Thank You – Liebster and Versatile Blogger Award
Just a quick (and belated) update!
A huge thank you to these 2 sweet foodies for giving me this award:
 Vee from The Life of a Eating Monster |
 Sam from What Will I Cook Today |
Thank you, dear ladies, for passing me this award! Thank you so much for your continuous support 
I’m not going to do the 7 things about me for I’ve already shared them here and here, but I’ll do the 11 questions that Vee had posted for me!
1) What is your favorite dish to eat, and your favorite dish to make?
The first dish that came to my mind is rosti. I’m a huge lover of potatoes, and rosti is surprisingly a pretty easy dish to make!
2) What are your favorite restaurants?
Unfortunately I don’t have a favourite restaurant as I don’t frequent restaurants often. I’m more in love with local street food and hawker food. One of them is the hokkien mee that an old couple sells near my house.
3) What is a food/dish that you think EVERYONE should try at least once in their lives?
Braised pork intestines! Sorry to gross you out, but I really love braised pork innards, definitely something I will want to try making in the future!
4) What do you do in your spare time?
Haha most of the time I’ll be busy baking/cooking!
5) What are your dreams?
No concrete dreams thus far, though a lot of my friends kept telling me I should start up a cafe. I don’t have the confidence to do so though! I just want to be happy in life!
6) What made you start baking/cooking?
You can read all about it here 
7) What is your job in real life, and would you want to change that?
I am currently working as an auditor, though I think I will want a slower-pace job in the future so I have more time to bake/cook.
8) What is the biggest failure that has happened in your kitchen? And the biggest success?
Biggest failure – probably macarons and chiffon cakes. I still fail macarons every now and then (urghh), I wish I can get them right soon!
Biggest success – most of them fall under the “challenging” category, but if I had to choose, it would be Kuih Lapis!
9) What are you excited for?
Really looking forward to design and decorate my house, though it won’t be ready till 2017. 
10) Where is one place you would like to visit and why?
There are so many places to choose from! Brazil, Turkey, Egypt, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Japan, Korea… main reason is because I want to go and experience the culture, the views and the food!
11) If you could eat anything right now, what would it be?
Probably some ice cream as the weather’s really warm these days!
Here is the list of my nominees for both awards!
You don’t have to do any questions and all, just spread the love on to people you think deserve a pat on their back for all the efforts they have put in for their blog!
Asian Braised Pork Ribs
Look at the glistening sauce!
It’s been a while since I last shared a savoury dish! I actually made this dish more than 1 month back, when I was browsing for lunch ideas (as usual haha). I chanced upon this recipe at one of my favourite foodies’ blog – Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids. As a black vinegar lover, I really like the idea of using it in a dish, especially after my previous success with braising chicken with black vinegar.
Do you know black vinegar has a lot of health benefits?
I ended up braising the meat in a pot as my pork ribs are pretty huge and using the oven would have taken a really long time (my stomach couldn’t wait!). I served it with my mediocre attempt on fried rice and it was so good! Definitely a must try for those who love the taste of black vinegar!
Am I making you hungry?
(Click the images to see larger step-by-step photos in Flickr!)
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1) Wash and trim off the excess fats. |
2) Blanch the pork ribs. |
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3) Combine cinnamon sticks, star anise, garlic, ginger and brown sugar together. |
4) The brands of vinegar and oyster sauce I used. |
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5) Add in the oyster sauce. |
6) Followed by the black vinegar. |
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7) And some water to thin the sauce. |
8) Add in the blanched pork ribs and braise until tender. |
Yum!
Thank you for the recipe, Zoe! Do check out her blog for more delicious recipes!
I’m submitting this recipe to:
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And here’s the recipe!
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Chocolate and Strawberry Bavarian Cream Layer Cake
Chocolate collar was not very well done… :/
Just blogged about a layer cake recently and I’m back blogging about another one! This cake was made also for an early birthday celebration for a friend. I decided on a strawberry cake as Korean strawberries were on sale, so I bought 2 punnets and used 1 1/2 punnets for the recipe (including decorating). I actually wanted to try making a strawberry and white chocolate mousse but was afraid that it would be too sweet, so I opted for a bavarian cream instead.
Bavarian cream, also known as crème bavaroise or Bavarois, is a dessert similar to pastry cream but is thickened with gelatin instead of flour / cornstarch. It is often flavoured with liqueur and lightened with whipped cream but as I didn’t have any complementing liqueur on hand so I omitted the liqueur. The bavarian cream is rich, smooth and not overly sweet, I think the cream can be served directly in small serving cups as mousse!
As I had not made a white cake before, I didn’t want to take the risk of ruining the whole birthday cake, so I decided to just use the Devil’s Chocolate Cake recipe that is tested and good. It was a lovely combination! (Sorry for the lag of inspiration in writing the blog post… writing this at 12 midnight while partially dozing off is not very productive! I shall let the photos “tell” you how delicious the cake is )
(Click on the images to see larger photos in Flickr!)
