Assorted big mooncakes

I'm late with this post. It's the last day of September, and I want to upload these final batch of moonies before the new month. (: Here are they: pandan, passion fruit, red date and cranberry.

MAF this year was pretty good, got to spend more time in the kitchen, more time with mom and dad, more time with friends, more time with myself. It's a month of a couple of new beginnings - new friendships, new skills, new opportunities, and finally, renewed chances.

I wished I had more time that night of MAF though. Got home pretty late, but mom and dad waited to have tea and mooncakes together. We had those my sister and jiefu got for us - they weren't around in person, but nevertheless, a heartfelt-presence. <3

Dad hung lanterns (yes those with the candles burning in them) in the balcony - a very pretty and heart-warming sight. But one got burnt! A pretty red one. This wasn't much of a horror 'cause I was too busy with the mooncakes I didn't notice something caught fire in the balcony. On the average we burn one every year. We should buy more.

As much as I would love to, I didn't carry lanterns or burn candles or sparkles this year. But I had two light sticks and a nice walk around a park. THERE WERE KIDS WHO WANTED MY LIGHT STICK - NO!! MINE. :D Yes perhaps next year, next year there shall be some real fire.

As my memory rest

But never forgets what I lost

Wake me up when September ends

Summer has come and passed

The innocent can never last

Wake me up when September ends.

Mini mooncakes assortment

Made these for the people at work. (: Interaction day it was called. There was a mix of pandan, pomelo, passionfruit, cranberry and red date moonies.

Key to making snowskin: not to over knead the dough. The more you work it, the springier it gets. So to avoid getting a rubbery snowskin, mix it minimally.

Mixed different colored doughs together to see how that'll turn out. The color spread wasn't too even, but hey, beauty in imperfection yup. (: Let's just say it was intentional haha.

Mid autumn festival is really just around the corner now, exactly one week from today. As a child, I played with sparklers during maf, finding joy in the short-lived starbursts that spluttered into nothingless in less than a minute. I was awed by the beauty of the lights, never disheartened by its anti-climatic end.

There was a year I made my own lantern. I think it was a wire framed into the shape of a bird, covered with cellophane. I burnt a hole in that one. Imagine the horror of watching your handmade toy melting away. T.T I've always preferred these lanterns with the burning candle in the middle to those noisy battery operated ones. What's maf without real lit candles!? But after that lantern burning incident I was always a little paranoid when I carried my paper lanterns; I'd peep into it once in a while to check if the candle was still firmly in place and standing straight. I remember how I'd carry my pink paper lantern on a wooden stick and walk around the estate with my sister, cousins or friends. Those were the days.

I wonder when I'd get to chance to do that again. It'd be nice.

Perhaps there'll be more moonies to come. (: And oh yes, thanks to mom for helping me in the washing up. <3

Orange passion fruit snowskin mooncakes

圆满。

It's granny's birthday. And in place of birthday cakes, I made mooncakes. There is still about 3 weeks to mooncake festival, but nobody said it's too early to have any now. (: I got excited shopping for the ingredients to make these little squares, and so I decided to make them the very next day upon gathering all the things I needed.

Mooncakes are regarded as a traditional delicacy eaten during the Mid Autumn Festical that falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. Making and sharing mooncakes is one of the hallmark traditions of this festival and symbolise completeness and unity. However in this day and age, hardly anyone makes mooncakes at home anymoe. This has given way to the more popular custom of purchasing mooncakes for family members as a way of signifying family reunion.

Mooncakes are typically round or rectangular shaped, with a rich thick filling usually made from lotus seed or red bean paste. Some may contain yolks from salted duck eggs.

I personally don't fancy lotus seed paste, and so when I came across this passion fruit paste at a bakery store (I get to taste it too before I bought it!) I immediately got it. It's sweet with a hint of tanginess and goes well with snowskin mooncakes. Refreshing, as some of my trusty tasters said, and prolly would be nice as an appetiser before a meal. On a side note, passion fruit lowers risk of high blood pressure. Hmm.

I made a Pooh bear mooncake just because I thought it was cute.

I've always looked forward to mooncake festival every year: to carrying paper lanterns and strolling in parks, to moon-watching, to eating mooncakes in small wedges accompanied by chinese tea, to being with the family and loves ones. This year, perhaps, we'll have some of these I made. (:

Cream cheese pie

It's unbearably warm here now and I'm ashamed to say I dread turning on the oven in the kitchen because of the heat. However, sweet desserts aren't all baked, how about some chilled ones for a change?

Cheesecake is a baked dessert, a dense one with cream cheese, eggs and sugar. This cream cheese pie, however, is a chilled dessert made without the eggs and sugar but replaced with condensed milk. Squeezed in some fresh lemon juice to add some tartness. Smooth, sweet and creamy, and pairs well with a graham crust. I baked the crust for a while though, despite trying to avoid the oven heat...

The only thing about this recipe was that I had to chill it for really long. Even after a day it was still difficult to make a clean cut. Next time I'll go easy on the condensed milk and prolly throw it in the freezer, maybe then it'll be firm enough to cut.

Regardless, my mom and I enjoyed it. I made a teeny small one so we finished it in one setting. The addition of condensed milk to the cream cheese gives the impression that this pie is gonna be overly sweet, but really it isn't (ok, coming from someone with a sweet tooth you wouldn't think it's a good gauge).

Top a slice of the pie with fresh fruits or some strawberry sauce (my slice was too tiny for any fruit topping)...

Or some chocolate bits (drizzle with chocolate or caramel if you like)...

I like mine plain. Old boring me. *gobbles*

Strawberry sweetheart chocolate cupcakes

Und dieses Mal schwöre ich, dass ich ok bin. Ich bin fertig. Es ist nicht mehr dasselbe ohne dich, aber es bedeutet nicht, dass es nicht besser sein wird.

Ich habe endlich meinen neuen Ofen ausprobiert. Ich habe etwas Schokolade-cupcakes gebacken und ich habe sie mit rosa Erdbeere Zuckerguss verziert.

Ich wusste nie, dass ich wieder so fühlen kann. Es gibt eine unausgesprochene Genugtuung, eine unbeschreibliche Freude. Es ist erstaunlich, wie etwas so klein einem Zufriedenheit geben kann.

Ich möchte glauben, dass ich stark bin, aber ich weiß, ich bin nicht stark genug für die Wahrheit.
Ich möchte an dass Gute glauben, aber ich weiß jetzt, dass es alles verdorben ist.
Ich möchte in der Einfachheit zu glauben, aber es kommt mit Komplexität.

Manchmal will ich einfach alles hinwerfen und führen für dich.

For Desmond's wedding

I made these for a beautiful occasion.

This was meant to be a surprise for the bride. The groom gave me the freedom to prepare a small desserts table for his wife-to-be. I worked with some of my favorite colors - and I was told that she likes violet too.

Made some vanilla cupcakes with violet cream cheese frosting. Cream cheese frosting never fails me. (:

Violet and peachy pink go together - my idea of matchy-matchy.

There must be some chocolate on a desserts table; here's some krispies topped with dark and white chocolate, prettified with heart sprinkles.

Mini bite-sized krispies. I personally like the white chocolate ones best. (: Sweet sweet sweeeeet.

Once in a while,

Right in the middle of an ordinary life,

Love gives us a fairy tale.

Wishing you both the best of life on your wedding day, and in the days to come.

Chocolate tarts

I lost my sense of weekends from weekdays. It's funny how the busy period is making it more difficult to keep the mind off things, completely going against the nature of how the mind is supposed to work. Just like how when you are so drained out and lethargic to the point of being almost lifeless, and you lie in bed unable to fall asleep, and the more you try, the harder it gets. Desperately sickening.

Maybe it's due to the lack of sleep, or maybe the massive amount of junk food, the throat is starting to feel a tad sore. And so for those of you who like me are victims of the "heatiness", I give you my best unconventional cure - chocolate. Yes go ahead and have copious amount of water, but in my opinion, chocolate is the best medicine. 

Chocolate is a good source of antioxidants - the antioxidant content of chocolate is actually four times that in tea! The fat in chocolate can help the immune system and outwit cytokines by reducing your susceptibility to infections and inflammation. With a quick search, I found out that chocolate can actually reduce coughing as it contains theobromine which suppresses activity in the vagus nerve. This same chemical substance triggers the release of endorphins that act like a natural antidepressant, relieving us of the blues. Plus it's so yummy, you're bound to feel better after consuming some.

I decided to make some chocolate tarts. I assure you I felt better instantly after my first bite. The crust was intentionally made super thin so I could pour more of that chocolate ganache into the tart cavity. I was in chocolate heaven. Yep, all the sore gone, all gone. (: