being a parent at all.

A few weeks ago, it was Mother's Day. Some cynical people would say that this day is a commercial gimmick, every day should be Mother's Day. I agree to some extent, but then again, it is a good excuse for people like me (who does not openly show my appreciation usually) to do something for the great person who has always put us in priority.

Since mangoes are in season now, I made a mango sago dessert which my family likes about 3 weeks back, and also decided on making a mango mousse cake for Mother's Day. I had planned to make it a surprise, since my sister told me not to make any cake, we will go out for a celebration meal instead.

The net came in handy and I saw a recipe on a fellow blogger's blog which received many comments how good the cake looked (on hindsight, none of the comments were on the taste)

I replaced the sponge cake recipe with my own (since hers contain some ingredients which I would prefer not to use). For the rest of the cake, I followed the recipe exactly and made the cake the night before Mother's Day.

The cake tasted so bad I almost wanted to cry. I was truly disappointed. For this cake, I was ripped off by the mango seller, bought a new cake ring and larger tin, spent many hours on it and yet the end result is probably the worst I have ever made, in terms of taste.

I could not figure out what went wrong because the ingredients and instructions were followed exactly. Perhaps it was the recipe? I'm not sure. For this reason, I will not list the recipe here, I do not want you guys to try it and turn out to be a flop as well.

My mother was happy to see the cake, but of course, no one could be so untruthful to say that it tasted good. I told everyone to scrap off the mousse, and we ended up eating the sponge cake only. 2 slices of the cake were still in my mum's fridge a week after Mother's Day (and I went to threw it away), so you can imagined how much we enjoyed it.

Our celebration meal also did not happen because my father was unwell, and we had to drive down to his office to pick him and his car. So, instead of jostling with the crowds at restaurants, dinner was a simple affair at our favourite hawker center where he can have some bland and healthy fish soup, while I chomped down a bowl of prawn noodles with huge prawns.

Nevertheless, here's how the mango mousse cake looked. The words on the candy say Happy Mother's Day in Chinese.

Vanilla Cupcake

It has been uncomfortably hot over the past few weeks! There is nothing I felt like doing except to soak myself in the bathtub until my skin creases (a pity I do not have a bathtub actually). Wherever we went, it was humid, and we get hot and sticky all over. Yucks, it doesn't feel good at all. For this reason, I did not step into the kitchen very much. Most of the time at home was spent hiding in the aircon room, either facing the computer, the TV, a book or on the bed.

Just a few days ago, I suddenly remembered the bake for April at Sweet & Simple Bake is Vanilla Cupcake. Great idea, it's a classic and always a hit. I realised the recipe is the same as the one we had done for Halloween. But no problem, I don't mind doing it again since I enjoyed them the previous time. I decided to keep my vanilla cupcakes real simple.

Firstly, my family members do not like stuff which are overly sweet. So, I replaced the frosting recipe with some Swiss Meringue Buttercream I have, which we find less sweet. I also used soy milk in place of regular milk.

Secondly, unlike me, they do not like cakes with too much cream on them. Instead of doing a swirl on the cupcake, I only added a small amount of buttercream on top. This also managed to hide the fact that I am not good at making swirls...and that I actually do not have enough buttercream to cover the tops of all the cupcakes! :)

It was wonderful. With a cup of iced chocolate, it was simple, comforting and satisfying.

My Daily Bread

If you want to see a different side of me, just throw me in front of a lizard, or throw a lizard in front of me and you will see a side of me you have never seen before. Beware though, for if you do either of it, I will know you are not a friend. Don't start telling me how good these creatures are, that they eat mosquitoes etc. I can give you many reasons why they should be extinct, and moreover, I can kill mosquitos between my fingers.

It is a fear I have, that I myself do not understand. I become the most paranoid, most irrational, most jumpy, probably most irritating (since I will keep calling out to you for help) person you will see. The fear gets into me more as I age by the day. By next year, I predict I probably would have quit my job to live in a vacuum. I wonder what's with me..it seems I encounter these creatures more than anyone else. Perhaps I'm always on the lookout for them, that's why.

Once, I was home and met my neighbours who were about to go out. I saw a creature (I'm not even spelling it! It makes my hair stand) on my door and no matter how I stamped my feet, it would not go. I must have looked like a moron, standing a meter from the door, stamping my feet and not daring to open the door. I smiled sheepishly to my neighbour and said there is a creature and I am afraid. Without another word, the kind uncle went to my door, and tried to catch it! It ran and so did his hands! I have never seen such quick hands! He grabbed it in his hands and threw it down the chute! Oh my hero!

My mum is a great woman, she is the one who catches these awful creatures for me, before I start screaming and losing sleep over them. 2 weeks ago, she went on vacation. I happen to go to the bathroom one day and saw 1 squashed between the sliding doors in the bathroom. I ran out immediately. What I had intended to do in the bathroom was no longer important. I did not think my dad would entertain me like my mum, so I did not tell him. I simply asked him if he was ready, so that we could leave for work together. I thought I acted like normal, but he saw something in my face (perhaps I turned pale!) and asked me what it was. He picked it up that night and threw it away. Phew!

