WElcoME 2010!!

Time just pass so fast after my 25th birthday! So fast it scares me sometimes!COncluding the Year 2009; much has happened, some good some bad.. but most importantly I enjoyed every bit of it!

1) I got married! Preparing for a wedding is hectic but was definitely worth it!
2) I started this blog! A little space where i can share my bakes, food and happenings!
3) I graduated from NTU! Was a long 5 1/2 years for struggle. The process is definitely made more endurable by my mates in NTU!
4) Getting my house keys and renovating it! Can't wait for it to be completed in Jan 2010!
5) Ran in several runs most importantly completed 21KM in standard chartered with hubby!
6) Finally set foot on the land of the rising sun - Japan! A place where I definitely will go again.
7) Felling in love with flea markets! Not jus because of the money made but the atmosphere and company made me keep going back!

Well these are just some of the things that had happened in YR2009, I shall keep the not so good ones to myself since i would like to start YR 2010 on a lighter note. In any case, these not so good things shall be overcomed as times pass and bringing people closer... =)

So much for YR 2009 so what are my resolution for YR2010?
1) Settle down in our new home soon!
2) Start selling some of my creation - cupcakes/cakes
3) Start learning how to drive

Well, not sure these can be consider resolutions or more like wishes.. Last but not least, I sincerely wish all my readers, family and loved ones a Happy new year ahead! Good Health and Huat ah!!!!

Flea Affair @ China SQ CentRAL

This is my second flea for the YR 2009 and i am still loving it despite having to wake up early in the morning to set up the store. This time round bro and WX managed to come and support Sis and me!

Big thanks to C for this lobang! The place was good with air con and toilet just nearby.. =) I am proud to say although the crowd was not as much (so the other tendants who has been there for previous weekends said) My sis and I managed to earn the stall rental of $45 and with a nett earning of $60 over bucks.. Yay!

I met and chatted with some really nice ppl, eat tibits, talk nonsense and made good money! WX was really motivated to sell stuffs too after seeing sis and me.. and so I am happy to announce:

Our next FLEA AFFAIRE still @ China SQ Central will be on 7th MARCH 2010 Sunday Level 1B Booth 79!!!!!!! Do come and support! There are levels of different other stalls selling all sort of things!
For this March Flea, sis, WX, bro and me will be sharing selling our stuffs..so please SUPPORT!! Yay! =)

PS: For those who are interested in renting a space as well you can go to L2B of China SQ and look for Micheal and Stacy's store (right side from escalator).. they are the nice organizer of this weekend bazaar. Do note that you must rent the stall for 4 weekends straight. Total cost will be $180. I did heard from Stacy the rental may increase later on so action fast fast to get good price!!

ReCipE ReQuest

Coraine.. apologies for the long wait ... here goes the recipe for the Brownie Cheesy cake and Icing.. =p

Brownie Cheesy cake
Ingredients:
190g dark chocolate, chopped into pieces
50g butter
2 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup plain flour
1/4 cup self-raising flour

Cream Cheese layer:
90g butter
250g cream cheese
1/4 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
3 1/2 tbsp flour, sifted
2 tsp vanilla extract

Direction:
1. Grease and line a 16x16 cm square cake pan
2. Preheat oven to 180 degrees
3. Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler, set aside to cool
4. Best eggs till thick, add sugar gradually till creamy
5. Fold in sifted flour, followed by chocolate mixture until well combined
6. Spread chocolate mixture to the base of cake pan
7. Top with cream cheese filling
8. Bake for 30mins until firm. Allow to cool in cake pan.
9. Refrigerate brownie until set

Cream Cheese Filling Direction:
1. Beat butter, vanilla extract and cheese together till creamy
2. Add sugar gradually and beat till fluffy
3. Add in eggs, one at a time until it is completely combined
4. Fold in flour and mix until well blend.

Icing
Ingredients:
100g Icing sugar sifted
1 egg white ( you can replace this with powdered egg whites more hygenic and longer shelf life.)
a little bit of lemon juice.(optional)

Direction:
1. Beat the egg white roughly then add in the icing sugar
2. Add in lemon juice or other flavouring as desired at this stage.
3. Add in water/milk to adjust the mixture of the consistency as desired.
4. Add colouring to icing as desired.

ChrIstMaS Eve CeleB

Good People...Good Food... no better way to spend Christmas Eve..
I am not those kind of person who fancy to squeeze in the crowd and countdown to christmas.. Tried before and was really sweaty, no toilet, no bus home and tiring... And so .. every year the 3 of us XL, PX and I would have a small gathering to countdown and gift exchange to christmas. This year my bro, sis, WX , Mum and Dad join in the BBQ and gift exchange with exceptions to my parents.

Instead of log cake i did 8 cupcakes since i have a lot of ganache and icing left from my log cakes and Wilton class.. but ended up we were too full to eat any of them.. pity..

After the sumptous dinner, talk, gifts exhange and laughters, XL, PX and I continue our countdown and celebration at KBox @ Clementi. We joined in their countdown which includes participating in their game. XL won us 1 round free drinks and it was the first time i cannot finish my drink in KBox!

