Superhero vs Pocoyo

This is the 2nd time my baby and my niece has a joint birthday party. My baby is 7, and my niece is turning 2. Both are March babies (and me as well!) We had a BBQ party at my aunty A's place and thankfully the weather was very kind to us!

The theme of cake was chosen by my boy - he's into Superheroes now; and my niece's favourite cartoon is Pocoyo! Very importantly, my boy 'designed' the cake, and he's definitely very proud of it! Me too!

This is how the cake should look like.... 

This is how the cake actually turned out.... 

At the same time, I think I've found THE vanilla sponge cake recipe *yipee* Of course, this goes very well with my trusted Swiss meringue butter cream.

I'm copying the recipe here for easy reference. The original recipe is here. (I've halved the recipe to make a 6" round cake, baking time 25 to 30 mins). I've also found a good reference site for pan shape/ size/ baking time/ etc.

Vanilla Sponge Cake
Ingredients:
(A)
150g cake flour/superfine flour
1/2 tsp (2g) baking powder
1/4 tsp (1g) salt
10g milk powder

(B)
60g cooking oil
50g water
4 (75g) yolks
80g castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

(C)
4 (150g) whites
90g castor sugar (original 100g)
1/4 tsp (1g) cream of tartar

Method
1. Sift ingredients (A) and put it aside
2. Whisk yolks and sugar till it turns lemon color
3. Add oil, water and vanilla and mix till well blended
4. Add ingredients (A) and mix it slowly till it forms a smooth batter
5. Whisk (C) till stiff
6. Fold in 1/3 of egg white mixture into egg yolk mixture and gently stir, then fold in the remaining egg white mixture and mix well gently
7. Pour batter into a lined 9" round cake tin
8. Bake in a preheated oven 180C for 35-40 mins or till it springs back when touched
9. Once cooked, removed from oven and invert the cake on the wire rack until completed cooled
10.Removed from mould and decorate it

I'm also submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #40: Rainbow and Ombre Party! (March 2014) hosted by Cynthia of The Baking Biatch, at the following link.

Macaron-ing

I didn't expect I would have time for any baking after Zak's birthday celebration last Sunday. I guess I really need a little baking-time to off-load some work stress. As we don't cook at home, there's no eggs in the fridge unless I plan to bake something. After baking my boy's birthday cake, I'm left with 3 eggs. Not wanting to throw them in the bins, I separated the egg white/yolk yesterday, of course with half-mind yearning to bake a macaron or two if time permits.

Other than baking, another good way to de-stress is definitely spending good quality time with my little boy. We don't have to spend dozen to be happy or lavish on expensive food to feel fed, a simple bus ride and a piece of roti prata made boy & mum extremely contented! Our happiness is not dampened by the 'lousy' roti prata we had at Jalan Kayu, even my boy lamented that it's really not nice. We then proceeded onwards to Ikea to satisfy his incessant-liking-for-long-bus-rides. Both of us had our retail therapy at Ikea, followed by lunch of hotdog and donuts. When we stepped out of Ikea, realised that it was raining so heavily. Our initial plan to take a return bus trip was thwarted as there's no covered shelter to the bus stop. It's actually quite a relieve (for me) as it's a good excuse to take the cab home after hours of walking and heavy stuff to carry.



Back to the macarons, they were done when it's daddy's turn to bring little boy for their fun bus-train-LRT-bus rides on a lazy Sunday. I was half doing work & half macaroning. And half the macarons turned out feet-less, and the rest with short-feets. Nothing is wasted (except one odd shell that is left), they were slabbed with godiva dark chocolate ganache, waiting to be matured and devoured days later.



