Jacob Ballas Children's Garden

I visited the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden sometime in August. It is part of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, only open to children up to 12 years old. And adults who do not bring any kids along cannot enter the garden. So when my brother wanted to bring his girls there, I decided to tag along. Or else I have no chance to go in. :)

A few shots out of the many trees and plants in the gardens.

Some nice areas, including a small suspension bridge. Even the toilet is so green with the plants

The cave with small waterfall. Nice photo area.

And a small pond with floating platform.

Caught sight of a squirrel (lower right photo).

Fun areas for the children.

A playground, a mini maze, sand area and waterplay area.

A small cafe at the entrance for light refreshments.

JBCG is at the Bukit Timah side of the Botanic Gardens. With the opening of the SMRT circle line, it is now easily accessible with public transport. Just alight at the Botanic Gardens station.

Butter Sugar Buns - cooked dough method (烫面)

哈哈！今天突然很想用中文写部落格，不知道大家会喜欢吗？

其中原因是看到Min很可爱的形容这是“一起来笃洞”的洞洞牛油面包。

这款面包我在八月的时候就做了，放上来的速度真的是越来越慢。我照原食谱做，只是放牛油进洞洞里，撒上糖。刚出炉时还很漂亮。不过因为时间太迟了，所以到隔天早上才拍照。没想到糖都融化了。就随便只拍一张照交差。

烫面面包是第一次做。面包是松软的，但觉得跟其他方法差别不大。可能得多做几次比比看。

Butter Sugar Buns - cooked dough method (烫面)

Ingredients

(A)
100g bread flour
70g boiling water

(B)
300g bread flour
100g plain flour
80g sugar
6g salt
20g milk powder
9g instant yeast

(C)
175g cold water
60g cold eggs

(D)
60g butter

(Topping)
beaten egg
butter
sugar

Method

1. Add the boiling water into flour for ingredients (A). Mix well to form dough. Cover and set aside to cool. Keep it into refrigerator for at least 12 hours.
2. Mix (B) until well-blended. Add in (C) and knead to form rough dough. Add in (A) from step 1 and knead until well-blended.
3. Add in (D) and knead to form elastic dough.
4. Let it proof for 40 minutes.
5. Divide the dough into 80g each and mould it round. Let it rest for 10 minutes.
6. Roll the dough flat into 1cm thick. Place it on a greased pan. Let it proof for 45 minutes.
7. Egg wash the surface and use fingertip to make small indentation over the dough. Pipe some soft butter into the indentations and sprinkle the top with sugar.
8. Bake in preheated oven at 180 deg C for 12 minutes.

Recipe adapted from: Magic Bread 烫出面包香 by Alex Goh

Purple Sweet Potato Chiffon Cake

Chiffon cake again! I'm getting better and better at chiffon cakes. :)

Have been wanting to try the purple sweet potato chiffon for a long time. :)

More chiffons baked to be given away... purple sweet potato (left) orange (right)

Some of you may find it hard to find purple sweet potatoes. For those living in the west side of Singapore, I bought it from the wet market at Blk 505 Jurong West. Ask the vegetable stall owner for purple ones cos I also cannot tell which one is purple inside. This is one of the variety (below).

Purple Sweet Potato Chiffon Cake 紫薯戚风蛋糕

Ingredients (makes one 22cm chiffon tin, half the recipe for 16cm chiffon tin)

4 egg yolks
30g sugar
1/4 tsp salt
60g vegetable oil
70g coconut milk (I use fresh milk)
70g purple sweet potato, steamed and mashed
100g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

4 egg whites
100g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (I omitted)

120g purple sweet potato, steamed and diced

Method

1. Whisk egg yolks, sugar and salt until the sugar dissolves.
2. Gradually add in vegetable oil, followed by coconut milk. Add in mashed purple sweet potato, mix well.
3. Fold in sifted cake flour and baking powder until well-mixed. Set aside.
4. In another bowl, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Add in sugar gradually and continue whisking until stiff peak form.
5. Gently fold in the egg white into the egg yolk batter (in step 3) in 3 batches. Lastly, add in diced purple sweet potato.
6. Pour the batter into an ungreased chiffon tin. Give the tin a few slight knocks on the tabletop to remove air bubbles. Bake in preheated oven at 170 deg C for 40 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and invert the tin immediately onto a cooling rack.
8. Unmould the cake only when it is completely cool.

Recipe adapted from: Fruity Cakes 鲜果蛋糕香 by Alex Goh

Aspiring Bakers #12: Traditional Kueh (October 2011)

Hello to all Aspiring Bakers Family members and members-to-be!
I'm back hosting Aspiring Bakers #12!

I have asked everyone to decide the theme for this month and received many good suggestions. They will all be taken into consideration. Another good news is the future themes will not be restricted to baking only as we will also have cooking-related themes. :)

Back here. The theme for this month is "Traditional Kueh"!

I understand why it is so popular. For most of us, they are our favourite local delights for breakfast and snack times. From steamed carrot cake, pumpkin kueh, yam kueh to png kueh, soon kueh, chwee kueh and ang ku kueh. I also like to include chee cheong fun, fatt kueh, mian jian kueh and many others too.

Besides Chinese kueh, I'm sure you also like all the malay and nyonya kueh which most of the time uses coconut, coconut milk, pandan leaves or gula melaka. I'm not too familiar with nyonya kueh, I only remembered I always eat steamed kueh lapis peeling layer by layer. Kueh tutu is one of my favourite too!

Do make some and share your recipes with us. I look forward to your active participation and support for this event!

Who can join?
Everyone! (if you do not have a blog, just send me a photo and recipe of your bake/dish)

How to join?

Step 1 :
Make traditional kueh (kuih), can be any chinese or malay/nyonya kueh, in the month of October 2011.

Step 2 :
Post it on your blog between 01 October 2011 and 31 October 2011.
Your post must include the recipe or link to the original recipe. If you are using a recipe from a book, please include the title of the book too.
Any entries that are posted outside the date range will not be accepted.
Any entries that do not include a recipe or link to the original recipe will not be accepted too.

Step 3 :
Please mention that you are submitting your post to Aspiring Bakers #12: Traditional Kueh (October 2011) hosted by SSB of Small Small Baker and provide a link back to this post HERE.
Entries will not be accepted if the above is not included.

Step 4 :
Email to smallsmallbaker@yahoo.com.sg in the following format:

Your name or nickname:
Your blog name: (omit this if you do not have a blog)
Name of your bake/dish:
URL of your post:
URL of your photo (one photo for each entry):
(alternatively, you can attach your photo in your email, preferably less than 500kb).

Please use "Aspiring Bakers #12" as your email subject. You may submit more than 1 entry.

The roundup will be posted on 01 November 2011.

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If you are interested to find out what's on the previous Aspiring Bakers #11: Mid-Autumn Treats (September 2011) entries, hosted by HHB of Happy Home Baking, see the roundup HERE.

Pumpkin Chiffon Cake 南瓜戚风蛋糕

好久没做到这么漂亮的戚风蛋糕了！

For quite some time, I had been producing failed chiffon cakes. Half of the time, they dropped out of the inverted chiffon tin during cooling. Half of the time, they didn't dropped out, but had sunken top after removed. I knew I had problem with the oven temperature. It was until I got my oven thermometer, the mystery was solved.

I think my oven is getting old. When I set the temperature at 170 deg C, it was lower than that. So now I bake my chiffon cakes at 180 deg C and extend the baking time 5 minutes longer to get the crust thicker. It works!

The rare occasion when I bake my cake and shoot my photo so early in the morning. The morning sun makes the cake so pretty! Look at the fluffy texture!

