Girlish Cakes

This chocolate was done last weekend for a 6 year old girl. She wanted a barbie image on the cake. We got the idea from my daughter's colouring book & 'designer' drew it on.





Another chocolate cake for 4 year-old Genevieve who's having her party in school tomorrow morning. Initially she wanted a doll cake but it is not enough to feed 80 kids. So instead of the doll cake, I baked her a rectangle cake with a miniature doll on it, at least she gets her doll !





Another of my cream cake, this is a blueberry cake ordered for a birthday today. I've used Comstock brand from USA as the filling & topping. For some of you who may not know the different type (yes there is !) of blueberry filling we have here in KK, Comstock is the only brand I would recommend.
There is a type of blueberry filling that baking supplies shops is selling & it is from China. Well, it looks like blueberry but at a closer look, it's actually tiny bits of chopped apples in a flavoured sauce !





I'm setting off to Brunei tomorrow morning with my girls. This is our first trip there & we are going in a friend's car.
We will be staying in a friend's house during our 3-day trip there.
I'm prepared for the long journey, buns have been baked to fill the kids during the drive there.

To show my appreciation, I've baked my Brunei friend a box of cupcakes, all the way from KK.

My cooler bag is ready to go, hope to bring back some goodies from their supermarkets.......

Ice Cream Cake

This is a 6kg chocolate ice-cream cake, frosted with whipped dairy cream. The ice-cream is home-made from scratch. I've done ice-cream cake from fresh mangoes & strawberries as well. This ice cream cake is made up of chocolate ice-cream, sandwiched with of 2 thin layers of chocolate sponge cake.

The party was held this morning, when it was raining cats & dogs & it was a pool-side party. The kids had a good time in the pool while the mummies were taking refuge under the canopy that was built for the party !!
What a cool party on a raining day, at the poolside, with ice-cream cake.

Last year Sophia had a ice-cream cake too. It was 4kg & wasn't really enough to feed the ice-cream lovers ! This year her mum decided on a 6kg & it was gone within 30mins.

Her mum left the decoration to me so I thought a fairy on the cake might be a good idea for a girl's party.







Durians are everywhere now, this is the 3rd durian cake I've sold today.
The sizes seem to be in the running as I've got a 1kg, a 1.5kg & this one a 2kg for a 12 year old boy who's having a party this evening.

Again, the mummy left the decoration to me. I was thinking what would a 12 year old like ? I don't have a boy & my girl is only 8 so I ended up with a simple football theme. I hope the birthday boy will like it........

Candied Chicken Breasts

My poor oven has been very hardworking lately. Besides baking, I'm into oven cooking too. If not, it'll be slow cooker for stewing meat.
It's always one dish meal for us, served with steamed vege.
The girls enjoyed this baked chicken breast dish, I think the sauce played a big part. They have been eating chicken breast since they started on solids years ago.
Each time we are invited to a Chinese banquet dinner when roast chicken is served, hubby & I do not have to fight for the drumstick with everyone else because we have the chicken breast all to ourselves !

This recipe serves 4 :

4 Chicken breast halves
1 Cup Breadcrumbs
1 Tbsp Oregano
2 Tbsp Flour
2 Tsp Salt
2 Tsp Black pepper

1 Onion, chopped
1 Tomato, chopped

Sauce Ingredients :

1/4 Cup Brown sugar
1/4 Cup Mustard
1/2 Cup Tomato ketchup
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp Soya sauce
3/4 Cup Water

Combine breadcrumbs, oregano, flour, salt & black pepper. Dredge chicken in breadcrumbs mixture. Heat pan with some olive oil, lightly brown chicken on both sides, remove from heat.

Line a deep baking dish with aluminium foil (for easier cleaning up) & arrange chicken in it.

Melt a knob of butter in a saucepan, cook onion till soft, add tomatoes, followed by sauce ingredients. Bring the mixture to boil, turn down heat & let simmer for about 10mins. Pour sauce over chicken, bake in preheated oven of 180C for 30mins.

Dome Bread (小巨蛋面包）

I'm not sure why this bread is called dome bread ? This is the translation I got from Google.

