Chocolate, Salted Caramel Butter Cream Lego Cake

Lego cake 

Hello everyone..

It's been a while since the last I updated this blog.

I still bake. Bread is still my 1st love but today I would like to share with you this Lego Cake that I built for my son's 9th birthday.

I baked a simple 3 colours chocolate sponge layer cake with a "Caramel beurre salé" butter cream. Ahhh this is the killer..what's better then sugar, cream and butter..and more butter??  I was licking my spatula, wooden spoons and fingers at 11pm. That makes cleaning the dishes easier, I suppose?

Lego cake for a Lego fan

Caramel Beurre salé  buttercream (salted caramel buttercream)

200g            Sugar
15cl             Cream
50g              Salted butter (cold, small cubes)
A pinch of Salt


Method:

1. Pour all the sugar in a sauce pan on a medium heat. Do not stir with anything, if you do, you will end up getting rock sugar. Just let it melt slowly and swirl the pan gently time to time  so it melt evenly.

2. Once you get a nice amber colour syrup, pour in gently the cream all at once but away from the heat.

3. Bring the pan back on the heat, stir in your butter with a wooden spoon until well mixed and cook the mixture on a low heat until you get the consistency that you desire.

4. You can stop right here and store this in a jar as a caramel sauce or for spread on pancakes. Just warm it up a little in a microwave.

5. To make the butter cream, I use a spoon to incorporate a 100g of icing sugar and 100g of butter cubes, just so that I will not get icing sugar flying everywhere in the kitchen when I whisk it up with the electrical whisk.

6. Once the icing sugar and butter are well blended, add in the salted caramel mixture and whisk it with the electrical whisk until you get a very fluffy butter cream.

7. Store it in an airtight container and enjoy..

Langkawi - Pantai Cenang/Rice field

Found this on Pantai Cenang, in front of a hippy breakfast bar
Can you spot "Bonjour?"

Langkawi is an island situated on the North western part of peninsula Malaysia in the state of Kedah-- The rice bowl of Malaysia. We go to Langkawi quite a lot since we came back to Malaysia due to hubby's work. So you will see quite a bit of Langkawi from this blog. 

So in this post I will show you more of the rice field - kampung scene.. 

An atap hut right in the middle of the rice field

Pantai Cenang - Langkawi's main tourist street. This is where you find restaurants of different cuisine from the usual local street food like Ikan bakar (grill fish), Japanese, Italian to Mexico. There are many choices to suit different taste buds as well as budgets. 

Mr. Coconut head - scarecrow

The beach in Pantai Cenang is the most happening beach. Beach itself is not very clean but is still better then those over crowded, over commercialised beaches in Pattaya or Bali. There are jet skies, parasailing, speed boats, ATVs.. well, you get what I mean but still have plainty of space to build sand castles. What I want to say is it is just not like The Maldives, I know I am spoilt.. I long for those clean white sands with crystal clear water and only the sound of waves but not speed boats or jet skies.

The different is you get to see local families coming for an evening walk, some Arabic tourist have a picnic on the beach, some blonds having icy cold beer while getting tan in their bikinis. Is a place to do people watching.

At the start of the Pantai Cenang, there is this Rice Garden Museum. We didn't go in the museum.. It was a very hot day.. just took like a few hundreds  photos.

We will be going to Langkawi again soon.. I will show you more pictures of the beach next..

Madam Coconut Head

This scarecrow has a Sarong.. 

Random: Insect

Shot this a while ago in Langkawi 

Isn't it handsome?? 

Soft Sandwitch bread on a hazzy day

View from my balcony at 5pm on a usual day

View from the same balcony at 10am, 24/06/13 with the haze getting worst 

 Today all schools in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor are closed due to Haze coming from Indonesia. The API (Air pollution index) is at 191 now in KL and the newspaper said in Muar, Johor the southern part of Malaysia has an API of 746.

Here's some of the titles reading in newspapers:

Prime Minister declares Haze emergency in Muar and Ledang districts.
All schools in KL and Selangor to close today
686 schools in Johor and 313 in Malacca (API 415) closed
Cloudless skies and dry weather prevent cloud-seeding


Below is the picture to tell you what is a normal API and those of Unhealthy to Hazardous.

Picture source wildsingapore.com reading was on the 17th Jun

So those of you away from this region, breath in as much fresh and clean air as you can, run wild in parks, pack a picnic and have lovely "Apero"  sessions till late in the evening.. cause here in Malaysia and Singapore people are wearing mask and confine in indoor with windows shut-tight!!

Just received an email from the French school saying tomorrow school will be closed. I have to think of what to do with my son Art and crafts, baking, TVs and may be tidy up his room..

45% Wholemeal Sandwitch bread  

Sliced Wholemeal Sandwitch bread

Breakfast the next day

This is what I baked two days ago. Very happy with the result. This is my very first sandwitch loaf. Recipe is from Yin's handmade,  do drop by to see many wonderful recipes.  

Here's my take to the recipe.

Ingredients A

200g             Bread flour

165g             wholemeal flour

12g               Milk powder

7g                Salt

30g              sugar

8g                Active dry yeast

Ingredients B

150 ml          Milk

120g             Tang Zhong (50 g flour dissolved in 250g water, cook to a glue like paste, cooled)

Ingredients C

30g               Melted butter ( I used Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

Method:

1. Make Tang Zhong, set aside to cool.

2 Sieve and mix all ingredient A be careful not to let salt and sugar in direct contact with the yeast.

3. Make a well in the flour mixture then pour in Milk and Tang Zhong. Mix well and then knead, knead and knead. I don't have a mixer hence it was a good muscle workout. It took me about 20mins of kneading to get to pass the windowpane test. 

4. Add in all the melted butter (I used olive oil) and work on it until fully absorbed then continue to knead again until it pass the windowpane test again about 15 to 20 mins.

5. Dough is ready for it's first rise. I waited for 2 hours for the dough to double it's size.

6. Punch down and divided the dough into 3 equal part and rest for 15 mins.

7. Roll out each portion of dough into thin rectangular strips ( not too thin but about the width of your baking tin) then roll it up like a swiss roll. 

8. Placed in a well greased baking pan, cover and let rise for second time until one and half the size of the original rolled up dough.

9. Spray some water on bread dough and bake in a preheated oven of 180 C for 15 - 20 mins then tent it with foil to avoid over burn top and continue to bake for another 15-20mins.  

10. Take out, cool, slice and marvel at the soft cottony texture..

Linking to  Yeast Spotting and My Meatless Monday host by My Sweet and Savory

Back in Malaysia

Night view from my balcony with Genting Highland on the right

Hi everyone.. I know, I know.. I have been missing in action for months. It was a very stressful period which was not the first time as we were again moving. Moving for most people is changing streets or may be a bit further meaning communities or towns.. but for us as always due to hubby's job, we move from country to country.

When LM was little it was easier as changing Kindergarten is easy. We can even quit school earlier or have extra "holidays" for him to get used to the new environment but as he gets older, changing school becomes very challenging. We actually waited for almost 5 months to be enrolled into the only French school in Malaysia.

But needless to say, I am very happy to move back to Malaysia. It's something very important for me to let LM understands and experience Malaysia. He knows that he is a mixed of French and Malaysian but  has never lived in Malaysia long enough to understand the mix of culture/food and languages. Not to forget his other family/relatives in Malaysia.

Happy to be back is one thing but I have never lived in KL before, so I actually feel like a foreigner living in my own country.

Fireworks at night during major festivals. This one was taken during Chinese New Year 2013

I have been away too long, living in re mode places most of the time (example a plot of land which takes only 15mins to walk around, lost in the ocean) and now I am in the capital city of Malaysia!! The traffics, people everywhere and shopping malls!! The pace is fast, non-stop and dynamic!! Compare to those days where I have to prolong my walk around the island by stopping to smell the breeze, check out the Hermit crabs and look out to the horizon to see if any dolphin decided to make a few spins and all in all it took only a mare 15 mins.

A trip to the supermarkets in any mall during the weekends is nightmare!! You could be stuck in the jam for hours and when you arrived at the mall's car park.. you might say to yourself Oh! finally I can get out of the car and enjoy my breakfast which might turn into lunch with all the time spent in the jam.. but NO!! You are not done yet cause looking for a car park space is yet another challenge!! A few huge, multi level-joined-together car park building have not a single parking space!! We actually end up circulating around to wait for someone to leave.. Shopping in this situation is not fun at all.

