Pandan Chiffon Cake

Made this Pandan Chiffon from Kitchen Tigress' blog.
Reduced the sugar to 70gm in total, and cake still taste just as good.
I also reduced my coconut milk to 50gm and added pandan juice to make a total of 95g because I felt that my pandan juice were not fragrant enough... maybe they were too old?
Of course I had an easier way of squeezing out pandan juice from the leaves without water... with the help of my super juicer!

Meanwhile, if you are at her blog, check out her other entries as she dissects recipes from some recipe books.
They're wicked, and never fails to give me a good laugh!

David sleeping alone

Me: Will David sleep by himself in your room tonight? David wails: Noooooo.... I am scared of the raining "goong goong"

Cinnamon Rolls

Did you know cinnamon and honey is good for health?
From Arthritis to cholesterol levels and even heart disease.
I'm not sure how true this is, but it's good to indulge in a low-sugar wholewheat cinnamon roll once in a whille.



Before proofing


Final product

Recipe from Florence's blog
I used 160g bread flour and 50g wholewheat flour to make up for the original 210g bread flour.
Also reduced sugar to 30g.

Rapunzel Jewel Cake

The oven's dead, and I am into steaming now.
I adapted a recipe from Alex Goh's Magic Steamed Cakes book and sneaked in some purple sweet potato since the kids wouldn't eat sweet potato.

Fluffy and soft!

The Baobab Tree

I chanced upon this book in the library while waiting for our food at Jack's Place Bukit Panjang Plaza.
I thought it was really apt for the little girl who is going through her "It's not fair" stage.

At the end of the story, the kids line up to be turned upside down like the Baobab Tree's fate and they really get a good laugh out of that.

Term 1, 2012: Origami

Some of her works in school this term.



For those who are interested in origami, this is a great site with videos on how to fold the origami items.
http://www.en.origami-club.com/

Future Architect?

Swimming

An award for the little girl

We enrolled S into a swim class as she asked for it.
However, on her first lesson, she didn't want to join the class.
I imagine it must be quite intimidating for a 5-year-old to go into the pool without her mummy and daddy... and to the constant barking of the instructor.

So R and I decided to work on her basics, just to get her to be more confident.
A google showed up this website USwim, which teaches parents how to teach their kids to swim
We followed some of the steps, and got her confident enough to dunk her head into the water and do her confidence jump.
I also came up with the idea of an award in the form of a certificate.

It also helps that "gong gong" speaks very loudly, so I simply explained to her that the instructor really didn't mean to yell all the time.
It's just that some uncles speak very loudly, like her "gong gong" :P
This worked too, and she gamely joined the class during the second week.

She's now into jumping into the water all by herself and kicking/paddling about 1.5m towards R. She doesn't know how to coordinate her breathing yet, so she does this with her head in the water the whole time.

Sharing a bottle of chocolate-flavoured goat milk at Hays Dairy

Thomas toddler backpacks all out of stock?!

You wouldn't believe that all the Thomas toddler backpacks are sold out at the few Kiddy Palace outlets that I went to.
Had no choice but to make the little boy a backpack to go to school!

For the boy

Made this for the girl last year

Murder She Commited

This was what I did to my oven.
The day before, I was trying to tidy up the kitchen so my part-time helper will have an easier time.
As I was putting the tupperware into my oven, an image of the melting tupperware flashed across my mind.
I told myself "Don't be silly. Of course I will check the oven before I turn it on."
The next day, as I was getting ready to bake my cheese bread, I checked the oven and saw that all was clear.
BUT I didn't notice a tupperware cover that slid under the rack and was resting on the bottom heating element.
As I was preparing the batter, I smelled some horrible chemical smell and this was what happened.
I was pretty shaken by the whole accident... even more after R showed me that night, this video on why we should not pour water on kitchen oil fire.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecvG7sb4H4M
Afterall, petrochemicals in the plastic could be considered as "oil"?

An acquaintance told me to use flour.
A Google on the effect of flour showed is just as scary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tduy1zU0L-Q

I guess the best would be a wet cloth.

My Breakfast Kaki

This is my breakfast kaki for the last 1 year.
I'm going to miss him when my little man goes to school next Monday.

Breakfast is not always in such posh settings of course.
It's usually the chai tau kuay or bak chor mee in the market.
Otherwise, it's just a simple breakfast at home.

I want wife

The first time he said this, R told him he will have a wife when he is older.
He seemed frustrated with our answer and showed it by yelling "I WANT WIFE!" and kicking away.
How can being single at this age cause such frustration?

It was only later that we realised he meant "I want to drive."
Isn't he much happier in the pictures below?

Green Tea Macarons with Adzuki Bean Buttercream

My Notes:
Macaron Shell:
Added 1tbsp matcha powder to ground almond and powdered sugar mix.

Buttercream:
Further reduced sugar in buttercream as adzuki bean is already sweet.
For 1 egg white, I used only 30g sugar.

First tray has a lot of cracked shells... maybe oven is not hot enough? I preheated it for 15mins this time. Or could it be my cheap tray that is slightly warped?
Second tray was better with 6 cracked shells.
Third tray as perfect with 0 (yes, nil!) cracked shells.

Next round, I will swap the trays and pin down the culprit!

My Favourite Artist

This is my favourite artist - Sophie Ang.
This is her work titled "Rapunzel looking at the stars".

Made: Black Sesame Macarons with black sesame buttercream filling

Made these today....
Green tea and carrot ones will just have to wait.

Used the same old recipe from Not so Humble Pie, but used only 200g icing sugar instead of 225g. Added in 25g of ground black sesame.

Actually I didn't mean to reduce the icing sugar, but 200g was all I have in my pack, and I was really too lazy to open a new pack... so decided to take a risk with just 200g. Don't think I'll ever make a great chef, seeing how lazy I am!

Finding my usual buttercream a tad too sweet, I also reduced the sugar by 20%, so 1 egg white this time, I used only 40g of sugar.

Macaron Class

R as really sweet to give me some time off to attend a macaron class today.
I really enjoyed the class and would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to learn how to make these little finicky stuff.

Left: Spiced macarons with citrus cream cheese filling
Right: Chocolate macarons with salted egg yolk filling

What a stiff peak looks like for French Meringue Method
Should have put some coloured backing behind... but the picture is good enough for me

See the salted egg yolks? R says eeeeeeeeeeeeeks!
But only after he has eaten it without knowing what it is.
It got pretty good reviews from Vikki and her husband though.

Class was held at Kitchen Capers' Baking Studio.

We learnt two types of method - the French Meringue Method and the Italian Meringue Method.
I have been using the French Meringue Method because I really cannot imagine how to handle a boiling pot of sugar syrup while holding my handmixer with the other hand.
Hmm... the other reason is that I am quite lazy... less stuff to wash up with the French Method!

It was quite interesting to see how the Italian Method is done, and I think I might just try it one of these days.

The instructor, Amy Lee, is really helpful in giving little tips on what to do and what not to do... and even information such as the different types of almonds and icing sugar.

She also baked us a cake for teabreak - a lovely light lapis surabaya. The centre layer of chocolate was just heavenly! This, coming from someone who is not really into chocolate. I actually took two servings of it. Would really like to attend this class, but I think it's just too cruel to have R look after the kids all by himself for 2 consecutive Sundays. Maybe next time!

And oh, the class was odd-numbered. Everyone came with a friend except me, so I had the privilege of partnering the instructor... that explains why my macarons look so good? Best of all, I get to bring all the macarons back for the macaron-bandits! :)

She even gave me the leftover aged eggwhites, which means I can start experimenting with macarons immediately without having to wait for my egg whites to age... yoooohoooooo! I am already thinking of green tea macarons with adzuki bean filling... and maybe even a carrot macaron!

Made: Wholemeal Bread Loaf

Made this bread loaf 2 days ago, but it was a little flat as my loaf pan is pretty big. The little girl loves it and could happily chomp down two slices for breakfast.

Decided to make a slightly bigger loaf this time by multiplying the recipe by 1.5 times. Also replaced some wholewheat flour with oat bran and sprinkled steel-cut oats on top. I didn't use any bread machine... exercised my flabby arms instead.

Ingredients for my 9x5 loaf pan:
Sponge Dough:
225g bread flour
150ml water
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast

Main Dough:
75g plain flour
75g wholewheat flour
30g oat bran
37g brown sugar
75ml whole milk
75ml water
pinch of salt
22g butter

My lazy way of writing out the method for my on reference... please refer to Florence's blog for good and detailed instructions!
1. Mix ingredients for sponge dough and rest for 2.5 hours.
2. Add in the rest of the ingredients (butter last) and knead.
3. Shape into circle, rest for 15mins.
4. Punch down, shape into swiss roll and rest for 10mins.
5. Punch down, shape into swiss roll again and put in loaf pan for 45mins or 80% full. (Mine took only 30mins... I cheated by putting pan on top of a pot of hot water so it rises faster)
6. Brush with water and sprinkle with oat bran and oats.
7. Bake in 200 degrees C for 30-35mins.

Recipe from Florence of Do What I Like
Her recipes are really good... so far I have not failed with any of them *touchwood*

Birthday Celebration in School

Her school has something new for birthdays this year.

They can do anything they want, by writing down their birthday plans and sharing with their teachers and friends ahead.

Her birthday plan

This was what we did:

Showed her friends how to make konnyaku Ribena jelly
We used the pinata as a backdrop for her birthday cakes
She wanted little roses for her banana cupcakes so I learnt it through Youtube
Don't they look like Rapunzel's garden?

And oh oh oh... if only I knew they were not going to have any more lessons after the birthday celebration, I would have brought a Rapunzel storybook along and told them the story... and maybe even get one or two of them to come up and act out some little parts... never mind, there'll always be next time!

Birthday celebration with the cousins

Made her this Rapunzel dress and the dollie.
Daddy made the pinata from papier mache.

The cousins and friends

Enjoying the strawberry shortcake from Four Leaves

Pinata time followed by bowling session

Sweet Success!

Look at the base! Nice and smooth. Although they're a little brown.
I was bracing myself for another sticky-bottomed macaron session today, but they turned out pretty well this time.

Any changes to recipe and method?
Recipe is the same one from Not So Humble Pie

My own notes:
- I used egg whites aged for 48 hours in the fridge.
- Instead of putting in the ground almond + powdered sugar in batches, I dumped the whole lot in and mixed vigorously for the first 10 strokes, then slower and more gentle after that. This I learnt from Tartelette.
- I put the piped macarons in an airconditioned room for a minimum of 30 minutes before I baked them.
- I preheated my oven for a full 20 minutes.
- Baked them on lowest rack (single tray) at 145 degrees C for 15 minutes.
- Did not open the oven door during baking.
- I still had a few that erupted like volcanoes. These were the ones on the front row near the oven door. I suspect the oven fan was probably blowing in that direction and the heat just broke the skin.
- Once out of the oven, I lifted the parchment paper and splashed a few drops of water on the tray. Left the macarons to cool totally on the tray then I peeled them off.

Snapshots of my little man

That's my sleeping baby

Rolling along at West Coast Park in the mornings with me

Getting potty trained for school this March

That's him pretending to sleep


Taken just today - he is Darth Vader with the hood

Patience...

Look what I got in my letterbox today?
These babies are plump and juicy and moist.
Exactly what I need for my vanilla buttercream in my Quest for the Perfect Macarons.
I got them just 2 weeks after I placed my order.
Whereas I only just got my CDs from UK yesterday - the merchant in UK sent it out on 18 Nov 2011!
Would that be the doings of Royal Mail UK or our first world country?

I put in 8 vanilla pods to 900ml of vodka, and off it goes into a cool dark cupboard.
See you 6 months later!

Made: Macaron Take 5

My 5th attempt on macarons...
If you consider my Chinese New Year stint as 2 batches, this would be my 6th.
They're still not perfect - with slightly sticky bottoms that I have to peel from the parchment paper.

Plain Macarons with chocolate ganache

My favourite part - pairing up the macarons

Look! I even managed to pair these egg-shaped macarons.

Made: Macarons for Chinese New Year

恭喜发财 万事如意！

This is my comparison of various recipes...
Settled for this one at Not so Humble Pie after three failures with a swiss macaron and the I Heart Macarons book.
I aged my egg whites in the refrigerator for 3-6 days and skipped the dehydrated egg whites this time as I forgot to buy them.
Added some lemon juice when whisking the egg whites at early stage and used the whisk attachment from my good old Braun Multiquick hand blender as I wanted a really slow speed.

Vanilla Bean Buttercream recipe from Tartelette

Made: The best Banana Cake ever!

Waiting patiently for his banana cake to cool down.

Recipe from Wen's Delight
I reduced sugar to 110g as I used "ang bak" bananas which were very ripe and sweet.
The best banana cake ever... although it almost killed my handmixer :)

Made: Cashew Nut Cookies

S helping me put "makeup" on the cookies so they will glow with radiance :)


Recipe from Wen's Delight
I substituted the icing sugar with 170g of castor sugar