Baking Mum

Chinese New Year 2012

2012-01-31T11:56:00.004+08:00

The Year of the Dragon is here and I would like to wish everyone a Happy and Properous Chinese New Year!

Wishing everyone 年年有余，心想事成，身体健康!

A birthday cake

2011-11-24T22:39:00.002+08:00

Just completed making a birthday cake for my domestic helper's sister. Her sister's birthday is tomorrow and she is going to celebrate it with my helper tomorrow. When my helper saw the cake I was decorating, she said to me that blue and pink are her sister's favourite colours. I guess I made the right choice with the colours, hehehe ...

Mango Mousse Cake

2011-11-14T10:46:00.002+08:00

I made another mango mousse cake for a sweet young lady for her 19th birthday. The cake was well received. Thanks Joyce for taking this picture for me.

Mango Mousse Cake

2011-11-04T00:35:00.003+08:00

My colleague asked me to make a mango mousse cake for her to celebrate her mother's birthday. I am not sure why but I really like piping roses so I piped roses again to decorate my mango mousse cake. I had balance left of the sponge cake and mango mousse so I did some mini heart shape one to give to my colleagues.

Rose Cake

2011-10-30T09:56:00.003+08:00

Just completed decorating a yam cake for a lunch gathering later. This is for a friend's mother as we are celebrating her birthday later. Hope they will like it. It has really been a while since I have decorated a cake. Have been trying to pick up the mood to bake again and it is slowly picking up momentum. Kekeke...

Baking session with my colleagues

2011-10-27T22:20:00.005+08:00

A few of my colleagues came over to have a baking session last weekend. We had a good time baking and eating. We managed to bake three types of cakes in one afternoon. Here are what we have baked.

Mango Mousse Cake

Brownie Cake/Muffins

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Tiramisu

2011-03-05T22:39:00.002+08:00

Tiramisu

44-48 lady fingers

Syrup:
100 ml water
100 ml milk
120 ml liquor… cocoa or coffee (I prefer cocoa)
50 ml rum (alcohol not essence)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 Tablespoons melted chocolate or chocolate syrup

For the syrup:
Place all the ingredients into a measuring cup and warm 30 seconds in the MW. It doesn’t need to be hot, just warm.

Cream:
450g mascarpone cheese
450g liquid whipping cream
3 egg whites (I used egg whites but if you want to avoid using ... disregard this ingredient)
If you don’t use the egg whites divide the sugar half for the cheese and half for the whip cream.
180 - 200g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
30 ml liquor… cocoa or coffee

Roast the lady fingers in the oven at 160°C for about 5 minutes. (Optional) could be done without. Roasting the ladyfingers will give the cake a better flavor.

First make the cream and place in the refrigerator:
Beat very well the egg white + 1/3 sugar, until this is dissolved and egg whites appear very frothy as a meringue, next beat very well the whip cream + 1/3 sugar until sugar is dissolved, make sure you don’t mix it too much (whip cream can turn to curd if over beaten), and last… beat very well the cheese + 1/3 sugar until smooth. Combine together the eggwhite, cream and cheese and add vanilla and the liquor… cacao or coffee.

(If you don’t use the egg whites divide the sugar half for the cheese and half for the whip cream.)

Assemble the cake:
Place a layer of lady fingers on the bottom of the baking pan, using exactly half the liquid sprinkle all over the lady fingers, make sure you don’t put too much in one side and less in other areas.
Take a tea strainer and powder with cocoa (about 1 full teaspoon-if needed more add as desire) all over the lady fingers.
Take 1/3 of the cream and place over the sponge fingers. The cream must touch the walls all around, and make sure the cream is spread well all over and there are no holes. We don’t want any liquid to go to the layer bellow.

Place next layer of lady fingers over the cream, sprinkle the rest of the syrup, sprinkle with cocoa and place the rest of the cream on top of everything. Level well and leave the cake to refrigerate overnight. Unmould cake and sprinkle the top of the cake with cocoa powder.

Tiramisu

2010-11-10T17:42:00.008+08:00

I baked myself a birthday for today and it is Tiramisu cake. Brought to the office to share with my colleagues. All of them said the Tiramisu is very nice and they love it.

This cake is with compliments from hubby. It's a light strawberry cheesecake.

Lotus Seed Cupcakes

2010-11-07T22:43:00.001+08:00

Lotus Seed Cupcakes

225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
250g butter
130g sugar
50g brown sugar
60g diary whipping cream or thickening cream
225g ground lotus seed (baked lotus seed at 180C for 10-15 mins then grind it)
4 eggs

Methods:
1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
2. Sift together plain flour and baking powder.
3. Place about 30-40 paper baking cups in a tart mould or oil the tart mould if not using paper cups.
4. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in ground lotus seed and mix well. Add in cream and mix well.
5. Add in eggs one at a time and beat well. Fold in or you can use machine to mix in the flour. Spoon mixture into the line tart mould and bake for about 20-25 mins or until brown.
6. Remove from mould and let it cool down on a cooling rack.

Almond Cupcakes

2010-11-07T22:10:00.004+08:00

Made these almond cupcakes last week. I was too generous with the hundreds and thousands thus it looks a bit awful. But then the kids like it.

The original recipe has ground almond in it and it is quite a simple recipe. I will share the recipe when I have it typed out.

Almond Cupcakes

225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
250g butter
180g sugar
225g ground almond
4 eggs

Methods:
1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
2. Sift together plain flour and baking powder.
3. Place about 30-40 paper baking cups in a tart mould.
4. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in ground almond and mix well.
5. Add in eggs one at a time and beat well. Fold in or you can use machine to mix in the flour. Spoon mixture into the line tart mould and bake for about 20-25 mins or until brown.
6. Remove from mould and let it cool down on a cooling rack.

Note: You can sprinkle hundreds and thousands or chopped almond to top of the cupcakes before baking. Or just leave it plain.

Below you can see another batch just made tonight. This time round, I used ground baked lotus seed instead. I wanted to try out with ground lotus seed to see how the taste is like. Smells good before the baking and taste is ok. I think I still prefer the almond version. However I shall post both the original recipe and the modified receipe for those who are interested in trying both versions.

Cashew Nut Butter Cake

2010-08-15T22:49:00.006+08:00

Cashew Nut Butter Cake Recipe

200g butter
150g fine or castor sugar
3 eggs
130g plain flour
20g milk powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
100g cashew nuts (toasted and chopped)

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add in eggs one at a time beating thoroughly after each addition
Fold in sifted flour, baking powder and milk powder and chopped cashew nuts and mix well. Do not overmix.
Spoon batter into prepared line cake tin or in my case I have used muffin cups. Decorate top with more cashew nuts. Bake at preheated oven at 180C for 25 minutes.

Note: I have to add that I added about 2 tbsp of milk because the butter that I have used seems to be quite dry after beating. Not as soft and creamy as the usual butter that I have used.

Cappuccino Torte

2010-08-01T00:12:00.006+08:00

It has been a long long time since I left my blog unattended. As you know, my dad was sick and it was very sad that he passed on in May. My dad was a very very good cook. He can cook almost anything and he learned from observation when he was working in a supermarket when he was young. Almost everything that he cooked is very good. I have only learned part of his skill and I regret not learning more from him.

For a while I have not been baking/cooking but this morning hubby told me that he wants to eat this cake and passed me the recipe book so that I can make it for him. Since this is hubby's request, I made this for him this morning. This is the first time trying this recipe and hubby and son say that it is good. So sharing with you this recipe:

Cappuccino Torte

75g/6 tbsp butter, melted
375g/10oz digestive biscuits/shortbread biscuits, crushed
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
25ml/1.5 tbsp powdered gelatine
45ml/3 tbsp water
2 eggs, separated
115g/1/2 cup soft light brown sugar
115g/4oz dark chocolate, chopped
175ml/6 fl oz/3/4 cup brewed coffee
150ml/2/3 cup whipping cream

Methods:
1. Mix the melted butter with the crushed biscuits and cinnamon. Spread into the base of a 20cm/8in loose-based tin and press down well. Chill it in fridge/freezer.
2. Sprinkle the gelatine over the water. Leave to soften for 5 minutes then set the bowl over a pan of hot water and stir to dissolve.
3. Whisk the egg yolks with the brown sugar until thick. Put the chocolate in a bowl with the coffee and stir until melted. Add to the egg mixture, then cook gently in a pan for 1-2 minutes until thickened. Stir in gelatine. Leave until just beginning to set, stirring occassionally.
4. Whip the whippine cream until soft peaks form. Whisk the egg white until stiff. Fold the cream into the coffee mixture, followed by the egg white. Pour the mixture over the biscuits base and chill until set.

MIA

2010-03-21T18:05:00.005+08:00

Hi my dear readers, I have been missing in action for quite a while. Have been busy since the CNY period. I will not be able to update my blog regularly as my dad is not well and I will be spending more time with him and my mom. Sorry if I am not able to answer your baking/cooking questions as regularly as I would like to. Hopefully my dad will get well soon and I can come back to my blogging again.

Grilled Beef Ribs (Galbi Gui)

2010-01-19T23:49:00.002+08:00

2 lbs (1 kg) beef short ribs, cut into 1 1/2 inch (4 cm) length
(I used sirloin steak that was cut into thin slices)

Marinate
2 tbsp garlic, peeled and crushed
1 tsp grated ginger
1/4 cup (60 ml) soy sauce (I used Japanese soy sauce)
1 tbsp honey
4 tbsp soft brown sugar
1/2 tsp freshly grounded black pepper
2 tbsp rice wine or sake (I used Hua Tiao Jiu)
1 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1 large nashi pear, grated
2 spring onions, minced (I just cut into small pieces)

1. Combine all the Marinate ingredients together, except for the spring onions. Add the Marinate to the beef ribs (or other types of beef cut you are using) and mix well. Then add the spring onions and toss lightly. Cover and marinate for at least 4 hours.
2. Heat a grill or broiler and grill the ribs/beef for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, or until browned and cooked through. Serve with lettuce, perilla leaves, raw garlic and chilli bean paste on the side.

* Note: The cooking time depends on the type of beef you use and the thickness of the beef. Also your own preference of how well the beef should be done.

Do give this try and let me know if you like this recipe.

Korean BBQ and Kimchi

2010-01-18T20:09:00.004+08:00

Recently I have added two Korean cookbooks to my collection. I tried making kimchi yesterday from one book and made Korean BBQ from the other book. I must say the result is quite satisfying.

This is the kimchi that I have made.

I marinated pork, chicken and beef for my BBQ. Of the three, I like the beef best. The marinate is really easy and very nice. I will post the recipe here to share with those who would also like to try it out. Did not take a picture of the cooked food as we are too busy eating. Hahaha ...

Wedding Cupcakes

2010-01-15T15:17:00.004+08:00

I have been lazy ever since my holidays in December. Have not been baking or cooking since. If not for my friend who has asked me to bake some cupcakes for her brother's wedding tomorrow, I think my kitchen will remain closed for a while. I copied some ideas from other bloggers on the design for these wedding cupcakes. Hope my friend will like it.

2009-12-17T23:15:00.002+08:00

A token of appreciation to a friend who has been very generous and encouraging in many ways. Wishing her and her family a really Blessed and Merry Christmas.

