Baking many ginger cookies

On Fri night, I started preparing the ingredients and mixing them to make the dough for my ginger cookies. Some of them will be sold at Food for Thought and the rest will go into the stomachs of mine, mum and some friends who like them.

I kept the cookie dough in the fridge and rolled and baked them on Sat morning.


I managed to bake at least 150 cookies. I felt quite tired after all the baking and washing up but I'm happy that mum likes the cookies. This time, the cookies turn out soft instead of crispy - similar to baked moon cake skin or gingerbread men.


If you are visiting Food for Thought cafe this week, you may see this label on a cookie jar. I shall wait to hear from the cafe on the response to my cookies. I'm not sure whether people take to soft ginger cookies but it's fun to bake something that my mum, friends and I like :)

chewy dessert

My friend let me try this interesting dessert the last time I went to the hairstylist with her at Tanjong Pagar Plaza. On Fri afternoon after I did my hair treatment, I decided to find the dessert stall and buy some home for my family to try. It wasn't too hard to find and Chocolat N Spice muffin stall is just next to Chewy Junior. Sis likes the muffins so I bought 4 muffins (Double Choc, Cheese, Cranberry and Blueberry). From Chewy Junior stall, I bought 6 pieces (2 Chocolate Madness, 1 Oreo, 1 Blueberry, 1 Coffee Muesli and 1 peanut) at $5. The chewy dessert is similar to a cream puff but the pastry is soft and chewy.

Homecooked dinner and dessert

I'm really lucky to have Mum who can cook yummy food and dessert.

Last night's fried brown rice was delicious. The hairy gourd soup was also nice.

Today mum made her version of tau suan with peanuts and sago. I had a bowl and it's good.

Pebble the Syrian hamster

Of the 4 hamsters we have, Pebble is the only girl, the most good looking and haughty hamster. She used to run away and made it difficult for me to hold her in my palms. Now she seems a little more tame and I can quickly grab her and hold her for a short while.

She also likes to run inside the exercise ball while the other hamsters may choose to just rest in their houses.

One of Angel's favorite spots

Angel likes to sit near the kitchen sink.

She can rest there and even get her water direct from the tap.

We try to remember to run the water from the tap before taking the water for our use.

Angel and orange peels

Mum has kept the orange peels as Angel doesn't like the smell of them. The peels are useful when mum puts them at places we don't want Angel to jump on. An example is the TV console and behind the new plasma TV Dad just got. We don't want Angel to be fried. See the containers of orange peels?

Sis' yummy toast

Sis always seems to be able to make her toasted bread with margarine and marmite look so delicious. I think it's because she's generous with the spread. These were Sis' dinner yesterday.

I must bake!

I didn't let my headache stop me. I had taken the butter out of the fridge to soften despite a dull headache. By the time Dad and I came back from the vet for Angel's 3rd vaccination, my headache felt quite bad and I felt a little nauseous. It must the hot afternoon sun. But I so wanted to bake and try this new recipe. Almond cake -using ground almond and simple ingredients like butter, eggs, sugar. I improvised by using half of the ingredients as I only have half of the required ground almond. I also used the mini paper cups instead of a cake baking tray and sprinkled some mini chocolate chips on top. Mum wanted hers topped with her dark chocolate bar.

They looked quite pretty before entering the oven.

I took the hour plus of baking to shower and cool down and sat in the kitchen, leaned my head against the wall to take cat naps in between checking on the cake. I had a bit of heart attack when I saw the cake mixture overflow the cups like lava and oil oozing out of the cups. But I'm used to see my creations not turning out the same way as the recipe describes or looking like the photo in the recipe book because I don't always follow the ingredients and instructions exactly. Hee.

Surprisingly the cat naps did seem to help and my headache slowly disappeared. Mum said I'm crazy and obsessed :)

The almond cakes/cupcakes hot from the oven:

The pieces that fell off and landed on the baking tray became cookie-like and tasted quite yummy.

The almond cake itself is like some dense, rich sponge cake and tastes quite good but not good enough for my friends to try. The chocolate chips added a nice touch to it. I think I will put less butter the next time and use a cake baking tray.

I think beside being able to eat what I bake, I enjoy taking photos of them. It's also a bonus if my family and friends like to eat them.

Food for Thought again :)

I was looking forwarding to my 2nd visit to Food for Thought cafe as I really had a gastronomical experience early this month.

I brought my 2 friends there and we ordered the sampler platter for 2 as I had dessert 3 hours ago. The platter comes with 2 choices of sandwiches, 2 soups and 1 salad. The 2 guys had shitake mushroom fennel soup. I wanted to try their watermelon mint freeze but it wasn't available so I had lychee sage freeze which was refreshing like the last time.

The salad we had - Chinese Chicken Salad - was yummy. The sauce tasted like kong bak gravy to me - very tasty.


The sandwiches - spicy pork (kong bak), Cuban ham and steak and roasted beef steak - didn't disappoint us too. I like the kong bak best with fats and all :)


I had space for dessert and we shared chocolate banana malteser cake. It's really good. I think my friends enjoyed their dinner too.

Little Part 1 Cafe

I suggested trying this cafe at Jasmine Road off Thomson Road for lunch with my new friend. Another friend has tried this place recently and likes it.

The mushroom miso soup is full of mushrooms and toufu. I quite like it.

The strawberry lemonade was interesting because of the fresh strawberry pieces but it's a fizzy drink and I'm not really a fan.


The crab crepe and shepherd's pie are some of the waitress' recommendations but after tasting it, we were quite disappointed.

The crab meat is not crab sticks but it didn't smell nice/fresh. As for the pie, there is a very strong herb smell and I think the pie I have made tastes much better.

Hmm I'm not sure whether I will visit this place again.

Angel and I had dinner together

Snowskin bunnies

I bought these lovely mooncake festival desserts from my friend's wife. They are fragrant and not too sweet.

Angel the model

I carried Angel to sis' bed and started taking photos of him in his various poses. Below are the nice ones:

Chicken Curry and Prawn omelette

Mum cooked these dishes for dinner on Fri evening. For the prawn omelette, she was trying to do a healthier version of the oh-jian (or oyster omelette without oysters and using tapioca flour to give the same consistency). However as we use non-stick pan at home, she can't achieve the slight burnt aroma of oh-jian. It still tasted yummy to us.

Morning with our community cats

Yesterday morning, I brought my camera with me when I joined mom to feed the community cats.

White Neck looked so rugged against the cracked wall backdrop.

Fat Cat still can't stand the sight of my camera, so I didn't try to take any photos of him.

The other community cats were at the park while White Neck and Fat Cat usually hide under the cars in the carpark in the day.


After their breakfast, the cats will look satisfied and walk away or rest


White is usually the long stayer. He will sometimes follow us around the park like a dog :)


Bush is another interesting character. He would walk away after eating some food to pee or poo or explore something that catches his eye and a short while later, he would come back for more food and water.

Notice the water droplet on his chin? So cute :)

I also explore the park sometimes and yesterday I found this pretty little white flower.


Before we went home, we fed Noisy the 2nd time as he usually takes small meals. He still meows very loudly to greet us or just to let us know he's there.