Fly African Cake

I attended Aunty Lucy's baking class last Sunday for the very first time. Truly amazed at her petite and slim figure. Not only is she friendly and chatty, she is charismatic and displays selfless true passion and patience in baking. A very enjoyable session which should be a regular 'outing' or should I say, learning and tasting in the midst of it all. Fulfilling and satisfying.

This is one of the many cake receipes in Aunty Lucy's blogsite which I have been wanting to do. My 2nd attempt. And yes, the end product today is definately more presentable than the 1st round which was not loaded in my earlier blog.

However, there are still some dense portions in the cake. Perhaps I had over stirred the eggs, or maybe I had not done the whisking at high level according to the steps. Manual hand whisking is not easy, and my tired arms were not able attain the high whisk to make it fluffy and double in shorter time, nor the exact to 'perfection' stage.

A slight twist with added peppermint essence to the chocolate layer and yes, I do like the look of the cake.

Almost there, more practise.

Cinnamon Buns

The lovely cinnamon buns by Baking Mom and My Kitchen Snippets were itching me to maketh my own hand made bread today. While baking the chocolate mint cupcakes, and being so extra "hardworking" today, I was also preparing the homebaked buns as well.

I remember that my last bread making was a couple of months back and there is a pack of bread flour due to expire in Jan 2009, that was THE calling. My original plan was to roll mini hotdogs and ham with cheese etc, you know all the fancy work and stuff. But after baking the cupcakes, I had to keep this buns simple. Well, its all manual strength, no machine to help along.

It pleases me much to see the dough rise (proof) nicely after the first kneading. And again after a second kneading after setting it aside to rest.

And this is the end product after 3 hours of patient waiting.

Simple home made bread to delight.

Chocolate Mint Cupcakes

My 1st attempt at making chocolate mint cupcakes with the receipe from Aunty Lucy's blogpage. This receipe has been with me for the longest time and yet it is only today that I finally decided to try the baking. To answer that, well, its because, I have been very distracted to try other bakes too. Curious distractions indeed.

And instead of using the plain chocolate chips, I sprinkled in the colored chocolate chips and that kinda brightened up the dark chocolatety look. With my generous portion of the peppermint essence into the making, you can imagine the strong pepperminty aroma that lingered in the kitchen due to the dampness of the air from the rain pour this afternoon.

The cupcake was not the smooth dome shape which I had initially hoped for probably due to the high oven temperature. However, the cupcakes were soft in texture with crisp umbrella shape.

Interesting aftertaste from the strong peppermint but gotta reduce the essence abit more coz Mom's not keen into the 'power' scent.

Broccoli dish

I read the blog of Little Corner of Mine and My Kitchen Snippets about some blog challenge on broccoli dish up. Both of these Asian ladies are based in the USA currently.

Personally, I enjoy the crunch of broccoli and fully aware of the calcium derived from consuming this lovely green. A bonus to our well being. In fact all dark, bright colored fresh vegetables and / or fruits are good for our body.

Hence, I whipped up my simple home cooked broccoli stirred up with sliced garlic, sliced carrots, prawns, egg white and dash of oyster sauce. Colours plays a vital part in my cooking and Mom knows it best and the fridge will always be loaded with colors galore; tomatoes, spring onions, red onions, red chillies etc...

This was one of the dish for tonight's dinner.

Homemade char siew

How important is it to get the right piece of meat? Very, i would say.

Rather than using the pork belly which was recommended in LeeLee's receipe, i purchased another part of the meat, which was fat free but the meat was dry when cooked or did i overcook? Nevertheless, it was edible and the gravy would have been better with reduced amount of water to attain a richer and heavier gravy.

Nothing fancy, but perhaps I would try to learn the roast char siew to get the 'chow tar' fragrance with some fat in the meat, which would have added the flavour to the dish. And i shall begin to 'search' again for the better and simpler version to master then.