Tribute to Teachers....

Teachers are the ones who help shape a child besides the parents. They play such an important role in a child's life!

I remember one particular teacher, Mr L, in my primary school. He was such a caring and doting teacher who welcomed everyone to to home. And it helped that it was a neighbourhood school and he stayed nearby. He was my mother tongue (Mandarin) teacher and I still remember vividly his appearance. He was tall (or maybe not? 'coz when you are 9 yo, everything looks pretty huge to you... not?), plump and always wearing a smile. He had kind words for everybody and even called us his "anak anak" (malay term for children).

Mr L was the person who introduced me to kiwis. I still remembered the 1st time I held a kiwi in my hands, not knowing what it was. His daughter was studying in NZ at that time and was back for a holiday. She brought the kiwis back and somehow 3 kiwis landed in my bag. I brought the kiwis home, and showed them to my mother... and she also had no idea what fruit it was except it's "that hairy thing" she called it. However, I can't seem to recall eating it. Maybe she tot it was an alien and got rid of it? I really dunno....

OK, back to my story....

I graduated from primary school and still occasionally will meet up with Mr L. He was just living in the next block to me at that time! We talked abt school, life and everything under the sun.

Fast forward to when I was in secondary 3, it suddenly dawned onto me that Mr L had not contacted me for the longest time. (don't call me heartless, but when you're a 15 yo, there seems to be never-ending activities/events/places to go to!). I picked up the phone and called him. In what seemed to be the longest wait, someone finally picked up the phone. I asked for Mr L.... the man over at the line asked me which Mr L I'm looking for? Turned out that he is the son of Mr L... so he's also Mr L.... anyway, I made myself clear and then I was told the bad news.... Mr L had passed away 3 mths ago! At that moment, I really did not know how to react. I was SHOCKED and put down the phone. It took me nearly 2 hours to recover from that shock and I decided I shd call again to find out the details. Eventually, I got to know everything that was.

Till today, my heart is full of regret. Why didn't I call sooner? If I had done that, I'll probably got to talk to my dear Mr L before he left this world. At least I'll get to hear his voice before he goes. Mr L had touched my heart and till today, he's still in that special place in my heart. He was truly a great teacher who taught me to give unconditionally and look at life from a different perspective. That I believe is more important than just learning academically. Lessons in life are not found in books, you have to experience it.

So as a tribute to teachers, I decided to bake some macarons for my kiddo's teachers.

I wish all teachers a very Happy Teacher's Day! To all the teachers who have touched the hearts of every child......

Observation of a 7 yo....

DS and I were crossing the zebra crossing last nite to get to the MRT stn to deliver a cheesecake.....

We made it thru' and he suddenly turned ard and asked me "Mommy, why is that called a zebra crossing? We're the ones who crossed it, not a zebra.... the zebra is lying there!"

Tell me, shd i laugh or cry???? (btw, I rolled my eyes and it's still stuck at the back of my head.)

Mixed fruits cheesecake....

I got an order for this cheesecake.... hope the b'day gal love tis cake!

Agar-agar

Agar-agar is asian's answer to the jellies found in the western menu. We all love this refreshening dessert which is also vegetarian and easy on the waistline. I made these last nite to bring to a gathering... hope everyone will love them....

ps : the round and square ones are supposed to be mooncakes... but got disfigured when I placed in the chopped peaches before pouring in the mixture... lesson learnt!

Thank you!

Sweet E has offered to help me promote my macs on her blog... and even went to the extent of getting studio setup to take a pic of the packaging!


For that, I thank you, E, from the bottom of my heart.


This is the shot of the packaging... beautiful, isn't it?

Carrot cake...

The chinese have their own versions of carrot cake, which is steamed instead of baked. In fact, I did not have a taste of the version other than the chinese one till I was a teenager! And for my mom, she had not tasted one before in her life! (until now :) )

So it has sort of became a "mission" of mine to introduce her to it. I was free this morning to do some baking and carrot cake came into my mind. So i got to work on it....

The verdict? Mom loves it!

Lisa asked for the recipe of this cake... so here it is :
For the carrot cakeWhat you need

• 250ml vegetable oil
• 150g brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 500g coarsely grated carrot
• 120g coarsely chopped walnuts
• 375g self raising flour
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp mixed spice

What to do

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
• Grease a 9" x 9" pan and line with baking paper.
• Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and mixed spice together in a bowl.
• Whisk eggs and sugar on medium till thick and creamy.
• Fold in the oil lightly. Do not stir for too long as it will deflate the air bubbles.
• Fold in the carrot and the walnuts.
• Add in the dry ingredients. I added it in in 4 parts.
• Pour mixture into the pan and bake for about 1hr or till cooked. Test using skewer. If the top is browning too fast, cover it loosely with foil.
• Stand cake in pan for 5 minutes before turning onto wire rack. Turn cake top-side up to cool.

NOTE : If baking in cupcakes, bake for only 40mins.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
What you need

• 30g butter
• 80g cream cheese
• lemon zest from 1 lemon
• 120g icing sugar

What to do

• Cream butter, cream cheese and lemon zest till light and fluffy.
• Gradually add in the icing sugar.
• Cream till smooth.

And the answer is.....

Muffins!

I was flipping thru' a muffin recipe book when I chanced upon a recipe titled "mushroom muffins".... hey, I love mushrooms and so do my kiddos... so it din take me long before I started scrutinising the ingredients. I was really surprised to spot that the main ingredient in the recipe is actually a can of campbell soup! I never knew this soup can be made into muffins other than fillings for buns and sauce for sphagetti and of course, the crowd fav, campbell soup in a bowl.

Almost immediately, I jumped out of my bed and went into my kitchen, looking for that can of campbell soup I bought on impulse during one of my grocery shopping trips. With that can of soup safely in my hands, I looked at the other ingredients in the recipe... GREAT... I've all that's needed! and so I set to work on these muffins. Guess I was really curious how the muffins will turn out.

The recipe is really very straightforward (that's wad a muffin recipe shd be rite?). From the mixing of the wet and dry ingredients to sending the muffins into the oven, it was done in 10 mins flat. However, there's a wait of 15-20 mins for the muffins to be baked.

After 20 mins in the oven, the muffins did not rise much (to my disappointment) ... but anyway, it tasted just like the soup! (haha... who am I kidding.... it's the main ingredient here! DUH)... but the kiddos love it and I guess that's all that matters rite? *wink*

ps : I do find it a tart too salty...
Dear Sue, u're so close to getting the correct answer!Eat your soup!

Here's the recipe (for those who are campbell soup fans and not "killed" by the suspense yet!.... and want to try eating yr soup...) [eh, Cecily?? LOL]
What you need

• 1 can of condensed campbell soup (10 oz)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup oil (I used corn oil)
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 tsp baking powder
• some chopped parsley or chives (I have neither, so I omitted it)

What to do

• Preheat oven at 180C.
• Mix the milk, oil, egg and soup in a bowl. Beat it till well-combined.
• Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together.
• Add in the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. It's ok for the batter to appear lumpy.
• Spoon batter into muffin tin and bake for 15-20mins.
• Makes 9 large muffins or in my case, 12 tiny ones. :)
• oh.. important point to note... serve warm!

Guess? :)

Yes, this is condensed Campbell soup in a can.... Make a guess wad I did with it?

Green Tea cookies....

After making macaroons batch after batch, I'm left with ALOT of egg yolks! One option is to bake Cake Lapis but sitting in front of the oven for at least 2 hours (yes, I know... it shdn't take tat long, but i'm slow) is not exactly an attractive option.

I recalled seeing a recipe for green tea cookies while i was blog-hopping. I had it bookmarked and then told myself that I've to try it out 'coz the recipe actually won an award! A prize-winning cookie.... how can I pass by it?

So with nearly a dozen of egg yolks sitting in the fridge, I went ahead to bake these cookies. The recipe was relatively easy to put together and these were done in no time.....

New Macs...

This is the new flavour which I did this weekends....

Peanut macaroons with salted caramel filling.... yum yum...

The total package...

I got some queries as to how I intend to package the macaroons as most of my potential customers wanted to present the macaroons as gifts.

This is how the packaging works for my first customers.... wad do you think??? Pretty and presentable enough? *wink*

The Fiend Bakes....

Hi all,

Due to many requests from my blog readers, I've decided to put my bakes up for sale!

At the moment, I've the chocolate cheesecakes and macaroons up for grabs. Of course, this list will be expanded (fast!) as time goes by....

Do drop by my bake site for a look and hopefully an order! Thank you everyone!