Saturday, March 12, 2022

THE TINY DETECTIVES (2021-2022)

THE TINY DETECTVES

Meet the TINY DETECTIVES. They may be small, but they have BIG questions... and they know just where to find the answers. Within the pages of a book, of course, just like this one...

Happy Meal Readers

McDonald's is using its scale for for good to instil a passion for reading and provide a moment of closeness for families. By making reading fun, it is possible to inspire a lifelong love of reading for kids. You can now choose a book as part of your Happy Meal.

BOOK 1 : Can Trees Talk?


BOOK 2 : Do Fish Glow in the Dark?


BOOK 3 : Do Spiders have Pets?


BOOK 4 : Do Koalas have Fingerprints?


BOOK 5 : Why Do Stars Twinkle?


BOOK 6 : Can Animals Walk On Water?


BOOK 7 : Is the Middle of the Earth Hot?


BOOK 8 : Why Is the Sky Blue?


BOOK 9 : Can Wolves Sees In The Dark?


BOOK 10: Can It Snow in the Desert?


BOOK 11: Is There Life at the Bottom of the Deepest Ocean?


BOOK 12: Can Butterflies Taste With Their Feet?

McDonald's animated stories
Source: McDonald's Singapore

Text © Cressida Cowell 2021
Cover and inside illustrations by Artful Doodlers © Hodder and Stoughton Ltd 2021

Hodder Children's Books
Carmelite House, 50 Victoria Embankment, London EC47 0DZ

Related Post:
TREETOP TWINS ADVENTURES (2019)
TREETOP TWINS WILDERNESS ADVENTURES (2020)

Sunday, December 13, 2020

TREETOP TWINS ADVENTURES (2019)

TREETOP TWINS ADVENTURES

The Treetop family has built a time machine to go back in time to study the age of the dinosaurs! Share with them in their adventures of a lifetime...

Happy Meal Readers

McDonald's is using its scale for for good to instil a passion for reading and provide a moment of closeness for families. By making reading fun, it is possible to inspire a lifelong love of reading for kids. You can now choose a book as part of your Happy Meal.


BOOK 1 : The Twins Take on T.Rex

BOOK 2 : The Twins Discover a Diplodocus

BOOK 3 : The Twins Meet a Massospondylus

BOOK 4 : The Twins Climb a Camarasuarus

BOOK 5 : The Twins Play With a Plesiosaur

BOOK 6 : The Twins Help a Hadrosaur

BOOK 7 : The Twins have a Picnic with a Spinosaurus

BOOK 8 : The Twins Track Down a Triceratops

BOOK 9 : The Twins Meet a Mystery Dinosaur

BOOK 10: The Twins Save a Stegosaurus

BOOK 11: The Twins Meet a Hatzegropteryx

BOOK 12: The Twins Meet Two Tyrannosaurs


SCAN TO UNLOCK A DIGITAL REWARD

1. Download Happy Studio App
2. Tap scanner and scan the icon (at the back of the book)
3. Try our games and activities too

Text © Cressida Cowell 2019
Cover and inside illustrations by Artful Doodlers © Hodder and Stoughton Ltd 2019

Hodder Children's Books
Carmelite House, 50 Victoria Embankment, London EC47 0DZ

Made for McDonald's 2019

TREETOP TWINS WILDERNESS ADVENTURES (2020)

McDonald's Happy Meal Readers: TREETOP TWINS WILDERNESS ADVENTURES

From Cressida Cowell, author and illustrator of the ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ series comes the new ‘Treetop Twins Wilderness Adventures’ book series!

With 12 books in the collection, you’ll explore distant lands and learn about different creatures across the globe from the past and present, including endangered and extinct animals! Develop a deeper love for reading as a family and bond over the fun of story time when you choose from a book or toy in every Happy Meal®.

BOOK 1 : The Twins Follow a Polar Bear

The Treetop family have transformed their time machine into a snowmobile, and they have travelled, not back in time, but far, far away to the Arctic this time. The Treetop family were looking for the magnificent polar bear.

Also available on Happy Meal® Readers Storytelling.

BOOK 2 : The Twins Meet a Quagga

The Treetop family have taken their time machine and travelled back in time to the 18th century to the grassland of South Africa. The family went to a nearby waterhole to see what animals were living in the African savanna at that time. Tulip was looking forward to finding some unicorns, and to her surprise, a strange creature appeared!

Also available on Happy Meal® Readers Storytelling.

BOOK 3 : The Twins Help a Pink Dolphin

The Treetop family have transformed their time machine into a boat, and they have travelled far, far away to the Amazon River in South America. The family spotted the Amazon River’s Pink dolphin playing, but a loud squawk startled everyone, what could it be?

BOOK 4 : The Twins Discover a Dodo

The Treetop family took their time machine back to the 16th century, to the jungle island of Mauritius in search of the mysterious dodos! After landing, they spotted a flock of dodos from afar, but Asha and Ted’s squabbles attracted the birds and they started running towards the Treetop family, could they escape from the dodos?

BOOK 5 : The Twins Walk With a Wolly Mammoth

The Treetop family have taken their time machine back twenty thousand years, to Ice Age North America on a search for woolly mammoths. The family found a large herd of woolly mammoths ploughing through the snow with their tusks, however, they were unaware of something that has been lurking, watching them all along while they were observing the mammoths! Read on to find out the mysterious creature and the Twins’ walk with the woolly mammoth!

BOOK 6 : The Twins Track a Tiger

The Treetop family have taken their time machine back to Australia three thousand years ago in search of the Tasmanian tigers. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been an easy quest as they have been tracking the Tigers' footprints for a week but to no avail. On their last day, as they were about to go to bed, they heard a strange eerie sound!

BOOK 7 : The Twins Greet a Great Auk

The Treetop family have turned their time machine into a boat and travelled back in time to the 19th century, to the North Atlantic Ocean in search of a bird that lived then called the great auk. While resting on shore, a white-tailed eagle flying overhead dropped a big white egg with brown markings - a great auk’s egg. Could the egg lead them to their discovery of the great auks?

BOOK 8 : The Twins Meet a Monkey

The Treetop family have taken their time machine and travelled, not back in time, but into the depths of the Brazilian rainforest in South America. They hear a loud chirping and clicking from the treetops to find a monkey the size of a squirrel, with long, golden hair sitting on the branch above them. What do they have in common with the Twins?

BOOK 9 : The Twins Pursue a Penguin (Available from 10 Dec 2020 in Singapore)

Put on your winter clothes & join The Treetop Family to travel to Antarctica with their time machine that can be turned into a snowmobile! Watch them study the adorable chinstrap penguins from afar and learnt that most chinstrap penguin families have twins, just like the Treetop Twins! Along with Professor Pablo, they had a great time filming and learning about the chinstrap penguins!

BOOK 10 : The Twins Run after a Rhino

The Treetop Family have travelled back in time to the African savanna to study rare black rhinos! While they were observing a small herd of rhinos, one of the baby rhinos ran away and Tulip tried to chase it for she feared that it might get lost. However, the mother rhino thought Tulip was provoking her baby and began to charge after our group of young explorers!

BOOK 11 : The Twins Watch a Whale

The Treetop Family is now travelling to the vast ocean on an adventure to meet the greatest animal on earth! They saw a huge shadow coming from the bottom of the sea to approach the water surface. It was the blue whale breathing through it’s blowhole! A few moments later, the whale suddenly disappears...

BOOK 12 : The Twins Seek a Saola

In this final book of this Treetop Twins series, the Treetop Family heads to Vietname to search for the rarest & shyest animal in the world..some even called them the Asian "unicorn" - the Saola! It began to rain when they trekked up the hills. The Treetop Family splashed through and waded through mud, leaving them wet, cold & hungry. And suddenly Tulip saw a Saola trapped!

Source: McDonald's Singapore


Text © Cressida Cowell 2020
Cover and inside illustrations by Artful Doodlers © Hodder and Stoughton Ltd 2020
Hodder Children's Books, Carmelite House, 50 Victoria Embankment, London EC47 0DZ
© 2020 McDonald's

Credits:
- Introduction of the series are extracted from McDonald's Singapore website.
- Summary of the books are extracted from McDonald's Malaysia website

Sunday, October 28, 2018

Phua Chu Kang - The Musical (2005)

