Counting down the days

I had some sleepless nights. And some wakeful mornings when I woke up, wanna do much but can't. Just had too much to think about ahead. Counting down the days I had to plan and stock up for Ru-Shin's big day on November 6.. She has ask if I could decorate the wedding cake with pink peonies. She would get someone to bake the cake.

It was such an honour. So I said yes without much thought. Its when her mom visited me at home, I realised I had to bake the cake too! Because Aunty wouldn't have time to bake the cake, fuss about the guest lists, worry about the perfect gown she has to get people to sew and stitch for her daughter.

And so I told Aunty that I would bake the cake too. And decorate it. To make they like what I was to do, I bake the cake for them to try. They loved it. And Aunty ask me for the secret recipe which I gladly gave it to her.

It was a Vanilla Fairy Cake laced with Cointreau soaked Dark Sweet Cherries. Here is the photo of the cake.


I know I won't have time to make pink peonies so I had email a lady who lives in Surabaya, Indonesia to help me with it. I asked her to make 18 flowers for me. Although I only needed 6. Just in case, I thought. The picture on the left is what Ru-shin wanted. The picture on the right is what the sugar artist did for me. Can you tell them apart? I can't! She is so good with her hands. I'm impressed.



Over the period of days and months when I teach fondant modelling and baking, I have ask my students if they would like to join me to bake and pack the cakes for the wedding. A few have replied saying they would love to join me. As I would teach them for free, how to bake the cake, assemble it, packed it and also molded the 3 tier wedding cake.

Aunty ask for 500 mini fairy cakes to be individually packed into a Gold Wedding favor box. The main wedding cake was to be 3 tier, rounded. And I was left to inspire them on how I could place 6 pink peonies on the entire cake.

Why six(6) ? Because Ru-shin says 6 in Cantonese sounds like "Look" which is her family name.

I have already stock up the Wedding Favor Boxes. And the bride and groom stickers are already on the plane from Guangzhou to Singapore.




Hubby dearest told me to inspire me on this big project:

"Think of it as good practice. When our girls' time are up to get hitched, you will know what to do."

And I said to him:

"When its time for them to get married, they would want to do their own things. Remember how we didn't want your mom to do those Teochew piah for our wedding?"

:)

God Bless all Mothers! Who lovingly cared for us all the days of our lives. And now as a mother myself, I think at this stage, this is one time I really had to let them go!

In Him I surrender all...

I Surrender All
Written by Judson W. Van DeVenter, 1896

All to Jesus I surrender;
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.

Refrain:
I surrender all,
I surrender all;
All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.

All to Jesus I surrender;
Humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken;
Take me, Jesus, take me now.
All to Jesus I surrender;

Make me, Savior, wholly Thine;
Let me feel the Holy Spirit,
Truly know that Thou art mine.
All to Jesus I surrender;

Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power;
Let Thy blessing fall on me.
All to Jesus I surrender;

Now I feel the sacred flame.
Oh, the joy of full salvation!
Glory, glory, to His Name!


Yesterday, I had a fondant modelling class at home. When its time to pack up and go, one student stayed back to help me pack up...and then suddenly I felt the Holy Spirit speaking to me reminding me of the days I had in Sunday School some donkey years ago. When I also had a student who would stayed back after each bible study class to help me to clean up. And its often that this student have much to share with me and needed a friend she could confide to.

I heeded His prompting...and true enough, the student told me she didn't want to come for class today because she had to go for surgery next week. She wanted to stay at home and rest. But her hubby ask her to let go of her fears about the surgery and to come for class so she can be more relaxed.

It was then she told me what the surgery was about...a cyst had formed in her right ovary and may be the cause of infertility for her. She was in tears and I started to share with her all my past surgeries, my 'twins' too. And yes, I also had a cyst plus a huge fibroid in my right ovary. But I learn over time to lean on God for everything.

So in faith, I trust that God will put things right for me. And He did. I didn't go for surgery, but I surrender all my pains, my fears and my tears to Him. And He healed me. That was in 2007. The 'twins' caused me much pain, Haemorrhaging that was very bad. I was bedridden for days at home. Wearing adult diapers not for uncontrollable urine but ever flowing blood.

I still keep one set of adult diaper in my cabinet.. A grim reminder of all that and a reminder too for me to know how BLESSED I was that I surrender everything to God.

Simple as that! AMEN!

So today I will spend a day of prayer for my student when she goes under the knife next Tuesday, 4 August 2009. So pray with me, for her too. That God will give her peace and the surgery be a success.

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