Apple Pound Cake

Baked an apple pound cake last night for today's breakfast, recipe adapted from Carol Jay. Since we are using 8 inche round baking pan, all the ingredients were X2. Had cut down the sugar content to 140g as does not want it to be too sweet. It is suggested to bake at 320 F for 40 minutes according to the original recipe, but it took me an hour and I increased the temperature to 340 F during the last 20 minutes.

After 1 hour....

MS finished everything when she was given a slice of apple pound cake.

Whereas LS took out all the sliced apple and wanted to give it back to me during today's breakfast, she told me it is " dirty"....

Why read aloud to children?

Received this interesting broschure during this week's toddlers time - Why Read Aloud to Children? by Jim Trelease. He is the author of the New York Times Bestseller, The Read-Aloud Handbook. There are some interesting notes and facts to take note:

How can something so simple as reading aloud to a child be so effective?

We start with the brain. As lumber is the primary support for building a house, words are the primary structure for learning. And there are really only two efficient ways to get words into a person's brain: either through the eye or through the ear. Since it'll be years before the eye is used for reading, the best source for ideas and brain building in a young child becomes the ear. What we send into that ear becomes the "sound" foundation for the rest of the child's "brain house." Those meaningful sounds in the ear now will help the child make sense of the words coming in through the eye later when learning to read.

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study found that of the children who were read to at least three times a week as they entered kindergarten had a significantly greater phonemic awareness than did children who were read to less often, and were almost twice as likely to score in the top 25 percent in reading.

Everytime when you read to a child, you're sending a " pleasure" message to the child's brain, conditioning it to associate books and print with pleasure. There are, however, " unpleasures" the child comes to associate with reading and school. Learning can be tedious and boring, threatening, and without meaning - endless hours of worksheers, hours of intensive phonics instruction, and hours of unconnected - test questions. If a child seldom experiences the " pleasures" of reading and increasing meets its " unpleasures" the natural reaction will be withdrawal.
 

What are the skills a child needs for kindergarten?

There is one skill that matters above all others, because it is the prime predictor of school success or failure: the child’s vocabulary upon entering school. Yes, the child goes to school to learn new words, but the words he or she already knows determine how much of what the teacher says will be understood. And since most instruction for the first four years of school is oral, the child who has the largest vocabulary will understand the most, while the child with the smallest vocabulary grasps the least.
Once they begin reading, personal vocabulary feeds (or frustrates) comprehension. And, since school grows increasingly complicated with each grade, that's why school-entry vocabulary tests predict so accurately.

We make it a habit to read to the three girls before bedtime. Hope through this, we can send more " pleasure" message for them...

Strawberry butter cupcake & blackberries cupcake

Strawberry butter cupcake

I remembered when I was a kid, popo always make steamed pau, butter cake, chiffon cake etc for us to bring to school. Our friends also got to know popo through the food that we were sharing with them, as popo always gave us extra so that we can share with our friends too. Saw this butter cupcake recipe from quay po cooks  using sour cream, looks interesting. Gave it a try last few days, and the cupcakes were finished within a day. We finished up the last cupcake by cutting it into quarter during tea time, ES, MSLS, and me shared it. They asked for more after finished the cupcake and I had to show them there is no more in the container; Daddy even requested if he can bring it to office for tea time, haha...

Ingredients: ( 15 cupcakes )

250gm Tillamook butter

220gm  castor sugar

4 eggs

150gm Pillsbury Cake flour

35gm plain flour

120gm Tillamook Natural sour cream

1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Blackberry jam
Strawberries

Method:

1. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Beat in egg one at a time and add vanilla extract.
3. Fold in shifted flour and sour cream. Pour mixture into baking cups. For strawberry butter cupcake : Fill up 1/4 of the baking cup, put in sliced strawberries, fill up the baking cup again with mixture till 2/3 full. For blackberries cupcake: Fill up 1/4 of the baking up with mixture, add in 1 teaspoon of blackberry jam, fill up the baking cup again with mixture till 2/3 full.
4. Bake at 180 degrees C or 375 degrees F for about 30 minutes.

Blackberries cupcake

Simple breakfast on Saturday morning

We had a simple breakfast, souffle cheesecake and french toast on Saturday morning, It was -3 degree C out there. The girls behaved well this morning, and we chat through our breakfast. As expected, they loved the souffle cheesecake very much. MSLS asked for more, nope nope nope... one is enough...

We always have French Toast if we go to  Old Town Kopitiam. Make some french toast for our breakfast and we topped up with maple syrup. Whereas daddy requested to put some chocolate chips vanilla ice cream as topping.

French Toast recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup of fresh milk

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1/4 tsp salt

2 tablespoon butter

Method:

1. In a medium size mixing bowl, whisk together fresh milk, eggs, honey, and salt.
2. Dip bread into mixture, allow to soak for 30 seconds on each side.
3. Over medium-low heat, melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a  nonstick pan. Place bread  into the pan and cook until golden brown. Serve with maple syrup, ice cream or fruits.

The happy look from ES after her breakfast. MSLS where still enjoying their cheesecake...

Presto the Magician

Last Saturday, Presto the Magician came to ES's school. He is the Northwest's Children favourite's magician. His show involved those Christmas-themed magic like Rudolph’s nose disappears, reappear and changes colors, Santa gets stuck in a chimney, and finally a show on what  super-cool present Santa promised him! 

 Presto and Bunny

His show sparks the excitement and wonder of magic. ES laughed and she really enjoyed the show. However, the two little girls were busy exploring toys in the classroom, haha...

Soufflé Cheesecake

Daddy bought some philadephia cream cheese the other day as it only costs USD1.50 during promotion. Didn't have time to bake anything with it. The girls slept early tonight and browse through some recipes, found this from cornercafe. Looks good as it is easy to make, I have all the ingredients, and the best thing is it is light and fluffy, not too filling. I cut down the amount of sugar in the original recipe, and the it is just nice, not too sweet.

Thie girls will be happy to see this during Saturday breakfast time.

Ingredients ( 12 cupcakes )
125g cream cheese
60ml milk
40ml canola oil
3 egg yolks
20g caster sugar
20ml lemon juice
30g cornflour, sifted
3 egg whites
40g caster sugar
http://cornercafe.wordpre
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 150°C. Line 15 muffin holes with paper cups (use a 12-hole muffin tray plus 3 more in a 6-hole tray, or fill the remaining batter in a remekin). Place a large tray of hot water inside the oven just below the shelf where the cheesecakes are to be baked.
2. Soften cream cheese with milk and oil in a bowl placed over simmering water, or in a double-boiler. Whisk until smooth, remove from heat and let cool until lukewarm.
3. Beat egg yolks with 20g sugar until combined, beat in lemon juice. Gradually whisk in cheese mixture to combine. Lightly whisk in sifted cornflour, mix well.
4. Beat egg whites until foamy. Then gradually beat in 40g sugar, spoonful by spoonful, until firm but just under stiff peaks stage.
5. Fold 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the cheese mixture until thoroughly mixed in. Repeat two more times with the remaining egg white mixture.
6. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each cup nearly to the rim.

7. Place the muffin tray on the shelf just above the tray of hot water.
8. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the tops of the cheesecakes are lightly browned.



Marathon style Chicken pie & apple pie

ES asked me the other day if I can make her an apple pie. Saw this recipe from Min's blog & elinluvdelights. Like it because they are using yogurt for pie making. I started making the pastry and filling at 12pm, when MSLS were taking their nap. I put the dough into the fridge for almost 9 hours, as I continue working on the pies after  all the girls had slept at night, then only I started to put the pie and filling into the muffin pan and baked it. We made a dozen of chicken pie as i used X2 of what the original recipe recommended.

 

Pastry:
300 gm butter
500 gm plain flour
2 tsp sugar
2 egg yolk
A pinch of salt

thymes

200 gm yoghurt

Put all the ingredients, except yoghurt, in a mixing bowl. Rub butter into flour mixture until like breadcrumbs. Add in yoghurt and mix to a dough.

Dough will be very soft so need to keep it refrigerated for at least 30 mins.

Filling: ( adjust to own preference)
1 big onion diced

diced cooked potatoes
Carrots
Sliced wild mushrooms
3 chicken thigh, diced

oil

½ cup water

Seasonings :
2 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp water
2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp rice sake
salt n pepper to taste

• Heat abt 2 tbsp of oil and fry potatoes until golden. Set aside.
• In a clean wok, heat 2 tbsp oil. Fry the onion until transparent. Add mixed vegetable, mushroom, chicken. Add in potatoes.
• Add in water and cook for abt 5 mins. Add in seasonings.
• Add in the cornstarch and stir to thicken mixture. Cool and set aside.

this dough is enough to make 12 half-cup muffin size pies.

Roll out the dough, cut the size required and place in a pie dish. Poke holes at the base using a fork. Put 2 - 3 tablespoons fillings in. Cut another piece of dough to cover the top. Poke a few more times using fork on the cover of the pie. Brush with 1 beaten egg. Baked in a preheated oven at 180°C for 25 - 30 mins.

The extra dough was used to make a small apple pie. I just put in some sliced green apple and cream cheese+sugar on top of the pie. The combination of green apple with cream cheese + sugar turned out well.

We finished everything within 2 days... However, ES still prefer egg tart that apple pie or chicken pie...