bake me happy :)

Durian Crepe Cake

2009-08-27T21:48:00.004+08:00

we celebrated Jess' 21st birthday last friday at my place. had a simple bbq together with all her friends and the cblc peeps. good to see all of them after a long time :) and the food was good too!

baked this really challenging durian crepe cake for her birthday. the cake may look just plain simple and normal, but i tell you, it was sheer hard work! standing in front of the stove making layers after layers of crepe, and failing at the first 3 layers cos the pan i used wasn't non-stick. and i kept thinking i didn't add enough oil so i kept trying and then failing. zzz. so dumb! until i changed to another pan and each crepe came out perfect! :) awesome!

i think i managed to get about 20 layers in total. considering that i wasted some. haha i really scrimped on the batter to get really thin slices.

managed to get durians the night before at marine parade. phew! and they were pretty good too.

the choc layer could be omitted but i thought it would be more appealing to the taste buds. but i guess it would be as good without it too.

the recipe was obtained from florence's blog. find it here! i was more generous with the durian filling and added more than what she used, and used lesser whipped cream too.

to jess: wishing you an early happy 21st birthday! may you be happy, healthy and pretty always :)

Choc Snickers Muffins

2009-08-15T22:40:00.010+08:00

another muffin bake, this time for sentosa's outing with cblc peeps.

it was quite disappointing cos so few people turned up :( but i had fun learning to play volleyball and getting some sun!

the muffins were barely touched so i gave everything that was left to his family, for their breakfast the next day.

i adapted this simple and quick recipe from Little Corner of Mine's Strawberry Muffins recipe.

for a twist, i added snickers into the batter and then topping it up with After Eight's peppermint choc.

quite a weird combination huh? haha but seems like it turned out pretty good from those who tried it :)

Choc Snickers Muffins
Adapted from Little Corner of Mine's Strawberry Muffins

(A) 2 cup self-raising flour 3/4 cup sugar

(B) 1 egg, beaten 1 cup milk 1/4 cup canola oil 1 cup Snickers choc, cut into cubes

(C) After Eight Peppermint Choc slices

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 200 deg C. Line the muffin pan with paper cups.

2) Place (A) in a big bowl. Whisk to combine. Make a hole in the middle and add (B). Stir with a spatula until just combined. Scoop batter into the muffin pan and decorate the top with choc slices.

Blueberry Muffins

2009-08-05T16:09:00.004+08:00

recently, i bugged mama to buy some blueberries cos they were so cheap. decided to make some muffins with them. was thinking either chiffon cake or muffins but chose the latter cos it was lesser work haha ;) lazy me!

i have always wanted to try recipes from Pook cos her baked stuff always looks so good. and she takes the extra effort to take pics of the entire baking process. amazing stuff she has; you should pop by her blo g one of these days :)

i got this blueberry muffin recipe from her and it's really simple to make. this recipe yields about 7 muffins for me using the standard muffin pan, so it's really ideal for a family - not too much and not too little.

giving these muffins to my auntie who's coming back to s'pore today!

Strawberry Yoghurt Cake

2009-07-28T10:24:00.003+08:00

something i did pretty long ago but never had a chance to upload. blogger has been cranky. not sure if it's the same for you?

anyw i did a strawberry yoghurt cake with cranberries added.

it turned out really soft and moist..

but i cant rmb where i got the recipe from! gosh. maybe when i rmb i'll post it up here :)

Potato Chips Cheese Cookies

2009-07-28T09:49:00.003+08:00

before baking!

i made these supposedly addictive cookies last week, taken from aunty yochana.

i modified the recipe a little, used ruffles cheddar cheese flavored potato chips instead of plain mister potato chips. and for everything else i used the same ingredients.

but somehow i was a little disappointed with the taste...althou the cookies were really crispy and crunchy, i felt that the cheddar cheese and potato chips flavor were not distinct at all :( what a waste!

scoop scoop scoop; nicely shaped!

since it was too late to make new changes or decide on a new recipe (cos the cookies were for almond as a farewell gift the very same day), i had no choice!

so sorry almond! haha next time maybe something better ;)

hope all's well for you so far!

and thanks for the seafood platter meal at fish and co. that day. yumm.

the picture quality in this post is really bad, forgive me! cos i took them with my hp :(

good meal!

Durian Puffs

2009-07-11T23:53:00.007+08:00

my first attempt at making choux pastry; pretty satisfied with the end result. at least it managed to remain puffed up even after taking it out from the oven. the only thing is that i felt it was a tad too hard. i'm not sure why also; probably gotta do with the temperature? cos i'm pretty sure i followed the recipe exactly! i'll probably try doing it a few more times since it's so easy to do ;)

i stuffed fresh durain puree into the choux pastry. yes fresh durains - no cream or sugar added! just the natural taste ;)

generous filling!

nice ;)

Butter Cookies with Choc

2009-07-06T13:27:00.005+08:00

i did this over the weekend. made 2 different variations - for one, i just drizzled choc randomly and the other was choc sandwiched in between. i adapted the recipe from aunty yochana; original recipe is called Polos. i added some ground almonds in there. simple and nice ;)

messy messy!

this is like a mini 'burger' haha.

was supposed to be brought to his sis's place, but it turned out that we din go in the end. so he brought everything home instead!

on another note, commencement is coming soon..got mixed feelings about it. but anyw, i'm still looking forward to that day!

Potato Cake

2009-06-27T14:03:00.004+08:00

this is an easy one, adapted from Easy Stir 'N Bake Cakes!

i got the recipe from KWF.

it's an ideal recipe for people who don't have much time to bake. i did this in the morning for weng, was going to visit her in the afternoon. it took me just an hour plus to get it baked ;)

hope u recover soon weng!

Durian Bavarios Cake

2009-06-26T23:32:00.004+08:00

happy 25th birthday to you!

baked a durian bavarios cake for him, pretty challenging and tedious! some hiccups here and there, the deco wasn't very pretty...but still satisfied with the end product :)

i adapted the recipe from aunty yochana. made some changes here and there. the original recipe is available here. as always the recipe is a keeper :)

i used 3 slices of sponge for this one so that i can stuff more of the durian mousse inside!

happy happy birthday!

Durian Bavarios Cake
Adapted from Aunty Yochana's Durian Bavarios Cake

Vanilla Sponge cake:

100 g top flour
30 g cornflour
25 g water
1 tsp Baking powder
5 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
80g sugar
10 g ovalette (cake stabilizer)
50 g cornoil

Durian Mousse filling:

400 g Durian flesh
250 g fresh milk
40 g sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 eggs
15 g Gelatine Powder
40 g water
300 g whipped cream - (Pour N Whip)

Method:

1) For vanilla sponge cake, whisk all the ingredients together except the cornoil until thick and fluffy. Add in cornoil and mix till well blended. Pour mixture into 3 - 9" square trays. You can also pour it into 2 trays for a thicker sponge. Bake for 15 to 20 mins. at 175 deg C till cooked.
2) For durian mousse: Boil milk with sugar till sugar dissolves. Whisk eggs and salt lightly and pour in the hot milk mixture. Add in durian flesh and mix till smooth. Off the heat and let it cool completely.
3) Mix gelatine powder with water and let it sit for 5 mins. Microwave for 20 secs. then add into the durian mixture.
4) Whisk whip cream till fluffy. Fold into the durian mixture. Divide mixture into 2 portions.
5) Spread 1 portion of durian mousse onto 1 slice of sponge cake. Then spread the durian mousse again and then top up with the second slice of sponge cake and cover with the last layer of sponge. Chill in the fridge till set.
6) Decorate cake as desired. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Guys ;)

2009-06-19T11:12:00.010+08:00

to wenphei, lung kwan and kang,

happy birthday ;)

it was my first time making such a huge cake. a mango chiffon cake covered with whipped cream and topped with mango and longans.

and i've got to admit chiffon cakes aren't easy to make. after subsequent failures :( some parts of the cake was actually hollow for this one opps! and since i had no more time to make another cake, clever me went to patch up those hollow parts with this.

but anyhow, it turned out decent enough ;)

at least kit volunteered to finish up almost a quarter of the cake. haha. give me face!

happy birthday guys, tis' probably the last cake i'm gonna bake for 17th mc.

to cblc's 17th main comm:

thank you for being my guinea pigs for the past year (and being my biggest sponsors! haha), giving me excuses to bake amidst my stressful final year undergraduate life, appreciating my amateur baking skills haha ;p and watching me improve with every bake? haha or is it!

bake-me-happy wouldn't have had been so lively and merry without you guys! cheerios :)

Mango Chiffon Cake

2009-06-17T01:53:00.002+08:00

everything seemed so perfect after i took it out of the oven...

until...

it plopped like 2 hours into cooling..

and my heart plopped too ;(

the texture of the cake was good thou..must have been my error somewhere along..

i have to rebake another one tomorrow!

anyw i adapted this recipe from an orange chiffon cake recipe obtained from here. i'm sure it's a good recipe, gonna try making it again ;)

Double Choc Cake

2009-06-14T19:20:00.003+08:00

i finally did some baking!

i've been enjoying myself so much ever since the exams were over.

and i'm so glad i've graduated! woohoo ;p

we had a mini gathering at my prof's house yesterday. and i baked a double choc cake; something easy and probably wun go wrong after having not baked anything for soooo long.

i was really nervous when the cake was in the oven haha.

yea it was successful! a super chocolatey cake adapted from M.eats. reduced the sugar as usual, and omitted the choc chunks and instead did a choc ganache coating on it. glad everyone loved it :)

apple/mango strudel and doughnuts courtesy of shinhui!

we all had a good time and i'm glad our relationship with each other doesn't cease with the end of final year projs and dreadful labs ;p

on another note, i'm really lucky to have had dr zhao as my fyp supervisor! hope everything goes well for her as she takes on her 2nd batch of honours students next semester ;)

Baked Tapioca Kueh

2009-03-16T01:00:00.008+08:00

baked tapioca kueh today! mama bought 3 large pieces of tapioca from the market yesterday. yea so this morning she told me to use them all up by baking something.

so i found this recipe from Hugbear's blog. she has 2 variations of this tapioca kueh, one with just white sugar added, another one in which she adds gula melaka (palm sugar).

of course the gula melaka one caught my eye. she mentioned that replacing some of the white sugar with gula melaka gave a more fragrant kueh which was indeed true. in fact i replaced all of the sugar with gula melaka!

grating the tapioca was real hard work. haha my arms were aching halfway through ;p and all that hard work didn't even give me enough tapioca for a full recipe. i had only about 700g of grated tapioca ( after draining off the juice). the recipe calls for 1 kg!

this was hard work!

in a bid to make this healthier, i replaced all the coconut milk with fresh milk. and also cut down a little on the sugar. i guess it would have turned out more fragrant if i used coconut milk instead. but oh well, shall save the calories and cholesterol on this one! afterall tapioca itself is a healthy treat :) i think mine turned out pretty good too!

