Friday, December 28, 2007
Christmas baking, tiramisu. The genoise cake component was a disaster, experimented with oven temperatures and baking pans with bad results. But it was a very fun process(: Genoise cake brushed with Kahlua espresso syrup, layered with mascarpone cream, grated bittesweet chocolate and dusted with cocoa powder.
Yesterday, decorating dance noticeboard. Sharon the perfectionist, we ended up almost redoing the ballerina, at the end just the two of us, different colours for skin, leo, tights, tutu. Haha but it was fun. I love our board(:
And finally! Framboise(: Raspberry eau-de-vie liqueur.
I want a sea lion for a pet.
7:20 PM
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Doing blue runs almost all day long. My muscles are aching like crazy, its exhausting. We finally graduated to blues though(: Blues are quite scary though, blacks are even more extreme. On the mountain the temperature is like -20 degrees, on the very top top the temperature drops even more. Your toes feel like they have frozen to ice cubes you cant even feel your nose. There is amazing powder here, it didnt stop snowing yesterday. They liken it to champagne.
Faux mountain climbing in Quito to the Andes. We cheated. We took this cable car up to 4100 metres above sea level, then climbed to reach the peak. We didnt reach it though, not enough time. The air was really really thin, every few metres you would stop gasping for breathe because of the sheer lack of oxygen. And the steep terrain. Altititude sickness, Quito is about 2.8 km above sea level, once we even used an oxygen tank at night.
And the Galapagos! It was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced, like seeing what the earth was a million years ago. With crystal clear waters, and creatures that are fearless of humans. Snorkelled with sharks, stingrays, turtles, marine iguanas, sea lions and penguins, among the usual fish. There are tropical penguins! The only kind in the world, they are tinyy. And the sea lions are the most adorable creatures on earth, whenever a group of snorkellers pass by, they would waddle into the water and swim with you. Its their form of entertainment.
Frustrating plane delays that extend hour after hour. I think we have been delayed more than 12 hours on the whole trip. That doesnt include waiting times.We got stranded at Miami, it was a total nightmare. I miss Singapore.
5:22 PM
Friday, December 07, 2007
Melted chocolate
Raspberries in sauce.
Chocolate raspberry molten cakes. Molten chocolate cakes with chocolate raspberry ganache truffle centre. I still cant unmold it properly though, so you cant see the molten truffle centre. Raspberries make such a vibrant puree. (:
Tuesday: Baking with tricia(:
Hazelnut macarons, with chocolate hazelnut filling.
Tricia's fabulous sliced strawberries! Hahaha she's an expert.
Chocolate roulade disaster no. 3. Everything goes smoothly until we try to roll it up.
Chocolate strawberry roulade cake. Bittersweet chocolate souffle cake sheet, filled with softly whipped cream and strawberries rolled up. It looks a disaster, but its good tasting(:
5:48 AM
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Roasted banana ice cream with chocolate brownie. Roasted bananas in the ice cream give it more of a butterscotch flavour.
I finally got the perfect texture of the brownie using cocoa; chewy dense centre, crisp candylike top. Yeah but the chocolate flavour was very bland and not intense, I had used ordinary cocoa.
Project Doughnut: Vanilla bean and browned butter doughnuts. Making homemade doughnuts were an eyeopener, especially frying them. I probably shouldnt have done so though. Maybe its because I dont like doughnuts in the first place.
Cutting out the doughnuts, they were extremely soft and sticky.
Frying the doughnuts. It was really hard keeping the temperature of oil constant at 375F.
Doughnuts, twists and holes(: My twists are deformed, hahaha.
I didnt have a doughnut cutter so I used a measuring cup and piping tip instead! Haha(:
With a dusting of powdered sugar.
My camera got broken and fixed for the forth time. My dad is threatening to consficate it if I break it again. I think its for all the times I have dropped it. Haha almost every part of the camera has been replaced.
5:42 AM
