yesyesyes. yc is officially turning into a full-time glutton.

lol.

and in the process of beefing up her glutton blog (which has been set up! yaay! *throws confetti*)

things that yc needs:
money
piping bag
ramekins/molds/chwee kueh molds
assortment of nozzles
adventurous friends

*

things that yc wants to watch:
Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch's Last Lecture
籃球火
Prison Break Season2 & 3

The last lecture was given by a professor who had terminal cancer and this video is said to be very inspirational. There's a book version too, which is probably the transcript.

**

家家有本難念的經。

不曾懷疑這句名言/俗語/俚語 （閣下孤陋寡聞不清楚該如何歸類）。

多數家庭背後都有不爲人知的一面。因此，在不清楚狀況的情形下，請不要貿然下定論。並不是在針對任何一件近來發生的事情或針對什麽人 （*忙著撇清關係*），只是有些許唏噓、感慨。朋友、戀人，能選擇、也有可能好聚好散，可是家人、親人，就沒有選擇的餘地。是好是坏，照單全收。所以對於家人，多數人的態度總是無限的包容。也許也正如此，家人的擁抱總是最溫暖。因爲在家人的眼裏，錯與對已不重要。重點乃一家人生活在一起的幸福快樂。

雖然不是每個家庭都美滿幸福。破碎的家庭不是稀有品種，就那麽零零碎碎的幾個。而在遇到波折時，就是考驗著人類的極限。你可以在放棄自己的當兒以你不美滿的家庭當作最完美不過的理由，可是我始終認爲那只是最方便的藉口。

有時，當你認爲自己被衰神纏身，不幸的事情總是登門造訪，自己的那片天空裏佈滿烏雲、迷蒙煙霧；而別人的天空似乎洋溢著光芒、陽光無限好、清澈明亮，有溫暖的曙光特別眷顧著，請不要放棄自己。地球會不停的旋轉，因此黑夜白晝會不斷地交替。世事，總是有好有坏，一体兩面。別人的天空爲何總是看似晴空萬里？看似是關鍵。因爲他們善於遮掩，以堅強的外表包裹著隱藏的傷口。

在我眼裏，堅強、剛烈、堅韌的第一代言人，非我的媽媽莫屬。

真的。

媽媽好棒。

媽媽要加油。

頭頭是道的說了一堆，也許只是空無一談，也許只是剛吃完午飯還未消化而胡亂說說，也許只是無病感概（呻吟）。無所謂。只屬作作文章、發表發表言論，娛樂娛樂自己。（這句話是否勾起你一些關於“五柳先生”的朦朧回憶？哈！怎敢拿自己和陶大師相提並論。*開始陷入語無倫次狀態*）

**

I want to try this!!:-

Maltesers Muffins

Ingredients:

130 gm. cake flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. Bicarbonate of soda
60 gm. butter
110 gm. sugar
60 gm. dark chocolate - melted
2 large eggs (70 gm. each with shell)
a pinch of salt
120 ml. fresh milk or buttermilk (note: buttermilk can be found in Jason's/coldstorage, dairy farmers brand)
1/2 tsp. of vanilla essence
1 cup of maltesers

Method:

(1) Line muffin pan with paper cups.
(2) Sift cake flour with baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.
(3) Cream butter and sugar until light. (note: add vanilla essence)
(4) Add in melted chocolate and eggs.
(5) Fold in sifted flour and salt alternately with milk.
(6) Fold in maltesers lightly and scoop mixture into prepared paper cups.
(7) Bake at 175C for about 25 mins.


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And.. after watching Zettai Kareshi (a.k.a. absolute boyfriend), I want to learn how to make cream puffs!!

Cream Puffs

Choux Paste:

85 gm. water
50 gm. Butter
60 gm. Plain flour
125 gm. eggs (about 2 eggs)

Custard filling:

420 gm. fresh milk
150 gm. sugar
5 eggs - beaten lightly
30 gm. Butter
25 gm. flour
25 gm. cornflour
1/2 tsp. Vanilla esssence
1 tsp. Rum

Method for choux paste:

(1) Boil water and butter till boiling.
(2) Pour in all the flour and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon till paste is not sticky and leaving the side of the pan. Remove from heat and let it cool till lukewarm.
(3) Stir in eggs and mix till it becomes a smooth paste.
(4) Fill paste into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe onto a baking tray. Makes about 15 nos.
(5) Bake at 180C for about 20 mins. or till puffed up and golden in colour.
(6) For filling: Boil milk with sugar till sugar dissolves.
(7) Meantime, mix cornflour and flour together and then mix in the 5 beaten eggs. Seive mixture.
(8) Remove hot milk from stove, pour gradually into the egg mixture and stir till well mixed. Return to stove again and cook over low heat till custard thickens.
(9) Stir in butter, vanilla essence and rum and set aside to cool.
(10) Cut cream puffs but not cut through, pipe some custard filling into the puff and close back the top put.
(11) Serve.

The steps look CHEEM=X. I foresee a lot of problems along the way. Need to get piping bag/star nozzle and dunno how on earth I am supposed to pipe the filling into the puff. *scratch*

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Was staring at this signature cake from Lil’ Foot Pâtisserie and wondering how on earth did they bake the cake with the checkered pattern inside. Click HERE to have a look.

And saw this Checkerboard Chocolate Cake recipe. There's a special baking tin to make the pattern! However, the Lil Foot Patisserie's cheesecake still looks amazing, chocolate and cheese cubes! Ahh. I must try the Signature Chocolate Cheesecake. It shall be my 20th birthday cake~

^ Recipes are from http://auntyyochana.blogspot.com

Can I just stay home all day and learn to bake all sorts of things??

Provided I have 4 stomachs like the cow and a tummy that never grows fats.

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Labels: baking

heya~ here are some overdue photos. hehe. some food for you to look and wish you can eat them.

11/7: dinner with sh, yun, ahHong

yh (ahHong makes me think of that taiwanese who has a programme called 阿鴻美食記或類似的節目名稱 xP）had a report to rush at SPH, so we 3 had our dinner first at Soup Spoon @ Paragon. we only realised Soup Spoon wasn't a vegetarian restaurant (it has onions in its sandwiches/soups) after ordering. so we decided to just eat while waiting fr yh.

lighting was a little strange so photos would look a little dark. the photos taken with flash looked too bright (except for the breaded buttons which looked like weird lumps without flash).

heys~

been posting food photos happily and not exactly blogging. haha. maybe I should start a food blog too(:.

my three months holidays are coming to an end. we never get tired of holidays, don't we? In the past, we had one month holidays in june or six weeks of holidays in december, and always wished for more days during the last week of holidays thereby all the holidays homework would pile up. frequent holiday homework leftover suspects would include unfinished newspaper cuttings (chinese/geog/gp), repititive math homework (E math, A math, C math trigo... ...), 字帖, 閲讀報告, past year papers, compositions. and now, after two months plus of holidaying, I still feel the inertia of going back to school. especially when school is no longer in the east area. and the thought of bidding agonies, new stressful modules, frequent visits to library to zap notes, kicking back into mugging mode... blearghh. my brain has been in hibernation since exams ended last semester. it's going to take some time before the brain will finally be defrosted fully to absorb new information and disseminate the gibberish into useful bits of knowledge. and to think I harboured lofty intentions before exams to make full use of my holidays to build up on my meagre knowledge of china's history.

may was spent doing nothing much. slacking, making great plans about exercising, tuitioning, outings, 自修-ing. june was spent accumulating much angst over preparation of the camp plus working paid (breathless on first day, slack on remaining days:p) work and unpaid (shitty) work during the camp. july started off with yc putting her 200% in slacking after the camp. and recently she's been obsessing constantly about food. and spending alot too (and not doing accounts for expenses).

and without much delay, school will commence again. BAHH.

*

had a fight with mum today over a silly issue. I was keeping my emotions under control but I really couldn't stand her constant, undying flow of blame that I blew my top. my emotions were stretched to the limit. I didn't throw a tantrum or scream. I just felt my senses leaving me and squatted there sobbing. I hate not being in control but I just got too tired of keeping myself in check, treading in safe waters, being on constant vigilance, keeping in all emotions and putting on a nonchalant front. too many things were often left unsaid. the spark was a tiny issue that blew out of proportion because of other matters. it's okkay. I will just have to ensure that the negative emotions are kept safely in a vault that is kept under tight surveillance and security, and draw up emergency evacuation plans to avoid over-accumulation of negative toxins.

**

AHAR.

saw another recipe which included flour. and it ensures that the cake won't stick to the molds/ramekins.

CLICK HERE.

Ingredients:
6 oz unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped
175g unsalted butter, roughly chopped
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
7 (slightly heaped) tbsp castor sugar
6 tbsp plain flour

1. Melt the butter and chocolate in a bain marie, stirring, until glossy and smooth. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
2. Butter 8 3/4-cup ramekins well, and freeze for 5 minutes. Remove from the freezer, butter again and freeze for another 5 minutes. Remove from freezer, dust lightly with flour and store in the refrigerator until needed. (This step is a bit tedious, but will ensure that the cakes don't stick to the ramekins.)
3. Whisk the eggs, egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes worth of elbow-grease - you can always opt to use an electric mixer).
4. Add cooled chocolate mixture into egg mixture and mix well until batter is dark brown. If you see bubbles during the mixing, don't worry - bubbles are a good thing!
5. Sift flour into batter and mix until incorporated.
6. Divide batter evenly among ramekins and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (or overnight).
7. Before baking, take the ramekins out of the fridge to bring back to room temperature (at least 1 hour). Preheat oven to 200°C, and bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes, then unmold and serve with vanilla ice cream, a couple of raspberries and a dusting of icing sugar.

*

and from chubbyhubby's blog:

Molten chocolate cake, serves 4

125g butter; plus a little for buttering the molds
112g bittersweet chocolate, preferably Valrhona
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons flour; plus a little more for dusting

1. In the top of a double boiler set over simmering water; heat the butter and chocolate together until the chocolate is almost completely melted. While that’s heating, beat together the eggs, yolks, and sugar with a whisk or electric beater until light and thick.

2. Beat together the melted chocolate and butter; it should be quite warm. Pour in the egg mixture, then quickly beat in the flour; just until combined.

3. Butter and lightly flour four 4-ounce molds, custard cups, or ramekins. Tap out the excess flour Divide the batter among the molds. (At this point you can refrigerate the desserts until you are ready to eat, for up to several hours; bring them to room temperature before baking.)

4. Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C). Bake the molds on a tray for 6 to 7 minutes; the center will still be quite soft, but the sides will be set.

5. Invert each mold onto a plate and let sit for about 10 seconds. Unmold by lifting one corner of the mold; the cake will fall out onto the plate. Serve immediately.

From:
Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef
By Jean-Georges Vongerichten
and Mark Bittman

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Labels: baking

found another chocolate molten cake recipe online CLICK HERE.

and the ingredients don't include FLOUR! (or does cream of tartar replace flour?) (realised it doesn't)

Recipe:

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
6 ounces (170 grams) semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
3 large eggs, separated
1/3 cup (65 grams) granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 tablespoon granulated white sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Generously butter 4 - 3/4 cup (180 ml) molds, ramekins, or custard cups and dust the insides with granulated white sugar. Place the prepared molds on a baking sheet and set aside while you make the chocolate cakes.

In a stainless steel bowl suspended over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the butter and chocolate. Remove from heat and set aside while you whip the egg yolks.

In your electric mixer beat the egg yolks and 1/3 cup (65 grams) sugar until thick, pale, and fluffy. (When you slowly raise the beaters the batter will fall back into the bowl in slow ribbons.) Beat in the vanilla extract and then fold in the melted chocolate mixture.

In another clean bowl whip the egg whites until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to whip until soft peaks form. Gradually add the 1 tablespoon of granulated white sugar and whip until stiff peaks form. With a rubber spatula or wire whisk gently fold the beaten whites into the chocolate mixture, just until incorporated. Do not over mix or the batter will deflate. Divide the batter between the prepared molds, filling about 3/4 full. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until the outside edges of the cakes are set but the middle still looks a little wet. You may have cracks on the top surface of the cakes.

Immediately remove from oven and let them rest for a minute or two. Run a palette or sharp knife around the edge of each cake and then invert onto the center of each serving plate. Carefully remove the mold. Sprinkle the top of each cake with confectioners sugar and place a dollop of softly whipped cream, clotted cream, crème fraîche, or vanilla ice cream on top of each warm cake.

*

eve and i baked chocolate molten cake ytd:). the recipe we used had flour, but didn't specify the butter to be unsalted, and didn't include vanilla extract or cream of tartar, and although it specified 2 egg yolks, it didn't mention that the other 2 eggs required need to be separated. vanilla is usually used to heightened the flavour of cakes so it is okay to omit it sometimes.

Cream of tartar :
Cream of tartar is a by-product of the wine industry. A crystalline acid forms on the inside of wine barrels. The barrels are scraped and the sediment is purified and ground to form cream of tartar. Cream of tartar is used to stabilize egg whites when making meringue or as an addition to certain frostings to produce a creamy product.

Substituition: lemon juice (3 x quantity) or vinegar (3 x quantity)

hmmm. so basically the cream of tartar is used in cases where egg whites and yolks are separated.

anyway, this was our final product (2nd batch):

















looks rather presentable eh? taste was better than the first batch! haha. somehow the first batch turned out salty=p. but we were very sure that the SCS butter we used was not the salted kind. haha.. after cutting down on the sugar, butter, adding more eggs and chocolate, the 2nd batch didn't have the salty taste:).

the website also included some paragraphs introducing the molten cake and it mentioned:

When making these cakes you can use individual ramekins, molds, custard cups, or even muffin tins. The cakes can be served in their molds but if you want to remove them from their cups before serving, it is important to generously butter each mold so the baked cakes release easily onto your serving plate. You may want to first run a sharp knife around each cake before unmolding.

okay the cakes did look presentable when it was fresh out of oven, but according to the recipe, the cakes could be "gently unmolded" and it would be served "upside down" with vanilla icecream. but when unmolded, the cakes crumbled and became chocolate fudge, albeit yummy. haha. we greased the molds and dusted them with flour. but i guess it wasn't sufficient, need to generously butter the molds.

loll.

i love baking:DD.

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Labels: baking

BOO~

topic: GYA outing
venue: NYDC (wheelock), Big O Café (wheelock)
weather: a little windy
spirits: high
sugar/glucose levels: LOW

coming up are yc's favourite kind of photos: FOOD




























mushroom ham pasta from NYDC. cheesy enough, a little bit salty (but that's probably cos yc's tastebuds prefers blander stuff), with soft chewy mushrooms, all in all palatable:).















Jamaican banana chocolate cake from NYDC. first dessert of the day. banana isn't my favourite fruit, and I like banana cakes with minimal banana taste (strange._.) anyway I was deceived by the description of the cake which promised only a dash of bananas. there was a whole layer of banana bits dedicated to the slice of cake! hahaha.

after which we proceeded to Big O which was opposite NYDC for second round of desserts.















the 'G' spot, which was served warm:). so we attacked it before the durian wonder. it was chocolate gel/jelly with choc sponge cake.. not really exciting. probably largely due to the fact that as i was biting into it, my mind was away on the dome shaped cake beside it... ...










































the dome shaped cake: Spike 'D'. the legendary durian dessert (actually it's cake). yummmmms. the mixture of the chocolate exterior and creamy+smooth+durianfruit+soft sponge cake interior in your mouth. too heavenly for words. ooOoooh.


















GYA photo to wrap up. I realise we didn't take photos liberally that day~ there's always a next outing:). nxt wednesday:DD. come, let's think of a new place to eat. maybe we can go purvis street or liangseah street to seek out a goood foodie place=D. and hv desserts at 記得吃。

hoiiii~

just read tingg's blog entry about old blogs. i think i will cringe when i read my old blogs. yeahh. i've done it before. read them i mean. the blurty blog was the ultimate. filled with lors,lahs,lehs, hahax,hahaz,muahahas,wahahas,hehex,heez,lollx and wHaTnOt. lol. one entry will hv 70% alien script, shameless shortforms and hyena laughter. though i admit my shortforms stayed on (they did mature alr HAHA), my laughter remained (at noticeably lower frequency without awful mutations), the alien script did get cut down and the notorious mIxtUrE of caps and non caps disappeared thankfully. but my lack of caps at the start of each sentence stayed on adamantly. To think that i always nag at my students, "Where are your capital letters?" Tskk. Talk about setting a good example.

hmmm. while reminiscing about dhs days, i guess i will first think of cca. sadly, i don't think i will dwell too much on twojayy. perhaps twojayy was a little divided, or rather it was because i belonged to the minority:). we had one voice at times too, like the national day competition, some captain ball games, MEP times, wallace's science lessons.. but more than oft, our pace differed from clique to clique. but we still braved through two years together, in peace and almost zero animosity. i won't look back at the old times and say heyy, i miss the twojayy united spirit. but i will look back and say heyy, i miss the small albeit few jigsaw pieces of shared memories that somehow glued a class of thirty seven different people together.

