Managed to book the Mont Blanc class for 3 of us. It is the first time that I have Jacinth and Teri together, but I know they will hang out well together because both of them are superb nice people whom I have met in my life 😊 I have always thought that the mont blanc is made with swiss roll and top up with cream frosting, but I was wrong after attending the lesson. Surprised by the taste of the chestnut and felt it is rather unique tasting cake.

Targeting to go for baking class monthly is still achievable so far. Most importantly, I get to meet up with my girlfriends for the session. Checking out on one another and sharing our updates is something rather luxury for a mom since most of our time is focused on our family instead.
 
ABC cooking studio have been introducing their monthly premium trial class which is very interesting. I think this is also one of the smart marketing tool they use to entice the members to introduce more friends to their studio or to promote more awareness. For the month of September, the special trial lesson is Strawberry Chiffon Roll. This is very popular among my friends as many of them were asking me to referral them to the class. Referral by member for trial class is $28 instead of $35 (UP $48 for walk-in).

Chatted with Mei Fong & Qiu Ling and we managed to form into a table of 4 so that i can book a premium trial class with the instructor. One challenge i have been facing with my favorite instructor is that she is getting very busy with her schedule as many others will opt for her as well. But i must say, those sessions held by her is very enjoyable in my opinion. No pressure and she is very motivating.

My 3rd Attempt for Pandan Chiffon cake. Apparently the first two times went bad where cake shrink and lost the fluffiness of the chiffon signature. Was kinda dishearten because of the repeat failure but somehow i decided to try 1 more time today. The Pandan Chiffon cake i tried this time round uses Cream of tartar to stable the egg whites which seems to work better as compared to the first couple of times. Cracked but at least, it is still rather fluffy!

Step by Step:  9 egg white recipe
Ingredients:
Yellow Team
Egg yolks 6
Castor sugar 100g
Corn Oil 115ml
Coconut milk 140ml
Cake flour 200g
Baking Powder 2 tsp
Salt 1/4 tsp
Pandan juice 2 Tbsp
Vanilla essence 2 tsp
Pandan essence (optional) 1 tsp
White Team
Egg whites 9
Castor sugar 100g
Cream of tartar 1 tsp

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Dearest Husband! This year i decided to bake you a cake to celebrate your birthday since we are celebrating at home this time round :D Something small but time consuming as you know i am not well verse in baking yet. Hope you like the cake as much as i do! Thank you for your effort in creating an awesome roof and support for Morris and me. We love you <3 

May this special day be filled with love and laughter. One year older and one year wiser. 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL THE MAMAS IN THE WORLD! YOU HAVE BEEN GREAT AND AWESOME! Please give yourself a PAT on the shoulder and appreciate yourself! Ever since i promoted to being mother, i understand the difficulty to be working and showering tender, loving and care to the child. Work is important but being there for the family is a priority for me instead.

This year, i gave myself a challenge which is to create a whole cake to celebrate for the event. It is meant as a surprise for grandmaKwan. Chanced upon my colleague's ondeh ondeh cake and decided oh yes, this is what my mama will like. Googled for recipe and decided to adapt bakewithpaw's recipe on the Pandan cotton cake with Gula Melaka Swiss Meringue Buttercream :) 

PANDAN COTTON CAKE
Adapted from Butter, Flour & Me with some modifications from Bakewithpaws and followed the method of Jeannie Tay’s Pandan Sponge Cake. 
Two 7″ Round Cakes Recipe
Ingredients:
174g cake flour or all purposed flour
½ tsp double action baking powder
½ tsp salt
8 egg yolks
106g corn oil
66g fresh milk
66g pandan juice (screw-pine leaves juice), very thick and concentrated juice.
8 egg white
106g caster sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar


Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170C.
2. Shift flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside.
3. Combine fresh milk and pandan paste. Set aside.
4. Heat corn oil in sauce pan over low heat until it bubbles, then add in the shifted flour mixture and mix well. Remove from heat and transfer to a mixing bowl. Then add in milk and pandan mixture, mix with spatula until all incorporated. Gradually add in the egg yolk and whole egg mixture, stirring with a spatula or hand whisk until smooth. Set aside.
5. Using an electric mixer, whisk egg white until frothy before adding cream of tartar and continue to beat until foamy. Gradually add in sugar and whisk until firm peaks formed (firm peaks is between soft peaks and stiff peaks).
6. Mix 1/3 of meringue with yolk batter with a spatula. Add another 1/3 portion and fold gently. Then pour in balance of meringue. Fold gently using a spatula until well incorporated.
7. Pour the batter into the 2 prepared round tin and tap tin lightly to remove air bubbles.
8. Baked in water bath at 170C for 30 to 35 minutes. Then another 40 minutes at 150C.
9. Remove from the oven and drop the pan at a height of 10 cm onto a table top. This will prevent cake from sinking.
10. Unmould as soon as you can. To remove the cake from the pan, run a thin-bladed knife around the inside of the pan and invert the cake on non stick baking paper. Peel off baking paper from the base and re-invert onto a rack to cool.
    *****************************************************************************************
    GULA MELAKA SWISS MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM
    Adapted from The Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Dreamer Loft with some modifications.
    Ingredients:
    Gula Melaka Caramel:
    50g gula melaka, crushed or chopped
    2 pandan leaves, tied a knot
    1/8 cup (25 ml) of water
    Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
    3 large egg whites
    80g caster sugar
    150g butter, room temperature
    ¼ tsp vanilla extract
    ¼ tsp salt
    Method:
    To prepare Gula Melaka Caramel:
    
