A Christmas dinner, and A Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese frosting

Yesterday my sister-in-law Annie invited us and another SIL Doreen to her house for a Christmas dinner. I brought my favourite carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (now becomes Annie 's favourite too, hehehe),  macarons for her daughter who loves macarons and Nama chocolate to her house.

I still have room to improve for a nice macaron, i feel my macarons still has no nice legs or skirts..I suspected that it was caused by high oven temperature and i need to practise more..

I also made Nama chocolate from a very popular recipe by Nami Just One Cookbook...

I forgot to take this chocolate picture in Annie's house, this picture was taken at home, with a nice oven mitten from Jane and silver cake stand from Helena..

Let's see what we had on that night. All foods were prepared by my SIL's husband Terry who is a great cook!

Starter- Pig in blanket ( In the United Kingdom, "pigs in blankets" refers to small sausages (usually Chipolatas) wrapped in bacon. They are a traditional accompaniment to roast turkey for Christmas dinner. Pigs in blankets can be accompanied with devils on horseback, an appetizer of prunes, or less commonly dates, wrapped in bacon, read more here)

Nice cheese with crackers..

Her daughters supposed to make a Christmas Fruit Tree..

after i brought my son for a good swim (at the swimming pool) downstairs.. 

Once we returned i saw the edible fruits tree has became fruits platters on plates. They seem have given up making this tree. You can see a Christmas fruit tree image here

Chicken Shepherd Pie, my son Desmond loves this very much. You can refer to my cottage pie recipe and it is just replace the beef with chicken..

The main course- A very nice and moist roast Turkey. Terry strongly recommended this easy and good recipe from Jamie Oliver

I love the special stuffing which not stuff inside the usual cavity area instead stuff in between skin and breast..

resulted very flavourful meat..

brown sauce and vegetables

everyone was enjoying this yummy Turkey meal..

And we had carrot cake for dessert, feel shy for my poor frosting..I got the idea of pipe red poinsiettas when i saw in Piece of Cake blog..So I quickly bought a leaf tip to pipe these flowers but red was end up become orange in colour as the colour of cream cheese has smeared into the colour of red.

We also had this fruit cake with Kahlua, very special indeed!

A must have item during Christmas, gingerman cookies

Every kids received a Christmas gifts given by Annie, and even i have Christmas gift too. It was few very lovely knitted cup dolly, you will be seeing these in my future pictures..

Last but not least, Terry was afraid that we were still hungry (actually we all still very full), he went to stir fried a big plate of Kampua noodles (he brought back from Sibu) for us, another yummy treat!! Even we still feel full, this big plate of noodles still gone just in a minute!

I made a larger carrot cake this time, i modified the old recipe to make a 8" carrot cake..

Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting
Recipe source: modified from old recipe here, with minor changes
*makes a 8” round pan

Carrot cake
300g finely shredded carrots
260g all purpose flour
1tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1/2tsp salt
160g caster sugar
110g brown sugar
1/2tsp nutmeg powder
1/2tsp cinnamon powder
200g corn oil
1tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs, lightly stir
100g walnut, chopped
50g mixed dried fruits
50g dried cranberries

Method
1. Sift flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and baking soda in a mixing bowl.
2. Add in caster sugar, salt and brown sugar, stir well.
3. Add in carrots, corn oil, vanilla extract and egg, beat for few minutes till mixture well combined.
4. Add in walnut and dried fruits, mix well.
5. Pour in a greased and line baking pan, bake at pre-heated oven 180c for 50mins or inserted with a skewer came out clean.
6. Cool on a wire rack and apply cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese frosting
300g cream cheese, at room temperature
80g butter, at room temperature
140g icing sugar, sifted
2tsp lemon zest


Method
1. Beat cream cheese and butter till light and creamy.
2. Add in icing sugar and mix well on low speed.
3. Add in lemon juices and lemon zest, combine well.
4. Store in fridge for later use.

Thank you to Annie and Terry for the invite, we were enjoyed so much for all yummy foods that prepared for us..

Mini Cherry Cakes, Blessed Christmas !

I bought a box of fresh cherries this morning from a wet market and thinking to bring back to hometown for my mother to enjoy it. Since i also planning to bake a butter cake which is my mother favourite's cake, so i also add some cherry on it..



A box of fresh cherries that i bought, but not taste as crunchy as i expected..

I made into mini size, so handy to eat..

Do you like how i pack them?

