TeaDot at Iluma

Earl Grey Latte

Matcha Latte

This was quite the refreshing change from the usual coffee that I crave for very so often. I was craving for their Matcha Latte the following day! The green tea taste does stand out although the drink could do with a bit more thicker. I had the Earl Grey Latte but I found myself drinking the Matcha Latter more. I'll return for more of their drinks. Thanks for the treat R! ;o)

My Scones

Haha...and I finally managed to do it properly this time! I baked scones and it tasted nice and fluffy unlike the other times. I did manage to adapt from this recipe but I added raisins instead of cheddar and forgot to add sugar! But all was good and I think I will make this again.

Raisin Scones:
100g butter
2 cups plain flour
pinch of salt
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 cup milk (leave some for glaze)
1 Packet of raisins

Bake them for 10-15mins at 230deg. Enjoy them with clotted cream/butter/jam/plain!

Clodhoppers

This is a dark chocolate fudge flavour which I thought was not too bad because the graham wafer clusters tasted like butterscotch. I had this for lunch, tea break and almost for dinner. This stuff is highly addictive so I would suggest you either get a small pack, or share it with like 10 people at a go. I thought the white chocolate ones are pretty good too.

Burmese Sweets

This semolina pudding was firm to the bite but it is highly addictive because of this. I like the texture of semolina and this particular sweet has got me interested because of three main reasons.

1. It is made of semolina.
2. It has a coconut flavour which reminds me of nonya kuehs.
3. The topping of poppy seeds has upped the interesting texture factor.

Laphet Thot (Pickled Tea leaves Salad)

This is an interesting salad and an acquired tastebud is required as I feel it may not appeal to the more conservative(boring) ones. I like this.

A little crispy, a little nuttish in taste and texture, a little sourish and saltish. I think it has crispy chickpeas, tomatoes, tea leaves and some other stuff that I can't be really bothered to identify. This makes a good appetizer or TV snack as you can nibble all you want and still feel like you can eat a cow later. This is true for me.

I forgot how many servings did I have. I only know the accompanying floral tea makes this more appetising. More! More!!

Laphet (Pickled Tea leaves) Thot (Salad)

Chocolate Rice Banana Muffin

Sort of.

I kinda made up the recipe myself and realised its a tad too sweet. I didn't know what I was doing so i sliced a banana and slipped a slice in the centre. The muffin turned out to be interesting. The top part was slightly crusty and chocolaty and the centre was soft with mushy banana.

I think I had 3 of these yummy treats.

Chocolate Rice Banana Muffin
2 cups self raising flour
100g butter, cubed
2 eggs
1/2 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup milk(or less, depending on mixture)
1 teaspoon baking powder
chocolate rice for topping
1 banana, sliced
1/2 tsp salt

• Preheat oven to 180 deg.
• Sift the flour and baking powder. Set aside.
• Beat the 2 eggs and raw sugar. Set aside for later use.
  
• Rub in the butter into the flour until it becomes crumbly buttery mixture.
  
• Pour in the egg mixture to the flour.
  
• With a light hand, use a fork to gently mix them together.
  
• Stir in milk until it all comes together and just combined like a muffin mix.
  
• DO NOT OVERMIX.
• Spoon a little batter in the cupcake liner or aluminium case.
  
• Place a slice of banana and cover the banana with more batter until full.
  
• Sprinkle chocolate rice on top
  
• Bake them for about 15-20mins.

Vietnamese Coffee

Had one of the coffee filer gadgets from Vietnam some time ago. Due to the fact that I had ran out of Nescafe, my mom opened a pack of ground coffee, Trung Ngyuen (something like that), a Vietnam home brand. I think this was like my 5th time brewing this so I thought of taking some photos to show. The fragrance of this Vietnam coffee is somehow a little different than the gourmet ones and kopitiam ones. I made mine strong with milk and sugar and so I enjoyed this quite a bit. Maybe I can use other types of ground coffee. This filter is not too bad. ;oP

Turkish Coffee

Crystal's Turkish Coffee to be exact. This cute Turkish coffee pot was a gift from her aunt and after a lovely lunch, we had coffee to complete this lazy, rainy afternoon.

My dear friend had not intended to pose in this picture but I was quick to snap everything that she was doing.

In case you were wondering, the white stuff on the plate are Turkish Delights. Pop one into your mouth, chew it, then sip into the coffee, then swallow. Not the most brilliant description but this will stop anyone from adding sugar to this mildly fragrant brew.

Not bad I would say, as this is the only way I would have my coffee straight. But i had it with sugar, not with the delights. Thank you Crys!

Pouring cup no.2

Still shot

Coffee Place

Any recommendations for nice cafes or coffee places apart from Starbucks? No Coffee Bean for me. I like my coffee strong and fragrant. With milk of course. It can be a fresh brew with milk (Canele) or it can be a latte with extra shot of espresso and it would be the best if the coffee is cheap and good. Any place?

My Packed Lunch

Cheddar cheese sandwich

Lunch box

I had a few considerations when packing my lunch to work. It must be fuss free aka easy to bring and wash. It must be tasty. It must look interesting.

I had prepared all these the night before and kept them refrigerated until I went off to work the next morning. The cheese sandwich was nice and cold and good to eat for breakfast or brunch or as a snack. In my lunch box, I had angel hair pasta, romaine lettuce, strawberry, seaweed and a biscuit. The bottle of pesto that I kept in the office came pretty useful.

As I had no microwave or any other way of cooking my lunch at work, I just boiled some water and used it to scald my pasta and lettuce. Drain the pasta, and toss in the pesto. Occasionally I would bring some lime and give it a good squeeze so that the pasta tastes good. Tear up some seaweed into the pasta and lunch is served!

Easy peasy.

The strawberry and biscuits are just snacks to munch on when I am hungry. I have tea and coffee to help out in case I feel hungry. But, I did not feel hungry and in fact, I feel much better to have lunch at work.

Any great lunch ideas anyone? Healthy and fuss free ones? Unhealthy and fuss free ones?

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!!

House of Tau Sar Piah, 603 Balestier Road

One day I spotted a box filled with tau sar piah and decided to sneak one out for tasting. It looked bigger than the usual tau sar piah so I thought I would eat half first. Before I realise what was happening, I found myself picking up the crumbs on the tissue that I was eating from. Yes, I finished the salty pastry.

I liked the slight warm and crispy crust, the salty and sweet mung bean (tau sar) filling and the box. Lol. I'm a sucker for nice packaging. It costs 60cents each and there are other flavours available but I am not tired of this yet so, erm, yeah, not trying other flavours until I am sick.

Mmm....

I need one only...really...

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!

Banana Loaf with White Chocolate Chips

I had some leftover bananas so I decided to bake something small. I got myself those aluminum loaf pans like those for Sara Lee cakes so it was more convenient. You can purchase them at Phoon Huat. This recipe was inspired by my previous effort to make the banana cake.

Banana Loaf with White Chocolate Chips
80g butter
50g sugar
1 egg
2 ripe bananas
50g self raising flour
50g Quaker oatmeal
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
handful of white chocolate chips
dash of cinnamon powder

• Preheat oven to 180 deg.
• Cream butter and sugar. Do not panic if they do not cream well.
• Add the egg to the butter and continue to blend them.
• Add the bananas, reserving about half of the banana for slicing and decorating the loaf. You can pre-mash the bananas before adding them.
• The mixture will curdle but will all come together when you add the dry ingredients.
• Add oatmeal and the flour and bicarbonate of soda. Do not overmix.
• Fold in the white chocolate chips and cinnamon powder.
• Pour the batter into the loaf pan and decorate it with the banana slices and some white chocolate chips.
• Bake them for about 15-20mins or until it has risen well.

Notes:
The banana loaf's texture is more grainy and crumbly.
I did not have enough flour this time so the oatmeal is replaceable.

Avocado cake

Thank you Damon, for buying the cake.

I am not sure where this cake is from but apparently, I heard that you have to order the cake beforehand. This was a treat from a friend so I am not sure of the cost as well.

Well, this very light green cake apparently has avocado in it but I really can't tell. Maybe because avocado has this slight buttery taste which is not very distinctive. The sponge cake is rather sweet but the avocado mousse is light and has something which I cannot point a finger to. Avocado or not, this is a rather interesting cake that I have come across.

Oh, by the way, this site is rather interesting too, experimenting with avocado to bake a cake. Sweet.

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)

Corn Muffin

This was from Jiffy's Corn muffin mix. Did not turn out as expected and I felt a little sad as I screwed up on a pre-mix. *Its impossible!!!* Argh...

Chocolate Banana Loaf at Zang Toi

I was not hungry at all when I walked past Zang Toi but I just stopped and stared at their signature chocolate banana loaf which looked humongous compared to other cakes I have seen here in Singapore. Hmmm...as I was wondering how it would taste like, I found myself seated and flipping through their menu. Yes, it is one of those hypnotic moments I find myself in whenever I see or smell something good. So we ordered a slice of the chocolate banana cake and a green mango float with ginger ale.

I certainly wasn't expecting them to warm the cake but they did. The drink came with a can of dry ginger ale and a mug of ice with green mango juice and ice cream.

The cake was soft and fluffy but not as chocolatey as the chocolate sauce being drizzled over it. This may be a smart move not to overwhelm anyone with strong flavours because the slice was quite big. It made the cake easier to eat too.

I think that this drink is cool. I liked that I could taste green mango when I am drinking and it was not too sweet and it actually quenched my thirst! We like this!!! Although I know this is not everything that KL has, this has given me fond memories of the food over there. The food in Malaysia is definitely something I would look forward when I next visit them. :oD

Zang Toi's West 57th St. Cafe
Bukit Bintang Plaza (BB Plaza) / Sungei Wang Plaza
LGF032, Lower GF
Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur

Cinnabon

I was in KL for the week and was happy to find Cinnabon, a chain bakery of the famous cinnamon rolls. Prior to this I only had a faint recollection of Saint Cinnamon Bake Shoppe being in Singapore for a short period of time before it disappeared magically and I am not sure if Cinnabon ever reached our shores. I did not get to try either before so I was ready to sink my teeth into this moist looking roll.

It all went to my tummy!!!! *evil grin*

This is the Caramel Pecan Cinnamon roll. I did not get the original ones as they looked dry. I am just swooned over by this soft buttery roll that has ample cinnamon, caramel and pecans. The pecans has added some texture but it did not really help in the taste department. They had provided fork and knife so eating this was a breeze. Yum. I could go on and on eating this. It was not as dense as I had expected and the roll was still a little warm. I am not sure if it was due to the scorching hot weather.

Plaza Low Yat,
G1, Ground Floor
Off Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur