Novice blogger...

Girl has to confess that she is still a novice blogger...whenever she sees or does something remotely out of the ordinary, her first instinct is not to grab her camera and take a picture of it to be posted on her blog...

That is how half a grilled salmon (marinaded in ginger wine and wasabi and soy sauce), 300gms of lamb chops, a Vietnamese inspired vermicelli salad and half of the chocolate mousse Girl made was consumed before Girl thought to take a single photo of anything that she served at New Year's dinner last night!

However, Girl did manage to regain her wits by the time she served dessert and managed to get a picture of the Nigella-inspired instant chocolate mousse...The making of it was rather easy...marshmallows, butter, water and chocolate melted in a saucepan, cream (and baileys) whipped up and then added to the chocolate mixture. But the eating of it lay rather heavy on our stomachs...the mousse was so very rich! But Girl and other diners somehow managed to choke down the velvety smooth mousse...the sacrifices that one makes!

There is a gouge in the surface of the mousse as a diner was about to dig in to the mousse but was stopped by Girl so she could take this photo...

Nigella...

Girl spent a blissful day poring over the colourful and lusciously illustrated pages of Nigella's latest cookbook. She earmarked two recipes to try...Ginger and Pear Muffin and Instant Chocolate Mousse...

Girl has planned for New Year's Eve dinner tomorrow night to be...salmon with fresh herbs and garlic; vermicelli, tomato and cucumber salad; grilled lamb chops accompanied by fresh greens from the garden and instant chocolate mousse for dessert...a dinner worthy of the true domestic diety herself? Perhaps Girl is getting a little ahead of herself here...

Merry Christmas!

Girl received a set of silicone baking cups from a friend for Christmas...yay!

So, being an energetic individual, Girl made Lemon yoghurt muffins for breakfast *wink*

And Banana yoghurt muffins for afternoon tea...

The Banana yoghurt muffins were just a tweak of the basic yoghurt cake recipe found on Chocolate & Zuchini. Girl substituted two mashed bananas for one pottle of 125mL yoghurt and the muffins turned out great! (If Girl had had walnuts, they would have been chopped up and bunged into the mixture as well) Another great thing about using the bananas was that they made the muffins quite sweet, thereby reducing the amount of sugar needed...

All in all, Girl is pleased with how her experiment turned out...

Best Wishes for the New Year!

새해 북 많이 받으세요!

Cheesecakes...

Remember how someone had asked Girl to make a birthday cake for a friend's birthday party? After having decided on various cakes and then discarded the ideas as being too elaborate (Girl only had about three hours to make the cake) and an undue strain on Girl's almost non-existent baking abilities, Girl finally settled on a cheesecake flavoured with Baileys and topped with chocolate ganache...

On the day of the party, Girl decided to make the cheesecake in small little cupcake papers as they seemed to make the task more manageable...especially after a 600km journey back from another town!


First of all, Girl lined a 12-hole muffin tray with cupcake papers...Girl then bashed up a packet of vanilla super wine biscuits with a rollingpin and added 125gms melted butter. Girl mixed the biscuit crumbs and butter together and pressed the mixture into the bottom of the cupcake papers. The whole tray was put into the fridge to chill for half an hour or so...In the meantime, Girl added gelatine to some hot water and stirred it until it was dissolved. The gelatine mixture was then left to cool while Girl got on with other things..Girl beat cream cheese, lemon juice and icing sugar in a bowl with a hand-mixer. To this, Girl added 60mL of Baileys and 240mL of cream in batches and the mixture was beaten some more until smooth. The gelatine was then added to the mixture and the mixture was then spooned into the cupcake papers and once more replaced into the fridge to chill. When the mixture was reasonably chilled, chocolate ganache was poured over the top of the cheesecakes...Yumminess!

There were so many cheesecake cups that not all were eaten that night and the cakes tasted even better the following day when they had had time to set properly! Loverly! <3

Eureka! Eureka!

Girl feels about the same way that Archimedes must have done when he discovered the way to determine the volume of an object with an irregular shape...


For days now, Girl has been racking her brains to come up with a solution to her cake problem...namely, how to avoid using fondant (which hates refrigeration) to decorate a cake with ganache icing on it (which requires refrigeration, in Girl's estimate, if it is to be kept for a few days).


The answers to all of Girl's problems lay on one website...this one!


The most exciting excerpt from this exemplary webpage...

Ganache is very versatile stuff! You can take the remainder that has fallen onto the baking sheet, form it into a ball, roll it between your palms into a long snake, then roll it flat (or not) and form all kinds of freeform shapes to go on top of the cake. Or you can roll the ball flat (no thinner than 3/8 of an inch, though) and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes like stars, ornaments, etc. You can make a “white chocolate” ganache and pour it into cake pans to cool, then cut into ribbons, rounds, the sky’s the limit! And white chocolate is stunning against dark chocolate. You can, of course, also paint the ganache onto washed and dried mint leaves to make chocolate leaves that can be shaped to stand up from the cake. And you can form those ribbons into individual “loops” to make a full bow for the top of a cake.



Oh, Girl is ecstatic!

Continuation of the cupcake story...

Girl was a bit disappointed tonight when she ate the cupcakes she made yesterday as they were quite dry! *sob* There are several possible reasons for this...a) Girl left the babycakes in the oven for too long...b) refrigerated cake=dry cake...hmm...

The fondant cutouts definitely weren't great today after having spent a day in the fridge...but Girl already knew they wouldn't be...they go all soggy and drippy-looking when left in the fridge...but since Girl had iced the cupcakes with ganache, she wasn't sure if ganache would be alright if left out of the fridge...

When Girl started this whole cake making gaff, her general attitude was *phff* what's so hard about making and decorating cakes? Nothing, if they are eaten straight away...but if the cakes are to be decorated and stored for awhile, Girl finds that keeping them at optimum freshness can be a bit of a juggling act...

Anyway...enough reflection...Girl has had her first "commission" for a friend's birthday...

And since Girl has to make the cakes before she goes away on holiday and has quite a limited amount of time in which to do it, she has to plan the whole mission in rigorous detail...

Girl has settled on a moist chocolate cake, covered with a white ganache icing tinted with just the smallest hint of pink and decorated with butterflies and baby roses. But now, Girl has to figure out if she can make the butterflies and roses with something other than fondant as the cakes have to be stored in a refridgerator for a day or two. At this stage, royal icing is probably the other best option that Girl has.

Coffee & Walnut muffins

Girl racked her brain for a witty title for this post but came up with nothing...after all, what witticisms can one utter about a batch of coffee walnut muffins slathered in chocolate ganache-type icing and bedecked with green fondant butterflies and flowers...?




The Coffee and Walnut muffin recipe was actually meant to be baked as a cake but Girl decided to use cupcake papers...it was a spur of the moment decision with Girl to slather ganache icing on top and from there, it was a short step to rolling out some fondant and making flower and butterfly cutouts to adorn the muffins...Girl found the fondant to be easier to work with today; it seemed to be firmer and held its shape better. Girl found that her cutouts came away far more cleanly today than they did when the fondant was freshly made...

**Note: The fondant was only made last Thursday

I've got my heart set on [CENSORED]...

Girl spent Friday and most of the weekend in bed recovering from one too many late nights and a mild case of the sniffles...

Girl has a strange dislike of sleeping...She hates to go to bed! Sometimes, she has to literally force herself to go to sleep at night (especially if she has to work the next day) or to sleep in when she's feeling exhausted...The reason for this really strange behaviour? Sleeping is boring as hell!

Girl would so much rather be reading cookbooks and getting ideas for cakes and cupcakes or "admiring" the vegetables in her garden and cursing the slugs that ruin her otherwise beautiful cos lettuces or poring over gardening books, trying to glean ideas for her flower garden or trying to think of new ways to use/cook the abundance of plants in her garden or blogging...Girl hates to sleep when there are so many, many interesting things to do!

But sooner or later, it all catches up with Girl and then flash! Girl is left holding the remains of a candle, burnt out at both ends. Good thing for Girl that she has quite a robust constitution and a weekend in bed is usually sufficient to get her back on track...

Girl now feels like a million dollars after her enforced bed-rest..What will Girl's next project be...? Girl has a definite idea in mind but is going to keep it under wraps at present as she wants it to be a surprise for someone close to her (hence the somewhat obscure title of this post)*chuckles*

Hint: It involves this little tyke...

