cozybakers

Kaya Kek Lapis

2011-04-12T09:46:00.000+08:00

Kaya Kek Lapis

I am getting lazier with my blog posting and baking with all this hormone change, excessive vomiting, loss of appetite, etc that I am experiencing lately. On days that I feel better, I will try to bake but still lazy to post it....hehehe.

So I am gonna make this short. Kaya Kek Lapis is my new favourite cake but I tell you it is a real devil cake with the high amount of butter and egg used yet the taste is so good and irresistible (even my mom had slice after slice of it). The preparation is very labour intensive. Basically I have to sit in the kitchen for almost 2 hours to bake layer after layer of this multi-layers rich and moist cake.

Well all said and done, now I am gonna take 1 more slice for myself........will be back with more goodies asap

My First Wedding Cake

2011-03-13T12:50:00.000+08:00

Yipppeeeee! I did it! I baked my first wedding cake without much disaster except for a crack on the second layer when I push the cake dowel down a bit too hard.

It was originally quite a bit of pressure for my sister and my brother in law to put their faith in me to bake them a wedding cake and their guest gifts. The pressure was even higher when I was so sick the past few weeks that basically I spent most of the time throwing up on everything in the toilet. Well morning sickness does not only happen in the morning. I almost give up but because of my baking passion and my inner voice that keep telling me that I couldn't disappoint the faith that they have on me. So I gathered up all my energy and prepare this wedding cake from morning to night for 2 consecutive days prior to their joyful celebration.

And also days before that, I was working on their guest gifts which comprises of an assortment of Macarons, Chocolate Truffles and Almond Chocolate. Thank god, I got the help of my sisters and aunts to help me wrapped up and packed those into the gift boxes before I have to start working on the cakes. Thank you ladies! Without your assistance, I don't think I manage to make and packed those 200 over gift packs.

Then came the joyful day itself, praying hard that the guests love the cakes as I have not make such a huge cake before. After checking with a few guests, I find that I have not disappoint J & J. If you are one of those that have tasted the cakes, please give me your feedback on the cakes. Thank you very much!

By the way, the cakes consist of 2 different type of cakes. The bottom layer is Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. The second & top layers of the cake is White Butter Cake with Blueberry Whipped Cream and Lemon Buttercream Frosting.

Random CNY Cooking & Baking

2011-02-18T14:53:00.000+08:00

One of the many elaborate dining we had during Chinese New Year.....

Cream of Potato & Bacon Soup

Roast Pork Shoulder

Sliced and served with Apple Sauce

Apple Sauce, the all-time recommended sauce for roast meat but we prefer it with mushroom sauce.

Roast Chicken with Bacon and Chestnut Stuffings (inside)

The stuffings was great. My new favourite roast chicken style....with lots of rosemary, thyme and stuffings

Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce

Tomato Sauce made with plum tomatoes, mushrooms, olive and some rocket. Light and just right to go with all the meats that we have above.

Blackcurrant Cupcakes With Blackcurrant Buttercream

2011-02-15T00:41:00.000+08:00

Blackcurrant Cupcakes With Blackcurrant Buttercream

After months of blogging, I am kinda lost of words to share on my baking journey since the beginning of 2011. Many goodies had been baked, cooked and digested but only a fraction of it has been published and shared. Guess it is easier to bake than write. I baked a dozen times but blog only 1/2 or less of it. Well my solution for next time will be pictures only without words. Hope that will be enough to make you drool......hehehe.....I am so evil......

But I just can't resist to blog on these special blackcurrant cupcakes. These cupcakes was made last Saturday for my friends gathering. Friends that have not seen for 10 donkey years due to the different path that we have gone to. But with the effort of 1 great friend, she brought a bunch of us together again to catch up on those fun times we had back then. Thank you so much Y for organizing this gathering.

Looking back at those pictures that you brought out was so hilarious.....little has change on our pretty and innocent faces but definitely we all has grown a lot wiser and smarter. But those pictures better be locked and secured up somewhere hidden....lol....

Glad to know that your family enjoy these super loving cupcakes of mine. Looking forward to your next year's gathering. Till then, you are always welcome to look at this pictures and dream of my super loving cupcakes......remember don't drool too much.....hehehe....

