First Baking Course from CAC

The first course that I had attended is "Pastry and Bakery" course, from CAC - the Centre of Proffesional Cookery. It was a good place to start my learning journey as our chef covers the basic lesson that every baker should have.

Egg Tart and Fruit Tart
To bake a nice and delicious egg tart is not easy. As you can see from the photo, successful egg tart is shown on top left of the photo. While on the top right, also an egg tart but the egg mixture was absorbed into the pasrty, FAIL!!! The two fruit tarts on bottom were decorated by me leh, look like what har? old man? monkey? ... hehe, no comment..

Cookies
I think for every beginner, it is good to start with cookies as it is easy to bake and not easy to fail. Of course, to bake a really nice cookies, there are also few things to take note also. Am I right?

Doughnuts, Creampuff and Swan Lohengrin
I like to eat creampuff since I was kid, my dad always bought me creampuff and I like to eat when it is cold. So I normally kept in fridge for one whole night and eat in the next morning. Now I have the chance to make my own creampuff, yeeeheeee…happy leh. The right one is donut coated with chocolate.

Puff Pastry
Tuna Puff
Chicken Pie
The story of how the puff pastry was invented is interesting. Once upon a time, A French baker forgot to add the butter to a dough and at the end he wrapped the butter in the dough. This result in airy, puffy mixture and the taste was great. Later, this method was used to make a puff pastry. The process of making puff is a bit complicated for beginner, and special ingredient need to be used, that is pastry marjerin.

Croissants / Danish Pastries
Such a nice and delicious pastries.

Bread

White Pan Bread
Plain Bun
Bun with different filling
I feel unbelievable when I saw the bread was baked out perfectly. Finally, I know how to bake bread. Yuh Huh!!!

Doughnut
You can have different kind of topping for the doughnut. You can either sprinkle them with icing sugar or top with chocolate and chocolate rice. All are equally delicious.

Butter Cake
WuaHaHaHaHAaaaa...the cake that my family and I like. Butter cake, the traditional cake. Honestly, it is very very very delicious!

Black Forest and Fruit Flan Cake
The lesson I like the most. We baked and decorated the cakes by ourselves. After this lesson, I keep on baking black forest cake at home. Hehe, nice mah, and I can practice my decoration skill as well.

Cup Cakes
They are tasty and easy to bake. I think it is great to serve during breakfast or coffee break. Hehe…

Swiss Roll
It was baked in a shallow baking tray. Spread with jam/cream that you like before roll up. I like to eat swill roll as the texture is just like sponge cake, soft and yummy.

Christmas Cake
“We wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
And a happy New Year.”
Hohohooo… A Christmas celebration should comes with Christmas cake mah. The cake decoration brings out the snowing feel, cool leh!!!

Pizza
After you learned how to make pizza from this lesson, you can bake it at home. It is simple, just put whatever you like on top and bake it. Hahahaha…

Baked Cheese Cake
My favorite cake. I like cheese…but why har? Cheese is so expensive, and if eat too much, easy to get fat…why why why????

Chiffon Cake
Pandan Chiffon Cake
Orange Chiffon Cake
Such a beautiful chiffon cake, the shape is still nice after taken out from baking pan. The taste was good, especially the pandan chiffon cake.

Dessert
Not manage to take a nice picture of this as the ice-cream melted so fast.

Graduation
A certificate was given to all the students after attended the course. We had our graduation ceromony at the center, together with all the foods. Hehe..
I felt much more confident after attended the course and now I am able to bake many types of cake, pastry and more...big thanks to our chef Mr. Bruce Lee for sharing his baking knowledge with us. Yeh!

Potato Bread

Potato Bread
Lovely Potato for my dear
During my study in KL, I always went to buy potato bread from Carrefour Hypermarket. I like their potato bread because of the soft texture and the freshly baked fragrance that can smell from the bread. Although I always baked my own bread at home, but to get a soft texture like the one I ate before is not easy.

