CNY Baking (:

Cant believe time passes by so fast and it's only a week t CNY now! 

I didnt have much time t bake more time consuming stuff so mummy decided t buy the harder t make ones and asked me t make sth easy and i thought of butter cookies and she suggested honey cornflakes cos the kids loved them last yr. So i'm gonna share my recipe w you! It's super easy, so if you wanna do some last min baking for CNY its still possible cos it wouldnt take up much time!

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Butter cookies

Recipe adapted from: http://timetocookonline.com/2011/09/08/melting-moments/

250g plain flour
58g cornflour
58g icing sugar
250g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Cream butter and icing sugar together until pale and fluffy. Note: This will take a good 5 minutes, possibly longer. The mixture needs to be soft enough to pipe

2. Add the vanilla extract and beat for a few seconds.

3. Sift flour and cornflour together over the butter mixture and mix until smooth.

4. Fit a large star-shaped nozzle into a piping bag. To add the touch of colour to your biscuits, draw/paint a single line of food colouring inside the piping bag, from the nozzle to the bag opening. I chose red, because I was using raspberry jam. Matching the colour to the jam is a nice touch, I feel – but any colour would do.

5. Spoon mixture into the piping bag and pipe swirls on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.NB I used a template of circles drawn on a sheet of cardboard, and pinned it underneath the baking parchment. Not compulsory at all, but if you’re going to sandwich the biscuits together, it helps to keep them all a  similar size.

6. Place in freezer for 15 minutes to firm. This will harden the butter in the swirls, so that when the biscuits go into the hot oven, the heat will cook them almost instantly, thereby preserving the pretty pattern. You can skip this step by all means, but the result will be decidedly ‘fuzzy’ compared to the picture above.

After being piped and freezed. Gotta improve on my piping skills though =/

7. Turn oven to 200°C, 180°C Fan. (I'm using a microwave oven so i preheated it at 180°C and baked at 200°C)

8. Bake for 12 minutes or until they are a pale golden colour and the edges of the ‘swirls’ are just turning a light brown.

9. Leave for a few minutes on the baking tray to firm up slightly before transferring to wire rack to cool.

It was so soft the sides alrd crumbled when i was placing them in the container ):

I only did the cookies and omitted the buttercream cos my main aim was just t make butter cookies. Making these requires more work as compared t the honey cornflakes cups cos cookies requires mixing and shaping. 

These were A LOT softer than the recipe i've been using previously. I thought maybe i shld try a new recipe and i wanted t try piping so i decided on using a new recipe. The ingredients used and steps were pretty much the same, just a very slight difference in the amounts for plain flour and cornflour. I was wondering if the small difference would result in a much softer cookie and i reckoned tt it's prob cos of the piping process. The cookie dough would be 'looser' when it's being piped than when it's being rolled into a ball i guess? 

If you like cookies tt're so soft they melt in your mouth the moment you put them in (prob why it's called melting moments), then you'd prob love these. My bf preferred these while both my sis and i preferred the previous one. (previous recipe: http://ellenaguan.blogspot.sg/2005/12/assorted-melting-moments_23.html)

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Honey cornflakes cups

45g butter (i used unsalted butter)

2.5tbsp of honey (i think this amount is the ideal amount, not overly sweet but manages t stick the cornflakes tgt. i've tried using slightly less than 2tbsp and my cornflakes didnt 'glue' tgt well)

140g cornflakes

Nonpareils colour balls for deco

Ingredients needed

1. Preheat oven t 150°C

2. Melt butter in microwave until it is melted fully (liquid, oil state)
3. Add in the honey and mix well till its incorporated

Butter + honey (before mixing)

Honey + butter (after mixing). It's quite amazing how this small amount is enough. Haha

4. Pour in the cornflakes and make sure they're even coated w the butter-honey mixture

Cornflakes coated w honey mixture

5. Spoon cornflakes into paper cups and bake them at 150°C for about 10-12mins or until they turn golden (slightly darker than the original colour before you put them into the oven)

These are before baking, so it shld be slightly darker in colour after baking

These were a lot easier t make and super addictive! Something tt's suitable for anyone of any age group i guess? Mum said the kids liked them last yr, and my big kid bf proves it this yr. He cant stop munching on them even though we just had dinner. Haha

Munching away!

I've finished up 2 boxes of cornflakes just t make this, which yields 4x of the recipe. The recipe yields about 65 cups (depending on cup size and also the amt you fill it up). 

Now half of my cupboard's like filled w containers and containers of honey cornflakes cups. Made so much so tt there's enough t gave away! (: Mummy alrd gave one tub t her colleague, set aside one for my neighbour and one t bring over t my uncle's hse during CNY gathering. And i've prepared one each for bf, paul and shirley! I'm pretty sure the boys would need a refill. Lol

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Havent blogged much on food and about the past 2 wks so i shall do it tgt in this post!

Wanted t have brunch last wkend so we dropped by Riders Cafe. It was raining pretty heavily so we thought the crowd wouldnt be tt bad. But we were soooo wrong. It was fullhouse and the waiting time's like at least 30mins. We didnt have tt much time t spare tt day so we ended up heading t Wimbly Lu (again) for some waffles since we alrd had cakes for breakfast in the morning and werent tt hungry. 

Bf bought these the night before but we were t full after dinner so we had it the next morning for breakfast instead! 

Am so glad tt they had all day breakfast tt day! Bf ordered his all time fav waffles, this time he had it plain, w/o icecream at all. 

Grand slam, $15

It was so simple yet sooooo satisfying, prob cos it tasted so homemade. Wimbly Lu was really empty tt day, w only less than 5 tables occupied, prob cos of the rain and it wasnt really tea time yet. 

Love this lil corner! It's like sucha sweet spot for couples! 

Decorations tt look like they're alrd preparing t welcome Valentines day. 

Lonely boy... Haha. See how empty it is! Really love their interior. I've always had sth w bricks design!

15-2, Jalan Riang
Singapore 358987

Tel: 62891489
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Other days of the week were just studying/school then meet bf for dinner. So i'm not gonna elaborate much, just gonna let pictures do the talking. See, my life really very mundane right! Haha

Prawn mee soup from my fav prawn noodles stall, River South (Hoe Nam) Noodles House! Was super lucky and managed t order the very last bowl cos they ran out of soup. I wanted the one w pork ribs but pork ribs were sold out alrd. Do go early cos they get sold out pretty early, esp the pork ribs one! We went arnd 2+ 3 and it was alrd quite empty. Usually we'd go arnd 12+ 1, but be prepared t wait for seats!

31 Tai Thong Crescent

Singapore 347859

Saw this super goondoo driver on our way t Changi City Point. Dunno if he was slping or dreaming, didnt even notice tt the lane was blocked up and he just bang into in and got stuck. He tried so hard t pass through and ended up dragging one of the barricade w him. -.-

Dinner w bf's family at Nara Japanese Restaurant (Serangoon Gardens).
Tempura set t share

Bf and i ordered bento set t share since his mum ordered some sides. It's not like the usual jap restaurants like sushi tei etc, theirs were more t the fine dining side, pretty quiet. And prices are a lil steep as well. The bento set was about $30+ if i didnt rmb wrongly.

Baked potato w mentai

Nara Japanese Restaurant (Serangoon Gardens)

10 Maju Ave

Singapore 556688

Dinner w bf one of the days at Taipei Station, Bugis+. The food there was surprisingly good! Prob one of the better ones we've had in SG. At least the 卤肉饭 wasnt dry at all. And the fried sweet potato was really sweet! It was about $8+/set. Each set comes w a main course, one sides and one drink. I think i'd rather eat here than the taiwanese restaurant called Xi Men Ding. Tried their 卤肉饭 and it was so dry and more expensive as well.

201 Victoria Street #04-03 Bugis + 

Singapore 188607

Coconut cake sis bought from Delicious. She said it's one of their popular items there. Not bad and it reminds me of the one from Mr Jone's Orphanage (BKK). I still prefer the one from Mr Jone's, more creamy!

Dinner at prata house during one of the nights after make up class which ended at 10pm! Zzz.
I love eating my prata w sugar!

One of my fav and also prob the cheapest food you can find in town. Beehoon bakso from Jtown cafe (located at the basement of midpoint orchard)! Bf tried their new crispy chicken noodles.

Another must order when we're there! Choklat kachang martabak! It's abit like our min jiang kueh.

Tabao-ed mille crepes from First Love again. The matcha one was pretty disappointing. ): Cappuccino was not too bad. Think the original one is still the best! 

Had dinner at Nana's Green Tea on thurs after sch.

Was still quite empty when we reached arnd 7pm, but the crowd started coming in shortly.

From the name of the restaurant, it's definitely popular for their green tea right? So of course must order and try! Haha.
Matcha softcream latte, $8.
Both the matcha latte and soft serve icecream complements each other so well, it tastes so thick but not 'gelat' at all. Very shiok, and not overly sweet/bitter!

Bf ordered the Salmon Maguro Don, $15.80. He really damn standard one, everytime eat jap also order some sashimi don. Lol. It was also one of their chef recommendations.
The portion may look small compared t the ones from sushi tei and they dont give as much salmon. BUT, their sashimi damn thick, damn shiok! So i think it's really worth it? Plus it comes w miso soup!

Look at how thick the sashimi is! Super satisfying!

I ordered the Locomoko Don, $15.80, since it was recommended as well and i've seen a lot of people ordering. It's actually like a hamburger patty w rice. The patty's not bad, quite tender. But the rice's a bit dry for my liking. I prefer my rice t have some sauce on it, but bf thought it was alright, not as dry as the ones from Hoshino.  

Was alrd feeling quite full but we just cant give this a miss. 那就太对不起自己了! Haha.  It's as if the parfait was calling my name when i'm looking at the menu.
Matcha Shira Parfait, $11.80.
This was slightly cheaper than Hoshino's, and better (at least we both thought it was)! We preferred the soft serve and matcha icecream here instead of the ones from Hoshino. Think i'd rather come back t Nana's than going back t Hoshino, since its of the same pr range, but bf wanna try their pasta before he decides if it's worth a return visit or not. Lol

68 Orchard Road

#03-80-82

Plaza Singapura

Yea, tt pretty much sums up what i've been up t for the past almost 2 wks. Haha. CNY's coming so soon but idk why this yr like not much feel leh. Alas was saying 长大了, 越大越没有 feel. I also think so. It just gives me a reason t shop, look forward t lou hei, family gathering and of course ANG POWS! Haha. Kinda felt like i've bought enough clothes yet i still feel like buying more. =/ Really gotta control my spendings alrd ):

I guess tt's all for tonight. Here's wishing everyone a very happy CNY! Hope everyone will get lotsa ang pows and win lotsa money if you do gamble w your relatives/friends. HUAT AH! (:

x