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/

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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exploring flor...

Mango Pie

Waguri Mille Feuille

shop front

different types of pretty delicacies 'seducing' me

my cup of latte

This is an unplanned trip to Duxton Hill today.  My sis, little nephew and I were wanting to go for some Korean BBQ for dinner along Tanjong Pagar Road, but find ourselves arriving too early, therefore, we intend to look for a place to relax and sit down for some drinks.

Flor Patisserie is a Japanese Patisserie serving Japanese inspired French pastries and cakes.  You can choose to have it take away or if you have some time like us to spare, there are little sitting corners for you to relax and enjoy the beautiful and delicious cake.  

I ordered a Mango Pie and Waguri Mille Feuille along with a cup of Latte.  The Mango Pie is a Baked creme d'amande tart filled with pastry cream, and topped with fresh ripe mango and blueberries.  The mango is sweet and juicy and the combination of the sweetness from the fruit and the pastry goes so well that you just can't get enough of it.  

Sis fell totally in love with their Waguri Mille Feuille which is a pastry with delicate strands of French chestnut cream carefully piped over a sandwich of crisp, flaky puff pastry and pastry cream, topped with sweetened Japanese chestnuts.  This pastry looks somehow similar like Mont Blanc, a friendly Japanese staff explained to us that the difference between WMF & Mont Blanc is that Mont Blanc is with the sponge cake whilst WMF is using the flaky puff pastry, though both were using chestnuts, the texture is totally different.  Sis love it so much and we decided that we will order this cake for our birthday in September.

Overall, I love the coziness of this patisserie and the warmth of the staffs serving in the little shop.  Though the sitting place is not a lot and the pastries might be a bit pricey, but it's still alright for a once  in a while indulgent.  I really love it and I recommend you all to try the pastries there, and who knows, you will be the next one falling in love with Flor...

FLOR PATISSERIE

2 Duxton Hill #01-01

http://www.cakeflor.com.sg/

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admiring my cornish pastry

my big and filling cornish pastry

look at the inside of this giant

Today's lunch is a simple Spicy Chicken Cornish Pastry, basically it looks like an enlarge version of curry puff just that the pastry is lot more smoother and softer.  My first experience with Cornish pastry was when I was in my Secondary School. Back then during our Food & Nutrition class, we learn to make all sorts of pastries using different type of dough.

Anyway, back to my Spicy Chicken C.P, I like it that the pastry is not really think and the spicy chicken filling is tender, juicy and piping hot.  I think it will take about 2 person to finish it if you like to have it for tea, but if if you are as hungry as I was then, then one of it can really fill you up.  The cafe serve original and spicy chicken C.P and each cost $5.20++, go try and see if you like it.

THE SECRET RECIPE @ PLAZA SINGAPURA

68 Orchard Road #03-18

http://www.secretrecipe.com.sg/default.asp

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slow afternoon at McCafe

beautifully decorated mochacchino

my promotion set deal

the berries cream cheese melt

Recently, I have been finding myself craving for some good coffee, but most of the places I'm at don't seems to be near any nice cafe.  Desperately, I wanted to have some coffee today and I don't care much about anything, I find myself walking straight into McCafe.  

This particular McCafe is located in a Business city at the west, there isn't much crowd there as most of the people must be up at their office desk doing their work at that point of time.  I took the promotion of  Strawberry Cream Cheese Melt and Mochacchino which cost less than $5.  The Mochacchino was great but I don't really like my Strawberry Cream Cheese Melt, personally I find it too oily.  Other than that, I quite enjoy the slow afternoon in a surprisingly not crowded McCafe, just so relax...

