Hainanese Chicken Rice 海南雞飯

I always found something in fridge that are almost expired especially some leftover ingredients. I found one stalk of lemongrass. It is not enough to make a Tom Yum Soup. If might be enough to use it as marinating some other meats but the easiest way to use it is to cook it with rice. Just add ginger, garlic and shallots and it will make Hainanese Chicken style rice.

Ingredients: (serves 4)

rice 2 cups

1 stalk of lemongrass (Cut into smaller pieces and mash it with a knife(切段拍扁))

3 slices of ginger 

pinch of salt

2 shallots  (cut into thin slices)

4 cloves of Garlic 

1.5-2 cups Chicken stock 

(Use stock from making Hainanese chicken, or you can just use store brought chicken broth if you are cooking the rice alone)

2 tbsp chicken oil (or vegetable oil)

Directions:

1. Rinse the rice with water until the water is clear
2. Discard washing rice water
3. Pour chicken soup stock to rice. The amount of soup is just the same amount of water you use when you cook your normal rice.
4. Heat 2 tbsp of oil. Stir-fry lemongrass, ginger and garlic until brown.
5. Pour everything into rice cooker. Then cook rice in normal setting
6. Discard lemongrass, garlic, ginger and shallots before serving.

To view how to make Hainanese Chicken, please visit my previous blog post for Hainanese Chicken Recipe.

Thai Chicken Satay (Marinade) 泰式雞肉沙爹 (醃法)

How to make and marinade Thai/Malaysian style Chicken Satay:

8-12 skinless chicken thighs, cut into thin strips
1 package wooden skewers

SATAY MARINADE:

1/4 cup minced lemongrass , fresh or frozen
2 shallots OR 1 small onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic
1-2 fresh red chilies, sliced, OR 1/2 tsp. to 1 tsp. cayenne pepper, to taste
1 thumb-size piece galangal OR ginger, thinly sliced
1 tsp. minced fresh turmeric OR 1/2 tsp. dried turmeric
2 Tbsp. ground coriander
2 tsp. cumin
3 Tbsp. dark soy sauce (available at Asian food stores)
4 Tbsp. fish sauce
5-6 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Directions: 

(For step by step version with photos, please visit How to make real Thai chicken satay page)

1. If using wooden skewers, soak them in water while you prepare the meat (to prevent burning). The kitchen sink works well for this.
2. Cut chicken into thin strips and place in a bowl.
3. Place all marinade ingredients in a food processor or chopper. Process well.
4. Taste-test the marinade - you will taste sweet, spicy, and salty. The strongest tastes should be SWEET and SALTY in order for the finished satay to taste its best.Add more sugar or more fish sauce (in place of salt) to adjust the taste. You can also add more chili if you want it spicier.
5. Pour the marinade over the meat and stir well to combine. Allow at least 1 hour for marinating, or longer (up to 24 hours).
6. When ready to cook, thread meat onto the skewers. Tip: Fill up to 3/4 of the skewer, leaving the lower half empty so that the person grilling has a "handle" to easily turn the satay during cooking.
7. Grill the satay on your BBQ, OR on an indoor grill, basting the first time you time it with a little of the leftover marinade from the bottom of the bowl. OR you can broil in the oven on a broiling pan or baking sheet with the oven set to "broil" Place satay close beneath the heating element and turn the meat every 5 minutes until cooked (be sure to soak your wooden satay sticks in water before skewering). Depending on how thin your meat is, the satay should cook in 10 to 20 minutes.

Recipe source: http://thaifood.about.com/od/thairecipes/r/thaichickensate.htm

How to clean and cut Live Sea Urchin 如何清潔和切活海膽

At Richmond Steveston Fisherman Wharf, we love to buy fresh prawn and live sea urchin there. We can buy live sea urchin at price $10 for 3. The price did not raise over the last few years. My first Sea Urchin blog post was in year 2011. Second one is year 2013. Last one posted in year 2014 (Scramble eggs with sea urchin). Usually it is hard to have all three perfect one. Some of the uni are dark yellow colour with some dark spots (Pic B). Some perfect ones are orange just like the title picture of this blog. This time I got 2 out of 3 that are perfect orange colour. Not bad. Here I would like to post again the procedure of cleaning an sea urchin.