My husband is another hero. We had 2 encounters in our home with these creatures. On both occasions, he swiftly came to my rescue. Last week was the worse. One morning, I saw the poo of the creature on the plastic bag which contains my breakfast....and the bag was tied in a knot! The poo was small, but it could not escape my eyes. I threw it away, I'd rather go hungry without breakfast. I had the nightmarish encounter a few years back when a creature was sharing my bread. The next morning, I had a bad feeling and did not touch the bread at all...second day without breakfast. My hubby woke up, ate his breakfast and found a creature sharing his breakfast...though the bag was again tied in a knot! Good thing for my intuition. Third morning, I went without breakfast again...I switched more lights than usual and did not even dared go near the dining table. Fourth morning, I had a pleasant surprise. As I was brushing my teeth in the morning, my hubby woke up (he usually wakes up a few hours later than me), made me a hot drink and made me breakfast! I was so touched I almost did not want to go for work haha! For the past few mornings, he did the same! If he were to say our wedding vows again, it probably should go like this.

I, Bimmer Saviour, vow to take you, Bimmer, as my lawfully wedded wife, even when you turn into the most irrational human being on earth when you see a lizard. I will try not to laugh at your expression whenever you spray cans and cans of insecticide, lizard repellent, lizard exterminator and whatever anti-lizard products. I promise not to stop you, not to scold you, even if it means I need an oxygen mask. I promise that I will protect you whether in sickness and in health, in good times and bad, in joy or sorrow and to comfort you, which includes chasing away, killing, or by any other means, getting lizards out of your world. With this ring (and ten boxes of lizard traps), I wed you.

Now, for in celebration of these 3 important, heroes in my life, I made these bread. My dad and hubby love them. I don't know about my neighbour since I did not give him any, oops.

Doesn't see any link? Bread is the most important food in my life. Almost 365 days a year, I eat bread for breakfast. They give me the energy to start my day. I only need a slice with margarine on weekdays, and probably slightly more interesting on weekends. I can eat them everyday, and still think they are nicest thing around. I can eat bread for lunch and dinner. It is my comfort food.

My heroes are equally important to me. They literally helped me to move on (otherwise I would have stay rooted to the ground until the lizard finally crawls away). I may seem silly, but their small gestures have really meant a lot to me! To my heroes, these are for you!

P.S. Oh man, what a lengthy way of showing what I have baked. I'm not posting the recipe again since this is not the first time I made these breads.

Lazy Weekend

Today is a lazy Saturday. I did not have a good sleep last night, so we decided to laze at home instead of going out and joining the crowds.

The weather was erratic, a moment very hot and humid, yet the next moment, torrential rain fell. It left us feeling uncomfortably hot and sticky and restless, so we hid in the room with the aircon switched on. Ironically, when it rained, we felt cold in the aircon, so we switched it off. But the moment we did that, the sun was up and out again, just like playing hide and seek.

With the whole day at hand, there was time to bake some bread so that I can have them for breakfast for the next few days.

For our dinner, we went to the supermarket this morning and bought 2 crabs. Ever since I attended the cooking class to learn how to cook crab, I have not had the chance to put what I learnt to use. Theoretically, I knew how, but when it comes to putting it in action, I am not sure if I remember all the steps correctly.

Anyway, I turned 'murderer' just now. We had some difficulty, and both dear and me were struggling with the crabs, one of which was a fierce fighter. I used my silicon tongs to grip it, but its claws gripped even harder and pierced a small hole in the silicon!

When we finally 'silenced' the crabs, we were sweating! I looked at the poor crab and wondered whether they will still be my favourite food in future.

My plans was only a simple and lazy one. To boil the crabs, and then use the stock to cook instant noodles, and then add the crab in again. I used spicy flavour instant noodles and it turned out really nice! Each of us had one crab, and the crabs only costs us $10. If we had something similar outside, we would have to spend at least $25 for 1 crab. Hmm...yummy! When we finished dinner, I was certain that crab is still my favourite food haha.

Next time, I will try cooking with vermicelli and XO, just like the ones being sold.

My 100th post - Chocolate Banana Layered Cake

Hi!

You might have thought that this blog is dead because I seemed to have abandoned it. The truth is, after I wrote my last post, I realised that was the 99th post, which makes this the 100th post!

I was cracking my head how to make it a little more special, it took me quite a while to reach 100 posts, and there will be more to come! Then I remember there is an important day in March. So, I decided to coincide my 100th post with my post on the cake I made for dear's birthday.

I decided to make Chocolate Banana Layered Cake. We like the one from the eatery Secret Recipe, so I tried to imitate it, though mine still looks quite far from it. As you can see, the layers are not equal, and the bananas were beginning to look like they were too heavy for the sponge.

I covered the whole cake in Chocolate Buttercream, and then followed by a layer of Chocolate Truffle Icing from Donna Hay's recipe book. I did not make the whole cake in a single day, but all in, I spent about 5 hours on it. The chocolate truffle icing was delicious and the cake tasted better than it looked. I'm glad the birthday boy liked it and he had 2 servings of the cake at one go :)

I'll be sure to make it again and take a nicer picture next time! :p

Banana Chocolate Bread

After missing out on the previous 2 bakes from Sweet and Simple Bake, I'm back in action for January's bake! What a better way to start the year with the most wonderful combination - banana and chocolate?

