2007! What will it bring me?????

Here's wishing everyone a good and exciting year ahead!

For me, I hope 2007 will be a good year... with DH getting into this new job which requires him to travel alot, I hope to be blessed with good heath and energy to look after the kids myself. 2007 is also the year when my DS is going into primary school. It's definately a very exciting phrase of his life he's moving into and I wish him all the best and to enjoy his primary school life.

Made these cupcakes for the family to enjoy and ursher in the new year together. I hope they'll like it :P

Ian's Birthday....

Third post in a day!!!!! hehehe... this just shows how much I've been neglecting my blog :P

My DS is a Christmas Baby....

Today, he celebrated his 6th B'day in his preschool with his friends who are moving on to primary school next year. So it's an important celebration (and probably the last in his class as he's the youngest amongst them) as they will be all going separate ways when the year ends. It so happens that the school is celebrating christmas today too, and it just adds to the fun! The whole day seems to be a party.

This cake was done after the inital cake that I was gonna make failed. Then (which was yesterday), i got very upset and started looking for another cake recipe which will be easy and foolproof (as I was really tired and upset AND I was running late!) Flipping thru the recipe books that I have (which was very limited), I came across this recipe which I tot shd appeal to children. But I had to make some changes to it as the top layer was supposedly to be coffee... (children are not supposed to be taking coffee, right? haha), so I changed it to a yam-flavoured layer, followed by a kaya layer and finally the bottom cake layer. It turned out fabulous! And most importantly, the children really love it! I heaved a big sign of relief as portions were also presented to DS's teachers.

Catch me if you can!

This is the before and after pics of my gingerbread boys. Just wanted to join in the fun when I saw fellow bloggers making them. It's pure good fun having the kids decorate the gingerbread boys... I know my kids really enjoyed it. And they happily decorated the "naked" gingerbread boys after members of the family... so there's mommy, daddy, cousins, aunt and uncles amongst the dressed gingerbread boys (or gals, in the case). And then these biscuits were presented to the members of the family it's supposed to be for keepsake or consumption.

Season's Greetings!

Hi everyone! Sorry I've not been updating as much as I like to be. I'm just SO BUSY (and tired)! The week passed by so fast and suddenly Christmas is just round the corner.... Dun worry, I've been baking, and not just eating. :)

Anyway, here's wishing everyone a Happy Christmas and Merry New Year.

My wish for the coming year will be to have more time for the family (and baking :P)...everyone to be safe and sound... and happiness always... the list can go on and on... but I'll just stop here. Happy Holidays everyone!

ps: time for me to rest and re-charge....

The procrastinator finally got to work....

Phew... finally made myself bake some stuff. High time too as i'm totally stressed out looking after the kids myself.

These cookies (cornmeal raisins cookies and chocolate chips, raisins and oats malted cookies) are my x'mas bakes! Will be giving them away to my colleagues... hope they'll enjoy it. :)

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Pork Floss Swiss Roll

This recipe is adapted from "Elegant Swiss Roll by Kelvin Chai". The roll is soft and fluffy. Taste wise, it's sweet and savoury at the same time. My brother found the taste weird but I liked it. :P
Here's the recipe (with my adaptations in pink)
What you need
For the cake

• 4 eggs
• 70 gm castor sugar (i used 50 gm)
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 80gm plain flour (i sifted twice)
• 50gm melted butter (i used canola oil)

For the filling

• 100gm buttercream
• 50gm mayonnaise
• 50gm chicken floss (i used pork floss)
• some sesame seeds

What to do

1. Preheat oven to 200C, grease a 10 x 14 in baking tin and line with baking paper. (I din grease my tin)
2. Using electric mixer on full speed, beat eggs and sugar till light and fluffy. Add in vanilla extract, mix well. Gently fold in sifted(twice-sfited) flour, followed by melted butter (canola oil) and mix till well combined.
3. Spread batter into lined tin. Bake for 6-8mins. Leave to cool completely.
   Combine butter cream and mayonaise, spread over cake. Sprinkle some chicken (pork) floss over the cream. Roll gently from the narrow end. (i rolled from the 14in end instead)
4. Spread some butter cream (mayonnaise) over the roll and roll on chicken (pork) floss and sprinkle some sesame seeds. Slice and serve.

Butter Cake

Butter cake has always been a crowd favourite, esp when you use good butter. I think it makes a real difference... For this cake, I used the PRESIDENT brand of unsalted butter. But of course this is not premium butter (tho' still more exp than some of the common brands)... still it's good enuf for me! :)

Almond Madeleines

This one is pretty "yum". The ingredients used are simple and more importantly for me, the batter need not sit in the fridge and can be used straight away. It's great as I bake at night during weekdays. I can get this done very fast and still go to bed same time every day!

Here's the recipe : (makes 16pcs for me)

What you need

• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 stick (or 64 gm) butter, melted and cooled
• 1/3 cup plain flour (sift twice)
• 1/3 cup fine-grain sugar
• 4 tbsp almond meal
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp almond extract

What to do

1. Preheat oven at 180C.
2. Beat eggs with sugar and salt until pale and thick.
3. Add in the vanilla extract and almond extract and beat to combine.
4. Fold in twice-sifted flour and almond meal until well combined.
5. Pour in melted butter and mix well.
6. Batter is ready for use. Grease and flour generously yr madeleine tray (mine's non-stick, so I skipped this step).
7. Pour batter into mould until it filled up entirely.
8. Bake at 180C for 12 mins (or springs back when lightly touched).

Fried Rice Paradise

U may have noticed by now that I like to do fried rice. Well, it's mainly due to laziness on my part. But well, no harm done as I find that I'm improving! When I first started frying rice, the end result is usually quite bland. But now it's a different story... no more compliants from DH abt it. :P

Many a times when I ask my kids what they want for their meals, I get 2 different answers. DS will usually ask for rice while DD will want noodles. And so to make life easier for everyone (mainly ME), I'll make fried rice instead! ahaha... so much for democracy in the household!

So for today, this is what we had for lunch. The onion rings are frozen ones... I only need to deep-fry them.

Smile!!!! (unsuccessfully)

Got hold of this recipe from a fellow blogger, Leelee. However I was warned that the recipe is not accurate and more liquid is needed. Looking at how well done Leelee's fa kaos are, I was really tempted to give it a try. Afterall, I wanted to make somefin simple this weekends, as I'm recovering from a flu and so is my DD. These will be given to my mom, who loves eating fa kaos. Too bad tho' my fa kaos din smile! it looked totally different from what Leelee made. guess i'm really lacking in the skills. Appearance aside, taste-wise, these are great...soft, moist and spongy.

Here's the recipe (according to my adjustments) for those who like to give it a try. Maybe you guys will have better luck making these "chinese muffins" smile!

What you need

• 250gm self-raising flour
• 150gm soft brown sugar (original recipe called for 200gm, which i think will be too sweet)
• A 200ml pack of coconut cream
• 100gm of plain water

What to do
Sift self-raising flour with brown sugar twice.
Open the pack of coconut cream and add the 100gm water. Add this to the flour mixture.
Mix the liquid till combined. (I used a whisk). You have to achieve a "ribbon-like" batter. Add more water if need be.
Pour batter into moulds lined with paper liners and steam on high heat for 15 mins. (I used tart moulds and this recipe yields 10pcs)

PS : I welcome any suggestions to improve on this recipe and to make them SMILE.