Scones

I tried the Simon Rimmer's Scones recipe.

I've already have a recipe which I'm happy with actually, and it's my ex-boss' favorite. But I do really want to try this out since it sounds like a great recipe. The difference between this recipe and mine is the sugar content - this one higher. Other than that would be the additional baking powder, I supposed will make the scones lighter.

The amount of raisins I personally think is too much, I suppose about 30gm instead of 55gm. With this amount, you have about 10 raisins in a scones. I don't think we should overload the scones with raisins, firstly it will be too sweet and overpowering the scones, secondly, it's difficult to cut them up if you wish to sandwich butter and jam in the middle.

Finally, I'd used a cutter instead of shaping the scones free-hand today. I still prefer free-hand shaping, it's more manageable, and i like it "taller".

The above were shaped free-hand because it's difficult to cut the remaining dough with cutter towards the end. These below were from the cutter with exact directions of the recipe (rolled dough into 1.5cm thick).

I've no idea if this is a more delicious recipe or not. I might have it for breakfast tomorrow. My taster will try it out for me later.

Death by Chocolate Cake

I was talking to sis just now about giving a name to my chocolate cake. Besides Bel's chocolate cake, perhaps we can call it Death By Chocolate Cake.

Any other suggestions for the name of this cake? ^_^

This is a rich moist chocolate cake with milk chocolate icing. Based on the feedback, this chocolate cake has been a success every time it makes appearance on celebrations or given as presents.

The cake is very moist and though sandwiched and glazed with milk chocolate icing, it's not too sweet because of the reduced sugar cake.

I am still not quite happy with this chocolate cake decoration. I mean, chocolate coated strawberries are great I think, but need something which is more "convenient" - I was so sleepy the other night and couldn't even afford to wait for the chocolate on the strawberries to be properly coated and dripped dry, that's why the pool of chocolate around the strawberries. Some of the strawberries actually fell off the cake the next morning because it was too "slippery". Plus, the strawberries were a bit wet too. Perhaps the mini chocolates are still one of the best options.

...that inspired me

It was a rare opportunity that we went on a Europe trip last year without parents. We were sis, Bro in Law, me and most of all, their first time away so far without parents, my cousin sister and brother. There was a lot of walking on our free and easy tour. It was like an adventure to the kids! Although tired, we always found ourselves enjoying immensely when we sank into comfortable environment at our pit-stop eatery places.

I was particularly in love with this place called The Caffettiera and my diary reads...

Our next mission was to locate a highly recommended tea room and the best galaterie in Rome... This was what the city guidebook said about the places: La Caffettiera Politician from the nearby parliament buildings lounge in the sumptuous tearoom of this temple to Neapolitan goodies, while lesser mortals bolt coffees at the bar. The rum baba reigns supreme, but ricotta lovers rave over the crunchy sfogliatella and rich pastiera.

We found the Caffettiera after walking passed a castle and the Pantheon. According to the guidebook, the Pantheon was built by Hadrian in AD 119-128 as a temple to the most important deities; the inscription on the pediment records a Pantheon build 100 years before by General Marcus Agrippa. The bronze doors are the original Roman ones. Inside, the Pantheon's glory lies in its dimensions. The diameter of the hemispherical dome is exactly equal to the height of the building. At the centre of the dome is the oculus, a circular hole 9m in diameter, a symbolic link between the temple and the heavens.

We were so tired by the time we reach the Caffetteira... we found a sofa seating area and the tea room was a fantastic place to hang out and unwind (not that we were done for the day yet). Their hot chocolate was superb, I had one with hot chilly pepper (ya... very special and spicy) and it's delicious! Alan's coffee was a but strong, but it looks really good! The cakes were great, we didn't get to try the recommended sfogliatella but the ones we ordered were just great. We spent more than one hour here and the best thing was no one bothered us and we didn't feel pressured at all to leave by the waiters. We spent lesser than at the earlier cafe we went and got so much more in return. Really highly recommended!

And so I thought, isn't TeaRoom a wonderful idea? Make that my dream...

that inspired me...

It was a rare opportunity that we went on a Europe trip last year without parents. We were my sister, brother in law, me and most of all, their first time away so far without parents, my cousin sister and brother. There was a lot of walking on our free and easy tour. It was like an adventure to the kids! Although tired, we always found ourselves enjoying immensely when we sank into comfortable environment at our pit-stop eatery places.

I was particularly in love with this place called The Caffettiera and my diary reads...

Our next mission was to locate a highly recommended tea room and the best galaterie in Rome... This was what the city guidebook said about the places: La Caffettiera Politician from the nearby parliament buildings lounge in the sumptuous tearoom of this temple to Neapolitan goodies, while lesser mortals bolt coffees at the bar. The rum baba reigns supreme, but ricotta lovers rave over the crunchy sfogliatella and rich pastiera.

We found the Caffettiera after walking passed a castle and the Pantheon. According to the guidebook, the Pantheon was built by Hadrian in AD 119-128 as a temple to the most important deities; the inscription on the pediment records a Pantheon build 100 years before by General Marcus Agrippa. The bronze doors are the original Roman ones. Inside, the Pantheon's glory lies in its dimensions. The diameter of the hemispherical dome is exactly equal to the height of the building. At the centre of the dome is the oculus, a circular hole 9m in diameter, a symbolic link between the temple and the heavens.

We were so tired by the time we reach the Caffetteira... we found a sofa seating area and the tea room was a fantastic place to hang out and unwind (not that we were done for the day yet). Their hot chocolate was superb, I had one with hot chilly pepper (ya... very special and spicy) and it's delicious! Alan's coffee was a but strong, but it looks really good! The cakes were great, we didn't get to try the recommended sfogliatella but the ones we ordered were just great. We spent more than one hour here and the best thing was no one bothered us and we didn't feel pressured at all to leave by the waiters. We spent lesser than at the earlier cafe we went and got so much more in return. Really highly recommended!

And so I thought, isn't TeaRoom a wonderful idea? Make that my dream... It's going to be called The TeaRoom by Bel Jee.

Hokey Pokey Coffee Cake

Here it is...

SSB MSN-ed for a birthday cake request. Yeah she's back in town till Monday. When I asked her what flavour, she said coffeeee... okay. I've got this coffee walnut cake recipe, and since SSB liked the name of the cake too, we've decided on it.

However, SSB asked for a smaller cake. Okay, instead of making the recipe into half (lazy to calculate the measurement), I made the full recipe, and make the remaining into cupcakes. Though, I had to admit, the "little" cake is taller than it should be, take it as a special treat and not the permanent specification of this cake :p.

The cake was baked at a relatively lower temperature, so as I thought, we got a rather moist cake, which I think should be nice - SSB let me know. The cake is reduced sugar as usual, moreover, the icing is butter icing, so will be a bit sweet if the cake is also very sweet.

Baked the cakes in two separate container, it would be advisable to do so especially with cake that's got nuts or fruits, because cutting the cake into half will be messy.

Sandwich the two parts with some butter icing.

Sprinkle with the chopped walnut pralines.

Stack the two parts together and thinly cover the cake with icing first. This will stick the cake crumbs together. If not, when you do the final layer of icing, you will see cake crumbs contaminating the icing, and if like me, the piped icing will fall off the cake.

Did the side with star shape nozzle, quite tedious, next time I will just weave the sides too. But last night I thought of reserving the weave for the top.

My "signature" weave for the surface.

Silver balls to add to the 3D effect.

Whole walnuts, birthday tag and some colour to decorate. Happy birthday uncle!!!

And the remaining for the cupcakes.