Teach me to fish

Today many local schools in Singapore have a mini celebration for Teacher's Day. At the store yesterday, we had pretty good sales of all things gift packs wise and baking ingredients too.

Melody warned me ahead of time what she wanted to do for her teachers. At first it was Cookies..then I managed to change her thoughts to having cupcakes and fondant. As I don't have the time to whip up icing and pipe it out. I find royal icing more wasteful as we are not doing alot.

So I baked 30 Chocolate Cupcakes on Saturday night after returning from the store. Left it to cool overnight. The next day, I had to wake her up to do the decoration. And found some cuppies missing from the tray!

Luckily, she only needed 6 for school. So the leftovers were brought to the store for sale. In case there are customers who are busy and just wanted to get something nice for their kid's teachers too.

These are what we did together..great bonding time as I missed out many days bonding with Melody since I open shop.

These went to the store for sale


For S$1.00 each. Please don't ask me to do this. I am just doing this for fun only. If you want a full order, I will give you my friend's contact for cuppies.

Melody's cuppies which she made herself. Which she holds all the pride for:



Melody is all cheerful early in the morning to do this..in good spirit, I'll say




Close up for some of the cuppies we did

Remembering Raya

Some years back, when hubby took the girls out for jogging, they came home with a kitten. Knowing that I am allergic to cat's fur, my hubby said I should just feed it and then let him go. Because it meowed and meowed non stop and seem to be sick. He cannot seem to see where he is going and knocking into walls and shoe cases which our neighbours had in their front yards.

My hubby also feared that the kitten may walk into the neighbour's flat which had big dogs in there.

So I took a look and check it out. Then I found this poor kitten...that was abused. My heart just broke in several places that day.



He is blind..! But I can that he wasn't born blind. There was blood stains in the empty eye socket and it look like he was abused and somehow someone dug out his eye????




His tiny tail also had rubber bands tied around it. Natasha and Melody calmed him down while painstakingly removed one by one. It was swollen and bruised..so I had it cleaned with antisepic Dettol and water..and applied some cream to let it healed.

My girls said maybe he had wandered away from his mommy and hurt himself in the eye. I told them that a Mother Cat will teach her young kittens to stay away from humans and other strange animals that are not their kind. If a kitten is extremely friendly to any human, it means that he grew up knowing humans are his family members.

But though he didn't feared us, he hissed and run away from sweet old Beauty, our old Sheltie..the Matriach in the house! But Beauty is gentle and sweet. She mothered him as if he was her little one. Slowly and surely, he warmed up to her love.

We named him Raya because he was found on Hari Raya Puasa in the year 2004. I couldn't keep him for long and SPCA was closed during the Hari Raya holidays. 3 days later, we rang up SPCA to pick him up.

It was to me, the BIGGEST mistake I have made on saving animals. Soon after he was picked up, Natasha's friend managed to get her parents to say YES to adopting RAYA. The next day, the family drove to SPCA, all ready to adopt Raya. But found out that they have already put him to sleep!!!

Why?

The answer was "He was sick. And had some feline virus and we do not want him to spread the illness to the other cats here"

I thought they had an area for quarantine??

Our girls cried bitterly when they found out. We should have kept Raya with us just for another day and give to anyone who wants him.



Thankfully, we had keep beautiful photos of Raya during his last 3 days with us and Beauty. We wished that he rest in peace, away from pain and suffering in his short life on earth.

From that day onwards, we learn that if we wanna help anyone or any creature, we must see it through the process and make sure all is well.

So this post is for Raya..remembering him

Count your blessings

Suddenly rush of peace that filled me this morning when I sat down to pray. A post to God, for God and to glorify His name! AMEN!



Count your blessings..have you?

