Buffetlicious

In the afternoon, sis is busy in the kitchen making cake and soon, I can smell the aroma ♨️ of it baking in the oven. And now the wait for the cake to cool before removing from the baking tin. The Blueberry Cake 🫐🎂 (蓝莓蛋糕) looks so much better compared to the last one as sis used more blueberries 🫐 and dusted them in flour, so the fruits don’t all sink to the bottom. The buttery cake 🍰 is punctured by the sweet and acidity of the berries, just in time for an afternoon snack.

Mum buy bananas 🍌 often but she and sis usually don’t finish eating them before it turned black and mushy. So, sis used these overripe fruits to make bread and, in this case, Banana Cranberry Bread 🍌🍒🍞 (香蕉蔓越莓面包). Occasionally, mum got to it first and the bananas went into the bin because she claimed they had turned bad. 😂 The dried cranberries add a chewy texture to the cake-like bread 🍞 and gave up its sweet and tart flavours when you bite into one. As per the usual, my favourite parts of the bread are both the ends with it crusty, caramelised surface.

The prices of Durians (榴莲) are slowly creeping up as the once bountiful harvest in Johor, Malaysia 🇲🇾 is slowly coming to an end. So, sis and friend went to Marsiling to hunt for bargain buy. They came back with 10kg worth of unknown durian cultivars. One kilogram of durian (with the shell) cost S$10 but it is just S$8 per kilo if you buy 10kg and above.

Although the Durians (榴莲) are of unknown cultivars, they were in fact of very good quality. The flavours vary from creamy, sweet and bitter-sweet depending on which of the four boxes you ate from. The seeds were round but not too bulky with plenty of flesh clinging to it and not the flat type we associated with Mao Shan Wang (猫山王). Overall, we think we scored a very good bargain for the king of fruits.

Topmost durian image from here.

Tummy filled, we proceed down to the basement of Causeway Point for shopping. We passed by Sunlife Durian Puffs & Pastries and mum wanted the Mini Durian Puffs (迷你榴莲泡芙). Bought a box of 20 pieces which cost S$18. The puffs 🧆 are filled with 100% pure D24 fresh durian puree, with no additional mix-ins of cream or sugar. If my memory served me right, it used to cost just S$12 but over the last few years, the price had steadily gone up. I just heard from my colleague, they closed the outlet at Causeway Point! Now, the nearest outlet is about an hour and the half to get to and come back. ☹️

A colleague in office had been snapping up the limited-edition Sunshine Mao Shan Wang Durian Milk Bun (S$2.50) as quickly as they appeared on the shelves. On her way from work, she grabbed all the eight pieces she saw from the shop and handed me one to try. When I cut open the plastic packaging, a strong durian smell ♨️ assaulted my nose in a good way. Filled with 50% more real Mao Shan Wang durian in a soft, pillowy Hokkaido-style milk bun, it tasted authentic like real durian. The bun 🥖 my colleague gotten for me is from Malaysia 🇲🇾 (RM3) so the packaging is different from those sold in Singapore. 🇸🇬

Topmost image courtesy of Sunshine Singapore.

My colleague recommended cakes from Uncle Lee Confectionery (李叔叔面包西果店). He told me that there is a vending machine selling the cakes 🎂 located at Causeway Point Shopping Centre. The machine only dispenses the confections but not the carrying bag so do bring one yourself. Last Friday after work, I made my way to the Vending Machine only to be met with disappointment. There isn’t a single cake in there, all sold out! ��

Went online and found out the bakery had a pop-up stall at Ang Mo Kio Hub until this Sunday, so I rushed down and grabbed a 6-inch Yam Cake 🥔🍰 (芋头蛋糕) for S$30.50 which is on the expensive side. Appearance wise, the plain Jane cake only had the yam 🥔 frosting to show for, no decorations at all. When I took the first bite, it is no frosting but real yam paste with bits of the actual tuber mixed in. The sponge cake 🍰 is fluffy soft, and the earthy taro paste is both creamy and fragrant inviting me to carry on eating it. 😋 I will be buying the other flavours so come check this blog often.

In the afternoon, sis is making Blueberry Cake 🫐🍰 (蓝莓蛋糕). Even before it is out of the oven, the aroma is whiffing ♨️ in the kitchen as sis check the cake for doneness. Freshly baked, the surface is a nice golden-brown, but I can’t eat it yet. It got to cool down first before demoulding from the tin to be sliced. For her first attempt, the cake 🍰 was moist and flavourful, punctuated by juicy and sweet bursts from the blueberries. If I am finding fault, it is the uneven distribution of the blueberries 🫐, and they are all sunken at the bottom. I told her to dust the berries in flour to better keep them suspended in the batter if she is ever making the cake again.

There are always bananas 🍌 left over as mum and sis are the ones eating it. So, rather than discarding the overripe fruit, sis used the bananas to make this Cranberry Banana Bread (蔓越莓香蕉面包). Freshly out of the oven, the alluring aroma and the caramelized bread 🍞 makes for a delicious teatime snack. 😋

Munchi Pancakes originated in Singapore in 2016 as a small hawker stall in Yishun, founded by three friends who took over their parents’ Min Jiang Kueh (面煎粿) stall, a traditional Chinese peanut pancake 🥞 business. They opened a hole in the wall outlet in the underpass linkway between Yishun MRT Station 🚉 and Northpoint City awhile ago but there is forever a queue, so I never get a chance to try it until now.

After my medical appointment, was on the way to buy lunch at the popular Hainanese chicken rice stall, I walked pass the shop and noticed there was only one customer buying pancakes. I quickly joined the queue and was choosing the Min Chiang Kueh or Min Jiang Kueh 🥞 (面煎粿) in no time. The”kueh” part comes in three different flavours – Original, Charcoal and Green Tea. I went with the Original Black Sesame MJK (S$2.20) which featured fragrant black sesame paste and crunchy granulated sugar between airy and chewy pancakes. The Original Hazelnut MJK (S$2.20) I had was like eating crushed Ferrero Rocher chocolate, right down to the crunchy wafer bits. If I must choose one, my preference goes to the black sesame one as it was not too sweet and it tasted great on my palate too.

Topmost image courtesy of Munchi Pancakes.

Sis made Banana Bread (香蕉面包) using the overripe bananas 🍌 that no one wanted to eat. She toasted up the walnuts and add them to the batter along with dried cranberries. But she didn’t add in the chocolate I left in the fridge. Next morning, I toasted the cooked bread in the oven and placed two squares of the Hershey dark chocolate 🍫 on top during the last two minutes of baking. Unfortunately, as I was taking it out of the oven, I accidentally flipped the chocolate side onto the aluminium foil and half the chocolate ended up sticking to the foil. ☹️ I used another piece of the bread to mop up the chocolate and now it looked like I spread it on. Nonetheless, it still tasted yummy, delicious. 🤤

Toasted a couple more of the Choco Banana Bread (巧克力香蕉面包) on another day. I like corner or edge slices with their crusty and caramelized surfaces. Just letting the chocolate 🍫 squares warm up in the oven to soften it and my snack is ready for eating. 😋