    
11. Combine gula melaka, pandan leave and water in a saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. Keep on stiring until all the sugar has melted and reduce slightly. Remove from heat, strain & discard the pandan leaves. Keep aside to cool. The syrup will thicken as it cools.
12. To prepare Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
    
13. Cut the butter into cubes. Set aside to room temperature.
14. Combine egg white and sugar in a heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Make sure the base of the bowl is not touching the water. Whisk with hand whisk until the sugar is dissolved. Rub between your fingers to check if there is any unmelted sugar.
15. Transfer the egg white mixture to a bowl of mixer. With Whisk attachment, beat over high speed until stiff peaks and the mixture has cooled to room temperature.
16. Turn down the speed and add in the butter cube gradually then turn to high speed. Beat until the mixture comes together. You may change to Paddle attachment. But, I did not.
17. Add in salt and vanilla extract until well incorporated.
18. Turn down the speed and in gula melaka one teaspoon at a time. Scrap the bowl with spatula and beat until all well combined. I used all the gula melaka caramel.
19. To Assemble the cake:
    
20. Cut the dome off from the cake and place on a cake board. Spread a layer of Gula Melaka Swiss Meringue Buttercream (GMSMB) on top of the cake. Then stake the second cake on top. Coat the entire cake with GMSMB. Sprinkle some chopped roasted cashew nuts on top of the cake and pipe swirls.

I actually added grated coconut in gula melaka as fillings to create the ondeh ondeh feel. What i did is to melt the gula melaka and add in pandan leaf while i pan fry the grated coconut. Add in the melted gula melaka to the grated coconut and mix it up! Super yummy! And for the sides, i added salt and pan fry the grated coconut to create some sweet salty taste while eating :D

I took almost 2 hours to finish cleaning, chopping, dicing and mixing these tiny rolls of Ngoh Hiang. 

Manage to do up about 20 rolls and we finished almost 10 rolls today! Gosh! I promise i will appreciate Ngoh Hiang more now after it! Sooooooo many ingredients needed to make this awesome roll! ​

PapaTan surprises me with a bouquet of lilies + roses delivered to my office! Definitely my favorite combination! Thanks for the surprise! I always love Birthday season as i get to feast for the celebration <3 

I do not need any fanciful celebration but just the comfort of food, the closeness of family and the time spent together. This year is slightly lousy as i needed to work because i am unable to apply for leave. PapaTan decided to come and pick me up from work and bring me to feast at Crab in the bag ! :)

Next year will definitely not wanting to work on my Birthday anymore! THANKS PAPAYTAN!

It seems to get more challenging to blog as Morris grow older. Totally have no time to sit down so to pen down the resolution for 2017 till now. With appreciation, 2016 passed back real quick and now, it is already the start of another year. I think it is always good to write down some thoughts and resolution for recap at the end of the year and i hope to keep this habit going for long.

Career path vs Family. I guess with Morris coming along,  the intention and the career minded self changed to one who prefer to spend more time with family. Having more energy to priortise and focus on the loved ones are far more important than to advance in career. Unfortunately with the high living standard in Singapore, both parents are required to work so to own a relatively comfortable lifestyle. I hope that my priorties remains unchanged and family should always come first at all times.

Education vs Affordability for Morris. We have been speculating alot when it comes to putting Morris in school. The seperation anxiety from GrandmaKwan is severe and it is extremely difficult to find a school that meets her requirement. After some discussion, we decided to place Morris in a playgroup - Chelseakidz while still having grandmaKwan to babysit him. The playgroup is a 2 hours session from Mon-Fri which we believe it will let Morris to explore a little more. Most importantly, it is for him to grow some independency as well as to be less shy like how he is now.  It cost us alot more than the usual playgroup but We just hope to bring him FUN which we are not providing at the moment.

Traveling. Both of us loves traveling and exploring new countries. This year wise, we hope to explore places we have yet been to instead of going to Taiwan / Hong Kong again. Hoping that we can clock in either Korea / Australia this time round. Adding on, my first Girlfriend trip to Tokyo together with Cynthia will happen in March!!! So excited that this is materializing! Something i have not done before but i know with Cynthia along, things will be awesome!

Home Sweet Home. Something that will change this year is that we will own our a place that is ours. The need involved in maintaining cleaniniess for the place as well as grocery shopping (oh! i love Groceries shopping) for our home. Most importantly, hosting for gatherings and have friends coming over for meals are what we hope to have in future!

Self-reflection. I guess i am lacking the drive in life and i do hope that in 2017, i can find something that i really like doing and have passion in as it does feel kind of sucky to be leading a mandane life. Or maybe this is the path for me. Will be looking at courses to attend for the year and i am considering to pick up property license. Let's see how it goes!

Savings. With increase in expenses as well as school fees for Morris, it may be difficult to maintain the current savings target. I need to review and adjust the target to ensure that a certain amount is set aside for monthly savings. I am hoping to save at least $1000 a month? lol! Afterall, renovation cost us a bomb and savings greatly depleted.

Okay, Hoping for the best in 2017!

Tan Family signing off.