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....

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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!!!