All the best and cheers to all my old friends....

My First Tiramisu

2011-02-08T01:04:00.000+08:00

Tiramisu Cake

After days of being away from my little kitchen, I am proud to say that now my kitchen is back to full operation. I begin my Rabbit Year baking with a Tiramisu Cake.....with layers of moist and fluffy white cake, layered and soak with coffee and liqueur and sandwiched with hazelnut chocolates and lastly spread with a light mascarporne and whipped cream frosting and decorated with the devil oreo double cream cookies.

Tiramisu has always been on my baking list since I started baking last year but there's always the obstacle of not able to make one until yesterday when I commit myself to make one for my family's after dinner dessert today. Once I promised them, there's no turning back...but just go for it and make it realistic.....maybe being the eldest in the family must always show a good example to my younger sisters.....hahaha.

End result, we all love it and finished the whole cake except 2 slices that I reserved for my breakfast tomorrow. And while we were enjoying our slice of tiramisu, I found out that my big sis (cousin) made a tiramisu too on the other side of the planet....what a coincidence......I wonder whose one is nicer......

(more CNY's kitchen re-open goodies coming up soon)

End of the Tiger Year and Hop into the Rabbit Year

2011-02-02T20:03:00.000+08:00

This will be my last post for the Tiger Year while I am waiting to welcome the Rabbit Year. My last bake for this year will be Potatoes Gratin with Bacon and Chestnut bits. I have yet to taste it as we are waiting for our home-cooked reunion dinner. I hope it turn out nice but from what I can see, I find it a bit too oily. Maybe I should have use low fat milk and half cream instead of full cream milk and double cream.

Anyway what done cannot be undone. Just like what we have done and achieved in the Tiger Year may not be what we expected. But there will always be the Rabbit Year for us to change and correct what we have done wrong and improve on what we have done right. Therefore, my wishing for all my families and friends for this coming Rabbit Year will be "Gong Xi, Gong Xi, Gong Xi Fa Cai! May our health, wealth and career hop hop hop to a higher level. Happy Rabbit Year!"

Tiger Year, see you again in another 12 years.......Goodbye.......

Red Wine Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache

2011-01-22T20:37:00.000+08:00

Red Wine Chocolate Cake With Chocolate Ganache

Red Wine Chocolate Cake, my first alcohol cake. Take a look at it, it just looks like any ordinary chocolate moist cake but take a bite and the Red Wine taste is so strong.

I still got half a bottle of red wine at my disposal after my attempt in Pork Bourguignon. My initial plan was to drink the red wine myself but after a glass I find that the wine is too dry for my liking. I prefer sweet wine. Without knowing what to do with it, I search the internet for 'Red Wine Cake' and the return of my search result is this very moist and soft Red Wine Chocolate Cake.

The cake was not sweet at all as I reduce too much sugar but forgot to take into account of the high cocoa powder to flour ratio. So I have no choice but spread it with layers of Chocolate Ganache for additional sweetness. It is always my usual practice to reduce a great amount of sugar from my recipes because I always find the amount of sugar they used are so insanely high. I always wonder how do people eat such a sweet cake with those super sweet frosting the recipes called for. That's why prior to my baking passion, I have very little interest to have a piece of desserts wherever I dine.

The results: moist, buttery, soft, strong chocolate flavour cake with a strong red wine taste and just the right sweetness of chocolate ganache.

Sorry lil princess, this is one cake that I can't give you a slice yet.

Almond Crisp

2011-01-22T19:37:00.000+08:00

Almond Crisp

Chinese New Year is approaching soon and I am starting to bake some goodies for our families and friends. Initially I thought of only baking the Bunny Almond Cookies but I change my mind when I come across this Almond Crisp at my favourite Wan Ton Noodles shop. You see cookies will be available in every of my families' homes since they are all avid bakers like me. Too much of the same kind might be boring.....so I change my mind and made this Almond Crisp instead.

I will still make the Bunny Almond Cookies next week if my schedule permits because I want something like the shape of Bunny to make myself feel more like approaching a Rabbit Year......more Rabbit Year atmosphere....:)

Back to the Almond Crisp, as the name already screaming out loud that it is very crispy and very nutty. Oh Almond so I am still on my Nutty theme.