Chocolate Pie Topped With Fresh Fruits

2009-03-02T17:11:00.010+08:00

it has been a long while since i last baked! the last post was on chinese new year goodies in fact - a month of baking hiatus :( i'm telling myself to bear with this last lap of my fyp. before i stop going to lab, i need to get some decent results. most days are spent at lab, otherwise at lectures or tutorials and weekends are when i catch up on lectures...that explains the lack of posts and energy to bake.

this weekend, however, i made an exception! which i'm glad i did :)

this recipe is adapted from Williams Sonoma's book, titled Pie and Tart. my auntie gave us the entire series of his cookbooks and i think they are awesome. very clear instructions and easy to follow steps, plus many helpful tips!

the original recipe actually omits the fresh fruits and it calls for a whopping 5 egg yolks! which turned me off a little, imagine the cholesterol in there~

in the end i used Godiva hazelnut chocolate spread as the choc filling. since it was a little thick i placed it over a double boiler and added some butter and milk to it to get a smooth consistent texture :D

i spreaded some raspberry jam on the base of the tart

added some macadamia nuts into the choc filling

i had a hard time peeling of the layer of skin off the tangerines, and gave up at some point haha

it's the bday month and this cake has been specially made for the 3 bday babies - shuyun, ben and kenny! happy birthday to all! and not forgeting aaron and jeanbean, happy birthday to you guys too ;p

Happy Chinese New Year!

2009-01-25T01:27:00.006+08:00

here's wishing everyone a happy and prosperous new year of the ox! good health, good luck, good fortune, good relationships and a better economy ahead :)

this year i didn't bake the usual CNY cookies. so no pineapple tarts, kuek bangkit, etc...yea too tedious and i had too little time for those :( my final year project presentation took place about a week plus just before CNY.

in fact i baked these cookies just 3 days ago! haha but it's good too cos it's fresher this way. homemade cookies usually can't be kept for long.

these cookies took me a whooping 6 hours to prepare; really tiring but so satisfying! yea but i really dread the washing and cleaning up after baking.

i have finished giving everything out! to my friends, sis's colleagues, grandparents, his family and some to my neighbours. wished i had baked more cos there wasn't really enough to go around.

back to my bakes, i made cornmeal cookies, cheese sticks and crunchy oat delight. both the recipes for cheese sticks and crunchy oat delight are taken from aunty yochana. do check out her cake index for these recipes!

out of the three, i think the cheese sticks was the winner. yum! very savoury, loved the cheesy taste and it was something different from the usual CNY cookies :) received many good reviews for it too!

cheddar cheese sticks

healthy crunchy oat delight - has cocoa crunch and quaker oats in the cookie!

cornmeal cookies - something different as well!

Pandan Chiffon Cake

2009-01-04T23:10:00.003+08:00

Here's wishing all a Happy 2009 :)

My wishes for you in year 2009:

Great start for Jan,
Love for Feb,
Peace for march,
No worries for April
Fun for May,
Joy for June to Nov,
Happiness for Dec,
Have a lucky and wonderful 2009.

i baked pandan chiffon cake for the new year, nothing too complicated. haha cos i used whatever ingredients i had in the kitchen.

i tried a new recipe from hugbear baking mum this time round. it calls for top flour instead of cake flour. see my previous recipe here.

i love this recipe as well. simple and easy to follow. really nice green even thou i omitted the green colouring and fluffy as well!

Triple Choc Nutty Brownie

2008-12-26T01:21:00.008+08:00

here's wishing all a merry christmas!

this christmas day, i baked a triple choc brownie recipe which was well loved :) super chocalately and moist.

i added milk choc and white choc chunks and some nuts (hazelnuts and pistachios) into the batter and the result was lovely.

haven't been in good health lately thou. sigh. really grateful to him for being there for me :D

better health in the new year to all of you out there!

p.s. i love the pictures. the lighting was perfect :) awesome!

oh yes the recipe was obtained from here. pretty good reviews. do check it out!

Super Moist Carrot Muffins

2008-12-09T23:18:00.004+08:00

recently, weng was telling me about her liking towards muffins, 'only nice ones' she emphasized. haha so i was inspired to make some last weekend. and i think the key thing to making nice muffins is to ensure that they turn out moist!

and with that i embarked on finding the recipe. gladly, i stumbled upon one which is definitely a keeper! the carrot muffins turned out soft and moist, with an added crunch. very fragrant too :)

carrot muffins platter!

the star design

and the twirl design!

i decorated some with whipped cream topping instead of the usual cream cheese topping. and i replaced the walnuts with chopped pistachios and almond nuts. and they tasted just as awesome.

Mooncake Cookies With Lotus Paste

2008-11-30T21:17:00.006+08:00

here's what i baked over the weekend! my exams ended last saturday so i deserve a baking treat after all that stress ;p

anyway, i have made this before. see this. this time around, i merely used lotus paste instead of green tea paste. and yea i made this in a bid to finish up the leftover mooncake ingredients :)

i love the golden hue of the mooncake cookies! and it's really fragrant too!

here's what it looks like inside...

Konnyaku Jelly Cubes

2008-11-13T14:53:00.010+08:00

here's something refreshing for the tastebuds!

made this together with wen phei, jessie and kang last tuesday.

instead of adding the conventional longans/peaches/rambutans, we added persimmons. taste-wise, it's a combination of crunch and chewiness.

i like the nice orange-y tinge :)

and b'cos it wasn't sweet enough based on my rough estimation, i cut it up into cubes and added them into a home-made honey drink. yum!

3 min Choc Cake!

2008-11-09T22:37:00.004+08:00

amazing isn't it? in 3 minutes you can actually make a cake that's so choclatey!

i made this for suqi's bday a few weeks back when she bunked in with me in hostel. haha no choice cos the oven isn't working and the only thing i've got in the kitchen is the microwave oven and the stove.

yea so this is a really ideal ;p

i sprinkled some icing powder on the cake and presented suqi with her birthday cake! awesome :)

i guess this would also be a good supper treat (a little unhealthy thou haha) since it only takes 3 mins to make! and the ingredients are really simple too.

i got the recipe here!

pardon me for the lousy picture quality cos i took them with my handphone. the cake looks so much better in real!

Non-Baked Rum Cheesecake

2008-11-01T22:36:00.010+08:00

the birthday peepz:

from left: kim, wilson and dannish cutting their cake

we celebrated kim's, wilson's and dannish's bday last tuesday. happy birthday to all three of you!

it was my first time baking a non-baked cheesecake, and i'm glad it turned out well ;p

yea anyway, the original recipe uses baileys instead of rum. but since i didn't have any i substituted it with rum instead.

everyone was eyeing the ferrero rochers!

i especially like the marble swirls; they are so pretty haha! i think it would be awesome if i had baileys. the rum flavour wasn't very distinct in this one.

nevertheless, thanks again to aunty yochana for sharing this, her recipes never fail!

Non-Baked Rum Cheesecake
Taken from Aunty Yochana's Blog: Stef's Non-Baked Baileys Cheesecake

For an 8-inch round cake:
(I used 9-in so I ended up with a flatter cake)
BASE:
1 small pack Malteser candies,crushed to bits with food processor
About 12 digestive biscuits,crushed to crumbs with food processor
50g butter,melted

FILLING:
1 block Philadelphia cream cheese,softened
1 tsp vanilla
25ml to 30ml Rum
200ml whipping cream
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup boiling water
1 and half tbsp gelatine powder

Swirl:
1 tbsp butter
50g dark chocolate

HOW:
For base,mix crushed Maltesers,crumbs and butter together. Press and smooth evenly in an 8-inch springform pan. Place in a freezer while you get on with the filling.

In boiling water,sprinkle gelatine evenly,leave to "bloom" for 2 minutes. Stir to dissolve.
In microwave,melt butter and chocolate in 30 sec bursts. Stir to combine.

In your mixer or using a whisk,whip cream till stiff peaks form,chill.
In a mixer (no need to wash after whipping cream) or food processor,cream the cheese and sugar on high speed till smooth,beat in lemon juice and vanilla.
Stir gelatine mixture,(while resting,some gelatine will settle to the bottom) and beat in to combine.
Fold in whipped cream, remove tin from freezer.

Pour about 1/4 of batter into chocolate mixture,stir to mix.
Mix in rum with white batter.
Pour about half of white batter into tin,add half of chocolate batter,swirl to combine.
Add other half of white batter,top with spoonfuls of remaining chocolate batter,swirling to marble patterns.
Chill overnight.
To serve,run a knife along the sides of the cake,unmould,and slice.

Honey Glazed Cream Scones

2008-10-29T21:09:00.014+08:00

recently kfc came up with a new breakfast menu and mama was telling me how much she enjoyed the honey biscuits, which otherwise is better known as scones too.

so last sunday morning she bought the breakfast set which we all shared and indeed it was yummy :) i liked the scones especially - buttery and honey-sweet. there were also waffles and scrambled eggs, and some chicken wrap which weren't very fantastic.

it wasn't cheap by the way, so i thought why not make my own? the ingredients for scones are simple, nothing elaborate. and so that evening, jessie, kang and i had fun baking scones together :) notice the cute cookie cutter designs, the bunny one is the cutest!

and the verdict by mama: awesome! she liked it and gave thumbs-up for it ;p crispy on the outside but soft inside!

it's best eaten warm, served with some maple syrup. according to her it's almost similar to kfc's!

one advice here: do not over-knead the dough else it is likely you will end up with a rock-hard scone. and i added more flour than the recipe stated cos my dough was way too sticky and wet.

oh yes, these scones aren't really cream scones cos i replaced the whipping cream with low fat fresh milk :) healthier yea but still as delicious!

Honey Glazed Cream Scones
Adapted from Stephanie Jaworski's Cream Scones. Taken from Joyofbaking.com

Ingredients:

280g all-purpose flour (add more accordingly if your dough is too wet)
40g castor sugar
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
90 g salted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup (120ml) fresh milk
Additional flour for dusting
Honey for glazing (dissolve in water if too thick)

Method:

Preheat oven to 190 degrees C and place the rack in the middle of the oven. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with your finger tips. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. In a small measuring cup combine the milk and beaten egg. Add this mixture to the flour mixture. Stir just until combined. Do not over mix.

Knead dough gently on a lightly floured surface. Roll or pat the dough into a circle that is about 7 inches (18 cm) round. Then, using a cookie cutter, cut the dough into desired shapes. Place the rounds on the prepared cookie sheet, spacing a few inches apart. Brush the tops of the scones with a little honey. This helps to brown the tops of the scones during baking.

Bake for about 15 - 18 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of a scone comes out clean. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Wholemeal Honey Oats Melon Seeds Cookie

2008-10-19T10:49:00.004+08:00

for a start, i would like to say that these cookies are really good ;p especially with the addition of melon seeds. the end result was very fragrant cookies with a nutty crunch.

i adapted this recipe from florence's wholemeal honey oats sesame biscuits, replacing the sesame with a big handful of melon seeds and also cutting down on the sweetness. and yes they turned out awesome :)

and to those of you who have left-over melon seeds from mooncake making, do give this recipe a try.

and did i mention that these cookies are packed with wholesome fibre? they are made with oats and wholemeal flour, so they are healthier in a sense and more of a gulit-free treat ;p

Wholemeal Honey Oats Melon Seeds Cookie
Adapted from Florence's Wholemeal Honey Oats Sesame Biscuits

Ingredients:
(A)
60g Quaker Instant Oats (blender it)
40g Quaker Instant Oats
60g of melon seeds
150g Wholemeal Flour
1 tsp baking powder

(B) 100g butter, 45g brown sugar, 50g honey

Method:
1. Mix everything in (A) together in a big mixing bowl.
2. Put (B) in a small saucepan and on medium-low heat cook till brown sugar nearly dissolve. Keep stirring otherwise you might burn the mixture.
3. Pour everything from (2) into (1) and mix well with a fork or your hands if the mixture is not too hot.
4. Clench the dough in your hand till it becomes a ball. Flatten this ball on a lined tray.
5. Bake at 170C – 175C for 15 – 20 minutes.

