And now for the three-tier birthday cake

My now assertive 6-year-old has requested for a three-tier cake for her birthday. Not a Barbie or princess cake, she says. But something like a wedding cake. Hmmm. 

She has been excitedly looking forward to her 6th birthday, and sees it as a milestone for many things. She'd been struggling with reading as she's dyslexic. She then declared that she would be able to read when she turns 6, a target she'd sort of set for herself as a way of coping with the difficulty.  The proud mummy in me is therefore just as keen to throw a big celebration to mark her achievement ;-)

Since she loves ice-skating, we (more like she) decided to hold a party at The Rink, with an after-party at Nando's. I immediately began worrying about how to transport and store a three-tier cake... But more about that later.

Having experimented with a two-tier cake, I'm now ready for my first ever three-tier cake. ;-)

After looking through many recipe books and getting increasingly undecided, I finally told myself to keep things simple and focus on Katrien's Cakes, a beautiful book which I had already bought and obsessed over.

The cake I finally made: A three-tier chocolate cake coated with chocolate frosting, with hand-made pink chocolate paste fences all round, and topped with colorful chocolate candies and hand-made pink chocolate hearts.

Transporting the cake was quite daunting though. I couldn't chance it by moving a fully assembled cake, so we packed the three tiers into three separate boxes, and all the toppings and chocolate pieces into a fourth box. There was no storage at The Rink, but the manager and staff at Nando's were very kind to let us store everything in their chillers and later gave us space in the restaurant to assemble the cake. Absolutely superb service I must say!

And yes, it was all worth it 'cos she loved the cake and we all had a wonderful party! ;-)

Helping to make her own birthday cake.

The pink chocolate paste fences threatened to fall apart, but thankfully stayed up for the photos!

A two-tier birthday cake for my princess

Amelia is turning 6 and boy, is she getting assertive! ;-) Well, I can't really grumble about it because just 3 years prior, I was fretting over why she was still babbling in her baby language.

So now that she can express herself a lot more clearly, she turned to me one morning on the way to school and said in all seriousness, "Mummy, I don't want a princess or Barbie cake. I want you to make a three-tier cake for my birthday!" 

And so began my baking adventure. I'd never created a three-tier cake, so I had to learn everything right down to stacking the cakes. I found this really inspiring book titled Katrien's Cakes which is filled with beautiful pictures and easy-to-follow steps. 

I'd already planned two parties for her: a small one at her kindergarten for her classmates and the main event at The Rink in J Cube. 

Obviously, I couldn't chance it for the main event. So I decided to bake a two-tier cake for her kindergarten party as an experiment and for practice ;-)

For the two-tier cake, I baked a vanilla cake with white chocolate frosting. Of course, everything had to be home-made for my princess, so I made pink chocolate paste ribbons and chocolate hearts, butterflies and flowers in pastel colors. Plus cake pops to top off the cake. It turned out to be less challenging than expected. Phew! I'm now ready for the three-tier cake...

The 8" x 8" bottom tier before inserting dowels and stacking the top tier.

Cake pops to top off the cake.

The final two-tier birthday cake with white chocolate frosting! 

10 Scotts, Grand Hyatt

Whenever I'm looking for a place to spend a slow lazy afternoon, 10 Scotts would usually be top of mind. 

The high tea spread is not huge by any standard. But the quality is really good. Although the tea starts at 12noon and you can technically lunch there, there aren't many staples on the buffet. What you get is a pleasant light lunch. 

There's a nice cheese and cold cut station to start with. The staff will then serve you an elegant two-tier caddy with yummy canapes and the fabulous crab cakes. And I must add that the ice cream is usually served in very pretty presentations! There's also free flow gourmet coffees, teas, juices, etc. So can't complain really. 

There are two seatings for tea: 12 noon to 2.30pm and 2.30pm to 5pm. For weekdays, the tea starts at $38++ and for weekends $48++, depending on whether you choose to have champagne with it. 

I'm not able to share many photos though as I was stopped from taking photos due to "copyright issues", according to the manager/supervisor. Strange in this day and age of social media... In any case, many others before me have posted photos on review and blog sites. So here are the photos I did manage to take ;-) 

The selection of canapes changes regularly.

This is actually ice-cream!

10 Scotts
Lobby Level, Grand Hyatt
www.singapore.grand.hyattrestaurants.com

Princess Cupcake Gifts

So it's Children's Day and I decided I'd surprise Annette by baking cupcakes for her to bring to her school party.