Thank you Lord for :

1. Keeping our family together despite having to work days and nights at the store.
2. Keeping the girls safe in school, out on the streets/roads
3. Keeping Benny healthy and safe when he drives in his car
4. Keeping my mom in the pink of health since the last major surgery that almost took her life.
5. Bringing people into our lives to bless us in all ways.
6. Bringing rain on warm days and sun on wet days.
7. Blessing my cousins who are staying in faraway lands away from the family.
8. Teaching us each day to learn to lean on you for everything
9. Healing my student who recently went under the knife. Thank God, she was healed!
10. Blessing my dear friend Vivien and her family while they travelled from USA to Singapore to Malaysia and off to Japan.
11. Thank you for giving me good friends who would listen to my whining sometimes
12. Teaching me to let go when Beauty passed away after a short illness.
13. Blessing my niece with abundance in life.
14. For keeping good health for my dear sweet mother-in-law who is now 87 years old.
15. For giving Dad a good eyesight and good health.
16. For growing my plants for me when I have less time to watch it.
17. For giving me a new dog, Jing Jing to help me cope with Beauty's passing
18. For saving my life in my last surgery
19. For giving us the confidence and assurance to start a new biz in this bad economy
20. For family who kept by us, stood by us
21. For healing Uncle Daniel and removing the lump in his neck.
22. Keeping my aunts and uncles who are in Canada, USA and Hong Kong safe and healthy
23. For teaching Melody to dwell on all things Godly and filled her with peace as she goes through exams and puberty
24. For loving us and forgiving our mistakes.
25. For sending Jesus to save us for eternity!!!

Pai Pau revisited

Fellow blogger, Florence recently baked some pai pau. When I chanced upon it, I remembered the craze it created at my KC forum some years back when a forum member shared her recipe on Pai Pau. Soon after, many members tried it. But as usual, I am not easily contented with the basics. So I use the pai pau based recipe and recreated a newer version of bread. This is what I did.

Note that I didn't make this yesterday!! This was an old archived post I had in my forum. Thought of just sharing on my blog for a memory post. yums!

Just out of the oven




Ingredients
2.5 tsps dry yeast
375g bread flour
100g sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 Tbps butter, melted
125ml of fresh Tomato juice(use 3-4 ripe red tomatoes)
a pinch of Saffron Herbs
egg wash: 1 egg, lightly beaten
white sesame seeds, optional

Method
1. Place all the wet ingredients in the bake pan(juice, eggs, butter)
2. Follow by the dry ingredients(sugar, flour, yeast, herbs)
3. Press DOUGH function for the Breadmaker machine.
4. When its done, remove from the bake pan.
5. For the circular shape rolls, this is how I did it:




arrange in a square tin. I use a disposal tin for this.


7. Leave it to proof till double in size(about 30 mins to 45 mins)
8. After 2nd proofing, brush top with egg wash and sprinkle sesame seeds on top


9. Bake in preheated oven 170C for 20 mins
10. Remove from oven to cool outside.

That doggie in the window

Everyone who knows me offline and online, knows I am a dog lover. But since I had a retail shop that opens to the public, I had to restrict people with pets coming into the store. However, if you are shopping in my store and your pet is in a crate or pooch bag or in your arms, you can come in and shop. As long as your pet do not have a free run in the shop or even on a leash.

So a light hearted song by Doris Day "How much is that Doggie in the window" is something you won't see in my shop. Well, anything close to it will be just a cookie cutter.



Here's the latest pictorial view of the shop.

I love Cheesecakes

Cheese cakes are the only cakes I would indulge in and eat many slices. Yesterday I wanted to try a new recipe. Using the Jupe Yuzu concentrated paste I am selling in my store. It was heavenly... A hint of Yuzu, and large chunks of Mandarin oranges in it. I have added Yuzu paste and a can of S&W Mandarin Oranges for that bite.

In case you are wondering what in the world is Yuzu, its basically a citrus fruit grown in Japan. Looks very much like oranges but is yellow in colour.

Now its available in a concentrated liquid paste without preservatives or additives. You can get that at my KC store now.

Here's the cake I did yesterday..





