Carrot Cake Recipe

I posted photos of the carrot cake that I made on my Facebook, and a friend asked me to share the recipe, so here it is. Please note that this recipe is originally adopted from http://ieatishootipost.sg/2013/05/carrot-cake-chai-tow-kueh-recipe-with.html (credits to be given to ieatishootipost) with modifications made (written in blue) to the recipe according to our taste and to fill up my 10” by 3” round tin pan based on what my mum taught me. 

Ingredients:

~750g radish after peeling and cutting

500g rice flour

20g tapioca flour (or you can use cornstarch if you don't have tapioca flour)

10g salt

15g sugar

2.05L water (1350ml for radish, 700ml for flour)

Chye Poh (菜脯) - 1 packet

Garlic - 2 cloves

Important Notes:

- Radish: Best is to get Japanese Daikon.  It is more expensive than the local ones which you can buy from the local markets. If you are buying the ones at the market, go for the ones from Cameron highlands instead of the ones from China.  

- Rice flour: Make sure it is the wet milled type and not the dry milled type, which is used to make batter for deep frying.  

Steps:

1) Cut the radish into strips which are about twice the size of matchsticks.  Cutting the radish is better than shredding it because when you shred it, the juices tend to leech out of the radish.  Cutting it also means it is a little thicker and so it gives it a better bite. (I used a food combo processor to cut the radish, saves time!)

2) Mix the rice flour and tapioca flour (or cornstarch) with 700ml water into a thick slurry.

3) Heat up the water in a separate pot and add salt, sugar and alternative to MSG such as dried cuttlefish, konbu, ikan bilis, dried scallops etc to give the stock a bit of umami flavour.  You can of course use a bit of chicken stock powder but just take note that it is as good as adding msg.  So if you are doing it as a shortcut to making your own chicken stock then it is ok, but if you are trying to avoid msg, then it is not ok.

4) Once your stock is ready, add the radishes into the boiling water and cook until the radish turns translucent. (5-10mins)

5) Next add the flour mixture to the radish and stir until it has thickened evenly. (I removed whatever that's added to give the umami flavour from Step 4 above before adding the flour mixture into it.)

6) Oil the pan and then add the thicken mixture. 

7) Steam for 2 hours and leave overnight in the fridge to set.

Steps to prepare the Chye Poh condiments:

Finely chop two cloves of garlic and add them to the Chye Poh.  Add some vegetable oil and cook until the chye poh turns brown.  You may add some sugar if you prefer your chye poh to be sweeter.

Instructions on frying:

*Advise to use a non stick pan.  It actually works pretty well and is more practical for most people.  

1. Cut the carrot cake into 2 cm cubes.  

2. Add oil to the pan and when it is hot, add the cubes of carrot cake.  Press the carrot cake down gently onto the pan so that it breaks.  This creates an irregular surface which enables the chye poh and fish sauce to stick to.  This is much better then chopping the carrot cake with a knife into smaller cubes as you get only smooth surface on your carrot cake that way.  That is why its better to start with larger cubes and break it into irregular shaped smaller chunks. The aim is to have some large pieces where you can taste the rice and radish and some smaller pieces that get charred and coated with chye poh and fish sauce. 

3. Add fish sauce and continue to fry (I did not add fish oil though as I don't want to buy it just for frying carrot cake.)

4. Add Chye Poh mixture and continue to fry till it develops and nice crust. 

5. Add an egg (I added some prawns as well before adding the egg) and fry till brown.  Serve with chopped spring onions and a dash of white pepper.

Black Version

With the black version, add the dark sauce towards the end of the frying process.  Fry till you develop some crust on the carrot cake and then reduce the heat and add the sweet black sauce.  Toss until evenly coasted.  Then turn off the fire and add some more sweet sauce, stir fry till even and then serve. Note:  Sweet black sauce turns bitter if subjected to too much heat. (I did not add sweet black sauce as I don't like my carrot cake to be sweet, instead I added chilli to make it a bit spicy.)

Final note: I fry the carrot cake 1 portion by 1 portion to tailor the taste to different family members.

