Finding time

Surprisingly, I still find time to do some baking. Basically, it was to kill 2 birds with the same stone. To bake to try out an ingredient I am selling in the shop, and also to add more recipes to my current trove at the forum. Come to think of it, its more like kill 3 to 4 birds with the same stone! Because the bakes are often sampled by customers at the store to encourage them to pick up simple baking. So much so that a lady told my hubby that she bought a Baby Belling oven just to satisfy her own curiousity that baking is as easy as Gina said it was!

Every week, I will print 4 to 5 recipe notes for free distribution at the store. And will find time to bake 1 to 2 new recipes so that people can try it. I took great pains to reduce sugar, minus leavening agents or essences and use all natural products. And I offered free advice to anyone who comes to my store and ask me about the recipes I have created.

I had a mother who came and ask me for help, to tuition her daughter who is in Secondary Four, doing a project on Cookie baking. Although she said she will pay me, I felt honoured that she felt I could help her daughter, so I did it for free. Giving her 2 to 3 short lessons on baking.

Then occasionally, I had people coming in with a cookbook or a piece of paper which they ripped off from a magazine. Usually its a recipe with a very delicious looking photo. And I will help them to go thru each ingredient, find it and briefly tell them how to go about baking it.

Here's the Chocolate Curls Chocolate Log Cake I did last weekend. Sorry if the photo is very blur. But the reviews were very good. Everyone ask for the recipe.




Chocolate Curls Log Cake
Recipe by Gina Choong

Ingredients
220g butter(unsalted), soften
100g Light brown sugar
2 eggs
200g Cake flour
100g Mini Dark Chocolate curls
50ml Evaporated milk

Method
1. Beat butter with sugar till creamy light. Add eggs, one at a time till well mixed.
2. Add milk to whip. Add flour and chocolate curls and fold in.
3. Pour into loaf tin.
4. Bake in preheated oven 180C for 30 mins. Leave to cool inside the oven for 30 minutes.
5. Slice when its completely cooled.

Goes great with weak tea.

just a mouthful of...

A day of cold cold ice cream for a super hot and melting day yesterday. I had an ice cream class yesterday. I taught my students to make

Blueberry ice cream, Green Tea ice cream, Coconut ice cream and Chocolate overload ice cream.

I had to force them to take home every flavour and leaving me with only the coconut ice cream. But they also left me with half of the share of Chocolate Overload ice cream.

This is one ice cream that I cannot take too much. Because I was allergic to chocolates. Its called Overload because I used 3 types of chocolates to make the ice cream. Bitter sweet chocolate curls by Callebut, Dark Chocolate shavings by Callebut too and also Valrhona cocoa powder.


Coconut ice cream, to me, was something refreshing for a change. Using coconut cream, heavy cream and whipping cream. The coconut cream overpowers the flavour of milk and cream. Leaving it a much desired ice cream to taste. I have also added toasted dessicated coconut and had some palm fruit on top.

I'll be packing this off to my mother-in-law. I think she will like this ice cream.

Give me a Fish

The old proverb that goes like this :

Give me a fish and I eat for a day. But TEACH me to fish and I will eat for a life time.

I usually don't take orders to make or mould fondant roses. These puny little roses of pink and blue were made for a customer who came to my store last week. She wanted to buy ready made icing roses. She has gone to other shops and all had flowers too big for the cupcakes she has to decorate.

She ask if I could mould it for her and she is willing to pay me for it.

I said YES but only have one condition. That she was to have a lesson with me to learn how to do this on her own.

So here it is..

Her 'fishes' for the day... Each rose is 1.5cm in diameter and each one made the same size too. I managed to squeeze in time after work each day and made these 2 nights ago.



And for her to learn "fishing" from me, that will be on 19th June 2009

A slice of brownie and a cup of kindness

Yesterday, my good friend, Chef Benny Seteo went to the Food centre next to our store for lunch. As he looked up, he saw Kitchen Capers. He thought that sounded really familiar. After lunch, he just went into the store and ask for "Gina Choong". I heard his voice from my office, and I recognized it so well..

When I saw him, I immediately felt that God has blessed me today. I rush up and held his hands and we talk for a fair bit and like 2 old friends who had a chance meeting to talk of old times and happy days ahead.

And Chef Seteo told me that he recently had surgery done, he lift up his shirt to show me a tube running into his stomach and out to a bag to collect 'waste'. His gall bladder had ruptured and the emergency operation was carried out to clean up the mess internally. He was scheduled to return to the hospital next week to remove the gall bladder.

As if touched by God, I knew he needed me to pray for him and to let him know that he is loved and watched over. I held his hand in mine and suddenly he ask me this :
Gina, do you remember what you used to tell me some years ago?

I told him I said many things to him and I won't know which was important for him to remember it so well.

So he said :

"I will always be here for you. Whenever you need me, I will be your friend in need and indeed."

He also told me the recipe I gave him for his restaurant is now a killer recipe. His customers loved it and would order in trays instead of slices. And every time when he serves Brownies, he is reminded of our special friendship. When customers ask him about the special ingredient in his brownie, he would often say

"My best friend, Gina Choong gave her kindness to me. That's the secret ingredient. She gives me this brownie recipe and its the best."



If you are in Singapore, do visit Chef Benny Seteo restaurants.

Here is the website to find out more.

http://eighteenchefs.com/index.html

Tapestry

I used to be crazy over Carole King's Tapestry music when I was in my teens. I don't know why. But I do know I loved to listen to her sing.



And when she teamed up with Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan & Shania Twain and did this song, titled "You've Got A Friend"; I knew I had to rush out to get her CD for it. Now they had it all on Youtube.


Now, years later, older and probably wiser *I hope*, its her voice I long to hear. Its rare these days to hear anyone sing from their lungs anymore. Every new age singer is singing out from their throats. :(

I missed old songs. I really do. So you will probably see me tuning to FM90.5 on Singapore waves where they had old tunes from past. My girls grew up listening to the songs I listened to. Natasha went into Choir in high school and loved to watch Musicals where the singers sung from their lungs. Its beautiful to hear the inner voice she used to say.

One of my all time favourite musical was "Sunrise Sunset" in the musical "Fiddler on the Roof". I realised that my dad had the same tastes too. More like a chip of the old block, and passing it down to my girls.




I hope my girls will pass this on to theirs and theirs too...

Enjoy the music!

A Box of Chocolates

Hubby missed out a wedding banquet he had to attend so that he could help me out at the store. So he ask me to make a box of chocolates for the happy wedded couple as they are friends in the church we worshipped at. Seems like I couldn't run away from this one.

This is what I made last night before bedtime. He chose the pretty box from our store. I chose the nice turqoise and gold foil for the chocolates and matching it with glassine brown paper cups.

The chocolates are made with white compound chocolate which had Valrhona crunchy pearls chocolates in it. I also added a hint of Jupe Japanese Royal Tea paste in it. Smells deliciously sinful.

Here's to many more wedded bliss for the young couple..!