CHRISTMAS 2012

This is an overdue post of my Christmas in Year 2012.

 

 

Love the glowy feel of the X'mas lightings ~

 

 

 

Bought this cute Santa to place it on my pot of plant in office ~ HO HO HO!

 

 

 

A lighted X'mas tree greeting card ~ credit card size

 

 

 

A colleague's creation of this lil' piece of X'mas ornament ~ cute & nice!

 

 

 

Snowman cake from our Finance team's colleagues ~ lotsa fresh cream!

 

 

 

I baked this X'mas Mango logcake with my TMG!

 

 

 

Ordered this chocolatey X'mas logcake for a friend ~ the Santa with sunglass is funny! 

 

 

 

Thanks Lily for baking these delicious chiffon cupcakes.

 

 

 

Beautiful cupcake for this festive season and also in celebration of Eve's birthday in advance ^.^

 

 

 

Bought this for Eve's birthday gift :)

 

 

 

Gifts from my boss and colleagues ^0^

THANKS!!!

 

 

Hope all of you have a great YEAR 2013!

 

Cheerios ^.^

Weekday Afternoon Tea @ The Regent Hotel

I managed to take a day off to enjoy an afternoon tea @ The Regent, Tea Lounge with Ms K and also to give her a birthday treat. I wished it would be a bright and sunny day. Unfortunately, the sky was rather dark and cloudy; and a heavy downpour would be coming up. Indeed! Just as we steppped into the hotel lobby, it started to rain outside. Phew!

The afternoon tea started at 12noon till 5pm. There were only 1 table occupied. It might be due to the wet weather which not many people come for tea that day. Well, the lounge was cozy and quiet. The friendly staff brought us to our sofa seats at a corner where we could chat (gossip) privately ^.~

We had ordered 2 tea sets. As for the beverage (tea/coffee/chocolate) menu, we could choose only 2 types of beverage and it's free flow. While waiting for our 3-tier tea sets to be served, I took a few shots of the lounge and our table setting.

That was what where the staff brought the tea sets out.

English style of table setting.

We were first served with the finger sandwiches with egg mayo, smoked salmon & chicken fillings. We opted out the roasted beef. Here's a full pic of our afternoon tea sets.

Closer of the 3-tier tea set ~ Ms K couldn't wait to grab those yummlicious goodies :) I let her wait until I had taken a satisfied photo of the tea set..wahaha ^0^

Closer pic of the goodies in the tea set.

We began with the 1st tier which served scones ~ plain and raisins. I love scones but it can be very filling.

Their clotted cream was simply the best and we had actually asked for 2nd serving. We spread alot on each scone ~ OMG it's fattening ya (o^^o) The lemon curd was yummy too ~ smooth & sourish. I didn't have much of the strawberry preserve as I preferred the first 2 spreads.

The next tier was savory pastries. Thumbs up for the cheesestraws, sausage & cornish pastie but the quiche was not my liking.

Here came the last tier ~ desserts and I couldn't wait to taste all. (o^^o)
I always love macarons and their lovely colors. Our macarons were in one of my fav color ~ Pink. The rest of the delicious desserts include cheesecake, choc cake, choc mousse, raspberry cocconut delice; curd tart and a piece of choc praline.

In all, I'm satisfied with my English afternoon tea set. Moreover, it's a nice place to chill out with sweet treats and music (there was actually a pianist performing in late noon ~ jazz pop instrumental music pieces).

Weekend Baking

Lately, I stumbled into some blogs on how to bake purple sweet potato chiffon cake so I decided to arrange with Li to try the recipe. The sweet potatoes that we usually tasted were yellow-flesh in color but these sweet potatoes from Okinawa were purple-flesh in color and tasted sweeter. A little information to share here (which I read online) ~ these potatoes are fat-free, low in calories, high in fiber and antioxidants.You can use them to make puree for your desserts, snacks or soup.

3 pieces cost $6.60 ~ Hmm, quite ex :( but they were yummy!

To make the puree, we steamed the sweet potatoes till soft and smashed into paste.

Then, add milk to the sweet potato paste and put into the blender.

The puree was done and would put to our cake mixture.

We had successfully baked the chiffon cake

The color was beautiful ~ purplish in color with the sweet potato bits ~ Yummy!

The cake texture was soft and moist

Couldn't wait to serve a piece of the cake with a cup of piping hot coffee or tea

We had leftover kuro-goma (black sesame) spread so we decided to
bake another chiffon cake with it. This was fragrant and saved the
trouble of roasting and grinding the sesame seeds.

We got the right color this time
~ slightly darker and could taste the goma flavor

We love Hershey's Chocolates so we decided to get this
for baking our Chocolate Yogurt Cupcakes.

Ready to get into the hot oven.

Freshly baked ~ Hmmm, the surface cracked due to the oven was too hot
and we didn't control the temperature well.

Nice strong cocoa flavor of our cupcakes.

"C" = Cupcakes ^0^

Great way to de-stress through BAKING!

The Bistro @ NUSS Suntec City Guild House

My Friday night hung out with my colleagues at the NUSS Suntec City Guild House. Thanks to a colleague who brought us there as she is a member of NUSS Graduate Club. We had our dinner at The Bistro and a Karaoke session at The K room.

I must comment the food at The Bistro is considerably good and quite reasonably priced. However, it takes a while for the food to come. So please be a little patient ^-^

This braised dish is chicken wrapped in cabbage.
The chicken meat is tender and juicy; and the cabbage is so soft.
The gravy goes well with rice.

This lobster with asparagus dish bowl is in their CNY menu and
a little overprice as the serving is small. But the presentation is lovely :)
The lobster meat is fresh and the asparagus is very crunchy and not overcooked.

Crispy Soft Shell Crab

I must say this is my favorite dish ~
Coffee Pork Ribs with almonds slices which is savory and appetizing!

Oops! A blur photo of this Deep Fried Brinjal with Bah Hu (Pork Floss)
This is my first time eating Brinjal cooked in this way. Thumbs up!
The leftover Bah Hu goes well with our rice too :)

Stir-fried Sweet Potato Leaves with Dried Shrimps
~ Spicy Vegetables ~

Silky Tofu with Mushrooms and Vegetables ~ The tofu is so soft and smooth.
A delectable dish ~ I like it ^.~

Next, our desserts ~ Mango Passion Oreos Cheesecake
Tangy and not very sweet. Nice.

Baked Apple Crumble Pie with Vanilla Ice-Cream.
The crust texture is nicely baked, crispy and not hard.
The apple slices are so flavorful with a hint of cinnamon.
I just cannot resist this dessert as it is too yummy ^.~

After a heavy dinner, we continue with our Karaoke session ~ chilling out with some beers, honey-lemon beverage and sings to de-stress ~ wo0OhO0o!