Feedback on Mooncakes

I am very thankful to those who have given me the feedback on my mooncakes... especially the very honest and the very professional feedbacks.

Before I forget these valuable words, I better note it down, so that I can refer back the next time I make mooncakes.

Lynda:

1. Snow skin is too oily. Maybe I added too much shortening fat. Yes I agreed, especially when it is eating at room temperature. If it is eating chilled, its not so bad. Think I better use my teacher's recipe the next time, instead of using the pre-mix recipe.

Alice:

1. The skin of the traditional mooncake is slightly hard and uneven, some parts are thicker than the other parts.
2. The snow skin is a little too hard, it doesn't blend in very nicely with the paste. After trying the snow skin mooncake from Tung Lok, I understand what she meant. One thing nice to note is the paste they used - red bean paste with champagne chocolate substitute as egg yolk. I like that combination, should try the next time.

Neighbour (Auntie ??? , must ask for her name next time I see her):

1. Not enough melon seeds in the paste. She likes more melon seeds.
2. Skin is ok. Paste not too sweet, just right.

Betty (my facial lady):

1. Skin too hard - I might have kneaded the dough too long, or my hands are too warm and it affects the temperature on the dough. Yes, I am too afraid that the dough is not mixed well enough.
2. Colour not even - My egg yolk coating is too concentrated, I must add more egg white or milk. It could also due to the uneven temperature in the oven, maybe I can try turning the tray.
3. White Lotus Paste is good.
4. Pandan Paste - no standard. Want to DIY, must use fresh pandan leaves and coconut juice. I can do more research on that.

Hubby:

1. Think its nice enough for a start, no much negative feedback. But he suggested that I can try creating some unique paste next time, so that I can give people some surprise.

Something I have forgotten to mention to the others on the traditional mooncake - the skin is hard on the 1st day of the baking, but it will be soften on the 2nd or 3rd day, and it will taste better by then.

Mooncakes

It all started with me looking around for birthday cakes for my 2 princes. I was trying to look for something new and different from those selling at Bengawan, Polar Cakes, Prima Deli & Swensons...

Then, one day, I came to know that a friend's wife makes cakes. I read her blog and I was very impressed. I thought it would be cool if I could make the birthday cakes myself and I started to search for more info on the cake baking classes. Just then, I realise the CC near my place has baking classes. There are 5 stages, with 8 lessons per stage. I signed up for it. But I realise it will take me a long way, before I can make a nice cake like those I saw in the blog. So, in the end I just ordered the cakes from the friend and told myself to pick up the skill slowly. Hopefully, by this time next year, I can acquire enough skill to make "professionally" nice looking and yummy cakes.

In the meantime, the Mooncake Festival is coming, I took the opportunity, pull my sister-in-law along, took up the mooncake making class.

We made the 1st batch of mooncakes last Monday, but we forgot to take pictures. Last Saturday, we tried the 2nd round - traditional mooncakes & snow skin mooncakes.

Traditional Mooncakes:

1. Traditional mooncake skin have to be made first and let it rest for at least 5 hours. I made it a day before
   

1. Pandan paste mixed with melon seeds. I also used white lotus paste with salted egg yolks.

For the salted egg yolks, washed away the egg white, season with sesame oil and bake it for 10 mins.

1. Dough with the skin wrapped around the paste. Before and after putting into mould. The most difficult part is to ensure the skin is evenly spread out over the paste. For the not so skillful people like us, its quite a challenging job.

1. Mooncakes just came out from oven. The colour is not very even, cos I wasn't experienced enough in applying the egg yolk over the surface. Needs more training.

1. Though the look is not fantastic, the taste is good!




2. 
   
   

Snowskin Mooncakes:

1. We used different ingredients from what we were taught in class, cos I saw the snow skin pre mix ingredients in Phoon Huat. So, for the "short-cut" way, we used these.

1. Dough after mixing all the ingredients together. I took an extra step, instead of using plain water to mix, I boiled the water with pandan leaves, and chilled the boiled pandan water first.

1. The finished product of the snowskin mooncakes. This will taste better after chilling. Though the colour look nice, but the skin seem to be a little too oily. I also got feedback that the skin is a little hard, compared to the Tung Lok mooncake.

Altogether we made 69 traditional mooncakes (medium size) and 27 snow skin mooncakes (medium size). We started about 9.30am in the morning and finished at about 4pm. By the time we finished, our legs were numb. We gave away some to neighbours and relatives. Well, the good thing is - we saved a lot of $$$. The cost of the ingredients were much lower than those mooncakes selling in the restaurants or hotels!!!

Thinking of doing this as business? Dare not think yet...

The learning of baking is a long way to go. Though now I get hooked in baking, I am just interested in the process of baking, not really on eating. So, people around me got to be prepared to swallow off all my successful and unsuccessful products....till I get tired of baking.

What's wrong with my blog?

Am I not blog savy enough? Or there is some technical problem with my blog. I have been spending 2 days to adjust the alignment on my blog, but it still turn out a mess. Anybody can help?

Busy Mummy

A few friends have been "complaining" that I hardly update my blog. Yes, yes, yes, I know. I am back again. My dear friends, you don't have to visit my blog too often, maybe once a month is good enough. I am not that hardworking leh. Heee.

Hubby told me that once he had a conversation with his colleague:

"Is your wife working?" colleague asked.

"No". Hubby answered.

"So, she is a full time housewife?"

"Sort of."

"She looks after the children?"

"My mum helps to look after them."

"So she does the housework & cooking?"

"We have a maid, she doesn't cook."

"So what does she do?"

"I don't know, but she always complains that she is busy."

Things that I have been busy with recently:

Mum's hospitalization:

Mum's leg has been swelling since early Aug. Have been sending her to GPs, Chinese doctors to Polyclinic couple of times. But no improvement. With her food poisoning incident, she ended up in SGH, to treat her leg as swell. She was discharged, but the leg swell again the very next day. Now, she was back in the hospital 2nd time. I have been to the A&E for 3 times within 1 month, each time spending not less than 6 hours waiting. When she was warded, she disliked the food there, so the heartache daughter tried to ta bao nice food everyday and visit her at noon time.

Son's birthdays:

Aron's 4th birthday - 30 Aug

Asher's 5th birthday - 17 Sep

See how much they have grown.... Many people says that I am a lucky mum, cos I have "easy" boys, as they are not the hyperactive type. Indeed, I agreed. They are also the lucky children, as they don't have super strict and fierce adults to discipline them. They are given a lot of space to grow in their own ways. With patient talks & communications, and only occasional screaming from the mummy, they have grown up to be the gentle and sweet boys.

On this year's birthdays, luckily, hubby and me have decided NOT to throw a party this year, otherwise, I would have been DEAD BUSY.

Well, even for class celebrations and home celebrations, that would add up to 4 celebrations in half a month! From sourcing of goodies, self design and packaging to sourcing of 4 nice birthday cakes. Only mummy think is worth spending the time and effort.

Aron's birthday:

Asher's 5th birthday:

September School Holidays:
The first 3 days of holiday were normal school days - the school prepared special programmes. We left the last 4 days free. The boys had been asking to go Genting. Well, they had been there 3 times already. The adults are tired of that place. So, for a change, we went to Sunway Lagoon in KL. Its a convenient place for everyone. The hotel, theme park and a big shopping mall are just located next to each other. So no travelling is needed for the 4 days stay.

Baking Class:

I have taken up the cake baking class at the CC near my place since early Aug. There are 5 stages altogether, each stage has 8 lessons, and I am currently in stage 1.With the endless things I need to settle, I didn't have much time to try out many recipes at home, but still manage to try a few.

My latest project is the mooncake. I have been buying lots of mooncakes to give away to relatives every year. Since I had just attend the mooncake class, I decided to add some "personal" touch to my gifts this year. My mooncakes may not be as good as those professionally made by the chefs, but at least I think I can give myself 3 out of 5. Hope my relatives give some face, don't throw it into the bin without tasting it.

Some of my baking projects:

Hospital Seventh Month Experience

One week ago, on the night of Aron's 4th birthday, I got food poisoning. The lucky thing was the food that I had contracted with virus was not the Swenson birthday cake. Otherwise, I cannot imagine what would happen to the whole family. I took 4 days to recover.

On the day of my recovery, my mum started to feel unwell as she had a couple times of vomitting and diarrhoea. With her age and health condition, she seemed to be more serious. By that evening, we decided to play safe and send her to A&E.

At SGH, everyone in the A&E had to wear mask. You wouldn't know whether the person next to you had contracted H1N1. So, I bravely suggested hubby to return home first, while I would stay there and wait. From 8pm, I waited in the mask for 6 bloody hours! By 10pm, I felt cold and tired of sitting. I decided to go for a walk and get myself something hot to eat or drink. But I was told the canteen was already closed. The only place I could go was the Cheers at block 4. I just couldn't wait to get out of that cold place, so it didn't matter how far I had to walk.

The distant to Cheers wasn't that far, if you are walking in the day. But it seem extraodinary far when you are walking alone at night, especially on the 15th night of the seventh month. There were only 1 or 2 people walking pass occasionally. Other than that, you find yourself walking in the middle of nowhere. My heart seem to pump faster than usual. But I acted very relaxed, I didn't who I was showing my "braveness". I finally got myself a pack of cold and hard hotdog bread with a cup of hot milo. As I was reluctant to go back to A&E so soon, I tried to find myself a place to rest and eat. I stopped at a closed cafeteria at block 2, sat down at a table that seem to be the brightess spot and had my food there. Occasionally, there would be a few staff walking out from a lift or a door from a distant and walked towards the exit door. Most of them would give a stare at me. Good that they see me, I thought.

I quickly finished my food and returned to A&E and continue waiting. Finally, by 1.30am, I was told that mum had to be warded and I had to do the admission at the counter before I go. Since mum was in stable condition, I told her I would just settle the admission and go home straight after, without going up to the ward. She agreed fully.

When the admission was done, staff asked me to send the file up to the ward. What?!!! You mean I have to go to the ward? Yes! So, with much reluctance, I took the file and walked to the ward. I had to walked through a long passage way in the hospital, ALONE, at 1.30am, on the 15th night of the seventh month! By the time, I reach the lift lobby of block 5, I was all alone in a super quiet place. I walked into the lift with my heart pumping very fast and press the button on the highest floor. Luckily, the building is just 8 storey high.

When the lift reached the 8th floor, the door opened. Suddenly I heard a very loud "HOOOOOOOOONG" sound. My heart almost dropped. My leg couldn't shift a little. It took another few more seconds before I started to realise that the sound came from the aircon dat from the ceiling. I walked out at the fastest speed I could take and started to chant "Nam Mo Wo Mi Tuo Fuo" repeatedly in my heart. At the shortest time, I reach the room and saw my mum in bed with a few nurses attending to her. I couldn't felt so relieved by then.

After making sure that my mum had settled down comfortably, I walked back to the lift lobby and heard the same loud "Hong" sound again. This time, I was too tired to feel scared, I just couldn't be bothered anymore. So I took the lift alone again and went down. I was lucky that there was a one and only taxi waiting just outside.

By the time I reached home and lied in bed, I was still thinking about my horror experience.