Yan's DeLiteZ

Abacus Beads

2011-03-02T16:01:00.006+08:00

I had intended to make this dish during CNY but was too tired to do so. The house spring cleaning before CNY seemed endless and never ending.

Its another of my off day today, and decided not to waste the day, nor waste the 500g raw yam sitting in the fridge. At the impromptu grab of the receipe book and there I was, a whole 3 hrs , slicing, dicing, stirring, mixing, kneading, wokking.....

Generous portions of mushrooms, red chillis, shrimps, minced meat etc.

End product, abacus beads whipped and ready for consumption.

Winter Solstice (Chinese Dongzhi)

2010-12-23T10:24:00.006+08:00

These were prepared 2 days' ago and are fully consumed last night.

Dongzhi, in chinese calendar, represents the preparation of CNY in 6 weeks' time, and also signifies that, we have grown a year older too! Time flies.

On that eve of Winter Solstice morning, in preparation, I mistakenly used rice flour instead of glutinuous rice flour again (this happened last year too, so forgetful of me) and had to throw the 1st batch of tough rice balls away.

And with the help of my 2nd sister, who was also on leave, I 'speedily' kneaded a fresh batch using the correct flour, glutinuous rice flour, colored the greens and pinks, with the natural whites mini tang yuans, to complete the Christmasy look. The bigger tang yuans in white and pink were purchased from NTUC, with red bean or peanut fillings.

Love the look of the mini tang yuans in picture as they are adorably grape shaped sizes (instead of the nice rounds which we did not manage to create that nicely).

Syrup was simply, a pot of boiling water, a stalk of bruised pandan leaves, 3 slices of bruised ginger, rock sugar to taste and viola, ready to be served.

Mom as usual was 'rambling' about 'too much' colorings, however, she was rather pleased with the end products as the bright colors were cheerfully bowled her over. She much preferred the QQ taste of the minis which were handmade.

Christmas soon, in another 2 days from today, and following which another new year of 2011 awaits us all.

Last minute shopping awaits me in an hour from now. Dashing through the crowds and engaging in the celebration of the holiday season too.

Cheers ! Peace ! Joy! Love! Joy to all !!!!

Upside Down Pineapple Cake

2010-08-02T21:16:00.004+08:00

Just love the sight of the slightly burnt look of baked pineapple ... at a glance, reminds me of my favourite Hawaiian pizza, something which I have not eaten for quite some time.

Then again, the real stuff, none other than the moist, spongy, sweet, tangy Upside Down Pineapple Cake. Do not be deceived by the darkened, almost burnt brown look, assurance even from my Mom that its delightful yummy, guaranteed.

Not the 1st attempt, but more successful looking bake compared.

Simple bake, tangy bites of pineapple slices, nice cuppa of teh O or kopi O.... purrfect !

Pistachio KitchenAid KM150

2010-07-26T11:08:00.003+08:00

Finally, a owner of KA KM150.....

Purchased this heavy weight item at a discount at Robinsons 2 months' back....

My sister commented the color seems retro...

Havent started using it though .... precious....

Would be a waste to leave it just sitting around....

Something to whip up with it soon... very soon.....

Honey Chitron Chiffon Cake

2010-07-26T10:27:00.005+08:00

How I missed taking photos of my bakes ...

I have been busy and had been lazy...

With the recent 'uproar' about eggs, there in my fridge, was 6 large Chews' eggs waiting to be 'devoured'. Expiry date = 31 Jul 2010. My mind screamed " next week ?!!!" Gotta do something quick and fast not to waste the eggs.

Hmmm... something soft and light would be good coz last week I baked buttery cake which was gist too heavy.

Then the bottle of Korean Honey Chitron Tea on the dining table caught my eyes. Honey Chitron Chiffon Cake it shall be and there I went again.... mixing, whisking, folding, pouring and baking.

The dampness of yesterday afternoon makes the whiff of fresh bake lingers even sweeter in the whole house. (i mean just a simple 4 room HDB flat). And Mom was asking "smells good, is the cake ready for eating ?"

Yes, I must make it a point to bake and get my passion on track, otherwise I would lose my touch. As it is homebaked freshness surpasses maketh from love and passion whips a different fill for the stomach.

Cheerios !

Rum Mixed Fruits Sponge Cake

2010-03-28T20:27:00.007+08:00

Feeling feverish the previous weekend, followed by coughs for the last 2 weeks have deterred me from my favourite past time, baking. Had not been sleeping well until recently, when the coughs started to ease and yes, constant reminder again, health is important yah, folks bear that in mind too.

Anyway, I was browsing Food Gawker webpage the other day and came across this Rum Raisin Sponge Cake which looks yummliciously soft and tempting, well, you know the rum added raisin thought just sends me grinning somehow. Alcoholic I am not, but anytime get me Rum and Raisin ice cream, you wont disappoint me, not at all.

I was looking for golden raisins for the bake, but was not able to find any in NTUC, so instead I got a box dried mixed fruit and soaked in with 2 tbsp of Meyers Dark Rum last night.

Started my bake straight after lunch and viola, this is the lovely product. Just drool at the sight of the spongy softness of the cake and the right sweetness too.

As for the rum bit, even non alcoholic sister was not able to decipher as it was not overwhelming unlike the traditional fruit cake which is overly soaked and overly sweet.

Looks like this is THE receipe to replace the conventional fruit cake receipe. Enjoy the picture whilst I enjoy my home baked cake. Nice way to a weekend past time for me.

Fresh Blueberries Muffins @ cupcakes....

2010-01-10T15:38:00.005+08:00

Oh, the weather is so hot and humid today, yet no lazying around. The day started with a bit of housework, that is, mop the floor.

Had my shower, ate Korean instant noodles for lunch, and was beginning to feel restless when I decided to browse Aunty Lucy's blogpage for inspiration. Simple bake should be ok.

Fresh blueberries were selling at $2.88 per punnet at NTUC and I bought 2 punnets. So this is my take of fresh blueberries cupcakes.

This is a receipe for muffins, then again I tweaked it with 100g of ground almond as I ran out of cake flour and I do not have muffin trays.... so... well, you know.

Simply love the purplish look of the blueberries oozing within the cake batter whilst it baked and aint my paper cupcake lovely in pink red flowers with green leaves adorned.