I doubt we can find the MP3 to this song or clips of the musical online. It has been 13 years since the song first played on TV for Phua Chu Kang - The Musical. But since I found it on a piece of paper that I had handwritten last time, I decided to share it here. Okay, I don't even know the title of the song. =x

*****

Once in a lifetime,
You'll find your love at the right time
And I found mine... and that is you

You were the right one
I wanted you as my one
I knew I found the
Love... that was true...
I just knew

Chorus
Now you're here, in my life
And from here, everything will be fine
From now here, gonna fly
You'll my heaven, my dream & my life
You're my life

Do you remember
First time we met, still remember
You were just seven, I was ten
I really never
Thought that we would be together
But I relived every moment again

Chorus

I tried to be perfect to you
Tried hard to be somebody who
Man, all that you dreamt of
All you wanted, a man to depend on
A man who would love no one but you

Chorus x2

*****

Feel free to share with me if you found the song online! If the lyrics are incorrect, feel free to voice out too.


Related Links:
"A musical Phua Chu Kang" TODAY, 20 April 2005, Page 34


Monday, January 23, 2017

Recipe: Rooster Melt-in-Mouth German cookies

2017 is the year of the Rooster for the Chinese. It is not uncommon to see many cute little Rooster-themed items and food flooding the social media. haha. Of course, I wanted to make some myself too! I saw a recipe shared by my friend on Facebook and decided to give it a try. Sadly, it failed on my first try.

Then, I remember making the Sheep cookies two years back and decided to compare both recipes. To my surprise, both of the recipes using almost same proportion/ingredients. This got me thinking about why do the new recipe fail. I found out that I am not the only one after I reading some comments from others who also tried the recipes.
Not very pretty but hope its cute enough. =)
I began to look at the steps and noticed one very different step. On the other recipe, it suggested in adding more potato starch/flour if the dough is too sticky. Yet, my previous Sheep recipe stated that we need to chill the dough for 15mins after mixing. I decided to follow my previous recipe and it works, again! So, I decided to post and share this recipe for like-minded fellow home-bakers. I managed to make 46 little roosters from the recipe.

Hope you enjoy as much as I do. I will be tweaking the recipe again to add flavours and a different design. So, don't wait. Time to bake!

Hereby, I wish you a great year ahead!



Rooster Melt-in-Mouth German cookies


Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 15 mins (per tray)


Ingredients
  • 125g butter, soften (room temperature)
  • 40g icing sugar, sifted
  • 125g potato starch, sifted
  • 80g plain flour, sifted
For decorations
  • Large Heart-shape candies (for crown)
  • Black Sesame (for eyes)
  • Almond silver/slices (beak)

Method:
  1. Preheat oven to 170°C (degree Celsius), grease and flour baking pan if you are not using a non-stick pan.
  2. Beat butter and icing sugar till fluffy and lighter in colour.
  3. Sift in potato starch and plain flour, mix to form a soft dough. 
  4. Cling wrap the dough and chill for at least 15 minutes.
  5. Make small balls as the body of the rooster. Place the Heart shape candy on the top of the ball as the crown, then add the almond silver/heart as the beak. 
  6. Bake in oven for 10-15 mins.
  7. Leave the cookies to cool before removing them from the tray.

**********

Note:
  1. Step 4 is very important. I have tried some recipe without this step and the dough is very difficult to work with.
  2. Cling-wrap is important. If the dough is left to chill in fridge without the wrap, the dough will get very hard and tough. 
  3. Replace almond silvers with heart candies for the beak to create an 'mouth-open' rooster.
  4. The cookies are firm on the outside but very fragile, so handle with care.
  5. Lightly hit the tray against the table before removing the cookies may be a good idea for most.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Recipe: Holladais, French Checkerboard Cookies

I always find Checkerboard cakes and cookies interesting. It must tough to have the layers neatly cut and layers to form the final product.

I jumped into the idea when my friend came up with a theme for our baking meet-up (#bakersarena). The theme for this meet-up is Cube. Hence, square shape items came right into my mind. What is more squarish than the Checkerboard Biscuits? Just look at the number of squares on one biscuits. I did brownie and cut them into cube since Checkerboard Cookies are not really 'cube' technically anyway.

I went online to browse through recipes and settle with a recipe from Eugenie Kitchen. The reason? She has a Youtube channel and a video (see below) showing me the whole process of getting it done. even if I have not perfect the skills, I will not be too far away. Right? haha. Anyway, her channel has lots of videos showing colourful and vibrant-looking recipes. Looking real good!