Madeleines

2008-10-18T22:23:00.008+08:00

i finally put my madeleine pans to good use. it has been kept in the store ever since i brought it back from the US. i was really happy to have found these made in italy pans as i got them at a very good deal - just 2.99 USD!!!

over here in singapore, a pan like this is probably selling at S$20? btw, i bought this pan from a shop called ross; the things they sell are cheaper than the retail prices by quite a fair bit.

for the first attempt, i would say i wasn't really satisfied with the results. the madeleines didn't turn out looking good (i think there were air bubbles?) and mama commented that they were a tad too hard. so well, i've gotta try baking them another time. i'll prob pay more attention to the oven temperature the next time round.

i made them into little cupcakes as well haha cos i was too impatient to have to wait for the 1st batch of madeleines to bake before i can re-use the pan. surprisingly, they turned out beautiful :)

Madeleines
Taken from Bon Appétit, Jan 2000 issue. Available from www.epicurious.com

Ingredients:
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
Pinch of salt
1 cup all purpose flour
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly
Powdered sugar (i omitted this)

Method:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Generously butter and flour pan for large madeleines (about 3x1 1/4 inches).* Using electric mixer, beat eggs and 2/3 cup sugar in large bowl just to blend. Beat in vanilla, lemon peel and salt. Add flour; beat just until blended. Gradually add cooled melted butter in steady stream, beating just until blended.

Spoon 1 tablespoon batter into each indentation in pan. Bake until puffed and brown, about 16 minutes. Cool 5 minutes. Gently remove from pan. Repeat process, buttering and flouring pan before each batch. (Can be made 1 day ahead.)

Dust cookies with powdered sugar.(i omitted this)

*A metal mold with scallop-shaped indentations, sold at cookware stores.

Blueberry Tart

2008-10-05T12:56:00.011+08:00

this blueberry tart was made for jason's birthday which we celebrated few weeks ago. i chanced upon this linzer tart recipe in alex goh's irresistible pastry cookbook and decided to tweak it a little by replacing the raspberry jam with blueberry pie filling :)

i'm pretty satisfied with the results. the pastry turned out great - very fragrant and yummy :)
and i added some pine nuts into the pastry dough haha. something interesting as well!

Blueberry Tart
Adapted from Alex Goh's Linzer Tart

Ingredients:
Pastry:
150g butter
75g icing sugar
1 egg
250g flour
70g ground almonds
30g pine nuts
pinch of ground cinnamon

Filling:
Blueberry Pie filling

Method:
1. Mix butter and sugar until well blended. Add in egg and cream until smooth.
2. Add in flour, ground almonds, pine nuts and ground cinnamon and mix till well incorporated. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes until firm.
3. Take the pastry out from the fridge and knead it lightly until smooth.
4. Roll it between 2 sheets of plastic wrap to 3-mm thickness. Line a greased 9-in pie mould with the rolled pastry.
5. Pour the blueberry pie filling onto the pastry dough.
6. Roll the trimming pastry between 2 sheets of plastic wrap to 2-mm thickness. Cut the strips into about 1-cm wide. Place them on top of the blueberry filling to form a lattice pattern.
7. Egg wash the pastry and bake at 190 deg C for 30 mins or until golden brown.

Sweet Potato Balls

2008-09-24T08:43:00.004+08:00

this was an additional dish we prepared for mid autumn festival celebration.

really simple to make and yummy at the same time :) i chanced upon this recipe on Rasa Malaysia. and later realised rasa malaysia provides many interesting recipes on their site. do go take a look!

kenny and kang rolling the dough into small balls, then later coating them with sesame seeds...

jessie and i was busy with the frying of the sweet potato balls. look! golden brown, yummy-looking sweet potato balls :) lots of the sesame seeds fell off during the deep-frying process..

Sweet Potato Balls
Taken from Rasa Malaysia.

Ingredients:

1 lb of sweet potatoes
12 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
3 1/2 tablespoons of sugar
3 tablespoons of sesame seeds
Water
Oil for deep frying

Method:

Boil the sweet potatoes for 15 minutes. Peel the skin of the sweet potatoes and discard. Smash the sweet potatoes and combine them with flour, sugar, and just enough water to form a smooth dough that is soft in texture but not sticky.

Divide dough into small, equal portions and roll them into balls. Coat the balls with some sesame seeds. Deep fry the sweet potato balls till golden brown. Dish out and drain well before serving.

Snowskin Lotus Paste Mooncake

2008-09-24T01:10:00.004+08:00

have your mooncakes with tea!

suqi's hands haha

and this is mine!

this is a very late post, considering that mid autumn festival was weeks ago!

this year i made snowskin lotus paste mooncakes with the help of a few friends :) it was for our mini mid autumn festival celebration we held in school about 2 weeks ago. and we even added a slip of "riddle" in the mooncake for a game! it was lots of fun that evening with lots of food and good company :)

the photos are courtesy of stanley, our expert photographer whom i pestered to take pictures of the mooncakes for me! thanks stanley :D

i have many more long over-due posts but simply have too little time to blog about it..

Thank You for making My Day :)

2008-09-16T11:31:00.010+08:00

poor me had to go down to lab on a saturday 2 weeks ago, which coincidentally was my birthday :(

went home rather late to have dinner at sakae sushi with sis and mum, together with him. and he baked a pineapple cheesecake for me :) so cute cos he made it in an Fortune Palace Bird's Nest box. it was a no-bake cheesecake and i think he didn't refridgerate it long enough so it was quite soft ;p

a quick celebration in the kitchen at home!

Japanese Cheesecake

2008-09-16T11:10:00.011+08:00

i baked this japanese cheesecake sometime ago..haha been too busy to blog about it.

anyway, this recipe was taken from catherine lau's cheescake seduction which i borrowed from the library. i felt the egg white taste was a tad too stong..and probably cos i didn't mix the egg white mixture well with the cream cheese mixture :(

i just read from a forum that the publisher for this book was sued against by a homemaker who bought the book and her cakes did not turn out as good as the book described. by the way, the book contains many beautiful pics of all sorts of cheesecake. that was why it tempted me to borrow it from the library while i was browsing thru the shelves.

the cake rose till quite high :)

Oreo Cheesecake

2008-09-02T10:28:00.008+08:00

baked an oreo cheesecake for teng yong's birthday and jessie's early birthday celebration.

and we also had cblc orientation that day for the new members who are joining us this year :)

anyw jessie turned 20 last sunday; so here's wishing the girl a happy birthday!

there they are!

i got this receipe from alex goh's fantastic cheesecake. i've tried it once and i think it's a really easy to make cake. something like a mix and bake cake, no hassle! oh yes, i omitted the oreo biscuits in the filling cos i ran out of them haha. only enough for me to make the base! i used buttercream for the deco, but still needs lots of improvement ;p but i'm happy thou, haven't really played around much with buttercream before this.

Banana Cake

2008-08-17T22:46:00.007+08:00

this weekend, i baked a banana cake!

we had lots of over-ripened mini bananas at home. they were given to us by a japanese friend who bought them from m'sia. yupp so i was tasked with baking a cake to use them all up.

and it's great cos over-ripened bananas are ideal for making banana cakes!

and so, i headed over to aunty yochana's site and found a well-reviewed recipe. mine looked different from hers thou. i see none of the black stripy thing in my cake. (actually i see some!) haha i guess it's because of the kind of bananas i used.

the cake turned out really soft and fragrant :) and i brought some over to share with my korean neighbours.

Banana Cake
Adapted from Aunty Yochana's Banana Cake.

Ingredients:

180 gm. Butter
155 gm. Fine sugar
2 nos. Extra large Eggs - beaten lightly
250 gm. Cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. Bicarbonate of Soda
220 gm. Bananas - mashed
50 gm. Dairy whip cream
2 bananas - slice

Method:

(1) Cream butter and sugar till light and creamy.
(2) Pour in eggs gradually and beat till creamy.
(3) Add in whip cream, mashed bananas and mix well.
(4) Add in cake flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and beat for a while only.
(5) Pour into an 8" round tray, and arrange sliced bananas on top.
(6) Bake at 175C for about 50 to 60 mins. or until cooked.

Steamed Moist Chocolate Cake

2008-08-15T12:43:00.004+08:00

hello!

it's been a long hiatus from blogging!

sorry for the lack of updates since i was back. it's been almost 2 weeks since i got home from the US. i've been really busy with my final year project ever since i was back.

and i guess i'll blog about the trip when i get hold of all the photos. the trip was awesome, fun and lots of fun. and not to forget, i made really good friends at grant village.

anyway, bean and chingman invited a group of us to their housewarming last saturday. and having not baked in 3 months, i was pretty excited about trying out a new recipe taken from aunty yochana.

it's rather simple. i could describe the steps in four steps. prepare ingredients-mix-stir-~~bake~~ steam! steamed cakes are so popular nowadays. the choc cake turned out moist and it was very rich :)

covered the cake in ganache, decorated with silver icing sugar beads

and to the owners, happy housewarming!

Greetings from Yellowstone National Park!

2008-05-18T06:43:00.004+08:00

i'm here at yellowstone national park now! i've been posted to grant village to work in the housekeeping department. been about a week since i arrived and still adapting well :)

this place is beautiful :) lots of snow all over and the scenery here is simply breath-taking! so far we've been to the yellowstone lake, which is frozen at the moment. and the people are really nice and friendly to each other.

the employee dining room offers scrumptious meals for us! sigh too bad i can't upload pics to blogger...the interent connection here is bad :(:( i'll try again another time i guess.

i miss baking and my kitchen!

take care peepz :)

Saying hello to yellowstone very soon!

