i bake for you :)

Happy Lunar New Year!

2012-01-22T17:07:00.010+11:00

It's Lunar New Year tomorrow! This year, I'm at home and was able to make things! Yey~ I started off making kueh bangkit.. which turned out as a bit of a fail because I ran out of tapioca starch. So instead of my usual little men, this was all I made: Pineapple tarts again: Agar goldfish, using the fish mould I got 1.5years ago in Singapore :) And my attempt at Zumbo's macarons. I didn't realise his recipe was in bulk.. so I made a bit too many. I made pandan macarons with white pandan chocolate ganache/pandan custard! :) I used pandan paste, that's why they're that colour. I don't really like it though. I should've made them more green.. :/ Oh. And I also made some ice creams (not really Lunar New Year related). Yam and green tea. :D Anywho, this will pretty much be the last amount of baking/cooking I'd be doing for a while.. (apart from M's cupcakes which I'll...

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Snow me

2011-12-04T17:40:00.005+11:00

It's December. The festive month. Time sure does fly by.. I was planning on baking all things festive in the lead up to Christmas.. but I won't be home 2 weeks before Christmas anymore. (ie. in a week's time). No, I'm not going on holiday yet. I wish I was though. Ahh... only 7 weeks until I go to Korea/HK! :D Can't wait! I made some Christmas pudding/fruit cake yesterday. Crumbled it up and mixed it with some vanilla ice-cream. Mmm.. Christmas pudding ice-cream. I made about 3L of it.. :S And I have half a chunk of cake left. -__- Sigh. Since I had some condensed milk opened from the other day (A bit of Choya Umeshu, a spoon of condensed milk, then topped with fresh milk = a nice cocktail :P), I also made some quick coconut macaroons. Of course, I had to make them cute. Haha. Meet my snow-self. Fill my heart in! :P They're really simple to make. Just add some...

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'Sexy cookie'

2011-11-05T21:46:00.009+11:00

Everytime I think of madeleines, I think of 'sexy cookie'. Haha. If you've watched the Kdrama 'My name is Kim Samsoon', then you'll understand where I'm coming from. :P It's one of my favourite Korean dramas. :) Well, what are madeleines, you ask? They're basically a French shell shaped cake cookie. I've never actually eaten one before this.. :/ I've been meaning to make madeleines since the past 2 years. I've bought the madeleine pans a long time ago but have just never used them. So I finally decided to make them the other day! Lemon madeleines Makes about 17 4 eggs, separated 180g plain flour 2tsp baking powder 120g butter melted, cooled 100g caster sugar zest of 1 large lemon lemon juice, for brushing icing, for dusting Sift flour and baking powder in a bowl. In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks, lemon zest and 50g of sugar. In yet another bowl, whisk egg whites...

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Osmanthus and wolfberry jelly

2011-11-01T00:13:00.005+11:00

Off topic from baking, I made some osmanthus and wolfberry (aka goji berry) jelly today. I've gotten the ingredients a while ago but just never had the chance to make it. I first tried this when I was in HK last year, at Tim Ho Wan for yum cha. I didn't know what it was but it was nice, not too sweet. I hadn't thought much about it since then until my friend S decided to make some a few months ago after she had watched a TVB drama featuring it. (:P @ S). So here's my attempt at it. Osmanthus and wolfberry jelly Makes about 38 small jellies 240g powdered konnyaku jelly (pre-sweetened) 1200ml water ~20g dried wolfberry/goji berry ~5g dried sweet scented osmanthus flowers Boil water. Slowly add konnyaku jelly, stirring gradually. Allow to completely dissolve in about 3 mins. Add in wolfberries and osmanthus flowers. Remove from heat. Pour/spoon into jelly moulds. I...