So far few people already tasted it and all with a nod of approval.

Oreo Buttermilk Cake

2011-01-18T23:45:00.001+08:00

Oreo Buttermilk Cake

It was quite a lousy day yesterday, with my lil princess down with high fever and later found out that my niece had a bad fall which caused her 2 front tooth chipped and my nephew was having diarrhea. What a day for us all!

Lil princess was too sick today to become her usual cheerful self and ended up in bed most of the day with only water and milk.....my poor baby said NO to all kinda of food throughout the day.

To kill time and to monitor her temperature closely, I decided to make something easy, moist and tasty without any form of frosting in case lil princess got appetite for a piece of cake when she will be fully awake (since she is not a frosting type of kid).

In the end I ended up with 2 cakes, one with only oreo cookies (no cream) at the side and another one I used the oreo cookies with the cream part (see below) and arrange it on top of the cake.

The cake turns out very moist and yummy! But lil princess is still in NO appetite mood except for paracetamol and antibiotic medicine.....hmmmm......maybe it will turn out differently if I had made a paracetamol cake instead of an oreo buttermilk cake......hehehe

Post Baking Dinner

2011-01-17T10:40:00.000+08:00

Cozy version of Southwestern Baked Chicken

From all the pictures shown on this post, very much explained why I was lazy to whip up more frosting for my first 2-tier White Butter Cake presentation which I posted earlier.

From the lack of post for the past few weeks (maybe posted once a week), that show work and family commitments has overruled my passion. Finally I managed to make time for my passion and I am not gonna waste it with just 1 recipe. Therefore, I have not just baked 1 item but also baked and cooked a 4-course dinner for my love ones. But by end of the day, I was so knocked out that I don't even manage to put my lil princess to bed first before me.

Mashed Potato

Mashed Potato my darling favourite and a good combination with the Pork Bourguignon (as recommended in my cookbook). Recipe and cooking methods for this Mashed Potato is through instinct. Basic Ingredients consist of Russet Potatoes, Butter, Milk, Salt and Pepper.

Grilled Butter Salmon

Salmon block complimentary from my favourite grocer. Right you are the salmon is complimentary, this show how reliable is it to shop in my neighbourhood supermarket. Some time back I bought some fish that has gone through some handling problem with the big sea. I casually told the fish vendor about it and he offered to give me the salmon on complimentary.....so nice of him :)

Pork Bourguignon

I found this recipe on my 'One Pot' cookbook that I got it during a bookstore sale. This is my first attempt on the cookbook despite the book has been sitting on my messy desk for months. Reason being I am just too eager to do so much but with little time and insufficient tummies to digest it all. I admit that I actually omit some ingredients from this bourguignon reason being I won't purposely buy a bottle of brandy to try out 1 recipe. The brandy might be ended up sitting on the shelf for years to come. So I put in more red wine than the recipe suggested to compensate on the liquor used.

Cozy version of Southwestern Baked Chicken

When one mentioned southwest cooking, it always the thought of chili, tomatoes, salsa, herbs & spices, Mexican cuisines, etc. This ingredients are rather easy to compliment with each other to come out with an eatable dish even without a recipe. That's why I always like to use tomatoes, rosemary, thyme, bay leaf.....things that can never go wrong with chicken (unless you go overboard on the measurement).

White Butter Cake with Blueberry Jam and Lemon Buttercream

2011-01-17T00:53:00.000+08:00

White Butter Cake with Blueberry Jam and Lemon Buttercream

"'Appy Birthday to you, 'appy birthday to you, 'appy birthday to mommy and sam yi, 'appy birthday to you!". This year is the first time my lil princess sang to me and my youngest sister a birthday song on our early birthday celebration yesterday. So sweet and she is so excited to help us blow the candles and cut the cake. She sang the whole birthday song SOLO as our family wanted to hear how well can she sing it.....hahaha. I do have a potential Karaoke queen by my side.

My birthday and my sister's birthday is just 2 days apart so we do sometimes celebrate our birthday together with our family during our school days. Since I have to preach to her and my future brother-in-law on their wedding cake tasting and presentation, so this year we decided to celebrate together again after not doing it for the last 10 years or so. I took their wedding ceremony as a challenge to try my hand on preparing a 3-tier wedding cake for their guests. They must have been intoxicated when they actually agreed to my offer and let me use them as a guinea pigs on their most memorable day......bravo to them.......hahaha. If you are reading this......I promised that I will do my very, very best and I will make sure that I have enough frosting to cover the whole cake.

As you can see from the pictures above, the frosting was kind of too thin because I was kinda lazy to whip up more frosting when I realized that the frosting might not be enough to cover every part evenly. Please pardon me for my laziness as I will show you later why is it so.

On the day itself, I actually forgot to bring my camera to my sister's house and what a coincidence that her camera is out of battery too. So I have to rely on my camera phone and the poor lighting make the picture even more unjustifiably recorded.....hence the saying 'don't judge a book by its cover' is greatly applicable to this cake.

Again, the poor lighting and camera quality failed to showcase the texture of this moist and soft white butter cake. But overall, I have a great approval from all of them on the taste of this white butter cake that is already moist enough but with the blueberry jam and lemon buttercream, it keep the cake moist enough despite after refrigerator for 2 days. Some of you will be able to try this cake very soon :)

Finally, Happy Birthday To Me!

No Recipe Egg Tarts

2011-01-13T17:06:00.000+08:00

Egg Tart

Hi All, this is my NO RECIPE EGG TARTS. Why I called it No Recipe Egg Tarts is because: 1) I really have no recipe on how to make egg tarts. 2) I never make an egg tarts before. 3) I baked this egg tarts using my instinct on the ingredients to use.

Remember the big strawberry tart I made for T. I just realized that I have a bit of leftover dough in my fridge while I was lazing around in the evening with lil princess. Luckily it still can be use after few days wrapped and store in the fridge. My mind just got this idea out of no where to make egg tarts but it is too late to search for the reviewed egg tarts recipe online (I can search for an recipe for hours before I decided on which one to try.....yeah I know so much time wasted on my endless research). Therefore, I just gotta trust my instinct on how to make it. I guess it should be just like custard.

So I press the dough into my little tart moulds (just enough dough to make 5 small tarts - at least if my own invented recipe failed, not much wastages will incurred). Whipped 1 egg, with some sugar, and low fat milk and a pinch of corn flour. Then I pour it into the tart moulds and bake until the custard set. As I was pouring the custard into the moulds, I don't really have a good feeling about it as there was a lot of bubbles. After a while (I forgot to check how many minutes it take to bake it to golden brown and the custard set in), once the custard set, I was relieved that my egg tarts turn out to be really egg tarts.....*happy*.

Lesson learned and area to improve on will be don't whipped the egg mixtures till it bubble too much if I want a smoother top......I like it and being an Asian, I guess most of us like egg tarts right? I will make this for my mom soon since she likes egg tarts and always find that the egg tarts in the market is way too sweet for her liking....."Hey mom, wait for your turn ok?"

Spaghetti with Ground Chicken, Olive and Rocket in Tomato Sauce

2011-01-13T01:10:00.002+08:00

Spaghetti with Ground Chicken, Olive and Rocket in Tomato Sauce

Me and my princess just love spaghetti soooo much but no matter how hard I try, over the past 10 years I still cannot get my darling to join the spaghetti fan club. Over the years, my darling has join my league in reduced sugar, salt, oil food and gotten him to eat vegetable on daily basis and to eat some fish (before he is totally a NO FISH person) but comes to spaghetti, he will only eat half the portion of what he normally eat during a meal. How can he not enjoy spaghetti? All his siblings like spaghetti and he is the odd one among them......hmmmm strange or personal preference.....whatever you wish to call it.

As I am writing this, I am thinking of when will I get to cook spaghetti again without having my darling to endure hunger with a half full stomach.

Recently I found some imported Italian brands' spaghetti and tomato sauce which is cheaper than the normal brands we have here and of good quality in my neighbourhood supermarket. Again, I like my neighbourhood so much as it is so convenience to find food, shop and other basic amenities here.

Normally I will make my own tomato sauce for pasta but lately my neighbourhood supermarket's tomatoes are not that great looking and so coincidentally those Italian brands' tomato sauce taste good, then no harm to change my recipe right?

Strawberry Tart

2011-01-07T20:20:00.001+08:00

9-inch Strawberry Tart

I made this Strawberry Tart for a new friend, T. She wants a big strawberry tart with lots of strawberries and pastry cream for her friend's birthday. It was very thoughtful of her to give her friend a big tart instead of a birthday cake. This is the first time I see people celebrate birthday with a birthday tart instead of a birthday cake. Maybe I am being out-dated......hahaha. Thanks T, now I can add a new item to my baking menu.

When I accept her request at that time, I forgot that strawberries are not in season now. Imagine I have to search few supermarkets and hypermarkets for it. I thought of using big, red strawberries but after a few search, I decided to give up and settled for the smaller one due to the limited availability. I was so afraid that I couldn't get any strawberry and caused me to fail T request. I hate to break promises.

Anyway, I almost failed to deliver her request though because there was a date mix up. Luckily she remind me a day before......phew!

Hope you and your friends will love this. Happy Birthday T's friend! May all your wishes come true.

Bunny Head Walnut Butter Cookies

2011-01-07T16:50:00.002+08:00

Bunny Head Walnut Butter Cookies

I am on tracked with my CNY's all about nuts cookies mission. All started with my Bunny Head Almond Butter Cookies and now I have completed my trial experiment for Bunny Head Walnut Butter Cookies. While it was baking in the oven, my lil princess already started pointing into the oven and said, "I want to eat Rabbit cookies".

Let me bite a few more bites before I update you on the taste.......*chewing, munching*. Wait let me take 1 more piece first.......love it! Sweetness? Just nice. Walnut taste? Plenty nutty flavour. Fluffy? Definitely. Thickness? Should make slightly thicker next time for even fluffier texture.

Gonna keep some for lil princess.....before my mom eat it all.

Also make some in bird shape. I think the Bunny head is much cuter :) Next experiment: Hazelnut Butter Cookies in shaped of Bunny Head again!

Bunny Head Almond Butter Cookies

2011-01-06T00:06:00.000+08:00

Bunny Head Almond Butter Cookies

Maybe as we grow older or maybe because of the hectic lifestyle in the city, festive season no longer feel so important anymore. It just few like any ordinary days with the exception that it's a holiday that feels like a weekend. Despite Chinese New Year is approaching in less than a month and yet I have no plan of any preparation......until my sister just told me that her boss just declared 1 whole week holiday for this coming Chinese New Year and asked me what plan do I have and make sure I include her. I was speechless because I have no plan at all. My only plan is chill out at home.....bake and cook more new recipes and eat. I definitely would not want to go traveling (just like she suggested) when everyone is traveling back to hometown or join the massive crowd at holiday destination. Hmmmm......maybe I should think of something to celebrate this coming Rabbit year with families and friends (no gambling for me).......nice dinner and some wine.

Then I heard that my aunt has started baking her usual Chinese New Year's cookies and some family members has started baking their family recipe's Fruit Cake. Seems like everyone started to create some CNY's mood......I think I better start to to do something on my part too so that my lil princess can learn more about festive seasons and enjoy herself with new clothes, ang pows, food, etc......just like I had when I was a child before she grown out of that phase.

So next lunar year will be a Rabbit year.....and the first thing that cross my mind was Rabbit look.....I got some bunnies cookies cutters of different sizes. And I have this really fluffy butter cookies recipe that I have not try making for quite a while. I love nutty baked goodies and I have plenty of almond and walnuts in my kitchen cabinet. So I am doing my little experiment again......this round I substitute some flour with ground almond to create this Almond Butter Cookies.

Next, I am gonna try to make Walnut Butter Cookies and also maybe Hazelnut Butter Cookies. So it's gonna be all about nuts for me :)

Verdict delivered by family, friend and kiddos........very good, just the right sweetness, cute, lovely, yummy, fluffy. And I am happy with the result.

I gotta start to experiment with my other nutty cookies as soon as possible and it might be all about nuts Chinese New Year's cookies for my families and friends......who want, please raise your hand.......I can see my lil princess hand raised up high and request for the big one.....

