Eye candy

When I said I was going to do Soft Ginger Cookies, my sister wasn't too keen. Maybe because shes not big on ginger. Me neither! But these turned out really well. My uncle says the ginger taste can be stronger however I feel having too strong a ginger taste will make it too "spicy". These cookies were finished by the time tea was over. And we made quite alot!!

As a matter of fact, we had no leftovers for our bake session today... and we baked 3 items!

These are banana crumb muffins. See the topping? Its made of brown sugar and flour. It gives it the extra crispy topping. I didn't manage to eat one whole muffin and only had a bite. Good thing since Imma on a diet!!

Our last project is what I'll call the decadent chocolate cake. It is supposed to be an espresso glazed chocolate cake but we felt after the first attempt that the cake itself is sweet enough. It definitely did not need another sweet glaze on top of it!! This is our third attempt and definitely our best one.

See the consistency of the egg whites? This is really important. It makes or break the cake. Actually, all elements are really important to baking. If you fall short on something, your cake will not turn out the way you want to. The "stiff peak" consistency of these egg whites ensure that our cake is fluffy and nice.

Tada! All the chocolate cake eaters in the house (hello joshua), felt that this was really good. Moist and rich, just like how a chocolate cake should be like. Maybe it is because we spared no expense when it came to the chocolate and added alOT!! We also lowered the sugar as usual =D

Another Sunday, another baking session. Next Sunday I'll be in bangkok so no baking for that day !

Wedding updates

More wedding updates!

I was supposed to have my first fitting for my tea-dress yesterday with Elaine of Emanuel b but she called me to postpone to next week as it was not ready yet. Initial reaction was of disappointment but it is just a couple of days later and I really don't want to hurry her.

On the other hand, I got a dress for Deborah who is my bridesmaid so yay thats settled!

Today we achieved quite abit and moved another step up the ladder to our wedding. Deli and I had a meeting with Rev Alvin Chan who is solemnizing our wedding and he went through some stuff with us. Although we are already attending the marriage prep class next week (through his recommendation), he gave us some sound advice to how we can handle conflicts with each other better and other stuff that'll help us alot. I am a big believer that in a relationship, a third-party persona can aid and help us realize stuff that we'll probably not realize on our own.

Whenever we quarrel, Deli is someone that detaches himself and wants OUT of the argument. On the other hand, I am someone that wants the argument to be settled and so I can go on and on until I feel it is resolved. Of course I am in the wrong most of the time (hey, I realize this and I admit it ok?) but Rev Chan says this is a very common situation and his character is actually more like mine. Phew i'm not alone.

What he taught us was that Deli should call for a time-out.. say a 10min time out. But he did warn Deli that he HAS to honour the 10mins and come back to me by then. Whether anot to "extend" the time-out, or to resolve the conflict, he needs to come back. He said something that I find is so true.. and that is that i'll be left hanging on a cliff and really uncomfortable if the matter is not resolved.

He also said that I am someone who thinks and then talks. Meaning whatever I am thinking, I say. I think both Deli and I can agree on that and so sometimes hurtful words come out that I don't mean at that point in time. I do bounce back really quickly and apologise really fast which Rev Chan says is synonymous to my type of character. Deli will take awhile longer but will get there sooner or later and then the conflict is resolved.

So hey, heres a little tidbit to those that are having problems resolving conflicts with your other half. If you're my kind of character, better just shut up (LOL - easier said than done). If you're Deli's kind of character, then make sure you call for the time-out!

Anyways, that was just abit of what we'll probably expect from the marriage prep class (frankly I can't wait!).

After our meeting with Rev Chan, we went to Orchard and got our wedding bands! YAY, another thing settled.

Here's a photo of it:

Pretty right? Deli wanted something really plain, he (unlike me).. does not care for the blings! I also wanted something simple and this was actually a "matching" pair although we could mix and match the rings if we wanted to.

The lady brought out soooo many pairs for us and for another couple next to us to shortlist. After shortlisting we realize that our pairs were all the simple and thin kind of bands whereas the other couple took out all the chunky and super big kind of rings.... not really our type. In the end, we chose the above pair and had her do the engraving for us. What words? Forever With You of course!! :)

- Bridesmaid dress SETTLED

- Wedding Bands SETTLED (to collect in April)

- Meeting with Rev Chan SETTLED

- Online E-Filing of marriage TO BE SETTLED BY TODAY!

Cheers :)

Update on Saturday, March 21, 2009 at 5:21AM by Deli

yup it's been a fruitful day ~ finally we settled on the wedding bands and i like them very much ehehe, not too expensive and elegant looking, and of cos they symbolised our commitment to each other ^ ^

i already told my dearie long time ago that we will take things one at a time, up to our big day and not overly stress or rush into doing everything at once. so far so good, everything is progressing in order and i'm a happy man!

Coming Soon

(Edited because I couldnt bear to view my own blog with this clip here. - just-picture-the-ugliest-scariest-woman-here) - Jaclyn

Just watched this thai horror show with my darling, justin and thimo at Cathay. I was a bit disappointed as I was expecting more from the director. The female ghost is very scary, the "scariest" ghost ever!! I highly recommend horror freaks to watch this show, it's worth your money lol.

Update on Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 1:03AM by Jaclyn

Can we pleaseeeeeee not taint the blog with that horrible woman above??? Now I have to look at her whenever I visit my own blog =(

I don't even need to press play and shes THERE!!!!!!!!

Tiramisu Cookies & Banana Chocolate Chip Chunk Cookies

I am so hooked to baking nowadays that I am constantly on the search for recipes to procreate. 

Important tip for baking... get a bake buddy! Mine happens to be my sis whom I see every Sunday.. and so Sundays are baking days!

Yesterday we made Tiramisu Cookies and Banana Chocolate Chip Chunk Cookies. The Banana Chocolate chip ones I consider a failure even though everyone says it tasted really good. The consistency was not what we expected and it ended up more like a flat muffin. Our mommy the baking expert says its probably because we added too much flour. Bah.

Another reason might be that I am automatically health conscious and so I cringe everytime we add butter and sugar into the batter. I might have subconsciously reduced the amount hee hee. 

The Tiramisu cookies turned out great. Joshua my cousin who chilled some in the refrigerator before he had them at night said it tasted really good.

Those are not easy to make at all. Originally I got ambitious and wanted to bake 4 items but ended up only doing 2 because the above were pretty bitchy to do.

Steps for Tiramisu Cookies:

- Seperate 6 eggs - whites and yolks

- Mix yolks with flour till well blended

- Beat whites with sugar till it forms a stiff peak (we did this step twice because the first batch of whites didn't set up well)

- Blend the two mixtures together well adding other various stuff

- Pipe the mixture out into 60 cookies (I think we had more)

- Bake the cookies

- Melt semi-sweet chocolate

- Take half the batch of cookies and smear underside of them with chocolate

- Put into fridge for chocolate to set and harden

- The cream we used Mascaporne cheese, Vanilla Extract and Bacardi Rum. The recipe called for Almond Liqueur such as Amaretto but since we don't have that, we figured Rum can do. Tiramisu is all about the Rum.... right? The recipe also called for us to use confectioners sugar (really really fine sugar) but since I conveniently forgot to buy a packet of that, we ended up making it without sugar. I figured the cookies and chocolate were sweet enough and we didn't need sugar in the cream as well.

- Take the cookies from the fridge, scoop cream and sandwich with another cookie...

TA DA! After alot of effort, we have our Tiramisu Cookies.

Our fridge spoilt while we were at it... had to go courts that very same day to get a new fridge. Anyways it lasted us for 11 years already.. high time we got a new and BIG one to store all my "junk" as my mom would put it.

- Jaclyn

My first blog using WIND!

I went to the IT show yesterday and Deli got me a netbook! I've been wanting one laptop small enough to fit my bag and carry from shop to office to home to overseas. This one is pretty nifty! Im kinda playing arnd with it now so this will be a short entry just to mark this memorable time when I got a new gadget!

