Tiffany Box Cake & A Very Merry Christmas to All...

My very last order before Christmas....

Yes...a customer wanted to order a Tiffany Box Cake for her daughter's 21st birthday and I only had 24 hours to do it.  So...I told her that I will try my very best.  I baked the mudcake, crumb coat it and lay the fondant over it and worked on it to make it look like a tiffany box. I am happy to say that the customer was happy with the cake and I am really hoping that her daughter will be happy with it too.  Here's the tiffany box cake which I made.

After that...hubby and I were buying buying ingredients for our family Christmas dinner....

***

Here's what we cooked for 2013's Christmas...

Till we meet again...

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!!!

Happy Tang Check Day!!! [ Winter Solstice or “dong zhi” (冬至) ]

Happy Tang Check Day!!!  This year the tang check falls on the 22 Dec 2013.

Today is the day where families will get-together and eat tong yun, a sweet dessert made from glutinous rice balls.  Today is the day where everyone becomes 1 year older.  So, what does Dong Zhi means? Simply, it means winter has arrived.

I remember seeing my Grandma busy in the kitchen making the glutinous rice dough, preparing the filling for the tong yuns and making the sweet soup the goes with it.  She will then colour the dough and from what I know, red represents good luck and white represents prosperity.

Here's a photo of my humble tong yun..

Happy Thang Check, everyone!!!

Lemon Meringue Cheesecake

I know that some people loves a good old lemon meringue pie and others would just die for a good lemon cheesecake.  So, what if these two desserts can be combined and then everyone can enjoy the best of both worlds? Well...you can and its in the form of Lemon Meringue Cheesecake.  I have been trying to get the right smooth and creamy texture of the cheesecake, the tanginess of the lemon and the heavenly crispy bite of the meringue and this is what I finally came out with.  Since I had extra meringue, I made some meringue cookies.  I was a little worried that my lemon meringue cheesecake will be a huge failure but....phew!!!.... everyone who tasted it loved it...wohoo!!!  Here's a photo of my lemon meringue cheesecake...

Here's to the "best of both worlds".....

Cakes and Cupcakes

My two precious have finished their schools for this year and I wanted to thank both of their teachers for teaching my children for the year.  So, I decided to make some cupcakes and cakes to show my appreciation.

Number One Teacher
By Joanna Fuchs

I’m happy that you’re my teacher;
I enjoy each lesson you teach.
As my role model you inspire me
To dream and to work and to reach.

With your kindness you get my attention;
Every day you are planting a seed
Of curiosity and motivation
To know and to grow and succeed.

You help me fulfill my potential;
I’m thankful for all that you’ve done.
I admire you each day, and I just want to say,
As a teacher, you’re number one!

Here's what I managed to do within a day....

After that...I remembered that my boss's birthday is just in a few days time and since he loves Japanese food, I decided to make him some cupcakes in the form of sushi.  Fingers cross....really hope he will like it...

That's all for today....am planning what we are going to do for Christmas...

Bye.........

Everything Peranakan...

Peranakan Chinese....this is term which I am proud of as I am a halfie and Peranakan Chinese runs in my blood.  Peranakan Chinese call themselves Babas (for the men) and Nyonyas (for the women).  So, what does "peranakan" means? It means descendant and we are mixed race descendants of part of chinese and part of malay.  Some of the Peranakans are Christians / Catholics and others are Buddhists and other religions.  The Peranakan food is influenced by Malay culture as the Nyonya food uses a lot of Malay herbs and spices.

My other half was looking through the old photos and we saw the Nyonya Kueh and we just had to satisfy our tastebuds.  Hence, I ransacked the kitchen and started making some kueh.  Here's what I came out with...
Pulut Tai-Tai which is delicious with Kaya Jam
Pulut Inti
Ondeh-Ondeh
Kaya Toast

Here's the photos of our version of the Nyonya Kueh...

Homemade Kaya Jam
Kaya Toast

Ondeh-Ondeh, Pulut Tai-Tai which is eaten with Kaya Jam and Pulut Inti

Close-up of Pulut Inti & Ondeh-Ondeh

We finished everything within a day....haha!  That's how much we missed the nyonya kueh...

Till next time....salut!

Nasi Paprik & Curry Fish

Been a little busy as my 2 precious are finishing their last semester before the school holidays, planning what we will be doing, where we will be going, doing some Christmas shopping, etc, etc, etc.  A Mother's job is never ending.  I even heard a Mom saying...she is Mom of all trades...haha! That's a good one...and of course, its the truth...a Mother is a wife, a sister, a cousin, a student, a teacher, a friend, a counselor, a mediator, a nurse, an IT expert, a magician, a nurse....the list goes on and on.

We have been doing our Christmas shopping and we walked pass a Thai Restaurant and voila....amazingly, we saw "Nasi Pataya" and "Nasi Paprik"....but when we saw the price....my other half decided that it would be cheaper to cook it ourselves.  So, we did just that.  Some people believe that Nasi Paprik comes from Thailand but others think that its from North Malaysia.  However, a buddy of mine who is from Thailand kindly informed me that Padprik is actually 2 words: Pad - Stir-fry & Prik = Spicy like chilli.  We have been eating Nasi Paprik since we were little and till now, we still love it so much.  Here's a photo of our nasi padprik.

A few days later, we met up with a friend of ours and he shared with us how awesome it was flying home to meet his parents and having so many yummylicious food and one dish just shouted to us - Curry Fish!!! My other half and I just looked at each other with "THAT LOOK" and we knew we had to cook it at home soon....you know how it is when you have been married for so long... So, here's the photo of our version of the Curry Fish which we ate with rice.

I know that my version of fish curry has a nyonya and chinese influence to it as this is my Grandma's recipe.  I love adding okra / ladies fingers and cabbage into the curry plus taupok.  Sometimes, we even add some indian drumsticks into the curry too....its really delicious!!!

Till next time...happy holidays!!!

Baking, Baking in the Kitchen

Christmas is coming and what better way to entice my family than to baked myself a fruitcake.  As we do not take alcohol, I made a non-alcoholic fruitcake using juices.  I remember when I was young and my Grandma will line us (her precious grandchildren) up and put us to work on the dining table.  She will be busy cutting her fruitcakes into pieces and all of us will be busy wrapping it up for our relatives, neighbours and friends.  Once the job is done, she will cook us our favourite dinner dishes.  While wrapping these cakes, we will be spoiled with Milo Dinosaur, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Currypuffs and Prawn Crackers.  I have never stop following this tradition of my Grandma's....I am still making fruitcakes....yes, siree!!!

Here's a photo of my 1st fruitcake for this year...

This fruitcake only lasted 2 days in this household....haha!

The next day, I was pestered by my little Princess to bake her some focaccia bread.  It seems that this bread originated from Italy and mostly seasoned with olive oil, salt and some herbs.  Here's a photo of my focaccia bread...managed to bake 2 slabs.

And...the following day, my other half wanted some butter cake. I tend to bake butter cake every week. Sometimes, I change it a little and transforms it to a marble butter cake so that everyone in the house will not be bored with it.  I not to sure if I have posted any butter or marble butter cakes before in this blog...so, I decided to post one today.  As you know, when someone mentions butter cake, you know that the main ingredient will be butter.  I have been eating butter cakes since I was a toddler.  This recipe has been passed down from one generation to the next and I am going to pass this down to my kids.  Here's a photo of my marble butter cake.

And lastly, a buddy of mine wanted us to try this recipe - CRONUTS.  What is a cronut? Its actually a huge craze right now around the world.  It is an invention by Chef Dominique Ansel for Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York City. Cronut is a combination of croissant and donut.  Here's a photo of our homemade cronuts...