(*pictures taken when bakes were fresh out of oven at 3pm just now....)

Fried Rice & Supreme Chocolate Cake

2010-01-03T18:51:00.001+08:00

Somehow managed to work out a compromise with Mom that spring cleaning will be kept to a minimal today and then dinner will be fried rice by me. Telepathy you may say, fried rice was THE choice concurred from the start in the morning.

After spring cleaning, a little rest, had some time in the afternoon before dinner time, so I tried the making of the receipe titled Supreme Chocolate Cake. Topped it with walnuts and added some Hersey's mini semi sweet chocolate bites into it as well. If you like bitter chocolate, this the one for you.

Then comes the fried rice, mixed vegetables, char siew, eggs, bite size pineapples and viola, heres a simple dish ready to be served for dinner for Mom and my siblings.

Arms feels extremely well toned today. Yeah, work off that 'butterflies', if you know what I mean.

Cheers!!

Beyond 100th postings

2009-12-23T10:10:00.003+08:00

Amazingly, I have posted beyond 100 of my amateur bakes and cookings since 2007.

Though there aint any winter wonderland in Singapore, but the recent downpours with cold breeze and winds, tis the season to indulge in foodies and drinks that warms the body.

Somehow with a twist in one's fate in life, changes are inevitable and my decision of change 4 years back has made a difference to the kitchen much to Mom's delight.

Yes, more cookings and bakings on the way, embarking this hobby, passion marking deeper love for home cooked food, freshness brought forth with patience and love to display the skills learned from many talents near and faraway.

Kitchen my domain.

LIGHT FRUIT CUPCAKES

2009-12-22T21:11:00.008+08:00

Well, other than the early morning tang yuan making, I managed to squeeze in time to bake light fruit cupcakes as well.

Why not the traditional fruit cake in a round pan loaded with generous amounts of mixed dried fruits? Truth is I am not a fruit cake fan, perhaps 'overwhelmed' by the ones sold out there in the supermarkets where the richness is too sweet for my subtle tastebuds.

So here is my cupcakes version, receipe from Aunty Yochana's blogsite. You would notice that there are limited visible bites of mixed fruits with zest of an orange added.

And yes, I have soaked the dried mixed fruits with 3 tbsp of Meyer's rum over night. No intent to make anyone 'drunk' was my initial thought. Then again, its the festive season right, so I have added a spoonful of rum to the baked cupcakes to give it more moisture and of course, the extra 'rum' kick.

Cheers !

Tang Yuan @ Dong Zhi Festival @ Winter Solstice

2009-12-22T09:23:00.007+08:00

For the first time, well, for the longest time, I 'committed' to be in charge of home made colorful tang yuan with a twist.

Got my Mom to buy a pack of ready made 12 frozen Sesame tang yuan yesterday and the rest are hand made pinks, greens and whites added into the pot. If you can spot the bigger ones, they are filled with peanuts, yes, hand rolled by none other than me.

Always enjoy the whiff of fragrant aroma from boiling pandan leaves with slices of ginger, and with few tablespoonful of fine sugar, that is the simple syrup for the tang yuan that warms the body.

Festive celebration with a twist, colorful indeed.

Enjoy the bowlful sweetness with awe.

Cheers!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

2009-11-11T18:44:00.005+08:00

Its been a long while since I last baked or updated my blog. Working affairs have drained and disheartened me quite a fair bit. Alas, work and life continues as we awake to every new day light.

Anyway, I have had this receipe from the Betty Saw's baking book for the longest time and finally, while flipping through the many pages of drooling bake receipes, I decided to bake this pineapple upside down cake on Monday.

The ingredients are simple as the looks of it too. Basically, our tropical canned rounded pineapple, eggs, flour,butter, sugar....... ingredients we will have as we bake regularly. right ?

And tadah ! Heres my cupcake version with tiny bites of pineapple on the base. Neat, soft, moist, cutey and delish. It was supposed to be in the traditional, conventional round pan with the red cherries... but simple it is for my attempt.

Yums indeed.

Zebra Cake

2009-09-21T19:44:00.007+08:00

Viewing foodgawker has become a daily affair for me since I chanced upon it from Aunty Peony's blogsite some time back. Theres no turning back. International bakes and cookings from the multitude of talented ladies out there are amazing too. Our endless quest for home cooked / home baked food bonds us in sweetness pursuit to delight the palate of our loved ones indeed.

When I spotted the zebra cake uploaded by one of the foreign blogger, I was wondering if I should attempt it again. I did a trial last year, the receipe was from Aunty Lucy's blogpage, Fly African.

The main difference is that this latest receipe only requires 4 Large eggs which kind of simplified the whole process coz otherwise, I would be 'stranded' with the egg yolks for next few days until the weekend comes around again for my next weekly bake.

It was fun with slight impatience as the afternoon heat almost got the better of me as I was doing the preparation stage for the mixing and blending. The layering created by the alternate scoop of plain and then chocolate layer. Obvious unevenness has resulted a natural flowy arty look which nevertheless turned out pretty.

Even Mom was captivated by the arty look, that which also brings much pleasure to me.

The cake texture was moist and soft, and it is a simple receipe for keeps indeed.

Sweet!

RUM RAISIN AND COCONUT FRIANDS

2009-09-06T17:37:00.006+08:00

Borrowed this Hamlyn Published baking book from the community library over the last week and decided came across this receipe of Raspberry and Coconut Friands.

I was like, hmm, what are friands, and heres the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financier_(pastry), the extract " The friands that have become popular in Australia and New Zealand appear to have been based on the French financier; however, Australian and New Zealand friands typically have additional flavorings such as coconut, chocolate, fruit, and nuts. Australian / New Zealand friands are traditionally baked in oval shapes. The French friand (puff pastry wrapped around a sausage) is not related to either the financier or the Australian/New Zealand friand.
Financiers are somewhat similar to madeleines." Interesting.

Then again, how is it possible to buy raspberries in the west end HDB area, and hence, I had to tweak the receipe to Rum Raisin and Coconut Friands instead.

And finally found the the cuppies that fit my muffin tray in this little HDB shop. Its about 50pcs for $1.20, abit costly but now I know where to get the stuff. For all you know, well, its just that I have not found the right sized cuppies and had to compromise on the shape and volume of the intended end product.

Soaked the raisins in dark Myes rum for about 2 hours and had these nice little cuppies. Topped some of the cuppies with 3 rum soaked raisins so as not to have anyone 'drunk' from eating the muffins of mine.

Just look at the zoomed up 4th picture, aint it a cutey, sweet smilely face. ..

Another sweet touch to another weekend.

Nice.

Chocolate Cheesecake Cuppies

2009-08-28T10:24:00.006+08:00

This receipe is from Aunty Peony's blogsite. Rather than baking it in baking pan, i made it into cuppies for easy of sharing with friends and colleagues.

1st batch was 'distorted' due to my greed and as it overflowed and oozed out of the paper cups, and as I had extra cream cheese which was delicious, I scooped a tsp over to camouflage. It does seem better looking after that.

2nd batch turned out better as I moderated the proportion abit better and therein, a little wiser. This batch was shared with friends of mine whom I have not met for quite awhile due to our hectic work schedule. Hope they enjoyed it. Well, they received it via my sister who met with one of them to hand over to the rest of them. They are all staying in the north east whereas I stay in the west, the only best meeting place is the central where my sister is working, good reason aint it ?

Reminder again for me is more patience in baking coz over zealous greed can result in not perfect end product. Yes, patience indeed.

Cheers !

Burnt Almond Torte

2009-08-23T18:26:00.006+08:00

It had been a roller coaster at work for the last 2 weeks. Mentally draining. Well, that has to be shelved aside for now....

Last week, for the very 1st time, up close with the renowed Chef Sam Leong at Shermay's last Sun. Attended his culinary class for his new cookbook which I bought and had his autograph as well. He is indeed a very humble chef despite his popularity and reputation, theres no airs about him. He's got good sense of humor too with boyish shyness and genunine friendliness in his mannerism. Ya, finally got to see my idol ! So happy, I feel girlish ... hahha... Gotta try his cookbook receipes one of these days too....

Well, better not digress. Heres my 1st attempt at baking this Burnt Almond Torte which I had been eyeing to bake for the longest time, ya, other receipes just swings before my eyes and this receipe is set aside.

Love the aroma of the almond baking, in fact, I was initially 'concerned' when I witnessed the uneven rising of the cake while it was in the oven, however, it turned out quite alright afterall.

The generous sliced almond toppings with the almond meal goodness...with sunflower oil instead of melted butter, a healthy cake to delight indeed.

Sweet weekend again...

Lemon Meringue Pie

2009-08-07T20:30:00.006+08:00

99cts for 3 lemons, that was the price tag and i bought 6 lemons straight off from NTUC a week ago. i had been hesitating what to do with the lemons in the fridge as there are many receipes from various blogsites of Aunty Lucy, Florence from HK, HHB, All Receipes etc on lemony cakes. And for me, lemon cakes has this tangy taste that whets up my appetite so very muchie.

Finally decided on the receipe to follow, cant remember from whose blogsites, pardon me, but heres my 1st trial of Lemon Meringue Pie.

As you can see, the sides are kinda burnt due to the 'overflow' from the melting process from the hot humid hazy weather of ours in tropical Spore,and the natural 'demolition' that follows once it enters the oven. Ah yes, now I know.

Interesting attempt nonetheless. My 2nd sister enjoys the tangy lemony taste with the subtle meringue layer. And in fact, she prefers this Lemon Meringue Pie over the other bakes I have done so far. Hmm.... how should I measure up to that .....

Anyway, baking is leisure.... more experimental receipes will follow.... and thats how the passion continues..... lovely.....

Blueberry Yoghurt Butter Cake (BYBC)

2009-08-07T11:07:00.003+08:00

This is a delayed posting which would not have been made possible if not for Small small baker's information to 'unwrangle' the blogger.com 'crisis'. Thank you Small small baker. =D

Bought 2 punnets of blueberries from NTUC 2 weeks ago while it was on sale, i.e. 2 punnets for less than $5. On that same weekend, I baked this blueberry yoghurt butter cake.

I love the softness and moistness of the cake and blueberries are great antioxidants for us all too. The pictures says it all.

Lovely.

French Sponge Cake

2009-07-20T21:44:00.003+08:00

I happen to be at the Community Library the other day and spotted a Alex Goh's cake baking book and upon flipping the pages, I am amazed at the bakes within. And yes, I will try to get my hands on the books for my own mini library too, soon hopefully.

Meanwhile, rather than just baking chiffon cake, I was eyeing the receipe for French Sponge cake and thought it looked simple for me to try and hence I whipped up and baked the cakes in muffin cups rather than cake tin in less than 1.5hrs.

The sponge cake are spongy, soft,light and just the right sweetness. This is a better and easier receipe to follow than the regular sponge cake receipe which I had attempted earlier.

My siblings and Mom's likes this cake and even my sister's colleagues enjoyed the sponginess and looking forward to more bakes from me to please their palate. Its free sampling for them coz I have baked quite a fair bit.

Sweet bitez.

Orange Pineapple Cake

2009-07-16T22:06:00.008+08:00

Came across this receipe of a flavour mix of orange and pineapple cake with sour cream or yoghurt from a library book which I borrowed from the National Library and decided to give the receipe a baking trial today.

Though the receipe calls for orange extract and pecan nuts, which were omitted, the bake turned out rather moist probably due to the extra liquid which was added during the final stir.

If you zoom in abit more, you can see the orange zest and the cubey pineapple slices within the texture.

Interesting mix nevertheless. Enjoy!

Abacus Beads (Chinese Yam Gnocchi) @Shuan Pan Zi

2009-07-14T15:44:00.008+08:00

Its been some time since I last did this home made Abacus Beads, Shuan Pan Zi, a festive delight for Hakka or Canto during CNY. Its symbolic for good fortune, prosperity... of coz... ker ching.... $$$$ abundance....

Mom and younger sister has been nudging and craving for this dish. Those sold outside were costly and not as delightful compared with the generous servings of ingredients and flavour which I will usually dish up.