Carrot Cake (3rd attempt) on 12 Oct 2014

It's been months since I last made carrot cake, so finally decided to make it, especially I have so many packets of chye poh in my fridge - 2 opened packets and 2 unopened packets. I think my mum might have opened another packet when she couldn't find or didn't notice the 1st opened packet.

This time, I made the carrot cake based on a recipe from ieatishootipost but I modified it according to our taste and to fill up a 10" by 3" round tin pan based on what my mum taught me. Verdict? Well, it's a success! The carrot cake turns out to be more firm as compared to my past 2 attempts, and of course, I made it without my mum's help. :)

Rainbow Cheesecake (4th attempt) on 28 Sep 2014

I had tendered my resignation as I decided to become a SAHM to look after my P1 son and have more time to teach or revise with him for his study. Hence, my last day of work is 30 Sep, and I decided to make some cheesecake for my colleagues.

For easy serving, I had chosen to make individual portions. This time, I used 2 flavours of yogurt - Mixed Fruit and Nata de Coco. What did I learn this time? Well, I realised that the cheesecake wasn't as "smooth" looking as my 3rd attempt; there's coconut flakes. I realised that it must be the Nata de Coco (means cream coconut) flavour of yogurt that I added in. Before I realised this, I thought what had gone wrong this time round? hahaha... Hence, I should avoid using Nata de Coco flavour of yogurt if I want a smoother looking cheesecake.

Making Snow Skin Mooncake

There was Teacher's Day celebration at my girl's childcare centre. We were supposed to attend the celebration but we were informed by my son's school that he's sick, so we had to rush down to his school to pick him up. Hence, we had to pick up our girl first since her childcare centre is near our working place. When we reached her childcare centre, they were having mooncake making as Mooncake Festival is just round the corner. The teachers asked us to make mooncake together with our girl first before leaving the centre, so I did.

Mooncake making isn't difficult for me at all, especially the snow skin ones. When I was still schooling, I had been helping my mum to make snow skin mooncakes to sell to make extra income for the household. Hence, when I saw the teachers and some parents sprinkled flour into the mould, I suggested that they should tap the flour on the skin instead of sprinkling flour into the mould. 

Why do we need to tap flour onto the skin and why cannot sprinkle flour into the mould? We need to tap flour on the skin so that the mooncake would not stick to the mould, and hence, it can "drop" out from the mould when you shake the mould sideways. We do not sprinkle flour into the mould as it would cover up the pattern in the mould, and the end product would not have a nice defined pattern on it.

Although I have not made mooncakes for a long time, I still can remember my mum's teaching. See the end products below.

Handmade Personalised Pen Hugger

Teacher's Day is round the corner, and I've been thinking what gifts would be appropriate for my son's teachers. A red pen would be useful for the teachers as they would need to do markings! However, it looks "miserable" if we give just a pen although it's the thought that counts. Since I've been into rainbow loom, and I have come across videos showing how to make a pen hugger, which there were girl and boy designs. Hence, I decided that I would make a pen hugger as well. To make it special for the teachers, I also personalised them according to how my son addresses them. The personalisation was something that I have created, which I am really proud of. :)

Credits to be given to the creator of the pen hugger, Made by Mommy, and this link leads to the girl/princess pen hugger video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viKdHxuwoiU.

Rainbow Cheesecake (3rd attempt) on 26 Jul 2014

My son had a gathering with his pre-school classmates, and it would be a potluck picnic gathering at West Coast Park. I decided to make Rainbow Cheesecake, and this time, I made few changes as compared to my last 2 attempts.

First, I decided to make individual portions so that it would be easier to serve (no need to cut), especially it's for a picnic at an outdoor venue. Secondly, I went hunting for Philadelphia brand for the cream cheese to see if it really tastes better than the "brandless" cream cheese that I bought at Phoon Huat for the last 2 attempts. I said "hunting" as Rivervale Mall NTUC doesn't sell those blocks of Philadelphia cream cheese; they only sell the spread type. Thirdly, I choose a flavour of yogurt - Mixed Fruit, that should be less sour, in my opinion, as compared to Strawberry or Mango flavour. Since I choose the Mixed Fruit flavour yogurt, I can choose any fruit to decorate the top of the cheesecake, so I decorated with canned longan and nata de coco.

