Picnic and outing, Sheffield, UK Trip 2013 (Day 3)

It's a bright and sunny day!!! Today's programme: picnic at Weston Park, Sheffield

First, off to Castle Market for the items for sandwiches.

Lady Bower, UK Trip 2013 (Day 2)

Spent a lovely morning to mid-afternoon hiking in the woods and hilly paths of the Ladybower Reservoir region. There were endless patches of greenery, water bodies, stone paths, and lovely wild flowers like Dandelions and Bluebells along the paths. The kids were delighted, and kept themselves busy with flower picking. We spent about 5 hours walking on various patches of the region including the peak region and the farm houses. The sight from the mountain top was magnificent!

Sheffield, UK Trip 2013 (Day 1)

We had been waiting for this holiday since a few months back! We were going to UK for holiday!!! My sister was studying in Sheffield so naturally that was out first stop. So happy to see her!

Fresh Prawn salad and another cake

This crunchy prawn salad is very easy to prepare. All I did was to use a lot of fresh veges to ensure that it is healthy yet tasty. I mixed the veges in the big IKEA mixing bowl and my mom said: don't prepare too much otherwise can't finish. But guess what, half way through dinner,she asked: where's the salad, give me some more..... :)

Mango Sponge cake and Moist Chocolate Cake

I borrowed a very beginner-friendly book from Jurong Regional Library not very long ago. It's a Sponge Cake Baking Book written in Chinese and is authored by a Japanese school 'Ecole de Patisserie' or '菓子学校'. The book has very clear explanation and pictures and is incredibly pleasurable to follow. 2 methods of sponge cake recipes are given - whole egg method and egg-separated method. I have tried both and find the outcomes equally pleasant. For the kids' birthday celebration, I decided to follow the egg-separated method. But we always have 2 cakes since they are both October babies, and I wanted some variation, so I search my favourite blogs for inspiration. In the end, I chose this Designer Chocolate Cake recipe from Wendy's blog, Table for 2. The end result was fantastic. The chocolate cake was the favourite because it was not too sweet but rich and moist.