So, over the weekend, I bought a round yam from NTUC and the tapoica and rice flour and minced meat freshly purchased this morning. And all in all, I spent 3 hours in the kitchen today. Yupz, there was a slight mess of flour on table and the kitchen floor coz I was abit 'rough' when kneading the dough and it was kinda windy today.

But it was funny coz I enjoyed the messed up look. Probably deprived of masa masa kitchen during child hood days.... its 'payback' time. Well, the cleaning up was done by myself as well, so nothing gained... but more work to do after the mess I made.

After the slicing, pounding, boiling, marinating, soaking, frying etc, heres the end product of 2 plateful of fresh home made abacus beads with lotsa minced meat, dried shrimps, Chinese mushroom.

Mom had 2 bowlfuls and was full of praise with compliments that pleases me very much. It was delightful to see that she enjoys the dish as much as I enjoyed the process of making even though I had to skip lunch just to complete this dish to satisfaction.

Mom had asked me to prepare this dish for next CNY coz this is a festive dish.

Well, I will definately try.

Peach & Mango Yoghurt Cake

2009-07-11T21:10:00.006+08:00

And ever since the first whiff of strong delish from a can of Australian Golden Churn Butter which I chanced upon when contemplating on the ingredients to get for my next bake, theres no turning back. The rich, strong buttery taste gives much 'umph' to the bakes. I have yet to lay my eyes on President butter which I hear is as good, then again, it is not available from the nearby NTUC, hence, its Australian Golden Churn butter for now.

With 2 cuppas of Peach and Mango Yoghurt sitting in the fridge, it got me thinking to re adapt the Lemon Yoghurt Cake receipe for Peach & Mango Yoghurt instead. A good alternative replacement I would say. If you look closely, you can see the bite size peach and mango within the cake. Healthy way to get my siblings and Mom to eat yoghurt in the cake indeed.

Though there are obvious bubbles in the texture due to my overmix, but otherwhich, the texture is moist, soft, delish cake which goes well even with plain Japanese Matcha green tea.

Nice. Really enjoy the moment of indulgence into bake and space away from the work hazards.

Chilled Mango Cheesecake

2009-06-14T23:10:00.005+08:00

I was not in the mood to bake in this heat, but just itching to do 'something'. And as usual, noticed a bottle of Mango puree sitting in the fridge, and instantly, the idea sparked on.

This receipe is from HK Florence's blogsite. And this is the 2nd time I am trying the making.

Patience indeed is needed, chill the biscuit layer, then chill the cream cheese layer and finally the topping layer.

It is nothing close to the lovely chilled mango cheesecake in Florence's blog... well, it is delish nonetheless. Even my Mom who is not a cream cheese fan is 'won' over by this.

Yes, I hope to resume my weekly bakes... indeed therapeutic.

Mango Yoghurt Chiffon Cake

2009-06-11T21:47:00.007+08:00

Just baked marble cake few days back and my sister was commenting about the heaviness of the butter, which I had to agree coz I had done an estimation of the proportion rather than using the weighing machine to get it right. Wrong gauge it seems.

The weather was terribly humid today and it will be insane to make a trip downstairs, no matter the distance, it was unthinkable. Bought 6 large eggs from NTUC a couple of days back, it rested comfortably in the fridge. Seeing a pack of Mango Yoghurt Drink in the fridge, instantly it inspired me to bake Mango Yoghurt Chiffon Cake.

Following the receipe of the Orange Chiffon Cake from Aunty Lucy's blog, I replaced the orange juice and water to reduced sugar Mango Yoghurt.

As mine is a convectional oven where the standard baking temperature is 200 degrees celsius, at about 25 mins, seeing the browning sides of cake in the tin, I assumed it was ready to be out of the oven.

However, when I lifted the bake out of the oven, and upon 1st bang, the centre portion sunk and begin to wrinkle. And when I inverted the cake on the wire rack, the centre not fully cooked portion was oozing onto the wire rack.

Briskly, I inverted the cake back into the tin and baked it for another 13 mins or so. I had to clean up the slight mess on the wire rack.

Yes, my swift act saved the cake. Looking at it, the bounciness, softness, lightness and deliciously healthy too.

Seeing is believing.

Marble Cake

2009-04-23T21:17:00.004+08:00

It has been awhile since I last baked. And the craving for something chocolatety is a must.

And so, this is the marble cake baked today. The swirl is unattractive as those you see in other blogs. Yes, I have got lots to learn in the swirl and gentle moves to create the look.

Then again, this is a simple, soft cake for a humid hot day.

Chocolate Brownies

2009-03-29T17:40:00.005+08:00

After the over indulgence into chiffon cakes baking previousy, its about time for some baking changes.

I have had this All receipes chocolate brownies for the longest time. The last chocolate brownies receipe was from another blogger.

As the afternoon heat was overbearing, I was not in the mood to travel to get the baking ingredients. And so I went to the nearby NTUC and grabbed Hersey's baking chocolate and chocolate powder for this chocolate brownies receipe.

In the midst of the baking, I forgot to add the vanilla essence, something which I usually would have generously added.

Nevertheless, this bake turned out simple, soft and just right for our taste buds.

Another sweet bake for the weekend. Nice.

Dessicated Coconut Chiffon Cake

2009-03-13T17:08:00.005+08:00

Mom was curious why the recent craze over chiffon cake baking recently by me and even queried the 'neglect' of the other baking tins in the cupboard.

As a matter of fact, I was just wanting to bake light spongy cakes and chiffon was the best option to go with.

We had just finished up a lovely yoghurt mango cake from Cedele recently for my younger sister's birthday. It was tasty, nice combi of sourish taste with tinge of sweetness. Interesting richness with yoghurt cream mix with mango jello.

For this receipe, it was from Jo's blog. Her receipe called for coconut powder and guess what, i thought i did grab a pack during my last NTUC shopping trip, but it was not to be.

And so, I replaced coconut powder with dessicated coconut and the final product was as good as it gets. Mom loved the aroma from this bake. And so do I.

Gonna start baking other versions of cake soon manz coz otherwise, I'll be chiffon baker only.

Cheers !

Green Tea Chiffon Cake

2009-03-01T21:20:00.005+08:00

Call me a chiffon craze, I must admit. In fact, last week I had a disappointing taro chiffon cake which really dampened my weekend. Can you imagine the frustration of the egg whites not turning stiff peak despite having whisked it for at least 25mins manually ? The perspiration and the strain on the arms coupled with the heat of last Sunday added the heat of the disappointment.

Hence, this week again, another trial, another review, another attempt at green tea chiffon cake. This receipe originates from Florence's blog and its for keeps. Though Mom's not too keen into this chiffon cake, I believe it is the strong green tea powder after taste that was not to her liking. Perhaps, I should get the original Japanese macha tea powder next time. I am a green tea lover and hope to 'convert' my Mom in the process too. I hope.

Nice turnout of the chiffon cake. I had better resume trials of other bakes soon coz Mom's been nagging the other ingredients 'sitting' in the cupboard.

Stay tuned.

Pomengrate Mangosteen Fruit Juice Chiffon Cake

2009-02-15T20:15:00.005+08:00

Chiffon again... uh huh....

Today, I used Pomengrate Mangosteen Fruit Tree juice instead. However, I grabbed the wrong coloring, added peach coloring and this is the result of the color mix, purple and peach = yellow orange.

The cake is slightly burnt on the exterior. Thank goodness the interior was still soft and fluffy. Though it did not rise as high as the previous attempt as the I did not control the oven temperature precisely. Then again, yes, I am certain I have nailed the baking of chiffon cake.

Perhaps it is good time to consider investing a good convectional oven. Seems wasted if the 'skills' are damaged by the lack of technology support.

We'll see again.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

2009-02-09T22:14:00.007+08:00

After a sumptuous lunch treat by Mom at Ichiban Sushi yesterday noon, I had the urge to try the baking of Pandan Chiffon Cake. This is one of Mom's favourite cake. In fact, Mom has asked me not to bake any fruit based cakes and keep my bakes simple and plain. The success turnout of my recent Orange Chiffon Cake bake has spurred me on.

As you know, a simple slice from Bengawan solo would cost you close to $2 (rounded up). And of course, nothing beats home baked. The freshness, the ingredients, and of course, the "love" and patience thats put into the making.

Without hesitation, turned on the pc, surfed into Aunty Lucy's blogpage, jotted down the ingredients, went to NTUC to grab 6 large eggs, cake flour, pandan leaves and evaporated milk. One can always find the right receipes in Aunty's blogpage. In fact, spoilt for choice in what to bake 1st and what to try baking next coz Aunty's daily bakes makes baking seem like a 'breeze'.

Followed the steps and tips given by Aunty and here is the turnout. It is sunken slightly coz I removed it from the oven abit too early, and the top of the cake is kinda dense from the sugar and liquid. Luckily it did not shrink too much.

Everyone, including my office colleagues loved this cake. Though this is my 1st attempt at baking this Pandan Chiffon Cake, the turnout is airy, spongy and soft. Some even suggested that I could 'side line' into baking. Well, you never know coz a skill in hand best equips us in preparation of the unpredictable future.

Orange Chiffon Cake

2009-01-27T18:31:00.006+08:00

Coz I was home alone for a couple of hours, I wanted to bake something. And this being the NIU year, there were several online bloggers who had baked the lovely orange chiffon cake. Irresistably tempting.

Well, there was a tray of eggs in the fridge but I thought it might be wiser to get the medium size eggs rather than the smaller ones in the fridge. As this is only the 2nd day of Niu Year, I tried my luck to get eggs from the nearby shops and realised that hye, NTUC will resume business only tomorrow.

Unwilling to give up, I walked abit further to the recently opened 7 Eleven around the corner, and there was one final tray of eggs on the shelf, waiting to be purchased, by me and for me. Haha, lucky hor.

With the fresh fruit juice in the fridge, armed with Aunty Lucy's receipe, here is my well risen, cottony soft, tall and lovely Orange Chiffon Cake for the NIU year.

Heres wishing everyone Da Ji Da Li !!!!!!

Crispy Seaweed Wrap Cracker

2009-01-27T18:23:00.006+08:00

I came across this simple to do receipe from one of the online bloggers and decided on hands on home made seaweed wrap cracker for this NIU year.

And so, on CNY eve, I thawed the spring roll wrappers, and with the aid of the chopstick, rolled in the seaweed piece by piece and viola, heres my take of my own wrap cracker.

Mom was amused at the neat pack coz its not very often that you can have the 'clumsy' me maketh a cutie roll tidbits of such delicate size.

And who knows, in next year's CNY, no more prawnz rollz from the supermarket, homemade it shall be then.

Gong Xi Fa Cai !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fly African Cake

2008-12-14T20:40:00.005+08:00

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

2008-12-04T21:23:00.005+08:00

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

2008-12-04T21:16:00.004+08:00

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

2008-12-02T20:33:00.005+08:00

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

2008-12-02T20:23:00.005+08:00

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.

Light Fruit Cake

2008-11-17T22:16:00.007+08:00

Christmas decorations are up in most shopping centres and most retails shops are out full fledged to capture the hearts of as many in the spirit of giving and sharing,bringing some cheers during this festive season.

Though this may not be the best time of the year amid so many uncertainties, however, external factors as such not within our control, lets eat and be merry and take each day as it comes. (ie. wilful escapade from the reality of financial gloom = recession).

Well, that been said, I have had been buying fruit cakes, and I mean really rich fruit cakes from St Michael's, have eaten during the buffet spread every Christmas etc, and most of you will agree that it is richly sweet and moist. And so, having seen how Aunty Lucy has done a wonderful twist to the given word of LIGHT Fruit Cake, it was simply a must to try the baking.

A non alcoholic person as I am, unknown to many though it may seem, the 6 tbps of the smell of the rum got me "high" (floaty). Unimaginable, but the whiff and then the inhale can "hit" my senses weak. So do not even begin to suggest to make me drink liquor.

Thanks to Aunty Lucy, I baked my very first Light Fruit Cake. And my staff members gave it a thumbs up even from one who told me that it was good enough for her to take an extra slice though she usually does not take fruit cake at all. Ok lah, she give me some 'face' lor. hahaha...

Jolly good start. More bakes to come coz I am on leave next 2 weeks. Yes, officially applied my leave finally.

Nice.

