Edible gardening

I've been wanting to make an edible potplant for the past year. I'm not sure where it came from, but I recall seeing photos of potplant desserts popping up. Perhaps it started from Heston Blumenthal and his amazing edible garden? I'm not really sure. I just really wanted one..

Instagram is a wonderful thing. It's one of the things I use as a "to do", "to go", "to eat" wishlist. Okay.. call me Asian (well actually, I think it started off being an "Asian thing" to do, but now it's just a "foodie thing"), but I love taking photos of food. Food is meant to be seen by the eyes, smelt by the nose and tasted by the tastebuds. For me it's smell, see and then taste. And because you can't preserve smell and taste, you can at least capture how it looks. Hehe :P

When I was in Sydney this year, I wanted to get a potplant dessert from Blackflower Patisserie. Thanks to Instagram, I saw a photo of it whilst I was in Sydney and decided to go find it. (I love how Instagram tells me where to go.. instantly. It also happened in Tokyo when I saw a photo of a really cute cafe with the cutest matcha latte art. So I went there on my last day of my holiday). But when I got to Blackflower Patisserie, I found out that it was only served during the evening. I was quite disappointed because I had to fly back that evening.

But... as I was browsing Instagram for any cute (I really am a sucker for cute things..) or interesting things in Seoul before I went again, I found out about Banana Tree. They served potplant desserts and potplant bingsoo! I saw it. I wanted it.. and I got it! Hehe. They didn't serve the bingsoo during winter though, so I was a tad disappointed.

The potplant looked great! I think I was more in love with the shovel spoons though. The dessert itself was just a small patty case of cream and cake. A tad disappointing for the price, but definitely cute! I eventually decided that I had to find those shovel spoons for myself and found them on ebay. :)

I decided that I'd make my own pot plant desserts. I tried looking for mini terracotta pots but couldn't find any. So I ended up with plastic ones.

Edible potplants
Makes about 10

Matcha genoise (see recipe below)
Matcha mousse (see recipe below)
Black sesame crumble (I made mine with blacksesame, butter, sugar and a little flour)
Matcha cookie crumble (I made mine, but I don't have a recipe for you)
Chocolate mushrooms (I made mine)
Chocolate rocks (I bought a packet)

This was how I imagined it:

Matcha genoise

2 eggs
40g sugar
40g plain flour
8g matcha
20g butter, melted and cooled

Cream the eggs and sugar. Add in sifted flour and matcha.
Fold in melted butter.
Pour into a lined slice tray.
Bake in a preheated 180C oven for about 15mins.

Matcha mousse

100ml milk
10g matcha
1 egg, separated
40g sugar
80ml cream
1 tsp gelatin powder

Beat egg yolks and 20g sugar until pale.
Heat up milk and matcha on low heat. Take off from heat.
Gradually pour the eggs into milk, constantly mixing.
Add the gelatin.
Sieve the mixture if needed.
Add the cream.
Whip egg whites with 20g of sugar until stiff peaks.
Gently fold into matcha mix.

To assemble:

Make sure your pots are clean firstly.
I double lined mine with some IKEA cupcake patty casings as they're taller than the average patty case. Stickytape it at the bottom so it stays.

Cut rounds of cake out. I used the back of a piping nozzle.
Layer one round of cake. Half fill with mousse. Add another piece of cake. Fill with mousse to the top.
Refrigerate overnight.

Sprinkle black sesame crumble.
Gently twist a toothpick into the mushroom chocolate stalk (This will keep it steady). Stick the mushroom into the cake.
Sprinkle some matcha cookie crumbs. Add a few chocolate rocks.
Refrigerate when not consuming.

Great for gifting ;)

I love my shovel spoon! It also came with a shovel fork. Hehe.

I'm still here

It's been a while since I've blogged. I haven't really been doing much baking/cooking lately.. I've been busy. As per usual, working, traveling, eating. :P

I'm getting back into fattening my workmates up again. :P

This was the last thing I made, which didn't work out the way I wanted it to because I wasn't in the right frame of mind. Haha.. It was supposed to be for N, but it was incomplete and I was too ashamed of it. I'm sorry! :( It's a mini lychee cake with coconut custard and jackfruit.

