Awards 2012

Apologies to my fellow bakers Jane from Passionate about Baking and Judy from A Busy Gran's Kitchen for accepting the following awards so late! Thank you ladies for passing these awards to me, I am truly honoured and proud to be a recipient  of these two awards =]. 

The past two months have been quite a mad rush, leaving me fatigued after my work hours. Even during my free time, I still have to do some work-related planning and preparation. The rest of my free time is spent with my family and close friends. On a good weekend when I have no plans to step out of the house, I would just stay at home and rest, doing nothing much except surfing the net and watching tv. Hence, little attention have been given to baking and blogging for the past two months.

Hopefully, I can to get out this cycle soon and get some baking and blogging done.. 

   

Instagram link: http://instagram.com/bakertanbakes

August Pig Out Party

It's my favourite potluck party time again! Once again, it is a gathering with fellow food bloggers, most of whom I have met up with from previous bloggers meetups. 

This August POP (Pig Out Party) was initiated by Eelin and Jane. Food-wise, there seemed to be more sweet goods this time round. As with any potluck party, a must bring along item would be extra food containers, for there would always be excess food leftover from the the party. 

Deciding to venture out of my comfort zone, I volunteered to bring a savoury item along in addition to a Devil's Food Cake. This savoury item is none other than salsa, which is foolproof enough to be prepared by anyone without much culinary experience. Simply dice the require ingredients and flavour with a bit of salt and pepper. Voila! The dish is complete. Because of the tangy nature of the salsa, it helps to boost one's appetite and is an ideal choice for parties and potluck. 

Without much further adieu, lets take a look at the gorgeous spread of mouth-watering food. Pardon me if some pictures are badly taken. I was in a hurry to get my mouth working on the food than be concentrating on taking good photos, hence some pictures are not well-focused. 

Red velvet cakes by Cathy from Cathy's Joy

Portugese egg tarts by Jane from Passionate about Baking

Durian puffs by Jane from Passionate about Baking

Green tea almond blondies by Doris from Tested and Tasted

Pizza by Bee Bee from Honey Bee Sweets

Fried fritters by Josephine from Sugar & Everything Nice

Madeleines by Jess from Jess Kitchen

Chocolate friands by Jess Jess Kitchen

Chocolate meringue cake by Doris from Tested and Tasted

Tau suan by Esther from Baking on Cloud 9

Salsa (to go along with chips) prepared by me.

Devil's Food Cake prepared by me. The frosting did not turn out smooth as I has overbeaten the frosting since I was making it in a rush. 

The food items above are incomplete, as I have missed out on some of them, namely:

• Chwee Kueh by Edith from Precious Moments, 
• Bread pudding with vanilla sauce by Eelin from The Batter Baker 
• Baileys ice cream, chocolate ice cream and tuna potato patties by Grace from Kitchen Corner. 

I can never have enough of potlucks like this. Am looking forward to the next one already,which I do so after every potluck. Hopefully, it need not be a long wait till the next one comes along.

Salsa (recipe adapted from the internet)

Serving size: 7-8 persons

Taste and texture : Tangy, slightly spicy and refreshing due to presence of mint.

Equipment and materials:

• Knife
• Fork

Ingredients:

• 1 can 14.5 ounce diced tomatoes. 
• 2 jalapenos, seeds removed and finely diced. (I used pickled jalapenos)
• 1/2 green onion, finely diced
• 4-5 sprigs mint, coarsely shredded using hands
• 1 tbs lemon juice
• a bit of salt to taste
• a bit of black pepper to taste 
• 1/2 clove garlic, finely diced

Making the Salsa:

Preparing tomatoes - Drain the tomatoes well and reserve some of the liquid. (I squeezed the tomatoes lightly to remove the juices). Dice the tomatoes finely. 

Mix all ingredients together - In a medium bowl, mix diced tomatoes, jalapenos, green onion, mint, garlic and lemon juice. Mix well with a fork. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add a little of the drained liquid if desired to moisten the mixture. Chill salsa before serving. 

My 4th Bloggers Meetup

I was casually checking my e-mails when one particular one caught my attention. To my pleasant surprise, I was invited to a Bloggers Meetup by Jasmine. Jasmine had just joined the blogging scene a few months back and I must admire her courage in reaching out to us bloggers and organizing a meetup. So last Saturday evening, 8 of us met up at Edith’s place for a potluck party. The bloggers were:

1. Jasmine from the sweetylicious
2. Edith from Precious Moments
3. Josephine from Sugar & Everything Nice
4. Cathy from Cathy's Joy
5. Jess from Jess's Kitchen
6. Jean from Noms I Must
7. Wendy from Wen's Delight
8. Zhuoyuan (Me)

Maybe you wouldn't believe it, but I never had a potluck party until I attended my first Bloggers Meetup. Even if I was keen in the idea of a potluck party back then, I couldn't even bake or cook for nuts. Things are different now, for I have learnt to bake and churn out bakes presentable enough to bring to a potluck party.