Custard Crisp biscuit

2008-10-19T21:39:00.009+08:00

I've got this receipe in my to do list for the longest time. And every time, I would end up with something else in the bake, and its usually a cake.

However, today, I decided that its time to give my family members a 'deserving' break from my cakes. Or should I say, I was in no mood to bake a cake.

Instead, I worked my hands on baking this custard crisp biscuit.

The easy to follow steps to preparing the dough was a breeze. And if you love anything custardy, you would love the strong aroma of the baking custard, especially when it was almost ready to be out from the oven, ready for its show case, ready for thy bite.

As for the simple lines across the biscuit, it was formed from the use of just an ordinary fork 'impression'. Decent looking right?

Yupz, got thumbs up for this receipe.

Nice.

Receipe extract :

Plain flour 180g

Custard powder 150g

Baking powder 1/2 tsp

Butter 180g

Icing sugar 120g

Castor sugar 1 tbsp

Egg 1

Steps :

a. sift dry ingredients. set aside

b. cream butter & sugar until light and fluffy. beat egg in.

c. stir in dry ingredients. mix well.

d. with floured hands, shape dough into balls per tsp of dough

e. place on cookie tray, dip fork in flour, press down centre of each ball

f. bake for 15 mins @ 175 degrees celsius.

Pearl Barley Drink

2008-10-18T15:33:00.004+08:00

The heat today is overbearing, even though it was windy. And after mopping the floor, (yes, housework to help out Mom once in a blue moon when I am not working), I was perspiring and out of breathe, yearning for a cooling drink.

Theres always something in the cupboard for me to uncover and there it is, a unopened can of pearl barley awaiting the 'grand opening'. Straight after a cool shower, I washed the barley seeds about four times till the water turns clear. Thereafter, I left the barley to soak in pot with hot water for about half an hour before I placed it on the stove to boil and simmer till the barley was softened. Added rock sugar to taste and after just half an hour, viola, a nice bowl of simple, homemade barley drink.

I much prefer to take the barley drink minus the barley itself. Some would compared it with taking chicken rice without the chicken. Its uncomparable I would declare. But Mom would have thought otherwise, you can imagine her outburst if she had seen me 'secretly' thrown away the barley after a bowl of the drink only.

No baking today coz hands too tired from the mopping.

Sour cream blueberry cake

2008-10-16T23:51:00.005+08:00

Just last night, when I was browsing my blogpage, someone asked me the receipe for this cake and I directed her to the originator, Zu's quickneasy blogsite where I learnt this bake from.

That stirred my intent to bake this cake as well. With some sour cream balance in the fridge, I walked to the nearby NTUC to grab a punnet of blueberries. It is pricey at $5.95. How I envy those staying in countries where the berries (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries) being locally farmed are fresher, cheaper and in abundance. Wonder if I could cope with the 4 seasons. Winter chill....hmmm.... However, nothing beats the security and tropical island peace in our little red dot though. No place like home. Arh, woman.

The cake is moist and soft, like cheesecake, melting in the mouth. Nice.

Green Tea Winter Blossom Pastry

2008-10-16T23:33:00.005+08:00

1st day of my leave and I am feeling restless. I had not made any travel plans as this was a last minute leave approval. And boy, my annual leave was hardly touched for this year. Madness is the term to describe my workaholic being.

Then again, nothing beats doing what I enjoy most, Baking.

With 500g of the green tea paste in the fridge, I decided on doing a green tea winter blossom pastry. Yes, mid autumn is just over, but I must say that this version is timeless cos its lovely shape which just wins thy sight. No one ruled that you can bake only during special occassions.

Yumz, the crispiness of the pastry with every bite. Yes, 3 are more well baked than the rest which are 'fair with tint of brown' from the egg yolk glazing comparatively. The contrast is obvious.

Mom behaves like a kid sometimes, peering and checking to see if the pastry is ready for her to savour. She is my biggest fan so far, I must admit. Mom loves this pastry. So do I.

Its simple and easy to master, trust me. If clumsy me can do it, anyone can too.

Fruit Pastry

2008-10-01T20:21:00.005+08:00

Initially I had planned to go out shopping with my siblings today, a public holiday, {Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all Muslims }, and this year, it coincides with Children's Day too, {oh, Happy Children's Day to all kiddos out there!!}, i decided against the idea of shopping with them in Vivo City. I can imagine the crowd and the waiting time for car park slot as well. I do not enjoy been cooped in a non moving state

The first thought that came to mind was how to make the lovely 2 punnets of strawberries which I got from NTUC into a lovely cake.

1st thought was to make a strawberry marshmellow chilled cake. The ingredients were not readily available at the nearby NTUC. It was recently renovated and the stocks arrangement are not in full array.

Next immediate thought was the fruit pastry cake which was baked awhile back. Yes, I even bought kiwis to go along too.

Love this receipe very much. Simple and delightful.

Try it too and you will agree.

Cheers !

Lychee cake

2008-10-01T20:08:00.005+08:00

I managed to steal time off to indulge in my passion last week.

And rather than baking lychee muffins, I made a round lychee cake instead. Tadah, this is my lychee cake. Can you see the bite size lychees on the surface and within the slice. The steps to this bake is easy and yes, you can find it in Jestina's blogpage, that was where I borrowed the receipe from.

Baking does help to make me forget the 'worldly' affairs and mindless 'work' . Nice way to destress and fill the thoughts with nothing but just to make a decent bake to please the palates.

Cool right ?

Coconut Chiffon Cake

2008-09-14T18:50:00.004+08:00

This chiffon cake baking was totally unplanned unlike the spiral moonies. It like the spur of the moment kind of calling. Well, indirectly, my Mom's nagging. Perhaps, perhaps. Yes, its the storage space 'affair' again. I have 2 packets of coconut powder sitting in the kitchen cabinet. Oh, fret not, the expiry date is in 2009.

It wasnt a 'tall order' to make this cake but rather than using coconut milk as the original receipe from Jo's, I used Meiji fresh milk instead. In addition, I threw in a handful of washed and air dried black sesame seeds into the final mix before it was placed into the oven to bake.

To date, I have yet to get any of my friends or colleagues to get poppy seeds for me from JB and KL. Cant blame them coz they are not into baking and none seems to know what the item is. One even asked if it is 'drug', you know, the literal translation of poppy. Haiz. Innocent folk she is.

Though Aunty Yochana did 'warn' in her blog that using convection oven will 'brown' the chiffon cake faster as it is practically near the heating element, a fact I totally acknowledge. However, I am 'stuck' with the convection oven till I create space in the kitchen. Yes, you can see the browned' and even darkened sides and top of my chiffon cake.

Then again, the inner part of my chiffon cake is soft, light and bouncy. It rose nicely and the whiff of the coconut powder during the bake was 'beautiful' to inhale.

Lovely. I think I have 'nailed' the art of making chiffon cake. Yes !

Thousand Layer Spiral Moonies

2008-09-14T18:31:00.006+08:00

I have been wanting to attempt the making of the Thousand Layer Spiral Moonies since I 'laid eyes' on them in Aunty Yochana's blogsite. Baking is a breeze with Aunty, and she is always encouraging passion 'learning' bakers like myself to try the bakes ourselves too.

In fact, I had been planning and contemplating between baking the spiral or the walnut moonies since Wednesday afternoon I practically 'enticed' a colleague of mine to join me in the 'craze' of moonies making. We went to KCT together during lunch time.

She seemed 'lured' into the food world. The variety of spices, moulds, foodstuff, flours etc. It was a rush to shop and dash within 30 mins as we had only the remaining 30 mins to 'devour' our lunch before work resumes. Receipe from Aunty Yochana's white snow skin was also introduced to her and she seems pretty confident to try making it over this weekend. We shall see the end products tomorrow. That was her promise.

Back to me, yes. The paste is the durian lotus paste from KCT. And boy, I was glad I got this paste earlier cos when we went on Wednesday, there were remaining stock. It was pure delight to do the practical swiss roll thingy. The process of rolling and seeing the layers forming and the learning progresses.

Well, proudly, my Mom praised the look of these moonies. And rather than deep frying them like the usual way, mine were all baked. Thats why the look is fairly white with a tinge of brown. But, i love the spiral look in most of them.

Aint they cute ?

Sponge Sandwich Cake

2008-09-04T16:45:00.006+08:00

I have been coughing for the past 3 days and this is my 2nd day of medical leave. Restless as I am, during the 'break' of the coughs, I grabbed time to attempt baking sponge cake.

However, I do not think I have not acquired the skill to have the sponginess that I longed for. You can see from the pictures that there are unevenness in the bake and the texture is not soft. In fact, it seems dry.

Well, as the saying goes, just like the chiffon cake, it takes skill, time and patience to nail the lightness to perfecting the technique for these delicate bakes.

Meanwhile, the St Dalfour mixed berries jam is spread to sandwich the two layers. Not a bad attempt, theres room for improvement.

Red Wine Berry Paste Snow Skin Moonies

2008-08-31T21:11:00.007+08:00

After reading the Lifestyle page today about the making of snow skin moonies, I decided to practice the making of the snow skin moonies again today.

I want to master the 'soft' texture. The recent batch of the snow skin moonies had turned hard after the 3th day even though it was kept in the air tight container in the fridge. There was condensation of water drops in the container as well. Hmmm... Perhaps I had overkneaded. Perhaps I had not added enough ice water. Perhaps, I had not 'rested' the dough before I started the moulding. So many possibilities.

I had my mind set on using the red wine berry paste. And I must agree that the aroma of the red wine seems 'stronger' than last year's. Even my sister commented that she could smell the whiff of the liquor 'looming' in the kitchen air. Especially today when the air is cool and moist with the glooming grey skies.

And this time round, I was more generous with the fresh milk portion and hence reduced the ice water in the proportionate amount. The texture of this batch is much softer than my recent 1st batch. Mom commented that the skin texture was much softer too.

Yes, I like the pinky look. So pretty.

Strawberry Marshmellow

2008-08-24T22:55:00.004+08:00

I wanted to 'challenge' myself today in making two items, one bake and one chill concurrently. It was a crazy idea cos with no one to help me to juggle the timing, I 'almost' had a burnt marshmellow chilled cake. That would have been disasterous.

The last round I had nice jello as topping with generous portion of strawberries. However, this round, you would notice that the strawberries are nicely 'spaced' out as Mom is not into biting too many fruits for this chilled item. Taking her feedback and adjusting the jello, this is a mildly sweet cake with 'limited' strawberries and it is a simpler looking chilled cake compared to the last one which I made sometime back.

All in all, though tired from all the stirring, mixing and juggling between the oven and the fridge. It was fun. I am sure you will agree too if you share my passion too.

Winter Plum Blossom Flower Flaky Mooncakes (with Wholemeal Flour)

2008-08-24T22:38:00.007+08:00

Alright, allow me to explain the 'different' look of my Winter Plum Blossom Flower Flaky Mooncakes. Other than no egg wash to glaze the top of the moonies, and the 'naked' look without the black sesame seeds toppings to 'decorate' , it was a decent turnout.

Initially, I had wanted to try making the Walnut Moonies. However, I liked the look of this receipe which has captivated me much after numerous viewing into Jestina's blogsite, Florence's and even Aunty Lucy's as well. Not only was it more interesting, it was pretty too.

Imagine my blurr-ness today. In the midst of the preparation, I realised that I had ran out of plain flour. And it was raining heavily this afternoon. No way was I going get drenched either. Rummaging through the containers, I could only find Wholemeal Flour, the closest to 'salvage' and hence the 'revamped' look.

Using the white lotus paste which I got from KCT, I made my 1st batch of Wholemeal Winter Plum Blossom Flower. The pastry feels coarse during the rolling but the taste is more 'crisp' while it was still warm from baking.

Not bad for a 1st timer I must say. Oh, I would strongly recommend the white lotus paste from KCT as it is not too sweet, and just the right fragrance, for my taste buds at least.

Crumbly Blueberries Cake (again)

2008-08-17T17:56:00.005+08:00

Alright, I admit, I am crazy 'over' blueberries purchases. And its NTUC's fault. hahaha.

Mom was 'nagging' about clearing her fridge, so I had to 'whip up' something to clear the blueberries and the crunchy macadamia nuts. Sometimes I wish the government relax the HDB rulings and allow singles like myself to own a NEW flat instead of RESALE flat. Arh yes, a spacious kitchen and bedroom. Dream dream.