Pumpkin Chiffon Cake 南瓜戚风蛋糕

Ingredients (makes one 22cm chiffon tin, half the recipe for 16cm chiffon tin)

4 egg yolks
30g sugar
1/4 tsp salt
60g vegetable oil
60g coconut milk * (I use fresh milk)
80g pumpkin, diced, steamed and mashed
120g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
some pumpkin seeds

4 egg whites
100g sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar (I omitted)

* You can replace coconut milk with milk + 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon or ground nutmeg

Method

1. Whisk egg yolks, sugar and salt until the sugar dissolves.
2. Gradually add in vegetable oil, followed by coconut milk. Add in mashed pumpkins, mix well.
3. Fold in sifted cake flour and baking powder until well-mixed. Set aside.
4. In another bowl, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Add in sugar gradually and continue whisking until stiff peak form.
5. Gently fold in the egg white into the egg yolk batter (in step 3) in 3 batches. Lastly, add in pumpkin seeds.
6. Pour the batter into an ungreased chiffon tin. Give the tin a few slight knocks on the tabletop to remove air bubbles. Bake in preheated oven at 170 deg C for 40 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and invert the tin immediately onto a cooling rack.
8. Unmould the cake only when it is completely cool.

Recipe adapted from: Fruity Cakes 鲜果蛋糕香 by Alex Goh

Aspiring Bakers #11: Mocha Oreo Snowskin Mooncake

My third snowskin mooncake. I immediately bookmark it when I saw this recipe from the book I borrowed. There are 2 types of lotus paste wrapped within the snowskin. The inner filling is lotus paste mixed with oreo cookies and chocolate. The outer filling is lotus paste. The snowskin is coffee flavoured. Quite a nice combination. :)

From the mooncakes posts during the last 2 weeks, I notice that most of the snowskin mooncakes are made using the rub-in method. I use this method for this Mocha Oreo and Mango snowskin mooncakes. My Banana snowskin mooncakes uses another method by mixing icing sugar, shortening and water first, adding flour last. I get a better texture using the mixing method. I wonder if I overhandle the dough when using the rub-in method. So I'm not concluding anything here. I need more practice. :)

I still have some kao fen and lotus paste left, so I will be doing more mooncakes after mid-autumn. I still want to try Shanghai mooncakes. But not too soon cos our house is overloaded with other store-bought mooncakes too. My new jelly mooncakes moulds are also not used yet. Too short time this year!

Mocha Oreo Snowskin Mooncake
(original recipe, please adjust the recipe according to your mould size and batch size)
skin : filling = 1:2,
if you are using 63g mould, skin = 21g, filling = 42g
if you are making 10 mooncakes, skin = 210g, filling = 420g
adjust the recipe proportionately)

Ingredients

Snowskin:
100g kao fen (cooked glutinous rice flour) 糕粉
60g icing sugar
30g shortening
50g fresh cream
1 tsp instant coffee powder
120g water
1/2 tsp coffee emulco

Filling:
(A) 30g x 5
120g lotus paste
4 pcs Oreo cookies, cream removed and crushed cookies into powder form
20g cooking chocolate

(B) 70g x 5
350g lotus paste

Method

1. Snowskin: Sift kao fen and icing sugar into a mixing bowl. Rub in shortening. Dissolve coffee powder in water. Gradually add this coffee mixture, cream, and coffee emulco into the flour mixture. Knead lightly till a soft dough forms. Set aside for 30 minutes. Divide the dough skin equally, roll round.

2. Filling (A): Double-boil cooking chocolate until melted, mix in cookies, then add in lotus paste and mix evenly. Divide filling (A) equally. Divide filling (B) equally. Wrap (A) with (B) - chocolate oreo inside. Roll round.

3. Flatten a piece of snowskin, wrap in filling, roll round, then pat some cooked glutinous rice flour.

4. Press it into mould, unmould and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Recipe adapted from: Mooncake Selections 52 月饼精选 52

Wishing everyone Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

祝大家中秋节快乐！

I am submitting this Mocha Oreo Snowskin Mooncake to Aspiring Bakers #11: Mid-Autumn Treats (September 2011), hosted by Happy Home Baking.

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Decide the theme for Aspiring Bakers #12 here.

Aspiring Bakers #11: Mango Snowskin Mooncake

My second snowskin mooncake. Used this recipe and trying to make a mango version using just mango juice, and without adding mango essence and colouring. In the end, it turned out quite tasteless and the colour was very faint. There goes the saying 厉害就好，不要假厉害. :)

Recipe adapted from: Amanda's Blog

I am submitting this Mango Snowskin Mooncake to Aspiring Bakers #11: Mid-Autumn Treats (September 2011), hosted by Happy Home Baking.

***
Decide the theme for Aspiring Bakers #12 here.