This Christmas, besides giving and selling them, I would like to share the secrets of baking this joyful Christmas Fruit Cake that would melt your friends’ and families’ hearts. For the first time ever, join me, Delcie, as I will walk you through the ingredients and technique in baking at our Whisk and Fold baking studio.

In this class, student will learn:

• Basic Ingredients required for Christmas Fruit Cake
• Baking Technique
• Decorating and Glazing
• Storage
• DIY Tips – Baking alcoholic fruit cake

Date/Time:
13 Dec 2009, Sunday
1pm – 4pm

Course Requirements:
Students may not need to have baking knowledge. Bring writing materials. Wear comfortable clothing.

Fees:
$30 per pax, inclusive recipes and 1 loaf of Honey Dipped Fruit Cake.

Venue:
Whisk and Fold Baking Studio (Click here for Map)

It was one of those days again where I woke up with a very bad feeling in my stomach. I wasn’t having a diarrhea but I had a sixth sense that it will be a very bad day for me. -.-”

As I walked out of my house, all tidy and ready for a presentation to a  group of McDonald’s managers, I thought it will be a great day!

When I approached the train station trying to dig for my handphone, I realised I left it at home. I battled whether to head home for the phone, or maybe not. So I decided with my journey to National Library thinking I would be able to survive a day without the phone.

So, while on the train trying to picture myself in the classroom, I came to a realisation that I DID NOT HAVE THE DESSERTS WITH ME!!

I can’t believe it at all! Deep within me, I was ranting at myself for being so forgetful and the next thing was trying find a solution out from this situation.

One one hand, I am obligated to bring the desserts. On the other, I was going to be really late if I head home. I needed a plan fast. In that split second, I wonder if it would be easy to grab a cab from Orchard cause I was already there.

Telling myself to go with my guts, I hopped off the train and went straight up to the nearest exit for a cab. At the same time, cursing and swearing at myself for having such bad luck.

The taxi uncle flew me back home and throughout the whole journey, I had to comfort myself that everything will be fine despite my early morning trauma.

In the end, I made it to the library in one piece and meeting the group of students made me calm down a little. Frankly speaking, I had done this numerous times while teaching in community centres and giving presentation to students, so this will be a breeze to me.

Going through the presentation was like vomiting my life experience to them but deep inside, I seriously wondered if I’ve bored them a whole lot talking about myself. I mean, come on, who would like to listen to another talking about him or herself all the time. Everyone need that 1 minute for fame right?

I’m really going too deep into this and I seriously need to go now. Catch you soon!

Are the food they put into their mouth safe for consumption? Did the chef wash his hands after visiting the loo? Did he taste the food with his fingers and dipping back again after savouring the finger 360 degree with his tongue? Are the fondant decoration on the cupcakes being moulded with fingers with manicure? So many scary questions which I don’t even want to know the answers.

This is why the current bakers and future bakers at The Magic Oven are being so enthusiastic about baking in a licenced kitchen. We put ourselves through the proper food handler course to ensure whatever we were doing wrong previously were corrected for the sake of our customers.

So our customers can be assured that the home-baked quality food that they get from us are clean

Below 2 articles that spoke about food hygiene which was emailed to me by a home baker sometime ago when she found me and The Magic Oven.

http://business.asiaone.com/Business/SME+Central/eBiz+Hub/Story/A1Story20080109-44273.html

http://business.asiaone.com/Business/SME%2BCentral/eBiz%2BHub/Story/A1Story20080109-44271.html

The students were amazing and there was a good mix of foreign students and local students in the class. I supposed most of them should be around the age of 19 to 22. In fact, when I was asked to meet Nick at the National Library Board reception counter, I was really surprised to find a hidden university in the National Library. I didn’t know there was such a school in the building but having a university in the library was a fantastic idea! The students will be able to benefit from all the available resources from there without having to walk too far away from school. Moreover, it’s a learning hub!

Below are some of the pictures taken while I was there. Thank you Nick for giving me this opportunity to interact and share my desserts with the students.

Check out the local available courses at University of Nevada Las Vegas, Singapore.

For ladies, as our trainer advised, we should always keep a nail brush by our hand basin to ensure that we brush our nails thoroughly after using the toilet, before and after handling food, when our hands are soiled and also after handling raw food.

Even for the guys, it is equally important to ensure that your nails (eventhough they are short) are clean and free of dirt.

Another note for the ladies who wear jewelleries such as watch, rings, bracelet etc, when handling or preparing food, it is advisable to keep them away as they may contain harmful micro-organisms that can cause food poisoning.

To add on to yesterday’s topic, it is compulsory for all food handler (as long as you come in contact with food) to attend this food hygiene course and to get a typhoid injection before operating in a food establishment.

While we are still on the hygiene topic, lets talk about the chicken rice stall owner who had tramatised our trainer.

It was located in one of the coffee shops at Jalan Besah area. Our trainer, Rodney, at that time was washing his hands. A minute later, a big buff guy came out from the toilet. His apron was hanging over him the whole time he was in there. That guy walked passed Rodney, went out of the toilet and walked straight back to his chicken rice stall to continue working.

So what exactly is wrong with that chicken rice stall owner?

Firstly, he was wearing an apron. Perfectly appropriate for food preparer. But going to the toilet with it, was totally unappropriate!

Next, he did not wash his hands after using the toilet. Whether he is doing a big business or a small one behind that closed door, it is equally dirty. Without washing his hands, and going back to handle the chicken is totally gross if you were to think about it.

So I hope his story would enlighten you to be more aware of the general hygiene practices.

Take care,
Delcie

Both Suki and I attended a full day Food Hygiene course from 9a.m to 7p.m., held at Jalan Besah CC last Wednesday.

It’s our pleasure to share with you that we both managed to pass the exam and to obtain a certification for us to officially operate in a licensed food shop or food stall.

The sad thing is that we may have to wait for another 1 to 2 months for WDA to process our certification before we can get our hands on the original copy. The happy thing is that our helpful trainer, Rodney Seah from Ascendo Consulting, is going to write us an official letter to give us the green light to start operating in a shop.

We learnt alot about handling food, cleaning, personal hygiene and the different causes of food poisoning as well as, the demerit point structure of NEA standards.

The objective of this course is to raise the standard of food hygiene in Singapore. This course is compulsory for all who wish to operate in the food business and to pass the exam is the minimum requirement.

No matter what, I think this is a great initiative by the government in enforcing strict control over the food that is being distributed to the public. At the end of the day, we realised that there are so many hygiene practices which we had overlooked and taken for granted. Hence, from that day onwards, we promised to commit ourselves to take extra precaution on ensuring that all desserts coming out from us is of the highest standard with quality.

You’ll be surprise on how dirty some chefs are when they handled food. Just yesterday, when I was queuing to buy lunch at this coffee shop located in Serangoon, the man at the next stall selling Minced Pork Noodle (apparently to be a famous shop there) was packing the “fa chai”, a black hairy-like herb, into a container. In the next second, he dropped the container and a few “fa chai” dropped out from it, and roll onto the floor. Without thinking, he threw the dropped “fa chai” back into the container, looked around to see if anyone saw him and continue packing.

I was totally disgusted and thank god, I didn’t buy my lunch from his stall.

There was also another incident related by the trainer himself during the course. But because I have to run my errands now, I’ll blog about it tomorrow and do stay tune to be horrified by how dirty the Chicken Rice owner is.