Girl didn't manage to make the two cakes that she wanted to make this weekend but she did make a drink using mint and lavender and lemon juice in her efforts to try and combat the searing summer heat...(a hint as to Girl's whereabouts, perhaps?) *LOL*

Girl put torn up mint leaves in a cup along with some lavender flowers and sugar...Boiling water was poured into the cup and then the whole concoction was poured into some lemon juice...Water and ice was added to the mix and Girl drank it all up through a pink straw...happiness...

Cupcakes...

Behold...cupcakes Girl baked from scratch and decorated with cutouts of homemade marshmallow fondant...

The whole process took a few days...the cupcakes were made one night after work and then stored away to be decorated when cool...the fondant was made yet another night and then stored away in a plastic bag in the fridge...

Girl thinks she finally gets how to make MMF, although hers tends to be a little on the dry side. However, it doesn't seem to be anything that a little Crisco can't fix...

Girl spent a therepeutic evening rolling out fondant with a glass (use glass to roll out fondant...it lessens dramatically the 'stick to the rollingpin' factor!) and cutting out shapes with a combination of cookie cutters...

Girl now needs to figure out how to 'dispose' of 10 sugary sweet cupcakes...

And as for the left-over fondant in the fridge...Girl definitely needs more practice producing flowers and leaves etc...

Drought...

...not in the literal sense...but Girl seems to be undergoing some sort of mental, creative and emotional drought wherein she walks about hazily, trying to conjure up enough willpower to organise herself and her work!


Anyway, enough of Girl's senseless rantings...Girl decided that she would make two cakes during the weekend for her friends and try decorating them with marshmallow icing and fondant cutout shapes...


Girl is still trying to decide on the theme of the cakes...there is a very real danger of ending up in Barbie-land as she still hasn't figured out a way to colour rolled fondant evenly and at the moment, is limited to either white or pink...


Here are the products of Girl's experiments with fondant...and yes, Girl does know they look sh*tty...*LOL Back to the drawing board! Girl is allergic to failure >o<




Girl made another batch of Honey Hazelnut muffins and this time, Girl ensured that she put plenty of sugar into the recipe and voila! Beautiful muffins ensued...

Exhaustion...

Girl is feeling strangely exhausted these few days...this ill-timed fatigue is incredibly frustrating as Girl has things to do and places to be...!! Not to mention cakes to make and cookies to try!


Girl tried to muster up some enthusiasm and make her beloved honey hazelnut muffins this evening but all she got were these little hard discs that could probably have passed as mill-stones...!

Compared to the muffins from the first attempt at this recipe...


The reason for the vast difference in result? Girl isn't quite sure...but this time, she omitted the sugar from the recipe and did not beat the mixture quite as thoroughly. Girl also did not sift the flour and baking powder and swapped the hazelnuts for walnuts. Moral of the story? Never bake when tired...it is merely a waste of ingredients...

Oh...and another thing...read recipe carefully (do not confuse with recipe for another cake) and don't tinker with it too much!

PS: Experienced bakers out there...lets hear from you!! T_T

Mouldy and Moth-eaten...

It had been a day of mild successes for Girl...

Girl had a friend come over for dinner tonight and was told that the dishes she had made (fried eggplant with dried shrimp and shrimp paste and lemongrass chicken) was delicious.

Score: Girl 1: Blah 0

Girl had, in the course of the last 24 hours, made a pear cake, honey & hazelnut muffins and banana muffins with walnuts...Girl's friend loved the pear cake that she was served and did not complain when Girl packed away a substantial amount for her to take home along with some muffins

Score: Girl 2: Blah 0

When Girl's friend got home, she tried a honey hazelnut muffin and used the words 'superb' and 'so good' to describe it

Score: Girl 3: Blah 0

Girl had minor success with making fondant this afternoon...

Score: Girl 3½: Blah 0

Girl tried to make fondant animals and produced these mouldy looking beasties...

Score: Girl 3½: Blah 367

T.K.O.

Girl retires for the night...she knows when she's defeated...

Do You Know The Muffin (Wo)Man...?

