He is 8 years old now, a Minecraft fondant cake

Earlier i thought my son Desmond wanted an Angry Birds's Birthday cake for his birthday this year because he is a big fan of AB..I was re-confirmed with him again on last two weeks, he said he wants a Minecraft cake now but not AB...That was my 1st time heard of Minecraft, then he shown it to me, then i realized that Minecraft is a game about placing blocks to build anything you can imagine..Last two days i was busy preparing his Birthday fondant cake, luckily this cake is not that difficulut to make since all are involved with blocks..

My little Desmond when 1 year old



Today he is turning to 8, wearing spec now..

I started to prepare Minecraft fondant blocks and figurine one day ahead..due to hot weather, some of the blocks stick together and i need to re-do on the next day, waste of my time! So it is important to make fondant in an air-cond room..

For the cake, i bake a 8" sour cream chocolate cake but somehow i under bake the cake and the cake was uncooked. I tried to bake again and the cake turned very dry (I realized that using a square cake pan need longer time to bake instead a round cake pan, i need to take note on this ). I quickly made another 8" butter cake. So i use both cakes to stack and become 7"x7" block and use basic buttercream (recipe as per below) to spread the whole block before i paste the fondant blocks..

This Minecraft fondant cake can be consider as my 1st fondant Birthday cake!!

Desmond requested for these figurine, Steve (the boy in blue), TNT box (actually is a bom), Diamond Ore and Gold Ore,,I started to know better Minecraft now, hahaha..

Basic Chocolate Buttercream

(recipe source: by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover)

80g unsalted butter, room temperature
80g Crisco shortening
250g icing sugar
20g cocoa powder

Method
1. Cream butter and shortening in an electric mixer till creamy.
2. Add in sugar and cocoa powder, beat until combine well.

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Setia City Mall, Setia Alam

Ya, I also brought him (he is ponteng school today ^_^) to buy his Birthday present from a new shopping mall (Setia City Mall) near my house which is less than 5mins drive distance.. Long Q at the Uniqlo store for free Tote bag, i also got one, hehehe..

 
They also have a supermarket called Urbanfresh, so i don't need to travel to One U or Empire Subang to shop special ingredients anymore..

Siew Mai (五行色 烧卖)

Have you seen so colourful Siew Mai before? My new invention of Siew Mai based on Chinese Wu Xing colours (五行色).
A very Feng Shui related Siew Mai..

I have this crazy idea to making this Wu Xing Siew Mai earlier, and today i made into action.
Below informations are from baidu and the 5 colours means:-

一、五行色（金）:白 (Metal) White

“君子佩玉”——自古以来中华民族以佩玉为道德与修养的标志，“羊脂玉”更是玉中极品。玉又是中国传统文化中吉祥如意的象征。白色有起着重要的协调作用。

二、五行色 (木): 绿 (Wood) Green

郁郁葱葱的树木是自然的风采，是生命与环境的象征。寄寓着人类与自然和谐发展。

三、五行色（水）:灰 (Water) Grey

蜿蜒起伏的万里长城和掩映在绿树丛中的四合院民居的灰色，灰色具有朴素魅力。

四、五行色（火）：红 (Fire) Red

红色的宫墙，红色的灯笼，红色的婚礼，红色的春联。红色是激情和运动的颜色；红色是喜庆与祥和的颜色；红色是民俗与文化的颜色。

五、五行色（土）:黄 (Earth) Yellow

黄色的琉璃瓦，金秋的树叶和丰收的农田，是最亮丽的色彩。黄色代表着独特的自然景观及人文与历史的精彩和辉煌。黄色在中国的色彩文化中具有崇高的象征意义。给人明亮与欢快的感觉。

Here are the dough with 5 difference of colours..

These are the toppings..

Siew Mai before put the toppings..

We love this new flavour of Siew Mai- Apple and Lotus root...

And this Shan Yao and Grey wrapper made by charcoal powder (can't taste the charcoal taste actually ), indeed a very healthy combo...

Also i combine 5 colours together..so colourful..

Siew Mai (五行色 烧卖)
(recipe source: by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover)


Wrappers
Plain flour and water & colouring ratio – 1 : 0.5
White- plain flour
Red- Red yeast and a drop of red food colouring
Green- spinach juices
Yellow – pumpkin puree
Grey – black charcoal powder


Siew Mai Filling
300g minced meat (pork or chicken)
150g prawns, cut into small pieces (add1/2tsp baking soda and marinate for 15mins, wash it before use, this is to make it crunchy)
100g water chestnut, chopped
1tbsp sugar
1tsp light soy sauce
1tsp sesame oil
1tsp rice wine
1tsp chicken stock powder
1tsp salt or to taste
1tsp grated Ginger
2tbsp potato flour


Method
1. Mix all ingredients and seasonings in a large mixing bowl.
2. Mix thoroughly by a pair of chopstick until it becomes a sticky mass (hei kau).
3. Cover with cling film and refrigerate until needed.


