usefulness of a weblog

A weblog can actually have various purposes. It depends how we utilize this application. Weblogs can be used as a forum whereby the teachers can post something realting to the subject and the students can post their veiws and comments on the post.

Teachers can also include learning materials into the weblog such as videos related to the subject as a means of additional ressources for the students. Students may find this much more to their convenience as they can view the resources at their own time and target. they can even look at the resource as many times as they want in case they need more time to understand the content.

NEWS REEL

U and I =)

Cute isn’t it? Well, can find about 400 more of these dolls in the showcase that was set up at Toa Payoh Hub. “Project U & I” is the collaboration between more than 200 schools in Singapore. The handmade dolls are “citizens” belonging to the many Youth Olympic Games (YOG) participating countries. The dolls are dressed in their respective traditional costumes.

This project is jointly organised by the National Heritage Board (NHB) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) .'Project U & I' is a school outreach programme to commemorate the inaugural Singapore Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in August 2010. the purpose of this project is to encourage the students to respect and appreciate the tradition, values and cultures of different people.

When I first set my eyes on these dolls, the dolls look so neatly done with lots of details. Believe it or not, these dolls were painstakingly stitched by the students. They even sacrificed their June Holidays just to complete these dolls. Now... who says sewing isn’t important??!! It definitely is!! Just look at what the students could do. Now... who says sewing isn’t important??!! It definitely is!! Just look at what the students could create something so beautiful and creative.

This project has given a new perception of what sewing can do. It has also given the students a greater insight of what sewing is all about. Instead of painting, or drawing...why not SEW!! It’s definitely a new way of ART.

Visit Heritage Fest: Project U& I to find out more about this collaboration! =)

My First Order

A week ago, when my best friend asked me to make a cake for her to celebrate her friend’s birthday, I had mixed feelings. First, I was very excited about my very first order. Second, I was nervous and was afraid that I won’t be able to pull this off.

Planning......

So it all started when she asked me and I said yes.. And the planning begins. My vision for the mini cake was to make a two tier cake.

She requested for:

-chocolate cake that wasnt too sweet

-small cake fit for 3 people ( I was glad the order was small, couldn’t imagine how I could handle a bigger cake.  =P)

-fudgy icing for the coating. 

Searching for Recipes......

After looking at recipes I’ve tried, I finally decided for chocolaty shortcake with chocolate icing. I didn’t want to make buttercream... not skilled for it yet... so icing is the closest I can go.

Then, we went on to look for ideas to decorate this cake. I googled for chocolate decorated cakes and saw endless pictures of delectable chocolate cakes. Now, time to choose. We agreed on having long chocolate curls lining up the sides and to tie the ribbon around it. With roses on the top and a 22 made with white fondant.

The Cake suppose to look something like this.. with only two tier instead of 3. =)

Shopping......

Friday, 17 September 2010, 8.30pm. After a long day at school, I had to buy the ingredients for the cake. Tired.  Sleepy. Stressed.  Wished I could just fall and land on a bed.  No matter how tired, I must be responsible for the promise I made. So, I made my may to Poon Huat. While gathering my ingredients, I couldn’t find chocolate curls. The only thing is saw was a box of chocolate sticks. I was thinking maybe THAT was it.  So, I went to ask the shop assistant.

“Uncle, are these chocolate culrs?"

Uncle said, “Yea, Chocolate long long ..Chocolate stick chocolate stick”.

When I reached home, I was so disappointed to see that they are not the curls I wanted... super disappointed... lucky my friend said it was ok and she didn’t mind.

the chocolate sticks.... had to find a way of using this on the cake..

Baking......

Saturday, 18 September 2010, 9 am. Time to bake the cake!! Baking the cake was easy. It’s assembling the cake together that is the difficult process. I used a cutter to cut my cakes since the cake was supposed to be small. The round cutters are one of the important tools you need if you love making miniature cakes. It saves your money of buying many round cake moulds and definitely saves you time. (Be a smart consumer =P)

They had round ones, curly edges ones, and even heart shaped ones. They are definitely good investments. =P

I didn’t manage to take pictures while I was icing the cake since my assistant (my little sister cum photographer) wasn’t around. These are the only pictures I managed to snap. When Icing your cake,

its good to have a trunable ( helps you to turn the cake easily ) and to line cake plate with four strips of parchment paper to form a square outline. this helps to stop the icing from running onto the plate. A tip I learned from Nigella Lawson (my idol =D).

Struggling my way through, I finally came to the last part of the cake making, arranging the chocolate sticks.

Pardon my messy icing. Afterall, its going to be covered with the chocolate sticks. =P

Sadly, my chocolate sticks had fat bloom.



See the white specks????



What is fat bloom?

Well, fat bloom is common in chocolate that has not been stored properly and have been exposed to widely fluctuating temperatures. They are actually the cocoa butter (fat) that infiltrates to the surface. As they the chocolates undergo wide temperature changes, the cocoa butter rises to the surface, crystallizes and forms gray or white specks on the chocolate.

How to remove it?

By easily wiping it off! however, this is not the case for sugar bloom. well, sugar bloom is a whole another topic.. hahaha! shall not cover it here. =)

Finally......

After I’m done with the decorations, my cake was ready!! We decided to put the “22” and the roses on Sunday, since my box wasn’t tall enough. Hehe.

Special Thanks to:
Andrea - for believing and trusting me with me this cake... thank u Andrea!!
My Mum - for helping me clean up my mess and for giving me encouragement all the way
Aishah ( my little sister) - for just being there for me =)

without them, I don't think I will be able to complete this cake. Many many Thanks! <3

Oh well, enough stories!! Feast your eyes on my very first two tier cake. Share your comments about my cake and tell me how I can make my future cake better yea! I will very much appreciate your inputs!!! =D

Dont forget to leave your comments on my cake yea!!! would love to hear it from you!!! =D

Reference:

http://sweeticingonthecake.com/chocolate_cakes.html

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/old-fashioned-chocolate-cake-119

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/202397/fat-bloom

Web Resource Review 5 - FoodTube

Food Tube is a video base for food lovers to source for recipes and cooking videos. I like websites as such as I prefer to learn new recipes through watching the demo as I feel that I can learn more by watching than through reading. Eventhough this website doesn’t focus on nutrition and doesn’t seem to be relevant; I personally think that we can learn a new skill through watching videos. Sometimes we learn more through watching other people do it than reading about it-Observational learning.  However, knowing that there is a wide selection of videos, we need to make sure that we source out for the right video.

Web Resource Review 4 - Nourish Interaction

Nourish Interactive is an online resource for parents to learn about nutrition. This website helps to guide the parents to make sound nutritional decisions for them and also to cater to their children’s needs. Parents can also refer to dieticians advices on nutrition related issues. 

Eventhough this website is created for the parents; there is also a segment for health and nutrition educators. Educators can make use of the lesson plans, resources and refer to clinical studies for more insightful read from journals available.

Children can also enjoy this blog when they try out on Chef Solus’ nutrition Kids’ Games or the Kids’ Fun Nutrition Section. I felt that this section is useful for parents to use as a tool to explain nutrition information to their children in a more interactive manner.

Web Resource Review 3 - Health Promotion Board

I’m sure many of us know what Health Promotion Board is. Besides providing information on health topics and nutrition related issues, they also provide a wide range of educational tools such ABCs of Healthy Eating and Handbook on Nutrition Labelling. Health tools such as Recipe Analysis, Calorie Calculator, Energy and Nutrient Composition of Foods to facilitate in meal planning for their coursework. 

The tool that interests me the most was the DigiTool. Here is where the interactive multimedia resources such as videos, audios, eCards, podcast, games and quizzes are uploaded. One digi tool that caught my eye is the E-Supermart. Guess what? It is designed and developed by Temasek Polytechnic Students. =) Basically the E-Supermarket helps the students to experience a virtual supermarket tour which covers the dairy, beverages, canned food, and snacks section. There will be questions asked based on the contents that they learn in Home Economics content.