Pandan Gula Meleka Cake

I got rather inspired to bake after a couple of successful bakes last week.. On Sunday, I baked this Pandan Gula Meleka Cake, inspired by the Ondeh Ondeh.

I've been wanting to blog this recipe but since school started on Monday, the admin work and marking has been hellish. I literally slept 2 hours every night, with the exception of last night where I had a better 6 hour sleep. My apologies to those who have been waiting for this recipe!

I'm still dead tired but most of my tasks have been completed for the term.. It's exciting to know that my September Holidays are just round the corner! I plan to catch up on a lot of sleep, bake and craft! 

So anyway, this Pandan Gula Meleka Cake is made with a pandan chiffon base, a swiss meringue gula melaka buttercream and a buttercream sauce.

It'd take about 3 - 4 hours to bake and I'd rate it a difficulty level 3 out of 5 if you can do chiffons.. and maybe a 4 out of 5 is chiffons are tricky for you.

Salted Egg Pork Ribs

Having harvested my Homemade Salted Eggs, I decided to cook something with it! I knocked off a little earlier today so I had the luxury of cooking something proper. The week has been insane since it's exam week.. lots of marking to do, lots of assessment to complete.. I wish I have the time to cook much more often. 

Speaking of which, this made me very happy tonight. Most of the kids in my P1 class have performed very well in their English test through their hard work.. I'm a proud chee-cher! 

Anyway, I had my pork ribs thawed overnight in the freezer and had them ready to cook by 5pm. Planning beforehand is good (:

The ingredients are pretty simple but it may turn some off since it involves deep/shallow frying. I decided to do it anyway. >.< It takes about an 30 - 45 minutes to prepare and cook and I'd rate it a difficulty level 3 out of 5. Or maybe 4 out of 5 if you dislike deep frying! 

Rose Macarons (French Method)

On Saturday evening, I decided to bake some macarons LIVE on facebook. Requested by the hubby, I baked some rose macarons with rose buttercream.

It was the first time I was fully made up for a LIVE video. I had been out the earlier half of the day so I just did a video with my makeup on. The hubby and Cartoon who were home were also part of the video! 

It was also the first time I camped in front of the camera to film the growing of feet for macarons! It was tiring but very fulfilling! So.. these rose macarons take about 2 hours to bake and I'd rate it a difficulty level 4 out of 5.. It's worth a try nonetheless!

Those feet are just worth it. 

Tri-coloured Kueh Lapis Legit (Chocolate, Pandan and Original)

I was inspired by Mimi Bakery House's tri-coloured kek lapis and I decided to bake some too.. I adapted her recipe and made some tweaks to my liking. Somehow, I prefer her lapis XD probably cos mine has small holes/gaps between the layers despite the compacting.. Her layers were also thicker. I decided to use a larger tin and also increased the recipe.. but I should have used a slightly smaller tin. I would do so the next time I bake this (which should be soon!)

I'm weird in a way. Baking is therapeutic for me. Many dislike baking cos of the washing, the concentration level needed etc.. I like baking to unwind. This is especially so for kueh lapis legits.. I actually like the repeated baking.. It's probably a good breakaway from the rush I face every day. 

I barely have enough time to sleep.. let alone bake. Though baking takes stress away... I can barely find energy to do so of late. In fact, I did think of retiring this blog. To stop blogging altogether. BUT... this blog is too dear to me.. at least for now. 

Anyway, this recipe yields a 9 - 9.5inch square cake and takes about 2 - 3 hours in all to complete. I'd rate it a difficulty level 4 out of 5. 

Cynthia's Mango Mousse Cake with a twist

After the Durian Cake I did for my dad on Sunday, I made a Mango Mousse Cake for my fil, but with a twist. I used a chocolate sponge in place of the plain sponge and I also did a matcha wall, my first attempt at such a cake.

I love the cross section of the cake very very much! It was much prettier than I thought it would be (: 

  

The matcha wall is a swiss roll made of sponge cake and I had a simple design piped for it.. It was pretty tricky working on it but I love every bit of it. 

This cake is tricky and I'd rate it a difficulty level 4 out of 5.. It took about 3 hours all in all to complete. 

Earl Grey Macarons (Chocolate Ganache variety)

My love for baking macarons is still raging. I was inspired to bake some Earl Grey Macarons last night and even though I was 'free' only at 9pm after cleaning the house (Boy do I love clean floors!), I decided to get baking! 

These darlings were great to eat.. love the little bit of Earl Grey flavour in each bite.. 

This recipe takes about 2 hours in all to bake and I'd rate it a difficulty level 4 out of 5. 

