Panasonic Cooking Demo: Homebaked Goodies for Christmas

I was so excited when I received an invite from omy recently, on a cooking demo by Panasonic to make some homebaked goodies for Christmas. And so, on a Saturday afternoon, I made my way over to the cooking studio at the Panasonic Customer Service Centre, along with a small group of other omy bloggers, to learn how easy it'll be to make some yummy breads with the Panasonic SD-P104 Bread Maker!

This is actually my first time seeing a bread maker and I was a little surprise to find that it actually resembles an elongated rice cooker. SD-P104 also comes with a handle, which added on to its handy-dandy convenience of being able to bring it around easily. 

And what's the plus point of being early for an event, other than being able to snatch the 'circus seats'? You can take as much photographs as you like, without snapping the weird backviews/sideviews/frontviews of any unknowing photobombers. 

And yes, that's 3 whole shelves of ovens and microwaves at the back of the cooking studio. 

Our cooking mama, Theresa, prepping up the place before the rest of the bloggers arrive. And yes, that's a freshly baked bread loaf you spot back there. 

A sneak peak of the ingredients needed for the cooking demo today....

And upon arrival of all bloggers, Theresa got the demo going by introducing to us how the Panasonic SD-P104 bread maker works. It not only mixes, kneads, rises and bakes the bread at one touch of the button, but also help to dispense raisins & nuts (left grey squarish contraption) and instant yeast (right black round contraption) automatically at the proper time. 

Not only that, it also allows us to choose the crust colour we prefer (light or standard) and has 13 baking menus (including rice flour bread and dumpling skin) to allow us to bake an array of goodies like bread, dough and cake. And according to Theresa, you can also make your own fruit jam using this bread maker as well! 

And other than the control panel and dispensers, the other remaining section of this amazing machine will be this bread pan.

And inside the bread pan comes with a detachable kneading blade. It's pretty surprising to know that such a small blade is enough to knead through the entire bread dough.

And while Theresa started off the class with showing us how she baked this perfect loaf of Fragrant Mixed Wheat Bread, Clarice, another friendly staff of Panasonic, helped to slice the freshly baked loaf for us to have a taste.

This bread is a little crispy on the outer crust, and totally soft and fluffy on the inside! And with a good dose of sunflower seeds, melon seeds, raisins and black sesame seeds, it totally added on to the sweetness and fragrance.... YUMS!

This is basically what happens after you dump all your ingredients into the bread pan and switch on the bread maker.
And in 2 hours under "Rapid" baking mode...

Viola~

And of course, we had a 2nd serving of this yummy bread loaf! Erm, okay I had a 3rd serving actually. xp

And if you think you can only make bread loaves with the bread maker, no that's not all! As mentioned, you can also make dough using the bread maker.

 and working on the ready made dough and allowed to rise further in a oven set at 40 degree C...

You can get some yummy flavoured bun rolls!

Theresa made cuts on top of the neatly shaped bun and stuffed in a good amount of canned tuna (minced), onions, cheese and a dash of paprika to make some yummy tuna bun rolls.

And even for a non canned tuna lover, this bun rolls were still yums! 

And next up... Guess what?

Yes, you can also easily make Muah Chee using the bread maker too! And the hardest part of it will definitely be cutting the ready made lump of muah chee and coating them with crushed peanuts. 

However, I felt that the muah chee was a little too soft and not chewy enough for my liking as a huge mochi/daifuku fan. 

And our last treat of the day...

Hmm, pizza?

No, it's focaccia bread! 

Covered fully with cherry tomatoes, olives and mozzarella cheese, the dough was left to rise at 40 degree C for another 50 minutes before baking.

And viola~

Fresh from the oven, fragrant and fluffy, it's so yummy that even those scalding hot cherry tomatoes couldn't stop our gluttony! 

For more information on SD-P104 Bread Maker and other Panasonic products, visit Panasonic's website HERE or their facebook HERE.

Till then,

Mia Foo

Continue

Mia's Baking: Fondant Cupcakes

Some time ago, I attended a fondant baking class under Bakin Cow (BakinCalf Baking Class) with my girlies. 

I was always intrigued by all those fondant cake decorations and amazed by how pretty the designs those nimble-handed bakers can come up with, but never ever wanted to try it out for myself, knowing how tricky fondant can be to work with. 

However, as a bonding session with the girls, we thought, why not? And so we went ahead with the registration for the entire clique!

First up, I really have to extend my apologies to Shinni, our baking teacher, for we were so late for the class! Almost 45 minutes late, and it got our baking lesson to a slightly gloomy start. However, Shinni was quick to get over our tardiness (which, frankly speak IS a form of disrespect) and opened up to us soon enough to make our private session a fun one, filled with lots of laughter. 

Couldn't help it but snapped a picture of the baby pink KitchenAid. 

I want one too! T.T

The cupcakes we baked for the day was red velvet cupcakes, which recipe I shall not share for this is from a baking class and was a non-sponsored event. 

Oh well, just showing you the butter cream frosting we made and all the frosted cupcakes waiting to be topped up with the fondant decoration. :)

The class entitled every pax to go home with 6 standard sized cupcakes in a box, carrier not provided. 

And here's us (or rather, some of us) going kuku (crazy) over the very 'disobedient' fondant bits and pieces. 

Curious on what's the design theme for the class?

Yes, it wedding theme! 

This is my own creation (every single step painstakingly taught by Shinni, of course). 

And the greater (or greatest) challenges no doubt is the traditional Chinese costumes. Yes, these are definitely NOT my creation, but was Shinni's favourite for the day. She loved the tikopek moustache given to the groom. Hahaha! 

The two main challenges, no doubt has to be the chinese button details on the bride's kua and the silk ribbon on the groom's attire. 

These two were my worst nightmares, ever!

A glimpse of what the silk ribbon ball is made up of. A total of 9 rolled up pointed tip bits, stacked up in 2 layers, 4 on 5, with a ball stuck in the middle of the "flower". 

Sounds easy enough, but they take a million tries to hold their place altogether. 

And the button detail for the bride's kua was also a big challenge as the fondant needs to be rolled as thin as possible to make the button delicate. However, the thinner it is, the quicker it hardens up. So even before I could proceed to roll the strip into a tear drop shape, it has harden up and broke / crack instead. 

Major pull-hair moment. T.T 

And of course, what do you do when you're with your girlies?
Camwhoring time! 

A happy selfie with my completed fondant red velvet cupcakes!

After the workshop, I can further confirm that fondant is really not my cup of tea. Yes, it helps us to create amazingly beautiful designs, but let's face it, they really do not taste fantastic. Plus the more extensive the design, it probably means the more bare fingers kneading of the fondant.

"Kneading, so what? All bread doughs are kneaded with bare hands too."

Yeah, but they get baked at hundred over degree Celsius after, while these fondant goes directly into your tummy. And I haven't even get to the point of how much food colouring gets kneaded into those white fondant to get brightly coloured fondants.

Eh, nope. No thanks, I'm full.

Do not get me wrong, I did not throw all the 6 cupcakes away. It was just the fondants....

For more information on Bakin Cow's products and price list, visit their website HERE.
For more information on Bakin Calf's baking classes visit their website HERE.

Till then,
Mia Foo

Continue