Last weekend, I had tried to bake my own Potato Bread. When I put it into my smart oven, I can smell the fragrance after 3 minutes. The fragrance of my potato bread baking was intoxicating. The taste was delicious as well.

Being a bread baker is hard work, but it is tremendously satisfying. I will continue to “study” and learn the bread baking concept until I managed to get the result that I want, just like the soft potato bread that I baked this round.

Miku (Festive Pau)

Before steam
After steam

Yesterday, I had written a new chapter in my "Baking History Book". I had tried out something different which I never do before. Let me introduce to all of you my first "pau" in my life, teochew festive pau, we called it "miku" in hokkien. I do not follow the traditional miku which is red in colour, I just want my miku remained in plain colour. Another reason is because I do not have red colouring at my home, so....hehehehe..

Again, I used my smart bread maker to knead the flour. After everything was done, I just steamed it for about 20 minutes. My heart filled with joy and satisfactory when I saw my miku successfully came out from wok, the joyful and happiness that hard to describe. That's also the reason why I like baking so muchhhh ...hehehe, was extremely happy leh...yeh pah!!!!

Next time, I wish to try with other types of pau, erm...kaya pau? char seow pau? chai pau (vegetable pau)? siew long pau? jagung pau? hahahahaha...don't know yet, but I am sure that this is a good start for me to make another better pau in future. 加油吧 Ah Shui !

Below is the miku recipe from Agnes Chang.

Ingredients:
A:
500g pau flour, sifted
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp instant yeast
100g castor sugar
240ml water
3 tbsp shortening

B:
1 tbsp double-action baking powder

Method:
1. Mix all ingredients A together. Knead into a smooth and elastic dough.
2. Cover with wet cloth and leave to prove until it has doubled its bulk.
3. Sift B on top of the dough and knead well to distribute the baking powder until the dough is smooth again.
4. Cover and allow dough to rest for 15 minutes before shaping.
5. Divide dough to small portions, shape into ball and roll to oval shape, press lightly.
6. Put aside to prove for 20 minutes and steam with high heat for 20 minutes until cooked.

You may add some red coloring to make the miku look nicer.

Waffle

My sister in law bought a waffle maker. I was so happy, because I can try with new thing again. Yeh!
I found some recipes from Internet and started my waffle making. After all the mixed, poured, cooked process, finally it was done. But it was not crunchy leh, not sure why. Anyone has any waffle recipe? Mind to share it with me? Hmm, must try it again...I am looking for crunchy type waffle..hehe...

Fair Lady Cake

A fair lady cake that top with blossom chocolate. I just can't believe when I first baked this cake, it was extremely delicious…it was yummy!

Garlic Butter Bread

Yes, the ingredients used were exactly the name as mentioned in the title. Garlic, Butter and Bread. Haha…we bought the bread, spread with butter and sprinkle with garlic, bring it to oven and bake! As simple as ABC..hahaha…

Cinnamon Roll

This is the first time I baked cinnamon roll at home. Again, let my smart bread maker perform its job and my job is to "throw" all the ingredients into the bread maker, smart ler (I mean myself)... hehehe...

After one and a half hour, the dough was ready for next step.Roll out dough into rectangular shape, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
Sprinkle with raisins.
Roll dough into log, cut it into small portion.
Transfer to greased baking pan. Let it proof until double its size.
Bake in oven for 10 minutes.Done!!!
Enjoy la...

Egg Mayonnaise Sandwich

You just need 3 main ingredients with 3 easy steps to make an egg mayonnaise sandwich. It is good to be served as breakfast or tea break.

3 main ingredients:
1. Boiled egg
2. Mayonnaise
3. Bread

3 easy steps:
1. Mix the mayonnaise and egg in a bowl.
2. Crush the egg mixture with a fork.
3. Spread the mixture on the bread.
Easy right? You can actually add in some pepper and salt into the mixture to make the taste better, if desired. Normally I prepare this at night and keep in fridge, so the next morning I can eat before I go to work or sometimes I bring it to work.