Matcha Macarons (with Video Tutorial)

If you have noticed, macarons are my latest obsession. I'm pretty sure that stemmed from my sweet success about 2 weeks ago. Earlier this week, I tried making some matcha and chocolate macarons but I made a boo boo and the shells weren't as pretty as I wish they would be. 

Since it was a PH yesterday and that I was gonna meet my mum and siblings for dinner, I decided to bake some macarons for them as they've yet to have any of those I've baked. Also, it also helped that my new tripod arrived on Thursday >.< I did try filming a video tutorial prior to this in my -still quite new- kitchen but truth be told, the angles were HORRIBLE. I decided to invest in a tripod and I'm proud to say that I'm back to doing video tutorials! (: 

So back to the macarons.. as you may already know, they're not the easiest of things to bake but they're such gems. The hubby loves them a lot so it's like a legit reason for me to bake more of them though I don't give him a lot of it to eat. He only gets a few from each batch XD

These Matcha Macarons took me about 1.5 hours to bake and I'd rate it a difficulty level 4 out of 5. There are many factors that may lead to its failure so I'll share how each failure maybe avoided based on the experience I've had. 

HK Style Century Egg Congee

This Century Egg Congee is one my mil would always cook for the family. It's one of my hubby's absolute favourite food. Since we moved out, we haven't had much chances to eat it. So I decided to learn how to cook this porridge the both of us love so dearly. 

This was taught by my mil and truly, I've learned so much from her (: 

For this congee, I used a Tanyu. It's not a must according to my mil but it does make the congee taste better and smoother. She says that a regular pot would do too.. but I've yet to try and if the great taste can come from a Tanyu, I'll stick to it (: 

This recipe requires frequent stirring so I'd rate it a 4 out of 5. It takes about 1.5 hours in all to cook this.

Cynthia's Mini Mango Cheesecake

Similar to the Mango Cheesecake, I made these Mini Mango Cheesecakes with the extra ingredients I had. 

This recipe is fun! I adopted the mango mirror layer from Ann's Mango Mirror Cake but I made slight adjustments to it.

I'd rate this recipe a difficulty level 4 out of 5 and it takes about 2 hours to make all in all. 

Cynthia's Mango Cheesecake

I've probably been too stressed of late.Well, with that, I'm down with Shingles. It really caught me by surprise but there's nothing I can do about it other than rest and take my medicine and apply the cream prescribed by the doctor. Being confined at home is super boring. 

With that, I decided to bake as my hands were itchy. With the mango my dad bought a couple of days ago, I made this Mango Cheesecake. I love the colours and my dad loves mangoes! Fear not, he has gotten chicken pox before so he's safe being near me. It's only infants, children, the elderly, the sick and those who have yet to contact chicken pox that I should avoid. I can't wait to make a full recovery!

Nevertheless, this recipe was fun! I adopted the mango mirror layer from Ann's Mango Mirror Cake but I made slight adjustments to it. 

I'd rate this recipe a difficulty level 4 out of 5 and it takes about 2 h 30 minutes to make all in all. 

Cynthia's Cranberry Cheesecake

I chanced upon these beautiful cranberries in the local supermarket while I was out shopping (yet again!). I decided to try this beautiful version of Cranberry Cheesecake. 

This recipe is relatively simple and I'd rate it a difficulty level 4 out of 5 (only difficulty is getting the layers right) and it takes about 2 hours 30 minutes to complete. 

Cynthia's Mango Strawberry Cheesecake

I'm on a cheesecake roll! I decided to bake for my cell group since I'd see them after service tonight. Hence, I made this Mango Strawberry Cheesecake after a short walk in NTUC.

NTUC is like one of the best but yet worst places for me to shop. I simply spend too much money in NTUC! Then again, it makes me happy... (: Anyway, this Mango Strawberry Cheesecake is fun to bake and colourful to boot! (: Do check out the video tutorial at the end of this blog post!

On a side note, something really cheesed me off today. I don't really care if someone wants to use my recipes to sell the cakes for a living. But have some damn decency to BAKE THE CAKE YOURSELF and use the picture of what you have baked for sales. https://www.facebook.com/wendy.lim.165033 obviously doesn't even know how to remove watermarks as she merely CROPPED my images and reposted as hers. Have some integrity woman. That's obviously LYING to your potential customers as you DID NOT BAKE THE CAKES YOURSELF. After being confronted by me, she conveniently BLOCKED me. Woman, is that the best you can do? SHAME ON YOU! 

I'm still considering what I should do to her. I can go all the way and bring her down. But of course, I can be nicer. She still hasn't removed the images. Probably just acting like nothing happened. 