How to clean live sea urchin (pic 1)?

• Prepare a bowl of sea salt water. Around 1L of water + 1/2 tbsp sea salt. (Pic 2)
• Please wear thick rubber gloves, you will also need a pair of scissors and a spoon. (Pic 3)

1. Take a large knife or thick scissors and cut a hole around the X (the mouth). (Pic 4)

2.  Carefully separate the pieces of shell. Take the X (mouth) out and shake out all the guts, dirty stuffs and water. (Pic 5)
3.  If you cannot scoop the uni out from the hole. You can try to break the shell but pulling them in half from the hole toward outside (Pic 6). Scoop the extract the pieces of yellow or orange Uni by spoon (pic 7).

4.  Pick all guts and bits of partially digested seaweed off the Uni. (Pic A)

5.  Take each piece of Uni and individually wash each one very gently in the salt water***.(Pic B)

7.  Dry them by placing the Uni on paper towel (Pic 8)

8. Serve

The photo on the right is an example of bad grade of uni meat.

*** must wash with Sea Salt water. Place it on paper towel and you can keep it fresh in fridge for one or two days fresh! If you rinse it under normal tap water, the Uni will melt and become watery.

Panna Cotta with Blueberry and Strawberry Syrup 藍莓/草莓糖漿奶凍

Starting in June, it is the season of berries. I brought the girls to strawberry u-pick farm for fresh strawberries and bought big box of fresh Blueberries from farm as well. Since the berries cannot keep their freshness for long, I need to either frozen them or use them. I made some berries syrup. I can use these syrup for dessert as well as berries milkshake. This is a recipe of Panna Cotta serves with berries syrup. Yum!!!

 Blueberry and Strawberry Syrup (Make ahead)

Left is blueberry syrup and right one is strawberry syrup

 Ingredients (can make 1 cup of syrup)

• 2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (pic 1)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/3 cup water

Pic 1,3 &4 are using blueberries and pic 2 is strawberries

Method

In a small saucepan, heat blueberries, sugar (pic 2)and water over medium high heat until boiling. Reduce heat to medium-low, you can also mashed the berries with a potato masher and let simmer for 10-15 minutes to reduce  until it is thickens slightly(pic 3). Remove from heat and strain through a fine-mesh strainer if desired(pic 4). Refrigerate.

This recipe will also work with strawberries, blackberries, and cherries.

Panna Cotta Recipe:

Ingredients: (10-12 ramekins)

1/2 cup Whole Milk
3 cups Whipping cream
3/4 cup Sugar
1.5 tbsp Gelatin + 4 Tbsp milk
2tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. Pour 4 tbsp milk into a small bowl, and stir in the gelatin powder. Set aside.
2. In a saucepan, stir together the 3 cups heavy cream,  1/2 cup milk and sugar, and set over medium heat. Bring to a boil, watching carefully, as the cream will quickly rise to the top of the pan. Pour the gelatin and milk into the cream, stirring until completely dissolved. Cook for one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, stir in the vanilla and pour into individual ramekin dishes.
3. Cool the ramekins uncovered at room temperature. When cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight before serving. Pour berries syrup before serving. 

To make Blueberry milk, you just need 1 cup of milk + 2-3 tbsp blueberry syrup, mix well.

Sushi Rice 壽司飯

Summer holiday begins. My kids have not much to do during the day. And they want to make some sushi for lunch by themselves. Well in my opinion, it is always cheaper and easier to dine out for sushi. It is not cheap to buy the sashimi at supermarket. But it sounds like a good family activity and they can use make their own lunch! Of course as a mom, I will need to do all the preparation such as cooking the sushi rice and cutting the sashimi before they can actually wrap the roll or make the sushi. Here is the recipe for cooking the sushi rice. I can make 4 maki rolls and 12-14 pieces of individual sushi.