I almost forgot about the bananas I bought...and in the end, I could only use half of them, as the other half of the bunch had began to rot.

As I went through this recipe, I was a bit unsure...at the part on adding the butter and rubbing it in until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Maybe I am too narrow in my knowledge, isn't this supposed to be for pastry making? Nevertheless, I followed the recipe exactly, except that I had to half the portion (since I did not have enough bananas). The other change I made was to add extra chocolate chips.

The fragrance of the banana filled the kitchen after half an hour, and by the time it was almost cooled, we just had to take a slice.

Mine turned out a little too moist and crumbly, other than that, the taste was definitely awesome.

Go on, give yourself a little banana treat today, the recipe is here.

Chinese New Year - Pineapple Tarts

Chinese New Year is here again! It is the period of eating, eating and eating!

2 weeks ago, we had our Reunion Dinner session 1 with my aunt's family. Then there was another session with my own family, and another session with dear's family.

On the second day of CNY, my family went out for a good lunch, almost bursting our stomachs. Straight after that, we travelled for about 30-40 minutes to my cousin's place, and ate like silly again. That was early dinner for me...and about 10pm, dear and I went out for supper...my favourite cheese and mushroom prata.

Of all the CNY snacks, I usually have these few - kueh bangkit (MUST be melt in your mouth type), pineapple tarts (homemade from my aunt), peanut puffs (homemade from my other aunt). Kueh Bangkit and peanut puffs shall be my trial items next year.

This year, I made peanut cookies and pineapple tarts. Up to the week of CNY, I had been making these 2 items for consecutive evenings. They never seemed enough. I had a list of people I want to give them to. It was over ambitious again, because my oven could not handle that much. As I baked, dear ate and ate. To his dismay, I had to tell him not to eat any, otherwise I would never be making enough...and he had to eat the "rejected" pineapple tarts, those which failed my QC and did not look nice enough to be put into jars to be given away.

For pineapple tarts, as I made them over and over again, I got better and faster. Some people leave the tops empty, and some use a tiny cookie cutter to make some cutout like flower shape etc.....but they all look kind of naked to me. As far as I remember, the pineapple tarts I have been eating from young (made by my aunt) always have these handmade crosses. Moreover, I like the imperfect look (some bigger, some smaller) of homemade stuff, it smells of home....rather than factory made tarts which weigh and look all the same for every piece. Haha, that's an excuse for myself for not being able to make every tart look the same. :P

Since this is the first year I make pineapple tarts, I decided to use store-bought jam. I do not want to waste time cooking the jam and then end up with failing in making the crust. There are many many recipes out there for pineapple tarts. Some use milk powder (I do not quite like the smell of milk powder), some use cornflour, some use rubbing in method, some use creaming method...The first recipe I tried was too flaky. I then tried this second recipe which did not use milk powder or cornflour but turned out very good, so I am sticking to it till I find a better one. Now that I have found a good recipe for the crust, I can try making the jam next time.

My First Award!

Ann from A Delighted Foodie has graciously honoured me with the Butterfly Award to me and I am totally ecstatic! I am speechless, but I am really happy.

Thanks Ann!

I am passing this award to...Florence of Do What I Like and Happy Home Baker!

Baking for Christmas

Ok, I had been feeling lazy to write about what I have done, but it doesn't mean that the lazy spell has gotten into me for a long time!

In fact, the weeks before Christmas, I was busy like a dog. I took part in a charity bake for mentally handicapped children, which a fellow visitor to my blog has informed me about. It took me quite a while to think of what to bake, considering my (limited) resources in terms of oven size and time, not forgetting that the stuff must be able to keep for some time since I have to bake a few days in advance. But it was the first time I was doing something meaningful with my skill and it gave me immense satisfaction.

Finally, I decided to make my Christmas cookies again, yes, the same ones I made last year for Christmas. How boring....and when I decided on it, I can't help but realise that it was 12 months ago that I last made them!!

My little oven can only handle 6 big-sized cookies in each tray. For consecutive nights, after I return from work each day, ate dinner and showered, I would be baking, decorating, washing and packing them individually. In fact, I was so hyper I could not sleep, and I woke up early next morning to continue. I made 60 cookies and passed them to the lady who is so supportive of my blog. It feels funny at first for me, to meet up with a person whom I had only knew online, but the meetup was very pleasant.

At the same time, I had to finish making some more peanut cookies and pineapple tarts, for a colleague who was leaving the company.

Not forgetting that I had great plans for Christmas. I had planned to make eclairs, log cakes and baked chicken for christmas lunch when my friends come over. In the end, eclairs were left out of the menu, but I made 3 log cakes - one for my parents, one for dear's mum, and one for our christmas lunch. I like the log cakes. I think most local bakeries have swiss rolls covered with cream and decorated into a log cake. Mine was not from a sponge cake recipe, it is more dense and chocolatey. I had tried the recipe on its own a few weeks back just to make sure that I find a nice recipe for the log. I am sure there are many great ones out there, but I used this one and I hope you like it too! I have added it to my collection of recipes in my recipe blog.

