Wednesday, October 27, 2010
My bday cake
Mummy made me a chocolate bday cake for my bday this year. the cake itself is the same cake tat she made for daddy's bday. a chocolate sponge cake. she just changed the decoration and used a swiss meringue chocolate buttercream instead.
bday celebration on the actual day!
Ok finally its the actual day of my bday hehe. Today, my group of frens came to my house to celebrate my bday for me! i enjoyed their accomapny so much! n mummy made me a chocolate bday cake.. hhee. im finally 2 years old as of today!
bday celebration at the zoo!
This year i seem to have alot of bday celebration lol. one day with daddy n mummy and one day with my group of frens in tokyo! we went to the zoo! the weather again is not very good.. cloudy and then started drizzling around 2pm.. however, i enjoyed myself alot! The previous time when daddy and mummy brought me to the zoo.. i didnt enjoyed myself as im scared of the animals.. but this time, i enjoyed touching them! they are so cute!
Disneyland bday celebration with daddy n mummy
this year, my bday is on a weekday too so was unable to celebrate with daddy on the exact day thus we went to disneyland for a PRE celebration on sunday (24th oct). It was a bad decision! There were many people (as expected) but its so much so that its a bit hard to push the pram around... n around 4pm.. it started to rain! HEAVY RAIN! i only manage to get onto the merry go round (which i burst out crying as im scared!), the teapot party..(i enjoyed this) and we got on a big ship hehe. thats all! but i got to eat chocolate flavoured pop corn lol. it was delicious!
Monday, October 25, 2010
Swiss Meringue Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Igredients
160g caster sugar
3 large egg whites
pinch of salt
300g unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
200g bittersweet chocolate buttons/tablets, melted
1. Melt the chocolate over a water bath or double boiler, stiring consistenly as not to burn it. Set aside and let cool.
2. Place egg whites, salt and sugar in a big stainless steel bowl. (u need a big bowl as u will be using this bowl to fluff up the egg white later unless u transfer this mixture into another big mixing bowl)
3. Set bowl over 1 inch of water in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk gently until sugar has dissolved and mixture is no longer grainy when you rub it between your fingers
4. Remove from heat and using an electric mixer, whisk on high speed until egg whites are cool to touch and fluffy (might take a while).
5. Continue beating, gradually add soft butter by tablespoon pieces and continue to beat. It will first look watery or separated but it will come together eventually
6. Once desired, pipe-able consistency has been reached, beat in cooled chocolate until well incorporated
160g caster sugar
3 large egg whites
pinch of salt
300g unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
200g bittersweet chocolate buttons/tablets, melted
1. Melt the chocolate over a water bath or double boiler, stiring consistenly as not to burn it. Set aside and let cool.
2. Place egg whites, salt and sugar in a big stainless steel bowl. (u need a big bowl as u will be using this bowl to fluff up the egg white later unless u transfer this mixture into another big mixing bowl)
3. Set bowl over 1 inch of water in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk gently until sugar has dissolved and mixture is no longer grainy when you rub it between your fingers
4. Remove from heat and using an electric mixer, whisk on high speed until egg whites are cool to touch and fluffy (might take a while).
5. Continue beating, gradually add soft butter by tablespoon pieces and continue to beat. It will first look watery or separated but it will come together eventually
6. Once desired, pipe-able consistency has been reached, beat in cooled chocolate until well incorporated
Results: smooth cream! not too sweet too! this is definately much better than the grainy and overly sweet american buttercream! but the cream itself does feels heavier (in terms of weight) than the american buttercream. anyway YUMMY!
American basic buttercream frosting
Basic Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients:
1 stick softened Butter (about 225-250g)
2 cups of powdered sugar (sifted)
2 tablespoon of milk (if necessary)
1 teaspoon vanilla eccense
Directions:
1. Cream the butter well with an electric hand mixer on low speed till light and fluffy then add the sifted powdered sugar into the butter bit by bit (there will be flying powdered sugar if added too much at a time). Add vanilla eccense. Increase speed gradually.
2. Beat the mixture till its smooth and spreadable consistency (add milk if mixture is too dry. do not add any milk if the mixture is already smooth and spreadable. add milk tablespoon by tablespoon depending on your mixture's consistency). Might takes about 15mins
** mummy didnt add any milk for the buttercream frosting as her frosting is already smooth and spreadable before milk is being added.
Results: its very beautiful BUT its grainy and also TOO sweet...but then its really easy to make though hehe.
Ingredients:
1 stick softened Butter (about 225-250g)
2 cups of powdered sugar (sifted)
2 tablespoon of milk (if necessary)
1 teaspoon vanilla eccense
Directions:
1. Cream the butter well with an electric hand mixer on low speed till light and fluffy then add the sifted powdered sugar into the butter bit by bit (there will be flying powdered sugar if added too much at a time). Add vanilla eccense. Increase speed gradually.
2. Beat the mixture till its smooth and spreadable consistency (add milk if mixture is too dry. do not add any milk if the mixture is already smooth and spreadable. add milk tablespoon by tablespoon depending on your mixture's consistency). Might takes about 15mins
** mummy didnt add any milk for the buttercream frosting as her frosting is already smooth and spreadable before milk is being added.
Results: its very beautiful BUT its grainy and also TOO sweet...but then its really easy to make though hehe.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
A fren's scarf
Mummy made this scarf for a fren of mine!
Directions:
Row 1 to 11 and 15-17- Purl 2, *Knit 6, Purl 1, Knit 6, Purl 2* repeat * to * another 2 times(total 3 times) ending with Purl 2
Row 2 and all even numbered rows- Knit all knit stitches and purl all purl stitches
Row 13 and 19- Purl 2, *slip 6 into dp needle and hold in front of work, knit 6, purl 1, knit 6 from dp needle, purl 2*. repeat * to * another 2 times (total 3 times) ending with purl 2
Repeat these 20 rows for pattern.
Daddy's bday cake
Recently mummy haven been blogging often as she has been busy researching for a cake and frosting recipe for daddy's bday. Ever since she became a stay at home mum, she finds it meaningless to buy daddy presents as she will be using his $ for his present! so she has been trying to bake him a bday cake every yr.. last yr was oreo cheesecake and this year she wanna challenge something else so she decided to make a chocolate sponge cake with buttercream frosting!
Recipe for chocolate sponge cake
Ingredients:
3 eggs
90 g castor sugar
70g plain flour
20g cocoa powder
15g butter
2 teaspoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla eccense
Directions:
1. preheat the oven to 150 degree celcius (mummy's oven is rather hot thus she uses 150 for all cakes. u might want to try 170 degrees depending on your oven..)
2. crack the 3 eggs into a mixing bowl and mix with a electric hand mixer with medium speed. Slowly add in the sugar.
3. Increase the speed to high after all the sugar has been incorporated and continue to beat until light and fluffy (this may takes about 10-15mins). you should be able to 'draw' patterns which stays on top of the batter with your whisk (refer to the photos in the slideshow for consistency).
4. melt the butter and milk together in a small heat proof bowl inside the microwave oven or over a double boiler
5. Sift the cocoa powder and flour together
6. Add vanilla eccense and the sifted cocoa powder and flour (bit by bit) into the creamed mixture and fold them in
7. After mixture is well blended, add the butter+ milk and continue folding till well corperated (be careful not to over mix the batter). The batter should be very very light and resembles a chocolate moose
8. Pour the batter into a greased 18cm diameter round baking pan and set to bake for 40mins.
decorate it with buttercream
Chocolate curls
Ingredients:
2 chocolate bar of your choice
Directions:
Let chocolate bar soften a bit at room temperature and 'peel' with a vegetable peeler. depending on your preference of the chocolate curls' length, u can use the length or the width of the chocolate bar
** if the curls break during peeling, chocolate bar is still too hard. let it sit in room temperature for a while more. if chocolate bar starts to melt halfway while 'peeling', put it back into the fridge for a while before continuing with the curls.
Recipe for chocolate sponge cake
Ingredients:
3 eggs
90 g castor sugar
70g plain flour
20g cocoa powder
15g butter
2 teaspoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla eccense
Directions:
1. preheat the oven to 150 degree celcius (mummy's oven is rather hot thus she uses 150 for all cakes. u might want to try 170 degrees depending on your oven..)
2. crack the 3 eggs into a mixing bowl and mix with a electric hand mixer with medium speed. Slowly add in the sugar.
3. Increase the speed to high after all the sugar has been incorporated and continue to beat until light and fluffy (this may takes about 10-15mins). you should be able to 'draw' patterns which stays on top of the batter with your whisk (refer to the photos in the slideshow for consistency).
4. melt the butter and milk together in a small heat proof bowl inside the microwave oven or over a double boiler
5. Sift the cocoa powder and flour together
6. Add vanilla eccense and the sifted cocoa powder and flour (bit by bit) into the creamed mixture and fold them in
7. After mixture is well blended, add the butter+ milk and continue folding till well corperated (be careful not to over mix the batter). The batter should be very very light and resembles a chocolate moose
8. Pour the batter into a greased 18cm diameter round baking pan and set to bake for 40mins.
decorate it with buttercream
Chocolate curls
Ingredients:
2 chocolate bar of your choice
Directions:
Let chocolate bar soften a bit at room temperature and 'peel' with a vegetable peeler. depending on your preference of the chocolate curls' length, u can use the length or the width of the chocolate bar
** if the curls break during peeling, chocolate bar is still too hard. let it sit in room temperature for a while more. if chocolate bar starts to melt halfway while 'peeling', put it back into the fridge for a while before continuing with the curls.
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