Opera Cake "Wannabe"

Chocolate Opera Wannabe Cake
This is a cheater's guide to making an Opera Cake. In fact, I wouldn't really call it a classic Opera Cake. A more apt description would be "Chocolate Opera Wannabe Cake". Well, when time and ingredients do not permit one to bake an almond sponge base, one would have to make do with a normal plain sponge. Here's what I did:

Slice the baked and cooled sponge cake into a few layers, and spread a layer of Baileys-flavoured chocolate hazelnut buttercream. Chill it for awhile then top with a layer of chocolate ganache. Chill again till the chocolate ganache hardens. Repeat the above. On impromptu, I also added a generous sprinkle of crushed peanuts and biscuit crumbs in between the layers to make up for the feeling of a "slightly crunchy almond sponge cake". Once done, frost and decorate the cake with leftover buttercream, chocolate ganache and biscuit crumbs.


Chocolate Opera Wannabe Cake

The cake (sans baking time) and frostings took me a matter of minutes to prepare. The frosting and decorating? A matter of hours, no thanks to clumsy and amateurish fingers as well as unco-operative hot and humid weather.

My Favourite Moist Chocolate Cake (No-bake)

Moist Chocolate Cake topped with dark chocolate fudge
Rich and luscious, moist yet fluffy; these are the words to describe my favourite chocolate cake. Not only mine, but my family's too. Best of all, the recipe is really simple and easy. It requires no baking, but is steamed instead. Therefore, it is also suitable for those who do not have an oven. And if you do not have a mixer, no worries. Just boil and stir. Too good to be true? Try it yourself and you shall see...

Recipe for Steamed Moist Chocolate Cake
A
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup good quality cocoa powder
1 cup unsalted butter (250g)
¾ tsp instant coffee powder
B
3 large eggs (lightly beaten)
½ cup condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract (vanilla essence will do)
C
1 ¼ cup plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

Mix A together and cook over low fire until sugar is completely melted. Stir constantly to prevent burned bottom. Set aside to cool.
Mix A and B together until well-blended.
Sift C together and add into the mixed liquid mixture. Mix well until there are no lumps of flour to be seen.
Pour into a greased 8" (and lined) round pan and steam over high heat for 45 minutes to an hour. Check for doneness by inserting a skewer into center of cake.
Cool in pan for 5 mins. Remove from pan carefully and let cool completely on rack.
Serve plain or with chocolate fudge. Cake is also suitable for frosting.
*Recipe courtesy of my SIL.

Baileys Malteser Cheesecake

I like Baileys. I like Maltesers. I like cheesecake. Combine all three - oiishi...!



That's the first thing that crossed my mind when I first came across the recipe from the ever talented Aunty Yochana. So when a friend's birthday cropped up recently, I took the opportunity to test the "yummi-ness" level of the cake, whether was it as good as it sounded.



The cake did not disappoint but I would probably increased the amount of Baileys used next time. If you want to try your hands at making this cake, click here for recipe.

Quick & Easy! Chocolate Almond Cream Cake

My darling Julius turned 2 months not a couple of weeks back. I suddenly felt the urge to bake to mark the occassion so I baked a really quick and easy simple Chocolate Almond Cream Cake. But poor Julius, he won't be getting any of it (I didn't want to encourage him to have a sweet-tooth although his mistress is already one). Chocolates are bad for dogs anyway...

To make the cake, combine 2 cups of water, 600g of sugar, 35g cocoa powder, 1t baking soda and 250g chopped butter in a heavy-bottom pot and heat without boiling till all the sugar is dissolved. Then, bring the mixture to a boil and let it simmer for about 5 mins. Turn off heat and let it cool a bit. Transfer to a mixing bowl and stir in about 450g of sifted self-raising flour and 4 eggs. Beat till mixture is smooth. Pour into a greased and lined 8" pan and bake at 175c for about 45-50 mins or when cake is done when tested with skewer. Cover top with foil if it browns too fast. Cool for about 5 mins in pan before removing it and transferring to the rack to cool completely before frosting. Once completely cooled, slice into 2 layers before sandwiching them with buttercream.

For the buttercream, beat 125g softenend butter, 125g margarine and 80g icing sugar together till light and fluffy. Add in about 100g melted cooking chocolate (cooled) and mix till even. Frost cake and sprinkle with chocolate rice and toasted almond flakes.

"Not-So" Recent Bakes

Aarrggh! Have been lagging in updating my blog, baking-related entries included. Oh well, better late than never, right? Anyhow, these are some of the by-products from my kitchen experiments...

From Left to Right: Coffee Walnut Cake, Multi-Treasure Pumpkin Tongshui and Gula Melaka Chiffon Cake.

Here's the recipe for the Coffee Walnut Loaf

Coffee Walnut Loaf (based on recipe from The Australian Women's Weekly)
35g toasted chopped walnuts (add more if you like)
125g butter, chopped
1 cup castor sugar (or substitute 1/4 to 1/2c with brown sugar)
125ml low-fat milk
2T Nescafe Gold
200g Self-raising flour
1/2t cinnamon powder (optional: add more)
2 eggs, beaten lightly
1/2t vanilla (optional)
* Whole walnuts for decoration (optional)
Method:
1. Combine butter, sugar, milk and coffee in a microwaveable bowl. Zap in the microwave until all is melted. Stir to combine evenly. Set aside to cool a little.
2. Sift flour and cinnamon into another bowl. Slowly stir in eggs, butter mixture, vanilla and chopped walnuts until just combined.
3. Pour the mixture into a greased and lined loaf pan. Sprinkle whole walnuts on top.
4. Bake in preheated oven at 160c for about 45 mins or until skewer comes out clean when tested. Cover top with aluminium foil if it browns too quickly.
5. Turn onto wire rack to cool completely.

Double Favourite (Pumpkin Chiffon Cake)

If you don't know by now, I love all things pumpkin. And since I like chiffon cake very much too, I decided to bake a 'different' chiffon cake other than the usual "pandan" flavoured ones that I usually bake for my family. I adapted this recipe based on another recipe from Aunt Yochana's blog. Result is rather good but with just a light taste of pumpkin (i would have prefer a stronger taste of pumpkin). Also, the pumpkin that I used wasn't very sweet so the cake turned out just a little bit too bland. So do adjust the sugar level to your preference after tasting the pumpkin. Initially I was worried that my little 20cm chiffon cake pan would not fit a chiffon cake that has 6 eggs but surprisingly, it managed to hold it all together (the cake rose just a little over the tip). Then again, this might be because the recipe uses just plain flour and no rising agent, relying instead on the volume of the egg whites for height; so make sure you beat the egg whites till stiff peaks.

Pumpkin Chiffon Cake
(A)
6 egg yolks
150g mashed pumpkin* / pumpkin puree
150g coconut milk
60 ml. corn oil
1 t vanilla essence
1/4 t salt
50 g fine sugar
180 g cake/superfine flour (sift 1-2x)
Toasted pumpkin seeds (optional)
(B)
6 egg whites
1/2 t cream of Tartar
100g fine sugar

Method:
(1) Combine all the wet ingredients in (A) together until well-mixed.
(2) Add in flour, salt and sugar and combine until well-mixed.
(3) Whisk egg white until foamy. Add in tartar and whisk until mixture is white.
(4) Add in sugar slowly in 3 parts while whisking the egg white. Whisk until stiff peaks.
(5) Add pumpkin seeds to (4) and stir to combine. Fold in 1/3 of (4) into egg yolk mixture. Blend carefully (manually). Then fold in this mixture into remaining egg white mixture.
(6) Fold/blend carefully and slowly so that mixture is evenly combined. Take care not to deflate the beaten egg whites.
(7) Pour into chiffon cake pan (ungreased) and bake** for 45 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 170-175c or until cake is done when tested with skewer.
(8) Immediately invert the pan onto a wire rack and let it cool completely (apx. 1 hr) before removing the cake carefully from pan.

Note(s):
* If you do not like the mashed pumpkin to contain fibres, strain it through a sieve to remove them before using it.
** To get rid of air pockets inside the cake, bang the cake pan firmly on the counter top 3x before putting it into the oven.

Boiled Cakes (Classic Moist Chocolate & Eggless Fruit Cake)

No, I didn't mean to say that these cakes do not require baking but rather, the preparation method involves only boiling instead of mixing using the cake mixer. Just dump and boil - literally...

