Fondant Butter Cupcakes : Happy Birthday WT

It has been sometimes since I last play with fondant. I was thinking whether to make a cake for WT since he is not in Melbourne, but my son said he wants to give his Dad a cake. We went to Coles and he picked up the animals icing and insisted that this should be in the cake decoration ... what I can say is, ok! Here we are, a fondant butter cupcakes!

This round, I only spend a morning molding the fondant as it is really easy to handle compared to my experience with it in Singapore. The weather here help a lot! No sticky and sweating fondant! The fondant harden so fast, I should do more fondant while I still have time in Melbourne, Lol! 


Love the end result, as you know I'm not good in cake decoration and my expectation on it is very low, this result already make me very happy. I didn't spend a bomb on buying tools for fondant making, never for this round too. I only have a pack of white rolled fondant, mixed the the pink and green myself. I used my existing cookies cutter, and bare hands to roll the flowers and leaves. And lazy me not even preparing any butter cream but used the strawberries jam to apply on the cake and da...da, the fondant sit firmly on top! 

Snapped so many photos this round, just to keep a good memories and to wish WT who is in Doha, a very happy birthday, my dear! 

Ajitsuke Tamago (Lava Egg / Marinated Soft Boiled Egg) 溏心蛋

I make this Ajitsuke Tamago or Lava egg a day after I cooked my soya sauce chicken as there is a lot of leftover sauce after all chicken is gone. To make 溏心蛋 lava egg is easy if you know your egg well :D Haha ... Rule number one, leave the egg at room temperature. Rule number two, have a good control on the timing. That's it! 

In Masa's cookbook he has this dish but name it as 煮玉子 ahh...don't ask me why because this dish is more famous to be called 溏心蛋 or Ajitsuke Tamago. Recently Jessie of Jessie-Cooking Moments posted her beautiful lava egg, this really encourage me to try out this dish.

Open Sushi~ Avocado Prawn Salmon (AFF Japan)

I started to love Masa (山下胜）a Japanese chef cooking after I tried out a few of his dishes. In his recipe book, there is no pretty step by step photos non any lovely presentation but when you read his recipe book, you can feel he is with you throughout the cooking, he is "real", like us he also may face failures in the cooking ... you will laugh along with him when you see his cook book!  Respect him as a chef, entrepreneur as well as an author. 

Soya Sauce Chicken 酱油鸡

Missed this type of Soya Sauce Chicken, when I saw Mich of Piece of Cake posted her Soya Sauce Chicken, I know I have to cook it! But...I know my son will not take any chicken if he see the chicken meat in a whole piece. He think he can't chew the meat! I have a whole chicken in the freezer, what should I do? I don't like the idea of chopping either... Can I cook the whole chicken?

Kimchiguk (Kimchi Soup)

Three weeks staying in Qatar, Doha was not sufficient for me to comment anything about their food. But I had tried my best to explore the whole city and what I can say is, city of Doha is in a super fast pace of developing. Well, there is not many Asian from Malaysia or Singapore, so they are lacking when come to Asian Groceries Shop... I still can't find any! May be, until I move there by end of the year, I can tell you more about the city. Every times when come to change no one like it, especially me. There are many mental hurdles which we need to push away to move forward. Are you brave enough? We are fearless when we know God has placed us where we should be.

I bought this 日本木炉 Japanese Hot pot to cook this Korean Kimchi Soup or Kimchiguk. The cast iron pot on top is so lovely, does it has a feel like eating in the Korean restaurant? ^_^ The pair of silver chopstick and spoon was a gift from friend.  

Kuih Kosui (Gula Melaka)

When everyone was on "Pandan" theme last month, I was so busy with family visiting and travel to Middle East for three weeks. Many blogger made this Kuih Kosui (Kueh Ko Swee) and I'm very keen in trying it out too because this is one of the kuih I grew up eating, I'm glad that I did so. While I was steaming the kuih, the fragrance of the gula melaka which I bought from Glen Waverley Asian Groceries Shop (shipped from Malaysia) is so intense. As usual, my kuih is done without the alkaline water and the texture of it still come out as chewy and springy as what i expected it to be. 

Talking about Melbourne, I have live here for nearly ten months, from the beginning of unfamiliar with the surrounding until love it vast varieties of shopping, it actually provides more than what I can find in Singapore, some of the daily thing just appear in many different forms. For instance you can get pandan and banana leaves in fresh or frozen; you can find kaffir lime leaves in fresh or in bottle. But some of the thing you will never get here are: green tea powder for baking, charcoal powder, etc. 

Not sure whether because I'm getting old, I tend to appreciate what I used to have when I was young, I will never buy this kind of Chinese teacups 蓝鱼大同杯 if I'm still in Singapore, but now, I tend to appreciate it very much and bought it at AUD0.99 per piece. Of course its function is more than making kuih :) Hopefully, my son will grow up recognize himself as Chinese and know the culture of his root is. 

Recipe adapted from TravellingFoodies 
Ingredients:

130g gula melaka
2 tbsp granulated sugar
500ml water
2-3 pandan leaves, rinsed and tied into a knot

75g rice flour
35g tapioca flour
1 tsp alkaline water (Omitted)

50g grated coconutA pinch of salt

Method:

1. Combine gula melaka, sugar, knotted pandan leaves and water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil and stir until the sugars dissolve, about 10 mins. Remove the pan from heat and set aside to cool. Discard the pandan leaves.

2. Combine the rice flour and tapioca flour together in a bowl. Pour the flour into cooled sugar syrup saucepan. Using a wooden spatula, mix well together to form a smooth mixture. Put the saucepan onto low heat and keep stirring the mixture until the mixture thicken (not boiling)

3. Prepare your steamer, bring the water to boil. And arranged the empty Chinese teacups in the steamer and warm it up for about 5 mins.

4. Use a ladle to pour the mixture to fill each of the teacup to a level of three quarters in depth. Cover the steamer and cook the mixture for about 15~20 mins, the colour of the mixture will turn from light brown to dark brown.

5. While the kueh is cooking in the steamer, prepare the grated coconut, toss it with a pinch of salt and steam for about 2 mins. Remove and allow to cool.

6. To serve, use a fork to tip out the kueh from each teacup. Arrange the kueh on a plate and scatter the grated coconut to toss the kueh evenly.

Steamed Custard Bun (Nai Huang Bao) 惜福奶黄包

嗨，我回来了！

这一个月的离开给了自己和家人更多的时间去思考好多应该处理的事，心定了，是时候行动了。希望这几天还有心情弄菜烘焙，下来的几个月，我会很忙，是没空上料理和上网络了，请多包涵。原本想写英文的，因为我用拼音得用好多时间，但已立志要自己教儿子学华文，我也得多加强才好。

关于我家的包子，我想你也看厌叻，是想分享那新买的“福”印章。这“福”印章是我在Richmond的越南杂货店无意看见的，好几个印章就散放银台前，一个是好贵的奥币14！想了好久才买下的，我以后也不知还有没机会买到这种中文印章，必竟中东还没有奥大利来得方便。

原来呀，把那印章盖上柔软包子回弹的那一刻才是喜悦的颠风！好喜欢那福字，是惜缘，是惜福。

我们都不应把希望交给过去或未来。。。因为只有现在这一刻是应该把握的，加油！