Top View

Side View

Outcome? It was well received at the picnic, especially the parents. My son loves it! I tried it too, and have to say that using Philadelphia brand for the cream cheese does make the cheescake tastes a lot nicer! The Mixed Fruit flavour of yogurt also makes the cheesecake less sour as compared to my last 2 attempts.

I had also made 2 other changes but I don't think these changes had any impact to the taste or look. I had invested in a Kitchen Aid Mixer, so it was my KA's maiden mixing! I only used 3 colours since individual serving is a lot smaller than a whole cake, which I used 6 colours.

Mixing using Kitchen Aid Mixer

Colours - Blue, Green & Orange

To read about my last 2 attempts on making Rainbow Cheesecake, please go to 

1st attempt - http://jenniferphua.blogspot.sg/2013/12/rainbow-strawberry-cheesecake-on-18-dec.html

2nd attempt - http://jenniferphua.blogspot.sg/2013/12/rainbow-mango-cheesecake-2nd-attempt-on.html

As for the recipe, please go to http://www.thebakingbiatch.com/2013/10/cynthias-rainbow-strawberry-cheesecake.html.

Rainbow Loom - Plastic vs Metal Hook

Yes, l'm also into the Rainbow Loom craze! I ordered and received my Rainbow Loom kits (err... nope, it's not authentic but as good as the original ones) on 24 May. I started looming some bracelets and went on to do more difficult/complicated stuff. My review of the plastic hook that came with the kit is that it wasn't hardy enough to do the more difficult/complicated stuff while it can definitely be used to loom some simple bracelets. I would definitely recommend one to get a metal hook, especially if you are planning to do more difficult/complicated stuff.

The top picture shows a plastic hook that has been used for a while to loom more difficult/complicated stuff, the circled part is turning white, meaning that part has turned soft and fragile, which may break anytime.

The bottom picture shows a new plastic hook that has never been used before, the circle part does not have the "whitening effect".

For those who are looking for a metal hook, you may consider getting a crotchet hook used for knitting, as it's a cheaper alternative to the metal hook that costs at least $8.90 depending on where you buy. I found a suitable crotchet hook in Daiso, so for only $2, it's worth a try! See the below picture for the crotchet hook that you can find in Daiso.

Happy Looming!

Learn About Pesticide Residues in Fruits & Vegetables!

We all know pesticide is being used in fruits and vegetables! Through the EWG's Skin Deep website that I posted about in my previous posting, I went to explore further on EWG main site - http://www.ewg.org/. Scrolling down the website, this catches my attention - EWG's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce! Read up at http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php. Although the context is US, I find it no harm reading it to gain more knowledge in this area, and may serve us a base to guide us in our choice of fruits and vegetables.

On the list of 48 fruits and vegetables tested for pesticide residues - http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/list.php, apples, strawberries and grapes are the top 3 with most pesticide residues! Oops! Time to eat lesser of these fruits? Pineapples, mangoes and papayas seem to be safer choice?

Extract out from the guide, "The European Commission has banned diphenylamine, DPA for short, on fruit raised in the 28 European Union member states and has imposed tight restrictions on imported fruit. DPA, a growth regulator and antioxidant, is applied after harvest to most apples conventionally grown in the U.S. and to some U.S.-grown pears, to prevent the fruit skin from discoloring during months of cold storage." Reading this, I'm thinking if this is the so-called wax that one of my friends was scraping off from an apple before he washed it...

In the guide, there was a section on Highlights of Dirty Dozen 2014 and another section on The Clean Fifteen. I extracted the shocking and notable findings here.

Shocking Findings under Highlights of Dirty Dozen 2014:

• Every sample of imported nectarines and 99 percent of apple samples tested positive for at least one pesticide residue.
• The average potato had more pesticides by weight than any other food.
• A single grape sample contained 15 pesticides. Single samples of celery, cherry tomatoes, imported snap peas and strawberries showed 13 different pesticides apiece.