72% cacao dark chocolate macarons
(macaron recipe adapted & modified from Tartelette, refer for more details)

Ingredients/ Method
45g egg white (ideally aged for 3 days, but mine was aged 1 day)
15g caster sugar
100g powdered sugar
55g ground almonds
powdered colour (optional)
1 tsp vanilla bean paste/essence (optional)

1) Whisk egg white until foamy, and gradually add sugar until glossy meringue. Do not overbeat or it will be too dry.
2) Added sieved almond and powdered sugar, (colour & vanilla bean paste) to the meringue. Give it a quick fold to break some of the air and then fold the mass carefully until you obtain a batter that falls back on itself after counting to 10.
3) Use quick strokes at first to break the mass and slow down. Whole process should not take more than 50 strokes. (To test - if tops flatten on its own, you are good to go. If there is small beak, give batter a couple of turns.)
4) Pipe batter on good baking sheets. Rap the tray 2 times to let any air bubble escape. Sit macarons for 30 mins to 1 hour, until a firm layer on shell forms.
5) Bake in pre-heated oven 150 deg C for 15 - 20 mins.
6) Let the macaron shells cool down and remove from the baking sheet.
7) Spread any favourite fillings on the shell and keep in air-tight containers. Keep macarons in fridge for at least 1 day to let taste mature.

Chocolate ganache
70g 72% cacao Godiva dark chocolate
3 tbsp whipping cream
1/2 tbsp unsalted butter

1) Put all ingredients in a bowl and microwave on medium heat for about 2 mins.
2) Stir to mix them evenly and keep in fridge for about 10 mins to harden ganache for easy spreading on macarons.

I'm also submitting this post to this month Aspiring Bakers #17: March Macarons Madness! (Mar 2012) hosted by Alan of Travellingfoodies.

My boy turns 5!

Pardon my lack of update on this blog and though I still visit my favourite list of blogs, I seem to have lesser time to do so these days. Lesser time to bake as well. Hopefully I'll be freer come 2nd quarter of the year!

Today is an exceptional and joyous day, my boy turns 5 and he sure has grown and changed alot! Long before his birthday, he'd made many requests and threw ideas on how he wanted his celebration. Not one, but two parties; one with family members and another one in school. A Monopoly cake and an Angry Bird cake. Since AB cake is more readily available at the bakery, I did a Monopoly cake for the family celebration. I'd to bring out the Monopoly boardgame to mimick the details, not an easy feat since I had not been baking or playing with the fondant for a while :p And instead of name of places, my boy specifically and repeated reminded me that we should have our family members' name on the board. I'm pretty happy to know how much thoughts he put in for his party and everyone was pleasantly surprise to see their names on the cake. Even the peanut-butter cream for the chocolate-flavoured cake, which was an instant hit with the guests, was decided by the birthday boy. The at-least 3kg cake was 'wolfed' down and requests for 2nd servings/ 'ta-baoing' (packed) would made any baker a happy (wo)man.

My best wishes to my lovely darling to be ever so healthy, all-rounded and successful person. Not forgetting to have fun and smell the roses along the way <3<3<3

Here's some pictures on Zakris' Monopoly-themed 5th birthday party and cake.

With Feb's month Aspiring Bakers' deadline extended, I'm glad to be able to participate and therefore submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #16: Fun with Fondant! (February 2012) hosted by Yvonne of iceamericanos.

Year of Water Dragon 2012

Wishing all prosperity, good health, happiness in the Year of Water Dragon 2012!

Let me share with you some of the new year goodies and food that were dished out by me....

1) Steamed "Huat Kueh" - one of my mum's favourite! Hopefully we can "一路發發" in the year of Dragon!

I'm submitting this Steamed "Huat Kueh" recipe to this month's Aspiring Bakers #15: Auspicious Dishes for CNY (Jan 2012) hosted by Wen's Delight.

2) CNY cookies - Everything has to be easy and less fuss this year as I'd to lift my hands to do spring cleaning now that my better half is still recovering from his injury. Only managed to churn out 2 types - sugee cookies and pineapple tarts.


- Pineapple open-tarts like pretty daisy! After so many years of preparing the pineapple paste from scratch, this is the first time I'm using store bought pineapple paste. The 1kg low-sugar pineapple paste from Kitchen Capers is a good alternative and I don't mind using it again if lazy bone sets in next year!



- Sugee/Sugi cookies, tasted as good as last year! Still have a big can of sugee leftover due to small quantities prepared this year.


- Osmanthus cookies - Did I say 2 CNY cookies? This is actually not meant to be included as one of my CNY bakes and there's no recipe. I just used the leftover dough from the pineapple tarts and added osmanthus and little more flour. It would have tasted better if there's more crunch and more sugar.


