There are some recipes you see online that you'll not hesitate to use it. For me, I like choosing recipes by its author and one of them whom I like very much is Ina Garten. I guess she's pretty well-known among food bloggers because of her cookbooks, Barefoot Contessa. People say The Pioneer Woman is their hero, well, Ina Garten is mine! :D

Her recipes are extremely straightforward and contains no complicated ingredients! I find following her recipes impossible to go wrong. So when I decided to make chocolate truffles (to clear my leftover heavy cream), I was very delighted to find hers in the food gallery.

In fact, I'm actually not a chocolate person - I don't enjoy chocolates alone, I like chocolate cookie, chocolate cake, chocolate icecream, chocolate tart. But Ina's chocolate truffles were wonderful. I love how firm and bittersweet they are.

It's my first attempt at truffles so I wouldn't dare claim them to be the "BEST" homemade truffles, but trust me, I'd definitely make truffles again because I enjoyed these. It's extremely chocolatey and rich. If there's any adjustment I'd make the next time, it's to roll them into smaller spheres ;)

I substituted hazelnuts with pistachios because I happen to have whole pistachios at home (and only ground hazelnuts at home).

for the recipe ...

It's been a long day and I'm super glad to say my battle with these petit yet challenging french cookies is finally over! Phew..

Needless to say, macarons are one of those cookies that every baker'd want to master. I had my share of failures (many, many of them)!

Feetless macarons, over-mixed macarons, cracked macarons, and comes the most painful experience for me: beautiful macarons that sticked to the parchment paper (!!)

True enough, food bloggers say we pray for good weathers to make these because macarons are so sensitive to moisture in the air. To make macarons, I'd think you really need patience & sufficient sleep.

Furthermore, what makes baking macarons extra challenging here in my home is that (firstly) Singapore is a very humid country. There's plenty of sunlight and rain throughout the year making the air damper than other regions in the west. Adding on to it, the location of my house is pretty much surrounded by trees and vegetation. It is no surprise to see our car parked outside the house covered with dew every morning!

After a recent attempt that gave poor results again, I felt that there was something I really didn't know about macarons well enough - something that might have to do with the local climate.....? I decided to give it another try.

So one week ago, I kept a bowl of egg whites in the fridge. I was ready to wait for them to age for 7 days. For those who don't know yet, aging egg whites remove moisture from it, make it more acidic.

I emailed Aran of Cannelle et Vanille for help - yes, she is the very awesome and gorgeous lady we know in the BIG family of food bloggers =)

I did exactly as she had advised. I spread out my icing sugar and ground almond on a tray and left it in my oven with the lights on (heat off) for a few hours - just to ensure that my ingredients does not accumulate moisture contained in the air too. I also decided to make macarons using the italian meringue method as Aran had told me that the cooked sugar does allow moisture in the egg whites to evaporate.

I wouldn't say my macarons are very successful because eventually, I still find that experience is very important where the time taken for baking is concerned. This is especially so if you do not have the same size of macarons piped for different batches (which is what I like to do, piping big circles on one tray and small circles on another. They are cuter right!) Plus I feel that my macarons' feets are not perfect.

Anyhow, I'd like to thank Aran of Canelle et Vanille again for her help! I'll definitely make macarons again because they are so presentable and delicious! Most of all, the flavours are pretty flexible. I might try coffee or rose macarons on my next attempt! :)

for the recipe...

Truly, I am a brownie-girl and a cheesecake-girl.

Whenever I dine at restaurant, as long as their desserts menu has the word "cheesecake" or/and "brownie", I'm likely to be caught in between this two choices! Other cakes like Opera, Chocolate Fudge, Waffle, Molten cake wouldn't even be considered. It simply has to be a brownie, or a cheesecake, or BOTH!

Last night I was looking for a cheesecake brownie when I decided on David Lebovitz's. I'm sure he is not stranger to food bloggers! His recipes never fail us and I really admire his knowledge towards food (-desserts!). I wanted a brownie base that is moist and fudgy, yet a little cake-like. Not the heavy and dense kind that I usually seek for, because I didn't think I would be able to appreciate a cheesecake brownie that has both its layer so rich!

