My first attempt at bagels this past Sunday. Each measuring only 3″ across, they turned out much better than I’d expected - nicely golden brown on top with the requisite chewy consistency.

I have to confess that all 10 bagels were greedily gobbled up within a few hours. I guess I’ll just have to make a larger batch next time!

Thanks to Nicky and Oliver of Delicious Days for sharing their wonderful recipe and serving ideas!

Last week I made whole wheat bread with organic whole wheat flour, honey and instant yeast. I was somewhat disappointed with the results - the bread tasted slightly sourish and the crumb was not as tight as I’d thought it would be.

I think I’d let the dough rise too much in the loaf pan. I’ll have to re-visit this recipe.

Pineapple tarts are a Lunar New Year staple. My family makes these tarts every year.

The pineapple jam is cooked on the stove for 3 hours, together with cinnamon sticks, cloves and sugar. The pastry dough is made by kneading butter, flour, water and eggs together. The balls of pineapple jam are then pressed onto the individually egg-brushed pastry dough.

I really liked the look of the tiramisu cake surrounded with lady finger sponges which I’d made a week ago and decided to whip up another cake with a similar look.

The cake consists of 2 layers of springy genoise sponge (brushed with rum or whisky), 1 layer of dark chocolate mousse, 1 layer of chocolate mascarpone cream and a thin layer of chocolate glaze. The resulting layered cake is then surrounded with lady finger sponges.

I’m actually not really sure what blondies are. I think they are the “opposite” of brownies. These chewy and moist sweets were made with white chocolate and sprinkled with dessicated coconut. I’m normally not a fan of coconut, but it worked out well in this case.

I made this cake for my mum’s 60th birthday. It consisted of 3 layers of genoise sponge, 3 layers of mascarpone cream, surrounded by lady finger sponge and topped with Dutch-processed cocoa (I used Valrhona).

The sponge layers were soaked with Amaretto (almond liquer) and expresso coffee. The cake was assembled 2 days before it was served to allow the flavours to “develop”.

Available for Purchase: 10-inch Tiramisu Cake, 2 layers of sponge and 2 layers of mascarpone cream @ Price of S$58.00, Chocolate Variation with Chocolate Genoise & Chocolate Cream @ S$60.00