Anyway, angry stuff aside, I hope that you'll enjoy this recipe. I'd rate this recipe a difficulty level 4 out of 5 and it'd take about 2 hours 30 minutes in all to complete of which 1 h 30 minutes of the time you're pretty much free to do your own stuff.

Cynthia's Rainbow Strawberry Cheesecake

This Rainbow Strawberry Cheesecake was done last Saturday as a joint birthday celebration with my girls. It was really fun to see all the beautiful colours come together. The most challenging bit of the cake would probably be the pouring of the cream cheese mixture to get the right layering effect. 

I hope that you'll enjoy this recipe. I'd rate this recipe a difficulty level 4 out of 5 and it'd take about 2 hours 30 minutes in all to complete of which 1 h 30 minutes of the time you're pretty much free to do your own stuff.

Traditional Mooncakes (Lotus paste with melon seeds)

This is my first attempt at traditional mooncakes and it's been a year since I've been planning to bake them! As it's the September school holidays and that I have some spare time on my hands, I got down to baking them. The recipe and tips were taken from several sources. I'm waiting for a couple more days for them to 出油 to get shiny and beautiful! I will update again when it happens! (: 

The mooncakes are so much shinier and evenly coloured after 3 days of rest! (:

This recipe takes about 4 hours in all (excluding dough resting time) to prepare. Given it's difficulty, I will rate it a difficulty level 4 out of 5. 

Nyonya Rice Dumpling (with tutorial)

Nyonya Dumplings.. or any sorts of rice dumplings  are my absolute favourite. They're the kinda thing I can eat just about every day.. (I think I've too many favourite food!) I had the luxury to learn them last year and I'm glad that I've tried wrapping them and cooking them from scratch this year all by myself. 

I took reference from Annie's recipe from Annielicious. 

These rice dumplings aren't the easiest of thing to cook and make due to the work that goes into the cooking of meat... the boiling of leaves.. the cleaning of leaves (each and every one of it!), the wrapping of the rice dumplings  and the long hours taken to boil it. But trust me.. these are worth every bit of the 2 day process. 

I took about 2 hours to cut & cook the filling.. Another 1 hour to boil the leaves.. Overnight soaking of rice.. 2 hours to wipe the leaves, 1 hour to wrap the rice dumplings.. 2 hours to boil them and an hour to cool them. Well, you get the idea (: I'd rate it a difficulty level 4 out of 5. 

Panda Loaf Tutorial

This Panda Loaf is so adorable that it's almost irresistible. This recipe and tutorial will show you how to shape the panda loaf. A word of caution though... such sculpted loafs' design is dependent on how you shape your bread. Even if you were to follow this recipe and tutorial, you may not get the exact same size of eyes/ears etc for your bread. But then again, that's the fun of such loaf breads!

So this recipe takes about 4 hours in all to prepare. I used a Kenwood BM 250 bread machine to mix my dough but you can use the same recipe for your bread machine or stand mixer. I'd rate it a difficulty level 4 out of 5. 

Time with Cynthia: Wrapping Rice Dumplings

Here's a video tutorial to show you how you can wrap a rice dumpling!

*Please forgive the 'slantedness' of the video! 

I'd love to see the bakes or stuff you've cooked using the blog's recipe! Do share photos of stuff you've baked or cooked using the blog's recipe with me either via FB message to http://facebook.com/limcynthia OR http://facebook.com/thebakingbiatch OR via email at cynthia.lim.hl@gmail.com! I look forward to hearing from you! (: 

Rainbow Cake II

This weekend marks the end of my first week in school. Its been great so far being back to where I feel I belong: being a teacher. It has been challenging in terms of time management as I struggle to sleep early and wake up at 5am to get ready for school. Being a night owl (with a family of owls who don't sleep early), I struggle to sleep early. Anything before 12 midnight is not the norm in my household! But no such late nights for me any more as it would mean very few hours of sleep every night! Adjusting is indeed tough.

Nevertheless, I'm thankful that God has granted me with a great working environment that is coincidentally that fav boy's primary school that he used to attend! God has indeed a great sense of humour! 

In any case, I baked a cake for Rui En's first birthday party which was held at Downtown East Resort. This place sure brings back loads of memories. It's like the place for 'birthdays and celebrations', Singapore style. The favourite boy and I attended the party and the place sure brings back loads of memories. Anyway, this is the second rendition of the Rainbow Cake with a different recipe from the first one. 

I made a Hello Kitty cake with this 10" square rainbow cake as a base with a 7" carved Hello Kitty cake on top. This tutorial & recipe will be for the rainbow cake layer below (: I did a total of 7 layers for this cake..

This cake will take about 2 - 3 hours to bake depending on your speed and I'd rate it a difficulty level 4 out of 5.