When I was much younger, I used to buy this bread from bakeries in Singapore, known as 巨蛋面包.
The size of this bread sold in bakeries are much bigger, I've made them into smaller buns & I've not brush my buns with egg wash, that's why they looked 'dull' but I like my bread & buns this way !

This recipe yields 10 buns of 55g each :

250g High protein flour
50g Flour
40g Egg
40g Egg yolk
5g Yeast
3g Salt
20g Condensed milk
65g Sugar
40g Whipping cream
55g Milk
45g Butter

Mix all ingredients except butter, in a mixer bowl fitted with a dough hook until combined. Add butter & continue mixing until dough is smooth & elastic, about 15mins. Let rise in a warm place for an hour.
Punch dough down & divide them into 10 portions of 55g each. Round each dough & place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Let rise again for 30 mins.
Bake in preheated oven of 200C for 8mins.

This is the link to the original recipe, in Mandarin.

* These buns are a keeper !! So soft & aromatic, enriched with the goodness of eggs, cream & butter, so so yummy...........

Baked Fish Fillet With Cherry tomatoes & Potatoes

I have some potatoes in my pantry & I've got to cook it before they start sprouting & there's few fish fillets in the freezer. Hubby, the girls & I love fish like anyone else, but when it comes to cooking, I do not like it as I always end up smelling like a fish after cooking. I know hubby likes his fish pan-fried, so it's crispy on the outside & juicy in the flesh.

But I wanted a easy baked fish fillet recipe, so I turned to my favourite site, http://www.taste.com.au/ for ideas.
Found a very simple recipe with all the ingredients I have on hand,
Baked Fish Fillet With Cherry Tomatoes & Potatoes.
The fish fillets that I got from the fishmongers were hei li (黑鲤), I don't know what's it called in English, what I know is that it's a white firm fish.

I've made some changes to the recipe. Instead of lemon thyme, I've used dried thyme & lemon pepper over the potatoes & cherry tomatoes & I've turned up the oven to 220C, I like my potatoes crispy.

It's Spiderman For Sean !

Sean wanted a Spiderman on his birthday cake for his party this afternoon.

However he didn't want the usual red/blue Spiderman but the 'bad' Spiderman in Spiderman 3 !

This is a vanilla cake filled & frosted with vanilla whipped cream, with cream cheese blended into it. The white chocolate wouldn't mix with my black colouring this time so I had to draw the outline with melted dark chocolate. The face & neck are filled with the cream tinted different shades of grey.




Today is also Amelia's 11th birthday.

I got an email from her mum few days back, asking me to bake a chocolate cake for her birthday.
She wanted something dainty, with pink & yellow flowers on the cake. To make it even sweeter for Amelia, I've finished with a yellow polka dot ribbon around the cake.

Mee Siam

Mee Siam is a common noodle dish found everywhere in Singapore. This is not my favourite but hubby's ( I'm a huge fan of fishball noodle).
So to satisfy hubby's cravings of local Singapore hawker food, I buy packets of Prima Taste ready-to-cook paste to keep.

Mee Siam is cooked with mee hoon, I don't know why it is called mee ??
I've used the Dong Guan rice stick (东莞米粉) from China, the tecture of the mee hoon is so chewy, this is one thing I stuffed my luggage with each time I go back to Singapore as you can't find this mee hoon there !

The paste worked well for me, very easy & convenient. Well, I know it's a instant noodle kind of thing but hubby & I only eat this like twice a year, so it's fine ! I'm a meat & seafood kind of person & this dish do not contains any meat/seafood, that's the reason why I don't fancy it. I added prawns to the dish & instead of chives, I've used spring onions. As for the egg, I don't like my egg really hard-boiled, it's so dry. When a dish calls for hard-boiled egg, I'll usually cook mine for 7 mins & plunge it into cold water to stop it from cooking & I'll get the perfect almost hard-boiled egg when the yolk is till soft ! I've used size AAA egg.

In case anyone is interested in whipping up this noodle dish from scratch, I found a recipe from Lily's blog. Her Mee Siam looks delicious !