Steamed Glutinous Rice

This is one dish the 2 guys at home really enjoy. My son loves anything made with glutinous rice but I have to limit his intake as old people would say that kids are not able to digest it well. Besides, he will soon be obese if we don't start to control his food intake. As for hubs, he totally loves the steamed glutinous rice from a certain stall at the Tiong Bahru Market & Food Centre.

After tasting Gina's version at the KC Hi-Tea recently, I told myself that I had to try it out again. While there is nothing rocket science about this dish, practice is the key to success. I used the recipe from here.

I remembered that my first attempt at it did not yield any memorable results as there were some uncooked rice. This time around, there wasn't any uncooked bit but the rice could be a little softer. I'll have to add slightly more water to it. As I wanted to have a "white" version, I omitted all the dark sauces and used oyster sauce instead. That yielded a somewhat brownish appearance. Guess I would have to leave oyster sauce out as well if I want a totally white version.

I thought that I could also increase the taste quotient of this next time. However, my boy said this worked just fine for him. Hubs still misses that version from Tiong Bahru... a taste of childhood, maybe?

Madeleine, oh Madeleine

This is worth every effort in making. For the first time since I began baking, these babies were consumed all within 6 hours! I baked them this morning so we would have some light snacks while the children enjoyed themselves at Wild Wild Wet. My little niece was the biggest fan of these chocolate lemon madeleines, she kept asking for more.

The recipe is taken from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme by Dorie Greenspan. I had to wait a few weeks after reserving the book online. I must say that it is an interesting recipe that I would definitely try again soon. Besides, the madeleine trays are screaming for attention.

I would also need the practice of rubbing the sugar with lemon zest as I kept wondering if I had done that step well. There wasn't much hint of lemon, or that could have been over-shadowed by the varlhona cocoa powder... Overall, I would say that these are really chocolatey, yum!

Apple Sauce & Cinnamon Cupcakes

Aren't they so cute? The tiny donut-shaped cakes are made with the same batter as the cupcakes. They are made with a simple recipe which my sister-in-law gave me long ago. She has been eating my bakes and she wanted to share this really simple recipe with me.

It's really simple, equal amounts of sugar, self-raising flour and butter; with some cinnamon, 2 eggs and a bottle of apple sauce (I used baby food!). Beat all together till smooth and bake. I didn't have a particularly easy time trying to fill the donut tray, though. Next time, I'll try piping definitely.

I suspect that I could have over-compensated for the slightly "old" flour as the cupcakes turned out a little too wet for my liking. However, my friend S said they were perfect and she liked the texture of the cupcakes! Well, since these were done especially for her, that should be considered a success. Besides, my children kept popping the mini donuts into their mouths. If I didn't stop them to take photo of the mini-donuts, they would have been gone in under 15 minutes. I hope S tries to bake it ...

Of Quiche and Good Times

It's not true that I MADE this quiche, well at least not entirely. All I did was prepare the shortcrust pastry and laid it onto the pie pan. The custard and filling were prepared by Gina and that was what gave flavour to the whole dish. She made it look so easy or perhaps I had not bothered to find out previously.

I had tasted quiche but don't remember liking what I had tasted. So I never bothered to look up recipes for quiche. This was one of the dish presented at the first Hi Tea Buffet held by Kitchen Capers and Chef's Secrets Cooking Studio.

When I knew that Gina and Amy, co-owner of Chef's Secrets, were going to prepare and cook a day before the buffet, I volunteered to help. I had been taking a break from baking for too long and thought this would end the drought of not baking. It sure did!

I rubbed butter into flour and kneaded till it was pliable. Without guidance from the two teachers, I would not have learnt one important thing. The crust which I made previously were too dry! That explained why I was unable to roll the dough, even after chilling it for 30 minutes! Now I know...

Below is a picture of some of the food served, just a few of the many yummy items served.

Korean Pancake

It's been a really long time since my last post, I had been away was one reason. The other, I have not found any recipe that inspired me to take out the mixer and spatula. I'm tempted to bake something for my colleague who will be celebrating her birthday this weekend, but I'm afraid she won't eat the cake as cakes are calorie-laden...

While chatting with a cyber friend, she told me about a particular Korean pancake premix that tasted amazing... ok, if you had seen what ingredients she added, it would be hardly surprising that the pancake DIDIN'T taste amazing. So, I visited the Korean grocery store near my home and found the same packet of Korean pancake premix! Oh, did I mention that she doesn't live in SG? Psst, this premix is supposedly FREE of MSG too!

Since I was on leave, I went out to the local wet market to buy Chives (or koo chye) and prawns. My friend insisted that I had to use chives as that's what makes the pancake yummy. Thankfully, my regular vegetable stall has a bunch remaining and sold them all to me without any hesitation.

From my experience with this pancake, I realised that a flat-based frying pan would give the best looking pancakes. As I used a wok, I ended up with slightly thin pancakes. My friend is right, the pancake tasted really delicious and this is something that I won't hesitate to serve my guests in future. It will be an interesting talking point too!

Memories are Made of These

This was a request from my boy, he wanted breakfast that consisted of scrambled eggs, ham and sausage for breakfast. I promised him that I would prepare that for him and that happened about two weeks ago, on the last public holiday in October.

This reminded me of the time I spent as a SAHM (stay at home mom) from May/June 2000 to Sep 2001. He was barely 3 then and was an absolute joy to be around, as moms of little boys would attest to. Not that girls are not, but moms and daughters share different experience from moms and sons. I decided then to stay home full-time as the dotcom I was working in was going under and I felt that my girl needed some serious preparation for Primary 1. I am glad I did that and this breakfast brought back memories of all the moments I had spent with each of them.

I took so long to get this post up and got the nudge when I found that Happy Home Baking has tagged me! Gosh, I can proscrastinate no more... here goes 7 random facts about me:

1. After my stint as SAHM, I have absolute respect for all SAHM as I realised that my calling isn't that. I believe my kids appreciate me more when I get home after work, and vice versa too.
2. I, too, have a driivng license (as old as my son, I was in my 4th month with him) and the last time I drove was a couple of months back. I didn't go far, just forward for 500m? and reversed into a parking lot :P
3. I have taken a 2-week break from baking as I have been eating all the cakes (if I didn't give them away) on my own. Imagine the number on the scales when I finally had the courage to step on one!
4. Linked to the above, I am trying to reduce the number on the scale, so far, it's been uphill and the reduction is meagre.
5. I am big on inspiration, I seek to be inspired and hope to inspire anyone who needs it. I work with many young people and I see how they transform as they get ready to take their first step into the world of WORK.
6. I am (or specifically, my hair is) in need of a perm and colour, however, the hairstylist recommended that I improve the condition before I do further damage to it.
7. What else, but my wardrobe (or even life?) is in dire need of a serious "clean up". You won't believe, but I have almost a cupboard full (in my girl's room) of clothes that I have probably not worn in the past 12 months. These are mainly jackets and clothes that don't fit any more...

I'm tagging the following 7 bloggers, I hope they have fun with this meme
1. Rei at All That Matters
2. Aimei at Baking Cottage
3. SSB at Small Small Baker
4. KWF at Pure Enjoyment
5. Bernice at Bernice's Baking Journey
6. Emily at Misosa's Diary
7. Ting at Bake Me Happy

Here are the rules for tagging:

Link to my blog (tagger) on your blog.

Give seven facts about yourself.

Tag another seven bloggers by leaving a comment on their blogs and letting them know they were tagged and listing them (and their blogs) on your blog.

Banana Yogurt Cake

If I did a count of the fruit I baked most with, then it has got to be bananas, with oranges a close second. I simply love baking with these two fruits! The aroma was so amazing, and it definitely didn't come from essence as none was used.

I was recently introduced to Greek yogurt, which is creamier but less sour than normal plain yogurt. Working with it initially was a challenge but I soon grew to like this better than the usual yogurt, which tends to be very watery. In my opinion, results of bakes with Greek yogurt comes closest to those with sour cream. I was told that recipes that call for sour cream, yogurt or buttermilk yield the best results. I have tried both sour cream and yogurt and I love both. I will find a chance to try baking with buttermilk. I am begining to be more selective with recipes under the good influence of a cyber friend :)

I managed to buy a tub of Greek yogurt over the weekend but there was only one size, 1 kg! Ideally, everything should be consumed within three days of opening. Imagine the stress of looking for the right recipe so that the yogurt won't go to waste. I had wasted half a tub about two months ago and felt so bad. I had just enough for one last cake and when hubs said he felt like having bananas, (which is really rare although he loves it) I encouraged him and looked for the nicest bunch with the most speckles.

And which recipe did i use? This one from Baking Bites of course! I cannot remember how many times I tried baking with this recipe, but today's result turned out best. Previous attempts were very moist due to the overdose of bananas. Today, however, the proportion of all the ingredients was just right. I must make a note of the amount of ingredients which I used today so that I can get the same result the next time.

I was pleasantly surprised with a call from my little 6 year-old niece. She called especially to tell me that she liked the banana cake and to "please cook it again, ok?" Of course, sweetie, I will definitely bake it again.

Orange Yogurt Cake

A show of hands, please, how many of people (on this sunny island, at least) have encountered problems when using cups instead of the weighing scale? Perhaps it's just me but I would like to think that my problem, with the latest yogurt cake, lies not in the size of the cups but most likely in the size of the eggs. I bought this last batch of eggs from the market, 10 for S$2.10. These are likely to be slightly bigger than 60g each.

I know I am not the only person who have problems with this recipe. I used oranges instead of grapefruit. After an earlier unsuccessful attempt with another yogurt cake, I approached this with a proper plan.

• make a more conscious effort to scoop (and flatten) the 1.5 cups of flour
• mix the eggs, yogurt and sugar together, then add oil (to prevent over mixing flour later)
• use the balloon whisk to fold in flour, not more than 15 strokes (a tip I found here, see "Batters")
• bake at a slightly lower temperature (than 180 deg C).

With all the above checked, I put the tray in to bake. All looked and smelled well, and I drenched the cake with OJ from two oranges. And waited... but I could wait no longer and cut the cake when it was cooled enough.

After uttering a silent prayer, I picked up one piece of cake. I should have suspected when there wasn't any crumbs, it's another kueh :(