Spaghetti Bolognaise

A Continued Family Tradition

It's end of the year. The weather hasn't been good for the past few days, making me feel gloomy.

We had a half-day out yesterday and when we came home it was time for me to cook dinner. The choice fell on spaghetti bolognaise, a quick and simple pasta dish that has been my mother's signature dish for every birthday occasion in the family when my siblings and I were young, until now. Yes, I am continuing the tradition, however, there's a minor change in the way of cooking the sauce. If my mother cooked and serve the minced meat separately, I would put all of them together. And if some Italian family that I know during serving would mix the pasta with the sauce, I would let people take and put it themselves on their plate so they can have as much as they want. It is quite interesting, though, how people treat the sauce. Some think that it is a kind of soup so they would put as much as they could on the spaghetti. In the end, they have a lot of left over of sauce in plate. What a waste!

The fact is: the tomato sauce is meant to be thick, especially when it is cooked together with the meat, because the meat absorbs almost all the liquid. But it doesn't mean that it is dry. It is just a rich meat sauce. Therefore you should only put a scoop or two of the sauce for a standard size of pasta plate. If you haven't done so, try it. You can't be less than agree with me, I have done this all my age...

Some 17 years ago, I had once learned from a dear friend in Verona, when serving the dish he would put the spaghetti that's already mixed with grated parmesan cheese, put the sauce on the pasta and top it with a cheese slice (because we didn't have mozzarella at that time). Then he put it in the oven until the cheese melted. Wow! That's how the restos do it, isn't it?
Until now I sometimes do that way, but very seldom of course...because nobody in the house could wait even a single minute more. They will keep on coming back when I am cooking the sauce and once I put it on the pasta dish, it will 'disappear' from the kitchen... :))

Rendang Kotogadang

A West Sumatra-Indonesia Delicacy

It's end of year holiday season again. It's time to prepare all your needs for the season irregardless where you are heading to. Holiday is just a season to celebrate. Part of the preparation is to cook Rendang for the family to bring for the holiday. Our holiday destination has limited places of halal food, so we usually bring our own cooked meat and we would have it during dinner time or before we go for an outing. During the day time when we were out, we would normally take vegetarian food that is definitely free of any kind of meat.

This dish is quite a saver. Everybody in the family likes it. I will share the recipe with you in my recipe page. Hope you guys will love it as much as we do.

Bluder, oh Bluder...

Bluder (D) roti - Dutch-style vanilla cake with raisins.

That's what I found from an online Dictionary: A Comprehensive Indonesia-Englis Dictionary by Alan M. Stevens, A. Ed Schmidgall Tellings.

This is a little bit different from the normal bread. The dough turns out to be cake-like-batter, thus it is quite difficult to make it a round shape. In this case I had to use a spoon to scoop it to the cups. Why cups? Again because of the texture, it has to be held by a cup so that it will raise nicely.

My first attempt with the bluder wasn't a successful in look. But the texture was just perfect and the taste as well. I am thinking the next time I am doing it again I will use an ice cream scoop, hopefully it will get a better look.

Klappertaart

Young Coconut Custard


Made this upon my sis-in-law's request. The last time she visited me,
I made klappertaart for the first time. When she was coming again a
couple of days ago she asked me if I was going to make the tart. I assume that she liked the one I made last time. Why not? I asked my hubby to buy some young coconuts, however, there's only a siamese coconut which is smaller than the Indonesian one. Still it's alrite to use it.

From one recipe I got two 8" round aluminium foil tins. Once the klappy was cold enough, everybody's ready to dunk theirs spoons into it. Easy guys....haha, my hubby finish almost half of the tin. My niece had more than a scoop. My sis-in-law? Since she's a weightwatcher, she really took her time to enjoy the small scoop that she had. The tin was empty within two hours and with a big smile on my face, delighted that they liked it. Hey...who wouldn't be happy to find your effort was worth the while...?!