3) Nian gao spring roll or 年糕夹心卷. Another dish I learnt from my mum on how to eat up the otherwise "hardened" nian gao, and instead of coating with egg-flour and fry it which would be a pretty mess with the melted nian gao sticking to the wok.

Ingredients/Method:
1 packet of spring roll skin, small
Yam
Sweet potatoes (can be the yellow, orange or purple ones)
1 Nian gao
1 tbsp corn flour + 3 tbsp water

1. Clean and slice the yam and sweet potatoes of equal sizes.
2. Steam them for about 5-8 mins on med-high. Set aside and cool.
3. Slice up Nian gao of almost same size as the yam & sweet potatoes.
4. Arrange yam, Nian gao and sweet potatoes on top of each other and place on a piece of spring roll skin.
5. Roll up and secure edges of spring roll skin with cornstarch mixture.
6. Heat up pot on med heat and fry with enough oil to cover the spring roll, until golden brown.

I'm submitting this Nian gao spring roll recipe to this month Aspiring Bakers #15: Auspicious Dishes for CNY (Jan 2012) hosted by Wen's Delight.

4) Crispy skin roast duck, recipe adapted from Peng's kitchen. My first time roasting duck which yield a delicacy to savour when I invited my relatives to my house on the 6th day of CNY. Although the process of preparation is easy, there is the long hours of air/sun-drying the duck before it can be sent to the oven for roasting. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the process thoroughly and would attempt to do it again (of course, when I have the luxury of time!)

I'm submitting this Crispy skin roast duck recipe to this month Aspiring Bakers #15: Auspicious Dishes for CNY (Jan 2012) hosted by Wen's Delight.

5) DIY Spring Roll, which signifies good luck, prosperity and abundance! This is a special spring roll made good by my mil, but due to her health condition, she has not made it for many years. My hubby jotted down the recipe based on his mum's brief dictation years ago, and it's my must-have once a year! Another dish that we prepared when my relatives came but my skill needs improvement...lol. Anyway, my hubby & me had it for breakfast on 7th day of CNY as well, which happened to be "人日" and aren't we supposed to eat at least 7 types of vegetables on this day? This dish would fit the bill!









Hope everyone has many many good years ahead!

Xmas macarons

Wishing all a (belated) Merry Christmas 2011!

It has been an extremely busy period for me now as my other half has got himself injured during our recent family holiday. Initially we thought that it's a not-so-serious bone fracture, but upon returning home, the CT scan showed that the crack is in rather bad shape. He was almost immediately admitted for an operation and will be in clutches for a long while. Hopefully he will recover and back in action soon! Meanwhile, pardon me for not being able to leave messages in your blog for this period, however I'll still be browsing your blogs as and when possible.



Here's my bake for our family xmas party which was 'constructed' after 2 failed macaron-ings, and even the 3rd attempt was 'haphazardly' done up and put into the oven. That's why you will realise that there's no pretty even shape macarons. As a result, only the little children in the family gets to eat the 'special' reindeers and xmas tree macarons. I guess a clear mind is definitely needed even for a tried and tested recipe.


I'm also submitting this post for this month Aspiring Bakers #14: Creative Christmas Bakes (December 2011) hosted by Hankerie.

Super-moist apple cupcakes

I was completed sold when I saw Jo posted this Super-moist apple cake, and the heavenly cinnamon-nutmeg-sugar toppings! By now, some of you would know that I'm quite a cinnamon person. The sweet scent of cinnamon baking in the oven is like aphrodisiac and give you a high feeling, if you get what I mean.



For this recipe, instead of baking it as a 10-inch cake, I baked mine into 12 standard sized cupcakes and 2 mini loaves. This is mostly because I want to submit to this month Aspiring Bakers #13: Enjoy Cupcakes (November 2011) hosted by Min's blog. Actually, my baking was not smooth sailing... 1st my heavy cream turned bad even before it's expiry date, so got to rush T to buy for me when he just stepped into the house after a day's work. Then, I was being too greedy and put too much batter into each cups and ended up with a overflowing cupcakes :-( Like Jo, I was quite apprensible how the cake would turn out with the heavy cream being poured over the cake just before putting them into the oven. True enough, the cake did not turn out soggy at all. It was moist and the crumbs are so soft that it does not hold well if you are using a fork to eat. Overall, it's still a good recipe that I would try again when I have cinnamon cravings. I'm copying Jo's recipe with slight modifications here for future reference.