We also had chicken wrapped in bacon for lunch and everyone was polite enough to finish everything on their plate whether it was nice or not. Frankly, it was the first time I cooked for 6 persons, and I was really excited about it. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.

Macarons Part II - Another failed attempt

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The holidays and 2-day workweeks sure left me feeling lazy. I had to drag myself to turn on the laptop otherwise my overdue posts will just grow more and more.

The past year has been a very fruitful year for me, especially with my baking skills. I have learnt a lot, improved a lot, and I want to say a big thank you to everyone who drops by this little blog of mine. I have had a lot of encouragement, and I cannot stress enough, how much I have learnt through this blog. I have to thank all my guinea pigs who try everything I bake and give me feedback. Without them, I would not even have baked much if I do not know where to throw my baked stuff to. In the next 12 months, I hope to go even further, to try lots more new recipes and to step into boundaries I have never, or was afraid to step in before. Macarons is one of them.

Ok, so I have been trying to make macarons since last year! Sounds like a long time doesn't it! No, it was only from the end of December till now. So how is my second attempt at macarons?

This time, the batter seems like it was going to work. When I piped them out, they formed round circles and I made left a tray of them to set, while I tried adding colours to the rest of the batter. It was a wrong move. Adding the colours at the end made me meddle more with the batter and it soon became too liquid.

To make the story short, here is what I gathered out of this attempt:

1) The macrons still cracked, though a lot less. There were 2 totally without cracks.

2) After my first attempt, I am glad I will never waste time drawing circles on the parchment paper again.

3) There was still no feet!!

4) Leaving the trays to aside for at least 30 minutes before baking seem to help, though many bloggers have tested and said it made no effect. I need to experiment more.

At least this attempt resulted in edible macarons, with a crispy shell and a light and hollow inside, just like how a macaron should taste like (unlike my chewy maca-wrongs from my first attempt).

It was still disappointing though, because I could not make anything else in time as christmas gifts for my colleagues. So, I got them simple, small gifts at the very last minute.

Now, let's take the egg whites I have collected and start again....

Macarons Macarons

Last year, I baked Christmas cookies and gave to my colleagues and a handful of relatives as christmas gifts.

This year, I came up with the idea of giving macarons in Christmas colours. I've always liked the way they look, really cute and enticing. Most macarons come in pastel colours, which make them appear even more resistable irresistable.

A couple of days back, I tried a supposedly reliable macaron recipe, armed with aged egg whites (which are to work better) and a whole lot of enthusiasm and apprehension.

Other than women, I think macarons are probably the next most temperamental things on earth. I read up quite a lot before I experimented. I remember reading on someone else's blog that she has never known of anyone who has successfully made a macaron on his/her first attempt. She is probably right. Unfortunately, in this case, I proved her right.

I attempted chocolate macarons. The cocoa smell was wonderful and filled the whole kitchen. However, a couple of things did not go right.

Firstly, my piping was not up to mark. There were little twirls which I did not know how to get rid off despite rapping the baking tray on the table top a few times before baking.

Secondly, the feet. What's a macaron without feet? My first tray of macarons did not have feet, not even little toes. I kept my eyes glued to the oven for the second tray, and I swear I almost hit the ceiling when I saw FEET!! Yes! Not all of them had feet, but I saw 2 of them with feet. My excitement was short-lived, because I'm not sure what happened, but they later seemed to succumb to their weight and the feet disappeared.

I swear I saw feet!

Thirdly, I had the common problem of having the little rascals sticking to the baking paper.

My fourth problem was the taste. Mine was chewy, and it definitely was not how macarons should taste like.

Fifth problem....they cracked. Period.

As with every flop, my heart sank for a little while. Looking at my trays of maca-wrongs, I wondered what to do with them.

I did more research, and I think I'm ready to give it another attempt soon. I'm running out of time!!! I need a backup plan!

Peanut Cookies

Chinese New Year is coming, and I am planning to make some stuff for relatives and friends. I had some time the other night, and decided to bake some peanut cookies, which turned out to be really easy.

I made them into small little mouth-sized oval-shaped balls, which looks more like the "stepped-on tortoises" in Super Mario's game.

My colleagues who tested them complimented on the taste and fragrance of the cookies. I sure will be making them again.

Try them here!

Enjoying the moment

Some things are encouraging. Like when readers of my blog try out my recipes and then feedback on their results and then it makes me think on why some problems occur and what we can do about it. I learn a lot, and I thoroughly enjoy the whole process.

I am especially touched when a reader of my blog went to a muffin stall I mentioned, bought some muffins for me and wanted to pass them to me! Unfortunately, when I saw her email, it was too late and I was not in the vincinity of the area. She did not give up, she wanted to get a durian cake from a famous hotel for me, but unfortunately again, the smell of durians can make me sprint like a world record holder. But I really wanted to say that it feels wonderful to know that through my little journey, I am able to share knowledge and information with others. The amount of knowledge I gained from others' blogs is immensely invaluable....so knowing that what I write can be useful to others, mean a lot to me. It not only makes my day, it makes my whole month. :D

The other day, a colleague asks if I am still baking muffins at home. I used to bring some muffins to office whenever I try a new recipe...I have stopped bringing my bakes to office. The few of us there do not have the habit of eating in between meals, so sometimes I feel like I am putting them in a spot..they may be shy to reject me even if they did not feel like eating. Besides, which female likes to pile on calories? So, my guinea pigs are limited to my family only right now.