Our Humble Lunch On A Workday

2011-01-05T01:22:00.000+08:00

4 Course Lunch

A typical working day for me will be waking up in the morning, a cup of coffee for breakfast (I feel so weak & sleepy without my morning caffeine) and start my morning work routines (check & reply emails, paperworks, etc). By mid morning, preparation for lunch will start. I always try to make it a point to cook everything in less than an hour with exception to soup and stew (2 of our favourites). And will plan out my dishes so that I can try to use maximum of 1 pan and/or 1 pot to cook everything without washing (save time on washing - not that I do the washing). So that I can go to my shops to continue work after lunch. Otherwise I will not be able to complete my usual tasks by evening, which will be my baking time by then. Of course sometimes I do cheat and bake in between work (on days that I work solely from home - purely work while waiting for my cakes to bake in the oven). In between, I will spare some time (10 minutes at a time) to play with my lil princess, watch her favourite shows with her, chit chat with her, etc. Sometimes she just likes to sit on my lap while I type on my computer (isn't that adorable?). As for dinner, we always eat out (at least we can see, learn and compare others cooking) or at my in-laws house or finish off what was left during lunch.

My darling say that I am always busy with something to do....well the truth is I like to keep myself busy especially with my hobbies. My hobbies actually keep myself calm from the stress I get from work. What the heck as long as I am happy doing it but of course by nighttime I do feel the toll taken on my body.....knocked out tired (a daily shoulder and foot massage will be great - dream on).....and sleep like a baby.

That's how a flexible self-employ mom typical work day like......work from the moment I woke up till I knocked out but with own adjustable free time to do as I wish.....

So I am proud to present what I cooked for lunch from 12:15 pm to 1:10 pm today.........

Fermented Beancurb Fried Chicken Wing

Marinated with Fermented Beancurb, soy sauce, garlic powder and salt before I send my worker to the E mall this morning. Deep fried it till crispy with some all-purpose flour.

Ham And Broccoli Fried Eggs

My lil princess new favourite egg dish.....she ate a quarter of it for lunch and request to keep more for her for dinner. A balanced meal with protein, vitamins

Preparation and cooking is super easy. Whisk eggs with some water (the water will make the eggs fluffy), salt and fish sauce until foamy. Retained some oil from the pan that used to fry the Chicken Wings. Stir fry the chopped ham and broccoli for a while and add in the egg mixture. Fry until cooked on both side.

Stir-fry Broccoli, Green and Red Capsicum

Judging by the colours, you already can say that this dish is vitamins packed and super healthy . Broccoli: rich in vitamins, health benefits in terms of anti oxidant to fight and prevent cancer. Capsicums: rich in vitamins, good for eyesights, provides antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent. And both vegetables also good for digestive system.

Preparation? Nothing can be simpler than this for a tasty vegetable dish.......add a little bit of oil (into the pan used to fry the eggs) and fry some chopped garlic, put in all the vegetables. Lightly seasoned with salt and brown sugar. Add in some water and cooked until vegetables soften but retain the colours.

Clams in Ginger & Dom Soup

This is our (myself and my darling) favourite.....super yummy.......fresh clams in ginger and wine soup. Both of us finished off every clams and every single drop of the soup.

To prepare: soak the clams in water for few hours or overnight prior to cooking. Using back the same cooking pan for the stir-fry vegetables, put in some sesame oil and stir fry some garlic and ginger till fragrant. Add in some chili padi and the clams. Then add in water and let it boiled until all clams open up. Seasoned to taste with salt, some brown sugar and Dom or any Chinese cooking wine.

Thinking back of my afternoon's lunch is making me hungry.......gonna summary up everything and go to bed so that my hunger prank does not strike me.......Goodnight!

Mango Prawn Canapes

2011-01-02T14:58:00.000+08:00

Mango Prawn Canapes

Canapes, a hors d'oeuvre....something that I never make before. I only thought of making it the morning of the party and use all the guests as my guinea pig.....what a risk! But I wanted something easy to make and easy to eat. It was a backup plan in case my Cream Caramel didn't turn out as I planned. But thanked god.....both turn out good.

The Mango Prawn salsa was good.....very asian with the use of coriander, onion and lime juice as the dressing for the cooked prawn and mango.

