INTENSIVE Baking!

Spent a good whole 5 hours (or slightly more I think) yesterday, at Palate Sensations doing an INTENSIVE baking course.

From previous experience, I know that Nan Ong, the Le Cordon Bleu trained pastry chef, has not been known to use the cake mixer much. So it was a great Sunday workout, hand whisking all that batter manually - I was perspiring just half an hour into the class!

Interestingly, there was a little boy just 14 years old, amongst the class of ladies. His mum signed him up for this class, and apparently, he cooks quite a lot at home. We ladies were quite impressed - he sure sounds like a chef in the making!




Lynette, the owner, was sweet enough to provide lunch - some French Onion Soup and pasta with ricotta fillings. French onion soup was from the class the day before - Francois' french immersion in french cuisine that I had wanted to go, if not for my busy schedule.


Ever made 3 cakes in a day? We did that day! Got the useful recipes of the pound cake (almost sara lee alike), the Golden Yellow Cake topped with a citrusy Orange Cream Cheese, and the "Ugly Fudgy Chocolate Cake" - not fudgy enough actually, in my opinion.




And I think these aprons were somewhat newly made, cos Lynette made us "model" for her.... Love the picture of her taken with Anthony Bourdain, especially the chopper he drew - he's so cool, one of my "idols".

I Need to Lift More Weights

Lunch at Heng-parents' place today, more relatives than I expected - the dozen of cupcakes I made yesterday would not be enough to go around. So, I got up earlier this morning to bake another dozen. Might as well, gave me the chance to try out pattern #2.


Because I was whisking the batter for quite a while, coupled with Friday's gym session, my right hand was trembling quite violently when I was piping the frosting. Had to make great efforts not to smudge the tiny flowers. Carrying now-10kg Baby Julian thereafter made me realise that man, I've got weak arms!! =p

Cuppie Cakes!

At long last, I got down to trying out that vanilla cupcake recipe that a course-mate I met at Palate Sensations gave. Even brought out the "loot" of piping bags and "deluxe nozzle set" that I went crazy about at Phoon Huat the last time.

So, a couple of hours later on this lazy Saturday afternoon, out popped a dozen of pinky cupcakes from the Jemej Kitchen.


This was the first time that I was trying out piping alone at home, so was glad that the recipe for the frosting came out really well. Happily added the baby pink colouring, and practised a bit more with the leftovers. Now, fingers crossed, hope they taste yummy!

Attempt at the Chocolate Fondant

I was so excited about the Chocolate Fondant from Saturday's class, that I went straight home that very evening (after a short detour to Phoon Huat) to try out the recipe at home. Yes, I ish siao on!

R@e and @ndrea would be delighted to know that I have finally started using the weighing scale they got me for Christmas. I've been making rough measurements with the tablespoon so far, whenever I'm trying out recipes at home. Decided that it would be safer in this case to have precise measurement.


First attempt: FAILED!!!! Made a frantic SOS call to my chef for help. Suspected that there could be a few reasons for the "exploded" cake. One, I might not have beat the eggs to the right consistency. Two, the remekin used is slightly bigger than those we used in class - the difference in size, as well as different operating condition of the ovens could also be the cause.


Finally, on the 2nd attempt - The Boy's only comment was "ORGASMIC"! *Grins* Ok, I just need to practise a few more times to perfect the Chocolate Fondant. Might as well, in time to help The Boy put on some weight - he's lost quite a bit due to his hectic work schedule these days.

On a Sugar-High Note

If last Saturday was a case of sugar overload, yesterday's last course at Palate Sensations would cause my Fitness First instructor to disown me all at once.

Made my way down to Portsdown Road after work. I was really looking forward to this class, as I love desserts and all things sweet. Admittedly, I'm more of a baker than a cook. There's always a delicate balance in baking, the precision in measurement and the chemistry of the ingredients put together all combine to give a very therapeutic experience. All sickness and grogginess were soon forgotten as I put on the apron.

I've always wondered how difficult it would be to make some of these classic French desserts. On the list, we had:

• Vanilla Creme Brulee


• Profiteroles


• Passion Fruit Souffle


• Chocolate Fondant

The light and puffy Profiterole, made from a small, round baked choux pastry, gives a mixed sensation from the coolness of the ice cream filling and the warmth of the chocolate glaze. Making the choux pastry was quite tiring, we left the vigourous stirring to our male team member. Heh. Piping the pastry out was not easy either. Whilst Francois' looked so beautiful, mine looked like shit, uh, literally. But the end result - shiok at every bite!!






The Passion Fruit Souffle was quite a challenge as well. Our first try failed - the batter consistency turned out wrong - the egg white mixture had to be as pure as possible.

So we were really happy when we saw our souffles rising proudly from our second attempt. Because everything had to be prepared a la minute and fast, we also better understood why the waiting time required whenever this dessert is ordered at the restaurant. The souffle turned out to be perfect - now, remind me to buy the Grand Marnier the next time I'm at duty-free - Grand Marnier Souffle would be so heavenly.....