Not too long ago, I had the chance to sample a Fruit Cake baked by my sister's MIL. It was simple and it was delicious. No complicated flavours. In fact, my mom raved about it (and that speaks a lot since my mom hardly praised any cakes). That made me realised that I have never baked a proper Fruit Cake before so I set about baking one. I had numerous recipes in my collfection but finally decided on this one by Yochana based on its simplicity (surprise! surprise!). This recipe does not require soaking the fruits overnight or keeping the cake steeped in alcohol over a period of time. Simply boil, bake and eat. Of course, this will not qualify it as an authentic Classic Fruit Cake but it was good enough for me.

Boiled Eggless Fruit Cake
The cake was moist although it has a dense texture. Not really the same from what the auntie's moist and fluffy rich fruit cake. This is more like a moist mixed fruits quickbread. My mom didn't quite like it because (1) it was overly spiced (I guess I was too heavy-handed with the spice); and (2) it was not fluffy. Hmmppff..., next time, I shall just bake a mixed fruits butter cake for her.

As the Fruit Cake was done in no time, I decided to try another easy recipe that uses the boiling method.

Boiled Classic Chocolate Cake (FAVOURITE RECIPE)
Recipe courtesy of Rusti, I was so glad that I decided to give it a try. As described, it was EASY, moist, fluffy, reasonably rich and just simply delicious! This will definitely be one of my top favourite recipes for a simple, plain and fast chocolate cake!

Wonderfully Martha's (Marble Buttermilk Pound Cake)

Having recently (and finally) acquired Martha Stewart's The Baking Handbook, I wasted no time in putting it to good use.

By default, I had actually used a recipe from this book before but that was when I loaned it from another blogger's website. This cake looked so wonderful in the book, simplicity at its best.


I daresay mine was not too bad compared to the original either. The only problem I had was that there were bits where it was slightly underbaked, probably due to my oven's (unreliable) temperature. Anyone knows where I can get a good oven thermometer? About time I get one and lay my suspicions to rest.

Speaking of her chocolate chip cookies (as mentioned above), another variation that I have tried is to turn them into Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies. Just add strong coffee powder to the mix and lessen the vanilla. In addition, I froze the dough by rolling them into a log with cling wrap and keeping them in a cylinder tube. When you want to bake them, just slice and bake. The ones below were baked for a friend. I tried one piece and it tasted yummy with the addition of coffee powder although it was more crispy than chewy this time (probably because I baked them longer this time). I hope my friend thought so too.

Ong Lai! Ong Lai! (Pineapple Butter Cake)

Pineapple is considered by many as an auspicious food item for the Chinese Lunar New Year. In the Hokkien dialect it is called "ong lai" which means prosperity comes. Not that I am superstitious, but it is nice to make something with pineapple just for the occassion. And that was how I ended up baking a Pineapple Butter Cake for someone to show my gratitude for a favour done. It was a rather last-minute decision. I didn't have any idea on what to bake initially and it was too late to go out and get anything else since it was the eve of CNY and most provision and baking supplies shops would be closed. A quick scan of what I had in the pantry and my eyes settled on a can of pineapples. Aha! Pineapple Butter Cake. Simple and apt for the occassion.

The recipe was kind of improvised by yours truly. I was pretty worried about how it would taste initially since I have not baked this before. Luckily, I had some extra batter which I poured into muffin cups so I ended up with a couple of cupcakes. Hmm...., not bad at all. Buttery and fluffy cake with chunks of pineapple throughout.

Here's the recipe.

Pineapple Butter Cake
Ingredients:
1 prepared 9x5" butter cake** (recipe below):-

2 eggs + 1 egg white
175 g Butter, softened
100g castor sugar (or adjust to your preference)
150 g plain flour
0.75 tsp baking powder
90ml liquid (juice from canned pineapple)
1/4 or 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2c pineapple chunks (cut into smaller pieces) well-drained and coat with a little flour from above***
1T pineapple jam (optional)

Method:
1. Beat butter and sugar till white and creamy.
2. Add eggs, one at a time to beat.
3. Sift flour, baking powder together and add into batter to mix.
4. Add juice, vanilla essence and pineapple jam and mix till combined. Do not over mix.
5. Add pineapple chunks and mix till combined. Do not over mix.
6. Pour into greased 9x5" loaf tin.
6. Bake in preheated oven 175 C for 30-40 mins or until done*.

Notes:
* As baking time and temperature varies with different ovens, it it better to test with skewer for doneness from 30 mins onwards. Cake is done when skewer comes out clean when inserted in the center of the cake. If top browns too fast, cover with foil.
** For quick fix, buy those ready packed pre-mix from baking supplies shop. Follow the instructions but just substitute liquid with pineapple juice. Last 3 ingredients listed on top to be used as in the above recipe.
*** This is to prevent the pineapple chunks from sinking to the bottom of the cake during baking.

