D O M O !

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Christmas Orders!

Heellloo all! Phewww...! I realize how quiet and dusty my little DOMO! blog has become. But, worry not! DOMO! is back with bright shiny, blinky lights, because it's CHRISTMAS TIME!

I'm pretty proud of my previous year's Christmas creations, but it's nothing compared to what I have in mind this year!

I'm taking orders to make awesome Christmas cakes this year because
A) I wanna come back with a big BANG and
B) I'm itching to make some super awesome cakes!

So, drop me a comment below, or leave me a message on my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/domocakes if you're thinking of having a kick-ass Christmas cake at your party this year!

Um... only applicable for people living in Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya or Melaka (Malaysia)... unless of course you're buying me a flight to your country... :-) That would be an awesome Christmas!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Soft rolls... from Nigella Lawson

During my travels in New Zealand, I noticed that most of the German backpackers making their own bread. They say it's because Germany makes the best bread... and the cr*p sold in NZ is inedible. So they opt to making their own. Sure seems nice to get fresh baked bread... so I got to a hankering of making bread myself too.

Everyone knows how much I love Nigella. I love her easy-lazy cooking - that's just the perfect style for me.

That's why, if I'm looking for a recipe, I always go for Nigella's. I know for sure, it's fast and no fuss! So I found her recipe for making soft dinner rolls.

Like I said, I do love Nigella, but sometimes she is a little too much into the details (even though her recipes are really easy)! So if you want her exact recipe and directions, go to her soft rolls recipe.

I've cut down the recipe to a "even lazier Domo" instruction:

Ingredients:

500-600g plain flour
3 teaspoons (1 sachet) instant yeast
1/2 tablespoon
Salt
1tablespoon caster sugar
375ml milk
20-25g butter

Mix 500gm of flour with the yeast, salt and sugar in a biiig bowl. Heat up the milk on a low heat and melt the butter in it. Don't let the milk boil! Pour the warm milk into the flour mixture, and just using a fork - mix the ingredients together.

When a dough comes together, remove the dough from the bowl, and knead till it is nice and silky. This is the best part of bread making - the kneading! Work it hard! The more you push and pull and turn and punch it - the softer your bread will be. Let the dough rise for about an hour in a warm place.

Punch the dough down and start shaping the rolls into little balls. Place them on a sheet of baking paper with little spaces between them, so they'd rise and sorta join together. I mixed in some bacon, leek, herbs and onions into my dough to get a savory bun. Nigella sprinkled some seeds on top. YOU, can do whatever you want.

Oh yeah, and I hid a little cherry tomato inside the bun :) Surprise!

Rhubarb Pie

One of the main reasons (if not the only reason) I love living abroad in 4 season countries, would be because of the FOOD! The variety of produce and ingredients available here just makes me want to bake everyday! A day at the Farmers market is like a day in paradise to me.

Just look at these amazing produce I found at Hastings Farmer's market!

A couple of days ago, I was given a bunch of rhubarbs by a lady who said she didn't like the tart taste of rhubarbs. She said it would go pretty well with apples and maybe I could make an apple crumble and throw some in. Well, I was pretty darn excited. Give me something strange and tell me it tastes like a funny word, and you'll get me going!

They basically look like red celery sticks. But they are sour. And they don't taste like celery. So, okay. I went searching for a recipe for an Apple-rhubarb crumble, and I came across a Fresh Rhubarb pie recipe. It looked pretty darn easy.. All it needed was:

4 cups of chopped rhubarb
1 1/3 cups of white sugar
6 tbs flour
1 tbs butter
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie (I used sweet shortcrust pastry)

And these are the directions..