Notable Findings of The Clean Fifteen:

• Avocados were the cleanest: only 1 percent of avocado samples showed any detectable pesticides.
• Some 89 percent of pineapples, 82 percent of kiwi, 80 percent of papayas, 88 percent of mango and 61 percent of cantaloupe had no residues.
• No single fruit sample from the Clean Fifteen™ tested positive for more than 4 types of pesticides.
• Detecting multiple pesticide residues is extremely rare on Clean Fifteen™ vegetables. Only 5.5 percent of Clean Fifteen samples had two or more pesticides.

Oh.. what I really like about this Guide is that it has a section on Pesticides in Baby Food! While my children aren't babies anymore, I still purchase fruit pouches from iherb as they are easy to bring out to serve as snacks for them. Definitely no more peach fruit pouches from onward! I came to this conclusion after reading this paragraph "The European Commission has set an across-the-board limit of no more than 0.01 parts per million of any pesticide in baby food, based on the fact that infants' greater vulnerability to harmful chemicals, compared to older children and adults (European Commission 2006). Some samples of American baby food, particularly applesauce and peaches in baby food tested in 2012 and green beans tested in previous years, exceed the 0.01 legal limit. In contrast to the EU's position, the U.S. has no special rules for pesticide residues in baby food."

Having read about pesticides, I recalled what I learnt during a sharing session conducted by my children's childcare centre. When choosing banana, choose one that has some brown/black spots on the banana skin, do not choose those that look so spotless! What I was told is that those spotless ones are what fruit flies would not even visit... simply because there's too much pesticides on them!

Pay more attention when buying fruits & vegetables next time!


Credits to be given to EWG for the information that I extracted from the Guide. Any other opinion reflected in this post is my own, and not related to EWG.

Choosing Safe Skin Products for Yourself & Family!

How do we choose products that are safe for our skins, especially our little ones? Well, sometime ago, when I was researching for sunscreen products to spree back from iherb for my family - both children and adults, I came across this website - http://www.ewg.org/skindeep. I find it very informative and useful to help me decide which brand or product to go for. Eventually, I choose Badger brand of sunscreen products.

Recently, I was looking for shampoo and body wash products to spree back from iherb for my children. Hence, I looked up this website for information once again. This time, I selected Earth Mama Angel Baby products (as shown in picture below). Before this, I had bought the Earth Mama Angel Baby Bottom Balm (diaper cream) and it was really good to ease my girl's diaper rash. Having read that the score is 0 for many of Earth Mama Angel Baby products really set my mind at ease, knowing that I have made some good choices. :0

I would recommend people to visit the website if you are like me, who spree baby/children products that touch their delicate skin from US websites. As spreeing from US websites, most of the products are likely to US branded, and hence, much likely to be listed on the website. However, if you are buying stuff locally, it is good to know too but do take note that a lot of the products, which you can find locally may not be listed on the website as they may not be US branded. Even if you can't find the products that you want to buy listed on the website, you can read up their "Top tips for safer products" at http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/top-tips-for-safer-products/ to deepen your knowledge.  

Read up and make a wiser choice next time!


Thinking of spreeing from iherb too? Use this link - http://www.iherb.com?rcode=BUN642 to get USD10 off your 1st order of USD40 & up, or USD5 off on smaller orders!

Any opinion reflected in this post is my own, and not related to ewg.org.

Another Drink "Remedy" for Cough - Mint Leaf Drink

Mint Leaf Drink is another drink that I learnt, which can help to relieve cough symptoms. This was taught by my mum. She called it Lemon Leaf Drink although from the look of the leaf, it looks more like Mint Leaf than Lemon Leaf; hence, I called it Mint Leaf Drink. Here's the simple recipe to share.

Recipe:
*Please vary the recipe accordingly if you're boiling a bigger pot of water with more mint leaves.

Ingredients:
1) ~12 Mint Leaves (size of leaves vary, so adjust accordingly)
2) Rock Sugar

Preparation:
1) Wash the mint leaves. Soak the leaves for about 5 minutes.

2) Fill the pot with water to half mark (half pot of water).
Tip: Some kids may not like the smell of the mint leaves; hence, you may wish to add more water or lesser leaves, to dilute the drink, if you're trying out this drink for the first time for your children.

3) Bring the pot of water with mint leaves to boil. After the water is boiled, turn to low fire and continue to boil for about 15 minutes (with the lid covered).

