A Week in Pictures - Baking Techniques Week 3

After the unresolved situation with my neighbours, I simply want to focus on my baking skills and live in ignorance of their daily existence.

Well, the neighbours are hard to handle but my doughs are posing a bigger challenge! Which explains why I've not been posting as much as I love to.

So here's my week as depicted in the pictures. As to show how much weight I have gained, I've tastefully selected a shot of myself :)

The above shot was taken at 4 AM! Yup, I was crazy enough to stay up to bake from 3 PM to 5 AM. All for the love of bread!


Pecan Diamonds - Desserts


Knowing the amount of sugar involved, I just have to close my eyes and pop a few into my mouth. I did keep a stash in my room for emergencies :)


Love Me Tender - Moist Chocolate Marble Pound Cake
What is a POUND cake? Easy! It's 1 pound of butter, 1 pound of sugar, 1 pound of flour and 1 pound of eggs = POUND cake. Get it?


Fudgy Brownies which are way better than mine! Yes, these brownies are seriously To-Die-For and you can order from me when I"m back :)


Maple Leaf Shortbread Cookies arranged a La Martha Stewart (I'm a Martha Stewart wannabe)


Whole Wheat Lean Dough Production - Whole Grain is In!


Whole Wheat Torpedo Roll - encrusted with 3 Seed Mix of Sesame, Fennel and Poppy


Look at the good crumb structure! Yes, look at the crumb (interior of the bread)! I have spent 3 weeks trying to master an artisan bread with well structured crumb.


Kaiser Roll - German origin stamped with a special stamp and coated with poppy


The Schlumberger with a nice coat of "cake"


The traditional dinner roll - plain and simple without intentions to overshine the main dish



Enriched Doughs! With additional fat like butter and eggs, these breads are perfect for morning coffee, french toast and sunny side ups


Presenting the Dinosaur, Brioche, Cloverleaf, and Knotty


Spiky - The Dinosaur


Twin Buns - Round Rolls


Rich Brioche - Fabulous as French Toast


The Brioche is flaky and crispy at the first bite, and tenderly soft inside. Ooh!!


The Cloverleaf ready to be buttered


Be Knotty :)


Chef Brown's Mexican Conchas, a favourite pastry of Hispanic kids. It's very similar to Hong Kong's Polo Puff, like those sold at Crystal Jade. Sweet!

Now, moving on to Pies and trust me, we are just half way through :) Hang in there!


Coconut Cream Pie


Made with coconut milk pastry cream. The pie was so so but the Americans just love dessicated coconut flakes.


Chocolate Banana Cream Pie - 100% Pure Goodness and 100% Delicious Guarantee


Walnut Streusel Bundt Cake - lightly dusted with cocoa, icing and almond flakes


Eat Me!


Polenta Cake made from Hearty Cornmeal

Sliced Polenta



Gorgeous Cake specially made for T! It was her birthday and KC and I made a fresh cream berries cake for her :)

The Birthday Girl, T, and Angela

Nothing beats fresh fruits and berries. Coupled with Polenta, it was a creamy yet healthy delight

Now we are moving on to the toughest part of the week - Laminated Doughs


Laminated Doughs are doughs laminated with layers of fat to create the flakiness in pastries like Danishes, Croissants and Puff Pastries. After 2 days of folding and buttery hands, I made my first Cranberry Danish, French Croissant and Puff Pastry! Yuppies!

Every piece is made from scratch, hand folded, hand crafted and baked with love. Even the berry filling is freshly made on the spot and nope, we do not use canned preserves! It is the quality and taste that counts

Danish filled with Vanilla Pastry Cream, Cranberry & Blueberry Filling and Drizzled with light Fondant


Croissant - means "Crescent" in French. In France, butter croissants have ends pointing inwards (like above) while margarine croissants have straight ends. Did you know that? Well, now you do! And I'll test you when I'm back, haha

Cream Scones, Blueberry Muffins and Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
(I messed up the blueberry muffins and they are really flat... sigh)


Blueberry Chocolate Chip Scones made without Butter! Yes, takes the guilt away when eating them. I did a boo boo this morning reheating my 1 and only scone :(


Honestly, at the age of 25, I still do not really know how to operate the microwave. When it comes to technical stuff like computers and microwave, I'm still learning ABCs. So, when I tried to heat up my beloved scone (I wanted to eat it so much!), I just set the time to "soup". Well, obviously the scone takes a shorter time to heat up.

So, I almost set the microwave on fire - my scone was charcoal black, smoke was coming out of the microwave and a small fire was starting. Oh my goodness, how embarrassing. I quickly threw it down the sink as it sizzles...

I ran out of the kitchen before anyone catches me in the embarrassing state; the kitchen smelt of smoke!

Thankfully, I manage to salvage a small corner of rock hard scone and had that for breakfast. Sigh... not going to use the microwave anymore.


Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake - with Fondant AGAIN! These Americans are driving me nuts with Fondant, which is essentially sucrose and tastes like crap.


Buttermilk Biscuits - a tad too dry and salty for me

Banana Nut Bread - the bananas used were a little green and hence, tasted raw

So this has been my Week 3 of Baking Techniques and my 6th week at the CIA! Tomorrow's my final practical and I'm required to make Challah, Pastry Creme and Buttermilk Lemon Cake. Hopefully my performance have been good enough to get me an A or B+. If my chef hears of the microwave incident, I believe I'm graded F!

:) And despite all the baking, I did get to smell the sweet scent of freshly bloomed flowers on campus. Here's a peek to my snap shots, enjoy!

More Importantly, Thanks be to God for His Faithfulness that carried me through the week of intensive baking. To be able to withstand the weight and have a painless back, it is a miracle and in Jesus Christ, all things are possible! Amen! Praise the Lord!