It has been a few months since I touched a bread dough so this class on Christmas breads was a much needed refresher. Kneading and baking undisturbed in a professional kitchen can be very therapeutic. We learned how to make plaited bread shaped and decorated like Christmas wreaths. Stollen the way I like it, with just a sprinkle of icing sugar and no marzipan. Also my favourite Christmas bread:
The first time I made a swiss roll, it cracked and I got screamed at by my secondary school home economics teacher. Haunted by the failure, or maybe I was still afraid of Mrs Yap I never attempt the cake again until last week at baking class where I had to make several swiss rolls including this one. Known as the tiger roll, this cake has tiger stripe like patterns on the skin. Or rather, you get tiger strips when executed well. I thought mine looked more like squiggly worms. Still, I was quite pleased as none of my swiss rolls cracked.
When the bakery uses one as a price card holder?
Hello everyone. Sorry I have not posted or replied to comments for the past few months. I am not sure if it was too much eating from Christmas to Chinese New Year or the weight gained due to the binges, but for a while I lost the zeal for food, cooking and blogging. So I decided to take a break. I am back now, recharged and reenergenized.
Christmas branch with the extended family at the Conrad Hotel. Sorry there were no photographs of the food. I left the camera at home and the mobile was low on battery so only managed to take a picture of the festive table setting.
The buffet lacked variety and the food was mediocre. Not worthy of the hefty $98 per person price tag despite the good champagne that was served. What had made the meal priceless was the good company and the opportunity to catch up with relatives, some of whom I had not seen for a year.
I am flying to Sydney today. Will be there for a week doing lots of shopping and eating.
Here's wishing all of you a blessed 2006. May the coming year bring you health, happiness and prosperity.
How time flies. Before we realized, it's the end of the year and Christmas is upon us.
I am never a huge fan of the log cake, finding it too rich and the cake decorations kitschy. Surprisingly, this chocolate log cake given by a friend is pretty light and we have much fun biting the decorations to determine if they are edible.
Received some magnificent gifts from friends even before Christmas. My new doggie tea set and Doraemon noodle bowl lugged back by J and L from abroad. The lovely C bought me the latest cook book by Sylvia Tan and Oz Clarke's wine guide for 2006.
Merry Christmas, everyone. May you all be as blessed as I am to have such wonderful friends.
On the 7th of September 2004, I started this food blog after eating too many potato chips. When the euphoria wore off, I thought to myself, is this really a good idea? I mean here we have a woman who has a short attention span, cannot write well, only knows how to use the camera in auto mode, is on some kind of diet most of the time, and to be perfectly honest, is a really lazy cook.
Yet here we are, a year later. I have gained knowledge, tried out new recipes, realized I still cannot bake a cake and most importantly made many new friends. To my readers and fellow food bloggers, thank you for visiting my blog and your kind comments. I would not have persevered if not for your support.
Since all these came about with a pack of chips, I thought it is apt that I celebrate with Royce Potatochip Chocolate. Salty chips coated with creamy milk chocolate may seem a strange combination. Yet the taste is harmonious and the chips are dangerously addictive.
Here's to friendship and more good food. Cheers!
Here is the flower that gives Nasi Kerabu the pretty shade of blue. Commonly known as bunga telang, it is called butterfly pea or clitoria flower in English. Before artificial coloring becomes widely available, Malays and Peranakan use the bunga telang as a natural blue dye for cakes, kuehs and dumplings. In modern times, the bunga telang is rarely seen or used outside of the domestic kitchen as extracting the color is time consuming and many flowers are required just to dye a small quantity of food. I certainly did not know that we have two of the creeper plant in the garden until a Malay friend of the Mother pointed it out to us. The garden being the Father's playground, we are usually ignorant of what he has planted in there.
I have started collecting the butterfly pea flowers for drying. When I have enough flowers, I will try my hands on making some kuehs and use the petals to color them a deep indigo.
Presenting the latest in dog training aid: the durian. Guaranteed to get the rapt attention of your dog at all times. Using the durian, you will have no problem recalling your dog, even from very far away. Sure your house and car and refrigerator will smell like a gas leak but that is really a small price to pay when your dog willingly performs all commands and tricks just for a taste of the durian flesh.
These pesticide free durians came courtesy of the relative whose friend owns a plantation in Malaysia. The thick, custard like flesh is delicious, the bitter and sweet perfectly balanced. The whole family, with the exception of the durian hating brother who has escaped to Mount Kinabalu, agrees these are the best we have tasted this year. Sadly, these fruits are the last of the current crop so my plan of having LL be the first dog to join Cirque du Soleil will have to be shelved for a while.
Presenting my Family's collection of birthday candles. Kept for use in case of blackouts according to the Mother.
Considering the fact that we usually ask for one candle per cake, what you see here is the result of many Black Forest cakes, the occasional cheesecake if the Brother gets his way in choice of birthday cake flavor and the rareness of blackouts in Singapore.
So what do you do with your birthday candles?
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