As planned, I bake it on an empty stomach this morning! (Ok.... the secret is also that I knew all cheesecakes have to be thoroughly chilled for at least 4hours, or better overnight before they can be eaten. BUT that isn't the case for a cheesecake brownie =P In fact I personally find them better when eaten warm)

I made the baking process short and sweet. I was really looking forward to the end results & once it came out of the oven, I let it rest impatiently for 5minutes, lift it up and let cool on a marble table for another 20minutes. Inevitably, I pinched the sides of the entire cake to eat. It was so incredibly satisfying.

Later, I gave away half of the cake to my Aunty and my cousins because I knew that if I were to keep all of them at home, I'd probably gain a kg tomorrow. LOL. I kept two for my mum, two for my brothers and I hid in the kitchen finishing the rest (hee)

I'd describe the cheesecake brownie to be perfectly sweet, very chocolatey and seriously delicious. The brownie is moist and tender while the cheesecake batter seems to make the bars a little salty, giving a very unique taste to it. This also balance the overall sweetness of the bars which makes it extra enjoyable.

However, if you are looking for a really dense, fudgy, chocolatey and rich brownie, you might want to try my Peanut Butter Brownies. It is the most popular post in my blog! :)

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I made this cheesecake twice for 2 consecutive days. & for the first time in my kitchen I used a 9-inch springform pan! I don't know if this convince you, but I did it again (&doubled the recipe) simply because my first attempt at it was excellent.

I just love how I find myself chewing on those melty caramel and nougats. Even my brother agree that this's an interesting approach! Thick oreo crust, mars bar, and even the nutella swirl which was only slightly noticeable.

I shot some pictures of my first one but were unfortunately, rejected by the food galleries. I was really upset because I had never felt like there was such a NEED to share something so good with you before. I even proudly proclaimed that it can win the Nobel prize award on facebook! I mean ...

just kidding...... HAHA.

But the rejections were good lessons, because it made me realised that I'd been compromising the kind of pictures I shoot recently as a result of my enthusiasm to update my food blog. That's why I've decided that from now on, I'd take greater pride in food photography! We all eat with our eyes first and I want what I make to appeal to you, especially when it is something this good. I deleted my previous post and the pictures to do a new one :)

I'll submitting my pictures later and I cross my fingers that Foodgawker & Tastespotting will both bring you here. I even planned my table with a little props before shooting the pictures.. Plus I got a MacBook Pro for my 17th birthday 2 weeks ago, this's the first batch of pictures I'm editing using iPhoto! ('d love to get photoshop one of these days) I don't think these photos are very impressive, but I will keep practicing until I produce better and better pictures.

Anyway, I'd like to apologise to any readers who have been constantly supporting this space but have problems commenting on my posts. I regret to say I really like my blog host and will not consider to move. I have a question though, if you can comment, please tell me your opinion.

When a recipe instructs you to cream butter and sugar (in a KitchenAid mixer), do you use the whisk or paddle?

(I personally prefer to use whisk if its a cake recipe and a paddle if its a cookie/brownie recipe. Is that right?)

A very very sinful but irresistible cheesecake recipe to keep! I cut into many slices, put them in some pretty boxes before giving away to my friends! I'm looking forward to their feedbacks :D

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When I think of butter, I think of brownies.

I love brownies with a REALLY HIGH ratio of butter to flour because I've the assumption that this makes them really dense and chocolatey (rather than cakey) :D Of course, I love a brownie even more when it has its surface cracked!

And ever since I started comparing various recipes of cookies with regards to their proportion of ingredients (YES I'M IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT COOKIE TOO!), I decided to do the same for brownies. The two must-bake things in every bakers' list. RIGHT? Right! Lots of butter. Little flour! *Mmm..

The brownie recipe I've adapted from BeckyBakes was a success! Her recipe, compared to Rick Katz's from Chocolatechic and Sue Lawrence's from Ovenhaven had lesser butter to flour ratio. I chose to baked hers first in the end because Becky's recipe had mr. Butter's blessings for the marriage of mr. CHOCOLATE & miss PEANUT BUTTER!

YUP :) It was not a mistake, which also brings me to my conclusion that no matter what brownie (&cheesecake) recipe is used, it is most important to take care that they are NOT over baked!

Becky's brownies baked in a 8x8 pan took 30-35minutes while mine, baked in a 7x10 pan took exactly 23minutes. I had too many repeated failures on brownies so I decided that I had to be really really careful this time! Everyone can make nice brownies, so watch the time and check your brownies frequently once you notice they've set & just a little runny when a cake tester is push through it :)

I left out the Reese peanut butter cups as I did not have it when I wanted to make this, so I left that out. It's still fantastic anyway!

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I turned 17 on 14March! (anyone reading shares the same birthday as me? :D) I finally understand what my mum means whenever she says "I'm old, will be 50 soon.." when she's only 47 because currently,

I also feel like telling the world, IM OLD! 'LL TURN 20 SOON! :( LOL! Oh well, let's skip the whining about how much I really wish I can stay 16 forever. Youth is priceless!!

So I went out with my former schoolmates and another two birthday girl&boy. Our birthdays fall on the 13th, 14th and 15th! We had dinner, cut the birthday cake, and caught a movie before going home :)

Birthday basketballers! *all of us have SMALL EYES -__-* (My genuine birthday wish is to grow FAT.) You know if you let your birthday wish out, it will not come true, so yup, I hope my birthday wish will NOT come true now that I'm telling the public. LOL!

Anyway this chocolate mousse cake recipe is another recipe that I have bookmarked very long ago! The components are really simple but I kind of cracked my brains just to think of how I can decorate it - which've obviously prove to be a failure.

The chocolate sponge is pretty firm which makes it easy to slice into many layers. It is a little moist but not rich or chocolatey like the usual sour cream chocolate cakes. I think this sponge can be used for lighter cakes :) However, care must be taken that you do not over mix the batter as it will deflate causing the sponge to be denser than you should be..

Wishing all March babies Happy Birthday at the same time!!!

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Last night I had this sudden urge to make donuts!! So I did this afternoon using the recipe taken from 17andBaking. I had bookmarked it for a looong looong time but was simply unwilling to mess with yeast. It seemed easier than I thought though and I was certainly glad I tried.... Anyway, the writer of 17andBaking, Elissa, is a very very talented senior whom I look up to very much. Not only does she bakes well, her photography skills are also excellent!!

Being a student baker myself, nothing excites me more than knowing friends in this big family of bakers who are around my age! :) Other student bakers' blogs I visit frequently would be Wendy of My Buttery Fingers, Lauren of CeliacTeen and Karina of Pastries of a Chocoholic :)

Right, so back to my donuts, I'd think it's pretty much a failure because I dislike how thick they were! I felt like I was eating more donut bread than the filling I had topped it with :\ However, I'd definetely use this recipe again as the texture of the donuts were great. The only adjustment I'd make is rolling out a thinner donut dough (less than 1/2 inch as directed by the recipe). Also, I'm sooooo going to get a donut-cutter for my next attempt. I wish that my donuts had the small little holes in them =(

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It's been real long since I last updated & I am truly, truly sorry for my absence ever since college has began! Schoolwork might have been crazy but seriouslyyy, I am the student who never mugs until I know I have to LOL! Furthermore, the most attractive part about my college's that it is located quite near town. (which also means far away from home!)

Therefore, I've been spending most of my afternoons enjoying lunch out of school & catching a few movies. Yay! I really think I have a life. HAHAHAHA. If you read about me, you'd also know that I used to play basketball. I stopped in college so this extreme increase in leisure time has made my schedule even more exciting. I love freedom :D

So today, I spent my afternoon whipping up the best chocolate mousse I've ever eaten using Francois Payard's recipe! I also managed to bake Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake which I have bookmarked for super long!! Do not be intimidated by the steps that may seem a little long-winded because they are really easy :) Both turned out great but my cake did not appear as pretty as I wanted it to be as I don't have a small springfoam cake pan...

I had troubles layering the cake and mousse without a cake ring. Also, my decision to add some texture to the cake by filling the mousse with a little jelly made the filling heavier =\ The mousse ended up spreading alot and it didn't have the NICEEEE, smooth surface. However, if you are going to bake this too, I'd strongly recommend you to add jellies too. It does magic to the cake and give a little chew when eaten!

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Hello everyone!

Sorry I've abandoned my blog for more than 3weeks. I guess that's what most food bloggers'd have experienced because it really isn't easy to maintain a food blog! From the baking to the photography to the editing of pics to the posting...... Yeah, you know what I mean!

For me, it's not an issue about my passion for baking  But, the lack of diligence to carry my DSLR again! In fact, I've baked S'mores, Chocolate Cherry Pie, Peanut Butter Tart, Chocolate Souffle and Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake over the past few weeks! Oh and S'mores did live up to their name, I baked them TWICE because they were that good :D

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