Well.. I shall not bore all of you with words.. will let the pics do the talking.. =)

ChrIstMas Bailey's LoG

This log cake was created for a christmas eve party organized by T and H. Both are long time friend of hubby and they are always the one who initiate and organizes nice parties and gatherings at their house.Which i feel requires a lot of effort and a big heart. Christmas eve is no exception. It was a pity that i could not be there as I had a BBQ with my own family and friends as well. And this made me feel even more obligated to bake something for their party. And since it was a pot luck party, I felt it is most appropriate.

For this cake, i spend the longest time in thinking what flavour to make. I did not want to stick with the conventional chocolate ganache or chantilly cream, which i felt was really boring since i can get it easily from any bakery for 20 over bucks..
And then Tiramisu came to my mind. Why not combine Tiramisu Cream with Chocolate ganache? And so I tested it out on my first trail.

My dear bro and his classmates who were having a BBQ on the weekend before christmas eve, became my testers.. hahaha.. A fun bunch of ppl to be ard with.. full of jokes and laughters. I had good reviews from them and some pointer of improvements.

With those valuable hints in mind, i made the log cake for the pot luck the day before 24th after work. I am not really satisfy with the rolling of the sponge on the second time as the timing was a bit off for the cooling procedure. But I still manage to produce the cake for my Hubby to collect the next day. I was really anxious to know whether they like the cake or not. And according to hubby, they did and i was really glad and relieve to know that. Phew! A pity is that i overlook that their kids cannot take Baileys.. hai.. if I knew, I would have make little cupcakes for thr little ones.. Till next gathering ba... =)

* Dear T & H,
Thanks soooo much for your christmas gift! I know what to do de! First one i am testing is the Green tea Tiramisu!
We have started putting 1 dollar coins in the little bear .. hope to fill it up soon! Yay!

Wilton Cake Decorating Course 1 - REvIeW

This entry will be a wrap up/summary of my 4-day Wilton Decor course. As some of you may have read from my previous entry that I have enrolled myself in a 4-day course to learn the proper techniques of cake decorating as my own self taught skill sucked big time! =p And so for the 4 Saturdays of the month of December, I spent 3hrs at BIY with a bunch of other baking enthusiast to learn decor skill from our very experience teacher Kathryn. She is really nice and patient with all of us. For those who are interested, below is the course outline. I did not really take pics for all the lesson so please bear with my limited pics of this course.. =)

1st Lesson:
Basically teacher will go through the student kit which is included in the course fee. Aside what is provided, student are also asked to buy a few more things that are being used, such as the clown head since 1 of the lesson teaches us on how to pipe clown body. You can share a pack of 6 clown heads with your classmates if you dun wan to spend too much.. that's what I did.. hiak hiak...
You will also be taught to make your own piping bag out of baking paper and also to fix the tip securly to your piping bag for easy application.
Homework will be given for you to prepare for Lesson 2 as all the hands-on will start from then.
You will be expected to bring an iced cake at least 6", you can either bake or buy ready ones from bakeries or Giant. 3 portion of buttercream icing with 3 different consistencies and colours. All icing recipes must follow the Wilton Icing recipe.

2nd Lesson:
Start practicing some patterns on the practice board. Then will be how to make a rose base. Rest of the time will be used to decorate the cake you brought with the Wilton rainbow pattern. You will be taught how to trace the pattern onto a cake before applying the icing.
Actually all the icing can be re-used and so you can save time and effort in icing prep since it can be quite tiring with all that washing... (-_-")

3rd Lesson:
This is the most relaxed day. You will be told to practice on more patterns and futher pipe the rose petal onto the base, which will eventually form a full bloom rose.. really pretty and nice. You will also learn how to pipe a clown for the lesson which are really cute and easy to make.

4th Lesson:
You will be expected to bring an 8" cake at least 3" in height for the final decoration which must include the rose pattern, shells and some other pattern at your own desire.

At the end of the lesson you will recieve a certificate! Here is Mine! hahaha...

overall i really enjoy the classes, really feels like going back to kindergarden everyone sitting at the table playing and testing out new stuffs. Although i really fread all the homeworks and washing up the ever oily buttercream icing.. which later on i found a new friend which can help me with this problem - Hot Boiling Water! Yes! super effective! Truth is the Wilton Icing is reallyyy sweet and i feel is only suitable for decorations and not ice the whole cake, which is good enough..

I have also come to know some new friends in the class with same common topic on baking and food. I have also taken pics of their creation..

* To all classmates in Wilton Course 1:
Hope we can stay in touch and join stage 2 together soon! Glad to know all of you through this course! Happy baking and hopw to see more creations in your blogs and FB soon! Yay! =) Wishing all of you a Happy New Year!

MIA - ChristMAS SeAson =)

Yea.. dear all... it has come to the time of the year.. A season of love and giving.. To me it is also the season of baking. I am busy every week with my baking Wilton COurse. A lot to prepare.. but really enoyable.I am proud to say I have learn some new tricks and techniques in cake decorating..

With the limited time, I really have no energy to make cookies for all. But I do have 2 log cakes and cupcakes to make for some special people.. I know I still owe dear coraine some resipes to be posted here.

Do give me sometime for all these updating, most prob will be doing these updating after this week when i finally have more idle time.

Before I forgot I also have a flea market going on this Sunday 27th Dec @ China Square Central Basement.. Do come see see look look if you have the time on Boxing day ! YaY!..

Last but not least do look out for my updates on all the stuffs I have been doing for the month of December. And In the meantime wishing all of you a Merry Christmas!! Muacks!...