Panda Shiratama

I own a few of Junko's books on deco cake rolls, steamed cakes, shiratama and cookies since quite some time back. I love her creations but I've never attempted anything from her book before. Last week, I finally tried out making shiratama for the first time. I chose the panda shiratama, which is my favourite in her book.


Here it is, panda shiratama, served with fruits and sugary syrup. :)


These are rather easy and fast to make. And moulding them is quite similar to moulding fondant and clay. :)

Where to get same or similar item used in today's post:

Hello Kitty Mee Hoon Kueh

Hubby took my car off for servicing last Friday, so I decided to just stay at home with my boys. I cooked them Mee Hoon Kueh ( hand pulled noodles ) for lunch. To add some cuteness, I rolled out some of  the dough and cut them out using My Melody and Hello Kitty cookie cutters. This idea is from Bento makes me Happy, she has made this before for her little gal. :) I will share the recipe at the end of the post, so if you are interested, you can try making some too. :)


These two bowls of Mee Hoon Kueh are for my boys. I made a bowl for myself too, but did not take a picture of mine.


There's meatballs, veggies and fried silver fish, in addition to the noodles.


I only cut out some dough using the cookie cutters, and add on top to decorate. I pulled  and teared out most of the dough instead, as it's much faster to do so. :)

MEE HOON KUEH RECIPE

Ingredients:
Dough:
500g plain flour
200ml water
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp salt

Soup:
100g ikan bilis, washed thoroughly
1L water
salt, to taste
200g minced pork
2 tsp light soya sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp wine
dash of pepper
2 tsp cornflour
green leafy vegetables

Method:

1. To make the dough, mix flour, egg and salt in a mixing bowl. 
2. Slowly add in water and knead till dough is soft, around 5 minutes.
3. Divide dough into 6 portions, cling wrap and rest for at least an hour.
4. Marinade minced meat with soya sauce, sesame oil, wine, pepper and corn flour. Leave aside.
5. To make soup stock, place ikan bilis in a soup stock pack before boiling with 1L of water.
6. Simmer on low heat for an hour. Remove stock pack. Add salt to taste.
7. To cook Mee Hoon Kueh, boil soup stock, add in minced pork.
8. Tear the dough into small pieces and drop into the soup. Alternatively, you can roll the dough into thin sheet and cut out with a cookie cutter.
9. Add in vegetables.
10. You can add in an egg and/or fried silver fish before serving.

Ladybug Steam Cake

I finally managed to try out making some steamed cakes last week. It has been on my to-do list for a long time. I'm sharing the recipe at the end of this post. :)


My not so nicely drawn ladybug steamed cakes. -_- I had no brown colouring at home and I ended up mixing in too much cocoa powder to get a darker shade of brown. I guess I wasn't thinking then, ended up with a very thick batter and had problem drawing. So, if you are thinking of doing the same, do add in the cocoa powder sparingly.


After the two badly done ladybug cakes, I decided to just draw polka dots instead, since that is way easier, lol. :)


I've updated the recipe in this post, did some trials and amended the recipe. I've also decrease the quantity as I felt the previous recipe yield too many cakes.


Please note that this cake is not as fluffy as your usual cakes, it's slightly denser than baked cakes. They are best eaten warm. In terms of taste, the ones I made using pancakes mix will be tastier.

LADYBUG STEAM CAKES

Ingredients:
200g cake flour
2 large eggs, room temperature
120ml fresh milk, room temperature
2 tsp baking powder
100g castor sugar
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
red colouring
brown colouring

Method:

1. Whisk egg in a mixing bowl, add in sugar and whisk till sugar is dissolved.
2. Add in milk and vanilla essence, whisk to combine.
3. Sieve over cake flour and baking powder, whisk to combine.
4. Add in vegetable oil, stir till mixture becomes smooth.
5. Scoop 1 tbsp mixture into piping bag.
6. Scoop 4 tbsp mixture, mixed with brown colouring and put into a piping bag.
7. Colour the remaining mixture red and put into a piping bag.
8. Cut a small opening in the end of each piping bag.
9. Fill cupcakes liners till about 80 per cent full with red mixture. Draw a half cross with brown mixture, add dots on both sides. Fill upper part with brown mixture.
10. Make 2 dots with white mixture and fill inside with a brown dot.
11. Steam on medium high heat for 15 minutes.

Cat Catching Fish in Soup

The food art I'm sharing today is inspired by a Latte art I saw. :)


I made this last Wednesday, the date is shown in the calendar in the picture, lol. The cat is made from mashed potato and nori. It's actually very easy and fast to make this.


The fish swimming in the carrot soup are made from toasted bread.


This is another bowl of soup I made, does this cat looks like it's going to catch the fish? Lol.

Where to get same or similar item used in today's post:

Cowardly Lion Hello Kitty

The MacDonalds here have just launched the Hello Kitty Fairy Tales collection around two weeks ago. Initially, I only intended to buy the Little Red Riding Hood Hello Kitty and witch Hello Kitty. However, the witch Hello Kitty can only be bought via McDelivery, so I ended up getting Cowardly Lion Hello Kitty as well. Still unsure if I should just get them all, this series is really kawaii but I know I will just chuck them aside eventually like what happened to my past collections. -_-


Here's the cute Cowardly Lion Hello Kitty plushie.


I made a similar version out of bread last Tuesday. :)


Some parts of the bread broke. -_-


And here's Hello Kitty packed in a bento. I intend to make Red Riding Hood Hello Kitty tomorrow. However, I still have a backlog of stuff to post, so I will probably share that next week. :)

Where to get same or similar items used in today's post:

Mashed Potato Bear

I made Shepherd's Pie for dinner last Thursday. There are lots of different recipes to make this, but I'm sharing a recipe we like at the end of this post. :)


I made a bear out of mashed potatoes to decorate the pie. Simply mash potatoes and mix with a little butter and salt. Leave it to chill in the fridge before you start moulding.


Hope you have a relaxing weekend, just like this bear! :)

SHEPHERD'S PIE

Ingredients:
For the filling:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
300g minced beef
1 carrot, diced
1 can of tomato puree
200ml beef stock
sea salt and black pepper, to taste

For the topping:
600g potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 tbsp butter
sea salt and black pepper, to taste
50ml milk
100g shredded mozzarella

Method:

1. Boil potato in water till soft.
2. Drain potatoes, mash and season with butter, milk, salt and black pepper.
3. Heat up olive oil in pan, add onions and cook till soft.
4. Add minced beef, stir to break up lumps.
5. Add carrot, tomatoes and beef stock.
6. Simmer till the carrots are cooked, seasoned with sea salt and black pepper.
7. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
8. Spread meat mixture at the bottom of an oven proof baking dish.
9. Cover with mashed potatoes and sprinkle mozzarella on top.
10. Bake till cheese turns golden brown. 

Where to get same or similar items used in today's post: