Blueberry Birthday Cake

We had a small celebration in the evening with his grandpas, grandmas, uncles, aunties, nieces and his close friends, vic and nigel. Was too busy with the cooking and forgotten about taking pics on the food hahaa...

Baked his favourite Blueberry Flavour Birthday Cake.

Brandon has turned 15!

HAPPY 15th BIRTHDAY, BRANDY BOY!!!

Elder ds, Brandon, turned 15 on 17th Aug this year! This year he has his cell members to celebrate with him a day earlier. His group of cell members came as early as 7.30am to give him a surprise while he was still in bed..hahaha.. he was caught in his 'urgly' pyjamas...I wanted very much to tell him to wear a proper suit but afraid that he will be suspicious as I have promised his cell leader to keep mum about their plans. The members really put in their effort by making use of the carton boxes to make into all kind of props, very CREATIVE indeed!!! We had a good laugh!

To show my appreciation, I asked them to join Ds for breakfast. Each has a set of breakfast inclusive of a Chicken Pattie, a Burger Bun, a Hash Brown, Egg Omelette, Green Salads and a glass of fresh milk.

I baked some cupcakes, piped simple frosting and added some toppers and here present you a platter of B'day Cupcakes for Ds to celebrate his B'day with his cell members.

Happy 43rd Birthday, SINGAPORE!!!

Happy Birthday, SINGAPORE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dh is working today and will be back home past 12 midnite. Elder son has his own church activity today. In-laws will be out later with friends.... left with me and younger son at home. Well, I will not be cooking dinner tonite, most likely bringing my younger son out for dinner early today and back home on time to watch the National Day parade this evening :)) oh yes, bought some grated tapioca yesterday, hopefully I can grab a pkt of coconut milk at the supermarket later and bake some tonite...

D, here is the Tapioca Kueh that I baked!

What's for dinner?

Mil has ran out of idea what to prepare for dinner, especially with hubby at home. Meaning if hub is taking dinner at home, she has to crack her head pretty hard to think of what to cook for 'this' fussy eater. Well, I can't simply sit back and do nothing as I know hub's mood gets affected if he didn't have a good dinner. Started two weeks ago, I have been preparing a dish or two before the night (standby just in case), mostly those dishes require marinating. As soon as I m back home from work, quickly change into home attire, went straight to the kitchen and start with the cooking. Though I am tired after a day at work, I am happy to cook for them and I really feel a sense of satisfaction when I see my family enjoys the dinner.

Here are few of the dishes to share...

Stuffed Sotong in Assam Pedas

Chicken Teriyaki

Asparagus with sambal hae-bee

Steamed Tofu Minced Meat in Gochujang Sauce

Masak-masak Challenge #2 - cooking on a budget

Join a challenge at M4M.

Here is my contribution for Challenge #2- Ikan Assam Pedas with Rice

Went to the wet market this morning and visited a provision shop runs by a malay couple. I told the 'Encik' I am looking for some chilli paste to cook my stingray (something like those assam pedas fish that I often eat it at Nasi Padang stall). I wanted something real hot and spicy! He asked his wife for help and this kind lady generously advised me on what are the ingredients to be used and even on how to cook it! I quickly brought back what were needed and started cooking.

Here is our lunch today for 8 adults.

Cost of Ingredients:
Stingray - $5
Egg plants, lady fingers, cherry tomatoes & red chilli - S$ 2.00
Spices Ingredients fr provision shop - S$ 1.50 (total: S$ 3, use half)
Instant curry paste (for seafood) - S$ 1.80
Rice (3 cups) - S$ 3.00

Total: S$ 13.30







Ingredients used for cooking Ikan Assam Pedas:-

Garlics, Shallots, Gingers, Galangal and Lemon grass

Black Pepper Seeds

Blend garlics, shallots, gingers and black pepper seeds....

Daun Kesum (laksa leaves) & Limau Purut Leaves (kafir leaves)

Curry Paste

Assam Juice

Eggplants, Lady Fingers and Cherry Tomatoes

Stingrays soaked in assam juice to get rid of fishy smell...

Home-Baked Muffins by Alan Ooi (Stir & Bake Recipe)

I would like to share this simple muffin recipe by Alan Ooi, a professional baker cum instructor, and also a baking Consultant of Y3K. In this book, he shared a total of six muffin recipes. All the recipes are set out in an easy-to-follow format which make home-baking so easy.

I am sharing one of the six recipes. I have baked many many times since I bought this baking book.




