Special Birthdays Bakes, Dinners, Apple Day, Banana Day, Coconut Day

TRAFFIC LIGHT JELLIES



Traffic Light Jellies



   

Traffic Light Jellies

 My very own traffic light jellies creation.

Can you see the cross section of the 3 layered jellies with the traffic light colours- red, amber and green.

Filled with fresh fruits.

 BA CHANG

Hong Kong Ba Chang

Hong Kong  Style Ba Chang

 These were not my bakes but Aunt Amanda's.

I displaced these pictures because firstly, I love ba chang. Secondly, the shape is different from the typical triangle shape ba chang shape. Thirdly, HK style ba chang. Last but not least, and more importantly, it reminds me very much of home and my mother.

There are so many types of ba chang. My mother does the hokkien style ba chang. My mother's ba chang is superb. She puts lots of good ingredients -meat, dried prawns(hei be), nuts( lat chi), mushroom plus her special mixture of spices.

It takes a lot of time and effort plus skill to make ba chang. Preparing the fillings, rice etc is one matter. The wrapping leaves and strings need to be washed. The skill of wrapping the rice pudding need to be take into account. Then, boiling the rice pudding or ba chang under the charcoal fire.( my home style)

My mother is superb in making ba chang. My sisters and I used to take turns to fan the charcoal fire in order to cook our ba chang. Good old days.

If time and resources allow, I will make some ba chang next time.  Look out for it! :)

 APPLE DAY

• APPLE SULTANA PIE
• APPLE CRUMBLE CAKE
• CHOCOLATE CHIP FLAPJACK

Apple Sultana Pie

Apple Sultana Pie

Apple Crumble Cake

Chocolate Chip Flapjack

Clockwise- Apple Sultana Pie, Chocolate Flapjack, Apple Crumble Cake

 Lot of of bramley apples. Hence, decided to do another apple day but of different bakes.

The apple sultana pie was a big challenge.  I find making pies time consuming probably because I do not have so much spare time due to my working time.

Making a pie requires time baking the pastry. It is an important stage of making the pie.

Apple pie takes time not because of the baking in oven but more of the preparations. I wont bog you with the details.  Just enjoy the pictures ;)

Also made apple crumbe cake to complete my mini apple day. Apple Crumble is an old time classic.

To make up for big gathering, I added a chocolate flapjack as well. Flapjacks are easy to do. This time I added chocolate chips in the flapjacks.

All these bakes were contributed to the Woking Gathering.

 BANANA DAY

• BANANA LOAF

Banana Loaf

Banana Loaf Slices

 I suddenly missed banana cake thus I decided to do a fast banana loaf.  Brought this loaf to work place to share with colleagues :)

 CONTRIBUTION FOR GATHERING

• BANANA MUFFINS

Banana Muffins

Banana Muffins in Tin

Small gift for a colleague

 Have lots of bananas. Why not do muffins instead? Cannot recall how many I made though but managed to fill up 2 big tins and +++ in other tins.

Used a total of 9 big bananas for all the muffins.

Small and easy to carry.

These muffins were distributed to some work colleagues and friday gathering.

GATHERING CONTRIBUTION-COCONUT DAY

• CHOCOLATE COCONUT CAKE
• COCONUT CHERRIES BANANA CAKE



Chocolate Coconut Cake



Coconut Cherries Banana Cake

South African Biscotti Rusk



Traybakes and Biscotti

Coconut gives a good strong smell. Difficult to get fresh coconut here. Hence, I have to use dessicated coconut. 2 large coconut traybakes plus some SA biscotti rusk cookies ( given by R)- really crunchy.

 TRAYBAKE FOR WORK PLACE

• BANANA PEANUT BUTTER CAKE

Ooopss.. burned

Banana Peanut Butter Cake

Crunchy Peanut Butter with Banana. Some pple find it a strange mixture. I think it is a strong combination of peanut and banana smell.
I overbaked this trayabake.. oops..
This traybake was taken to workplace to share with work colleagues.

EVENING DINNER

• SALMON BROCOLLI STIR FRY
• VEGETARIAN VERMICELLI STIR FRY
• VEGETARIAN SOUP
• SCONES

  

Salmon Brocolli Stir Fry

Green vege+corn+ vermicelli stir fry

Egg, sweetcorn+tomato soup

Dinner

Scones

Scones

I always find cooking easier than baking simply because the latter actually take more time. However, the latter allows me to prepare in advance and distribute to others when I am not available.
Was in kitchen the other day and suddenly Rose came in and I said, let's cook! Again, I was fast and took over the cooking.
Even managed to bake some scones while cooking.
We ate the dinner happily and then enjoyed the scones with a cup of tea. :)

DINNER

• KUNG PO SALMON NOODLES

Kung Po Salmon

Kung Po Salmon Noodles

 I love fish. Of course, Kitty Cat loves fish.

