Pre-school

These past 2 days we were looking at 2 preschools for Abram. One is Kinderland in Sunrise Garden, the other is Cambridge in Green Garden.

We did a free trial at Kinderland yesterday, the class started on 8.30 and ended on 10.00. I met my friend whose daughter were also doing the free trial, and another friend who turned out to be the music teacher for the kindergarten, her son will start schooling there next July.

The first thing was playing outside, there were small sand and water pool, several mini cars, a swing and mini slides. After that all the kids went into the dining room to have snacks (each kid bring their own snacks). Then moved to the playing room, there were lots of toys in it, the kids could freely play with all of them, and then the teacher will call the kids two by two into the art room, yesterday the art project was to color a picture of an ant with water color.

From the playroom, the kids carried on to story room. Here, the teacher told a story and taught some songs. I think they were trying to teach words in this session, because they repeated several words over and over again while showing pictures so that kids would know what the thing in the picture was called. After the story telling, the class was dismissed.

Abram was rather reluctant about his lesson, I think he hadn't used to the people and environment. He played by himself, didn't interact with other kids, didn't want to let go of the the toy he was holding. And in the story-telling session, instead of looking at the teacher, he kept looking at the carpet...*sigh*
Well, I guess it would take a few days to get him familiar with the new place, new friends and new teachers.

The classes in Kinderland are divided into few levels. For under 2y.o is the Playgroup Class, then 2-2,5 y.o is the Pre-Nursery 1, 2.5-3y.o is Pre-Nursery 2, 3-4y.o is Nursery, 4y.o is Kindergarten 1 and 5 y.o is Kindergarten 2.

In playgroup, most of the activities are playing. The kids will be taught words, how to use plates, spoons and cups, tidying up their toys, singing, and simple arts like coloring with a cotton bud (or hand in Abram's case). The language used is English. And the kids can still be accompanied by one adult.

In Pre-Nursery 1 they will start to learn how to hold and use a pencil, e.g by connecting dots with lines. They will also learn some simple Mandarin words. And they can no longer be accompanied by adults, this to teach them to be independent.
In Nursery 1 they will learn to write their own names.
In Kindergarten there is a lesson for music, such as playing instruments, singing in a choir etc.

Overall, I think the program is good and they also have good facilities such as keyboards for the music lesson. The curriculum is from Singapore.
For playgroup we don't need to pay enrollment fee, there are only registration fee of IDR 50,000 and they charge IDR 65.000 per one day, so at the beginning of the month we have to decide how many days per week and then calculate the monthly payment. That is quite fair for us, since it's only playgroup so we don't want to pay a large amount of money.

But we'll have to start paying enrollment fee in Pre-nursery 1, the amount is USD500 and it is a one time payment untill the child graduates from Kindergarten 2. I caught a glimpse of the school fee for Pre-nursery 1 and it was USD290 for 2days/week. Besides that, there is a uniform fee and books and tools fee.

Cambridge pre-school doesn't do free trials, but we can look at the classes and see their activities. We went there 2 days ago, the place is twice smaller than Kinderland and it was kinda gloomy for me. They have 2 classes for Playgroup, one is on Mon, Wed, Fri and the other one is on Tue, Thu, the time is 10.15 to 12.00. For each class, they divide the kids into 2 groups so that each group will only have max 10 kids.

I dont know the exact activities in the classes since I could only see for a while. They were starting the class with singing when I was there.

The playgroup level is only for kids up to 2y.o, after that they go to Nursery 1, till they are 3 y.o they continue to Nursery 2. at 4 y.o they are already in Kindergarten 1 and 5 y.o in Kindergarten 2.

They said the kids will be able to write their own names by the end of Nursery 1's semester. And they will also toilet train the kids by teaching them to tell when they need to go to the toilet. In Nursery 1 the kids can no longer accompanied by adults and apparently before they enter Kindergarten they're already not wearing diapers anymore.

They also teach Mandarin starting Nursery 1, but I don't think they teach music.

For playgroup, the registration fee is IDR250,000, they also charge per day for IDR 55,000. The uniform fee is IDR35,000/set and there is also books fee of less than IDR 50,000 per semester.

Enrollment fee is charged when the kid start Nursery 1, it is IDR 3,000,000, one time payment till graduated from Kindergarten 2. There will also be a fee for books, uniforms, tools.

The curriculum is also from singapore so I think more or less it's just the same with Kinderland. But I prefer Kinderland because of the facilities and Music lesson. However, Cambridge can give graduation certificate from the government aside from their own certificate while Kinderland only gives their own graduation certificate. I've asked Kinderland about their certificate and they said their students got accepted in Penabur, St. Lucia and St. Mary. Kinderland's enrollment fee and school fee is also relatively more expensive than Cambridge, but I guess it is due to their better facilities so it's understandable.

We still haven't decided which one to choose, I prefer Kinderland, hubby prefers Cambridge because of the toilet training and the writing lesson in Nursery 1 and also the government graduation certificate. But we need to decide quickly since we want Abram to start to go to school in March.

For those of you who against sending your kids to school at such a young age, please re-consider, because I think it's good for the kids. They learn to socialize (not only with kids their age but also with other grown-ups besides their parents and family), share things, be creative, have discipline etc. And for a working mom like me who can't be at home and teach too many things to my son, it is a good way to maximize his potentials at these golden years (0-5 y.o).

Here's a photo of Abram playing mini car in Kinderland.

Orange Cake

I have lots of recipe videos from Youtube, what I like about them is their simplicity, and I also can see the process of making the cake and how it will look like when it’s done.

So, I’ve decided to try on 2 recipes for Orange Cake from Youtube. I got kinda bored with vanilla cake so I thought I’d give a try on something ‘fruity’ =p

One recipe is from Youtuber ciccioitaliancafe, and the other one is from weddingcakesforyou. The recipe from the ciccioitaliancafe is very easy and simple, you just have to put all the ingredients in your food processor (or blender in my case). While the one from weddingcakesforyou takes a little effort since you have to mix the egg whites till fairly stiff, and you need to put in some ingredients gradually.

I made these 2 recipes in one day, since it didn’t take too much time preparing them. The first I made was the ciccioitaliancafe, I put in the orange (whole orange, with the skin, and everything but the pit), the sugar, the flour and the butter. It was kinda hard to use blender to make this cake, I still needed to use my spatula often to get them all blended well.

After all the ingredients mixed and smooth, they all went to the cake pan and into the oven. It was baked for about 20 minutes.

While waiting for that cake, I started to work on the other cake. It really was taking a lot of effort……^_^ Cutting the orange, extracting the juice, mixing the egg whites till stiff peaks, folding in the dry ingredients….pheeewwwww…….

When I finished with the second cake’s batter, the first one had already finished baking. I got the pan out, put it in the kitchen counter and put in the second cake into the oven. The second took longer to bake, about 30 minutes.

I used a loaf pan for the first cake, then I cut it in 2 and stack them to make layers. Here’s how they look like

















I tasted the cake, and…… I didn't really like it…..hahahaha. The orange flavor is too strong for me, maybe because it uses the whole orange, and it was also kinda bitter. I have thought of only using the rind of the orange but I went against my instinct and followed the recipe…..
The cake was very dense, I don’t know whether it was me who’d done something wrong or was it supposed to be a very dense cake. This cake should be made as cupcakes, but I was lazy and didn’t want the trouble of getting the batter into those small cupcake cases.
I have to admit I’m a bit disappointed on how the cake tasted because this is a really easy and simple recipe and I thought I can use it whenever I want to make a cake for snack, or probably I had too much hope on this cake…..

Now, it’s time to taste the second cake. The youtuber who owns this recipe is a wedding cake vendor, so this is her recipe for wedding cakes, I guessed it should taste quite nice also.
I halved the recipe and bake this one in a round 20cm pan, the cake came out quite nice, I baked it longer than the suggested time since the recipe said to wait till the edge of the cake started to pull off the sides of the pan, but my cake didn’t do that. And after baking it longer, it still didn’t do that…..

Look at it when it came out of the oven

















See…..it didn’t pull off the sides of the pan…

















It cracked a bit, but it looked nice when I inverted and put it on a plate


















I needed some sample of the cake, just to know how the cake tastes like without frosting or filling, so I decided to carve the cake into a heart shape so I can eat the ‘by-product’.















This one tasted better than the first one, but since it only used orange juice, there was only a little hint of orange in it, I think this recipe should add the rind of the orange in it so that the flavor will be stronger. The texture is the same as any butter cake type. It’s quite a good cake, though I can’t say it’s the best.

I decorate these cakes with mandarin oranges and powdered whipcream.





















The whipcream became stiff after only a short time of mixing, but as soon as I put it on the cake it melted. The cake was already cooled so it was kinda weird, I don’t know why it melted so fast, was it because I didn’t mix long enough? But it was already stiff, if I mixed it any longer it would be too stiff to spread on a cake.































So I crumb-coated the cake and quickly put it and the whipcream in the freezer. Apparently, after I put the whipcream in the freezer, it didn’t melt when I apply it to the second cake. So maybe it should be put in the freezer first before used?
For the filling, I used whipcream and small mandarin oranges.
















Well, this is the finished look of the two cakes.
































































































There were some whipcream left so I made cold desserts, whipcream layered with marie biscuit, splashed with coffee, covered with another layer of whipcream, gave another splash of coffee and finished with strawberry jam. YUMMY!!!

Pics of Brokus Keju Tante Lydia

Cakenya bergelombang.....
















Sudah di trim, tapi jadi tipis...


















Selai stroberi



















Tutup buttercream



















Menyembunyikan cacat2 dengan keju


















The finished product




































Sisa nge-trim di bikin kaya sandwich

Brownies Kukus Keju untuk Tante Lydia

Proyek terbaru dalam rangka menuju wiraswasta bakul kue rumahan =p : bikin brownies kukus keju untuk tante Lydia Yerikho. Tante ini sering sekali ngasi abram kado, dan kita blom pernah ngasi tante apa2, jadi pengen ngasi sesuatu.

