Finally, found out how to add "Friends" Blogs..hehe... Dum dum me - just need to edit the links in the template. Sorry guys took so long.
posted by Gloria @ 11:51 AM
4 comments
Sor Tofu
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Links to Friends
Finally, found out how to add "Friends" Blogs..hehe... Dum dum me - just need to edit the links in the template. Sorry guys took so long.
Finally, found out how to add "Friends" Blogs..hehe... Dum dum me - just need to edit the links in the template. Sorry guys took so long.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Better Times at the Kitchen...
The previous two posts probably gave me a bad reputation around the kitchen but it’s *REEALLYY* not as bad! I did/do have successes around the kitchen but the bad ones seem to take away 10 times the merits hehehe…
Some cakes I’ve baked include:
- cheese cakes
- marble cake -Keith commented that it looked like a COW (>_<) - sponge cakes, orange chiffon cake, pound cakes, maple walnut cake, pecan cake, fruit cake (turned out a bit too dense), black forest cake (the cake was too hard), cupcakes, etc. etc.
Black Forest Cake
Marble (Keith calls it the Moo-moo
cake cuz it looks like a cow)
Cupcakes and mini loaves
Cotton Sponge Cheesecake
Keith and I tried to make Japanese Glutinous rice cakes with red beans fillings. We saw some Chinese TV cooking show hosted by the famous “Fei Ma”. We used tapioca flour instead of glutinous flour!! The little desserts turned out to be semi-transparent, GLOSSY, chewy with not much taste!! Hahaha… We still have to make our second attempt with the right ingredients!!
- Cheesecakes are very sensitive to cracking: over beating cheese cake batter, opening and closing oven’s door during baking, not enough moisture, etc.
- Can top cheesecakes with jam, whipping cream, fruits, etc. to cover the cracks
- Using sour cream in cheesecakes recipes will give it a smoother texture
Baking is kinda relaxing and you can get a bit *crazy* and creative =D The fun balances out the washing and cleaning up involved. I’m thinking of signing up for some baking or cake decorating classes. I admire people who follow their hearts and have so much passion in what they love to do… Opening up my own bakery store, cafe or doing catering is a bit too far out… maybe one day when I win a jackpot….hehehe…
The previous two posts probably gave me a bad reputation around the kitchen but it’s *REEALLYY* not as bad! I did/do have successes around the kitchen but the bad ones seem to take away 10 times the merits hehehe…
Some cakes I’ve baked include:
- cheese cakes
- marble cake -Keith commented that it looked like a COW (>_<) - sponge cakes, orange chiffon cake, pound cakes, maple walnut cake, pecan cake, fruit cake (turned out a bit too dense), black forest cake (the cake was too hard), cupcakes, etc. etc.
Black Forest Cake
Marble (Keith calls it the Moo-moo
cake cuz it looks like a cow)
Cupcakes and mini loaves
Cotton Sponge Cheesecake
Keith and I tried to make Japanese Glutinous rice cakes with red beans fillings. We saw some Chinese TV cooking show hosted by the famous “Fei Ma”. We used tapioca flour instead of glutinous flour!! The little desserts turned out to be semi-transparent, GLOSSY, chewy with not much taste!! Hahaha… We still have to make our second attempt with the right ingredients!!
- Cheesecakes are very sensitive to cracking: over beating cheese cake batter, opening and closing oven’s door during baking, not enough moisture, etc.
- Can top cheesecakes with jam, whipping cream, fruits, etc. to cover the cracks
- Using sour cream in cheesecakes recipes will give it a smoother texture
Baking is kinda relaxing and you can get a bit *crazy* and creative =D The fun balances out the washing and cleaning up involved. I’m thinking of signing up for some baking or cake decorating classes. I admire people who follow their hearts and have so much passion in what they love to do… Opening up my own bakery store, cafe or doing catering is a bit too far out… maybe one day when I win a jackpot….hehehe…
posted by Gloria @ 12:19 PM
2 comments
“Mango Upside Down Cake” saved by POTATOES!
14-April-06
I found a yummy “Mango Upside Down” recipe online and was excited to try it out. Went shopping for the ingredients after work and got the mango puree, mango and probably some junk food (that somehow gets included in my grocery list at every visit to a grocery store at anytime). The rest of the ingredients (flour, brown sugar, butter, etc.) were stocked up at home.
A quick blur on my junk food eating habit…
It’s highly compulsive, impulsive and uncontrollable!! At times, especially around meals, Keith had to literally put/hid the junk food away on top of high cabinets since I just couldn’t stop EATING once I get my hands on them!!! >_<
For the cake itself, typical ingredients were used with the mango puree and the cake batter was poured on top of the butter-sugar mixture and put into the oven (middle shelf).
The first few minutes into the baking I saw smoke coming out of the oven and soon the whole kitchen smelled like BURNT butter-sugar!! Peeking into the oven I noticed a BIG BOO-BOO I made!! The butter-sugar mixture was LEAKING from the sides of the removable springform pan bottom and DRIPPING onto the bottom of the oven, burning the butter!!
I panicked and opened up the oven door, releasing more smoke and triggering the SMOKE ALARM!! HAHAHAA ! OOOPSSS! Gotta FAN the smoke alarm!! My mom came running into the kitchen and quickly helped me wipe the bottom of the oven with wet paper towels wrapped around long wooden chopsticks!! I placed a big round pizza pan on the lower shelf of the oven but the butter was still burning away as it dripped onto the pizza pan! Then my *RARE* creative thinking kicked in and I started washing, dicing and salting some potatoes and placed them onto the pizza pan!
At the end, somehow my poor cake amazingly turned out to be ok – edible, presentable and had a good mango smell! Guess the potatoes soaked up the burnt smell?? PHEWWW!! Although the cake didn’t rise as much as expected, I’m proud of it after all that it’s been through =D The potatoes turned out to be good as well with some SWEET-BUTTERY taste and we had them for dinner hehee… My dad actually liked them!!
Looking back...the whole thing was actually pretty funny and I can’t help laughing at myself hehee.… Good thing my mom still trusts me around the kitchen (^_^) – I’ve only had very *few* bad incidents, REALLY!!
14-April-06
I found a yummy “Mango Upside Down” recipe online and was excited to try it out. Went shopping for the ingredients after work and got the mango puree, mango and probably some junk food (that somehow gets included in my grocery list at every visit to a grocery store at anytime). The rest of the ingredients (flour, brown sugar, butter, etc.) were stocked up at home.
A quick blur on my junk food eating habit…
It’s highly compulsive, impulsive and uncontrollable!! At times, especially around meals, Keith had to literally put/hid the junk food away on top of high cabinets since I just couldn’t stop EATING once I get my hands on them!!! >_<
For the cake itself, typical ingredients were used with the mango puree and the cake batter was poured on top of the butter-sugar mixture and put into the oven (middle shelf).
The first few minutes into the baking I saw smoke coming out of the oven and soon the whole kitchen smelled like BURNT butter-sugar!! Peeking into the oven I noticed a BIG BOO-BOO I made!! The butter-sugar mixture was LEAKING from the sides of the removable springform pan bottom and DRIPPING onto the bottom of the oven, burning the butter!!
I panicked and opened up the oven door, releasing more smoke and triggering the SMOKE ALARM!! HAHAHAA ! OOOPSSS! Gotta FAN the smoke alarm!! My mom came running into the kitchen and quickly helped me wipe the bottom of the oven with wet paper towels wrapped around long wooden chopsticks!! I placed a big round pizza pan on the lower shelf of the oven but the butter was still burning away as it dripped onto the pizza pan! Then my *RARE* creative thinking kicked in and I started washing, dicing and salting some potatoes and placed them onto the pizza pan!
At the end, somehow my poor cake amazingly turned out to be ok – edible, presentable and had a good mango smell! Guess the potatoes soaked up the burnt smell?? PHEWWW!! Although the cake didn’t rise as much as expected, I’m proud of it after all that it’s been through =D The potatoes turned out to be good as well with some SWEET-BUTTERY taste and we had them for dinner hehee… My dad actually liked them!!
Looking back...the whole thing was actually pretty funny and I can’t help laughing at myself hehee.… Good thing my mom still trusts me around the kitchen (^_^) – I’ve only had very *few* bad incidents, REALLY!!
posted by Gloria @ 11:58 AM
0 comments
How a Swiss Roll became a jelly sandwich
The expected outcome - a Swiss "ROLL"
The actual outcome - A Swiss Jelly "Sandwich"
Hi all,
Apologies for abandoning my blog for a while...been lazy and unfortunately don't have a laptop so have to be in the basement to use the PC (sometimes depressing)... Anyway, I've taken on baking for fun for sometime now and have tried baking different cakes, cupcakes, desserts, including sponge, marble, black forest, chiffon cake, etc. So far Swiss Roll had been the hardest to make =(
I attempted to make my firstSwiss Roll cake (March 08, 2006) and here's how it began...
- Printed a simple Swiss Roll recipe from the net
- Went to No Frills to get the ingredients (jam, etc.)
- Even bought myself a good non-stick the Swiss Roll 13x23 cm pan
- Even got the parchment paper despite having tons of baking wax paper at home and truly not seeing any difference between the two types of paper. But since the recipe asked for parchment, I somehow convinced myself to waste $$ and buy it anyway (O_=)
- Followed the recipe to make the Swiss Roll : one hard part was laying the pan with parchement paper and levelling the batter, ensuring that it touches the corners of the pan
- Then put the roll to bake for 10-15mins and let it cool before spreading the jam over it (else Jam will soak into the roll and make it soggy)
Everything seemed to went pretty well and my confidence level was at its highest on a flagpost...
Then came the *rolling* of the cake.... With my HUMBLE apron tied around my waist, I rolled up my sleeve, gently picked up one edge of the cake and started rolling. One thing that was hard to ignore was that the cake cracked each time I rolled it from one end to the other (T_T). But I had strong *FAITH* in my cake and believed that it would somehow *unstretch* itself and the cracks would magically disappear (I actually imagined it doing that too...duhh!)
At the end of the rolling, the expected round SWISS ROLL *amazingly* turned into an odd triangular, SWISS TOBELERONE looking cake with strawberry jelly layers! I tried to press on the cracks and made them disappear but I made it even WORSE!! OOPS! I tried to fix it my unrolling the cake and rolling it back! OOOPPPSSSS...the cake gave in and divided along the cracks.. I finally gave up and trimmed the rectangular cake pieces and stacked them... This final transformation turned my *dream* Swiss Roll cake into a *common* jelly sandwich... I've temporarliy given up on the making of Swiss Roll cakes and have moved on.... Later I did some reading on some tips/posts regarding Swiss Roll failures and not surprisingly, I have *successfully* met most of them in my attempt... (O_o)
The expected outcome - a Swiss "ROLL"
The actual outcome - A Swiss Jelly "Sandwich"
Hi all,
Apologies for abandoning my blog for a while...been lazy and unfortunately don't have a laptop so have to be in the basement to use the PC (sometimes depressing)... Anyway, I've taken on baking for fun for sometime now and have tried baking different cakes, cupcakes, desserts, including sponge, marble, black forest, chiffon cake, etc. So far Swiss Roll had been the hardest to make =(
I attempted to make my firstSwiss Roll cake (March 08, 2006) and here's how it began...
- Printed a simple Swiss Roll recipe from the net
- Went to No Frills to get the ingredients (jam, etc.)