So, because I used to bake muffins most of the time, they think that I only bake muffins. Little do they know that Ms Bimmer here has been trying a lot of other things! I told her that my latest bake is Pineapple Tarts and she said that well, they can order from me next time! It would be a little dream of mine, if they would think it's nice enough for them to order. Anyway, work on that pineapple jam first. Pineapple tarts is a New Year snack which everyone has high expectations of.

When I made my apple cinammon muffins lately, I had put in the wrong quantity of oil. Despite this, my guinea pigs said the muffins were delicious!? Not wanting to give up on that recipe, I tried the recipe again on Sunday, and here it is! This time, I remembered to write down the measurements instead of halving the recipe in my head (knowing that what's inside my head does not always function very well).

The end result? A nice breakfast item for the next day! Dear ate one the next day and said that I have improved a lot. Yeah!

The recipe is here.

Pineapple Tarts

Lately, I had been searching for Pineapple Tart recipes. I found 4 of them, and tried out 1 this morning. I made the dough last night actually, and made 5 tarts. But I decided the dough was too soft and left it to chill overnight. This morning, it was too hard and could not be rolled, so I let it soften a little, and while waiting, I made some muffins for my breakfast.

I love the way cinnamon always fill up the whole kitchen with its fragrance...it's irresistable...and they always pair up so well with apples and brown sugar. I had halved a Apple Cinammon Muffin recipe I found on the net...but I had forgotten to half the amount of butter!! It was too oily of course, but the muffins still managed to rise and were actually more fluffy and light than I had expected. The taste was good, except for the excess butter which soaked the paper liners. Therefore, I will only post the recipe when I make it correctly next time.

While they were in the oven, I went back to work on my pineapple tarts. I know I know, Chinese New Year is in January next year. I just want to see how my attempt will turn out, so that I have time to try different recipes and can plan to make some for family and friends.

For the pineapple jam, I use ready made ones since this is my first attempt, and they tasted not too bad, though a little too dry. Perhaps due to humidity, the dough soften easily and quickly, I had difficulty removing them from the mould without distorting their shapes. It got better as I continued the second tray of tarts. I guess I was too generous with the first tray of tarts, and the balls of pineapples look inproportionately big as compared to the tart base. When I look at them, the term C-cup boobies kept appearing in my head! Oops! When buying pineapple tarts from commercial shops, I usually prefer the open tarts, because there usually is very little filling in the closed ones. But I made 3 closed ones and fill them with a big ball of filling, just for the fun of it.

The tart shell was crumbly and melt in your mouth, with a slight buttery taste. Personally, I am very glad with this attempt and my chief guinea pig (aka my husband) agrees. I'll check the verdict with my other guinea pigs tomorrow. I also put them into the typical plastic containers with red lid, just for the Chinese New Year effect. I'll share the recipe once I have tried others and decide which one I prefer.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I have never celebrated Halloween in my life. The closest I got was many years back, when I bought a pack of ghost shaped chocolates from Marks & Spencer and gave them to my colleagues. Ok, that doesn't count as celebration.

In my world, Halloween is non-existent. My knowledge only goes as far as knowing that pumpkins are always been carved, pictures of cats, witches, ghosts, spiders are always associated with Halloween....that's all.

But I could not miss joining SSB's October Bake of Spooktacular Halloween Cupcakes, because I did not have to have a celebration to eat the cupcakes. The cupcakes came out very nice (as with all previous SSB's chosen recipes). Everything about the cupcake was just nice - the sweetness, the amount of butter, the soft texture.

I frosted them using Swiss Meringue Buttercream (SMBC)...instead of my usual icing-sugar-added-to-butter buttercream. Goodness, I didn't know I was missing out this much before! I had always wondered how bakeries can make their buttercream so light and yet not overly sweet. Now I finally know. I'll never go back to using buttercream made from only butter and icing sugar.

Though I had good fun frosting the cupcakes, you can see that creativity is not something I am born with. It's the first time I work with black colouring, and though I seemed to have added so much colour, I still could not get the shade that I wanted. I eventually decided not to add too much colour, which is why the spider (if you could make it out as a spider!) and the spider webs are not black. I had planned to decorate 2 'eyeball' cupcakes with white frosting background and some red jelly lines as red veins. But I completely forgottten about them, until I realised that dear and I had eaten 2 unfrosted cupcakes..oops. The "BOO" words were supposed to be in darker colours, but I had added a lot of colouring yet the colours remained pale, so I let them be.

Dear was the first to try to unfrosted cupcakes, thumbs up! He tried them again after they were frosted, just as good! He couldn't exactly work against his conscience and gave me thumbs up for my designs, which hardly look spooky. In fact, they look comical. Mum tried the cupcakes and love them too. Not too many comments from her on the piping too, other than "is that meant to be a spider?" Haha!