This Kung Po Salmon Noodles was quite spicy. Not bad....  hahaha...

 DINNER

• STIR FRY NOODLES

Stir Fry Noodles

Stir Fry Noodles

 This was a spontaneous stir fry. I love noodles. Anytime- noodles. This stir fry was yummy. Eggs, greens, tomatoes, mussels, carrots. Invited H and K to have the stir fry with me. :)

 BIRTHDAYS CELEBRATIONS

• CANNOLI CAKE
• CHOCOLATE BOX WITH STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM

These were very special and unique bakes.  Quite hard to do and time consuming.
I ventured to do and improve in making cheese cakes, again. As I am 'old -handed' ( in hokkien), I managed to jump the intermediate stage and move on with challenging bakes quickly.

Cannoli Cake

 Cannoli Cake is very special cake. Why?
Externally looking extravagant with multiple decoration but let me tell you about the cake itself.
A large moist sponge cake was being baked. Next, the fillings were the main features of cannoli cake. It was made up of 3 various cheeses plus chocolate chips.

The external decorations was very much of my own creation. I asked YV what she likes, she replied that she loves chips and likes everything- almond, chocolate and colourful rice.
To comply to her wishess, I basically decorate the cake to the maximum. You definitely would not find this in any bakery shops or commercial cakes.

I put lots of freshly roasted almond flakes and the surfacew was drawan with melted chocolate which later became hardened to outline for chocolate and colourful rice for decorations.
It was indeed a big, rich, colourful, beautiful cake. 



Chocolate Box with Strawberries and Cream

 Chocolate Box with Strawberries Cream is not a straightforward bake.
It may not be clear in the picture but the desert itself was contained in a homemade chocolate box.
I basically melt the chocolate, moulded the melted chocolate in a small traybake tray, put in the fridge and let it hardened. Next, I peeled the aluminium foil carefully to get my chocolat box.
This dessert is not a cake but a fresh kinda ice cream dessert.
Next, I make the filling with fresh cream mixture and refrigerated to harden it. Then I filled it up with many many fresh strawberries and piped cream around the edges.
The dessert need to need to be in cold fridge to maintain its form. So is Cannoli Cake as it contains fresh cheese.

SPECIAL BIRTHDAY BAKES

Fruit Tarts

Beatiful fruit tarts contributed by C.

Cannoli Cake

 BBQ PARTY CONTRIBUTIONS

• FRESH STRAWBERRY CREAM CAKE
• CHOCOLATE CREAM CAKE



Fresh Strawberry Cream Cake





Chocolate Cream Cake



DESSERTS

 First time not working in the weekend, after such a long time. I simply could not believe it. Pple think I have gone missing. Nope, you have not seen my pictures in the missing posters or in the national tele, as yet. Hahah..

Since I have not joined the community group for a long time, I decided to do something special for them.

Here comes the cream cakes- fresh strawberry and  chocolate cake.

Both cakes were special and has its own uniqueness. 

The strawberry cake was a 3 layered cake filled with fresh strawberries.

The chocolate cake was very special in its make up and how it was baked. My memory is failing but I can tell you not easy bake. You may see the cakes has been sliced slightly before the decorations and toppings were put on. If I remembered correctly, this cake required 2 stages in baking.

Beautiful Sunflower

CONTRIBUTION TO WOKING COMMUNITY

• FLOURLESS ORANGE ALMOND CAKE
• MADEIRA CAKE

Flourless Orange and Almond Cake

Madeira Cake

Cannot attend again but my bakes can be there.

The flourless orange and almond cake is very special. Need effort and patience. The oranges was boiled, softened,cut, meshed.  The cake is a very moist cake.

Old time classic- madeira cake.  Cute, wasnt it? Fast bake and old time favourite for most.

Yummy homemade cakes.

COOKING DINNER

• FRIED VERMICELLI
• FRIED EGGS WITH PRAWNS
• VEGETARIAN WANTON SOUP
• STEAM TROUT 

  

Fried Vermicelli, Fried Eggs with Prawns

Vegetable Dumpling Soup

Steam Trout

Everyone is so busy with work. It is hard to get everyone together. Never mind, I will be the organiser again.
Since I love cooking, I decided to cook dinner for 5 of us.
Simply fast cooking.
Definitely easier than baking :D