Opera Cake

I was so eager to bake another Opera Cake before the year ends. Had been wanting to do it before my wedding anniversary this mid-month. But I guess my mood just flew off when my darling hubby told me that he would be having company dinner on that very day. Just like last year. So, I put the Opera on hold until a few days later.


When it was done, I quickly divided the cake into a few. This is for free tester for my prospective customers :). Well, it worked alright, because a dear friend straight away asked me to make another one for her daughter's birthday! Not as a birthday cake, though (because her hubby already ordered from a cake shop), but it was a hit! Relatives asking for the recipe. You guys can also have the recipe and bake it yourself. You just need to wait patiently and come back often to see if I have already posted the recipe here... :)) I will also try to upload the 'under progress' picts so you guys can have a better idea on how to do it. But if you think it's too tedious, don't hesitate to give me a buzz and order the cake from me ;)



Here's how my friend, Emi, enjoyed her Opera Cake as her dessert after dinner. (Photo courtesy of Emi on fb)



26 Dec '10

And this is the one that went to Aleza for her daughter's birthday.

Chôux Pastry with Chicken and Cheese

Soes Ayam Keju

Having passion for trying new recipes will always end up with me craving for wanting to bake cakes or cook dishes, like this one. I had been wanting to make this simple yet filling and yummy dish. Since there were too many on the "list to bake & cook", it only got its turn yesterday.

You may think what is in the list until this took me so long to put my hands on... The answer is "hundreds!", because you won't believe it if I tell you the list has a thousand waiting items for me to bake or cook :)

Kitchen activities does not stop at one recipe. Even from one you can create so many varieties. It's your hands and mind creativity...

Back to the chôux, it turned out beautifully with its light brown colour. However, because prior to baking this I had made some Tom Yam Fried Rice for dinner, when I finally put this on the table, my 'troop' was already surrendering...can't take anything else for the evening ^_^

Very well, that means I will have the chance to wait till sunshine and make more lively picture with its help. Meanwhile, I had put the dish in an airtight container and put it in the fridge. That'll do for the night till breakfast time.....

Cupcakes with Fondant

5 December 2010

My (Very) 1st Affair with Fondant



Aren't they so cute...??? I have been holding back to use fondant as a decorating media. Because...people here are very much health conscious that they could not afford to have it because of the sugar content. But there was one fine day I read on facebook that someone is giving a crash course on making basic figurines with fondant. What the...I just jumped in to register and taraaaa...these are the results. I am ready to take the challenge for cakes with fondant orders. Pour 'em in, baby!

Fruity Sponge Cake

I was planning to bake either Opera Cake or Black Forest for Aidil Adha yesterday. Somehow, I gave up the idea because I was asked to make a birthday cake for Philo's birthday on the same day. And Philo's mummy chose Vanilla Sponge Cake as the base cake.

Not to complicate the process, I decided to go along with the cake choice and put in a similar filling with a twist of mandarin orange. Cut it in pieces, and...voila! Nice, soft n fresh Petit Four for the Hari Raya... Enjoy!

Philo and His Flag Cake

I just did another Flag Cake. This time round the order came from a bubbly young chap who's celebrating birthday together with the Aidil Qurban today. This sweet little chap had asked his mother if he could have an Indonesian Flag on his cake. Well, it shouldn't be a problem at all. The only reservation the mother had was the sugar level of the cake. I don't have a sweet tooth anyway so I had encountered sugar alteration most of the time.

Syerli (the mother) chose to have Vanilla Sponge Cake with Blueberry filling and whipped cream covering instead of buttercream. No problem. Customers' request is my command :D. So, there I went to the kitchen and had the cake done. Not much time to think though, just trying to pull off my creativity to its place.

Happy 5th Birthday Philo! May you bloom and groom together with your age. Thanks Syerli for trusting the birthday cake to me. ^_^

Uruguay Flag for Hady

This special request was for yesterday's delivery. A special request from seven-year old Hady, determined his cake should come with an Uruguayan Flag. He is one type of a young man with a strong will and quite critical in analysing things though. That should be including how's the colour of the flag turns up on the cake, I suppose. So, I should be really careful in mixing the colour for the flag. And it was quite a challenging job to get the strong colour of the flag from a buttercream.

