December School Hols

Jerome and I did a few round of baking during the school holidays to pass time. This is one of them that he did mostly on his own. It's a simple brownie recipe which only need to mix all the ingredients in the mixer in easy steps.

Of course he loves the end product cos it's so yummilicious with the marshmallows that was toasted in the oven for a while before serving. Yeap... expect a gooey mess while eating.

Dinner : Baked Fish

layers of cheese, mushrooms and fish

Ingredients :
3 tbsp Olive oil
2 tbsp minced garlic
Shitake mushrooms
Button mushrooms
Dried breadcrumbs
Grated Parmesan cheese
2 to 4 White fish fillet (I used Sutchi fish)
Salt and black pepper to taste
Sour cream
Japanese Mayonnaise

1) Preheat oven to 200'C

2) Heat 2 tbsp oil over medium heat. Saute garlic till brown and add in the mushrooms. Stir till tender. Transfer to a large boil making sure that the mushrooms are dry with no sauce.

3) Heat remaining oil and add breadcrumbs, fry till lightly toasted. Add to bowl of mushrooms then toss with cheese.

4) Place fish in a single layer in a baking dish. Sprinkle salt and pepper. (Note that cheese is salty too)

5) Stir together sour cream and mayonnaise. Spread mixture over fish then spoon mushroom mixture over. Bake for 25mins or until fish flakes when pressed with fork and is cooked through. Serve hot.

Amount of ingredients varies according to taste and the size of the bakeware used.

Ham and Cheese Quiches

My new weighing machine which comes with thermometer function is showing that today's temperature is above 29`C, definitely not a suitable day for making pastry...

But my ham is gonna expired soon so I just had to grit my teeth and tackle the gooey mess..

Thank goodness I still have some pastry margarine in the fridge to mix with butter so that the fat will not melt too fast under this crazy heat.

Making this quiche is definitely a hilarious experience for me cos I was basically racing against the melting butter, battling against a boy who insisted that I should make cakes instead, juggling a crying toddler who is in a bad mood for the whole day and ignoring the urge to throw the sticky dough into the bin. When I finally did the shells for the quiche... i came to understand not all goodies are meant to be mini sized. Yes... i only have mini sized muffin tray so i used that. End up there's very little room left for the egg mixture.

But against all odds, these shortcrust pastry did not fail me... it is definitely yummy! Though it lacks the savoury fullness a quiche usually have.. the pastry is packed with buttery fragrant and a nice melt in the mouth texture.

Vol-au-vent

Check this out!!! It's been ages since i made these...

It didn't turn out well this time round. The weather's real warm thus melting the pastry margarine faster than desired. Not to mention I had to leave the dough halfway thru to run down to pick dear Jem from the school bus.

It's still flaky, nicely layered but on the dry side and unevenly risen.

It was filled with tuna stired fried with shallots and seasoned with black pepper, tomato and chilli sauce... yum!

Sponge cake!!

Finally!! with some help from Irene, i managed to fluff up my sponge cake...hehehhehe.

But made the mistake of coating it with buttercream...hahahaha. I just wanted to play w the piping tools so made the cream. But i really dun like buttercreams.



Use some of the remaining creams on the cupcake..

Bake Bakery Bake

I was ill for quite some time... pretty unhappy that it took so long for me to recover this time round. So I decide to pick up my spatula and mixing bowl again to pass time. Yeah.. i know, i was supposed to rest as much as i can. Oh well, how much can one rest in the present of the 2 'monkeys' bouncing around.

I had tried chocolate cupcakes, butter cake and Japanese cotton cake.. all which i wasn't too satisfied with. Think i stopped baking for too long already thus just can't get the feel back.. thanks goodness before i get thoroughly discouraged, these little cuties turned up pretty decent. I decided to make these Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcake after Jerome complaint that the butter cake too oily to touch and wants to be fed instead... and the banana flavour was added in by accident... i bought the wrong flavour of fresh milk... oh well, it did turn out nicely fragranted.

Won't be stopping yet... i just gotten some nice advices from Mummy Irene to fluff up my sponge cake. Gonna try again soon... not to mention to get some lemon to bake some vol-au-vent... my favourite! YUM ! Yes, you guessed it right... i'm still not well... haiz~

Cupcake Class at Shermay's

Seriously... took me a long time before i really decide to part with the school fees.. well, in the end, i comforted myself that the methods can be used on big cakes too. Now, i look forward to lotsa pretty cakes!!!

These are my creations!! not so mei mei but i'm happy with the first time effort!!








These are the originals by the teachers... mebbe one day mine will be just as pretty!!! But then again, Vivian who went with me made almost perfect ones already... haiz~ think i must practice more

Going Western

Shopped at Carrefour last night and came across some lambs on promotion... so bought some to have a special dinner treat. Hahaha... the kids definitely didn't fuss in clearing their plates!

The kids had honeyed grilled chicken with buttered potatoes and asparagus. First time Jayden attempted with the pick.... he's pretty good at it. I guess its simply 'gluttony' at work.

My Rosemary lamb (marinated with garlic, black pepper, olive oil and fresh rosemary, oven baked for 13mins @ 180`C) was accompanied by tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and basil, buttered potatoes and asparagus with jap mayo and bacon bits.

Although Mark gotten the bigger piece with extra bacon and asparagus rolls, it didn't manage to satisfied his ever growing tummy. He had to make noodle ommelette in the end. Haiz~ there goes all the walking exercise.

Chocolate cupcakes

Supposed to try out this mini chocolate cupcakes quite some time back cos we bought the tray and paper lining for some time already. Mark helped to clear the housework yesterday so that I can bake. Hmmm... think his face turned as black as the cupcakes when i confessed I had lost the recipe.

Thanks to Joey who passed me this recipe to bring the smile back to his face.

But I skipped the frosting cos i find frosting really too sweet for my liking though she suggested a cool cheat way of using nutella. Added in chocolate buttons in the middle to have a gooey chocolate filled centre instead.

Chocolate Cupcakes:
1/4 cup (25 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 cup (120 ml) boiling hot water
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) (57 grams) unsalted butter
1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated white sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2/3 cups (95 grams) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and lightly butter or line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Cupcakes:
In a small bowl stir until smooth the boiling hot water and the cocoa powder. Let cool to room temperature.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Then in the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat until incorporated. Then add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.

Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 17-20 minutes or until risen, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

More photos : http://www.flickr.com/photos/ting-family/sets/72157600776362639/