4 years ago....

4 years ago and on this day and time, I was still in the delivery room and just had the first hug from my lovely boy! Yes, Zakris is turning 4 today and we had a simple celebration at home with our family and relatives.

The day before, we had an early celebration at the school with all his friends from nursery 2. He was so happy and excited, looking forward in anticipation to both the celebrations at school and home. How he has grown from without knowing what is birthday to one who will ask for birthday parties! He knows how to say nice things to mummy to make me happy, give me hugs & kisses and say I love you <3>

Every year, I would ask my boy the cake he wishes to have for his birthday. Although a very young boy, he is someone who has a mind of his own and we always encourage him to make his own decisions . This year theme is supposed to be a bus depot cake as wished, but it is really too tall an order for me. I 'negotiated' for just a bus cake, no depot, and he agreed with having just 2 buses - one double-deck bus bus and a single-deck bus. As usual, I would keep thinking for weeks on the design and how to do it, what sponge cake recipe to use, what flavours, fondant, buttercream or whipped cream, etc. There are always so many ideas and thoughts running through my head before finally deciding on the Cake to make.

No matter how much planning, hiccups are very common for me. First, my 2 batches of lemon and greentea macarons totally failed and went to the bin - scatterbrain me forgotten to sift the icing sugar and almond meals :-( Then, when preparing the sponge cake, my egg yolk mixture became scrambled eggs...oh no! Followed by, I mis-read the sponge cake recipe resulting in a smaller sponge base, hence no 2 buses (sorry Zak), only one bus - a long/ bendy one. Next, I mis-calculated the amount of buttercream needed and I only managed to pipe one-third of the cake. Omg! I didn't want to start preparing the buttercream all over again as time is running short, and after some hesitation, I decided to use whipped cream instead for the remaining piping. Luckily and finally, I was able to present the cake to my lovely birthday boy <3>

Plain Sponge Cake
(Recipe adapted from Kitchen Corner and visit Honey Bee Sweets for very useful step-by-step pictures)

Ingredients/ Method:
40g unsalted butter
100g egg yolk (about 6 eggs)
20g caster sugar

160g egg white
75g caster sugar
55g plain flour

1. Prepare a baking tray (11" x 14") lined with baking paper. Melt the butter than set a side to cool.
2. Using electric mixer, whisk the egg yolks with sugar in a double boiler until thicken and pale. 3. In another bowl whisk the egg whites with caster sugar until stiff peak.
4. Fold the egg yolks into the egg whites then gently fold in the sifted flour.
5. Pour some mixture (4) into a clean bowl then mix in the melted butter until well combine. Pour back into the mixture of (4) and mix gently until everything well combine.
6. Pour the batter into prepared baking tray and spread evenly.
7. Bake at 180C for 12 - 14 minutes. Be careful not to over bake it.
8. Remove the cake from the baking tray immediately when it is out from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Tear out the side of the baking paper and let it completely cool down and ready to use.



Decorate
1 punnet of strawberries
Swiss meringue buttercream

1 cup whipping cream + 3 tbsp icing sugar (sifted) **

**Whipped cream is used because I don't have enough buttercream :p.




I am submitting the Strawberry Long Bus Cake to Aspiring Bakers #5: Fruity March hosted by http://bakericious.blogspot.com/.

Other than baking the birthday cake, I also prepared Refreshing lemongrass drink shared by Jane of Passionate about Baking. The drink is really refreshing and good, but I prepared in "limited edition" so not all guests get to try it. I must say this is really a keeper!

Refreshing Lemongrass Drink
(Recipe adapted and slightly modified from Passionate about Baking)

Ingredients/ Method
8 Lemongrass, chopped and mashed lightly
3 litres water
10 tbsp Sugar
2 Lipton tea bags

1. Boil lemongrass and water in a pot.
2. Remove from heat.
3. Add tea bag to infuse, followed by sugar.
4. Remove tea bag after about 10 mins.
5. Let the lemongrass infused in the water overnight as it cooled.
6. Strained into a bottle and refrigerate.
7. Serve with ice.

Wishing Zakris a very Happy Birthday & 健健慷慷, 快高长大!

Home-made Ribena

During our desaru trip, one of the attractions is the desaru fruit farm. It's educational if you follow the guide throughout the farm tour as they will tell you many interesting facts and uses of the plants and fruits. Otherwise, you will find the farm a bit disappointing cos there isn't that much of fruits available in the plantation as well as very limited fruits available for sale; maybe not the season??

However, we were lucky on the day of our trip as we witnessed the birth of the kid (baby goat) and the mummy goat was licking the kid, with her supposedly placenta (??) still hanging loose.

