Chocolate Cake

All i wanted was to bake a sponge cake to eat but i ended up with......

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My first ever cake that is covered up by chocolate ganche.

Well its actually my first ever cake that is being decorated. Otherwise i only have cakes that are just bake and eat with no cream or any other sorts.

Well this cake was just an accident i would say. It all started out with me buying a brand of whipping cream that tasted weird to me. Not that it has turn bad or what but I could just taste something weird about it despite my family saying it taste fine. Maybe its juz me...

So well since i had baked a basic sponge cake already and i had whip cream that i might never ever use again and with a whole lot of choc on hand, I decided to make chocolate ganche out of no where. It juz came to me.

This is to try out if i could cover the whip cream weird taste by using lots of choc and eat it with my fav sponge cake. And the results I love it. the weird taste is all gone and i have a good tasting chocolate ganche. By puting the ganche and cake together......

I get a good tasting combination.

Well since it was just for experiment, I cut a piece of cake and spread the ganche all over for tasting. I love it. I was really happy since i had many failure before. Its either the cream din taste good or the cake was a problem. well i dun really have a good oven for baking due to the heat not being able to generate proper for even cooking. Any Sponsers?????

Well overall my mum like it and my dad ate a slice too after taking a look at it. Haha Knowing my dad is not into my baking end product, its good to see him eating a piece cause even when i offer it to him, its either something he dun like (which is usually the case) or it just do not look tempting enough for him to try a small bite.

Lastly my 2 brothers, it was ok for them. Both of them have really diff taste bud than me. Most of my bakes when i say its terrible, they love it and when i say its good, to them its just ok.

Well when it comes to food its hard to please everyone.

*HAPPY* \(' ')/

Another step forward to better baking end product..

and to learn how to take better pictures. Well using a cam phone it just not as gd as a cam.

Marble Yorgurt Cake

Saw this Recipe from 'thelazychef' some time ago but did not attempt to try it as I'm a no yogurt person. Not a yogurt fan but there was something in me asking me to try making it and have a breakthough by trying to make stuff i don't like to put in my mouth. Well I'm a rather picky person while it comes to food.

Well the chance came when at my workplace while working temp, gives free yorgurt a (1litre tub) to every department. With only 5 ppl in my dept including me, do not eat plain yogurt, I took the chance to take the whole tub home to try out the long awaited recipe that was going through my mind ever since i came across it.

Plain yogurt is sure not everyone's cup of tea. It has a acquired taste to it that not everyone can stomach it. Even my mum prefer flavoured yorgurt as to the plain one despite being a yorgurt person.


Below recipe is copied from thelazychef website.



Ingredients (A)

85g unsalted butter, cut into pieces 170g sugar (original recipe uses 200g)
2 tsps vanilla extract


Ingredients (B)

-whisk together till smooth
2 tsp instant coffee granules
37g unsweetened cocoa powder
70g sugar
60 ml water

Ingredients (C)

2 eggs

Ingredients (D)

-sift together
225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp plus
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt


-240 ml unsweetened nonfat yogurt






1) Preheat oven to 180C.Grease a 21 cm tube pan.

2) Cream butter and sugar in (A) till light and creamy. Beat in vanilla. Dribble in (C) slowly, about 1 tbsp at a time, beating constantly for about 2 mins*

3) On LOW speed, beat in 1/3 of (D). Mix until just combined. Beat in ½ the yogurt. Beat in 1/2 of the remaining flour mixture, followed by the rest of the yogurt. Lastly, beat in the rest of the flour. Take care not to overmix.

4) Measure out about half of the batter and fold in (B). Set aside.

5) Alternate large spoonfuls of the white and chocolate batters into the pan.

6)Use a table knife to marble the batters together in a zig-zag or circular motion, taking care not to blend them too much.

7) Bake for 45 to 50 mins till skewer inserted comes out clean. 8)Cool in pan for 10 mins. Unmold and cool completely.


* if mixture curdles after adding in eggs, try adding in 2 tbsps of the flour mixture and beat on LOW. Mixture should look smoother, continue adding flour and yogurt.



The Outcome......


My mum likes it, my 2 brothers it was ok for them but not something they wanna eat it again cause of the taste of yogurt and my dad, he does not eat wat i make unless i say its really good. Otherwise bad tasting food stays with me and gets eaten up by me wahahaha!!!

Personally i like the smooth texture and the quiet taste of the yorgurt with each bite. Well guess it was good enough for me and it was something new to what i always bake. ( I only bake things i like to eat!!!)

A good fresh start to many more new 1st times in baking..................

Loong Fatt Tau Sar Piah

Pardon the blur Picture..............

Presenting TAU SAR PIAH that is so good.





It swept me away with the first bite.

Its really the best Tau Sar Piah I've eaten. The pastry is buttery,fragrant and crisp. Together with the sweet tau sar filling, Its heaven!! I like it that its compact but yet light in the texture. Its so good that you have to try it yourself.


Loong Fatt Eating House & Confectionery
No. 639 Balestier Road S(329922)
Tel: 62534584

Heard that there is another popular shop named 611Tau Sar Piah. Would go try it if the chance come to make a comparison. Otherwise Loong Fatt is my No. 1 Shop to go buy Tau Sar Piah.

First Month

Its a Newborn Baby Girl for my Colleague!!!



Time to spread the Joy to Friends and Relatives.......

Presenting..........................
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CHOCLATE CREAM TARTS....











Well Chinese would usually give out cakes and red eggs to friends and relatives in celebration of the couple newborn first month. Thus i was rather surprise with a new welcome of chocolate cream tarts. (Call me country pumkin if its not the first for you to receive something diff instead of the tradition. HAHA!!!)



Here comes the sad part. Despite the pretty, welcoming, come and eat me look of the tart, it tasted nothing like how delicious it looks to eat. Reason was that the cream din really taste good. It tasted like it was made with cheap low quality chocolate. As for the tart, it was not bad. I can juz eat the tart without the cream. Guess they have to improve their standard of their cream for it to my yummilious!!!!

Christmas Cookies???

Well Christmas its defintely not around the coner but i just had to make these christmas cookies for fun due to all the remaining icing and chocolate i had from some cake experiment i was trying out.

Well was not very careful with the temperature thus it was on a brown side. It still tasted good with all the chocolate coating and icing.

Its cookies that even kids can help to decorate it. (Well i guess everyone must have heard alot and i do mean alot if this sentence when it comes to making cookies and using icing to deco it.)

Even my younger brother gave a helping hand by decorating one or 2 of it for fun but he ain't a kid.

Well as i was not careful with one of the cookie, the head broke and my brother being naughty deco the 'Headless and Naughty' cookie as seen on the slide. Din even notice it till my mum pointed it out while i was taking a picture the cookies. We both had a gd time laughing.

See!!! another bonding time together by having a good laugh. Baking really bring people together. Everytime i bake my brothers will be my critics. Though they are not very good coz i have higher expectations but its good to know that they enjoy eating wat i bake.

Ice Monster

Mango, my favorite fruit beside watermelon and honeydew. I'm always on the look out for anything that contains mango or are mango flavoured.









Ice Monster was featured this show "Da Xiao Tong Chi"aka 'Food Glorious Food'. Finally i was at Plaza Singapura thus decided to go try it out. Well I was satisfied after eating it. The mango was fresh and juicy and best of all sweet. It was really worth eating.



The mango sorbet was good too. It was not too sweet and if i'm not wrong its self made. Overall it was really good. Only problem was that they serve it with some milk poured over it. Well somehow it seems to affect the end taste of the whole dessert. The finishing taste was just milk and ice and somehow the end taste did not leave the taste of mango lingering in my mouth. Guess there should take a leaf out of a book from MOF where their mango dessert is served with mango sauce.

Jurong Hilltop Resturant

As the title says, its a resturant in Jurong at the Hilltop. Well went there on my 3rd day at work with my collegues coz they wanted to treat the Yvonne whose attachment is ending. My luck i was treated too. Din have to pay for it.

Well this resturant is located next to Jurong Birdpark further up.They have jap,western,indo and korean food. Actually they are more famous for their teppanyaki. Heard its being around for a long long long time.

Well having to offer so many kind of crusine, it really ambitious of them. Well i had the tempura udon and sad to say the soup was rather salty. Its really just a simple dish and all i was looking at was to have a great tasting soup but it was a disappointment. Maybe the cook din bring his tougue out that day.

Well other dishes that were order was the Redang which was tough, the korean sets-the spicy chicken and prawn well there was no complain bout it, another korean set the stir fry beef which was not too bad and a salmon set which took forever to come.

For side dishes, we had chicken wings, california maki and satay. Well the sides were not too bad but not great. No speciality/originality that differ that from other restuarant or food stalls.

Well the next time maybe I should go try the teppanyaki instead. Since that is wat they are famous for to recomfirm my decision that its a place to go once in a long while since its at a out of the way place and the food there is average with an average price.

The only thing i enjoy most was the view they had. Its really breathtaking.

The building where the resturant is at

The View

Entrance

Tempura Udon

Korean Spicy Prawn Set

Korean Beef Set

Well din take pictures of the rest cause we were all hungry..................

Diamond Crips

Is it call a cookie or biscuit. This has been rather confusing for me. How do we actually define whether this piece of snack is a cookie or biscuit? Well some say its the same while some may refer biscuits as a savoury snack and cookies as a sweet snack. So what is the real deal?

For me,if it is cripsy and cut out from a dough its a biscuit and if its soft and full of fillings like chocolate chunks in it, its a cookie. How bout you?

A few days ago did this chocolate biscuit and it tastes not too bad. Well my brother did complain there was too much oats in it. I guess he just got the one that happens to have too much oats in it. The rest was ok. The problem was that it was rather dry guess i sprinkle too much flour when rolling out the dough and use white chocolate instead for better presentation.

