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October Baking Workshops... Thank you for the amazing response for the September workshops! I'm pleased to announce the October workshop schedule, and also a new online registration system. Now, it will be even easier for you to sign up for a workshop.
For more information and to register for the workshp, please go to Baking Workshops and click on the link below the workshop. In other news, I made cheese biscuits for myself, as a reward for finishing 6km at the Safra Bay Run. Haha my run is wasted now after eating almost a whole tray of biscuits by myself.
Cheese & Garlic biscuits
Cheese & basil biscuits Posted Tues 26 Aug 2008 ...................................................................................................... Happy Birthday Singapore!... What one wants on the National Day weekend, Saturday up to Monday for those of you who have a day off in lieu, is to kick back with the family and not do anything too strenuous. A perfect leisurely activity to do together as a family would be to bake some crispy little cream cheese cookies like these cuties below...and enjoy eating them while watching the NDP on TV!
[Link removed]
Beyond Monday, it'll be available on the URL provided to mailing list members. Posted Fri 8 Aug 2008 ...................................................................................................... Quiche is not quick... After making quiche a few times, I thought I would pick up speed as I went along. However, I realise that the resting time for the dough (at least 30 min in the fridge) and blind-baking (20+ minutes) should not be compromised. They are absolutely essential in ensuring that the resulting pastry turns out crisp and flaky. Some things just shouldn't be rushed! A few days ago I made a tuna, tomato and onion quiche, but just didn't manage to capture it on camera before the family gobbled it up. It was lunch and lunch was late - thanks to yours truly. Today, I made an all-vegetable quiche for my husband who tells me that he wants to go vegetarian for a few days. This time, dinner was late also because I took so long once again... but it was a labour of love well worth it. The crust crisped just as it ought to, and stayed crispy even after the quiche cooled down (though I ate my half long before it did), and the filling was savoury, creamy and light at the same time. By part-instinct and part-fluke, the vegetables that had gone in half-cooked became nicely tender and not mushy after the long baking time. Although quiche is not what one would consider diet food... but it's as healthy as a quiche can get. =)
The next one will be bacon or something of the sort...enough veggie already... Posted Monday 4 Aug 2008 ...................................................................................................... Cartoon Invasion... We just celebrated a combined birthday in the family. It was a noisy family affair with lots of laughs... good thing we had a private room in Long Beach Seafood Restaurant to ourselves - thanks Mom and Dad! =) I had fun making the cartoon cakes, which were strawberry shortcakes with Italian meringue buttercream - my favourite type of buttercream. After doing the buttercream transfer picture, filling and covering the cakes, I ran out of buttercream so I had to finish off the cakes with strawberries and toasted almonds instead of piping the usual borders.
...and the new Cartoon Cakes class kicked off to a great start yesterday. These two cakes were made by Jane and Yiling. They've really got quite a knack for it!
Great job there! =) Posted Monday 28 July 2008 ...................................................................................................... The Sponge that was Square... I started work on a new sponge recipe and just didn't feel like eating vanilla or chocolate sponge or even anything round this time. So I decided to add a bit of pandan essence for fun and I baked the batter in a square pants, i mean pan. Next, I layered the cake with storebought kaya. This is because I have yet to beg my mother for the homemade kaya recipe she's got lying around at her place and I was in a BIG hurry. My husband liked it a lot and ate 3 slices. He even ate the slice that I reserved for the baby. This is a man who doesn't like cake too much so it meant something! In case you're wondering, it's not pandan chiffon because that's a different recipe altogether. This is just a basic sponge...but it had a nice soft texture I liked and was very quick to put together - that's a plus when time is not on your side.
We ran out of bread yesterday and I grabbed the chance to make parmesan and herb bread using my darling Rhino and Moffat (those are the mixer and oven brands I use.) I call them by name because they're almost my best friends haha!
It puffed up beautifully after 2 hours of proofing, and browned and rounded itself so nicely in the oven. It was very dark golden on top because of the egg wash I brushed over the top. Freshly baked, it was fantastic but the real test is when it's cooled down....