BLUEBERRY MUFFINS
yields : 13 muffins

Ingredients:
(A)
290g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder


(B)
230g caster sugar

(C)
3 eggs
120ml fresh milk
200g melted butter
1tsp vanilla essence

(D)
200g blueberry pie filling

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 190deg. (I set at 180deg)
2. Sieve ingred (A) into a big mixing bowl. Add in ingred (B), mix well.
3. Add in ingred (C) slowly, beat with a ballon whisk to combine ingred.
4. Spoon no. (3) into a piping bag. Pipe mixture into paper-lined tart moulds till three-quarters full. Arrange on a baking tray.
(I didn't follow. I used a measuring cup)
5. Spoon Ingred (D) into another piping bag. Pipe some filling into no. (4). Use a toothpick to create a swirling effect.
6. Bake no.(5) in the preheated oven for 20-25 mins or until Cool on wire racks.


I have used the above-recipe as the basic recipe, and just add any favourite filling of your choice. The followings are the different flavours of muffins that I have baked so far using this recipe....oh yes, I also added peach and strawberry slices as fillings too but didn't manage to take the pic.

Give it a try! I believe you can bake them well too :)



Canned Lychee

Bananas


Dried Cranberries

Kaya



Oreo Cookies

Chocolate Chips


Soft texture...

Father's Day Cake and Ice-Cream

These were the cakes for the 3 dads (my dad, my fil and my hubby):)




Peach Passion Non-Baked Cheesecake
(Using Hugbear's oreo cheesecake recipe, I replaced the cookies with peach and passion fruits> Thanks Lee for sharing the recipe)


Fruit Muffin Loaf


Banana Muffin Loaf with poppy seeds & almond nibs


Elder Ds suggested making his dad some ice-cream for Father's Day. So on Sat night, we did the ice-cream together. Based on whatever ingredients were available at home, he chosen 2 simple recipes from a book to try it out.


Mixed Berries Yogurt Ice-Cream


Strawberry Ice-Cream

BAK-ZHANG

"Bak-Zhang" anyone???

This is my first trial in making "Zhang" hehe.. Mum bought most of the ingredients for making "Zhang" but was too busy with baby-sitting that she has got no time to do it this year. Since all the ingredients were available, I volunteer to give it a try. I have never wrap one before, so I did some 'homework', got myself a book and read up Though it took me quite a while to wrap one, eventually I finished all the wrappings..Waah, it took me more than half a day!









MEAT DUMPLING WITH BEANS & SCALLOP




MEAT DUMPLING


NONYA DUMPLING

Busy Busy and still Busy.....

Phew! Finally managed to squeeze out sometimes to update my blog tonight... Well, mum-in-law has been away for more than a week, helping and taking care of my sis-in-law who has just given birth a month ago.My little niece, Baby Rachel was born April 22 and has just turned a month old last month. I was busy since then, my daily routine starts like this... working mum from mon to fri, prepare breakfasts and lunches before I leave for work, and rushing back to prepare dinners for hubby, my 2 boys and fil (didn't follow mil along). I have to plan the "Menu", what to cook for bkf, lunch and dinner daily *lol*.. I did all my marketing at supermarkets most of the time and only once a week at the wet market. That leaving me no time to bake at all. Well, at least I managed to make some Bak-Chang last Saturday..hehe.. That was my first trial, not too bad.. still edible hahaha.. will upload the pictures and post it soon:)

Younger ds and hubby just back from kopi session with bil and his family at E-Hub. Elder ds is feeling very grouchy now as they didn't get any food stuff for him. Guess I have got to go and prepare some light supper for him now. Byeeee....

Custard Puffs

Samuel rang me up asking if I was available on Labour Day to teach him and Michelle on how to make Mango Pomelo. I agreed. So they were here at my place on a sunny afternoon, learning to make this yummilicious dessert. I also showed them how to make custard puffs as well. Glad all turned out well.


Vanilla Custard Cream



Strawberry and Vanilla Custard Puffs


Ice-Cream Custard Filling Recipe
* recipe adapted from TW variety show.

Ingredients:
500gm Ice-cream (your choice of ice-cream flavor; Vanilla, Strawberry, Chocolate, Durian etc.)
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp plain flour

Methods:
1) Add ice-cream, egg yolk and plain flour in a cooking pot. Mix well.
2) On low fire, melt the ice-cream and stir constantly till mixture thicken and smooth.
3) Put aside and let it cool before piping into puffs. Serve chill.

BIRTHDAY CAKES

Bryan, younger ds turned 13 on 27th April 2008. Happy Birthday, 'Zhong-Ge'hehe...

Baked his favourite chocolate cake. This is a very tall cake; 4 layers of sponge, sandwiched the sponge with whipping cream and strawberry slices, coated the whole cake with chocolate ganache and decorated with whole strawberries and Rocher chocolates.









Brother, Samuel's birthday, 3rd May 2008

Baked a 3-layered fruit cake for him to celebrate his birthday. Hope that he like it.