Since hers is an all-girls school, I settled on princess cupcakes with daisy and pearl sprinkles. Only question was how to pack them individually so she could gift them to her classmates and teachers.

Going online, I came upon a great idea to place the cupcakes into a clear plastic cup and then bagging them into treat bags with a twist/ribbon tie. See http://www.cookiemadness.net/2011/04/packaging-cupcakes/. I bought pretty treat bags and twist ties easily. But for the life of me, I couldn't find the right size cups! The ones in Cold Storage were too big. And the ones in Phoon Huat were too small. I almost gave up as I dwelled on mental images of my precious cupcakes being smashed up in transit.

As I despaired over what should have been a very easy part of the cupcake process, I decided to make another trip to Phoon Huat, this time to the Clementi store. And somehow I was guided to this rack where lo and behold right at the top shelf was the most perfect cupcake packaging ever ;--)

The best part is: the delighted squeals of my girls when they saw the final cupcake gifts!

One-dish wonders: Cajun Seafood Conchiglie

Sunday nights are mainly a family affair, with moi at the helm planning and cooking (mostly supervising) dinner. This is the night I'd experiment with new recipes. I'd spend the day browsing through recipe books or www.allrecipes.com for ideas, and make special effort to go to the supermarket to select the ingredients (even though I'd have to sometimes will myself away from an afternoon nap!).

I found a super easy one-dish recipe for a warm homey dinner - Cajun Shrimp Orecchiette - through the allrecipes app, but I've made some changes based on personal preferences. Also, although the original recipe described how spicy the dish would be, my Asian tastebuds didn't quite think so, so I've increased the amount of Cajun spice ;-)  But it really is up to each individual...  

Here are the photo and recipe.

 Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups conchiglie pasta

3 tbsp butter

4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup shallots, chopped

1/3 cup onion, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil   

2 tsp Cajun seasoning (adjust to taste)

1 tsp cracked black pepper

1 tsp white vinegar

1/2 cup tomato paste

3 tomatoes, diced

12 medium prawns, shelled

1 squid, sliced into rings
1 cup baby spinach

Optional:
1/2 cup dry white wine (exclude vinegar if adding wine)

Directions:
1. Cook the pasta in lightly salted boiling water for 8-10 minutes, until almost al dente. Drain and set aside.
2. Melt butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add garlic, shallots and onion, and saute for about 1-2 mins.
3. Add olive oil, Cajun seasoning and black pepper, and stir for another 2 mins.
4. Add in vinegar (or white wine), tomato paste, tomatoes and seafood. Cook and stir till seafood is almost cooked.
5. Mix in pasta and spinach. Cover and simmer for 3-5 minutes until pasta is al dente.

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon

It's my birthday! And dear hubby organized dinner with my gal pals to celebrate... and to get together to bemoan our advancing years ;-)

Since all of us had recently gotten our RWS Invites membership, we decided to have dinner at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon. Posh enough for the not-so-young us, but still casual enough to have a lively in-denial dinner.

The restaurant ambience is really nice. Bar-height tables, plush seats, lighting that's just right and attentive servers who make good eye contact (in part because of table height) provide a great setting for a wonderful experience. Unfortunately, the menu offered by RWS Invites was disappointing.

You know how some people joke about having to go for supper after a posh meal because of the pretty but tiny portions? Well, it's the case here. I can't fault the presentation, flavors and quality, and in fact the chocolate sphere dessert was tres magnifique! But oh, we were still hungry after dessert so we had to go to St James to sup and party... and we aren't exactly teenagers on a growth spurt ;-)

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon

Hotel Michael, Resorts World Sentosa

Tel: +65 65777888

www.rwsentosa.com

Thick Fudgey Brownies

So now that I've got more time to indulge in my passion for baking, I decided to volunteer to bake brownies and cupcakes for a church fundraiser to benefit Cambodian kids ;-)

Thanks to my generous friends, I got myself committed to baking 16 slabs of 8" x 8" brownies. It was my first attempt to bake on such a major scale...

Three trips to Fairprice Finest, two trips to Phoon Huat, three rounds of experiments and hours upon hours of baking later, here are the final photos and recipe.

After the initial anxiety, I'm happy to report that all the brownies and cupcakes were sold out during this morning's CK4CK food fair. I'm indeed thankful to Him for the opportunity to contribute in a small way. 

But proud as I am to have achieved the production target (with some help from foreign talent and a bit of child labour), I have concluded that the possibility of me converting this hobby into a business has become extremely remote.

Ingredients:

225g unsalted butter

340g fine sugar

4 eggs (or 3 large ones)

1½ tsp vanilla extract

150g unsweetened cocoa powder

225g all-purpose flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking powder

¼ cup Hershey’s chocolate syrup

¼ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Frosting:

3 tbsp butter

3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tbsp honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

160g icing sugar

1-2 tbsp milk

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 175 deg Celsius (350 deg Fahrenheit). Grease an 8” x 8” pan.
2.  Warm butter in microwave for approx 60 secs until fully melted. Pour into large mixing bowl. 
3.  Stir in sugar, eggs and vanilla extract.
4.  Beat in cocoa, flour, salt and baking powder. Mix in Hershey's chocolate syrup. Add walnuts if desired.
5.  Spread batter into prepared pan. 
6.  Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes. Do not overcook.


To make frosting:
1.  Combine butter, cocoa, honey, vanilla extract and icing sugar. Add 1-2 tbsp milk to smoothen frosting mix.
2.  Frost brownies while they are still warm.

Note: I highly recommend Hershey’s cocoa powder for the frosting as you get a nice sleek chocolate frosting that’s not too dark.   

100% home-made Creme Brulee

The first time I made creme brûlée, I used a pack of Elle et Vire creme brûlée mix. I innocently thought what's really important is the caramelized sugar and final presentation. That's where the skills are needed right?

Boy, was I wrong. After the usual oohing and aahing over how nice my creme brûlée was in terms of taste and presentation, my dear purist girlfriends looked downright disappointed, no make that cheated, when they realized the custard came from a pack. I am after all an honest person. And having done time in a food corporation, I really didn't see anything wrong with taking one or two short cuts. Like whoever bothers to make chicken rice chilli from scratch these days right? ;-)

Anyway, I finally decided I'd make a creme brûlée from scratch. And here it is: my 100% home-made creme brûlée ;-) The verdict from my friends? Yummy!

Ingredients:

6 egg yolks

4 tbsp white sugar (more if you want it sweeter)

1/2 tsp vanilla essence (or up to 1 tsp)

2 1/2 cups whipping cream

Approx 2-3 tbsp brown sugar

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 175 deg Celsius.

2. Beat the egg yolks, white sugar and vanilla essence in a mixing bowl till thick and creamy.

2. Warm the cream in a saucepan over low heat, stirring continuously until it almost comes to a boil.

3. Mix a little of the hot cream into the egg mixture. Then whisk the egg mixture into the rest of the cream.

4. The mix will be foamy. Strain the mix to remove the foam. Scoop off remaining bubbles or use a torch to remove bubbles.

5. Pour mix into ramekins placed on a baking tray. Place tray in oven and fill tray with hot water till midway up sides of the ramekins. Be careful not to pour water into the ramekins.

6. Bake for about 20-30 mins till the custard takes on a jiggly but not liquid consistency. Remove from oven and leave ramekins to cool in water bath for about 15 mins.

7. Place ramekins in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

8. When ready to serve, sprinkle a fine layer of brown sugar over the top of custard. Caramelise the sugar with a torch.

9. Serve with vanilla ice cream and fresh strawberries!

Hokkaido Sushi Restaurant - Groupon dinner

I've always been a little skeptical of Groupon offers. Deals that sound just too good to be true, would turn out so right? But I've got Groupon junkies as good friends, so it was inevitable that I'd succumb ;-)

When the Hokkaido Sushi offer came along, I decided to purchase a 9-course omakase for two worth $306 for just $97.60. The discount was delicious already. But as it turned out, the dinner was not quite.

The courses included sashimi (reasonable enough), chawan mushi topped with ikura (nice), grilled salmon (okay), wagyu beef (disappointing bite-sized pieces; where's the meat?), and Hokkaido Maki (nice). Oh, I didn't bother taking photos as the presentation was really just average. I guess with two full seatings at 6pm and 8pm, they had to dispense with the pretty presentations you'd expect at top Japanese restaurants.

Was the dinner worth $97.60? Sure. Was it worth $306? Certainly not...

Gonpachi, Roppongi, Tokyo

There were no yellow jumpsuited assassins in Gonpachi the night we went. Instead, we were greeted by friendly servers in this traditional tea house meets trendy izakaya.

Overall, the experience was really good. The menu was extensive, in terms of both food and drinks. In particular, I liked the foie gras yakitori with balsamic sauce and fresh strawberries (¥1,250).

