Fabulous Baker Boy/ Togi Korean Restaurant/ Canele

I bet I gain abit of weight yesterday after all that eating. 

Met up with Lynette and Grace because Grace just came back from UK and of course meeting up with grace who loves to eat and eat and eat and eat (she's not fat by the way), we unknowingly went to 3 food places that I was wanted to cross out in my to-go list. It was great that we were still able to catch up and talk so well after not seeing each other for about 9 months. 

The UK themed cupcake kit that grace got me from Harrods, she's been feeding my cake decorating collection constantly no matter where she goes. Thanks grace :D

(I think i wouldn't bear to use it at all. It's too cute and there's only 24 set inside.) 

So the plan was to meet to go to Public Garden Flea Market to check it out and visit Togi Korean Restaurant for their Army Stew. 

So off we went to Public Garden Flea Market which was at Old Police Centre (around Clarke Quay area). Walked around the air-conditioned flea market and looked at the stuffs around, which ranges from clothes, bags, cakes, milkshakes, coffee, etc. Nothing really caught my eye except for this owl sling bag that was really cute but it was $70. Will buy it if I have more money someday. 

Left Public Garden and while it was still early, we thought of going somewhere to chill before going to Togi. Fabulous Baker Boy was our next stop after much decision. It is located right next to Veridian Art House, the owner probably owns the Art House next door (I'm not sure) and I really liked the concept of having an open space all to themselves, my ideal space for my own bakery (dreams...)  

Ordered a Red Velvet Cake ($8.50) and Valhrona Chocolate Cake ($8) shared between the 3 of us. 

Didn't really like the chocolate cake because the chocolate taste wasn't strong enough but the red velvet was really moist and nice! :D 

Price was a little hefty considering that I make my own cakes too :P 

Fabulous Baker Boy opens until 5.30pm on Sunday so if you happen to be there, keep a lookout on the timing so as not to avoid disappointment. 

Up next we went to Togi Korean Restaurant managed by Koreans so i supposed the food are pretty much authentic. We went there at around 5.30pm and surprisingly, there were a few groups of people waiting outside before the opening hour which was at 6pm. The staffs were also nice enough to bring us to our seats before their opening hour. 

When we sat down, they served us with banchan (side dishes) which had ikan billis, kimchi, black sauce potato (our favourite!), leeks, radish and cold cucumber salad (like achar! ). 

The staffs there were very alert and once we finished one of the side dishes, they immediately filled it up with no reminders needed at all. 

Kimchi seafood Pancake (3 for $6)

(Army Stew $35)

And so, as mentioned before, we wanted to try army stew so badly, so ordered that and kimchi pancake. Just get the smallest army stew if you are going there in groups of 3-4. We added an extra noodle and the portion is just nice for 3 of us, in fact we had leftovers that we couldn't finish. The army stew was pretty delicious but i had to down a lot of water because it had quite a bit of MSG from the luncheon meat and baked beans. But what's army stew without MSG?

A picture of us together at the place with our hot and piping army stew! :D 

Togi's a pretty cosy place to go to with good services, they will also top up soup for you if need be. 

Will definitely visit the place again! 

Swee Choon Dim Sum

Sorry for the lack of pictures... 

We were too engross during the process of eating thus,... :D

Went to Swee Choon Dim Sum with my cell group mates Jean and Peiying on Thursday night after their work. Despite all the ravings about how good and cheap swee choon was, I haven't been there before until now. 

Met at Bugis Mrt and we took a taxi there. The place is relatively ulu but its much bigger than I expected it to bad. 

The food were not too bad at all. Might not be the best but the standard is pretty there. As for the price I would not say that it is really cheap. I mean 2 siew mai for $1.80, meaning 1 is 90cents, I could have gotten 道记 siew mai which taste better! 道记 is at the hawker in Chinatown next to OG and trust me, their siew mai is the best I have eaten to far in Singapore. 

The highlights of the night are probably:

Chicken feet (which i don't eat but my other two friend kept saying how great it is)

Mee sua kweh: It looks like the shape of carrot cake we find from old chang kee but it is made entirely by fried mee sua. Pretty unique and special. 

Chilli Oil Wanton: This is pretty normal actually like normal wanton but I just love it because of all the fried food we had that night, this felt so good for that moment. 

Banana and Prawn Fritters: The Irony that I hate eating banana in every except from its original form, I think this tasted pretty good when it was eaten hot. I gave way mainly because the prawn looked pretty big but worth a try. 

Overall, I will still go back if I was in the area and will definitely order less than we did this time round. 

     Swee Choon Tim-Sum Restaurant Pte Ltd

183/ 185/ 187/ 189/ 191 Jalan Besar

Singapore 208882

Enquiry Hotline : 62257788
Fax : 62941089
Email : admin@sweechoon.com
Business Hours :
Monday to Sunday : 6 pm to 6 am Close on Tuesday
Payment mode : Cash and NETS

Cover of Almost Famous Amos Cookies

Back to where I started baking. 

I started baking during my secondary school days purely for fun. I did not know what a meringue was, how to creamed butter, etc. Everything was pure luck and i love baking cookies because it seems quite error free and it seems to be quite successful.

Success didn't come easy and I'm glad most of my bakes now turn out edible and some are quite nice i think. But I have failed numerous times. In fact because I only have a Microwave with an Oven setting at home, I could bake stuffs in large quantity or even Cakes in the past because I failed too many cakes (even Box Mix) that I lose hope in it. I stopped trying for quite some time and one day it just hit me to try again and from then on, i never doubt my "microwave" oven. Ask me who my teacher is, Youtube is the one who taught me so much and of course Cake Boss from starting my interest in cake decorating. 

(For your information, those people out there who have a microwave, I am not baking with microwave setting, it just that my microwave can convert into an "oven", thus I can bake in it. Microwave cannot be substituted if you do not have an oven setting.) 

Enough of my naggings. I made these cookies yesterday from 
http://www.bisousatoi.com/2010/03/famous-amos-chocolate-chunk-cookies.html

because I was craving for famous amos chocolate chips so badly. It's has a really strong buttery taste and I really liked it but in my opinion, I do not think it tasted like the famous amos that I fancy, but still its a recipe worth keeping and trying! :D 

Ingredients
250g salted butter,softened (i used unsalted 227g SCS)
200g light brown sugar (150g for me)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp coffee oil
1 egg (55g egg)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup oats,processed to bits in a chopper (32.5g)
1/4 cup ground almonds (22.5g)
1/2 cup of your favourite nuts,chopped finely (optional) (i didn't use any)
1 pack of Nestle Tollhouse semi-sweet chocolate chips OR chocolate chunks
300g self-raising flour (i used plain flour with 1/2tsp of baking powder)

Method
1) One night before, combine your eggs, Coffee Oil and Vanilla extract together and leave it in the fridge. Before using, bring it to room temperature. Alternatively, you can combine the mixture for 2 hours before.
2) Preheat your oven to 160C

3) To the room temperature butter, beat in sugar and salt.
4) Beat in the egg until there is no signs of liquid.
5) Stir in the processed oats, ground almonds, nuts and chocolate chunks.
6) Sift the Flour and fold everything in until there is no signs of flour and resembles a dough. 
(The dough will be a little greasy but will not stick to finger) 
For my cookies, it the size of a 1/2 teaspoon before baked, so i baked it for 14 minutes. For bigger cookies, bake it slightly longer. It will be better if you can test bake the first batch to determine the timing. 

Give it a try and let me know how it is.

Chocolate Macarons.

Valrhona Chocolate Macaron with Callebaut Chocolate Ganache

Some may say like: "Wah, you are so talented."

Not trying to be humble but here's all the ugly failures behind my success. 

Its true that its 99% perspiration and 1% talent. (if i actually remembered correctly)

Macarons are super difficult to make according to many (and to me la). 

Well, agreed to many extent because i have failed too many times (3 to be exact)

because all the ingredients had to be measured exactly, sifted to make sure there is no lumps of icing sugar or almond powder in the dry mixture, to make sure the egg whites are whipped till stiff peaks, the most crucial step to fold it in till there is no more egg whites and STOP! Go any further and you can say bye bye to your macarons. 

Baking is also a skill. Not too high and not too low. Best to know your oven well enough and test batch a tray of maybe 4-5 macarons? (i didn't do that though). You wouldn't want a whole batch of macarons to go to waste. Let it cool completely before taking them out of the parchment paper. 

Heard of people using Silpat to bake macarons, but poor me ain't no money to get a Silpat and parchment paper works so why spend the money now? Heard that baking on Silpat doesn't provide such nice feets, but i haven't tried, so no confirmation from me.

Every step is so crucial in making macarons, sometimes you feel like giving up. But once you get it, you get it :D 

Oh ya, chill it in the freezer after filling it with cream and bring it to room temperature when you want to eat. 

Anyway, why did i fail on my first 3 tries?

First try: Didn't know how to pipe and it was soooo sweet.

2nd try: Act smart, i thought macaron was like a cookie hamburger, overbaked and it tasted like cookie, nice though :D

3rd try: well,.... honestly speaking, i don't know what went wrong, but it didn't have feet not have skin when i first baked it. But it tasted really nice though :D

An encouragement about making macarons is that no matter how unsuccesful or successful you are, the taste will always be nice, just how authentic it is to the real true macaron. 

Well let's see... 

This time round it had feet, didn't even bothered to leave it till it formed a skin to bake,...

                                        

The Callebaut chocolate complemented very well with the cookie and i got to say, I am addicted to it and could not stop popping them into my mouth.

How the macarons looked from the inside.

And so,... here's my first successful attempt at the french Chocolate Macaron. 

Just remember that success will come once you try hard enough (and pray hard enough) 

Want to order some? Considering if I should start selling some. 

Will definitely make it again someday! <3

Pineapple Tarts

Hehe, yes stop looking at the date. 

It's May now and I'm making Pineapple Tarts, with my mummy! <3

To be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of pineapple tarts, but my mum is, so we decided to try making Pineapple Tarts that were so called :"Melt in your mouth", but not "melt in your hand" (Inside joke)

We made a total of two different kinds, the enclosed version and the open one; pretty delicious although there were mixed reviews about it. 

Well,... there's no pleasing of every person i guess, till then! :D

Happy Birthday Claire

 Yup, you are right, it is a minion cake. Minion from Despicable Me! <3

Its not exactly proportionate and detailed as I wanted it to be but i was too shag too actually think so much then. 

Anyway, it's Claire's 21st Birthday and I made her a minion cake cause Junqi said she liked the minions in Descipcable Me. 

 Hehe, the birthday girl with the cake. 

~Happy Birthday to Claire. 

Time to cut the cake, NOT THE MINION!

AHHHH, its being cut from the brain.

Mmmm,... the Minion's body taste nice and moist:D 

Patrons of the evening plus chery. 

Its been some time since i saw everyone, but all's well!

Happy 21st Claire! :D

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake for my Lasalle classmates

First attempt at making strawberry shortcake. 

Note to self: Never to use fondant with cream, it will melt in the fridge and sweat like mad. D:

Recipe from Ochikeron (youtube)

taste good *Thumbs up :D