Reflections on January

What a year it has been so far! I started at an emotional and spiritual high. I was thankful about all that I have and grateful for all the blessings that God has bestowed on me. Even with the seemingly impossibly high sales order targets set , I was certain that God will help me achieve these targets. I felt almost invincible.

But lately, this feeling has been overwhelmed by exhaustion and weariness. I am still thankful for God's blessings, but the work load and pressures has started to take its toll on me. I spent too much time at work and too little time with my children. Even my daughter has given up on me. Everyday, she'd remind me to call her from work and I have not kept my promise for the past 3 weeks! Today she told me that if I don't call, its ok.. then we see each other tonight. I felt terrible.

A dear friend from university days lost her battle against cancer and passed away on 30 Jan. She had fought hard and with such determination for the past 14 months, she will remain an inspiration to all of us who know her. I pray that her family will find peace and strength to carry on without her. Rest in peace, Ai Bee.

My hubby and his mother (my MIL) cannot see eye to eye on many things and that added to my stress.

Can hardly find time to bake. Even when I do, I cannot find the time to post/update this blog.

I pray that things get better this month... I know it will!

Happy New Year 2010!!

Happy New Year, everyone!!


I am looking forward to a better year in 2010.

On the family front, hubby is between jobs, so I pray that he finds a job that he loves and hopefully, soon. Gabriel is going to primary one this year! The anxiety hit me just yesterday and I panicked as I tried to pack his school bag and found that there are missing books! Samantha will be going to preschool alone this year but I know she'll be just fine. Nathalie is now 15 months and I will be praying really fervently that she outgrows most, if not all her allergies this year.


On the extended family front, I will be praying for salvation for my family. Especially for my mother. Pray that my prayers be answered.


Work wise, I will be much busier this year with two added portfolios plus one 'ECA', but it will be much more fulfilling and a mega learning experience.

These are pictures of my kids taken at Vivo City. See how cheeky they are?

Here's little Nathalie.

Wishing you health, joy, peace and love!! God Bless!

Santa's List

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to all!!

Santa knows who's been good and who's been bad....

Here's cute little Rudolf, with his red nose. And my new letter stamp put into use..

Cake is chocolate fruit cake adapted from December 09 issue of 'Food and Travel - Kitchen Culture'. Original recipe is called ' Ebony and Ivory Christmas star cakes', containing a dark and light double layer fruit cake. I only made the dark layer. And here's the recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup cranberry
1 cup dates, seeded and sliced
1 cup currents
1/2 cup sultana
1 cup dried prunes
1/2 cup rum
60 gm butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 eggs, lighted beaten
1/2 cup chocolate chips or 2 tbsp cocoa powder
3/4 cup plain flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp bicarbonate soda

Steps

1) Mix dried fruits and rum and leave overnight
2) Pre- heat oven 150 degrees
3) In a second bowl, sieve dry ingredients
4) In a third bowl, mix butter and sugar to combine well, mix in eggs slowly until well incorporated
5) Fold in dry ingredients
6) Stir in rum-soaked fruits
7) pour into a 7 or 8 inch square tin and bake for about 1 hour. Start the skewer test at 45 min. If skewer comes out clean, cake is done
8) Take cake out of oven, use skewer to poke holes and brush with rum.
9) Continue to feed rum if desired

This is my first fruit cake and I used too big a tin, resulting in a very shallow cake. I was also too busy to check the cake and let it bake for an hour straight and the cake turned out a little dry and crumbly. Feeding of rum helped. What I liked about the cake is that its not too sweet.

BOSS cake

Did this quite some time ago. For my boss. I only did the sugar figurine only as the cake was already ordered from one of the hotels.

Here's wishing for better results in the next financial year.

Its a square piece of biscuit, brushed with a little sugar syrup and then wrapped in fondant. Then I used edible ink to draw on it.

Just wondering if anyone interested to attend a free fondant figurine class? Will be quite free end december, provided I don't go for a last minute holiday. If you are interested, please write me. It will be in Singapore, of course.

Gabriel's mini golf cake

Whoa.. have not updated this blog for sometime. Had been busy whipping up homestyle pot roast, peking duck, pizzas, cheesecakes, steaks etc... virtually, that is. Had been faithfully playing the facebook game called 'Cafe World', checking-in everday to make sure my customers have food to eat.. haha.