This morning, Girl's flatmate was awakened at some ungodly hour to the clatter of Girl's whisk against the sides of her metal mixing bowl once again as Girl whisked eggs in her quest for light and fluffy muffins.

That in itself would not be anything extraordinary as some beings do take delight in rising early on a weekend and cooking a luxurious breakfast for themselves.

However, the last thing that Girl's flatmate heard last night was probably the clatter of Girl's whisk against the sides of her metal mixing bowl as she made more muffins...

The last thing Girl remembered last night was ingesting a deliciously nutty muffin...

Girl's first batch of muffins was a close approximation of Clotilde's recipe for Honey Hazelnut Cake, which actually started out life as a muffin but got genetically re-engineered into a cake...Girl was merely returning it to what nature intended it to be...a light, deliciously nutty, honey-soaked muffin.

The second was a walnut banana muffin that Girl made up as she went along, incorporating some of the techniques she had used while making Clotilde's recipes...Girl was a little worried that the walnut banana muffins would be abject failures but they came out of the oven, looking plump and niely browned. Cautiously, Girl tried one...and then to make sure that the whole batch was alright and that the one she had just eaten was not merely a fluke, she proceeded to eat another two in quick succession...


Girl's Walnut Banana Muffin recipe...(Note: Girl used very imprecise measurements when making the muffins...feel free to alter if you think you have to!)

Ingredients:
2 eggs
honey
butter (50gms)
1 mashed up banana
70gms chopped walnuts
1½ cups flour
1½ teaspoon baking powder


Method:
Whip up the 2 eggs with either a hand-held mixer or a whisk. Whisk for as long as you like/can...
Add in the mashed banana and whisk again...
Melt the butter and the honey together in a bowl and add into the mixture...whisk again...
Add chopped walnuts and whisk...
Sift flour and baking powder into the mixtureand whisk again...
Spoon into muffin papers/a well-greased muffin tray and bake at 180c for about 15-20 minutes..

Honey Hazelnut Muffins and Banana Walnut Muffins

Pear Cake

Girl was suffering from withdrawal symptoms. Girl was craving the hype of removing a perfectly baked, scrumptiously browned cake from the oven. Girl just had to have her cake-baking fix!

So even though it was getting late and she was a little tired after her jaunt to Red Square, Girl just had to try the Pear Cake recipe found on Chocolate and Zucchini.

Girl was a little concerned that the batter she produced by following the recipe (which seemed to be predominently butter and eggs and very little else!), seemed to be a little bit on the watery side...

However, having learnt from experience that one must follow the recipe despite some misgivings, Girl decided to put the cake into the oven and was rewarded with an aromatic, eggily custardy cake densely studded with tender pears...

Heavenly!

The grainy pictures do not do the least justice to the delectable Pear Cake...

Red Square

Thanks to a generous family member, Girl got a bookful of restaurant and entertainment vouchers for her birthday and boy! has Girl been making use of it...!! ^_^ Girl and a friend decided to visit Red Square, a Russian restaurant, tonight and thoroughly enjoyed the experience...

The dramatic red and black decor of the restaurant appealed to Girl's aesthetic sense and the friendly and attentive Asian girl (who impressed Girl by speaking Russian or Ukrainian to the cooks) who manned the front of house and attended to customers' needs, made the atmosphere extremely warm and inviting.

In fact, the only grumble Girl had was that she was hungry and her food was awhile coming. However, when the dishes arrived, it was evident to Girl why they had taken so long in the making...

Girl's friend ordered a salmon and blini starter followed by the Chicken Kiev...Girl had refrained from ordering a starter due to financial constraints but she wished she had thrown financial constraints to the wind when the gorgeous plate of tender, almost melt-in-the-mouth blinis, generously filled with smoked salmon arrived at the table. Girl was hardly able to refrain from gazing enviously at her friend while he ate the starter with evident enjoyment...

The Chicken Kiev did turn out a little disappointing from Girl's point of view as it looked a little dry and came served only with peas and mashed potatoes. However, Girl's friend seemed to find nothing amiss and ate everything on his plate...

Girl had decided to take the plunge and ordered the Beef Shashlik, not quite knowing what to expect. A skewerful of chunks of perfectly grilled beef covered with an onion relish accompanied by a large helping of vegetables and a thin pancake was what it turned out to be...

