Somewhere over the Rainbow...

Rainbow cakes seem to be trending right now, I don’t know why someone didn’t think of creating them ages ago for they are so pretty!

I had a go myself yesterday, finally deciding to do it after seeing my ex-colleague’s step by step instructions. Basically you just need to make a white cake base, and then divide the batter into 6 descending portions and add the colours accordingly.

The important thing is to pour the batter in the middle of the cake tin, starting with the red and then orange etc, but just keep pouring down the middle to achieve a curved effect.

 

I used a Joy of Baking white cake recipe, but ended up baking longer than instructed because the middle took ages to cook, which in turn resulted in a dry cake. Next time I think I will just add colour to an instant white cake mix, because the taste is not much different!

But still, it’s a pretty cake and the kids went crazy for it. Even the crumbs are pretty! Must try a log version and see how that ends up! After London perhaps...am off tonight for marketing training and team building!

F1 Rocks!

It was all about the F1 this weekend as the racers rolled into town. I had Zone 4 Walkabout Tickets, bought with Jane and Rena but Jane couldn’t go at the last minute. Our focus this year was the concerts, namely Maroon 5 on Saturday and Katy Perry on Sunday.

Met Rena on Saturday for Maroon 5, along with my colleague Cheryl who bought over Jane’s ticket for that day.

Caught a glimpse of the qualifying session (yay Lewis!) but parked ourselves at the Padang after a few minutes in anticipation of the crowd. Found a spot in the first third of the field, which was as near as we could get without trampling on people.

The concert started promptly at 11pm, Adam Levine is yummy! And his voice is so unique, swoon. I thought I would only recognise 4-5 songs, but I actually knew practically everything he sang such as Payphone, Sunday Morning, Harder to Breathe, One More Night, This Love, She Will Be Loved, Moves Like Jagger etc.

 

 

From where we stood, he was tiny but he sounded good live, engaging with the crowd and I hear there were at least 50,000 people there! I especially liked his mash up of Don’t You Want Me / Sexy Back.

It was a good concert, I had fun…wished we were closer. If they came again, I would consider going.

Last night was the Katy Perry gig and the race itself of course. The in-laws came over for dinner and Wendy was off. I made lasagne and a rainbow cake and rushed off after dinner to locate Rena.

Eventually found her at the Cenotaph and we tried to find a good spot. It was slightly closer than the day before but again, she was tiny!

She had a race theme going on, dressed in a racing dress, her dancers carried chequered flags and it was energetic. Her backdrops just popped with colour and she made use of the stage runway to get close to her fans.

She sang Peacock, I Kissed a Girl, Firework, E.T, Part of Me, Teenage Dreams, California Gurls etc. It was good but I think I enjoyed Maroon 5 more, probably because of Adam!

Zooropa

Thanks to Swana who’s company Minds is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, we got free tickets to the zoo today. She got some for Kaelash too and we met at the entrance, he brought Riley and Ananya on his own.

We saw the flamingos, otters, antelopes, lions, cheetahs, leopards, rhinos, zebras, snakes, orang utans etc. Think some of the lions were issuing a mating call which freaked Sasha out because their roar was really loud. Got up close to some giraffes who were being fed, they are so much taller when seen from a platform versus watching them from the ground! Plus, naked rats are freaky!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We split up halfway as Kaelash headed to the Children’s World but hooked up again for packet lunches catered by Minds. As Nick had a NATAS football tournament to rush to, we didn’t linger and left as soon as we finished eating. The shortest I’ve been to the zoo, don’t think we even covered half!

Saveuring

Another restaurant/bistro I can check off the list – Saveur!

Had noticed they had relocated to Purvis whilst lunching with Jane and Rena last week and had mentally added them to my list. And when Susan suggested dinner this evening, Joanne had requested French food. We had settled on Brasserie Wolf only to find out they had closed so Saveur was the next option suggested by Joanne, which I seconded!

The restaurant was crowded despite it being 6.30pm, they don’t take reservations and it’s a fast turnaround type of joint.

Adri was late so we ordered some starters first. I had mushroom cappuccino soup and angel hair pasta with prawns while the other two had foie gras. The soup was coffee cup size, a tad bitter maybe because of the types of mushrooms used but it was smooth and creamy and definitely not out of a packet!

The pasta was nice, I asked for my caviar on the side which I gladly passed to Joanne. Adri arrived not that long after us and we ordered our mains. I had the crispy pork belly with poached egg and lentils for my main. The combination worked, the runny egg yolk added to the richness of the dish and for $11, one can’t complain. I also ordered a side of mash potato and it was mmm-mmm good!

Adri and Susan both ordered the duck confit while Jo had a steak. I think generally everyone agreed the food was good but some might find the portions smallish and menu limited. But hey, the prices are really reasonable and the quality good.

 

Tried a couple of desserts, a pistachio panna cotta and hazelnut mousse type thing. Both were good. It was fun catching up too, thanks for a great evening ladies!

Singapore Food Trail

Brought the girls to East Coast this morning because Nat wanted to play with the sand. While she built sandcastles with Wendy, I stayed in the shade with Sasha who refused to step on the stuff. Nick managed to persuade her to play ball and she practiced her throwing and kicking. 

We stopped for ice cream to cool down and made fun of Nat who had cut her hair on her own a couple of days ago without anybody noticing. Apparently, she had taken the scissors from my dressing table while I was sleeping…we had only discovered it when Wendy emptied my room dustbin and found hair in it.

Lunch was at the Singapore Flyer, I had been wanting to check out the heritage hawker food trail there…essentially you get hawker food at higher prices! The fried ngoh hiang/bee hoon combo I bought was $11! Daylight robbery! But it was a nice setting, even the cups and crockery were old fashioned and I had me some Green Spot!

The kids got to pretend Daddy was a rickshaw driver and they could feed fish too, that always makes them happy. 

Lasagne...take 1!

Met Rena and Jane for lunch yesterday to pass Rena her F1 tickets and I suggested Chin Chin after hearing about their Hainanese Pork Chop. We ended up ordering chicken rice and getting the pork chop and mixed vegetables as a side. Truth be told, the pork chop was disappointing, I think I’ve had better elsewhere.

Attempted a lasagne today, didn’t particularly follow any particular recipe but made the basics of my bolognaise and followed the instructions on the San Remo box for the cheese sauce and cooking instructions.

Turned out okay, but I think there was not enough cheese and I found it too meaty because I used 1kg of beef. Brought some to Membina where Kavi and Kaelash had gathered and they said it was good so happy with it overall.

It is the last day of 7th month so we left the kids at home and me and Nick went for mass at St Joseph before a pit stop at Phoon Huat and quick dinner at Suntec’s Qiji.

Once home, I decided to try my hand at chocolate macaroons but I think my proportions were not right, plus I overbeat my eggs to stiff peaks instead of soft and I ended up with chewy cookie cakes that looked nothing like macaroons. Still edible but ugly as hell!

Ladies in Waiting

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge aka Will & Kate are in town as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations and I’ve been guilty of ‘stalking’ them!

I had a dinner appointment with Adrienne yesterday, who hung around the Istana hoping for a glimpse before their state dinner but their car windows were darkened. We were supposed to meet at Bugis but changed our dinner venue to City Hall at the last minute so we could be in the ‘zone’ in case we decide to stake out Raffles Hotel where they were staying.

Had ramen at Raffles City and bumped into ex-SESer David. He paused to chat for a while and after we finished our noodles, we walked around Robinsons before receiving a tip-off that they would be arriving back at the hotel at 9ish. We didn’t have to think twice, we made our way to the hotel immediately to chope a good viewing spot. 

We ended up waiting for over an hour but it was worth it! We were right at the railings when they both alighted from their car and gave the small crowd little waves and smiles. Kate was in a gorgeous Prabal Gurung dress and Will is so tall.

This morning, Ma tried her luck, dragging the kids with her because Nat wanted to see the princess too. They caught a fleeting glimpse, their backs were turned most of the time because they stopped to chat with some kids but it was still a thrill. Wendy got a good shot from her phone!

Had lunch with my colleague Aaron, promised to buy him lunch before he moved to Australia and he suggested Red Star which I seized upon as it’s been on my list of places to try. 

The restaurant is quite retro, hasn’t been renovated since the 80s I think but that adds to its charm. The food goes around in trolleys and despite my blocked nose, I thought the food was pretty good and I would definitely go back again.