Foodelicious!

The other day while I was window shopping, I saw this fruit bread being sold at some exotic cafe and instantly I was transformed back to my childhood... My aunt used to make such loaf and we kids will always have a great time eating them.. so much so, my aunt had to ration how much we can eat. hehehehehe.. so that we have space for proper meals.

So, eagerly I bought a portion of the bread hoping it will taste like my childhood... but sadly, it didnt.. there was something missing. I couldnt figure it out until I asked my aunt to try and she told me the secret ingredient.. aaaahhh..

So, eagerly again, I set out to make my crown of fruits.. hehehehehehe... but since I am not someone who like it sweet, I cut down the amount of dried fruits.. oh.. and I didnt forget my secret ingredient.. hehehehe.. and was I waiting gleefully for my bread to come out.. hehehe.. hence, I didnt wait to take picture using natural light the next morning.. I had to have a slice. hahahahaha..

The bread is simply tender and soft.. even without any bread improver or conditioner.. it was still reasonably soft after two days and I must say, it taste better as the days goes by and toasted. The fruits were plump and juicy inspite being baked.. Hmmm... must be the secret ingredient. Hehehehe...

When I first saw this cake, I was rather apprehensive as watermelon always give me a "watery" impression but since I had no orders for the day, I thought I will try it. However, I made a few changes. I used sponge fingers instead of swiss roll for the side and add sponge cake layers inside instead of just leaving the cake all mousse.

The lime mousse was slightly complicated to make but I was very surprised that it actually set well. Not a wobbly squishy mousse but a rather airy and delicious mousse that is addictive. The addictive part is the tangy lime flavor....it just make you want to keep eating it. Dangerous cake to have around me. hahahaha..

Oh.. and there was the fun part of balling watermelon. Hehehhehee... I have this fascination of balling melons. It must be a fascination from childhood where such things was a stylo mylo thing to do but since I was a very young kid, I never got a chance to it until I attain adulthood. Anyway, back to the cake, once the balls of watermelon has been nicely arranged on top, the layer of jello to hold them was very tricky. A mojito jello that I need to make sure it set fast before all of it get soaked into the sponge fingers. Tricky

So, while the cake was getting some rest time in the fridge, I was praying hard that everything will turn out well. I, afterall, decided to be funky and change quite a few things about this cake. Hehehehe.. after a few hours, eager beaver me took the cake out and cut it up.. Yay.. it turned out and the taste test went very well. Everyone simply love it. Some was mesmerized by it.. hahahahhahaa... some asked for more pieces.. hehehehe...

So, this watermelon mojito cake is for sale.. This is quite a big cake.. do call for price.

This is Nat's other cake. Yes, Nat is a very lucky girl... hehehhee.. she usually have 2 cakes for her birthday, one for her school celebration which is this cake and another for her party at home. This marbled buttercake was fashioned like a gift box with Nat's favorite soft toy.. bluee the bunny. Hehehehe..

I was told that all her classmates were very thrilled by this cake and all wanted to have a piece of the bunny and stars! Hahahahaha... This 2kg cake was polished off by little 6 years old in a jiffy!

If there is any occasion where I have to bring something to a party and didnt have time, I will make this. I like it because for one, it's easy to make... and it's always impressive. For another, jelly always sells in a party due to our hot and humid, well, not so hot but still very humid weather these days. And if you have kids in the party, this is what they will go for.

The other reason why I love this is that I can split up the whole making process to suit my timing. I dont necessarily have to do everything at one go. I can split it up.. making the mosaic pieces first and when I have a window time of half hour, I can do the jelly to keep the mosaic in place. Terrific!

Oh yes, this jelly is open for ordering and a whole block can serve quite a few people during a party. Call to enquire!

One of my favorite food in this world. Hahahahahaha.. yes, I am a rice person and I must have my rice no matter where I am. Anyway, recently was craving for a home cooked chicken rice for the longest time. The last time I had a home cooked chicken rice was yonks ago and it was made by a hainanese woman and it was awesome.

Anyway, since my cravings was getting really bad and coincidentally, was having a dear friend over for dinner, I decided to make my hainanese chicken rice. Kampung chicken nicely steamed instead of boiled. I  like to give the chicken a bit of treatment of sesame oil and salt scrub before steaming. Hehehe..and of course, a must have, pestle and mortar pounded chili sauce and ginger sauce and added on a peanut and lotus root soup with a blanched kai lan. Oh yes! the rice, I cooked the rice like how the Hainanese woman did yonks ago.. with a slice or two of ginger, a dollop of butter, lots of good quality chicken stock and a small piece of pandan leave. Hehehehe.. the rice smell so good when it was cooking and that made me so hungry.

So, my dear friend came and we sat down to have our Hainanese chicken rice dinner which she enjoyed tremendously.. and without shame asked if she could take home some! Hahahahhaa.. with great pleasure! I always like the idea of my guests requesting to take home the food I cook.

A 9 years old boy's ambition is to be a Paleontologist and his request for a dinosaur birthday cake cannot be denied. This marbled butter cake weigh in at 2.5kg and Paleontologist was a happy boy.. Heh! heh! heh!

Nigel's favorite!! Every year no matter how much persuasion or distraction his mama tries to distract him away from Thomas The Train, Nigel will stay faithful and dutifully call me and tell that he would like to have a Thomas The Train cake. I admire his faithfulness!! Hahahahaha...

Anyway, this year, Nigel is 6 years old and he has grown.. he is able to tell me what he really ones. He said that he wanted each cupcake to have a Thomas The Train and he said.."not flat on the cake but a real one on top" There.. has Nigel grown up or what??

Each of this 49 cupcakes have a Thomas The Train just like how Nigel wanted them to be.. there is Percy and other TTT characters and when Nigel came to pick up his cake, he squeal with so much happiness that it's infectious! Hahahahahaha.. the happiness of a child never fail to shake me up to realise that life is beautiful. And the next day, Nigel had a great time in school celebrating his birthday and his mama said the other mamas were ooooo-ing and aaahhh-ing at the the toppers! HEH! HEH! HEH!

These were sold for RM7.50 each as there are a lot of work involved in shaping each TTT in 3D. A minimum order of 16 is required.

It has been raining nearly everyday for the past month and such weather are expected during end of the year. This is one of the best times for me.. hehehehe.. as I love the rain. Without the rain, the weather here is simply.. HORRIBLE! always hot and humid with terrible blazing sun. But with the rain.. aaaaaaahhh... it's just so lovely.. and always, during such weather, I crave for warm comfort food and one of them is chicken porridge with century eggs.

I have a few versions of chicken porridge. Hehehehe.. I have the simple and quick one that you can see here or the complicated one. For today, I made the simple and quick version plainly because, I was greedy and hungry! Hahahahahahaha. The simple and quick version requires very little work.. just dump the rice and water to boil, leave it to boil stirring occasionally to keep it from sticky to the base of the pot.. and once the porridge is nearly done, add in the cooked shredded chicken. Season it with the usual salt, pepper, sesame oil and garnish it with spring onion, julienne ginger with slices of century eggs. It's one of the easiest comfort food that one can make when one is terribly busy.

Where else, the complicated version requires steamed chicken that has been seasoned with lots of chinese wine and salt. The method of cooking is the same but the extra work comes from preparing the chicken way ahead, steaming it, rubbing every part of the chicken with chinese wine, salt and a bit of pepper and leaving it to marinate for a few days. This complicated version is super delicious and I learnt this from my grandma yonks ago. Didnt I say we never waste food?? Hehehe...

Anyway, back to this simple and quick chicken porridge.. this is best as it is or if you like, you can have this with chinese fried curlers (yau char kwai) which I dont fancy. Life is always beautiful with simple things and Praise the LORD that I am blessed with such simplicity.

Another last minute order that came thru my email and I was so thrilled to make this cake. Hehehehe... since it was a Halloween cum Birthday Party, this customer was keen to have a scary cake for the kids to oooo and aahh about. However due to time constraint, I came up with an easy cake... Heh! heh! heh!

This vanilla butter cake weighing in at 3.5kg and yes, the kids did ooo and aaah and Pete was a very happy man! Hehehehehe..

Anushri's mama called and ordered a cake for her birthday like always! Hehehehehe.... and this year, Anushri told her she would like to have a guitar cake and mama was scratching her head as to how would a guitar cake be! Hahahahaha... 

I suggested this for Anushri as she will be celebrating her birthday in her school for the first time... and mama said, the kids squealed and crowded around the cake when the cake was brought into the class.. hahahhaa.. and Anushri was a very very proud birthday girl who graciously served all her friends with this cake.

This vanilla buttercake weigh in at 2.2kg and it was just right to serve all 28 5 years old kids.

This cake was a last minute order by the bride. She wanted something simple but must have pearl colors namely, cream, brown and copper and I came up with this. The bride was also not too keen to have a big cake and I suggested a 8inch, 6inch and a cute 4inch tier for her. 

All 3 tier are made of sugee cake and it has all the works of marzipan and frosted with fondant. As the weather was wet and damp, it was a challenge to keep the cake pretty....

This cake was sold for RM680 and the bride was happy as a pie!!

A boy's wish to have VW Bettle and this was what his mama got him! Hahahahahaha... Joel was turning 9 and he wished for a VW Bettle to zoom around. Since he was too young to drive and his mama didnt think a real car would be fun for a 9 year old who cant drive, a cake in that shape would be fun for his birthday party.

This cake weigh in at 3.8kg in marbled buttercake and it was polished off by Joel's 25 friends and their parents. 

