Happy 2011!

Time flies! It's already nearly mid of Jan 2011. I've been super busy since school term started last week. Olina entered P1 this year. She's in the morning session and her school bus reaches our place at 6am! I've got to wake up at 5am now, one and a half hour earlier than last year. So I'm now leading a healthy lifestyle of 早睡早起.

I'm still trying to adjust to the new routine. First week was really chaotic. I didn't even have time to watch my favourite K drama. Stepping into the second week, things seems a little better as the momentum picks up. I need to further adjust my routine, as I do not have much time to sit down and supervise the kids on their work. As a result, the two younger ones are still leading a life of school holiday. :) Darren is going to take his PSLE this year. Having a tutor to take care of three of his subjects, no doubt, is a big relief to me. Sometimes we just need to let go and allow others to help.

This year, I have to pack lunchboxes for the two primary school kids, especially since Olina will only reach home after 2:30pm. So I reckon I'll probably do baking at least once a week, though I'm not sure if I can find as much time to blog them.

I started 2011 with buns. During the Popular 20% member sales, I went to grab a few cookbooks, one of which was "Bread Magic" by Alan Ooi. This has been one of the books I wanted to add on to my collection. I use the basic sweet bun recipe from this book to make these 莲蓉面包.





Packed into lunchbox


The texture is ok, but not as fluffy when eaten on the second day. The next time, I'll try his dough recipe.

I'm now constantly on the lookout for things which can assist me in my lunchbox journey. Unlike my hubby who thinks that it's ok to let the kids bring butter and jam bread, I try to make the lunchbox varies. Recently I found a sandwich maker from Isetan NEX which can be used on the stove. It's a perfect choice for me. I used to have one electrical sandwich maker, but hate to use that as I can't wash it and the melted cheese always ended up stuck in the machine. This new toy addresses my previous concerns and I love it so much! The kids love toasted sandwiches with melted cheese. Hubby complained he's getting fat and asked me to stop making him these though I know he loved them too. ;)



I'm ending this long entry with the backlogs of 2010. After my first two log cakes trial, I went on to do a few more. I find Chiffon base to be the best among all the different bases tried. I'll probably stick to that in future.

Chocolate logs




Mango logs

Merry Christmas......too early?

Is it a bit too early for Christmas bakes? Well, at least this year I'm not late. :)

I've always been a fan of log cakes when it comes to Christmas food. Hubby said that log cake is just a cake covered in cream in the shape of log. True, but log cakes always has that magic to attract me to take another look at it.

I have never attempted to bake a log cake all these years because I'm really terrible at rolled cakes, especially using the whole egg method. Although egg separation will yield a higher chance of success, I refuse to give in to the idea that rolled cake can only be made by that method. That's some kind of unnecessary stubbornness??

This year I finally decide to attempt it, partly because I saw this baking event - Aspiring Bakers #2: Christmas! (Dec 2010) from Small Small Baker's blog. Seems like a different blogger is taking turn to hold the event each month. This month's event will be held by Passion About Baking. It just gives me some good excuse to bake. *grin*

I did a bit of research on the net regarding log cake. It seems to be commonly named as Bûche de Noël (pardon this mountain tortoise here, but this is the first time I've heard of this term). I'm not sure if there's any difference between this and the conventional swiss roll I'm familiar with. Bûche de Noël does not seem to have any oil in it. The swiss roll recipes that I've been trying contain melted butter. If you know the difference, please let me know.

I've attempted 2 logs so far, both using the cake recipe from Elegant Swiss Roll - Christmas Log by Kevin Chai. It uses only 4 eggs, as compared to some which use as many as 7 eggs! The recipe calls for the whole egg method. I learnt from this video to warm the egg mixture before beating to achieve a greater volume, a good tip indeed. However, I've yet to achieve a good cake texture. I could very well have over mixed when adding the flour and butter.

Presenting to you my 2 Chocolate ganache logs.

The first log...




The inside of the log


The second log...it's starting to snow :)



Oh yes, if you have any tip on how to achieve a smooth edge when carving the lines, please share with me too. I suspect it has got to do with the consistency of the ganache. I always get a rough edge. :(