Universal Studio Singapore Part 1

So... 

After hearing about all the fun everybody has had in Universal Studio Singapore,

I finally went to USS today with my cell mates, Peiying, Jean and Pei wen. 

After not sitting on a roller coaster for so long, I'm realised I'm still such a sucker for it, no matter how mild it is. My friends can prove that but before I go further into that, let me talk you thru my journey in USS today. 

Started from New York Street, and took pictures with the Kungfu Panda. Surprisingly, there were not many characters out today, was rather sad about that fact though:( 

First attraction we went was the Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase. 

- Ride to watch a sequence of modelled sesame street characters with Elmo as main lead on a quest to steal all of spaghetti from earth 

Fear level: 1/5 (Not scary, good for kids)

After which we went to "Lights, Camera, Action!" hosted by Steven Spielberg. It was actually an enactment of an earthquake with surprises attached, hehe.

Also caught the rockafellas at New York street dancing and interacting with the audience. Our dear pei pei was so mesmerised by the emcees & dancers, hehe. Audiences were chosen to come out to dance the wave dance and free style & I was shocked to see so many spontaneous guests. But guess what, among 4 of them, 2 were from HK, 2 from India, where are Singaporeans? 

Moved on to Sci-Fi City. 

YES!!! Cause battle star galactic was closed. 

At first I was thinking of trying while I was home, but once I was there, I backed off and thank god it was closed or my friends will definitely pull me up:( 

Okay, so I went to transformers 3D Ride. For someone like me who has not being to a theme park for so long, it was very scary for me because I couldnt expect anything that was going to happen. 2nd time there, I didn't feel scared at all but it was really enjoyable. My favourite ride among all!

Fear Level: 2.5/5 

Accelerator: It's just like the teacups ride in every other team park but it's transformer head style. 

Fear level:1/5

Giddiness level:4.5/5(haha)

Went to Ancient Egypt to play the Revenge of the Mummy ride. This is probably the most thrilling ride after Battlestar Galactica. Its basically an indoor roller coaster, sth like HK Disneyland but prolly worst. Eyes was closed slmost the whole ride so Im not sure.I took it twice, regretting everytime I go up again, simply cos I'm a sucker for roller coasters. The fall is definitely not the worst but that's my max. Was so scared I couldn't scream for a moment. That's how bad the impact was on me. 

Fear Level: 4.5/5

Had lunch after at the famous St.Louis Pizza Place. Ordered the family feast consisting of 1 large pizza, mushroom soup, 4 drinks and 2 coffee mousse I think. 

Update Part 2 soon:) 

Rosette Pandan Gula Melaka Cake

Yup today's blog post features a cake I've yet to taste or tried making before. 

Was kinda risky for me to attempt when Lynette introduced me to gula Melaka pandan cake. Was quite skeptical bout what Gula Melaka was, turned out to be palm sugar that you add in chendol, the Asian dessert, can also call this, a chendol cake I guess. 

Made this ard 6.30pm & finished baking, wait for it to cool down and finally down to piping at 10+ pm. Was shagged then considering that I woke up at 7am tt day for a SCO reading. 

Note to self, never to bake & decorate on the same day. I almost died washing n packing everything. 

But overall, the pandan taste was strong, the gula Melaka wasn't too sweet and it was a good balance which I enjoy really much. 

Anyway, I forgot to mention, but I made it to celebrate Lynette's and Rachel's early birthday, and because there were 2 of them, I made 2 tiers:) 

Have always wanted to attempt making lasagna. So today I suggested to grace I wanted to make it. (She cooked a whole load of Chinese dishes that were yummy)

Ingredients were ready made tomato sauce, lasagna and mozerella cheese, tts simply all!!! 

Layer each layer with sauce, paste, mozerella cheese, repeat 4 times ending with MORE CHEESE!!!

Bake in preheated oven of 200/180(fan mode) for 30 minutes. Great carbo food to enjoy with the remaining dish. Bake longer if you want the pasta softer. Anyway, we got instant lasagna sheets. Do take note when you buy as some must b pre-boiled before hand.

Fun and exciting to meet friends again. School's starting soon, this Saturday will prolly b my last baking session for this holiday while I get ready for school which will start in 2 weeks time. 

Once again, happy birthday to my dear friends who will be 21 on the 27th and 28th July:) 

Till then!)

Kitchen Aid Artisan (Pink)

Uncovering my newest family member... 

No more surprise cause I revealed it in my title. But as the heading suggests, I got it at quite a steal. Parted with $699 as I left Courts a happy girl. 

And the best thing is...

It's in my favourite colour Somemore.... Aww 

<3 it sooo much...

Well I always dreamt of owning a kitchen aid ever since I got hooked onto baking.  

Comes with a flat beater, whisk and dough hook:) 

Will be baking often with this, please await all my future bakes with my baby:) 

Jamie's Italian in Singapore @ Vivocity)

As the heading suggest, YES! I Have finally been to JAMIE's Italian. 

Been waiting for it for forever ever since it's announcement that one would be opened in singapore some time back.

Jamie's italian was opened on Wednesday and the queue for dinner starts at around 5.30pm. Do go at this time to avoid queuing for more than half an hour. 

Was seated in a corner of the restaurant with the view of Sentosa and also right next to the "pass/past" where the head chef calls for orders to his sous chefs. 

It felt like a real live enactment of masterchef/hell's kitchen, minus all the scoldings from Gordon Ramsay, haha! 

This is their menu. Everything for the design felt that they were thought out carefully. Really like the style of the menu, hand towel (almost wanted to steal it until I realised it was on sales! Jk, I don't have the balls to do it) & the internal decorations. 

We made an order for a jug of lemonade first, which tasted pretty good. I mean isn't lemonade just lemon n water? Nope, the lemonade has a little mint in it, but no mint taste overall, which balanced out the sour and minty taste, making us Gg for more easily. One jug can serve 4-5 people on the average that everyone drinks a cup though. 

This is the wild mushroom ravioli. ($16/$24.5) Ravioli is like an pasta style of our Chinese wanton, packed with ingredients inside 2 thin layers of pasta skin. With the bread crumbs and mushroom on the side, this is definitely one of my favourite dish of the night. 

There's also Jool's Sicillian Tuna Fussilli which I didn't get to try, but has really good reviews. 

This is the Brixham Bay Crab Risotto. ($19/$28.50) Filled with crab meat and bread crumbs. It is a little spicy for those who cannot take the heat. For a first timer eating risotto, I can say it tastes a little like porridge but I can taste every grains of rice. The stock isn't really soupy but is at a appropriate "sticky" level, which means to say, the stock and rice are like together, every mouthful and it always taste the same, but deliciously:) 

By the way, these two were the smaller versions because we wanted to try more dishes on the menu. 

Jamie's Italian Burger ($27.50) filled with lettuce, cheese, tomato, wagyu beef, caramelised onions and roasted bread. Everything was great, but since I'm

Not the biggest fan of burgers and meat, i'll prolly give it a miss on my next visit.

Last mains was the Fish Baked in a bag ($28) which did not leave a good impression for me. Filled with lemons, mussels, clams, fish and chick peas, it wasn't packed full of flavours and didn't really feel worth the money, in my opinion. But well, that's mine, try it if you want. It's nice but not to the extent of love for me. 

Last but not least, desserts!!! 

We had sorbets ($10.50, mango, bloody orange and black currant). The flavours are different everyday, so ask your waiter before ordering:) 

Really wanted to try their lemon meringue pie but was sold out:( oh yea and their antipasti, which is like their tapas! Nvm, Next time!!!

Jamie's Italian is located at Vivocity, 1st floor beside Starbucks coffee. Reservation for these few days are mostly booked because they reserve more seats for walk in customers. Hurry down and get a taste of Jamie Oliver's Italian Food!

Till then:)

Cranberry & cheese sweet buns

I have never really dared to attempt making bread because it seems too tedious & I had to spend so much time baking it. ( no doubt it is on one of my to-bake list someday when I have the guys to do it )

So while mum and I was chatting today, she asked me to bake something with the cranberries at home, so I thought, why not bake bread since there's a recipe that I longed to try. Also, there were leftover cheddar cheese. 

Let me know if you want the recipe. 

I just finished baking it, total time that tooked me was about 3-4 hrs. Very time consuming, but taste and texture was fluffy though but it didn't seem to rise as much as the bakery ones do. 

Mum's conclusion was that they put in way more yeast. What's yours? 

Shall try another recipe another day. 

Till then, bye! 

Tish Boyle Buttermilk Chocolate Cake and Little Teochew Lemon Pound Cake

Had buttermilk that were to expire in a few days,... *panic mode. 

Was frantically trying to find cake recipes that used buttermilk because i didn't want to waste it, so here I am making Chocolate and Lemon Pound Cake! :D 

(Yeah i know, I am a camwhore but only when it involves food)

 First intentions were to bake this delicious chocolate pound cake but 2 times the portion but I ran out of Valrhona Cocoa Powder and the recipe called for alkalized cocoa powder, so hershley was out (Hershley is unsweetened cocoa powder), thus the impromptu decision to make Lemon Pound Cake as well.

Hehe, I couldn't resist using the sillicon hello kitty cake moulds that my friend, grace gave to me on my birthday. Too adorable. 

Recipe for the chocolate cake by Tish Boyle 

which i got from Little Teochew

(from Tish Boyle Sweet Dreams)

Makes 6 individual cakes.
Storage: in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Special Equipment: one 6-cake Bundt-lette pan

- 114g cake flour (plain flour is fine too)
- 1/2 cup (1.6oz/46g) Dutch-processed (alkalized) cocoa powder*
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks/6oz/170g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/4 cups (8.8oz/250g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup (180ml) buttermilk
- 2 tablespoons (30ml) Kahlua (optional)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 ounces (113g) finely chopped bittersweet chocolate**** or 3/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate morsels bittersweet
* I used Valhrona cocoa powder,reduced the sugar to 170g, didn't use any alcohol and used bittersweet callebaut chocolate. 

Tips for self: Will use semi sweet chocolate chips instead, it was alittle too rich for my liking.

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F). Generously grease the interior of a 6-cake Bundt-lette pan (it's best to use shortening here). Dust the molds with flour and tap out the excess.*
* I used my aluminium loaf pan

2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine and set aside.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed for 2 minutes, until very creamy. Gradually beat in the sugar. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat for 3 minutes, until the mixture is well blended and light. At medium speed, beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

4. In a small bowl, stir together the buttermilk, Kahlua (or rum), and vanilla extract. If your mixer has a splatter shield attachment, attach it now. At low speed, add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in three additions, alternating it with the buttermilk cream mixture in two additions, and mixing just until blended. Remove the bowl from the mixer stand and stir in the finely chopped chocolate or miniature semisweet morsels. Scrape the batter into the prepared cake molds, dividing it evenly and smoothing the tops.

5. Bake the cakes for 25 to 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center of a cake comes out clean. Cool the cakes in the pan set on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
* I baked it for 45 minutes

6. Invert the cakes onto the rack and cool completely.
* If you intend to chill the cake(s), make sure they are stored in a tightly-lidded container to prevent drying out.

Tried it out and would say that I will not try this recipe again unless I have extra buttermilk, I think my chocolate cake recipe decipe beat this hands down, but its really not that bad if you like loads of chocolate and fudge. I just don't want to try it again because I have something better. But this is definitely worth a try because it's quite easy to do :D

Lemon pound Cake

 Recipe

Adapted from little teochew

                                    (adapted very slightly from Fine Cooking)

- 1 1/2 cups (170g) all-purpose unbleached flour ( i used plain flour)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, slightly soft
- 1 cup (225g) sugar*
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (approx. 120ml) buttermilk**
- Zest of 1 lemon, finely chopped or grated

* i reduced sugar to 130g

little teochew says:
"** No buttermilk? No problem. Just pour out the said amount of milk in a cup, then add 1/2 tsp lemon juice or vinegar and let it stand for 5mins."


1. Heat the oven to 325°C (160°C). Spray a loaf pan that’s about 8x5x3 inches with a nonstick coating.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt until well blended. With an electric mixer, beat the butter until it’s very pale and little tails have formed.

3. Sprinkle in the sugar and beat well until slightly fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl well. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until blended before adding the next.

4. With the mixer on low, add about one-third of the flour and mix until almost combined; then add half the buttermilk and mix until just combined. Repeat with another third of flour, and then the last half of the buttermilk, ending with the last third of the flour. Just before all the flour is incorporated, switch from the mixer to a stiff rubber spatula, add the lemon zest, and slowly stir to blend in the flour and zest, taking care to scrape the bowl’s bottom and sides.

5. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it when inserted in the center, 45 to 50 minutes. Let the cake cool before slicing.

The smell of the lemon pound cake is really heavenly. Don't underestimate the power of just 1 whole lemon worth of zest, it is that good. 

Baking is a fun thing to do, just that washing up is a chore. 

Try it and let me know how you like it. 

BBC Good Food Carrot Cake and my Brother's 24th

Happy 24th to my brother. 

Was in a dilemma, not knowing what to bake for my brother's birthday and he requested for a carrot, so a carrot cake it shall be. 

My brother has been away from home for an exchange programme in Scotland for 6 months, and while he was there, he attended a cooking class that taught them how to bake carrot cakes, so he came back, probably craving for that taste and so i decided to bake one on request.

Got this recipe from BBC Good Food Carrot Cake and added 200g of carrots instead of 140g. 

The frosting recipe is alittle weird, 2 table spoonful of orange juice can never make even a stiff royal icing, put as much as you deem is enough, don't have to follow the recipe FOR THE FROSTING.

Hauls from Europe from my bro to me. 

      

Chopin Vodka from Poland

                                                            Lemon Curd from Harrods UK, London.

Considering how little things my brother bought back, I feel lucky that he actually bought quite a few items for me, some upon request and some on his own.

Hummingbird Bakery Red Velvet Cupcakes and cream cheese frosting

Yes, I contemplated for too long and today, I decided to bake the so famous Red Velvet Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Really didn't like the idea of putting colouring in my food, but I guess I have to compromise because I really wanted to try making one to try and eat it. All the talks about trying.

Got the recipe from  Brown Eyed Baker (click the link for the recipe), although i reduced the sugar amounts for both the cupcakes and the frosting to the same amount as the flour and for the icing, i didn't measure how much i put mainly because i tasted as i mixed resulting in a watery frosting.

Do take note that while mixing your frosting, do not overmix them because it will turn really watery and "un-pipeable".

After baking it, it tasted more like a chocolate cake but i liked it because i didn't have any of the baking soda aftertaste that I absolutely do not like.

Do also note that this recipe calls for unsweentened cocoa powder so it will be great to use brands like hershley and hershley (because i do not know any other unsweentened coca powder that I like).

That's all for today, do let me know what you would want me to bake and I'll try it out (if i like it) and I will give a review on it :D