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1) Wash and hull the strawberries. |
2) Puree them in a blender and sieve to remove the seeds and lumps. |
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3) Sprinkle in the gelatin granules and let it soften. |
4) Whisk egg yolks and sugar together. |
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5) Until pale and thick. |
6) Bring some milk to a simmer – bubbles begin to appear ob the sides. |
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7) Temper the egg yolks (detailed description on tempering below!) |
8) Pour the egg yolks mixture back into the pot and cook until thickened. |
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9) Pour in the strawberry-gelatin mixture and cook over low heat until gelatin has dissolved. Strain the mixture if there are lumps (optional!) |
10) Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice. Set aside let it cool to room temperature. You can speed uo the process by let the bowl of strawberry mixture sit in a large ice water bath. |
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11) Whip some cream until medium-stiff peaks formed. |
12) Whisk in 1/3 of the whipped cream into the cooled strawberry mixture to lighten it. |
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14) Gently fold in the remaining whipped cream. |
15) Use immediately! |
Really love how the photos turned out this time!
And here’s the recipe!
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Hehuanshan, Taiwan
Car navigating around Hehuanshan (合歡山)
Hehuanshan, also known as Joy Mountain in English (though I didn’t know about it until I wiki it…) is a 3,416 metres high mountain in Taiwan. The peak lies between Nantou (Sun Moon Lake) and Hualien counties, and is within the Taroko National Park. You can actually get a driver that brings you from Hualien to Nantou but we didn’t do so as we were traveling clockwise around Taiwan.
Hehuanshan is a popular destination local and foreign tourists. It is exceptionally popular during the summer as everyone wants to get away from the summer heat, as well as in winter as it snows during December/January, something that we can’t see in other parts of Taiwan. Both the 3,421-metre East Peak and 3,422-metre North Peak of Hehuanshan are higher than the main peak.
Wu Ling (武嶺) – read from right to left
Wuling (武嶺), at 3,275 metres, is the highest point accessible by public roads. It is saddled between the Main Peak and the East Peak, hence you get a beautiful panoramic view of the whole place, with deep valleys, high cliffs, and rocky peaks entirely within one’s sight.
Climbing Mt Shimen (石門山)
There are many peaks that one can climb to, however, as it was only a day trip to Hehuanshan for us, we only managed to climb Mt Shimen (石門山). Mt Shimen is 3,237 metres, and can be reached pretty easily without any climbing gear in less than 45 minutes.
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Left: Steps to Mt Shimen; Right: Views halfway up Mt Shimen
There are irregular steps being built along the path up Mt Shimen, so it’s really not that difficult to climb up. It is apparently also one of the best spot for sunrise as well as taking photos of star trail at night.
Sign warning us not to enter as they are breeding Fargesia murielae
And we reached the peak!
Blue skies and green pastures
Attempting another peak (yes that’s me in the photo faraway…!)
A photo speak louder than words!
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Left: Yet another view of Hehuanshan; Right: Starting point for Hehuanshan Main Peak
It is very difficult to finish climbing Hehuanshan in just one day. There are many peaks to conquer and we are not equipped with the proper gear to climb most of the peaks. We might be back to conquer some of the peaks, who knows?
Here are some information on Hehuanshan:
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Devil’s Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter & Jam
I’ve always have a soft spot for layer cakes because:
1) They look absolutely gorgeous – be it round, square, triangle, rectangle or whatever odd shape it is, layer cakes will always, in my personal opinion, look a lot more pretty than cupcakes. They look more sophisticated and a lot more classy than cupcakes, don’t you think so? To me, cupcakes = cute while layer cakes = gorgeous!
2) Combination of flavours – I can have a layer cake with strawberry filling and a whipped cream frosting; or maybe a green tea filling with a dark chocolate frosting… You know, the possibilities are endless!
3) Distribution of filling and frosting – I don’t really like how cupcakes have a mountain of frosting on top of them and none in the middle. Because I can never put the whole cupcake in the mouth, most of the time I will start with lots of frosting and a little cake, and end up with plenty of cake and almost no frosting in the mouth. Layer cakes don’t have that problem, nope!
However, with that being said, I still bake cupcakes more often than layer cakes as, well, cupcakes are a lot easier to frost – I can just pipe the frosting on top and it would most likely look good. Whereas for layer cakes, I always take a super long time to frost them because I can never be satisfied with the exterior, and I always end up frosting the cake unevenly… oops!
Besides, typing the recipe for layer cakes can be a semi-nightmare – it’s really long! (You’ll know when you scroll to the recipe…)
So nowadays I only reserve baking layer cakes for birthdays, or when I’m really free, haha! This cake was baked for a close friend’s birthday in April (look how fast time flies!), the same friend whom I baked for last year.
Yup, you can see the frosting is pretty uneven…
Beware… very photo intensive!
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