Chocolate Almond Bun

Original recipe was Chocolate and Hazelnut Bun. Well could not find the Hazelnut in store thus change the ingredient to almond. It has been a long time since i last made bread. Dun really have the time to wait for it to rise but since i'm on holiday,its a totally different story.

Despite having a bread maker at home, i have not use it for about 4 years.Wondering if its still working? Well i personally love to just knead the dough and well homemade bread are the best.The freshness and captivating aroma of just out of the oven bread its just simply the best.

Well for this recipe the chocolate flavouring was lacking. Guess i should have used another brand of cocoa powder and added more chocolate buttons in it but i like the crunch of the almonds in each bite.

Its a great teatime snack beside breakfast.Well it can also be food on go. Good for someone like me we likes to eat breakfast and rush out of the house for my appointment in the morning.




Awaiting for the dough to rise










An individual shot




Group Shot

Cafe 18

There has been alot of Hong Kong Cafe booming around in singapore but i've only been to Xing Wang Hong Kong Cafe coz it sells my fav food. Recently went to this HongKong Cafe located at 15 Cheong Chin Nam Road opposite Beauty World Shopping center.

Cafe 18 is owned by this HongKonger as far as i heard. There were discounts going on for students,special set meals and a 15% off the bill.

Nothing much to boast about as the wait of food was long despite it was after lunch hour and there was only 3 customers beside my parents and me. The taste of food was average. What we ordered - Fish Head with black bean sauce,fried rice and a pork chop baked rice.

Fish head was not too bad but the baked rice was a disappointment. Under the sauce and pork chop was fried rice with egg. The combination was totally out and it was too oily. Guess their speciality is not baked rice. Should have tried something out of their special menu.

Potatoes

Below quotes are from http://www.all-about-potatoes.com/

'The United Nations have officially declared the year 2008 the International Year of the Potato in order to “increase awareness of the importance of the potato as a food in developing nations”

Take a look at this five facts about potatoes:
- a potato has only between 70 to 100 calories
- a potato is about 80 % water- a potato has potassium, vitamin C, iron, and fiber, protein, carbohydrates, calcium, and magnesium
- the potato was the first vegetable to be grown in space in 1995
- There are about 5,000 potato varieties in the world

Can you believe all these??

These are all new to me. Never knew so much in a potato beside the fact it taste great in anyway you cook them. Boil, stew, bake, deep fry juz to name a few.

My fav way is baking them and below are 2 different ways of making them. Baked Potato and chicken pie and extra cripsy potatoes.

Baked Potato and Chicken Pie, a recipe learned during Secondary School days. How i miss those days....








Extra Cripsy Potatoes, it really came up cripsy!!

Mango Shaving Ice

Mango Shaving Ice from Xin Wang Hong Kong Cafe. Well there is a few branches but i always frequent the one at marina sq. Sad thing is that they seem to be getting smaller in portion and the price remain the same at $6.90 not including service charge and GST.

Well its a dessert for at least 3 ppl and 2 if u've eating at least 3-4 hours ago. Today went to the one newly opened at anchorpoint and had this dessert again. But all tks to my frens who are willing to share it with me, knowing i love mango they always eat this with me when we visit. And oh well coz i'm the picky eater among them.

The branch at Anchorpoint was not bad. Their serving was big till we 3 din fiinish it up. Wasted but we were all too full. Well felt they could add more mango and more of the syrup. Otherwise its good enough for frens to sit around and chill out while eating and 'shouting' and 'blaming' each other when the ice tower falls.

The next one would go try the Ice monster at Plaza Singapurd. Heard its not bad.

Apples..

The first trees to produce sweet, flavourful apples similar to those we enjoy today, were located many thousands of years ago near the modern city of Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan.

The Greeks were growing several varieties of apples by the late 300’s BC, and the ancient Romans also grew and loved the fruit. Researchers have even found the charred remains of apples at a Stone Age village in Switzerland.

European settlers brought apple seeds and trees with them to the New World. Records from the Massachusetts Bay Company indicate that apples were being grown in New England as early as 1630. In 1796, in Ontario, Canada, John McIntosh discovered a variety of apple which is today enjoyed by people around the world--the McIntosh Apple!

Apples have also appeared in legends in our past. In the Bible, Adam and Eve are tempted by apples in the Garden of Eden, and in the Swiss story of William Tell, an archer is arrested and then promised his freedom if he can shoot an apple off his son’s head with an arrow.

Taken from http://www.geocities.com/perfectapple/welcome.html


Apples are great ingredients for baking and i came up with this simple recipe using apples.

Apple Muffins, a combination of 2 of my fav food to 1. (actully its 2 of the many fav food i love)

Results you may ask??

YUMMY!!
Its moist in the inside and yet some cripsiness on the outside. It came out the way i like it.Even my brothers enjoyed it. Well they are my food critic .