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57 minutes ago
I'm a sucker for eggs. They are the best thing on earth that's why I heart brunch the most. But most importantly the eggs have to be runny.
Eating brunch everyday at a restaurant is too expensive. Imagine paying 15-30 bucks a day just for breakfast. I would actually but managed to convince myself that it's an added luxury that shouldn't be excessively indulged in.
But anyway that doesnt stop someone from making their own version of brunch at home.
As shown below: I've tried 2 new methods of poaching them compared to the messier version where I just dumped them into simmering water.
Method 1: Use a metal ring placed in a pan of simmering water. Crack and egg in it and cook for 2min. I prefer this method over the next one because it's easier to gauge the correct consistency of the yolk.
Method 2: Place a microwavable film in a bowl and oil the insides. Drop and egg into it and tie the film. Drop the entire film into a saucepan of simmering water and cook 2-3 min. This is a less messy way to cook the egg but I couldnt tell when the yolk was just ready. But anyway, it managed to turn out the way I like so yepp!
YAY
I know Chinese New year was more than a month ago but I’m proud of the tart crust I made so here it is! It's buttery, flaky and melts in your mouth.
I remember thinking pretty hard about what dessert to make for Chinese new year. Someone even suggested making an ang bao or orange fondant cake but nahhhh. I believe in “Only using fondant when you really need too” or else your effort is gonna be wasted within seconds when the knife touches the surface of the cake.
So as to create that “CNY mood, I included mandarin oranges as one of the fruits but I sliced and candied it instead to give it the desired shine.
I never knew art could be so much fun. Besides the usual painting, drawing, shading, there’s also sculpturing, water painting, glass painting, molding stuff, carving figures etc. There’s like never ending things you could do or come up with, with your own sense of creativity and imagination.
Honestly as a kid I wasn't that obsessed over art. Maybe because my painting plain sucks. Haha but art, design and technology or home economics were like the only subjects I knew could get an A all semester. Haha but as I grew older, I believe that those pretty things you see in everyday life just don't appear pretty by nature, it’s those delicate hands behind the scene that craft them into that perfect object. And ultimately, there’s a price to pay for it all.
Store bough fondant is good to look at but disgusting to eat. Knowing this fact, it’s always good to have the best of both worlds. Thus Marshmallow fondant (MMF) has always been my go to recipe whenever I make customized cakes. Nevertheless, people still peel away the layers away and savour the cake instead, which is not at all surprising considering the MASSIVE sugar content that goes into making those. It’s no wonder they can be kept for so long without going bad.
I’ve been working on my craft skills after this fondant obsession has gotten into me. I believe this obsession is going to go a longgg way. Now besides the taste, texture, smell of the cake, there’s an additional appearance component that you are going to be judged for.
This particular cake was already well thought off by the customer.
She wanted a train cake and a carriage full of milk bottles. The perfect beginning to start off. The cake was a chocolate cake rich and moist enough to enjoy but not too soft to collapse under the weight of the fondant. Filling was swiss meringue buttercream. Enough said, here’s a picture of the completed cake.
Top view:
Front view:
Figurine of the older brother alex with his black leather jacket and cap and blue jeans.
Front carriage:
Back carriage:
Other figurine was for the younger baby brother Fynn- the reason for the cake was to celebrate his 1 mth!
This cake took an entire day to complete. The process was tiring because I had to redo the fondant covering twice because it cracked and I couldn't stand how ugly it looked under the light.
The rest of it is history.
HELLOO EVERYONE,
I'm back again after abandoning this blog for a couple of weeks. CRIES! I think no one visits my blog anymore... hahah. Anyway, I had a good pep talk to myself- rather lame but yeah and the conclusion would be to reach my 2011 goal of blogging at least once every week and to bake something every week.
I think the only excuse I could give for my "missing in action" will be too busy. Busy for what reason- I don't know. I just find that whatever time I have left will be reserved for kitchen action (at least for this period of time). And yes to all you peeps who have asked me to take care of myself, I really did ( or perhaps tried to).
Weeks ago ( 1 month ago minus 4 days to be exact), I sprained my foot. What I thought was a minor sprained turned out to be a fracture in my fifth metatarsal. Anyway I'm praying that my foot gets healed soon enough. 4 more days to its one moniversary! Haha but I'm still as stubborn as ever- Been baking, standing for hours, walking all the way to phoon huat just because the night before I thought of the long list of things I should buy or must buy... Ridiculous to some but worth it all. Furthermore, I believe that bakers go through more hardship than what is called a fractured foot.
Blog posts with all words are just plain boring. I shall add a picture of something that will light up your day. Hhaaa I hope you have seen this cuz it's something I have been longing for for the longest time ever and finalllyyy it's mine ;)
Tada! To the tools that make all things perfect! I will devour you.
Haha. Honestly, I haven quite fully recovered from the fun since Christmas.. All that fireworks, Baking, Carnival, Sleepovers, Chilling, Shopping, Binging, movie marathons, drama marathons... But I realise if I don't post the huge backlog of bakes during Christmas, it's gonna be CNY in no time.
Anyway bear with me..
Cookies.. the standard during every Christmas. I made gingerbread cookies using all these tools and cutters unfortunately I didn't take pictures of the final product.
Next up, my all time fav fruit cake. Haha This time people complained the portion shrank.
This was my virgin attempt at baking log cakes. Haha Could tell that they were quite deformed and the cake cracked at the corners...
This was my 5th attempt (below). Didn't have a pic of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th one.. All I could remember was one had strawberry filling, the other matcha filling and the 4th one was a flourless swiss roll ( I would have liked this one better if it was a component of a cake but definitely not for a swiss roll because it is unable to stand the weight of the ganache pressing on it)
6th attempt: Chocolate swiss roll with dark cherries and chocolate meringue buttercream ;)
7th Swiss Roll:
8th Swiss Roll: with sparkling silver freckles
9th: The reason for the additional log on the top was because the swiss roll looked smaller than the other one I made. Nevertheless, I think it made the cake look nicer.
10th Cake!! This was for a mega party of 30. I wanted to include a gingerbread house masterpiece into the picture but due to time constraints, I had to do without ;[. The same cake as above just with additional varlhona crunchy pearl balls and Krispie Christmas tree and a snow floor.
The tree so chocolatey, I wish I could bite off it.
Last but not least, a SWISS- NO cake. Made from pure love, joy, peace and patience- a brownie cake with chocolate mousse and ganache.
That's my little story to tell this Christmas. What's yours ;)
GOSH. I'm finally back. Today marks the end of my 12 day of baking madness. It's madness everywhere. When I think of chocolate, my stomach instantly feels queasy. For 12 days, I have been running around Singapore buying ingredients, cake boards/boxes, testing out log cakes, sketching designs, taking photos and buying Christmas presents. Fortunately, with the help of my new red sexy helper, I have surviveddd the storm
.
On the first day of Christmas,
my kitchen aid said to me,
ONE litre of whipping cream
On the Second day of Christmas,
my kitchen aid said to me
TWO disaster logcakes,
and ONE litre of whipping cream
On the third day of Christmas,
my kitchen aid said to me
THREE times 2 trips to phoon huat,
TWO disaster logcakes,
and ONE litre of whipping cream
On the fourth day of Christmas,
my kitchen aid said to me
FOUR packets of flour,
THREE times 2 trips to phoon huat,
TWO disaster logcakes,
and ONE litre of whipping cream
On the fifth day of Christmas,
my kitchen aid said to me
FIVE pounds of chocolate,
FOUR packets of flour,
THREE times 2 trips to phoon huat,
TWO disaster logcakes,
and ONE litre of whipping cream
On the SIX day of Christmas,
my kitchen aid said to me
SIX batches of meringue buttercream,
FIVE pounds of chocolate,
FOUR packets of flour,
THREE times 2 trips to phoon huat,
TWO disaster logcakes,
and ONE litre of whipping cream
On the Seven day of Christmas,
my kitchen aid said to me
SEVEN edible Christmas tress
SIX batches of meringue buttercream,
FIVE pounds of chocolate,
FOUR packets of flour,
THREE times 2 trips to phoon huat,
TWO disaster logcakes,
and ONE litre of whipping cream
On the EIGHT day of Christmas,
my kitchen aid said to me
EIGHT mini fruit cakes
SEVEN edible Christmas tress
SIX batches of meringue buttercream,
FIVE pounds of chocolate,
FOUR packets of flour,
THREE times 2 trips to phoon huat,
TWO disaster logcakes,
and ONE litre of whipping cream
On the Nineth day of Christmas,
my kitchen aid said to me
NINE log cakes baking
EIGHT mini fruit cakes
SEVEN edible Christmas tress
SIX batches of meringue buttercream,
FIVE pounds of chocolate,
FOUR packets of flour,
THREE times 2 trips to phoon huat,
TWO disaster logcakes,
and ONE litre of whipping cream
On the Tenth day of Christmas,
my kitchen aid said to me
TEN blocks of unsalted butter
NINE log cakes baking
EIGHT mini fruit cakes
SEVEN edible Christmas tress
SIX batches of meringue buttercream,
FIVE pounds of chocolate,
FOUR packets of flour,
THREE times 2 trips to phoon huat,
TWO disaster logcakes,
and ONE litre of whipping cream
On the Eleventh day of Christmas,
my kitchen aid said to me
ELEVEN cakes in total
TEN blocks of unsalted butter
NINE log cakes baking
EIGHT mini fruit cakes
SEVEN edible Christmas tress
SIX batches of meringue buttercream,
FIVE pounds of chocolate,
FOUR packets of flour,
THREE times 2 trips to phoon huat,
TWO disaster logcakes,
and ONE litre of whipping cream
On the Twelfth day of Christmas,
my kitchen aid said to me
TWELVE days of baking
ELEVEN cakes in total
TEN blocks of unsalted butter
NINE log cakes baking
EIGHT mini fruit cakes
SEVEN edible Christmas tress
SIX batches of meringue buttercream,
FIVE pounds of chocolate,
FOUR packets of flour,
THREE times 2 trips to phoon huat,
TWO disaster logcakes,
and ONE litre of whipping cream
Yay! It's the Christmas season yet again! How time flies. The only thing difference between this year and last is I'm working now and the only time left to bake is from 8pm till morning. Still that's not a valid excuse for not baking cuz I'll always remember Christmas as a season to give, share and spread the joy :))) With so much things to do and Christmas being a mere 1+ week away, where should I even start. Hahaa plus I've
been so busy baking people's birthday cakes/ anniversary cakes/ and testing out new recipes that time is a major issue. All I want for Christmas is MORE TIME PLEASE!! xxx
Anyway day one of Dec was my Pastor's birthday. What a good day to start the festive season! Decided to bless him with a fondant cake moulded in the shape of a bible. This is my fourth fondant cake up to date and I'm already greatly head over heels with the process of "playing" with it. Taste wise I'm not such a huge fan because I find them too sweet.
Beneath the word of truth lies a rich fudge chocolate cake with layers of thick chocolate frosting. As for the design of the book, I
The little index you see sticking out of the book were glued on using the magical transparent mirror gel. The wonders of the gel which I only discovered as I accidentally opened the fridge. It sticks well. Much better than buttercream. The drape looking cloth hanging from the cross can be learnt from here. However, I used chopsticks in place of the dowel rods.
and there you go. A cake where my pastor describes as " people who literally eat the word of God". Be blessed on this very Christmas season..
More bakes for December. Stay tune.
and there you go. A cake where my pastor describes as " people who literally eat the word of God". Be blessed on this very Christmas season..
More bakes for December. Stay tune.
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