A new look for the old......

Just last week, for a girl's 21st bdae, I made some Tim Tam truffles. Its a truffle that is often requested by my SILs. Bored with my own designs, I decided to jazz them up a bit by adding some of my gumpaste flowers and sprinkles.

The box that I made up for truffles. I would have used another colour for the ribbons but that's all I had. Still turned out fine.... =)

Inside the box

Made a few extras to give away and of course for my sweet tooth hubby and daughter. This is the perfect (if u ever ran out of gift ideas) for your special one, or just a thank you prezzie, or an anniversary gift or a "just becos" love gift.

Perfect Autumn Comfort Food

I just have to blog about this one before I retire for the night. Its just too good to let you guys who are in Aust or even back home in SG to even miss out on. I baked an upside down apple peach cake tonight. Yes yes.....you prob be thinking what so great about it. Well, let me tell you how GREAT this cake is.

I used peaches (which are going out of season but still being sold at Coles or Woolies) which are pretty yucky and tasteless to eat on its own. Though the peaches were not fantastic, the end result of this cake is awesome. It has a very fluffy and light texture and has the aroma of grilled peaches and apples infused in. The caramelized peaches were simply heavenly. I have always read about grilled peaches and never tried it till now. Though my peaches were not caramelized enough (prob due to my personal reduction of butter and sugar added), I can't imagine it getting any better than this. This is a very simple recipe which only require basic pantry ingredients other than peaches. So Jema, this is another good autumn recipe for you. Prob be better up in Melbourne since its colder there and this is a perfect comfort food. =)


I'm looking forward to tasting it tomorrow again. Then, the juices from the fruits would have seeped into the cake and make it even moister and flavourful. It brings great comfort to me knowning that Josh would have something yummy to savour when he gets back from his weekend training tomorrow. After being in this rain for the last 2 days! Yes, can you believe that Brissy is getting an entire week of rain? And it seems like the Mr Sun have decided to take a few days off.

Upside Down Apple Peach Cake (adapted from Coconut & Lime)

2 cups thinly sliced peaches (added 1 more cup of apple, sliced)
1/4 cup demerara sugar (added only 1tsp)
1 tsp cornstarh
1 tsp lemon juice

1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar (used only 1/4-1/3cup)
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature, divided use (used only 4 tbsp)
1/3 cup milk (used soy milk instead)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg

Preheat oven at 180 degrees celcius.

In a medium bowl, combine the first 4 ingredients (peaches and apples, demerara sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice) till well mixed. Pour the peach mixture into a well greased cast iron skillet pan (if not, a 20cm cake tin) and make sure the peaches are well distributed. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

In a separate large bowl, beat butter and sugar till creamy. Add egg and vanilla and beat thoroughly. Then add milk and the dry ingredients alternately, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.

Pour the cake batter over the peaches and smooth the edges making sure that the fruit mixture is entirely covered. Bake for 40 minutes or till cake is golden brown. Cool slightly and then invert to serve.

I made POCKY STICKS!!

Made these for Joshy's birthday since he is quite a pocky fan. Since I had heaps leftover, I made some for Megan too (as i promised her that I make her something nice for her bdae last year). You can find the pocky sticks recipe here if you feel like making your own version of pocky even though pocky is like everywhere in SG! =) Still special to make your own. Warning, i found it quite hard to roll the dough out after taking out from the fridge. I sure was perspiring like a pig while I was trying to flatten it. Maybe my dough was too dry.....dunno. Might try again.......maybe in the middle of winter when I need a good upper body workout. =P


And I bought some really fat and gorgeous smelling Tahitian organic vanilla pods and made my 2nd bottle of vanilla extract! And they only cost me $15 AUD for 100g which includes free delivery. I love online shopping!

The green furry balls

Remember how i mentioned about craving ondeh ondeh in my last post. I was craving for these "green furry balls" (what my SILs call them before committing its actual name to memory) so much so that I went out the next day, got all the ingredients and made it on the same day. It turned out that Beck had to leave earlier for another appointment so I decided to shift my ondeh ondeh making session to Mum and Dad's place. Its really great having some many SILs cos there will always be one who will be willing and interested in what I do. This time, Jess, the fashionable SIL, was my willing helper. She actually did most of the work aside from preparing the dough while I went about taking pictures which I never seem to be able to take if I'm doing this all by myself. More and more, I actually am enjoying being part of a big family and having so many people to share my desserts with.

Anyways, I got this recipe from Lily's Wai Sek Hong. It was all good except for the part of incorporating the cooked tapioca flour into the rice flour. The cooked tapioca flour was had a very glue like texture and was impossible to get it to absorb any of the rice flour. Maybe I might have overcooked it. Might try it next time or if u want to be really safe, just use a sweet potato ondeh ondeh recipe. I made those before years ago and they were definitely easier to prepare. So for this time, I modified on the spot and the ondeh ondeh came out yum yum yum.

Ondeh Ondeh



270 g glutinous rice flour
55 g tapioca flour
2/3-3/4 cup of coconut milk (use light coconut milk to make it less sinful- I used coconut cream and diluted it with water)
A pinch of salt
1/2 tsp pandan paste (I bought mine from the Asian market- it's impossible to get fresh pandan here)
1 pot of boiling water 1 cup dessicated coconut (mix it in about 1/2 cup coconut milk and a pinch of salt. Steam for 5-10mins - this is the next best alternative to fresh coconut)

Filling (combine together in a small mixing bowl):


100g gula Melaka or palm sugar (chopped into small pieces (like really small)
1 tbsp soft brown sugar


Start boiling water in a medium sauce pan as ondeh ondeh dough dries quickly and might become quite crumbly.

In a medium bowl,mix sifted glutinous rice flour with tapioca flour in a medium mixing bowl. Add 2/3cup of coconut milk and add more until well absorbed.

Gradually add in salt and pandan paste. Stir well and transfer it to a lightly floured surface and knead to form a smooth and firm dough. If the dough is too wet, add a little more glutinous rice flour. If its too dry, add a little more coconut milk, 1 tbsp at a time.

Roll dough into a long cylinderical shape, cut into small pieces and form into 2.5cm size (approx. 1tsp) balls. Indent the middle of each ball and put 1/2 tsp filling in the centre and roll to form ondeh ondeh. Cover the rest of the ondeh ondeh dough with a damp towel.

Drop ondeh ondeh balls (approx 6-8 balls at a time) into the boiling water. Reduce to medium heat. Once cooked, the balls will float. Let it cook for a couple more minutes to melt the sugar within.

Remove balls with a straining ladle (those with holes) making sure it is well drained. Toss it in the prepared coconut and they are good to go!



They are best served warmed and freshly cooked since this type of ondeh ondeh tends to harden up when cooled or exposed to air for an extended period of time. The tapioca flour added gave the ondeh ondeh a chewier texture which was what I wanted. Make sure you boil it an extra min or two to melt the sugar within. We were so eager to eat them that we took them earlier than required. And ended up with balls with crunchy fillings. Still nice but I prefer the filling to explode in my mouth.

I doubled the recipe and it was more than enough to feed about 12 people. You can even have it with a cup of coffee for a more aussie afternoon tea snack.

It's lime season again and I managed to get my hands on a 5kg box of Tahitian limes at the fruit and veg market! I made some lime and lemon curd in SG but they are just too bitter. But these lime are simply BEAUTIFUL!!!! Not bitter but really tangy. Whatmore, they are absolutely easy to make using just eggs, sugar and lime. This was a batch that I made to go with some pikelets for youth group. Brought a tub of it and was gone within minutes!

Pie my strawberries, please!!!!

It already looks so yummy even before baking

Got an entire 12 tray punnets of strawberry yesterday at the fruit and veg market for just $5! Josh got me to make his favorite strawberry pie. Yum!!! Instead of having a proper dinner, we had that instead which I thought was an absolutely good idea and excuse to use up the juicy and sweet strawberries.

Josh got to the pie before my camera did!


Tashy has her father's sweet tooth too! She had about 1/4 of that pie!

Of course, I made sure that this pie is not only tasty but that it also fit my nutritional criteria for dessert. So we (or maybe more of me) won't feel as bad giving this to my family for dinner. I love the rustic look of free form pies!

I'm in Strawberry Heaven......

Spring is here.....Flowers are blooming...

It was great having Jo and Jema come visit us for the past ten days. I always love dear friends to visit from Singapore 'cos I'm so deprived to the point that I just can't speak Singlish properly. Besides that, it always brings about a good excuse to go places, eat out and most importantly make nice yummy food just for entertainment sake. Since its strawberry season at the moment, one new dessert recipe that came to mind was strawberry trifle. According to Wiki,

"A trifle is a dessert dish made from thick (or often solidified) custard, fruit, sponge cake, fruit juice or, more recently, jelly (gelatin), and whipped cream. These ingredients are usually arranged in layers with fruit and sponge on the bottom, and custard and cream on top."

And it can double as a aesthetically pretty dessert if layered in a transparent glass bowl. Anyways, I found this refreshing and melt in the mouth strawberry and lemon curd trifle from "Joy of Baking" website ( a favorite website that I adore!) which turned out perfectly. It involves a sponge layer, followed by a strawberry sauce layer, then sprinkled with fresh sliced strawberries, followed with the lemon curd layer and then a whipped cream layer. Then this is repeated till it fills up the bowl.

Being a health nut, I decreased the amount of sugar added to the homemade strawberry sauce and lemon curd to almost half and used light cream instead of the full cream version. To further decrease the fat content, I added only a thin layer of cream just to give a touch of flavor and creaminess. I also added more strawberries than the stated on the recipe just to bulk up the trifle and increase the fiber content of the dessert. And the end result turns out perfect....the trifle turned out to be just right on the sweetness level (I would not add more sugar than what I had added). The tangy-ness of the lemon went well with the strawberry sauce and the cream layer added the right amount of flavor without being too overwhelming rich (I just can't stand the feeling overly rich dessert gives me..). This recipe is a keeper and I would definitely make it again.

My modified ingredient list......

Strawberry & Lemon Curd Trifle
A packet of ladyfinger/ sponge fingers
1 1/2 cup Strawberry sauce (recipe below)

500g fresh strawberry, sliced
1 1/2 cup Lemon Curd
(can be bought from the stores to save time but home made is always the best)

1/2 - 3/4 cup light whipping cream (depends on the size of trifle bowl)
2 tbsp raw sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (I used a homemade one)

Homemade Strawberry Sauce

570g frozen/ fresh strawberries

1/8-1/4 cups of raw sugar (depending on sweetness of strawberries)

Homemade Lemon Curd

3 eggs
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp lemon zest
1/3- 1/2 cup raw sugar

(original recipe calls for butter but I made do without that and it still tasted just right. I can just eat it by itself if not for the trifle..)

For specific instructions of how to make the trifle refer to the original recipe here.

I just love how spring brings about the blossoming of flowers which covers our lawn with snow beds of yellow petals.....