Peach Crumb Cake

I can't believe it.

My 2-month old toaster oven is, literally, TOAST @.@ Don't ask me how I managed to fry the poor fella.... I'm still losing sleep over it. I killed my oven!!!!

As dramatic as it sounds, this is a HUGE problem for me - that toaster oven was my everything! It roasts, toasts, cooks, bakes and goes DING!!!! =(

Now that the oven is dead, I guess Noel won't be having any roast meat or toast or baked pasta or lasagna or confectioneries any time soon.... *Big Sigh*

Anyway! Was over at Cynthia's place a week ago and baked a peach crumb cake and a lemon cake (forgot to take pictures of my lemon cake but it was well received too!).

Noel and I had the 1st half of the peach crumb cake for breakfast one day and the other half for a quick snack before my 5 hour dance practice.

Here're some shots of my really yummy peach crumb cake!

Wholesome goodness!

Innards shot!

Up close & personal with the cake's tender parts. Mmmmm

The crumble was nice and cinnamon-y and crisp (despite having sat in the fridge overnight) and wasn't overly sweet too (hooray for good estimating an not following recipes!)! The sponge cake base was also really fragrant and soft - almost like that of a chiffon cake! The only improvement to note for the next crumb cake I attempt is that I should be less conservative with the volume of fruits next time. All in all however, the crumb cake was, much to my own surprise, really really good.

This might come as a surprise to some of you who know how massively into cooking/baking I am but this was probably the 3rd or 4th time I've actually had my own baking.... I mean, I eat my own cooking all the time but baking is a TOTALLY different matter.... It's really really strange coz I derive more pleasure from seeing others eat it than actually chowing down on it myself.

I am SO weird.

Oh oh oh!!!! And check this out! I've been quite down lately and guess what Noel brought back one day?

It's gorgeous and a really happy looking bouquet.

As you can tell, I am very very happy. XDDDDDDDDDD

Dancing Pigeons + Obscene Dim Sum

I just got back from a really horrible dance rehearsal....

Horrible 'coz my body felt as heavy as lead and as stiff as a wooden puppet whilst my brain swirled about languidly in the recesses of my skull like cotton candy. I wasn't registering anything and it took me twice as long to react than it normally would.

*sigh*

This is what too much worrying/stress/insufficient rest/illness does to you. It's happening to me and I think it sucks majorly.

The production is scheduled for 23rd August and at the moment, I feel like I'm deteriorating and I hate that feeling. *sigh* Just gotta work harder and rest more. Maybe it'd be a good idea to stop hitting the gym especially before dance practices. :S Knowing my gym-a-holic self, that'd be a pretty tough feat.

So today's practice was sh*t. And I'm feeling sh*t. Hopefully, I'll redeem myself tomorrow. I gotta. This ain't me and I know it.

On a happier note, Noel and I finally met with some interior designers for our new apartment and we're exhausted from running around HK but incredibly excited to see the preliminary sketches! We still have 2 more designers lined up but we're already frothing with merriment.

Plus! I had my caramel popcorn fix at G.I. Joe today. I love having dates with Noel. It's always so much fun. The movie deserved a 3/5 (5 being the best) in my opinion.... Simply because certain parts of the movie just seemed.... Too easy/simplistic. Watch it and you'll know what I mean. The action was good though! And I was amused to find the actor from Step Up 1 playing the lead protagonist in G.I. Joe. Worth a watch but not worth a 2 thumbs up.

Speaking of dates with Noel... Owing to certain hiccups we've been having in our relationship, I've thoroughly exhausted my poor boy and so I went all out to make him the most fabulous dinner, with dessert, a stroll and a back massage later that night. Throw in a manicure/Pedicure and facial treatment and I think our home was a spa.

Dinner was roasted pigeon with swiss mushrooms and seared scallops on the side.

It was yummy! One tiny bird for Noel & one for me too!

We were so stuffed from dinner that we had problems enjoying our dim sum breakfast this morning with some of Noel's friends.

The interesting dish was the Lo Mai Kai (glutinous rice)... Instead of the usual steamed-in-lotus-leaves setting, this Lo Mai Kai was actually fried and crispy.

Delicious!

I believe our table ordered an obscene number of just that dish! In fact, I'd dare say that we ordered an obscene amount of food --- enough to feed the hungry in Africa for a week maybe (okay, I exaggerate, so shoot me).

P.S. This was at the beginning stages of brunch. We tripled/quadrupled this number of dishes towards the end. We had to send some back!

Alright, that's it for now. Just wanted to rant about my slacking off at dance. Will work HARDER! 2 weeks to production! GARGH!

Chat soon!

Loves.

C.

Food-thingies in HK

I'm doing pretty well tonight - I'm guessing it's coz I'm procrastinating from ironing and I'm just trying to clear my harddrive of some of the random pictures I've taken about things I want to blog about but have been too lazy to do so.

That was one long sentence.

Anyway!

About a month and a half ago, I was taking a stroll down the street and this hamburger-looking tupperware caught my eye. Seeing as how I love these random looking knick knacks, I couldn't resist the urge to buy it!

Dismantled.

I know! Isn't it the cutest? It even comes with its own baby fork & spoon! I'm going to use this when I get back to Bristol. Can't have Noel bringing this to work -- It'd be... Hm. Unprofessional. Lol. Kinda! Or just really funny. Depends on which way his colleagues swing!

One of the great things about creativity is that it results in the creation of different flavours of the same food. I'm talking about my 雞蛋仔! I came back this time around to a pleasant array of 6 flavours!

Original, Chocolate, Strawberry, Yam, Green Tea, Sesame w/ Coconut!

See! New array on top shelf -bottom shelfs are the original, which still are the local fav I think since it sells out really quick and the new flavours have to made on order.

One of my new favourites has to be the strawberry (Chocolate still ranks first though!).

It's nice, refreshing and, honestly, tastes the same as the original but it has that strawberry milk aroma to it that makes much better (I think).

Met up with Yan Lin 2 weeks ago and we totally LOVED the desserts we had at Azabu Sabo.

Hers.

Mine.

We pretty much ordered the same dessert just with different accompanying ice cream - mine was green tea and hers was the vanilla softie.

Both were fantabulous!

Though I think Yan Lin will agree with me when I say that dessert was more memorable than our main course.

Yaay for japanese ice cream desserts.

Remember Bristol??

Hahhaha! Oh gosh, I've been meaning to post this up for the LONGEST time now, but I've just been procrastinating.

I spent my 24th birthday sitting for my Constitutional Rights law paper. It went well, and I (never giving Noel the credit he deserves) didn't expect any gifts that day.

I had dinner with a bunch of awesome friends at Nandos before walking back with Ash, Lisa & Kye and discovering that our neighbours had kindly collected a parcel on my behalf.

I was ecstatic!

Kinda guessed it would be from Noel, yet too scared to have my hopes dashed.

I snatched the box as politely as I could from our neighbour and scooted into our home and ripped the box open.

It was the best gift ever - chocolates, flowers and (my favourite) a lovely card from my baby to me.

We didn't have a vase at home --- Law students have no time to care for plants/flowers and so Ash & I never bothered with floral stuff --- So I cleaned out my coffee jar and used it as a vase.

Yep, my flowers were soaking up caffeine.

Yaay!

Anyway, here's a snap of the chocolates....

There were 4. I swallowed 2 before remembering to take a shot. Lol.

And the flowers in the coffee jar.

Camelias. With card in foreground!

I was moved. It would've easily made the best birthday I've had since it's my 1st away from home and am with new found friends in a foreign land.

Can a girl ask for anything more? It was terrific. I was really happy.

Fantastico!

Ooo! Before I forget, here's what'll greet you should you ever come knocking on my door in UK!

Our gate. 3A Northcote Road!

View as you walk towards our main door! Rap on the door and it shall be answered! With big smiles and either me or my gorgeous Bermudian flatmate.

Blueberry White Choc Chunk Cookies

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I discovered something really interesting while back in Singapore - Toaster ovens make pretty good substitutes for a normal oven when it comes to baking cookies.

I found out while staying at my mom's and conveniently short-circuiting the entire house coz I didn't know that our oven was faulty. With a large ball of dough sitting in my bowl, I figured I'd try toasting it in the toaster oven!

VOILA!

Magic.

Armed with this knowledge (new to me, though I'm sure many of you out there already knew this secret), I gave in to the baking monster lurking within me.

I woke up one morning and all I could think of was "BAKE BAKE BAKE BAKE BAKE BAKE BAKE BAKE BAKE Cookies!". I swear it was a silent but incredibly powerful mantra. The next thing I knew, I was breezing through the aisles of supermarkets and throwing stuff into my basket. Did you know that it's easier to find Coffee Extract than it is to find Vanilla Extract, which is a staple in baking? Omg I had to sift through 3 supermarkets before I found it... And yep, as all things are in Citysuper, it was MAJORLY overpriced.

I came back, threw the stuff into the bowl....

The white chocolate chunks actually look like cheese here.... Hm. Cheese cookies. I wonder....

And popped them into the toaster oven for them to poof up and bake nicely. NYOM.

Ta-dah!

Aren't they pretty?

Blueberry White Choc Chunk Cookies! I'm really proud of this batch since I made it all by hand and even chopped the white chocolate myself! Yaay!

Gah. Love baking! Next bake fest ---- Russian Cherry Teacakes!

Watch out folks! Callie G. is back and armed with a toaster oven that BAKES!

the 1st update in donkey years

I've been negelecting my blog.

So today, I've decided to utilise the most of my weary bones and extra time to pump some life into my dormant blog.

First off, quick run down of the main 'highlights' of my life - finished year 1 of law school (exams were nightmarish); learnt golf from Dad; am living happily with Noel in HK; zipped off to Langkawi for a friend's wedding; finally set foot in Singapore after a good year and a half and had a blast of a good time meeting up old friends.

Loving the new me.

On a side note, stress piled on as I was heading into the first week of exams and so, as usual, I diluted the pressure by working my muscles into dough, butter and flour.

Here was my first ever attempt at making bread - Cinnamon rolls!

Food tasting. =) I miss you Kyle! I don't get to bake for you no more!

My verdict: I was a tad too conservative with the sugar so the bread came out a bit flat and tasteless. That said, I felt the bread wasn't as elastic/springy and airy as I would've liked it to be. I suppose it was because I hadn't let it proof for long enough.

Shall attempt it again once I get an oven!

My 2nd bake-fest came when I was soooooo stressed with studying contract law, I threw whatever I had into a bowl and kneaded like MAD.

Poof! Coffee scones.

These were YUM.

That's it for now!

Hope I'll be more conscientious in updating! Till next time!

Peace out!



C.
xoxox