Food Adventures!

Ham & Cheese Croissant. The Ham slice is thicker than usual.

Chocolate Chip Croissant

Blueberry Cheese Tart

Charcoal bun

One fine Saturday morning, we decided to make our way to Little India for some lovely croissants. Mirabelle makes one of the best croissants I have ever eaten in my entire life. Unless I have a better one, I think I would go all the way for their croissants. First time we had a plain one, second time we had a chocolate chip one, and third time we finally had the ham and cheese. Votes for ham and cheese and the plain ones. The charcoal bun with custard and the blueberry cheese tart is ok.

Had a hot steaming bowl of an ordinary looking prawn noodles. After sipping the hot soup, I proceeded to eat the kway tiao. Excellent. It tastes much better than it looks. Peppery and robust, we sipped the life out of the bowl until it is dry. *snigger*

Prawn noodle

Had an onion masala thosai at Sri Kamala's with some teh tarik before heading down to Crys' place for some cheesecake baking and try her lovely Indian dishes.

Thosai

Teh Tarik!

My first attempt at blueberry cheesecake baking

The dishes were ready. So was my tummy!

Pumpkin Prawn

Lady's Finger

Masala Chicken

Savoury Cheese Muffins

I am jumping for joy as I took the muffins out from the tray last night. This was my first attempt in baking something savoury and I must say I like the smell, taste and looks of it. Gab did not want any sweet bakes anymore because I told her that I wanted to try out olive oil brownies. I thought of a cheese muffin immediately and I really cannot remember the source of recipe.

I have added a few things to the muffin batter and initially wanted to name this as the Cheese & Chives muffin but after much consideration, I think this generic name suits it better as I may just change a few ingredients in the future.

Savoury Cheese Muffins
2 cups self raising flour
2 eggs
1 cup fresh milk
1 cup grated cheddar cheese*
1/4 cup olive oil
1 level tbsp raw sugar
bunch of chives*
chilli flakes*
1/2 tsp salt

• Preheat oven to 180 deg.
• Sift the flour and set aside.
• I used Kraft's Cheddar Cheese and grated them to a little more than a cup.
• Set some grated cheese aside for use later on top of the muffins.
• Mix flour, grated cheese, chilli flakes in a bowl.
• Beat 2 eggs, raw sugar with a fork until it bubbles.
• Stir in the olive oil, followed by the milk and chives.
• Make a well in the flour mixture and pour the egg mix into the well.
• Use a fork and stir everything until it is just combined. DO NOT OVERMIX.
• Line the muffin pan with cupcake liners and spoon until it is 2/3 full.
• Bake them for about 15-20mins.

Garlic mustard sauce
1 clove of garlic minced
1 tsp of English mustard sauce (I used Coleman's)
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 tbsp of lemon juice
3 tbsp of mayonnaise

• Mix them well and you get this wonderful sauce!

Notes:

• I made about 11 muffins. You can get 12 or more if the mixture in each cup is lesser or the liner is smaller.
• *You can substitute the ingredients with other alternatives like stronger cheeses, or replace the chives with scallions or chilli flakes with paprika.*
• The sauce can give you dragon's breath because of the raw garlic but it is absolutely delicious!
• This muffin is not very cheesy so it is suitable for many people.
• The tangy sauce can actually make you eat more than one muffin at a go.
• You could use them as a side dish.
• Thanks Gab & Anna!!! For simply everything!!!

Light, golden fluffy goodness!!

X'mas assorted cookies

Assortment of shortbread cookies!

I have to credit Vanna White first because without any assistance, I would not be able to complete this almost impossible task.

I followed 2 recipes and hence have 2 types of dough. Recipes were taken and adapted from Exclusively Food & Joy of Baking. The only thing that I have substituted for both recipes is the vanilla extract with the organic vanilla pods that I have on hand. Feel free to use either one.

Melting Moments Recipe (Review & Notes):

• Dough was pretty soft to work with so I had left them in the fridge for about an hour before working with it. I needed quite a bit of flour to prevent them from sticking.
• The oven and baking tray was a little small so I had to bake them in many batches hence the different flavours because I was bored.
• Instead of baking at 150 degs, I baked the cookies at 190 degs for 30mins each batch as they did not get cooked after 20mins.
• They will not change colour.
• They had a milky taste to it and crumbles in your mouth.
• I could change the butter to a better quality one the next time.
• Flavours: Original & Cinnamon sugar.
• My melting moments cookie does not have the lemon icing in between.
  

