This year my eldest brother's 65th birthday coincided with the Mooncake Festival on 30/9/2012.
I wanted to make a Strawberry Jelly Cheesecake for him and on second thoughts I decided to also made those longevity peach Buns as well. And it turned out to be a very good decision.
I am pretty hopeless when it comes to these jelly things. Seems that they do not set! And this time is no exception. This is a chilled cheesecake- no problem getting it ready and set. Made this on Friday evening and the only problem was Sarah bought back the strawberries late and by which time the cheesecake had already set. Ok - maybe can still put them on and early Saturday morning, did the Strawberry jelly. To play it safe (I already had disasterous results before!) I added just 2 teaspoon of gelatin powder to the packet of instant jelly. Spread a thin layer first as I did not want the strawberries to float up. This thin layer had not set by lunchtime and I know the result is going to be bad. Anyway to cut a long story short, the jelly layer separated and flopped out when unmoulding the cheesecake. So it is just Cheesecake with Strawberries :)!
Still edible (and finished) minus the jelly layer!
After the first attempt of making the Longevity Buns, I am hooked and this time, decided to try another way to make the big peach bun.
I just cover a big bowl with the dough this time and make 2 leaves by the side. It doubled up beautifully during the 2nd proof. The trouble began when it is time to steam it. Only then I realise that I do not have such a big wok cover!!!
Panic - just do with whatever I have- used my big mixing bowl as cover but still ......
As you can see, the top of the bun stuck to the bowl and broke. Was really feeling bad - just cannot give someone a broken birthday bun right? So, I quickly started with another dough.
Use a smaller bowl this time so that it can go under the wok cover. But it still stuck a bit at the top.
Lesson learnt: always check whether you have all the necessary utensils and DO NOT attempt to remove it immediately - let it cool down otherwise it will break easily.
The small buns were ok- I used the remaining Lotus paste and Red Bean paste for the fillings. The big bun managed to hide around 6 small buns inside!
So this become the birthday cake!
Happy birthday to yooouu
May God Bless yoou...
Happy birthday to you.
Yes, that's a very good looking hat! Let's hope it will get some media notice hahaha!
Coaxing her to dance- she just had her kindergarden concert!
the brother is pretending to be busy!
Shake, baby shake!
I am sure our parents are also smiling from above to see us all gathered together having so much fun and laughter!
That's what Mid-Autumn Festival is all about - togetherness, family bonding, joy and happiness.
It happened to me too and I learnt the lesson already, sure to check everything before I start a new recipe, hehehe ..
ReplyDeleteYes-lah, but sometimes in a rush to try, we forget!
ReplyDeleteElaine, that's a huge longeviity bun! Lots of love inside too:)
ReplyDelete