Sebenernya takut jg bikin kue ini berhubung cake loyang, sempet mikir apa mau bikin jd cupcake aja, tp lebih repot kalo bikin jd cupcake n lagian sampe kapan mau terus takut latihan bikin cake loyang, tar kan kalo jadi bakul kue harus bisa bikin kue ukuran apa aja sesuai pesanan.

Sampe ga bisa tidur malem sebelomnya mikirin gimana kalo sampe tuh kue gagal, ato gimana kalo buttercreamnya yg ngaco, gimana hiasnya biar aman dan ga ribet........

Jadi beginilah prosesnya :

Beberapa hari sebelumnya uda nyari2 info satu resep itu jadinya loyang ukuran berapa, dapet di salah satu blog katanya dia pake loyang uk 30x10x4. Nah itu kan bearti volumenya 1200, sedangkan loyang yg g pake itu loyang bulet ukuran diameter 21.5cm. Jadi, kalo mau bikin kue ukuran tinggi 6 cm, bearti itungnya (22/7 x jari2 x jari2) x tinggi, maka didapatlah angka 2179. Kalo gitu, g musti bikin kira2 1.8 resep, berhubung emang g pengen bikin yg cupcakes jg untuk makan sendiri maka g memutuskan untuk bikin 2,5 resep. Tapi.....apa yg terjadi.....?ternyata setelah dipraktekkan kok malah jadinya satu loyang itu dengan tinggi cuma sekitar 4 cm..... Duh....gatau deh apa yg salah, tp ya sutra lah....untung aja masih dapet 4 cm, masih lumayan tinggi lah, lagian kan nanti dia naik toh??

Maka dimulailah pengocokan telor....berhubung tuh telor banyak, pegel jg g ngocoknya, dan di dalam otak terjadi pergumulan, ngocoknya itu musti kental berjejak ato stiff peak ya??soalnya laen nih, kalo kental berjejak kan kental dan kalo diangkat adonannya meninggalkan jejak yg lama ilangnya, tapi kalo stiff peak itu kan adonannya bener2 kaku yg kalo mixer diangkat dia meningglkan puncak yg kaku, ga letoy. Akhirnya diputuskanlah bahwa sampe kental berjejak. Dan ternyata.....salah sodara2!!! it should be stiff peak!!! Hasilnya? keju kotak2nya tenggelem semua......T_T

Yah sudahlah......toh masih bisa dimakan kejunya......

Mulai lah pengukusan, di milis dibilangin ga bole pake api besar, pake api sedang aja, kalo api besar nanti cakenya bergelombang, so g pake api sedang, tp untuk manasin kukusannya g pake api besar, g pikir y gpp dong, kan cuma manasin aja, supaya cepet. Tapi.....apa yg terjadi????keluar2, cakenya kaya kena angin ribut, gelombang gede booooo!!!

Haduuuuuhhhh, gawattttt. Akhirnya setelah panik dikit, g ambil piso n siap2 untuk nge-trim tu kue. Setelah dipotong sana-sini *sambil mikir duh ini kok gelombangnya dalem amat T_T* akhirnya lumayan tuh gelombangnya ga keliatan, walopun masih ada bolong2 dikit tp kan mau ditutup pake buttercream n keju parut, jadi aman lah ga bakal keliatan.

Oke! sekarang bikin buttercream. karena males, jadinya pake resep ngarang, butter di kocok ampe lembut, masukkin icing sugar, icip2 manisnya uda oke blom, masukkin susu uht supaya enceran, icip lagi, kok berasa butter banget ya? kalo gitu masukkin vanilli essesnce. Oke deh! rasanya uda nice *menurut g =p*.

Tadinya rencananya itu kue mau dibikn 2 layers, di tengah2 nya pake selai stroberi, di atas baru tutup buttercream n keju parut n stroberi. Tapi karena itu kue uda tipis g trim (tinggal 3 senti an tingginya) jadinya mana bisa lagi dibikin 2 layers. Cuman g pikir sayang nih uda beli selai stroberi masak ga dipake, akhirnya g maksa jg g olesin aja di atasnya tu kue, trus baru g tutup buttercream, jadilah susah ngolesin buttercreamnya, ya iyalah....jadi licin krn selai nya.....T_T. Tapi dengan susah payah bisa jg ditutup, walo ga rapi tapi setelah ditutup keju parut ga keliatan lagi jeleknya ^_^. Bis itu baru deh hias lagi pake buah stroberi.

Buah stroberinya ditaro di atas buttercream yg dispuit, tp berhubung spuitnya jelek, jadinya hasil spuitannya pun jelek, untung aja ditimpa stroberi jd ga keliatan amat.

Kesimpulannya : untung aja banyak cara untuk menutupi cacat2nya tuh kue.....hehehehe
Barusan tante Lydia nelpon untuk bilang terima kasih untuk kuenya, dan dia bilang enak.....gatau ya untuk menghibur g aja kali.... hahahahaa. Baik sekali si tante....jadi malu......^_^