Memories are made of this

As Dean Martin would sing it, these are really memories for a young couple as they take their vows tomorrow in front of family and friends for a lifetime together.


Memories are made of this
Dean Martin

Sweet, sweet memories you gave-a me
you can't beat the memeories you gave-a me

Take one fresh and tender kiss
Add one stolen night of bliss
One girl, one boy
Some grief, some joy
Memories are made of this

Don't forget a small moonbeam
Fold in lightly with a dream
Your lips and mine
Two sips of wine
Memories are made of this

Then add the wedding bells
One house where lovers dwell
Three little kids for flavor
Stir carefully through the days
See how the flavor stays
These are the dreams you will savor

With His blessings from above
Serve it generously with love
One man, one wife
One love through life
Memories are made of this
Memories are made of this

++++++++++
Olivia rang me and ask if I could teach her to decorate a wedding cake in fondant. I found out later it was for her own wedding. Not for a friend or a relative. I was really skeptical that we could pull this off..imagine the bride would bake the cake herself, and decorate it and still had to do makeup and dress up for her wedding.

And the cake has to be her late mom's special fruit cake. Not any cake I have in my stash of recipes to use for wedding cakes.

I am a sucker for sob stories. Unfortunately so. The story behind the cake was really heartwarming. Her mom was to bake it for her wedding. But unfortunately, she passed away suddenly. Olivia wanted so much to share her late mom's favourite cake with all her friends and her hubby's family.

So I relented on my end and promised to help her in the process. My private lessons with her ended yesterday. Where she and her hubby came and did the cake together. I took photos of them in the process of dolling up the cake and the little disagreements they had along the way. Like any couple, they started a bit of arguing..then I had to break the air of discontentment and told them how I had my wedding done years ago.




Along the way, there were tears. Tears of fear that the cake wouldn't hold up because the weather wasn't too agreeing. It rained cats and dogs and fondant cannot take rainy days. I had to tell them to leave it to God. Everything will be perfect in the end.

Showing here of Ryan and Olivia piecing the cake together.

Olivia making final touches on the side of the cake.








Ryan putting the blue dragees along the border


Finally, the cake was completed at 6:30pm last evening. Olivia was in tears again..but now not in fear but in joy. We took a group photo together using Ryan's camera. So I have to wait till the images come from them.






Olivia and Ryan
May you both have a beautiful wedding and the Lord bless you and you with a lifetime of happiness and joy.

Love
Gina

Golden Harvest

Or should I say Golden goodness MINUS the sugar! I wanted to try using the Jupe Yuzu concentrated fruit paste to bake a cake. After telling everyone its great for making ice cream, fresh cream and what noughts!

I reduced the sugar by as much as half and a little more. The cake was surprisingly still sweet, light and refreshing in taste and flavour.

A die die must try (at least once!) recipe

Yuzu Fruit Cake
Recipe By Gina Choong



Ingredients:
250 g butter (salted)
4 eggs
100g fine sugar
220g Top flour
3 tbsp Yuzu concentrated paste
100g dried citrus fruit(orange)

Method:
1. Beat butter with sugar till light and creamy. About 10 mins.
2. Add eggs, one at a time to beat till well combined. Add yuzu paste to mix.
3. Add flour and whip in 1 minute.
4. Finally add citrus fruits and whip for 1 minute till well mixed.
5. Pour into baking pan.
6. Bake in preheated oven 180C for 30 mins.
7. Remove to cool completely before slicing.

Revisiting Old Charms

Fellow blogger Honey Bee Sweets ask me for this recipe of the teochew Soon kueh. So here it is, not just for her but for all who might be interested.

My dear mother-in-law taught me how to make this years ago. She measured every ingredient by 'gut feel'. Just pour, just grab! To my dismay, nothing was actually measured to the last gram or dash. I had to re-do and re-test it a few times before I figured out what or how much which ingredient was more or less or the ratio of flour to water.

After 6 months of struggling, I finally did it!

Showing you too..the photos of Ah Mak(whom we affectionately address her) making soon kueh. Hers were in the shapes of UFOs..I cheated and did the hawker style which was half moon shape.