Mini Cherry Cakes
(recipe source: adapted from Table for Two or More, with minor changes)
*makes 24 mini cakes

100g butter
125 caster sugar
1/2tsp vanilla extract
1tsp lemon zest
2 medium eggs or 100g eggs
150g cake flour
1tsp baking powder

12 fresh cherries, cut into half

Method
1. Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
2. Add in egg and beat till combine.
3. Add in vanilla extract and lemon zest, mix well.
4. Sift flour with baking powder and fold into beaten butter.
5. Spoon batter into a prepared 24 mini muffin pan and arrange halved cherry on top.
6. Bake at preheated oven at 170C (fan forced) for 20mins or until golden brown.

Wishing all a Blessed Chritsmas and Happy Holidays..drive safely when you go back hometown..

Dong Zhi Festival 冬至快乐 , and a bloggers gathering

Happy Dong Zhi, the Winter Solstice Festival to all my Chinese blogger friends and readers. I am sure by this moment, you all have enjoyed a bowl of Tangyuan. I have been very busy for the last two days (sorry for not visiting to my blogger's friend blog, but i promise will drop by soon) , because i was busy make preparation for Jessie KL gathering at my house yesterday.

A spread of good foods..

Homemade roast pork (Siew Yok) from me..

Popiah (crepes with vegetables filling) from me..recipe coming soon

They were all enjoying making their own Popiah, see Yen's husband Craig so creative to draw a Chritsmas tree using sweet sauce and chili sauce ^_^

A vanilla buttercake (Madeira Cake ) from Yen....I was enjoyed this nice cake with a cup of coffee.

very nice Chee Cheong Fun and Tauki sheets that Quay Po bought from a famous shop nearby her house

Homemade Yong Yau Fu (brinjals and ladyfingers) from Quay Po..I espeically love that brinjals, yummy..

Sauces for Yong Tau Fu

Nama chocolate from Yen (Eat Your Heart Out) (she adapted recipe from Nami Just One Cookbook)..My 1st time tried this type of chocolate, it was very good, gonna to make this by myself one day..

Japanese gyoza by me..Jessie wanted to learn how to wrap dumplings, so I purposely prepared this and taught her on wrappping method..

Egg tarts from me...recipe coming soon..

Pandan Xiang Xi chiffon cake from me , i made using homemade pandan paste..

A sweet end from me, Tangyuan in pandan and ginger soup. They all have fun making Tangyuan..

Jessie's daughter Isabella- she is such a cute girl..

Jessie and her son Ethan, like mother, like son

Jessie's family with Quay Po Veronica



A group photo..
My great pleasure to have Jessie (Jessie Cooking Moments ) whole family came to my house, in view of her tight schedule of visiting many places during of her short visit ..And nice to have Quay Po Veronica visit me again (even she still lost her way to my house on this 2nd visit, hehehe) and also Thanks her given gifts to each of my family members, and nice meeting with Yen (Eat Your Heart Out) and her husband Craig...



Jessie also brought a box of nama chocolate from Royce,  and a MasterChef board for me..

She said i deserved to have this MasterChef board..You will seeing me using this board to take photos very often from now, hehehe..

I just prepapred this savoury Tangyuan soup for lunch in this Dong Zhi day. My mom use to prepare this savoury type of Tangyuan soup when i was a kid, and now i prepared for my family who 1st time trying savoury of Tangyuan..

Tangyuan (汤圆) Glutinous rice balls in soup
(recipe source: by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover)

200g glutinous rice flour
1tsp caster
150g hot water (why hot water? in order to have QQ texture)

your choice of colouring


Method
1. Add glutinous rice flour and sugar in a mixing bowl.
2. Slowly pour in hot water, lightly knead till combine.
3. To roll Tangyuan into balls, cover it before cooking.


Sweet Tangyuan in pandan and ginger soup

1. Boil pandan and few slices of ginger with water.
2. Add in sugar and taste accordingly.
3. Drop in Tangyuan balls, once it floating on top, dish out and serve.


Savoury Tangyuan soup

Chicken stock- ( I boil chicken meat, soy bean and onion with water for 2hours)
mushrooms, sliced
pork meat, sliced (marinate with salt, light soy sauce, sesame oil, peeper and tapioca flour)
Green vegetables, your choice
Garlic oil

Method
1. Add chicken stock and mushroom slices in a pot.
2. Once stock boiled, add in vegetables, Tangyuan and meat slices.
3. Once Tangyuan floating on top, dish out and serve hot.


Oh, i have to go prepare another gathering tonight, my husband's friend whole family going to have dinner with us. If today really a Dooms day, so we all Cai Cai (together) go to heaven at the same time, hahaha..