Rum Cake Balls - Happy New Year

Rum cake balls - Happy New Year!

These are from the left over crumbs after making the wedding and christening cakes. I had always wanted to make these and after scouring the net, came up with my own recipe.

Rum Balls

Ingredients:
Left over chocolate cake crumbs
2 tbsp condensed milk
50 gms chopped dark chocolate
2 tbsp double cream
2 tbsp baileys or rum or any liquer that you like
hundreds and thousands
chopped chocolate
cocoa
sugar balls, etc

Method:
1. Microwave the chopped chocolate and double cream for a couple of minutes till the chocolate is melted through. Leave to cool.
2. Mash the cake crumbs with fingers. Add the condensed milk and cooled chocolate. Add in the your choice of liquer and mix well. It will be quite soft at this stage. Set aside and put in fridge for about 1/2 hour to harden.
3. After 1/2 hour take out from fridge and form into balls. Size is completely up to you.
4. After forming into balls, roll into the different sugar toppings.

Result is so moreish, you can't stop at one!



Wishing everyone a blessed and wonderful 2011!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!




Sorry for this slightly belated greetings.
Could not get internet connection last night and this morning.

I was tired of turkey after having it for a few Christmases so this year, we are having roast beef with yorkshire pudding and veg. No picture of the whole joint of beef as Pat didnt want it to get cold and started carving as soon as I put it on the table, so here's a picture of it plated with vegs.




Yorkshire pudding straight out from the oven


Baked Alaska for dessert




No dinner that night, but decided to have some cake.

This is a fruit cake that I made for ourselves





This is a carrot cake for Katrina, Rob and James

Katrina, Rob and James

This is a very belated post - Katrina and Rob's wedding as well as Baby James's christening!

December 12 dawned bright and sunny. It was a beautiful day. Got up early to set the wedding and Christening cakes at the hotel, got back, dressed and went over to take Katrina to church.

She and Rob orginally only wanted to have James's christening but she thought it would be better for James to have married parents, so they decided to get married at the same time. But she wanted it to be a surprise, so the invites that were sent out were only that of James's christening. So when we arrived the vicar told us that some people approached him asking if there were 2 celebrations there - a christening and a wedding? and he said yes, but they were going to be held together!

Pat and Katrina outside the church


Baby James was so good, he was asleep the whole of wedding mass and even when it was time for him to be baptised, he was still sleeping and when the vicar carried him - I thought " oh no - he is going to shriek when he pours the water over his head!" but bless baby - he had a shock alright, but he opened his eyes and frowned at the vicar - that was it!




Katrina's wedding cake






James's christening cake

Apologies

Apologies

It's been more than a month since my last post and I apologise for that. Pat was diagnosed with kidney cancer but has since then had his left kidney removed. We went back to the consultant 2 weeks ago for a post operative consult and the good news is that the pathology report on his lymp node came back clear. So far, he is clear from cancer but will have to go for CT scans to make sure that it has not come back.

He is on the road to recovery but the poor guy is still in pain. It is about 6 weeks since his operation and he is still feeling raw. The consultant prescribed him some pain killers during the last visit but Pat stopped them after taking them for only a day and a half. The pain killers made him feel sick and he said that was not a nice feeling, so he has to bear the pain and hopefully, all these will go away soon.

Dinner request

Baby sitting and Dinner Request

As we wanted to give the new parents some time off to themselves, we offered to babysit James. They visit quite often on Sundays but this is the first time after 20+ years that I will be looking after a baby for the whole night. I was so worried and had so many what ifs.... but little Mr. was a darling.

His parents dropped him off around 7+ so that's when I fed him, then around 10 gave him his bath -ooo... he loves his bath time, he is ever so quite then, just enjoying the warmth of the water! So anyway, after his bath, gave him his last feed and he only woke up at 4 for his next. Dropped off again straight after that and did not wake up till 8. Hope he will be like this next time we baby sit!

So anyway after his parents picked him up in the morning, I went supermarket shopping as I had invited some friends over for dinner. I offered to make nasi lemak but he was craving chicken rice. He is leaving for Singapore on Wednesday for a holiday and yet he wanted chicken rice. Told him if my chicken rice was not good enough then do not blame me! hehe.

So menu for the night was boiled chicken, har cheong kai (this is more for Pat as he does not like plain chicken), siu yoke and oyster sauced chye sim. Dessert was pavlova and special request of kueh kosui - no pics as you can find them in the archives!

Sorry pictures look terrible as I only remembered to take them halfway during the meal!

Matt & Donna's wedding

Wedding Cake


Warning! Another long post!
As you have seen from my previous posts, I have made wedding cakes before. 1 tier and 2 tiers and not very big ones at that! So when Matt and Donna decided to get married, I offered to bake them a cake and they wanted 3 tiers and white and burgundy themed. Good! I thought - gives me a chance to practice and widen my portfolio of cakes.

Hmm.. told Pat will not bake a cake for free again (lol) as I never imagined it would be such a difficult task. Boy, do I admire those people who do it for a living, but then again, when it is a job, I suppose it gets easier!

Anyway, a week after I returned from Singapore, I baked the top layer - a 6 inch fruit cake which traditionally in UK, you keep for the christening of your first child. Had to bake the cake earlier as I had to feed it brandy. Step one done!

Then Tuesday of last week, baked the 2nd layer and it did not turn out well. When I tried the recipe some time back, it was ok but perhaps this time, it was bigger - 10 inches - the cake was not high enough. So Wednesday night, baked another one using a different recipe. Yay, it worked.

Thursday, took a day off and baked the bottom layer - 12 inches. Then whilst waiting for it to cool, made the sugarpaste rose and the roses for the middle tier. The 2 bottom tiers are chocolate.

Then after dinner, covered all 3 cakes. Friday night after work, after dinner continued with the deco. Worked till around 0230 and decided I had to stop. I didn't like the deco but as it was so late, my mind was not working as I did not know what to do with it as it just looked a mess. While in bed, did manage to have an idea of how to "cure" the problem, but it meant that I had to re-cover the cake as the burgundy colour would be showing as it had seeped into the frosting.

So next morning, woke up bright and early but feeling like s**t, went downstairs to try and finish the cake. Redesigned the placing of the flowers and this time, I was quite happy with it. So tried as hard and as quick as possible to cover the cake and then had to drive to the cake shop about 40 mins(1 way) away to get separate cake boxes to house the cakes. When I went to the shop 2 weeks ago, the lady said to assemble them and take it to the venue, but I was worried about the weight of the cakes and them toppling over, so went back to get them. While I was there, got some silver sparkle as well to highlight the roses. Left home at 1000 and got back at 1130, not bad driving, eh, considering it was like 60 + miles both ways. hehe.

so, so to cut a very long story a bit shorter, got everything ready by 1300, got dressed and arrived at the venue at 1430. The wedding ceremony was scheduled to begin at 1530, so 1 hour for me to set up the cake. The most time consuming thing on arrival was to add the beads to the cake! But tada, here is my or rather Matt and Donna's wedding cake.







One last picture before I go, just could not resist taking this. Found this in the loo! Don't you think it is so sweet?

My holiday

My holiday

Apologies for the lack of post and now please sit down, have a cup of tea cos it's going to be a fairly long one as I am going to put 2 1/2 weeks of stories into 1 post!

The main purpose of my going to Singapore at was to attend my cousin's wedding and then have my hols there as well. It was a good thing that Pat did not come with me because on the day I landed, when I called Pat to inform him that I had arrived, he told me that his dad had passed away. We had discussed it already that if that happend, I would still continue my holiday and not turn back but he will try to see if he could delay the funeral. So luckily he could and the funeral was scheduled for 24 August, 2 days after I get back.

I got upgraded on my way out and for the first time in ages, I did manage to catch some sleep. Arrived at SG airport not expecting to see anyone but whilst glancing at the crowd, saw Liana trying to pretend to be inconspicious but failing miserably. haha. What a sweet surprise! The silly girl did not check with the airlines on the arrival of my flight taking for granted that it would be on time, she had to wait 2 hours!

Anyway, got home, got showered and then went out for dinner with Liana and my mum.

2 days later, it's Adeline and Scott's wedding! It was a wonderful wedding. As Scott is an American of Scottish descent, he and his groomsmen wore kilts and as Adeline is half Peranakan, she had her matron of honour and bridesmaids in kebayas. Dinner was at Shangri-La's ballroom and everything was oh so nice!

Mum and Dad walking her down the aisle


I do


With groomsmen and bridesmaids


On stage with both sets of PILs


3 generations


As I was going to be in Singapore during this period, coincidentally, so were a few of my Sec 4 classmates. One was coming in from US for her sister's wedding, yet another from the US back for a holiday and another from Holland also back for holiday. Last minute we had another from UK as well. So we had a mini gathering again this year. Last year, I think we had about 80+ of us. This year we managed to gather about 40+ of us, which I think is also quite good.

