Chiffon Cake #19: Chocolate & Pandan 双色巧克力斑兰戚风蛋糕

Hihi, here's another chiffon cake that I bake recently. Sorry I have to skip my chiffon cakes series from #13 to #19 first because I want to support the Pandan theme hosted by Joceline that is going to end this month. :)

Chiffon Cake #19: Chocolate & Pandan 双色巧克力斑兰戚风蛋糕

17cm chiffon tin:

4 egg yolks
16g sugar
40g vegetable oil

Mix the above and divide batter into 2 portions.

Using homegrown pandan leaves

For pandan flavour, add:
28g concentrated pandan juice
(I blend 12 pandan leaves in some water, let the mixture stand for few hours and use the bottom layer)
32g cake flour

For chocolate flavour, add:
28g water
22g cake flour
10g cocoa powder

4 egg whites
70g sugar
8g corn flour

Whip the egg whites to stiff peak. Divide into 2 equal portions and add to the pandan and chocolate batter.

Bake 170 deg C, 35 minutes

Recipe adapted from: Okashi: sweet treats made with love

I am submitting this post to Little Thumbs Up September - Pandan hosted by Joceline @ Butter, Flour & Me, organized by Zoe@ Bake For Happy Kids and Mui Mui @ My Little Favourites DIY.

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Kranji Countryside: GardenAsia - Hay Dairies - Farmart - Koon Lee

A quick summary of the 4 places at Kranji Countryside which I went to over the past few months.

The most recent one is the Petals and Leaves Bistro@GardenAsia. It was on the Sunday, 1 day before the PSI shot up to the unhealthy level. This is the view from the Bistro. A very quiet place with nature, greenery and peace.

There is a kids menu available too.

Then we proceed to the Hay Dairies. If you want to see the milking process, be there between 9am-11am. You can also purchase goat milk to drink there. We have been ordering goat milk home delivery for many years already. They deliver weekly and the minimum order is 2 bottles at $16.

Few months ago, we also visited Farmart Centre. I was a little disappointed cos although it was a Sunday afternoon, the place looked very quiet and very few people. Most of the stores were either closed or sold out.

Not much things to see, except for some animals and plants to entertain me.

Some local and farm products for sale. There are a few interesting stalls like live seafood, quail and exotic meat products. There is also a seafood restaurant, bbq meat and satay stalls, I guess the place will be busier during meal times? You can also do prawn catching too.

The animal corner has more crowds. Then I know, most children are here to see and feed the little animals (extra purchase for animal food).

Finally, I'm introducing Koon Lee Nursery to you if you are a gardening lover. My mum buys the organic soil over here. There are also a lot of gardening supplies and potted plants for sale.

There are a lot more farms at Kranji Countryside. If you want to experience a different side of Singapore, besides the usual shopping and eating, do visit some of the farms here!

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Curry leaf plant from cutting

I took 1 year to grow a curry leaf plant!

Although I didn't record the date exactly, I remembered it was the day when I took some curry leaves from our neighbour downstairs to cook this cereal prawn/tofu. I took 1 extra cutting and just poked it into the soil and left it to grow.

For months almost the whole year, the curry leaf wasn't growing at all. While it still looked green, the leaves were always droopy. It didn't die either.

Then one day, my mum suddenly told me that she saw baby curry leaves coming out! I quickly took a photo (below). The day was 16 Jan 2013. It was a year later. :) The long stalk on the right is the old cutting. And the tiny leaves are the new leaves.

6 Feb 2013. You can see more clearly here the old brown steam and the new green stem. We cut away the old stalk of leaves already. The curry leaves were growing fast!

4 Mar 2013. More curry leaves!

17 Mar 2013. And more!

4 Apr 2013. It stopped growing a little while. I was getting abit worried. But new leaves were spotted again.

5 May 2013. Here's another photo taken to see how tall the plant is now.

I hope it will continue to grow into a little tree. Now I don't need to go to our neighbour to get curry leaves. Just cut some at our corridor.

Sometimes, you really need lots of patience to see the results. Not just for gardening.

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The bright sunny sunflower

I had a lot of fun growing a sunflower last year. Bought a packet of seeds that contains only 12 seeds, so precious! So I only planted 1 seed in to see if it can grow successfully.

(6 Sep 2012) I planted the seed on 2 September 2012. 4 days later, it had already become a little seedling.

(30 Sep 2012) This was how it looked like about 1 month later. It was only this tall, quite slow. But growing well.

(5 Nov 2012) At 2 months, it had grown much taller and stronger.

(25 Nov 2012) When it was almost 3 months old, I noticed something different. Yes, a sunflower is forming! Excited!

(22 Dec 2012) It took another month for the sunflower to develop. Do you know that the sunflower follows in the direction of the sun, turning from east to west everyday? Yes, it is true. The flower head will face east in the morning and then slowly turn to west in the evening. Then next morning, you will find it facing east again. Amazing! That's why it is called 向日葵 in Chinese, which means "facing the sun".