Similar to my previous meetups, this is another potluck party where each of us bloggers would volunteer to cook and bake a dish or two. Sweet lovers would definitely find this potluck party particularly inviting as it promises a spectacular line-up of of sweet treats including mango swiss rolls, mango cheesecake, mango chiffon cake, brownies, lemon bars, lemon meringue tarts, macarons and three differently flavoured frosted cupcakes. As a sweets lover and a highly sweet-toothed guy, I am more than welcome to embrace them and satisfy my palate.

Chocolate macarons with lemon curd by Cathy

Dulce De Leche cupcakes by Cathy

Chocolate madeleines by Cathy

Lemon cream cheese cupcakes with honey lemon buttercream (Swiss meringue). Recipe for buttercream at end of post.

Rich fudgy brownies. I have to confess that this batch of brownies are less fudgy and firmer than the ones I previously made.

Mango cheesecake by Jasmine

Nian gao sweet potato rolls by Jasmine

Jelly heart cheesecake slice by Jasmine

Durian chiffon cake by Wendy

Durian swiss rolls by Wendy. Have I ever mentioned that I am a durian lover?

Lemon curd meringue tarts by Edith

Chocolate mayonnaise cupcakes with caramel butterscotch buttercream by Edith

Lemon bars by Jess

savoury meatballs by Jean

thai style pomelo salad by Josephine

Saturday evening was thus spent fulfillingly with a group of wonderful and talented ladies. With good food and the right company, what more can I ask for? Thanks to Jasmine for initiating and coordinating this meetup. I shall be looking forward to my next meetup. 

Honey Lemon Swiss Meringue Buttercream (recipe adapted from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan) 

Serving size: enough to frost 15 small sized cupcakes

Taste and texture: sweet and tangy, velvety smooth

Equipment and Materials:

1) Handheld mixer/ Standing mixer

2) Heat proof bowl

3) Wire whisk

Ingredients:

65g sugar

60g egg whites

150g unsalted butter, cubed and slightly softened but still cold

3 1/2 tbs fresh lemon juice, strained

honey, add to taste

1/2 tsp vanilla extact

Making the buttercream:

Dissolve sugar in egg whites - Place egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl sitting over a pan of slightly simmering water without the base of the bowl in contact with the water (double-boiler). Whisk the mixture constantly until the sugar dissolves completely. Rub the egg white mixture with your fingers to check if it is still gritty to test if the sugar has fully dissolved. Egg white mixture should be warm to the touch. Remove bowl from the heat.

Beating egg whites - Beat egg whites with an electric beater on medium high speed until whites are very stiff and glossy. Egg whites should form stiff upright peaks and will not budge when bowl is overturned. 

Incorporating butter - Add in butter to beaten egg whites in 3 additions and beat on medium speed. The mixture may become watery as butter is being incorporated. After the third addition, beat the mixture it becomes fluffy and firm, like creamed butter.   

Flavouring the buttercream - Add lemon juice and vanilla extract to buttercream and beat well to mix. Add in honey by the tablespoon to taste.  

Note:

1) When piping the buttercream for frosting, heat from your palms may cause the last portion of buttercream in the piping bag to soften and separate/ melt. Simply chill the softened/ separated buttercream and beat it until fluffy. 

2) Buttercream can hold its shape well unrefrigerated. 

3) Make sure water is on low simmer and stir constantly, else the egg may coagulate.   

4) Do not omit the vanilla in the buttercream. It adds a depth of flavour and contrasts the lemony tang.  

5) Make 2.5 x buttercream recipe to make enough for frosting a 3 layered cake.

Bloggers Meetup 2.2 - Cook and Feed wth Love Followup

Yesterday, I met up with some of the volunteers from the previous Cook and Feed with Love Event. We didn't have much chance to interact previously, hence we decided on on a followup meetup on 27th Nov 2010 at the function room over at Jane's place.

Similar to my first bloggers meetup, it was a potluck party. I always look forward to potluck parties since they will be lots of mouth-watering food and I would have the chance to bake too. Lets take a look at the goodies:

Lemongrass drink prepared by Jane.

Coffee blondies with walnut toppings by Jane.

Potato Salad made by Sheryl. She used curry leaves and cashew nuts. Very unique and refreshing form the usual mayo-style potato salad.  

Spicy shrimp bread rolls made by Judy.

These pretty looking chocolate cointreau cupcakes with cointreau flavoured swiss meringue buttercream were made by Eelin.

Fruity konnyaku jelly made by Doris.

Cheese macaroni made Doris.   

Blueberry muffins by Edith.

Banana hazelnut sourcream cake by Edith. 

Wing drumlets made by Josephine. She used teriyaki sauce, worchestersire sauce and lots of other seasonings.

Crunchy chocolate chips cookies prepared by me. I used Ghiradelli chocolate chips for the first time. There was'nt much difference from Hershey's chocolate chips. When I started out baking cookies, these were the first cookies I made.

