Friday, December 26, 2008
Merry Christmas
Here's what I baked and gave my colleagues this year.
Banana quickbread for everyone. Foolproof receipe. Limited wrapping skills. Hope they like it. :)
Rum N Raisin Icecream
I was really happy when I found an ice-cream receipe that didn't require the use of an ice-cream maker - coz I don't own one :P Even more overjoyed when it was a rum n raisin one. I am a fan of anything that is slightly spiked, although I cannot bring myself to sip anything alcoholic (maybe with the exception of bailey's cream).
Receipe:
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup rum (I used Meyers)
150g icing sugar
600ml thickened cream (I used Bulla)
Soak raisins in rum overnight. Drain raisins and mix the rum liquid with the icing sugar. Add cream and allow the electric mixer to mix the stuff well till thickened. Freeze overnight.
DH thought it was a little overspiked, but I thought it still tasted fine. The cream tasted really creamy, wonder if I should replace some with milk instead next time?
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Xmas Butter Cookies
Xmas Cupcake Project
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Sponge Cake
Tried a basic sponge cake yesterday. Realised at the last minute that I had run out of parchment/baking paper to line the round tin, so had to improvise and bake them in muffin cups.
Simple receipe with few ingredients:
5 eggs
90g sugar
100g plain flour
1 tbsp cornoil (i used ricebran oil)
1. Whisk eggs over high speed for around 8 min till it is creamy.
2. Add sugar in slowly, whisk till colour turns ligth and stiff
3. Add flour, mis slowly till batter is well combined.
4. Add oil, mix well slowly in one direction,careful not to overblend.
5. Pour mixture into a lined and greased 8" cake mould. Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 30-35 min. ( as mine were in cuppies, it took about 20min)
The gals liked it, especially the ones which I had thrown some chocolate chips into.
This morning, added some nutella as frosting plus sprinkles and topped with a marshmellow flower and viola! it turned into a little cupcake.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Xmas Jellycups
Today, Bubbles and Buttercup will be having their Xmas party celebration at their childcare centre. Usually they have their party slightly earlier as some families are away closer to the actual day. The kids also get to exchange gifts and sing songs.
It is a potluck party. I volunteered to make jellycups for the children. Red strawberry and green lime jelly - the Xmasy colours. On each jelly topped a Xmas candy. I thought they look a pretty sight. Bubbles and Blossom woke up early to help me put on the lids on the cups and pack them in bags.
Candycane
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Family Cruise
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Steamed Banana Cupcake
Ingredients/ Method
2 eggs
100g sugar
2 ripe bananas, mashed (200g)
150g self-raising flour
1/8 tsp baking soda
75g oil (i only had ricebran oil left, it still worked)
1. Sift together self-raising flour and baking soda. Set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar till ribbon stage.
3. Mix in mashed bananas, beat till combine.
4. Gently fold in flour mixture and oil, taking care not to deflat the eggs and sugar mixture.
5. Pour batter into muffin cups.
6. Steam over high heat for 15 mins or till an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Bento #23, #24, #25
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Bento #20, #21, #22
Monday, November 3, 2008
Flight to nowhere
This was a blue moon occasion, an office colleague outing with family. It was such a warm feeling to have everyone there, together with their family. The slight drizzle that morning made our day cool. Our flight was at 10.30am and we "took off" smoothly. The children were fascinated with the big ferris wheel. Flight journey was about 30 minutes. We could still identify some of the tracks used during the F1 night race.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Bento #18 & #19
Bento #19: Fish-shaped egg (cannot see the imprint very clearly, as the eggs were not the correct size, again!). Rice served with fishball, nugget, braised threadfin fish (aka ikan kurau). On the "garden bed" are kailan stems (they are huge stems) with pretty marshmellow flowers. Green grapes were for dessert once again.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Bento #17
Bentos #14, #15, #16
The seafood rolls were store bought and it looked nice when sliced - it had seaweed, green onions and imitation crabstick. Steamed minced pork is always a favourite for the gals, as the pork juices just go so well with the steam eggs.
Bento #15: Heart-shaped rice with braised chicken drumstick for Blossom. Oven toasted ngoh hiang and stir-fried spinach. On the right is a nest of quail eggs and "chicks". Fruit: extra sweet strawberry.
Finally had some time on my hands to experiment making the quail egg chicks. Sesame seed for the eyes and strawberry/tomato for the beaks. Next time should use carrot for the beaks as I think that may look better.
Bento #16: This is the "monster" bento. Spinach hair and char siew eyes and roast pork for the grin. Dessert was papaya cubes.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Bento #12
Friday, October 3, 2008
Banana Cupcake
Ingredients
180g butter
180g caster sugar (I used only 150g, to cut the sweetness)
2 eggs
3 tbsp milk
3 large banana (riped, mashed)
240g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate soda
Preheat oven to 180°C. Beat butter & sugar together using a mixer until creamy and smooth. Add eggs, one at a time until it’s well corporated. Add milk and banana, mix well. Mix flour, baking powder & bicarbonate soda and add to mixture. Pour batter into the individual cupcake cases and bake for 25 minutes.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Fairy Wand Cookies
The gals pestered me to bake yesterday afternoon, tried to resist but they were more resistant. Anyway, this is a simple bake coz it was a premix and most stuff came in the package, even the star shaped cookie cutter. All I had to do was add an egg and 1 tablespoon of butter in the flour mix, roll the dough, cut the shapes and put a wooden stick through it. Baking time was 12 minutes. After the cookies cooled, we added the pink icing on it. Again it was a premix, and just required 2 teaspoon of milk and 1 teaspoon of butter.
Here's the product if anyone is interested. The gals loved it, but I found the icing too sweet. The both had 2 fairy wands each, and that was after dinner. You can see they really have a sweet tooth.
Bento #10
Rice with edamame beans, roasted pork slices with leeks in dark soy sauce (yummy), braised fish* in taucheo sauce, heart-shaped jelly with purple grapes. *dun ask me what fish it was, it was not labelled and I usually have little clue what type of fish it is
Blossom loves those wafer roses that come with dishes at some Chinese restarants. When we went to Sheng Siong supermarket, she saw it and requested for some to go with her bento.
Children's Day n Hari Raya Puasa
Gals wanted to feed the birds, so our first stop was to Lory Loft. Colourful, greedy and at times agressive (my DH got a peck on the finger, which bled) birds. Bubbles not in the pic coz she was more afraid of the lories.
One for the camera - the bird and Blossom
New exhibit called Dino Descendants. Bubbles thought we were going to look at dinosaurs, not knowing the meaning of descendants.
We left JBP around 12.30pm, and my! The queue at the admissions booth was snaking so long! Even the carpark was full. Luckily we got there early yesterday.
Went for lunch at West Coast McDonalds. Had a leisure stroll along West Coast "beach". Not much of a beach but more to look at ships and boats and people fishing. Buttercup said there were dolphins in the water ( think they were just some debri or buoyants) :)