HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

it’s two more hours to the New Year!!! here are just some photos from the last week to round up the end of 2013 (:

look who’s back in time for 2014!!! :))))) so happy to have my darling boy back! ^^ these three weeks without him seemed to pass reaaaaally slowly, but it only just made me treasure our relationship even more :’) it has been a pretty crazy year year for us – going on exchange together was quite an experience :p but I’m really thankful for everything cos I think we’ve turned out much better after that <3

had the Glitter & Glamour Masquerade Tea Party with my favourite girls just over the weekend! ^^ hehe sounds like a pretty complicated theme aye? :p haha but it was so much fun dressing up and i’m so proud of the table setting which looked like a real tea party! this picture isn’t very good, but anyway, it was so much fun! big thanks to the sweet girls who all came over early to help prepare for this! feel kinda bad that they had to do so much work, but really appreciate it! :)

love these gorgeous ladies! :) <3 as you can see, we all put in lots of effort to make sure we fit the Glamour theme of the day. i guess it was pretty funny that we all dressed to the nines to have a tea party at home, but it was really fun!! (: and we should totally do this again (:

isn’t the set up so pretty?! :) haha i really like it. so happy that i managed to find all these tea party-worthy props at home! ^^

and for the menu that day, i made Earl Grey Cupcakes and a Maple Bacon Quiche! ^^ super love the flavour of the earl grey cupcakes, which was really punchy!! they could have been more fluffy though. still working on that ;)

Earl Grey Cupcakes
Ingredients:
150ml milk
4 earl grey teabags
150g plain flour
80g caster sugar
1.5 tbsp baking powder
50g unsalted butter
2 eggs
a pinch of salt

1. Gently warm the milk in a pan over moderate heat. Add the earl grey teabags to the milk. When the milk starts bubbling, remove it from the heat. Leave the teabags in the milk to infuse for at least an hour, or at best overnight in the fridge.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees C. Line a cupcake tray with cupcake cases.
3. Stir the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder together in a big bowl. Mix in the butter until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
4. Strain the teabags from the milk. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg gently. Add the milk to the egg and whisk again gently.
5. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix together for a couple of minutes until fully combined.
6. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases. Bake in pre-heated oven for 20-25min until risen & golden.

Maple-bacon Quiche
Ingredients:
100g bacon
1 small onion, thinly sliced
3 tbsp maple syrup
3 large eggs
200g heavy cream
2 tsp thyme leaves
1 tsp salt

For the crust:
2¼ cup flour
1 tsp sat
1 tsp sugar
150g butter, cut into small pieces
¼ cup water

1. For the crust: Combine flour, salt and sugar. Add butter and mix until mixture is like breadcrumbs. Add water slowly until dough just holds together. Shape dough into a ball, cling wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour to 2 days.
2. On a slightly floured surface, rol out dough. Press it into a quiche pan. Prick bottom with a fork.
3. Preheat oven to 210 deg C. Line dough with parchment and cover with baking weights. Bake for 20min or until edges are just firm. Remove weights and parchment, bake for 20min more or until slightly golden. Let it cool.
4. Reduce oven to 190 deg C. Fry bacon in a pan till crisp. drain on paper towels and let it cool slightly. break into pieces.
5. Heat up oil from bacon. Add onion and cook till translucent. add maple syrup and 1 tbsp water and cook further for 1min. Let it cool slightly.
6. Whisk together eggs, cream, thyme, salt and add onion mixture. Pour into cooled tart shell. Scatter half the bacon on top.
7. Bake quiche till edges of egg mixture just set (15min). Scatter remaining bacon on top and bake for another 20min till puffed and golden brown. Serve (:

another year has just flown by :O how amazingly fast is that. this year has been a rather weird one of sorts. 2012 was a blast for me (sorry the pictures all died on me >.< i think i deleted them accidentally :'( ) and so perhaps this year was much less outstanding in a sense. but i'm still very thankful for opportunities that have come along my way this year. more importantly, always so grateful for the people around me who've encouraged & loved me :')

just wanna share this article i read again recently (thanks SK for reminding me of this article and the other one, and for everything<3). i've actually glanced through it a number of times previously, but i never really understood it till i read it again yesterday. i guess it's especially pertinent to me now, which is why i read through it so thoroughly and made it a point to understand it. and so this is a New Year's Resolution for 2014, which is something i think is finally realistic enough for me to fulfil, though the last part would require some effort, and that's what makes it fulfilling: 

to do things with love, love more, and love everybody :) 

next year is going to be a one with lots of changes and new experiences, and i’m really excited, yet apprehensive at the same time. i really hope it turns out well!! xx wishing everyone an AWESOME 2014! :D

Chocolate raspberry brownie tarts

i’m so glad that my bakes have been turning out pretty well so far! ^^ these little tarts have got to be one of the most adorable things i’ve baked ;) and they are SO YUMMY. i got the recipe from here! it’s pretty simple ^^

Ingredients:

3 bars of Hershey’s semi-sweet baking chocolate (113g each)

100g butter

100ml single cream

4 eggs

100g all purpose flour

1 packet raspberries 

1. Preheat the oven to 150 deg C.

2. Melt the chocolate, butter and cream in a medium saucepan over low heat. Stir until melted and smooth.

3. Beat the eggs and flour till well combined.

4. Add the chocolate mixture to the eggs and flour and mix well.

5. Pour into a muffin tin and top with raspberries (as many as you like!!)

6. Bake for 35-40min or until cooked with tested with a skewer. 

7. Allow it to cool and serve.

have i mentioned how i absolutely love how they turned out? ^^

Portuguese Egg Tarts

food food food ! :D haha my family should totally be feeling super lucky these few weeks by all my cooking x baking ;) quite proud of myself that i’ve been quite consistently cooking AND baking once a week every week! (: haha takes quite some persistence, but it’s really fun!!! ^^ 

i actually wanted to bake normal egg tarts (seems healthier, looking at the ingredients) haha. but i ended up baking portuguese egg tarts last weekend for the sole reason of using up the cream that i’d bought quite sometime back for one of my other recipes. and they turned out soooo yummy! i’m so happy with them! :D except the crust is not really the conventional flaky crust which portuguese egg tarts have. this one was easier to make i guess. i actually combined two separate recipes to make this, and one of the recipes suggested using Betty Crocker/Pillsbury pie crust, so that might be more suitable?

anyway, here’s my recipe! ^^

Ingredients:

For the crust –

400g plain flour

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp water

3 tbsp butter

For the filling –

4 egg yolks

3 tbsp sugar

100ml cream

100ml milk

1. Preheat the oven to 180 deg C.

2. Mix the ingredients for the crust till it is well blended and forms a dough. Roll the dough into a ball and chill while preparing the filling.

3. Beat the egg yolks, then blend with the rest of the ingredients, making sure it becomes a smooth mixture.

4. Divide the dough into 8 small balls. Flatten them into a muffin/egg tart mould.

5. Fill the pie crust dough with the filling (about 80% full).

6. Bake the portuguese egg tarts for around 30min or until the filling turns slightly brown. Cool & serve.

it’s really quite simple, and i’m amazed that they turned out so well!! (: 

Key Lime Pie

yippee! finally one of my baking exploits that turned out to be successful ^^ haha okay not that i had a lot of failed ones, but last’s week’s attempt at a matcha marble cake was just an ultimate disappointment, and that’s always kinda demoralising :( 

which is why i’m so glad that my key lime pie turned out so yummy this time, and i’m posting it immediately :D hehe. *slurrrrrps*

i’m just really bad at making my food look pretty though, so maybe it doesn’t look awesome. but the taste is great ;) super unhealthy though :P but TOTALLY worth the calories. i was drooling while making the pie crust because the digestive biscuits smelled soooo mouth-watering!!! :D what i love about this recipe is its simplicity. it’s definitely one of the easiest things i’ve ever made! only two steps!

Ingredients:

300g digestive biscuits

150g butter, melted

397g can of condensed milk

3 medium egg yolks

finely grated zest and juice of 6 limes 

1. Heat the oven to 160 deg C. Place the digestive biscuits in a ziplock bag and use a rolling pin to pound them to crumbs. Mix with the melted butter and press into the base and up the sides of a tart tin. Bake in the oven for 10min. Remove and cool.

2. Put the egg yolks in a large bowl and whisk them. Add the condensed milk and whisk again for 3 minutes, add the zest and juice and whisk for another 3 minutes. Pour the filling into the cooled base and pop it back into the oven for 15 minutes. Remove, allow it to cool, then chill for at least 3 hours before serving.

a piece of pie for anyone? (: