Chocolaty Brownies

My family and relatives spent the day after Christmas at a park close to home. Each family brought their own share of food. I brought dessert!

I discovered this brownie recipe while browsing online. I modified the recipe a little. The chocolate and butter were melted together. Eggs, sugar and honey mixture, and vanilla were beaten at hi-speed for about 10 minutes until light and fluffy. The chocolate mixture, flour and salt were blended in to the egg mixture. Chocolate chips were stirred in to the batter and then baked for 30 minutes at 160 degrees Celcius. It was cooled completely before frosting. Melted white chocolate was used to decorate the top.

As soon as I removed the plastic lid, everyone gathered round me to ask for their portion.

Gingerbread Treats

A week before Christmas break, my sister and her colleagues at NIVA International Kindergarten made an agreement to include their students in their gift-giving. Each teacher picked a day when she would want to give her gifts. My sister picked the last day before the break. When she got home, she asked me to help her decide what to give. I convinced her to give something with a touch of Christmas. After some minutes of discussion, we settled on Gingerbread Christmas Tree cookie.

I combined 2 pounds of flour, 4 teaspoons of ground ginger, 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg and 4 teaspoons of baking soda. I sifted them together into a large bowl. I placed the butter, syrup/honey and sugar over low heat and stirred the mixture until the butter melted. I poured the mixture into the dry ingredients, added the eggs and mixed them with a wooden spoon until a dough was formed. On a lightly floured surface, I kneaded the dough for a bit and rolled it out until 3 mm thick. I stamped out Christmas tree shape with my cookie cutter and baked them at 160 degrees Celcius for 15-20 minutes or just until lightly browned.

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 Ready to bake...


After cooling them for a few minutes, I dipped the top side of the cookie in a melted dark chocolate and used royal icing to pipe the border. I arranged them in a cookie sheet , covered them with cling film and chilled for a day before packing.

50 plastic boxes of Gingerbread and marshmallow treats were packed! They turned out well. The kids loved them!

Seung Jay's Birthday Cupcakes

Every year Sueng Jay celebrates his birthday at NIVA International Kindergarten in a unique style. This year Mc Donalds catered. To make the party more entertaining to kids, his mother, a good friend of ours, came up with an idea to give each student a cupcake to decorate. Since a friend and classmate at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School was already making his birthday cake, I was asked to do the fifty cupcakes. Thirty with blue frosting for the boys and 20 with pink frosting for the girls.

Cupcake from Little Home

I was asked to make cupcakes for a birthday boy who goes to school where my sister works. The mother requested a cupcake without any decorations but frosting. To get a picture of how it's supposed to look like, I went to a mall nearby and scout out for as many cupcakes as I could in all the bakeries in there . After minutes of searching, I found this cute cupcake from Little Home bakery.

The cupcake itself was soft and nice but I didn't like the margarine taste in its frosting. Well, at least I got an idea.




Cute eh?

Brunch

I was feeling too lazy today that I got out of bed at 10. I wasn't in the mood to cook. I checked the fridge to look for something that I could just reheat. When I saw the leftover veggies from the salad last night, an idea to make a sandwich came to mind. Making a sandwich is not much of a hassle.

I warmed the bread up, spread the salad cream on one slice, yes, salad cream. I like experimenting on the things I eat. I arranged the Julienne sliced carrots, lettuce, veggie meat and 2 slices of cheese on top and Voila! I had a big sandwich for brunch. It was gone in a few minutes. I was full and satisfied. It kept me going for a few hours and had late lunch.

Bruschetta

We purchased a freshly baked Pain de Campagne in our recent trip to our favorite bakery. As soon as I got home, I started making my own version of bruschetta.

For the topping, I sauteed the finely minced garlic, chopped onion and tomatoes. Just seconds before removing the pan from heat, I added the tuna and mixed it. I seasoned it with salt and pepper and sprinkled it with mixed herbs and spices. I scooped it into the sliced bread, covered the topping with grated quickmelt cheese and baked at 160 degrees Celcius for 10 minutes. I took them out of the oven when the cheese melted.

The crunchiness of the bread and the softness of the topping were just perfect.