Ngo Hiang or Lor Bak

Ngo Hiang or Lor Bak is a local snack which you can find in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. This dish is from the Hokkien and Teochew community.  The stuffing will be rolled inside a beancurd skin and then deep-fried.  It is served with chilli sauce or sambal.

My other half was telling me about his childhood days where he will have ngo hiang with bee hoon as his breakfast. As for me, lor bak is kind of a snack where we will have it during tea time (between lunch and dinner).  Since we were able to find beancurd skin in the supermart...we just had to do make these babies at home..wohoo.

Here's a photo of our Ngo Hiang or Lor Bak.

So happy to say that everyone including our 2 precious loved it!!!
 

Happy Chinese New Year 2014

Chinese New Year (CNY) is coming...this year it falls on the 31st January 2014.  I really miss the cookies, the food, the family gatherings and even the on-going CNY songs which drives me nuts sometimes....haha!!! So..each year without fail, I will make sure I will bake some cookies to remind myself, my hubby and also my 2 kids how CNY is celebrated...feels like....I want my kids to experience it and I want to build it into their lives.  After all...we are Asians and are proud of being Asians.

So...here's some of the CNY cookies which I have baked / made:

Almond London Cookies (my version)
No idea where this cookies comes from...but I am sure its not from London.  This is a must have in my family during CNY.

Kueh Bangkit (Tapioca Cookies)
From what I know, Kueh Bangkit was an alter offerings for our ancestors long long time ago and its shaped as money/currency so that our ancestors will have money to spend in their next life.  Now, its one of the "must have" during CNY.

Kueh Dahlia (Daisy Cookies)
This is another "must have" during CNY.  The Kueh Dahlia is similar to a  butter cookie but the magic is that once you pop it into your mouth, it melts...delicious!

Pineapple Tarts

This is also call the "Ong Lai!"cookies (Welcome Wealth in Chinese Hokkien) and this is another "must have" during CNY.  Since I do not have a pineapple tart mould, I had to make everything by hand and used a cookie cutter.

Ribbon Biscuits

Lastly...this is another "must have" in my family during CNY.  Some of my hubby's friends just love to eat this while drinking beer...haha

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!

Happy New Year To You

Happy New Year to you!

May every great new day

Bring you sweet surprises--

A happiness buffet.

Happy New Year to you,

And when the new year’s done,

May the next year be even better,

Full of pleasure, joy and fun.

By Joanna Fuchs

We spent our NY Eve slaving in the kitchen to prepare a little feast to say goodbye to year 2013 and to welcome the year 2014.  Here's what we cooked for our little celebration:

Prawn Crackers

Fried Rice

Sweet & Sour Fish

Oyster Sauce Greens

HK Egg Tarts

Fondant Cake with a Pony to kick off 2014

Here's the photos of our little celebration..........

See you all soon...

Happy New Year 2014....

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!!!

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.........

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!!!

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!!! :)

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!!!

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!!!

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.

Ben10 2D Cake

The whole family went for my little Prince's classmate birthday party yesterday and my little one kept telling me how his buddy loves Ben10, etc, etc, etc. So, I decided to surprise him with a Ben10 birthday cake for him to celebrate on the weekends with his family and relatives.  I made a orange chocolate cake for him, iced it with buttercream and covered it with fondant. After that, I tried to start the engine to get some creative juice flowing.  Since I only have several hours, I decided to make a 2D cake with Ben10 as the focus.  My other half helped me with the fondant as we made it from scratch.

This is what we came out with for my Prince's buddy. We are keeping out fingers cross and really hope he will love it.

See you guys again soon....right now, its hero time!!!!

A Family Gathering...

It has been an exciting week in this household...firstly, my other half secretly baked a cake with our 2 kids and decorated it for my birthday.  I was so impressed and so proud of them...its one of my best birthday ever.  Secondly, we had a family gathering where our love ones came all the way from the city to visit us. We decided to cook some chinese food to tickle their taste buds. My little prince and little princess were so excited to welcome them.

Here's a photo of my birthday cake. My 2 kids were so proud to tell me all about how the baked the cake and decorated it with Dad.  I am so VERY proud of my other half and my two precious....*tears of joy*

Here's some photos of our family gathering.  This is a photo of the prawn crackers (keropok).  Keropok is a deep fried cracker made from prawns and flour. My little prince always call it "chinese magic" and he loves deep frying the keropok with me.

Here's a photo of the fried rice which we made. Fried rice is a very popular dish in SEA. We used plain white rice and stir-fry it in the wok, adding in eggs, peas, ham, onions and garlic.

Here's a photo of our finger food...sotong balls with sweet chilli sauce. This little babies are delicious. Once you take the first bite, you will want more...haha! Sotong balls are like meat balls, but instead of meat, its made with sotong (squid).