Just ate a slice for tea today and it's still good and soft and chewy - like the bread we eat at good deli's. Feel like eating more, but I'll spoil my dinner if I do. My helper made her super delicious mushroom soup....think I'll eat the bread again later. Posted Wed 23 July 2008 ..................................................................................................... If you didn't get a reply to your email... It could be due to a server problem with Yahoo. Although I respond to every one of your emails promptly, my Yahoo email has been very erratic. Sometimes the recipients say they received my email but at other times, the email took 2-3 days to arrive or else not at all. =( While waiting for Yahoo to resolve this problem, I do apologise for these strange delays. If you would like to reach me regarding a workshop, please check the vacancies at Classes and email me at my new email address sugarinccakes@gmail.com. Thank you! Posted Sun 20 July 2008 ..................................................................................................... New Workshops!... Thank you for the great response to the current round of workshops (July-Aug)! For the month of September, we'll be having four different workshops going on:
To cater to the increasing demand, I'll be opening the group size to 5-6 participants instead of the usual 3. Posted Tues 15 July 2008 ..................................................................................................... Hoping for cooler days... There are days where nothing seems to go right. The cake flops, the cookies taste strange and the you can't pay attention to the oven because something keeps distracting you. And to make things worse, the heat is getting the better of your temper. To combat the heat, I've been baking in the mornings instead. Today there was peace and quiet and the sun wasn't quite as blazing as usual. And when it's not so very hot, everything seems a little easier... I've been working on some recipes, hopefully for a new book, and these piped flower cookies are one of them. I used orange oil because it has a summertime fragrance...the smell was quite subtle and the cookie had a dainty light crispness too.
These little flowers are going to my mother in law's! Posted Tues 1 July 2008 ..................................................................................................... Crunchy Almond Cookies ... I made 3 batches of almond cookies yesterday. The first two batches were disappointingly hard. I then realised that I should not have shaped the dough into balls for baking. After fiddling with the proportions, I made a 3rd batch of dough, rolled it out thinly and cut it into rectangles (and hoped for the best) They turned out very crunchy and remained crunchy and yummy the next day! Here's a picture...
I am giving this recipe away in my freebies! =) Posted Wed 25 June 2008 ..................................................................................................... Cartoon Cakes ... Announcing a new class and workshop schedule: CARTOON CAKE Please see Workshops for more details! Posted Thurs 19 June 2008 ...................................................................................................... Happy Birthday Baby & Ah Kong! ... My baby boy (the one some of you have met in class =) just turned one a few days ago. His grandfather's birthday is only a week later so we decided to celebrate their birthdays together. They both love fish and always spend time watching the fishes swim around in my grandfather's koi tank. I thought it would be cute to make some birthday cupcakes with fondant fishies on top. It took me 3 hours to make 21 fishes. I used the marshmallow fondant recipe to make the fishes and cream cheese icing (the same one in my book) to frost the tops of the cupcakes.
My family really liked the cream cheese icing and some of them ate the fishes as well. My baby made a grab for one of the fishes and promptly bit off the head. I tried to retrieve it from his mouth but it disappeared. I have reproduced some of my family's priceless remarks which made me laugh for days afterwards.
I love my family. =) Posted Wed 28 May 2008 ...................................................................................................... Cream-Cheese Brownies ... I've been working hard on a different brownie recipe. I've already got a super fudgy brownie recipe in my book. I want to have the cake-like type of brownie as well. The former is very close to fudge candy and is best eaten chilled, and the other is like a very decadent, moist and chewy chocolate cake that is nice to eat warm with ice-cream. I kinda like both! Plus, I wanted the nice cream cheese swirls on top. In today's experiment, my brownies were far too sweet even for me, but the overall taste and mouthfeel was complex and quite pleasant. Due to a mistake I made with the oven temperature and the pan size, it was a trifle overbaked at the sides and underbaked in the middle after a whole hour of baking. I did my best to cut and rescue the evenly baked portions. And this was the best looking one. [Guffaw] It was dismal!
Next time, I will (1) bake the brownies in shallower layers because it takes such a long time to cook, (2) use a lower oven temperature so that the outside won't become overbrowned while the inside remains uncooked, (3) try reducing the sugar content. Postdated Thurs 15 May 2008: My 2nd experiment was much better in all respects. It was rich, soft, evenly baked and the sweetness level was just about right. The cream cheese had a slight tang and complemented the chocolaty flavour nicely. It didn't matter that it was not a tall brownie because it tasted great. It was also very easy to cut with a serrated knife after I chilled it for several hours.
