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Ivy Chin

My niece's masterpiece

My sis sent me this photo of my niece E's masterpieces at cooking class. I think she has the potential :) I liked the birdie sandwich and the choco dessert looks yummy too! Too bad that the food is not here in SG, so I didn't get to taste it. It is really nice to see kids interested in making their food.

My Valentine

Buttercup came home with a lovely Valentine's Day card for me and hubby. Such a sweet card and the lovely words just warms my heart - "Thank you for being my mother and father"

Thank you, my little Valentine!

Sentosa Boardwalk and crane dance

We were at the Sentosa Boardwalk which opened recently. It was a lovely stroll against the backdrop of the sunset and among the gentle breeze.Actually our initial thought was to just stroll along the boardwalk, we decided (with the girls' enthusiam) to enter the resort island. Entrance fees to Sentosa was $1 per person.

Sentosa was having it's annual flower show, although we didn't have time to go to, there were flowers aplenty along the boardwalk. We managed to catch the Crane Dance. The show was great although we were taken aback by being misted with salty seawater due to the wind direction being 'kind' to the audience hehehe

The show combines graceful movements of the mechanical crane, sound, water and light effects.

Sandwich Design_Crab/Gift/Ice-Cream Cone

Made these for breakfast yesterday. Was inspired by a book titled "Funky Lunches" which I borrowed from the library.

Made crab, ice-cream cone and a gift sandwiches while the kids were asleep. There were no fillings in the sandwich yet, the girls decided on what they would like to have in their sandwich when they were at the dining table.

Crab: Cheese smile and eye, eyeballs were chocolate chips, seaweed for eyebrows
Ice-cream cone: real chocolate chip on one of the scoops, plus a seaweed wafer stick.

Gift: Cheese bow and star sprinkles

Hearts!

Love is in the air! - Mr and Mrs Hearts for breakfast

Here's what I did for dessert. It is a very simple item, don't sure if it is worthy to be sent in for the Aspiring Bakers #4: Love in the Air (Feb 2011) hosted by Cuisine Paradise.

Agar agar has a crunchier texture than jelly or jello. I feel it is really refreshing on a hot day. Isn't it befitting for a Valentine's theme, complete with romantic pink and mild rosy scent? Plus strawberries!

2-layer agar agar with heart-shaped strawberries

Receipe:

37g agar agar strips (I use Pagoda brand)

2.5 litres of water

1 teaspoon of rose essence

0.5 teaspoon of red colouring

150ml of coconut cream

8 strawberries - halved and shaped into heart-shape

1. Boil water in a pot. Place agar agar strips and stir till dissolved

2. Leaving half of the mixture in the pot (with small fire), stir essence and colouring into the other half.

3. Pour into mould. This would be the top layer. Place in the fridge. When it is semi-set, push strawberries into the agar agar. Put back into the fridge.

4. Stir coconut cream into the remaining mixture in the pot.

5. When the top layer has set, pour the coconut layer into the mould. Chill till set

Just a thought... this side profile just reminds me so much of mahjong tiles! hehehe

Had some remaining coconut mixture, placed them into cutie moulds:

CNY cookies- Pineapple tarts

This is my favourite pineapple tart receipe. Have been making them for the past few years, and the girls seem to like them. Blossom has been requesting them to be packed in her lunchbox for her recess in school.

The receipe, adapted from Oi Lin as follows:

• 280g butter (cold)
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 360g plain flour
• 2 tablespoons caster sugar
• 450g pineapple filling (i bought ready-made ones)
• egg glaze: 1 egg yolk with 5 drops of water

Method:

1. Sift flour (I omitted this step) and sugar. Mix well
2. Cut the butter into small cubes and add to the flour mixture
3. Use fingertips to rub the butter into the flour.
4. Beat the egg yolks and add vanilla essence. Pour them into the butter mixture. Knead to form a dough. Wrap the dough in clingwrap and chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
5. Pinch about 1/2 tablespoon of pineapple paste and roll into a ball. Similarly pinch about 1/2 tablespoon of dough. Wrap the ball with the dough.
6. In a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, place the balls with some spacing in between.
7. Brush egg glaze over the top of the balls.
8. Bake in a preheated oven at 190 deg celsius for about 15 minutes

The texture of the tart is really melt-in-the mouth. The smell of the butter when the tarts are in the bake is truly heavenly. We like our pineapple tarts closed as it retains most of the moisture in the tart.

I am submitting this to the Aspiring Bakers #3: My Favourite CNY cookie (January 2011), hosted by J3ss Kitch3n

Wishing everyone a lucky and prosperous Lunar New Year! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Avocado mousse tart

A light and refreshing tart which I made for a mini celebration at my office (me and Y have our birthdays just 4 days apart). Digestive biscuit base, with a light avocado mousse. Had a story to tell everyone too - when the mousse was covered in clingwrap and placed in the fridge to set, Buttercup accidentally placed a bottle of Yakult on it and it fell through. It made a dent in the mousse but it was too late to salvage anything as the mousse had more or less set.

