Malacca 2013 and Baking Shops in Malacca (Malaysia)

Two weeks back, I took a trip to Malacca with the favourite boy. It was kinda like my graduation trip and also a getaway for the both of us. We took a 4 day 3 night trip to Malacca with Luxury Tours. We paid merely $179 per pax for coach & hotel stay in Hotel Equatorial. 24 hours worth of wifi was RM25. Hotel Equatorial's one of our favourite hotels to stay in. We were privileged to get a free upgrade to the Premier Room which we love to bits.

This is us on the coach up!

And a vain shot of myself..

One of the best things we LOVE to do when we're in Malaysia is to EAT! The cheap & good food is pretty much tough to resist.

Please click on to read more! (:

Nutella Macarons

Macarons.. my nemesis which made me fail twice. Today, we did another attempt at Sharron's place and I'm thrilled to present these Nutella Macarons to you. I'll be doing another blog posts on the possible reasons why macarons fail based on what I've experienced so far. In any case, these are by far the toughest things to bake due to the many technicality issues to combat when baking them. Every step requires somewhat some precision. 

I'm not gonna lie to you. They're not easy to bake. I've failed these French macarons twice myself and this method/recipe that I've used today is troublesome.. But, what's a little work for these precious gems that are sold at $3.80 a pop from Ladurée? Even a decent one from Bakerzin or Canelé costs $2.50! But! These methods and recipe that I've worked out after 2 times of failing should work real well. So.. click on and learn more! I did not photograph each step of the recipe but I will do so soon.. so do come back and check this page for a detailed image to image recipe!

The recipe is rated difficulty level 5 out of 5 and takes about 1 h 30 mins in all to complete. Recipe proportions were taken from a recipe that Sharron had but methods were assisted by some guidance advised by Jong (: 

Blueberry Red Velvet Cupcakes

A twist to the regular Red Velvet Cupcakes, here are some Blueberry Red Velvets that I did in the form of a cupcake bouquet for my MIL-to-be for Mother's Day. A pretty twist to the regular classic that's fun to present to any one that you love. 

This recipe will take you about 1h 15 minutes to 1 h 30 minutes to prepare and I'm rating it a 2 out of 5 for difficulty level. If you're doing it into a bouquet like the one I have in this picture, it should take you about 1 hour 30 minutes with a difficulty level of 4 out of 5. 

This tutorial will show you how to assemble the cupcake bouquet.

Without cupcake bouquet assembly:

With cupcake bouquet assembly:

Blueberry Cupcake Bouquet (Cupcake Bouquet Tutorial)

Mother's Day is a day usually celebrated during the second weekend of May. Even though I don't believe in celebrating a mere day as we should cherish and love our mum(s) every day, it's become so commercialised that everyone does it! So my sisters, the fav boy and my sister's boyfriend brought my parents and kakak out for a nice dinner. I decided to combine the best of both worlds as a gift for her.. a set of cupcakes as well as a flower bouquet! So here's a tutorial for baking some awesome Blueberry Cupcakes and assembling a cupcake bouquet. 

This will serve as an awesome gift not just for Mother's Day but for just about any other season that you'd like to gift someone a beautiful bunch of edible 'flowers'! So, wait no longer.. click on for the full tutorial & recipe!

This recipe takes 1 hour 30 minutes in all to bake and assemble and I'd rate it a difficulty level 4 out of 5.

Sugar Choux Pastry

As time passes me by, it's time that I graduate from the National Institute of Education (NIE) with my Bachelor of Arts and move on to my full-time role as a primary school teacher. 4 years preparing for this has finally come to an end and that I start out as a teacher, a dream I've had since I was in secondary school. Being in the education line has always been my dream since the Children's Church Camp I took part in secondary school during my Girls' Brigade Days. I took my diploma in Early Childhood Education with Ngee Ann Polytechnic before moving on to NIE. It's kinda amazing working with children, the sense of fulfilment is just amazing. That aside, I can't wait to graduate proper!

With that, I have to move on to teaching real soon and one of the worries is how I'd manage this blog along with the many other commitments I already have. I'm just hoping that it'll be good and manageable! That aside, I'm just glad that I've been blessed with the luxury of time before I start my duties to bake! 

Choux Pastry has always been my nemesis as my doughs have always flopped and not rise right. I realised that the issue that I've had with them was that I added way too much egg into the batter. Being so, the dough was too smooth/soft and it didn't provide the pastry enough support for puffing up. So, with a demo by my dearest Sharron, I garnered enough courage to bake up a batch of these Sugar Choux Pastry. 

These puffs work best with pearl sugar, which is available in some bake shops. They do not melt with heat and I really love how they add great flavour to the puffs. This recipe was taken from OKASHI by Keiko Ishida.

I'd rate it a difficultly level 3 out of 5 and it takes about an hour to complete.

Banana Chantilly Chocolat

This cake is an extended version of the Chantilly Chocolat cake with addition of bananas. I used the basketweave technique for this recipe. Video tutorial for this to follow soon! (:

Orange Chocolate Fruit Tarts

Fruit tarts are one of my absolute favourite desserts. I've been craving for fruit tarts for the longest time ever and I just really really like fruit tarts for some odd reason! Canned fruit tarts, fresh fruit tarts.. so as long as they're fruit tarts, I love them all! 

So I took the opportunity to bake some Orange Chocolate Fruit Tarts along with a Mango Rose Tart using the same recipe! These mini fruit tarts are tiny and just perfect for a one bite snack! It uses a orange chocolate custard instead of the usual plain custard. I really love how it smells exactly like Van Houten's orange chocolate slices: 

Image taken from here.

These orange chocolates are my favourite among this range of chocolates and of course, I am delighted to share with you this recipe for orange chocolate custard for these Orange Chocolate Fruit Tarts. 

This recipe takes about 3 hours in all to complete and I'd rate it a difficulty level 3 out of 5. 

Mango Rose Tart

I've been craving for fruit tarts for the longest time ever and I really really like fruit tarts for some odd reason! So I took the opportunity to bake some Orange Chocolate Fruit Tarts as well as this Mango Rose Tart with the same recipe! This rectangular fruit tart concept was inspired by Vinnie and hers was just super impressive. I was thrilled to see it during one of my shopping trips so I grabbed it without hesitation! In addition, it has a removable base! I just had to have it!

This Mango Rose Tart uses a orange chocolate custard instead of the usual plain custard. I really love how it smells exactly like Van Houten's orange chocolate slices: 

Image taken from here.

These orange chocolates are my favourite among this range of chocolates and of course, I am delighted to share with you this recipe for orange chocolate custard for this Mango Rose Tart. This tart also contains my first attempt in arranging a mango rose and I'm pretty glad it turned out well.

Without further ado, this recipe takes about 3 hours in all to complete and I'd rate it a difficulty level 4 out of 5.