Okie a lot of back dating.. ..haha photoz to update...but have not been faithfully doing it..
so will post whichever events I can remember .. .hee hee

Okie first up.. .... celebrated Monica Birthday!!! This amazing lady has a really good figure..hee hee considering her age.. ..I just wished that when I reach her age..I will be able to be that good too.. ..Gary bought her a Canele Le Royale Birthday Cake!!! Full of chocolately goodness..or should I say..sinfulness!!! hahaha...It really rich and good. ... we celebrated for her after the Saturday Aquaz claz....and well resulting photoz of course are not of tt much eye candy..since we are wet and hair are plastered all over our face..haha

Then yesterdae was Cat's Bdae!!! we had a mini celebration after Attackz oso..this time is also Canele..but it Macha (green tea) cake instead... hmm...it might be a bit too delicate in taste for most of us plebians..haha used to the rich gooey chocolately taste of cakes.. ..this cake tastes more like a tea cake perfect with a cup of hot steaming tea in a Victorian era ambience surrounding...

But luckily or unluckily..hee hee depending on the viewpoint of your tastebuds or your waist...I make Macarons!! Chocolate macarons with Bailey Chocolate Ganache.. ..so it a double dose of chocolate...with a hint of Bailey or rather a lot..haha.. ..was a bit heavy handed with the Bailey..according to some friends and family members who kindly provide me with feedbacks.

Now Macarons are delicate, delightful, delicious (now I alliterating!! haha) little morsel which is crips on the outside but moist in the interior..with just melts in your mouth...
Macarons by itself might be a little too sweet at least for mine case...so I paired it up with bitter chocolate ganache (addition of Bailey to intensify the bitterness)...Paired together, they balanced each other out and tastes great...If I do say so myself! hahaha

Macarons are known to be notoriously hard to make as they can be quite temperamental. Different batches from the same batter can result in some macarons having cracked dome, peaked dome or no feet!!! Once they are into the oven...it a must to watch them like a hawk to ensure that temperature n positiong of the tray result in perfect macarons..I had to throw away 3 batches before getting the knack of the placement and the oven temperature and timing...but even that...some of the macarons were cracked whereas some were close to perfection!!! The batter would have yield me about 70+ small little macarons (gerbets) but I managed to salvage only a little bit less than 40. well.. ..not bad considering this is the first attempt.....
I had shied away from macarons for a long time considering the reviews that this is a tough cookie (pardon the pun! haha) to crack.. ...and are tedious and time consuming..
No doubt it is time consuming, requiring a bit of technique and lots and lots of patience..but let me tell you ...the efforts are worth it when you see your first batch of perfect macarons out of the oven! hee hee. ....no other cookies keep you so much on the ball of your feet as macarons..the guesswork and anticipation and waiting are enough to make you feel that you survive a claz of Attackz successfully and live to tell it!

So as to end off this rather lengthy post, let me share a few bits of information that I feel might be useful in the quest for a perfect macaron

1. Patience, and lots n lots of it...have it in abundance and of course, pls don't do it in the middle of the night or evening when it a work day! You ended up sleeping at 4-5 am the next day and within a few hours, need to wake up and leave for work! hee hee
2. After piping the macarons, leave it out in the open for it to dry out a bit, perferably at least half an hour
3. Use Italian Meringue...feels that it is more stable than Swiss or French even though it is more time consuming
4. Certain recipes called for egg whites to be aged for a day or even two! fastidous me will not do that, so best method will be to seperate the egg as the first step and leave it out in the open while preparing for other ingredients. Eggs should be at room temperature too.
5. Shift the ingredients! this help to remove lumps and make the ingredients more fine too....
6. Use parchment ... it beats greaseproof paper hands down...

PS: can't load the photoz..not sure why it that so..will upload the photoz soon

Oh gosh..time passes really fast...2 mre weeks and we are into June..the mid of the year and we be stepping into the later part of 2007 soon! where have all the time went to...hmmm

Recently went to Lerk (not confused with Jerk..pls haha) Thai for lunch....they having a one for one lunch set at WhiteSands....total damages for 2 ppl...$9.50!!! that ended up with onli $4.50 each.....and one set consists of tom yam soup, papaya salad or veg and main dish accompanied with rice.....so is defintely worth it....hee hee

But here goes my spoils for this week! hee hee

Stencil! not to be confused with art stencil..rather this is for decoration of cake...so you bake your cake..and dust the top with icing sugar or cocoa (depending on the color of ur cake) and you will have this cute pics on your cake!
Another stencil!!! different design..can't wait to try them out!
Qoo!!!!my favourite drink! hee hee I rarely drink flavoured drinks but this is one of my faves...though I had to admit that it partly due to the monster! haha...btw..the stencils and drinks are from Japan though.. :)
My biscotti!! (singular form: Biscotto! hee hee) this is after slicing up and waiting for the second bake :)
Just out of the oven..as you can see....the loaf is not shaped evenly...hee hee have to pardon me as this is the first attempt....or rather 2nd attempt...my second loaf! hee hee...Biscotti is a Italy biscuit...meaning twice baked biscuits....they are traditionally made without butter and are made with almond or/and anise...
Of course with the influence of other cultures and the easy availability of once hard to find ingredients, the traditonally biscuit had other ingredients added into it, such as butter, dried fruits and other kinds of nuts..
Since biscotti are hard, they are usually dunked into coffee to soften up a bit..though I prefer to eat them on their own :)

Also bought 3 really cute cookies cutter from daiso....comes in the shape of a bear, rabbit and love...hee hee they can also double up as a rice shaper! seriously cute..will post pics of it..once I make something with them

okie..here my recent bakes..