gya didn't surface in twojayy, but it marked the beginning of it.

twojayy brought about our version of taliban (although i wasn't technically part of it. maybe i could be counted as an affiliate).

twojayy grouped eggy, doggy, lucky, ? (i seriously cannot rmb your nickname, eve. or were you lucky? what was i then?) together.

twojayy witnessed mdm ong's outbursts of "Colour Fu" and "Oven Wang".

twojayy had their fair share of classroom romances. do you all remember this voting website which we had? voting for our favourite couples online?

twojayy moulded budding mothers. at some point of time, either sh erma i ne or i were mothers, or was it yt and i, or was it s her ma in e and yt? seriously, yc is senile. and ohh. another related thing is 9, 10, 11, 12 (namely yn sher me yt). those numbers were our register numbers.

..

..

sleepiness + rust + senile dementia = bits&pieces of random memories.

**

yoyo~




















went to watch 10 promises with my dog ytd with ky&vann. and the winner of the lose tears contest was lyc!! hurrayy she actually beat the watch-881-until-her-top-got-wet ms lum. anyway, i really love the dog. it was damn cute. when it was still a small clumsy puppy till it grew up and became old. ahhh. golden retrievers are just soooo beautiful.































GWAH. i want a dog. and i think the dog acted very welll. it could speak with its soulful eyes~ and it was so cute when it bumped about clumsily in the yard when it was unfamiliar with its new surroundings. there was a scene thereby it tripped over a small flight of steps. damn cute. so i really couldn't stop crying when it died. SOCKS! (that's its/her name) i think the whole cinema was sniffing/sobbing/wailing. bweah. so i just joined in the sobbing.



















we look pretty happy after the crying:).

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my prettaye birthday bag:).

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okkay i hv alot of other things to say but my mind is abit clogged and cluttered noww. blog again soon(:

**

some fooood photos




















seafood platter!! superrrrrr filling=)). felt sooo man zu after sharing it with hc(:.
















my lunch at ichiban restaurant(:. there's sashimi on rice, chawanmushi, tempura, curry udon. ate till stomach want to burst tooooo.

















yun&gh's lunch~ there's beef and tofu hotpot, fried karage chicken, tempura, miso soup~

my lappie is dying!!=//

I WANT TO BAKE.

anyway, after some clicking and surfing, i finally found the recipe of the chocolate chips muffins my bro&dasao used.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (makes 12)


2(1/2) cups self-raising flour
(1/2) cup caster sugar (replace with soft brown sugar if desired)
1(1/2) cup milk
2 lightly beaten eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
150grams unsalted butter (melted and cooled)
1(1/2) cups chocolate chips (or liberally!)




Pre-heat oven to 200 degc.
Sift flour into a bowl, add sugar to the bowl and stir through the flour.
Make a well in the center and in a jar, mix together the milk, eggs and vanilla essence.
Pour the liquid into the well and add the cooled butter.
Fold the mixture gently with a metal spoon until just combined.
Add chocolate chips at this stage. Careful not to over-beat or muffins will become tough and rubbery.
The mixture should be lumpy at this stage. Pour into muffin moulds (fill up the mould if you like the 'over-flowing' look).
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until they are risen, golden.

*

ahem~ when will my dear yeefuleen, when will u be free to bake? we must try that molten choc cake thingy right? (did i rmb the name correctly? anw it's that cake which will hv chocolate oozing out when u bite into it. lol)

and i must persuade my dear mum to try the famous brownies recipe.

**

just to prove that i'm still thinking of you, even while i'm shopping...












GU!!! how come you are here? aren't you sposed to be in CHINA?

anyway, will it be faster for me to upload photos here rather than send them one by one to sheehwee? but i feel very paiseh uploading all our photos here. shall put up the nicer looking ones. HAHAH.











we aspire to be like the forever friends bear(:.














sheehwee and panda.






















tired of uploading when my comp keeps throwing hissy fits. !@#$%~

hahah.. anw it was a long since i went to shop at orchard and bought a top, scarf and belt!! i need slippppppppers.