Toppings
Chinese Mountain Yam (山药 Shan Yao, or 淮山 Huai Shan)
Carrot
Sweet Pea
Lotus root
Apple
Sweet corns
Chinese coriander


To make Siew Mai


Method
1. Place a siew mai wrapper on your palm.
2. Place a table-spoon of filling in the centre and press down with the back of a wet teaspoon.
3. At the same time, close your hand as if making a fist, cupping the siew mai.
4. Give it a gentle squeeze. Top with toppings as desired. Refrigerated before use and also to set it firm.
5. Arrange siew mai in a single layer on a tray.
6. Steam over boiling water for 7-10mins. Serve hot.

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #19: Dim Sum Affair (May 2012) hosted by SSB of Small Small Baker.



Maybe in future you can see this 五行色烧卖 selling in the dim sum restaurant ^_^

Salmon Onigiri (Rice Ball)

Ever since i started prepare Bento for my kids, every night i will ask my kids what they want to eat for Bento. The other day my son Lucas requested for Teriyaki salmon, but the little son Desmond said he has boring on my bento and he wanted to buy at the school's canteen..I was so upset when hearing this(understand that he is still small) ..Now i start to understand how my mother felt when we were complaint about the foods that she prepared for us last time..

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all mothers a "Happy Mother's Day" on this Sunday.

Anyway this was not stopping me to prepare Bento for Lucas, and he was enjoyed so much of this Salmon rice ball..

I use these moulds to make this triangle rice ball called Onigiri, which i won from a blogger's giveaway few years back.

 

A very quick and easy recipe, Thanks to Nami aka Just One Cookbook.. I have to simplify this recipe as i could not find some of the ingredients.

Salmon Onigiri (Rice Ball)
(recipe source: adapted from Just One Cookbook, with minor changes)

2 Salmon fillets


Japanese rice (2 cups uncooked rice) , cook in rice cooker with 2.5 cups water ,1tbsp Japanese vinegar and a pinch of salt

1tbsp sesame seeds
1 spring onion, green part only, julienned

Seasonings
1 tbsp cooking sake
1 tbsp Japanese light soy sauce
1tsp sugar
1tsp grated ginger

2 small packets of Furikake (salmon flavor)

Method
1. Bake salmon fillets at 200C for 10mins, set aside to cool. Break up into rough uneven pieces by hands and remove the bones if any.
2. In a non-stick frying pan, add in sesame seeds, stir fry till aroma.
3. Add in salmon, use a wooden spoon, break up into smaller pieces.
4. Add in seasonings and grated ginger, mix well.
5. Last add in spring onion, combine well. Pour the mixture into the rice cooker, add in Furikake, mix all together.
6. While the rice is warm, make rice ball with the triangle mould. Wrap with nori seaweed .

Other topics:-

There were two requests sent to me, requested for authorisation to use my photos. I am glad that they asked my permission unlike the earlier "no manner person" who still my photos and posts.

1) My Turmeric cabbage photo-an educational project at Fairfield Methodist Primary School which they are featuring popular foods for 4 races on the pillars at their canteen.

2) My "Ngoh Hiang" photo- for packaging sticker design..In return, he was helping me to convert my Nasi Lemak icon into watermark ,so I can place my blog's icon on all my photos for copyright purposes. Thanks Victor!



Purple Sweet Potato buns 奶香紫薯面包

For the past few days, i was busy making few type of breads for breakfast. I was so happy able to make the sandwich roll that taste quite close to Subway sandwich roll. But I did not manage to take any photo as that time i was busy with something else. I will definitely make this again and will share with you the recipe soon. Come back today's recipe, it is the bread bun made by purple sweet potato, love the sweet purple colour and the soft texture..remain me of a very nice sweet potato bread that i tried in Das Gute Hong Kong....

The dough is very sticky, maybe due to the high water content in sweet potato, need to dust a lof of flour when shaping..you need to also adjust water amount if you want to make this..

This bun remain very soft even kept till the next day..