Hawaiian pizza pie made by me. I used shortcrust pastry and the fillings for hawaiian pizza. The crust turned out ok but the fillings didnt quite work out for the pie (as opposed to a pizza) and was dry.

In total 9 volunteers turned up for the potluck. It was a pity some volunteers were unable to make it for this event. The volunteers present:

• Jane from Passionate about baking
• Sheryl from Life is too short, eat desserts!
• Judy from A Busy Gran's Kitchen
• Eelin from The Batter Baker
• Doris from Tested and tasted
• Edith from Precious Moments
• Josephine from Sugar & Everything Nice
• Christine from Yummy Koh
• Zhuoyuan (me)

Even though we do not know each other well, we chatted as though we have known each other for some time. It is interesting how our common hobby, or rather our passion, binds us together like glue. One thing for sure, these great minds, great bakers, lovely ladies understand what baking truly means to me better than most of my other friends do.

Jane prepared a game of Bingo! where we had to collect signatures from each other. It was interesting because the Bingo squares consist of facts/ tidbits related to us all and I could relate to a few of them, namely:

• owns at least 40 cookbooks (I have around 50 and the collection is still growing. I actually read my bakebooks before bedtime, lol. I think I'm going to get even more books in Dec.... ) 
• has other passion besides baking. That will be boardgaming and Stefanie Sun =]
• likes sports. I enjoy swimming.
• love to eat bread (but I can't make decent bread as yet, lol. I can eat bread for meals.)

Doris was the winner and she was presented with a jar of homemade madagascar bourbon vanilla extract made by Jane. Neat stuff!  

I am already looking forward to our next event. Imagine us all meeting up to bake all day and night and slog it out in front of the oven and messing around with the ingredients. That will be unimaginably awesome!

Feed and Cook With Love - My 2nd Bloggers Meetup

 

 

After the last Bloggers' Meetup in August, Edith suggested that we bloggers come together, pool our strength, cook and prepare food for a good cause. The good cause? Cooking for elderly folks. And so, the plan was drawn. Edith liaised with an old folks centre (Peace Connect) near her home and we bloggers would sponsor a meal for them, a lunch for 80 pax. Wow, that's quite alot of people to feed and we would have to recruit all the manpower we can.

Next up was deciding the menu. There were some criteria to consider, for example: low salt, low sugar, less oil content etc. Finally, we decided on the menu as:

1) Fried Bee Hoon, recipe by Jane
2) Taukwa with bean sprouts, recipe by Edith
3) Braised Mushroom with Meat Sauce, recipe by Shirley
4) Stir Fried Mixed Vegetables, recipe by Jo
5) Red Bean Soup, recipe by me

Once the menu was decided and the details ironed out, we started inviting volunteers by word of mouth. The response was warm and we had a total of around 19 volunteers; bloggers and non bloggers alike joined in for the event which we named as Cook and Feed With Love.

We split the cooking tasks among 5 teams, one team for each dish led by a total of 5 team leaders: Shirley, Edith, Jane, Jo and me. The team leader would coordinate with her/his team members on the amount of food each member would be preparing.

In the morning on 16th October, the volunteers gathered at Peace Connect, lugging along trays and containers of food that were prepared for the event. We set up a simple 'buffet' serving counter where we dished out the food to the elderly folks. These elderly folks reside in single room flats located in neighbouring blocks around Peace Connect and they would come down for their daily meals; breakfast, lunch and dinner. Simple fare is served to them for their meals and these include; biscuits, bread, confectionaries etc; all sponsored by various organizations.

After 11am, the old folks started streaming in and in a brief moment, the whole place was bustling with activity. The old folks tucked into their lunch with joy and even had a karaoke session where they sang songs like '我问天', a hokkien number which is the theme song of  '爱', a taiwanese soap opera that has high viewership in Singapore. When lunch was over, the old folks started to leave and we helped clear the place.  

  

It was a meaningful yet fun-filled saturday morning spent at Peace Connect. With the success of this Cook and Feed With Love event, we are looking forward to upcoming similar community projects. Thanks to all the volunteers for making this event a success. It definitely was a great pleasure meeting up with them.

Volunteers (Bloggers):

Edith from http://preciousmoments66.blogspot.com/

Shirley from http://kokken69.blogspot.com/

Josephine from http://sugareverythingnice.blogspot.com/

Jane from http://passionbaker.blogspot.com/

Jess from http://bakericious.blogspot.com/

Eelin from http://thebatterbaker.blogspot.com/
Wendy from http://wensdelight.blogspot.com/
Doris from http://testedandtasted.blogspot.com/
Winnie from http://www.winniebakerz.com/
Judy from http://busygran.blogspot.com/
Christine from http://yummykoh.blogspot.com/
Esther from http://bakingoncloud9.blogspot.com/
Sheryl from http://sweetandhappyending.blogspot.com/

Volunteers (Non Bloggers):
Adeline
Chervon
Jie Sian
Sharon
Ping