Red Wine Berry Paste Snow Skin Moonies

After reading the Lifestyle page today about the making of snow skin moonies, I decided to practice the making of the snow skin moonies again today.

I want to master the 'soft' texture. The recent batch of the snow skin moonies had turned hard after the 3th day even though it was kept in the air tight container in the fridge. There was condensation of water drops in the container as well. Hmmm... Perhaps I had overkneaded. Perhaps I had not added enough ice water. Perhaps, I had not 'rested' the dough before I started the moulding. So many possibilities.

I had my mind set on using the red wine berry paste. And I must agree that the aroma of the red wine seems 'stronger' than last year's. Even my sister commented that she could smell the whiff of the liquor 'looming' in the kitchen air. Especially today when the air is cool and moist with the glooming grey skies.

And this time round, I was more generous with the fresh milk portion and hence reduced the ice water in the proportionate amount. The texture of this batch is much softer than my recent 1st batch. Mom commented that the skin texture was much softer too.

Yes, I like the pinky look. So pretty.

Strawberry Marshmellow

I wanted to 'challenge' myself today in making two items, one bake and one chill concurrently. It was a crazy idea cos with no one to help me to juggle the timing, I 'almost' had a burnt marshmellow chilled cake. That would have been disasterous.

The last round I had nice jello as topping with generous portion of strawberries. However, this round, you would notice that the strawberries are nicely 'spaced' out as Mom is not into biting too many fruits for this chilled item. Taking her feedback and adjusting the jello, this is a mildly sweet cake with 'limited' strawberries and it is a simpler looking chilled cake compared to the last one which I made sometime back.

All in all, though tired from all the stirring, mixing and juggling between the oven and the fridge. It was fun. I am sure you will agree too if you share my passion too.

Winter Plum Blossom Flower Flaky Mooncakes (with Wholemeal Flour)

Alright, allow me to explain the 'different' look of my Winter Plum Blossom Flower Flaky Mooncakes. Other than no egg wash to glaze the top of the moonies, and the 'naked' look without the black sesame seeds toppings to 'decorate' , it was a decent turnout.

Initially, I had wanted to try making the Walnut Moonies. However, I liked the look of this receipe which has captivated me much after numerous viewing into Jestina's blogsite, Florence's and even Aunty Lucy's as well. Not only was it more interesting, it was pretty too.

Imagine my blurr-ness today. In the midst of the preparation, I realised that I had ran out of plain flour. And it was raining heavily this afternoon. No way was I going get drenched either. Rummaging through the containers, I could only find Wholemeal Flour, the closest to 'salvage' and hence the 'revamped' look.

Using the white lotus paste which I got from KCT, I made my 1st batch of Wholemeal Winter Plum Blossom Flower. The pastry feels coarse during the rolling but the taste is more 'crisp' while it was still warm from baking.

Not bad for a 1st timer I must say. Oh, I would strongly recommend the white lotus paste from KCT as it is not too sweet, and just the right fragrance, for my taste buds at least.

Crumbly Blueberries Cake (again)

Alright, I admit, I am crazy 'over' blueberries purchases. And its NTUC's fault. hahaha.

Mom was 'nagging' about clearing her fridge, so I had to 'whip up' something to clear the blueberries and the crunchy macadamia nuts. Sometimes I wish the government relax the HDB rulings and allow singles like myself to own a NEW flat instead of RESALE flat. Arh yes, a spacious kitchen and bedroom. Dream dream.

Heres my evergreen Crumbly Blueberries receipe adapted from the ST. Fresh from the convection oven bake today again. And oh, using HL strawberry milk instead of the usual HL plain white milk does set a unique whiff of sweetness in the air during the bake. hmmmm.... Due to the rain while I was baking this afternoon, the dense fragrance settles heavily in the kitchen of bakes. I aint complaining at all. Neither would you, right fellow bakers?

In fact, this bake was done before I did the moonies. So you can imagine the invisible "no entry" sign barring the rest of my family from accessing the kitchen while I kept myself busy from mid noon till about tea break.


What a busy afternoon indeed.

Green Tea Snow Skin Moonies

Mooncake festival is about a month away. Advertisements from the various restaurants and hotels are 'flooding' the newspapers and channelling through the credit cards statements enclosures too.

My first trial of moonies making was this time last year too. I was browsing the internet and found Florence's webpage, then Aunty Lucy's, then Jo's etc etc. The rest is history. Gosh, how time flies. Its been a year since the baking and cooking addiction of mine started.

And this year, I aint gonna miss out the fun. I bought the fried glutinuous rice flour and the plastic mould from KCT two weeks' ago. And with the green tea paste from Phoon Huat, heres my first batch of green tea snow skin moonies for this year, 2008.

I love the design of this 8 pattern mould which I got for a mere $3 from KCT. Its versatile as jelly mould too. Using the receipe from Aunty Lucy, the total 'production' yielded more than 20 mini moonies.

In case anyone of you is wondering, the red mooncake box was for the moonies which we purchased from one of the 5 star hotels.

Plain and simple white is the look. But hye, it look presentable. Dont you agree ?

Green Tea Chiffon Cake

May I present my well deserved applaud bake for today. Yes ! Finally! I have 'nailed' the making of chiffon cake. The green tea powder which was bought from Phoon Huat was going to expire in another 20 days time. No wastage, a reminder from Mom as always. And with all the lovely chiffons baked by Aunty Lucy, Florence, Aimei, Elyn etc, I felt it was timely for me to try baking chiffon cake again. Just do it spirit ! (Nike !)

This green tea chiffon cake receipe is borrowed from Florence's blogsite, Do what I like. I did not add the rum as the receipe called for. Otherwhich, instead of using the handwhisk to blend the egg yolk batter to the well whisked egg white, I used a big yellow and white spatula which I got for $2 at Daiso months back.

And viola, just look at the pictures! Rise, rise it did and the evenness and the spongeness and the light texture of each bite just maketh me smile. My sister stands witness to my patience and gentleness with every gentle stroke when blending the yolks and whites. And the aroma of the bake was simply lovely. More natural aeromatherapeutic than you could imagine. Most bakers will agree to that.

Theres something to look forward to every weekend, and to me, every Sunday is passion destress day, my baking day. Yumz.