Christmas Cuppies

2009-12-16T16:55:00.006+08:00

A friend ordered some Christmas cuppies for her colleagues. Since I will be away on vacation from 19 Dec I had to pass it to her earlier. She asked for cupcakes with Christmas deco and this is what I have done for her. Hope she will like it.

Spritz Cookies

2009-12-13T16:57:00.009+08:00

I have been asked to provide this recipe by some of my readers. For the sake of those who wants to know some step by step method of making this cookies, I have taken some pictures along the way while I was making it so that you will have a clearer picture. This recipe is actually better if you use the cookie gun and for the purpose of those of you who would like to make it using a cookie cutter instead, I have provided two options for you to choose. Option 2 will yield a drier cookie but still good. Cut down on the sugar if you like or if you are going to decorate them with royal icing. If you have rolled the dough to be thicker then remember to bake it longer like maybe for 20 mins instead of 15 mins. Remember to keep it in airtight container to retain crispyness.

Hope this tutorial helps and in time for your Christmas baking.

Ingredients:
Soften butter 250g
Castor or fine sugar 200g
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
3 cups(390g) plain flour + 1/2 tsp baking powder (option 1)
5 cups (650g) plain flour + 3/4 tsp baking powder(option 2)
1/4 tsp salt

Methods:

Cream butter and sugar until creamy. Add in eggs one at a time and mix well.

Add in sifted flour and baking powder and salt. Mix well until like this.
This is how the mixture look like for Option 1 amount of flour. This consistency is good if you want to use a cookie gun or a piping bag.

If you want to roll our dough and use cookie cutters, then use the amount of flour in Option 2. This is how the mixture look like after adding two more cups of flour and 1/4 tsp of baking powder.

Roll dough out between two pieces of baking or parchment paper.

Cut dough using cookie cutters of your choice. Bake at a preheated oven at 190C for about 15 mins or until cookie is brown.

After baking.

Simple decoration.

Decoration using royal icing and I wrapped them individually and seal it with a sealer.

Ready to be given away for Christmas.

First Christmas Logcake for this year!

2009-12-11T23:46:00.004+08:00

Going to bring this logcake to a BBQ party tomorrow night. It is a chocolate spongecake with cholocate ganache inside and outside.

Oh I wanted to share what hubby bought for me for Christmas. We will be going away during the Christmas period so he gave it to me earlier. So sweet of him.

Birthday Cake

2009-12-06T00:25:00.004+08:00

Just completed a birthday cake for my cousin. Hope she will like it.

Work Completed

2009-11-26T00:07:00.003+08:00

Actually I had wanted to make a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache to be covered with fondant for a colleague's wedding. In the end I was busy with work and didn't have time to make the fondant/mm fondant. So what I did was I did not cover the whole cake with fondant. I did a rug to put on top of the cake where the sofa, the groom and the bride will sit on. I had also used some flowers and butterflies to decorate the cake. In the end the cake turned out so plain and so different from what I have in mind initially. Well, I still hope the wedding couple will like it and I wish D and E a very blessed marriage and many many years of happiness together.

Oh, and I have also changed the groom figurine because the one I did earlier was getting more cracks than I have hoped for. Sharing with you the pictures of the before and after groom figurine on my cake.

The original groom that I was supposed to use.

In the end the cake turned out like this.

Birthday Cake and Cupcakes

2009-11-22T15:42:00.007+08:00

This was for an order. I made this little girl's cake last year and this year I get to bake her birthday cake again. Wishing you a very Blessed 7th Birthday, Anna. Her mom also orderd some cupcakes with fondant flowers.

Roses

2009-11-21T09:33:00.002+08:00

My good friend Irene came to my place to learn how to pipe roses. She was going to use this cake for a birthday of one of her cousins. We practiced with the whipped cream how to do roses and the roses were supposed to be pink and white in colour. In the end when we actually wanted to pipe the roses on the cake itself, the cream became too soft to handle. So, I had to use a new batch of cream and coloured it orange this time round. This is what Irene and I had done after a night of roses piping. Happy Birthday to you, Rina. Hope you will appreciate Irene's efforts.

My first 2-tier fondant covered cake

2009-11-15T20:40:00.009+08:00

I have had a good and enjoyable afternoon making this 2-tier fondant covered cake with Cuen. This is the first ever fondant covered and decorated 2-tier cake for both of us. I think we did a pretty good job considering this is our first time. Of course there are still room for improvement. The cake has a very spring time theme with lots of flowers, bee, ladybug, butterflies on it. To experiment how a sugarpaste fondant and MM fondant fair in this wet weather we covered the first layer with sugarpaste and the lower layer with MM fondant. In this kind of wet weather we have now in Singapore, MM fondant doesn't hold as well as sugarpaste.

We did some faces cupcakes and some doggie and bear bear too.

A cake for Roselle

2009-11-15T12:12:00.002+08:00

Roselle, my domestic helper's friend asked me to help her bake a birthday cake which she will use to celebrate her friend's birthday today. My helper asked me to bake a yam cream cake with flowers for Roselle. Instead of just flowers, I have added another picture on the cake. She was happy when she saw the cake this morning.

My birthday this year

2009-11-10T23:30:00.006+08:00

This year I had wanted to bake myself a birthday cake but I was really busy with work that I really don't have time to do that. After visiting my FIL who is warded into TTS Hospital for a fall (thank God he is ok and after all the scans and MIR he just needs to be under a 24-hour observation to make sure there is no complication on the brain), hubby took me to a nice Korean restaurant at Novena Square for dinner. When I got home the boys gave me a home-made birthday card and when I was reading it, I just cannot help but laugh out loud at what they have written. So sweet of them. I kept all the birthday cards and mother's day card that they have made for me every year. They are my treasure (besides all my baking stuff!) LOL.

Actually, my surprise started on Monday night already. After I have got back from the Fullerton from a office cocktail reception, I found a little gift box in a paper bag in my chest of drawers when I was looking for my clothes to change. It was left there by hubby. The bag and box is so familiar because I usually shop there for my accessories. Hubby bought me a pair of nice earrinigs for my birthday. It came as a surprise because he told me that there will be no birthday present for me this year and the next few years because he bought me 4 bags and some clothings from the US during his last trip there. They are supposed to be my birthday and Christmas gifts for the next few years. But I was pleasantly surprised to receive his little surprise gift for me. So very sweet of him. Thanks dear for everything.

PS: My older boy wrote this on the card: "Thank you for raising us to be good, smart, strong and healthy boys. I will try to study more and get better grades in school. This card is for your love and care for me. From Jaren"

My younger boy wrote this: "To my dearest mummy, this card is for you. I may not have got good grades, but I know deep in my heart that I tried hard for the exams. I may not be the perfect son you were looking for. But I know that you love me and korkor equally, not just korkor because he got better grades. This card was dedicated to you, for your long awaiting birthday. Love, Jonathan"

Cannot help but got to lol at their message right?

Fondant and Buttercream Cupcakes

2009-11-07T20:07:00.003+08:00

I made these cupcakes, both MM fondant and buttercream for a group of people in our church. From the picture of the MM fondant cupcakes, can you make a guess who they are for? You see this group of very dedicated volunteers in church be it raining or sunny weather. I really appreciate them for their hardwork and this is for you guys.

Shirt Cake

2009-11-04T21:20:00.005+08:00

Tonight we had a PSG appreciation dinner at my son's school. This was the last PSG meeting with the present principal, Dr Ong. Dr Ong has been seconded to NIE and will be leaving the school by end of this year. To show appreciation to Dr Ong, I have represented the PSG to bake a cake as a farewell gift to him. I did a steamed moist chocolate cake with chocolate ganache covered with MM fondant into the shape of a shirt. I had originally wanted to make a tie to go with the shirt but I didn't have enough time. So in the end I just added buttons to the shirt which is faster and easier. I was glad that everyone enjoyed the cake.

Wedding Anniversary Cake

2009-10-26T00:14:00.003+08:00

I just did a wedding anniversary cake as a gift for one of my directors' 25 years of marriage. Actually I did the numbers 2 and 5 and painted it with silver glistering powder but when I was putting the numbers on the cake, it broke. So no choice but had to put my little doggie in to fill up the space. It look a little strange but ... haiz ... what to do, no time to make another set of numbers already.

Chocolate Cupcakes

2009-10-23T00:33:00.005+08:00

One of my colleagues did us a favour today and to thank her, I baked some chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache and then decorated it with fondant bees, ladybirds and flowers for her. Really appreciate her help and hope she likes them.

Marshmallow Fondant Cupcakes

2009-10-17T20:10:00.003+08:00

I had to make a batch of marshmallow fondant covered cupcakes for a friend's nephew's first month celebration today. I had to do another batch for my son's classmate's birthday celebration today too. Was too busy making the sugarpaste toppers this whole week that I have not updated my blog at all. Sharing with you how the cupcakes was decorated.

Tahu Telor

2009-10-06T22:22:00.001+08:00

I have got this recipe quite sometime ago when Zu translated it for us in KC. Not bad, in fact as good as Sanur's. :)

Tahu Telor
[Ingredients]
4 pkt egg tofu cut into cubes about 2 inches
6 eggs
3 tbsp cornstarch/cornflour
pinch of salt

[Sauce]
1/2 cup sweet sauce - this one is not the chinese sweet sauce. Get the kipas udang brand
5 cloves garlic
a bit of birds eye chilli (chilli padi) - up to you how spicy you want
blend everything and heat it over medium heat

[Garnishing]
carrot, julienned
cucumber, julienned
ground roasted peanuts

[Method]
Heat oil in a pot and immerse the mould for the tahu telur. Leave it in (make sure the oil covers at least 3/4 of the mould)

Beat eggs, salt and cornstarch. Add tofu .
Pour mixture into the mould (about 3/4 full).
The heat from the oil will cause the egg to overflow but don't panic.. lower the fire, take a scoop and scoop the overflowing egg and pour it back into the mould. Continue pouring the hot oil into the mould till the egg is crispy. Remove mould and let the tofu in the oil till the sides are crispy. Once brown and crispy, remove from oil and drain it.

[To serve]
Place tofu on a plate, garnish with cucumber and carrot and sprinkle ground peanuts. Pour sauce over.

[Ways to make the mould for tahu telor]
[Get a big condensed milk tin or golden churn tin, remove the top and bottom]

[some tips for those who wants to try this recipe]
[If no egg tofu, can replace with silken tofu and add a bit of oyster sauce abt 1 tsp into the egg mixture. Not suitable to use the normal tofu]

[Best is to use the mould that is wide and low like in the original recipe above]
[advised to use planta majerine tin (not butter) or golden churn because not only the size is just nice but not that high hence easier to fry later]

[when oil is hot, immerse the tin first and leave it for a while to heat the sides then only pour the tofu+egg mixture because if the mould is hot, the mixture will not stick to the side that much and when you are pouring the mixture, be extra careful because the mixture may overflow. Just scoop the overflow mixture and pour it back into the mould at the same time press the top a little to pack the tahu telor]

[Don't use high heat because it may brown too fast but the inside may not be thoroughly cooked and don't use too low fire because it will be too oily]

[if using something different tofu, adjust accordingly the qty of the eggs]
For easy estimation, if you cube the tofu and put them into a bowl, the quantity of the egg when poured into the same bowl with the tofu must be just about the same height. Your tahu telur will come out perfect]

Egg Tarts

2009-10-04T21:54:00.003+08:00

I was supposed to make a flaky layers egg tarts from a Chinese cookbook I bought from China last year. In the end the oil dough was too impossible to handle even though I have put it in the freezer to harden it. In the end I gave up folding the dough and rolling it out. I was really reluctant to throw the dough away as I feel that I am wasting all my ingredients used. So I used half of the 'impossible' dough and added more flour to get into a more 'friendly' dough and turned it into the regular crust egg tarts.

