Forever 21..Forever Frens..

30th Aug is a special day. It's PX's birthday! Come to think of it We have know each other (Including L in the group) since Sec 2? Wow... 12 years of friendship! OMG, I've shocked myself even, must stop counting ! During this 12 years, we have missed a couple of her birthday celebration, as she is always oversea, pursuing her education .. career .. dreams.. From a timid gal in secondary school times, we have witness her mature into the PX today. We've kept in touch and would always meet up at least once a year. Birthdays are no exceptions!

It did not take me very long to decide what to give to her. Yes.. a chance for me to practice .. I decided to give her a Birthday Cake made by ME! =)

Well.. the flavours were limited as PX dun like chocolate and so I settled with a Peach Layered cake... The method of making this cake is the same as making the Strawberry Shortcake, only that we will be using PEACH. Also, instead of using Daniel Tay's recipe of the genoise sponge which I used for my Bro's Bdae, I tried another recipe from Happy Home Baking.

Well .. And so I spent half of my Saturday making this cake. As usual, I am always having problem with decorating the cake. But this time managed to cover more or less of my shortcomings with the help of some balance Lady Fingers left from my Tiramisu attempt...heehee.. Anyway, I am determine to take up some professional lessons to brush up my cake decorating skills, that's for sure!

A message to Dear PX:
You have always been the superwoman in the trio. Independent, Smart and Pretty. On this special day, I would love to wish you all the success in your future endeavours. Always pretty (Remember to teach me the know how of the dame fake eyelashes!) To be able to meet a person who appreciates and cherish you. Good health and happiness! Happy Birthday !

(PS: Hope my cake is not that bad. All my wishes are in the cake !)

Tiramisu - Learning the Hard Way...

My quest to make tiramisu was sparked by my dear fren JP who made me this specialty of hers on my birthday. Believe a number of you had seen it on my FB. Well.. I got the recipe from her and also looked up the internet. Finally I decided to test this fool-proof recipe - Macha Tiramisu (courtesy of Happy Home Baking) out on Wednesday after my Yoga class.

As I have leftover mascarpone cheese from my last bake, I reckon I did not have to but new ones without checking the leftovers in the fridge. And so I got all what it is needed from Cold Storage and went home. When I was about to start mixing my cream mixture. It was then that I realised that there is something not quite right with my cheese. It was lumpy and watery. I tasted it and was fine, therefore I concluded that it is due to the refridgeration and went on with my recipe. But as I went on, the weirder my macha tiramisu became. It was not creamy instead it was watery... But what was done was done, I jus shove the mixture into the fridge and hope for the best the next morning.. In the morning, an ugly looking watery cake awaited me... was super sad..

I threw the spoiled cake away and decided to make a new one (Traditional Tiramisu) the following night. This time round I bought fresh marscarpone cheese! And it turn out well! I used the recipe from Happy Home Baking and also used Baileys instead of Rum and it turns out really well! I lover Baileys... Yummy! I will definitely make this again and also try out the Macha version of it eventually. Most importantly, must use fresh mascarpone cheese! Well.. I learned it the hard way...hehehe...

My First-Ever Bizzar Bazaar - Day 2

Today is Judgement Day! After a day of work, turning my mother's kitchen and dining into a war zone, finally today I will be setting up the store to sell my minis! I was really happy and excited.. yet scared that nobody will buy my bread. Hubby changed $50 into smaller changes as a start, when 10am striked, hubby loaded the trolley with the free mineral water and me carrying the set up table cloths and signage went to the MPH to ballot for our table number.

When we reached there, several stores has been set up and is already bustling with people. There were other competitors selling food and I was beginning to feel the pressure. After setting up, our business start. Was really slow, as no one wanted bread for breakfast! With so much aunty stalls selling beehoon , yam cake and meesiam.. my bread was the last choice on their list... i felt sad .. Then my first ray of hope came. It was an indian dad with his 2 kids. He bought suger sticks, although was only 1 packet, but I was already very happy! Business started slow, but with the help of good publicising from my MIL and FIL soon a few old neighbours came to support. We even started to sell the mineral water to generate more income.

JP and HSM came as promised .. Best fren! Support me and came and took pics.. they joined in the lelonging and selling mode. I took this chance to walk around and see what other ppl were selling. I even bought a pair of earring and food to eat for lunch.. ahha...

At the end of the day we manage to breakeven earning $70, while we drove the balance stock of bread to my mother's house so she can give the bread to her aunty frens.

The most valuable lesson i have learnt from this whole experience is to do market evaluation. As the ppl who patronize the bazaar were mostly old people or aunties and uncles in their 50s, it was hard to entice them with my bread. Instead, they were much interested in meesiam and beehoon. Second thing is to think fast. Although the mineral water was meant as free gift when the ppl purchase the bread. Don't be a block head when someone wants to give you money for the drink only! hahaha... Well.. i reacted fast and brought in extra income to cover the lack of sales of the bread. hehe...

Thanks to FIL/MIL/all the aunties from Hubby's side and JP/HSM for coming down to show their support and help! I will definitely join this bazaar again next year and will come out with a menu that suits and serve the crowd better! In the meantime, I am sooo into this FLea/Bazaar craze, will be planning to rent a place at Tanglin Mall Bazzar with my sis and JP to sell off my old clothes, accessories, books and my sis's own creation. Will post the details once I confirmed everything! Do show us your support then!! =)

My First-Ever Bizzar Bazaar! - Day 1

I woke up real early on Saturday and started my first batch of bread dough.. was not smooth sailing like the previous time. The plan for the day was to make 4 batches of dough to make 200 over mini buns, more than half are hot dog and the others are mini cheesy sugar sticks.

After my first batch of dough, I left it to proof for an hour while I start on my second batch. It was in the midst of kneading that i was gradually feeling tired. How was I going to pull through batch 3 and 4?! But still I persist. I wanted to do most of the dough rather than relying on PX's help on it. PX is real nice to lend a helping hand to me on that day. Thanks PX! She reached my house just in time to start moulding the dough from the first batch into individual minis. And so our production line starts.

Batches of freshly baked minis starts to appear from 2pm onwards till 7pm. In the middle, we rested a bit to take lunch. Looking at these pretty buns, it was really worth it. But the sad part is the dough was not as fluffy as my previous bakes. I concluded that the water i used this time round was too cold. Should have added more room temp water to make it not so cold... =( The hot dog flavoured ones were jus nice. But my sugar cheesy were a bit tough.. Still the show must go on!

PX left at 6 plus and then Hubby came at 7 plus, just in time to do the packing for the last batch of minis. And my dear sis went out and came back with the improved version of the signage. The truth is, it was much much more preofessional from what I have printed .. well .. she IS the pro what.. hahah..

And there you have it a short summary of the production day for my mini buns for sales. What I can say was that without help from these good people around me, I would not have done it on my own. Think my mother had to clean up the kitchen 1 more time after I left. It was 1 HECTIC day! At the end of it, i was jus looking forward to a nice bath and a goodnight sleep... Zzzzz...

Thank You all again for your help and also your effort for not eating up too much of those minis. I know is very tempting especially freshly baked ones... =p

Bazaar-23rd August 2009 (Sunday)

Wow.. have been 2 weeks since i have updated.. Apologies for those who have waited! Have been really busy during this 2 weeks... all my weekends are burnt! There was SAFRA run and my own Birthday celebration going on.. And coming weekend will be preparing for the Bazaar where I am selling my Home-Made BunBuns! Really excited and hope that I can sell all of them. That's why I need all the support from you guys out there!

Venue of the Bazaar: Laguna Park Multi Purpose Hall
How to Get there: Bus 48, 197, 196, 31, 36 If you are driving, please go by ECP exit Siglap Turn right on first traffic light and turn right again on first available turning.
Time: 11am to 2pm (Please be early as there are also other things to see and buy!)

Do look for me at "PUFFY'S HOME-MADE MINI BUNS" ! See all of you there!! =)

BreadTokTok??

Well .. last weekend was still a bread making session for me. I took this bread making session to test out a few things for the coming charity drive on 23rd Aug. Basically it would be quite impossible for me to knead 2kg of dough manually, so I had to do kneading using my mother's machine. But turns out that it can't really handle a 900g dough, I had to knead by hand in the end.

Next I tested out different amount of dough to make different size of bread. I intend to make small ones as I can make more of those with the limited amount of dough I can produce maunally. Finally, I also tried the transparent mayo recipe I downloaded from the internet for the pork floss. Turns out really sweet. I may need to reduce the sugar and also change another type of butter for my next try. But I must say that it still tasted better then pork floss with mayo...

Recipe for the Transparent Mayo as follow:

Ingredient A
100g, Fine sugar
5g, Salt
50g, Butter
450g, Water

Ingredient B
200g, Fine Sugar
50g, Corn Starch
200cc, Water

1) Combine Ingredient A into a big bowl and bring to cook over low heat. Make sure that stiring is done and that sugar and butter gets completely melted.
2) When mixture A starts to boil, combine Ingredient B into mixture A and continue to cook over low heat. The mixture will starts to thicken and get transparent in color. Allow cooling before using the mayonnaise.

And I got something like this in the end...

Hot Dog with Pork Floss Bread... Sinful...

Hotdog Bun with Mozza Cheese..

Last But not least.. the texture of my bread.. nice and fluffy...

This weekend I am going to take a break from baking bread. Still have no idea what i am going to bake or do since it is going to be a long weekend for me but definitely I will be doing some planning for my upcoming trip which I am soooo excited about.. YEAH!! Let's celebrate our nation's birthday! Happy Birthday Singapore!! And thanks for the long weekend !! =p