All the girls


Sec 4/1


And then another one as some of them could not make it for the 1st gathering, so thanks to Chris, we had it at her place, with some wonderful food to go with it.

2nd SJC gathering






Then I had a 3rd gathering also for some others who could not make the 1st.

3rd mini SJC gathering


I have a lot of wonderful classmates who bother to meet up with me when I am back, some of whom I have been in school with since we were 6! Thank you all!

The rest of my hols were spent just going out with my mum and daughter or catching up with other friends.

Some of the food that I had.

Lunch with Andrew and company at Yanti restaurant







Ramen at Ippodo




Lunch at PS Cafe - thanks to E and D






Dinner at Flo's






We also went to RW at Sentosa and watched Resort World Circus show Voyage de la Vie. We had tickets from Mary - so thank you Mary. For those of you who have not watched this yet, please do. It is a wonderful performance and will keep you captivated throughout the 90 mins.

On the evening before heading out to the airport for my flight back, had dinner with my cousins and their mum. Thank you cousins!



That my friends is my trip in a nutshell and I am back to the real world!

On holiday

Holiday

Hi folks. Am away for 2 1/2 weeks,so will post when I return!

Dinner guests

My house guests


Apologies for not posting for some time. Have been busy lately as Pat's father is ill and in hospital, so after work, go home, go to hospital visit him, and then back home and have dinner. So by the time dinner's over, sometimes it is already 9pm and just to lazy/tired to log on. Pat's father is 91 he was hospitalised slightly over a week ago. At first we suspected that he had stroke as he could not speak, but he had the use of his arms and legs, so that could not be. He had a brain scan on Monday and the doctors told us that it was indeed not a stroke and when they did a blood test, we were told he had contracted MRSA and the only place that he could have gotten that was at the nursing home that he was at. So please say a prayer that he will recover soon.

Anyway, back to my dinner guests 2 Saturdays ago.
I only got to "speak" with terri. of Daily Obsessions recently. I normally read a lot of blogs but I am a silent reader. But because I sent Terri an award, and she replied. That's how I started communicating with her. I learnt that she would be in Europe for 2 1/2 months holiday as her daughter was finishing her 6 month exchange student stint, so she took the opportunity to travel around the continent.

So when I heard that Terri would be coming here, I took the opportunity to invite her over to stay the Saturday night for dinner and then take her and daughter to airport the next day. I live about 20 mins from the airport so it is really convenient! I was so happy that she accepted my invitation! I had a really good time with Terri and Yi. Thank you!

Was not sure of what to cook for dinner, but this was my menu for the evening. And as for dessert, made summer pudding. This is a typical English dessert which Pat loves and now Terri says she loves it too. So Terri, recipe is below and I will post step by step pictures shortly.

Satay Babi
Banana/Mango/Prawn packet
Thai Grilled Chicken
Yong Tau Fu
Nonya Chap Chye
and for dessert - Summer Pudding

I did not take pictures of the food as Terri and Yi were doing so! So my pictures are just file pictures (when I did them before)

Satay Babi - file picture


Banana/Mango/Prawn packet - file picture


Summer pudding
Recipe from Saturday Kitchen - James Martin

Ingredients
400g/14oz mixed berries, trimmed
2 tbsps water
50g/2oz caster_sugar
14 thin slices white_bread, crusts removed
oil, for greasing
200g/7oz clotted_cream/thick cream, optional

Preparation method
1. Heat the berries, sugar and water in a saucepan until boiling, reduce the heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
2. Blend half of the fruits in a blender and strain the purée through a sieve. Reserve the remaining fruit.
3. Stamp out four circles from four slices of the bread to fit the bottom of four small dariole moulds* and set aside. Stamp out four larger circles for the top of the moulds and set aside. Cut the remaining bread into wide strips the same height as the moulds.
4. Lightly oil the inside of each mould and line with cling film.

5. Dip the small bread circles into the purée and place into the moulds. Repeat with the wide strips of bread and use them to line the sides of the mould, making sure that they overlap slightly.
6. Fill the moulds with the reserved fruit and a little of the purée and press the mixture down firmly.

7. Dip the larger circles of bread in the purée and use them to cover the tops of the moulds. Cover with the cling film competely.

8. Chill the puddings in the fridge until ready to serve.
9. To serve, turn the puddings out onto serving plates and serve with a spoonful of clotted cream or double cream if using.


*Note: I used ramekins