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Random baking

2011-10-14T22:47:00.006+11:00

Here's some random baking photos for the past month. I don't have recipes to show you. These were just 'bake by feel'.. because I was too lazy to get my measuring tools out. Hehe.. :P Childish vanilla cupcakes. For GK. A pre-birth celebration for the little one inside. :) Happy cupcakes (Chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate coconut ganache). For JK. Happy cupcakes for a happy person :P Rustic jam tarts (Apricot jam and Apple, rhubarb + cinnamon jam). Well, I was making cookie dough.. then couldn't be bothered making cut out cookies anymore. So I decided to make jam drop cookies. These are a bit larger, so I guess you can call them tarts! Haha. Baking is therapeutic. Decorating is fun. I have so much that I want to make.. but I can't seem to find enough time or energy.. :(

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Snowskin mooncakes 2011

2011-09-11T20:19:00.005+10:00

I know it's been a while since I've last posted anything. I guess I've been slack since I've started full time work. I've just arrived back home from Tassie yesterday, so I haven't made heaps of mooncakes this year. (Mid Autumn/Moon festival is on Sept 12th 2011). This year, I've only made 11 mooncakes. So if you get your hands on one, consider yourself lucky~ :P They're green tea snowskin with taro and custard centre. I've made them by estimation and feel as my digital scales have run out of battery unfortunately.. -__-. It's practically the same recipe as my previous makings in 2010 and 2009. Except I've only used one batch of dough, one packet of taro paste, worked by feel/guestimation and didn't use a rolling pin to roll the dough out. You could say, they're a little bit rustic this year. :P Haha. I'm sorry. Next year should be better! This year was a tad...

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Melktert

2011-05-15T21:09:00.004+10:00

Well, it was almost a complete disaster. I told N I would try and make some Melktert. She showed me a South African Magazine a few weeks ago called "Avocado" and it had a recipe for the milk tart in it. I said I would try it out and let her taste it. Haha.. She's South African so, I think I've just ruined the traditional treat. -__- It's not my fault. The measurements for the ingredients were a bit odd. They used volume instead of weight.. I had the late shift at work so I decided to make it Friday morning. The mini tarts turned out... horrendous, but the baseless tart was actually quite good! It tastes.. quite okay. I don't know what the real deal tastes like (I've never had South African food before..) but it tastes milkier than an egg tart. Haha. Duh. Melktert Makes 24 small tarts and a large baseless tart 16 layers of filo pastry melted butter 1 litre milk ground...

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Tea time

2011-04-24T22:05:00.007+10:00

I know, it's been a while since I've last posted. I've been and come back from overseas. I've started full time work for over 2 months. But it feels like time has gone by so fast! It feels like only yesterday I was in HK. Oh, I miss HK. I miss travelling. I can't wait to go on my next trip! :D So I had a tea party today. Planned, rescheduled.. and was going to reschedule/cancel again. But whatever. I'm tired. Work drains me, then I spend all this time baking/preparing... which makes me just plain tired and in not a very good mood. I've realised that I'm not very good at organising and prioritising time.. Things seem to go rush rush fail for me. Anywho, here's what I made: Lemon cupcakes with mascarpone frosting Dark and white chocolate chip mudcake cupcakes Egg tarts Black sesame macarons with white chocolate ganache Makes approx 36 macarons 150g almond meal 50g...

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Kueh bangkit

2011-01-07T17:34:00.006+11:00

I made some pandan kueh bangkit. It's about a month till Chinese New Year. This year though, I'll be overseas during the lunar new year, so I won't have time to make many things. :( Boo.. Oh well. I used the same recipe as I used last year. So they basically look and taste the same :P Kueh bangkit Makes about 150 bite sized pieces 500g tapioca starch 250ml coconut cream 200g sugar 3 egg yolks 1 tsp pandan essence Dry fry tapioca starch in a large clean dry wok for about 30mins, on low heat. Leave to cool overnight or for a few days. Melt sugar in coconut cream over low heat. Remove from heat. Allow to cool slightly before adding egg yolk. Add in flavouring. Slowly add liquid into tapioca starch until a dough is formed. The dough should be matte and not glossy, so add the liquid bit by bit so you don't add too much. (If you do, you'd have to dry fry some more tapioca...

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Baklava

2011-01-03T17:30:00.006+11:00

It's hard to create something when you haven't tasted it before. I.. haven't tried baklava before. I know what it is. I know what it looks like, and what it's made of .. but I just haven't eaten it before. Well, I decided to make it anyway. Because it has cinnamon in it and I love the smell of cinnamon. The only downfall about baklava though, is the butter. I tried to use the least butter possible here though! :P Baklava Makes about 30 servings 375g filo pastry 90g butter, melted 250g walnuts, crumbed 2 1/2 tbsp cinnamon powder 200ml water 125g sugar 2 tbsp honey In a bowl, mix cinnamon with crumbed walnuts. Set aside. Preheat oven to 170C. Lay a baking pan with baking paper. Brush a half a sheet of filo pastry with butter. Fold unbrushed half over brushed half. Brush top of halved filo with butter. Align another half sheet of filo pastry over the top and repeat. Do...

