- Hands on Workshop @ Phoon Huat -

Last Wednesday, I just tried a hands-on workshop at Phoon Huat - Sims Lane and I love it! I've never tried a full hands on classes at CC so far. I did a so-called hands on, but you only get a small portion of what you did, but here at Phoon Huat, you get to measure most of the ingredients yourself! The instructor will guide you first step by step on the recipe first, any alterations or questions of substitution on ingredients. Then you measure out the ingredients, and mix it yourself. Of course, the instructor will be there to give some help and adjustment (if needed).

I will definitely do this again if I see any interesting recipes!

Here are the stuff made!

Toasted Mushroom & Onion Bread

The bread is a mix of bread flour, rye flour and ... potato flake! Giving it a soft and fluffy bread even on the 2nd and 3rd day! The bread didn't last long of course... both were all gone by 2nd day afternoon!

Mississipi Mud Pie with Maple cream frosting & Chocolate topping

This Mud pie is a winner! It's a Oreo base pie, with dark chocolate filling which was not overly sweet... The whole family loved it! After my hubby tried one slice, he asked me ... "So,when are you going to make the mud pie?" (Even with 1/4 of the 7"x7" pie still in the fridge). However, he said that maybe I should not to make it 'too' chocolatey... I said, maybe because we use dark chocolate (which is good rite?), I will maybe reduce the amount of the dark chocolate and mix it with some milk chocolate to balance it.  

Meanwhile, I am browsing for other interesting hands on workshop that Phoon Huat have this coming week and the next, there is this earl grey lavender tea cake that I am interested in joining... any takers?

. more mooncakes .

I attended a hands-on mooncake making yesterday at Marine Parade CC  by Koh Bee Yen. It is the mooncake making season this month allover Singapore! The Community Centres all around Singapore has many classes on mooncake making. Go and check it out at OnePA website before the classes ended. Many trainers offer mooncake making and the popular ones are quickly snapped out! 

It was a full attendance yesterday, and there are many things to be done. Some are demo-ed while some are hands-on. The class started at 10am - 1.30pm but since there are many cakes to be done, in the end the class overrun by almost half an hour I think. I left at 1.45pm since I got to rush to my Thai Cooking Class at Cairnhill CC! 

Nevertheless, I enjoyed (as always) hands-on classes as you get to make your own stuff that you are going to eat and bring home!

Here are the photos from the mooncake class yesterday.

Flaky Yam Cake - unbaked

Flaky Yam Cake - baked

Shanghai Walnut Mooncake - unbaked

Shanghai Walnut Mooncake - baked

Snow Skin Mooncake - Durian (yellow) and Coffee (pink)

Traditional Mooncake with Single Yolk - unbaked

Traditional Mooncake with Single Yolk - baked

Actually, there is also a demo of Ice Cream Mooncake, which I did not managed to take a picture since I've eaten it haha! Seems quite easy to make but rather time consuming (in and out the freezer). The trainer actually taught us how to make the ice cream, but I figured out it will be easier (and faster) to use store bought ice creams. Here's how you make Ice cream moon cake.

Ice Cream Mooncake (Chocolate coating)

You will need:

Plastic mooncake jelly moulds, like these (can get from Kitchen Capers)

Chocolate (White, Milk, Dark or even a combination!), melted

Homemade or store bought Ice cream

Oreo cookies, chocolate chips (optional)

Method:

• Freeze the mooncake jelly mould in the freezer for 5-10 minutes.
• Melt your preferred chocolate using microwave or double boiler (safer but slower method)
• Take out the mould from the freezer, pour in 1-2 tbsp of the melted chocolate. Coat all the sides of the mould (Shouldn't be too thin). Put back in the freezer for 3 minutes or till the chocolate hardens. 
• Pour in your ice cream of choice and extra fillings that you want, do not pour too full as you still need to pour in more chocolate to cover the bottom. Put back into the freezer, and let the ice cream harden again.
• Pour in some melted chocolate to cover the ice cream. Put back into the freezer for 5 minutes or till the chocolate hardens and it's done!
• Take out from the mould, and your chocolate ice cream mooncake is ready to be enjoyed by all (or just you!)

The process is quite tedious as you can see, and you must have some 'free' space in your freezer! (mine is always full). However, they do taste good! It's a good project to involve your kids too, just prepare extra chocolates just in case they can't stop licking the chocolates of their fingers or the bowl :D and do get them to wear apron as it can be quite messy as you are dealing with chocolates.

I can't reveal the recipes that I learned from the CC here, however, I found similar ones here ... go and have a try :)

Traditional Mooncake recipe from Bake King 

Pecan Mooncake recipe from Bake King (instead of walnut, pecan is used)

Pandan Snow Skin Mooncake from Bake King

Snowskin Durian Ice Cream Mooncake from Bake King (Durian lovers fave!!)

and I found this website which listed Very Good Mooncake Recipes online! Woohoo!

Happy Baking!