Purple Sweet Potato buns 奶香紫薯面包

(recipe source: adapted from meishilife cookbook with minor changes)
*makes 12 buns

For the bread
150g High protein flour or bread flour
50g mashed purple sweet potato
1 egg (medium, ~ 47g)

55g water, adjust accordingly
20g sugar
1/2tsp + 1/4tsp instead yeast
1/4tsp salt
20g butter, room temperature

For the Filling
230g mashed purple sweet potato
15g sugar
20g condensed sweet milk
20g melted butter


Egg wash (egg yolk + milk)
White sesame seeds


Method
1. Add all bread ingredients in a mixing bowl except butter, knead till soft dough (slowly add in water and adjust water accordingly if needed).
2. Add in butter, continue knead till smooth dough (dough is quite sticky), set aside to proof until double in size.

3. To prepare filling, mix all ingredients together till combine well, refrigerated before use.

4. Divide dough into 6 equal portions, set aside to rest for 10mins.
5. Divide sweet potato filling into 6 equal portions, make it into olive shape.
6. Flour the work top, flatten dough into round, wrap the sweet potato filling and seal. Use thread/yarn to cut the dough into two. Brush the egg wash on the filling, dip one end of rolling pin with water and dip on sesame seeds, and stamp the sesame seeds on the filling. Place on a baking tray. Let it proof for another 30-45mins.
7. Bake at pre-heated oven at 180c for 15-18mins.Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack.



Teochew Glutinous Rice Kueh 潮州饭桃

I have seen this kueh in Jane and Helena blog many times as their Ah Mah (grandmother) is good in making this kueh. I have not tried this Teochew kueh before until the other day i saw this kueh selling in the morning market, quickly buy one and try it. This is my kind of kueh, because i like to eat glutinous rice and i prefer savoury kueh more than sweet kueh..

I did not follow to Jane' s filling recipe, i was using my regular steamed glutinous rice recipe and i prefer the filling look white (like than one i bought) than darker colour..this time i did not add meat also..

This is the dough, smooth and easy to handle

I made the filling into ball shape using cling film, easy to handle when wrap it with the dough later..

As for the dough, I followed to Sherleen's recipe after she has made amendment from Jane' recipe (due to water and oil amount)..And I also add sugar instead of salt in the dough, i prefer sweet skin and savoury filling, to balance the taste..

see the inside..

The skin is slightly chewy if compare to Ang Ku Kueh skin..

Updated on 8th May- This kueh turned quite hard once completely cooled down, I am not sure it was due to i added sugar to the dough or should i reduce tapioca flour, will find out when i make this again. Anyway, you can just steam it again and it will turn soft, after steamed, pan fry it and it taste much better.

Teochew Glutinous Rice Kueh 潮州饭桃

(recipe source: adapted from Sherleen’s Kitchen, original recipe from Jane’s corner, with minor changes)
*makes 30pcs

For the dough
250g Rice flour
90g Tapioca flour
2tbsp sugar
240g Hot boiling water
4tbsp cooking oil
Few drops of red coloring

For the filling
500g Glutinous rice
300ml water
6tbsp cooking oil
10 shallot, slices
45g dried shrimps, soak for 5mins to soften, chopped
12pcs dried mushrooms, soak and cut into cubed
some chopped coriander

1tbsp light soy sauce
1/2tbsp sugar
1tsp salt or 1tsp chicken stock powder, to taste
White pepper to taste

Method

To make filling
1. Heat the oil in a wok and fry the shallot over medium-low heat, fry till crispy and golden brown.
2. Add in dried shrimps and mushroom, stir fry until aromatic.
3. Add in the drained glutinous rice, and add in the seasoning. Stirring and mix well for 1 -2 mins.
4. Transfer the rice into a steaming tray, sprinkle water on top of the rice.
5. Steam for 45mins (fluff the rice for every 15mins, sprinkle water when necessary).
6. Add in chopped coriander, set aside to cool

To make the kueh
1. Mix flour and sugar in a mixing bowl
2. Add in red coloring into the hot boiling water and pour into the flour. Mix the flour quickly and knead till smooth dough, cover with a damp cloth and rest for 5min.
3. Divide the dough into 40g each and divide the filling into 35g each (use cling film to make into round ball).
4. Flatten the dough, place filling in the center, wrap the filling tightly. Form the shape of the kueh in the mold (brush the kueh mould with oil from time to time).
5. Grease the steamer, put in the kueh and steam for 10min using medium to high flame.
6. Serve warm or cool. Remaining kueh can be kept in the fridge, and pan-fry before serve.