Totoro cake

My daughter loves Totoro! Actually everyone in my family does and that includes me. :P I made this cake for her 5th birthday. Even though sweets are not my cup of tea I managed to pull it off..  >_< 

This was my first time working with fondant. I know what Totoro looks like and know the story very well but I had to do my research a little bit on how to cover a cake with fondant and how to adding the colour etc.

I bought a couple of cake decoration tools like leaf moulds and flowers moulds.

I tried to make soot sprites but it didn't come out as I wished... they look exactly like them anyway - lol

I fried angle hair spaghetti to create a wooden stick in the the wood.

Luckily I didn't have to make the cake. I called my cake specialist friend and asked her to make butter cake for me. It works really well with fondant. All of the guests at the party enjoyed the cake very much!

Khao Man Gai or Hainan chicken on rice

Khao Man Gai or Hainan chicken on rice originally a Hainanese dish that was brought to Thailand by the Hainan people. There are many versions of it like Singaporean, Malaysian and Thai. The suace in the Thai version makes this differnt to the other recipes. Every where you go in Thailand, you will see at least one or two street stalls selling this dish, even in shopping centres.

This is my very own version and is a mix of the other varieties. It is my signature dish!

Ingredients (may be varied to taste):

• Light soy sauce
• Fermented soy bean sauce (you can find this sauce in every asian store)
• Dark soy sauce
• Chicken stock powder
• Sugar 
• Coriander seeds
• Ginger
• Garlic
• Coriander roots
• Chilli
• Salt and pepper
• Chicken fat cut it off from chicken.
• 1 Whole chicken

For the sauce

• 2 Tbsp chopped ginger
• 2 - 3 Cloves of Garlic
• 1-2 Tbsp chopped chilli
• 2 Tbsp Fermented soy bean
• 1 Tbsp Dark soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 2 Tbsp vinegar
• 1/2 cup boiled water

Blend all sauce ingredients in a food processor, be careful not to blend it too much untill it becomes a paste... I like to leave a bit of chunk in there.

Boil water and then add 1 or 2 coriander roots (crushed first for more flavour), 1 Tbsp Chicken stock powder and pepper.  Boil the chicken till its cooked then take the chicken out and rest. Remember to add a lot of water because we will use the broth for cooking rice as well. 

 For the rice we need a few slices of few ginger, 2 Coriander roots, 2 crushed cloves of garlic and roast ground coriander seeds. 

 Add everything to 4 rice cups of rice (I use small coffee cup measure the rice).

Add 2 Tbsp cooking oil to the wok andt add chicken fat when it has heated.  Fry the fat till it is brown.

 Add chicken fat including oil into the rice mix.

 Add 3 cups chicken broth into the rice mix then cook the rice in the rice cooker.

This is how the rice looks when it is cooked.

Chop up the chicken arrange on the side of the rice and garnish with coriander and sliced cucumbers and the sauce.

Homer Simpson

Homer Simpson lunch!

This box contains:

• Pork Dumpling
• Little weiner (hot dog)
• Boiled quail egg
• Rice mixed with boiled egg yolk and ground black sesame.

I put the dumpling underneath  the rice.

Left over Bolognese pasta make over!

Every Friday I feel so lazy to cook. Sometime we have take away for dinner but there aren't many choices around only Indian or Pizza and Chinese (This is the time I miss my Bangkok a lot >_<) 

Tonight my husband has a party after work (you know.. after work Friday party thing..kind of) which means he's not home for dinner. I've looked in my freezer and there is only one container of pasta bolognese  sauce and it's not going to be enough for us (me and 3 kids). I cooked some more pasta and beat eggs with grated zucchini and Parmesan. I mixed them together with bolognese sauce, season with some more salt and pepper. I cooked it on frying pan on a low heat. Once it's firm enough, I flipped it over to the other side and cook through until both sides are well cook.