Time with Cynthia: Piping Hundred & Thousand Ombre Roses

This has been highly requested so as I had some free time after sending the Pandan Sponge Cake for the Pandan Kaya Cake I was baking for mum's birthday into the oven, I decided to do up a video tutorial for piping of Hundred & Thousand Ombre Roses. So with this, I'm introducing Time with Cynthia! (: Hopefully, I'll be able to do more video guides that will help you master some of the techniques I've been using.

Here are some examples of Hundred & Thousand Ombre Roses I've done so far (:

Here are some other types of use for the roses: 

Meringue Roses

Lemon Chocolate Tart

So for this Hundred & Thousand Ombre Roses Cake, I used a dummy cake.

If you're interested, here's a tutorial video for creaming a round cake.

In order to have this cake done, I whipped up some non-dairy whipping cream from Phoon Huat and tinted it two shades of pink, one lighter then the other. The lighter one was used as the base for the cake. Here's the video! There are two parts to it.

Click on to view videos!

Billy & Cynthia POST 6: Prewedding photoshoot preparation II

So as the photoshoot day draws nearer, we're filled excitement! I've just submitted the last assignment today before my recess week and boy do I feel great!

I'm having my final bridal fitting prior to the photoshoot and also my trial makeup with Helen. Excited much! Just too excited for our photoshoot on Monday. In this blog entry, I'm gonna share some of the preparation we've done for the photoshoot.

Billy & Cynthia POST 6: The Gown Fitting, The Nays

Before we start, here are some acronyms I'll be using: 

AD = Actual Day

PS = Photo Shoot

WG = Wedding Gown

EG = Evening Gown

So I did my gown fitting in Seletar Broadway in the last week of December. I took about 3h+ to pick my AD WG, AD EG, PS WG & PS EG as well as for the fav boy to pick out 2 suits. 

Selecting the AD WG was relatively easy as I've already had my eyes set on a particular gown before we signed our package. In this entry, I'll be sharing the NAYS of my gown fitting.

Billy & Cynthia POST 5: Pre-wedding Photoshoot Preparation

We decided to do our pre-wedding photo shoot in March for various reasons. One of the worries we had when we were doing the gown fitting was if my MTM AD gown would be in time for the photo shoot. Thankfully, it is! 

Having already done 3 casual photo shoots in our earlier days of courtship (photos below!), we opted not to do any casual wear photo shoot this time round. So this time round, here are the few things that we're having in terms of attire for the photo shoot. 

1) AD wedding gown (indoors)

2) AD evening gown (indoors)

3) 2nd hand wedding gown (outdoors)

4) 2nd hand evening gown (outdoors)

5) 2 suit 

Billy & Cynthia POST 4: Charis Methodist Church

About 2 weeks ago, our payment for Charis Methodist Church was made after Charis confirmed our application. Even though we're from City Harvest Church, we're unable to have our church wedding in the main auditorium at our preferred time as Children's Church will be on then. We would have to settle for Chinese Church or Children's Church, something which I didn't want. Forgive me but who wouldn't want a dreamy location to have their wedding ceremony? Even CHC's main auditorium was a lil' off my dreamy expectation of a venue for and the fav boy even promised me balloons to do up CHC's main auditorium if we were to have it in CHC. 

However, since the timings and venue didn't match, we sourced for more options. 

We're truly blessed to have found Charis Methodist Church which coincidentally is where Cam & Pris tied the knot earlier this year. The images I found online had me mesmerised as the Sanctuary was just so wedding-ish. So as they're open to rental for Baptised Christians, I was thrilled.

We sent in our email with questions etc. and about a year before our wedding, we had our application submitted. By God's grace, we have gotten it and placed our deposit. 

As non-methodist baptised christians, we're paying $1240 as we have about 300-400 guests. We placed a 50% deposit to secure the venue for our big day. 

In addition, we are allowed to have our pastor wed us. So, by faith, it'll be Pastor Zhuang who'd be marrying us! So, if you're looking for a church wedding venue like we did, you may consider Charis Methodist Church. More details of the applications here and the rules & regulations here.

Bah Kwa Cookies

What's Chinese New Year without Barbecued Pork aka Bah Kwa? The fragrant and savoury slice of meat is one of my family favourite and it sure is interesting how we can include something so sweet and yet savoury into cookies. 

I was baking more of the Pineapple Roses for Chinese New Year yesterday and I had some dough left. So with Gwen's inspiration, I baked some Bah Kwa Cookies that melt-in-the-mouth using the same melt-in-the-mouth dough used for the Pineapple Roses. 

Using a higher temperature, these cookies browned faster than that of the pineapple roses which were pale. These cookies are crunchy on the surface but melts in the mouth. The bah kwa gives a really good salty/savoury chewy texture. Also, being tiny in size, these cookies are really easy to pop and savour in one mouth. Try these cookies today! 

Bah Kwa Cookies Recipe

This recipe yields about 100+ pieces of  5cm round cookies

250g unsalted butter (room temperature)

50g icing sugar

2 egg yolks (I used 55g eggs)

360g plain flour

2 tbsp corn flour

1/4 tsp salt

400-600g bah kwa, depending on preference

Kueh Lapis Legit: Revisited

So as Chinese New Year is approaching, I try to bake as many goodies as I can despite my busy school schedule. Apart from the Pineapple Roses/Stars, Almond Cookies and Cornflake Cookies, I baked 3 Kueh Lapis Legits last night. 

This time round, I baked 2 lapis concurrently to save time and effort to some sort as I allowed one layer to bake while arranging the next layer. As on of my tins was shallower, I baked a third smaller lapis as well. This time round in place of Liv Butter, I tried Golden Churn butter which is usually recommended for Kueh Lapis Legits. The slice I tried last night wasn't to my fancy.. I'll try another slice tomorrow (as I've brushed my teeth this evening already) and make a decision as to which butter I prefer. In any case, here's the link to the recipe for the Kueh Lapis Legit I did in July 2012. 

Have fun baking it! 

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 Pandan Chiffon Cake

So, having loads of baking buddies can be really fun and inspirational but when most of my baking buddies are stay-home-mums (like Sharron!), they can bake almost any time they want except for when they're out doing mummy chores or having food with the rest of us! How I wish I were a tai-tai at home without much worries so all I can do is to bake all day! But a dream is just a dream.. it's definitely tough to depend on one in a family to support the family. Most families function on dual-incomes and the fav boy and I are no exception!

 So on Wednesday night, my hands were mightly itchy and were dying to bake this new idea I had for pineapple tarts! However, as I had a really long day in school and Hort Park prior to that, baking pineapple tarts were kinda out of the question. 

Then, Sharron needed some help to bake Tisha a cake for her birthday on Saturday! We decided to try out a rainbow chiffon like this and even though I reached home at 10+ that evening, the itchy-handed me decided to give the idea a try since I had left over pandan juice from the day before as well as left over coconut milk! So here is my not-too-successful-in-terms-of-color-but-still-tastes-great Rainbow Pandan Chiffon Cake!