That's all for this time...happy baking, everyone!!!

Chicken Pie....

Chicken pies.....yummy....this is THE pie which I will safe up my pocket money to buy when I was young.  Oooo...the creamy gravy which oozes out when I bite into the pie....glorious!  I kept pestering my Grandma to teach me how to create these babies and finally, she gave in.  I must say its hard work for a 10 year old but I wrote the recipe down and I got working.  You don't know how I felt when I bit into my very first chicken pie.....I jumped, I screamed....I could still remember that day....haha!

Every since I mastered that pie, my Grandma made sure I made it whenever its on her "To Do List" but I didn't complain coz Chicken Pie was and still is my favourite pie.  I will make sure that I do the shortcrust pastry first and place it into the fridge.  Then I will make the filling.  My Grandma will make the Puff Pastry (her own secret recipe).  When I grew older, she decided to teach me how to create  puff pastry at home and I was impressed.

Here's my version of my Grandma's Chicken Pie.....my family loves it!!!

Have a wonderful pie-day, everyone!!!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Who took the cookie from the cookie jar?
No me!
Then who???

Who doesn't look chocolate chip cookies?  So far, I have never met someone who doesn't like it.  My two precious love it and so does my other half.  My little Prince...he is 7 years old now proudly informed dear old Mummy that chocolate chip cookies originated from USA and it was discovered by accident.  He was so proud to know the history of this little cookie and I am just so proud of him being so proud....that's my son!!!  To add to my son's discovery, there's a lady called  Ruth Wakefield accidentally made it in 1930.  It seems that a bar of chocolate fell into the cookie dough due to the mixer's strong vibration and the mixer broke the bar into pieces......tadaa....chocolate chip cookie is discovered.

I remember how we had dunking competitions when my Grandma bakes chocolate chip cookies.  My cousins and I will be begging our Moms and Grandma for milk and we will start the competition. Whoever can finish 10 cookies and the glass of milk will be the winner. Ooo....those childish things we do...haha!

Here's a photo of my chocolate chip cookies.  I am a firm believer of re-cycling and I must say these blue danish cookie tins are quite air-tight.  I have been using these blue tins for ages to store my cookies and no one ever complained that the cookies have gone stale.

This box of cookies vanished in 3 days.....

Curry Puffs

Curry Puffs or karipap or even epok-epok...that's what this little delicious snack is called in my household. If you venture to Malaysia or Singapore, curry puffs are sold every where.  One can say its similar to a little pie and it is filled with curry chicken, potatoes and sometimes even a piece of hard boiled egg.  Most of the time, curry puffs are being deep fried. Besides curry chicken, you can also find chilli sardine puffs and even vegetarian curry puffs.  However, I still prefer my Grandma's good old chicken curry puffs.

Hubby and I were watching a cooking show and curry puff was one of the snacks which the Chef tried in travels to South East Asia.  We just had to have some and so, hubby and I made this together.  We made it, deep fried it and ate it in the same day...haha!

Here's a photo of our humble curry puffs.

One word....delicious!!!

Kueh Bahulu (Mini Egg Cake)

Kueh Bahulu is a sentimental kueh for me as this little cutie is especially baked during festive seasons such as Chinese New Year, Christmas, etc.  When I was little, my Grandma will gather all her baking stuff and will bring it under the house where the charcoal fire has been lighted and burning softly.  My Grandma will then sit at the front of the charcoal burner and make these kueh bahulu.  My aunties will be there chit-chatting with my Grandma and helps her un-mould these kueh bahulu.  And I will be there holding the fan and upon instruction, I will be fanning away to ensure that there's always constant fire in the charcoal burner. Gosh...how I miss my Grandma Rosa L.

My two kiddos were asking me about my good old days and I was telling them about kueh bahulu and such.  They were so curious that I decided to make some just for them to try it.  Furthermore, my other half was asking for it too.  As I do not have the kueh bahulu moulds, I decided to make do with my little mini muffin pan.

