Author Archives: Dariel

CHINESE NEW YEAR COOKIES CLASS

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Have you tried baking ten different types of cookies in a day? Yes I did! I had attended the intensive Chinese New Year cookies lesson conducted by Mrs Fong again. I had learnt a lot from her in the class and will try to bake some of her recipes next week. Just went to Phoon Huat and NTUC fairness to get those ingredients and it was very crowded over at Phoon Huat. Guess next year I will stock up the ingredients one month before Chinese New Year to avoid the crowd and get ready for baking! Here are the cookies that I had learnt for the lesson:

 Kueh Bangkit

A very challenging cookie to bake!

 Kueh Bahulu 

 Kueh Rose

 Almond Cookies

 Kueh Makmur

 Suji Cookies With Almond

 Cashew Nut Cookies

 Peanut Cookies

 Walnut Cookies Hup Tao Soh

 CornFlakes Cookies

 Posing with my group mates after the class.

 Group photo after the class. Posing with the cookies that we had learnt for the classes. Can’t wait to start baking and try out the recipes next week! Thank you frog for this Christmas gift. :)

Stay tune for more post!

HAPPY NEW YEAR (2012)

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Year 2011 had just ended yesterday and let us welcome year
2012! A new beginning of the year and hopefully a great year for me.

In just 3 weeks time to Chinese New Year and stay tune for Chinese New Year cookie recipes.
I will start baking pineapple tarts next week for myself and my family members.
Enjoy this long weekend holiday and hope everyone will have a fruitful and
great 2012 ahead!

ICE CREAM MAKING @ TOM PALETTE

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 Happen to pop by Tom Palette and know that they are conducting ice cream making classes on Sunday morning. I am a fan of their ice cream and without hesitation I had emailed them to check on the price. The price of the ice cream making class is $60 for 2 hrs session and I find that the price is quite reasonable. Furthermore the ice cream is hand made without using the ice cream maker. That makes me want to learn more on how to make delicious ice cream that they are selling over @ Tom Palette. The class is held every sunday morning from 11am to 1 pm. I had asked Sharon if she is interested to join me and she readily agreed. This is the first time we go for cooking class together.

 TOM PALETTE

We are each given an ice cream recipe booklet on how to make various flavour of ice cream. Getting ready for hand on ice cream making. So excited!

 The teacher had introduce to us the ingredients and tools in making the ice cream. The main ingredients are whipped cream, full cream milk, sugar and egg yolk.

 After his explanantion, it is time for hands on ice cream making session. In this class, we are making horlick and chocolate ice cream. Below are some photos i had taken during the class.

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 Making the custard

 Melting the chocolate   

 Me posing with the melted chocolate

 Ice cream buffet while waiting for the ice cream to solidify. We can choose and eat any ice cream. They even have lavender flavour ice cream.  Very unique flavour. You either love it or hate it.

Enjoying my ice cream while waiting for our hand made ice cream from the freezer.

 Nice cosy area

After some time of waiting, our ice cream is out of the freezer. Time to churn our ice cream!

 Churning in progress!

We had really had fun making the ice cream and I had not regretted attending this class. Tan and I had promised our friends to make ice cream for them. We shall fix a day soon for ice cream making and makan session. Practice make perfect and looking forward to make ice cream for them.

Been busy baking cupcakes for my friends as christmas gift and some orders from my sis, aunty and friends. I am glad that they like my cupcakes and it really makes my day hearing compliments from them. It really motivates me to bake more.

Time to head for the oven to bring the scones out. Stay tune for more updates!

Cheers!

:)

SMRT CIRCLE LINE MAKAN SESSION – SPICY PERANAKAN

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Hi all, I am back from my Phuket trip! Shall continue with some back dates of the blog post.

Still remember on my previous post on the SMRT circle line makan session? Below I will blog about the event and the food that I had tried for that day.

Yes finally got to see Dr Leslie Tay in real person. He is the blogger for the famous food blog Ieatishootipost. He had greeted us with a warm smile and a firm handshake. The meet up venue for the makan session was Bouna Vista Circle Line Station at 1.30pm. We had a photo taking session at the entrance of the Bouna Vista Circle line before proceeding to Spice Perananakan.

