June, June...busy busy month of June

It has been a while since I last wrote. Lots of things are happening in June....birthdays and I mean lots of birthdays and school holidays.  I have been so busy making cakes, cooking for friends and relatives and making plans for the school holidays.

Here's some of the things which I managed to take some photos of....busy, busy, busy...

Deep Fried Fish Soup with Rice

Cream Cakes for the June Birthday Boys and Girls

Winnie the Pooh Cupcakes and 2D Cake for my little Princess.  She turned 5...a big girl now.

Japanese Curry Chicken Rice

Prawn Noodles (Hae Mee)

Cream Sponge Cake for a Customer

Right now, I am busy baking cupcakes and a mudcake for my little Prince's 7th Birthday.  He wants me to create a Minecraft Theme and he wants to celebrate it in school...wish me luck!!!

Katsutera Cake

Katsutera cake is a very popular cake in Japan and it has been a very popular cake on the "must bake" list for a lot of bakers.  I have read stories on how Katsutera cake came about in Japan. Some mentioned that its from the Portuguese who ventured to Japan in the 16th century. Katsutera cake is a sponge cake made from bread flour, sugar, honey and eggs.

This cake has been in my "must bake" listt for ages and finally I managed to make it one fine day.  It does not look as fantastic as those I have seen in Japan but I am happy to say that the taste is pretty alike.  My hubby and my 2 kiddos loved it too. To me, that's the most important thing... :)

Here's a photo of my humble katsutera cake.

Now that I know how to bake this delicious cake, I will bake it again and again and again.

Japanese Curry

I just love curry especially peranakan style. However, ever since my group of buddies have been patronizing a Japanese restaurant quite regularly, I have fallen in love with their Japanese curry rice. This got me thinking as I am paying about $10 for my lunch and I also found out that the pre-mixes have lots of palm oil, MSG and such.  So, what about making it from scratch? Then I can control what ingredients to use. We did some reading online and in the library plus bookstores and here's what we came out with.  Here's a photo of our homemade Japanese Curry Chicken with Rice!  Verdict - Yummy!!!

Oishii!!!

Japanese Roll Cake - 2nd Attempt

I am the joke in this household at the moment...sigh!!! How can I call myself a baker if I can't even bake a simple swiss roll / roll cake perfectly. *Embarrassing siah!!!*  I was telling my Chef about it and he said, no one is perfect, girl. Even he himself who has 40 years of experience still cannot do some items. But, he told me not to give up ever...yes-siree...am NOT going to give up.

This time around, am going to make a simple roll cake...just with cream. My little prince complained that the jam which I spread on the roll cake the first time wasn't his "favourite".  He would prefer to have roll cake with cream only.  So, this time around, its roll cake with cream only for my little prince.  I tried a new recipe for my 2nd attempt. Since its hard to get cake flour here, I used plain flour and cornflour.

Here's a photo of my roll cake, rolled and ready to be placed in the refrigerator. This will be chilled for at least 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, I kept my fingers crossed, opened it up and cut the roll....took a deep breath and "phew!!!"....I finally able to say, I did it.  Not as perfect as I would like it to be, but, its good enough for me. My other half and my little prince and little princess ate it happily.

Till next time....ta-daa

Basic Japanese Roll Cake

My little prince wanted to have swiss roll for his morning tea and I am one person who is just pretty hopeless in rolling up a swiss roll / roll cake. However, since my little prince asked for it, what can a mother do but to bake it for him.  Since its only for my little prince, I decided to make a small roll with 2 eggs, sugar, cake flour and milk. He also wanted jam and whipped cream as filling.

I was really hoping that my roll cake will be a success this time, however.....haiz!!!....it wasn't.  Alas, my little prince still ate it and said ...."Mummy, its still yummy!!!"  I will try harder the next time.  Here's a photo of my failed roll cake.

Till nex time....happy baking!!!

Japanese Cheese Cake

I have always been interested in learning how to do the soft and fluffy cheese cake which I often bought in a japanese cake shop near my house when I was young.  When I went to Japan, I love the soft and fluffy cheese cakes which I could find everywhere. However, back here, I don't seems to be able to find anything similiar to it even though I venture out to chinatown.

When I was in university, one of my friends (she is from Japan) gave me the recipe as a birthday present and when I made it the first time, I failed big time and I told myself that maybe I am just not good at baking. However, after graduating and started working, I finally managed to bake this delicious soft and fluffy cheese cake.  Even though it doesn't look like the store bought ones, the taste is just awesome.

Since I found some cream cheese in the fridge, I decided to make the cheese cake which I love and I kept my fingers crossed the whole time...just in case, I fail again.  After taking some photos, we couldn't help ourselves and ate it with delight.  Here's a photo of my humble japanese cheese cake.

Till next time...happy baking!!!

Kara-age Bento @ Tokyo Maki

I seldom eat out as I tend to cook at home. However, Tokyo Maki is one place which I will love to go to. Its really a "value-for-money" place to eat. You can get a huge bento box at $10. This is one of the bento boxes which is served there and this box is called the kara-age bento. 

So what is kara-age? Its fried chicken is japanese. The kara-age which is at Tokyo Maki is a little spicy. Not to sure if I am correct but I do taste "Thai sweet chilli sauce" in their kara-age. Its just yummylicious.

I seriously need to DIY this at home....when? when? when?
Soon! Soon! Soon!