PS, the IT show is REALLY crowded. Go only if you have something to get. ;) 

Wedding Updates

We've settled our dinner location, it will be at the Hotel Intercontinental on a Monday night (5th October 2009). Reason why we have it on a Monday night is because of 2 reasons. One being that our planning is kinda last minute and so many many places were already fully booked for Saturdays, and 2 being that our ceremony is on the 3rd, we didn't want a dinner too far from that date.

I was not too pleased with the dinner menu, it seemed kind of ordinary to me, but Deli's uncle knows someone kinda bigshot in the restaurant (Man Fu Yuan - 满福苑) which is doing our food and so hopefully we'll be able to get a better menu. I guess Deli's family is more particular where food is concern since they are in the food business and so I shouldn't worry too much! Friends and relatives of ours will have a good meal that day, thats all I want :)

So wedding dinner - checked.

I guess we're pretty efficient when it comes to the actual wedding planning. Besides certain hiccups like not being able to get a place for the 3rd of Oct (which was our ceremony day) because it was such a hot date, I don't see why people must plan for wedding 1 year ahead. I have most of the things settled except for some details such as wedding favors, the bridesmaid actual gown, the flowers, the photographer and videographer, the meeting with my JP, my ROM dress fitting, getting a MC (thanks joshie) and my pampering day (right before the wedding) with all the lovely ladies of my life that have been such a helping hand.

To be honest, I am most excited about my pampering day LOL. If theres anything i can do, I can give a good pamper!

Oops, seems like theres still quite abit to settle. To top it off, I have 3 overseas trips before my wedding which is on the 2nd of May (not too far away right haha).

1 extremely last minute trip is coming at the end of the Month. I am heading over to Bangkok with my mom and my sis. I'll be back on the 31st. Come April 6th, I have a company bonding trip to Taipei. This will be with all my staff + Deli. I'll be back on the 10th for that trip. On the 18th of April, I have another trip with my 2 girlfriends Shyann and Sharon. They are good friends way back from Secondary school and the 3 of us will be heading over to Korea for 5 nights. So I will be back on the 23rd for that and have about a week to my wedding. Really tight scheudule ya? Hope i can handle it! haha :)

So thats the end of another wedding updates post.

Stay tuned... Cheers!

- Jaclyn

and so we baked more

For some reason, my sister and I are very into baking these days. We have all the baking equipment in the house because my mom loves to bake but we've never really thought much about it until now.

Just last sunday, we made banana-chocolatechip muffins. It was really really good, probably the best batch of muffins we made till date. But on top of that, we also made bonbons! I was kinda exploring to see if I should bake my own wedding favours but i think that is gonna take too much work and it might not turn out well since baked goods are best taken fresh.

Bonbons basically refer to anything sweet and bitesize. It used to be more specific and are chocolate covered cream cheese but nowadays anything small, chocolately and sweet can be considered a bonbon. Bon means sweet btw.

So here is our rendition of a bonbon, they are chocolate covered cornflakes and chocolate covered almonds. We did milk chocolate for the cornflakes and dark chocolate for the blanched almonds. You can use hersheys chocolate from the supermarket if you wish, but we popped over to Shermay's @ Holland V and got ourselves Valrhona chocolates.

The bonbons were really easy to make but it turned out too sweet for us. It is probably okay for regular palates but my family just can't handle sweet anymore. Thus i think we'll have to hunt for semi-sweet chocolates and try again.

Flaming Lamboghini

Just bought my new flaming lambo @ a whopping 527 Gold, OUCH!!

4-0

Yup thats the scoreline for the match between Tottenham Hotspur and Middlesbrough, guess it's worth the time watching the game, now I'm off to bed.

Good Night! ^ ^

Its Thursdays!

Yeah, it is Thursday. My wedding prep day. I schedule all meetings I can on Thursdays because my sis is not working on that day. So the 3 of us (mom, sis and i) get to wander around SG doing all we need to get the wedding prep done.

Tomorrow we're going to look for clothes for the both of them and I have a meeting with Intercontinental.

More updates soon!

Update on Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 6:31AM by Deli

yippee~ hope today can settle the wedding dinner venue! must ask for a sweet sweet deal!!