by Amanda
You might remember the apple tarte tartin I did recently. I struggled with getting the apple caramel layer out of the silicon mold and that was an issue I was just itching to solve – and so I did, albeit with quite a different variation of the recipe. Behold, a red wine pear and chocolate […]
Whenever I’m in a baking slump and am trying to get back into the swing of things, I look for desserts that I feel like eating and are also simple to make. Baby steps. And these cookies fit the bill perfectly.
Sometimes life feels like an endless stretch of filling up hours with things to do, places to go, people to see. And when packed schedules are punctuated by pockets of free time, the question shoved behind streams of daily tasks eventually makes it way to the forefront – who am I? Beyond our accomplishments and […]
Nothing fails to brighten up a dreary day like a bit of sparkle and shine in sweetness. I held a glass up to the sunlight and watched the rays reflect of the surfaces of these bon bons like polished emerald-streaked diamonds. Stunners, and with taste to boot. I used a white chocolate with too low […]
Lately I’ve been embracing shadows and the appreciation of natural vibrancy of colours against a darker backdrop. I love how muting the peripheries draws your eye towards a more central focal point, akin to slowly being wrapped in a warm blanket, fold by fold. It’s like getting lost in a feeling, rather than in the […]
So, recently I’ve started baking and selling my desserts, and it’s an amazing feeling to be able to financially profit from something that I generated purely by myself, from making the actual dessert itself to building a brand image and fanbase. I think I’m extremely lucky that I can turn my hobby into a business. […]
I have come to embrace the madness of baking multiple types of desserts each consisting of several components, all to be completed within the same time frame. There was plenty of scheduling and midnight oven humming, boxes to fold and dishes to wash. The magic of seeing it all come together piece by piece eventually […]
Over the past week I embarked on the herculean task of baking 100 tarts for a wedding and I’m happy to report that my oven is still intact and my fridge doesn’t hate me. Here is the pictorial proof of my valiant first attempt at mass production – enjoy.
Leather jacket, metallic scales, the tip of a sharpened dagger gleaming in the moonlight. Silence. It’s midnight but that’s not why the air is as cold as ice. A mind abuzz with estimations and calculations, for one intent. Heels digging deeper into the earth, narrowed eyes, white-knuckled fingers strangling the weathered hilt. Liar, she breathed.
Inevitably taurean, I have once again reunited the worlds of dessert and flowers – the dreamiest of dimensions, an escapist’s paradise. Certainly a more pleasant alternative to life as I know it these days, which seem to be an endless loop of dread and disappointment (when will it end? Do we just live in strange […]
A couple months ago I spontaneously purchased more than a kilo of couverture chocolate and tackled the entire stash armed with an infrared thermometer and the steely resolve to perfect the art of tempering chocolate after a tragic first attempt at bonbon making, the evidence of which I refuse to retain in any form, mentally […]
I didn’t mean for two months to lapse since my last post but so much has happened in between. I decided to move from Tokyo back to Singapore permanently after days and nights of deliberation and was occupied with the logistics of it all for the past several weeks. Up till the point I boarded […]
Amidst the treacherous whirlpools of poison and bitter medicine, I have always found, no matter how minuscule, a kernel of light – a lonely but brave survivor casting its warmth through ashes and shadows. Over time hope feeds its strength. It swells up like the envelope of a hot air balloon starting to take flight, […]
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my lids and all is born again. (I think I made you up inside my head.) – Sylvia Plath
Finally the most torturous 365 days in recent history can be referred to in past tense and humanity has stepped into what one can only anticipate to be a more smooth sailing chapter. In short, happy new year! In conjunction with the new year and the accompanying notion of a fresh, clean start to old […]
The re-questioning of personal style seems to be an annual affair at this point. It’s hard to definitively say if the broadly sombre atmosphere of 2020 and the somewhat shaky prospects of the upcoming year play a substantial role in this shift, but my stylistic preferences are becoming increasingly monochromatic and very much less sunlight […]
I watched the hazy morning glow streaming in through the windows give way to tiled rectangular shadows on the wall like the black and white keys of the piano. I counted the seconds as I watched them slowly and gradually grow fainter. …seven, six, five, four, three, two, one… and they were gone.
Occasionally there are moments where my eyes land upon an image so strikingly beautiful that it feels like its beauty is collectively crystallised into a long, slender icicle, gliding through the air seamlessly, like an arrow through the heart.
“The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, […]
Sun rays on bare skin. Cloudless cerulean skies. Crickets punctuating the muggy summer air with their unwavering high pitched cries. Afternoons so blindingly bright that everywhere you look is an overexposed picture. Flushed cheeks, floaty cotton dresses, long hair swept up in ponytails. Leaves a verdant green. An occasional breeze whooshes by. Sighs of relief. […]
wild reverie 