Pizza

I am organising a "Make your own pizza" party for my cousins in early August... As a prelude to that little event, I decided to do a pizza dinner for my parents and my son's godma tonight... Making the pizza dough was easy... Just have to throw all the ingredients into the mixer and it's done pretty fast... I find that rolling out the dough was more tedious... I watched a programme yesterday and this Italian chef was flipping the dough in the air... He said this will make a better tasting pizza... Hmm.. So i tried... No matter how I throw it, it got longer and longer and eventally a small hole appeared... No matter how the chef flipped it... It remained a nice flat round dough... duhz... Guess that's the difference between a chef and a housewife.... haha... I gave up and ended up rolling it out and placing it on the pizza tray that I just bought few days ago... The pizza tasted great... But I was abit diappointed that the botton wasn't browned enough... The previous attempt at baking pizza yield a nice brown crispy bottom... I used the normal baking tray that came together with the oven... I did not put it longer to brown the bottom as the top was already bubbling and I did not want to burnt it... Oh well, I guess it's ok... It was still a nice dinner... Most importantly, it is the company that counts :-D

Cake Order - Mixed Fruit Cake

One of the staff at my grandma's coffeeshop ordered this cake to celebrate his own birthday... Yeah, you heard it right... Guess I should put it this way... He ordered a cake to share with the rest of the staff... Since most of the staff are at least 50years old... They tend to favour fresh fruit cake... compared to chocolate ones.. So I decided to pile this cake with lotsa fruits... They feedback that the cake was a little too "wet"... gosh... I guess I might have overloaded on the fruits and agar agar topping... bish... Nevertheless, the cake still tasted great according to them... Pity I did not get a chance to see the cross-section of the cake to better understand what happened to it...

Dried Fruit Bread

I came back from my Company Convention with a pounding headache... But my hands were itchy to touch some flour... So decided to try a recipe from the new Bread book that I bought from a bookstore in Lucky Plaza... This recipe was supposed to be Kugelhopf...and the recipe called for onions and bacon to be added into the dough... However, an alternative was given... it can be made into a sweet bread... adding raisins and dried peel to it... Since I have lotsa of it at home... I decided to try the sweet version... I halved the ingredients as I did not know if this bread would work out... The bread was soft and fluffy when hot... As it cooled, It was slightly dry... But I guess if you toast it and put a slice of butter on it, it will be yummy... Will let thye tasters try it tomorrow and see what they say :-D

Sri Melaka Cupcake

I tried this recipe from Alex Goh's book, 'Magic Steamed Cake'. i was afraid that the Gula Melaka syrup would be too sweet, so I reduced the amount of caster sugar. Previously, I made a mistake of pouring the steamed cake batter into paper liners without putting them in the mould... so all the batter flowed out... Stupid me! Then few days ago, while I was at Sun Lik, I bought some white paper cups... this time, I poured the batter into these cups and put it into the steamer... I was curious how this cake would turn out... As I have poured the batter nearly to brim of each cup, I was afraid it would rise too high and flow out of the cup... When I opened the steamer lid 20mins later, I was in for a pleasant surprise... It not only did not tip out of the brim, it rise so beautifully... When I left it on the tray to cool, I had expected it to deflate... and it did not! The cake was soft and nice... Not too sweet... Easy to make... Another recipe to keep!

Tiramisu

My cousins came over for dinner and I thought a nice dessert would end the night on a nice note... I have 2 bottles of Kahlua sitting in my storeroom and it will be such a waste to just leave it there... so i decided to make Tiramisu... It will be a long long time to go before I finish the Kahlua... But at least I am starting to use it... Isn't this a good start? Anyway, my cousins like it alot... the only comments they had were that the coffee taste was abit too bitter... I did another one for mummy's birthday... and this time round, it was better... Practice makes Perfect... Yumz...

Lotus Paste PIGGY Pau

My tasters tried the pau and radish cake today... and the feedback I received was that the pau was soft and nice... The radish cake was SAAALTY... I knew it! I knew it! haha... It's ok... i will adjust the salt amount and try again...

Since I still have 2/3 packet of lotus paste in the fridge, I shall continue with the Pau... My mum and some staff were laughing at my pau today... They said it looks ugly.. duhz... my mum suggested that I just stick to the usual round shaped pau... sans 'crease'... so "encouraging" huh... But on a positive note, I saw mummy's laughter and it made my day...

While I was weighing and cutting the dough, i suddenly remembered the piggy pau that I ate in one of the Chinese Restaurants in Ion Orchard... Like what my friend said, I just ordered it coz it looks so cute... haha... So i decided to try making some myself... It did not turn out too badly... Rather time consuming to make it though... By the time i reached the last few dough, it has turned a little dry... Anyway, after steaming it, it looks pretty cute... taste wise, it is as good as the pau I did yesterday... Seeing the smile on my darling son's face when I fed him with the pau really made all the effort worthwhile...

Radish Cake - Luo Bo Gao

I think salt is my bane... my first attempt at Radish cake resulted in a salty 'gao'... But this is really not as bad as the curry puff... It doesn't have to go into the bin... haha... I had to grate 1kg of radish for this recipe... i saw many other recipes that calls for 2 or more kg of radish... can't imagine how my arms will end up if I have to grate this obscene amount of radish... Anyway, back to my Radish Cake... after steaming, the radish and flour mixure was cooked thoroughly... I was supposed to leave it in the fridge for a few hours, allow it to set properly and thus making it easier to cut into smaller pieces... But as usual, the impatient me could not keep my hands off the poor Radish Cake... Some parts of the cake stucked to the knife... But I was lucky enough not to mess up the entire Radish Cake... I pan fried some of it... Abit too salty... But if eaten with chilli sauce, it did not turn out too bad, I should say :-D Will improvise the recipe and try again soon :-D