This enjoyable bake is a first for me in a couple of ways:

- first time I use SMBC
- first time I use black colour (I did not know I have to add so much!). My cream was still not black, I stopped adding colour when it was dark grey.
- first time I pipe grass. Obviously I need practice. My grass looks like an abandoned patch in the forest.
- first time I pipe a rose. I used the remaining frosting to try piping a buttercream rose, based on the videos I have watched on Youtube. The first attempt was ok, though not exactly nice. The subsequent ones were disastrous and the piping was not stiff enough.

I spent a lot of time on the frosting and it was tiring but was good practice. All the cupcakes are already in our stomachs by the time you see this post!

The great recipe can be found in my Recipe Blog or SSB's website.

Chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting

Today is my cousin's daughter 16th birthday and she held a BBQ celebration this evening. October also happens to be the month of the birthdays of my godbrothers, as well as my cousin's other daughter. I made them a handful of cupcakes and hope that they will like them.

Using the fondant skills I have just acquired, I made some fondant stuff 2 days back (giving them time to dry). My godbrother is born in the year of the pig, so I made him a pig face. My niece Peiwen, gives me the ever-relaxed, happy-go-lucky feeling, so I made her a pair of flip flops. For my other godbrother Wilson and other cousin's daughter Michelle, I am not sure what they will like (on hindsight, the pair of flip-flops should be for Wilson instead..), so I put cheerful flowers next to their names.

Last year, I gave Willie some cupcakes for his birthday too, I hope this year's cupcakes are an improvement. They are made with a different recipe, and I hope he finds them delicious. The chocolate cupcake is from Donna Hay's book named Chocolate. Willie will be back tonight from Hong Kong, so I guess they will be a surprise for him.

I am not sure how they will like the cupcakes, because buttercream is not something everyone likes. I find that the locals do not favour buttercream because of the sweetness and high calorie count. That is why I tried to frost them as thinly as possible, instead of making nicer and higher swirls. I would have liked to keep them to a common theme, but the fondant figures that I made cannot belong to a common theme...so I guess..until I master more fondant figures, then I will try to make the colours and figurines to a common theme next time.

The youngsters sure had a good time this evening. Seeing them makes me feel old...I am not as energetic as them anymore...I need to get my beauty sleep now..zzzzzzz

Recipe for the cupcakes has been added here!

Fondant decorations

These days, I have been looking up videos and information on fondant and how to make figurines with them.

I have seen how beautiful cakes, cupcakes and cookies can turn out to be when covered with a layer of smooth looking fondant. But I had my reservations about them because I know that most people do not actually like to eat them very much. Especially for my family and friends, I know that they will not be great fans of the sweet sugarpaste. And the tools for fondant making can be quite expensive, and I procrastinate because I am not sure if I will get to use them often.

However, I still decided to learn something new, so I signed up for a Fondant Decoration class. It was only last night that I knew my registration for today's class has been confirmed. But yesterday, I had already bought some new colours and readymade fondant, ready to do some experimenting even if the class was full and my registration had to be rejected.

So, this morning, I went to the class with great excitement and enthusiasm. It's like playing with Play-Doh, really fun! The instructor taught us to make teddy bear, penguins, roses and goldfish etc. The numerous videos I had been watching on Youtube lately has been of great help. I went to the class, with knowledge of how to make fondant roses and bumble bees. But the class is useful so that I know how to handle the fondant in our humidity, and to pick up any useful tips that the class might provide.

These are my results. As you can see, more practice is very much needed. My bear doesn't quite look like one, and the penguin is out of shape by the time I got home. While the instructor was letting us try out doing the animals, I managed to make a bumble bee by recalling the Youtube video I saw. It's my favourite because it is very easy to make! :D I also tried making a pumpkin, which I might be able to use for Halloween.

With my pack of readymade fondant and some new knowledge, throw me the cupcakes! I am ready to do some decoration! Throw me the cupcakes! And you will not only see the minty green in my frosting anymore! I have bought new colouring! Hahaha!

Sweet & Simple Bakes - Vanilla Apple Cake

I am late I am LATE!

I baked this vanilla apple cake a few weeks ago, looking forward to the end of the month...and then in the midst of doing my stuff, I forgot about posting it!

Without further ado, here is my vanilla apple cake!

It is was terrific when moist and warm. My only regret is not putting more apples, as the apples shrank when baking. It doesn't look like the most beautiful thing, but it is one of the most comforting foods! Once out of the oven, it was gone in a jiffy! :)

The great recipe can be found here.

I'm having withdrawal symptoms!

It feels like so long since I last posted anything, when I logged in just now, I forgot my password :p

The past days have been boring....more news of tainted milk and milk products. Brands were suspected of using tainted milk and had their products taken off the shelves..and the next moment, they are running full page advertisements in the papers to inform everyone that their products are safe for consumption.

It's actually the first time I feel so worried over tainted food. In the past, there had been issues with some food every now and then but I wasn't the least bit affected. Maybe as age catches up, I am more timid (my husband can vouch for that...want to see me turn into a different person? Just put a lizard in front of me...I jump as if it's a crocodile).

