Cheers! It’s Monday! Hahaha ok who are we kidding here? 😛 Anyway, we had a department lunch followed by a baking session quite sometime back! We do this lunch and teambuilding thing twice a year, on the company’s budget. Half day off work somemore! 😀 As soon as it was 12pm, all hell broke loose. Haha just kidding!

We travelled to Heartland Mall Kovan on two separate four-wheeled vehicle because we have a fairly large group. Eve’s son is placed in the childcare within our company building so she took him along as well 😀

Hao Hao was a little shy at first.. And I guess he was wondering “Why is this jie jie taking a photo of me?!”

But he slowly warmed up to us when we started ‘playing’ with the touchscreen menu with him. Haha he’s really very cute! 😀

When another colleague, Angel, made reservations, she was told that we would be getting 2 tables. In the end, our tables were given to others and we had to split up in small groups of three by the conveyor belt. Here are some of the items we shared!

Hao Hao and his kids’ bento!

Haha he’s engrossed with playing Mummy Eve’s phone.

After lunch, it was time for our baking lesson! Wheeeee!

“Ahhhhh! Mummy! I don’t want to take photo with this jie jie la!”

Irene runs BakeAvenue, which allows people to pick up baking skills in a conducive home-based environment.

We were first taught how to bake Pandan Kaya Cake! Yup it’s like the one you can find at Bengawan Solo.

Ingredients
For cake:
– 250g Optima Flour
– 4 Eggs
– 75ml Pandan Juice
– 1/2 tbsp Green Coloring
– 100ml Thick Coconut Milk
– Desiccated Coconut

For Kaya:
– 800ml Coconut
– 125g Sugar
– 30g Hoon Kueh Flour
– 30g Corn Flour
– 1/2 tbsp Instant Jelly
– 2 tbsp Pandan Juice
– 1/2 tbsp Green Coloring

We had to oil our cake tins with butter before lining them with baking parchment.

Beat eggs, optima flour, pandan juice and green coloring together at high speed for 10 minutes or till thick. Use hand to fold in the coconut milk.

Ready to place in the oven!

Bake at 175 degrees celcius.

We had to take the cake out from the tin and leave it to cool.

In the meantime, boil half of the coconut milk with sugar. Mix the other half with hoon kueh flour and corn flour, then pour in the first half. Add in instant jelly, pandan juice and green coloring. Stir till kaya is thick.

Slice the horizontal cross section of the cake from the side. Put the bottom layer of the cake into the tin and spread kaya over the cake. Place the top layer and spread kaya. Put aside to set and chill.

When cake is ready to be served, take it out from the tin and coat with desiccated coconut around the cake.

While Mummy Eve was busy with her cake, Hao Hao was occupied with his own task too. Punching out various cookie designs with the dough puncher!

Hao Hao then had to sprinkle rainbow bits all over the cookie dough.

HAHAHA! This time, Hao Hao’s expression says it all. “OMG! This jie jie keeps taking photos with me! And now she’s grabbing me by the waist! :O ” LOL!

Moving on, it was time for us to bake Fresh Grated Coconut Steamed Cake.

Ingredients
– 125g Hong Kong flour
– 2 Eggs
– 125g Sugar
– 1/2 tbsp Ovalett (Sponge Gel)
– 1/2 tbsp Baking Powder
– 1 tbsp Pandan Juice
– 1/4 tbsp Green Coloring
– 100ml Thick Coconut Milk
– 250g Grated Skinned Coconut

Beat eggs, ovalett, pandan juice and sugar for about 7-8 minutes. Slowly add in coconut milk, then Hong Kong flour. Add a little corn flour to the grated skinned coconut before arranging into moulds, then pour the mixture into it.

Steam for about 10 minutes.

Look! Totally amazing! Love how it tasted!

And this is Hao Hao’s masterpiece! His cookies are ready for consumption!

One of our colleagues is a vegetarian, so Irene taught her how to bake eggless cereal cookies.

I’m glad I brought along misterchewy’s Canon IXUS instead because it was very difficult to manage a huge camera given the circumstances. Everyone was happily eating and drinking tea after the baking session! 😀

The baking lesson was kinda fast-paced but we all had a really good bonding session! Looking forward to the next department lunch and teambuilding activity at the end of the year! 😀 😀 😀