Melting Moments

Melting Moments! One of the most famous cookies that everyone loves to eat. It is supposed to melt-in-the-mouth and I guess that's why it's named Melting Moments.

This CNY, we bought some homemade cookies from Malaysia and one of them was the melt-in-the-mouth kind and it tasted so good! As it was not labeled, I'm not really sure if it's the Melting Moments cookies that I've been wanting to try.


I'm determined to make these some day and I finally found one recipe from Sweet Decadenze. I tried to duplicate the cookies that we had bought, piping little flowery shapes and putting a chcocolate chip on top. My piping skill is horrible! Every cookie comes in different sizes, shapes, thickness, heights, plus I wasn't using the real piping tools (I just fold my own piping bag). Hehe!

The cookies are great! Melts-in-the-mouth kind. Mine is a little crunchy at first bite. Perhaps I overbaked a little. Those we bought were better. But nobody complains! Another cookie to be baked for next CNY. Who wants? :)

What’s Your Baking Personality?

I took this What’s Your Baking Personality? quiz from Baking Bites.

Result: 2A 2B 1E
So I'm a split between Type A and Type B personality. This is pretty accurate!

a) Giving: Friendly, well-liked and enthusiastic, giving bakers seldom experiment, love baking and like to serve tried-and-true family favorites that they know are crowd pleasers, rather than risk experimenting with the unknown.

b) Methodical: Talented bakers who rely heavily on recipes because baking is considered to be a science for a reason! They know that they’ll get the results they want that way. And usually, their creations look just like the picture in the cookbook.

Take the quiz here.

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Here's another muffin that I have baked recently, from the same book - Muffins Galore.

Gift from a special friend

This post has been kept as draft for 2 months! I received a gift from a special friend on the 2nd day of 2009. It is the Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract, the best vanilla ingredient to make perfect vanilla cakes and desserts. Every baker dreams to own this!


Apologies! I have been baking CNY Cookies during January and busy with eating them during February that I haven't been able to bake much. I hope to look for recipes like a pure vanilla cake or pure vanilla desserts to taste the real vanilla in it. :)


Come back to these muffins. I got this Muffins Galore book from the library last week and tried this Vanilla Chocolate Chip Muffins, the very first recipe in this book. The muffins smell and taste very good! Maybe it's the Vanilla Extract :P. I'm eager to try out more recipes from this book.

To my special friend, you know who you are. I really appreciate the efforts and thoughts that come with the present. Thanks for the wonderful gift and let me understand the joy of giving and sharing. It's my best gift ever! :)

Banana Cake

Time to start baking! I bake this Banana Cake using HHB's recipe. Have to leave out the wholemeal flour and use plain flour instead cos I don't have that at home. The cake somehow looks quite different from hers. My cake splits and "explodes" at the top and doesn't remain flat and nice like hers!


I like this recipe as it uses very little sugar and the butter is not too much. As a result, the banana cake is not overly sweet and oily. I like the top crust which is slightly crunchy and sugary with the extra sugar sprinkled on top. The cake inside remains soft. The banana taste strangely isn't that strong. Maybe I use the wrong type of bananas or the bananas are not ripe enough?


I bake this cake in this newly-bought mini loaf pan from Daiso. Daiso is a heaven for cheap, small and cute baking stuffs. There are mini chiffon pans, tart pans, heart-shaped pans, etc. I'm tempted to get the mini chiffon pans. They look really cute. But the thought of washing many mini ones instead of 1 large one puts me off. I would rather not buy! :)

I saw a rainbow

Nevermind, this is not related to baking. I just can't help posting this photo up. It was taken yesterday evening when I saw the beautiful rainbow at around 6.30pm. My place has a very good geographical location. :) I saw rainbows outside the corridor several times. So whenever there is rain and sunshine, I will tell my nephew to look out for the rainbow. :)


This rainbow lasted unusually long. In fact, there was a second rainbow beside it, which is fainter. I think it's the reflection of the first rainbow (if I'm not wrong) and its colours are opposite of the first one. It was still up there after 7pm and disappeared only when the sun set. And I believe it could be seen at many parts of Singapore.


I took this rare opportunity to take a picture of my mother's newly grown roselle plant. I hope they can grow up successfully.

Before CNY ends

I'm squeezing everything in this post just before the CNY ends. :)

I made another batch of pineapple tarts to use up the remaining pineapple paste. Initially, I wanted to use HHB's recipe. But I received a few recommendations on Mandy's recipe (Fresh from the Oven) too . I compare the 2 recipes and find that they are very similar. The difference is Mandy's recipe replaced some flour with cornstarch and added some icing sugar. So in the end, I decided to use Mandy's one. Sorry HHB! The pineapple tarts taste great! It simply melts in the mouth and the fillings inside remain very soft and moist. Rolling the jam into balls with wet hands really helps (click here for more tips from HHB). So those who are interested, you can try this next year!


You see, the above recipe used up 3 egg yolks, so with the remaining 3 egg whites, I made the Angel Food Cake from Baking Fiends. It was done pretty fast cos there were only 3 ingredients. I wasn't expecting much, I had enough failures in making chiffon cakes. I just constantly repeating to myself "stiff and glossy... stiff and glossy... stiff and glossy" when beating the egg whites. Although the result wasn't perfect, I was quite relieved to see that it did not sink at the top after cooling down.


Lastly, in order to use up the toblerone chocolate that is expiring soon, I made the Toblerone Ice Cream again. Send this to bakers all over the world using my unique stamp. :)

Sentosa Flowers 2009

I went to the Sentosa Flowers 2009 on the 2nd day of Lunar New Year. Took the Sentosa Express from Vivocity and it was SUPER crowded. The queue for the tickets extended to the rooftop amphitheatre outside and we have to sit there to wait for our turn to move in.

We alighted at the Imbiah Station and this was one of the best places for photo-taking.



Walking towards the beach.


Some of the creative garden sculptures created by students.




Ended our day at the Palawan Beach. Walk across the suspension bridge, you will reach the Southernmost Point of Continental Asia (Asia's closest point to the Equator). Nice views from the top.