Campfire's burning

The huge campfire.. one of the biggest I've seen live..

Good thing we didn't burn anything..

It's been a long long time since I last saw a campfire.. But yesterday, I managed to join in for the campfire and even got to help with the whole set-up.

Such a sense of accomplishment when the few sparkles we threw inside ignited a HUGE fire. It was really fun... even though it was really HOT!

And when the fire died down, The Girls went near to barbeque some marshmellows for supper.

It brought back all the good old memories of secondary school and JC life.. all the overnight camps we had to attend with limited bathing time.. the (somewhat silly) songs we sang around campfires.. the funny games we had to play..

The firewood, all nicely set up

The 100 Cupcakes Challenge - Part 4

This is Part 4 and also Part Final of the 100 Cupcakes Challenge.

I made the icing for the cupcakes this morning.

The Rachel Rae's recipe I mentioned in Part 2 was supposed to be for 6 dozen cupcakes and according to many of the reviews, just nice in terms of sweetness.. "Not too sweet"..

Quantity-wise, I think 6 dozen was about right. I made slightly more and had more than sufficient icing for The Girls. But it was rather sweet. I think that the sugar amount can easily to reduced by 30% - 40%.

Anyway, the Girls did seem to rather enjoy the class... and oh... they were really creative with the icing. I gave them 4 colours - red, blue, green and violet and they made so many different designs and shades of icing.

In all, I thought that this cupcakes class really took a lot of work.. in part due to my inexperience. I think I would be able to do a faster job the next time around... if I ever have to do it again.

Though I hope it'd not be in the near future..

My favourite piece..

Cupcakes by me..

Cupcakes by the girls.. They were very creative..

And more cupcakes..

A fun and unique design by one of the girls

The 100 Cupcakes Challenge - Part 3

Today is The Day.

The Day that I have to bake 100 cupcakes.

Saturday will be when I have to do the frosting for 100 cupcakes.

But I'm feeling more confident about Saturday because I have just finished making 100 cupcakes.. and am still alive and unhurt, except for an aching back and a tiny burn..

To be precise, I baked 111 cupcakes (Who's counting..) and ate 2 of them (Well, someone has got to test them, right?) And so now, I have 109 cupcakes sitting nicely in my kitchen.

I ended up making half a batch more than what I posted in Part 2, partly because I found out that my muffin cups weren't that mini after all.. (although I must say they looked pretty mini to me in the store..)

 I also ended up making some chocolate chip cupcakes and marble cupcakes.. just for fun and variety.

My cupcakes look very "home-made" - they are all filled up to different heights.. some too little batter, others too much...

But hey.. they taste pretty good.. so.. who cares!

Watch out for Part 4 on Saturday - Cupcakes with Frosting... I'd try to take pictures of those done by me and by The Girls..

Home-made cupcakes...

Cooled and in boxes.. I still can't believe I made so many cupcakes..

100 cupcakes packed away.. Now, where can I store them...?

The 100 Cupcakes Challenge - Part 2

Things I am doing to make my 100 cupcakes challenge viable:

1. Go mini
I will be making mini cupcakes for my 100 cupcakes challenge. I decided it is easier (hopefully) to go small.

I'd also be using mini muffin cups since I don't have enough cake trays for that many cupcakes..

2. Keep things simple
I'd be making only 2 different types of cupcakes (Butter cupcakes and Chocolate cupcakes) with essentially the same recipe.

And all the frosting will all be made from the same (Rachel Ray) recipe.. Just using different colouring for variety..

3. Think Ready-Made
Mini chocolate chips and assorted colourful toppings from Sunlik Trading (Seah Street)

4. Extra extra extra
I'd try to make an extra amount of everything just in case I make mistakes..

And I just realised I need more than 2 kg of sugar! Wow... I must remember that.. and try not to eat too many at one go...

The Recipes:
For Butter Cup Cakes:
Butter 280g
Sugar 520g
Salt 1tsp
Whole Egg 4 Nos
Cake Flour 540g
Milk 440g (Added 26 Nov 09: I think 400g of milk would suffice)
Baking Powder 2tsp

For Chocolate Cup Cakes:
Butter 280g
Sugar 520g
Salt 1tsp
Whole Egg 4Nos
Cake Flour 440g
Milk 440g
Cocoa Powder 100g
Bicarbonate of Soda 2tsp

Steps for the cakes:
1. Sift all the dry ingredients together
2. Cream butter and sugar until colour turns light
3. And eggs one at a time
4. Add one third of the dry ingredients, then one third of the milk and keep alternating til all ingredients are added

For the Frosting:
Butter 450g
Icing Sugar 1350g (Added 28 Nov 09: I think 1000g of icing sugar is enough..)
Vanilla Extract 1tsp
Milk 60g
4 different food colouring

Steps for the frosting:
1. Cream butter til light, adding the sugar gradually
2. When half the sugar has been added, add in milk and vanilla essence before adding the remaining sugar
3. When frosting is done, add in desired colouring

Now, if only my cupcakes could look like that!

Post script, added 26 Nov 09:

I think the recipe above is enough for about around 80-90 small cupcakes.. I ended up making another half a batch and ended up with 100 small cupcakes and 11 big ones.

I also think the recipe for the Butter Cupcakes should be adjusted (by reducing the amount of milk) so that you get a thicker batter... and by error I found that the baking powder can be ommitted - the cake still taste fluffy and nice.. The Chocolate Cupcakes recipe is just fine.

The 100 Cupcakes Challenge - Part 1

The challenge: 100 cupcakes + frosting

The limitations: 1 inexperienced baker, 1 home oven and 1 relatively small kitchen

The deadline (100% self-imposed): 5 hours for the cupcakes, 2 hours for the frosting, including clean-up and packing time

I'm supposed to be baking the cupcakes and preparing the frosting for a cupcake icing class that G has asked me to take for The Girls.

It would be on the second day of The Camp and just in case I have to do some last minute stuff on the first day, I have decided that I would make the cupcakes 2 days in advance (heck the "cakes taste best on the day they are baked" principle) and would make the frosting the morning of the second day.

For someone who has only ever baked about 10 cupcakes before.. and have only really frosted a couple of cupcakes... 100 cupcakes is a huge challenge. I'm hoping all goes well for the class.. but in case things go badly... well.. it'd be a cupcakes tasting class instead of a cupcakes icing class!

The last time I made cupcakes... during baking class in Oct

More freshly baked bread

Out-of-oven-time: Usual time, approximately 3pm on Saturday

Baker: The Husband

Verdict: Again.. these are better than the last ones.. Practice really makes a difference!

Freshly baked and consumed on Saturday.. 

Ham and Egg bread with cheese topping. He also made a very nice

Coconut Bun.. which I didn't manage to take any nice photos of...

Meeting Brick Walls

I have a simple dream.

(Actually, I have many. But this is one of them)

I dream of having my own little sit-down cafe.. where students can catch up with one another after school.. where friends meet up for chit-chat on weekends.. where siblings share a dessert and update each other over a cup of coffee.. where tired folks come in after work and get a little refreshment that keeps going.. and where families come in for a lazy weekend brunch and family bonding time..

And where I get to cook and bake only stuff I like to eat.. and feel like cooking or baking each day...

One day, I'd open this laissez-faire cafe of mine..

Coming back to reality, I have decided a few months back that I will start small in my F&B endeavours.

I'd open a take-away F&B counter somewhere in this small island. My concept is ready and as in my menu... many things require fine tuning.. but they are more or less in place..

But but but... I can't find a shop space.

They are either too big.. or too expensive.. or too quiet.. or just simply not suitable.

But mostly, I just get the same response - "No space available.. til at least Q3 of next year.."

I will not.. and must not let this brick wall stop me.

For as Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch said in his final lecture:

"Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how badly we want things."

"The brick walls are there to stop people who don't want it badly enough. They're there to stop the other people."

I have to get over this brick wall to get a step closer to this particular dream of mine. There will be so many more ahead of me in future.

Back from winter

2 flights, 4 inflight movies and a sore-throat-cum-cough later, I'm back home from a short trip.

It is so good to be back to a tropical climate, from cold and dry Beijing.

It was nice to be away but so much nicer to be back home..

Practice makes perfect

They say practice makes perfect.. and I'm beginning to realise how true that is, especially for baking.

The Husband has been baking bread every Saturday for a number of weeks now..

And every week, I've just been saying.. "This is the best bread you have baked so far.."

Today's bakes... Very yummy..

One of his first breads... They were good.. but not as fluffy..

First birthday cake

Today was the first time I made a birthday cake.

Not for myself, of course. For a friend's birthday.. or rather, 2 friends' birthday. The birthday girl had asked for a chocolate cake with strawberries. So, I made a chocolate cake, added sweetened strawberries in the centre, and covered the cake with a french cream recipe.

It's the first time I made a birthday cake - with icing and candles and all.. And of course, today's baking adventure went with some hiccups here and there.

Firstly, I didn't have a suitable cake board. I only have one at home.. and it was just right for a 7 inch round cake. But the cake I made was a 9 inch cake.. so my cake board didn't come in helpful. In the end I made a board myself. With some cardboard and aluminium foil.

Secondly, I started out quite late.. and didn't have time on my side. I cut the cake whilst it was still a little warm.. decorated it with cream whilst it was still a teeny weeny bit warm as well. Which made the cutting and decorating job a little tricky.

Thirdly, I didn't whisk enough cream. I followed the quantites stated in the recipe.. which would have been sufficient for an 8 inch cake... but my cake was 9 inch! So I kind of ran out of cream.

And lastly, I forgot the candles... so I called another friend to go get some for me...

But nonetheless, it was a very interesting baking experience.. and I had very appreciative friends so it all turned out quite well in the end.

Chocolate cake with French Cream and Strawberries

Sushi Birthday Cake

This is such a unique cake, right?

It is a sushi birthday cake.

It was a dear friend's birthday yesterday and R found this little Japanese restaurant tucked away at Tanjong Katong road. They apparently would make this for you if you tell them that someone in the group is celebrating his/ her birthday at the restaurant.

There was a short debate about what this cake was supposed to be shaped after - strawberry... apple... carrot... I just agreed with everyone last night.. It seemed to look like any of those though I couldn't explain what the 2 smaller rice balls were.

But when I took a look at the photo today again.. I know.

It's a pumpkin carriage! The 2 smaller rice balls are the wheels!

Hm... Just the right cake for Princess G.

The food at this place was rather ok for a sit-down-order-away type of buffet place. I was most impressed by their miso soup with clams (very good... taste like one my Japanese friend's mother made for me years ago), hamachi sashimi and chawan-mushi.

They were really quite understaffed when we went, so I felt a bit bad to be harrassing the waiter/ waitresses all the time.. but it was kind of hard to get their attention as they were zooming here and there. We were really tickled when the waiter came over to ask us when we wanted our sushi cake served and spoilt the surprise for G. And he did that twice!

The first time he did that, R said yes, then pretended to not know what it was and turned around to G and asked, "What sushi cake?".

Then he came around again and asked "So you want your sushi cake to be served now, right?"

By then G was smiling away.. and all of us just roared with laughter!

Minoriya Japanese Restaurant (Tanjong Katong)
309-311 Tanjong Katong Road
Singapore 437094
Tel: +65-6346-6686

How to make your own vanilla extract

Some time ago, I read these 2 blog entries (Evan's Kitchen Ramblings and The Traveler's Lunchbox) and was really keen to try to make my own vanilla extract.

But then after a while, I forgot about all about it as I am often incline to do so..

It was until recently, when we were trying to look for a bottle of vanilla extract (not essence) in Singapore... that I remembered these 2 posts. (Thanks to Evan for reminding me..)

So, since I have all the neccessary ingredients - vanilla pods, alcohol and vanilla extract.. I thought, why not just try make a small batch.

I followed the instructions from The Traveler's Lunchbox. Alcohol (I use vodka) + used vanilla pods (I added both used and new) + some vanilla extract to kick start the process. (Frugal me added only very little vanilla extract... They are so expensive!)

All of that into 2 small recycled glass bottles.

And... that was it. Seriously...? I read the blog again to make sure I wasn't missing out any vital step - like boiling and measuring temperature and all.. but that was really all that I was supposed to do.

And what I need to do now is wait 6 to 8 weeks... (Or maybe 6 to 8 months..) and give the bottle a shake every once a week (I'd likely do that a lot more.. out of sheer curiousity and itchy fingers).

This is actually quite fun.

Especially if the extract turns out good.

Homemade vanilla extract - How it looks like on Day 1, Hour 1.

I'd take more pictures along the way..

A vase and a bowl

Finally, these have been glazed and fired up.

These are made using the coiling method, which is essentially rolling out coils of clay by hand, then using a mechanical wheel, some simple tools and water to mould and shape the clay into the desired shapes.

This vase took me all in all.. about 7 hours to finish (I am very slow).. I am so glad the glaze work turned out the way I wanted it to..

I like how the streaks of bluish-green glaze turned out

The bowl I kind of rushed to finish.. so it has a "rushed" look as well... but it is the first piece I tried doing artwork on.. I thought the brown glaze didn't turn out as striking as I thought it would be.

Wished the glaze was a lot darker...

No coincidences

My flowers never seem to flower at the same time... no such luck for coincidences so far..

But one day, when they do, I'd have yellow... light pink... bright pink... and blue flowers.. and also an unknown colour when my mysterious hibiscus flowers...

Here is how they'd look like.. :)

Macadamia Nut Biscotti

The Husband made a batch of these on Sunday and what they didn't have in looks (as biscotti are often wont to).. they more than make up for in taste.

They were super crunchy and crackly... and has that nice "biscotti" taste to it. It's the baking soda in the dough that gives the wonderful texture and flavour to these. When they came out of the oven the first time around, we both thought this was a failed project.

But the second baking changed all that. A wonderful smell crept out of the oven and when he took it out, I knew this would be an instant hit with all of us.

This is the second recipe that The Husband has tried from the book Baking with Julia. And both recipes had turned out really great. (The first were the Buttermilk Scones.)

The original recipe in this book was Hazelnut Biscotti.. but because we had so many macadamia nuts at home, The Husband made these instead.

Yummy yummy.

Super crackly biscotti - did you know that biscotti roughly

translates to cooked twice? (Bis - twice and cotti - cooked)

The Simplest Home-made Ricotta

I saw the program Bills Food on TV yesterday and decided that his recipe for Ricotta and Herbs Roasted Chicken looks pretty innovative and good.

I usually put butter under the skin of my roast chicken so that it will crisp and brown beautifully.

But Bill Granger said on the program that he felt using butter made the roast chicken a little heavy and that he found ricotta does the job much better. I didn't think butter made my roast chicken very heavy but using ricotta sounded really quite interesting.. and healthy.

And then I remembered reading about people making their own ricotta cheese at home from various blogs (Here, here, here and here) so I thought perhaps I can do it too..

The recipes for homemade ricotta cheese were really quite varied.

Some blogs say use whole milk and lemon. Others milk, heavy cream and vinegar... or lemon.. or buttermilk. Some's instructions were to boil the milk with the acid.. others to boil the milk first then pour in the acid.. Some advised allowing the milk and acid to curdle for 15 minutes.. others for up to 2 hours.

Reading all these different recipes made me a little confused.. but it also gave me the impression that homemade ricotta is something that is hard to go too wrong. So I decied to go ahead and try making it at home today.

Of course, in the end, I decided to choose the easiest recipe of all. Milk + lemon + curdling for just 15 minutes. (The detailed steps can be found here so I won't bother to go into details.)

Here is my home-made ricotta cheese.

Yummy home-made ricotta cheese.

I'm going to try making my own mascarpone cheese next!

According to various websites, it stays fresh for 2 to 5 days..  But I'm using mine tomorrow for the Ricotta and Herbs Roasted Chicken. :)

Doggie Cookies with Surprise

I wanted to bake these cookies ever since I saw them on this other blog. But there was no recipe specified on the blog. A simple search solved that problem. I found the recipe and instructions on this other blog and it looked pretty simple to make.

I halved the recipe because I didn't think we could finish that many cookies. I also amended it a little (added milk instead of milk powder) so that the cookies will be more melt-in-your-mouth.