(26 Dec 2012) Waiting to bloom!

(27 Dec 2012) Very soon!

(30 Dec 2012) Finally fully bloomed, just before the New Year.

(8 Jan 2013) The sunflower started to dry up. I was eager to collect the seeds. I read that you have to wait for the seeds to mature first, that is when it is completely dried up.

(18 Jan 2013) While waiting for the sunflower to dry up to harvest the seeds, a baby sunflower started growing below the main sunflower! Can you spot it? Never expected this little surprise!

(22 Jan 2013) The baby sunflower! :)

(5 Feb 2013) After the baby flower wilted, the main sunflower head had also turned brown and dry, so we cut off the flower head, let it dry up further. This is how we harvest the seeds. Just rub the flower with your fingers and the little seeds will drop out. I was expecting a lot of sunflower seeds. But to my little disappointment, I only managed to collect 7 seeds. But I'm still happy about it. I have learnt more about sunflowers and watched them grow from seeds to seeds (harvested). Always remember the joy that the bright sunny sunflower gives us!

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The red radish that did not make it

Just before Chinese New Year, my mum bought a red radish from the market for fun. Just as we were wondering what to do with it, I saw a few IG friends posting about growing radish. Pardon my ignorance cos I have never heard of planting radish before. So after asking, I was told it is grown for its flowers.

After more reading about radish flowers, I then know that radish plants are commonly sold as festive plants during CNY. Because radish is also called 菜头 which sounds somewhat similar to the pronunciation of (好)彩头 which means "good luck"!

We planted our radish on 4th Feb. I was told to put some ice to speed up its growing. Oops, should put it on the leaves instead of on the soil!

On 7th Feb, only 3 days later, it had grown quite a bit of leaves.

Took this photo on 10 Feb - the 1st day of Chinese New Year. Wishing that it will 花开富贵!

Unfortunately, it didn't. On 21 Feb, it was already on the dying side. Not sure if it was due to too much rain.

This was the last photo taken on 27 Feb. The radish had reached the end of its life before it can produce any flowers. :(

So do you want to know how the plant will eventually look like if succeed? Here is a plant taken at my mum's friend's place. It was blooming with flowers for the CNY! So envious! Well, nevermind, I shall try again next year. You too!

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Bittergourd update

Well well, I have got so many photos in my phone that storage is slowing running out. I must really find the time to sort them out and save them. Since I have started about growing edamame yesterday, I shall keep the momentum going.

This is a short update about my bittergourd since my last post about my first homegrown bittergourd. After the first bittergourd, I had another 5 bittergourds coming from the same plant in between September to December 2012.

Second bittergourd, round and cute!

Third bittergourd, getting smaller with a very odd shape.

Fourth bittergourd.

Fifth bittergourd and the sixth one still a little baby (if you can spot it). After this, since the plant started to turn yellowish and the fruits produced become smaller and smaller, so the plant had to be removed.

Below is the new batch of bittergourd planted about weeks ago. Hopefully can harvest many many more.

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Growing edamame （毛豆）

Wanted to write this post since last year. Only finish writing now. Me bad!

Besides bittergourd, I have also been growing edamame. Yes, we can actually grow edamame （毛豆） in Singapore! I learned this from one instagram friend. And since I have received a few questions about growing edamame, after I posted mine on instagram :), I'm going to write about it.

No no, no intention to turn this into a gardening blog. My knowledge of plants is still very limited. I'm a theoretical gardener. Haha! My mum is the person who takes care of her garden and I just contribute by telling her what I read from the internet and taking photos. Check my newly created page for my past gardening related posts.

Ok, let's start by how to get the seeds. Usually we buy frozen edamame (above) to eat right? These I don't think you can grow cos they are already salted. You can get fresh edamame from Meidi-Ya. I bought my organic edamame from Giant supermarket (below).

Then you can leave them at room temp till the pods dry up. Open the pods, you will get these black edamame seeds.

Time to start planting. Put the seed in the soil about 1-2cm deep, cover the seed loosely with soil. Remember to water it. The sprouting rate is quite high. About 3 days later, it is out of the soil already.

Here are some photos of my first time planting edamame in August last year. This is the edamame plant after 1 week. Keep it supported when it is still young, in case it collapse with occasional strong wind and rain.

At week 2, see how fast it grows.

This is week 3, you can see many tiny flower buds coming out.

This is Day 25, I saw my first edamame flower. It's a tiny white flower. Very excited.

Soon you will see many baby pods growing out. Give it some organic fertilizer so that you will get 'fatter' edamame in the pods.

About another 1 month later, when the edamame is plump enough, you can harvest your homegrown edamame anytime! :)

My first harvest in September last year. It takes only about 2 months from sowing seeds to harvesting.

By the way, you can harvest edamame only ONE time. Then the plant will start to turn yellow and die. No worries. Save a few pods from your harvest, dry them up and keep them for the next planting. Then boil and cook the rest. That's what I always do. I have been growing many batches since I first started in August last year.

Start growing your own edamame now! :)

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