I used Frozen Buttercream Transfer technique to make the flag. It would be easier if I had used melted chocolate for outlining instead of buttercream. Unfortunately, I only remembered about it when I was done. Using melted chocolate would make the line more stable since it hardens after a while, and when you fill in the colours the outline wouldn't move anywhere. Now, you can imagine how the outline being pushed here and there a little bit whilst I filled in the other colours. Because this is a flag that should have a straight line, the end result looks a bit shaky on the lines here and there. Well, why not just imagine that flags should be waving on the sky...hehehhh...

However, Hady's mother, whom repeated order this FBC style cake (the first one was for her youngest daughter, Hala : see October's Charlie & Lola Cake), was quite happy to see the result. Eventhough the sun's outline smudged (again because I forgot to use melted choc instead of BC). It was quite a relief. I see that the colour of the cake is a bit dull, so I put a bonus of triple colour flavoured chocolate wafer surrrounding the cake, and voila...it's done!

The cake, as per the birthday boy's request, is Vanilla Sponge Cake. Filled with Blueberry in Light Syrup and covered with buttercream. Such a clever combination that he picked. Yummy! :)

Happy Birthday Hady, may you become a winner in whatever you wish for!


PS: Mind me, the pic above is the cake without cream borders that's supposed to cover the gap between the cake top and the FBC...I just realised that I hadn't put the borders after I did the shoot. Afterwards I didn't have time to re-shoot the cake and have to make do with the one you see here. That is: under a dull kitchen light. :(

Muffin Tape Keju

Fermented Cassava with Cheese Topping Muffin

This muffin is another winner at home. They won my children's taste bud and quickly became a fave.

Even it's not as popular as my Brownie, it has added a new flavour experience for them. Will surely recommend this to you :).

Carrot Cake

Introducing the Carrot Cake that had made almost everybody who'd tried it fell in love with it. Almost? Hehe, that must be because of my son. A picky eater ever.

You see, why I always talk about my children here? Because this is the reason why I jumped the rope and put on the apron. They are everything, and with some experiments I have come to some stage, to know what the likes and dislike in my children's 'book'.


Well, back to the delicious Carrot Cake. I have baked this for many years and to no complaints, because the ingredients are nothing but yummy and healthy. This is my second winner from the oven at home, after my Brownie. 2nd because only my son still having a 50:50 mood on this one. I hope with the time flies, he will like this as much as he likes my Brownie.

Have a bite...and you'll never turn back to any other Carrot Cake :) Hard to believe? Bake one (or order from QnR Kitchen), and you'll know what I'm talking about.

Q's Birthday

I had a very busy week last week. It started with a request from my daughter to have a birthday party like a friend of her had. A simple one would do. Ideally, a simple celebration on D day should be sufficient. But when I looked at the calendar, I know that it would not be possible, because her birthday falls on the same day when the final exam started.

Not to be demoralised by that, I planned an early birthday party. Still a simple one, though. I marked the calendar and invited some of her closest friends from school. Designed an invitation card with my niece and had it printed it at a very low cost. I also arranged to have an edible image for her cake decoration. A chocolate cake but not brownies, was the request from the b'day girl. Alrighty, deary!

And so I just grab the idea of baking a TCCC, that is a Triple Chocolate Caramel Cake of Teh Uceu that I had in mind for quite sometime. At last I had the chance to try it out. I decorated the cake with an edible image of Q with Hannah Montana background. Grabbed the idea from a kitchen forum, NCC. That is really helpful.
The verdict? Not very good for weight watchers, but a heavenly chocolate for chocolate lovers... I guess the kids can afford it. :))


For the goodie bags, I decided to have all home-made stuffs, that is decorated cookies and chocolate lollipop. But...because my time management was not that good, I ended up delegating most of the cookies decorating and chocolate lollipop to my sister and daughter and my kitchen assistant as well :) That is: I can't expect to have a result that I wish for...hahaha...but that's alrite, really. We had fun making all those things and the experience is priceless.


