Foodelicious!

I was a bit adventurous recently and decided to make these terribly yummy spicy chicken pie.. These are mini actually but they are really good for tea or parties.. (these were ordered by a lady for her theatre & drama school function) Anyway, back to these yummy pies.. hhhmmm...

The usual puff pastry with cubed potatoes and chunks of chicken fillet nicely spiced up... Every bite you get a mouthful of pastry with flavorful potatoes and chicken fillet.. The aroma of the spices just go so well with something like puff pastry.. crispy and light..

These are sold at RM3.50 each with a minimum order of 20 pieces.

It was sunny but breezy today.. and I am just lazing around in my garden looking at my plants and a very butchered frangipani tree. Yes, it was the time again to prune and trim the tree.. Everytime I have the gardener do that, I am reminded of what GOD said in the bible.. there is a time for everything.. Time to flower, time to grow, time to fruit.. time to rest... Anyway, since I am lazy, I decided to make a simple dinner.. stir fried spinach and har cheong kai aka prawn paste fried chicken..

Yes, I was all curious with this har cheong kai aka prawn paste fried chicken because my nephew, a cute little 5 year old told his dad that he will marry anyone who can cook him this dish! Hahahaha... so, with my little adventure streak.. I made har cheong kai.. and very frankly, I find it a bit too salty and being not a big fan of fried chicken, I find it a OK dish.. however, my monster loved it! She loved the saltiness and prawn paste flavor. Maybe it is the eating in the garden that affected that decision!?? Hmmm...

So, a breezy sunday evening with har cheong kai.....

I have always wanted to have a yule log cake for Christmas when I was a young child... but never had. So, it has always been my hidden desire to have a yule log cake.. Heh! Heh! Heh! to eat when I was young and to make when I am older...

Recently, I had a Christmas party catering and the english lady wanted a yule log cake! Hehehehe.. my opportunity came! This english lady was very specific with her yule log cake.. it must be a chocolate sponge cake with light but creamy buttercream... and, she wanted it white to have that snowing feel...

So, I used my trusted sponge cake recipe for this.. a sponge cake that is all eggs and no chemicals or enhancer or stabilizer.. just loads of eggs, sugar and flour.. yes, making sponge cake is a skill and one has to practise and practise to get it right...(that is if you want it all original and no chemicals).. and again, it is a skill to roll the sponge cake before it cools down to get a perfect roll...

As for the butter cream, well, I am very fussy with butter cream.. I absolutely hate those commercial butter cream... it has that oily and sweet to death tastel eaving the mouth feeling all yucky. So, I have been trying out all sorts of butter cream recipes whenever I am free.. and finally found this recipe.. and yes, I made some adjustments and viola! it is very good.. Creamy and luxurious and the best part, it is not too sweet..

Marrying these two... and I got a beautiful yule log cake!! The sponge cake was soft and moist and went very well with the buttercream.. The taste was very enticing and the whole look just makes me feel very christmasy!! Hehehe..

And yes, the english lady called to say that everybody "ooohhh.. ahhhh" in the party when she took out this cake. Needless to say, everybody had a piece of the yule log and some went back for more. So many times more that she is ordering this yule log cake again! This was sold for RM85.. yes, with all the traditional tacky xmas decoration... Fra lalalalalaa..