aromatic earl grey madeleine

I have fallen in love deeply with Madeleine and also French baking recently.  Apart from the previous Madeleine I made, I found a few other recipes on different flavours Madeleine and I'm going to make Earl Grey flavour Madeleine today.  I found this recipe from Eugenie's Kitchen Blog and I really like her method of making these Madeleine.  Feel free to browse through her blog.

donuts delights

I really do not have any confident in making donuts after a horrible failure long time ago.  I admit that I was still quite timid and fear failure repeats itself again, hence, I bought a packet of premix from supermarket and made them.  Dusted with icing sugar, its a great afternoon snack with a cup of hot green tea.  

pretty madeleine

I always have a missed conception about these beautiful Madeleine and have never ever wanted to make these little one until I suddenly saw the Madeleine Pan from Daiso and I decided to challenge myself in making some of those.

I got my recipe from Joy of Baking and went straight off to get all my ingredients.  So, here we go...

ingredients

- 113g of unsalted butter

- 1 cup of all-purpose flour

- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/8 teaspoon salt

- 3 large eggs, room temperature

- 2/3 cup granulated white sugar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

method

- melt the butter and allow it to cool.

- prepare the madeleine cake tin by greasing it with butter and dust with some flour.

- sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.

- in a bowl, beat egg, sugar until volume double and forms a thick ribbon when the whisk is lifted up.

- add in vanilla essence and beat to combine.

- sift in small amount of flour into the egg mixture and fold till well combine.

- sift in the the rest of the flour and make sure not to over-fold the batter.

- whisk a small amount of the batter into the cooled melted butter to lighten it.

- pour in the rest of the cooled melted butter and fold in well.

- dropped spoonful of the batter on madeleine mould.

- baked in pre-heated 190 degree celcius oven for 11-13 minutes.

- remove from oven, and remove the madeleine from the mould and let it cool at cooling rack.

- best eaten on the same day with nice cup of coffee. enjoy...~~

not so adventurous apple pie

I always wanted to make a pie and especially after watching the movie "Waitress", I really hope I can make such delicious pies like what the lead actress made in the show...  But... well, I'm not that adventurous.  I decided to start simple and easy and instead of making my own pie skin, I used frozen short crust pastry found in super market.

I found the apple filling recipes online over at here at taste.com.au, then I realised that I don't have lemon juice at home, hence I omitted it.  I strongly recommend you all to add the lemon juice as it help to lessen the sweetness from the apples and sugar and give the filling a tangy taste.

I don't have much recipe to show here, just cut 2 sheets of short crust pastry to the pan size you are using, one as the base and another one for the top.  You may use the remaining pastry to do some decoration on the pie like what you see here, sis actually made a cross.  Slit the top of the pie so that to allow the steam to escape from the apple fillings while cooking in the oven.  And oh, before you put into the oven, please brush it with some egg wash from 1 beaten egg.

Enjoy...     

attempting baked japanese cheese cake

I have never tried making bake cheese cake before and I happened to got this recipe from a cookery book which sat at my bookshelf for years and when today I suddenly open this book, I decided to challenge myself to make this.

ingredients

- 80g cream cheese

- 60mls fresh milk

- 2 eggs separated

- 80g castor sugar (original recipe called for 90g but it turn out a bit sweet)

- 3 tablespoons plain flour

- 1 & 1/2 tablespoons cornflour

- 1/3 teaspoon cream of tartar

method

- preheat oven to 180 degree celcius.

- sift flour and cornflour together.

- cook milk and cream cheese over low heat till cream cheese melts. set aside.

- beat egg yolks and half of sugar till creamy. fold in cheese mixture and fold in flour and corn flour.

- beat egg white till soft peak, sift in cream of tartar and sugar in 2 separate time while beating.

- beat until stiff peak form. fold in egg whites into batter in serveral times and mix well.

- line cake tin with baking sheet, pour in batter.

-pour water on baking tray until half full.

- place cake tin in tray.

- bake in oven for 20 minutes.

- reduced to 150 degree celcius and bake for another 15 minutes.

- let it stand for 10 minutes before taking out from oven.

- enjoy with a cup of nice hot green tea.~~

baking an apple cake

beautiful, yummy and moist apple cake

cooking the apples with cinnamon, raisin and butter, simple smell so nice

creaming in process

It has been quite a while since I last bake due to the busy work schedule.  I decided to follow a recipe from a book "Fruity Cakes" by Alex Goh and make this yummy Apple Cake.

In the recipe itself, it was made into cupcakes, but you can use loaf tin too.  So with the batter I had, its more than enough to fill up one loaf tin and 1 small round tin which I bought from Daiso.

ingredients

- 300g apples, peeled and diced (E)

- 100g raisins (E)

- 30g raisins (E)

- 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (E)
- 250g unsalted butter (A)

- 220g sugar (A)
- 3 eggs (B)

- 100mls milk (C)

- 300g plain flour (D)

- 1 tablespoon baking soda (D)
- sliced apples (F)

method
- place all (E) in a pot cook until the apples becomes tender. set aside to cool

- cream (A) until light and fluffy, add in (B) one at a time while beating and beat until smooth

- add (C) and (D) gradually and alternatively.  mix well and add in (E) and mix until well incorporated

- pour in greased cake tin and decorate the top with (F)

- bake in 175 degree celsius pre-heated oven and bake for 40-50mins

- cool completely and serve. enjoy ~~

loving you : loysel's toy

my cuppa lovely mocha

egg benedict with bacon

victoria sandwich, fall in love by how neat she look

this is a real beauty, love how moist it is - our favourite flourless chocolate cake

A sunny Sunday late morning, together with sis, we met up with a long lost friend A.T for brunch.  We decided to visit Loysel's Toy at Kampong Bugis as I have always wanting to go there and have a try.

It's a 10 minutes walk from Lavender MRT Station (well depend on how fast you walk), passing by the beautiful Kallang Riverside garden and crossing a small bridge, you can easily spot the bustling cafe located at level one of a building name Ture.

The cafe is crowded with people going there for brunch and some gatherings.  We ended up taking a bar seat beside the music player facing a al fresco area and happened to saw some kids having their birthday party over there.  I like this kind of feeling, sitting in a cafe, chatting with friends and people looking.

For my brunch, I ordered an Egg Benedict with Bacon with a cup of hot mocha.  And follow by Victoria Sandwich and Flourless Chocolate Cake to share.  Sis has got her bad experience with Ice Mocha in one of the cafe we visited previously and she is now using Ice Mocha as a benchmark for different cafes.  Well, she fell in love with Loysel's Toy's Ice Mocha and she has been talking about it since then.  The food portion is just nice and overall, it's a very relaxing place for a lazy Sunday.I hope to drop by soon again... :)

LOYSEL'S TOY

66 Kampong Bugis, Ture, #01-02

http://www.loyselstoy.com/

japanese chicken bites

Chicken Bites with Japanese flavoured sauce was what I made for that night dinner.  I shall not say it's a success as my initial intention was to make chicken balls than what it turn out to be Chicken Bites as what sis said.  Though she likes it, I did shared my failure thoughts with my best friend - Meow whom is someone who went through a series of cooking lessons during a school days.  

I was told by Meow that in order to prevent the texture to be too sticky which caused me unable to form them into uniform ball size pieces is to add in some vegetables, be it frozen peas or just diced onions.  Well, I learned from my mistake but at least I created a sauce that causes sis to go gaga over it...

ingredients

(chicken bites)

- 200g minced chicken

- 1 egg white

- 2 tablespoons corn flour

- salt & pepper for taste

(please do add in vegetables like onions or frozen peas to make the texture less sticky)

(sauce)

- 2 tablespoons soy sauce

- 2 tablespoons mirin

- 1 teaspoon sake

method

- mix all the ingredients for the chicken bites and pan fried it till golden brown

- pour in the sauce mixture and reduce it till the sauce is thick

- serve hot with rice... enjoy~~~

summer time! it's summer hokkaido fair

summer hokkaido fair!!

look at the crowd

butter manju

staff making the manju

different types of rice cakes and mochi

It's really rare for me who stayed in the west side of Singapore to travel all the way to the East for a walk.  As me and Sis decided to go there for some purpose, we found ourselves landed in a big crowd of eager Singaporean having a great time enjoying and trying out the different cuisine available at the Summer Hokkaido Fair organised by Isetan in Tampines Mall.

During this fair, you will be able to find delicious delicacies from Japan, like Ramen, Rice Cakes, BBQ Seafood...etc.  As me and sis were quite full from our lunch, we decided to just go for some light snacks and bought some Manju for our family to try.

Frankly speaking, I am looking forward to their Autumn Fair as I love the chestnuts from Japan.  I can't wait for them to come soon so that I can have the opportunity to try the yummy chestnuts delicacies from the fair.

here i am at gardens by the bay

welcome to gardens by the bay

tree top walk

super trees grove

national day rehearsal - airshow

Located at the central heart of Singapore, Gardens by the Bay is the newest attraction in Singapore.  This 101 hectares garden finally opens their door to the public with since last Friday and attracted many locals and tourists to visit.

I was there on last Saturday and was truly amazed by how big this place is.  Surrounded by a big pool of curious visitors like me, a lot of places like the F&B outlet and the tree top walk entrance are congested.  Well, after all it's a free entrance for everyone during the open house and I don't grumble that much, after all my presence there also contribute to the massive crowds too. Hahahaha...