Preheat oven to 230 degrees C
Combine sugar and flour. Sprinkle 1/4 of it over pastry in pie plate. Heap rhubarb over this mixture. Sprinkle with remaining sugar and flour. Dot with small pieces of butter. Cover with top crust.
Place pie on lowest rack in oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 175 degrees C, and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

I didn't want to simply cover my pie and be done with it... I wanted to make it look a little more kooky... (like I do with all my other food). Also, I know for a fact that I would make a big ugly mess if i were to just roll out my shortcrust pastry and cover the damn thing. So I cut out little pieces of starts to cover the top. Note, if you plan to do this or make a weave out of strips of pastry on top, make sure you cover quite alot of the pie. It helps to keep the steam and heat between the pastry and cook your rhubarb into a nice gooey jammy texture. I also sprinkled some course raw sugar on top :D

Of course, I couldn't serve my pie without a dollop of New Zealand's famous super delicious ice cream. I bought a pretty cheap box of local ice cream (about $4.98). Deep South Vanilla ice cream was on sale... they also had French Vanilla. I wonder what is the difference?

I went for a 'pre dessert run' earlier today, because I know I'm so gonna pig out tonight!!

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Spongebob and Angry Birds Cakes for Arlynn

Some little girls are so lucky... Arlynn is one of them! She's my cousin's daughter and she just turned 9! For her FIRST birthday cake, which she wanted to bring to school to celebrate her birthday with her friends, she requested for a Spongebob Squarepants birthday cake. She spent the entire day coaching me on what Spongebob looks like and what the cake should taste like..

Sure got me crashing down to earth

Boy! I've met my toughest customer! She even asked for a sketch of Spongebob before it goes on the cake...

I made sure I made the cake while she was away in school. I don't think I could take the strict over-the-shoulder baking. I made a nice rich Chocolate cake with pink strawberry frosting.

In the end, I think she was happy with the outcome.

For her second birthday cake, she had even HIGHER expectations! Haha... Never bring your A-game knowing you would need to come back and perform again.. This time she asked for an Angry Bird cake. She kept changing her mind about which Angry Bird was her favourite. I wasn't too excited about making an Angry Bird fondants 'cos everyone has made them already! Google it and millions of pictures appear!

This time, I made 3D figurines.. no point showing off what I already showed, making a 2D one. And since I had lots of leftover fondant, already coloured to the angry bird shades (Yellow, Red, Blue, Green...) it was easy enough.

This time, I made a pink strawberry butter cake with vanilla cream and berry jam. I think the kid liked the fondant toys more than she enjoyed the cake. I told her she didn't need to eat them, and could keep them instead. The weather here in Auckland is nice and cool and dry - perfect for keeping fondants!

Phew! That was one tough challenge!

Monday, March 26, 2012

DOMO - feature writeups on Kuali.com

I was asked to contribute to our favourite newspaper's online food portal several times - kuali.com. Mostly to go for restaurant tastings and reviews (which i LOVE!) and cookbook reviews.

Started off with a simple review for a delightful Simple Cookbook :)

Got to enjoy an extremely rich Italian-Christmas meal at the famed Nerovivo

I had a chance to chat with this lovely Mother-son team from Indonesia on their Ramadhan special at Kuala Lumpur's Concorde Hotel

Cooking to Entertain: book review on Micheal Elfwing's fusion food

Click on the links to check out my reviews. Also.... support Kuali! They have some real wickedly delicious recipes there! :D

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Discovering the Red Velvet

I recently discovered the awesomeness of the Red Velvet Cake. I always thought it was just red colouring in a plain butter cake, topped with cream cheese. Bah~!

But the Red Velvet is actually a concoction of amazing things like buttermilk, cocoa, vinegar and cream cheese! How interesting! I was intrigued! This sparked my Red Velvet hunt, I began tasting every Red Velvet cake I came across....

The Red Velvet Rosette created by a friend of mine

Red Velvet Cupcakes at Delicious, Bangsar. The chunks of cake pieces stuck on top makes it look like an alien!

Red Velvet, among other cupcakes sold in my office. By Simply Cakes, Puchong

A slice of Red Velvet Cake from Coffee Bean

I must say, I didn't taste the sourness and tangy flavour I expected from the cake. I was most disappointed in the one sold in Coffee Bean. The coconut and white chocolate shavings on top pretty much masked the taste of everything else. I'm still not satisfied! I can't wait to try my hand in creating a rich red velvet cake!