The total bill for the 7 of us came up to just ¥24,350 including sashimi, tempura, their handmade soba, sake and lots more. And they actually turned off the lights to serve a prettily decorated birthday treat to Loo and Chien.

So Gonpachi inspired Quentin Tarantino in creating the set for Kill Bill. But with its good and reasonably priced food and great drinks selection served by young friendly staff in a cool ambience, it sure provides an inspiring dining experience!

http://www.gonpachi.jp/?lang=en

Kaikaya By The Sea, Shibuya, Tokyo

What better way to celebrate 27 years of friendship than to hop on a plane together, fly 3300 miles, and settle down to a nice warm dinner with just the company of your BFFs!

And Kaikaya provided just the right lively setting for us to kampai to our enduring friendship and celebrate our enduring youthfulness ;-) with some good sake.

Kaikaya came highly recommended by a few friends. And of course, the ever efficient Ming went online to do her due d. We were not disappointed.

The food can best be described as Japanese given a modern twist. As none of us had been there before, we decided on the omakase, which turned out to be a 12-course feast for just ¥4,500!

The meal kicked off with its signature fish carpaccio, Sengyo No Carpaccio, with garlic, olive oil, balsamico and basil. Absolutely delightful. We also enjoyed the wagyu beef sushi, the really fresh and generous sashimi platter, the seafood miso soup and more... The dinner ended on a sweet and perfect note with stick-like slabs of matcha cheesecake.

The odd thing is that practically all the customers that night were gaijin. I suppose it's because Kaikaya would not appeal to purists seeking traditional Japanese cuisine.

Our only grouse was that the smoke from the open kitchen got a little intense at times.

But we certainly had a great time and I'd definitely visit Kaikaya again the next time I'm in Tokyo.

Joel Robuchon, Hotel Michael

It's said that time flies when you are enjoying yourself. Well, we've been married for 10 years and it feels like not too long ago that we first met in that little bar ;-)

To celebrate this very special milestone, we decided we'd have a nice slow dinner - not just once, but on as many occasions as possible throughout the year!

From the beautiful decor to the quiet elegant service, the ambience in Joel Robuchon provides a great start to a romantic night out.

We felt the full degustation menu might be too heavy and decided on the $250 4-course menu. After we'd selected the courses, the bread trolley was rolled out. On the trolley was an amazing selection of bread with basil, saffron, rosemary, etc, etc.

Certain items carry a supplement eg. the lobster I ordered for appetizer. And I didn't realize it as I was given the guest menu without prices and my dashing date had the host menu with the prices.

Should they not presume the man will always pick up the tab? It annoys me when service establishments are too presumptuous. Or perhaps they thought a couple so engrossed with each other could not possibly be married and juggling joint finances? I'd forgive them then.

It was a very nice dinner overall I must say. The service was excellent, and the wait staff were happy to accede to our requests, like changing the dessert course to the cheese trolley.

A great place for special occasions, or to simply to appreciate the companionship of your other half.

Seki, Hotel Rendezvous

We love Japanese food. So when a neighbor (whose wife is Japanese) recommended this restaurant, we lost no time in checking it out.

It was a lot more casual and inexpensive than we expected (there was a guest in berms). Sets start from just $18.50, with the 7-course omakase at $88.

We chose the omakase, with me having wagyu beef and him silver cod for the robatayaki course. Portions were small per course but the full set was just right. And the fish was very fresh!

But I think what really impressed us was the friendly and warm service. Donny the manager was super attentive. When the sushi came and I remarked that I do not eat eel because of a prior bad experience with unagi (had to go to A&E with a soft bone lodged in my throat!), he immediately offered to replace the anago with another slice from the tail portion that's definitely boneless.

My only regret is that I didn't get to order from their extensive sake list as I was still on flu meds :-( Actually, it was a friendly waitress who noticed I was sniffling and gently persuaded me not to order the sake! This putting-the-customer-first kind of service is really quite rare in a world of financial KPIs.

We'll definitely be back for the sake and more!

Cut by Wolfgang Puck, Marina Bay Sands

100% Japanese wagyu rib eye from the Shiga prefecture. And I'm told it has a beef marble index of A5.

Melt-in-your-mouth texture. Superb marbling. But almost too rich, both in taste and price. Should have just ordered the 170g filet and saved on both calories and cash.

And hopefully my own BMI doesn't increase after this!