Broccoli, Bacon and Cheddar Cheese Mini Quiche

2011-01-02T14:19:00.000+08:00

Brocolli & Bacon Quiche

Another finger food that I made for my SIL's New Year Party. I love quiche......who doesn't right? With those creamy custard, savory fillings, cheese and pastry, it is something that is hard to resist. This round I put in way too much cheese and I am not too fond of it but for those who likes cheese I am sure they will like every bites of it.

Mini Quiche makes a good finger food during party as the size is just right for one or two bites and the taste is great (especially so if I should have follow my instinct to put slightly less cheese). Anyway, the mini quiche finished off very fast, so I assume people do love it with lots of cheese.....lol.

And of course my lil princess didn't eat a single bite of it since she is not a cheese lover at all. But she seems more interested in playtime and desserts.......

My Cute Snowman And Lil Mouse Cream Caramel

2011-01-02T13:53:00.000+08:00

Cream Caramel

All I can say about this Cream Caramel is cute, soft and creamy (since only low fat milk is used). At first I was quite reluctant to serve it to my SIL's guests after I made it since I don't have the right size serving plate to put both (1 snowman + 1 round size) Cream Caramel together. And if I were to put both on separate serving it will not look nice and waste of space. At last I decided to cut the round size Cream Caramel into individual size to decorate around the Snowman. That's how I come up with this cute Snowman and Lil Mouse Cream Caramel.

I am glad that there's no leftover for this Cream Caramel......so can I consider that everyone like it?

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T01:23:00.001+08:00

Goodbye to Year 2010 and Welcome to Year 2011!

Happy New Year! May 2011 bring us all good health, good luck, peace and prosperity throughout the year. God bless us all!

We had a wonderful New Year's eve dinner at a friends' house. Thank you PW and J for your wonderful food and hospitality. We enjoyed it so much. Our princess is looking forward to play with Princess C again soon.

I am glad that you all enjoyed the Red Velvet Cake and we are looking forward to organize another get together party soon........

Love and Kisses from us to all of our families and friends......Happy 2011!

God bless us all!

Red Velvet Cake With Cream Cheese & Chocolate Decoration (Again!)

2010-12-31T01:31:00.000+08:00

Red Velvet Cake With Cream Cheese & Chocolate Decoration

You must be thinking...."What! Red Velvet Cake again!". Yes that's right....that was my darling's expression when he asked me what cake I want to make for a friend's New Year Eve party. I was like.....errrr.....that's the only one I can think of when all of a sudden he asked me what I want to make while I was cooking and he needs an answer immediately to text to our friend. So promise already been made days ago.....and it's too late to change.....so here we are with another Red Velvet Cake With Cream Cheese and Chocolate Decoration wrapped around it. At least this time, my Chocolate Decoration technique has improved slightly with less than five cracks.....still not so satisfied.....gotta try to do it again another time (with different cake).

Accident do happen no matter how much one tried to avoid it. Can you see the little scar on top of the cake? Well the cake box cover fell onto the cake when I was about to pack up the cake for refrigeration (Red Velvet Cake taste best when chilled and leave it at room temperature about 10 minutes before serving). This round, I can't show you a slice of the cake yet as we can only cut the cake tomorrow night during dessert time. Hope it taste as good as the previous one :)

The Chocolate Decoration's pattern was inspired by one of my place mat.

Tomorrow will be a busy baking day in preparation for 2011 celebration!

Honey Glazed Pork Loin & Stir Fry Olive Garlic Chili Broccoli Spaghetti

2010-12-29T01:27:00.000+08:00

Honey Glazed Pork Loin

Finally my blog is up-to-date by rambling on our TODAY's lunch menu: Honey Glazed Pork Loin and Stir-Fry Olive Garlic Chili Broccoli Spaghetti.