Water Chestnut cake... I love it in Crystal Jade..tried reproducing it at home..added way too much chestnuts and it wasn't firm enough :(
My Ji Dan Gao (hee wasn't scolding ppl!) this is the egg cupcake...very very soft and taste good although sis complains it was perhap a bit too eggy ...got the recipe from one online blog...tt lady sure can cook :)

My red beean paste...was a tad too dry....
Mochi!! that where the red bean paste went into...hee
Red bean paste soup with mochi..haha see that little black tingy on top of mochi....nt dirt leh...it Pearl..my sis insists on putting it in...though it does make it quite nice :)

nthing much to update except what I have been baking..

Have been sorta imobile these 2 days as I have pulled my back muscles due to improper stretching while jogging.....

But of cos..unable to sit till for long..I went for my favourite class - AquazFit!!! hee hee.....

Think I recovered enough to do other classes..will try tomorrow!

Okie my bakes over the weekend...make tau sar piah for mum who was flying over to China...i though it tastes pretty weird..but friends and colleagues who tried insisted that it was fine!thought I was told to omit the pepper! heehee..will attempt to make another batch but this time...will reduce the amount of oil as it way too much!

After the sinful tau sar piah...decide to make healthy heathy cookies (well..as healthy as cookies can be!) Make oatmeal orange canberry and dates okie (what a mouthful!!) ha ha....with wholemeal flour...... so it healthy and full of fibre!!

Also went Kim Gary to eat.hmm...bad experience...food nothing to rave about...I still prefer Wan Zhai or Hong Kong Cafe!!!

As promised...the long awaited Canele's deserts photoz!! Ha ha let the pics do the talking...

The whole array of sinful sinful deserts!!
Tiramsu...who can resists.. ....
Strawberry profiterol...e choux pastry a tad hard...pro cos it wasn't defrost before serving to us

Can't remeber what this is.....bu know it contains coffee....tastes pretty all right
Blackforest! This is GOOD! .. ..haha.. .I love the whole chunk of black berries and the tangy taste of the mousse
Chloe...basically a mango yoghurt mousse spongecake......not really on everyone favourite list but I guess it is aquired taste

Brownie...who needs ice cream when the brownie tastes like cake and ice cream at the same time..hee hee
Le amour....the meaning of love...hee hee I think I in love wih the meringue, macroons and berries that tower over the almond cake! It decadent and filled with goodness! hee hee

Oh Jupite! who can resist chocolate especially one that look as good as this..

Upon reaching my office...my boss asks me whether I want to go to the wake....i was like puzzled and ask him whose wake are we going for? At that point of time..still feeling nonchalence as in my line of work..we are used to death and going for wake or hearing about death is not a uncommon occurence..
But when my boss went on to further elaborate and told me that the wake is for the daughter of one of my nurse..I got a shock..
My nurse is young..probably in her 40s...and her daughter is barely into her 20s. It was a tragedy...and happens really fast...Apparently it happens within a week due to some rare blood disorder. ..
I guess life unpredictable.. ..anything can happen within a instance...and we should start treasuring loved ones and not taken a single second for granted..
Living in Singapore, with family members and friends within rader distance in such small country...we tend to ignore or take for granted the unqiue treasureness of having loved ones so near us and easy accessibility...appointments are flexible and always able to push to the furthest date...dates and meetups are always procrastinated to the last minute..and time with family can always be postphoned for something more interesting. ..
Maybe it time that we reevaluate our life..and allocated more space, time and love to people that we treasured...and not to show in during grand gestures and during government allocated holiday but rather through small, love filled actions and in our everyday life...
I try to do that..but will you??

okie..canele's photoz still have to wait as the photoz are located in my company's desktop!

First all ... ...May gonna be really busy...as I have to be committed to my volunteer work..have promised to go Ubin for cycling...to meet up with groups of friends for different birthday celebrations and also for a friend's wedding..I screwed...really screwed..haha how to make time..I just have to conjure some magic out!!

Went Xin Wang to eat this weekend..nothing fantastic...total damage for 7 people...$108!! that freaking expensive for the amount of food we devoured....tsk tsk..totally not worth it as I don't think their food are very good...

Make some baked goods too!!

This is my durian puffs!! hee hee basically the puffs are made of choux pastry, using a technique similar to making roux.. ..the butter are melted into the boiling water and flour are added quickly and cooked..once slightly cooled...eggs are added and mixture is either piped or spooned into prepared baking tray....

Two things to notice: 1. Initally oven temp has to be high to allow steam to develop so that puff can rise and to lower temp later to allow structure to set. 2. I find that it is better to sprinkle some water on the baking tray as the additional steam allow the puff to rise more effectively.

Hee hee those jams are not made by me!!! I was given these few jars of blackberry jams by my sister...was thinking of making some cake or muffins with jam..but thought that since the jams are so nice..might be better to eat it with scones or bread on its own!! Decide to made soda bread as it a very quick bread that does not require rising time since it uses chemical leavener... as the name suggests..it using baking soda to help it to rise.. ...
The verdict: bread was not very tasty but jam was very! haha.. .