 

Ingredients: (serve 4)

2 cups short-grain Japanese rice
2 cups water

1/4 cup (or 4tbsp) rice vinegar
3tbsp sugar
1tsp salt

Directions:

1. Rinse the rice 5 times, until the water become clear then drain in a colander.
2. Cook the rice in a rice cooker according to the manufacturer's instructions. Alternatively, in a medium saucepan, combine the rice with 2 cups of cold water and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and cook over moderate heat for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes longer. Remove from the heat and let stand, covered, for 15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the sake-mash vinegar, rice vinegar, sugar and salt and warm over moderate heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
4. Transfer the rice to a very large bowl. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the seasoned vinegar all over the rice: Drizzle onto a spatula while waving the spatula back and forth. Using a slicing motion with the spatula, gently separate the rice grains while mixing in the seasoning. Fan the rice while mixing it to help it dry. Wipe down any stray grains from the side of the bowl. Cover the rice with a damp towel to keep warm.

 

Shark's Tail Skin Pot with tofu and chicken (How to prepare dried Shark's Tail Skin) 紅燒豆腐魚唇雞煲 + 魚唇浸發

魚唇= Shark's Tail Skin (Not Shark's lips) Good source of Collagen

How to prepare dried Shark's Tail Skin:

Soak dried shark's tail skin in cold water + rice wine overnight. Cook soften shark's tail skin in boiling water with ginger and rice wine. Drained. Braised in chicken stock with ginger, green onion and rice wine for a few hours until tender (I use slow cooker on high for 5 hours). Drained with cold water. Cut in desired size. Good for soup and other dishes. I made Shark's Tail Skin Tofu chicken Pot.

Directions:

Pan fried Ginger, shallots and garlic. 

Add chicken, tofu and shark's tail skin. Stir fry a bit.

Add chicken stock, oyster sauce, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar and white pepper.

Cover and cook until chicken is cooked.

Use corn starch to thicken the sauce. 

Garnish with green onion.

  魚唇簡單介紹: Shark's Tail Skin: 很多人以為魚唇就是魚的嘴唇，非也！魚翅是鯊魚的鰭，而魚唇其實就是鯊魚尾部沒有翅針的鰭了。雖然魚唇不及魚翅矜貴，亦因為魚唇無骨，所以少了一點點鈣質，但是它膠質含量絕不比魚翅遜色，質地亦比魚翅軟滑。海味業界認為魚唇即是翅裙。魚唇處理不好會容易有腥味，所以浸發工夫非常重要：將幹魚唇 (Pic1) 浸清水和米酒過夜, 煮魚唇的滾水記着要放薑片和米酒去腥味，我使用慢燉鍋煮5小時 (雞湯, 姜，蔥和米酒) (Pic 2),  然後將魚唇過冷水洗浸 (Pic 3)，之後便可以用來煲湯又或者燴煮炒菜了。

 1. Dried Shark's Tail Skin 幹魚唇

2. Braised Shark's Tail skin in broth with green onion, ginger and rice wine

3. Cooked Shark's Tail Skin

4. Pan Fried Ginger, Shallots and garlic. Then add chicken, tofu and shark's tail skin.

紅燒豆腐魚唇雞煲:

炒姜，蔥，蒜。加入雞肉，豆腐和魚唇。翻炒一下。加入雞湯，蠔油，醬油，老抽，糖，白胡椒粉。蓋上鍋蓋，煮至雞肉熟透。用玉米澱粉勾芡收汁。灑上蔥花。

Royal Icing recipe 蛋白糖霜做法

Royal Icing crown recipe:

(makes 3 cups)
2 large (60g) pasteurized egg white蛋白
2 tsp fresh lemon juice (Pic 1)檸檬汁
3 cups (330g) icing sugar, sifted 糖粉


Direction
In a bowl, beat egg whites with lemon juice until combined(Pic 2,3). Beat egg white until foam formed (Pic 4). Add the sifted icing sugar (Pic 5) and beat on low speed until combined and smooth (Pic 6). If icing is too thick, add a little water. If icing is too runny, add some icing sugar until the right consistency.

做法

將所有材料倒入鋼盆，用打蛋器打發至企身即成

You can add food colour to icing now (Pic 7) or apply colour with airbrush later.

