COOK. BAKE. HOST.

Time before the start of practicum isn't much, so since my mum and I had some time, we went to ToTT, which is located at 896, Dunearn Road.

ToTT is definately a one-stop store if you are thinking of purchasing cooking wares or even exortic ingredients. There is a wide range of items especially for baking wares, you can find almost everything you need there! Other than just having a "mini mart" selling ingredients, a big and huge store of equipment, there's even a bistro and a cooking studio that you can attend lessons at as they have a wide range of courses you can sign up for!

A whole wide range of pastas with different flavours. Interesting!

A "bake & go" station with ready made cookie doughs, just pay for the dough and you get to bake there! All fully equipments you need for the baking! Good for people who wants to bake and yet does not have much equipments :)

Few whole shelves of cook books with some cook books of famous chefs like Jamie Oliver!

Cooking studio with everything you need for the cooking lesson! Even apron is provided!

At the bistro serving quite limited variation of food...........

Free flow of drinks! Good for a long afternoon..

Mushroom soup with.......... Spring onion as garnishing..? I don't think its quite suitable for a western soup!

Durian fritter, which is something new, would be a super-love thing for durian lovers!

That's all for now (:
http://www.tottstore.com/ for more information! :D



WE LOVE CUPCAKES!

At the beginning of the month, I've completed my Group Endeavours in Service Learning (GESL). It is held at St Anthony's Primary School, it was a 2 days event and there were a whole line of activities planned for the Primary school kids. I was tasked for a section of the GESL activity which is cup cake decorating! I always loved baking so I agreed to it, but behind every event like this, prepararion is the most important! There were about 20 odd participants so I had to bake around 50 cupcakes! I made more than 50 cupcakes using a sponge recipe, the cupcake was butter milk sponge and I added chocolate chips. I also prepared butter cream in piping bags, sprinklers, stencils and cocoa power for stenciling.

My demo sample cupcake when I was teaching the kids to pipe butter cream onto the cupcakes. They were taught how to decorate using butter cream and topping it with sprinklers or using cocoa powder to stencil! I hope they had fun! (:

The kids of St Anthony's Primary School decorating cupcakes! Looks serious?

Sarah, looking so satisfied with her cupcake. (:

Happy with his cupcake? Read the facial expressions!

Kids at work, stenciling, piping and topping the cupcakes!

Even my group members had fun! (:

Happy kids! I am happy too! (:

Me and my group mate, Sakinah (:

Even young primary school kids love the process of making cupcakes! I am happy to see them enjoying (: CHEERS (:

"Library" for BOOKS!

When I was searching for a recipe for egg tarts for my microteaching, I thought that looking through cook books would be more reliable (I trust books more than online sources). So, here I go, searching for one recipe in my mum's cook book library! I didn't know my mum had soooo many cook books till my parents brought all the books home from my parents' shop and placed it into the cupboard.

I suppose this is one of the passion to cook/ bake! (: in the end, I found my recipe despite looking through so many books :D

(LI WHEY SHOWS YOU THE MINI INSTALLED LIBRARY)

From Desserts to Thai Hawkwer food to Sauces to Chinese pastries. I think I can find anything I want to cook here!

In the sea of books, I fished out one book I like the most (and I suppose my mum too), its a book from Daniel Tay (founder of Bakerzin). The pictures in the book are very appealing, presentation and garnishing very well done!

I found this set of "encyclopedia" sitting at the corner of the cupboard. Very useful with information and recipes! (:

Are cook books better than online sources or the other way round? I'm still relying on these books (:

The passion.

This week, I handed up an essay for Social Context titled 'The Passion to Teach'. What is exactly passion? Passion to me and everyone is probably a strong emotional or liking to something. But how do you show your passion? Today, I'll be sharing a website that I really LOVE. What is it?