Rejoice! It is Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! A day late, but hey, it is still Christmas!

The days leading to Christmas were so busy. Tons of last minute shoppings and bakings, in addition to the usual parties and events as well as church practices. Nonetheless, these are part of the fun of Christmas, my favourite time of the year...

So what did I bake for Christmas? Take a look below:

Chocolate Banana Cake (based on wonderful recipe from SeaDragon with slight changes.)


Vanilla Sugar Cookies (recipe taken from epicurous.com)


More Chocolate Chip Cookies (recipe from Williams-Sonoma). Supposed to be crispy, but mine still turned out chewy (???).


Mini Vanilla Butter Cupcakes for the children carollers!


Triple Layered Chocolate Oreos Cake for brother's birthday. (truly yummilicious, thanks to Fatboy for recipe. I use my own recipe for chocolate sponge and chocolate ganache.) - (FAVOURITE RECIPE)


Tiramisu (laddened with alcohol, the flavour gets better the longer it sits in the fridge (i.e., days not weeks or months, mind you). I had a slice 3 days after making it, and I couldn't stop at 1 slice. Recipe taken from Kitchen Capers - see sidebar for link). - (FAVOURITE RECIPE)


Once again, have yourself a blessed Christmas and a fantastic New Year!

"Celebrate in the Wonders of His birth, Rejoice in the Beauty of Christmas!"

Still Here...(Strawberry Chocolate Gateau)

There has been a brief lapse in posting but rest assured I am still here. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activities, including a trip to Bangkok. Sadly, my baking had taken a backseat as a result. With Christmas coming, I have better brush up my bakings again soon.

Strawberry Chocolate Gateau
I baked this cake sometime back. It's actually a Devil's Food Cake spread with the easiest Chocolate Fudge frosting I have ever made (no cream used, only condensed milk) and decorated with fresh strawberries. The frosting was surprisingly good. Sweet as expected, but not sickening so. I believe using good semi-sweet chocolate chips in the frosting makes a difference!

But I should have waited for the frosting to cool a bit before dipping the strawberries in it. As you can see in the picture, the frosting was too thin to coat the strawberries properly.

**edited to include recipe
Extremely Easy Chocolate Glaze
1 cup good quality semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 can condensed milk
1t vanilla essence
1T Nescafe Gold (optional)
Method:
1) Heat condensed milk in saucepan over medium heat until warm state. Add in chocolate chips. Stir constantly to combine until chocolate chips are melted and the mixture is smooth. Add coffee powder and stir until it dissolves.
2) Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Cool slightly until desired spreading consistency before glazing over cakes.

Bitten by the 'L" Bug (Coffee Liquor Chiffon Cake, Chewy Chunky Choc Cookies, Multigrain Raisin Bread)

Yup, I have been bitten by the "L" bug; "Lazy" bug, that is. Haven't had much motivation to bake recently and partly due to that for the past few weekends, I have been attending birthday celebrations, pre-wedding gatherings, hen parties as well as wedding dinners. "Phew", September and November are such "hot" periods to get hitched.

So for the past couple of weeks, these are the only things that came out from my oven...

Coffee Liquor Chiffon Cake based on this recipe. I tweaked it a bit to use whatever ingredients I happened to have in my pantry. But anyhow, I used 5 whole eggs and as for the coffee liquor, I used Amarula instead of Kahlua. I wasn't overly satisfied with the outcome of the cake. Probably due to my substitution (i.e., quantity of eggs used), the chiffon cake was not as high as I would have like. Also, it was slightly "holey". Taste-wise, it was pretty alright. Coffee with subtle taste of the Amarula, it is more suited for adult tastebuds though.


One of my nephews, Clement had been bugging me to bake him some chocolate chip cookies. What my nephew wants, my nephew gets (ceh...). I used my current favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe. It's chewy instead of crispy. Using chocolate chunks means that you will get melted chocolate puddles when you bite into the cookie. Like this......


After all the coffee, Amarula and chocolate, I must make something healthy, right? So out came this healthy Multigrain Raisin Wholemeal Bread. I bought the pre-mixed multigrain/seeds packet from Aunt Catherine (Best23) and followed the attached recipe. Only thing that I added some molasses sugar and threw in some raisins. Yum....

