Cake Week :)

So after the crazy last two days in London spent with friends, it was time to celebrate the big 2-1 with the family. Maybe it was cause I was so excited about spending the first birthday in 2 years with the family, and maybe it was cause I was still in disbelief about getting Mr Ken. Ok, I think both. I just hope people on the plane didn't think I was some loony. Smiling to oneself is not really a reason for them to suspect otherwise.

The actual birthday itself was spent with the parents and mei. Mummy and Daddy took us to Carousel at Royal Plaza on Scotts for the buffet lunch. I actually told mummy before that I had a new fixation with oysters, so imagine my disappointment when I didn't see any oysters at the line (they only had it for dinner). BUTBUT! because of some crazy special arrangements, a plate of 12 oysters sat in front of me after I got back from getting my sushi. holy moly. imagine my sheer shock! that made everything 10x better i swear.

Best part was, when I thought daddy was getting the bill, the Carousel people came out in a cake singing 'Happy Birthday' to the tune of 'Too good to be True' (I'm pretty sure that's not the name of the song, but you get it). My jaw dropped. seriously, I was literally shocked to tears, much to the amusement of EVERYONE staring. very very embarrassing, but I was really touched. So that's the apricot cake above, that I received from the restaurant. :)

Mei and I celebrated our birthdays together on the 6th- the day I flew back, and her actual birthday. I think the cake was really the highlight of the night! Mummy ordered the cakes from Sheraton- where I did a stint of temp work in the pastry department, so I got to meet Chef Wong when we went to collect the cake. Mei got her favourite Opera, while I got a custom made cake. I'm bragging here really, but just to clear things up, it really isn't intentional. Really.

When I worked at Sheraton, I fell in love with this palm size chocolate dome. It was only available twice a week, and only in one size. But after making it once (its a tedious process), and having a taste of it, I was smitten. Yes, it does that to you. The chocolate mousse, with the orange creme brulee inside was the best thing I have ever ever tasted. So obviously, I really wanted that for the big one. :D So yup, the square cake is mei's opera, and the bottom two are front view and back view of the cake-of-the-year. yumyumyum.

So yes, that's the end of one week of birthday celebration, with the next spent in Korea, and the week after holding a birthday bash somewhere. Sonya would be so proud of me :)

Missus Wood

Bigbigbig thanks to the lover and all my friends for getting the Kenwood MX271 Patissier Mixer 4lt 400W for my birthday. I'm still trying to take in the events of the day- from getting massively drunk Day 1, to waking up sick, to going for spa treatment with the lover and to dinner at our Korean joint. Everything seemed perfect but guess what? They came over and surprised me with Mr Ken.

Yes, I've always wanted a kitchenaid, but that's way too overpriced, and the Kenwood Mixer looks equally gorgeous. Plus, its the mixer that I'm always drawn too whenever I head down to Best Denki (back home in sg). OMG. i swear my heart rate has never reached such high levels, not even when I run at gym when I saw the big box. and though there's the logistics problem of taking back home when we graduate, for now, its bake first- think later. WHOO HOO.

so, say hello to my new lover- Mr Ken. And Day 2 of the Big 2-1 ends, with me and my stand mixer.

I can't stop smiling.

Road Tripp-ed

Road tripped with the guys over the weekend all over Southwest UK. I must say that being the only girl on the trip meant being treated like a princess- from being driven around, to getting the comfy bed, to the guys helping me hold my hp/camera/wallet. So, driving around with a rough destination in mind we ended up going to Stonehench (yawn)- Amesbury (for breakfast)- Bath (for lunch)- Exeter (double yawn)- Torquay (for dinner)- St Austell (for the night)- Minarck Theatre (with its AMAZING view)- Land's End- New Quay-Bodwin- Launceston. It was a crazy amount of cities covered over 2 days, at the expense of dave and gang's 'clutch' muscles. I saw UK in a completely different light - I never thought I would ever say this, but the UK does have its pretty sights.




















We probably spent more time in the car than sightseeing but it was great fun! Having a different meal in a different city was crazy, but we did get to try really good food in both Bath and Torquay :)














Lunch at Bath was at Sally Lunn's Tea House. Having been there with the lover a few weeks back, I decided that it was probably the best place to bring the guys to. I love Sally Lunn's. While its buns are seriously not that fantastic, I love being in the teahouse. The victorian style interiors and the bustle of the salon just screams perfect. Quaint stuff- I like. All of us had the smoked salmon bun while dave tried the rare-bit (a mixture of cheese) which tasted equally yummy.

















Dinner at Torquay - the English Riveria, @ No.7. Gang did mention how the English never had anything authentic, that most of the sights were a semblance to some other famous landmark. Well, perhaps its true. But somehow, I do feel that food sets cities and countries apart. Cuisine should be revered as a landmark, dammit. Afterall, isn't it true that no two cities have their food the same way. Similarities, yes, but yet, somehow every city retains a unique-ness to their style.

Using Dave's trusty-for-the-day wireless internet, we found 'No. 7' - a Michelin rated restaurant in Torquay. The seafood was so impeccably fresh and was so well done, I swear the scallops melted in my mouth. I mean, even the bread (that came with our starter) was marvellous. And to have a table full of people gawking at how crispy yet soft the bread was - was crazy. But it happened.














And although food the next day was a Chicken-Cottage lookalike place in Launceston, the trip itself was way fun. City-hopping was great, the company was great, and yes, the food was fantastic! It made my week-long abstinence from carbs well-worth it. I can't wait for the next road-trip! Whee!

Bruxelles

The Lover and I did a day-trip to Brussels over the weekend. Yes. A day trip. We've heard stuff about Brussels, stuff that didn't really entail us spending more than 14hours over there. So, a day trip it was then. To be very honest, Brussels was great! The people were incredibly friendly, though there weren't that many of them out and about, the food was great, and it snowed. So triple yay!




















Because we didn't really pre-plan our trip, we basically wandered around the city, zooming into places that our tattered piece of map that we got from the train station recommended. And although the pictures aren't really in chronological order, I thought i'd start with moules et frites. Quintessential Belgian food, we had ours done with white beer, and it came in a humongous pot. We ate that for a record breaking 2.5hours. The bar/restaurant was perfect- with people shuffling around, boistorous music, talk and laughter and yet strangely, non-invasive. Well the mussels were fantastic and the beer was equally good. I had a hoegaarden rosee (raspberry), and that was much much better than hoegaarden. I'm not a fan of white beer, or beers for that matter, unlike my newly-inspired beer-loving partner.





















In between locating cathedrals and the shopping streets (which we never got to, pity), we chanced upon the red/green tent. Our almost ziltch knowledge of french ordered us raw oysters instead of raw mussels. But really, we weren't complaining. The mussels were HUGE! they were incredibly creamy and just (ok, i really can't find another word here), orgasmic. We slurped down 3 each before talking to each other. Screw conversations and small-talk in between each. We saw, we scooped it all up, and we finished them all.




















We stopped for some soupe poisson (fish soup) after trying to locate the shopping street to no avail, and yup- best decision all day. With all the snow and my very soaked boots, the piping hot soup was my comfort food. and seriously, i don't think you can ever have too much seafood in a day. ever.




















One of the recommended places on our tattered map was this chocolate place - but obviously, that was way out of my meagre budget of the day, so it was to remain a feast for the eyes only. damn.















So there, our trip to Brussels ended with us at the cool bar/restaurant, taking 2.5hours to finish our humongous bowl of mussels. I do think the waitress thought we were wierd. After all, I don't think 1 person takes that long to finish a bowl, let alone 2 people. And for the uninitiated, and those who read the lover's blog where there's a fugly picture of me- i really needed to put this picture up and exclaim that we all have bad photo days. Well, me, I have bad photo hours.

Hats and me really don't go together. I must stop trying.

Tea Party-ing

I am a fervent advocate of food therapy, food psychology, food-anything. The current flatmates have noticed my certain inclinations towards bribing friends, neighbours and possibly future love interests with food. But, while I enjoy sharing what I make with my friends, I do enjoy very occasional treats for myself. Especially when I am back home in Singapore hanging out with my best friend.

The Tea-Party along 6th Ave back home has been my favourite hang out tea-joint since I was in Junior College. Chancing upon it purely my chance, I loved the place for its mod interiors, amazing white tea and out-of-this-world scones. Yes, scones. Something quintessentially british, but I've never been able to find a melt in your mouth crumble like the one here.

The strangest thing, perhaps, was daddy has always been under the impression that I was going for a tea party.



















Me: Daddy, Can you drop me at the Tea Party on our way home? (in the afternoon)
Daddy: Sure.

Me: Daddy, I'm going to the Tea Party tonight after dinner. (9pm)
Daddy: Aren't tea-parties supposed to be in the afternoons? Isn't it a bit late?

HAHA! this coming from him after 4 years of me going to Tea Party!