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Tako tako takoyaki!

2011-01-01T15:16:00.008+11:00

I decided to test out my 'Dutch pancake maker' and made some takoyaki. :D Nowhere on the box or in the manual, does it say it can make takoyaki (Japanese octopus balls). But it clearly was meant for it. Haha. There's a little picture of an octopus holding a takoyaki etched onto the pan! :P Oh, and I love how the pan is detachable so you can actually give it a good clean. I was afraid that the set temperature wouldn't be good enough to make takoyaki and was hoping to be able to use the detachable pan over a stovetop one day (not sure if that's possible or not though). But the takoyaki turned out great! :) The pan does get extremely hot though! Takoyaki Makes approx 50 400g self raising flour 20g dashi stock powder (I used Shimaya Dashinomoto bonito flavoured soup stock, 2 x10g packets) 600ml warm water 105g eggs (2 eggs), lightly beaten half a bunch of spring onions,...

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Christmas pudding

2010-12-24T17:36:00.008+11:00

I wanted to make Christmas pudding ice-cream. I have vanilla ice-cream in the freezer, but I didn't have Christmas pudding. So I made some Christmas pudding to mix into the ice-cream. Christmas pudding Makes a medium sized pudding 375g mixed fruit mix (sultanas, raisins, citrus peel, glace cherries) 200g plain flour 75g butter, softened 125g brown sugar 2 eggs (110g) 1/2 tsp baking soda 250ml orange juice 2 tsp mixed spice Sift baking soda, mixed spice and plain flour in a separate bowl. Beat butter and sugar. Add in eggs and beat. Add in vanilla extract. Add in mixed fruit and orange juice. Sift in flour and mix until just combined. Bake in waterbath in a preheated oven at 155C for 75-90mins or until cooked. Allow to cool Trim the sides off. Crumb the side pieces and mix into about 1L of softened vanilla ice-cream. Refreeze and voila!, you have christmas pudding...

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Testing the new oven!

2010-12-24T16:56:00.010+11:00

I decided to play with my new kitchen for the very first time. Haha. Now I've got a larger oven to use. But it's got so many modes that I need to keep reading the manual in order to remember. -__- Sigh. I suppose I will get used to it over time. Next time, I'll test out my new kitchen appliances also! Ah, I can't wait! :D To test out the oven, I made gingerbread men! I made cinnamonbread last year, so this is basically the same recipe but with added ginger. It's not too over powering and the spices are just right for my tastes. Merry Christmas everyone! :) I love baking Christmas goodies~ Hehe. Oh, and I LOVE this caesar stone benchtop! The baking trays go on hot and become cool to touch so quickly! :D Gingerbread men Makes about 20 big and 60 small cookies 600g self raising flour 160g pure icing 2 tbsp cinnamon 1 tbsp mixed spice 1 tbsp ginger powder 2 eggs (112g),...

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Coconutty snowmen

2010-12-10T21:55:00.009+11:00

Christmas is 2 weeks away! There are so many things I plan on baking. Fruitcake. Gingerbread men/houses. Chocolate chip cookies*. (*Not festive, but I've been meaning to make them for over half a year now..) Anyway, I have these snowmen baking trays that I bought last year. So I decided to try them out! The cakes turned out pretty good! :) Ah.. my little snowmen! :D I love you! Coconut cupcakes Makes 12 mini snowmen cakes 200g self raising flour 85g sugar 70g desiccated coconut 1 tsp baking powder 250ml milk 1 egg (55g), lightly beaten 1 tsp vanilla extract 50g butter, melted extra coconut icing for decoration Grease baking tray. Preheat oven to 160C. Mix dry ingredients together. Add in milk and melted butter and mix. Add in egg and vanilla extract. Mix until just combined. Spoon into baking trays. Bake for 10-12 mins or until cooked. Allow to cool...

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Wholemeal bread

2010-12-05T12:41:00.008+11:00

It's been a while, hasn't it? It's December already. Summer. But the weird Melbournian weather doesn't seem to show that. Rain. Thunder. Rain. Sun. Rain. Rain. Thunder. Lightning. Rain. Sun. You never know what to expect. But that's life isn't it? There are too many things that need to be done. I've just been busy.. I haven't had the time to bake and blog. I've cooked/baked, but just haven't blogged anything. Haha... Plus, I'm still waiting to use the new kitchen and my new kitchen appliances! I can't wait! My new toys: Kenwood hand blender HB724 Kenwood food processor FP250 Breville Planetary Stand Mixter BEM800 Mistral dutch pancake/takoyaki maker ...and I finally found my Fred Cakewich the other day! Ahh.. I can't wait to play with them in the new kitchen! :) Because I didn't want to open my appliances yet, I made some wholemeal bread rolls the traditional way - by...

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The not so gigantic disaster

2010-10-17T14:19:00.008+11:00

We (Melb uni optom students) held a bake sale on World Sight Day (14th October), raising funds for Optometry Giving Sight in order to help the 670 million people worldwide who are blind or vision impaired simply because they don’t have access to an eye exam and a pair of glasses. (If you'd like to make an online donation, please click here). We had all sorts of cakes, cookies, brownies and other baked goodies! Optom students have hidden talents! Haha :P Four meters of baked goods, was what we had + a giant doughnut cake (i'll explain that later). Over $700 was raised on the day! A tremendous effort from everyone involved who made it possible. Plus a huge thank you to everyone who supported us and bought something! We couldn't have done this without any of you! :) Much love to all! So.. I decided to make a gigantic doughnut shaped cake cos my silicone baking trays came in...

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Impulse buys are happy buys

2010-10-03T15:08:00.008+11:00

Whilst procrastinating in the world wide web, I fell upon something. Something I want. Something I must have! I must admit, that I love Fred. Fred is cool. Fred is awesome! Haha. Who's Fred? You know.. we all know Fred right? Spotted here, there everywhere. In Australia, in Hong Kong, in Singapore, & across the world! First off, I ended up buying some items on COTD. I bought the giant silicone donut cake pan set and the giant silicone cookie cake pan set. (I bought the giant cupcake cake pan about half a year ago). Paid for it thanks to you (yes, you, the one reading this right now!) and of course, Foodbuzz. I love you Foodbuzz! :) I actually wanted the WS giant donut pan.. and the WS giant cookie pan but it doesn't do shipping to AUS. :( I also want a lot of Wilton products too, but by the time they get shipped here (if applicable, that is), it costs an arm and a...

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Mission Mooncake 2010

2010-09-22T17:23:00.011+10:00

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone! After a busy busy time overseas in Hong Kong and Singapore, a busy week at uni with the oral exam and final ball preparations, I have finally had the chance to make my mooncakes for this year. And boy, did I make a bit too many! :P This year was slightly different to 2009. I made two types of custard and 3 flavours. I've introduced red bean this year.. in which I will never ever make again. The red bean paste that I used was way too slimey to handle. :( I was eager. I was willing. I was excited! I had been waiting to come back home to make my mooncakes with the moulds I recently purchased. Though, I am a bit disappointed that I didn't get to check out what was on offer in Hong Kong. Sigh. I will go there the next time I hit HK! HEHE~ I especially LOVE my rabbit mooncake mould. With my whole heart. Lame much? :P Snowskin...

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Mooncake moulds!

2010-08-31T00:47:00.006+10:00

I can't wait to use these mooncake moulds! I found them at Tangs on Orchard. But they were quite pricey @ SGD15.90 each... The lady said it was buy 2 get 1 free. So I ended up buying 3.... plus a fish mould (SGD6.00) which will be great for Chinese New Year! Hehe~ I can add that to my list of CNY foods to make! :D I really really like the rabbit one! Is it a bit sad to say that looking at these moulds makes me happier? Haha. Whenever I'm feeling down over here in Singapore, I just look at this photo... and the longing to get back to Melbourne to make my mooncakes for this year! Oh, I can't wait! I miss home. I stopped by Takashimaya on the weekend. There were too many mooncake stalls and I was a bit overwhelmed. Not sure what I want to buy and try to bring back home... I'll probably get something on my last week here in Singapore. 12 days until I go back home! Hurrah!...

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Sg

2010-08-17T15:10:00.003+10:00

In Singapore now. But I don't have time to post as I'm too tired from hospital. Will post soon...

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Hello from HK.

2010-08-12T16:38:00.003+10:00

Hello all! I know it's been a while since I've posted anything. I'm currently in Hong Kong and don't particularly have much wifi connection. I'll blog a few things when I get to Singapore. No baking for me until September / October. Booo. :(. But yes, I'll be back soon. I'll post some HK photos in a few days. :P

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Tiny teddy cupcakes

2010-07-19T20:37:00.006+10:00

There's grumpy, happy, silly, sleepy and fatty. Well, I thought he was called fatty.. until I was told that it was hungry. :P Tiny teddies are cool~ The honey flavour is the best. I can't believe they've made tiny teddies with 100s and 1000s now. Eek. How horrid would that taste? Extra diabetes for children?! Red velvet tiny teddy cupcakes Makes 34 baby cupcakes 150g self raising flour 90g sugar 40g butter 20g cocoa powder 2 tsp red food dye 1 tsp vanilla extract 125ml milk 1 egg cream cheese frosting chocolate tiny teddies Preheat oven to 170C. Mix cocoa, red dye, vanilla extract and some of the milk, to form a paste. Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add in egg. Sift flour in a large bowl. Add in butter mixture, milk and cocoa paste. Mix on low speed until just combined. Mix on medium speed for 2mins. Bake for 15mins or until cooked. Allow to cool...

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Scones

2010-07-04T13:38:00.009+10:00

Afternoon tea anyone? Who doesn't like a freshly made scone?! :D .. served with your favourite jam + whipped cream? Mmm.. :) The last time I had scones and jam, were a few weeks ago. And recently on Masterchef Australia, they had a Country Women's Association challenge where they had to make scones along with jam, lamingtons, Neapolitan and fruit cakes. Which made me want some scones! Not their scones though, being rock hard and all. :P But I do remember when I first made scones.. they were overworked and turned out just like contestant Aaron's. So I understand completely. There's a first time for everything.. :) and some of you might even remember the first gingerbread men I ever made too.. *cough*bicarbsodaoverload*cough*. Ah.. memories ey? :P Basic scones Makes about 24 (which would fit on an extra large baking tray, not an average one) 700g self raising flour 15g...

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Let's play a game.

2010-06-25T13:58:00.005+10:00

What looks like this.. And has this on top? I finally got around to making a carrot cake. I spent so much time preparing the carrots and finely grating them with this hopeless grater that by the time I finished grating the 6 carrots, my right arm/hand was a bit disorientated and numb. -__- I do wish that I had a food processor to do it for me (I think we have an old one somewhere but I tend to do things the hard way and go manually than automatic for some reason..). I'm going to invest in a really good food processor one day! Anyway, as nutritious as carrot cake sounds, it isn't any much better than just plain cake (because although there's no butter, there's the oil..). As you know, I don't like either oil nor butter so I try my best to keep it minimal. Another thing I dislike are walnuts. Haha.. And there are walnuts in and on top of this. -__- I had a slice last...

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Baked doughnuts

2010-06-20T19:02:00.011+10:00

I decided to do some baking, and ending up baking some doughnuts. This is a recipe that I'll keep using for sure. But perhaps next time, I won't make the doughnuts this big. I think they would be even more yummier if they were smaller and more adorable. Haha. :P I don't know why I made them this shape. I rolled out each piece of dough into a length of about 30cm, then I started to scroll them up. I guess they're like.. doughnut horns? Makes it more fun to eat actually because you can start peeling the scroll from outside in. :D Mmm.. cinnamon and sugar. *thumbs up* Baked doughnuts Makes about 20 large doughnuts 280g plain flour 470g self raising flour 14g active dried yeast 150g sugar 370g milk, lukewarm 30g cooking margarine, melted 100g egg (2 eggs) 1 tsp vanilla extract extra milk, for brushing cinnamon and sugar, for dusting Combine flours, yeast and sugar in a...

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