2008-05-12T00:06:00.002+08:00

yesh! i'll be away for the next three months for a work and travel program to yellowstone, in the state of wyoming.

i'll be working here for two months and the remaining one month will be spent traveling in the western parts of US before heading to new york on the other end.

woohoo. so excited!

stay tuned for pictures :)

i'm gonna miss baking. haha :D

but then again, i may get a job as a kitchen crew!

looking forward to the trip. yay!

in the meantime, take care, eat well :)

Green Tea Buns

2008-05-08T23:21:00.015+08:00

i made green tea buns with red bean and green tea paste today. i needed to use up the red bean paste i made recently since they don't keep very long. filled the remaining buns with left-over green tea paste in the fridge.

these buns are a healthy treat cos the red bean paste is oil-free. cooked entirely with water! and i made them into mini bite-sized buns with a generous amount of red beans haha ;p

i got the recipe from here. thanks to aunty yochana again :) i halved the recipe and omitted the bread improver. shaped them into smaller sized buns too.

freshly baked

red bean paste filling

green tea paste filling

and to all...

stay happy - smile always :)

Banana Leaf Glutinous Rice Roll & Green Tea Daifuku

2008-05-08T13:50:00.010+08:00

i prepared two items for a bbq at his house yesterday. met up with friends before we leave for the US this coming monday - for three whole months! *to suqi and kah hui: thanks for coming. hope you guys enjoyed the food ;p

right now, i'm really excited for the trip. haven't started packing yet...will get started tomorrow. yupp a little last minute but i've already gotten most of the stuff i need.

since i'll be away for three long months, i've been trying to use up some of the baking stuff which can't be kept for long.

anyway, here's what i prepared for the bbq yesterday.

glutinous rice roll wrapped in banana leaves

there were three different fillings - sambal haebee hiam, pork floss and cheese with mayo. haha trying to be creative here :) i got the glutinous rice recipe from little corner of mine. for the sambal haebee hiam, i just fried some dried prawns with sambal chilli then added some sugar to it. glad i had positive feedback from those who tried it.

nicely wrapped up - ready to be barbecued!

cheese with mayo

pork floss

sorry...didn't manage to get pics of the sambal haebee hiam one!

next up, green tea daifuku; also known as mochi. the dough was really sticky. you've got to ensure your hands, table top, and utensils are well dusted with corn flour. i referred to little corner of mine and wf's pure enjoyment for this recipe. both are quite similar and wf has provided some useful tips on making the mochi.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

2008-05-06T17:29:00.009+08:00

this is my first time baking a pandan chiffon cake. in my previous attempt in baking the green tea chiffon cake, i couldn't achieve the height which i usually see in many food blogs.

this time round, the pandan chiffon cake was a success! abeit a little ugly on the surfaces haha. nevertheless the cake was soft, spongy and very fragrant :) i love the pandan aroma when the cake was baking in the oven.

i adapted this recipe from aunty yochana. i used 5 eggs instead of 6 and made some modifications here and there.

there are many variations of this recipe as i browsed through the many food blogs. i might give them a try another time. have a look at the pandan chiffon cakes fellow food bloggers have made:

Emily's Mimosa Diary
Florence's Do What I Like
Little Corner of Mine
Hugbear's Baking Mum

i've got lots to improve on!

spot that big air bubble!

tip here: to release the air bubbles, you should bang the pan on a hard surface several times before placing it in the oven.

Pandan Chiffon Cake
Adapted from Aunty Yochana's Pandan Chiffon Cake.

Ingredients

Egg yolk mixture:

5 egg yolks
2 tbsp Pandan juice
150 gm. coconut milk
1/4 tsp. salt
4 tbsp. Corn oil
1 tsp. Pandan Paste
60 gm caster sugar **
140 gm Cake flour

Egg White Mixture:

5 egg whites
1/8 tsp Cream of Tartar
65 gm caster sugar **

** I reduced the amount of sugar added by quite a bit. If you have a sweet tooth, you can increase the amount added.

Method:

1. Mix all the egg yolk ingredients together and stir till smooth.
2. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar and gradually pour in the sugar. Whisk at high speed until frothy and stiff peak forms.
3. Gently fold egg yolk mixture with egg white mixture until blended.
4. Pour into a 9" (23 cm) tube pan. Bang on a hard surface several times. Bake at 170C for about 40 to 45 min.s or until cooked.
5. Remove from oven, invert cake onto cooling rack until completely cooled before removing from the pan.
6. Slice and serve!

Steamed Matcha Red Bean Cupcakes

2008-05-03T12:35:00.007+08:00

i finally tried making wf's azuki bean paste. see her recipe here. i soaked the azuki beans overnight then prepared them in the morning. soaking them for a longer period of time helps to shorten the cooking process. i didn't mash the beans cos i like mine crunchy with bits of azuki beans in them.

and what did i do with these azuki beans?

haha the title says it all.

yupp another steamed cupcake. this is an adaptation of the steamed banana recipe i tried the last time. i like the matcha colour! and azuki beans goes really well with matcha.

in fact this recipe is so versatile. see amanda's latest version of steamed mango and orange cupcakes! haha there's more to experiment with ;p

the batter

fresh from the steamer

what's inside!

Steamed Matcha Red Bean Cupcakes
Adapted from Amanda's Steamed Banana Cake.

Ingredients:

2 eggs
90g sugar
170g of cooked azuki beans
1 to 1.5 tsp of matcha (green tea) powder
150g plain/AP flour
8g of baking powder
4g salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
75g of olive oil

Method:

1. Sift together plain flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

2. Whisk together eggs and sugar till ribbon stage. See the link for what a ribbon stage looks like.

3. Mix in azuki beans and matcha powder, beat till well-combined.

4. Gently fold in flour mixture and oil, taking care not to deflate the air in the eggs and sugar mixture. (that's what helps the cake rise!)

5. Pour batter into muffin pan, lined with muffin cups.

6. Steam over high heat for 15mins or till an inserted skewer comes out clean

Choc Durian Mousse Cake

2008-05-02T00:41:00.007+08:00

hello! i'm back :p happy labour day to all!

well...exams aren't over for me yet. one final paper next monday. but my major papers are done. yay! took some time to bake this choc durian mousse cake today. he had a hand in this too haha. with that extra help from him this cake was done in about two hours plus.

i've always wanted to try baking a "spike-d" look-a-like cake which is sold at big o. it's a dome shape cake with durian mousse sandwiched in between really thin layers of sponge cake and covered with choc ganache. i've got to say it's really heavenly!

aunty yochana has tried to create her own version. i adapted her recipe but made mine into a normal round cake. i think it's gonna be really messy if i were to make them into little dome shaped cakes. haha too delicate to handle!

the verdict? yummy! but more durian puree would have been better. haha the more the better! i did my best to slice the sponge as thinly as possible and i managed 5 layers in total. will experiment more with this recipe. hopefully it'll be as good as big o's ;p

spreading the mousse

choc!

i did some simple pipings.

tada. a little uneven thou ;p

heavenly!

Egg White Pandan Cupcakes

2008-04-21T02:03:00.008+08:00

these little egg white pandan cuppies were made in an attempt to use up the remaining egg whites i had in the freezer! i adapted the recipe from aunty yochana's egg white cheese cupcakes. replaced the 100 mL of fresh milk with 25 mL of pandan juice and 75 mL of coconut milk and added 1/2 tsp of pandan paste.

but mine sank a little after i took them out of the oven.

it tasted very light and soft, and i loved the pandan fragrance. you could make them in a larger size. i think these are a little too mini. haha.

the recipe uses a little amount of butter and no yolks. so i guess it's a rather healthy one :) do try it!

the exams are drawing near. so i won't be blogging for sometime. will be back after my papers end. yay i can't wait man :)

till then, take care :)

i'll be leaving for wyoming, yellowstone during the 3 months break this coming may for a work and travel program! really excited and looking forward to it. basically i'll be working in yellowstone for 2 months at xanterra national park and resort, then we'll be travelling for the remaining one month :) heh. any must go places anyone? please let me know okay :)

here's the modified recipe..

Egg White Pandan Cupcakes
Adapted from Aunty Yochana's Egg White Cheese Cupcakes

Ingredients:

25mL pandan juice
75mL coconut milk
1/2 tsp pandan paste
200 gm. egg white
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
80 gm. sugar
80 gm. cake flour
20 gm. cornflour
30 gm. melted butter

Method:

1. Mix the coconut milk, pandan juice and pandan paste together.
2. Whisk egg white, salt and cream of tartar till fluffy and pour in sugar gradually. Continue to whisk till thick.
3. Fold in coconut milk mixture, butter and flour using a spatula.
4. Spoon into muffin cups.
5. Bake at 180C for about 25 mins.

Wholemeal Cinnamon Rolls

2008-04-19T11:37:00.008+08:00

i got a little high on baking the other day...

haha. so...in sequel to the banana yoghurt bread and the mixed herbs wholemeal bread, i baked these cinnamon rolls too.

got the recipe from an ikea leaflet. replaced the plain flour with wholemeal flour and bread flour. the final product was rather dense. perhaps i shouldn't have replaced the flour. and maybe i shouldn't have 'crowded' them all together. not very sure if it will affect the proofing?

i spread the dough layer with butter, cinnamon, brown sugar then sprinkled mixed fruits on it.

the cinnamon smell was great though.

it wasn't a very successful bake i guess. notice how the standard of my bakes deteriorated as i proceeded. haha. packed most of the baked stuff for giveaway. it was way too much food ;p

Mixed Herbs Wholemeal Bread

2008-04-19T11:14:00.004+08:00

this is a sequel to the the previous banana yoghurt bread post. in addition to that, i baked this too! also another recipe from kwf's blog. the bread didn't rise to as high as i wanted it to be. i baked it with the lid on, thinking that i could get a square loaf. but well, here's what i got :)

i added some chopped walnuts into the dough while rolling it up into a swiss roll.

the bread was soft but did not turn out as fluffy as wf's :(

so the winner for that day was the banana yoghurt bread. haha ;p

Banana Yoghurt Bread

2008-04-17T16:24:00.009+08:00

No school for me today :) So i got up early in the morning, with hands itching to bake. i got this yoghurt bread recipe from KWF's blog. i am really satisfied with the results. the bread turned out soft and fluffy. i following her hand kneading instructions here. it's really useful, especially since i do not own a bread machine. so all the kneading has to be done by my kenwood chef mixer and my HANDS! haha. it was really tough but it was all worth the while after seeing the final result.

some food photography here as well. i'm beginning to take interest in food photography as well :) i read about it some time back and learnt quite alot of tips from there. so i have been experimenting with my camera on how to take nice pictures of my bakes.

i shall let the pictures do the talking ;p

shape dough into smooth round balls

after the 2nd proof

egg wash; sprinkle with sesame seeds and melon seeds

nice brown colour

soft...

and fluffy

yum!

do give this recipe a try ;p

A Sneak Preview!

2008-04-17T01:07:00.004+08:00

woohoo! i'll be getting a new blog soon :) with my own domain. yay! he has been persuading me to get my own domain so my site will look more exclusive and him being the pro in website designing (i'm a complete opposite haha) can help to dress my blog up ;p

so after much procrastination i agreed! and the domain was bought immediately :)

with that, we sat down and discussed very seriously about the new layout of my blog. haha it was so much fun. if only school projects were of this sort. he sketched the rough design on paint and ta-da. so pretty. hee.

here's a sneak preview for you guys. works are still in progress. only the template is up so far :) await my news okay!

Healthy Steamed Banana Cake

2008-04-12T12:28:00.011+08:00

i read about this steamed banana cake on little corner of mine's blog. original recipe taken from here. it seemed really simple and the reviews were great. and when i saw two very ripe bananas (with black spots on it already- great for making cakes!) in the kitchen this morning, i went ahead to try it :) you've got to try this cos it's a no hassle cake; plus its healthy too cos no butter needed. i used extra-virgin olive oil :p

oh and when i was preparing the ingredients, i realized i had no self-raising flour! so i searched google for a replacement of self-raising flour and i found the solution! so if you have no self-raising flour for this recipe, fret not! simply add 8g of baking power and 4g of salt to the required 150g of plain flour, also known as all-purpose flour :) that will do the trick!

i steamed them in batches cos my steamer was too small.

the cake turned out soft and fluffy, and nicely risen :) have a go at it too!

mash the bananas up!

steaming in process; it has risen quite a bit at this point!

just out of the steamer

yum!

soft and fluffy!

