layered cake and new cupcake flavours

chocolate sundae cupcake with raspberry icing

strawberry sweetheart cupcake with choc icing

almond sugee cupcake with lilac rose icing

More closed-up shots and details of the new cupcake flavours I did for Emma's party.

And a the chocolate and strawberry layered cake. The greatest compliment came from the hubs who said the cross-section view of the cake looked like those American wedding cakes!

happy birthday emma

Dear little Emma finally got to celebrate her 1st birthday today after the family, herself including, got hit by the pox. It was a purple and pink piglet theme party. And thanks to her lovely parents, my pals H & J, and their faith in me, I finally got to do my first cake and candy bar! After a breakbreaking Saturday of baking and decorating, I completed 72pcs of cupcakes in 3 flavours (choc-berry sweetheart, berry sundae and rose sugee) and a 3-layered choc and strawberry cake with choc frosting for this birthday girl to cut. I had heap-loads of fun conceptualising and doing the decor part of the cakes the most!

 

With help from the hubs, we managed to set up Emma's cake and candy bar. It was simply gratifying just to see the smiles and reactions from the adults. But even more so when I saw the looks on the kids faces the minute J said grab a bag and fill it with the sweets you like and the kids went wild! Ok enough said. Here's some shots from the day.

 

Happy Birthday Emma!

there's nothing better than...

... a good piece of steak! Don't you agree? Here's what we had tonight, char-grilled steak with greek salad. Steak is seasoned simply with salt and pepper, then grilled to your preferred donenes. I prefer medium while the hubs like his medium-well. Greek salad is lettuce with olive oil, feta cheese, olives and splash of lemon juice. Yums!!

Medium done, nice and red :)

fluffy dreamy pancakes

I've always wanted to try my hands at making pancakes. So last Sunday when I asked the hubs what he wanted for brunch, he suggested pancakes! So here you go! Pancakes made from scratch and I have to say it is soooo easy that I'll never pick up a premix again! Here's the 3-steps recipe that you can try at home to jazz up your Sunday brunch at home. I made blueberry with orange zest pancakes. You can throw in any kind of fruits you have in your fridge to go with your pancakes.

Ingredients
375ml buttermilk
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
2 tbsp castor sugar
1 egg beaten
1 tbsp melted butter

Let's cook!
1. Sift flour into bowl, add sugar.
2. Pour some of the buttermilk in and whisk till smooth. Add in rest of buttermilk while continously whisking into a smooth batter. Add in egg and butter and whisk till blended well.
3. Add in blueberries and orange zest and mix well.
4. Heat pan with some butter pour enough batter and cook till bubble appear before flipping over.
5. Stack pancakes topped with a generous knob of butter and drizzle of maple syrup and tuck in!

We found this really cute little bottle of Japanese maple syrup which taste authentic enough just a tad runny. But the cutest thing is the lid! There is 2 openings, 1 for small drizzle and the other for more flow! Trust the Japanese to come up with such things!!

more colours to come

I'm excitedly anticipating the arrival of these little babies!! I'm crazy about polka dots. It's unexplainable! But they just dress up my cupcakes in the way that brings a smile to my face haha! So anyway was a bit frustrated with the limited colours available (only orange and pink) at my usual supplies store and decided to search the world wide web for more options. And thanks to Ally (who's really good at surfing the web I must say), I found these babies in so many colours! My favourite is the blue, thus I order more blue haha! So friends who are having baby boys, you know who to order your 1st month cupcakes from yeah **big wink**!

awwesomepossum is listed!

Yes I am listed! No not on the NY stock exchange haha! But here: http://www.dinnertool.com/page/friends. It's a cool website called Dinner Tool, where you can find lots of recipes as well as a tool to help you plan your weekly meals. Go check it out http://www.dinnertool.com/ :)

pretty little cupcakes

Tell me, who out there does not go "oh so nice" when you see a pretty cupcake?! It may be the sweetest small cake you've ever eaten but the cute little thing never fails to attract us all isn't it? Cupcakes were one of the first things I tried when I started baking a year ago. I think I can finally say I have improved the looks of my cuppies by leaps and bounds haha! Here's 2 batches I made for a friend, V's sister's wedding this weekend. 

Jafffa cupcake

Mocha cupcake

In case anyone's keen to order these little beauties, they are $1.80/pce. They are about 4.5cm. Min. Qty of 20pcs per flavour, a week in advance if possible. 

 Cupcake Flavours as follows:
- chocolate 
- vanilla 
- banana 
- lemon
- coffee 
- choco-nana (chocolate banana) 
- jaffa (chocolate orange) 
- strawberry swirl  
- blueberry swirl 
- sugee

Frosting flavours:
- chocolate
- vanilla
- peanut butter
- coffee
- almond
- rose

- frosting can be done in various colours in vanilla flavour

homemade hainanese chicken rice

Recently I've developed this interest in local dishes. And after a recent visit to the good ol' Yet Con, I thought, there's no better dish to start with than our very own hainanese chicken rice! What goes into making that perfect succulent chicken and that all-so-fragrant rice? I started searching for recipes online and found one that seems easy enough but yet my discerning eye tells me it just might work with some modifications of course.

So off to the supermarket bright and early the hubs and I went today to buy a big fat sakura chicken* and rest of the ingredients to make our homemade chicken rice dinner. I have to say the result is more than satisfying! We don't usually eat rice for dinner, but yet we wiped out 2 cups of rice and 3/4 of the oh-so-juicy chicken! Guess there's nothing better than cooking your own chicken rice and eating it in the comforts of your own home hehe! Oh btw I didn't make the chilli sauce this time round but will want to try to make it the next time. But I did make the freshly grounded ginger sauce which to me is a must with chicken rice.

Ok here's the recipe. Do try it at home. I guarantee you it'll taste so much better than your $2 plate at the hawker centre!

What you need
For the chicken
1 whole chicken (1.5kg)
lots of salt
6" fresh ginger, sliced into 1/4" slices
3 stalks of spring onion, sliced into 3 sections
1 teaspoon sesame oil

For the rice
2 tbsp oil
5 cloves garlic, diced
2 tsp ground ginger
2 cups rice, washed and soaked in water for 10mins
2 - 2 1/2cups reserved chicken poaching broth
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp salt

Let's cook!
Chicken

1. First we must clean the chicken. Rub salt all over the chicken to get rid of any loose skin and dirt. Rinse off and pat both outside and in till very dry.
2. Season generously with salt outside and inside of the chicken. Then stuff the chicken with the ginger and sprint onion.
3. Place the chicken in a large stockpot and fill with cold water to cover by 1". Bring to a boil over high heat, then turn down to low to simmer for at least 30mins, or till chicken is cooked. To test if chicken is cooked, stick a chopstick under the leg and see if the juices run clear.
4. When chicken is cooked through, turn off heat, immediately remove the chicken and place into bath of ice water to cool. This will stop the chicken from cooking further, keep the meat soft and tender and give the skin a lovely firm texture. When the chicken is cooled, rub with sesame oil, chop up and place on serving plate.

























Rice
5. To cook the rice, drain off the water from the rice. In a pan, heat up the oil and fry the ginger and garlic till your kitchen smells heavenly.
6. Add the rice and stir to cook for about 2mins. Add the sesame oil and mix well.
7. Transfer to rice cooker pot, add 2 1/2 cups reserved broth and salt and turn on cooker to cook rice.
8. Serve the chicken with the rice, garlic chilli sauce, freshly grounded ginger and heat up some broth for soup. Enjoy!

  




** Sakura chicken is available at NTUC. It is supposed to have no injections and is all natural. We try as much as possible to buy this chicken even though it's more expensive because it is indeed more succulent and fresher tasting. Btw, this is not a advertisement for sakura chicken haha!

my favourite meal of the day is...

Breakfast!! Why I love breakfast you may ask. Reason is simple, it's the first meal of the day and if you eat well, you start your day well. But tell me who do not like breakfast food? Eggs, sausages, bacon, beans, cheese, bread...the list goes on. Let's just talk about eggs for awhile. There's just so many ways to cook them!

Here's some of my own concoction at home.

corned beef hash with eggs

scrambled eggs in croissant & fried bacon

eggs en cocotte (baked eggs with cheese and herbs)

omelette with sausage, luncheon meat & baked beans

And here are some of my favs at cafes and kopitams.

corned beef set at le bijoux

salami set at le bijoux

otah set at coffee & toast

pretty little things

I really got a fetish for pretty mini food! Love to see many of them lined up neatly on a plate, almost too god to devour! As usual, this was my attempt to make some hors d'oeuvres for a Christmas get-together.

Somked salmon devil egg

Wasabi shrimp & crab cucumber cups

beef bouguignon

I've been wanting to make this for some time now, ever since I purchase the le cruset dutch oven pot. But it does take a loooooong time to cook and thus have been putting it off due to time. Anyhow, finally manage to find the time to cook this and the hubs and I swear it is soooo worth the amount of time slow stewing it! However, be warned that you will need to break the bank and part with some major capital M to purchase the pot in order to prepare this dish. I strongly believe it WILL make a huge difference in the flavours and taste. And no I'm not getting any commission from le cruset for this post (they should pay me tho yeah?). So per request from my friend S, whom have been warned that this is level 5.5/5 in my opinion. S, I think you just wait for the next time I make this and invite you over ok, pls do not go out and buy this pot just for this dish haha!

What you need (feeds 5-6, depending how much of a carnivorous you are)
- 150g bacon (optional)
- 1.4kg stewing beef cubes (rump or chuck)
- 1 sliced carrot
- 1 sliced celery
- 1 sliced onion
- 200g sliced mushroom
- 2 tsp plain flour
- 3 cups red wine, preferably a good Burgundy
- 2-3 cups beef stock
- 1 tsp tomato paste
- 2 cloves mashed garlic
- few thyme springs
- 2 rosemary spring
- olive oil

Let's cook  
(this is best done over 2 days, in my opinion, to allow the beef to soak up all the flavours)
1. Fry bacon with olive oil in dutch oven pot. While that's happening, coat beef cubes with flour. This helps dry them and aids browning.
2. Once bacon has produced good amount of fat, remove and sear beef cubes in batches, taking care not to overcrowd. Also ensure there is enough oil, if not meat will not form a nice crust and flour will stick to the base of the pot.
3. Remove meat and throw in the garlic, veges to brown. Then throw in the mushrooms and cook till they turned golden.
4. Remove veges to a separate bowl, return meat to the pot along with wine, stock and tomato paste. Ensure there's enough liquid to just about cover the meat.
5. Turn down flame to the smallest, cover and let it simmer for about an hour. If your liquid dries up, feel free to add more wine or stock or water.
6. After an hour, return the veges to the pot, cover and continue to stew for about 1-1 1/2 hours on smallest flame.
7. This is where I made my own variation to the recipe. After 1 1/2 hours, you will see that sauce is still very liquid/watery, don't panic. Switch off the flame and left it overnight in the pot on the stove top.
8. The next day, turn on the flame again at the smallest and continue to simmer for about 1 1/2-2 hours on the stove top. Do check in between to ensure that the liquid has not dried up. After simmering, you will notice that the sauce has thicken up quite a lot and the beef is fork-tender, then you are ready to serve!
9. If the sauce does not thicken, you can mix 1 tsp of butter with 1 tsp of flour to form a dough and whisk into the sauce at low heat till reach the desired thickness.
10. Serve with crusty bread or mash potatoes and the balance of your Burgundy, sit back and enjoy!

P/S: See there are 10 steps to this recipe, told you it's really not easy ahah! But if you are feeling adventurous you can try the original recipe from Julia Child herself at:
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/boeuf_bourguignon/
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/recipe?id=8222804

xmas baking frenzy

How was your Xmas and New Year hols? My was a mad but enjoyable baking frenzy hehe! Here's the count over the break: 8 sugee cakes, 2 brownies, 2 blueberry cheesecakes, 2 lemon cheesecakes, 1 oreo cheesecake, 1 tiramisu, and 3 log cakes wahah! Here's some of the evidence.

migrating back to blogspot

Happy New Year! Sorry for the silence! It's been a year since I started this blog and am proud to say I have accumulated a cult following from my fellow foodie friends, whom been asking me why there is no recent blog posting haha! Reason is simply cos my iBook (yes you read right) has been rather cranky on me in Dec. But I don't blame him cos he's really really old and should retire. But last weekend when I just decided to get a new netbook, my dear ol' ibook decided to work again haha! Anyway long story short, will be updating more blog posts soon...but in the meantime, I have some major news to announce....

I'm migrating back to blogspot hahaha! Purely because it's easier to customize the layout and also it's cheaper if and when I decide to register my own domain haha! So this is my last post here on wordpress. Pls follow me as http://awwesomepossum.blogspot.com. Here's a sneak-preview. See you there soon and pls drop me your comments on my layout yeah :)