Anyone heard of Malaysia Ribena? Not that the ribena syrup is manufactured in Malaysia, but the drink that uses one of the flowers - roselle - to concort the drink which is similar in taste to ribena as told by the guide. Initially thought that roselle is only available in Malaysia, not until i went to the supermart this morning and saw that fresh roselle fruit is available in S'pore too. Then i realised that actually i had seen dried roselle sold at many medical halls and some provision shops here, why it didn't ring a bell then? I like it when i saw the packaging that shouted "Singapore Farm Organic Farming", "No fungicide", "No pesticide", "No bleaching", "No preservatives", and it's reasonably priced - $2.60 for 200gm.

It is even more comforting to know from Kin Yan Agrotech's website that the health benefits of roselle fruit are unlimited:- Prevents inflammation of the urinary tract and kidneys- Roselle juice helps in the digestion process- The petals can decrease blood density- Helps those who lack vitamin C- Acts as toxic filter in the body.

Making the roselle fruit drink is very easy. Just boil 3 litres of water and put 200g roselle fruit into the pot and continue to boil for 30mins. Add 100g rock sugar and continue to boil for a further 2-3 mins, and a healthy home-made ribena drink is ready to be served.

Mandalay wild honey

Have been away for 2 short get-aways this month which explains my MIA. There's no time to do any baking although I've been following up with other bloggers' interesting posts all these while. In this post, there's still no baking as i just returned from desaru last evening. However, i want to put up something which had been in my archive since April. You see, my father-in-law last went for a holiday trip and brought back so many bottles of wild honey from Mandalay, Myanmar. Actually he went together with the domestic helper, who returned to visit her family and hometown in Myanmar, and she has been a great help to my in-laws. It was a good trip as they covered places and could buy things, only known to the locals, and at 'local' price. Imagine them lugging their own luggages and many many bottles of honey and other food stuff.

My fil is someone quite amazing; he had suffered a stroke about 4 years ago and until today he still walk with restricted movements. Despite all these, he has been travelling very frequently and independently, very disciplined in his daily exercise regime, and had no problem doing 99% of things any healthy person can do. If i'm not wrong, he exercises twice a day, either running/jogging, cycling, swimming, or climbing up & down the staircase. He does some gardening as well, and he 'owns' a very small plot of land up in the hill next to where he stays. He used to be such a stern person that i hardly hear him talk, but this change after his health episode. I read that person who suffered stroke usually changes their temperaments, characters and behaviours, but alas my fil has changed for the better, at least.

Anway, the wild honey tasted and looked really 'raw' unlike the commercially store-bought honey. These bottles of honey smell a little acidic and there's a tinge of pineapple-like taste, overall it seems just so unique on its own. It's really good just plain, or squeeze some (green) lime juice to boost up the vitamin C, which is what i just did yesterday, for little zak & daddy & mummy (me)! Refreshing & tasty ;-)

Of course, i will eventually use this honey for my baking since there are still 2 more bottles sitting in my fridge!

From wikipedia, honey is said to contain carbohydrates, sugars, dietary fiber, 0% fat, protein, water, riboflavin (vit B2), niacin (vit B3), vit B6, folate, vit C, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, zinc.

Cooling, detox & cleanse

My little baby missed school on Friday again! Not after 2 letters from the school to inform us of few children in their centre was down with HFMD. Although it should be safe to send him to school as several precautions were taken, we are hesitant to do so, better to err on the safe side right? One of my aunties is a childcare centre teacher, and we consulted her with our 'concerns'. Similarly to alot of other common diseases like chicken pox, my little baby is likely to be carrying the HFMD bug by now, which deem him to be a HFMD-carrier. It is now upto his immune system to fight back the bug. To minimise the chance of getting HFMD is to cool, detox and cleanse his system, as we were told.

Something very simple and cheap.... grean bean cooked with black sugar. Just wash the green beans, put in a pot with water and let it boil for 5 to 8 mins. Add in black sugar to taste and it is ready to be served.

Corn & raisin bun, & a bad sore throat

I've been wanting to bake a simple bread for the longest time, but has put it off as bread making seems to be the toughest thing and most time consuming in the baking world. I've tried looking at many bread recipes, and the steps always seem daunting. Couple of days ago, Kitchen Corner did a Onion Sweet Corn Roll, which i thought, at last a recipe which looks simple enough. And since Monday was a public holiday, i can afford the time to try a bread recipe.

There's alot of waiting time ('proofing') in making bread, and i decided to brew some cooling drink cos i've just got this very sore sore throat. What a bad timing, as we are flying off for our holiday this saturday. Anyway, this chrysanthemum ginseng and "luo han guo" drink is what my mum used to brew ever so often when she was around. She would fill them up in various water bottles like 'recycled' soft drink bottle, or mineral water bottle, or her tupperware, whatever that could be used to store the drink and let us bring home. There's no specific recipe for this herbal drink, just put in whatever quantity of 'ingredients' you like, plus a small cube of rock sugar, and you get a very nice flavoured drink.

Back to the bread making, it was a total flop! Look at the pictures, they say a thousand words.....