Last thursday was an extremely busy and tiring day for me. It was my fil's birthday. I decided to bake fil a mango mousse cake after receiving 5 ripe mangoes from mil but mainly because i wanna try it after much raves from some floogers :P
Decorated using some what-is-left-in-the-fridge-and-snacks-cupboard-presentable bits :P
Heh.. ignore the messy mousse! I was too, too tired to beautify it and don't laugh at the anyhow piped fresh cream at the bottom! It was an impromptu design where the pipe followed wherever the hands went when the mousse didn't manage to cover the last quarter of the cake :P
The day started at 7am all the way till evening. It was that hard a work. Unfortunately nothing went right.
First, it was the sponge cake. When i took it out from the oven, the baby started crying. By the time i went back to the cake, it sank. But luckily the spong cake was meant to be in between the mousse so it didn't matter that much. However, that somehow put a dent onto my jolly mood.
Then, the cupcakes. I wanted to make orange butter cupcakes for the boys' teachers during the meet-the-parents-session the next day and also a very nice girl at Amore as a token of appreciation. But. First thing i did was to mix up the ingredients during the creaming and mixing stage. This resulted a slightly heavy, dense texture instead of the expected soft and light cake. Sigh :(
From there, i proceeded on with the mango mousse. I over beat the whipped cream! *sobs* Instead of the mousse texture, i got the whipped cream texture *sniffs* :(
So what we were eating in the end was actually mango whipped cream cake, not mango mousse cake.
Aiihhhsss... :P
I don't hate it or like it but others were quite taken by the cake except the fussypot hb who thought the cake was so-so only. Somehow, i think the cake will taste real good if i were to do it correctly. Which i hope i will tomorrow. Heh.
Apart from the cupcakes and the mango whipped cream cake, i also did mango pudding [this was an exception from my bad kitchen day though. It was good! Similar to those served in Crystal Jade/East Ocean Teochew Restaurant. At least something went okay. Grin] and mini mango whipped cream cake in cups.
Mini mango whipped cream cake
But that was not the end of my bad kitchen day. My dreadful day ended with dreadful buttercream. Again, due to some distraction (think i was in the midst of stirring the mango pudding ingredients in a saucepan on the stove), my buttercream was over beaten. It turned watery. The pink colouring which i intended to use was finished up by my confinement nanny and she didn't even inform me!
In the end, i ended up with pandan flavour buttercream?
Hope and pray that the recipients don't dislike it as much as i did. Hehe..
I was too tired to re-bake the cupcakes and re-do the buttercream, which i wanted to initially. Dislike giving others something which isn't up to my standard.
My atrocious cupcakes
Because of the watery buttercream, these were the only designs i could pipe out *hide face in the bag*. So ugly! LOL.
There you go, the tale of my very bad kitchen day...
Actually there are more but me ain't gonna bore you with the little details. Writing this post is no fun at all. Haha..
Guess what?
An angel sent me a bag for my birthday this year. Totally didn't expect a bag! What a coincidence too, since i was posting about bags early this morning.
Received the parcel a couple of hours ago and here it is, the gold/orchard colour Naraya tote. So girlie. Love it! :)
What may be even more surprising is that i don't even know the angel personally! She is someone who reads my blog since almost a year ago. Never had i known anyone who would do this, really. A girl that is! At most, it was birthday cards together with bookmarks from my cyber friends. That was almost a decade ago. Furthermore, they were not girls but guys who used to fancy me *ahem*ahem* :P
Thank you imp.. U got me speechless at your generosity and gesture *muaks* :*
And the other bag is from my bestie, Jeannie who sent it to my house personally on my birthday.. And she knows how much i loved it! Used it on the very day itself! Heh.
Ahhhhh.. I feel so so blessed =)
I don't have many friends here but i have a few very very very good friends. That, to me is more than enough already.
Finally...
Bread that is really edible! A yummy one too :P
Coffee Milk Bun, Angie's yummy recipe
But of course, my bread is nothing compares to Angie's. Somehow, i couldn't shape my dough at all. Too sticky. I wonder if it's due to the substituted bread flour with cake flour? Didn't have enough bread flour then and i didn't even realise, as usual :P
So instead of making them into buns, a loaf it was.
Funny colour right? Hb snapped this using his new hp, N95 which he loves, especially the camera and kindly offered to exchange his hp with mine! (if only u know what hp i'm using, u'll faint! Too outdated! :P)
But i did tweak the recipe slightly besides the 'unavoidable' bread flour substitution, which was to mix 3 tsp of coffee granules with hot water instead of 2 tsp since Angie mentioned on that coffee aroma/taste bit.
The bread texture
Nevertheless, improvement is very much needed when it comes to bread baking. I wish i have enough guinea pigs to help me eat it but unfortunately, i don't. Er, anyone stays in Choa Chu Kang? Heh.
I believe this is the first time i've ever done a traditional kueh.
Was never motivated to do it because of the ingredients involved : fresh from market ingredients.
For this steamed tapioca kueh, i'll need fresh tapioca (grounded). For that, i'll need to go to a specific wet market to get it but i'm too lazy :P
My steamed tapioca kueh
But mil was so nice!
After i told her that i was keen to do this for a foodie gathering last Sat, she volunteered to get the tapioca for me even when it'd mean taking a bus to the wet market to get it. How to not love her aye? *wink*
A close up shot
Okay, i know the colour was supposed to be yellow but because of the pandan flavouring used, it became green instead. Looks like ondeh ondeh isn't it? Heh.
If you love Bengawan Solo's steamed tapioca kueh, you'll love this more because it tastes more real, especially the freshly steamed grated coconut.
Full of flavour and so juicy!
Like what my maid who polished almost the whole thing said, sedap-nyaaaaaaaa.. :P
Aren't they cute???
In fact, i think that they are so adorable looking that it doesn't suit my 'status' (as a mom to 3) anymore. Lol.
Psstt! I just received a short-all today which i loveeee to bits! So i don't think i'd be buying this anymore unless hb strikes 4D! :P
Can't really see the details here but i love the flowers (on the bottom left and upper right). Prefer the shirt in white than green even though both are equally lovely :)
ps: Thank you for your support girls, on the chocolate truffle cake though i haven't officially sold one yet :P I really am touched *muaks*
pps : i think i'm ready for macarons after much procrastinating and my unwillingness to spend on the silpat since me ain't so crazy over it but i am dying to see how difficult it is to handle and bake. Hehe. Wait for the pictures! (even if my first attempt is a failed one which i think highly very likely. Ha! :P -- too lazy to do research. Just bake!--)
Decorated using some what-is-left-in-the-fridge-and-snacks-cupboard-presentable bits :P
Heh.. ignore the messy mousse! I was too, too tired to beautify it and don't laugh at the anyhow piped fresh cream at the bottom! It was an impromptu design where the pipe followed wherever the hands went when the mousse didn't manage to cover the last quarter of the cake :P
Mini mango whipped cream cake
My atrocious cupcakes