There's Always a First Time for Everything (Vegan Pineapple Upside Down Cake & Pandan Butter Cake)

There always a first time for everything. And this is my first vegan cake (maybe not, but I can't seems to remember previous tries). Anyway, it is a Vegan Pineapple Upside Down Cake (although to me it seems more like a crustless pie since it was kind of flat). Relatively low fat as well, only 3T of oil in the cake. But the accompanying pineapple sauce made up the fat content (hehe).
The cake can be serve warm or cold although I personally prefer it warm. It tasted good barely out from the oven with the sauce slathered all over.

Oh, I also baked a simple Pandan Butter Cake.

That's it, folks! This should be my last post for the month up till early September. Going for an outstation trip tomorrow followed by an overseas trip to Sydney. Yay!

Let's Go Green (Pandan Custard Red Bean Buns, Pandan Chiffon & Kiwi Apple Jam)

Theme of the day - the colour green! As in pandan leaves and kiwi fruits. Get it???

Ok, bad joke aside. All I wanted to make for today was the Pandan Custard Red Bean Buns. But since my maid plucked additional pandan leaves from our garden, I used the extra to make one of my family's all-time favourite, the Pandan Chiffon Cake.


Pandan Custard Red Bean Buns
Rather simple to make. Just use your favourite 'sweet dough recipe'. After the first proofing, divide into 50g rounds. Rest for 10 mins.

Wrap each with about 30g ready-made red bean paste. Arrange in a greased pan and let it proof for about 45 nins. Prepare some custard with pandan juice. Pipe onto the buns. Brush 'un-piped' area with egg wash. Sprinkle top with dessicated coconut. Baked in pre-heated oven at 180-190c for about 18-20 mins, or till done.


Pandan Chiffon cake.
I usually reduced the sugar from the qty stated on the recipe for my chiffon cakes. But this time, I accidentally forgot to add the portion reserved for the egg yolk mixture. That is like 50% of the total sugar portion required for the recipe! I was screeching like a mad woman when I saw the bowl of sugar sitting on my counter about 5 minutes after I put the cake into the oven to bake. Was half-tempted to just dump the entire load in but then I thought - what the heck, let's just give this severely sugar-reduced attempt a try. And surprise! It was good. The lack of sweetness was evident but only subtly so. I think from now on, I would bake my chiffon cakes with this sugar ratio.


I had some extra time to kill so decided to make this simple & easy Kiwi Apple Jam, using the microwave. The jam can be done in less than 15 minutes. Recipe found from this cute blog.

Fat-Free but Sugar-High! (Norwegian Pear & Walnut Cake and Pandan Redbean Rolls)

One of the greatest irony for me was something that is fat-free and thus, deemed as being healthy but yet ladened with high-dosage of "unhealthy" sugar. Does this still classify the dessert as being healthy? To some, it could even be worse than not being fat-free. But to a sweet-toothed person like me, this fact is a good enough reason to dig-in. Yeah, Like I needed any. *grin*


Norwegian Pear & Walnut Cake (I made a mistake in labelling the photo above)
One bite into the crusty exterior and soft interior, ladened with chunks of pear and walnuts, you will easily fall in love with this cake.
Based on the recipe from "Everybody Likes Sandwiches" blog, my version is as follows:
1/3c sugar + 1/4c demerara sugar (reduce more if you like)
1/2 c plain flour
1/2 t salt
1 t baking powder
1 egg
1 generous cup diced pears
1/2 c toasted walnuts, chopped
1 t cinnamon powder
1. In a bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, salt, and baking powder.
2. Break an egg into the center of the mixture. Combine well.
3. Mix in pears and nuts. Pour mixture into a greased and floured 8" pie pan.
4. Bake 20-25 minutes at 175c (pre-heated), or until edges are crispy and pulls aways from pan.


Chilled Pandan Red Bean Rolls (FAVOURITE RECIPE) (Recipe can be found from JoDeliBakery: see side bar for link)
This is like a "rolled" version of snow mooncake. I like them a lot! Best eaten just chilled from the fridge. Once it reaches room temperature, it may be just a bit cloyingly sweet.

Looks Like Concrete But.... (Black Sesame Pound Cake)

It has been said that this cake "looks like concrete but melts in your mouth", to which I strongly agree.
Aesthetic wise, nothing much to say. After all, how else can you describe a block of absolute blackness? But texture wise, it is meltingly soft with a taste accentuated by the nutty taste of black sesame.

Black Sesame Pound Cake
· 150g unsalted butter (softened)
· 175g cake flour
· ¾ tsp baking powder
· 170g sugar
· ¼ tsp salt
· 3 eggs
· 120ml low-fat or full-fat milk
· 1 tsp vanilla paste
· 4 - 6 tbsp black sesame paste (adjust according to your taste)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180c. Flour a chiffon cake tin. (If using square or round tin, line base).
2. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add sugar and salt to mix. Combine well.
3. Beat eggs, milk and vanilla in another bowl. Divide this mixture into 2.
4. Add butter, sesame paste and half of egg mixture to flour mixture. Beaton low speed until just combined (flour no longer visible). Increase speed to “medium” and beat another for 30 seconds.
5. Add remaining egg mixture in 2 batches, beating 15 seconds after each addition. Beat for 20 seconds more.
6. Pour batter into prepared tin and bake for 30-35mins OR until inserted toothpick come out moist but clean.
7. Cool cake on rack for 15mins, then remove from tin and cool completely on rack.

Re-creating a Favourite (Peanut Butter Layered Sponge Cake)

Two of my favourite cakes can be found at Bon Bon Cafe in Damansara Jaya. One is the infamous and seasonal Durian Cream Cake (ooh.....) and the other is the Peanut Butter Coffee Cream Cake. Truly delicious, I tell you.

So today, I tried to re-create the latter. Not that I didn't want to try to re-create the former but so far, any plans to make durian desserts had always failed; reason being the durians were all gone (aka in my stomach) before I could manage to use them for desserts...haha.

Anyway, what I did was to bake a coffee-flavoured sponge cake, sliced them into 2 and sandwiched them with some Peanut Butter Frosting (recipe found on the net). Now the Peanut Butter Frosting recipe that I used was one of those icing sugar frosting type. In others, it could be sickeningly sweet. So what I did was to reduce the amount of icing used and upped the quantity of peanut butter.

So was the result anywhere near the BB's version? Unfortunately, nope. The frosting was still far too sweet but it can be quite addictive for a sweet-toothed person. But next time I should probably use a buttercream type frosting. The sponge cake was ok but could use a little bit more coffee flavour.

Oh well, first try down and 2nd try to come about soon!

Three Desserts and A Dish (Choc Chip Walnut Butter Cake, Egg White Tarts, Crystal Dumplings & Foil-Wrapped Baked Salmon

Hear, hear, the weekend is here. Time for another baking frenzy in the kitchen.
This time, I made "three desserts and a dish". Well, not exactly 3 desserts for one of them is a savoury snack but nevermind....


Forgot to dust the walnuts and choc chips with flour first, hence they tend to sink to the bottom of the cake.
Chocolate Chip & Walnut Butter Cake
Got an idea for this after tasting a similar one made by an ex-colleague. Sometimes, simple cakes like this really rocks!


Overbaked the pie crust a little.
Instead of the usual Egg Tarts that I normally made, this time I attempted a "healthier" version (Egg White Tarts) using egg whites only and low-fat milk. I like this version a lot; they kind of reminded me of the smooth "tau-fu-fa" (soybean pudding). Silky smooth and milder in taste. But somehow, the kids prefer the normal version, with the yolks and other rich stuff although I didn't tell them about the change in recipe used. They seem to have a in-built 6th sense to repel any "healthy" food stuff given to them.


Asked my maid to wrap the dumpling and the next thing I know, she wrapped them into the shapes of curry puffs! LOL!
My SIL cooked copious amount of "pang kaun chai" (a shredded carrot and yam beans dish) to be made as popiah fillings. Previously, we talked about using this filling to be wrapped with crystal dumpling skin. Ta-da! We finally achieved what we planned -

as modelled by my eldest nephew who in real-life loathes anything vegan. Sadly, this proved to be no exception either.
Crystal Dumplings filled with stir-fried shredded carrot, yam beans, dried shrimps and dried cuttlefish.

Lastly, for a good dose of Omega-3, I also prepared this simple salmon dish -

Foil-wrapped Baked Salmon.
Simple dish with simple and healthy ingredients such as lemon juice, plump tomatoes, onions, spring onions and olive oil. Most importantly, it tastes good!

That wraps up today's kitchen frenzy.