The lady boss of the restaurant had given us an introduction of the history of Peranakan
and the food that we had eaten.Nyonya (Peranakan) cuisine came about as the result of inter-marriages between the Chinese immigrants and the local Malays. The aunty told us that Chinese man will still want to eat Chinese food despite married to the local Malays. A fushion of Chinese and Malay cuisine. Local ingredients such as chillies, belacan (shrimp paste) lemongrass,galangal, turmeric, etc are used to cook and bring out the flavors in the dishes. The men were called Babas and the women were called Nyonyas. 

 IKAN TEMBAN (SARDINES)

Fried Sardine topped with caramelised onion sauce. The sardine was dried till very crispy and it goes well with caramelised onion sauce. You can just put the whole fried sardine into your mouth and munch the fish. The lady boss had told us that each batch of caramelised onion sauce will takes around 4 hours to cook with someone closely watching and stirring it to prevent it from burning. It really takes a lot of effort to just cook the sauce but is definitely worthwhile for the quality food.

 PAPAYA TITEK

 It takes a lot of time to choose the right type of papaya for this Soup. The lady boss mentioned that they are the only Peranakan restaurant that sells this nonya dish. A healthy dish to start off the meal.

 SATAY AYAM

 In Peranakan cuisine, satay ayam means curry chicken. As we all thought satay means meat in stay stick. The curry is not too spicy and the meat is very tender.

 FISH CURRY

 The ingredient for the fish curry is fresh and the fish is very tender too. Thumbs up.

 KUEH SALAT ( COCONUT CUSTARD)

This kueh is cooked by the lady boss’s husband. It is not too sweet and one word to describe the Kueh Delicious!

It is not easy to prepare quality Peranakan Cuisine and Spicy Peranakan take a lot of effort to prepare their dishes. They will want their customer to taste real authentic Peranakan food. SPicy Peranakan is opened on Saturday if you have small group gathering for 20 people, you can call them up to book the place. They can prepare the menue for you and each person will cost about $18.00.

After the food session, Dr Leslie had share with on how to take good food pictures using camera and iphone. From the picture above, all of us were concentrating in his sharing session.

 We are all crowding around Dr Leslie as he is giving us the iphone apps that he had created (ieatHawker). It is really nice of him to give us the apps for free. Thank you Dr Leslie! A very useful guide on where to look for delicious food at the hawker center. The food was categorised and it is very easy to navigate the application. The Map and address of the place will be shown. The app is so handy as it had already summarised Singapore’s Best Hawker Food. You can search for delicious food on the go so quickly. The app will cost $0.99 if you download this app.

After the makan session, it is game time. We are suppose to answer some question in the questionnair by SMRT and whoever can the most answers right in the shortest time can win prizes!

 Me with Dr LEslie :)

I am so happy that Frog had won the book written by Dr LEslie : The End Of Char Kway Teow. Thank you frog! :)

Frog and I had really enjoyed the makan session organise by SMRT. Great food, good company by Dr Leslie and not forgetting the prizes that we had won. It is really a well spend Saturday!

Click here for the post by Dr Leslie on Spicy Peranankan.

SHORT GETAWAY

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Yes finally a short getaway trip with frog to phuket tomorrow! We will be going with SY and YF too. Our first holiday trip with them and will be staying in Phuket till next Monday. Wohoo! Time to relax and enjoy the beach, sea, sand, seafood and shopping! Stay tune as I will blog on the local food in Phuket.

I had not been blogging these few days as I am down with flu and busy with work. Still a lot of post to be blog about and publish. I hope that there will be internet access in out hotel so that I can continue blogging in Phuket. Looking forward to the trip and Phuket here we come !!!  :-)

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 A lot of things to be done after the trip:

 Christmas order on my red velvet cupcakes and scones from my sis, aunty and friend.

Getting Christmas gifts for my friends and family.

Clearing outstanding matter at work.

Blogging.

Although I am busy, it is a good thing after all to do things that I enjoy doing. I am glad that my family and friend love the red velvet cupcake that I had baked. It really brightens up my day when they compliment my baking.

 I will be back! 2 more days to weekend! Yeah!