In the end the result is actually like a hybrid between a very flaky crust and the normal plain crust. I don't know how to put it but the crust turned out more crispy than the normal egg tarts I have made before.

Here are the egg tarts.

Sago Pomelo Mango Dessert (杨枝甘露)

2009-10-04T13:56:00.002+08:00

Since now is the mid-autumn festival and you can find lots of pomelo around, I have decided to cook this dessert for our dinner with my parents and some relatives. The fact that I happened to see some nice mango on sale also helped me to make up my mind about making this dessert. (Initially I was going to cook gingko nuts in beancurd skin :))

I got this recipe from Florence's blog and I like it. It has a nice thick creamy taste but I had wished that the pomelo could be sweeter. I find the pomelo has a bit of bitter taste but not much just a tiny bit though. The best pomelo I have tasted so far was when we were holidaying in Phuket. So sweet, so juicy.

Anyway, here is my version of this dessert. The green and red thingy you see are tiny bits of glazed cherry I have added for visual effect. Since it was a last minute decision to make this dessert, I didn't have time to go to Phoon Huat to buy the colourful 'tadpole' to be added so had to make do with my glazed cherries.

Jelly Mooncake

2009-09-30T21:37:00.006+08:00

Finally down to my jelly mooncake already. Every year I will give to my aunties and uncles jelly mooncakes instead of baked or snowskin mooncakes as they prefer the jelly version. One disadvantage of jelly mooncakes is that you have to quickly give them away 1 or 2 days after you have done them since they don't keep well for too long. It is best to consume them within a week after making them as there are coconut milk in the mooncakes. Showing you some of the jelly mooncakes I have made last night. Will show more pictures of the rest when I have finished with them.

Happy Mooncake Festival to everyone who reads my blog.

More Mooncakes

2009-09-27T23:16:00.002+08:00

I am done with my mooncake making. Later this week will be making jelly mooncakes for some of my aunties. Here is a box of baked mooncakes with less sweet white lotus paste for my parents-in-law. The box of snowskin mooncake is for hubby's colleague.

Chilled Bing Pi Mooncakes

2009-09-20T16:05:00.003+08:00

I have just tried a Chilled Bing Pi Mooncake recipe which is very different from the usual one that we are so used to. Usually our version of bing pi is by mixing fried glutinous rice flour (kou fen) with icing sugar, shortening and water. But this recipe is different in the sense that it uses raw glutinous rice flour, rice flour and wheat starch, condensed milk and evaporated milk together and steam it to get a dough. This method give a very smooth dough and you are not afraid of overkneading the dough especially when you want to add colouring to the dough.

Since the white lotus paste and normal lotus paste that I am using will be sweet, I cut down on the amount of sugar used for the dough by half. This gives a dough that is not sweet but when eaten with the lotus paste inside, the taste is just right. This is a good recipe to use if you are trying to control the sweetness of your bing pi dough.

I think I rolled the skin too thin, should have made the skin a little bit thicker.

If you are interested to give this recipe a try, you can get the recipe from here.

Remarks: After two days, I realised the the skin turned hard. I am not sure if it was because I did something wrong or because of the wheat starch used or what. On the first day, it was ok, but after refrigerating it and eating it the next day, I realised that the skin is a little hard.

Century Egg Porridge (皮蛋肉末粥)

2009-09-19T19:24:00.003+08:00

My dad is not able to eat solid food these few days as he is going through the process of getting his set of denture done. I know my dad loves to eat the century egg porridge cooked by me so I did just that for him today. This bowl with everything is for my mom. For my dad, he only had a few pieces of century egg, the crispy popiah skin and some yu tiao. No silver fish for him as he will not be able to chew it.

Sharing with you my method of cooking the porridge.

I use my Tiger Thermal Pot for this porridge.
First cook some rice with lots of water in the inner pot. After rice is cooked, transfer the inner pot to the outer pot and leave it to continue cooking for an hour. After one hour, take pot out and put it on stove but do not turn on fire. Stir the dried up porridge to break up the grains. After giving it a thorough stir, add in more water to the porridge. Turn on medium fire and keep stirring the porridge. Let the porridge boil and put it back to the outer pot. You can leave it there for an hour or lesser. Put it back to the stove and add in your seasoning and your choice of ingredients. As you cook it longer the porridge will become very very smooth. You can just leave the porridge in the outer pot and keep it later for serving or keep the leftover in the pot for eating later.

If you are interested, this is what I have put in for the seasoning and ingredients.

200g minced pork, marinate with 1 tbsp of light soy sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil, some white pepper.

Seasoning for the porridge:
3 tbsp of Maggi concentrated chicken stock
1 tsp of chicken powder

Add this into the porridge when you are cooking the porridge. If the porridge gets too thick you can add more water to the consistency you like. Add salt to taste if the taste is too bland for you.

Cooking porridge using the rice cooker method:

Cook porridge in rice cooker with more water than you cook rice. After the porridge is cooked stir the porridge to break up the grains. Add in more water or stock to the porridge. Press down the cook button on the rice cooker to let it cook further. Again after a while, check on the porridge. Add more water if need to. Continue to stir until porridge is really smooth. When porridge is smooth, add in seasoning, ingredients into the porridge and press cook again to let it cook. Porridge is ready to be served when the ingredients are all cooked.

Tip for you: Before you added the marinated minced pork into the porridge, scoop two big scoops of hot porridge into the minced meat and stir to break it up. Then add them into the porridge to cook. This is to prevent the minced meat from lumping up inside the porridge when you put them in. Of course you don't have to do this if you are going to roll the minced meat into small balls to be added to the porridge.

Let me know how your porridge turn out if you are trying. You can deepfry some popiah skin and crush it. Add to the porridge just before serving.

Macarons

2009-09-19T17:56:00.009+08:00

I have read so many blogs that are talking so much about macarons. The photos they showed on their macarons are really pretty that makes me want to give it a try too. I have finally gave the macarons a go today since I was given a box of frozen eggwhite last night. It was not as difficult as i thought it would be. I made two different recipe from two different blogs to try and see if there is any difference in the macarons since both used a very slight difference in the method.

I tried the French Chocolate Macaron by David Lebovitz with a chocolate ganache filling which I have added some Irish Bailey Cream. Oh, the ganache tasted so good with the addition of the Irish Bailey Cream.

I also tried the macarons with Cointreau chocolate ganache. The orange liquer smell is very good too. I tried this other macaron recipe from Happy Flour's blog.

With the leftover chocolate ganache, I made use of them to make more chocolate. This time round the chocolate coating is harder and it didn't melt that easily. I had three types of chocolate. One with roasted almonds, one with Irish Bailey cream ganache and one with Cointreau chocolate ganache.

Recipe (adopted from Happy Flour's Blog with my own changes)

Ingredients
Swiss Meringue
80g egg white (at room temperature)
60g caster sugar

80g ground almond (I put it in the grinder to grind further)
140g icing sugar
1/2tsp lemon juice (I did not use)
orange yellow colouring powder (I used Walton's color paste)

Filling (my own version)
Orange Liquer Ganache
150g dark couverture chocolate
50g whipping cream
30g butter
2 tbsp orange liquer like Cointreau/Grand Marnier

Steps:
Swiss Meringue Macarons:
1. Using a cooker cutter, outline some circles on the parchment paper with a pencil. Turn the paper over with the pencil marking side facing down.
2. Sift icing sugar into a bowl. Grind the ground almond until very fine and mix it together with the icing sugar.
5. Pour sugar and egg white into a heatproof pan and place it over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir constantly until sugar has dissolved and the mixture is warm to the touch.
7. Pour the egg white into the mixing bowl with the whisk attachment and beat on medium-high speed until soft peaks then add in the colouring.
8. Continue to beat until medium stiff peaks.
9. Fold in the sifted mixture in 4 portions into the meringue. Do not over fold batter until it turn watery, batter should be slightly thicker than cake batter.
10.Spoon batter into a piping bag and pipe it within the round imprint which had made earlier on.
11.Let the macarons rest for 30 mins.
12.Preheat oven to 150C.
13.Bake a tray at a time for 20-25mins, depend on individual oven.
14.Remove macarons and cool on a wire rack.

Chocolate ganache:
1. Put 150g of dark couverture chocolate (chopped into smaller pieces), 50g butter and 1/2 cup of diary whipping cream into a heat proof bowl. Sit the bowl over a double boiler. Stir until all the chocolate has melted. Remove from heat and add in 2 tbsp of Cointreau and stir until they are well incorporated. Keep aside to let it cool down and thicken before using it to sandwich the macarons.
(NOTE: If the mixture looks a bit grainy, don't worry, keep stirring the mixture until it becomes glossy and thick.)

Assemble the macarons:
1.Pipe the orange ganache on the macaron.
2.Sandwich with another macaron.
3.Keep in the fridge to let the filling firm.

Baked Mooncake

2009-09-15T23:56:00.003+08:00

I was making baked mooncake last night and also tonight. Usually the baked mooncake needs to be kept for at least 3 days before you consume it. It can be more than 3 days. Reason being the oil in the dough will be released and the mooncake will look very nice and glossy and also the skin will turn softer. If you eat it on the same day or the next day, the skin is still hard and dry. I have done the mooncake into many many different shapes. Some traditional shape and some untraditional shape. I really like the untraditional shape ones. It will be well received by the children. Intended to wrap them up to give to my colleagues' and friends' children. I am sure they will be very happy to receive them.

Oh ya, I was left with some balance dough and no more paste. So in order not to waste food, I shaped them into little piglets and managed to get four of them.

Chocolate

2009-09-13T19:32:00.004+08:00

I tried to experiment with tempering chocolate today. Really not easy. I must go find a school to attend classes on chocolate moulding. Haiz... look at my not so pretty chocolate. It has chocolate truffle in the centre.

Just updating with a picture of how the inside look. Jonathan has taken three at a go. Hubby and I both tried one piece each. Actually after freezing it in the freezer for a while, it actually tasted quite good. Hehe ... and I thought I flopped at my chocolate making.

Zarusoba (Buckwheat Noodles)

2009-09-13T14:58:00.002+08:00

Made this zarusoba for our lazy afternoon lunch. Omitted the wasabi and quail eggs in the dip because children don't like wasabi and quail eggs are too high in cholestrol. Instead added seaweed and bonito flakes for them.

Oreo Cheesecake

2009-09-13T01:00:00.002+08:00

Upon the request of my son, Jonathan, I have made his favourite Oreo Cheesecake for his birthday celebration. I just did a very simple design as there are not much you can do with a oreo cheesecake. I really like this flower cake ring very much. You can see that I have used it to make my marshmallow cake before and now I am using it again. Happy 11th Birthday my darling and may God Bless You in many ways everyday of your life.