Happy Birthday my Little Precious Girl! Eight is an early number to begin your teenage life. Enjoy childhood while you can! Smoochy...smooch...

Black Glutinous Rice

A few months back I got some black glutinous rice powder from a relative from Jakarta. So I search the food blogs to find out about what it can be turned into. My choice fell on a few recipes, however, so far I have only managed to make a couple of those.

First choice was a Cotton Cake Roll, paired with coconut milk custard filling


Second choice was a Chiffon Cake. I made it when my kids were recovering from bad diarhoea, flu and cough after our trip to West Sumatra last July.


Amazing is...my son who's a picky eater really enjoyed both cakes. I wouldn't guarantee that he would show the same appetite if I cook the black glutinous rice traditionally.


30 Oct '10

Oh yes, I forgot to mention another type that I made with this BGR. During hari raya I made BGR Cookies mixed with sago flour. It was really awesome, and again, my son liked it so much! You can see the pic on my hari raya posting. The recipe? I got it from NCC mailing list: Semprit Ketan Hitam.

It's Official!

I just want to have a quick update before the date changes tonight. I would like to mark this very day as an official day for introducing my kitchen label: QnR Kitchen.

Today, in line with Q's birthday celebration with her close friends, I took the opportunity to introduce my label by putting it on decorated cookie wrappers.


More smart & fun -but serious- works to do, such as time management, planning, design improvement and so on. Any positive kind of support would be appreciated. Thanks for all family and friends that have supported my kitchen activity so far. I look forward to serve you all in a much better and improved way.

Brownie ala Fari

I am not sure how many trays of brownies I have baked since the day before Hari Raya. Even I didn't take any order this time round, but the amount baked was quite substantial. Put it on the table when guests come for Hari Raya visit, that would be the first plate to finish. Replenish it everytime and little would be left over.

In fact Brownie ala me is just the normal type of brownie. Wet and dense. I have made it year after year. Perhaps my hands and minds are so used to it and I do not look at the recipe anymore when preparing it. The comments I received so far is always with a craving sound, asking for more... ;)

But the silly thing is, I can't present a nice photo of it. All the while I can only remember to take picture of the full tray, right after taking it out from the oven. Afterwards, I can only remember eating and chewing the brownie. My kids love Brownie ala me so much, and I think they are so used to it until they can smell it even before the oven give any sign of doneness of the brownie.

One day, I will try to put up a nicer and more presentable pict for you to enjoy. In the meantime, endure with this one. :)

Hari Raya Aidil Fitri Syawal 1431 H - Sept 2010

A Glimpse of Its Preparations

Hari Raya was aroumd the corner. The last week of Hari Raya has always been as busy, especially in the kitchen.

I was quite determined to make something different from last years' hari raya. I made my own cookies this time round. The time and effort for
doing it really need some management more than baking cakes. But I was quite determined; managed to bake 5 types of cookies,
cheese stick (changed it to a horse n tractor shape);

Peanut butter cookies, which I did twice;


Sagu keju (cheesy sago) which was quite tricky but managed to get the shape in place;


Nastar or pineapple tart which is a hit;


and,
Sagu Ketan Hitam (black glutinous rice w/ sago) that made my hands quite stiff in the end :D

Well, you see, if you get the right consistency you will be able to squeeze it easily through a tip from a triangle bag. But if not, you will need some inner energy to get it out. But it was delicious...!!

D-2 (two days b4 hari raya) I made two types of layer cakes. Lapis Prune and Lapis Pelangi (originally Lapis Sarawak). I did the Pelangi first and it took me more than 4 hours including preparation.

The same day, very late at night I started cooking "Rendang". It is a signature dish from my ancestors in West Sumatra. The taste is very unique and so is the method of cooking it. Can you imagine standing 4 hours in front of the stove while stirring without a break for the first two hours? I have done it a few times though, and if last time I used to take turn with someone else, this time round I really did it myself. I stood and stir from 11 pm till 1 am all by myself. Continued cooking until the meats are tender before leaving it to continue a few hours later. Well, can't say 'tomorrow' though, because it was ALREADY the following morning :)). I went to sleep at 3.30 am, woke up at 5 for sahur (early breakfast before starting to fast). Then I continued to process the Rendang until it was dry enough.

You may want to ask, why does it take a long time to cook Rendang? Well, if you imagine, when I started I used 8 litres of coconut milk for 2 kg meat. The end result should be a dried and dark coloured gravy and meat cubes. Drying of the gravy can normally be done gradually, as how I did it. But I only paused when the meat are tender, so the following process was straight to drying the gravy. For me it took around 6++ hours to get the result I wanted.

And that's not all. After done with the cooking, I made two brownies. One for my MIL and another one for my hubby's uncle & aunt. When done with the brownies, I made my last trays of cakes. Two Japanese Style Cheese Cake of Yasaboga.
My hubby was quite restless, because I didn't seem to be ready for going for our last break-fast at my in-laws place. But I made it in time . Wow, such a 2-day marathon!

Sponge Cakes - Black Forest & Green Tea

This time round is an order from Devi. She wanted to surprise her hubby on his birthday that fell on the same day as the group's gathering for fast-breaking during Ramadhan.

She ordered two 9x12" Black Forest. I thought about it and felt that it would be better to have different flavours for two different cakes. I proposed to her to try on the Green Tea Sponge with cream cheese + whippy filling -just like a tiramisu, just change the cheese- and she agreed to it. Well, let's get to work then! :) It is always challenging when your customer is willing to take up the challenge of having a new taste. And it is left on me on how to make the cake turn out great. Here is how it had turned out.


I started baking on Friday morning. My new K didn't give me the result that I wanted (well, I should've given it a try anyway). After two batches of cakes, choc n green tea, I left for work. I came back home and did another batch for the green sponge & half of the choc. Yayyy, they turned out well! Why I baked another half for choc? Because Raqi would surely ask for his share :) I learnt from my experiences, though.

After brushing the cakes with their syrups (lemon for GT, cherry for BF) to help them stay moist, I went to sleep. I continued after Sahur. Made the cheese filling, whipped the cream, putting in all the fillings, covered the cakes, with some interruptions of this & that, including going for JMC class with Raqi. Came back at 1 pm, I started to decorate the cake. I was grateful that the weather was friendly enough that I could work in peace with the whipped cream. Finished decorating the cake just in time to leave for fast-breaking at my fellow KUA friend.

Happy Birthday Arief!

New Member of QnRkitchen

Take a peep!


26 Aug 2010


'tis my kitchen's new family member. Been long for it and had spent much time thinkin' about it. A warm welcome for 'Major K', I hope that our stint will be as sweet for a long, long...time.

Kaastengels a.k.a Cheese Sticks

Yesterday I was very much into baking cookies. Determined that it was the day I should start stocking up cookies for the Ied Fitr Festive. Away from the drowsy cough medicine, I stood from slightly passed 10 in the morning until around 4 in the afternoon. Pfuih...didn't really think that it would take so long to bake them. Or is it because I haven't done a lot of cookies these days?

The cookies did very well. Kiddies liked it and they finished some of them. I managed (at last) to weigh the total of cookies baked. 730g from one recipe. And the process...was killing me >:|

Imagine standing and walking only within the kitchen parameter for 6 hours, you must be asking, how much did I bake? The answer is ONE recipe. Then you'd say, "You must be joking!"...well, maybe yes maybe not. The rolling & cutting just drove me a bit mad, because then some of them would fall apart or broke when lifted to be moved to the tray. My boy also wanted to have his horse cookie cutter to be used. The horse's legs are so thin that the dough would stick in it and therefore add a lot of time to the process. You'll see how it looks like here...


But I am glad enough to know that my skill for cookies from school days hasn't vanished at all. Even so, I still prefer to bake cakes or make a big size dessert rather than making all the tiny miny types of treats.