We also made sweet and sour chicken and mongolian beef.  Sweet and sour chicken or pork is a very popular Cantonese dish. This is a dish which is loved my adults and children alike. We have to deep fry the meat first. Then, we have to make the sweet and sour sauce. Once the sauce is prepared, we will add in the deep fried meat into the sauce, add in the green pepper, pineapple, etc. Here's a photo of our sweet and sour chicken.

Next the mongolian beef dish. This is a very popular dish in America and over here too. This dish consists of sliced beef and its stir-fried with veggies and a spicy sauce.  Here's a photo of our mongolian beef.

We had roll cake for dessert with tea.  When we finished our dessert, all of us couldn't move...haha!!!....too full...haha!!!  We also 'ta-pau' some so that they can bring it home for dinner...

It was an awesome week.... :)

Mango & Peaches Creamed Sponge Cake

Spring is here and fruits are plentiful. So, I have been decorating my cakes with fruits and my customers are loving it. As my other half kept saying..... "so Asian..."

Here's another cake which I made for one of my customers. Its a sponge cake, filled with strawberry jam, creamed and decorated with fruits.  Here's a photo of my mango & peaches creamed sponge cake.

And, here's a slab cake which I made a month ago (didn't take a photo of it but my colleague who took it was kind enough to SMS me a copy).  I am really happy when my customers love my creations.

Since I am off today, I decided to make some pizzas and let my 2 precious "make" the pizzas.  Here's a photo of their creations.  I am very happy when my kids share my passion in creating magic in the kitchen.

Besides that, my little princess have been asking for raisin bread and I informed her that I will make her some during my off day. So, when I woke-up this morning, the first thing I did with her was to bake her the raisin bread. I am so happy to see her eating her first bun and finished it within a few minutes...haha! Here's a photo of the raisin bread which we made.

And right now, am going to bake a souffle cheese cake as I found some cream cheese in the fridge and its going to expire soon.  Better bake something before I have to throw the cheese into the bin.  Will take a photo later...till then...have a wonderful weekend.

Edible Chocolate Transfer - Transfer A Picture onto A Cake

Edible chocolate transfer is similiar to frozen buttercream transfer.  This is a simple way to get an image onto your cake without buying a printer with edible ink, etc, etc, etc.  When one of our customers came in and asked if we could do a "Hoot The Owl" cake for her daugther's 1st birthday, I was all for it as I would like to try my hands on doing a chocolate transfer of Hoot.

Here's the outcome of my cake and I really hope that they will like it tomorrow.

Here's some photos of the buns which I made at work. Thank goodness it turned out soft and fluffy.

That's all for now...till next time...happy baking!!!

Busy, Busy Weekend...

It has been a very busy weekend at my workplace as there was a huge event in town. We have been so busy making cakes, pies, sausage rolls, pasties, etc. One of our regulars order his usual cake for his club and even though I know we are going to be busy, I still took the order as he is our regular customer.  Once the event is over, business will be back to normal and our regulars are the ones who will stick to us and support us. We made more than 200 pies, 200 sausage rolls, 150 pasties....etc,etc,etc.  I worked more than 11 hours on Saturday and Sunday. Besides this, had to make some slices for my boy's school fete. It has been a busy, busy week for me.

Anyway, as I was saying, I made a sponge cake with fruits for our regular customer and I was pretty happy with the results.  Here's a photo of my humble cake. Didn't even had time to display it properly..just place it into the cake box, snap a photo and pass it to the counter girls...haha!

Here's another mudcake which I made for one of our regular customers.  According to science, chocolate is a girl's best friend and it makes her smile. I am so happy to hear that the birthday girl loved the cake. That really made my day. :) Here's a photo of my humble mudcake.

Till next time...happy baking.

Strawberries & Blueberries Fruits Sponge Cake

Sponge cake is a very versatile cake and its a good celebration cake.  Sponge cake is soft and fully and its suitable for all ages.  Over here, lots of people love to sandwich the sponge cake with a layer of their favourite jam and whipped cream. Then, we will coat with it another layer of whipped cream and decorate it with fruits and such.  Since its beginning of spring, I decided to give our customer a touch of spring but colouring the whipped cream light green. I also decided to lavish it with strawberries and blueberries.  Here's a photo or two of my fruits sponge cake.

I showed these photos to a friend of mine and she said...its so Asian...you can find these cakes in most Asian bakeries....

Oh well....as long as it looks nice and taste heavenly....it doesn't matter.... yummylicious!!!

Old Fashion Vs New Fashion

This is the first time I found myself in an interesting convo.... A friend of mine wanted a fondant cake with 2 figurines (her hubby and herself) to celebrate his birthday. However, her hubby is an old fashion guy who just wants a simple fruit cake...no fancy "plastic" on it.  I was a little confused about the "plastic" thingy and I found out later that its the fondant.  Her hubby wants to SEE the fruit cake and she wants the 2 figurines.  So, in the end, I came out with something like this. Thank goodness both parties are happy with the end results.

Phew....another happy couple!!!