It's a great place for a family and friends gathering and also a beautiful place for your wedding photo shoot.  This garden is located near Marina Bay Sands, Marina Barrage and the Singapore Flyer and not forgetting the skyscraper of the Central Business District of Singapore.  Your photos will definitely look nice with all these landmarks around. 

GARDENS BY THE BAY

18 Marina Gardens Drive

http://www.gardensbythebay.com.sg/en/home.html

romancing in antoinette

the famous antoinette

kyoto

can't remember the name, something to do with green apple.  super like

old english tea time feel

flowers around

the private room

For my recent work project with my two lovely guests, we got an opportunity to met up with the Celebrity Chef Pang Kok Keong and visited one of their latest Patisserie outlet Antoinette at Palais Renaissance, which just started operation a month ago.

Located at the basement of the mall, the design of the cafe is just so dreamy.  Designed to be like a patio of a garden, this cafe attracted a lot of female guests coming in for their Hi-Tea.  This particular Antoinette is the biggest among it's other branch.  Apart from the normal patio seating, there is an extra room (saloon) to cater to weekend when there's a crowd and they have a private room too.

We tried some of their signature cake and fell deeply in love with the one with green apple.  I can't remember it's name but personally, I love sweet, tangy and fruity sweets, so this was my favourite of all.  Their famous cake - Antoinette is a chocolate moose cake topped with a raspberry cream gel, I quite like it as in enjoyed poking the gel.  Dark, creamy chocolate moose with sweet, sour tangy raspberry cream, this is a must to order for chocolate love.  For Green Tea or Matcha's lover, please do try their 'Kyoto'.  Green tea moose cake top with a chestnut, this is a simple and yet rich pastry.

This is really a good place where you can relax and spend sometime with friends or perhaps good for a date.  I would love to bring my friends here for a relaxing afternoon tea.  I'll be back soon...~~

ANTOINETTE @ PALAIS RENAISSANCE

390 Orchard Road #B1-08/09/10C

http://www.antoinette.com.sg/

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spotting the sweet spot

lazing at sweet spot

my cuppa mocha

mille-feuille

bright and cheery flower

interior of cafe

As part of my exploration in Marina Bay Sands, I spotted this stylish cafe located at level one of tower 3.  Serving daily coffees, pastries and cakes, this cafe is very popular among the Caucasian tourist.  

This is a minimalist designed cafe and not much of the seating space is available.  Most of the guests either grab and go or finish up what they have and go off.   And because of this, all the cups and plate they used are disposable.

As I was waiting for my clients to be ready, I got myself a Mille-Feuille which I'm crazy about recently ever since my last visit to Flor and also a cup of my usual Mocha.  Mille-Feuille is a puff pastry with pastry cream and powdered sugar, I do have some difficulty 'dealing' with it with the disposable fork that I had.  Frankly speaking, I felt kinda bad to mess up their beautiful floor with my flaky pastry bits falling here and there.  As for my Mocha, I do felt a bit bitter when I first tasted it, I thought I might need a packet of sugar to 'tame' it a bit, but after a few bites of my Mille-Feuille, the Mocha became bearable or perhaps I got used to it.

I chatted with the staff and from them I know that they do have 2 more branches (push cart) located at Marina Bay Sands Shoppe.  Guess their concept is more of a take-away style.  It will be a good place for you to kill some time while waiting for the others, but definitely not for any gathering or relaxation.

SWEET SPOT

10 Bayfront Ave Marina Bay Sands Singapore, Lobby Level Tower 3

http://www.marinabaysands.com/Singapore-Restaurants/Quick-Eats/SweetSpot/

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finally marina bay sands

welcome to marina bay sand

nice chandelier at vip check in

beautiful room

feeling lazy

big bathtub

view from balcony

skypark

Ever since Marina Bay Sands open its door in June 2010, this is my very first time visiting this magnificent building and checking out their rooms.  Well, to make things clear, I did not stay in the room, but these rooms were booked for my company guests and I was so privilege to be given a chance to explore around with my guests.

MARINA BAY SANDS SINGAPORE

10 Bayfront Avenue

http://www.marinabaysands.com/

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searching for my million dollar dream @ 7adam

vodka based cocktail - million dollar dream

exterior of 7adam

interesting sculpture

artistic interior design

Attended a launch party at this new French restaurant called 7Adam.  Located at Adam road itself, this stylist restaurant not only have dining service, bar and also an art gallery.  

Throughout the night, simple canapes and a special "Million Dollar Dream" a vodka based cocktail with juice has been served to all guests.  It's quite a successful launch with more than 60 guests attended this event.  I hope to have a chance to dine in 7Adam again, though it's kinda hard to access, after all it's just a 10 minutes uphill walk from the bus stop.  I'm sure this will be a great place for romantic dinner for couple and a great place for dinner meeting with guest.  Can't wait to go back there again.

7ADAM

7 Adam Park

http://www.7adam.com/

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