I actually prefer my little town/kampung(village) in France where everything is between walking distance. I'm talking about market, post office, bank and Boulanger (bakery) not department stores. Where I am living now, there is nothing between walking distance which sadly very common in Malaysia.

The first thing my parents and friends tell me when we were back was beware of your kid's where about! I am still in the very high alert mode cause with what I read on the newspaper. Kidnapping, robberies, false taxis.. I think it will take me sometimes to know my environment before I can chill out.

Please don't get me wrong, Malaysia is still a very beautiful and relatively safe compare to other major cities int he world. I think it's just me being away from the "real world" too long where the only sound other then my own breathing, is the rattling of coconut trees when wind blow through , chirping of birds and splashes of waves..

Now that I have my new nest set up, I will be spending more time here to share with you my experiences as a foreigner in my own country.

Have a great week ahead
oxoxo
Sylvia

Weaving

Here's a few pictures which I took when assisting the school for a class visiting of the local heritage. And Weaving is part of Angers' heritage. 

This is a view on top of the weaving machine. I have a love for these objects, the colours, the wood, shape..art..patience.. perseverance..

And many pairs of little hands working hard to preserve the "Savoir Faire"

Bobbins

Rainbow

One of the many end products

Proudly display in the classroom.



Sharing with Simple things Sunday, Tuesday around the world, http://nihaoyall.com/

Orangette au chocolat /Candied Orange peels in chocolate coat

Orangette au Chocolat/ Candied Orange peels in Chocolate coat

Hello everyone, wishing you a very Happy and prosperous 2013. Today, I would like to share with you a very simple yet easy to put together recipe for a good and sweet start.

All you need is: a few organic oranges, brown sugar or just white if you don't have in hand and the third ingredient is a good 70% dark chocolate. That's it!! Only 3 ingredients. No kneading, no baking and oh the best is no tons of dishes to wash :)

Oh yes, it's Orangette au chocolat /Candied Orange peel with chocolate. Think Valentine's day.. which is not too far away or just for any day indulgence. It is so easy to make and the result you get can be as good or better then store bought but the price difference is quite significance.


Ingredient:

3           Organic oranges
300g     Caster Sugar
100g     70% dark chocolate

Method:

1. Wash your oranges, dry them then cut them into quarters.
2. Pull the flesh away from the skin. (I left the flesh just so to have more bit, I cut my oranges length wise then into about 5-7mm slices)
3. Par boil the skins in boiling water for 5 mins, drain and repeat for another time. I like the bitterness in the peels so I skiped this step all together.  So it is very much up on you.
4. Now in a saucepan dissolve your sugar in some water say 100ml. Add peels and simmer for 10 mins until the skins are translusent. 
5. Dish out and let dry on a wire rack over a tray for a day or two. Loosely cover it with foil and let it dry or you can dry them in the oven. I have never done this so can't give you a right temperature and duration. For those who does only the peels, this is when you cut the peels into little stripes of 5mm when they are a little chewy.
6. When peels are dried, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over simmering watering, making sure bowl does not touch water. Cool slightly, then dip half of each orange peel strip in chocolate and place them on a tray lined with baking paper until chocolate hardens.
7. Keep them in an air tight container and place them in the fridge.

Note:

 The candied orange peels/orange slices can be use in cakes and desserts or simply enjoy as it is. I did make some to be added in my Christmas cake.

 Candied ginger, lemon, Kumquats are done in the same way..

 I never buy any candies fruits for my Christmas cake as not only they are expensive but they are full of additives too. 

Hope you enjoy this :) 

Sylvia xoxoxo

Sharing with Petitehermine's Sunday Linky party 

Tears

How to describe the pain of losing someone?

or is there a way to put the feeling into words? so that it would ease our pain?

My heart goes to all those who had lost their child/love ones in the Connecticut shooting.

I can't stop asking myself...

What has gone wrong with this world??

I am grieving not only with America

 but also Humanity

Sharing with Simple things Sunday, Tuesday around the world, http://nihaoyall.com/

Angers by night

It's freezing out there but the lights make me forget all about the cold.

