Airport

Sigh i am bored. My flight is in 3 hours, n the check-in counter is not open. To think that i woke up at 5am, walked 500m uphill out tagging a 18kg baggage with three hand carries to catch the bus at 7.05am by myself, n arrived at the international departure gate 15 mins before 8am makes me feel thankful. Thank God it didn't rain although the sky looked as if it was about to cry (and still does). Thank God for protecting, and always putting things in order when i needed that perfection. Thank God thank God thank God! even for this cup of worst coffee in Melbourne. 

Weather has been so gloomy in Melbourne for the last couple of days since hub's departure, n i wondered where summer has gone? Hiding elsewhere? Or did i bring back that piece of winter from Beijing?  

Anyways, please bless my flight later. More than 14 hours of flight, stopping at Shanghai for an hour and reaching Beijing at 10.35pm (1.35am Melbourne time). I can't wait to see hubby! 

Chaos.. going to get my Bailey's liqueur now. 

I'm flying back to winter again

Here I am. Returned to Melbourne a week ago, n catching another flight back to Beijing tomorrow morning. LOL. Seems like i'll be spending the rest of Jan and most of Feb in BJ. :-) Excited coz i'll be celebrating CNY with family n maybe flying home to KK (crossing my fingers)! Paranoid coz i'm not sure what's gonna happen next n i do do appreciate all your prayers for my in laws n hub. 

Sayonara, no more Facebook, blogging, sunshine n warmth for the rest of my summer hols. But then again, i love winter (makes my skin smooth n fair, lol)  n oooooooooo, foot massage!

At the meantime, Gong XI Gong XI! n Eat more kiu nyuk for me.

Flying up north

Hey hey hey!

We'll be flying off in 15 hours time, n i just cannot comprehend how excited i am to be going home! Haven't been out since i stuck myself down under, n not flying for a while turns me into a messy packer; i don't even know what to pack! Two luggages full with cereal, Old town coffee..lotsa lots chocolates, cookies, gifts and packed baking ingredients. Only three sweaters n a few Ts..i'm ready to head back to winter! *grin**

May not have access to Facebook or blogspot for a month (unless my Hub found his trick around); so here's an early Happy Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year ahead to everyone of you! 

Oh ya, Watch out for my postcards n keep more coming please! 

The Chiffon Infection

Exams over!! Hip Hip Hurray!

Five days since my last paper, and I only manage to breathe this joy of freedom and declare the war is over today all thanks to my assignment mark. I was traumatised; so badly tat my hub thought i've gone out of my mind. If you think you get 28% for your assignment which you have worked so hard on because that was what your tutor keyed in on your portal, i guess you would feel the same way as i did. I couldn't sleep well for a week, checked my softcopy million times, n asked myself nonstop why. Turns out, a blessing in disguise! Thank God!

I promised someone this recipe a while ago, but my hub warned earlier on not to bake anything for the time being (reason: he wans to lose weight), so this is kind of a delayed post. During exams, i was so stressed i baked countless chiffon cakes, not knowing what happened to each of them, but only to realise  i've gained that extra kilos. Yeah, learn and don't fall into temptations.

Oreo. The oreo slice in the middle is supposed to be horizontal, but turns out inclined.

Black Sesame

Sweet Potato

Orange Choco Marble



Nutella Hazelnut



My hub likes to eat them with fresh warm custard

I took the opportunity to bake this cake today as we are going to my uncle's place for dinner tonight. It was not a good day in Melbourne, pardon me for the quality of the next pictures.







It was cloudy n raining when i took this photo.

 

Blueberry Chiffon Cake

Ingredient A:

95g flour

8g corn flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

50g sugar

60g corn/ sunflower oil

60g milk/ orange/ lemon juice

4 egg yolks

Ingredient B:

5 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

95g sugar

Ingredient C:

55g fresh bluberries, lightly coated with flour

Method:

1. Preheat oven at 180oC. Sift all dry ingredients in A.

2.Mix Ingredient A together till combine. Do not overmix.

3. Beat Ingredient B till stiff. Add one quarter into Ingredient A and fold in gently.

4. Add remaining whipped Ingredient B into A and fold til combined.

5. Add the bluberries and mix lightly.

6. Pour into a 8" chiffon tin and bake for 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

7. Enjoy!

Rain comes, water rises ...

My latest favourite song.

Such an inspiration. Let's persevere on!

Have you ever wondered why, when you have tried so hard, put in all the effort you can, only to realize, it was beyond your control?

This little light of mine, i'm going to let it shine!

Steamed Black Sesame Buns

I'm back to my crazy bao fantasy. Just submitted last assignment last Monday and exam is in 5 days! I took some time off in between the revision to make these lovely tea treats (or brekkie) yesterday noon; baking just refreshes me! I don't know how to cope with the stress without baking, honestly. 

They are fairly simple, only took me  two n half hours to get the result with an hour waiting time in between. Made them with black sesame filling this time (voted as my most fave bao nowadays!) n i only got 7 out of the dough (thanks to my small steamer). 4 gone, three left in the freezer. 

Got to go back to my soil stress n Mohr Circles now. Sigh, i am an engineer with very poor statistical and data analysis skills. Time series makes me dizzy. N matlab programming makes me wan to cry.

Animal Baos and MJ's Flourless Chocolate

My supposed to look like "Piggies" baos

Seems like I have abandoned this blog. Tried to put in more effort to update regularly, but my studies have indeed taken quite a toll of my time. Not baking though (HEHE), nothing can ever substitute the time for baking. At least for the present time and current condition.

These baos were made two months ago after i was struck by a picture (which i couldn't remember where now) online. I tried to imitate some funny animal shapes, but for a first timer, they didn't do the justice. Oh well, at least they had this smooth silky skin which proved my kneading effort!

Mice?

So what's for breakfast?

The pigs are 'char siu' which the mice are 'tao sar'. My hub got a bit excited one night after finding a good place for 'sweet and sour fish' (now who's the big fan of sweet and sour again?:-P), and being so satisfied, he decided to take away bbq duck, roast pork, char siu, and beef slices (apart from chicken, i believe it was nearly all kinds) as he was making payments at the counter near where they usually hang their 'roasties'. Yeah, we had the bbqs straight for a week, until eventually I decided to make use of the char siu. Hence the reborn char siu pig baos and some flaky pastries which i will post later.

My hub turned ** a week ago; the very next day I returned from a field camp at Dookie. I only had a few hours in the morning to bake him a nice birthday cake, thus this easy flourless dark chocolate cake. The cake itself was light and moist but I coated with chocolate cream cheese as icing hence the whole thing became too rich for my liking. I would drop the icing the next time i make this cake.

Add caption

Very simple deco due to time constraints, but i'm glad Hubby dear likes it. Blessed Birthday and many blessing always! :-)