So, while I was holding on to my wait-and-see attitude on what to do with my butter and milk, I haven't been doing anything interesting the whole week other than to catch the world's first Formula 1 Night Race, held in no other than Singapore! Someone gave me a pair of free passes. Though the entry was for the first day of the race, where there were only practice sessions and qualifying sessions for the smaller cup races, it was a good experience. The result of last night's race, as the world would have known by now, was pretty unexpected to me, especially with the mistakes made by the Ferrari team. My support is always with BMW, but Kubica was nowhere in the top 3. I hope next year, someone can give me the passes to the actual races...and hopefully by then, the organisers have also improved on the crowd control and transport arrangements.

As people were still about the race today, I went for lunch alone. After I finished my plate of noodles, I passed by a shop which sells muffins and could not resist getting one to curb my withdrawal symptoms. I decided to get a mango muffin when I thought of my own mango muffin flop. It was ok, like most places, they used a basic muffin batter and then added cubed mangoes on top. But there was no mango fragrance, and it was disappointing in this aspect. But still, I am a muffin maniac, after eating the muffin, I went back to office feeling energized and felt super productive for the rest of the afternoon!

When I came home, I decided that I will bake something....something which does not require milk or much milk products. So, I made chocolate chip cookies. The cookie dough is now resting in the fridge. I shall keep it there for the next 2-3 days and then bake it when I do not feel so fat.

Beware of Milk from China

I think I will be stopping my baking for the time being. How sad. But there is good reason.

Not sure if you know the news, there is a big milk brand from China, which made big news these days because they added melamine to their milk and milk products. Just google and you will find it. This chemical is used to make plastic, and has killed 4 infants in China, making 6200 others sick. It is added to the milk and milk products to give the appearance of higher protein levels. This chemical can cause kidney disease, bladder stones, and cancer.

Starbucks in China has stopped selling milk and milk-based items in China. Being in Asia, Singapore is not spared from these too. It is a good thing that the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) of Singapore has conducted some tests on some products and promptly pulled them off the shelves. These are popular brands we are talking about - Meiji, Dutch Lady, Wall's ice cream etc. Though not the whole product range is affected, I will be avoiding these brands. These brands are not from Sanlu directly, but they contain milk from Sanlu. I usually use Meiji milk for my baking, though it is not mentioned that this particular milk is affected, I will not be taking any chances.

In today's papers, there is also mention that butter from Phoon Huat ( a local baking supplies shop) is affected. I buy butter from this shop, but the brand is Gold Tree and it states "Made in Australia". I just bought 3 blocks the other day, I better check first.

Throwing unused milk, butter etc and wasting the money is not an issue in exchange for our health. What disgusts me totally is the ethics of these people. There has been too many past incidents about tainted, contaminated food which are sold to the general public and I deeply suspect whether these people are humane. They can actually add inedible substances just to make profits???? And what is worse in this case now is that the contaminated milk has been brought up by some New Zealander authorities back in July. But it was covered up and no action was taken.

I have not been to China, and I have no intention to make a trip there without a need to. Ok, you can say that I am extreme, or biased. I agree that while there are many things in China worth visiting, or that the majority of the people are not unscrupulous, they do not get my trust with incidents like this occurring every now and then. Worse, with globalisation and China emerging rapidly in the manufacturing sectors, it is hard to have products which do not contain something from China. Even though I usually try to buy items from the more popular or renowned brands (and avoid China made products) , but how do I know the sources of their ingredients? Seems like we have to turn to organic products?

It is sad isn't it? What has human beings turn into? I cannot even imagine how one can bring himself to perform the action of doing something, knowing well that it can cause fatality. It's like serving poison to your friends, your neighbours, your country folks. I studied psychology back in Uni, but I can never comprehend how these people think.

On a lighter note, it's great that I have completed the Sweet and Simple Bakes this month, otherwise I would not be able to make it!

Baking Therapy Session

Today isn't such a good day. The news about Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and the worry for AIG....I am a policy holder of AIG!! I hold several insurance policies, though my premiums are peanuts! Almost as suddenly as they rose, oil prices have been falling. Yet, we are not totally rejoicing.

Of course, they are saying Singapore is safe for now etc etc. But you never know. Big banks and companies collapse. I think probably it's better to put my money beneath my pillow now. It's safer. Though it's not a lot, at least I know my few grand will still be there. It feels like a modern doomsday. Instead of having scenes from Armageddon or Independence Day, I picture scenes of banks going bankrupt overnight, insurance companies closing, economy goes nowhere except down, people have nothing to fall back on and are pessimistic. Oh, what a scary scene!

It hasn't been making me feel comfortable all day. So I knew, I had to do something which could calm my nerves. Tonight's dinner of "Chicken chop with pepper sauce - served with Miso rice and mashed potatoes" was not too bad, considering it was a first attempt. The mashed potatoes was a cheat, I used instant mix, but the chicken was honestly rather tasty.

But I had to do something else, so I went to search for a baking recipe which I knew would work, and started my therapy session... It turned out very well and now my nerves are calmed and ready for bed. The pictures can only be posted on 1 Oct, stay tuned!

