Baking - my new hobby

Baking, I never knew this was going to be one of the things I would picked up in my life. Fortunately, my house came with a conventional oven and allows me to grab that opportunity. It was also Rinoa's school principal who suggested a fun and interactive way for her to learn and spend quality time with me . Its fun and easy to guide them the easy steps of the baking process.

Here are some of the stuff I made in the last month for the festive period.

1st attempt - A Test on how to make Chocolate Cakes (with overloaded Chocolate icing)

2nd attempt - Mom and Pop's 62nd Wedding Anniversary (6 inch Double chocolate Cake with White Rose Icing to signify Pure Love)

A picture of the lovely couple with the cake

3rd attempt - i took a break from cakes and tried out bread instead.

 Behind the scenes of the mini breads for the girls. stuffed with cheese.

This is the yummy result. A loaf of Focaccia bread and mini buns .

4th attempt - Cupcakes for Christmas giveaway to Friends

Suppose to be the Green and white Christmas Trees. decorations topped with M&Ms.

5th attempt - when the first batch was a success i decided to be creative and make Cookie Monster Cupcakes for Rinoa's School Christmas Party. Gave away 20 pieces for her classmates and teachers. I had extra, so i decided to make "Elmo" but somehow I couldn't achieve the red , so i decided it will be his companion =)

6th attempt - Christmas Cookies for my colleagues. Christmas Tree and Star Flakes packaged in simple wrapper.

Final Baking for the Year - Christmas Log Cake with Mini Santas . Mini Santas were simply fresh Strawberries and Cream Cheese.

I'm surprised .. these are my accomplishments for 2014 . 

Top Family & Baby Friendly Seafood Restaurant Singapore - Cove99

This restaurant has to be one of my top favorite list of Restaurants in Singapore. Its Cove99 Live Seafood Restaurant @ 72 Peck Seah Street Singapore 079329. Not only the food is excellent it is Family & Baby Friendly. The restaurant is within a row of shop houses and right in front is an open car park with plenty of parking.

We had a set menu that night to celebrate my husband's birthday. All of the dishes were absolutely yummy and food presentation was excellent. Service staff was very good, attentive and friendly.

Restaurant ambient and environment is good.

There's a baby change area in the ladies room in the restaurant itself.

There;s plenty of reasons why i would definitely be back again =)

Here are some pictures of the food.

                                           Double boiled winter Melon & Top shell Soup

 

Chilli Crab (requested for them to have the shells removed so that the old folks  and myself the busy mummy can enjoy it) we had 2 orders of these and Fried Buns. if you are a big eater, 2 big buns should be sufficient. The texture of the buns are soft like its freshly baked.

 Steamed Cos Fish with Cordilla Seeds. Fish was well done, so soft that you can just swallow it.

 Boston Lobster dish was fresh and its pincers are big and yummy. they've crack the shells so its easy to peel the flesh off the pincers.

We also had Abalone Fried rice without the pictures. But still yummy!

 Lastly , to celebrate we  were allowed to bring in our own cake and surprised us with this beautiful presentation. Very impressed!

Group picture of my family.

For more information visit them @ https://www.facebook.com/Cove99

Happy 62nd Anniversary mom & pop

Beautiful dinner at Pollen, Gardens by The Bay. Perfect place for a beautiful occasion celebrating mom & pop's 62nd Anniversary! Totally inspired by them. Mom's tips after all these years, patience, compromise ,understanding, and more! Lovely. I baked this double chocolate cake for the first time, tested my new pipping bag and tested my decorating skills to make a perfect rose swirl cake. Not that perfect... It's a very simple recipe. The salmon dish at Pollen was great, well done! The Garlic spread for the bread was one of the best thing ever! The house wine was good! However this is NOT a baby friendly place. They do not have any plastic utensils, and apparently guest complained my baby was noisy and was told by pollen staff to keep the noise level down. They did NOT manage expectations well. Will not go into detail... But Overall a great experience for a romantic dinner not for family with kids and babies. Didn't have a chance to visit the Garden, but the rest of the family did and heard it was good and very cold. Please bring a jacket especially during rainy season. Buggy service available from flower dome. Cheers!