Girl loved the combination of grilled meat, fresh veges and wafer-thin pancake...three of her favourite things all on one plate...Luxury!

Girl had been told by a family member that the honey cake had received glowing reviews from previous diners at the restaurant but Girl decided that she was, unfortunately, too stuffed to eat another thing...

...perhaps next time *^_^*

The Prerogative Of A Woman...

One of the absolute prerogatives of being a woman is the right to change her mind without eliciting much surprise from the people around her...

Another is being able to own numerous pairs of shoes in varying shades and styles without inviting much ridicule...

Therefore, Girl invokes her ancient right to change her plan to make fondant covered cupcakes to trying out a tempting recipe for Honey Hazelnut Cake found on that delectably ravishing French food blog Chocolate & Zucchini. Girl is looking forward to Friday night when she will be left in solitude to bake delicious cakes to her heart's content...

In fact, Girl may not stop at one cake! Girl may try two, maybe even *gasp* three of the enchanting recipes found on Chocolate & Zucchini! At that point in time, intoxicated with her seeming prowess, Girl may just lose her tenuous grip on reality and begin living in a delicious fantasy of being a Domestic Goddess...

Let us leave Girl in her pleasurable illusion...Disillusionment comes, often far too soon, to all of us...

Marshmallow Fondant

Girl has found a recipe for MMF that looks quite easy here!! :)

So that will be Girl's weekend project...

Friday Night: Go get ingredients for MMF; Bake a batch of plain cupcakes; make MMF...

Saturday Morning: Decorate cupcakes; Gobble down half the batch of cupcakes...

All Day Sunday: Regret rash and greedy actions the day before; Regret lack of self control; Eat more cupcakes to make self feel better...

Girl can't wait for the weekend! But now, Girl needs to go do her Korean homework or face the wrath of her Seon Sang-nim

An Nyeong-hi Ka Sey Yo!!

Pinky Boo!

The mere sight of gorgeously pink cupcakes decorated with colourful bits and bobs are enough to gladden Girl's heart...

And this is even before the sugar rush from the marshmallow icing and the hundreds and thousands and chocolate shavings kick in... >o<

Pictures of Girl's incredibly amateurish attempts to liven up plain 'ole buttercake cupcakes...

Girl went out and got a packet of cake icing today from the supermarket...Girl isn't entirely sure whether it will pass off for fondant or can be used to sculpt things the way sugarpaste can...once more, only experience will tell!

Moussaka...

Girl set out to make the Greek dish Moussaka, or rather, a bastardized version of it. She grilled eggplant steaks, cooked a mince sauce and...blanched spinach. The national dish of Greece had taken on a rather Italian flavour! Girl layered the eggplant, spinach and mince in a dish and covered it with feta cheese and then grilled it for a few minutes. Girl omitted the bechamel sauce, firstly because she didn't know how to make a bechamel sauce and secondly because she had heard rumours that it contained eggs, cream etc and she was just trying to watch calories...

The dish turned out OK for a home-made dish...no restaurant standard here; it was gobbled up by Girl, who absolutely adores eggplant, and a friend.

A portion of Girl's home-made Moussaka and a horiatiki salata sans olives, peppers etc...

Think Pink!

Girl's first cupcake covered with marshmallow icing!





Girl actually meant to make marshmallow fondant but she found that if she melted the marshmallows and then covered the cupcakes with the liquidified marshmallows and waited for it to set, it formed a smooth, shiny layer on top of the cake...


Now it seems that all Girl has to do is figure out a way to make the fondant properly so she can decorate the cupcakes...However, Girl is slightly concerned that the marshmallow icing will not be strong enough to support the weight of any fondant decorations or other bits and bobbles that she may use to prettify the cakelets and that they will all collapse into a gooey mess. Only time and experience will tell! *Girl shrugs philosophically*

G.R.E.E.D

Girl is thinking of renaming her blog G.R.E.E.D.

Whatsit stand for you ask? Girl Rapaciously Eats Every Day...That's what it stands for...

And while I am aware that the grammar of that sentence may be somewhat iffy, it is an unescapably accurate description of Girl's almost constant intake of edible foodstuffs at the moment...