I went grocery shopping in my neighborhood (paused got a scared from my princess) yesterday and saw this big chunk of Sakura Pork Loin nicely trussed and packed. Without hesitation, I paid for it without any ideas of what I want to do with it. Then I remember what Uncle F said about cooking with personal instinct......so I decided to try to make Honey Glazed Pork Loin without a recipe. I just make a brine with some honey, brown sugar, salt, soy sauce, garlic, onion, tomatoes, bay leaf and sprigs of rosemary. Then I browned the pork and marinade it in the brine overnight. This morning, I rub on some butter, glazed it with honey and baste it with the brine over and over again. My only regrets with my no recipe Honey Glazed Pork Loin is I should have use more honey.....the mistakes I always make when I use sugar or sweet ingredients....always afraid that it might be too sweet.......other than that the Pork Loin is perfect. Oh yeah, and I served it with roast potatoes.

Stir-Fry Olive Garlic Chili Broccoli Spaghetti

I saw this pasta combination on AFC channel. Something easy to make and light enough to go with a heavy main course. Well as usual I will make use of what I have in the refrigerator when I decide on what I want to cook because I always try to maintain my refrigerator as empty as possible since I can't afford to put a second fridge in our tiny little home. Pasta, Pasta, I always like it but my darling hate it.....well it can't be always his preference right?

Hmmm......I am out of publishing materials.......it's time to head to bed and start creating more publishing materials tomorrow........Goodnight!

Big Mix Fruity Tart

2010-12-29T00:40:00.000+08:00

Big Mix Fruity Tart

The past few days I have been able to bake quite a fair bit. On Christmas day, I baked and steamed the Creme Caramel. Then on Boxing Day, I was sweet talked into baking another batch of sinful Cinnamon Rolls.

Then yesterday, I tried the Sweet Shortcrust Pastry Crust's and Pastry Cream's recipes from Okashi Treats: Sweet Treats Made With Love's book. I used her recipes to make this Big Mix Fruity Tart since I have a lot of fruits to clear from my refrigerator. I used some grapes, oranges and persimmons. I should have reduced some sugar for the Pastry Cream since all the fruits that I used are super sweet. If I had use fruits like strawberries, then the sweetness level will be just right. I don't quite like the Sweet Shortcrust Pastry Crust from Okashi Treats: Sweet Treats Made With Love's book because I find it a bit too dry and too fragile for a big pie or tart. Maybe I shouldn't have follow her baking time as you can see that the edge of my big tart is slightly over browned. Maybe that's why the pastry was a bit too dry.....hmmm should I give this recipe a second chance by reducing the baking time by few minutes? What do you say?

In the meantime, I will stick back to my usual Sweet Shortcrust Pastry Crust which is fluffy and soft........and next time I should have test the fruits first before I make the Pastry Cream......but to a lot of people, when I say it is too sweet will only means normal sweetness to others because I have very low tolerance to sweetness level. That's why I always try to make it a point to ask my friends what sweetness level they prefer when I bake for them......low, normal or high. How I differentiate the level is to compare it to the amount of sugar one put into her coffee......reduced is when one put less than 1 teaspoon of sugar in a mug of coffee, normal is 2 teaspoons of sugar and high is 3 teaspoons or more.

I am enjoying writing my post now........stay tune for more.......

Creme Caramel

2010-12-29T00:13:00.001+08:00

Baked Creme Caramel

Creme Caramel, who doesn't love it? I do, and my family does. The first caramel I made during school days was the steamed version......smooth, fast and never disappointing unless one really, really overcooked it and the results of over steamed Creme Caramel will be rough and ugly with acne scar lookalike. Once perfectly cooked will be smooth, creamy and light.

Just simple ingredients: eggs, sugar and low fat milk whisked together and pour into individual ramekins or bowls. That's the usual caramel I made, everyone get a 1. Since I was baking it on a Christmas Day, I thought why not I tried making a big one with a Christmas theme.......a Snowman Baked Creme Caramel and a big bowl of Steamed Caramel. This is the first time I made a baked version. Verdict? I still prefer the steamed version as it is softer and lighter than the baked version. Also the cooking time for the steamed version is faster. Outlook wise I prefer the Snowman.....it looks so cute except for some cracks here and there.

I do have trouble to turn it over onto the serving plate compared to the normal individual serving that I made. So I ended with some cracks here and there when I flip it over to release the Creme Caramel onto the plate. I hope next time I can do better.....hmmm.....now I am thinking of making it again on New Year for my SIL's New Year Party......

Steamed Creme Caramel