Still alive.. the blog i mean :)

Although I have not been posting much recently, I did not give up on my kitchen or rather my oven.
Have been on/off doing some small bakes for the kids, family and friends. Trial tested a few macarons recipes but failed (feet visible but uneven or macarons did not rise the way I wanted), went for a Macaron class that specialized in Character macarons (Tsum-Tsum, Monster Inc, Totoro etc).

I have to say - most of the time I was busy figuring out the best/perfect Macaron recipe that works well for me because being someone who is on the visual side - I have my own expectations on how I would like my macarons to look like.

Prince Charming has been really supportive because for every batch of Macrons that I baked - It means he has to be the 1st guinea pig to sample them (Giggling) and then down a few weeks, you hear him complaining that he gained a few pounds (LOL), and to my pleasant surprise, I also have my little royal supporter - Baby Kwok #1!

It is amazing that every time I put on my baking apron, his eyes sparks and started his reasoning with me on why he should help me out in the kitchen. Technically, I love to have him baking with me but theoretically I preferred not to. I had previous scared to death experience where we were baking halfway through and he opened up the oven! Of course, I was not worried about failing the bakes but I was so afraid that the high heat coming out from the oven might hurt him. I guess I'll need to wait till he is much older before I brace enough courage to let him do some simple baking with me again.

Anyway, not a good writer so I shall stop my typing here. Pictures shall do the talking ;)

Pineapple tarts using Sonia's recipe. Love the Melt-in mouth texture!
Shared this recipe with my colleague who went crazily addicted to them.

The famous Ogura cake. Referenced Jennie's recipe but made some modification.
For mine - I replaced milk with Chocolate Soy milk and added Cocoa powder.

One of the Macaron recipe that I tried. Feets were visible but just not the kind that I wanted :/
Batter was undermixed as well - See the "nipples" on each macarons?

Went for a Macaron making class with one of July 2013 mummy. :)

It was a tedious class - My neck was so sore from looking down for 3 hours!

Saw a video on Facebook and decided to attempt it for breakfast because it is so simple!

Original recipe calls for Tomato puree as the spread and mashed Avocado for borders.

Mine was a simplified version -Tostitos Creamy Spinach dip as the borders, egg and Swiss cheese.

Another recipe that I tried for Macarons - Love the feet but the macarons were not even. Some of the

sides had no feet and they were hollow. Prince Charming took a bite and it went down his shirt.

Now.. here is my perfect Macarons (in my personal opinion)! Love the feet and overall.

Easier than most recipes and it managed to survive in a humid environment!

Same recipe with different flavors - This was a green tea buttercream

This was Chocolate buttercream! The texture of these Macarons were crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

Now that I mastered the art of making Macarons, Prince Charming requested for them to bring to work. I used the egg tray to store these macarons :)

Basic Macaron shell recipe

I have people who sent me numerous private messages in Facebook for the recipe that I am currently using for my macarons. I can't say this is the perfect recipe for everyone but it does work well for me (At least, I get feets on my macrons after so many attempts).

Also, this recipe is less sweet as compared to many recipes on the Internet. The ratio between the icing sugar and almond meal is almost 1:1 which makes it acceptable. Most of the recipes that I have googled online were in the ratio of 1:2 (Almond vs Icing) and the sweetness is far from what I can accept - No doubt macarons were meant to be sweet.

Anyway, I am still constantly looking out for other recipes to try out before I can conclude which is the right and perfect macaron recipe. So till then, I'll post the current one that I like at the moment.

To make these macarons, you will need:

- 30g Egg whites
- 30g Caster sugar

- 35g Icing sugar
- 30g Almond meal

1. In a mixing bowl, beat the egg whites till foamy. Add in 1/2 of the caster sugar and continue to beat. Gradually add the remaining sugar until you have peaks. This is called Meringue. Your meringue should be glossy and have define peaks when you lift your mixer up. 
2. Sift your Almond meal and icing sugar in another separate bowl. Ensure that you get very fine mixture almost like a flour. This determines the texture of your macarons. If your almond sugar mixture is not as fine, your macarons will have rough surfaces.
3. Add your meringue to the almond sugar mixture and blend well. When the meringue and almond mixture get incorporate well, press the batter down and then scoop up for a few times. This is known as Macaronage - the step that determines if your macarons will have feet or not. The consistency of your mixture should be like a lava texture. (Never seen lava? Just lift your spatula and see how the mixture drop down. You should see a ribbon trail when the mixture drops from your spatula. 
4. Pour the ready batter into a piping bag. Pipe the batter into little round shapes. Tap to release the air bubbles and leave to dry for about 20-30mins. 
5. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 170°C for 5 mins then turning down to 150°C.
6. Bake for 15 mins and leave to cool

For the fillings, you can use jam, nutella or self made some buttercream to assemble the macrons!

