I Can Cook too!

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...

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

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

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

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

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!

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!

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

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