I should really get back into my baking and blogging. But I've been preoccupying myself with other things when I'm not working. I've been sewing biscuit cushions, painting babushka dolls, trying to interior decorate my house etc.

I made the rectangular cushion a year ago. The round ones are unfinished as I've yet to sandwich them with jam. :P (And no. I didn't make Gingy)



Testing out 3D latte art. Hehe~ Ever since finding cute latte art in Japan, I've been trying to find more. Unfortunately there isn't really anywhere that does it. :( I'm going to attempt a bunny next time!

I painted these babushkas, my style. :P
Behind is my origami bakery and a sushi cushion that I made a few years ago. I was supposed to make a whole bento box with chopsticks, but I only ever ended up making 4 sushi cushions because I ran out of material and could no longer be bothered. Haha

I guess the main reason I haven't been baking is because I have too many things I want to make, that I just get confused about what I really want to do. Or if I'm in a bad mood, I generally can't bake because I know things will just get worse. I do believe that your mood affects your baking.

Hopefully I can attempt a pandan chiffon cake sometime soon. I've been wanting to make one for a while now. I bought a chiffon pan a few months back and still haven't used it. Haha... I really do have too much bakeware.

Stay tuned. It'll happen.

In the mean time, I bought more cookbooks to salivate over.

(I shouldn't even be awake at the moment. Haha.. It's nearly 5am. I did sleep, but I woke up an hour ago..)

Waffle on!

Working in a shopping centre is hard when you're trying to stop spending money.

A few weeks ago during the Christmas season, I wandered out on my lunch break. I can't help but stop by House or Matchbox to take a peek... and I found a waffle cone maker! Ooo.. :D

Now, just the week prior though, I had purchased a Nordicware Belgian Waffler from amazon.com.  It wasn't cheap. About 49AUD delivered. M wanted one too. What I really want though, was a hk egg waffle pan (gai dan jai). :( But it's so expensive! I know you can get them on Shanghai Street, Kowloon.. but but.. I still haven't had the chance. Moreso because I can't speak Cantonese so I'm scared of the shop owners. Hahaha. D:

But this waffle cone maker, I was thinking I could make egg roll cookies and love letter cookies with them. Being $20, I thought, yeah ok, why not! I don't have one yet! HAHA.. Unfortunately, with this kitchen addiction of mine, I have most things already. Especially bakeware...

Anyway, I decided to test these two pans out. I tried making egg rolls first. The last time I ate an egg roll cookie was last year when in HK. I went to a HKTB Wing Wah cake class with my cousins and we made wife cakes and egg rolls. I can't seem to find the recipe sheet they gave us, so I just googled for a recipe. I couldn't really find one as people call "springrolls/cha gio" as "egg rolls". I think it's an American thing. Sigh. So I searched in Chinese instead. And I found one! :D But I can't remember where it was from.. :(

Chinese egg roll cookies
Makes about 20

100g butter
120g plain flour
90g sugar
3 whole eggs

Melt butter and allow to cool.
Whisk eggs, add sugar. Whisk.
Add butter and flour. Whisk.

Brush a heated pan with some extra butter.
Apply one tablespoon of mixture.

Cook for 50secs on low-med heat on each side.

Carefully roll it up. (Beware, as it's extremely hot! My fingers are used to the heat :P )
Allow to cool.

If they aren't completely crisp, bake them in an oven at 120-150C for 30mins or so until they are crisp.
Store in an airtight container.

They taste great! But they don't look as pretty because of the grid lines. But that doesn't matter, right? Haha. I'm gonna make some more for Lunar/Chinese New Years this year.

With the waffles, well, I still need to look for a good recipe. (And I probably shouldn't alter the butter content this time. I'm afraid of butter, so I like to reduce and cut it out, but this doesn't allow the waffles to be crisp :( )

I'll keep trying. Same goes with the love letter cookies. The pan doesn't really work because it's too thick. Sigh...

Where's cookie monster when I need him?

I decided to make choc chip cookies recently.  And.... I made a bit too much. -__-

I had some Hershey's cinnamon chips that I wanted to use, as well as some white, dark and milk chocolate chips. So I made cinnamon chip cookies and triple choc cookies. I've still got some Reese's peanut butter chips that I'll use next time.. :P

Choc chip cookies
Makes about 58 large cookies

200g butter
200g caster sugar
200g brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
415g plain flour
1 tsp bicarb soda
3 tsp hot water
1 tsp salt
380g choc chips (I had half a batch with cinnamon chips, half with triple choc)

Cream butter and sugars.
Add in eggs and vanilla extract. Beat.
Dissolve bicarb soda with hot water. Add to mixture.
Add in plain flour and salt. Mix until combined.
You should get about 1090g of dough.
Add in chocolate chips and mix. (It will now be about 1450g)
Weigh out 25g dough to make each cookie.

Place onto lined baking tray, separating each dough with at least 2 cms.

Bake in a preheated 160C oven for about 10-12mins or until the edges start to brown slightly.

Remove from oven and allow to cool completely (They will feel very soft, so don't touch them!). Then transfer onto cooling rack.

Now, where's cookie monster when I need him?

Kueh bangkit

I made some pandan kueh bangkit. It's about a month till Chinese New Year. This year though, I'll be overseas during the lunar new year, so I won't have time to make many things. :( Boo..


Oh well. I used the same recipe as I used last year. So they basically look and taste the same :P


Kueh bangkit
Makes about 150 bite sized pieces

500g tapioca starch
250ml coconut cream
200g sugar
3 egg yolks
1 tsp pandan essence

Dry fry tapioca starch in a large clean dry wok for about 30mins, on low heat.
Leave to cool overnight or for a few days.
Melt sugar in coconut cream over low heat. Remove from heat.
Allow to cool slightly before adding egg yolk.
Add in flavouring.
Slowly add liquid into tapioca starch until a dough is formed.
The dough should be matte and not glossy, so add the liquid bit by bit so you don't add too much. (If you do, you'd have to dry fry some more tapioca starch..)
Roll out and cut using cookie cutters.
Bake in a preheated 160C oven for about 15-20mins (depending on the size of your shapes.)
Allow to cool completely on cooling rack before storing in an air tight container.

Testing the new oven!

I decided to play with my new kitchen for the very first time. Haha. Now I've got a larger oven to use. But it's got so many modes that I need to keep reading the manual in order to remember. -__- Sigh. I suppose I will get used to it over time. Next time, I'll test out my new kitchen appliances also! Ah, I can't wait! :D


To test out the oven, I made gingerbread men! I made cinnamonbread last year, so this is basically the same recipe but with added ginger. It's not too over powering and the spices are just right for my tastes.


Merry Christmas everyone! :)

I love baking Christmas goodies~ Hehe. Oh, and I LOVE this caesar stone benchtop! The baking trays go on hot and become cool to touch so quickly! :D

Gingerbread men
Makes about 20 big and 60 small cookies

600g self raising flour
160g pure icing
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp mixed spice
1 tbsp ginger powder

2 eggs (112g), lightly beaten
110g golden syrup, warmed
100g butter, melted and cooled
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Sift and mix dried ingredients together.

Add liquid ingredients and mix until combined.
Form a dough.
Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.


Take dough out to room temperature (2hrs or so) before rolling it out.

Preheat oven to 160C.

Roll out dough between two sheets of baking paper.


Roll out dough to about 7mm or so. I used two chopsticks to help me get this sort of thickness.


Cut out with cookie cutters and place onto baking tray.


Bake for approx 8 mins for big and about 5 mins for small cookies.


Allow to cool before storing.


Store in an airtight container.

Or give them as gifts! :)


Merry Christmas everyone!