Next, the Vanilla Creme Brulee. This one was pretty easy, though the torching requires some attention or you may end up burning the sugar. Mine turned out quite ok! So, should I get a torch for the Jemej kitchen next? ;)

In between, we managed to squeeze in some time to add the finishing glaze and touches to the Framboisier, the Raspberry Mousse Cake we made last week.




Finally, the highlight of the 3-hour lesson would have to be the Chocolate Fondant, also known as the Warm Chocolate Cake. My god, I swore my sickness was all cured as I sank my teeth into this rich, dark chocolate cake with a molten hot chocolate centre that oozed out.

This is one of the most decadent desserts ever, this is the QUEEN of all desserts. This one beats Mortons' HANDS-DOWN. Francois said this recipe has been used at his restaurant for 10 years, so it was all applause when he said he was now passing on the recipe to us. It was as if I made the discovery of a lifetime, apart from meeting my husband. I was all hyped up to go home right away to try it!


And thus, the entire 8 sessions of the Basic Cooking Course ended on a sugar-high......

Sugar-Laden Saturday

Saturday, lesson 7 at Palate Sensations, was all about cakes and tarts - set to send my efforts of working out at the gym, alongside the agonising pain suffered, to a mere dream wasted. Still, no matter how tough my muscles get, the weakness for desserts can never be overcome. Muttering a quick "i'm sorry, personal trainer" under my breath, I gleefully got on to work out with my sugar, cream, butter and all things sinful.

Our tasks for the afternoon:

1. Alsatian Tart


2. Almond & Blueberry Tart


3. Chocolate Mousse Cake


4. Framboisier (Raspberry Mousse Cake)

In making the mousse cakes, as we had a lot to complete and too little time, we only managed to bake the genoise, and layer on the mousse. Yes, I always feel like a kid caught with my hand in the cookie jar, smearing on the chocolate mousse like that - messy, sinful yet thrilling - especially when it's time to lick the devilish chocolate off your fingers!

They are now in the freezers in Palate Sensations, to be "touched up" next Saturday. The genoise had a very light texture, with the right amount of sweetness - found another great recipe!

By the way, check out the sexy red KitchenAid Stand Mixer in the foreground - I would so LOVE to get my hands on one. I just need a bigger kitchen!!!!!






Am mighty pleased with the tart recipes as well, so much so that I was off to Phoon Huat immediately after the lessson to get some tart tins. For the Alsatian Tart, we used raspberries instead of apples. For the Almond & Blueberry Tart, the use of almond powder to make the cream filling was just superb. Which reminds me, I better start practising at home soon before I forget!

I Love Betty Crocker

What happens when you wanna bake yummilicious muffins but don't have the time to spare, to do it from scratch?




Betty Crocker's instant mix for blueberry muffins was a breeze to use, foolproof, the cleaning not as intensive too. These lovely confectionaries were out from the oven in just 20 minutes! Something for The Boy to have as breakfast tomorrow...

It's Busy Sunday!

Baked this cheesecake at an unearthly hour of 12 midnight last night. Haven't made this in a while. Last baked it, if I remember correctly, for The Boy's birthday - the first one which we celebrated together, quite a few years ago. (We didn't know each other too well then, hahaha.)

Brought this along, for the lunch we just had earlier, to celebrate the birthdays of Heng-daddy and Jason, which fall 3 days apart. Glad it turned out well. The texture was dense enough - thumbs up from everyone!


More pictures from the lunch to follow later. For now, I need A LOT of time to prepare for the wedding we are going to this evening. I NEED TIME TO WEAR THE SARI. It'll be at an Indian temple - haven't been to such before, it'll be an eye-opener, we're so excited about it!! Ok, till later, let me go get the sari.....

Chocolates Chocolates Chocolates

I was back at Palate Sensations again the very next day, as the class on how to make a sacher torte was too tempting to resist. This cake consists two layers of dense, not overly sweet chocolate dough with a thin layer of apricot jam in the middle and dark chocolate icing with shreds of chocolate on the top and sides. (Adapted from Wikipedia)

For this class, Chef decided not to use apricot jam, but taught us how to make a decadent chocolate spread instead! So we spent almost half the time making 3 different types of chocolate - the chocolate genoise (the sponge part), the chocolate spread and the chocolate ganache (the glaze).

As we went along melting the chocolate with butter, cream etc, I could almost feel my arteries clogging up - until you are faced with making it, part of you have always tended to ignore the fact that this chocolate business is SINFUL! But then again, we were busy licking our fingers and hands of every straying glob of molten chocolate, just like lil' girls!!!






Time flew by quickly. By the end of the 3 hours, we all had a little sacher torte each, which we had the fun of doing some piping onto.


Then, it was dinner with the families to celebrate Father's Day. Both daddies posing with my little cake - which won rave reviews from them all. Ask me to make this cake again, complete with the tedious task of melting chocolate, and even worse job of washing up thereafter (it was a really messy affair), I'll have to think again, haha!


I had stopped baking for a long time, and now that I'm getting into the swing of things again, I began to remember why I was quite crazy about it years ago. It has certainly been a fulfilling weekend for me, I've accomplished a lot, in my own terms. It has been very therapeutic, minus the fact that the chef made us all HAND WHISK instead of relying on the machine. My arm is still aching from that!