Lemon Curd Tart

Tried baking tarts again. This time round lemon curd tart. Unfortunately, I will not post a recipe on this because making the curd took a super long time and it's really taking up a hell lots of gas fuel. Not recommended. I shall search for another recipe. Then again, keep trying, Humaira. Nevertheless, the tart base I aced, yipee! 

Fruti Tart

Baked my first fruit tart. I wanted to make mango tart tho since it's not the mango season so... this will do. And it's way easier to arrange. Honestly, it looks okay but I tell you it's not. Try again next time.Keep trying :) 

Rainbow Roll Cake

When it is time to prepare for Raya, that whole entire week will be super exhausting. It's fine making  your own kuih raya but for me, we have to make for the cousins. This year I decided to experiment with my baking and creativity skills, Thankfully for 2 months of school holiday i totally made full use of it. Most of it were spent baking.
If you were to come to my house, we will be having rainbow roll cakes~ Due to my tiredness, I was too drained to even complete my roll cakes before buka. So i had to sacrifice my bedtime to complete 12 roll cakes. Sorry for I spread too little cream for the roll cakes. Call me stingy :) I just didn't know how to gauge the amt of cream to be on it.
 

I promise that I will not burden myself the next Ramadhan. SAY NO TO RAINBOW ROLL CAKES! 

Easy to bake/make. The only leceh/ troublesome part was the coloured batter we had to prepare . Shesssh~ 

Brownies

Baked Brownies before going for work today! I have to complete all the goodies I wanna bake before Ramadhan arrives! So, I can munch on it when I'm bored. Rather than it turns mouldy and go to waste. 

Faezah shared her recipe with me and guide me through my brownie baking journey. And finally, after so many attempts, I managed to obtain the ultimate, yummmy, fudgey brownies! Though mine was quite flat since I used 10x10 baking tin. The brownies ended up perfectly well and brought me memories of the time I worked at Spatula. Boss Anna's brownies were top notch and finally, this was a as close as hers. Mmmm~ 

Breads

Listed out all the food that I would like to bake this holiday. One of them is bread! I adore watching breads ferment and grow on its on. Especially in this lovely hot and sunny Singapore, breads have no problem fermenting and growing as huge as can be and as fast as possible. I never knew breads were so easy to make! But, breads that are exceptionally moist throughout the day and even if you kept it for 2-3 days yet it is still moist, that's quite difficult to achieve. 

Honestly, my recipe didn't accomplish that kind of moisture for a few days. Probably, it lacked one special ingredient to attain that kind of moisture.It's my first time baking breads alone at home and I'm so glad that it went perfectly well. I made red bean buns (my fave!) and hotdog buns. At least I do know that everyone eats bread at home. 

Before (top) and after (bottom) the bread being fermented. Sorry for I do not know and lazy to turn the picture 90 degrees to the left. hahahhahh! 

Here's red bean bun before entering the 180 degrees oven. Not difficult at all to make this kind of shape. Just take a scissors and cut them into flower shape. I have five to six petals on my flower bun. 

Finally, I can shape this bun well enough. The first time I made during class was horrendous! I found a step by step tutorial (pictorial) of this bun on Facebook. But, not sure where it went.... I'll find it and post it some other time. Looks nice, but not too easy to make this kind of shape. 

Baking.........

BAKED!! It tasted delicious and soft and moist on the inside straight after baking. Of course, everything tastes great right after cooking/baking. I don't mind making breads again! 

EASY PEASY LEMON SQUEEZY! 

RVC Day

First time baking Red Velvet! It turned out perfectly well and less sweet since I spilled a few grams of sugar! I wouldnt mind baking this again! Ah, I miss being in the kitchen, baking. 

Bread Class @ Zan's Treats

I've always wanted to make my own bread because I find it a really top-notch skill. Once you know how to make your own bread or bake pastries, you're just like up there. Well, in my opinion that is. These two to me are absolutely time consuming and requires loads of energy to make. Nonetheless, breads are amazing food and are totally not easy to make. I love the techniques in making bread, the way the yeast helps the bread to rise (rise reaaaall big and fluffy). I love the smell of breads when it's in the oven. The way you tear apart your bread and say "Hey, this bread is fluffy". And you take a bite to it....Ohhh boy~ This only applies to bread made with quality yaaah~ 

I once booked a class that offers to teach two types of buns from Siti Delights and it costs me $130. I wasn't intelligent enough to think it was a total rip off to POSB Bank Account Savings. LOL.  Due to it's lack of response, that bread class closed down. Sheeesh kebab. I thought it was the end for me and I rather spend more time on my studies than all of these. As I looked through my Facebook, this kakak from Cake Module class (indirectly) intro-ed me to Zan's Treats. What distinguished between Zan's and Siti's is that Zan's pictures were taken beautifully. Thus, it attracted me to try and join one of her class. 

Luckily, its recess week and bread module was available on this week! YAY! Alhamdullilah. I thought the class was worth it as it offers to teach 5 types of buns instead of 2 (like the other company, hurhurr~) for $130 as well. YAAAYYYYY! 

I totally enjoyed the class even tho I was damn careless and blur sotong down there. Since it was my first time and the others were like makcik-makcik standard customer yg cap duit and joined a lot of classes before (-.-").  Anyhooooo, enough said. Let's see some breads! 

What we were suppose to do, given two basic bread recipe and different types of fillings and toppings for or bread! And different pattern for each type of bread. 

^ Chicken Floss Bun

As I was putting on the floss, I can't help myself to think it looks/ felt like...........HAHAHAHAH.... Pubic hair. Shit, there I've said it. I am so sorry! HAHAHHAHAAHAHAHH! I don't fancy chicken floss anyway, hence I think I have the right to comment on it. hahahaha! 

^ It's me and my partner in the process of making red bean buns! Oh, I love red bean buns. I secretly weigh more of the red bean filling to be incorporated into the bun. Yummmmeehhhhzzzz! 

Somehow or rather I realised my wrist is fucking bony! Sigggghhh, tak cukup makan ke Puan Humaira??? 

My favourites! Both are red bean buns but are of different designs! Looks good, eh? Like the ones in bakery stores? Hehehehe. 

TAADAAA! 

Not sure why the hell I did a thumbs up. So makcik makcik Facebook display pic!!! LOLLLL!
Sorry kalau tersinggung.  

Baking Failure

After school... I planned to make macaroons.I was really scared it might turn out flat, no legs, too sweet or all that problems you can get on your first try baking macaroons. It's really not an easy cookie to make to be honest. That is why it's costly for that tiny cookie. 

The amount of work and strength you have to put into when sieving your almonds and icing sugar. Oh, I really hated the process. Also, there's the part where it might be the cause of failure in macaroons. The most crucial part... The meringue! Jeng Jeng Jeng~~ I was worried my meringue would go under beat since I had this problem before. But nonetheless, I've overcome it and have mastered how a fully ready meringue would look like. I'm also worried the meringue would turn out too active which means over beating of the meringue. Sigh. Overbeating of meringue would give you watery texture and you do not want your mixture to be watery in any of/during your baking. It would not turn out pretty good. 

My macaroons mixture was perfectly fine... Due to my super strong heat oven, it kinda... made the cookies baked too fast. Not allowing the entire cookie to be evenly cooked/baked. Hence, producing soft, melty texture which causes it to break easily. Also, the brown-ish colour of my macaroons. Supposed to be purple but why brown!?!?!? Sighhhh. 

See, my macaroons have legs! That means I didn't overbeat my meringue! Isn't it cute the teddy bear shape? HAHAHAA. It was quite tedious to even out and follow the shape of my teddy bear mold. Hence, the not smooth macaroon texture. I'm not too sure how perfect macaroon would look like underneath. Hmmm..should it be like mine? Or more evenly baked with less holes? 

Dinosaur Butter Cookies

Happy 2014 everybodeeeehhh! 

On New Year's,decided to finish off with whatever I wanna bake as soon as possible. Well, considering that school's gonna start in a week or so. Sheesssh, never looking forward to 2hrs journey to and fro.

I baked butter cookies today and made use of the dinosaur cookie cutters that Eunice souvenir-ed (lol, what a word) me when she was in USA! Succcch lovely good friend I have~ how does she even know I would want a cookie cutter.. not that I've ever mentioned/hinted ya know. I was so happy to have received the souvenir from her btw! Loving ittttt~ That means... She also kinda gave me the green light to bake for her cute dinosaur cookies! And so, she'll receive it as soon as possible before it becomes soggy.

However, I had major problem when I was baking such simple cookies. Sigh, and I cried when it did not turn out what I expect it to be. Cried... coz I wasted 500g of Bread Flour, 180g of butter and sugar. I was not sure whether it was my fault or was it the recipe that could be so unreliable. Screw it I think it was the recipe. Bloody hell it was eggless and requires vanilla essence, mind fuck much?

Thereafter, mama came in to the rescue coz I was making a hell in the kitchen - slamming bowls, spatula fuck whatever I could grab at that moment. Yeah, I spoke to her while crying haha! Cry baby Humsie. So, instead of using the freaking recipe, mama suggested to google it. She came to see Martha Stewart (cos she's waaaayyyy better than that freaking recipe - shan't mention who). Moreover, I googled Laura Vitale's recipe and compared with what Martha has. It was definitely almost similar. Hence it tells me that both of their recipes are reliable and doesn't miss out on any ingredients. Also, Laura Vitale has video for the making of butter cookies - brownie points for reliability source! 

Check out: Laura Vitale's Butter/Sugar Cookie Recipe 
I didn't follow her recipe entire and I've tweak a few part of her recipe. Say... reduce the sugar here and there. But her techniques/method of baking was perfectly reliable and top notch. So, watch the video if you're in doubt.

Paris Brest with Peanut Butter Filling

On Christmas Day, I baked Paris Brest! Not that I planned to in the beginning. My relative had this family pot luck thinggy and it was an English Themed. So, all foods had to be very english-y. And not malay desserts of course. hahha!

Come to think about it, Paris Brest is definitely not from English. Ohhh weelll~ I had fun making them early in the morning (9am).

Taaadaa! My Paris Brest with Peanut Butter+ Nutella + Choc Ganache filling. 

oh, so lovely *tears of joy* 

Hari Raya Cookies (In the making)

While..... Making Hari Raya Cookies with my mum. We seemed to notice the colour of the cookies (choc chips/ Suji) are similar to our skin colour! heheh. So, I took a photo of itttt~ 

Cake Experiment

A few days ago, mother and I went shopping for bakery stuff! We spent freaking 2 hours at Phoon Huat and to seeee a lot of different bakery stuffs/ingredients! We compared here and there and we were in doubt which ones to buy! There were allll so adorable, gorgeous and wished we could buy everything in store! 

Mama bought for me piping tips! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! It's such a birthday present for me  (damn advance!). Coz when we were about to purchase it... I told her that I wished for someone to give me a whole bunch of different piping tips! I'm soooo gonna make 110% full use of it and gonna learn different types of patterns/designs to decorate cakes and etc! 

Here are a few rosettes on a Strawberry Shortcake I made! Kinda blessed to hold a job at a cupcake store and to be able to learn and watch my boss do her thinggg~ That's how I learn my pipings and slowly know what lovely flavours can be down with just simple vanilla cupcake :) 

I tried doing double tone frosting as well. Yes, after watching Anna (cupcake boss) decorate her Terrific Twosome cupcake!

And... I quietly decided to bake a cake for Eunice's birthday! Worth the shot~ 

Go to her blog to see more pictures that she took! It's a Strawberry Cake with purple buttercream rosettes around her cake! 

Click Here to view the cake!!! 

Macaroons (SD Class)

Feeling very motivated to take up more baking lessons after the end of my cake module, I chanced upon Biscuit Workshop 3 which teaches different types of cookies. And what attracts me most - also, the girls that came - was MACAROONS! I've been dying to try out making these macaroons. But, yes, for fear the recipe I googled might not be reliable. Hence, I willingly and excitedly took up this lesson. 

No doubt, it teaches good techniques for different types of cookies. Without these techniques and tips, I might not be able to achieve whatever cookies I brought home the other day! It's totally gorgeous (see below for picture). I shall practice on my macaroons one day. 

Siti's Delights Baking Class

Yesterday marks the last day of my baking class- Cake Beginner module with Chef Mastura! I think I might be pretty stoked to be able to pose a picture with a pretty famous Singaporean chef! hahahah!! It's been seriously time consuming and pretty tiring to have to make time from my entire day (be it after work/ from home). All those seven 4-hours lessons with her was damn right worth it. No doubt, my money was well spent on this module. I can officially brush up and start collecting orders for various occasion already !!! Yipeee! Just need consumers that's all (apart from family members).

As I expected, last lesson had to be a gorgeous grand cake. So, log cake it was! It was simple to make and absolutely fun in decorating the cake. I'm already getting so inspired and motivated to make somemore! hahahah! 

Another so called graduation ceremony for me! Thank you Chef for guiding me, teaching how to read a cake recipe and showed us the correct techniques in cake making. I'm soooo sure I'll be confident to bake different type of cakes this time round. I'm so able to expand my skills and not only just bake (damn) cupcakes but to be more extravagant and bake fancy cakes.

I know people might think it's kinda pathetic to have joined a baking class and learn the same old boring cakes. But, to me, I think it's a worthwhile experience. Not only did I do baking during the class. I learnt hell loads of interesting and new things about bakery. I don't have to be foolish to go Google and find myself confused about baking facts. I'm able to have the motivation and absolute confidence to be a great baker and open up my own business one day (which is absolutely a dream come true).

I'm sooo sooo gonna save up my cash on another baking module! So that I'm able to be flexible and polish myself skills with different types of baking techniques. In the meantime, I shall just join Ad-Hoc classes! Teeehheee. 

Chiffon Cake (Pandan)

Second lesson of my cake begineer module class! It's simple easy peasy cheapo chiffon pandan cake! But heeeeyyy, not that easy as it looks alright! The techniques in making them need skills to ensure no mistakes in the ingredients, to whisk up meringue perfectly fine and to MAKE SURE IT DOESN'T OVERBEAT OR UNDERBEAT! 

How beautiful is this cake~ Similarly to marble cake, this darling chiffon cake tastes like air and springs back after pressing it. The pandan aroma was simply appetizing and it taste juuuuuust right! Though it's a cheapo cake and can be bought at yours truly Giant supermarket, NTUC, etc. But when you make it and consume it with a cup of tea, it's the biggest and proudest achievement you've ever done. 

Surprise surprise, other chiffon cake flavours will be posted up soon (if I make them). 

Marble Cake

It's the start of my first official Wellington baking class at Siti's Delights, Enterprise One. Spent the whole lot of my cash I earned as a retail sales and took up cake beginner module. I think it's gonna be a worth it course and something that will definitely stick with me throughout my alive years. hahaha!

I'm sure one day I might make awesome cakes for weddings, parties or whatsoever. If I have enough support from my family and friends. Ya knoooowww~ Business always starts from everyone of those people you've met before. 

Apart from taking up driver's license (which I want to take up as well), I think this course is waaaaayyy beneficial for me. I don't get to drive around or practice after getting license, will I? Ya know why? Coz I don't have any car! Neither a family car. No, not gonna just rent it coz it'll be darn pricey and not gonna earn any bucks thereafter. More of forking out those bucks.

Back on track, first lesson was marble cake! I don't fancy this cake by the way. Coz it's kindaaaa meh, normal ~ But hell, it tastes like air and darn yummmyy! It's spongy, springy and not that sweet at all! 

Lesson was great as I get to learn the benefits, the proper technique of making the cake. This marble cake ain't like normal marble cake which is dense, heavy, compact and not spongy at all. This one springs like comfy pillow and tastes like you're eating air! I swearrrr!!!! 

I baked with these two fine ladies. Coincidentally, they had names that starts with the letter "H". And we called ourselves TRIPLE H! Yaaaayyyy! More baking lessons with them then! 

Coconut Blossom

Made this early in the morning to prepare for relative's birthday party! From what I know of and experienced before, I feel that Malay traditional kuih are easiest to make. Compare to normal vanilla cupcakes/ cakes whatsoever... You know why? Because.... From what Malay kuih I've done before the ingredients are all mixed together simultaneously! Eassyy peasy! Hahaha. No need to worry at all about the cupcakes turning to clumps or remembering step-by-step procedures by heart. 

You just gotta dump them in~ So, here I go with Coconut Blossom. Still... experimenting on a neater polka dots... But oh God knows best how it turned out to be. Super messy and a few turned out great though... :( Nevertheless, I decided to do the way I do my special way~ Random smiley face, alphabets, swirls, mini polka dots (which turned out alright) anddd..... a new design! RIPPLES inspired by Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream! hahaha. That idea came from my brother... So take a look (below) yourself! 

Coconut Blossom   

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs (cold)
• 230g caster sugar  
• 280g flour 
• 2 teaspoon baking powder  
• 1 tablespoon ovalette
• 170g coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon pandan essence

Fillings: 

• 150g grated coconut
•  60ml water
•  100g gula Melaka
•  1 table spoon corn flour 
•   1 stalk pandan leaf 

Methods:

1. Prepare steamer as it requires for steaming the cakes .
2. Sift flour and baking powder together
3. Add in all ingredients simultaneously (shown in picture)