Sometimes I just dont know what to cook or feel like eating and on such occasions, I will just let fate takes it course. And last Sunday, as fate has it, I bought some really fresh prawns and after shelling them, I was left with a big bag of shells and being weekend, throwing them into the bin will most definitely attract strays cats or dogs to dig into my dustbin. So, with a big bag of shells, I thought the best way was to just boil it for broth. I added some ikan bilis and some chicken bones into it to boil and the broth was super tasty!

With such a tasty broth simmering on the stove and the rain pouring hard outside, I decided to have a simple dinner of noodles with prawn dumplings and steamed chicken breast and chives from my garden. Technically, I am to fry up the prawn shells before boiling them but I was not in the mood to do so much work and clean up, so, plain tasty broth.. wrap up seasoned prawns with wanton wrappers, blanched the noodles and chives, arrange the chicken and you get a yummilicious bowl of prawn dumpling noodles! It's sure a delicious comfort food on a Sunday night..

It was pouring outside and there was no good movies to watch on TV, so, we both decided to make something and I thought why not make a decorated swiss roll since we have some dairy whipped cream left with strawberries.

So, we set out to make a decorated swiss roll... hehehhee.. but we couldnt decide on what design to make on the swiss roll. Hehehehe.. so, we bicker and end up with 2 designs on a roll.. My daughter decided on the cupcake motifs and I compliment it with green dots. Hehehehehe.. and very quickly, we have this.. and they are super yummy!

My daughter suggested that I make them into dainty rolls and sell..with cute motifs.. hahahahaha.. she is learning the trade quickly I see.

A last minute decision to make a cake for a lady's birthday... Hehehehe... and I came up with something simple.. marble buttercake with a big flower on top.. with the rain pouring outside, I wanted something that is easy to handle and yet wont show the effects of rain on fondant... So, I was playing with some design when I  thought why dont I just twirl some fondant on top and make it look like a big big flower?? Heh! heh! heh!

It didnt take me long to accomplished this cake...Everything done in an hour and very quickly, the whole cake had to be in an air cond room until delivery. Upon delivery, the grand lady was very happy to have her cake and she shared it with her 3 sisters...

I took my home made bread, cut it, toast it, dug out the turkey ham, slice it and lay on it.. and went on my merry ways to make my pouched eggs. In case you havent already know, egg benedict is pouched eggs and it's not as easy weasy as it seems. It took me a lot of eggs to master the skill of making a perfectly enveloped pouched egg years ago and I am glad I have not lost that skill. The technique is to swirl the water, keep the water boiling gently and dropping the egg at the right movement so that the swirling of the water will "fold" the egg whites around the yolk and lastly, scoop it up at the right movement. Not too raw, not too cook. Hehehehehe..

Anyway, very quickly I got the whole dish assembled with a quick hollandaise sauce. Yup, it is actually not that difficult to make egg benedict at home afterall. My daughter whalloped the whole works of this for her breakfast and declared that it's the best so far.. Hahahahahaha... Shangri-la hotel will now see less 1 customer.. hahahaha..

This is my first ever class project with a 12 years old girl. This girl has recently sat for her first major exam and now, waiting for result, her mama wanted her do something fun and useful. Hahahahaha.. and with that, her mama approached me to do a series of classes for her daughter. 

I suggested that since she will be leaving her primary school for good end of the year, it would be good for her daughter to start with a basic... make a cake for her teachers and mama agreed immediately! So, that started my first cake class with a 12 years old.

It was real fun teaching a 12 years old. She was chatty and quick in picking up the simple method of making a cake. She had just as much fun icing the cake.. hahahahhahaa.. and this is what she came up with..

Classes are on ad-hoc basis and do call for details such as fees, category, etc.

Something I did for an express order.. Hehehehe.. meaning, last minute order... The buyer wanted 5 sugee cakes nicely decorated for her clients who has tasted and like and requested for more. The buyer wasnt fussy about the design as long as the cake is as yummy as the first batch. Hehehehehe...

These were sold for RM160 with express charges.... Heh! heh! heh!

This is something I remembered about my childhood. Coconut candy was a big thing during my time as there was no Garrett popcorn or funky treats then. Life was simple and it was easy to please us. hehehehe.. simple ingredients like grated coconut, sugar and milk could give us so much thrill and mamas will always use this as a bribe. hahahahahaha..

I learnt how to make this when I was 10 years old and it was tedious to make but for a 10 years old, it was fun! hahahahahaha.. and over the years, I do make this off and on just for fun or to pack as gifts for people who appreciate such simple treat.

Anyway, this round I made a pandan flavor which is colored in green and a mixture of vanilla and rose for the pink ones... The pink ones are simply addictive! Woo hoo......

These were sold for a wedding party at RM25 for the square container.. RM35 for the round container and RM12 for the trial pack.. heh! heh! heh!