- Even bought myself a good non-stick the Swiss Roll 13x23 cm pan
- Even got the parchment paper despite having tons of baking wax paper at home and truly not seeing any difference between the two types of paper. But since the recipe asked for parchment, I somehow convinced myself to waste $$ and buy it anyway (O_=)
- Followed the recipe to make the Swiss Roll : one hard part was laying the pan with parchement paper and levelling the batter, ensuring that it touches the corners of the pan
- Then put the roll to bake for 10-15mins and let it cool before spreading the jam over it (else Jam will soak into the roll and make it soggy)
Everything seemed to went pretty well and my confidence level was at its highest on a flagpost...
Then came the *rolling* of the cake.... With my HUMBLE apron tied around my waist, I rolled up my sleeve, gently picked up one edge of the cake and started rolling. One thing that was hard to ignore was that the cake cracked each time I rolled it from one end to the other (T_T). But I had strong *FAITH* in my cake and believed that it would somehow *unstretch* itself and the cracks would magically disappear (I actually imagined it doing that too...duhh!)
At the end of the rolling, the expected round SWISS ROLL *amazingly* turned into an odd triangular, SWISS TOBELERONE looking cake with strawberry jelly layers! I tried to press on the cracks and made them disappear but I made it even WORSE!! OOPS! I tried to fix it my unrolling the cake and rolling it back! OOOPPPSSSS...the cake gave in and divided along the cracks.. I finally gave up and trimmed the rectangular cake pieces and stacked them... This final transformation turned my *dream* Swiss Roll cake into a *common* jelly sandwich... I've temporarliy given up on the making of Swiss Roll cakes and have moved on.... Later I did some reading on some tips/posts regarding Swiss Roll failures and not surprisingly, I have *successfully* met most of them in my attempt... (O_o)
posted by Gloria @ 11:34 AM
0 comments
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Early Hobbies and Interests
Picture 1 - My attempt to paint out of the blue.
Hi hi, SORRY to have long abandoned my blog. I was hoping to get my own laptop and spend more time online, update my blog etc. But it seems like that won't happen until early next year.
Anyway, without my own PC or laptop, I'll try to update this blog as often as I can. Sometimes laziness gets in the way and having the inconvenience of sharing PCs at home just makes it worse.
I would like to start off this blog by presenting to you some of my early little hobbies and interests. Took me sometime to find my sketch book that I've started since high school. Finally, I found it and asked Keith to help me take some snapshots of them.
I like sketching, drawing, and even attempted to paint a little. =) Always admire people with amazing talent, imagination and creativity. I don't have a good imagination so most of these drawings are based on existing paintings, drawings, posters, etc.
Here's a link to some of my attempt to sketch and paint. Feel free to comment/criticize =)
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2099261174
Picture 1 - My attempt to paint out of the blue.
Hi hi, SORRY to have long abandoned my blog. I was hoping to get my own laptop and spend more time online, update my blog etc. But it seems like that won't happen until early next year.
Anyway, without my own PC or laptop, I'll try to update this blog as often as I can. Sometimes laziness gets in the way and having the inconvenience of sharing PCs at home just makes it worse.
I would like to start off this blog by presenting to you some of my early little hobbies and interests. Took me sometime to find my sketch book that I've started since high school. Finally, I found it and asked Keith to help me take some snapshots of them.
I like sketching, drawing, and even attempted to paint a little. =) Always admire people with amazing talent, imagination and creativity. I don't have a good imagination so most of these drawings are based on existing paintings, drawings, posters, etc.
Here's a link to some of my attempt to sketch and paint. Feel free to comment/criticize =)
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2099261174
posted by Gloria @ 2:55 PM
0 comments
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- Links to FriendsFinally, found out how to add "Fri...
- Better Times at the Kitchen...The previous two pos...
- “Mango Upside Down Cake” saved by POTATOES!14-Apri...
- How a Swiss Roll became a jelly sandwichThe expect...
- Early Hobbies and InterestsPicture 1 - My attempt ...
- Hello!Just testing out my new blog-spot that I dec...
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