Gabriel, Gabriel you are 5!

little shoes...

Gabriel was 5 last week, this year I break the tradition on baking cake for him. We bought two sponge cakes for him, one for celebrating at school, one for a garden party at home. However, as I'm not familiar with the places, we didn't get a good and pretty cake for him, the normal sponge cake from Michel's Patisserie actually disappointed me, the chocolate cake sponge is not nice :( and because of the cake shop didn't provide a cake knife and candles, we have to buy the candles and search for the cake knife and finally landed on a knife which cost us AUD 24.90! Anyway, this year is a good year for Gabriel, as...he didn't fall sick during his birthday. Happy Birthday Gabriel!

one week young.

One year old

two years old

three years old

four years old

five years old, so excited to cut the cake with long silver cake knife!

party bags for Gabriel's classmates

silver cake knife

five years old

Hong Kong Flaky Egg Tarts 酥皮蛋塔

I have been eyeing Lena's flaky egg tarts since she posted it many months ago, her egg tarts was so gorgeous and the tart is close to the restaurant standard in term of the taste of filling as well as the flakiness of the crust. It is delicious! Thanks Lena from Frozen Wings for the beautiful recipe. This recipe is a sure keeper!

As you know, my current rented place oven is not working well, once turn on the oven, lot of carbon crumble dropping down from the hot grill. As I'm so desparate to make the egg tarts for Gabriel, I leap into this recipe and make it the open ceremony of my first baking journey in Melbourne. There was obstacle in the begining, beside need to tackle the issue on oven, I couldn't locate the shortening! My first batch of egg tarts came out using butter and oil instead of shortening and the crust was...a bit hard, not flaky enough. It got layers but is not the perfect crust texture. Then after asking around and google about it, I found the vegetable shortening which we Asian usually keep on the shelves they Aussie kept it in the fridge!! It is with the brand Copha, they treated it like butter, so it is found on the fridge section in Coles! Initially I still wonder whether this is the same stuff as what I usually used in Singapore, I leave the Copha on the table for two days and it is still in solid form like what we get in Singapore, haha.. it can be kept on shelves not in fridge! (note on 26 Mar 2013: the Copha became soften after a few days on the shelves, when press on it, the texture is pliable to work with)

For my bake, there is still room for improvement, I burnt the crust a bit, still need to familiar myself with the oven temperature.

我可以分享，你不一定懂

临晨，窗外正好有热气球飞过。那七彩的球和阔蓝的天，成了对比。
这是这里的平凡日子中，所能为我带来的惊喜 。人为了平平凡凡生活，付出代价去追逐，谁会懂了？
来了这里，比在新加坡忙，这里没了帮佣的工人，一切得自己来。
那一天，不啥闲聊的我，还得硬着头皮去了俩个小时孩子班上家长的早茶会，这种场面是在新加坡从来没面对过的。

劳做，烹饪，写博客是精神的解放。
过来的人，只有你能懂。
我不是烹饪高手，弄来弄去只做我和家人喜欢吃的。
我的博客是为我自己而写，喜欢烘焙，喜欢摄影，这是我的空间。
我可以分享，但，你不一定懂。（这话太棒了，看了就喜欢，所以抄下了）
偶然发现陈绮贞，她的蜉蝣 是那么的亮丽，让我听了一遍又一遍。