Yuzu Cheesecake
Recipe by Gina Choong

Ingredients
500g Philly Cream cheese
150g Lite Sour Cream
120g fine sugar
2 eggs
3 tbsp Yuzu paste
1 can of S&W Mandarin oranges minus the syrup

Method
1. Whip cream cheese, sour cream and sugar till smooth and silky.
2. Add yuzu paste, eggs and continue to whip till evenly mixed.
3. Lastly add oranges to fold in gently.
4. Pour contents into a springfoam pan(I use a 8 inch pan)
5. Bake in preheated oven 180C for 50 mins.
6. Remove to cool outside for another 10 mins.
7. Put the whole pan into the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours or more.
8. Remove cake from the pan and sliced with a warmed knife.

Notes
To get a perfect cut on every slice, dip the knife in hot water, wipe it with a dry cloth.
Cheese cakes tend to be creamy soft and will stick to the knife.

This cake looks and tastes like the NYDC New York Cheesecake except that its flavoured..yums!

And if you drop by the store at Kallang Bahru, you can get the printed copy of this recipe. All the ingredients are available at the KC store.

LIVE Baking Demo

Actually, this is something that I have been doing for the past 3 months since I open the shop at Kallang Bahru. I do this every 2 weeks or so or when I don't have any classes at home.

Last weekend was National Day and I did a LIVE baking demo on Muffins. The day after, I did cookies. So I thought I might as well blog about it too.

Here's what I will be showing, demonstrating..I haven't think of a name to call these pies. But I also wanted to make this a treat for our muslim community to use halal ingredients so they can whip this up really quick for their break fast meals.

So far, I think it will be called "Mini Egg n Tuna Pots". Here's how it looks like.

My mom had a couple of these which I did yesterday for photo taking. She said it was good. My hubby ate all and leaving me with only one.

The demo will be conducted at my store. Details:



Details about how to get to the store:



My store opens out to the food court. The buses stop directly outside Block 71. Its a prominent landmark because Block 71 has the banner of NTUC Fairprice on the rooftop of the building.




The Demo is free. Opens to all. Recipes will be given out during the baking demo. You will get to sample potted pies. So mark your calendars and make a trip down to Kallang Bahru next Sunday afternoon.

See you then!

A Friend in Need

Fellow blogger and friend Jane recently told me that she is baking cookies for sale, all in the name of charity. She asked if I could allow people to come by my Kitchen Capers Retail store to pick up the cookies. Of course I said YES!

Read her blog entry to find out the full story.

http://passionbaker.blogspot.com/2009/08/in-aid-of-friend.html

To make this worthwhile for the kind donor, KC aka me decided to throw in some freebies too.

To all who purchase a box of cookies from Jane and collect at KC Store, you will given 1 recipe card. If you buy 2 boxes, you will get 2 recipe cards(different recipes). If you buy 3 boxes or more, you will be given a S$10 Training Voucher which you can use when you sign up for any classes conducted by me.

Here's the link to visit Kitchen Capers Retail store
http://www.kitchencapers.net/shopstore/KCRetailStore.htm

Here's how the recipe cards look like. Its printed on quality photo card (4x6 inches) by Ao Mori Silicone ware and copyrighted to Kitchen Capers.



Please email to Jane at aloyallyanders@gmail.com for orders.

On behalf of Cally and Alan, Jane and I would like to take this opportunity to thank EVERYONE who supported this cause.

God Bless you and all at home.

Edible Art

I really had fun doing this. Finding the right mix of colours and the right combination for it. We(the clan at home) all agreed that this was so much prettier than the chinese painting. Maybe because it has more colours.

Here's what I did yesterday. Hmmm...maybe I should re-paint the Chinese template again.

Distraction

Construction going on and on and on..outside my apartment. They are fixing up new pavements, drains and walkways. Everyday, the cars parked nearby are covered in dust and dirt. So are our flats. And I am coughing due to the dust..



So to distract myself from the noise..I decided to do this. Thankfully, Natasha didn't had to go school today. So she help me to take photos of me in stages painting this on fondant. I wanted to take this to show my students who came on Sunday to learn to paint roses on fondant. To inspire them..










Finally, rewarded with this:



The full picture. I am going to leave it to dry till bone-hard. Then framed it up and leave it in the store.


Well, I didn't passed my O level Arts paper for nothing. If only my Ah Gong is still alive...I would do this for his birthday and wished him many more wonderful years with us.