The next day, tried to hide the dent by 'showcasing' 2 strawberries. :)

All packed up and ready to go!

OCBC mascots

Bumped into the two OCBC mascots, they could not resist a photo :)

Icing Room II - Angry Bird Cake

For hubby's birthday this year, it so happened that it was also the girls' first day of school. We spent quality time with them having breakfast, lunch and sending them to and fro school.

I asked Blossom if she wanted to decorate a cake for papa, she was very happy to do so - alone (the other two were in school then). Remember the last time they decorated a cake together at Icing Room? It turned out to be a everything-also-pile-on cake. I know it is hard as each of them was an individual with their artistic ideas.

I asked Blossom to decide on what to put on the cake. At first she wanted butterflies coz that is usually a girlie idea. Then she changed her theme to 'musical'. I hinted to her perhaps to have something that papa likes or can relate to, and I know that he is currently obsessed with his iphone app game Angry Birds. She agreed and we started work on it. I drew the outline of the bird from what i remembered and she filled the colours and put in the musical notes.

When we cut the cake at night, luckily the other two didn't make too much a fuss on why jie jie was allowed to decorate a cake. Phew.
Later I checked out the app image. Forgot to put in the tail and the angry furrowed eyebrows. hehehe.

Year of the Rabbit

The Chinese New Year will arrive in less than 3 weeks time. Stalls have put up their CNY ware, some even on Boxing Day. I like the way Chinese like to decorate their place in red (auspicious colour). This was more a recent liking, when I was younger thought it was so 'lao tu' (old-fashioned). Guess age changes our perspective on the things around us. Or I have joined the rank of an auntie. Oops.

Planned to make some CNY goodies. Lots of plans, but usually little time. Here's what I did last week:

Fried crabstick crisps

This was surprising good and addictive and it is such a no-brainer to prepare. Just shred the crabsticks and fry them in oil.

Porkfloss Rolls

I make these every year. My hubby's favourite. It is quite a nice snack, can't stop at two. But it is back straining exercise making the rolls by hand. I'll use frozen popiah (springroll) skins, cut them in four quarters, and wrap porkfloss in them. Then deep-fry. Pardon the non-uniform shape of each roll, after all these years, still have not mastered the technique of making them all look the same. Despite the appearance, these were quickly snapped up, and my hubby offered to buy more porkfloss (hint hint).

Sugared Crisps

Also quite a easy item to make. Just deepfry the popiah skin and sprinkle sugar over them.

Bubbles and Buttercup did volunteer their help with the making of the sugared crisps, here's Buttercup hard at work:

It was a fun bonding time for the 3 of us that afternoon :)

What a hiatus!

Happy New Year 2011! Time, subconsiously amidst our busy-ness, passes by without our noticing. Ironically, it is only when we stand still and relook back that we alarming realise that it is another year (and my white hair strands coming out) But good things also deserve our notice - my girls have grown (Blossom's height is now at my shoulder).

Didn't realise that it has been such a long while since I last wrote or posted a photo. Lost the passion at some times. Things caught up. Or I was caught up.

Enough of the procrastinating. I have given the blog a new skin and look!

Notwithstanding the above, I have done a few things for my loved ones during the 'hiatus'. Let's rewind the clock :)

Mid-Autumn Festival

Went for a course with my fren L. It taught us how to make the baked mooncake as well as the snowskin one. We had a good time at the course and also during our search for the best mooncake filling that brought us to the east side of the island. I only managed to try the snowskin one at home. I loved the moulds.

Trip to Hong Kong

We went for a short trip over the National Day holiday. The egg tarts were truly delicious!
Christmas

No creative juices flowed when I had to put down what to bring for my Buttercup's Xmas party in the childcare centre. It was a repeat item (from 2008). But I think the kids liked the colours and the cute edible icing figurines.

Last year i did egg-boats for them:

Cookies for my colleagues:
And Gingerbread men done by my 3 girls:

Ad hoc items:

Avocado mousse tart

I think i overbeat the whipping cream, resulting in the specks on the mousse, sigh. But the taste was creamy, a pity the girls didn't like avocado.

Happy Mother's Day!

To all the wonderful mommies out there, Happy Mother's Day! This day does not need flowers, expensive meals or chocolates. Dat is all commercial stuff. Being a mother, those are not the things I yearn for. A simple meal at home or just being in the company of one another is already the most blessed thing. Just want the kids to grow up to be useful people. I love this "job" although I do pull out hairs in the process. Hope they appreciate what i have done... one day :)

Pinnacle@Duxton

Our recent trip to the sky bridge on the 50th floor at the Pinnacle@Duxton. The gals didn't expect a garden to be on top of the building. They were looking for more on-the-ground type. It was a lovely view at the top, esp at night, it was a 360 degree view as we walked round the whole tower. It was a nice feeling to see the panaromic scene of our tiny island, the girls imagined where our home was in the background. They enjoyed the night breeze, gazing at the stars, playing in the playground, and posing for photos (was kicking myself when i realised that my digicamera's battery was flat, could only snap a few with my mobile phone)

For those who are not familiar, The Pinnacle@Duxton is an iconic, unique public housing project that has unique features that sets it apart from other HDB projects (HDB stands for Housing & Development Board, which builds the public housing in Singapore). From their website http://www.pinnacleduxton.com.sg/, it seems that the project is "located at the site where the first two HDB blocks in that area were built, it is the first 50-storey public housing project in Singapore, housing 1,848 apartments in 7 towering blocks.Born out of the first international design competition for public housing, it is also the first in the world with 2 unique skybridges linking the 7 blocks at the 26th and 50th storey. The skybridges create possibly the longest continuous skygardens in the world, offering panoramic views of the city skyline."

Orange Cupcake

My nephew was at my place yesterday afternoon. Thought bake some orange cupcakes for the 4 kids. Had some time between 2-3pm, so quickly whipped them up and put them in the oven.Receipe:
200g self-raising flour
200g butter
200g sugar
1 tbsp freshly orange zest
50ml freshly squeezed orange juice
3 eggs

Cream the butter and sugar till pale. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat. Mix all the flour and zest, juice in. Bake for about 35 min on 170C oven.

Blogging through email

Technology has been moving ahead so fast, at times I am struggling to keep up.  But the younger generation seems to have it all in their stride.  I am trying out posting on my blog via email.  This is the test result J

Icing Room

We passed by Icing Room @ Jurong Point and the gals were so amazed at the icing. This is a really good concept, especially for those who do not want the hassle of preparing the cake with frosting but just want to try their hands being a decorator. We bought the medium-sized cake that was ready frosted with white fresh cream. A few cones of coloured frosting and some sprinkles came with the 'package'. The gals were so eager to add 'colours' to their 'canvas'

Deciding how to decorate... With 3 different minds, I know it is difficult to come to a consensus.

Blossom took charge and told her siblings to make it a "Happy day" cake.

But look at the final 'product'! Aiyo! Colourful indeed... But what is the theme huh? "Mesh of colours"? " Bird's nest rainbow" :P They had a happy day indeed.

My baby is 5!

My little "baby" Buttercup turns five! Time flies, but she will still be the baby of the house.

This was what I did for her 2 celebrations - one at parents-in-law's and another at her childcare centre. Cute little train, filled with goodies in their carriage.

We were browsing through the websites for lovely cakes, and she asked for a train/dino/butterfly. The frosting is buttercream, though I personally like fresh/whipped cream better. Buttercup helped by colouring the frosting with pink, green and blue. Frosting a cake was not as simple as it looks from the videos on the internet. The crumbs seem to get in the way. Was stressed that if the cake did not turn out as expected, I would have to rush to buy an alternative. But I wanted to make it turn out right as the gals' expectations were already there.

Her friends loved the cake, Buttercup was proud, her teacher was inspired. I was pleased with it too! Coz I had a lot of fun making it.

Receipe for frosting:

100g butter

100g shortening

250g icing sugar

3 tablespoons fresh milk

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

colouring

2 in a row

Sometimes it is really true that bad things come together in a row. My Buttercup caught the virus and came down with chickenpox, although she took the vaccine when she was one year old. But thank God, that has come and gone. She went back to school yesterday (and I was able to come back to work). Working from home is pretty disruptive, esp with a young one at home.

Shingles

My Bubbles had been down with shingles since last week. Ordered to stay home for 14 days, coz it is contagious. When I brought her to the hospital to see the doctor that night, we were ushered into the 'empty" tent in the carpark. It had aircon but it was not switched on. The air seemed stale there, was wondering if the tent had not been used for quite a while? Anyway, after 3 days of fever (at times alarmingly high), plus days of headache, tummy pain, vommitting, blisters pain and itch, she looks more or less on the road to recovery. She is now having a cold and cough. On the very bad days, she only wanted me at the bed, rubbing her forehead and tummy all the time.

Poor little gal, to get the virus twice so soon (Shingles is caused bythe same virus as chickenpox, which she had when she was one yr old, when the virus decides to 'erupt' again). Reminds me of the time when she caught Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease twice too.

Tough to be sick. So always count our blessings! Glad she is feeling better now :)