Posted Tues 13 May 2008 ...................................................................................................... "Gorgeous Cupcakes for the Home Baker" is out! I am pleased to announce that my first cupcake recipe book "Gorgeous Cupcakes for the Home Baker" is out! Please click here to find out which stores currently stock the book. =)
Acknowledgements: Thank you to everyone who has emailed me with your kind wishes and supportive words since the beginning of this year! Also, I'd like to say that without my mother who first taught me how to bake and without my husband's support, this book would never have come to fruition. Finally, I am grateful to my Father in Heaven for His grace in my life and for blessing the work of my hands. Praise be to God! Posted Thurs 30 Apr 2008 ...................................................................................................... Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes... When I went shopping today at NTUC Extra, I was very excited to find Dairy Farmer's 98% fat free buttermilk! So for tea, I made blueberry buttermilk pancakes. I didn't want to be overwhelmed by a massive stack of pancakes so this recipe is only enough for 4 pancakes. =) Healthy Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes 80 g self raising flour 1. Whisk self-raising flour and sugar together. 2. Add the buttermilk, egg and canola oil and whisk the batter until it is smooth.
3. Pour the batter into a frying pan (I used a tiny frying pan) and arrange blueberries on top. Cook over low fire for a minute or two, until bubbles cover the surface of the pancake.
4. Flip the pancake (not too high! =)
5. Cook for another minute or so.
5. Enjoy with honey or on its own!
The pancake is tender and fluffy due to the buttermilk and the self-raising flour. I just find the golden softness of the pancake and the sweetness of the blueberries so very appealing together. It was so very easy to make and really tasty!
Do try this recipe and let me know how it turns out! Posted Fri 25 Apr 2008 ....................................................................................................... Corn muffins... Happy because I succeeded in making corn muffins in the "Kenny Roger's" style. Hurray! I ate them with bacon and portobello mushrooms at lunchtime today. (Yum.) The muffins are savoury with a full-bodied corn flavour, a soft munchiness and a craggy crust. Will be including this recipe as a bonus recipe in the muffin workshop!
Posted Mon 21 Apr 2008 ....................................................................................................... Why we make muffins... Because they make great breakfast food. Or teatime food. Or supper food. =) Muffins evolved as a kind of quick bread and have a lower butter-and-sugar ratio to flour than cupcakes. Because of this, they are a little healthier than cakes. Traditionally, they are made by stirring the liquid ingredients (eggs, melted butter and milk) into the dry ingredients. Not so traditionally, they can be made by the creaming method, which is used for butter/pound type cakes. Having done my homework, I wanted to arrive at a versatile recipe that would give muffins that were:
Was satisfied with my recipe after a few tries. This recipe will be featured in a mailing-list only Muffin Workshop =)
Posted Fri 18 Apr 2008 .......................................................................................................Fondant Cupcakes Workshop on 27 April (Sun)... Due to a cancellation, I have 1 seat left for Fondant Cupcakes Workshop on 27 April (Sun) 3-7 pm. If you would like to attend this workshop, please email me at sugarinccakes@yahoo.com.sg with your name and contact details. Posted Thurs 10 Apr 2008 .......................................................................................................Cake Decorating Workshop ... For those who have caught the cake-decorating bug in a serious way, the Cake Decorating Workshop is back and starting again on 30 April and 2 May! In a nutshell: 1) It is a series of 4 hands-on cake-decorating sessions. Participants will be doing Decorated Cupcakes, 2D Cartoon cake, 3D Novelty cake and a 2-tier Wedding Cake. _ 2) The recipes include 8 different icings to make in class and 4 recommended cake recipes for you to try at home. 3) You will need to bring your own cake to class every week. All other equipment and materials will be provided. For more details, please see Workshops. As there are only 4 places left, please reserve early to avoid disappointment. Posted Mon 7 Apr 2008 .......................................................................................................Let's get dotty ... If you've attended one of the recent Fondant Cupcakes Workshops, it's been all about darling little dots, ribbons and roses on cupcakes. I felt like seeing them on a two-tier cake, so I decorated a small one on Friday. It was assembled and decorated in one evening, and it helped that I had already made the roses beforehand. Making sugar decorations ahead really does speed things up if you've got very little time on your hands. =)
Posted Mon 31 Mar 2008 .......................................................................................................Simplify! ... In a world that seems to be getting more and more complicated, I deliberately choose to simplify. My design style is usually simple and either cute, elegant or just plain fun. For the same reason, I am constantly trying to de-mystify cake-decorating for the workshoppers with practical recipes, easy-to-make icings and straightforward decorating techniques. That way, once you've got the building blocks, the possibilities are endless. In other news, I made this cake the other day. Was thinking of my little cub at home.
Posted Thurs 27 Mar 2008 .......................................................................................................Low-Sugar Chilled Cheesecake ...
I will be sending this no-bake low-sugar cheesecake recipe to the mailing list members, so do look out for it. Instead of sugar, I used white grape juice (with no added sugar) to sweeten the cream cheese filling. The only sugar is from the digestive biscuits, but that can't be helped unless you make your own no-sugar biscuit base. It tastes good on its own, and the hubby gave it an 8 out of 10. I felt it could benefit from a dash of honey or a serving of fresh fruits, but I was in a hurry to take this picture, because the sunlight streaming in at the window was fading fast. Posted Wed 19 Mar 2008 ....................................................................................................... Class Photos Page ... The class photos are now up! Please click here. Yippee =) Posted Tues 11 Mar 2008 ....................................................................................................... Fondant Cupcakes Workshop ... Just a quick announcement to say there are Posted Wed 27 Feb 2008 ....................................................................................................... Cupcake Boxes... Aren't these so pretty?! My friend Oilin designed these good-looking, decent-sized and decently priced cupcake boxes. This is a real need being met! I'm switching to using these for my cupcake workshops and got a bulk consignment from her. I'm really happy with them because they look good and are a good fit for standard cupcakes that are 2 or 2.5 inches wide. The red one holds 6 cupcakes; half a dozen is always a nice number. The blue one holds 4 cupcakes. Really good if 12 cupcakes is too much for the person you are giving them to. They're really affordable at $4.95 for a 3-pc set. The boxes are now available at Bake It Yourself (www.b-i-y.com) and they should be available at Carrefour soon! Workshop participants can buy boxes from me when we meet.
Posted Mon 25 Feb 2008 ....................................................................................................... What's cooking... When it's quiet up here on the website, it means that a storm of butter-sugar-eggs-flour is brewing in the kitchen! I've been working hard on new classes lately... hence the lack of posts. My chocolate chiffon cake has gone through close to 10 experiments. Being a little neurotic, I have been documenting exactly what I did for each and every experiment and recorded the results. I have recently found out (how embarassing) how to use MS Excel spreadsheet and it really helps with the recipe calculations. I used to use a calculator or pen and paper. Ha ha! Anyway, this time, I think I finally have a breakthrough! My chocolate chiffon cake stands tall and yet stays soft and fluffy - and no need for the tube pan! Read more If you have struggled with chiffon cake (like me)... let me know what happened. Or if you have succeeded with chiffon cakes, please share with us your tips for making them successfully! =) Posted Fri 22 Feb 2008 ....................................................................................................... Pretty Floral Cupcakes Workshops are now full... [Postdated 18 Feb 08] I have removed the announcement about the last 2 seats for Pretty Floral Cupcakes, as they have now been filled. Thank you for the great response! Here's a couple of pictures from the latest class!
Posted Thurs 14 Feb 2008 ...................................................................................................... New Cupcake Workshop!... Hope you all had a good break over the Chinese New Year holidays! The Pretty Floral Cupcakes Workshop is finishing a very successful run. So far, it's been full house for all the 5 workshops! The participants had lots of fun making their cupcakes as well - according to Suzanah, "I had a great time during the lesson and starting to bake cake from scratch (no more Betty Crocker!)". Thank you Suzanah and to everyone who attended the workshops =) If you missed this workshop, it's not over yet! The next cupcake decorating workshop will be on Fondant Cupcakes. It will feature light butter cake and home-made rolled-fondant, and how to decorate the cupcakes with hand-moulded fondant ribbons, dots and roses. (see pictures below) And yes, the class is fully hands-on, so you will go through the whole process of baking and decorating. It's going to be a whole lot of fun!
Click on Classes for more information. Posted Mon 11 Feb 2008 ps: I had some unsolveable problems with the comments html that follows every post, so I had to delete the whole thing. So, for now, there's no comments function until I figure out how to solve the problem. Shoot! If you have any queries about the workshops, please email me directly. ...................................................................................................... Freebies!... Want to learn how to bake cupcakes and make fondant cakes? Join my mailing list and receive two FREE illustrated tutorials:
Simply email me with the subject header "SUBSCRIBE" and I will forward you the link to download the files! =) (Workshop participants will also have access to these tutorials.) Posted Thurs 31 Jan 2008 ...................................................................................................... A Nice Day... The cupcakes were lovely, but the ladies who made them were even lovelier! =) Thanks for attending the workshop and I'm glad you all had a great time on Saturday!
Posted Mon 28 Jan 2008 ...................................................................................................... Pretty Floral Fun... Here are some photos from one of our Pretty Floral Cupcakes Workshops! After baking and tasting a batch of super fresh cupcakes, we had a little demonstration to get everyone's creative juices going...
Then, everyone got their hands dirty...(you'll often hear me saying, don't worry about the mess!)
Next, they admired their masterpieces...
Then, everyone went home happily with a boxful of little beauties...
Posted Mon 21 Jan 2008 ...................................................................................................... Fun with Cupcakes... Just look at what one of our students managed to do on her first attempt at cupcake-decorating! She's really good at making those sugar flowers!
Posted Mon 14 Jan 2008 ...................................................................................................... Closing date for Workshop Registration is Our hands-on Cake Decorating Workshop will be starting on 13 Jan 08 (instead of 6 Jan as earlier announced). The closing date for registration is 8 Jan 2008. We still have 1 seat left, so if you would like to attend, please email me with your name and contact no. as soon as possible. For our first session we'll be baking and dressing up cupcakes - the confection on everyone's lips these days! See you at the workshop! (PS. The next Cake Decorating Workshop starts in February - Thanks for the great response everybody!) Posted Tues 1 Jan 2008 ...................................................................................................... Registration for Workshops in 2008 Our January 2008 Cake Decorating Workshops are now open for registration! Click here to find out more! Posted Mon 31 Dec 2007 ...................................................................................................... Last order for 2007... This was made for a lady whose family loves giraffes and chocolate cake. I hope she and her wedding guests enjoyed the cake! This cake was the last order for 2007. POSTDATED: The wedding couple just sent me an email to say: "The cake was much admired, particularly by the kids. Our son, Tom, made lots of noise about bringing the cake-cutting forward in the schedule, and we saw him running after a waiter carrying slices of cake out to our guests. Thank you for everything."
From now on, I will be concentrating on conducting baking and cake-decorating classes. Actually, my husband convinced me that my real forte is in teaching (my previous job) although I love baking and cake-decorating. It just made sense to combine the two. This is a much anticipated new direction for Sugar Inc.! Posted Sun 23 Dec 2007 ...................................................................................................... 3 years of cake-making... I am concluding 3 years of selling decorated cakes (from Nov 2004 - Dec 2007) and moving on to a new chapter -- teaching baking and cake decorating! I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all my customers who have given me the opportunity to create special cakes for them. I have absolutely enjoyed this labour of love for the past 3 years. We've conducted a couple of 'one-off' classes before upon special request, but this will be a continuing effort to share our experience in cake-making. So that people who attend these classes will have the pleasure of making beautiful cakes for their loved ones or friends also! Posted Wed 19 Dec 2007 ...................................................................................................... Book release... After much research and experimentation, I'm happy with most of my recipes and realise that some cakes are intended for unpretentious beauty, while others are destined for greatness! In any case, several trusty and yummy recipes are going to be featured in my upcoming recipe book "Gorgeous Cupcakes for the Home Baker". The book is slated for release in early 2008 and I am so excited! Thank you Oilin (she's my publisher) for all the guidance you gave me in writing it. Posted Saturday 15 Dec 2007 ......................................................................................................
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Links Lazy Susan (accessories)
Where to find baking supplies Phoon Huat (tools, equipment, boxes, decorating supplies)
Visit my church Trinity Christian Centre
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"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." (Matt 5:16) |
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