frozen birthday cake

I recently made this 'Frozen' themed birthday cake for a 3 year girl. It was 3 layers of vanilla and sour cream cake with buttercream icing. I decorated it with blue and white marzipan stars and snow flakes, along with a sprinkling of buttercream dotted snow drops. It had an elegant appearance but was really a simple theme and design. It worked really well. I had a few of movie character figurines on top
 ( Elsa, Ana and Olaf )along with a cardboard number 3 that I laced with a paper napkin.

Fabric Remnants

I am really tired of looking at my old kitchen hot pads. They have taken a beating over the many years I have been preparing food in my kitchen. Each time is use them I feel that I should go buy some new ones and throw these away.
The materials are still good it is just that their appearance is really an embarrassment. They are screaming to me, "throw me away ! Please put me out of my misery ! Do anything but for crying out loud just don't leave me this way !
  So when your kitchen hot pads start making demands on the chef, it is really time to do something ! So, let's give them a make over. Time to pull out some the remnants and give these guys a new look so here you are... do you feel better now ? You definitely look better. What do you think ?

Simple Ribbon-Tie Bench Cushion

My girlfriend recently moved into her new home that has a very nice antique bench. But it needed a cushion of some type. She was looking for ideas because it is a unique size and asked if I could help her. I have not done a bench cushion before so I looked around for some type of template to use, but it didn't give me any ideas that excited her. She really just wanted something simple with a little bit of flair. So this was my idea. I think the ribbon ties hit the mark. What do you think ?

Oh, the ribbon-ties can be flipped to the back, it does not need to be in the front ;)

Shrimp Chicken Dumplings (Wonton)

 I recently had a fun visit with a hometown girlfriend of mine. She made some wonderful comfort food for us that was quite a feast . Her spread had all the goodies I used to enjoy back home. One of the delicacies she made for us was a recipe for shrimp dumplings. They were really really delicious and I was so happy to find out that she made extras for us to take home. ( Thank you !) She also was generous by giving me the recipe to try at home. And here is the result of her recipe and my efforts.


Thanks Julie !! I hope I made you proud of me :)

Recipe to follow shortly.

Nyonya Kaya ( Egg Jam )

Tis the season for making treats , so I thought I would try to make "nyonya kaya". Making 'kaya' takes time but I also find it therapeutic to make it, especially when I  need to slow down and take my time. It feels good not to be in a rush :)  This recipe will also make a nice holiday treat for friends when gifted in a mason jar.
My 'kaya' didn't turn out as pretty as my mom used to make because I used canned coconut milk instead of freshly squeezed coconut milk. But it still tastes great, almost the same taste as my mom's recipe.
And here it is....

INGREDIENTS
 10 eggs
 2 1/2 cup sugar
 500 g thick coconut milk
 1 tsp vanilla extract
 1/2 cup sugar for caramel

DIRECTIONS
1. Stir eggs, vanilla and sugar with hand whisk till sugar has dissolved.
2. Add coconut milk into egg mixture.
3. In a separate non stick sauce pan, melt and heat 1/2 cup sugar without stirring. Once it melted, stir till it thickens and golden in color.
4. Stir caramel into egg/coconut milk mixture.
5. Heat double boiler in medium heat, pour egg mixture into boiler.
6. Constantly continue stirring the egg mixture together, this will take 75 to 90 mins until mixture till it has thickened and golden in color.
7. Remove from double boiler and cool thoroughly, pour into 3 or 4 glass containers or mason jars. Store in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Char Siu Bau

I am on a roll here so why not keep on going while I am in the mood to bake and make treats ? My sweet girlfriend, Julie made us "char siu bau" recently and she also gave me some "char siu" (homemade roasted pork ). So here I am trying to recreate what she made for us.

I will provide my recipe here below (soon) and pictures of these steamed rolls.

      Enjoy!

           
      freshly steamed out of the pot

        these are ready to go into the steamer pot.

Gluten Free Confetti Cake

I have this one colleague that will bring cakes and treats for everybody's birthdays. She is the event organizer on every holiday at work. So for her birthday, I thought I would bake her a little cake.

She follows a gluten free diet, so the cake had to be gluten free too. I am inexperienced in baking without milk or eggs so I had to be creative and trust I could do this. It was a weeknight so I was limited in how much time I had to bake. Yikes ! So I decided to use a boxed gluten free cake mix and use bananas as my egg substitute. It worked out really well. She liked it and so did everyone that she generously shared it with. I was a little nervous because of my lack of experience with gluten free recipes but it all paid off. Plus who doesn't like free cake ! HA HA :)


So, here it is ...my little confetti cake ! Enjoy