Shortbread cookies Recipe (Review & Notes):

• Same as above except that this was easier to work with because of more flour.
• For the Jam Drop cookie, just use your thumb to make that little "well" for the jam.
• The strawberry jam needed was very little so be aware and careful when spooning the jam onto the little "well".
• I used the strawberry milk choco bits that I got from Phoon Huat and scattered in the dough.
• Can increase the flavours for all the cookies.
• Shortbread tastes drier and more crisp.
• Flavours: Star Shaped Shortbread, White Chocolate chip cookie, Jam Drop Cookie, Strawberry Milk cookie.
• Can keep up to 2 weeks when refrigerated.

I can take orders for up to 3 flavours @ S$13.

Thank you. Cheers!

Mini Brownie Cupcakes at Faeries' Tea Party

Cute little brownie...

This was fun to make because I will usually make the brownies in bigger trays. This recipe follows the basic brownie and was piped through and baked in those mini cupcake paper moulds. The width should measure about 1 inch or slightly bigger. As promised in a previous entry, I shall include the recipe here.

Brownies:
175g butter
120g sugar
50g plain flour
90g cocoa powder (sweetened)*
2 eggs
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add one egg each time and beat well.
Sift the flour and add to cocoa powder, salt & baking powder.
Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in portions of 4.
Each addition use blender on lowest speed to mix well.
For the last portion, use a spatula to fold in the flour.
Bake in oven for 30mins @ 180deg.

You can pour brownie batter into aluminium trays or non-stick baking pans.

You can also put the batter into a piping bag and pipe it to paper cupcake moulds until 2/3 full or as desired.

*If you are using unsweetened cocoa powder, you may increase the amount of sugar. I find this sufficiently sweet enough because a lot of recipes is too sweet for me.

The brownie batter after piping into the moulds...

Brownie cupcakes!

Cinnamoorolls at the Faeries' Tea Party

I have created this for a previous Brownie Tasting Party because it is an easy party dish. Here are some of the nicer photos of them. Yum...I am impressed by it too.

The rolls before the toppings.

The finished product!

Cinnamoorolls:
Bread
Melted Butter 175g
Cinnamon powder

5 Digestives (crumbled)
Icing sugar+Cream or you can use condensed milk
Maple syrup

Spread melted butter on bread using a brush.
Sprinkle cinnamon powder.
Roll them. Cut them like they are swiss rolls. Place on tray.
Continue until tray is full. Pour remaining butter on the rolls.
Topped with digestives and drizzle the icings and maple syrup.
Serve!

These work as great tea party food. Do not worry about the crumbles covering the rolls. That is the fun part, trying to dig out the rolls. This is not too sweet and not greasy at all so everyone can enjoy them.

Special thanks to my lovely assistant: Vanna White! From carrying everything, to setting up to helping to eat & everything else! :o)

Midsummer Night's Faerie Wedding at Bintan

Take 1

Not exactly on a midsummer night but more like a midnight wedding. Further details are kept confidential except for the cake that I prepared for the bride and groom.

This is a 3-tier white chocolate brownie that I have made in advance and assembled on the wedding night. It was an oversight on my part to have forgotten to take the insides of the brownies and the whole procedure. But, one has only 2 hands, and they were constantly kept busy and greasy so I had no chance to take any photos.

Take 2

What I had done basically was to bake 2 round trays (8") of white chocolate brownies and kept them for a couple of days in the fridge so that the texture would be more dense and fudgy. Then I used a heart shaped mould and cut it. As for the cream cheese, this time, I had remembered to use butter and added very little icing sugar so that it does not taste too sweet.

When assembling, try to spread the cream cheese as smoothly as possible but if it is not possible, try to stay calm. Make it look intentionally messy which I had done here and sprinkle strawberry chocolate flakes, white chocolate buttons and hundreds & thousands. Leave the cake in fridge to set and serve!!

Take 3

The guests liked the cake. I like them too. If only I could spread the cream cheese nicely....

These 3 photos are taken to compensate for the lack of other pictures of the cake. Heh...

Special thanks to Vanna White for the lovely assistance in transporting the cake!

Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes

Adapted from the Cupcake Book that I received as a gift, I went on to make chocolate brownie cupcakes according to the recipe provided. The method used was apparently different from what I usually made and it was modified as I had a lack of ingredients on hand.

The top looks a bit burnt.

All the pictures look a bit blurry. Looks nothing like the book.

Result: Looks okay with the cracked top and all but is actually like a rock bun. The texture more cakey and bready than my usual brownie. It has this super thick crust which is slightly charred but no one could tell as it was all the same colour.

By Susanna Tee:
115g all purpose flour
pinch of baking soda
85g butter
3 eggs
100g sugar
3tbsp unsweetened cocoa
225g bittersweet chocolate
100g walnuts

Note: Last 3 ingredients in italics are replace by 200g sweetened cocoa powder. I guess that's a good reason for the rock bun-like texture. Lol... please prepare something to drink when eating this.

Brownie Tasting Party!

This is a long overdue post. I was pretty busy for the past few weeks preparing for a tasting party that was held at this lovely place. As my hands were pretty busy preparing all the food items for that day, I could not take much pictures. All of them looks pretty blur.

The sweet treats!!

Here's the spread. There were a couple of items not shown.

Top row:
Brownies
Animal Crackers
Miscellaneous stuff like choco wafers, plates spoons...blah...

Center row:
Serviettes
Cinnamooroll
Arnott's Hundreds and thousands biscuits
Strawberries waiting to be topped with whipped cream

Bottom row:
Rooibos Tea
Canapes: Cucumber cream cheese + Cucumber Ham

Items not shown:
Rainbow Rose Berry Bread
Chocolate Pops, Peanut Pops. {Inspired by Bakerella.}

Those items in italics were made by yours truly. I will have another post dedicated to Brownies soon. Anyway, these brownies were pretty popular because each person had more than 2 pieces.

The peanut balls...

Chocolate Pops

You could find the original recipe at Bakerella's blog but I sort of modified it a little. I mentioned earlier that I had the chocolate and peanut butter pops at the party. Here is the recipe that I roughly remember.

Chocolate Pops:
Digestives (crumbled)
Cream cheese
some maple syrup
Coating Chocolate

♥ Mix the digestive crumbs to the cream cheese. Add a little maple syrup for flavouring. Roll them into balls. Melt the chocolate and let it stay cooler before dipping it into the chocolate. I put them in mini fluted cups so that its not messy.

The peanut version:
Peanut butter cookies (I got mine from Julie's)
Cream cheese
Coating Chocolate

♥ Same as Chocolate Pops.
The amount is through agaration so I really have no idea how much did I use. You could either increase or decrease the amount to suit your taste.

I thought of the name for Cinnamoorolls© because it sounds cute. This recipe was inspired by convenience. Hence, I shall "patent" this!! Will post up nicer pictures and dedicate another post for this.

By the end of it all...I was exhausted. So was my Vanna White. Nonetheless, it was an experience to prepare for such parties!

Tea Party

Sandwiches galore! One can almost expect sandwiches to make its presence in tea parties. As it was a birthday party, I was to come up with sandwiches to feed almost 50 pax! I made a few variety and added some ingredients.

Tuna & Chives Sandwich

Tuna Mix:
500gm tuna in brine (drained)
Handful of chives (chopped up)
Dijon Mayo (mustard + mayo = available in Carrefour)
Pepper to taste
This will make a not very salty filling for the sandwich.

Japanese Cucumber Sandwich

Slice Japanese cucumber.
Wipe dry.
Use cheese spread for the bread.

Egg Salad Sandwich

Egg Salad:
6 hardboiled eggs
Dijon Mayo
Handful of chives (chopped up)
Pepper to taste

Other food items that were lovingly prepared:
Chicken Ham & Cheese Sandwich
Salad
Chicken springroll
Chicken Wings (not in pics)
& Brownies

Food were mostly cleared and there were little wastage. This means that the food were either great or the guests were hungry. Yay!

Special thanks to my lovely assistant: Vanna White!!! for making everything possible.