MCDONALD'S SINGAPORE @ PSA

460 Alexandra Road, PSA Building #01-25

http://www.mcdonalds.com.sg/mccafe.html

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aromatic banana cake

banana cake in the process of cooling down

freshly out from the oven

The bunch of banana placed on the dining table gave me an idea on making Banana Cake for my family.  This is not the first time I'm making Banana Cake, however, this time round I tried to use this recipe from Wen's Delight.  I did a little bit, just tiny bit of modification to the recipe but it still turns out alright.  Here you go..:

ingredients

- 200g of ripe bananas, cut into small pieces

- 130g of brown sugar (you may use granulated white sugar)

- 3 medium sized eggs

- 150g of plain flour

- 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

- 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

- 100g of vegetable oil (in Wen's recipe, she stated any oil except olive oil)

- 1/8 teaspoon of banana essence (optional)

method

- grease baking with butter, you may use 8" round cake tin, I used loaf tin

- pre-heat oven to 160 degree Celsius

- sieve plain flour, baking powder and baking soda and leave a side

- whisk sugar and banana

- add in eggs, one at a time and whisk till smooth,

- whisk the mixture until stiff or ribbon state

- fold in the flour and mix well

- add in the oil and mix until batter is shiny and smooth

- add in banana essence and mix well

- pour the mixture into cake tin

- bake it for 40 - 45 minutes

- insert a toothpick into the centre of the cake, if it comes out clean, the cake is done

- remove cake from cake tin, cool completely before cutting it. enjoy~~

my fave - molten lava cake

serving you - molten lava cake

while waiting in their own containers

I have been feeling unwell since yesterday, it does not seems to get any better, so I went to see a doctor for some medication so that the uneasiness can go away.  Though being sick, I thought of making some nice little dessert to cheer my family up especially for my little nephew and niece.  I decided to make my favourite, Molten Lava Cake.

A.H. shared this recipe with me via Pinterest and she herself has made it for her family before.  She told me that it is actually very easy to make, so today, with my courage and the time I have resting at home, I'm going for it!

ingredients (makes 8 cakes)

- 4 ounces of Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate baking Chocolate Bar

- 2/3 cup (~150g) of butter

- 4 eggs

- 2/3 cup (~130g) of granulated sugar

- 1/2 cup of plain flour

methods

- greased 8 aluminium cup with butter

- melt butter and chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water, stir till smooth and leave aside to cool for at least 15 minutes

- beat sugar and eggs till thick and pale

- fold in flour

- then add in chocolate mixture while beating

- equally distribute the batter into the aluminium cups and chill

- when ready to serve, bake in 200 degree Celsius pre-heated oven till the top is set about 14-15minutes

- cool for about 5 minutes, then invert onto a serving plate

- best serve with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Yum!

cake in a jar

how the cake is been serve

honey lavender cake

one of their popular - durian cake

don't be too hard on the table

cosy corner of the cafe

Finally, I'm here at Grin Affair on a Monday afternoon together with sis.  I have heard so much about this little cafe and how they have their cake served in a jug.  I have read that their Durian Flavours cake is very popular and the owner also recommended us Honey and Lavender cake.  Unfortunately, there isn't any drinks available on the day I went there.  But still, I'm glad that I am here... :)

GRIN AFFAIR

3 Everton Park #01-77

http://www.grinaffair.com/

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tangy sweetness: rosa's apple crumble

the crumble

slices of caramelized apples with the crumble topping 

Simply homemade treats for my family.  It's my first attempt trying to make something with apples.  Not that I don't eat apples, but its quite difficult to handle it when cooking.  Just when I was trying to core these apples for my dessert, I accidentally cut my finger.  But I'm glad that I made this first attempt and realised that it's not so bad to deal with apples when cooking, just need to be more careful when cutting it.

Anyway, there is quite a few recipe on Apple Crumble and I learn this from twish1999 and I topped with my left over cornflakes (yes, I'm still trying to use up my cornflakes).  It turns out so delicious and all I need is just a scoop of vanilla ice-cream to go with it.

ingredients

for the crumble

- 1 cup of plain flour

- 50g melted butter

- 1/2 cup of brown sugar

- some cornflakes

for the apple mix

- 4 green apples

- 1/4 cup of brown sugar

- cinnamon powder

method

- for the crumble, just mix everything together and leave aside

- peel the green apples, core it and slice it thinly and place it on baking dish

- spread 1/4 cup of brown sugar

- dash cinnamon powder depends on your liking.

- spread the crumble on the apple mix

- bake in 180 degree celcius pre-heated oven for 30 minutes

- serve hot with vanilla ice cream~~