For you whom are not familiar with the name 'Kaastengels', it is a dutch word that means cheese stick. It is usually shaped like a stick or mini-log. But with the idea that I got from NCC, which uses flower cookie cutter instead, I used my kids 'play-dough cookie cutter'. They turned out cute, though.

I adopted the recipe from my beloved mailing list: NCC Indonesia. I am delighted to discover this forum of wonderful people that helped (and still helping) me in most aspects of baking. Well, that'd be another story. Will tell you about it some other time. For now, I'd better bake some more cookies! :)

Green Tea Tiramisu

 

No doubt that most people would love the classic tiramisu, which is coffee flavoured. However, after reading a book of Keiko Ishida, I felt really tempted to make the Green Tea Tiramisu. My gut feeling didn't betray me. The GTT was as heavenly as its Italian counterpart. Drifting you to a soft & smooth with a breeze... Try it, you'll say likewise ;)

Green Tea Tiramisu

Hola! It's been weeks since the last update.

I have suddenly gotten into the green tea madness. Last week I tried to bake chôux pastry, a Japanese style. Irregardless of the experience with my usual recipe of chôux, I considered this one as a fail. But not to be despaired, the green tea pastry cream was amazingly tasty! So, that's why I decided to try another recipe using this maccha (green tea powder).

Sunday morning, I wanted to make something refreshing after my kids recovered from cold & coughing. But still under a no-ice cream and ice cubes strict diet. Therefore, I made the Italian Tiramisu that uses minimal cocoa powder n coffee dipper. I put aside 1/4 of the cream mix to experiment with the maccha. My kids definitely love the original one, but they refuse anything other than chocolate. Thus, my hubby and I could share the GTT just between us :). The taste? AMAZING!! You should try it too! :). Thanks to Keiko Ishida for sharing the idea of making a Green Tea Tiramisu. Arigatou gozaimashita. Haik!



Not to forget to mention about the Lady Fingers biscuits, I had made them on Saturday morning so that I could just start with the Tiramisu anytime later. But, you know what? My Raqi liked them so much because its sponginess and had them all! In the end I woke up early on Sunday to bake the fingers again and right away made the Tiramisu, just in case he wanted to eat them again...hehehhh... True enough, he was so sad that he didn't find more biscuits because I chucked them all in the bowls, under the cream. And today he called me and asked me to bake them again. Ok, sweetie pie...will do that tomorrow morning. What? Oh no, he wants it tonight :?!

Would you say 'no' to a broken voice you heard over the phone?

Japanese Style Cheese Cake

We had Nisfu Sya'ban prayers at my in-laws' earlier tonite. When i got to know it, I toyed with the idea of baking a JCC to test its market. So, in between the usual hectic Tuesdays - because I need to go to Q's school, pick-up Rq after school, fetch Rq back to school for extra-class, drive Q to Kumon, p/up Rq again n send him home, and lastly, p/up Q - I managed to bake the JCC.

After preparing the ingredients I went to Q's school for a meeting on NDP'10 n YOG. Went home after picking up Rq, We had our spaghetti lunch n then I started the ritual for JCC. Once it's in the oven for a 75 mnts au-bain-marie, I waited for Q's school bus n send Rq for his extra class at once. Q had her lunch n I let her rest for half-an-hour before rushing her to Kumon. JCC was still not done yet.

I picked Rq up fm class and reached home right when the timer on the oven went 'TING'! Good timing! I checked on it and added the baking time another 10 minutes, with a reduced temperature just to get the top browned a lil' bit. When it's done I left it inside the oven for about 10 mnts before opening the oven door. Then I left door ajar for about an hour, so that the it won't get a drastic change of temperature. Meanwhile, I picked-up Q from Kumon. Stopped by at FairPrice to get a tin of fruit cocktail.

Q has another session of tuition with Chang Lao Shi, at home. While she's occupied n Rq is in front of the talking box, I had the time to decorate the JCC with the fruit cocktail and some whippy. Voila!!! Packed the cakes, JCC and Brownies (which I baked the day before).
Once Q's done with her tuition, off we go to pick-up Ayah and to my in-laws... Ckckck, it's not only a hectic day for me though. Q had her part too.