I must say that the baking steps and ingredients are not alien to me. But it sure take a lot of time to get it done. In fact, I made my 'Blackie' in between the waiting time for the checker dough to be ready in the fridge. Lots of waiting, really! I swear I can make a few more desserts if I have all the ingredients ready.

Despite all the waiting, I am glad that I give it a try. It is fun to make and accomplishment to see it completed. There might be some short cuts out there for me to explore! May try the recipe again and will share if I managed to cut short the time.



Checkerboard Cookies


Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Waiting time: 2 hours

Ingredients
  • 150g unsalted butter, softened
  • 150g confectioners' sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • A pinch of salt
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 300g plain flour (or cake flour)
  • 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, mixed with 4 teaspoons hot water
Method:
  1. Whisk the butter till light and creamy.
  2. Sift in sugar, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Whisk to combine.
  3. Add in the egg yolks one by one, mixing them well together after each addition.
  4. Sift in the flour. Fold the mixture until fine sands.
  5. Transfer half of the mixture onto a clean working surface.
  6. Mix, form a ball and make the mixture into a rectangular shape.
  7. Cling wrapped the dough and left it refrigerated.
  8. Mix the rest with the cocoa mixture evenly, repeat step 6 and 7.
  9. Keep it refrigerated for at least one hour.
  10. Remove from fridge and stack them in alternate coloured layers. Cut them into strips.
  11. Arrange them in alternate colours to form the checkerboard. Cling wrapped them for hours before using them.
  12. Sliced them into pieces of 2-3 cm thick.
  13. Bake at 180 deg. (180degC) for 16 minutes, or until slightly swollen.
  14. Preheat the oven at 180 deg C / Gas mark 4. Prepare a square baking tin.

**********

Note:
1. It might be more easy to visualize by seeing the pictures in Cook & Be Merry.

Monday, May 18, 2015

Recipe: Super Dark Brownies

It has been a long time since I blog and thought I should share some recipes that I found, amended and used over the weekend (yes, again). One of them is a super simple brownie recipes I found on allrecipes UK. In fact, I was amazed at how simple and quick it is for me to have the brownie ready.
The cracks are due to my inexperience handling.
Added the chocolate topping, for both aesthetic and flavouring reason
Cutting into squares for easier sharing =)
By looking at the ingredients, it is very easy to change the recipe base on personal preference and taste. If you have an hour to spare, just try it. You will have ample time to sit down and enjoy the piece of brownie.



Super Dark Brownies

Prep time: 4 mins
Cook time: 30 mins

Ingredients
  • 350g caster sugar
  • 225g butter, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 4 eggs
  • 225g plain flour
  • 60g dark cocoa powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 100g chocolate chips (or 60g walnut halves)

Topping
  • 75g chocolate chips
  • 25g butter
  • 1 teaspoon salt (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon mint flavouring (optional)

Method:
  1. Preheat the oven at 180 deg C / Gas mark 4. Prepare a square baking tin.
  2. Whisk the butter till light and creamy.
  3. Add in sugar, vanilla extract. Mix them evenly together.
  4. Add in the eggs, one by one and mix them well.
  5. Fold in the flour, dark cocoa powder, baking powder and salt together. Mix well.
  6. Add the chocolate chips into the mixture.
  7. Pour into the greased/or well-lined tin.
  8. Baked for 20mins. Cool it when it is done.
  9. Prepare the toppings. Melt the chocolate chips and butter over double boil.
  10. Cool it a little and pour it into a pipping bag.
  11. Start decorating your brownie.
  12. Slice the brownies into equal square portions, and serve warm or cold.

**********

Notes:
  • If you are using smaller oven, like me, do rotate the tray inside the oven after 10minutes.
  • Feel free to replace ingredients like cocoa powder (dark or normal) and filling (walnuts or chocolate chips). 
  • Chocolate chips is chosen as the dark chocolate powder reduce the chocolatey taste we often get from brownie.
  • Sugar quantity was reduced from the original recipe I found as we often find brownie too sweet.
  • Salt is added to the chocolate topping so as to reduce possible overdose of sweetness and give the brownie a little twist. =)