I am standing right opposite the Chateau D'Angers. Also known as Chateau de Roi René (castle of King René) but you can't see it.

What shows in this picture is the Cathedral Saint-Maurice D'Angers which was constructed in the 11th century.

Everything in this place is just so old, yet very well preserved and still in use.

At the Chateau D'Angers, we can even see some stone-aged tools being exhibit next to a modern souvenir shop.





Pont de Verdun, Angers

 Have a great Sunday,
Gros Bisous,
Sylvia

  Sharing with Simple things Sunday, Tuesday around the world, http://nihaoyall.com/

Foire St. Martin

We went to the Foire St. Martin Angers which happens a month before Christmas each and every year. According to their web page, they are celebrating their 388th anniversary.. for what I know this funfair happens only in every November just before winter comes. For someone who comes from a young country (Malaysia is only 55 years old) and this funfair is.. err 388 years old?? 

This makes me wonder what their games were?? cochon (pigs) race?? but 388 years ago..we are talking about.. let's do some maths, oh boy the first year would be 1624!!

Photo source

I have made a search on the net and this happened even before Loius XIV our most famous and flamboyant Roi Soleil who was born in 1638.

Imagining them wearing their big wigs, white powdered face and a little "mouche" sitting on their upper lip..and didn't know that heels were in for men at that time until I see this picture. (La mouche is housefly in French but is also beauty mark which was commonly used)

Coming from a young country where everything is so instant and recent makes me appreciate how the French blend the old and the new. Example?? La mouche in 1638 and  Lip piercing 2012 ;)


Have a wonderful week...

Love xoxoxo,
Sylvia

Sharing this with Simple things Sunday, Sunday snap shots

October; A month in photo

We had our last harvest of tomatoes from....Ahem, our balcony. They were potted that's why we didn't get many and they were not big. they might be smaller in size compare to store bought but they have all the taste minus all the sprays. Mine were simply yum...

September/October was also the season for Mussels. I cooked mussels many ways, Mussels in garlic herb bread crumbs, the classic Moules Marinieres (as shown in picture) or simply steam mussels with french vinaigrette.

Soup is something we have for every dinner all year round. During the summer it would be something light, mostly vegetable soup or Le Miget/ Migé but came October, we had creamy Lima beans soup with some Chorizo chips to gives textures and saltiness (picture above) and pumpkin soup of course.

I did a few desserts too, mostly tarts apples, pear and chocolates. But the lemon above was a Lemon Curd Tart simply to prolong the taste of summer.

All these were accompanied by a few French country, Ciabatta or Buckwheat sourdough loaves from my own oven.

What about you? what comes out of your kitchen? Wishing you a Happy November...
xoxoxoSylvia

Hopping over to Simple as that - A month in photo

A walk in the woods

Our local community council has organised a walk in the wood and we went along. We were lucky that the storm left and it was a sunny day with crisp cool air.

 I was hoping to see lots of fall colour but there were not many due to a storm and this was what we got..

Logs were piling high.. each tree has an average age of 25 years or more. We were hopping to collect some chestnuts but there were non. Instead, we found mushrooms.. a lot of mushrooms, beautiful mushrooms..

At the end of the trip, we went home empty handed but my camera was filled with beautiful images...

Wish you a beautiful week ahead..
XOXOXO
Sylvia

Hope over to Simple things Sunday

Mushroom Risotto

This is Jamie Oliver's recipe. What I like about this is the way how the mushrooms are prepared, instead of mixing the mushrooms in the risotto at the beginning of cooking,  it is saute separately. I used a mix of Dried Cepes (Porcini), Morille, Girolle and fresh Champignon de Paris. They are first saute in olive oil and mince garlic, throw in chopped parsley at the very last minute and scoop it on top of the risotto. Easy, tasty and no fuss :)

Jamie said "No button mushroom please!!" but I don't want to blow up my budget for just one meal, so I used button mushrooms to add volume. Of course,  it would be tastier to use fresh wild mushrooms but looking at the price of over 15 - 25 euro per kilo (gulp), I prefer to use a 4 euro per kilo button mushrooms :)

Here's what you need for 4 servings:

30g               Dried Porcini, Morille and Girolle (I didn't use a lot of Porcini coz I don't want it to be too strong)
300g             Fresh Champignon de Paris (Button Mushrooms)
3 gloves        Garlic (minced)
1 medium      Onion (chopped)
2 sticks         Celery (chopped)
300g             Risotto Rice
some             Parsley (Chopped)
150ml           White wine
50g               Parmesan Cheese (grated)
1L                 Hot chicken stock ( I used chicken cubes)
1 tbsp            Butter

1. First in a sauce pan boil some hot water, when it starts to boil throw in a chicken cube and your dried mushrooms then lower down the heat to a simmer. Once the mushrooms are soft, fish out, chopped and keep a side. Keep the liquid in a low simmer.
2. In a large pan, lightly fried the chopped onion and celery without browning them. Once the onion is ready, turn up the heat and add in the rice. Give it a good stir then add in the white wine. Keep stirring until the rice absorb all the wine.
3. Now add in the hot chicken stock, laddleful by laddleful. Make sure the rice absorbed all the liquid before add in another laddleful of stock. Keep stirring until rice cooked to your likeness.
4. Meanwhile, fried all the mushrooms in a very hot pan with a tbsp of olive oil. They might gives out some liquid which you can add it into the stock for cooking the rice. Once the mushrooms are dried, add in another spoon of olive oil, chopped garlic and gives them a good stir, season with salt and pepper then add in the chopped parsley.
5. Take off risotto from heat, check the seasoning, add in a tbsp of butter and the grated Parmesan cheese.
6. Serve your risotto topped with grilled mushrooms, sprinkle with some extra Parmesan cheese and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Hope you like this recipe. I am sharing this with Weekend potluck , This week's craving

Mushrooms hunting

The other day we went mushrooms hunting.  This is not some activity that I grow up with but I have such love with the nature that I would like to learn as well as sharing this special experience with my boy. So we hopped in our boots, put on our rain coat and went to the cellar to look for Mamie's (grandma) basket plus a little knife in hand... We went hunting for mushrooms.

It was everywhere if you actually pay attention! Although it was drizzling (well, since 10 days non-stop) we had such fun.. it was really like treasure hunting, as mushrooms come in different shape and sizes. We actually need to keep a shape eye to spot them.

 Of course not all of them are edible. Luckily, there is always a pharmacy around the corner..and the Pharmacist knows how to identified. I did borrow a book from the library about mushrooms too.

 So here's a few tips on what you have to do when go mushroom hunting:

1. Always use a basket but not plastic bags as mushrooms need to breath.
2. If you don't know a certain type of mushroom, it's always good to pick the mushrooms with it's roots then keep it in a separate container to avoid contamination. 
3. If it is some edible mushrooms that you know, always use a knife to cut it so it will grow again at the same spot the next year.
4. Always verify with your local pharmacy even though you think you know the mushrooms to avoid poisoning.
5. For those white button mushrooms like the one shown above (bottom left), they are actually inedible cause the pharmacist and also the book taught me a trick..lightly scratch the mushroom with your nails if you see it turn bridge yellow throw it away. They are not poisonous but they are indigestible. 
6. Only eat mushrooms that you have positively identified yourself. As others might make a mistake and it might just be deadly.
7. Separate each and every type of mushroom so that the pharmacist can identified easily.

Cost for the activity?? Zero..

The experience to learn and discover together with my boy plus an afternoon away from TV and computer games?? Priceless!! 

Happy weekend everybody,
xoxoxo Sylvia

Sharing this experience with Simple Things Sunday 

Random: After Rain

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass;

 it's about learning to dance in the rain."

Vivian Greene

Sharing with Simple things sunday, Tuesday around the world

Random: Fun

Watching little angle having fun...

This is what makes Simple Things Sunday special and a special moment for Tuesday around the world . Also sharing this precious moment with friends at Finangle Foto Bow series too..

Have a great week...

xoxoxo

Nyonya

Couleurs d'Automne

Autumn has finally here. The nature has all the signs to announce the arrival of Autumn.

Cooler mornings and cooler nights, shorter days too. Slowly we add layers to keep us warm, we put on boots to walk over puddles, we admire the constance changing colour of the nature... Here's a few clicks from me and I hope you enjoy Autumn as much as I do...

Autumn is poetic...& romantic..

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