Tips: The icing needs to be used immediately or transferred to an airtight container as royal icing hardens when exposed to air. Cover with plastic wrap when not in use.

 

After air dry, my jerseys are all broken! x_x  The layer of royal icing is too thin. I will need to make it thicker next time!  

Marshmallow Fondant (MMF) 自制棉花糖翻糖

Marshmallow fondant(MMF):

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces miniature marshmallows (4 cups not packed, or half of a 16-ounce bag)
• 1 pound powdered sugar (4 cups), plus extra for dusting
• 2 tbsp water
• Food coloring or flavored extracts, optional

 < 材料 > : (1) 棉花糖 -------- 16oz
(2) 糖霜 ----------- 1 lb (過篩)
(3) 水 -------------- 2 TBSP
(4) 固體菜油 ----- 適量
(5) 色膏 ----------- 適量 (如有需要)

Preparation:

1. Dust your counter or a large cutting board with powdered sugar. Place the marshmallows and the water in a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 1 minute, until the marshmallows are puffy and expanded.

2. Stir the marshmallows with a rubber spatula until they are melted and smooth. If some unmelted marshmallow pieces remain, return to the microwave for 30-45 seconds, until the marshmallow mixture is entirely smooth and free of lumps. If you want colored or flavored fondant, you can add several drops of food coloring or extracts at this point and stir until incorporated. If you want to create multiple colors or flavors from one batch of fondant, do not add the colors or flavors now. Instead, refer to step 6 below for instructions.(Pic 1)

3. Add the powdered sugar and begin to stir with the spatula. Stir until the sugar begins to incorporate and it becomes impossible to stir anymore.(Pic 2)

4. Scrape the marshmallow-sugar mixture out onto the prepared work surface. It will be sticky and lumpy, with lots of sugar that has not been incorporated yet--this is normal. Dust your hands with powdered sugar, and begin to knead the fondant mixture like bread dough, working the sugar into the marshmallow with your hands.(Pic 3)

5. Continue to knead the fondant until it smoothes out and loses its stickiness (Pic 4). Add more sugar if necessary, but stop adding sugar once it is smooth--too much sugar will make it stiff and difficult to work with. Once the fondant is a smooth ball, it is ready to be used. You can now roll it out, shape it, or wrap it in cling wrap to use later (Pic 5). Well-wrapped fondant can be stored in a cool room or in the refrigerator, and needs to be kneaded until supple before later use.

Storage:

Wrap the fondant in plastic wrap and store it in airtight container in room temperature

翻糖做法:

1.  放置棉花糖和水在一個大的微波安全碗。微波高上1分鐘，直到棉花糖都是浮腫和膨脹。
2.  攪拌用橡皮刮刀的棉花糖，直到它們熔融光滑。如果一些未熔化的棉花糖件依然存在，返回到微波30-45秒，直到棉花糖混合物完全光滑，無腫塊(圖1) 。如果你想著色或調味軟糖，你可以在此時加入數滴食用色素，攪拌直到合併。
3.  加入糖粉鍋鏟，並開始攪拌。攪拌，直至糖內設並且變得不可能攪拌了。(圖2)
4.  刮棉花糖糖的混合物出到準備工作表面。塵雙手糖粉，並開始揉軟糖混合像麵團(圖3)
5.  繼續揉軟糖，直到它撫平，並失去了它的粘性(圖4)。如果需要添加更多的糖，但應停止加入白糖，一旦糖過多會使其僵硬，難以處理。現在，您可以把它卷出來，塑造它，或者把它包在保鮮膜後使用(圖5)。精心包裝的軟糖可以儲存於室內陰涼處或冰箱內，並需要揉，直到後來在使用前柔順。

儲存:
用保鮮膜包裹軟糖(圖5)，並將其儲存在密閉容器中室溫

Edible Glue: 

Water+Tylose powder

Royal Icing Canucks Jersey and logo

This week, 3 friends of mine are having their birthday over the weekend. 2 on Sundays and 1 on coming Monday. We will have hotpot party dinner for one of them. I am planning on making a napoleon cake. I did not have much idea on the decorations yet. What I can do ahead is to make some decorations that can place on any kind of cakes or cupcakes that I will going to make in the next few days. I make royal icing decorations this time. One of my friends like racquet sports, one of them like hockey especially Canucks! And one of them is an elegant lady. In this case, I pipe some tennis, badminton and squash racquets. Some Canucks jerseys and logos. And also some flowers. 

I place my galaxy tab under the parchment with picture of the jersey and logo.

Royal Icing crown recipe:

(makes 3 cups)
2 large (60g) pasteurized egg white
2 tsp fresh lemon juice (Pic 1)
3 cups (330g) icing sugar, sifted

Direction
In a bowl, beat egg whites with lemon juice until combined(Pic 2,3). Beat egg white until foam formed (Pic 4). Add the sifted icing sugar (Pic 5) and beat on low speed until combined and smooth (Pic 6). If icing is too thick, add a little water. If icing is too runny, add some icing sugar until the right consistency.

You can add food colour to icing now (Pic 7) or apply colour with airbrush later.

Tips: The icing needs to be used immediately or transferred to an airtight container as royal icing hardens when exposed to air. Cover with plastic wrap when not in use.

 

After air dry, my jerseys are all broken! x_x  The layer of royal icing is too thin. I will need to make it thicker next time!  

Onsen Tamago with Daishi Kaeshi Sauce (hot spring egg) 温泉蛋 + 昆布魚湯

温泉蛋Hot Spring Egg and 溏心蛋Marinated soft-boiled egg are two different things. Onsen Tamago 温泉蛋 is cooked yolk with not fully cooked egg white. And 溏心蛋 is fully cooked egg white with half cooked yolk. Poached Egg is similar but it cooked with the shell. And it needs to be serve immediately after cooked. Onsen Tamago and Marinated Soft-boil egg can be store in refrigerator and can be served on the next day with shell on!

Recipe for Onsen Tamago:

You need: candy thermometer and oven proof saucepan. Eggs and pre-heated oven.
Recipe for 3 eggs. More time needs for more eggs cooked at one time.

1. Preheat oven to 68℃ (155°F).
2. Use a good oven proof saucepan. Put eggs to saucepan and cover with cold water. Turn on heat to medium.
3. Use candy thermometer. Once water reach 68-70℃ (~155°F), remove saucepan from heat and transfer to preheated oven immediately.
4. Bake for around 20-25mins (longer if you cook more eggs at one time). Transfer eggs to cold bath.
5. Serve eggs with chopped green onion and/or seaweed and daishi kaeshi sauce.

(if you do not have an oven that can be set to temperature to 155°F. Turn off heat once the temperature reach 155°F. Cover saucepan and let it soak in hot water for 20 minutes. I tried this the 1st time. The egg white is too watery and the appearance does not look good. But the overall taste and quality of yolk is acceptable. ) 

Awase Daishi Stock + Kaeshi Recipe: (good for zaru soba/udon dipping sauce)
(makes 4 cups)

Ingredients:
Kombu昆布10 cm
Dried Tuna (bonito flakes)柴魚片 20-40g
Water 800-1000L
Mirin 味醂1/2 cup
Soysauce 醬油1/2 - 1 cu

Directions for (Awase Daishi Stock)
1. Soak Kombu into water until soft.
2. Boil water with Kombu.
3. Turn off heat once it boiled. Remove Kombu from stock.
4. Add bonito flakes to kombu stock. Turn on heat again and boil for a few minutes. Remove bonito flakes until stock is clear.

(Daishi Soy Dipping sauce - Kaeshi)
5. Add 1/2 cup Mirin and 1/2 - 1 cup soysauce to Daishi stock. Add some sugar according to taste (optional).
6. Bring it to a boil for 2 minutes.

溏心蛋 Marinated Soft-boiled Egg recipe: http://winniemsfong.blogspot.com/2011/12/blog-post_27.html

大地魚粉 Dried Flounder Powder

大地魚是左口魚乾，英文是 halibut或 flounder。潮州人稱為方魚，方魚炒芥蘭、方魚肉碎泡飯的方魚就是大地魚。

大地魚粉可用來製作雲吞及雲吞湯底，是一種天然味精！

方法很簡單，從中藥行或超市買來乾大地鱼。然後放入焗爐broil 乾脆。放入food processor打成粉，放在air tight container.