Here's the recipe using plain flour instead!

Steamed Banana Cake
Adapted from Amanda's Steamed Banana Cake.

Ingredients:

2 eggs
90g sugar
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
150g plain/AP flour
8g of baking powder
4g salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
75g of olive oil

Method:

1. Sift together plain flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

2. Whisk together eggs and sugar till ribbon stage. See the link for what a ribbon stage looks like.

3. Mix in mashed bananas, beat till well-combined.

4. Gently fold in flour mixture and oil, taking care not to deflate the air in the eggs and sugar mixture. (that's what helps the cake rise!)

5. Pour batter into muffin pan, lined with muffin cups.

6. Steam over high heat for 15mins or till an inserted skewer comes out clean

Green Tea Jewels

2008-04-07T22:27:00.007+08:00

coating the dough with granulated sugar

-the jewels-

i call these green tea jewels cos the name just seems so apt for them! Especially after coating them with coarse granulated sugar. i had a list of things i had already wanted to bake. but i stumbled across lovescool's blog and the green tea sweets looked so pretty in green. since i had all the ingredients i needed for this recipe, i decided to bake this last weekend. quite a few have already tried it out and the different variations are really amazing. do have a look ok?

mine turned out a little on the dark side compared to those i have seen on lovescool's site.

oh, i tweaked the recipe a little. i was a little more generous with the matcha powder and i added an additional 30gm of ground almonds :)

the recipe...

Green Tea Jewels
Adapted from Lovescool's Green Tea Sweets

75g Confectioners sugar

150g Unsalted butter, cut into cubes
235g plain flour
4 medium sized egg yolks
2 tbsp Matcha powder
30g ground almonds
Granulated sugar (for coating)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 deg C. Prepare your baking sheet. Whisk the confectioner’s sugar and green tea together in a bowl.
Beat the butter with your electric mixer in a bowl, then add the green tea/sugar mixture & mix until smooth and light in colour.
Add the flour and ground almonds and mix until well combined. Add the egg yolks and mix just until the eggs are fully incorporated.
Form the dough into a disk and chill in the refrigerator until firm (about 30 mins).
Remove from the refrigerator & roll the dough out. Cut the dough with a cookie cutter.
Toss each cut cookie in a bowl of granulated sugar to coat. Place the sugar-coated cookie on your baking sheet. Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until slightly golden around the edges.

I Can Cook too!

2008-03-30T12:50:00.011+08:00

for a special ocassion, i cooked a simple meal for him. there was pizza, grilled fish, fried rice and mushroom chicken soup. haha ok excluding the mushroom soup cos i bought the canned one.

he had duty that day so we had the meal in school! haha it was a surprise cos he didn't expect to have such a sumptuous lunch when he asked me to just da-pao lunch for him.

the grilled fish was nice! very simple to cook too. just marinate the fish in oyster sauce, soy sauce and black pepper then grill in the oven with finely chopped garlic. the fish is the one wrapped in the foil in the pic above.

the pizza, on the other hand, was a little soggy by then.

the fried rice was rather unusual. i added his favourite braised peanuts and diced water chestnuts. and some carrots and mushrooms; then cracked an egg in there too. and finally topped the rice with fresh crisp lettuce. healthy eh :)

A Simple Dinner...

2008-03-30T12:21:00.004+08:00

last saturday i had a simple dinner at home. didn't plan to go home for dinner initially cos i was out with him. so it was a last minute thing to go home for dinner. he came along too. haha just didn't have the mood to shop plus i think it was raining heavily too.

called home and mama and sis only planned to have jap sushi rice balls for dinner. but since we had the glutton over too, we had to have more food haha! mama is always amazed at how much he can eat. so everytime when he's around there's bound to be more than usual amounts of food ;p

yea so anyway we had rice balls - one seeweed flavor and the other was salmon flavored; i made salad topped with home-made croutons! the croutons were actually toasted cream cheese bread which i baked the day before, then cut into small cubes. we had chicken paus too.

the rice balls were a little on the salty side so we ate it together with the salad :)

and not the forget the oven-grilled potato chips i prepared which didn't taste very good. i wonder how do i make them crispy without deep-frying?

the chips! opps i was a little too generous on the black pepper haha :D

Cream Cheese Cup Cakes

2008-03-22T12:25:00.006+08:00

i had left over cream cheese after making yesterday's cream cheese bread. so i had to use it up since it doesn't keep for long after it's been opened. decided to use it up today to make something new - cream cheese cup cakes.

the original recipe was taken from aunty yochana. she made hers in mini loaves but since i don't have one, i made them in cup cakes.

for this one i added in generous amounts of cream cheese :) haha didn't want to keep the remaining cream cheese. the cream cheese filling is actually sandwiched in between the batter. so you've got to bite into it to find the treasure haha. i like the toasted ground almonds added into the batter and it was yummy!

the batter

the cream cheese filling

the cup cakes

what's inside! still hot from the oven - cream cheese oozing out!

he said it was delicious :p

here's the recipe:

Cream Cheese Cup Cakes
Adapted from Aunty Yochana's Cream Cheese Mini Loaf

Ingredients:

230 gm. butter
75 gm. caster sugar
1 egg
200 self-raising flour
40 gm. toasted ground almond
100 ml. fresh milk

Filling: Mix all the fillings together till smooth.

150 gm. cream cheese
2 .5 Tbsp. caster sugar
90 gm. mixed fruits
30 gm. whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla essence

Method:

1. Cream butter with sugar till creamy.
2. Add in egg and cream till well mixed.
3. Add in self raising flour, ground almond and fresh milk alternately till finished.
4. Prepare cupcake holders. Scoop some batter into cupcake holder then scoop some filling in the center and top up with some batter.
5. Bake at 175C for about 20 mins. or till cooked.
6. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

**Mine yielded about 9 cup cakes.

Cream Cheese Bread

2008-03-21T23:52:00.004+08:00

i made bread today! and i'm proud to say it was a success :) it was a big sense of accomplishment especially since when i kneaded the dough myself...and waited almost 2 long hours (or maybe more) for the entire proofing process to complete. yea making bread takes alot of patience ;p

i like this pic alot! played around with the digital macro function of my camera.

freshly out from the oven

the bread was well-risen, soft and fluffy. i got the recipe through little corner of mine. get the original recipe here. she made different variations of the bread. i wanna try them another day too!

yummy!

nice, soft and fluffy :)

home-made bread tastes the best afterall :) especially after all that hard work at kneading haha ;p

taste-wise, i would add more cream cheese the next time round!

Cocoa Puff Cream Cake II

2008-03-21T23:19:00.005+08:00

suqi came over to my place last weekend to learn how to make cocoa puff cream cake. since she's never had any luck in baking and cooking, plus she doesn't have an oven at home; she asked me for a simple cake which she could do for a friend's birthday.

and yes it's got to be the cocoa puff cream cake! If you have read my previous post, you would know how easy it is to make that cake.

so...we got down to buying the ingredients for the cake and made the trial version at my place.

haha a few kitchen mishaps here and there. we seemed to have butter fingers that day ;p but nevertheless, it was a huge success! then again, i don't think it's possible to go wrong with this one haha.

that's suqi applying cream over the biscuits.

oh this was slightly different from the previous one. we applied choc ganache over the entire cake for this one. handling the choc part was quite a bit of a mess but it still looks good i think!

covered with choc ganache!

we cut the cake at night and suqi loves the cake! the choc made it even more yummy :) she was rather amazed at how those few biscuits could turn out so good. enjoy the pics :D

Green Tea Chiffon Cake

2008-03-19T00:19:00.011+08:00

my first ever chiffon cake! i took the original recipe off from florence's Do What I Like.

baked this for papa since he hasn't had much of an appetite the past week. so i was hoping this would tempt his taste buds a little.

i wasn't really sure when to stop beating the egg whites. so when i first saw signs of stiff peaks i stopped immediately! haha was afraid that i would over-whip and the cake wouldn't turn out good.

stiff peaks

green tea powder dissolved in warm water

cooling the cake!

but somehow i still couldn't get the height that florence achieved. i guess i had over-mixed the egg whites and yolk mixture. yupp the cake sank a little while cooling :(

oh and i boiled some red beans with rock sugar which i added into the batter as well. but as you can see they all sank to the bottom of the tube pan. remember to soak the red beans beforehand else you'll have to wait a long time for them to cook!

nevertheless, it tasted good:) very soft and the texture was good. kept well till the next day too! this recipe is worth a try!

Here goes the recipe with some modifications, adapted from Do What I Like...

Ingredients: (22cm tube pan)
(A)
4 egg yolks
20g castor sugar
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tbsp honey

(B)
4 tbsp corn oil
80ml warm water + 3 tsp green tea powder
3 tsp rum

(C)
100g top flour
3/4 tsp baking powder

(D)
4 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
35g castor sugar

(E)
A handful of cooked red beans, softened.

Method:
1. Cream ingredients (A) with hand whisk till sugar dissolved.
2. Add in ingredients (B) in the respective order and mix well before adding the next item.
3. Sieve in ingredients (C) and mix till no lumps.
4. Beat egg whites with electric beater till frothy, sprinkle in the cream of tartar. Beat till white in colour and add in sugar by thirds. Egg white should be beaten till stiff peaks are formed.
5. Put half portion of egg white into yolk mixture and mix it with a hand whisk in 6 strokes.
6. Pour yolk mixture and into the rest of the egg white and mix well with hand whisk.
7. Put batter into a chiffon cake pan, adding (E) last. Bang the pan on a hard surface several times to release the bubbles and bake at 170C - 180C for 35 -45 minutes or till cooked.
8. When the cake is cooked, remove from oven and give it another bang on a hard surface to loosen the cake texture then invert cooked cake to cool for 15 - 20 minutes. Remove cake from cake pan and leave aside to cool completely.

Note:
**Be careful not to over-whip the egg whites.
**Use minimal number of strokes when incorporating egg yolk mixture into egg whites. And do this gently!
** With that you should be able to get a nice, well risen cake :)

Happy Birthday Bean, Ben & Kenny!

