Friday 30 December 2011

New Year Resolution 2012

Dear All,

Lim and I (Teh) would like to wish everyone a very happy 2012! What are your new year resolutions? I'll write some of mine here so i can check back again periodically and see if I've fulfilled them. The best way to make a resolution come true is to write it down and read it every day!

2012 Resolutions

1. To get 1000 hits at our blog (go spam bots!) before 2013.
2. To weigh 54kg by 29 Feb 2012.
3. To go  _ _ _    _ _ _ _ this year.

What's your's?

Tuesday 27 December 2011

Logcake 4 - The one that was finally given away

Teh: I finally made a logcake that was given away. Initially i wanted to give many logcakes away. But i got lazy and i only made 1 (very reluctantly initally) for a Christmas Party i went to. I'm glad i made it though. It was made of a chocolate swiss roll, filled with cream cheese frosting and chocolate. Same for the outside. The effect turned out to be rather nice. The slight sourness of the cream cheese frosting was a nice contrast to the sweetness of the cake and chocolate. As usual, it was unbelievably soft and moist. It was very well received and that was the best reward for me.

Chocolate Logcake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Logcake after eating
(i'm jealous of my friend's good camera!)

Does anyone else think i need to change my phone so i can take some decent pictures? Iphone 4S? Samsung Galaxy SII?

Friday 23 December 2011

Butter Cupcakes

Teh: It's that time of the year again - Christmas! Yes we sincerely wish all our readers (yes all 3 of them, you know who you are! hugs!) a very Merry Christmas!

I think Christmas is a time where we should get together with friends (both new and old) and spend some time looking back at the year that passed and make plans (for God to laugh at) for the new year! As i grew older, i no longer see the point in partying, squeezing at the club with 10,000 other strangers, drinking insane amount of alcohol and feeling stupid when there isn't any cab to go home in.

Yesterday i made some last minute Butter Cupcakes. It's a simple and fail-proof recipe! It's also my mum's favourite if you throw in the buttercream frosting. Without further ado!




Butter Cupcakes
125g of butter (I recommend Golden Churn salted butter for best results!)
125g of sugar (Yes, if its not sweet its not good enough!)
125g plain flour
2 eggs
2 - 5 tbsp of milk (Less milk if you like drier cakes. More milk if you prefer softer ones.)
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
1. Cream the butter and sugar until light and flurry (very pale creamish colour).
2. Add 1 egg at a time while continue to whisk at high speed.
3. Add milk and vanilla essence. Mix.
4. Flour in the flour gently (You all know how i feel about being gentle).
5. Fill the cupcake/muffin cups till 3/4 full or slightly more than 1/2.
6. Bake at 180 degrees for 25 minutes until nice and brown (plus minus timing depends very much on your oven!). It is ready when the toothpick comes out clean after inserting it to the cake.
7. Decorate as you wish.

Wednesday 14 December 2011

Chicken Ballotine (Stuffed Baked Boneless Chicken)

Teh: I made Chicken Ballontine over the weekend after learning how to debone a chicken through a video on Youtube! It was surprisingly simple. The sense of achievement you get at the end will be overwhelming! Imagine you deboning a whole chicken! Fancy that! I succeeded on my first attempt. You should try it too! Wow your friends with this fancy chicken for Christmas!

I must thank Chef John for his post. His picture inspired me. And thanks to the link on his blog, i learned a new skill! Please check out the link for the instructions on deboning a chicken. Let us know how your's turned out!

My stuffing this time were potatoes, onions, golden straw mushroom and mozarella cheese. It was abit wet. I will try glutinous rice with chestnut and mushroom the next time round. Watch out for it!

Here are my pictures:

After removing the bones
Another view after removing the bones
After stuffing, wrapping and tying the chicken up.
Those 2 bits at the right corner are the wings all balled up! 
After baking


After untying the string, some juice seeped out.

Sunday 4 December 2011

Anniversary Brunch @ Ku De Ta (Pictorial Post)

Brought Wifey to Ku De Ta to savour their 3 month old weekend brunch.

Here are the pictures, shot entirely on Canon IXUS 300 HS.










