My style, grandma's style

Hi All,
This is a new section of my Baker girl blog, labled "Style by Grandma". I split my blog into 3 sections, as you can see above.

My beloved PoPo is a wonderful at sewing, and from her childhood till now she has been sewing beautiiful dresses and clothes for herself, my mom, my aunts, and my uncles when they were small. She also makes handtowels, covers, curtains, quilts, potholders, and the list just goes on and on! Now she even makes dresses and pajamas for her 7 seven grandchildren. I really appreciate all the love and work she puts into all the clothes she makes - they are all sturdy and very well sewn, none of them have ever torn (as far as I remember). mummy's 70s dresses were preserved for perhaps 30s years till now, where I take them out once again (she outgrew them :) and enjoy.

So, I shall b posting some of Popo's handiwork soon, besides some other things which I have interest in, like past-dressing, vintage styles, and civil war clothing.

I hope this will be of interest to my readers, especially because this was originally a baking blog, now expanded to include some of my other hobbies and interests too!

Beka :)

Domed Cupcakes with rich butter frosting

Swiss Meringue Buttercream Swirls


The whole set




1-m custard mousseline swirl with Wilton Choc heart spirnkles


1-min SMBC flower




DOME! Yay!

A Grand Cheesecake for Granny

I was surprised when I asked Mama what cake she wanted for her birthday to receive the reply, "Cheesecake lah... cheesecake is nice"

I decorated it... started simply with some strawberries, white choc piped out with a parchment bag cut to shape, and then topped with choc curls... didn't even plan it... just did it... somehow i'm the kind that has NO idea what my cake will look like when I start, just trying out new techniques and then blending them togather in the end. Sometimes it works... sometimes it's not as nice as I like... i'm pretty happy with this one!

Sushi... sushi,... sushi??

Cute? This was my next order from lady who ordered my first cake. She requested for the sushi deco to be packaged seperately so she could place them on the cake with some banner or something.

All these sushies as made out of chocolate plastic, rolled buttercream and fondant, so naturally they don't look EXACTLY like real sushi.



What do these look like? Fish eyeballs? Chocolate stuffed with green tea jelly?


Calamari ring with crabmeat and wasabi?



Rolled two colors of choc plastic togather. CHoc plastic with just a hint of black gel coloring is pure black! SO this is supposed to be jerky with wasabi

Sorry for the blurness... soy bean sushi with wasabi wrapped in seaweed?

My favorite - and, according to my aunt, the only one who actually looks like sushi! The crabstick is made with rolled buttercream rolled up and painted!

A Chocolate Fiddler

Hi all...
Another quick update - here's a choc figurine I did for fun, to knead and soften my choc plastic a bit... as I play the violin and love Little House on the Prarie and Fiddler on the roof, I created a plump little fiddler that sat on a rock, poised erect.
Btw here's me and my precious cello.... And violin... next time maybe I'll make a chocolate cellist?

Microwave Strawberry Jam

Homemade Super-Easy Microwave Strawberry Jam!

After having good results with the super apple jam from The cook's collection, I wanted to try out strawberry, and it so happened some strawberries were on the bargain counter that day, so I took some home, let them sit in the fridge a few days, then used a recipe from a very good microwave cookbook (where i got my cheese and choc chip recipes)

The results were not as "jelly-firm" and not colored like the storebought ones, and I stored them in St Dalfour's bottle. Sam is a great consumer of strawberry jam and we have lots of empty bottles

Here it is:
500gm strawberries
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 cups sugar.
1) Wash hull and cut strawberries in half
2) Cook with lemon juice in a big casserole dish uncovered for 4 minutes on high.
3) Mix in sugar well. Cook uncovered for 17-20 minutes until jam jells when tested on a cold saucer. Stir occasionally.
4) Pour into hot sterilized jars, seal well and label. (Omit this step if you have a brother in the house who will finish it in a week)

Haven't updated it sooo long! COuldn't find the XD card adapter... which was behing Samuel Mui's speakr the whole time. Must have dropped behind there accidently. But now I have the adapter, and must update.... so these are bit of leftover mini Chocolat Muses that I had oni a little bit of time to decorate.. so nothing fancy, just dribbling and oozing with chocolate.. I should be Chocolate Girl not baker girl.... hm.... and of course nuts and some gourmet cadbury tiramisu and rum choc


BTW: Accidently figured out how to make choc jimmies: Pipe out choc with a plastic piping bag cut real small, then draw the thin lines all over clear film wrap draped over a bowl or plate. Let them set, then gather up the cling film and scrunch to break the choc up.

Country Seed Bread from All recipes

Country Seed Bread
SUBMITTED BY: Donna Beth PHOTO BY: esther
"Enjoy this light, nutty-flavoured loaf toasted in the morning, or as a foundation for your favorite sandwich. Toast seeds for a nuttier flavour."




INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
• 3/4 cup water
• 4 teaspoons honey
• 4 teaspoons canola oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/3 cups bread flour
• 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 3 tablespoons flax seed
• 4 teaspoons sesame seeds
• 2 teaspoons poppy seeds
• 1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
____________________________________________________________________________

This is an absolutely delicious bread recipe. My mom and I use this as a base for most breads - replacing seed with nuts, raisins, oatmeal, muesli, and replacing flour with ground buckwheat groats, etc.

It's delicious!

Here's a step-by-step to make it simple.

1) Warm the water to 110 degrees celsius,

2) Measure and stir in honey

3) Stir in yeast with a fork (remove thermometer first or you’ll have trouble shaping it)




4) Let it sit for 10 minutes or until frothy, as such



5) While waiting, measure your salt into the mixing bowl

6) Add in Oil

7) Add in wholemeal flour

8) Add in high protein flour

9) Add in nuts/seeds


10) Pour in yeast/water/honey mixture



11) Knead in stand mixer/by hand/bread mixer until the dough springs back quickly when pressed
(For stand mixer, mix with dough hook at minimum speed for 1 minute to combine, then at speed 1 untl done)


12) Grease a bowl and place dough to rise in oven with a mug of boiling hot water
(Remember to remove dough hook)

What-to-do-when-ur-cake-no-rise

Banana Pops – Cake Pops of the Future

Cake pops… think sticky, think cream cheese, think rich and stuffing, think of the endless stuggle to get them to stay ON the stick… think of pros. Think of copying other ppl’s ideas? But ever heard of Banana pops? Nope, I’m sure u haven’t ‘cos it’s something new… an accident really, that turned out to be something quite interesting.

Pudding pops are great stuff for beginners because it really requires no mess. Banana pops are chewy, soft, and can even be molded. That why they’re invading the Cake Pop Kingdom.

What are they? Okay I’ll tell you. It’s this.


That started like this (ignore the waffle)

Gooey mushy cake. If you want to try this, do the recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Banana-Cake-VI/Detail.aspx , BUT FORGET THE BAKING SODA… Try it out first, don’t make too much.

I was sooo tired and disappointed when my cake didn’t turn out. So upset with myself that I tortured me into stuffing these down my throat every day for a week. A week later, I wanted to try cake pops, so I popped the mush of a cake into the blender for a session.

The minute I lifted off the cover I was in a surprise. The bits of cake had separated into little crumbies like shortbread dough in a food processor. I quickly got a bowl and poured them out, rolled the whole thing into a ball, and there:

So here are some banana pops:

And why not some rainbow-colored ones for children? It’s like fondant, except not so stretchy and pliable, but MUCH easier to work with than crumbly sticky cake pops. It’s pretty much like working with pie dough.


Set them on a tray:


You can coat them with chocolate,


Cocoa:


Make them into roses:


And more! Just try it out and tell me what you think.