Night out at Vivocity

Last evening hubby, mei mei and I went to Vivocity to redempt our free gifts from Canon. It had been a while since we spent some time at the huge mall and frankly were quite out of touch on what was good to have for dinner there. Mei Mei wanted New York New York but we couldn't find it. I suggested Billy Bombers but it appeared to be none as well.

So round and round we went until we chanced upon the newly open Barcelos The Flaming Grilled Chicken (only 6 mths only) on level two beside Long John Silver. Actually it was the smell that lured us to the outlet. Initially we were rather skeptical as the smell actually smelt very oily. But the items on the menu board were tempting enough to prompt us to give it a try. To top that up, we managed to strike a conversation with the Ang Mo boss (too bad we didnt catch his name) who boasted about the daily full house but guaranteed us that we would get a table within 5mins (at that point we had been waiting for about 10mins+). After the meal, I seriously hope he means it when he said he is looking to open an outlet at Tampines 1 or East Coast area. If you are staying in Holland Village, you are in luck, I think he mentioned his second outlet would be opening soon.

The dining area for this outlet at Vivo is rather small and the oily smell can be smelled throughout the outlet. However, the design is very country and family oriented. After looking at the menu and the sauces on the table, I kept thinking it is very Nandos (so far hubby & I only tried it in Malaysia and we drooled very time we thought of it). Just like Nandos, Barcelos offers customers 4 types of sauces to go with their grilled chicken or burger. They are tangy lemon, peri, veri peri and supra peri (not sure if I spelled supra correctly - but it should be super spicy). I absolutely love the sauces and it can be compared with Nandos' ones as well.

After making our orders (self-service - like KFC), we waited about 10mins plus before they delivered our meals to our table. The grilled chicken (1/2) I had, costed $22.95 while the double grilled garlic pine burger my hubby had cost about $14 or $16 and mine mei mei had the same but it cost about $11 for one patty grilled garlic pine burger. Hubby topped up the spicy wedges for me by adding $2 and each of us had the bottomless pit drink at $2.95 per person (freeflow). Dinner was very tasty and satisfying but both my mei mei and hubby agreed that if they should come back the next time, they would go for the grilled chicken as it tasted very good. My hubby commented that the bun was well toasted and fresh and we all agreed the fries were very well made and tasty as well. In total, for three people, we spent $60+ which in my opinion is rather expensive but it tasted good enough for me to want to return. If you happened to be in Vivo, you might want to give it a try too.
Then before we left, we again chanced into a cart booth selling chewy candy. They are like those normal sugar coated sour candy available at mini tones but much longer in size (about 1/2 a meter). My mei mei was laughing that it looked like mini pipe (she had the passionfruit sweet flavour one). I bought the sour strawberry and hubby had his sour lemon lime. They tasted ok and if not for the novelty factor, we might not have bought 3 (1 = $3.50 and 3 for $10). We had much fun trying to chew the candy stick off. =) I promised the owner I would blog about this if she allows me to take picture of her candies...

Inspired by the flaming chicken, I made black pepper pork chops with tomato spaghetti for dinner tonight. =) If you want the recipes, you can always ask me for it.

The Line

My hubby took me to The Line at Shangri-la for my birthday this year...
Absolutely love the oyster buffet spread .. if you love oysters go on a Tuesday. They have 9 different types of oysters for you to pick from. My favourite is the Canada oyster.

But what were heart stopping were their range of desserts.... thinking of them makes me drool ... They have macaroon, tiramisu, orange/chocolate cake, raspberry mousse cake (the best!) and many others...Too bad at that time I didnt get to take any picture of the dessert...

What I have is only the birthday cake my hubby bought for me there... Tasted good and appealing to the eyes as well!

If you want to learn to decorate cakes, best to take a peek at what these hotels have to offer and you might just know what to do during your next attempt at decorating the cake. Look at the inner layering as well.