Basic Muffins - creaming method

Ya right. I am mad. I am the kind who can watch "You've Got Mail" 5 times and yet still feels a strong urge to want to buy the DVD. I am the kind who can eat Subway's Cold Cut Trio on my every single visit to them and not feel sick of it. In fact, I like it so much that out of the probably 50 times I have been there, there was only once I tried something else.

Yes, so, I made muffins again tonight. And it's basic muffins again. You see, I'm trying to find the recipe I really like. The other basic muffin I made the other day, it was nice, soft and moist but still not that right to me. I knew what it was that I was looking for, but I wanted to look around more a nice recipe. Finally, I find it in the most unsuspecting places...from an old recipe book my mother bought for me years ago when she knew I like to bake. I do not like looking at this book because the pictures are not particularly attractive, and I'm a person who MUST look at enticing pictures.

Finally, something convinced me to try this recipe..simply because it uses creaming method. This was how I used to make my banana muffins, instead of using the one-bowl-for-wet-ingredients, one-bowl-for dry-ingredients' "muffin method".

This muffin is more crumbly, less moist, and more cake-like, just the way I like it. It's not that muffins made by the other way is not nice. I like muffins made in both ways, just that there is a preference to this. And I know that hubby prefers it this way too, simply because he has been saying that the past muffins I made are too moist for his liking.

As much as people always say that muffins are the next easiest things to bake after cookies, I have the tendency to overmix them most of the times. It's only in my recent attempts that I go to the extend of counting my strokes just to make sure that I do not get overindulgent with mixing. The whole muffin recipe is simple, just that the mixing part ironically gives big room for failure.

This recipe actually name this Butter Muffins, but really, it's a basic muffin recipe. I added some chocolate chips for 4 of my muffins and next time, I will substitute some flour with cocoa powder for chocolate chocolate chip muffins.

I'm pleased with their shape and small little dome. I guess these muffins make me really happy tonight. Unfortunately, my oven's getting aged..and the temperature is getting more uneven, so there are a few of them which are not so evenly browned.

I will be posting the recipe soon! Time to sleep now!

I've added the recipe to my baking recipes, do check it out!

My father's birthday cake

It was my father's birthday on Sunday. After making the muffins on Saturday morning, I spent the rest of the afternoon making a cake for him.

Ever since I attended the lesson to make birthday cakes, I made only 1 attempt to make a sponge cake, and that was not too successful. I folded the egg whites too lightly and resulted in large air pockets and egg whites still being seen after the cake was out of the oven.

So, on Saturday, I tried again, and was careful with the folding as I did not want to disappoint myself and having to buy a cake from the bakery in the end. The mixture was great. I whipped the egg whites very carefully, watching them closely. When it was in the oven, I was excited. But my excitement soon turned into a little worry. About 10 minutes after I put the cake in the oven, the top started to burn. Yes, I put it on the correct shelf, so that the cake was right in the middle of the oven. I quickly put a piece of aluminium foil on top. But opening the oven at 10min would very likely make me end up with a deflated cake. With deflated hopes, I sat there to wait for the cake to be baked before I started making any preparations for frosting (in case the cake turns out a total flop).

When my cake was out, I couldn't wait for it to cool. I was anxious to see how it was. It seemed to take so long to cool, I turned on the aircon. Well, I had to turn it on soon when I prepare the frosting, so I might as well turn it on earlier to cool my sponge. It was flat but only a little deflated, but after cutting the top, I got myself a nice flat sponge and felt so pleased.

The silly thing came up when I was trying to slice it in half horizontally. I did it slanted, and it looked ugly, though the frosting would cover it.

For the frosting, I simply whipped some whipping cream spreaded all over the cake. It seemed to have a not so nice taste at first. But after the whole cake was done and refrigerated, the weird taste was gone, it was just how fresh cream tastes like.

The uncreative me did not know how to decorate the cake. Draw a cartoon? Nah...it's for my father. Add lots of fruits and chocolate? The do not like things which are too sweet. So, my cake turned out incredibly simple. I was also lazy to mix too many colours (well, in actual fact, my colourings were at my mum's place and I had forgotten to bring them over), so I only used my green colour paste...which has been recurring in whichever of my bakes which needed colour. The pastel green never fails to remind me of mint taste, but this cake has absolutely nothing to do with mint.

As you can see, I did not cover the cake nicely. The frosting was also too stiff, so it was not smooth. That is also why my pipings were breaking. And knowing my family would want to eat less cream, I tried to cover the cake as thinly as I could.

Despite all these, when my family came over on Sunday, my father was happy with my cake. Perhaps it's the first time we have a home made birthday cake in the family. He eagerly cut the cake and took a slice. He even used his finger to wipe off the last bit of cream left on the plate. Since it's only a 6" cake, the 6 of us quickly finished it in no time. I know it looks far from store bought cakes, at least it tastes decent. Ok, I'm ready to practise again whoever's birthday is coming up next!

And yes, unfortunately the recipe comes from a lady who conducts lessons on cake making, it would not be nice of me to share the recipe.