Today for breakfast, Girl had leftovers from dinner, a few chicken puffs that Girl had whipped up first thing in the morning and a few muffins which were meant for the neighbours and friends...

Actually, the last was an act of pure altruism...

Girl was merely checking to see if the condition of the muffins had deteriorated overnight and whether they were still fit to be given away as presents to Girl's nearest & dearest. Girl does not want to poison her friends...oh no!

When Girl came back from doing a few chores at about 11am, she was assailed by a sudden craving for banana muffins...so she just had to whip up a batch! She found a jar of aromatic coffee and was overwhelmed by a curiosity to see what would happen if she added it into the batch of banana muffins...

An hour later, Girl's kitchen was filled with the aroma of baking muffins and when the little beauties came out of the oven, Girl just HAD to try one to see if the addition of coffee had completely ruined her muffins! So Girl had one (ahem! two)...

Now, feeling incredibly bloated and uncomfortably like a satiated python, Girl will now take a N.A.P. *nana style*

A few hours later...

Instead of taking a Nana Nap, Girl went out and got herself a block of Philly Cream Cheese *drools* and made Cream Cheese Frosting (sans butter) for her Banana Coffee cupcakes...

Here they are..

The Visitors...

Girl had visitors for a few days this week...

Witness the dinner one of the visitors casually whipped up for us one night!

Left to Right: Rendang, Fried Asparagus with dried shrimp and Shrimp Paste, Thai Vermicelli Salad with Cucumber.

Steamed Broccoli

Salmon in a Tamarind sauce; the fattiness of the fish is complemented beautifully by the sourness of the sauce...

Ironical situation...

OK...so Girl decided to start learning how to cook so she would eat healthier and also save money...

The truth of the matter is that Girl is now so obsessed with cooking that she spends all her free time (and money!) on her new hobby and even worse, has to eat up all the fruits of her labour! Girl is starting to feel the pinch!

Yoghurt Cake...

Girl was re-reading the blog post for the Lemon Yoghurt cake that had been such a disaster for her the last three times she made it (burnt outside, oozy insides and funky texture) and decided (in her pigheaded, bull-doggish way) to attempt it one more time, since far more accomplished bakers that herself had used the recipe and produced fantatic cakes...

So, this time, she was extremely careful to measure all the ingredients out accurately, to omit the Limoncello that had been added in the last three times she made the cake, and to lower the oven temperature to 160c instead of the recommended 180c, with the intention of baking the cake for a longer time.

This time, having carefully combined all the wet ingredients with a hand mixer and sifted in the flour and baking powder and baking soda and then combined them gently by hand, she poured the mixture into a 23cm baking tin and baked it at 160c for about 40 minutes. It was then that things started to get a little tense...

The outside of the cake was starting to brown and yet tester after tester that was pushed into the belly of the cake came up still showing traces of cake batter. In addition to that, it was getting quite late and Girl was getting decidedly cranky as she had counted on getting a lemony slice of yoghurt cake before bed. She cranked the temperature up to 180c. The outside of the cake got browner. Girl decided that she would bake the cake for 15 more minutes and if it still wasn't done then, she would give it up for lost.

...

But lo and behold! At the end of the 15 minutes, there reposed, in the depths of the hot oven, a beautifully browned cake. But the hardest test was yet to come...Girl tremblingly inserted a tester into the centre of the cake and when it was removed, it was magically clean!

Success!

Girl was so excited, she cut a slice of the cake straight away and devoured the tender morsel within minutes. She then fell asleep, savouring the sweet taste of victory...

PS/ Girl decided that the next time she made this cake, she would also make a glaze of Limoncello, sugar, lemon juice and grated lemon rind...yumminess! Au revoir!

Messy, Gooey Chocolate Cake...

Girl was in need of a decadent dessert...and, as usual, was broke...

So she turned to her only true friend in such times of need...

Who, as expected, rose to the occasion...to produce such a messily, gooey chocolatey cake as would satisfy the cravings of the most hardened chocoholic and at the same time, still the protests of the stingiest misers...

For $1.99, Girl purchased an Edmonds "Sure To Rise" pre-mixed chocolate cake and voila!