Today I baked some cuppies again. Just wanted to do something easy but nice: Vanilla Butter cupcake with Devillish Chocolate Buttercream swirl - whooohoo... Simple & Delish!

Mood: Satisfied; proud

This morning i attended the long-awaited Fondant modelling class conducted by Meng Choo. She makes great cupcakes and it took me some begging and coaxing to book myself a slot -phew..... I wanted to learnt he proper techniques so that i can start making cuppies and give them as pressies hehehe..Most of all, I hope to be able to make it and try baking some in time for Favian and Mischa's Birthday. I think the 'dream' is about to come true , Yay!

Look at my works:

We learnt how to create (from top left-right, bottom left-right):
- princess crown (I love this, simple an nice)
- booties
- sports car
- dog
- Princess
- handbag/clutch bag

Some close up views:

Lately I have so much energy in baking! Hehehe... in fact I am practising hard for the 2 birthday celebrations of my kiddos! Gosh, I have not decided which bakery/ mummy to order the cakes from...talk about procrastination!

But here's my fruits of the day:



First attempt at making buttercream from scratch - strawberry+vanille flavoured- nice & sweet! Of course not forgetting my fav Hello kitty...die die must find a place for her..hehehe. Oh i must stress that I hand moulded the ribbon bow okay?????


And these I intend to include for Favian's Birthday celebration in his school

Last Sunday hubby and I whipped up a good spread for my good pal cum kiddos' Godma Christina and also to celebrate the Lantern Mooncake festival.

Hubby made Oyster Egg for us, super yummy....minus the lard! It's a healthy version hehehe...but i forgot to take pics of it!

I cooked these:
My fav Sweet & Sour Pork - yummy yummy!


And this - Chicken Gizzards (or what do u call this?)
Love the crunchiness and the gravy goes so well with steam rice


And the 'highlight' of the night was Black Pepper Crabs - by my hubby! Wow it was his first attempt at it and I really give him the thumbsup! I can dare to say that it tasted much much better than the acclaimed famous Pepper crabs of some 'top notch' chinese restaurants. Love my hubby to bits!


After the dinner we went downstairs to the playground to light some lanterns, otherwise it just doesn't feel like the Lantern festival

This is also my all-time fav soup! Posted earlier on in my blog, this soup has sure been my Breastmilk booster but is also great for non-BFing mummies. Good for the skin and healthy!


Ingredients: (serves 2 pax)
1/2 small green papaya (really unripe ones) -peel and cut into cubes
1/4 fish head or 1 whole small fish head
note: can replace with fish bones and also incld more fish meat if preferred
1 ltr chicken broth
5 red dates
3 slices of ginger
a handful of dried wolf berries
1 tbl spoon sesame oil
rice wine or brandy

Instructions:
1. fry ginger in sesame oil till fragrant
2. stir fry fish head/ bones till golden brown, slightly charred (leave meat till much later)
3. add in chicken broth and bring to boil (cover wok)
4. add in papaya & red dates, leave to simmer for 30-45min with cover on (very low flame)
note: add meat after simmering for 15min
5. add in wolf berries and allow to simmer for another 10min
6. add in a dash of rice wine/ brandy as desired

Ingredients: (per serving)
1 bowl of cooked white rice
2 slices of ham (any kind will do)-shredded
100g of minced beef
half can of tomoto paste (small can)
150ml of chicken broth
chopped onions (white)
butter
olive oil
1/2 packet of shredded mozzerella cheese

Instructions:
1. sautee onion with butter, add in cooked white rice and fry till fragrant
2. pour into baking bowl/tray, place a layer of shredded ham on top.
3. mix tomoto paste with chicken broth and some olive oil and spread some over
4. add minced beef and spread the rest of tomoto paste mix over
5. sprinkle shredded cheese over the top covering the entire bowl/tray

I preheat my oven prior to that and using convection mode at 160 ºC to bake the rice. Note that i did not incld salt or other flavourings cos usually i like my food less salty. so u hv to add as desired.
some recipe recommend using raw rice to cook, but i prefer to cook them first so that my bake rice comes out jus moist and nt dry (cos uncooked rice will 'steal' the moisture from ur gravy.) I also love them cheesy cheesy..so if u think that the amt of cheese i recommended is too much, jus reduce it.

U may add other ingredients like mushrooms, herbs as desired

Serves 3-4 pax (best with white rice)

1kg of chicken (chicken thighs or mid-joint wings preferred)
3 medium sized Russet Potatoes
2 big onions (white)
2 carrots
4-5 Tbl spoon Oyster sauce or to taste (Lee Kum Kee brand)
300ml Chicken broth / hot water (or as desired)
Sesame oil
Premium dark soy sauce ( as required)
Hua diao jiu (HDJ - Chinese wine for cooking)

Steps:
1. De-skin and slice potatoes, onions and carrots thinly
2. Heat sesame oil in wok, add onions and fry till fragrant.
3. Add chicken and fry for a few minutes (not fully cooked)
4. Pour in oyster sauce, and fry a while more before adding in carrots and potatoes
5. Fry till all ingredients absorb a good portion of the oyster sauce
6. Pour chicken broth, blend well , turn to low flame and leave to simmer (cover wok)
7. When chicken is almost cooked, and gravy becomes starchy, pour dark soy sauce and blend well. Turn to medium flame
8. Let it come to a boil and when about to turn off the flame, add in small amount of HDJ and its ready to serve

Tips: Russet potatoes turns soft easily and makes the gravy thick, other types of potatoes might take longer to cook. I prefer the potatoes/ gravy soft and creamy.

I sometimes replace chicken broth with plain hot water instead. But will add more oyster sauce for stronger taste. This dish, I like the sauce really thick and rich, since it will be served with white rice, so the saltiness is palatable. I always make lotsa gravy for this dish otherwise it will not be enough to go around. So control your liquid amount as desired.

No need to add HDJ if you do not like the taste or if its for children’s comsumption.

Imprtant: Frozen chicken parts tends to release more liquid during cooking, so decrease the amt out water/broth used in this instance.

I decided to share some recipe with my fellow mummy frens. Most of these dishes I have posted in my previous entries, but not explained in details. Pls pardon my bad english and my not-very-professional way of the instructions. Here goes the 1st recipe:

红槽鸡 - Red rice wine residue chicken
Ingredients: Serves 3-4 pax
1 whole chicken (preferred) or thigh meat/mid-joint wings (approx 1kg)
Ginger (shredded thin)
2 tbl spoon Sesame oil
1 ltr chicken broth
5 tbl spoon Red Rice wine Residue (RRR) (homemade or can get from YueHwa)
½ Cup Fuzhou Rice Wine (not all works. Email me for the specific brand *LOL)
Brandy (1 tbl spoon)
Coriander leaves or Parsley (for garnishing)
White Pepper (as desired)

Instructions:

1. Heat wok, fry ginger till slightly golden brown (for confinement, stir till slightly burnt)

2. Add sesame oil, then fry lightly and put in chicken parts, fry till fragrant

3. Blend in and fry RRR with chicken (maintaining medium to high flame)

4. Pour chicken broth and allow to simmer with low flame

5. When chicken is cooked, add in rice wine and allow to boil, turn off flame.

6. Sprinkle in brandy as desired (for BF mums, leave this out)

This is how it looks after step 3

This is before adding in the rice wine


Tip: You can transfer this and bring to boil in a claypot. Best served piping hot! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: these recipe feature my favourite dishes. I have an acquired taste for food..hence try this at home - AT YOUR OWN RISK! LOL

Baby Mischa is already 10 months old! She had been rather cranky the past few days with running nose and slight cough. Guess what? She's teething again...this is th 7th teeth till date.


Cute little toothy girl:




She can pull herself up pretty steadily now. And she can finally CRAWL!!!! Yay!!! Kinda late.but better than never. Now i always leave her on the mat/floor and she crawl freely around the house, chasing after balls and her Gor Gor..LOL

Lately I was inspired by some of the mummies from the SMH baking thread. They make really nice looking (taste I dun know, but they sure look mouth-watering enough!) moonies.

I am not a mooncake person, but I just want to give it a try and make moonies from scratch. The easiest mooncakes to make for beginners are the snowskin mooncakes cos they require no baking and are less time consuming.

I only make the snowskin from scratch, but not the lotus paste though - my 'kungfu' not there yet.
So these are my works - all in HELLO KITTY mould:

1st attempt:
Red Wine lotus paste with vanilla flavoured snowskin. Followed the recipe given but a tad too soft, but taste is ok.


Imprint not very clear cos i used the wrong mould


Inside showing the filling - red wine paste with mashmallow - yum yum


2nd attempt today:

I used the silicone bakeware and these moonies came out more defined. Love the rich colour although my hb said it looked scary!

I am still hoping to find a proper mould for making mooncakes and for collection as well. But its probably too late for this year. Maybe can keep for the following years. If anyone knows whereI can get this, pls buzz me!

My Dream HK Mooncake mould:

Last night hb and I brought our 2 kiddos to the Chinese Garden! Hahhaa all because of me - i kept bugging hubby to go with me...Becos the festival is featuring Hello Kitty & Friends!

The entrance fees were expensive! And it started to pour after a while...kinda spoilt our moods but luckily we were almost done with the phototaking and all.

There are free lanterns for redemption with carpark coupons and child ticket. I got myself 2 HK lanterns to add into my collection.


The larger than life sized Lantern sculptures are such cuties...

Recently i re-started my Hello Kitty (HK in short) collection again cos i chanced upon a HK Fans' discussion forum and that rekindled my love for HK

I actually had my 1st Hello kitty merchandise when I was about 6 years old. It was a full body HK sling bag which my mum bought for me. I should be able to find the photo and will post it here :)

To my astonishment, there are 1001 'Kittified' items...the favourite in my list are the cooking ware, lunch boxes and accessories...they are all too cute!!!

Here's sharing my loots for the week:


From Daiso:
-HK favour bags
-HK cups
-HK bowls
-HK mirror
-HK mugs

From Kai Kai Gifts:
-HK ice cube cum jelly mould (one of my favourite splurge!)
-HK egg mould
-HK cookier/ vege cutter
-HK onigiri mould
-HK silicone cake mould (this is really a splurge!)

That's all for now...kekekekeke..

Thursday we went to watch Thomas & Friends Live at Singapore Expo! We got 3 of the best seats since we seldom have the chance to catch live shows with Favian.

He enjoyed himself alot and we got to spend a good quality time with him that evening.

This is Mischa's 1st and NEW passport. We are planning to go somewhere with our kiddos so we made a passport for Mischa just in case we have any last minute plan.

Indeed the week following the collection of her passport, we went to JB for some seafood feast. The next destination we are planning will be Malacca. i m so looking forward to my coming Taiwan trip! Yay!!

We recently had a Babies and Mummies (not forgetting Daddies too!) Gathering at one of the nice mummy, Sharron's place. It was a good time to get together as our babies have grown quite alot since out last meeting at the Globetrotters.

I had to bring Mischa alone there as it was a Sunday and hubby preferred to bring Favian for their own private outing.
As Mischa seemed to the only 'non-crawling' baby, she 'guai guai' sat on the floor and I must say that she was pretty well-behaved throughout the entire time we were busy chit chatting amongst ourselves.

Some pictures to share:


Thanks to K@ye's hubby for this high res. shot

And this 'stolen' from Grace's blog:



After that hubby picked us up and we went to Shirli's house to celebrate Ivan's 5th Birthday.
We were missing from the pic cos I was late and missed the cake cutting session. But I was glad to be able to catch up with Shirli and had a good chat after such a long time. Hope to meet up more often with this gang of mummies whom i have known since my preggy days with Favian. Time passed so fast and it's already into the 5th year of friendship! I am glad that i still keep in touch with most if not all the mummies!!! 3 cheers to our friendship!!

Kiddos singing the Birthday song for the Birthday Boy (Ivan in blue and yellow shirt) - Nice cake!


thanks Shirli for the nice pictures taken of our family:


Baby Mischa - look so mature in this pic


2 Cheeky+happy boys Ivan & Favian- they knew each other since birth...how sweet!