Foodie Fridays - 2012 Christmas Party!

We had a wonderful fun filled Christmas party that our friend Steve & Chris hosted on Christmas day!

There were a lot of home cooked food, some were not in the photo coz I was hungry when we reached their place and was famished when its time to start that I decided to ditched my camera for some plates & utensils and attack the food.  I was busy feeding DinoBoy who were distracted by all the activities going around the house and would not stay seated to finish his plate of bee hoon, thus no photos of any one munching on their food.

After we had our fill and was taking rest, suddenly we heard "Ho-Ho-Ho~" and Santa came visiting!  The kids were thrilled to the max!  And as you can see, the kids are not the only one who adores our Santa.

Then its the time the kids has been waiting for since the minute they step foot into the house!  Nerf War!!!!  Its shooting at every one that holds a Nerf gun and even the littlest one have a simple  single shoot gun and is "gunning" the "enemies" down!  Of course the "civilians" were "killed" many times too by straying "bullets".  It was fun even when we were just dodging bullets sitting on the sofa trying to watch TV.

Slightly more then 30mins later (sure felt like it was longer!), we stopped the game for cake cutting~  Benny & Steve's birthday are a few days away so we are celebrating it early.  Look at the 2 happy birthday boys men!

And with this post I am also closing my Festive Fare blogtrain. A big THANKS to every one who participated and linked up. You can find all the Festive Fare post here.

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Linking up with my blogtrain

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I am hosting a weekly Foodie Fridays linky, join me if you can, I'll be very happy to welcome you on board.

This linky is for anything that is FOOD related. It could be a restaurant you visited recently, meals you cook with your family or for your family or recipes you wish to share with every one.

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Advent Activities - Rainbow Christmas Kiwi Cake

Long long time ago I bought a small 6" baking tin telling myself that I will bake my 1st cake next week.  Well, next week did not really come till today, like about at least 2 months later.  Since I am hosting the Festive Fare blogtrain, I have wanted to bake a Christmas cake, after searching the web for some recipe I decided to give it up as most of them requires either stout, rum, beer or some kind of liquor in the recipe.  Ok, I'm still a noob, maybe they can be replaced with something or be omitted but I did not look or research further.  Better go for a simpler cake.  I chance upon a mini cake book and was really happy, I can try to make a mini cake instead a gigantic one.

Sound easy?  Not true!  The cake book asked for sponge mix; what in the world is that!  A check with a few baking friend and they have no idea, but they are staying in Australia so perhaps they do not have this over there?   Dear ol' Ange is ever so helpful, she gave me a link for sponge cake!  A trip to Phoon Huat for the necessary ingredients, I managed to get a packet of sponge mix (Hurray!)  It should be a breeze from this point on but its not!  Either there is something that I did not read correctly from the cake book or there is something the author is not writing clearly.  60g of sponge mix with 15ml of water DO NOT make a BIG cake!  I almost give up but I am determine to have a cake today!

I took a break, study the link that my friend Ange gave me on sponge cake, search the web some more and decided on a very simple sponge cake recipe by Kitchenscookshop.  By this time I was tired to the bones with all those whipping & beating of the batter, I swear my arms are bigger with muscles.

Basic Sponge Cake Recipe for 6” round or 5" square tin

• 110g / 4oz Butter or soft margarine

• 110g / 4oz Caster sugar

• 2 Eggs, lightly beaten

• 110g / 4oz Self raising flour, sifted

Cream fat and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs a little at a time, beat well after each addition.  Carefully fold in the flour. Add a little milk if necessary to create a dropping consistency (the mixture falls off the spoon when lifted above the bowl). Spoon in to the prepared tin and spread evenly.  Bake for 20 - 35min at 180Deg in the oven.

So 3 tries later, 3 cakes that did not rise up to half of my 3" tin, my cake is finally done at the 4th try!  My very first cake!  Hip-hip Hurray!!!! My wish to bake a cake for DinoPapa and DinoBoy for Christmas came true!

Its a kiwi cake with a twist, so to say, I "cheated" a bit by putting a little Santa Claus and Frosty on top of the cake with those rainbow sprinkles.  No white cream for me, its too plain, and green is the color of kiwi.  Love this cake, its so cheerful to the max!  I was suppose to place the cake on the cardboard thing (not sure what its called, lazy to google) but couldn't find the size I want in Phoon Huat.  Now its sitting on my very nice Ikea plate inside the fridge at this moment, I refuse to think how we are going to cut the cake later.

In the meantime, the sponge mix is going to be banished into the dark dark corner of the cabinet.

Ho~ Ho~ Ho~ Merry Christmas Everyone!

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We finally cut the cake later that day, DinoPapa and DinoBoy put up their thumbs after tasting it.  DinoPapa, who is not a cake lover, says that the cake is very delicious, not too sweet though the cake is a bit hard coz it was in the fridge for so long.  There wasn't much cream in the middle as I do not like too much of it in the cake, I think I should put more kiwis in the cake.  Anyway, 1st try and I receive thumbs up from my family which makes me float to 7th heaven.  2nd cake coming up soon~

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Linking up with my blogtrain

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This activity is part of an Advent Activities series where we aim to share on a daily basis the various activities we are doing as we lead into Christmas!

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Festive Fare - Gingerbread Man Cookies

I'm starting off the Festive Fare blogtrain with the traditional Gingerbread Man cookies because it is DinoBoy's favourite cookie. And what's more, DinoBoy will be doing most part of the work; reading of recipe, the measuring, part of the mixing and rolling of the dough plus the most exciting part - cutting out the cookies.  For once, I am taking a back seat, snapping photos with my camera, giving some instructions and do part of the mixing and dough rolling follow byputting them into the oven to bake.  This is the first time he is doing this thus the worried looked in one of the photo below.  We had an enjoyable time amid the mess he created.

All the required ingredients & tools

Ingredients
* 3 cups plain flour
* 120g butter, chop
* 2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
* 2 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1/2 cup brown sugar
* 1/2 cup golden syrup
* 1 egg
* 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Studying the recipe and frowning

Method
1. Preheat oven to 160 degC.
2. Combine all ingredients into a large bowl and knead till smooth.
3. Roll in between 2 baking sheets till approximately 2.5cm thick.
4. Refrigerate till chilled.
5. Bring out the chilled dough and use cookie cutters to cut out the shape.
6. Place the cut out shape on a baking paper lined tray.
7. Bake for about 10mins until slightly golden.
8. Decorate the cookie with either iciing or candies.

Getting into action!

The cookies!

Notes

- Please wait till the cookies are cooled down before decorating it with icing, otherwise the icing will melt and run.

- If you are decorating your cookies with mini M&M chocolates like us or candies, you have to do it while the cookies are still hot. Remember to push the chocolates into the cookies otherwise they will drop off easily.

- My cookies are little bit pale, according to a friend who is an avid baker, she suggests that I bake them longer, perhaps another 5mins to brown the cookies.
- If you want to save some time or its too troublesome to look for the ground clove, ginger & cinnamon, I saw in Phoon Huat they have this small bottle of powder with the label "Gingerbread Man", perhaps you can use this instead.

We have some left over dough so we made mini Christmas tree, gingerbread man, tulip and angel shaped cookies.

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Up next we have Serene who will be sharing with us her Christmas Shortbread Fingers that she bakes and gives to family & friends.  What a wonderful gift for this Christmas!

Serene is a young mum to an active 2 year old toddler. She blogs about a hodge podge of things from marriage, motherhood, parenting, family, friendships and faith to cooking, sewing and baking and everything else in between. But her underlying passion behind it all is her love for sharing her daily discoveries, exchanging stories and ideas and making new friends. You can stop by and say hello at her blog Living Serenely.

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I'm hosting the Festive Fare blogtrain from 10th to 27 December 2012 and together with another 15 mummies we will be sharing our favourite Christmassy food and dessert.   if you have any scrumptious food to share with us, quickly grab the badge below and link up with us!

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Foodie Fridays - For the love of Chocolates

Christmas is just round the corner I thought I'll share a simple & easy chocolate candy for today's Foodie Fridays post.

Now, how did chocolate come to have any connection to Christmas?  Well, we have to give credits to Queen Victoria who gives them as a gift to soldiers in the Boer War as Christmas/New Year's gift in the 1900s.

Will looked horrified. "What kind of monster could possibly hate chocolate?” ~ Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel

Yeah, who hates chocolate? Even if you are not a fan you would love to taste it now and then just coz... its chocolate and it's suppose to make you feel good after eating it.

So I tried my hands in making some chocolates.  Being ambitious and every thing, I initially wanted to do chocolate pops with different colors on it, however given the shortage of time plus the body is screaming for rest, I decided that plain chocolate will do. Then again, I think I'm doing injustice to the chocolate so I added some sprinklers I found in my fridge to make it more cheerful.

What you'll need

* 1 packet compound chocolate - I got mine from Phoon Huat

* 1 packet of white chocolate - I got mine from Phoon Huat

* some chocolate moulds - you can get them from Phoon Huat, Spotlight or Daiso

* some sprinklers for decoration - you can get it at any major supermarket

I got the packet of chocolates, how to melt them?  I googled and there are 2 ways, #1 microwave oven #2 double boiler.  The laziness in me decided to use the microwave, how difficult can it be to simply just press a few buttons on n off many times?  Very difficult!!!  Especially when when your microwave oven is in a built-in shelf higher then you and you have to tip your toes just to peep in the bowl or its at 1300 walt heat (min) *smack thyself*, that's for trying to be a smart alec and not checking with DinoPapa.  The result - a very burnt chocolate like the one below (the chocolate had solidified) and into the bin it goes.

Out came my pan, fill it with water and fire turned on.  Once water is boil I put the bowl with a new batch of chocolates into it.

Photo 1. A minute in the pan

Photo 2. About 2 - 3 mins later

Photo 3. About 5mins later, its in liquid form.  Stir continuously until it is shiny, smooth, and completely melted.

I put some colorful sprinklers into the mould before spooning the chocolates in.  After I'm done, I throw them into the freezer.

10 mins later the chocolate are set and harden, ready to be eaten!

Someone's enjoying the chocolate!

We do not celebrate Christmas or hold New Year party in our family but I love the food being served.  Thus I decided to host the Festive Fare blogtrain, gather a few mummies to share their favourite or must-have dish in a Christmas or New Year party.   Perhaps it will get me  going and start planning my own Christmas or New Year parties starting next year!

The Festive Fare will go live on 10th December 2012, starting with me and my gingerbread man cookie, follow by 1 mummy each day to share their food.  Do stay tuned to see the yummylicious food and if you have a dish you would like to share with us, remember to link up when the blogtrain is on the road.

Blogtrain schedule

10 December’12 - Jennifer with Gingerbread Men cookies

11 December’12 - Serene with Christmas Shortbread Fingers

12 December’12 - Jasmine with Coca Cola Ham

13 December’12 - Ai Sakura with Simple Cheesy Lasagne

14 December’12 - Angeline Sim with Christmasy Red Velvet Cupcakes

15 December’12 - Irene Soh with Roast Rack of Lamb

16 December’12 - Jayne Chua with Blue Cheese Creamy Mussels

17 December’12 - Veraday with Potato Gratin

18 December’12 - Donna with Mulled Wine

19 December’12 - Angeline Ng with Christmas cupcakes

20 December’12 - Cindy with Toasted Muesli

21 December’12 - Justina with Christmas bento

22 December'12 - PC with Candy Cane Biscotti

23 December'12 - Jean with Beef Pasta

24 December'12 - Jennifer with Rainbow Christmas Kiwi cake
26 December'12 - Adeline with Feast with Family

27 December'12 - Alicia with a Wholesome Homely Fare

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I am hosting a weekly Foodie Fridays linky, join me if you can, I'll be very happy to welcome you on board.

This linky is for anything that is FOOD related. It could be a restaurant you visited recently, meals you cook with your family or for your family or recipes you wish to share with every one.

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