Hong Kong Mong Kwok street style curry 港式街邊勁辣咖喱魚蛋汁

My husband is a fan of Hong Kong Mong Kwok street food. He especially like curry fish ball. The curry they use are different than those Thai, singapore, and Indian curry. According to my husband description, it tastes sweet and hot! And the colour is dark brown.  So we tried to look for recipe. We use different ingredients in various recipes and we finally made this special recipe ourselves. I thicken the sauce using Beurre manié (or you can use cornstarch slurry). But Beurre manié is very good on thicken soup as well!

Beurre manié (Flour and Butter Paste)

Beurre manié(French "kneaded butter") is a dough, consisting of equal parts of soft butter and flour, used to thicken soups and sauces. By kneading the flour and butter together, the flour particles are coated in butter. When the beurre mani© is whisked into a hot or warm liquid, the butter melts, releasing the flour particles without creating lumps. Beurre manié should not be confused with roux, which is also a thickener made of equal parts of butter and flour, but which is cooked before use. ingredients about 50 g (2 oz) 4 tablespoons 25 g (1 oz) 2 Tbs Butter 25 g (1 oz) 4 Tbs Flour method 1. Combine the butter and flour together, beating until they are thoroughly blended. 2. Break off small pieces and roll into individual balls. The balls should be added, a little at a time, to whatever mixture is being thickened.

This time I use fish ball and beef tripe牛柏葉 (Albert Yip) to dip in the sauce.

June 22, 2014 I made this curry fish balls for a Beach Picnic Party today! I prepared 5 lbs of fish balls and use the ingredient amount (x2.5)

Ingredients 材料：（可做500ml 咖哩汁）

Garlic 蒜頭 4 粒

Shallots 乾蔥頭1 粒

Chicken Stock 雞湯1.5 杯cup

Curry Powder 咖喱粉1/4cup

Hoisin Sauce 海鮮醬2tbsp

Ground Bean Sauce 磨豉醬2tbsp

Curry Paste 咖哩醬1tbsp

Chili Sauce 冠益辣椒醬（適量）(Adjust to your taste on how hot you want the sauce will be)

Directions 做法：

1 蒜茸乾蔥切碎

2 落少量油起鑊爆香蒜茸乾蔥，加入咖喱粉炒香。

3 倒入1杯半雞湯，再加入磨豉醬、海鮮醬、咖喱醬煮滾。

4 可以加入少量辣椒醬（個人喜好）
5 可加生粉水使汁濃

1. Minced garlic and chopped shallots
2. Add oil to pan. Heat and cook garlic and shallots, then add curry powder and stir well.
3. Add chicken stock, ground bean sauce, hoisin sauce and curry paste until boil.
4. Add chili sauce and adjust to taste.
5. To thicken the sauce, you can add the Beurre manié and cook it. Or simply add cornstarch water. But Beurre manié will provide stronger and better taste!

Piping Buttercream Frosting Flower with recipe

These flower cupcakes are made for my friend's birthday today. Red Velvet cupcakes with Rose essence buttercream frosting.

Buttercream frosting:
(I use partial Crisco because I will leave it out at room temperature for a while before giving it to my friend's hands)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup (113g) Cricso (can be replaced by butter)
1/2 cup (113g) butter softened
1/3 to 1/2 cup milk,  depending on consistency needed 3 Tbsp powdered Dream Whip
1 Tsp vanilla essence
1 Tsp rose essence
depending on your personal taste
2 lbs powdered sugar sifted

Instructions:
There's no wrong way to mix this. Mix all together. The longer the mixer runs, the smoother it gets. Sifting the powdered sugar before blending helps with smoothness but is not necessary.

The making of piping flowers.

Steam Chicken in Lotus Leaves 荷葉杞子蒸滑雞(翼) - how to marinate chicken (醃滑雞的方法)

材料
雞 半隻  (我今次用了一打半雞翼)
細冬菇 10隻
乾荷葉 1片
杞子一小許 
 

做法
１）冬菇浸軟，浸洗杞子 ，備用。 
２）荷葉用熱水浸軟。
３）雞先斬成小件，醃雞才會滑。
４）用蛋白及生粉醃雞，放入雪櫃雪半小時。
５）再用生抽、老抽、糖、麻油、酒、薑醃最少2小時。
６）把北菇、醃好的雞及杞子撈勻放在荷葉中央。
７）荷葉包好放入蒸籠或蒸碟裏，用錫紙把碟面包好 (如不是用蒸籠)，隔水猛火蒸二十分鐘即成。

Hong Kong Cafe style 3D noodle cake 港式茶餐廳公仔麵蛋糕

May is my husband birthday month! This year, he turns 40. We need a big celebration for him this year! On the weekend before his actual birthday, we are going to invite some friends over to have BBQ party! We will have some BBQ wings, sausages and big squid! I will prepare a seafood platter. And we will order some sushi take out! Along with this, I will of course make him a birthday cake! My husband is on diet now so he did not eat HK cafe style noodle for a long time (especially 公仔麵)! Therefore, I want to make a cake related to food and I chose HK style noodle cake. 公仔麵 noodle+火腿ham+雙蛋double eggs+腸sausage+friend fish ball 炸魚蛋. I need a week to prepare his cake (of course part-time). Here is my journal of making this cake:



Total hours spent on making this cake is 6 hours in total! No wonder you need to spent >$100 for a basic "3D" cake. I guess the total cost of ingredients is only $10 dollars. But the amount of time to make this kind of cake is huge! time=$$



Party day (deadline) May 20 Sunday
Monday: Start googling on noodle cake image. On the internet, I found mainly Japanese Ramen Noodle cake.

Tuesday: Start to brainstorm what kind of noodle, sides, shape of bowl, colour etc.Also what kind of cake base. Thinking thinking thinking day. And I need to think of how to make the noodles that looks like real noodles by using fondant.

Wednesday: Start to buy ingredients that I don't have at home for making this cake. For fondant, I need to buy Marshmallow and icing sugar.  I got butter, eggs, flour, and mango puree at home for making the cake base. No need to worry about the case base. I am going to make normal cake with Mango Buttercream frosting. For noodles, I finally find out a way to make perfect noodle. It is to use a pasta machine to make noodle. So I go get a cheap manual pasta machine. Now I can make fresh pasta at home too!! At night, I prepared marshmallow fondant. It only takes 15 minutes to work on that. No big deal.    (Total time spent today: 15mins)



Different colour fondant



Thursday: Today is hand and wrist exercising day. Today I  start to colour the fondant with food colour for making bowl (green), egg (white and golden yellow), ham (dark pink), sausage (brown with red), chosticks (light brown), friend fish ball (light brown yellow) and noodle (light yellow). This takes me around 2 hours to do all the colour mixing. It is hard to mix colour to make it looks real. I am going to make a 7" 2 layers cake and the bowl will going to look like the one in picture on the right. (Total time spent today: 2 hours)



Do they look real? They are all edible. Except the wooden chopsticks (the pair on top) placed there for comparing.



Friday: Fun day! Modelling time! Like playing with clay model, and of course this is even more fun because I am modelling something that are all edible. Today I spent around 1 hours 45mins in the morning on making fondant ham, eggs, sausage, fish ball and noodle! And chopsticks too!I tried to place the 7" baking ring there to try to place food together. And this is the draft that the top of noodle cake will look like. After lunch and picked up the kids, I am going to bake the cake. The cake was ready and made in 45 mins. Things are all set to start making the cake tomorrow! (Total time spent today: 2 hrs 15 mins)

Saturday: Cake making day! In morning, I start making mango buttercream. Then I will need to prepare making the fondant bowl on the cake. I will need to let the bowl fondant to harden before putting all the other things on top. So it is better to do it in morning. (Total time spent today: 1 hr)

Basic yellow cake with Mango Buttercream frosting

CAKE FINISHED!

Sunday: Final touch up. Add words and name to cake.Party day! (Total time spent: 30min)

Well, the cake looks good but it tastes extremely sweet (for all adults). But of course of kids love it!