2008-03-17T16:45:00.019+08:00

we celebrated the march babies' bday last friday over at cblc. and there was a feast! they ordered 2 large oishi pizza and a family feast kfc meal. plus we had iced grass jelly for desserts :) not forgetting the red wine they opened after that! actually it wasn't really a feast cos there were quite a few of us...but we had two cakes!

the birthday boys

yupp i baked two cakes for this birthday celebration. one of it was choc mousse cake, using nigella lawson's instant choc mousse recipe and the other was cocoa puff cream cake taken off from Do What I Like.

somehow the choc mousse cake wasn't as successful. initially it wasn't 'gooey' enough and the whole thing didn't seem like it would set! now i think it might be because i didn't wait for the choc mixture to cool completely before pouring into the whipped cream. haha i was too impatient and pour the hot mixture straight into the cream! so in order to salvage it i added lots of gelatine to it! and i overdid it resulting in an overly jelly-like mousse haha. you should have seen how they were trying to hard to cut the choc cake ;p

cooking the choc, marshmallows mixture over fire

and you get this. which is then poured into double whipped cream

close-up of the cake!

the cocoa puff cream cake was a winner! and ironically it was sooooo much easier to make in comparison to the choc mousse cake. i would say it's like a simplified version of tiramisu. no baking required - all you need is khong guan cocoa puff biscuits, dairy whip cream and any other toppings you wish to add! thank you florence for the great recipe :)

i made those name cut outs!

i like the really well defined layers:) and i was surprised the biscuits tasted just like a cake!

we had lotsa fun that friday night. and lastly, happy belated birthday to the three birthday boys - bean, ben and kenny! hope you guys liked the cakes.

cheers!

from left to right:ben,sofero,boon,kit,kang,kenny,beanz

and here are the recipes. enjoy :)

Choc Mousse Cake
Adapted from Nigella Lawson's Instant Choc Mousse.

Ingredients:
3 cups mini marshmallows
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
9 ounces best quality semisweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces ( I used bitter choc)
1/4 cup hot water, from a recently boiled kettle
1 cup heavy cream ( I used Bulla's thickened cream)
1 tsp vanilla essence

And a choc sponge cake!

Method:
1.Put the marshmallows, butter, chocolate and water in a heavy-based saucepan.
2.Put the saucepan on the stove, over heat, though keep it fairly gentle, to melt, stirring every now and again.
3. Remove from the heat.
4. Meanwhile whip the cream with the vanilla until thick and then fold into the cooling chocolate mixture until you have a smooth, cohesive mixture. (Remember to cool the choc mixture!)
5. Slice the choc sponge cake evenly into 2 halves horizontally.
6. Sandwich the 2 layers of sponge with choc mousse, then cover the entire cake with mousse.
7. Refrigerate for about an hour.
8. Serve!

Cocoa Puff Cream Cake
Adapted from Florence's Do What I Like.

Ingredients:
40 cocoa puff biscuits (about 1.5 packs)
3 tins of Nestle Dairy Whipped Cream + 3 tsp rum essence

Method:
1. Mix cream with rum till well combined with a spoon or spatula.
2. Apply a thin layer of cream on the cake board to secure the 1st layer of biscuits.
3. Place the 1st layer of biscuits on the cake board. (I used 8 pieces of biscuits for every layer.
4. Top with 4 - 5 tablespoons of cream. (Up to your personal preference) Smooth and level the cream out.
5. Repeat step (4) till the desired height is achieved (Alternate layers of cream and biscuits). I did 5 layers of biscuits.
6. The last layer of cream was alot thicker so as to completely cover the biscuits.
7. Decorate the cake if you wish. I sprinkled colourful rice bits on the top and covered the sides with the biscuits. But the biscuits turned soggy the next day so i don't really recommend that. You could cover with choc ganache or sliced almonds.
8. Chill for at least 3 - 4 hours before serving.
9. Serve!

i'm back!

2008-03-13T00:43:00.006+08:00

i'm back! haven't been updating this blog and sad to say i haven't been baking too :( been really busy with school the last week!

but i've managed to tide over the first round of deadlines and tests! yay! and i'm having that strong baker's itch to get back to some baking real soon :p next up will be birthday cakes which i'll be baking for the cblc march babies. so watch this space for updates! i'll be baking them tomorrow. so wish me luck :)

and i haven't forgotten about bake-me-happy! we recently got a new canon ixus digital camera from the IT show over at suntec last week. it was a really good buy :) and this also means better and sharper pictures for bake-me-happy!

i made avocado milk shake last weekend. the avocado which papa bought back from indonesia was good! i added low-fat fresh milk together with the avocado flesh and some ice cubes, then blended them together. i usually add some choc chips into them as well..which of course tastes alot better. haha but i was too lazy to even take them out from the fridge. a healthier version of avocado milkshake then! and if you do not already know, avocados are known to be super health foods! high in polyunsaturated omega 3 fatty acids which is good for the heart :)

the fruit!

ready to be blended

and there you go! it's really simple to prepare this :)

he's been coughing for a long long time. almost a month i think. and this almond apple herbal drink cooked with dried tangerine is said to help cure the cough. mama bought the dried ingredients for him which he brought home for his mama to cook. i personally hate almonds! so i really can't stomach this entire thing, let alone the smell of it! on the other hand he loves it! especially the almonds cos of their crunchiness! so much for a herbal drink right. lucky for him it doesn't taste like some bitter disgusting medicine. he is on his route to recovery:)

actually it's not that bad...looks appetizing enough!

the cough remedy!

this was his supper! little cook mushroom vegetarian premium noodles is different from the instant noodles we usually expect. the kinds where we expect little fake slices of crabstick, air-dried green beans and dried shrimps. and nothing fresh.

this one has this retort pouch which stores cooked mushroom, fungus, gingko and peanuts pre-cooked in this oyster-like sauce. yupp so it feels like you're really eating this wholesome meal. the retort pouch is really amazing! but of course it's more pricey than usual instant noodles! you pay for what you get!

looks good right?

Red Bean Soup

2008-03-02T11:06:00.009+08:00

red bean soup is one of my favorite! made them yesterday and i added red dates and dried longans into the soup as well.

the beans took quite a long time to cook thou. but it turned out yummy:) the sweetness was just right and the beans weren't overcooked either. maybe the dried longans added to the sweetness cos i didn't add much sugar!

and red beans are good for health!

"They are good sources of iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper and thiamin. They're also an excellent low-fat, low-calorie source of protein and dietary fiber. Red beans also contain phytonutrients that may help prevent chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and cancer."

and you'll be surprised they're so easy to prepare.

a nutritious bowl of red bean soup!

Ingredients:

red beans
red dates
dried longans
rock sugar
water

boil everything together on low fire! quantity of ingredients added is based on agar-ation haha :p

Apple Crumble

2008-02-23T21:10:00.012+08:00

this was specially made for layz and boon for their birthday! we celebrated their belated birthday at cblc last wednesday.

i made the shortcrust pastry for this one. yupp so there were three parts to it - the base, the apple filling and lastly the crumble top.

and i also added mixed fruits to the apple filling - raisins, cherries, orange peel etc etc..

layz said she liked the crust!

but i wished i had added more of the apple filling cos it turned out too flat haha. i used 5 granny smith apples this time; maybe i'll use about 8-9 the next time round!

this is a rather simple bake! i used my hands to mix everything; no mixer used at all! haha which also meant i had less washing up to do :p yea i hate having to clean up after baking!

schoolwork is piling up :( so there will lesser bakes coming from me during this period:(:(

i'll be back baking sooooooonn i hope :)

Recipe for the crumble and filling is adapted from FatBoyBakes. Pastry recipe was adapted from alex goh's "Irresistible Pastry".

Shortcrust Pastry:

125 gm. plain flour
75 gm. chilled butter
20 gm. sugar
1 small egg yolk
20 gm. iced water

Rub flour, butter and sugar with fingers until resembles fine breadcrumbs. Then add in iced water to form a smooth dough. Knead dough lightly. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 mins.

Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface or in between 2 pieces of non-stick baking paper to thickness required and line the oven-proof dish.

Preheat oven to 180C. Place a sheet of aluminum foil over pastry.

Bake for 15-20mins or until pastry is golden brown.

Pour the apple filling over the pastry, then lightly sprinkle the crumble topping over it.

Bake in a 180 degC oven until browned for about 30 minutes.

Filling:

5 granny smith apples, peeled and cored, cut into thin slices.
2 table spoons of brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of clove powder
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 cup of mixed fruits

I cooked the above mixture in a large pan for about 15 minutes on low fire. I like my apples to be soft and tender.

Crumble:

2 cups flour
125 gm. butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup of quick-cooking oats

Rub in the butter into the flour & sugar, until it resembles breadcrumbs. I used my hands! Be careful not to over do it. Rub in the quick-cooking oats last.

Enjoy :)

Mandarin Orange Butter Cup Cakes

2008-02-21T23:15:00.004+08:00

i made these cup cakes with the two korean sisters - jenda and victoria! they came over to my house to play and wanted to bake something! they call my home the mini bakery haha. yupp so i found this simple recipe from alex goh's "creative making of cakes" but modified it a little. haha more importantly i had all the ingredients for it :p i definitely had fun baking with the kids!

little princess victoria is helping me sieve the flour :)

say "cheese'! i love her to bits; she's soooo adorable!

jenda the elder sister helping to spoon the batter into the cup cake mould.

there you go! it's ready..

haha she was so eager to try the cup cakes. and she gave them thumbs up!

Here's the recipe if you want to have a go at it yourself. And if you have too many left over mandarin oranges from CNY, this is a good recipe to try :)

Ingredients:
200g flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tbsp milk powder
250g butter
5 eggs
150g sugar (original was 175g)
2 tbsps of mandarin orange juice
zest of one mandarin orange

Method:
1) sieve flour and baking powder together.
2) cream flour mixture, milk powder and butter till smooth and fluffy.
3) whip eggs and sugar till light and thick.
4) add mandarin orange juice and zest into egg mixture and mix till evenly blended.
5) then finally add the flour mixture into it and mix till well incorporated.
6) Place batter into cup cake moulds.
7) Bake at 190 deg C for 20-25mins.

Valentine's Cream Cheese Cookies

2008-02-15T00:58:00.011+08:00

i made these cream cheese cookies for valentine's day! they're great to be given away as gifts to friends. and they look so pretty! all thanks to aunty yochana :)

i added more cream cheese to mine and as usual cut down the amount of sugar. the cookies turned out to be very fragrant! i divided my dough into 2 portions; of which one i added cocoa powder to it. could have added more cos i think the cocoa taste wasn't enough.

haha as you can see i ended up with a heap of cookies!!! cos i made double the portion - some to be given to friends and everything else for him!

and it's so much fun to bake them. the korean kids were at my house playing and they were so eager to help me. haha the two girls were happily cutting out heart-shaped cookies :p

cookies galore!

nicely packed as vday gifts :) happy valentine's day!

Egg White French Toast

2008-02-15T00:13:00.008+08:00

what do you do when you have so many egg whites left in the fridge? i'm sure that's a common problem most bakers face since some recipes call for egg yolks only!

well, you can make egg white french toast! Simple to make and delicious at the same time:)

so i woke up one morning and prepared this for breakfast!

the ingredients i used were:
egg whites, a few slices of wholemeal bread, sugar, butter, honey/maple syrup.

i added the ingredients based on 'feel' haha so i don't really have the exact amounts.

but basically i first heated the pan with a layer of butter. then i added sugar into the egg whites and placed the bread slices, one at a time into a plate, letting slices soak up egg mixture for a few seconds, then carefully turn to coat the other side.

then i pan-fried the bread till a nice brown colour was obtained.

depending on how sweet a tooth you have, you may wish to sprinkle some sugar on both sides of the bread. the sugar caramelizes rather quickly to give a nice brown colour :)

ready to serve with maple syrup/honey! you can omit this if you find the toast sweet enough!

ready to be eaten!

My CNY Reunion Dinner!