When I got back in Summer, I found out that I hadn't brought Bia there at all, which really consituted a terrible travesty. So, just before I left, I brought her and Jan (my 爱人) there to try out the delish scones and tea. Needless to say, they were appalled that I kept such a hideaway from them, and we are definitely going to head back there when I get back in Dec.

you know you are bored when...

blondies!

Moving back to London after summer in Singapore was fun. That's right. No more crappy cramped places to move into, no more shared rooms and no more of the joke of kitchen I had last year. Everything this year just seems 10000000 times better then the 2 previous years, I just can't help but feel happy even just sitting on the floor (yes, I can now sit on my floor without worrying about that unknown suspicious looking stain).

And so with my welfare and well-being exponentially increased, and with school being rather blah at the moment I just feel like baking yesterday. My exploits in the kitchen have been rather varied, from baking cakes, cookies to Chinese dinners. And even though I have a presentation due next week on top of two of essays due in the next 3 weeks, I'm successfully pretending that I'll get through everything.

So, you know you are bored when you bake a banana walnut loaf cake, 2 hummingbird cakes, chocolate chip cookies, dinner twice a week (elaborate ones), fry up doughnuts and yogurt cake (in 4 variations) over two weeks. The yogurt cake is my new favourite cake - as can be seen from my various attempts at creating a different flavour: blueberry, orange poppyseed, lemon poppyseed and lemon-raspberry. The amazing thing about this is that it tastes incredibly healthy and the yogurt through some miraculous chemical way induces the most wonderful velvety texture of the cake. I live with 3 boys this year, and all of them unanimously vote for the blueberry one, just coz of the crazy explosions of blue within the cake. yumm. I only manage to take a photo of the lemon poppyseed cake as I either forgot to take pictures, or I brought them out and they were gone. :D
















lemon poppyseed yogurt cake
















Chocolate Chunk Butter Cookies
















Banana Walnut (Molasses) Loaf





















"Kung Po" Chicken


I can cook Chinese Food! My first attempt at the "kung po" chicken served in almost every chinese restaurant in its glorious variations, and apart from the taste, which wasn't quite the same, it was still 90% there. the same fiery kick, the same tender chicken meat (although my regular 'zi char' stall doesn't use tender meat. damn) and the delish gravy. Now, i dare you to eat all the dried chili. That's my dad's favourite part of the dish. Seeing him eat it with relish once made me thought it was really cool to eat that (i was young), and it was HOT HOT HOT. but of course, pride comes at any age, and I pretended with whatever acting skills I had that it was alright. Silly me, and duh, i never made the same mistake again.

so here's too, boring lazy afternoons, and lazy evenings, and to more yogurt cake! yay!

of family heirlooms and miniatures

we all know life throws curveballs at you from time to time, to test your mettle, or your worth- or whatever really. but i guess curveballs then need decisions, and decisions taken or followed, need time to be readjusted to. summer this year was my curveball, by my decision, marking a new turning point in my life. and though it will be very bittersweet, i can say now (that summer and autumn has came and gone) that its going to be okay.

I will stick by the decision i made, i will probably waver in my (new) love interests, but i will remain forever faithful to my one and only real love- baking.

Over summer, i made a myraid of cakes and cookies- with my most successful being the Devil's Food Cake that i made for my grandma's birthday. but due to the non-presence of a really-good-digital-camera till september, i didn't take any photos of that.

With more indecision and tango-ing in my life, i decided to take two steps back to enter into a world where i could be alone, a world where i escape to. As irritatingly corny this sounds, baking was perhaps my one and only outlet. And so, i grew increasingly fixated on a generation-passed down cheesecake recipe. yumm.

The picture above was first attempt, and might i say it really was an easy cake! Being a family heirloom and all, it wouldn't be nice at all (to say the least) for me to announce it out. But tweaking the methods of preparation, tweaking the ingredients, and the discovery of a blender in my house (seriously, i had no idea we had one) that put the 'cheesecake workout' of the mortar&grinder-meets-digestives away (yay), was great fun. And the results were even better! I also love how people ooh-and-ahh at the marbled effect, and I love it even more when I see their disbelief when I tell them how simple it is to achieve that effect :)





















my summer being one train-wreck after another really needed something else to make it worthwhile. so lemons. i've mentioned before, and i'll mention it again. lemons really do make the world go round. their tart, tangy lilt on the tongue just never fails to make me happy. And together with the marshmallow-textured meringues just equates to delish heaven.

Unfortunately, i'm the only one in the family who really likes lemon. And because i live in Singapore, where half of the people really look anorexic (i'm not saying this because i'm bigger than the norm), i made them miniature. This way, it'll be perfect for both fussy categories - not too much lemon and not too much calories.