Here's my little kueh bahulu (mini muffin style)....

Hubby said that even though it doesn't look like kueh bahulu, the taste is just the SAME.... 

and....my 2 kiddos love it so much!!! :)

Roti Jala (Malaysian Net Bread) with Curry Chicken

Roti Jala means Net Bread.  This is a special dish which my Grandma will prepare to celebrate a special occasion...like birthdays, baby fullmoon, wedding...the list goes on.  My Grandma will make the batter in a bowl, sift it and pour the batter into a special 5 hole ladle. Then she will swirl it round and round a flat pan till it looks like a fish net.  We will eat this roti jala with my Grandma's curry chicken. 

Since I wanted to introduce this special dish to my children, I decided to make it for dinner today.  However, I do not have that special 5 hole ladle which my Grandma used to make Roti Jala. Therefore, I improvised and use a squeezy bottle.  It may not look as professional as my Grandma's, but the taste it just the same....I miss my Grandma so so much.

Here's a photo of my Roti Jala and Chicken Curry.

I am so glad my children love it as much as I do....wohoo!!!

Cakes which I made with love....

September is a busy month for me...there's always customers who are ordering cakes this month, love ones celebrating their birthdays, etc, etc, etc.  We had a joke at work about how come so many of our staffs birthdays fall in September and one of my colleagues said .....you guys figure it out yourselves...

Here's some of the cakes which I made for the month of September

That's all for now, folks!!!

Happy Birthday to all who are born in September!!!

Mee Bandung (Bandung Noodles)....are you from Indonesia?

Mee Bandung is not originated from Bandung, Indonesia. Its a 1-dish meal from Muar, Johor, Malaysia.  One of my Malay buddies informed me that Bandung means "Mixed".  Therefore, Mee Bandung means "Mixed Noodles".  Originally, Mee Bandung is a mix of Noodles and Eggs with Spicy Soup. However, through the years, Mee Bandung has added more ingredients into it and it is indeed "mixed".  One of my buddies proclaims that the Mee Bandung in Muar is the BEST and I hope that one day, I will be able to fly myself to Muar to savour it.  Here's my version of Mee Bandung...

My hubby and I ate this delicious 1-dish meal for lunch and dinner....one word - DELICIOUS!!!

Apple Crumble, Lemon Curd Tart and Chocolate Fleur de Sel Caramel Tart...what else can one want more...

Someone once commented that my Brown Betty was beautiful. There I was thinking who is this beautiful Betty?  Silly old me...I asked my Chef and he informed me that Brown Betty is a dessert in US and in the UK, its called the Crumble. Oh...I see, I said and we had a good laugh.  So, here's my Apple & Raisin Crumble which I made to share with a friend of ours and he loved it. :)  Here's a photo of my Apple & Raisin Crumble.

Besides Apple & Raisin Crumble, here's another 2 desserts which I just love ~ Lemon Curd Tart and  Chocolate Fleur de Sel Caramel Tart.  I have heard stories about how the lemon curd came about from my Chef and one of them is that Lemon Curd was called Lemon Cheese back in the good old days in Britian. Another story is about Lemon Curd are made for the rich to serve at tea parties and such.

Who would have thought that a hint of salt could enhance something sweet so much? Well, from what I know, my Chef told me that this trend started in France. It seems that it all started in Brittany where they were into salted butter caramels. So, I guess Chocolate Fleur de Sel Caramel Tart is a spin-off from salted butter caramels.  Here's a photo of my humble Lemon Curd Tart and  Chocolate Fleur de Sel Caramel Tart.

That's all for this post....happy baking everyone!!!

Busy in the Kitchen.....Cakes, Desserts, Noodles, Rice and everything nice...

I have not been blogging for a while as I have just started a new job and am trying to familiarize myself with my new position. Since today is my off day, I decided to blog a little.

Pongteh is a peranakan dish and when someone mentions pongteh, people who knows this dish will directly have an image of a non-spicy dish with pork, pig trotters cooked with preserved fermented soya bean paste.  However, as I had lots of chicken meat in my freezer, I decided to whipped up another version - Chicken Pongteh. Furthermore, my 2 kiddos love hard boiled eggs and I made sure I included that inside the dish.  I often add in stuff which are not suppose to be added in.  However, for a busy Mom like myself, as long as everyone in the family is happy and is eating well, adding or taking out an ingredient is not a big deal for me.  Here's a photo of my version of Chicken Pongteh.

A friend of mine just loves pandan chiffon cakes and she is willing to travel miles just to buy a couple.  As I had some pandan leaves and coconut in my cabinet, I decided to make a pandan chiffon cake for her. Pandan is actually known as Pandanus Amaryllifolius Leaves and chiffon cake is a light airy cake made from oil, eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder and flavourings ( in my case, its pandan).  I was quite fearful at first as I did not have a chiffon cake mold and I was using my silicon bundt mold but thankfully, it came out pretty OK.  Here's a photo of my pandan chiffon cake.

Noodles...that's like a staple food in my family.  My 2 kiddos just love noodles..just like their Mommy and Daddy.  So, what did I make recently?  A simple version of Wat Tarn Hor (Flat Rice Noodles in Egg Starchy Gravy).  This is a hit with my kids and I suppose its a much loved dish for a lot of kids.  Most of the time, I will just ask my kids what they want for lunch / dinner and then go searching for the ingredients in my fridge.  So, if I run out of one ingredient, I will substitute with another...haha!  Here's a photo of my simple version of Wat Tarn Hor.

I had a friend from USA visiting us recently and we were talking about General Tso's Chicken which is a famous chinese take-away dish in USA and we decided to make it at home.  I did some research and I found out that this dish is not originated from China but from New York, USA.  So, here's our version of General Tso's Chicken and its really yummy with white rice.  My friend gave me 2 thumbs up... :)

Moving on.... I had to do some cupcakes for a function.  They wanted chocolate cupcakes and it must be a little fancy too.  So, I decided to make chocolate cupcakes with a dallop of ganache inside of it and I pipe roses on top of it.  Thank goodness everyone loved it.  Here's a photo of my chocolate cupcakes.

My other half wanted some lor mai kai which is a popular item in a dim sum menu during yum cha hours.  Since I still  have 1/2 packet of glutinous rice left, I decided to make him some since dim sum also mean touch your heart. So, gonna make some lor mai kai to touch my other half heart...haha!!!  Here's a photo of my lor mai kai.

I also made some macarons for a friend of mine who is gluten free.  She just loves macarons and what better way to spoil her than make her a batch of her favourite cookies.  Here's a photo of my macarons.

Had some over-riped bananas in the kitchen the other day and I decided to do some Cokodok (Banana Fritters) which is a traditional Malaysian snack made of flour and bananas and its deep fried.  This snack is delicious when its hot or cold.  Here's a photo of my Cokodok.

And since I am on the topic of snack, here's another delicious snack which I often make when I want something Malaysian.  This is my version of cucur badak (lazy version) and here's my photo of it.

Lastly, I made cupcake bouquet for my lady boss. It's her birthday and I decided to make something so that she can share with her family when they celebrate her birthday with her.  Here's a photo of my cupcake bouquet.

These are some of the things which I made for my family and friends last month.  Most of the time, I just totally forgot to take photos of the things I made as I am always rushing, rushing, rushing...haha!!!  Will update soon.  In the meantime, have fun in the kitchen and see ya!!!

Cupcakes, Cupcakes, Cupcakes

I am one person who doesn't really know how to express myself.  Therefore, I prefer to do it by making them something to say thank you for being my friend. Since I am on leave now, I decided to make some cupcakes for my friends when I visit them to catch up.  Its nothing much but that's how I know to say what I just don't know how to express out...you know.

Here's the cupcakes (made couple of batches) which I made for my friends.

I am so glad that my friends loved the cupcakes.

Thank you friends for being MY friends.

Butter Cookies...one way to keep your children happy and busy

My 2 kids have been asking for butter cookies and I was thinking what better way to make them then to ask my kids to make it themselves.  So, I made a batch of cookie dough and took out all the cookie cutters I can find.  My kids were all excited and off the went...

They spent more than an hour making those cookies while I was busy in the kitchen cooking lunch. My kids kept eating the baked cookies that we ended up with nothing much in the end...haha!

Here's a photo of some of the cookies which my kids made...

Aren't the cute?  Its made by my precious kids!!!

Chicken Pau

I have been wanting to make some pau for ages but I can't seem to find any pau flour.  I googled to see if I can just use plain flour and voila!... I can but the pau might turn out to be yellowish.  Heck man...yellowish is a small issue, what's important is I can taste my favourite pau once again.  So, I told my other half that I am going to do pau with plain flour and he was trying to discourage me as he thinks I might fail. I told him that no matter what, I am going to try..just once.

I took out my family recipe and made the pau.  Everything went well.  The last stage was to steam the pau.  My hubby told me that he will watch the pau and I go and play with my kids. Oh well...since he offered, I accepted it.  When I saw my hubby's face and seeing him munching the pau, I knew I succeeded..wohoo.

Here's a photo of my pau using plain flour

Now that I got it right, I am no longer afraid to use plain flour to do pau..wohoo!!!

Mee Paprik (Paprik Noodles)

Everyone who has been to Malaysia will have if not eaten, heard of the word Paprik.  Most of the time, you will find Nasi Paprik (Paprik Rice) in any Malay hawker stall. Besides the rice, these hawkers have also come out with another dish - Mee Paprik. From what I know, Pad means stir-fry in Thai and Prik means chilli /spicy in Thai. So, I guess Mee Paprik will translate to Stir-fried noodles in spicy sauce, maybe?

Oh well....it really doesn't matter how this dish came about. What matters is that this one-dish-meal is delicious.  My other half can't get enough of it.  Here's a photo of out Mee Paprik.

This is a 1-dish-meal which will always keep us warm in a cold day... delicious!!!

A Piece of Cake for Each Teacher to say Thank You!

My kids were saying that they would like to give their teachers something to say thank you and I thought that a piece of cake decorated nicely would be just awesome.  It might be a strange idea but I wanted to give this idea of mine a try.

So, I baked 2 mudcakes and cut it into equal sizes,  iced it and wrapped it with fondant. Then I decorated it with something simple.  My kids gave me their thumbs up and off we went delivering it to their teachers the next day.  Here's how it looked like.  I made 8 pieces in all.

I was really happy to hear from my kids that their teachers loved it.

Minecraft Cake and Cupcakes for my little Prince

As I mentioned in my earlier post, my little Prince wanted a Minecraft Theme...cake and cupcakes which he can bring to school to celebrate.  This Mommy doesn't even know what or who is Minecraft. So, what did I do? Googled it and found out its a Wii game and the whole thing looks like legoland with Creepers and Steve and other stuffs.

So, I asked my little Prince what he wanted and he wanted Creepers cupcakes and a Cake with Steve on top of it.  I have been really busy with work and stuff.  I tried my best to make this theme happen with some help from my kids...lazy me, right?

So..here's how the cupcakes and cake looked like.

Cake with the character Steve

Creepers Cupcakes

I was pretty nervous when I brought the cake and cupcakes to school as I was really hoping that if its not 100% alike, at least they will recognise the characters.  When I displayed the cake and cupcakes and heard the "ooo...its Steve, its the creepers"..."its Minecraft"...all the butterflies flew away.  When I looked at my little Prince and he gave me the biggest smile and hugged me..that's the best gift a Mother could ever want.

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!!!