2008-02-12T00:49:00.000+08:00

this is a long over-due post haha. but anyway i managed to capture the spread i had during reunion dinner. i actually had two reunion dinners - the earlier one with my maternal grandparents cum relatives and another one on CNY's eve with the paternal side of the family. and as usual, we had our lau hei :) enjoy the yummies!

we had the reunion dinner at my house for the maternal side of my family...

we had this big fish! mama sliced the meat and we cooked it in steamboat.

2 steamboat pots and lotsa food!

yu sheng! this one was bought from sakae sushi.

grandma cooked this vege dish - 'gua cai'.

the usual steamboat ingredients and alot more food haha :p the one with the lid still on has abalone hidden inside! haha :p

over at the paternal side of my family; we had a scrumptious meal too...

we also had yu sheng! lau ahh :D

fishballs, mushrooms, tofu stuffed with meat, scallops, cuttlefish...

nasi briyani from my grandparent's malay neighbours. they give that to us every CNY; so nice of them :) we had ngoh hiang too! and alot of pig's innards which i don't eat. haha and i wonder why are they such a delicacy?!

Almond Cookies

2008-02-09T01:22:00.001+08:00

haha yea those pineapple tarts weren't my last CNY bakes afterall. i baked these on the first night of CNY since relatives were coming over to my house on the 2nd day of CNY for visiting.

after a whole day of CNY visiting i wanted to bake something simple yet delicious. found this recipe on aunty yochana's blog. it's really really easy to bake these almond cookies, not energy and time consuming at all. and what's more, they taste great, with the melt-in-the-mouth feeling too :)

basically all i did was to measure everything and mix them together in a large bowl till i get a dough. then divide the dough into equal portions which are then rolled up into balls. egg wash and off they go into the oven.

oh yea i cut down quite alot on sugar (from 150g to 115g of caster sugar) and they turned out fine, just nice in fact :) cos my family doesn't really like sweet stuff! so it's up to individual preference!

this recipe is definitely a keeper! a must bake!

xin nian kuai le once again!

Happy Chinese New Year :)

2008-02-07T01:31:00.000+08:00

Wishing everyone a Happy CNY!!! May the year of the rat bring for us many many more great bakes and cakes :p

Gong Xi Fa Cai! May this be a prosperous year for us :)

More Pineapple Tarts!

2008-02-07T00:43:00.000+08:00

my final CNY bakes :) made more covered pineapple tarts but this time the design of the tarts is much simpler. just roll it up into a ball and press down with a fork!

egg wash

all done:)

Fruit Cake With Rum

2008-02-02T23:57:00.001+08:00

made this fruit cake weeks ago. fruit cake with rum is one of his favourite; he loves anything rum haha. and it's my first time trying this. hope it tastes good :)

fruit cakes actually taste better the longer you keep them; and especially so if you drizzle rum on the cake everyday! what you will get is a rich and flavoursome cake.

to get a light and fluffy cake i beat the egg whites till stiff peaks form

i soaked the raisins and mixed fruit in rum for about two weeks to plump them up; doing so enhances the rum flavor too!

then kept the cake wrapped up in cling film in the fridge for 2.5 weeks and drizzled rum on it everyday.

yay just in time to pass it to him for CNY!

nicely wrapped up :)

Mousey Pineapple Tarts

2008-02-02T18:40:00.000+08:00

have a mousey lunar new year!

it's the year of the rat come this lunar new year! haha came across aunty yochana's blog where she created the golden mouse pineapple tarts. they were so cute! so i drew inspiration from her and created mine too :D

but mine just doesn't seem to look like a mouse! haha some think they look more like pigs!!! enjoy the pics :)

used black sesame seeds for the eyes. then created the ears and tails by using scissors to cut some dough out.

my platoon of mice :P thanks to sis who helped me out!

preparing the pineapple filling from scratch was sheer hard work. i made them the night before and my arms ached just from de-skinning and grating of the pineapples. and i stood awake in the middle of the night stirring and cooking the grated pineapple filling.

my version is less sweet cos i didn't add much sugar. i think the natural sweetness of the pineapples would suffice :) and it's healthier too!

going to let cblc peepz try some on mon! so far feedback has been good :)

haha i wanna laugh when i see this.
yea they really look like pigs!

Cigarettes

2008-02-01T00:47:00.000+08:00

made these 'cigarettes' with the few egg whites left from making kueh bangkit!

the batter is really simple to prepare. but when it came to rolling them up it was a challenge. it was hot hot hot! haha but he did most of the rolling cos i did a bad job. see those on the right! and since they harden very quickly after taking them out of the oven, you've got to be really fast. just like making love letters.

surprisingly he was quite good at it :p

sadly these cookies don't keep very well. so it's best eaten the same day. somehow they soften the next day despite being kept in an air-tight container. so eat it straight out from the oven while it's still crispy :)

a lot of hard work baking this. but most importantly we had fun!

Recipe adapted from Alex Goh's Joy of Making Cookies:

130g butter
100-110g icing sugar
3 egg whites
100g plain flour

1. Cream butter and icing sugar till light.
2. Add egg whites and cream till smooth.
3. Drop a tbspful of the mixture into tray lined with baking paper and spread it evenly (as thin as possible), allowing for 4 per tray for easier handling. (that's the tedious part!)
4. Bake at 170 deg celcius for about 10-12 mins till edges are lightly brown.
5. Remove it from tray by spatula. Roll IMMEDIATELY around a cylindrical rod (or chopsticks will do). Leave until set.

More Kueh Bangkits!

2008-01-28T17:28:00.002+08:00

made kueh bangkit again! this time using freshly squeezed coconut juice and more pandan leaves. and whole the kitchen was filled with the pandan fragrance when i was frying the tapoica flour.

mama bought a new heart-shaped cookie cutter. nice :)

this one tasted better than the previous one :)

Kueh Bangkit

2008-01-22T23:37:00.000+08:00

i've long heard of this being a tough one to make but i'd always wanted to try baking it. and i was lucky to find a step by step guide at Little Corner Of Mine. but i modified the recipe a little. those tips and feedback by bakers who have made them before really helped! so it was a breeze making them :) alot less tedious than making pineapple tarts!

it's crispy on the outside and melts in the mouth!

fried the tapioca flour with pandan leaves to give them an extra flavour.

the perfect dough! not too wet and not too dry.

i'm ready!

roll them out.

cut out nice shapes with cookie cutter.

and there you go! mama helped with those pincher designs! nice:)

baking in process.

fragrant cookies! a good attempt :)

Pineapple Tarts

2008-01-22T22:25:00.000+08:00

pen and paper ready to record down the step-by-step recipe!

his mama was kind enough to pass me her secret recipe for pineapple tarts which he is so full of praise for. haha and she showed me the whole process personally :) and yea it's yummy! it's the covered up kind which is rarely seen nowadays and the pineapple filling wasn't too sweet at all.

and guess what. we baked them on the night straight after night cycling. imagine how shag the two of us were! but many hands make light work! it took the three of us about 3 hours to finally get to savour our first bite...and those 3 hours included the cooking of the freshly grated pineapple too! see the pic on the left.

see those anxious hands of his ready to attack the flour mixture! in the end he got pushed away cos he didn't know how to knead properly haha.

so many hands!!!

ta-da! buttery dough-like thingy.

we actually 'toasted' them in an oven toaster cos the oven wasn't working. haha so some turned out burnt but could still be eaten. brought the remaining ingredients home to bake cos i had to rush to take the last bus! they turned out in a lovely golden colour when i baked them in my oven :)

hmmm do they resemble pineapples? he says they look more like beetle insect! all ended up in his stomach anyway! haha. we actually use a pair of scissors to cut those flaps out. then egg wash to get the nice colour.

Birthday Fruit Cake!

2008-01-18T00:29:00.000+08:00

peaches and cherries fruit cake

the bday girls! forced by bean to wear those party hats haha.

happy birthday ching man, bm, fong yee and kit! CBLC had a four-in-one celebration for the four january babies. glad they liked the cake!

it was my first time frosting a cake with cream haha. it was indeed highly challenging i must admit. baking the sponge cake was simple BUT when it came to preparing the butter cream and the whipping cream for decoration purposes, the whole kitchen was in chaos!!! haha. i wished i had more hands!

choc sponge cake

and i was so afraid that the cake would turn out to be disgustingly ugly. and since it was the birthday cake for four people, i simply couldn't screw this one up! i was rather satisfied with the end product. all thanks to the coloured rice and fruits which helped to cover up all the flaws hahaha.

had this small little tub of leftover whipping cream filling for the cake and i brought it along to school. and i didn't expect them to like it so much haha. including him who enjoyed it alot :)

i still have to improve on my words writing and decorations on the cake thou.

Chocolate Tarts With Pine Nuts

2008-01-15T09:49:00.001+08:00

made some sweet pastry tart bases last friday to make fruit tarts for grandma's 70th birthday celebration on saturday. haha kooped some out to make chocolate tarts for him. i like the flower petals design created with the pine nuts. quite creative ya :)

i love nuts. they're so versatile!

we had his pd treat at chinatown temporary market that friday. haha but there were only six of us in total. just nice one table. one table but there was soooo much food - 2 fish head, i super big claypot rice, and two plates of vegetables!

i just completed a task assigned by bean! shall post that up soon :)

Here's the recipe...

Chocolate Tarts with Pine Nuts

Sweet Pastry Recipe
Adapted from Alex Goh's Irresistable Pastry.

Ingredients:
200g Butter
85g icing sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
420g flour, sifted
1 tbsp milk powder

Method:
1.Cream butter, sugar and vanilla essence lightly and add in the egg. Cream until smooth.
2. Add in flour and milk powder. Mix till well blended.
3. Press into tart mould.
4. Bake at 200 deg C for 10-12 minutes.
*Weight of pastry is 780g.

Choc Filling Recipe
Adapted from She Paints the Kitchen Red's Tarte Noire.

225g bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup plus 2 tbsp whipping cream
45g butter, cut into small pieces, at room temperature
A handful of pine nuts

Method:
1. Place the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and have a whisk at hand. Bring the cream to a boil, then pour half of it over the chocolate and let it sit for 30 seconds. Working with the whisk, gently stir the chocolate and cream together in small circles, starting at the centre of the bowl and working your way out.

2. Pour in the remainder of the cream and blend it into the chocolate, using the same circular motion. When the ganache is smooth and shiny, stir in the butter piece by piece. don’t stir the ganache any more than you must to blend the ingredients. The less you work it, the darker, smoother and shinier it will be.

3. Pour the ganache into the crust. Decorate with some pine nuts. Refrigerate the tart to let the ganache set.

Corn Muffins

2008-01-13T01:34:00.001+08:00

had dinner with him at kenny roger's during the hols and their corn muffins tasted great. haha so here's my feeble attempt at trying to bake those muffins. tasted far from what we had. but the muffins were moist even when kept for a day and those corn bits added that extra crunch!

searched high and low for cornmeal! found it at jason's supermarket and it was expensive! $6 for that pack. they didn't have the yellow cornmeal so i made do with white cornmeal.

