Banana Puff Pastry with ice cream

I guarantee you!! This will be a winner in any party and it is one of the easiest and quickest dessert you can make! We've served this on many occasions and it's always quick, simple and most importantly, very well received. Do try it out and give me your comments.

Ingredients

2 rolled Puff pastry sheet

4 bananas

1 egg yolk

sugar

Remove puff pastry from the freezer and lay on a cutting board. Cut sheets into 8 squares (of your desired size) and place on baking tray

1. Cut 32 2cm strips (or longer) and place them on all 4 sides of the pastry.

   
   

   

   
   

   

   Brush them with lightly beaten egg yolk 

   
   

   

   
   

   

   Place sliced pieces of banana in the centre of each pastry and dust them with 1/2 tsp of sugar on top of the bananas. 

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   Bake them in preheated oven 180C for 15-20minutes or until puffed and golden.

   
   

   

   To serve, place a scoop of ice-cream on top of the pastry.

   
   

   

   Yummy, delicious, quick and easy!

   
   

   

   
   

   Happy baking!

   
   

Birthday Cake Banner Tutorial

I love elaborate and decorated cupcakes/cakes. I've been enquiring about personalized birthday cakes lately and the prices for them are sky high and I seriously think it's a little too much to pay for a cake. It's something the birthday boy/girl can't keep and most of the time.. the quality of the cake is not as good compared to a freshly baked butter or marble cake.. or even a good old fashion Lana chocolate cake. 

Recently my good friend's sister celebrated her 25th birthday and she requested for Orange Moist Cake.  I was thinking hard how I should decorate the cake without adding any fondant and buttercream to it and I thought, why not a birthday cake banner?! Here's a tutorial to show you how easy it is and how it can change the whole look of the cake.

What you need:

2 lollipop sticks / coloured straw
Ribbon for the banner

Scissors

Craft Glue

Sticker letters

Patterned/Scrap book paper

Choose the papers to create the banner with and cut it into strips, they do not have to be all the same length, you can vary them if you choose to. Cut as many as you need to create the word you are spelling out. Fold the paper into half and cut a triangle out of the bottom

Cut out small squares with the paper and then just stick your letters on the paper.

Stick the square paper with letter onto your prepared patterned paper. Fold your patterned paper in half and put a dab of  glue in the center and fold over your paper so that the points meet.

Tie the ribbon to the end of straw/lollipop stick

 You can make additional flags with toothpicks or if you want longer, you can use satay sticks.

Dust your cake with some icing sugar

Stick the banner and flags to your desired place

And there you go.... a gift baked and decorated with love with minimum effort.
A simple cake that's 'dressed' up for the occasion.
Most importantly, you have personalized and decorated it for the VIP's party. 

Happy Birthday Liz!! May every Birthday remind you of the huge number of people who love you and can't do without you. I'm one of them!..:D

Art Jamming

What is Art Jamming?

Art Jamming is about a group of people, getting together to experience and explore the fun of painting and the long forgotten joy that comes with this experience.

Art Jamming is mixing unlimited paint with unlimited imagination and letting someone else clean up the mess! Playing, painting, sponging, spraying and creating your very own unique piece of artwork in full colour in a stress free party atmosphere.

Well... I didnt know about it until I went to the studio! 

I came across a groupon deal few months back and I thought, hey that would be a great opportunity  for me to learn art since I've always wanted to do so but never gotten down to doing it. So.. I purchased it.. set a date to art jam.. went to the studio.. and William (the owner) introduced himself.. intro me to the canvas, the paints, the brushes and told me I can start painting now. You should have seen the look on my face. That was really not what I expected. I was lost! haha.. He was very kind. He allowed me to use his computer and I started searching for "flowers". I've always liked painting of flowers. I found something I liked and he printed it out for me.  

I was given my canvas and I started to express myself.

And Ta..dah.... My final work...

My first art piece. It's now hanging in my bathroom. haha... I'm currently working on my 2nd piece. Hope it will turn out better.

My Art Studio

28 Sing Ming Lane, #02-133, Midview City Singapore 573972

• PHONE:
  +65 6684 6889
  http://www.myartstudio.sg/

KTM Railway at Upper Bukit Timah Road

The Railway Corridor

Last weekend we decided to go for a walk and the boys cycled along the old KTM railway tracks. Since KTM trains stopped running to Tanjong Pagar, families are treating the railway tracks as a must-visit nature spot during weekends! 