Time to go zzzz… Medication had taken drowsy effect.. Good night! zzz

MARBLE CUPCAKES

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I had finally decided what to bake on this lovely Sunday morning.
Marble cupcakes! Love the two tones colour of the cupcake and the marbled
effect when the cake is sliced. Got this cupcake recipe from the book Cupcake
Heaven edited by Jennie Milsom. In the recipe, the marble cupcake is topped
with creamy frosting and chocolate chips. However, I had changed the frosting
to chocolate cream cheese frosting with chocolate rice instead. I am not a fan
of frosting that is too sweet and by using cream cheese the frosting will not
taste that sweet but at the same time taste delicious.

Here are the Ingredients Used for the Marble Cupcakes:

150g (5.5oz) butter, at room temperature

150g (5.5oz) butter, at room temperature

3 large eggs

125g (4.5oz) plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 175 ˚C (350˚F). Line two 12 cup muffin
pans with paper cups.

Step 1: Beat together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy.

 Step 2: Beat in the eggs one at a time.

 Step 3: Sift the flour and baking powder over the top, then fold in.

Step 4: Divide the mixture into two bowls. Stir the vanilla extract into one; sift the cocoa over the other bowl and fold in.

Step 5 and 6: Place alternating spoonfuls of the two batters in the paper cups so you finish with distinctive dollops of brown and white batter.

Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until well risen and golden brown. Remove the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

The chocolate cream cheese Ingredients (Recipe by Mrs Fong):

250g cream cheese

170g melted chocolate

Whisk cream cheese till soft. Add in melted chocolated and mixed well.

It is so easy to make this frosting and as you can see from the recipe above, you need not to add any icing sugar to it.

This is how the marble cupcake looks like:

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 I had topped it with chocolate cream cheese frosting and sprinkled with some chocolate rice. I love the combination. Yummy!

Tips:

  1. Remeber to allow the cupcakes to be cool first before adding the frosting to it (if not the frosting will melt).
  2. Use Valrhona dark chocolate for the chocolate cream cheese frosting.

 I am also submitting this marble cupcakes post to Aspiring Bakers #13: Enjoy
Cupcakes! (November 2011) hosted by Min of Min’s Blog.

CUPCAKE MAKING CAMP – (CHRISTMAS THEME)

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 With Christmas around the corner, have you decided on what
to bake or cook for Christmas party? 2 weeks ago, I had attended Mrs Fong
baking class on cupcakes making (Christmas Theme). This is my 2nd
time attending her baking lesson. The first class that I had attended is the
making of pineapple tarts   that is one
year ago.

The cupcake making camp is a one full day class from 9am to 5pm. In this class, I will get to learn 2D and 3D fondant design, different type of frosting and different type of cupcake making.I had enjoyed Mrs Fong’s baking class as we are able to hands on from making the cupcakes to decorating the cupcakes with fondant, cream and frosting.I believe in hands on for baking so that I will remember what I learnt and Mrs
Fong will walk around in the class to tell us if we are doing the right things.
The class is very interactive and she will go around table to table to see how
we are doing and correct us if our baking technique is wrong. In this class, I
had learnt how to do 2D fondant and 3D fondant design. It is so fun but it really
takes a lot of effort and time to complete one fondant design and now I
understand why those cupcakes with 3D fondant design are so expensive. Below are some pictures that i had taken for the class.

 The very cute 3D fondant snowman and angel that i had made @ Mrs Fong’s class.

Below are the pictures on what other students had done in their cupcake design:

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 Angel

Hopefully the pictures above can give some fondant design ideas for decorating the cupcakes for the upcoming christmas.

I really enjoy myself at Mrs Fong’s cupcakes making class – Christmas Theme and I learnt a lot in this class. I am looking forward for Mrs Fong Chinese New Year cookies baking class if she is conducting. Click here for pineapple tarts making class conducted by Mrs Fong.

Click here if you wants to know the upcoming baking/cooking classes conducted by Mrs Fong.

Stay tune for the next post on the fondant that we had used on the class and the colouring as well. Yesh i am looking forward to the ice cream making class with my best friend next SundaY morning! Cheers!

Have a great weekend ahead~! ~I am still thinking of what cupcakes to bake for submission to Min’s Blog. The due date is nov 2011. Time to start thinking!

