Semi Retired from Blogging

Going forward, I guess I will have lesser time to bake and blog as I will be fully occupied with my studies for the next 18-months. Time will be tight as I will still be holding on to my fulltime job in an extremely fast-paced organization. I hope to be able to bake at least once every other week, more if time permits. Guess I will just go with the flow.

These are some of the stuff which I made the past week. I have been rather slack and was too lazy to take pictures of the Fruit Pastry and Morello Cherry Chocolate
Cupcakes which I made. Lazy me only managed to take photos of these which were made from whatever ingredients I could find in the kitchen.
Strawberry Yoghurt Cheesecake. This was made for my colleague's husband who is celebrating his birthday.


Almond Biscotti.


Panfried Glutinous Rice Packets.

Class of 77 Reunion

How time flies! In a wink of an eye, it has been 30 years since we graduated from Fairfield Methodist Girls School.

The Class of 77 Reunion tea party was mooted as a result of invitations to attend an Alumni Dinner in celebration of our school's 119 Founder's Day in August. As I know I will be busy during that period, I suggested for some of the girls to come over to my house for a gathering instead. It was quite tough rounding up the old girls as many of us have not been in contact since graduation. I must thanks Angeline (Yuet Yong) for making contact with some of the girls whom I have not met since 1977. We did managed to contact quite a number of them but due to work, prior personal commitments etc, some of them could not attend.

Anyway I am really happy for those who turned up. Thanks Angeline, Carolyne (Cheng Sim), Gina (Chay-Ling), Isabelle, Jenny (Wei Tin), Lay Khim, Linda (Lai Chan), Mary (Mui Eng)and Prudence (Mun Yee) for making the party a success. I truly enjoyed catching up with all you. It was really fun talking about the good ole days, the pranks and 'bullying' we did to each other and how some of us literally 'sucked the blood dry' of our Maths teacher Ms Lau.

Since we graduated, our school had gone through numerous changes. In 1983, the school was relocated to her present site in Dover Road from Neil Road, and in the same year, FMGS broke away from a 94-year tradition, it was the first Methodist School in Singapore to go co-educational.

We Fairsians are proud of our 119-year heritage and we are indeed grateful for the fantastic allround education we received from our teachers who are so dedicated in their profession.

And how could we forget the Fairfield School Song it has such meaningful lyrics and an upbeat tempo. Here is the final chorus: (Note: the original lyrics of the school song has been changed slightly in 1983 to reflect the co-ed status):

Here's to Fairfield, to Fairfield
To every student here
To every happy Fairsian
And to every teacher dear.
Oh! It's Fairfield, at Fairfield
Where all our hearts are light
Where love is in the sunshine
And all the world is bright.

Let's make time for a gathering again and the next time round, lets pray for more girls to join us in reminiscing the good old times.

Yearbook from our graduating year, ELDDS performance and class outng pictures.

The centrepiece, Class of 77 Tirimisu Cake. This is our original FMGS school badge. It has since been changed to FMSS. The badge, school uniform and letters are made from a combination of sugarpaste and marshmallow fondant.


Whipped up all these food myself. Hey, I was not a distinction Home Economics student for nothing you know! I have Ms Viswalingam to thank for this. Issuing her instructions in a military-style way, she taught us all we need to know about whisking, folding, creaming and baking. She was so strict with us that none of us dare as much as to whimper during her lessons. Those were the days when we had to manually beat in teaspoon full of eggs into our choux pastry till our palms developed blisters.
Class of 77 Tirimisu, Baileys Cheesecake, Strawberry Buttermilk Cake, Mango Mousse Cake, Fudgy Chocolate Blueberry Cake, Durian Swissrolls, Cupcakes with Creamcheese Frosting, Almond & Cranberry Chocolate Clusters, Chicken Curry, Fried Vermicelli & Chilled Cucumber Pork Rolls. The steamed Glutinous Rice is compliments of my mother-in-law.



One for the album, group photos (yours truly in the brown top)

Happy Birthday Hubby

DH will turn 50 tomorrow. To celebrate the birthday of this 'half a century egg', I made him a Tirimisu Cake.

Happy Birthday Dar.

Nothing elaborate about the decorations. Just some simple flowers, butterflies and the number 50 in sugarpaste.

Crystal Tau Suan Cake

A piping hot bowl of Tau Suan (mung bean) dessert with You Tiao (cruellers) on a rainy day warms the body.

But how about a slice of chilled Crystal Tau Suan Cake on a hot sunny day. The quivering jelly-like texture of this cake cools as it glides down your throat.

I had on Saturday, bought a slice of this Tau Suan Cake from a stall located at the Amoy Street hawker centre. Liking it so much, I had a go at it making a tray for myself today. I adapted a waterchestnut cake recipe and used cooked mung beans to replace the chopped waterchestnuts. Although the piece which I bought did not have you tiao (cruellers) in it, I decided to add some myself. With the addition of cruellers, the cake tasted so much more like a bowl of Tau Suan.

CRYSTAL TAU SUAN CAKE
Ingredients
100g mung beans, soaked for 1/2 an hour and steamed till cooked
½ piece crueller, cut into small pieces.
120g waterchestnut flour
1 tbsp tapioca starch
1 cup water
200g sugar
2 blades pandan leaves
2-3/4 cups water

Method:
1) Mix the waterchestnut flour, tapioca starch with the 1 cup of water. Strain to remove all lumps.
2) Boil the 2-3/4 cups water, pandan leaves and sugar till the sugar is dissolved and the syrup is fragrant.
3) Measure out 2-1/2 cups of the syrup or make up with more water till you have 2-1/2 cups.
4) Add the steamed beans to the syrup, stir in the water chestnut starch.
5) Boil over small flame and stir non stop till mixture is translucent making sure the mixture does not get burnt.
6) Switch off the flame and stir in the crullers bits.
7) Pour into a greased 7” square tin and steam for 20 minutes.
8) Cool thoroughly before cutting with a lightly greased knife.
9) Chill in an airtight box to prevent the cakes from drying out.

Chee Cheong Fun - Recipe

This is for Anonymous who requested for the recipe:

(Recipe reproduced with the kind permission of CWL in the USA):
CHEE CHEONG FUN
Ingredients:
150g Rice Flour
1-1/2 Tbsp Wheat starch flour (Tang Mien)
2 Tbsp Cornflour
1 Tbsp Oil
2 cups Water
1/2 tsp Salt

Method:
1. Sift dry ingredients together.
2. Slowly add the water, mixing as you add. Strain to remove lumps.
3. Lastly add the oil and salt and mix thoroughly. Set batter aside for at least an hour.
4. Prepare your steamer and place an oiled stainless steel plate inside.
5. When water is boiling, ladle and spread batter onto the plate. Steam for about 4-5 mins.
6. Roll it tightly. Place rice rolls on a plate and brush with a little oil. Continue with the rest of the batter.

Sweet Sauce (Thim Jeong):
1/2 cup water
7 Tbsp Hoisin sauce
3 Tbsp soya sauce
3 Teaspoon black soya sauce

Mix all ingredients together and cook over medium flame until slightly thick.

Garnishings:
Toasted sesame seeds.