Reflections of my life, alongside with the people I knew and the places I have been. The things I have done and still trying to do. Of stories I have heard, or known. From friends and family.
Its been a long wait. But finally, the coloured fondant from Switzerland finally arrived last weekend.
Under the brand of Bakels, the one brand I use for all my class work or even cakes I did for friends or family. Its alot more softer than Wilton's. Taste wise, its better than Wilton brand. I prefer it to be softer so its easier to roll a large piece to cover a cake.
Its packed by Bakels Switzeralnd in 1kg pack. Each costs S$22.50. Right now, I only bring in Black, Christmas Red, Sky Blue and Peach. Although they have other colours like Chocolate, White, Ivory, Yellow, Orange, Purple, I feel these colours are easily to knead and roll. While the latter seems to take forever to knead and you need lots of food colouring too.
Supplier gave me a sample pack to play with earlier..in September. And I use it to make the Teacher's Day cuppies. Here's my girl, Melody using it to make the cuppies :
I only have limited stock : 10 packs per colour. As of today, already sold 3 packs last weekend. Hurry to get yours before its gone.
Finding an excuse to bake cookies for family and baked a little extra to give to my students today. Its deliciously good. I never knew that premix biscuit mix can be as good as home made ones. Supplier gave me a sample pack 3 months ago. Since then, I have been using it to create 10 different flavours. They told me the original recipe came from Switzerland and was send to their Malaysian office for repacking, production to make the product "Halal" for muslims too.
Its no wonder the customers at KC store keeps coming back for it. Here's one recipe for you to try at home:
Green Tea Bing Cherries Cookies Recipe by Gina Choong
Yields 2 tubs of cookies Ingredients: 500g APITO Biscuit Mix 250g Butter(salted) 2 tbsp Green Tea powder(bakeable) 100g Dried Bing Cherries
Method: 1. Leave butter out to soften in room temperature 2. Add flour, green tea powder and bing cherries to mix till it forms into a dough 3. Scoop out using a cookie scoop and place on baking tray.* 4. Bake in preheated oven 180C for 12 to 15 minutes. Remove to cool before storing in air tight jars.
Note 1. You don't need to line a baking tray with parchment paper as the dough has butter. It won't stick to the tray. 2. You can use unsalted butter or even margarine for this biscuit mix. 3. Apito is the brand name. The company that produces this product is Bakels
That's the remark from one of the students when they came for a full hands-on Muffin baking class with me last Saturday.
They mix, fold and baked 3 flavours of cupcakes on their own. And they had to sample their own and their course-mates' version to give each other encouragement and review how they could improve better.
They also had to taste mine!
There was no magic in making that perfect fluffy, puffy muffin. No electric mixers or fancy equipment. Just a bowl, a wooden spatula, some measuring cups or a digital scale and a basic Convection oven!
Look at them in action..and yes, we had a Gentleman who joined us. He's awfully quiet at first. A thorn among the roses. Over time, the ladies teased him and he open up quite a bit. Overall, we all had fun. Eating muffins and sharing tips and reviews.
I taught them 3 flavours : 1 Savory which was the Cheese and Bacon Muffins, 2 sweet : Ice Cream muffins and Cranberry and Buttermilk muffins.
While waiting for the muffins to bake, we also talk about Roasting turkeys for Christmas. That's more like what I like to do for the family.Mine are all meat eaters, no bakes or pastries.
The next muffin class will probably happen in January 2010.
I am starting a series of mini cakes baking with decoration classes in December. That's next month. If you are interested, do sign up quickly. I will repeat the series every month if it proves to be popular. Or if you cannot come on the dates and still wanna learn from me, do drop me an email, I can still teach you and your friends at my place at the same published rates.
Highlights: I will be showing you how I did the wedding cakes for my friend. And about packaging
Its a special 2 day workshop : Day 1, you will learn how to bake the mini cakes, 2 flavours : Sweet Cherries Fairy Cupcakes(the one I did for the wedding) and a Special new flavour using Valrhona cocoa powder and Walnuts. You will given a set of ingredients needed to bake at home when you leave for the day.
On Day 2, you will bake the cupcakes(using the ingredients given) and bring to class. There you will learn the full aspects of moulding roses, decorating the cupcake and also how to pack and store the cupcakes for longer periods(1 week or more).
If you have any other queries, feel free to write to me at gina@kitchencapers.net
Some friends ask me why my blog was named as Taste of Time. Its actually a name of section I have when I was working and writing for Kitchen Culture's Food and Travel magazine.
I decided to adopt that name for my blog. The magazine is still in print but have been given a facelift. All the old sections have 'disappeared' and new ones have been added.
Showing here some old pages which I use to have (written, archived).
The photos of the food are real food. Which I have cooked for food styling and photography work. After the photography, we packed the meals for the photographer, Sam Yeo and for my colleague, Ms Pauline D Loh who taught me much about food styling. We ate our 'spoils'..!
Here's me with Alice (not from Wonderland, though!). Alice is a TV journalist with Taiwan TV. They came to Singapore during the Singapore Food Festival 2006 to film me on the Hakka Heritage Cooking. Seen here, I was showing how to use the Red Rice Wine lees to marinate the chicken.
The cooking demo was done at Kitchen Culture's showroom at Leng Kee Road
I promised everyone photos. So I ask my daughter, Natasha to help me to take more photos when we were setting up the cake and mini cakes at the wedding reception.
If you look at the original cake photo (yesterday's blog post entry), you will noticed that the flowers on the top tier seem to have grown more leaves..! Final touches were made this morning at 7am. I found it a bit too bare at the top. And added more leaves to surround the top.
The overall cake at the church's hall.
My sister, my aunty helped to assemble the mini cakes at 2 coffee tables. To give it more presence due to its mini size, we 'build' a pyramid with it. It was beautiful.
However, I won't be showing photos of the bride and groom. I didn't think they would want their photos on public viewing.
The long awaited(and also long winded!) post for this year. The ultimate cake I was to bake, decorated for Ru Shin. A girl I knew since she was little girl. Watching her grew up, seeing her in all our family parties we had over the years. It was such a privilege to me that the family ask if I could bake and decorated the cake for Ru Shin's wedding.
At that time, the shop wasn't opened back then, and I didn't expect the store to take up most of my days and nights and hours. So I said "Yes" without much doubt or thought.
Ru Shin was clear about what she wanted. She envisaged how the cake will look like. But she was also worried if we could pull it off. Honestly speaking, I was a bit fearful myself. Because I have never decorated any wedding cakes for anyone. Although I have taught many to do it themselves.
She would send me photos of the cakes she saw online and thought about the flowers she wanted too. She didn't want roses which was seen in every wedding cake. She wanted something different for a change. She wanted Peonies. And it has to be pink.
Photo source : no idea. Just to show me how a peony look like. Because I have never seen a peony in real life before.
She wanted the cake to be 3 tier, covered in sugarpaste that was tinted light green so that the flowers will stand out from afar. And it must only have 6 flowers. Why six flowers? Because Ru Shin family name was "Look" and that sounded like the number six in Cantonese.
I didn't have time to make the flowers myself, so I contacted my source for gum paste flowers. This lady gave me fantastic advice on how big or small the flowers should be, based on the gap between the tiered cakes.
I send her photos of how the flowers should look like..and my gum paste flower maker did this for me:
Oh, how I prayed about this project I have. I asked God only for two things and that is Wisdom and Strength. Wisdom, so that I would know what I need to do, how I should do it. Strength so that I have the energy by the end of the year and possibly the stamina to carry through with this.
Initially, I had planned that my students come by to help me. In the end, I realised many are away for their kid's exams or travelling. So I took upon this task to do it myself.
The wedding is tomorrow, 7 November 2009. But for now, here is the cake I baked, decorated for Ru Shin. More photos to come tomorrow, after the wedding.
The guests (about 400 or so) will get a slice of the cake too. Wrapped and packed into the wedding favour boxes I have prepared.
The cake is actually a very simple cake. But Ru Shin and her family insisted that it was one that made with Love..lots of it. I had to modify an existing recipe I had used for my classes to suit their family needs of less sugar, with more plump cherries and juicy at every bite.
So I modified the recipe..here it is:
Sweet Cherries Fairy Cake Recipe By Gina Choong
Ingredients 250g salted butter(soften in room temperature) 120g fine sugar 4 eggs(room temperature) 200g plain flour
1 can of Dark Sweet cherries(S&W brand) 400ml Cointreau(orange liquor)
Method 1. Drain cherries from the can. Put the cherries in a glass jar to soak with liquor. 2. Leave this jar in the fridge and covered. Soak for at least 7 days. 3. Drain from liquor and leave aside. Do not discard the liquor. You can add 7 Up or Sprite to it to drink. 4. Whip butter and sugar on high speed for 10 minutes. 5. Note that you must whip until the butter look very pale yellow. 6. Then lower the speed, add eggs one at a time 7. Continue to whip for 5 mins. 8. Add flour and continue to whip for 2 to 3 mins or until its evenly mixed. 9. Lastly add the cherries. Do not turn up the speed. Or the cherries will crush. 10. Pour batter into cake pans . 11. Baked in preheated oven 180C for 35 to 40 mins. 12. Leave to cool in the oven. Then removed. 13. Best to eat this after its aged for 1 day or 2.
Just to let you know how much ingredients I have used for this project:
60 pieces of SCS Salted Butter(250g) 4kg Fine sugar(yeah, that little!) 40 cans S&W Dark Sweet Cherries 20 packs of Prima Plain Flour 200 eggs 3 bottles of Cointreau liquor
What to do with a packet of flour that has been sitting in your pantry for months? We often get that urge to bake something. So we head down to the store, get a couple packs of flour, bake in a frenzy. Then occasionally, we have a packet of flour lying around too.
On days when I really don't feel like baking, the flour can sit in the baking cabinet for weeks. Rather than to waste it, I would just use the whole pack to make vegetarian gluten. At least that can last longer, in frozen state and I can use it later to create other vegetarian dishes.
Here's how to use the packet of flour in your kitchen:
Vegetarian Gluten Recipe taken from The Chinese Kitchen(cookbook)
This is Raw Gluten. The texture is very soft and has a rubbery feel. But does not stick to your hands or the plate.
Makes 300g of gluten Ingredients 1 kg plain flour 2 tsp salt 600ml warm water
Method 1. Sift flour in a mixing bowl. 2. Add salt and water to form into a dough. 3. Knead until smooth and cover with a damp cloth and leave to stand for 1 hour. 4. Place dough in a large sieve. Run cold water over it while you press and squeeze the dough with your hands to wash out as much as starch. 5. Do this till the dough reduces to half its size. At this stage, the gluten dough is formed. You can use it for various recipes.
Storage for later use Keep in a plastic container and cover it. Store in the fridge for upto 10 days.
More water will be secreted over time..just throw away the water
Here's what I have used it to make..enjoy!
Vegetarian Fish Maw Recipe by Gina Choong
Ingredients 100g vegetarian gluten 1 tsp fine salt oil for deep frying
Method 1. Cut gluten into thin slices. and sprinkle salt on both sides
2. Heat up the wok with oil and drop in each slice to fry till golden brown.
3. Drain excess oil and use per recipe.
Notes Vegetarian Fish Maw can be use for cooking with steamboat or with soup. Uneaten ones must be kept in air tight containers. It goes soft very fast. To make it crispy, just toast in preheated oven 200C for 5 mins.