The good part is, I think, the JCC passed the test of taste. The 7" cake went without leftover :)). Fortunately, I have kept some at home and will have it for breakfast with my hubby...hehe, I poured some of the batter in a few alufoil cupcases and baked it together w/ the big mould. Hmmm, can't wait till morning...

Black Forest and 3-Layer Sponge Cake for a Dear Cousin

I just finished two cake-order. Both came from the same person. Siti, my hubby's cousin's wife, had just delivered her third baby boy and is now still under maternity leave. She wanted to send these cakes to her fellow colleagues in school (she works in a school's general office) as a gesture of appreciation for her colleagues and teachers' support throughout her pregnancy.

The first cake is a Black Forest Cake. As you can see, I don't know why I like to have a minimalist look for any chocolate cake that I make. Because I think with the chocolate glaze and a touch of cherry, it shows the exclusivity...no need the 'noisy' decoration...whoaaaa... :)). The BF is made of two layers of sponge cake with the usual dark cherry filling on top of a layer of whipped cream. Cover it with cream cheese and pour it with chocolate glaze. Perfect!



Second cake is a three layer cake, all three different flavour sponge cake. Vanilla, chocolate & coffee. Hmmmm, they are so nice and light! For filling I put a layer of bitter-sweet ganache and cream cheese custard. Hehehe....how much eager I want to taste them after assembly, I can only dream of it. Perhaps I will make it again for the family next time... But the spongy texture was really appealing (I got to try all three flavours when I trimmed the sides ;)).


Covered with buttercream, I was quite lacking of idea on what to 'draw'. Because Siti didn't want any writing on it and just wanted a simple deco. So, after putting the borders I made the body of the clowns sitting at the 'beach sand' of brown sugar, piped out some greeneries and threw some sprinkles. Put the clowns' heads...et voila! A simple and cute cake.

Red Velvet Cake

Klappertaart Wilton

That Sunday, 27 June, my little nephew was coming for a visit with his mother (my SIL) and his older brother and sister. My kids were very excited waiting for his arrival from Bandung.

In the meantime, I found a reason to try out a new recipe that had been going around in the NCC forum. Bought three young coconut at the supermarket, printed out the recipe from Riana's Pennylane Kitchen blogsome and off I went to the kitchen to prepare the dish.

My SIL and kids arrived when the tart went in the oven for the second time with the topping. I think they were also quite excited to see how it'd turned out. But even so, the procedure of having a new dish on the table still applied. They had to wait for me to take the pics... :D. You can imagine how my 17 y.o niece looked so impatient and quickly grab a spoon once I said: "Alrite, ok...done!" But yet I stopped her while she was scooping the tart, "Freeze!" And took a few more pics while she held the spoon in the air. Good job, girl...you are such a good partner in food photography...hehehehhhh

Here you go.....


They happily had the tart. It was yummy and delic...but would be better when served cold. Just couldn't wait for it to be chilled, could they?

The Princess and Buttercream Frosting

I have been wanting to do this. Dressing up a little princess with buttercream frosting! :)

A lot of reasons why I kept on delaying it. I don't have the right mould, I'm not sure on how much bc (buttercream) I should use, I am not confident I can do it...bla bla bla. All that I could actually brush aside if I really HAVE TO do it.

Let me tell you what really stopped me doing it. I've got sooo many things I want to make & bake until I don't know which one I should do first. Many times I go to the confectioner shop and putting a lot of things into my basket. After which I try to reselect them and usually more than half of the content will go back to the shelf, because I know that those items will not be used until perhaps a week or even a month later. That means the expiry date is getting nearer without me using it.

Yesterday, as any other Tuesdays, I dropped Qinan off at Kumon. Then went to Popular with Raqi to satisfy his crave to look at all the toys there. After that we went to Poon Huat, the nearest and price friendly confectionery shop. Going round the extended shop [yes! It eventually extended to the next door unit and they bring more items in - getting me even crazier and stay longer on every visit :)] and thinking what I should make/bake yesterday. Since there were too many occasion that I forgot what should have really be bought, I stood up and recalled what were my abandoned plans. *Tuing...tuing...* Aha!! Than I remember about my little princess that's been waiting to be dressed up. So I ended up buying nothing, because I have all the ingredients available at home.

After Q finished her Kumon session, we went home. I let the kids watched TV and played. I was off to the kitchen and preparing ingredients. I baked a chocolate cake which I divided into two small moulds (6" diameter). One of the mould is for the upper part of the skirt. It's 6" at the top around 2" at the bottom. The bottom will be the skirt's waist.

The process was a normal one, interrupted by this and that. Including picking up my hubby from the airport after a meeting there, leaving my baked cake cooling down in the meantime. Came back frome there I made the buttercream. Soon it was dinner time, had to make the dining table.

When everybody were in the living room watching TV after dinner, I took out the princess from her 'cave' (been putting 'her' in a box) and washed her. I stood her up beside the two stacked cakes...ayayyy...how could the princess have become so tall? Meaning I can't dress her up that night because I need to bake more cake to cover her long legs. :)) Well what to do, just went to sleep and this morning I baked another cake. This time round is a steamed cheese brownies (Brownies kukus keju) that I sourced from Radin Cake [Thanks for the recipe Nia!]. Never made this before, and I did not steamed it. I baked it instead. Put some into mini cuppa for tasting, and...hmmm...delicious.

So, what's left to do is to dress up the cake...oops, I mean: The Princess.
I'll update again when it's done, together with the pics. Wish me luck!

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11 July 2010

Hello again!

Promised to update with the pics of the dressed princess. Didn't know it will take another fortnight just to log in to the blog again :(. Anyway...I shall present it to you now...

Peanut Butter Eggs

This little thingy has created madness in the house. At least for the kids and me. I was searching the web for something different to nibble on, and it happened during Easter time, till this Peanut Butter Eggs caught my attention.

It's small and easy to make. After the first time, we had made it again and again for countless times. You can try to make it for yourself with the recipe I got from http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/Peanut-Butter-Easter-Eggs. You can adjust the sugar level to your liking, as long the dough can hold together it should be alright.

Well, needless to say. Just dip it and indulge! :))

Gateau L'Opera

I really didn't know how I ended up making this exclusive cake. I name it exclusive, because the process is somehow complicated. However, I am glad that I have passed the test.

It started when a far relative of mine asked me if I could make tiramisu or gateau africain. Tiramisu isn't a problem, but gateau africain I had not done it yet. She said that she has a few occasion in May, including her birthday and her sis', her wedding anniversary and the arrival of her new baby boy just one week before her birthday.

During the week before her birthday, I was so tempted to make this masterpiece called L'Opera. I had been reading and comparing recipes from different web sites. Somehow my choice fell onto Dorie Greenspan's The Splendid Table whom adapted the recipe from Dalloyau, the Parisian patisserie. I proposed this cake for her birthday and she said okay! Tamtaraaam.....

I started two days in advance by making the joconde (almond cake). In fact all parts of the cake can be made in advance. You can either keep it airtight in the fridge up to a week or in the freezer for up to two months.
After making the joconde I made all the fillings, coffee syrup, coffee buttercream and ganache. I leave the chocolate glaze to do it at the very last minute when the cake is assembled.

What I can tell you, since it was my very first opera, I kept on looking at the recipe and (still) comparing it to others :). So, i ended up quite late since I started. Fortunately, I have to leave all the ingredients in the fridge before starting to assemble them into one piece. Hufff...

The following day, after work and after dinner -hehe- I started assembling the cake. Doing it layer by layer. It was such an exciting process (well, at least for me though :)). I can feel my adrenaline hurried down my spine and I feel the excitement in my blood.

Well, enough said. I'll let you peep into my excitement ;)

Here it is >>



Another thing that I can say is: it is worth the try. Really worth.

[Special thanks to Meita for the challenge]