Overall, very good experience! Food was yummy! Some misses though, but mostly hits! Service was very attentive! Even when it got busy later, the wait staff still tried their best to make sure you feel pampered.

~ posted by Lim

Friday 2 December 2011

Our first poll!

Just for fun because it's friday, we decided to do a little poll! Enjoy!


Monday 28 November 2011

Chocolate Swiss Roll (old fashion style)

Teh: Swiss roll has always been something I wish I can make. However I was proven to be a failure at it on many occasions! Either the cake refused to roll, it cracked or it was dry and disappointing. One day while cyber-loafing at work (yes research has shown that cyber-loafing increases work productivity!) I stumbled upon a matcha Swiss roll recipe. At first I was skeptical the amount of eggs it uses. 9 egg yolks and 6 egg whites! However the final pictures shown on the website made me want to give it a try. Upon trying it for the first time, I was sold! THIS IS IT! This is THE recipe everyone must have. Please check out Christine’s beautifully soft and moist Swiss roll at her website. This recipe is her’s. Her website has detailed information/pictures on how to bake the cake and roll it.

I tried this recipe twice. The first time I did it a normal vanilla one. I omitted the matcha powder. I used whipping cream as the filling. The cake was unbelievably soft even after spending the night in the fridge, wrapped in baking paper of course. The second time I tried, I decided to make a chocolate Swiss roll covered with chocolate rice, filled with sinful butter cream. Yes, that’s my old fashion chocolate Swiss roll. Hope you’ll try it!

Ingredients for Butter Cream:
200g soften salted butter
100g icing sugar (adjust sweetness according as you wish)

Method for butter cream:
           1.     Cream the soften butter with the icing sugar until pale (light cream colour) and creamy.


Ingredients for Swiss roll:
6 egg whites + 60g of caster sugar
9 egg yolks + 100g of caster sugar
90g of plain flour
25g corn flour
50ml vegetable oil
3 tbsp hot water
2 tbsp cocoa powder

Method for Swiss Roll:
1.     Heat up the oven to 220 degrees celsius. (my oven is one hot oven. So I used 200 degrees. Please adjust according to your oven’s temper!)
2.     Mix the cocoa powder and hot water together until the powder dissolves completely. You can add some hot water if the powder doesn’t seem to dissolve completely.
3.     Using an electric whisk, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until pale and creamy.
4.     In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites and sugar together until stiff peaks.
5.     Sift the plain flour and corn flour together in a bowl.
6.     Add the dissolved cocoa into the egg yolk mix. (You can stir in the cocoa gently. But since I was going to do a lot of folding, I only mixed slightly as I was quite confident the folding later on will distribute the cocoa evenly.)
7.     Add 1/3 of the stiff egg whites into the egg yolk mix and fold gently. Repeat with another 1/3 when the first folding is done.
8.     Fold in the sifted flour in 3 batches, alternate with the remaining 1/3 egg white. (means you further divide the remaining egg white into 3 batches).
9.     By now, the cocoa should have distributed evenly and it is time to add all the oil at 1 go. Gently fold in the oil
10.  Line the baking tray with baking paper. Grease it. Pour the mixture into the tray. Bake 10 to 15 minutes (depending on the thickness of your mix). The cake is ready when the toothpick is clean after poking into the cake. It cooks very fast. Do not go away for too long.

(Please note that you can either make 2 small Swiss rolls with this recipe or a big one, depending on the thickness of your tray. I did 1 regular size and 1 small size roll on my second attempt.)

11.  When the cake is ready, cool it on a wired tray. Wait for it to cool completely (but not turn cold!) before you try to roll it. I realized if you wait for it to cool completely, it rolls better, it doesn’t crack and no moisture will seep out and make the cake stick to the baking paper. Turn the cake onto a clean baking paper. Peel off the old baking paper. A helpful way of rolling is to cut 2-3 lines (not all the way through the cake!) at the start of where you are going to roll. Then you start to roll with the paper. Nevermind if the paper is between the cake. It’s supposed to be this way. I know some people uses a towel. But I didn’t find it necessary. Please the cake rolled for 15-20 minutes.
12.  When the butter cream is done and 15-20 minutes is up, unroll the cake. Spread the butter cream all over the cake evenly (but save some cream for later). Roll up the cake again, this time without the paper in between the cake. I tried rolling with my hands and it works! I can see if the cake is rolled too tightly or too loose since the baking paper is not in my way. If you apply too much strength, the cake may crack. The key words are – be gentle.
13.  When you’ve rolled the cake successful (look! No cracks!), use the remaining butter cream to coat the top and sides of the cake and sprinkle chocolate rice all around it. Ok if you are putting chocolate rice on the outside, I guess it doesn’t matter if your cake cracked. But we all want un-cracked Swiss roll right?!
14.   Wrap the cake up with the baking paper and leave it in the fridge to set. Probably about 1-2 hours.
15.  I recommend you to un-chill the cake before you serve. But some people likes cold Swiss rolls. It’s really up to your preference.

This Swiss roll recipe is suitable for log cakes too! Christmas is just around the corner. You can use whipped cream (chocolate or plain) to coat the cake. Use a fork to draw lines along the length of the cake to resemble tree bark. If you want clean and clear lines, wipe the fork clean after use. Decorate the log with Christmas decorations. Decorations are sold cheaply at Phoon Huat. Now that you are all set, you can consider making some for your friends! Free feel to play around with the flavours and colour combinations. Enjoy =)

Monday 14 November 2011

My first website - www.flyinghog.com.sg

Here is Flying Hog Cafe & Bar's website (http://www.flyinghog.com.sg/) i did for my friend. It is the one i was agonising over recently. It is finally up and running! It goes hand in hand with the menu i did for her! Now on to the next item on the list - their press kit. It's sort of done but i need the boss's approval first.

Log Cake Experiment 3

Teh: Here is Log Cake Experiment 3. My favorite so far! But it has some setbacks. The base crust is not firm enough and the center of the cake is slightly soft. Another friend said "You didn't make the biscuit right?" Since i gave this cake away, i can only imagine how it tastes like. Lim says it goes well with coffee!

Wednesday 9 November 2011

Log Cake Experiment 2 - Angry Bird Cake (Pirated)

Teh: Log Cake Experiment 2 got side-tracked into an Angry Bird Cake project. My nephew decorated the cake with angry birds. He put some mini marshmallows on it too. Those are mini cream puffs around the cake. In my head, those mini puffs are supposed to be like pebbles or rocks. But they look more like boulders!


Experiment 3 in due course...

Where are the pigs?

Wednesday 2 November 2011

Log Cake Experiment 1

Teh: Yes! It's that time of the year again. Log Cake making! This is my first attempt for the year. Not much "wow" factor. I already have an idea for experiment 2. Attempt 2 will take place this weekend!

Serene (Siri): Good Lick!

Log Cake Experiment 1

Thursday 20 October 2011

iphone 4S review - Coming soon lah!

Teh: Yesterday i had lunch with Lim. Guess what?! Lim said he will be getting the iphone 4S and he has promised to give us an iphone 4S review! I told him not to wait too many months before he starts writing the review.

Right Lim?

Lim said he read online about some of ways other users were testing Siri. (Siri is an artificially intelligent, voice controlled assistant. You talk to Siri and she talks back. She can do everything from set alarms and schedule appointments to answer reference questions and make you laugh. My voice controlled assistant will be affectionately called "Serene".) One of users was asking Siri for suitable places to hide a body. Reservoir was one of the top results. It was hilarious! I wonder what questions Lim will ask. Or rather what questions Lim will confess to asking Siri when he writes here.

I wait with bated breath for his review!

Thursday 13 October 2011

Random Thoughts

I thought we should have a random post about random things. Nothing too serious like baking, cooking or keep up with the world.


Random Thoughts:
1) ill fitting clothes be damned! 
2) The website designing gig is killing me softly...


I briefly toyed with the design/layout of the blog. Although the red background i picked made the pictures stand out, the texts went haywire. Hence after much consideration, i changed it back to how it originally looked.


Now back to reality....

Monday 10 October 2011

Flying Hog Cafe & Bar's Set Lunch Menu

Teh: What's a blog for if not to shamelessly talk about the things we like? Today, Flying Hog Cafe is starting their new Set Lunch menu! Check it out:

                                           

Thursday 6 October 2011

iphone 4S - Check it out!!

I know what the whole world is thinking - "There's no iphone 5!!"

But you know what? I think the iphone 4S is pretty exciting too! For a non-iphone user, i was instantly attracted to the new Siri feature. It's a voice command/interactive software in the new iphone 4S. I feel as though we've officially stepped into the future. Remember those sci-fi outer space movies from the past? There were always some super mega smart giant computers on board the spaceship and they usually have names! You talk to the com and it will talk back. It gets you all (almost all) the information you want. All you have to do is ask! How cool is that?!

Imagine this in the future:
Me to Serene (the name of my iphone 4S in my head) : Find me a recipe for Beef Goulash.
Serene to me: Here it is. This is the recipe that has the most hits.
Me: Thanks.
Serene : You are welcome.

OR

Me: What is the weight of 1 cup of butter?
Serene: Do you want US or in metric?
Me: Metric please.
Serene: 1 cup of butter in metric is 240g.

OR

Me: When am i going to get attached?
Serene: Would you like me to check your bazi or zodiac sign?
Me: Bazi please.
Serene: According to xxx website, not in the near future.
Me: Will my chances increase if i go to the beach today?
Serene: Based on my calculations, your chances will increase by 0.045%. But bring an umbrella. It is going to rain in 4 hours and 33 minutes if you are going to Sentosa.

You get what i mean =) Here is the specs of the new iphone 4S from http://www.singaporeiphoneapps.com/iphone/iphone-4s-singapore-release-date/. Are you getting one? It's coming to Singapore on 28th October 2011.

On a sad note, Steve Jobs just died. Hope he is in a better place now. - Teh


What’s in iOS5?

  • NewsStand
  • iCloud
  • iMessage
  • Reminders
  • Updated Saferi  Safari [Edited : thanks Jeremy]
  • Twitter Integration
  • Wifi Syncing (No more cables , WOOHOO)
  • Last But Not Least The Must[Edited] MUCH Awaited Notification Centre

 

What’s inside the new iPhone 4S?

A5 Processor Chip
  • 7x Faster Graphics
  • Up to 2x Faster CPU
  • Dual Core Graphics
New Antenna System 
  • Intelligently switches between two antennas to transmit and receive
  • 2x Faster Downloads
  • CDMA & GSM Network (iPhone 4 had 2 DIFFERENT Models)
Camera 
  • 8 Mega-pixel Sensor
  • 3264 x 2448
  • 60% MORE Pixels
  • Backside illumination (73% More light)
  • 33 % Faster Capture rate (We needed that man! , Check out image below) 
  • Hybrid IR Filter 
  • Better Color Accuracy
  • More Color Uniformity
  • 5 Element Lens (30% More Sharpness)
  • f/2.4 Aperture
  • 26% Better Auto White Balance 

Video 
  • 1080p HD Video recording
  • Video Image Stabilization
  • Temporal Noise Reduction
AirPlay Mirroring
Ability to play your games on bigger screens (TVs, Monitors,laptops) wirelessly
or wired

 

Siri intelligent assistant 

this voice control software recently purchased by Apple is the ultimate Game Changer , with the ability to learn your voice.
Siri voice control has the ability to check your appointments , reply sms , define words , make a calendar appointment , give you directions , find you a restaurant in jurong , ask how’s NASDAQ is doing today , ask how’s the weather, what’s john address? , wake me up at 7am tomorrow! 
Let the pictures speak for itself.
  • Natural Language
  • Conversational
  • Contextual
  • Personal
  • Works with Built In Apps
  • Dictation Anywhere
  • 3G + Wifi

iPhone 4s Battery Life?

3G Talk Time 8
2G Talk Time 14
3G Browsing6
Wi-Fi Browsing9
Video 10
Music40