For many many years, Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd’s (KTM) train services ran from Woodlands to Tanjung Pagar till 2011, when the Malaysian and Singapore government agreed to exchange/swap some assets: Water, KTM Track and Main Station, Land, etc.

What used to be the train track and sleeper woods has since mostly been removed. 

Left behind and preserved for memory sake are the Main Station at Tanjong Pagar, some bridges and small stretch of tracks. The tracks were removed and returfed, leaving behind a nice 'green belt'. We are lucky this stretch ran near our home and we've been visiting it with our boys. 

In land scarce and urbanized Singapore, it's really very hard to find such green and tranquil stretches. 

Jon emphasizes a lot about letting our 2 young boys enjoy nature. 

Hopefully this railway corridor will remain for a long time and without further development. 

The bridge over Upper Bukit Timah road that was kept intact. It's right in front of Rail Mall.

It attracts many visitors and we often see photos being snapped, and snapped........

The best way is to enter from Rail Mall and walk the stretch. You can finish your hike by cooling down/ eating at the many eateries in Rail Mall. 

Mimosa plant. Boys had good time discovering the leaves fold up when we touch them.

We spent quite some time as the boys were very amazed.

I'm sure you remember this when you were growing up?

What's left of the railway track. From it's wider width where trains used to roll along every few hours, it's now become a narrow walking path. 

Boys loving the nature. Do listen out to the different sounds from nature: the animals/ birds/ insects.

The boys have seen monkeys, many birds and insects. 

Ryan and Jon also spotted and chased a monitor lizard at another stretch near Dairy Farm estate.

How time flies. We used to hear the trains run along the track. It was a daily affair and you could hear from a distance the engine sound chugging away.

Jon used to bring Ryan walking on the tracks, and watch the train travel past. 

Ryan loved it very much. Too bad Aidan didn't have the opportunity to see this.

I guess this is part of urbanization and development. I also hope the authorities preserve it. 

So don't waste time and do bring your family for a walk, before it all disappears! ............and you can invite us to join you......

This trip, Aidan didn't last very long. 

As usual, daddy's sweetie pie was feeling too hot under the sun, thirsty and most importantly, Hungry!!

Jon and Ryan continued cycling while Aidan and I turned back and he had fun walking on the tracks. 

My baby wearing his favourite Elephant t-shirt.

Moist Banana Cake

Ingredients

250g Butter
250g Castor sugar
250g Plain Flour
3 eggs
4 Ripe Bananas - Finely mashed
1 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder

Method

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add eggs in one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in bananas. Then add in sifted flour together with baking powder.
3. Pour batter into prepared tin.
4. Bake at 180C for about 45 mins or until skewer comes out clean when pushed into the thickest part of the cake.
5. Stand for a few minutes before transferring cake onto wire rack to cool.

I'm very happy with my cakes lately. All turned out yummy and moist! Enjoy and Happy baking!!

Camping @ East Coast Park

Camping in Singapore is not very popular. It has become more of a racial thingy. I wanted to do something different with the kids and thought it would be fun to camp with my boys. Claira and her boys camped aa few weeks back and loved it.. that gave me inspiration to try this out. 

We arrived @ East coast park area D around 4.30pm. We were lucky to have perfect weather and found a spot to set our tent almost immediately. While setting the tent, the kids had fun playing with sand. 

As usual.. Aidan had to snack in between playing. He's always hungry.

Kids played till about 7pm and started washing up after that. I went to buy dinner from Lagoon Hawker Centre and we all picnic outside our tent. It was definitely an experience! It was dark and all we had was a little lamp. It didn't matter cause we had yummy food.. waves splashing.. cool breeze blowing. We all washed up and everyone was in bed by 9pm.

Aidan woke me up at 7.30 am and I'm glad he did. 

I was woken up just in time for sun rise.

I walked around and some campers really surprise me.

Aidan playing five-ten with Emerick.

Ryan slept like a baby.

Aidan played with sand castle while waiting for Ryan to wake up.

Then we decided to cook! 

Comfort food. Maggi Mee..:D

Aidan had a big bowl,

While Ryan continued snoring.......

Ryan woke up close to 9am (much later than usual) and it was starting to get hot..We decided to pack up and head home to shower!!!!! Overall... it was another great trip! We had beautiful weather.. Kids had fun... and the adults now suffer from backache!

Thanks Emerick for joining us!

Tips:
The first thing is that you'll need to get a camping permit, which you can book online or at AXS self-service machines. You will only be able to do this if you have permanent residence or a long-term visa for Singapore as the permit requires you to enter your IC or FIN number.

Camping Fee: FOC