Bread for Breakfast

2009-09-10T00:25:00.002+08:00

The children requested for bread for their breakfast tomorrow. Since I did not buy bread from the shop outside I obliged them by making them their favourite sausage and cheese bread. I have also made some custard buns for my office colleagues. My aunty gave me some hae bee hiam so I have made some buns with hae bee hiam fillings also. Initially when I made the long and the round sausage bread, I had wanted to coat it with some pork floss. But since the cheddar cheese on top is good enough for the kids, I did not add the pork floss in the end.

Strawberry Marshmallow Cake

2009-09-09T23:07:00.001+08:00

One of my colleague is leaving us this Friday. He has requested for a cake from me and I have a few ideas of what cake to make for him. In the end, since I have a box of strawberries sitting in the fridge and needs to be used soon, I have opted to make the strawberry marshmallow cake. I managed a big cake plus two small mini size heartshape cakes.

Also wanted to share with you my cute little Tupperware container that a good friend of mine gave me for mooncake festival. This is a limited edition from Tupperware for this mooncake season. It comes with two containers and two pieces of mooncake. I love the colour and how handy and cute they look.

Hosting of photos

2009-09-09T16:11:00.002+08:00

It is so frustrated with Photobucket free hosting service. The width band limit is 1GB only every month. And everytime you used up the 1GB in that month, you have to wait till the next month to get your account set back to 0. If not, the photos are not able to be seen. How frustrating. Wonder if there are any other free hosting websites to host our photos. I am trying to upload some of my photos to Picture Trail and see how.

Chicken Pau

2009-09-07T22:25:00.003+08:00

Just made chicken pau tonight for the boys and hubby for breakfast tomorrow. Going to keep some for my parents when I visit them tomorrow night.

Fondant Cupcakes for a Full Month Celebration

2009-09-06T21:57:00.003+08:00

My colleague celebrated his daughter's full month today and I was invited. I wanted to make some cupcakes for him as a gift which will be decorated with fondant. Beginning of the week, I started with making a batch of sugar paste. Then every night after work, I started making the toppers bit by bit and let them dry out. Thank God this whole week there was no rain except this afternoon. The toppers were all drying out very well.

I made the chocolate brownie cupcakes last night and this afternoon I did the chocolate ganache and also to do the assembly of the cupcakes. Anyway, I enjoyed making the toppers but I surely have lots of room for improvement.

Here are my fondant cupcakes. Thanks to my friend Glad, who is a very talented person when it comes to making fondant toppers and cakes. I took some of her ideas on the decoration of my cupcakes.

White Lotus Paste Snowskin Mooncake

2009-09-01T22:49:00.001+08:00

Just made some snowskin mooncake with the white lotus paste I bought recently. I coloured the skin pink and used the moulds I had bought last year to make them. Going to bring to the office to share as we cannot finish all by ourselves.

Teacher's Day Cake

2009-08-30T17:24:00.005+08:00

I was asked to bake a cake for my son's school's Teacher's Day Celebration on Monday. I just did some simple flower design on the cake. I find that my writing on the cake sucks. After all the piping of the basket weave and the flowers and the leaves, and when it came to the writing my hands was a little shaky. Anyway, my handwriting needs improvement. Sharing with you my Teacher's Day cake and also wishing all those who are teachers, a Very Happy Teacher's Day!

The whole cake.

The flowers.

The sides which I have piped in a two-tone brown and white colour.

I also baked some individual chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache for the boys to give to their teachers. The cupcake boxes are so cute right. I really like the house shape boxes. So sweet right?

Dim Sum Day

2009-08-29T19:45:00.003+08:00

This morning I was busy making dim sum for the family. I made siew mai, guo tieh and yam kueh. By the time my older boy came back from school around 11 am this morning, all the siew mai is gone, totally wiped out. Then I made a plate of guo tieh also all wiped out. I didn't even have a chance to take a picture of the guo tieh.

By the time the yam kueh was finished steaming, they were too full to eat it that is why you can still see the whole tray of yam kueh. The reason why I did the yam kueh was also because my dad has a craving for yam kueh. Twice when I visited him, he kept asking me how come I don't steam yam kueh. So finally this morning I steamed it for him. When I brought it over to his house this afternoon, he ate a piece and he said it is very nice. So glad my dad likes it. My dad himself was a very good cook when he was younger and his standard can be very high to meet you know.

Anyway, sharing with you my siew mai and the yam kueh.

Heartshape Cream Scones with Raisins

2009-08-28T00:16:00.002+08:00

My domestic helper told me she is going to join her friends for lunch tomorrow just below my block. I know she loves raisins so I offered to make her favourite cream scones with lots of raisins so that she can share with her friends tomorrow. I have decided to use a small heartshape mould to cut out the scones. They are so cute. Small enough to pop one into your mouth.

Outside is crispy and inside is soft.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

2009-08-28T00:00:00.003+08:00

One of my colleague is leaving us and her last day is Friday. She told me she likes chocolate cake so I have finally settled with a chocolate fudge cake for her as a farewell gift from me. Wish you all the best C, in whatever you may be embarking on.

I managed to frost one whole cake plus two small cupcakes with the ganache that I did with some balance ganache left.

From trimming of the cake, I have collected a fair bit of chcolate cake. In order not to waste the cake, I did some chocolate fudge balls with the balance ganache and then coated each ball with some chopped toasted almond.

What I did was to crush up the cake into the balance ganache and using a spoon, I mixed them together. Leave the mixture into the fridge to harden a little. In the meantime, I toasted some whole almond at 180C for 10 mins and after cooling them I chopped them up. Take out the cake mixture and roll into small balls and roll them over the chopped almond to coat them well. Place into small paper cups.

Don't they look a bit like Rocher?

Pumpkin Bread Loaves

2009-08-26T23:57:00.004+08:00

I actually wanted to try this bread loaf recipe from Lily Ng's blog. I was supposed to do it on last night but I didn't have time. So tonight I had this done and my domestic helper said the bread is very nice. Actually from Lily's blog, she made into one loaf but for me I managed to get 3 loaves and 4 mini buns from it.

I think when I added the half cup of milk, my dough was quite wet so I have to add more flour during the kneading of the dough. I used part bread flour and part wheat flour. Cannot really taste the mashed pumpkin in the bread but I love the colour though. Very nice yellow colour.

See I managed to get all these from one recipe.

The bread is really soft. But then it should be soft since it is freshly baked. I have to keep until tomorrow to see if it is still so soft the next day.

Sandwich Bread
Ingredients:
1 cup mashed/puree cooked pumpkin/sweet potatoes/squash/zuchini
1 egg
2 tbsp sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp milk powder
3 cups bread flour(you can replace a cup with whole wheat flour)
1 1/4 tsp instant yeast
1/2 - 1 cup of milk(depending on how wet the vegetable is)

Method (using bread machine):
Put the ingredients according to the order as typed above in the bread-machine bowl.
Start the bread-machine using the dough function.
Add water enough to make dough into a ball.
When dough has finished cycle, remove and punch down.
Grease bread-pan and scale dough - 1 lb 4 ozs dough for 8 inch x 4inch x 4 inch.(dough should be 1/3 of the bread pan), and fold to fit the bread pan.. Cover with the lid but leave 1/2 inch gap so that you can see that the dough rising.
Let the bread proof and cover with a warm towel. When the dough has reached the top about 1/2 inch away from the lid. Close the lid tightly and turn on the oven 350F. When oven is preheated, put bread to bake for 30 minutes. Remove lid and continue to bake for another 15 - 20 minutes(depending on how brown a crust is desired).
Leave to cool for 10 minutes before removing bread from bread pan.
Cool bread totally before slicing.

My method (using KitchenAid):
1. Put all ingredients into a mixing bowl except for the milk.
2. With a dough hook, knead on low first to incorporate the ingredients. Slowly add in the milk until a dough is formed. You may not need 1/2 cup of milk depending on your mixture. (For me I added half a cup of milk and I find my dough very wet. In between kneading I have been adding extra flour by the tbsp until the dough is no longer wet.)
3. Continue to knead until the dough is elastic and can be stretched. When it passed the stretch test, the dough is ready. Lightly flour your tabletop. Mould dough into a ball and cover it with a glad wrap and let it proof for 1 hour or until double the volume.
4. Punch down the dough and roll dough to fit your baking pan or pullman tin. Leave it to proof and bake as per the instructions above.

Tau Suan

2009-08-22T17:29:00.004+08:00

This morning my older boy followed hubby and I to the market. Whilst I was queuing for some yu tiao (Chinese fried fritters), he asked if I can make some tau suan for him since we have yu tiao at home. So I got my domestic helper to help me steam some mung beans (split yellow beans = green beans without skin). The trick to this dessert is not to oversteam the beans as you will be cooking it in the sugar pandan leave water further before adding sweet potato starch.

Here you have my home made tau suan.

Ingredients:
1 packet of mung beans (I will check for the weight of that pkt that I used)
some pandan leaves
some sugar
sweet potato starch
Yu Tiao

Methods:
1. Soak mung beans for 1 hour. Drain and steam mung beans in a steamer for about 30minutes. The mung beans at this stage is still quite hard.
2. Boil a pot of water of roughly 1800ml and add a bundle of pandan leaves inside. Bring the water to a boil and then add sugar to taste. Pour in steamed mung beans and stir and cook until the mung beans has soften. In between cooking, you can test by softness by picking up one or two beans and test it.
3. Mix about three tbsp of sweet potato starch with some water for thickening the tau suan.
4. When the mung beans are soft enough, add the sweet potato starch mixture slowly with one hand and stir the tau suan with the other hand. It is important to keep stirring the mixture when adding the starch to prevent it from lumping up. Stop when the tau suan has reach the kind of starchyness that you like and turn off fire. Some people like it more starchy whereas some like it less. So you the amount of sweet potato starch to add depends on how you like it.
5. You can top off with some yu tiao before serving. For those who cannot get hold of yu tiao, you can instead add some thick coconut milk on top before serving.

(Note: Reason why I didn't steam the mung beans to very soft is because when cooking it to add starch, I didn't want the mung beans to overcook and become mashy. I want the beans to be seen whole.)

65°C Bread Loaf

2009-08-22T17:15:00.005+08:00

Finally I can get down to this 65°C TangZhong (湯種) method bread loaf which was the talk of the town for a while. According to Florence, who has so generously shared the recipe, bread made using this method results in a soft and bouncy bread that keeps well too. The bread is very soft and the taste is great. Just right after baking, among the kids and the hubby and the domestic helper, they nearly finished the whole loaf in lightning speed. They ate it with butter and strawberry jam and said it is very nice. There is nothing that beats freshly baked bread that is just out of the oven.

The recipe can be found here.

Sushi Rice

2009-08-22T15:49:00.004+08:00

Vinegar for the sushi

3 tbsp* vinegar
2 tbsp* sugar
2 tsp salt

Boil all 3 ingredients over small fire for sugar to be dissolved. Leave to cool.
* The tbsp here refers to the Chinese soup spoon.

Rice for the sushi

3 small cups of California or Calrose rice (450g)
3 or 3.5 cups of water

Wash rice. Use 3 or 3.5 cups of water (the same cup you use to measure the rice) to soak the rice for 30 minutes. (I soak the rice in my rice cooker so that after 30 minutes I can straight away cook it in the rice cooker.)

After rice is cooked, leave it in the rice cooker for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, pour rice into a big mixing bowl and pour the cooled vinegar into the rice. While fanning the rice with one hand, mix the rice with vinegar well. Leave to cool down and you can use it to make sushi.

(Tip: I stand in front of my fan with the fan facing the rice while mixing the vinegar into the hot rice.)

Winter Plum Blossom Flower Flaky Mooncake

2009-08-20T22:27:00.003+08:00

I have a packet of lotus paste which is expiring in about three weeks' time. So after running ideas what I want to do with it, I remembered seeing this very pretty flower shape mooncake in Yochana's blog. So that is what I have just baked straight after getting home from work. My Winter Plum Blossom Flower Flaky Mooncake. Ain't they pretty. I think I shouldn't have flatten it too much. I think it would have looked better if it was a bit more plump. Anyway, the crust is really flaky and crispy and tasted good.

Here is the recipe taken from Yochana's blog for those who are interested in trying for the coming Mooncake Festival.

Ingredients for Water Skin:

200 gm. Plain flour
20 gm. Icing sugar
80 gm. shortening
100 ml. water

Ingredients for Oily Skin:

200 gm. Plain flour
120 gm. Shortening

For Filling:

800 gm. Lotus Paste or any paste of your choice

For Glazing: 1 egg yolk (lightly beaten)
Some black and white sesame seeds for decoration

Method:

(1) Divide filling into 50 gm. portions and roll into round balls. Set aside.
(2) Combine flour, icing sugar and shortening of Water Skin. Add in water and knead into a soft dough. Divide into 16 portions.
(3) Combine Pastry ingredients together and divide into 16 portions.
(4) Flatten water skin and wrap in oily dough. Shape round and roll into a long strip and roll into a swiss roll. Repeat process one more time. Do the same with remaining pieces. Repeat process till all the dough finish.
(5) Flatten each rolled dough into a round shape and wrap up with lotus paste.
(6) Use a knife or cutter to slit 5 slits leaving the middle part intact. Use your thumb to make a depression in the center.
(7) Use the cutter to make some lines on the cut blossom flower.
(8) Glaze with egg and sprinkle some sesame seeds in the depression - center of the mooncakes.
(9) Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 20 - 25 mins. Cool on cooling rack.

Spongecake

2009-08-18T23:34:00.001+08:00

I wanted to make something for my colleague who has so generously gave me something that I needed at the moment. Since I don't have a lot of time to make something elaborated, I baked her some assorted spongecake which will take me less than an hour including baking time. I sprinkled some of them with chocolate chips, some with almond flakes and some I just left it plain.

These are the assorted spongecakes.

See how puffy and plump the spongecake look when they are just out of the oven.

Almond spongecake

Chocolate chips spongecake

After unmoulding this is how they look.

Chocolate Raisin Chiffon Cake

2009-08-17T22:24:00.001+08:00

My colleague gave me a can of chocolate powder meant for making hot chocolate. I wanted to try using it for baking instead. Decided to bake a chocolate chiffon cake as this is the easiest to do. However instead of using a 18cm tube pan, I used two small tube pan to bake it. Sharing with you the recipe here.

Chocolate Raisin Chiffon Cake (by Kevin Chai)

Ingredients

Egg yolk batter:

3 egg yolks
20g chocolate chips
50g chocolate (grated)
30g raisins
30ml milk
2 tbsp cooking oil
30g castor sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
90g self-raising flour

Egg white batter:

3 egg white
¼ tsp cream of tartar
50g castor sugar

Decorate:
Chocolate scrolls
Cocoa powder

Method

1. Preheat oven 170˚C.

2. To make egg yolk batter, combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl until forms batter.

3. To make egg white foam, beat egg white and cream of tartar until mixture forms soft peaks. Gradually add in sugar, beating at high speed until frothy and stiff peaks form.

4. Gently fold beaten egg white into egg yolk batter until blended.

5. Pour batter into ungreased 7-inch (18cm) tube pan. Bake in preheated oven at 170C for 30-40 minutes or until cooked.

6. Remove from oven, invert cake onto table until complete cooled.

7. Decorate with chocolate scrolls and dust with cocoa powder.

We go Japanese tonight

2009-08-16T20:15:00.004+08:00

Hubby asked for tempura while we were grocery shopping at Giants this afternoon. So I have decided that we will have some tempura to go with udon noodle soup. The kids however, wanted sushi. So I also bought enough ingredients to make sushi for them. I have made more sushi so that I can make a bento for both hubby and younger son. These are the stuff we had for dinner tonight.

Assorted tempura

Udon noodle with braised daikon and egg roll.

Assorted sushi

Bento for my younger son

Bento for hubby

Dessets

2009-08-15T23:19:00.003+08:00

We had a few good friends over for dinner tonight. We had chicken rice for dinner and our friends brought over some very yummy ngoh hiang too. We had a Chinese dessert and a western dessert after our dinner. Really had a great time chatting and catching up with each other.

Honeydew Sago. Thanks Lynda for sharing with me this yummy recipe.

I used ready made puff pastry and bake it into small cups. Filled it up with custard and then top it off with mango, kiwi and strawberries.

Dusting some icing sugar on top to make it look nicer.

Madeleines II

2009-08-15T00:06:00.004+08:00

Another Madeleines recipe for you to try. The taste of this recipe is very good too. It is soft and moist and I like the buttery taste of it. This is almost the same as the first Madeleines recipe I have posted before except for the milk and vanilla essence and lemon zest.

The first time when I tried making Madeleines, I didn't have the proper moulds so I used mini tart mould. But this time round I have the Madeleines moulds so it is more authentic.

Madeleine II

Ingredients:

160g castor sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
3 eggs
50ml milk
200g cake flour
6g baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
200g unsalted butter, melted

Method:

Sift flour and baking powder.

Mix the sugar with lemon zest and set it aside for 1 hour for the smell to be infused into the sugar.

Add the eggs into the sugar mixture and beat until mixture is slightly thick and add in milk and mix well. Add in sifted flour and mix well. Add in melted butter and mix until batter is glossy. Cover with a cling wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Oil the madeleines moulds with butter and lightly flour it. Tap away excess flour from the moulds. Fill the moulds with batter just slightly more than ½ full.

Preheat oven at 190C and bake the madeleines for 15 to 20 minutes or until brown. Unmould and leave on rack to cool. You can sift some icing sugar or snow powder on the madeleines when it has cool down completely.

Lemon Blueberry Yoghurt Loaf

2009-08-11T23:21:00.002+08:00

I was given a box of blueberry last Thursday and in order not to waste it I used it to make into a Lemon Bluebrry Yoghurt Loaf. This loaf is very simple, no need to use any mixer. Just mix wet and dry ingredients separately then mix them together and bake. You can have many variation to this loaf. You can just make it plain, you can add poppy seed, or anything else you like.

I got this recipe from the Smittenkitchen.com

Lemon-Blueberry Yogurt Loaf
Adapted loosely from Ina Garten

1 1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour (if you’re skipping the fruit, you can also skip the last tablespoon of flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
3 extra-large eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (approximately 2 lemons)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen, thawed and rinsed (miniature wild blueberries are great for this, and pose the least risk of sinking)
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease an 8 1/2 by 4 1/4 by 2 1/2-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the pan.

Sift together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt into 1 bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, vanilla and oil. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Mix the blueberries with the remaining tablespoon of flour, and fold them very gently into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 (+) minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before flipping out onto a cooling rack. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in (a pastry brush works great for this, as does using a toothpick to make tiny holes that draw the syrup in better). Cool.

Mee Siam and Puen Kueh for Jaren's school

2009-08-11T23:16:00.003+08:00

I cooked these for my son's school last Friday. I brought the spritz cookies there too. I also cooked the gravy for the mee siam but no pictures here. Actually the first thing to be gone was the mee siam.

This fried mee siam can be eaten on its own or with gravy.

I brought two trays of these puen kueh there.

Happy National Day, Singapore!

2009-08-05T23:23:00.002+08:00

I made some spritz cookies tonight. The recipe's conversion from cups to gram is totally off. I only realised it when the dough turned out to be dry. I have made this before using cup measurement and I was able to use a cookie press to press out the dough. But this time, it was impossible. In the end I had to roll the dough out and cut them with cookie cutters. Fortunately the cookies still turned out ok.

Since Singapore's National Day is just around the corner, I printed LOVE and SINGAPORE on my heart shape cookies to wish Singapore a wonderful birthday.

The rest of the cookies are made in different shapes with different toppings. So colourful and it gives a joyous mood to the cookies.

Peanut Butter Cookies

2009-08-03T23:20:00.007+08:00

One of my colleagues paid for a peanut butter cookies lesson for her son at Baker's Inn last weekend. She brought some to the office for us to try. The cookies was not crispy at all. It is the chewy type which she didn't like. I told her I have a good peanut butter cookies recipe which is crispy and which I will bake for her to try. So since I have a bottle of peanut butter at home, I did the cookies tonight.

I, however, did two types of peanut butter cookies with the dough. One type is the normal peanut butter cookies whereas the other type is with strawberry jam filling. I did not try the cookies but according to my sons, both types are just as good. :)

Peanut Butter Cookies

125g butter
150g brown sugar
50g castor sugar
1 egg
150g smooth peanut butter
375g plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt

Methods:

1. Sieve flour with baking soda and salt into a bowl.
2. Cream butter with both sugars together. Beat in egg. Mix in peanut butter.
3. Stir in flour. If using machine, use low speed and mix until just combine. Shape into small balls. Placed on ungreased cookie sheet or on tray line with parchment paper. Leave room for expansion. Press cookies with fork. Dip fork in flour as needed to prevent sticking.
4. Bake in 190C oven for 15 minutes or until brown.

Variations:
Peanut butter chip cookies: Add in 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Peanut butter jelly nests: Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Place on cookie sheet. Use palm to slightly flatten it. Use thumb to indent. Bake in 190C oven for 5 minutes. Take it out and press again. Bake for another 10 minutes more. Fill with strawberry or raspberry jelly while cookies are still warm or store and fill as needed.

Note: Usually if you use all brown sugar, the cookies tend to be softer instead of more crispy. But in my case, I used all brown sugar and reduced the temp to 180C and bake for 20 minutes and still have a crispy texture. The more caster sugar the more crispy the texture.

My Rose Garden

2009-08-03T06:23:00.005+08:00

I did this cake last night for two of my colleagues' belated birthday. I wanted to do something else on the decoration but I did not have much time since I started on the creaming of the cake only at 10 pm last night after I came back from outside. So the easiest to do will be roses. After washing up it was almost 11+ already but I am happy with my cake. Sharing with you my Rose Garden for two lovely ladies.

Onion Cheese Bread

2009-08-02T15:30:00.004+08:00

I just love this bread. I love the onion, the parmesan cheese and the bacon inside the bread. The original recipe only has onion and cheese but I have added extra 'liao' (ingredients) which is the bacon to get a even more tasty bread. I also love the parmesan cheese that was sprinkled on top of the bread before baking.

