Cycling in our neighbourhood

Saturday... Weekend is here (Did you hear my groan yet?)

We did not have anything special planned for today. YX had done a quick (and perfunctory) piano practice in the morning and was entertaining herself quietly in her room. I decided to take her out for a quick trip round the neighbourhood on our bikes since the haze seemed to be better today. YX had been so preoccupied with her newest toy (the 3-wheeled scooter) in recent weeks, so I wanted her to go back to her bicycle, which was relatively new (and unused)!

We cycled to the larger playground at Cantonment Towers, and met a younger 4-year old girl and they started playing together. 

Before we left (it was almost 1.00pm), we came across a bread vending machine. YX thought it was quite interesting, and so she happily posed with it. 

Japanese Strawberry Shortcake (Valerie Chian's recipe)

What you need:

For the cake:
145g cake flour
15g corn flour
1 egg
5 egg yolks, whisk slightly with fork
150g unsalted butter / corn oil
65g fresh milk
5 egg whites
100g caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt

250g fresh strawberries
170g fresh raspberries

Preheat oven to 160degC
Grease and line 8"square pan
Heat butter/oil and milk till melted and combined, do not boil
Off heat and add in sifted flour, mix with wooden spatula
Transfer to bigger bowl, add eggs, continue to mix til smooth
In another bowl, beat egg whites on low speed til frothy, add salt and followed by sugar in 3 additions, beat til soft peak
Pour 1/3 of egg whites mixture into egg/butter mixture, fold in gently, pour the rest and continue to mix gently
Pour batter into pan, bake au bain marie for approximately 45minutes or til skewer comes out clean
Remove from oven, after 5 minutes trasnfer to cooling rack
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For the stabilized whipped cream:
2 tsp gelatin powder
8 tsp cold water
2 cups whipping cream, cold
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Chill mixing bowl and beaters in the freezer for 10 minutes
Put cold water in small saucepan, sprinkle gelatin over surface of the water and let stand for 5 minutes
Place saucepan over low heat, stir continuously with wooden spoon just until the gelatin dissolves. Remove the saucepan from the heat and cool to room temperature
Remove mixing bowl and beaters from freezer. In the mixing bowl, combine whipping cream, sugar and vanilla and whip till slightly thickened. While beating slowly, gradually pour the gelatin into the whipped cream mixture
Then whip the mixture at high speed till stiff
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For sugar syrup:
Optional:
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tsp kirsch gel
Combine in a small saucepan, bring to boil, stir in sugar til dissolved
Let cool
To assemble:
Reserve some strawberries for decoration (the pretty ones!)
Dice the balance, mix with a little sugar, set aside
Reserve some raspberries too for decoration and halve the balance
Cut cooled cake into 3 parts
Place 1 layer cut side up, brush with syrup, spread cream, arrange diced strawberries and spread again with cream
Repeat with the 2nd layer (but this time with raspberries), put the 3rd layer cake on top, brush with syrup and layer thinly with cream
Chill for 30 minutes at least
Spread another layer of cream on top of the cake and chill for another hour, garnish with berries
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Clear Fruit Glaze

Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water or fruit juice
2 tbsp. cornstarch
2 tbsp. corn syrup

Bring sugar to a boil with 1/2 of the water or juice. Dissolve cornstarch in 1/2 water or juice and add to the sugar mixture. Cook, stirring until mixture thickens and clears. Stir in corn syrup. Bring to a boil then remove from heat. Cool before using.

Seeta's birthday cake 2015

We had an early birthday celebration for my 2nd sister during our weekly dinner gathering at my parents' house. I took the chance to have fun and try to bake something new/different.

I had tried this particular Strawberry Shortcake recipe before, but the first attempt last year was not too ideal, as I was new to bain-marie method (which is a fancy term for waterbath) then. Unfortunately, for this round, the baking result was also not perfected yet. I was supposed to get a nice soft and beautifully risen round cake, but it deflated unevenly after cooling and was sloping on one side.

Thankfully, my Wilton small cake leveler (view it on Wilton online store here) had already arrived through hubby's consolidated Amazon purchases. It was such a lifesaver and easy-to-use tool. I wonder why it took me so many years to decide to get this. I always ended with a backache after baking and slicing and decorating cakes in my kitchen with a flimsy adaptation of a cake turntable. Not to mention uneven and sloping cake layers.

Strawberry shortcake recipe. Filled with strawberries. Topped with mandarin oranges, strawberries, peach and blueberries.

The cake base recipe is from a church-mate Valerie. 

Kongguksu for lunch

I had made a batch of soyabean milk from scratch for the first time (soak soy beans overnight, remove skins, blend, boil, strain) and was racking my brains to figure what else to do with the massive containers of soybean milk that resulted. It was all my fault for keeping that packet of dry beans in my pantry for too long and forget about it. So it was expiring soon and I did not have the energy to make another batch within the next 2 weeks. 

Then I happened to be watching one of the episodes of #3MealsADay, where they were grinding beans (See Series 2 Ep 9), so I tried something similar. I usually google for recipes, but #maangchi (https://www.youtube.com/user/Maangchi) is becoming my go-to reference for Korean food cooking demos and advice. This Kongguksu 콩국수 is made simply from whatever I had on hand

Simple steps: 

Cook some meesua, drain water, rinse under cold water; 

Pour chilled soybean milk over noodles; 

Serve with cherry tomatoes and shredded cucumbers. 

It was a cool and refreshing lunch! yummy...

My first Ogura cake 20Aug 2015

I came across this type of cake, named "ogura". Apparently it is similar to a chiffon in that the rising of the cake is based on beaten egg foam.

I tried a simple recipe for pandan flavoured cake and it tasted okay. The aesthetics were, however, much lacking. Other than the split top, I spied quite a few pockets of unmixed egg white foam. Texture was lovely, though. It was soft and spongy, and not as dry as traditional chiffon.