Did not do much real baking during this time, but tried try my hands at cooking new dishes - steamed three-colour egg, 'wah tan hor fun', herbal chicken roll, etc. My hubby says I'm a cookbook cook so the results is highly dependent on the quality of recipes.

We celebrated my son, Gabriel's birthday at McDonalds again this year, with his K2 classmates. I got him to look through the latest Wilton's yearbook to choose a design that he liked. I had wanted him to pick the pirate cake on the cover, but he picked this mini golf cake.

I really must stop getting my children to pick their own designs. I told him 'I don't have that cake stand' and 'that's too much cake for 15 children'. He looked through the book again and concluded 'that's the only cake I like leh'.

So, here is my version of the mini-golf cake.

Yes.. it looked messy and amateurish. I had a big scare that day. The party was after church, so I left the cake at home, covered with shrink wrap as I had no cake box of the right size. The shrink wrap was a huge mistake! I think it trapped the heat inside and caused the fondant to melt! I did not realise it until the cake started to slide badly when my race-car driving hubby drove us to the birthday venue! It slided a good 8 cm, almost off the cake board. The car ride was the worst journey in my life. I tried to balance the cake the entire journey and at the same time. fomulating plan B in case the cake did not make it to the party.

Fortunately, it did. Look at the picture above and you'd see how hole 2 has slided to the side of the cake, the crack on the front and smeared chocolate at the front too. Thankfully, the worst damage was at the back which was not so important.

I had problems making the little golfers stand, so I put little cardboards behind them to prop them up and a skewer to hold them in place.

This little lady golfer right at the bottom had weird looking eyes because one of them fell off during the journey and I had to fix her urgently, without tools. Hahaha...

Anyway, the kids had a great time. And the adults were impressed with the cake.. still. I get too easily stressed up for my own good, signature of the Melancholic.

Happy Birthday Nathalie!!

Actually her birthday is on 2 October, a Friday. But we had an early celebration yesterday with family members and friends. Nathalie was truly a bundle of joy, she was friendly with everyone and had loads of fun.


I invited a friend and her family to help me with the decorations, unfortunately they could make it. But look what they sent me - a complete decoration pack!!

1) Birthday Banner : 'HAPPY' done by the very creative son, 'BIRTHDAY' done by the artistic dad, 'NATALIE' done by the beautiful daughter, banner assembled by the very talented wife


2) Ribbons : beautiful pink, yellow, green ribbons. Loads of them. One set of them even linked up for the cake table.

3) Balloons : '1st birthday balloon', lots of cute little balloons and complete with balloon pump

4) Table cloth : pink and white table cloth for the cake table


5) Stationery : scissors, double-sided tape, extra heavy duty double sided tape, etc. How thoughtful!

Thanks Andrew, Kris, Wei Ian and Rae. I am so grateful!




As usual, I spent my whole morning and afternoon creating the birthday cake. The main cake is a 10 inch carrot cake. I omitted walnuts this time simply because I ran out of walnuts. I think it tasted better. :-) Nathalie has a favourite lion puppet which I tried to re-create here. Teddy is to fill some empty space. The yellow flowers adorning the side of the cake is marshmellow.





Here's my little princess in the same dress as the sugar figurine.








For our group pictures, she was always smilling and waving. She has this totally adorable 'Miss Universe' type wave. :-)


OK. Back to the cake. A 10 inch cake is definitely not enough for my 40 guests. So I made some chocolate cupcakes filled with M&Ms. The M&Ms were a mistake. The cupcakes were speckled with blots of blue, green, yellow, red.... I though the M&Ms won't melt as they were bakable ones, but they failed me. However, I did manage to dress all 18 cupcakes prettily, each one a different design - flowers, ribbons, animals and even a basket.




Each child had their own favourite and thankfully no clashes. My favourite is the little lion. Took me 1.5 hours to decorate them all. Unfortunately I did not have the time to take a picture of each cupcake.



Here's the cake and cupcake assembled.



Here's my prayer for my little princess.


Lord, we thank you for this little bundle of joy. You have given us the most perfect gift. We pray that you cover her with your mercy, wisdom and protection. Have mercy and heal her of her allergies and relief her from the itchiness and rashes that bothers her ever so often. Give her the wisdom that comes from knowing and fearing you. Cover her with your protection, that she may grow up healthy and strong. We ask for all these in the most precious name of Jesus, Amen.

No Fuss Flaky Apple Turnovers

A couple of months ago, I attended the Pastry making class at Creative Culinaire. I learned how to make danish pastries and criossants and finally knew the difference between criossants and puff pastry. I had once tried to use ready-made puff pastry to make croissants and wondered why it did not rise. Through the class, I learned how terribly tedious it is to roll, fold, chill, roll, fold, chill (multiply that like 3 times) the dough. I have not had the courage to attempt it at home yet.

So when I come across this recipe from King Arthur Flour, I was really glad its so simple. Its called blitz puff. It uses the blender to cut the cold butter quickly without melting it. King Arthur Flour website is great! It has all the pictures and details so you know if you are on the right track. I must remember to keep going back there for other recipes.

The smell in the kitchen was Sooooooo good when the puffs were baking in the oven that it in itself was worth the effort (also because the effort was so minimal).

You need to work the dough very quickly. Especially in hot and humid Singapore, or else the butter will melt and end product will not be flaky anymore. Further, the dough is really really soft. So soft that you'd think that its impossible to roll. So you need to be really generous with the dusting of flour. Keep picking the dough up and dust the bottom so that it does not stick to the table.

I made mine into apple turnovers, inspired by the very talented Lily Wai.







Mine did not look half as flaky as Lily's nor King Arthur's, nonetheless, it was DELICIOUS! My entire family loved it. The first batch I made was almost wiped out soon after it emerge from the oven and that was about 10pm at night. My son ate two. I made them again for my son and daughter's school picnic.


Replicating the recipe here for your easy reference and mine too.


Dough
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup cold butter
1/2 cup sour cream


Directions
1) To make the crust: Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder.
2) Cut the cold butter into large cubes, blitz it together with the flour using a blender till it's unevenly crumbly, with larger bits of butter remaining intact.
3) Stir in the sour cream. The dough will be craggy, but cohesive.
4) Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface, and bring it together, if necessary, with a few quick kneads.
5) Pat the dough into a rough square, then roll it into an 8" x 10" rectangle.
6) Dust both sides of the dough with flour. Starting with one of the shorter (8") ends, fold it in thirds like a business letter, flip it over (so the open flap is on the bottom), and turn it 90°.
7) Roll the dough into an 8" x 10" rectangle again. Fold it in thirds, wrap in plastic, and place in the refrigerator to chill for at least 30 minutes (or overnight) before using.


Filling
3 tablespoons Instant ClearJel® or cornstarch
2/3 cup sugar
3 cups raspberries, fresh or frozen or apples - peeled and cut into cubes
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, to seal pastries (optional)

*If you use cornstarch, you'll want to dissolve it in a little cold water, rather than stir it into the sugar.


Directions
1) While the dough is chilling, make the filling. Mix the sugar and ClearJel till well combined. If you're using cornstarch, mix it with enough cold water to dissolve.
2) Add the sugar mixture to the raspberries, tossing to combine. Stir in the vanilla and cinnamon (and the cornstarch/water mixture, if you're using cornstarch).
3) Heat the mixture in a saucepan over very low heat, stirring, till the berries soften and fall apart. The mixture will be thick and jam-like, even though it doesn't really warm up much; this will take under 5 minutes. If you use cornstarch, cook and stir till the mixture bubbles and thickens. You can prepare the filling up to several days before; cover and refrigerate till you're ready to use it.
4) You can also do this in a microwave; heat till the berries soften, then stir till they fall apart and the mixture thickens, like jam.


Assembly
1) When you're ready to assemble the turnovers, preheat the oven to 400°F or 200 C. Roll the chilled dough into a 16" square. Cut sixteen 4" squares, for small, triangular turnovers. For round turnovers, use a turnover press to cut nine 4 1/2" rounds. Re-roll the dough scraps, and cut 4 or 5 additional rounds, as many as you can get out of the scraps.
2) If desired, for a tighter seal, brush two adjoining edges of each square (or half of each circle) with 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water.
3) Place about 2 teaspoons filling slightly off-center in each square. Or about 4 teaspoons slightly off-center of each round; a level tablespoon cookie scoop works well here.
4) Fold the turnovers in half. If you've cut the dough in squares, fold in half diagonally, to create triangular turnovers. Press the edges with a fork to seal.
5) Place the turnovers on a baking sheet, preferably one lined with parchment to catch any spills. Bake in the preheated 400°F oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until they're a deep, golden brown; you may see some of the filling beginning to ooze out.
6) Remove the turnovers from the oven, and cool on a rack.


Enjoy!!