4) Add rock sugar according to your taste (or make it sweeter for your young children, especially if they don't like the smell of the leaves, or not so sweet for elderly folks). 

5) The following picture is what you get when the drink is done. 

Disclaimer: See a doctor if you don't get better!

Drink for Cough - Passion Fruit Drink

I had been coughing quite badly since I came back from China in end March, and my girl also coughing badly, so a friend suggested that I made Passion Fruit Drink, which is good for coughing. I'm sharing this recipe that my friend has kindly agreed for me to share on my blog, hopefully it can help others as well. I've added in additional tips of my own, see tips.

Recipe:
*Please vary the recipe accordingly if you're boiling a bigger pot of water with more passion fruits.

Ingredients:
1) 2 Passion Fruits (百香果)
2) Rock Sugar

Preparation:
1) Clean the passion fruits. 
Tip: As you need to put the skin to boil too, some may be concerned of the cleanliness of the skin. Hence, you can wash off the dirt, soak the fruits in water (add some baking soda if you wish) for about 10 minutes. As the fruits tend to float, you may wish to use a plate, invert it to cover and press down the fruits. After soaking for 10 minutes, you may use a knife to scrape the skin a bit.

2) Put the passion fruits into the pot, and cut them into quarters. By doing so, the juice that came out from the fruits when you cut them would be contained in the pot so that not a drop of the juice would be wasted!




3) If the fruit is riper type (more reddish), the pulp and seeds come out from the fruit easily when you cut it. 
Tip: If the fruit is not that ripe, you may scrape the pulp and seeds out from the skins.

4) Fill the pot with water to half mark (half pot of water).

5) Bring the pot of water with the passion fruits skin, pulp and seeds, to boil. After the water is boiled, turn to low fire and continue to boil for 30 minutes (with the lid covered).

6) Add rock sugar according to your taste (or make it sweeter for your young children or not so sweet for elderly folks). Note that the more reddish passion fruit is sweeter, and hence, may not need to add too much sugar; the greener passion fruit is more sour, and hence, may need to add more sugar.

7) The following picture is what you get when the drink is done. Sieve the seeds and serve the drink warm.

Direction:
Drink one cup a day, twice a day preferred. Drink for about 1-3 days depending on your condition. 
*Note: Cup size varies, so you have to judge for yourself. For example, when I make this drink for my 7yo boy who doesn't have cough (he likes the drink!), 2yo girl and myself, I would give myself a bigger portion, and smaller portion for my 2 children, especially for my boy.

If the cough is mild, one may potentially stop coughing after drinking it. If the cough is more serious, it helps to relieve the symptom. Disclaimer: See a doctor if you don't get better!

Learning from the Experts! Final Part!

The third and final session that I attended at MOE Excel Fest was on "Making Real World Connections in the Learning of Mathematics", conducted by Zhenghua Primary. This post is to share about the key points that the school shared with the audience, and hopefully, parents who didn't attend the sharing session can learn or find something useful from here. 

Objectives of the Sharing:

• To create awareness that Mathematics occurs in many aspects of everyday life.
• To discover the importance of Mathematics in the real-life situations.
• To reinforce that Mathematics is not just another subject that the students have to prepare for to pass the examinations.

The school also shared a research done by Paul Swan on "I Hate Mathematics", see the points in the following pictures.

The school went on to share how they introduced real life applications of Mathematics in their teaching, and also let the audience experienced the Maths Trails that they created and conducted for their students. For example, they introduced the concept of "Ordinal Number" by asking students what is the 3rd stall from the left in the canteen? 

Overall, it was a great learning experience for me. Looking at what my P1 boy has been tasked to complete in the "I Am A Champ" booklet that his school assigned to them, and when I worked with him to complete the tasks, I'm all the more convinced that they can relate better when it can be applied in real life. For example, the booklet asked the child to list down 10 different ways whereby number(s) is/are used in real life. Through this, he understands that he needs to know his numbers so that he can call home or call his parents, his weight, if he can eat the pack of tidbits by understanding what is expiry date, etc. 

What's my conclusion after attending the sharing sessions conducted at the MOE Excel Fest? Well, they are definitely useful for me to know and understand how I can teach my children for the various subjects, and I would encourage parents, especially if you have children who just started primary school education.

Credits to be given to the school for the sharing. Any opinion reflected in this post is my own, and not related to the school.

Learning from the Experts! Part 2 of 3

The second session that I attended at MOE Excel Fest was on "Making Chinese Characters Learning Fun and Enjoyable for Your Child", conducted by Guangyang Primary. The school developed a "汉字笔画操", which was created with lower primary students in mind. During the session, the school demonstrated to parents on how to use our body parts such as our hands and legs to illustrate the basic Chinese strokes.

For example, look at the picture below. Note that the sharing session was conducted in Mandarin, so I'm translating it into English to my best ability, pardon me for any misinterpretation.

1. Putting our hands in-front of us (see the action of 1st boy), it looks like we're surrounding (围) ourselves, so it represents the bigger mouth (大口) surrounding the other strokes within it. 
2. Putting our right arm horizontally in-front of us (see the action of 2nd boy), it represents the stroke "橫".
3. Putting our right arm horizontally and left arm flexed up vertically (see the action of 3rd boy), it represents the word "十".
4. Similar to point 2 as above, so it's the stroke "橫".
5. Punching our right fist out to the front, it represents the stroke "点".

With the above explanation, can you guess which is the word? Well, it's "国".

It was really a very fun learning experience for the parents present at the sharing session as we really learnt quite a number of the basic strokes, and were even asked to invent action for some of the strokes. An example, for my table, we were asked to invent an action for the 部首 "虫", so I did the wriggling worm action to represent it.

It would be quite interesting to teach the basic strokes to our children and have fun learning Chinese! Hence, if the school ever conducts such a sharing session again, do sign up for it! :)

Watch out for the next and last part in my next post...

Credits to be given to the school for the sharing. Any opinion reflected in this post is my own, and not related to the school.

Learning from the Experts! Part 1 of 3

I signed up 3 sharing sessions conducted by schools at the MOE Excel Fest this year. As this was my first year of attending such sharing sessions, I had chosen different area of focus for each sharing session. 

The first session was on "Nurturing Your Child into a Confident and Effective Communicator", conducted by CHIJ Our Lady Queen of Peace. The school shared about how they used Moo-O in school to hone their students' reading fluency skills so that they can eventually communicate confidently and effectively. The parents at the sharing session were given opportunity to try out a story, which was pretty fun and engaging!

Some primary schools are using Moo-O, which unfortunately my son's school is not one of them. The company has a special rate for schools, which unfortunately is not extended to consumers like us, parents! The reason given was that schools purchased a bundle of stories, and hence, the special rate. I suggested to the company that they could offer discount scheme such as buying 5 or 10 stories that would be cheaper than buying each story individually; hopefully they would really look into this and implement it soon!

You can go to http://www.moo-o.com/ to find out more information on Moo-O. The good news is that you can download a free story at http://www.moo-o.com/software/download/ to try it out! :)

Besides Moo-O, the school also shared some learning tips on how parents can help their children, as follows.

1. Choosing books that are:

• enjoyable to read (even for adults)
• packed with good phrases

2. Asking your child:

• literal questions
• inferential questions
• discussion questions

3. Role-modelling:

• read aloud expressively and fluently
• point at the words when reading
• eyes are focusing on the words
• active listening
• agree to disagree

4. Reaching out to reluctant readers:

• read comprehension passages
• identify difficult words and phrases with the child
• have the child retell after a few sentences
• use positive words of encouragement

Last but not least, here's a quote for you to takeaway if you don't remember all the above.

Watch out for the next part in my next post...

Credits to be given to the school for the sharing on Moo-O and learning tips. Any opinion reflected in this post is my own, and not related to the school or Moo-O.

Making Your Own Pineapple Paste

This post is to share my mum's advice when making your own pineapple paste to make pineapple tarts. 

Choosing pineapples 
Choose slightly green (not too ripe) - it's easier to grind (磨) as too ripe pineapple is too soft to grind. 

Cutting pineapples
When cutting the pineapple, cut into slightly bigger pieces so that it's easier to grind and remember to remove the eyes before starting to grind them.

