Black Velvet Cupcake

This has been one of the recipes that I have contemplated to do for quite some time now. I have singled this out from the recipes I had on the Good Food magazine. Honestly, this magazine is good. Filled with easy to make and delicious recipes. 

Since I had heavy cream to spare and I thought, why not I make these? And starts the search for the marked pages in the magazine. 

Recipe can be found here

I've made minor tweaks to the cream. I added 1/2 tsp of vanilla essence and omitted the champagne.

Some useful tips for whipping the cream that worked for me:

- Martha Stewart - How to whip cream

- Whip the cream until soft peaks form, then add sugar and other seasoning, continue beat on high speed till stiff peaks formed.

检察官公主

Just finished watching 检察官公主 moments ago. Really sweet and happy ending to the story.

The female lead 马慧理came from a affluent family. She lived her life obeying her father's orders and eventually graduating from law school and became a prosecutor. (it took me a while to realise 检察官= prosecutor). She don't put effort in her work and was outcasted by her colleagues.She doesn't make a good prosecutor as she don't bother to put her heart and soul into it.

The male lead 徐仁宇always appear and stand by her during her most down times. She doesn't know that he has a hidden motive. After a twist in the story, when they "can" like each other, he left her and returned to the US. I think this is the typical plot where the girl realise she like the guy when he is suddenly missing from her life.

Obviously, he came back, else how to have happy ending?! ha ha.

Actor Park Si-hoo who acts as 徐仁宇 is very cute and charming. I don't really watch much korean dramas but I think he is the few whom I feel is cute having single eyelid. heh.

Actress Kim So-yeon who acts as 马慧理 had made the character seem very exaggerated, i feel. In the drama she worn alot of nice and pretty heels and got me itchy to wear heels as well.

Overall, I recommend watching this drama to you if you want some light-hearted drama. You will catch yourself grinning silly at some point of the drama. 

What I have been up recently.. the last of 2012!

Creation Cafe

In one of our dates, we decided to try out Creation cafe as I have much raved the pasta there and Alvin is keen to try it out. We went for a early dinner to avoid the crowd. It end up we are too early (5.30pm) and they have not open yet (Opens at 6pm)! Luckily we are able to sit at the cafe and wait for the shop to be ready. 

Seafood risotto

Seafood aglio olio

As usual, I sticked to my usual choice and ordered seafood aglio olio while Alvin tried the risotto. I feel that the risotto pales in comparison with aglio olio but nevertheless it is still quite nice.

The serving is pretty small for Alvin and he ordered a Laksa pasta to share (but i only had 2 mouthful). The laksa pasta is a nice twist to the usual pasta. Not too bad. It will become my other choice to consider if I went back to the cafe the next time.

Creation Cafe
100 Beach Road,
Singapore 189702

Merry Christmas

Wishing you a very merry christmas and may all your wishes comes true!

OChre birthday dinner

Some time ago, we celebrated AK's birthday at OChre located at Orchard Central. It is my second time there and if you want a quiet and cozy dinner gathering, this is the place to go.

The restaurant very thoughtfully place a stand to mark the table as reserved. Very personalized.

We all decided on having their main courses. The ladies had a 3 course dinner while the guys had 4. But first, we had a bread basket to munch while waiting for AK to arrive.

Assorted bread basket containing very delicious breads.

The waiters are all very attentive and standby awaiting for our orders, if any. Our appetizers are served.

The guy's - Watermelon wrapped with parma ham.

The girl's - Angel hair pasta with scallops and caviar.

It was my first time trying caviar and it does taste a little disappointing. I was expecting more of a crunchy texture like the ebi roe. But it wasn't. 

The guy's second course.

The girl's main course. Pan fried fish fillet. 

Another shot of the fish fillet. 

The pan fried fish fillet tasted really home-cooked style. We all felt that this standard could be achieved at home but nevertheless it tasted great. I realised I forgotten to take photos of the guy's mains. They had steaks which they claimed was quite good.

Now, for desserts.

The girls had tiramesu...

..and the guys had some mango dessert with ice cream if I remembered correctly. The tiramesu fared better.

Last but not least, we ordered another cake for AK which was meant to be a surprise. We had much difficulty trying to secretly order the cake without AK noticing it. 

Happy Birthday!

Almond Meal Banana Muffins

I had some leftover ground almonds and hence decided to scout for a recipe that I can utilized the remaining ground almonds. 

Found a few recipes that looks not too bad but the ingredients needed doesn't fit perfectly. Its either too much ground almonds (which means I need to buy) or it needs too much other ingredients.

So yea, the recipe from Honest fare fits the bill best.

But however, the end result wasn't very satisfactory. Too dense for a muffin. Don't think I will try this again.

9oz sliced almonds + some extra for topping
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
3 oz sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 bananas (approximately 1/2 lb peeled) + extra slices for topping
Pinch of coarse sea salt (optional for topping if you like)
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (if doing cocoa center)

Preheat oven to 300F. Grease baking pan of choice (either an 8-9 inch fluted flan tin, a bread dish or muffin tin) and dust with flour OR lightly moisten baking paper and line tin.
Whizz 9 oz almonds and baking powder in food processor until finely ground, but be careful not to go too far or you’ll end up with almond butter. Set aside in bowl.
Whizz eggs, sugar, bananas and cinnamon for about 5 minutes or until pale and really fluffy. Pour over almond meal and stir through.
If adding cocoa powder, place 1/3 of batter into separate bowl and stir in 2 tbs of unsweetened cocoa powder. To create the chocolaty center, first pour 1/2 your original batter into baking tin, then do your dollop of cocoa batter and then pour remaining original batter to cover cocoa. Top with thinly sliced bananas and almonds. Bake about 40-45 minutes for bread and 30-35 minutes for muffins (or until top is browned and skewer comes out clean). You just don’t want to overcook in the oven because they’ll continue to cook a little as they cool. Sprinkle on sea salt immediately after removing from oven.