Ingredients
For about 25 - 28 cookies, depending on the size of the cookies
90g butter
40g Horlicks
100g plain flour
10g milk
12g cornflour
12g icing sugar
Enough Regular-sized Chocolate chips to wrap inside the cookies
Enough Mini Chocolate chips as the nose of each doggie
Enough Chocolate Rice as the eyes of each doggie
Enough Koko Krunch as the ears - I halved each Koko Crunch so that the ears won't be so big

What I did
1. Cream the butter, Holicks and milk by hand in a medium bowl
2. Sift the flour, cornflour and icing sugar into the bowl
3. Mix the flour in to form a dough. Place the dough into the fridge for about 15-20 minutes
4. Divide dough into 8-10g each.
5. Embed 2 regular-sized chocolate chips into each piece of dough and roll into a ball
6. Insert 2 half-pieces of Koko Krunch to form the ears, 1 chocolate chip as the nose and 2 chocolate rice as the eyes
7. Bake at 140 - 150 degC for about 25 - 35 minutes.

These cookies are very pleasant to make. And not difficult at all. The dough can be mixed by hand - which also means minimal washing (I only used 1 metal bowl and a large spoon). And honestly, the trickiest part was just putting the eyes on properly..

I like the cute look of the doggies and the "surprise" in the centre of these cookies - the chocolate chips... so I guess this will be a cookie I'd definitely make again.

Maybe for my niece or nephew's birthday.

Flowering Blue Pea

There are about 10 flowers on my Blue Pea today..

That's the most I've seen before. This Blue Pea flowers quite frequently but usually, there are only 3 or 4 flowers each time. The flowers bloom for only 1 day so it's nice to see 10 in a single day..

I like the colour of the flowers very much - it is a very nice, royal-looking blue.

This plant is sturdy and tough.. I know for a fact that it can weather the hot scorching sun, strong winds and stormy rains pretty well.. because my plant has been through all that..

Red spider mites seem to love it and they launch an attack sometimes when I'm not careful.. but other than them, my blue pea plant has been pretty resistant to other pests.

The bright blue colour of the flowers can be used as a natural food dye, and sometimes I pluck them out on the day they flower to this lady at the gym, who uses them to dye her Nonya kuehs blue. The pods (the pea-like thing) are supposedly poisonous so I usually pluck off the flowers after 1 day so that I don't get them.

Effortless Fish Soup

When I don't know what to cook... I often end up cooking Oden or Fish Soup.

This Fish Soup is really simple.. Besides the few main ingredients, I can add in what I want.. and usually, I add in what I need to clear in the fridge.

The key ingredients for this soup is:
- Fish (Bones and fish slices. You can get the people in the market to cut it for you.. )
- Ginger
- Tomatoes

The various other ingredients I sometimes add are:
- Mushrooms
- Toufu
- Black fungus
- Assorted vegetables
- Other Seafood (When I add other seafood, this soup becames a Seafood Soup, like it is today...)

I always consider a fish-based soup good if the soup turns out milkish. And no, I don't add milk to it. That would be so wrong! What I do is heat some oil in a pot, add a thick slice of ginger and fish bones (meatier and larger fish bones.. you don't want to have to pick out some pieces of bones in your soup!) to fry them til nice and slightly brown.

Then while the pot is still very hot, pour in boiling water. And then boil at high heat for about 30 minutes or longer. The soup will look milky white after 30 minutes.
 
It's the combination of the fried fish + very hot pot + boiling water + boiling at high heat that will turn the soup white.

Then I'd just arrange all the different ingredients into the pot and boil them until they are all cooked. And then season with salt and pepper to taste.

I usually add in the fish slices and seafood last, just before serving because the seafood takes just a little while to cook.

And then there you have it.. an effortless fish soup.. Besides some chopping required for the tomatoes and vegetables, this is a basically wash and throw-in-pot type of soup.

Again, not the best picture.. but this is a yummy, easy soup

Riders Cafe

We almost missed this little sign because the board above the main door said Saddle Club

I liked the name of this cafe even before I went there. Riders cafe - where you can see horses and riders.. Sounds so cool!

And you know, I did see a couple of horses when I went... and a couple of riders.. or at least, they were wearing riding gear...

I really like eating brunch and I invariably have eggs for brunch, since eggs are my favourite food.

And that was what I ordered at Riders cafe - Eggs Benedict.

Eggs Benedict - 2 eggs with ham and muffins, potatoes and a small fruits salad

The egg yolks weren't as runny as I would have liked them.. (Eggs benedict should look like this. A friend of mine made this.. quite amazing.. right?).. and the food strangely didn't come piping hot.. but otherwise, it was a very pleasant meal. The coffee was good. The atmosphere and the company was excellent.

The restaurant has an almost colonial feel to it - black and white with no air-conditioning and the slight smell of horses. I almost forgot that I was in Singapore after a while.. and didn't really miss the air-conditioner. I just really wished the resident cat didn't stroll in to take a nap halfway through our brunch because I kept glancing over after that to make sure it didn't drop by our table. (I'm terrified of C-A-Ts.. it's an irrational but very real fear.)

The egg yolks weren't quite runny.. and The Cat came in for a nap.

Riders Cafe
51 Fairways Drive Singapore 286965

Telephone : (65) 64669819

Good Kimchi Jigae (Kimchi Soup)

Kimchi Jigae is soup made with kimchi and a variety of ingredients like pork, seafood, toufu and so on.

Good Kimchi Jigae, according to the Korean lady at the supermarket where I bought some Korean groceries from, should be made using "older" kimchi.

"After 2 weeks, kimchi turns sour. Then good for making soup."

And the kind lady taught me how to make this soup - Fry some pork slices with sesame oil, then add toufu and seafood. Add chicken or vegetable soup and vegetables. Add some Korean chilli paste and Korean chilli powder and continue boiling for 20 to 30 minutes.

"Only with sour kimchi. Very good taste." She reminded me.

Thanks to this lady, we had a good kimchi jigae for dinner tonight. And I think the kimchi I bought from her must have been really fresh.. because I waited 2 weeks but I felt that the kimchi is actually still very edible, ie. not sour enough for kimchi soup. But the soup was still very good. I still have some of that kimchi.. and will wait til next week to make this soup again.

Today's dinner was Kimchi Jigae and Korean Seafood Pancake (yes, again..).

Buttermilk Scones & Pancakes

The Husband made some Buttermilk scones this weekend.

The scones were some of the best I had so far.. Very crumply, melt-in-your-mouth buttery and very fragrant. They tasted good on their own.. and even better with butter/ cream and jam.

Compare them with how the scones looked like with my old recipe.

Buttermilk scones - very yummy

Buttermilk is something we never had in our fridge before. I've never used it in my cooking or baking.. so I was pretty surprised at how it really made a difference to the scones..

So, since we had some leftover buttermilk in the fridge, I decided to make some Buttermilk pancakes today..

It is a simple recipe - 3/4 cup self-raising flour + 165ml buttermilk +1/2 lightly beaten egg + 1/2 tablespoon sugar + orange zest or blueberries (optional)

Just mix everything together and cook them in the pan with some butter. Yummy!

And if you don't have buttermilk, you can also use 1/4 cup milk plus 3/4 cup yogurt OR 1 cup milk plus 1 tablesoon lemon juice.

Buttermilk pancakes - quite fluffy and nice

Patisserie Chocolaterie

A couple of friends raved about Canele and for a few weeks, I have been meaning to go there for desserts.

For some reason or another, I didn't manage to do so until last Sunday, when a friend from Hong Kong was in town and I wanted to meet her for tea somewhere near her hotel.

So Canele came to mind very quickly.

We ordered a cake and a pot of tea each. I ordered the Le Royale and she order the Barcelona.

Maybe my expectations were too high.. I thought the cakes were pretty good... but halfway through each slice (and it was very small slice), I got a bit tired of it. Both cakes felt a bit too sweet and heavy halfway through.. and I didn't quite enjoy the second half of the cakes as much..

And the teas we ordered Bergamot Blue and Rosy Pink were just so-so. The water wasn't hot enough.. the tea wasn't strong at all.

On the whole, I thought Canele wasn't what I had imagined it to be - the ultimate place for cake and tea. I went away feeling rather disappointed.

Perhaps it was the pots the teas came in.. or maybe it was the service - they took our cakes which we ordered before entering the restaurant and didn't take our orders for tea until quite some time later. Or maybe it was the booming music from Ben and Jerry's next door.

But I thought the savoury crepes the next table ordered looked fabulous. So maybe I'd visit their other store the next time around.. and try their crepes then.

Canelé Pâtisserie Chocolaterie

252 North Bridge Road,

#B1-81/82 Raffles City Shopping Centre,
Singapore 179103
Telephone : (65) 6334-7377