Cooking pineapples
To have pineapple taste, it's important to cook the paste with the pineapple juice. Mum said those pineapple paste sold outside, the pineapple juice was drained off before cooking the paste so that the paste dries up faster, and hence, shorten the cooking time. Put sugar into the pineapple paste before cooking it. When the paste starts to dry up (juice getting lesser & lesser), add rock sugar (冰糖) so that the paste would look shiny.

Make Learning Han Yu Pin Yin Fun!

My son (DS) is in Primary 1 this year. One of the most "terrifying" things for parents to teach the child is Spelling and 听写. My husband (DH) and I have been speaking to DS in Mandarin since young, and my mum was a retired teacher who is well versed in Chinese, so we should not have any problem teaching him 听写. Nonetheless, I want him to learn Chinese in a fun way that he would really remember, and not just merely memorise the Han Yu Pin Yin or Chinese words by heart.

I started searching for pictures, and inserted them into boxes in MS Word. After I printed it out, I put the paper in a clear pocket so that my son can write on it using a whiteboard marker, and this can be re-used many times to teach and revise with my son.

Verdict? He enjoys learning in this manner. I'm glad that my efforts and time spent on doing this paid off. :)

Tips: You can use this to teach the child the English words of these pictures too! :)

Kueh Lapis Recipe

Please note that this recipe is from my mum's recipe book, which she learnt at a Community Centre many years ago, and we have fine tuned it along the way to suit our taste. If you find the recipe similar to yours, it is just pure coincidence, afterall everyone of us learnt from somewhere and it could probably be from the same source.

Ingredients:

20 egg yolks

5 egg whites

550g salted butter (I used SCS butter, ~2 ¼ of 250g block)

300g castor sugar

170g flour

8 tbsp condensed milk

3 tbsp brandy or rum

1 tsp vanilla extract (I used Nielsen Massey pure vanilla extract)

1½ tsp ground mixed spices (I used ½ tsp McCormick Ground Cinnamon, ½ tsp McCormick Ground Nutmeg, ½ tsp vanilla extract)

Steps:
1) Beat egg yolks with sugar until thick creamy. Set it aside for use later.

2) Beat butter for a while, add in the condensed milk and continue to beat till creamy. 

3) Add (2) to (1). Fold in flour and vanilla extract.

4) Add the egg whites in, and mix slowly until all the egg whites are dissolved.

5) Add brandy or rum, and mix well.

6) Divide the mixture into 2 equal portions. Add the mixed spices to one portion and mix well. The other portion is plain.

7) Line a 9" square baking tin with baking paper and grease it. You can use the butter wrapper to grease it. Heat the tin.

8) Scoop ~3-4 tbsp (I used Chinese soup spoon) of the plain or spiced mixture, and use the back of the spoon to smooth out the mixture, reaching all corners of the tin. 

9) Bake the first layer using bottom and top fire. Other layers only top fire or grill.

10) After each layer is baked, remove from oven, 
- use a satay stick or toothpick to remove the air bubbles, 
- use lapis press to press the layer, 
- apply brandy or rum with a cooking brush on the layer (most recipes out there do not have this step, so you may omit this step but it would greatly enhance the fragrance & taste), 
- scoop ~3 tbsp of the mixture (alternating between the plan and spiced mixture) and smooth it out reaching all corners of the tin. 

If you want each layer to look even and nicer, you may wish to weigh each layer, ~125g for first layer and ~100g for subsequent layers, instead of using my estimation method.

Notes:
I'm using a Panasonic Microwave Oven, so these are the baking modes and temperature that I use:
- Preheat oven in conventional bake mode,
- use conventional bake 170 deg cel, ~5 mins for first layer,
- use grill low fire ~3½ mins+- for subsequent layers,
- use grill low fire ~2½ mins for last layer followed by conventional bake 150 deg cel for 1-2mins.
*As the oven gets heated up, the time taken to bake each layer may get shorter. Hence, you may wish to bake with shorter timing and check if the layer is brown enough. If the layer is not brown enough, continue to bake for a while more until you're satisfied with the brownness.

Kueh Lapis on 11 Jan 2014

I had not bake Kueh Lapis for a long long time since my last oven spoilt and I had my first child. Recently, I'm into a baking mood, so I gotten a new toy - a Kitchen Aid! A hot pink one that was selling at a promo price of $648 at Best Denki, so I must do more baking now to make my investment worthwhile!

Overall, it's a success, albeit too oily despite that I already cut down on the butter, and maybe can also cut a bit more sugar or condensed milk. 

I would share the recipe in another post. :)

Selling Things via Online Methods

Things cluttering up the space at home? Children outgrown the items? Somehow, you just have to get rid of them to make room for new things to come in, especially it's spring cleaning time now!!!

These past 2-3 weeks have been a good one for me when it comes to selling or even blessing out things. I have managed to sell away few slightly larger or bulky items, such as children playyard and bumbo chair, and quite a number of smaller items that I could mail out.

Friends have been asking me how I managed to sell away those things as they have been having difficulty trying to get rid of their stuff. Well, I have to say, I really took a lot of efforts and quite a bit of time as I posted my stuff for sale at 3 different Facebook groups, Gumtree and even Singapore Motherhood Forum! For items that are not deemed good enough to be sold, I would bless them out via a blessing Facebook group.

Here's some tips when trying to sell your stuff:

1. When choosing which Facebook group to post, you must know what you can sell and the maximum sale price for each of the groups. For examples:-

Xchange Corner group for parents by Buzzy Tots allows you to sell children and maternity stuff, and there is no cap on the selling price. This is good to post all the things that you're allowed to sell with no restriction on selling price.

Low Cost Spree Clearing allows you to sell things with a cap of $4 and the price must include postage cost. This is good to post the things that you're trying to clear at relatively cheap price.

Budget Corner for babies , mummies , ladies @ $10 n below ! allows you to sell baby, mummy & lady stuff at no more than $10.

Choose Facebook groups with different budget as there are people who look into the lower cost groups. Afterall, who don't like things that are relatively a lot more affordable?

2. When posting in Facebook groups, it's good to read the terms and conditions of each group frequently as each of them has different rules and they are updated as and when. Read carefully and understand the difference between the different groups, and see how you can take "advantage" of the rules to promote your items so that it would attract people's attention. 

If the group said that you can only bump the album every 24hrs, do remember to bump it frequently and try bumping it at different timing, sometimes in the day, sometimes at night, sometimes at wee hours, hopefully it would attract people who is awake or accessing Facebook at different timing. If the group said not to bump more than 3 posts, choose 3 items that you think might stand a higher chance of selling, and bump those posts instead of bumping the entire album.

3. Reach out to people who might not have a Facebook account, and you can do so via Gumtree and Singapore Motherhood (SMH) Forum.

When posting on Gumtree, you can't bump the posts like you can in Facebook groups, but what you can do is to remove those that you had already posted for some time, and post them again so that they appear on the front pages.

4. Capture picture of the items that you're trying to sell, and post it on your sale thread. A picture speaks a thousand words! Hence, do make an effort to take a presentable looking picture.

5. Set notification for Facebook postings and email notification for Gumtree and SMH so that you are prompted when someone posted on your post.

6. Check and monitor responses frequently!!! It is pretty pointless if you just keep posting what you have to sell but you don't check and monitor the responses on a frequent basis. With smartphone technology, you can access Facebook and your emails almost anywhere, so it isn't too difficult to check and monitor responses.

7. Most importantly, don't be lazy or procrastinate, do spend some efforts and time to set up the things for sale, else don't complain that you have difficulty trying to sell your stuff. Not forget to mention, make sure you can wait it out for some time, don't be in a hurry to get rid of the items like in weeks' time as you probably end up selling much cheaper than you expected or giving it to people instead. Also, don't give up when a trade fails, just persist on, and the item would be sold in time to come. If it doesn't get sold for a long long time, like a year... see if you have been working hard enough trying to sell your stuff or it's relatively a difficult item to get rid of. If it's the former, move your butt, remember that the longer you wait, the lesser the value of the item as it gets depreciated over the time and might become more & more worthless. If it's the latter, probably consider to donate to a charity organisation that probably has means to refurbish and sell the item, or sometimes, people may just buy to support a charity effort. 

I hope the above tips can help you to sell away your things faster, have fun selling! :)