You can eat it on its own by dipping it straight into chilli sauce or mayo
A sad story? Watching a sad movie? Sending a close friend or relative off and won't be seeing them for quite awhile? Being fearful? Being hurt? I guess there are so many ways to make a person cry.
For me, its photographs of past. Of memories of someone or something cherished. Today, uncle Bill send me an email. And told me about family portraits they have taken and it was hosted on the photographer's website. He said "quick, go and see. Because we do not know how long the photos will be hosted online..."
Visit this website to see all the photos..click FEATURED(at the top) and scroll down to view YEOS. http://www.frozenreflections.com/index2.php
And so I did..and in the glimpse of the photos, I saw a collection of memories past. As if it was telling a story of moments we had in the past. Of the tears and the joys of life itself. Unfolding right in front of me. I saw Uncle, Auntie who loved me as if I was their child. Uncle Bill is my mom's elder brother. The big boy in the family of Yeo's. They now lived in Vancouver, Canada and has been living there since my marriage in 1988.
They would visit us once in a bluemoon. But these days, uncle is getting too old for long trips. Health is not on his side. My greatest wish was to be able to fly to Canada and spend time with them.
I remembered some years back, they visited Singapore and stayed a day with me. At that time Natasha was barely 4 years old. Uncle, Auntie and I sat in the room, talk for hours and we started crying! Natasha asked me did Uncle and Auntie scolded me? I told her "no, we talk about the past. of my days as a child, and how they loved me and took care of me."
Now looking back to old photos I had kept, there is only one photo which shows me combing uncle's hair and he was trying to lift me up to sit on his lap so I can reach his hair better..
And that was uncle, forever loving, forever forgiving. Like a father who loves his little one, he loves me! Every Sunday, I spent all my Sundays with him and Auntie. From my tender years as a baby till I was a teenager. I would spend all my school holidays with him too.
He and auntie was my Sunday parents. Before Church starts, he would drive us to a Hainanese kopi tiam(coffee shop at Joo Chiat Road) and would get me a pack of Magnolia Fresh Milk and a yummy cream puff for breakfast. After church, he would drive us for lunch. Then off to his home at Bartley Road. I would stay there till after dinner and my dad would come by to pick me up and go home.
During the school holidays he would fetch me to the Singapore Swimming Club at Tanjong Rhu area. Where he had membership. He would show me how to tread water, and allowed me to play for hours on end. When I was very young, I remember Auntie bathing only me, not even John, her only son who was younger than me. This is how much a person can love another!
One photo in the photo gallery at Frozen Reflections that speaks out to me was this. I had to do a screen shot to show this.
Seeing them in their autumn years now captured only in photography. If only, I could be there with them, growing old with them dailly. If only....
Here is a song called the Circle Game by Joni Mitchell, sang by Steven Curtis Chapman. And the lyrics for the song is also very touching. At least to me.
The Circle Game By Joni Mitchell
Yesterday, a child came out to wander Caught a dragonfly inside a jar Fearful when the sky was full of thunder And tearful at the falling of a star
And the seasons they go 'round and 'round And the painted ponies go up and down We're captive on the carousel of time We can't return we can only look behind From where we came And go round and round and round In the circle game
Then, the child moved ten times 'round the seasons Skated over ten clear frozen streams Words like, "When you're older", must appease him And promises of someday make his dreams
Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now Cartwheels turn to car wheels through the town And they tell him, "Take your time. It won't be long now. 'Til you drag your feet to slow the circles down"
And the seasons they go 'round and 'round And the painted ponies go up and down We're captive on the carousel of time We can't return we can only look behind From where we came And go round and round and round In the circle game
So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true There'll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty Before the last revolving year is through.
And the seasons they go 'round and 'round And the painted ponies go up and down We're captive on the carousel of time We can't return, we can only look behind From where we came And go round and 'round and 'round In the circle game And go 'round and 'round and 'round in the circle game.