Have fun making these little french cookies!

Pastel colored Macarons

I baked Macarons AGAIN! Hahaha!!! I am just hooked into baking these delicate little french cookies. There is no way to describe the happiness when you see the feet appearing on them. It's like.... you were running for a marathon thinking you might just give up halfway and the next moment you realised you have reached the finishing line. Bad description but well you know what I am trying to explain.

Baby Kwok #2 birthday party will be approaching soon and we have set a Little Pony theme for the party. The first thing that comes to mind about Little Pony - Rainbow, Pastel, colourful. I am getting so excited about decorating for the party as well as setting up a candy bar. When you have a girl, you get to do more things! (Oh well, I mean comparing to preparing a boy's party vs a girl's party, it makes a huge difference)

So.. here I present my pastel coloured macarons! Happy with the result but not what I was looking for so that means more posts on macarons soon! :P

Pastel coloured Macarons

(A combination of Pink, Blue and Yellow)

Prince Charming requested for a light dinner so we decided to have wraps. The requester did not make any comments after his dinner so I guessed that equals to "Not so nice" LOL! He only questioned about the marinate of the chicken fillet which I used as a filling. Hmm.. I think he hates that filling. Opps...

Our dinner! 

Chicken fillet wraps with Romaine salad and chips

Nutless Macarons + Happy 4th Birthday Little Claire!

Attempted macarons again and this time round, it is a nut-less version. You're not seeing wrongly, yes NUT-LESS! No almonds! I wouldn't say the recipe is a big success because I felt that it tasted a little heavy comparing to usual macarons. Sesame has this strong flavour that is too overpowering I suppose. Guess I need to tweet the ratio of the sesame and icing sugar to perfect this recipe.

Black sesame Macarons (Nut-less)

It is my little niece's Claire 4th birthday celebration today! We went over to my sis's place for a mini celebration for the pretty little "Elsa" in disguise LOL! The girls are so crazy over Frozen that they requested a Frozen themed party!

Happy Birthday Claire!

Been trying my best to bake/cook more so that I get to post more. Shall take it easy and do things slowly because it is really not easy managing 2 kids. Baby Kwok #2 is now at the crawling, standing unassisted mode 24/7. She used to be okay with sitting inside the Jumperoo or walker, but now that she is so mobile, she prefers to be on the floor crawling away or be carried by us. Pretty tiring for Prince Charming and myself!

It is even worst when she is at teething stage because she practically do not sleep during the night and would fuss and be cranky. She only has 5 teeth at the moment so I cannot imagine the road down when she starts popping more teeth.

Baby Kwok #1 fractured his left ankle last Friday :( He fell from the school's chair and hit against one of the table resulting in the hairline crack on the ankle bone. Went KK Hospital and was put on a soft cast. Was told not to let him walk until we attend the follow up review this coming Tuesday. I am really praying hard that the review will be a good one and he can remove his cast and be active again. It is really upset when you hear your child asking you "Mummy, is my leg okay?" Please pray for me that the review with the Orthopedist will be a good one!!!

I'm still alive!!!

Oh my! Can't believe that I have left my blog vacant for almost 7+ months! The last time I have posted something was back in Sept 2013. I do really need to find time to publish more posts here!!!!

Though I have not been updating my blog, I do bake and cook on and off. Just that I am plain lazy to  sign in to blogger and start the publishing EVEN THOUGH my heart tells me that I should just go ahead and write a post but my brain just would not listen :(

Finally had the chance to update my post- All thanks to the Prince Charming who has left to run for a marathon and my Baby Kwok #2 is up and roaming around!

Here's what I did for our dinner on 4/26/2014. I attempted Macarons again and they finally had broad feet that I was looking out for! Yay!

Broad feet Macarons! 

It was a dark pink btw, filter of my camera phone makes it look brownish 

Then, I fixed a easy simple western dinner for both of us.  Not too hard and really quick to make them and Prince Charming enjoyed his dinner so do I (even though it was not that full for us but we need to go light on our weighing scale)

Prince Charming's dinner.

Cheese sausage with baguette, Japanese corn and sunny side up

My dinner!

Blueberry bagel with corn and cheese sausage

Baby Kwok #1 and #2 had other food for dinner though. Baby Kwok #1 is not as adventurous with food and he usually prefers asian cuisine to western cuisine so when it comes to main meals (lunch, dinner) his request will always be - RICE, RICE, RICE. Baby Kwok #2 is only 9.5 months old so we are still very conserve with the food that we offers to her (although I have to admit that we are more chincai (easy-going) comparing to the time during Baby Kwok #1 - Middle child syndrome LOL!)

And.. I have not been publishing "professional studio" kind of pictures on my blog because Prince Charming has not been playing with his toy for quite sometime. Should I be taking up some lessons with him to learn how to capture pictures so that I can do it myself? Should I??