ONION CHEESE BREAD

Ingredients:
400g bread flour
20g milk powder
8g dry yeast
40g castor sugar
240ml cold water
1 big onion cut into cubes (120g)
12g Parmesan cheese
40g unsalted butter
8g salt
3 strips of bacon (cut into small pieces) - optional

Preparation:

1. Pour some olive oil into a pan and fry onion until soft. Leave aside to cool down.
(* If you want to use bacon, then instead of onion, fry the bacon pieces first in some olive oil. When bacon bits are slight brown, add in onion and fry until onion turn soft.)
2. Mix all ingredients except butter and salt in a bowl and knead until it becomes a dough. Add in butter and salt and continue to knead until smooth and elastic. Add in onion/bacon and knead at low speed until it is incorporated into the dough. Round dough up and rest for 25 minutes. Divide dough into 50g each and roll into a round shape.
3. Place into a baking tray, well greased and lightly floured, leaving some space in between. Apply eggwash and sprinkle extra Parmesan cheese on top and leave to proof for 1 hour or double in size.
4. Bake at a preheated oven at 190C for about 17 to 18 minutes. If the top is too brown cover with foil and let it finish baking. Immediately after baking, leave it on cooling rack to cool down.

(Note: If you prefer to just leave it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, you can do that.)

Curry Chicken

2009-08-02T15:21:00.001+08:00

Hubby asked for curry chicken today to go with bread and he got what he asked for ... Curry Chicken.

Strawberry Freshcream Cake

2009-07-28T21:36:00.003+08:00

One of my colleagues is celebrating her birthday soon and I gave her a black forest cake last year. This year since there are plenty of strawberries in the supermarket and they are rather sweet and good so I have decided to make her a strawberry cake. I hope she will like it. Happy Birthday W (I know I am a bit early in giving you the cake). But nevermind lah, it's the thoughts that count!

Apple Pie

2009-07-25T18:29:00.002+08:00

Jaren asked for a apple pie the other day. Since I was at Giants this morning so I bought some apples to make him one. I like this pie crust as it is crispy, flaky and tasty. When it comes to pie crust, you cannot over mix it and got to work fast so that the dough comes together and you can refrigerate it for a whole before rolling it out. This is my apple pie. I cut the pie when it is just out of the oven and the crust is too crumbly to handle.

Basic Pie Pastry

For a 9 inch (23 cm) double-crust pie:
2 ¼ cups (9 oz / 280g) all purpose (plain) flour
¾ tsp salt
¾ cup (6 oz / 180g) cold butter or shortening
6-7 tbsp cold water, more or less

Combine flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Cut cold butter into cubes and toss it into the flour. With your fingertips, two knives or a pastry blender, blend the ingredients together, working quickly until you have a mixture of tiny, irregular flakes and bits about the size of coarse bread crumbs. Sprinkle on the water 1 tbsp at a time, stirring gently with a fork after each addition. Add just enough water for the dough to form a rough mass.

With floured hands pat the dough into two small balls, one larger than the other. It is not necessary to chill this dough but for convenience you may wrapped the dough and refrigerate up to 2 days. Roll dough out large enough to cover the pie tin. Fill it up with the apple filling and dot the 2 tbsp butter randomly on the filling. Roll out the small dough to cover the pie. Cut a few slashes on the top to let steam escape while baking. Brush top with the heavy cream.

Brush with some whipping cream and bake in a preheated oven at 220C for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 180C and bake until crust is golden brown.

Apple Filling:

6 apples, remove skin and cut into cubes
1/2 cup (3 oz/90g) brown sugar
½ tbsp cinnamon powder
3 tbsp all purpose (plain) flour
¼ tsp salt
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp heavy cream (whipping cream)
2 tbsp lemon juice

Toss apples with lemon juice. In a bowl, mix sugar, salt, cinnamon powder and flour well. Add the sugar mixture into apple and mix well. Set aside for later use.

Double Chocolate Muffins with Yoghurt

2009-07-22T22:40:00.007+08:00

I have an opened tub of plain yoghurt in the fridge which I want to use up as much as possible. So ended up making this double chocolate muffins with yoghurt which is really moist and spongy. Even though it is not the creaming method, but just mixing the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, the texture turned out really soft and fluffy. I have however, increased the amount of milk though but just by about another 2 to 3 tablespoon more. Click here for the recipe.

Japanese Cotton Spongecake

2009-07-20T23:08:00.004+08:00

This spongecake is really really so soft like cotton. I sandwiched it with some buttercream and it taste delicious. Recipe for the cotton spongecake is here. Recipe for the buttercream is here.

Cinnamon Buns

2009-07-19T21:42:00.007+08:00

This recipe is the sponge and dough method and the sponge portion took me more than 5 hours of proofing. But the bread turned out very very soft. Hubby wants to have it for breakfast with his coffee. Jonathan just had two pieces and he wants to bring some to school tomorrow.

Note: I did not add raisins and almond flakes as my children doesn't like them. Since I omitted that these two ingredients, I have increased the amount of brown sugar and also added about 100g of soften butter into the sugar and cinnanmon mixture and mix them into a paste to be spread over the dough.

CINNAMON ROLL

Ingredients:
Sponge
420g bread flour
4g instant dry yeast
250g water (250ml)

Dough
30g bread flour
150g plain flour
30g milk powder
12g instant dry yeast
120g castor sugar
9g salt
90g egg
90g unsalted butter

Filling
200g raisins
120g, plus extra for sprinkling almond flakes

60g brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon powder (more or less up to personal preference)

Preparation:

1. Prepare the sponge by mixing the 3 ingredients on low speed for 3 minutes. The sponge should be firm, dry and cool to the touch. Leave the sponge to rise for 4-5 hours in an airtight container.
2. When the sponge has risen, prepare the dough. Place the dry ingredients into the mixer. Add cold eggs and begin to mix on low speed. Immediately cut the sponge into a few pieces and add to the mixture over 1 minute. Increase speed to medium and mix for 2 minutes. Add butter and mix for another 7-10 minutes. Round up the dough and rest on a flour-dusted table for 15 minutes.
3. Roll out dough into a 1-cm thick sheet, measuring 30cm by 50cm (I did not measure). Brush melted butter over the dough and sprinkle with raisins and almond flakes. Premix the brown sugar and cinnamon powder and sprinkle evenly over the raisin and almond flakes.
4. Roll the dough down lengthwise like a swiss roll and apply water on the seam. Brush melted butter all over the dough. Cut into 12 pieces and place into a well greased baking tin. Prove dough for 1 hour in a warm place till the dough doubles in size. Brush the surface of the rolls with beaten egg and sprinkle with almond flakes. Bake in a preheated oven at 190C for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

Doll Agar Agar

2009-07-18T09:14:00.002+08:00

We are invited to a BBQ party later today and I have volunteered to bring some agar agar for them. This was made last night. Quite time consuming but worth it, don't you think so?

Strawberry Mousse Cake

2009-07-16T12:12:00.006+08:00

It's my older boy's 13th birthday today. I made this strawberry mousse cake for him last night. We will be cutting this cake tonight when his dad is back from work. Sharing with you his birthday cake.

With the balance of the spongecake and strawberry mousse, I made them into mini strawberry mousse cake so that I can share it with my colleagues.

Ingredients for Sponge Cake: (9" round) (Recipe taken from Yochana's blog)

250 gm. Optima flour
250 gm. eggs (about 4 large eggs)
1 tsp. ovalette
50 ml. water
1/2 tsp. Vanille essence
60 gm. corn oil

Ingredients for side cake: (for 11" x 14" rectangular tray)3 egg yolks
40 gm. sugar
80 gm. plain flour
15 gm, cornflour
1/8 tsp. vanilla essence

3 egg whites
40 gm. sugar

1 Tablespoon cocoa powder

For Strawberry Mousse:

400 ml. UHT whipping cream
350 gm. Strawberry puree
120 gm. sugar
1 teasp. strawberry paste
25 gm. gelatine powder mixed with 100 gm. water

Method for sponge cake:

(1) Put all the ingredients into a mixer bowl except cornoil and whisk till thick and pale in colour.
(2) Fold in cornoil and then pour into the 9" round tray and bake at 175C for 50 to 60 mins. or till cooked. Unmould and leave to cool on a cooling rack. slice into 2 layers.
(3) For Side cake: Line the tray.
(4) Whisk egg yolks with sugar until thick. Whisk egg white with sugar and whisk till thick. Mix egg yolk and egg white mixture together. Divide mixtur into 2 portions. Add vanilla essence into one portion and cocoa powder into the other portion.
(5) Pour batter into piping bags and pipe out diagonally into strips onto the baking tray. Bake for 10 mins. Leave to cool.
(6) For strawberry Mousse: Mix strawberry puree, sugar and strawberry paste into a saucepan and warm it over a stove to melt the sugar. Then add in gelatine mixture. Leave to cool. Fold in whipped cream. Divide into 2 portions.
(7) Cut slanted sponge cakes according to the height of the cake ring and place it into the cake ring.
(8) Lay a layer of sponge cake into the cake ring as base.
(9) Pour in half of the strawberry mousse on top of the cake then top up with another layer of sponge cake. Pour the balance mousse on top of the sponge cake. Leave in the chiller to let it set for at least 4 hours.
(10) Grated some strawberry chocolate on top or decorated as desired.

Note 1: I used my own spongecake recipe instead of the one given here.
Note 2: For the finishing touch, this is what I did:
Topping
10g instant jelly powder
180ml water
1 tbsp castor sugar
few drops of red colouring

Bring instant jelly powder, water and sugar to a boil. Add in colouring and leave to cool. (If left completely cold, the instant jelly will set so use the mixture while it is lukewarm.

German Hard Rolls

2009-07-12T18:38:00.002+08:00

Came across this recipe while goggling for a hard roll recipe to eat with my beef stew. (Yes, I cooked beef stew again today.) In fact there are so many recipe on hard rolls that I was at a lost having to decide which one to try. I have finally decided on this one because it was using the sponge and dough method which I think will be nice. So here it is, my hard rolls. My son just ate 2 rolls with jam and butter after toasting it up to make it more crispy.

GERMAN HARD ROLLS

Ingredients:
Day 1:
2 cups (250g) bread flour
1 1/3 cup (300 ml) water
½ tsp (2.5 g) instant yeast

Day 2:
5 ½ cup (725 g) flour (I used bread flour also)
1 1/3 cup water (300 ml) plus extra, if needed
1 tsp (5 g) instant yeast
1 ½ tsp (12 g) salt

Preparation:

1. Mix all ingredients in Day 1 in a bowl until smooth and lump-free. Cover with plastic wrap (not air tight) and let this mix sit on the counter overnight.
2. The next day, mix the sponge (what you mixed on Day 1) with 5 cups of flour, water and yeast. Knead for 8 minutes, preferably with a stand mixer. Add up to another half cup of flour until dough clears the bowl (doesn’t stick to side much – just a little).
3. Sprinkle salt over the dough and mix for another 4 minutes (you may decrease salt to 1 tsp if you wish). The consistency of the dough should be smooth but tacky, adjust with water, a teaspoon at a time, or flour, a tablespoon at a time.
4. Form dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl turning once to coat. Place a damp towel or plastic wrap over the top and let the dough rest for 2 hours.
5. Turn dough out on lightly floured work surface and cut into between 50g to 80g pieces each. Let it rest for a few minutes then form into small balls or any other shapes you like. Coat in flour and place on parchment paper about 2 inches apart.
6. Cover with a damp cloth and let them rise for another 1 hour.
7. Preheat oven, preferably with an oven stone, to 450F (230C) for 1 hour (I just preheated the oven but definitely not 1 hour). Place an old pan on the bottom rack. Slash rolls with a serrated knife or blade. Place rolls in the oven on the next shelf up, or directly on top of a baking stone, if available or on a baking sheet. Pour 1 cup of water into the old baking pan and close the door quickly.
8. Spray sides of oven with water 2 or 3 times in the first 5 minutes of baking using a regular spray bottle. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, turning the baking sheet if necessary for even browning. Cool rolls on wire rack so that the bottom will not get soggy.
9. Rolls are supposed to be eaten warm and crispy. You may freeze and recrisp it in a hot oven if you are not eating them on the same day you baked them.

Castella Cake

2009-07-11T18:19:00.004+08:00

I saw this Castella Cake (Japanese Honey Spongecake) in Ching's blog and I thought her Castella cake look so nice and tempting. I told myself I want to try out this recipe and here I did. Instead of using all purpose flour (plain flour) I used cake flour and the texture of the cake is very soft. It is spongy and soft but not the chiffon cake type of spongy. I used the wild flower honey I bought from my last trip to Perth and the honey taste is rather strong. I did cut down on the sugar part as I know the honey will make it rather sweet.

Thanks Ching for sharing the recipe.

Castella Cake (Japanese Honey Spongecake)

Makes one 8×8 x 2-inch pan (I used a rectange pan)
Ingredients:

5 large eggs

170 grams granulated sugar (I reduced to 140 g)

200 grams all-purpose flour (I changed to cake flour)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

100 ml whole milk, at room temperature

4 tablespoons honey

6 tablespoons canola oil

Method:

1. Grease the square pan with baking spray. Cut out a parchment paper the size of the pan for the bottom of the pan and place it on the pan, spray it with baking spray too. Preheat oven to 350 degree F and place a rack in the middle of the oven.

2. Mix eggs and sugar with a stand-in mixer for about 5 minutes or until batter forms a ribbon when the wire whip is lifted, the color should be light yellow.

3. Add the flour and vanilla extract. Next add the milk, beat it well. Then add the honey and mix it again well. Last, add the oil and make sure it is incorporated into the batter thoroughly.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Place it in the oven and bake for 10 minutes in 350 degree F (190C). After that, lower the temperature to 325 degree F (170C) and bake for 35 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

5. Remove from the pan as soon as it is done. Place it on the cooling rack and let it cool completely. Wrap with plastic wrap overnight before cutting.

Orange Chiffon Cake

2009-07-08T22:58:00.004+08:00

I just tried out this orange chiffon cake from Kevin Chai's recipe book for the first time with a few modification of my own. The cake is really very soft and spongy. I still find it a little sweet for my taste even though I have cut down on some of the sugar. Anyway, I am sharing the recipe here and what I have done to modify it.

ORANGE CHIFFON CAKE (by Kevin Chai)

Ingredients:

(Part A)
7 egg yolks
50g sugar
60ml orange juice (I used 80 ml)
½ tsp salt
1tsp orange flavour/compound
4 tbsp cooking oil (I used corn oil)
2 tbsp grated orange zest
110g self-raising flour (I replaced with cake flour and 1 tsp baking powder)
Few drops of orange colouring (I omitted this)
* I added 1 tbsp of Cointreau (orange liquer)

(Part B)
7 egg whites
130g sugar (I reduced the sugar to 100g)
½ tsp cream of tartar (I only used ¼ tsp)
Method:

(Part A)
1. Mix egg yolks, sugar, salt, oil, orange zest, orange juice and colouring in a mixing bowl. Fold in sifted flour until a batter is formed.

(Part B)
1. Whisk egg white and cream of tartar until foamy. Add in sugar and continue to beat at high speed until peaks form.
2. Gently fold beaten egg white mixture into egg yolk mixture until well mixed. Pour into a 22 cm chiffon cake mould and bake in a preheated oven at 170C for 30 -40 minutes or until cooked.
3. Remove from oven and invert cake pan to cool.

Note to those who wants to reduce the amount of sugar used in this recipe. You have to use your own discretion on how much you want to reduce based on whether the orange juice you use is very sweet or sour. But my reduction of 30g is a save bet unless you have a very sweet tooth.

Stewed Beef

2009-07-07T22:59:00.006+08:00

I bought some beef chunk yesterday as I intend to cook some beef stew for the boys to eat for lunch. Tonight after work, I managed to cook the beef stew and baked strawberry muffins. I also bought a pack of ready to bake puff pastry to bake some stewed beef pies for the boys and hubby. Hopefully there will still be some left by tomorrow night for that purpose.

I actually do not have a recipe to follow but everything was cooking the way I like it and adding stuff as I go along. Sharing with you how I cook my beef stew. You may modify the recipe to suit your preference. Reason I did not use any plain flour or corn flour mixed with water for my stew is that the McCormick beef gravy itself will thicken the gravy as you cook.

Beef Stew

Ingredients:
600 g of beef chunk
1 small white raddish cut into medium chunks
4 or 5 small carrots cut into medium chunks
1 big white onion roughly chopped up
2 tbsp of chopped garlic
2 heapful tbsp of tomato paste
500ml of red wine
1 tbsp of dried oregano
1 tbsp of dried parsley
Salt and sugar to taste
2 big tbspful of beef gravy mix (McCormick) mixed with 500ml of water

Methods:
1. Season beef chunks with some salt and black pepper.
2. Heat up a frying pan with some oil. When pan is hot, add in beef in batches and brown all sides of the beef. Take it out of pan and set aside.
3. Using the same frying pan, add a little oil and fry onion and garlic for a few minutes. 4. Add in beef, carrot, raddish and tomato paste and fry for another 1 to 2 minutes.
5. Add in all the red wines and the gravy sauce. Stir well and now add in the dried herbs.
6. Taste the sauce and adjust salt and sugar to your liking. If using Tigerpot of Thermal pot, let the mixture cook over the stove for at least 15 minutes before transferring to the outer pot to let it continue to cook.
7. Cook in thermal pot for as many hours as you can afford the time. The longer you cook the softer the beef becomes. In between reheat the thermal pot to retain the heat to enable the heat to continue to stew the beef and carrot. For those who are just using normal pot to cook the stew, just simmer over low heat for a few hours or until the beef is soft.

Strawberry Muffins

2009-07-07T22:17:00.004+08:00

I have some leftover strawberries from yesterday's swiss roll so I used them to make this very yummy strawberry muffins for breakfast tomorrow. Hubby just tried one and his comment was, the look of the muffin is so-so but the taste is good. I bought a cup of 140g strawberry yoghurt to enhance the taste of this muffin. Sharing with you my muffins. The recipe is actually a modification from the chocolate chip muffins which I will share with you here.

One recipe yields 8 small muffins and 12 11-inch muffin cups size muffins.

Strawberry Muffins

Ingredients
125 g butter at room temperature
80 g caster sugar
100 gm brown sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
300 g plain flour or cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
¾ to 1 cup fresh milk
1 cup of strawberry yoghurt (140g cup)
Fresh strawberries cut into small pieces (if you like big chunks also ok)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
2. Cream butter and sugar until creamy. Add in eggs one at a time. Add in vanilla essence. Beat until well mixed. Add in yoghurt and mix well. Add in flour and mix well. Add in milk and fresh strawberries and mix well.
3. Spoon mixture into muffin cups and bake for 25 to 27 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Sugar Roll

2009-07-06T22:36:00.002+08:00

I am posting the sugar roll recipe which was taken from Aunty Yochana's blog. In the first picture you can see that the sugar roll was coated with sugar. However, tonight I just baked another batch of sugar roll but without the sugar coating as hubby requested for no-sugar coated roll. Since we have just bought a box of very sweet strawberry, he has requested that I add some to the sugar roll. Thus you can see here my strawberry sugar roll without the sugar.

Sugar Roll

Ingrediens:

4 nos. egg white
80 gm. caster sugar
4 nos. egg yolk
1/4 tsp. vanilla essence
100 gm. cake flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
40 gm. corn oil

100 gm. Butter cream
invert Sugar - very fine sugar

Method:

(1) Whisk egg white for awhile, then add in caster sugar gradually.
(2) Drop in the egg yolk one by one into the beating egg white until finish. Add in vanilla essence and continue beating for another 3 mins.
(3) Stop the machine, fold in the cake flour and baking powder.
(4) Fold in cornoil and pour into a 11" x 14" tray or 10" x 14" tray and bake at 200C for about 10 mins.
(5) Take out from tray and leave on the wire rack to cool.
(6) Spread butter cream onto the cooled swiss roll and roll into a swiss roll.
(7) Sprinkle some sugar onto a greaseproof paper and roll the swiss roll to and fro until evenly covered with the help of the greaseproof paper.
(8) Slice and serve.

Coffee Butter Cream:

80 sugar + 25 gm. water
60 gm. egg white
220 gm. chilled Butter
40 gm. shortening (Crisco)
1 - 2 tsp. Coffee Paste ( 1-2 tsp is up to your preference)
1 - 2 tsp. Kahlua or Tia Maria

(1) Boil the sugar with water until mixture thickens and while boiling, beat the egg white till frothy and pour in the sugar syrup and beat till mixture cools down.
(2) Add in the chilled butter and shortening and beat till fluffy.
(3) Add in coffee paste and kahlua.
note: You might not use the whole recipe (butter cream) for this swiss roll. Keep the balance in the fridge and you can use it to decorate other cakes. If I make the recipe lesser, it's very hard to beat up the egg white. You can also double up the recipe and keep this butter cream for creaming all your cakes. According to tt, it's called "French Cream", if I'm not mistaken.

* Note: I omitted the the coffee paste and coffee liquer and just made plain buttercream.

Swiss Rolls

2009-07-02T23:55:00.003+08:00

I made Ariana Swiss Roll and Sugar Swiss Roll tonight to bring to the office tomorrow. I did not update my blog for a very long time due to laziness but tonight I was in the mood to bake. Sharing with you my swiss rolls.

Fried Spaghetti

2009-05-17T15:09:00.003+08:00

Fried this for our lunch today. A very simple fried spaghetti with chicken and prawns and black pepper.

Fried Spaghetti

½ pkt of spaghetti (cooked according to the package instruction)
Chicken cut into slices
Prawns
1 big onion sliced
½ green capsicum shredded
Some chopped garlic
Some carrot shredded

Sauce (mix together in a bowl)
250ml of dashi stock (add 1 tsp of dashi powder into 250ml of water)
1 tbsp of dark soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
some black pepper

Method: Heat some oil in a wok. Fry onion, capsicum until fragrant. Add in carrot, chicken, prawns and fry till cooked. Add in all the sauce and stir well till it boils. Add in cooked spaghetti and fry until the sauce has reduced. If it is still too wet, make a corn starch mixture and add into spaghetti to thicken it.

*Note: You can replace the spaghetti with cooked udon.

Puen Kueh

2009-05-16T17:56:00.003+08:00

I was in the mood for some puen kueh today and was also thinking of giving some to my mom and aunties. I have quite a few aunties to give and I am glad I had made enough for all of them. Here is sharing with you my puen kueh.

Filling:
4 cloves garlic finely chopped
5 pieces dried mushroom, soaked and shredded
50g dried shrimps
500g glutinous rice

Seasoning:
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp granulated chicken stock (maggie or knor brand)

Dough:
280g rice flour
600ml water with a few drop of pink colouring
20g tapioca flour

Methods:
1. Soak glutinous rice in water for 2 to 3 hours. Drain and then steam rice on a tray for another 20 minutes.
2. Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a wok. Fry garlic, mushrooms and dried shrimps until fragrant. Stir in seasoning.
3. Add steamed glutinous rice and mix well. Leave it to cool down before using it.
4. Combine rice flour and tapioca flour together and add water and knead until smooth. Mix it in wok over low heat until dough is formed. Lightly dust worktop with tapioca flour, place dough on worktop and knead until smooth. Divide into small portion.
5. Wrap the filling with dough and press onto mould. Knock out the puen kueh and place on a light oiled tray and steamed over high heat for 10 to 12 minutes.
6. After steaming, apply some oil onto the steamed kueh to prevent them from sticking together.

Note: You can add some pork belly and canned braised peanut to the filling if you like.

My very simple Korean fare tonight

2009-04-19T21:05:00.003+08:00

I was trying to use up my two boxes of beef in the freezer so we had a very simple Korean fare tonight. Beef bulgogi, kimchi and roasted seaweed. The kimchi was given to me by my very kind Korean hairdresser which she made herself. This time round, I marinated the beef with some special chilli powder, mirin and Japanese light soya sauce for a little while before frying them. Hence, kids said the beef was a little spicy but still acceptable for them.

Seafood Dinner

2009-03-22T23:44:00.004+08:00

This was a follow-up dinner after our kelong trip. I cooked mostly seafood for my friends tonight. Post Ocean Bay Resort dinner cum belated birthday cake cutting for two friends.

Sharing with you the food we enjoyed tonight.

Black Pepper Crab

Chilli Crab

Calamari

Steamed Fish

Garlic Basil Sauteed Prawns

Honey baked wings

Brinjal

No picture of the fried kangkong and clams though

Dessert was oreo cheesecake

This was the belated birthday cake for the birthday girl and boy.

Bread

2009-03-12T20:02:00.002+08:00

Made these last night for the boys and hubby. But office colleagues got to eat some of the bread too as I had too much at home. Used up all the coconut filling at last to make them into coconut buns. I know the boys won't want the coconut buns so I made some sausage buns for them.

Pandan Cake w/coconut fillings

2009-03-03T23:14:00.004+08:00

Had some coconut left over from making kueh dadar so I made some pandan steamed cake to use up the coconut fillings.

Pandan Cake with Grated Coconut
Coconut Filling:
230g grated white coconut
100g gula Melaka
30g sugar
30g (1 tbsp) water
1 tsp corn flour or plain flour
2 pandan leaves

Method:
Boil both sugar, water, corn flour and pandan leaves in a small pot until sugar has dissolved. Add in grated coconut and cook until dry. Discard the pandan leaves and leave it to cool down. Roll them into small balls to be used later.

Cake:
3 eggs
150g coconut milk
2.5 tsp baking powder
190g sugar
280g flour
1 tsp pandan paste

Put all ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat at high speed until thick and creamy. Pour into mould lined with muffin cups till half full. Add in coconut filling and top it up till full. Steam at high heat for 8-10 minutes.

Sharing with you some of the bread I made last week. I still have some bwa kwa leftover from Chinese New Year so I used some to make bwa kwa bread.

The bread is so soft inside.

Steamed Birthday Bun

2009-02-08T17:06:00.002+08:00

Tried out this recipe this afternoon. I tried out different shapes other than the peach shape. Usually for the older generation, whenever an elderly person celebrates his or her birthday, you can usually find this type of peach bun as it symbolises longevity. I have also shaped some into rabbits and porcupines. But then the rabbits after steaming became so fat. Hahaha ... Since I have not enough lotus paste, I made some flower bun with the plain dough. This type of steamed flower buns go very well with food like chilli crab or steamed fish with sweet and sour Thai chilli sauce whereby you can use the buns to dip into the sauce. Oh so yummy.

Steamed Birthday Bun

Dough Ingredients:
300g plain flour
5g instant yeast
70g sugar
5g baking powder
112g of water (more need more)
3g shortening

Filling
200g white lotus paste
Some pink colouring

Methods:
1. Divide white lotus paste into 20g each. Roll into a ball and keep aside for later use.
2 . Mix all the dough ingredients and knead into a smooth dough. (Note: I used a little more water than what is stated here.)
3. Measure the dough into 30g each. Roll dough out and wrap with the white lotus paste. Make sure it is sealed properly and shape it into a peach shape.
4. Put a piece of paper underneath the shaped bun and leave it aside to rise for 30 mins.
5. Steam over high heat for 6 mins. Remove and spray with pink colouring on top.

(Note: These buns can be kept in the fridge and you just need to resteam it when you want to eat them. )

Pane Di Semola (Semolina Bread)

2009-02-01T00:02:00.003+08:00

Just tried out this recipe from a book I borrowed from the library. The proving process is very long. I proved the starter dough for about 20 hours. Then mix with flour, and wheat flour (supposed to be semolina flour but I chose to use wheat flour) and other ingredients. Then shaped and proof for another 1.5 to 2 hours. Then divide dough out and shape and proof for another 1 hour (supposed to be 1.5 hr though).

Verdict: The bread is qutie tasty. The crust is really crispy which is what I like. While hot, I applied some butter and jam on it. Ummph ... yummilicious!

Note: I suspect I should have proved it longer than an hour. I should have shaped the bread a little rounder instead of so flat.

Fried Carrot Cake Black

2009-01-31T20:08:00.006+08:00

Tried out this carrot cake recipe given by a good friend of mine. Did not follow the recipe exactly but modified it to my requirements. My older boy really like to eat black fried carrot cake and he has been having this three days in a row for breakfast.

Before frying.

After frying.

Chinese Carrot Cake

Ingredients:
150g raddish shredded )
100g carrot shredded ) squeezed dry
3 tbsp chai por (preserved raddish) soaked in water for a while and throw away water
3 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
600g rice flour
1.5 litre of water + 1 cup water + ½ cup water (or 1/3 cup also can)

1. Mix all the water with the flour.
2. Heat some oil in a wok and fry chai por. Add in raddish and carrot and fry for a while. Add in about ¼ cup of water and fry until it gets dry. Mix rice flour solution well and pour into wok slowly.
3. Add some pepper, the salt and sugar. Mix well and cook until mixture starts to curdle up at medium heat.
4. Pour into a greased baking tin and smoothen with the back of a spoon.
5. Steam on high heat for 45 minutes immediately.
6. If there is water on the carrot cake after steaming, pour it away. Leave it to cool down totally before using it.

How to fry black carrot cake.

1. Cut the cool carrot cake into small pieces.
2. Add some oil in a wok, add some minced garlic and fry for a while. Add in carrot cake and fry until a bit brown. Add in some soaked chai por and fry some more. Beat two eggs in a bowl and add it into the carrot cake and let it set a little before stirring. Add in sweet black sauce and fry. If you like it more salty you can add some fish sauce when frying.
Note: I like the black carrot cake a little wet, so I added some water after adding the sweet black sauce to fry until it has become softer and wetter. Before serving, you can sprinkle some chopped spring onion on top.

Marble Cake

2009-01-26T22:24:00.003+08:00

This is my first bake of the Year of Ox. Hahaha ... Making this to bring to my cousin's house on the second day of the lunar new year. I ran out of evaporated milk and self raising flour so I substitued it with diary whipping cream and cake flour with baking powder.

Celebrating Chinese New Year here in Singapore

2009-01-24T22:46:00.003+08:00

Chinese New Year is just around the corner. In fact tomorrow will be the day where most families will gather together to have their reunion dinner. It is the same for my family. In fact, I just had a reunion dinner for my own parents and brother and sister-in-law tonight. Tomorrow night will be cooking for my hubby's family.

Usually I baked almost all my own Chinese New Year Cookies except for a few items. Sharing with you what kind of cookies I have done so far for myself and relatives.

Pineapple Tarts (a very important item that you must have during CNY)

Kueh Bangkit (one of my favourites)

Almond Cookies (this year I tried a different recipe from the usual one that I did last year)

Cashew Nut Cookies (a new item this year)

Peanut Cookies (I do this every year)

Melting Moments (one of my son's favourite)

Macadamia Cookies

Pineapple Tarts to be given away.

Cashew Nuts Cookies

2009-01-18T00:46:00.005+08:00

Ingredients A:
210g butter
80g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Ingredients B:
250g plain flour
60g corn flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp cinnamon powder

Ingredients C:
300g cashew nuts
2 egg yolks (beaten for eggwash)

Methods:

1. Bake 100g of cashnuts in oven at 180C for 10 minutes. Chopped up cashnuts into small pieces. Set aside the remaining 200g of cashew nuts.
2. Cream butter and icing sugar lightly at speed 1 using K beater. Add in egg yolk and vanilla essence. Mix well.
3. Stir in Ingredients B and chopped cashew nuts. Mix well. Chill dough in fridge for 40 minutes.
4. Remove dough and roll into small balls. Arrange on a lined baking tray. Brush with beaten egg yolk and place a whole (or half) cashew nuts on top of cookies and press slightly to flatten it.
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 15 minutes or until it is nicely brown. Cool and keep in airtight container.

(Tip from me: If you would like, you can add about 50g of grounded cashew nuts into the dough. To have a nicely yellow coloured eggwash for brushing, you can add a few drops of yellow colouring into the two beaten egg yolks.)

Some of my CNY Bakes

2009-01-15T23:44:00.003+08:00

I have been really busy but still managed to find some time to bake some cookies for CNY.

I baked a batch of macadamia nut cookies but I eggwash some and leave some without eggwash. I still prefers the one without eggwash.

I also did two different types of cashew nut cookies. One with margarine and one with butter. Needless to say, the one with butter tasted better.

A Fruitful Morning

2009-01-01T15:39:00.004+08:00

It has been a fruitful morning for me today. I started at about 10.45 am in the kitchen and managed to get four things done by the time it was 2.30 pm.

First I made a Baked Tapioca Kueh.

Then I did a quick fried rice for my children for lunch.

Followed by a lemon tart. This was the recipe that I had always wanted to try but never really had the chance to. Finally I was able to do it today because I was trying to clear the 3 lemons in the fridge before it turned bad.

The last item I did was the pandan chiffon cake. To clear the remainder of the coconut milk from making the baked tapioca kueh.

Very happy that I managed so many things in just under 4 hours.

Classic Sugar Cookies

2008-12-24T22:53:00.004+08:00

I did a batch of sugar cookies and Jonathan just cannot stop eating it. I had to tell him that he can only eat those with his name printed and leave the rest alone. Sharing with you some of them and also taking the opportunity to wish everyone a Joyous Christmas and a Blessed Year Ahead!

This one is for hubby and me.

All the cookies packed and ready to be given to my friends. These bags are bought from my recent trip to Perth. Aren't they pretty?