Christmas baking - the spirit of giving 1st week

Chocolate cake decorated with chocolate icing. My very first attempt.

The second cake turned out to be more like brownies. I had left over melted chocolate I thought I just coat the entire cake with it. Never put good stuff to waste .

My In-laws are celebrating their lovely 62nd Anniversary and I thought it would be beautiful to celebrate this occasion with a nice double chocolate cake decorated with white roses as symbol of pure love. Message written in chocolate.

It's Christmas time, so it would be nice to create a simple Christmas tree cupcake decorated with M&Ms. Cupcakes are chocolate flavor as love by many people. I have green and white trees. Mini cupcakes for the children and normal size for adults to give away. I made a 2 dozens today. 

This is Naomi part of the action.

This is me, my reaction on the accomplishments. 

Baby Food Recipe - Asian Cuisine ( for babies learning to self feed)

If your baby refuses to be fed from a spoon, don't worry it's because he/she is showing signs of being independent. She wants to feed herself, so what you need is to prepare a meal which allows them to do so. They usually like to pick up the food with their hands, which is fine, start off with that for the first few meals. Slowly introduce their baby spoons or fork with the food. They may not accept them immediately, but more importantly keep doing. As long as they continue to eat, it's fine. Here's a simple recipe which you can do to help your child with both using their hands and utensils.

MINI STEAM MEAT BALLS

servings - approx 15 pieces
Preparation time - approx 45min


INGREDIENTS
3 table spoon of minced chicken

broccoli - 1 stem ( equivalent to 1 little "tree")

carrot - 1 slice


Less than half a tea spoon of flour

PREPARATION
Chop the broccoli and carrots into tiny fine pieces

Place the minced meat into a bowl and Mix the chop broccoli and carrot together


Sprinkle the flour over the paste and mix them again until the flour is dissolved

Take a tea spoon of paste and roll into a small ball.
Note: I based the size of the meat ball similar to a lime so that your baby can hold the food easily.

COOK
Let the meat balls steam for 15min.

Leave them to cool down so that your baby can help him or herself easily. 

Encourage them to self feed by using a baby plastic fork with the meat on top . It will get a little messy for babies learning to self feed, but it's alright. Don't be discouraged, do it often and they should pick up within a week.

Baby food Recipe ( for babies learning to self-feed )

If your baby refuses to be fed from a spoon, don't worry it's because he/she is showing signs of being independent. She wants to feed herself, so what you need is to prepare a meal which allows them to do so. They usually like to pick up the food with their hands, which is fine, start off with that for the first few meals. Slowly introduce their baby spoons or fork with the food. They may not accept them immediately, but more importantly keep doing. As long as they continue to eat, it's fine. Here's a simple recipe which you can do to help your child with both using their hands and utensils.

Mini Salmon Potato patty

Preparation time approx. 45min
Servings : 15pieces ( based on 2 kids ages between 1-2yrs old)

INGREDIENTS
1 potato or sweet potato

1 slice of salmon fish (belly is better, so that it's not so dry)

Half a slice of Kraft cheese

1 egg

PREPARATION

Wash  the potato thoroughly and Remove the skin

Cut the potato into pieces and bring it boil till soft for approx 20min. Use a fork to test if it's soft.

Let the potato cool down to room temperature than mash it till it's smooth.

Boil the slice salmon for approx 10mim till it's soft. Remove the skin if any.

Smash the salmon to tiny pieces.

Crack the egg, remove the egg yolk ( optional) and Mix the ingredients together .

Cut the cheese into tiny pieces and set aside.

COOK

Heat up a non-stick pan to medium heat.

Scoop up approx half a table spoon of the paste and top the party with the chopped cheese. pan fry lightly till both sides are golden brown.

Leave the potato patty to cool down to room temperature.

Your babies can help themselves by hand and/or encourage them to use the fork with the patty on it. You should always guide them through it. 

Selfie of the week

Selfie of the day. Feeling bored and needed to find something interesting to do. This is what I did .