My Nutty Biscotti

2008-01-13T01:02:00.002+08:00

haha yes MY nutty biscotti. kinda tweaked the original recipe by quite a bit. added three kinds of nuts to this one - walnuts, blanched almonds and pistachio nuts! and so it makes this one a super heart-healthy snack. reduced the total amount of sugar by about 50 grams! but i added raisins and black currants to give it that tinge of sweetness. and yes not to forget the ground cinnamon i added - it just perfects the entire taste and flavor of the biscotti.

it came out wonderful. all the hardwork was worth the while :)

and if you don't already know, biscotti means twice-baked in italian. that explains the hard work! but double baking is in fact the secret to making these tasty yummy crunchy cookies.

nuts are good for your health!

nuts and more nuts!

shape the dough into an oblong loaf.

the baked loaf is cut into slices and bake until they are dry and hard again

these cookies are as durable as they are tasty. keeps extremely well in an air-tight container.
but ermm they don't last very long afterall hahaha.

My Nutty Biscotti

Ingredients:

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract (essence)
1 ¾ cups all-purpose (plain) flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
1 ¼ cups of nuts (walnuts, pistachio nuts, almonds), toasted, then coarsely chopped
½ cup of blackcurrants and raisins (added in any proportion you like)
1 tsp grated orange zest

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 350^◦F (180^◦C). Lightly grease and flour 1 large baking sheet, or line it with parchment (baking) paper, and have another ungreased baking sheet on hand.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer in high speed, cream the butter until fluffy and pale yellow. Add the sugar and continue beating till the mixture is no longer gritty when rubbed between your finger and thumb. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well on low speed after each addition. Beat in the vanilla on low speed until blended.
Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together onto a sheet of waxed paper. Gradually add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and mix on low speed or stir with a wooden spoon just until incorporated. Mix or stir in the nuts, blackcurrants, raisins and ornage zest. The batter should be very soft.
Turn the batter out onto a generously floured work surface and divide in half. With well-floured hands, transfer one-half onto the greased baking sheet and shape into a log about 12 inches (30cm) long and 1 ½ inches (4cm) in diameter. Place on one side of the sheet. Repeat with the remaining batter, leaving at least 4 inches (10cm) between the logs. (They will spread as they bake.)
Bake the logs until the edges are golden, about 25-30 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the logs cool for 10 minutes. Using a serrated knife, cut the logs, still on the pan, on the diagonal into slices ½ inch (12mm) wide. Carefully turn the slices on their sides and return them to the oven. When you run out of room on one baking sheet, start transferring to the other sheet. Bake until the edges are golden, about 10 minutes longer. Let cool completely on the pans on wire racks. Store in an airtight container.

Honey Oatmeal Bread

2008-01-11T00:00:00.001+08:00

this is my first time baking bread! haha baking bread really takes alot of patience. that whole waiting process for the bread to ferment took me almost half a day. but i can say it was quite amazing seeing the dough doubling in size and all fluffed up. i added more honey and reduced the amount of sugar and i think it's good :) topped it off by sprinkling some oats and pine nuts above it before sending it into the oven! a good attempt for a first try i should say haha.

preparing the dough

i added oats to the dough

piping hot soft bread!

have a slice!

Marble Cheese Swirl

2008-01-08T02:42:00.001+08:00

this one's gonna be hand delivered via air to papa and friends over in indonesia! baked this the night before passing it to papa's friend who will be flying over in the morning. first time baking it but it's rather tedious cos you have to prepare two different layers - the choc and the cheese. and i think my swirls were quite uneven and ugly hahaha :D

preparing the choc layer.

bubbling-licious!

out of da oven!

spot those uneven layers!

all worth the while :)

Moist Choc Cake

2008-01-08T02:36:00.000+08:00

this is like the third bake so far! haha and it's a rather easy one i think. he had a bbq at his home with the engineers so i was tasked with baking this and i also made sweet corn jelly...no pics for that thou. i'm glad both turned out good :)

baked two cakes originally - one for his friends the other for his family haha but there was too much food at the bbq! so no kou fu for his friends haha.

yeah but anyway the cake looks alot better aesthetically as compared to previous bakes where the choc ganache i applied turned out to be so messy and ugly! more room for improvement thou.

those two cakes! before fudge was applied.

yay! it's done :)

Mooncake Cookies With Green Tea Paste

2008-01-06T02:22:00.005+08:00

i had some leftover green tea paste and an almost full can of golden syrup so i digged for recipes so that i could use them up! and i found the perfect one! a modified version of piggy mooncakes. haha cos i made them look like tau sar piah and i added green tea paste into the dough. the outer crust recipe was taken from Do What I Like. and it's really quite simple just that i found handling the dough rather challenging cos it's really gluely and sticky! just make sure you have have more flour for dusting.

but i'm glad the end product turned out good and pretty too. he says it could be less sweet but overall he liked it and found it quite special! and he ate quite a few in that one day haha. enjoy the pics :)

i used lyles golden syrup.

green tea paste.

mixture of syrup, oil and alkaline water.

make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and slowly pour the syrup mixture in as you stir.

and you get sticky dough which i then wrapped up with paste.

nice brown colour :)

A New Year With Oreo Cheesecake! Happy 2008!

2008-01-06T02:09:00.001+08:00

the past week has been spent with him at his house and these few days i just feel the urge to bake cos the hols are coming to an end! so i've really been on a baking spree~~

i really enjoy the entire process of baking and i think it's amazing how you put together a little of each ingredient and ta-da out comes something completely different and pretty :) haha. how addicitive baking can be.

to celebrate the new year i thought i'll just bake something for him and his family. and since oreo cheesecake is one of his favorites i decided on it. this oreo cheesecake recipe was adapted from alex goh's recipe - temptation oreo, taken from his book entitled "joy of making cheesecakes". and i say this is a must try cos it's really so simple unlike other oreo cheesecake recipes i've seen. the ingredients are simple and the steps are easy to follow. you can prepare this in about two hours i guess. and it's the baked version if you are wondering.

i had a young assistant that day! the kids of the korean neighbours popped over that morning and so i assigned her tasks to do since she was so enthu about helping me :)

drove to his place in the afternoon. haha and cos i was in a hurry i skipped quite a few of the cooling steps. left the cake in the oven for about twenty minutes then i took it out le supposed to leave in there to cool for one hour! haha. and haven't even applied the choc ganache so i brought the ingredients to prepare over there. so the cheesecake was still warm in its tin when i brought it over. haha and i was shocked when she was so anxious to cut the cake into half to leave for my family! then had to tell her cake needs to be refrigerated for at least five hours first then apply ganache then wait for one hour. haha *faints right. yeah the waiting time is long before you get to finally get a mouth of it!

ermm and i think we din wait for five full hours before applying the ganache haha. his mama said she shifted the cake up to the freezer halfway through so should be fine. okaes so we proceed to prepare ganache. his job was to lick away the remaining choc hahaha. no lar he shared some with his bro. the entire cake was transformed from ugly duckling to a swan immediately after the choc ganache coat was applied!!! see the pics :)

now the verdict! and yes an hour later we cut the cake to serve. his comment was that the cheese layer was too thin biscuit layer too thick and he showed me some uneven parts too. opps haha. the cake tin is not right but i only have this bigger version so the cake turned out to be slighter lower in height. his mama says it's...NICE! and it was then that the three of us sat down at the dining table that night chatting. for the 1st time. hehehe.

jenda - my assistant for the day! she's measuring the oreo biscuits for the base. and removing the cream at the same time.

crushed oreo cookies mixed with butter to get a crumbly-like texture.

oreo cake base.

beating the cream cheese mixture.

throw in about 12-15 pcs of quartered oreo sandwich cookies.

the ugly duckling haha :D

ta-da the pretty swan!

he had the honour of making the first cut!

he said it's not bad for a 1st try :) :) :)

Fruit Tarts With Custard

2007-12-26T19:16:00.000+08:00

we had a mini gathering on christmas eve at cblc. haha a really mini one - i think there were only less than ten of us...bean, chingman, kengboon, lungkwan, me, him, caine, violet, tengyong. anyway it was potluck so each of us had to prepare something!

initially i was given the task of baking a x'mas log cake but then i realised it's really quite ma fan and i wasn't really confident of doing it myself! haha never tried it before...so i should experiment with it myself some other day!

with that, i flipped the recipe books for a suitable cake/pastry to bake. and ta-da i found one on strawberry tart with custard and another one - mango tart. decided on the one with custard since he prefers that. but i modified the recipe a bit, used the sweet pastry for smaller tarts and i used mangoes and longans instead of strawberries.

as i was flipping thru the food blogs again(!) haha i found so many other interesting recipes which i so wanted to try! but had to think about time constraint and budget so i decided on the mua chee and waffles which were both simple to prepare.

wahhhh the fruit tart was ALOT of work! i think i spent almost half a day preparing it! from the sweet pastry to the custard to the fruits and then the glazing, everything took time! it was fun making the pastry though. my first time doing it but i'm glad it was successful and nice according to those who tried it! and it was a good experience making it!

preparing the moulds

Sweet pastry in the making...

yay done! these could have been more 'baked' i think!

Then the custard...

you add this to a custard powder and egg mixture to get a rather gluey-like custard

apply the glaze and ta-da...ermm not very pretty fruits tarts hahaha!

Part II - Mua Chee!

the healthier mua chee made with lesser oil so the texture wasn't that smooth. but it's as good as those you find at pasar malam okaes! looks good right :)

Part III - Waffles

hot waffles made on the spot! then topped with vanilla and raspberry ice-cream :)

my first bake of the holidays

2007-12-20T13:44:00.001+08:00

i actually have a list of items i wanna bake this hols. but sadly...i've only baked this and wholemeal muffins for papa so far. now that cyberia camp's over, it's christmas! and it means dec is coming to an end. looks like i dun have much chances to bake le.

anyway, these are called peanut butter filled chocolate cookies. what a long name right haha. it's actually quite simple but you need to wrap some peanut butter into the choc dough then rolling them up and pressing them down with a fork to have those nice nice designs on the cookie:)

i found it too sweet though. but he thinks it's ok. his mama says it looks like it bought! and his family thinks he's a lucky man haha.

first time trying to take pictures of the entire process. and i just wished i had more hands to help me with it!

preparing the choc dough

little dough bits to be filled with peanut butter!

ready to be baked
haha there was this extra BIG cookie i prepared for him. which was filled with alot alot of peanut butter. but his brother ate it! somemore i put special marking on it - dun have the criss-cross lines one!

the 2nd batch to be baked.

it was quite difficult to see when the cookies were ready cos the choc itself was dark brown in colour. so just follow recipe's timing lor. just slightly more than ten minutes would be fine if u want a moist and soft cookie:)

yay! it's ready :)

crack it open and you see brown peanut butter filling in it. this one's quite a special cookie recipe.

finally!

2007-12-16T00:08:00.000+08:00

yay! i've finally gotten myself a blog for my baking escapades. been thinking of setting up a blog for a long time but never really got down to doing it. but today as i was looking through my daily dosage of food blogs with envy (again!), i just thought today shall be it!

it's the school holidays and i've already started baking. and i've captured a few photos too. can't wait to post them up :)

i guess having a blog to see what i've baked and the process of it makes it all the more memorable when i look back at it. bake-me-happy - featuring my baby steps in my baking journey.

and perhaps one day...mugger's inn? haha a dream come true.