Super-Moist Apple Cake
(makes 12 standard cupcakes + 2 mini loaves)

Ingredients/ Method:
a) 1 1/4 cups sugar (I reduced it to 1 cup)
170g unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 large eggs
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon cake flour (not self-rising)
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk (whole or low-fat)
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 medium baking apples, peeled, cored, halved, and thinly sliced (I used Granny Smith)

b) 3/4 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup sugar + 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon + 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (I used brown sugar)

1) In a large bowl beat 1 1/4 cups of the sugar and the butter for 3 to 5 minutes until light in color. Scrape the bowl as needed with a rubber spatula and continue to beat the mixture until it is very light in texture and color, several minutes more.

2) Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl between additions. Then add in the vanilla extract and beat to incorporate together.

3) Sift together the flours, baking powder, and salt. Alternately add the milk and dry ingredients into the butter mixture, stopping to scrape the bowl as necessary.

4) Pour the batter into the prepared lined cups not more than 3/4 full using ice-cream scoop. Spread it evenly with a rubber spatula. Arrange the apple slices overlapping on top of the cake batter to completely cover the top of the cake. Pour the cream evenly over the apples.

5) Stir together the 1/3 cup sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon and sprinkle the mixture over the top of the cake.

6) Bake in pre-heated oven at 175 deg C for 35 minutes for cupcakes or 40 minutes for the mini loaves or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven, transfer it to a rack, and let cool completely.

7) Invert the cake onto the rack, remove the parchment paper, and invert it once more onto a serving platter. Serve warm or room temperature. Once cool, the cake can be stored tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.



Update - 30 Nov 2011:
I kept the unfinished mini loaves in an air-tight container and left it in the fridge since Sat. The cake still taste fresh and superb on the fifth day that they were being baked. I microwaved on mid-high for about 1.5 mins after taking them out from the fridge. A keeper recipe that I would recommend to everyone!

See how the cake looks like on day 5! Nice!

Purple Sweet Potato Ang Ku Kueh (红龟粿)

As mentioned earlier, I'm not into making kueh-kueh so far because of its perceived difficulty, and especially if it calls for homemade paste-like fillings. Until now that AB's theme is traditional kueh that I started 'looking seriously' into kueh recipes from books as well as many wonderful blogs.

There are many recipes that caught my eye, especially this purple sweet potato ang ko kueh from Frozen Wings and Honey Bee Sweets. I'm sold! I love the purple hue, and what's even more comforting to know is that the colour is 100% natural from the root, no addictives! Since I've have some left-over lotus seed paste from my earlier hakka pumpkin kueh post, it makes life easier (haha .... being lazy). Like HBS, I love peanut fillings ang ku kueh, so this would be next on the list. Of course, the mung bean fillings seems pretty easy & straight-forward to prepare, so I would give it a try too!

Ingredients/ Method:
(Recipe yields 24 pieces)
Purple sweet potato ang ku kueh skin
200g sweet potato, steamed and mashed
300g glutinous rice flour
1 tbsp rice flour
2 tbsp caster sugar
4 tbsp cooking oil
200ml water (I added slightly more as the dough was a bit dry)

*Filling: About 200g - 250g lotus seed paste

1. In a large mixing bowl, knead all the ingredients together and gradually adding the water as needed. The dough should be a soft pliable dough but not sticky.
2. Cover the dough and let rest for 20 minutes.
3. Rinse the banana leaf with hot water and dab dry it. Cut out oval shapes slightly bigger then the kueh size. Brush with some vegetable oil on the surface.
4. Divide the dough into 30g each and roll round.
5. Flatten the dough, place about 1 heap tbsp of filling in the middle, then wrap and seal nicely.
6. Place in the mould which is slightly dusted with rice flour and press down with some pressure.
7. To unmould, knock on the side of the table and let the kueh gently fall out on to your palm.
8. Place kueh on greased banana leaf and arrange on a steaming tray.
9. Steam at medium high heat for 10 minutes.
10.Brush some cooked oil over the surface of the cooked kuehs to prevent sticking.

I'm submitting my post to Aspiring Baker #12: Traditional Kueh hosted by Small Small Baker this month.

Steamed Rice Cake (蒸米糕)

Today is a public holiday in Singapore as all our Indian friends celebrate Deepavali. For us, it's a good day to go out for a nice family lunch and R&R at home. Also gave myself an indulgence by arranging a masseur to our house for a full body rub ~ heavenly! Of course, there's some time for making some steamed rice cake. BUT, the supposedly quick & easy recipe became a pro-longed preparation. Sigh. Anyway, the colourful cakes brought along smiles and fond childhood memories, especially with extra coating of red sugar!

Steamed Rice Cake (蒸米糕)
(Recipe adapted from "Make Your Own Pastry - 自己做糕点, yields 14 cups)

Ingredients/ Method:
200g rice flour
200ml coconut milk
160ml boiling water
2 tsp double-acting baking powder
120g sugar (i reduced to 100g)
1/4 tsp vanilla essence

1. Sift rice flour and 1 tsp baking powder.
2. Combine rice flour and coconut milk and mix well.
3. Add boiling water, mix well and set aside to cool.
4. When cool, stir in 1 tsp baking powder and set aside for 1 hour.
5. Add sugar and vanilla essence in batter and mix well.
6. Line aluminium cups with paper and arrange on steamer tray. (I used small paper cups instead.)
7. Pour batter in cups until 90% full and leave to rise for 30 mins.
8. Steam over rapidly boiling water for about 15 mins.

Note: (1) The next time I make this, I would probably dilute the coconut milk with half portion water. (2) Add just a drop of your favourite colour to the batter (about 130ml).

I'm submitting my post to Aspiring Baker #12: Traditional Kueh hosted by Small Small Baker this month.

Hakka pumpkin kueh (客家南瓜饼)

This post has 2-firsts for me, first time making lotus paste and first time making this type of kueh. Although making the paste is easy, I won't say so for the kueh. Because I'm not used to handling this type of sticky dough, I sorta regretted when I first started. Not wanting to waste my efforts and ingredients, I persevered and finally completed them. If you ask me whether I will do it again, I will hesitate and that's because the kueh turns out good despite the 'daunting' experience for me.

Homemade lotus paste
(Recipe adapted from Amanda's blog)


Ingredients/ Method
200gm white lotus seeds
160ml oil
120gm sugar (reduced from 180gm, but I still find it too sweet for me)
1tbsp condensed milk
1 tbsp honey
A pinch of salt

1. Soak pumpkin seeds in hot water overnight. (I bought my lotus seeds which green centre already removed. If fresh lotus seeds, please remove green centre.)
2. Wash and drain lotus seeds. Cook lotus seed with water till soft and tender.
3. Blend the lotus seeds till smooth.
4. Heat up a wok/pan, melt half the sugar until it turns golden brown in color.
5. Pour in blended lotus seeds, remaining sugar, oil and salt.
6. Cook over medium flame, stirring all the time until the lotus seed paste thickens.
7. Stir in honey and condensed milk. Continue stirring till paste leaves the side of the wok/pan.
8. Cool before use.



Hakka Pumpkin Kueh (客家南瓜饼)
(Recipe adapted from 汗牛养生馆 - 家常点心 yields about 20 pieces)


Ingredients/ Method
150gm glutinuous flour
100gm wheat starch/ tim sum flour (澄面粉)
500gm Pumpkin
100gm sugar (reduced to 80gm)
100gm homemade lotus paste

1. Deskinned the pumpkin and slice the pumpkin into small pieces.
2. Steam for 10mins on high, and mashed.
3. Add sifted glutinuous flour, tim sum flour and sugar into the mashed pumkin to form pliable dough.
4. Steam dough for 10 mins. Remove and allow to cool.
5. Divide dough into 30g each. Flatten dough and wrap with lotus seed paste. Roll to form a ball and light flatten. (The dough is quite sticky to handle, dust some dim sum flour on working surface and hand.)
6. Add some oil into wok. Pan fried till golden and ready to be served.

I'm submitting my post to Aspiring Baker #12: Traditional Kueh hosted by Small Small Baker this month.