Her original UFOs shaped



My half moons shaped, pan fried the next day till crispy, drizzled with sweet sauce.



A family tradition that must be handed down...getting my younger girl, Melody to make some too:






Our little girl Melody's soon kueh. Making her granny very proud of her



TEOCHEW SOON KUEH
Recipe by Gina Choong

Makes 24 pieces
Ingredients
500g turnip, skinned, shredded
100g dried shrimps, soaked in water to soften
5 pcs dried black fungus, soaked in water to soften, shred
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar

300g Rice Flour
80g Tapioca Flour
450ml boiling hot water
1 tbsp corn oil
1 tsp salt

Method:

1. In a wok, add 2 tbsp of corn oil to heat. Add dried shrimps to fry till fragrant. Then add black fungus and turnip and stir fry for 5 minutes over high heat.
2. Lastly, add light soya sauce, sesame oil, sugar to mix. Remove and leave it aside to cool completely.
3. In a mixing bowl, add sifted rice flour and tapioca flour, salt and hot water. Stir quickly and it should look lumpy. Add corn oil to mix. Cover the bowl and leave it aside for 15 minutes.
4. Remove and knead into a smooth dough. Divide the dough into 24 portions.
5. Flatten each ball, add a tablespoon of cooked turnip in the centre of the flatten dough.
6. Seal by picking up the sides. Brush with corn oil before steaming.
7. Steam in a steamer over high heat for 10 minutes. Serve hot with sweet sauce or chilli sauce.

Enjoy!!

Bowling Good Time!

I had a student for a private lesson with me yesterday. She wanted to bake a cake and decorated it with fondant. The theme is Bowling. She already had in mind what she wanted to do and achieved by the end of the lesson.

I taught her 3 recipes for cakes. All good for use with fondant. The one she covered with fondant was my famous Nutella Chocolate cake recipe. The other two was a new recipe called the Yuzu Fruit Cake and a Raisins Cupcake which uses fresh orange juice to make.

These are what we did yesterday..

Photos showing the cake. In the background you see all the white bowling pins..she made it herself. The cake was covered with Chocolate fondant that was tinted a bit off dark brown with white fondant. The taste and fragrance of the chocolate fondant was still evident.

She also learn how to do 'marbling' effects in fondant modelling. She said her friend had a bowling ball that was black and pink marbling colours. So we created the look alike in the ball too.



The wooden panelling was done with marbling effects too.




These were done at my place..then she had to bring it home and finished up with the rest of the decorations. I also taught her how to make shoes, boots, etc. So she could do a pair on her own to put on the cake.

These 2 photos were emailed to me yesterday. I am VERY SUPER Impressed! She has never work on Fondant before. It was her first try yesterday. And the whole cake was very impressive. I think her friend will either faint or kiss her silly!

By the light of the silvery moon

I loved the movie..no wait, I loved that old song that it had by Doris Day.

By the light of the silvery moon


This is by far the only thing I like about 'moonies'..the song..not the 'cake' though. I still find it too sweet for my liking. But customers have been asking me to run a demo on moon cake making. At least a simple one like snow skin mooncakes. And also to show them how to use the various moulds we have in store.

So make a date on your calendar, this Sunday from 2pm to 3pm. Come down and watch a live demonstration by my friend, Amy Ou of Chef Secret's Cooking Studio on how to make these delightful little 'moonies'. She will be baked some traditional mooncakes for sampling.



Find out more at our website about Amy Ou.

Ice Cream Demo

What to do on a hot hot afternoon? Make ice cream, of course!

I will be showing everyone how to make ice cream this Sunday at my store.
2 flavours, without eggs and using Konnyaku jelly powder as the binding ingredient.
Chocolate Overload Ice Cream and Mango Ice cream.


6 September 2009 Sunday
From 2pm to 3pm



You will get to sample both types of ice cream. And also to bring home a sample box to freeze at home.

Its something new I have discovered while trying to make ice cream without an ice cream maker and without the use of eggs. After days of freezing, the ice cream was still soft and creamy. So far, I have made a strawberry ice cream using Hershey's Strawberry syrup and have been feeding my students with it. They love the creaminess.

Come down and watch how its done.

Here's the map to my store: