Oreo Chiffon Cake

I edited the post by deleting the name of the school. 

My son has been attending X school for a month. I accompanied him only for the first day. He goes to school daily, every morning he will ask me "where are we going?" I'll tell him, "You are going to school." Then he goes to school happily! This is a big change if compared to when he was at LV. He attended LV for nearly 3 months, at LV he was so attached to his form teacher and his own class room. I was worried and I think the decision to change him to X school is the right one! 

Every morning he will have a chance to play in the real playground, I say real because the playground is in the school garden, he sees grass and soil not the one with rubber floor mat! When come to mid day, he no need to sit in the toilet waiting half an hour for teachers to bath his classmates. At X school, the teacher will bathe two students at a time and the rest play or listen to stories tell by teacher assistant.

Everyday, he comes home with colour patches on his hands and shirt. I'm a strong believer of empower children to do their own things and not holding their hands to accomplish what we think they should accomplish. I don't want a beautiful result, children have their own thinking and I think a good education system should help to unleash their creativity. Is amazing and releasing for me to see my boy being categories by teachers as "active" and "vocal". .. Moreover, he no longer attached to a teacher, any teachers take over the class is fine for him!!       

Post-note (19/10/2011):

I withdrew my son from X school on 12/10/2011. His form teacher gone "missing" after a mere 3 weeks with him, the school asked an unqualify teacher assistant to take over the class (which I strongly disagreed and the director of the school think this is appropriate). Add on to that was one day my son came home with red swollen mark which he told me done by a teacher assistant, which the school defended and denied the case. I believe my son, the mark was on his shoulder for 3 days.

He merely with school for about 2 months and there was an earlier case of deep scratch mark which bleed (on left side of the neck to shoulder) who the school claimed was done by a student who merely 2+, the wound recovered but leaving a white mark on my son shoulder until the day I write this note, can you believe a child can create this kind of deep cut on his peer?  

Whoever read this, please judge for yourself before sending your child to this school.

So much about my son ^^ Let me present to you this interesting Oreo Chiffon Cake. You may hop over to Table for Two or More, Bakericious and Cherry Potato to see theirs beautiful Oreo Chiffon Cakes too!

Recipe adapted from Table for Two or More, Bakericious and Cherry Potato

Ingredients :

(A)
65gm oreo (half a regular tube), lightly pulverized together with cream

(B)
5 egg yolks
50gm sugar
60gm milk
60gm corn oil
100gm cake flour, sifted

(C)
5 egg whites
½ tsp cream of tartar or 1 tsp lemon/lime juice
60gm sugar

Steps:
1. Preheat oven at 160/180C.
2. Mix yolks and sugar together. Then put in the oil. Alternate add in milk and sifted flour. Combine with a whisk until smooth. (Do not whisk or beat but just combine)
3. Beat egg whites until frothy, add lemon juice and beat until soft peaks. Put in sugar gradually and beat until stiff.
4. Fold ¼ of egg whites into (2) and then another ¼  egg whites.
5. Pour egg yolk batter into the remaining egg whites and fold (no need to be too thorough).
6. Put in pulverized oreos and fold until well combined.
7. Pour into a clean ungreased tube pan (22 or 25cm will be fine) and bake for 45 minutes.
8. Invert immediately upon removal from oven. Wait for it to cool down totally before removing cake from pan.

Siew Bao 1 (Baked BBQ Pork Buns) 烧包

My father likes to eat pastries, this kind of 烧包 is his favourites. In my memory this pastry is associated with Seremban Siew Bao (芙蓉烧包）However, when we were young we didn't always get to eat this pastry, it came when there was special occasion or someone presented the pastry to my father as a gift. 

It has been sometimes since I last taste this Siew Bao. It is not my favourite food but it brings back lot of old memories. Whatever I baked or cooked, my parent are too far away to taste the food, but I know my father will check on the Internet, access my blog to see what is going on here. I'm still their daughter, the bumble-bee that like to talk no-stop when I was young. 

I saw Jane's Corner and 人生加油站 baked their lovely Siew Bao, my heart told me I should give myself a chance to try making one and I did, without regret.

Recipe adapted from Jane's Corner and 人生加油站 with changes to filling and pastry folding method.

Ingredients for filling:      
400g pork meat, sliced into small cubes

6 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tbsps sesame oil

a pinch of salt

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsps cornstarch

3 tbsps oyster sauce

2 tbsps dark soy sauce

3 tbsps cooking oil

Steps:

1. Marinade all the ingredients (except garlic and cooking oil) for an hour.

2. Heat wok, add cooking oil. Stir-fry garlic for 2 mins, add the marinade meat. Stir-fry the meat until cook, or about 8 mins. Set aside to cool completely.

Ingredients for pastry:
water dough:
200g plain flour
50g oil (cooking or olive oil is fine)
1 tbsp sugar
90ml water

oil dough:
200g top flour
70g butter

Steps:
1. In a bowl, mix ingredients for water dough (except oil), slowly add in water. Knead into a rough dough, add oil and knead to a smooth dough. Set aside for 30 mins.
2. Mix ingredients for oil dough. Use butter knife to cut the butter and use fingertips to lightly rub the butter with flour until mixture look like fine breadcrumbs. Lightly press together the oil dough.
3. Divide water and oil dough into 12 portions respectively.  
4. Flatten the water dough, wrap the oil dough in it. Flatten with rolling pin, roll up, flatten again, repeat for another 4 times (this will ensure you get a clear layering pastry).
5. Roll into small ball, set aside for 10 mins. 
6. Flatten the dough and stuff filling, egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
7. Bake at 210 C for 30 mins.

Love the golden brown which I get from this baking,
very satisfy with the result. 

Juicy meat filling with flaky pastry layering that taste crispy and full of flavour. 
This brings back my childhood memory.  

Banana Cream Pie and Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to "neyeeloh"! You are the winner of my 5th blog anniversary giveaway, just send me your mailing address at my email and you should recieve the "Baking with tiny tots" book in a week time. Congratulations! Thanks so much to everyone who participated in the giveaway and hope you are having a wonderful week!

Banana Cream Pie, a wonderful dessert from Joy of Baking which I would like to share with you. Well, since this week I'm really busy (no domestic helper...sigh), I used the ready made pastry sheet, this really save me some times in preparing the yummy pie. Of course, I baked the crust a day before, during night time when Gabriel was asleep and assemble the banana cream pie the next day. However, if I'm going to bake this pie again, I'll definately make my own pastry crust!

I'm submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers#10 Easy As Pie (August 2011) hosted by Janine from Not the Kitchen Sink!

Recipe adapted from Joy Of Baking

Ingredients for pastry cream:

300ml milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

3 egg yolks

50g sugar (used 30g)

20g top flour

20g cornstarch

1 tbsp rum

3 bananas, sliced

Ingredients for whipped cream:

240ml heavy whipping cream (used 200ml light whipping cream to cut down the calories) 

20g icing sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla essence

Steps:

1. Mix sugar and egg yolks in bowl. Whisk flour and cornstarch together, add to egg mixture, whisk until smooth. Set aside.

2. In a saucepan bring milk and vanilla to boiling. Remove and slowly add egg mixture. Whisking constantly to prevent curdling.

3. Pour egg mixture into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until boiling, whisking constantly until it turns thick, remove from heat, add rum and cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent crust from forming. Cool to room temperature before using.

4. For whipped cream, place the mixing bowl 15 mins in the freezer before using. Beat whipping cream, icing sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form.

Assemble:

1. Spread pastry cream on the crust, top with sliced bananas, spread the whipped cream over bananas. Dust with cocoa powder or chopped buttercrunch toffee. For my case, I decorate the pie with some more bananas and dark chocolate syrup!