Fresh Strawberry Fruit Cake

Following from my earlier post, I want to share with you the steps in making this delicious strawberry sponge cake. I made a 10" cake for my father-in-law's birthday which is just one day before my 2nd year wedding anniversary. =) It was a rather last minute decision to make the cake and I was left searching high & low for the ingredient - so apology if you find the cake too plain looking. I started at about 2.30pm and completed the cake at about 6pm. It was much longer than expected because I was spending some time taking photos of the entire process :P. But it will only take you 15mins to set up, 20mins to make the sponge cake, 30mins to bake it, 5mins to whip up the cream and another 5 mins to cut the strawberry. As for spreading the cream and decorating the cake, it really depends on your skill. I think it took me above an hour but my mum could do it in 30mins.

You would need the following ingredients:

Main ingredients:

• 100g Sugar
• 100g Plain Flour
• 4 Eggs (if the eggs you have are small, add one more egg yolk to make the cake firmer)
• 100g butter, melted
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp strawberry flavour (use strawberry compound if you have for better taste & fragrance)

The toppings & decorative items:

• 300g fresh cream
• 12pc -15pc strawberry (usually I would buy a box & the remainder I would eat them on its own - will add another recipe on how to make strawberry lemon honey juice)
• 1/2 tbsp strawberry compound (you can choose to leave this out or use a little strawberry flavour)
• Silver Balls (you can get them at Phoon Huat or use Almond Flakes - roasted, as an alternative)

Equipment:
Other than your cake beater and over, you will need the following:

• Grease paper
• A 9" round baking tin (if you used 10" baking tin like me - increase everything by 25g for the main ingredients and fresh cream to 400g)
• A long knife - must be shape
• Spatula (for "mopping" the cream")
• Cake base (cardboard)
• Sieve
• Measuring cup
• Chopping board (large) or if you can afford it go and get the mini turn table for your "mopping" cream on your cake

Preparation #1 - Lined the tin:
This is the step that I hate most so often I compelete it first before attempting to measure out the rest of the ingredients. At the same time, set the oven to 160 degree C so that the oven is hot when your mix is ready to be baked.
Turn the tin face down, then mark out the size with a pen. Cut out the round shape. Fold the remainder of the grease paper (at the longest side) so that you can cut out strip of it to line the tin. And at one end of the strip, make some cutting so that the strip will seat well in the tin.

Before you start lining the tin, add some cooking oil, then use a cloth or napkin to spread the oil evenly around the tin. You should have this (see pic left) after completing the above steps.


Preparation #2: Measuring the ingredients & melting the butter

This should be the easiest step. Just use your food weighing scale and measuring cup to take out the amount of flour, sugar, butter etc you need. I like to keep them in small container or bowls for easy access later.

Always remember to sieve your flour to prevent your cake from getting lumpy. Sieving will also help to remove dried or werid particals from the flour (especially if your pack of flour was open & stored away for awhile).

As for the butter, if you are lazy (like me), just put in in a mircowave safe bowl and turn the heat down to low and mircowave away for about 30sec. The best way is still to melt the butter over heat - until it turn liquid form.

If you ask if I have a particular brand of butter that I preferred, it would be Australian Golden Churn Butter. It is salted and very nice tasting. It cost about $3.20 (if on discount) to about $3.80 a block from NTUC Fairprice.


WE ARE NOW READY TO START MIXING & BAKING:

Step1: Mix the eggs and sugar in the mixing tub & start whisking them together at max speed for about 5 - 6 minutes.

Ok here are some tips those baking books don't tell you.

If you are using a Kitchen Aid or Kenwood machine like me, 5-6mins would be sufficient. But what if you are using handheld machine from Philips how long would you need? I tried it before & it took about 15mins.

Another trick is to check the final whisked product. The sugar & eggs must become white & stiff (see pic - above). By stiff it should form a tail when you check the consistency. This is a very important step, because if you under beat/over this mixture, your cake will either sink or become too hard in texture. So timing is very very important.

Once it is about the right texture, I will add in the strawberry flavour (see right pic).

Step 2: Add in the flour & fold well before adding melted butter

Remove the mixture from the machine and start to add in your flour part by part.
Do not dump the whole content into the mixture.

Over here, I used a huge spoon to fold the flour & to mix in the butter. You can use your hand to fold in the flour (must be in one direction). Hold the container slightly at an angle when doing so.

Note do not use the mixing machine as it will brust all the air bubbles in the mixture & you will risk your cake sinking after it is taken out from the oven.

Again use folding method to mix the butter well until the texture becomes shiny. You should still see air bubbles in the mixture.

Step 3: Pour the mixture into the tin and put into the oven immediately to bake

These are how the remaining steps will look like (see pictures).Remember, you cannot bang the tin on the table otherwise the air buddles will brust. Put the mixture to bake for 30mins at 160 degree C. The top of the cake should turn golden brown. To check if the inside of the cake is cooked, use a skewer - poke it through the center of the cake and it should come out clean (not sticky). Finally, quickly turn the cake upside down on a chopping board (cover with a piece of grease paper) and remove the greasepaper on the cake. Then it back up. Be sure to do this while the cake is till hot & tada! You have the strawberry sponge cake ready. Will continue in another entry.. :)

My renewed passion....

Since quitting my job in April and finding my new direction in life, I found the time to do the things I love again. Recently my ex-colleague mentioned I could earn some money by writing a blog... haha she tells that to almost everyone ;). On top of the $ motivation, I also hope to keep writing to ensure my writing skill doesn't get rusty. Having worked in a mystery shopping company for 38months, I shall not and will not let this skill die on me!! Let's just say I was never good with English. Yet what could I write about and what am I good at that I could keep the writing going.... that brings me to... BAKING!

Over the last 1-2 years, I have occasionally baked my hubby favourite fruit cake for him but that was it. In the past, I used to bake real cakes (with creams, different layers and toppings) every weekend. I even baked my own 21st b-day cake - in a shape of a key filled with dark chocolates and dark cherries (almost like black forest cake). Unfortunately I lost all photos in cyberspace and my laptop.... =(

However, this passion got killed after I started my degree and job. Another reason for not continuing with it was the lack of good ingredients. I used to get all my ingredient from my teacher, Richard Goh, whom I learnt from at a local community center. He taught us how to make all kind of cakes i.e.: butter cakes, sponge cake and even those specialty cakes that you get in hotels...& most importantly he has his car filled with all kinds of baking equipments, top quality whipping cream, fillings, chocolates, and compound (real extract from fruits i.e.: strawberry, orange unlike the essence you get at your local supermarket or Red Man (at least the one near me - i only saw RUM compound so far)). These ingredients make your most ordinary cake into the most heavenly cake u have ever tasted.

In March, the Kenwood baking machine my father-in-law gave me decided to give up its life by releasing large amount of black smoke and screamed its last dying pain on me. I was baking fruit cake again then and had just started on the first mixing. =( I told my hubby that if he wished to have his cake, he needs to be the whisking machine (to whisk the second mix - egg whites & sugar- till they are stiff!) Hahahaaa.. it was such a comical screen, seeing him desperately trying to do that.

Thus I starting searching for a good deal N ended up with my silver Kitchen Aid which I bought at Mayer warehouse sales.The price is so good that you will never see the same rate outside =) but of course there is a catch - the paint work on the machine is defective (with black spots). After much struggles (I was eyeing the red one), I decided to go for it.

With that I started my baking again, and stocking up flour, sugar and butter. I have also recently fall in love with cupcakes. Making them is easy but what attracted me most is the different kind of toppings on them. I want and will learn to make them. I will share all these on my blog and I already made loads of pic on the cake I made for my father-in-law birthday on Jun 2... will upload shortly.. =)

Enjoy...!