PHOTO CREDIT TO AUNTY YOCHANA

Aunty Yochana's passion for baking! I'm a constant blog reader of hers, simply because I ENVY her! If you ever go into her blog, seriously, you will be amazed by the number of things she can make! That is what I call passion for something. If I am not wrong she bakes everyday (or almost because you see updates super often!). I got to know this blog through my mother because my mum loves baking too! And that she learnt how to make macarons from her, and really successful ones! Okay, time to show some goodies! (:

The unfrosted cake, when I saw this, I was obviously amazed by how she can play with colours, and just by looking at it, it really cheers me up! (:

Macarons; very very pretty right! I do not know since when I have the fetish for macarons, probably its round and small and cute and and and..... I've been receiving macarons for 2 years as my birthday present! Cute things! (:

Hello kitty printed on icing sheet (or something) ontop of macarons! This is like my two favourite things! I think she even has a printer to print edible ink on the sheets! How cool! (:

And more goodies, customized cakes! Cute right! (:

Although I do not get to taste them, but just by looking at it, it made my day! (: I hope it does to you all too! Want to view more goodies, visit Aunty Yochana!

Chocolate Lava Cake's Mania!

This post is going to be so chocolatey (: Showing my blog readers the photos that I took personally (of chocolate lava cakes) when I go out to hunt for food! Some were taken when I was overseas, I LOVE FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY; it explains (: In this post, I am going to show u 3 pictures at different events, so you be the judge, you choose what you like! (:

1st up, from Bakerzin. Garnished with berry sauce, vanilla ice cream, berries (strawberries, blueberries and raspberries), classy and neat!

Next up, from a random dessert shop in Hong Kong, Kowloon Bay (its around a neighbourhood area by the way). My mum ordered this and I think the presentation is really really nice (and the price was quite reasonable) with two scoops of ice cream of your choice, just look at how they plate this dish, using chocolate sauce to draw a flower and butterfly (with pink and orange polka dots) Sweet looking right!

Lastly, from Oyster Bar & Grill in Hong Kong, Wanchai. This was a buffet setting, but we can order the chocolate lava cake (like one serving per person) it came like... naked, only sprinkled with icing sugar (plus that watermelon was what I added because I thought the cake was quite lonely standing there)

So which do you think looks the best? The best garnished one and plated one? Personally I really like second one, probably its the most special looking and most creative in terms of garnishing! (:

After choosing which one do you like, have you ever thought of how chocolate lava cake is made?

My mum told me that the "lava" from chocolate lava cake is the uncooked batter of the cake. How true is that? I went to search for answers online, my mum was right! But on top of that method, there is another way which chocolate ganache (frozen ones) is added into the batter before baking. But from the picture I see in the website, the amount of "lava" is quite little. And also, those that I've tired should be like the one my mum mentioned, uncooked cake batter, which I also found a recipe on the internet, and also the mouthfeel on the "lava" was also a little floury.

The chocolate lava cake from Oyster Bar and Grill in HK; the amount of "lava" depends on your cooking time, so how do you want yours served?

Check the recipes on these websites out if you're interested: Chocolate ganache center lava cake and Chocolate lava cake (normal) Have fun trying to make your favourite chocolate desserts! (: Cheers!

Learning Festival, 29 September 2010

Last wednesday, 29 Sep was the learning festival. There were 20 over participants for this event and I realised many of them do really have the passion to learn cooking and baking just like me and the rest of my classmates!

Do you see a big 'WOW' when you see this presentation? Pretty and well organised isn't it? It was done up by Miss Chin. The theme of the event was a Japanese theme. So, here goes, I will show you a sneak peak of what we did last week during the Leaning Festival (:

First of all, Matcha Cheesecake! This is a baked cheese cake (there's different types of cheese cake, some chilled; non-bake and some are baked cheesecake). I personally like green, so the colour is really appealing to me (:

Next up, Teriyaki Chicken and Rice (the participants did a bento box, a different presentation but the same items). Everything garnished!

Participants all geared up and listening to our senior, Farah, for instructions on making the cheesecake!

The participants working on their bento boxes and they are really enjoying it!

The participants looking really pleased with their products!

Up-close on the cheesecake! All nice and warm, almost ready for serving! *Mouth watering?*

The participants were so creative that they brought their own rice moulds from home! (:

On a whole, I really enjoyed myself throughout this Leaning Festival although i was only assisting the participants and did not do much hands on, but I am feeling satisfied after seeing all the participants being so happy after completing the dishes. I hope in future, I will sense this kind of satisfaction when I am teaching my students (:

Anyway, the rest of the photos are up on my Facebook page, assess to the album here : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=287868&id=759674413&l=f7e8d02546