Stay tune! :}

TWELVE CUPCAKES

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 I had heard a lot of good. reviews from magazine and blogs on Twelve Cupcakes open by Daniel Ong and Jamie Teo. Happen to be at Millennia  Walk on Tuesday and got these cupcakes from Twelve Cupcakes level 1. I really love the décor and ambience of the cake store- It is very cosy, neat with yummy decorated looking cupcakes placed nicely in the glass counter for customer to choose from. Think they are having a promotion right now after 7pm, 3 cupcakes for the price of 2 only.The staff told us when we are in the store. Each cupcake cost $3 and the daily special cost $3.50. I have wanted to try their red velvet cupcakes but was already sold out.  However their other cupcakes looking delicious too and i took some time to choose for my 3 cupcakes. The cupcakes are put in a pink cupcake box. So Sweet!

 Cupcakes from twelve cupcakes

My Selection of Cupcakes

PB Chocolate CupCake

Cookies and Cream CupCake

Mocha CupCake

The cream on top of the cupcakes is not too sweet and overallsweetness of the cupcake is reasonable. I had eaten cupcakes that is so sweet that I do not eat the creams/frosting. However for these cupcakes from Twelve Cupcakes, I had eaten the whole cupcake including these cream. The cupcakes are moist and soft. Although the cupcake is not very big in size, the taste of it compensates all. Quality food. Not too sweet but rich in flavour!

The cupcakes are worth a try and they have another store in United Square #B1-60. I just saw from twelve cupcakes facebook wall that they are opening their 3rd store soon! Hopefully they will update soon where will be their 3rd store location.

Cheers!

Twelve Cupcakes

SMRT CIRCLE LINE MAKAN SESSION

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[Nuffnang] Congratulations! You are invited to our 4th Makan session with Ieatishootipost – I can’t believe my eyes when I saw this mail in my inbox! *Roll Eye*

 I am so happy and excited to receive the mail today indicating that I have been selected to be part of the exciting Makan Session with my favourite Top Blogger Ieatishootipost! I had sign up this last month and been waiting for their reply as there are only 20 attendees for each session!

With the opening of the Circle Line network stages 4 & 5, SMRT is hosting a makan session where 20 attendees get to join the famous food blogger and eat for free.

This is a great opportunity for me to know where to go for yummy Peranakan food introduces by Ieatishootipost. I have been reading his blog and I am so happy to be able to meet him in person on 3rd Dec 2011. Looking forward to the makan session at Buona Vista!

 Brief Makan Session Itinerary

  1. Meet at Your Favourite Top Blogger at the respective MRT Station
  2. “Take attendance” and Introduce yourself
  3. Short walk to the food place from the respective MRT Station (Est. 5 to 10 mins only!)
  4. Begin our ‘Makan Session’! Yum Yum
  5. Up close session with blogger
  6. Photo taking time!

You can click this link to sign up for the SMRT Circle Makan Session with famous blogger!

24 Sept 2011 to 25 Feb 2012

 Cheers!

CORN SOUP RECIPE

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Finally one more work day to weekend. This week is considered short due to the holiday this monday. 4 work days and finally to sat! Wohoo.

I had tried cooking the corn soup this monday using my friend recipe and within 20 minutes i had cooked a pot of delicious corn soup. It is so easy and yummy. I love corns! 

Here is the recipe for the corn soup:

MAIN INGREDIENTS

  1. 1 can cream corn
  2. 1 can chicken stock (399ml)

Ratio 1:1

ADD ON INGREDIENTS

  1. Mushrooms
  2. Chicken thighs cut into cubes
  3. Crab Meat
  4. Corns
  5. Small Prawns

Steps: 

  1. Mix one can of cream corn with one can of chicken stock in a cooking pot.
  2. Let the soup heat to boil.
  3. After which add in the ingredients that you will like to add. Example mushrooms, chicken cubes, crab meat, more corns or even small prawns.
  4. Slowly heat the soup to boil.
  5. Off the gas cooker and immediately add in 2 eggs to thicken the soup.  

 It is so easy to prepare and yummy delicious too. If you love to eat spring onion aka ’chong’, you can garnish lots of them and it is ready to be served. 

 Best to serve hot.

It took me about 10 minutes to prepare the ingredients and another 10 minutes for the corn soup to be cook. The above recipe is enough for 4 – 5 people. 

Try it over the coming weekend and i am sure your family will love it!