Heres my evergreen Crumbly Blueberries receipe adapted from the ST. Fresh from the convection oven bake today again. And oh, using HL strawberry milk instead of the usual HL plain white milk does set a unique whiff of sweetness in the air during the bake. hmmmm.... Due to the rain while I was baking this afternoon, the dense fragrance settles heavily in the kitchen of bakes. I aint complaining at all. Neither would you, right fellow bakers?

In fact, this bake was done before I did the moonies. So you can imagine the invisible "no entry" sign barring the rest of my family from accessing the kitchen while I kept myself busy from mid noon till about tea break.

What a busy afternoon indeed.

Green Tea Snow Skin Moonies

2008-08-17T17:38:00.003+08:00

Mooncake festival is about a month away. Advertisements from the various restaurants and hotels are 'flooding' the newspapers and channelling through the credit cards statements enclosures too.

My first trial of moonies making was this time last year too. I was browsing the internet and found Florence's webpage, then Aunty Lucy's, then Jo's etc etc. The rest is history. Gosh, how time flies. Its been a year since the baking and cooking addiction of mine started.

And this year, I aint gonna miss out the fun. I bought the fried glutinuous rice flour and the plastic mould from KCT two weeks' ago. And with the green tea paste from Phoon Huat, heres my first batch of green tea snow skin moonies for this year, 2008.

I love the design of this 8 pattern mould which I got for a mere $3 from KCT. Its versatile as jelly mould too. Using the receipe from Aunty Lucy, the total 'production' yielded more than 20 mini moonies.

In case anyone of you is wondering, the red mooncake box was for the moonies which we purchased from one of the 5 star hotels.

Plain and simple white is the look. But hye, it look presentable. Dont you agree ?

Green Tea Chiffon Cake

2008-08-03T16:52:00.011+08:00

May I present my well deserved applaud bake for today. Yes ! Finally! I have 'nailed' the making of chiffon cake. The green tea powder which was bought from Phoon Huat was going to expire in another 20 days time. No wastage, a reminder from Mom as always. And with all the lovely chiffons baked by Aunty Lucy, Florence, Aimei, Elyn etc, I felt it was timely for me to try baking chiffon cake again. Just do it spirit ! (Nike !)

This green tea chiffon cake receipe is borrowed from Florence's blogsite, Do what I like. I did not add the rum as the receipe called for. Otherwhich, instead of using the handwhisk to blend the egg yolk batter to the well whisked egg white, I used a big yellow and white spatula which I got for $2 at Daiso months back.

And viola, just look at the pictures! Rise, rise it did and the evenness and the spongeness and the light texture of each bite just maketh me smile. My sister stands witness to my patience and gentleness with every gentle stroke when blending the yolks and whites. And the aroma of the bake was simply lovely. More natural aeromatherapeutic than you could imagine. Most bakers will agree to that.

Theres something to look forward to every weekend, and to me, every Sunday is passion destress day, my baking day. Yumz.

Honey 'yoghurt' cake

2008-07-28T22:02:00.006+08:00

Just had to try new receipes with a twist. So, yesterday, I tried the baking of this Honey Yoghurt Cake. The original name of this cake is Honey Sour Cream Cake. However, I replaced sour cream with plain yoghurt. And instead of chopped mixed nuts, I used sliced almond pieces. This being a receipe extracted from a foreign baker, i.e. you can imagine how much the amount of sugar and honey I had to reduce from the receipe. As the saying goes, never follow blindly. /span>

However, I must admit that the process of the making was tedious. As I do not own a cake mixer, everything had to be done manually. The creaming of the sugar and the oil, followed with the adding of the eggs yolks to cream till white. Next will be the blending of the yoghurt and the flour, and then the whisking of the egg whites till stiff. And to complete it all, the batter is to be blended nicely with the egg whites till well combined. At the end of the making process, my arms were aching. Wish someone can buy me a Kitchen Aid mixer for my birthday. Or a Kenwood mixer will be good too. Hahah, dream on.

During the baking process, it did not seem that the cake was rising well. Instead of the normal 50 mins, I had to bake it for an hour as it was too moist and not fully cooked. It was Mom who asked me to stop the bake coz the exterior of the cake was getting abit too dark, and for fear it will end up 'chow ta'.

Looks can be deceiving. Just look at how soft and light the texture of my 1st attempt at this receipe. Ya, I did 'nail' the receipe well and good except, perhaps, I should have reduced the sugar and honey even more as Mom thought it was sweeter than my usual bakes.

Marbled "nutty" cake

2008-07-20T19:24:00.007+08:00

Skipped the baking last week as I was really 'drained' out, yups, from the work'affairs'.

So today, without hesitation, I sprang into my weekly bake action again. I was drooling over anything chocolatety. My sister bought two lovely slices of chocolate cakes from Cendele, which was shared between the 3 of us. However, that was not enough to satisfy my palate. The craving was insatiable.

Yes, off I went to the nearest NTUC and bought a 200ml of Meiji fresh milk, a packet of natural healthy mixed nuts. Viola, this is my Marbled "nutty" cake. Mom simply adores crunch in the bake. I also added dashes of mixed spice into the cake setting off a whiff of natural 'spicey' fragrance.

Nothing is more pleasurable than to indulge in homebaked delight. Trust me, I enjoy the bake and of course, the taste of my cake with my own hands.

Chocolate Cream cheese cake

2008-07-06T23:17:00.005+08:00

I had been eyeing the lovely chocolate cream cheese cake receipe from Aunty Peony's blogsite, seen also in Florence's blogsite as well as from others from the Imperial Kitchen and decided that I shall give the receipe a try today.

Probably I had 'wrongly' estimated the ingredients and being in the 'rush' of time, I made a quick dash effort of mix, cream and blend. So, instead of the lovely layered chocolate cream cheese cake, mine turned out to be the original 'blend' of chocolate cream cheese cake with chocolate chips.

The cake was rising beautifully in the oven and the aroma filled the whole house. However, my 'rush' time had me taking out the cake before it was fully baked. Though Mom and my other sister was at home and probably they could have 'eyed' the oven and 'assist'. Then again, I was concerned if they were capable of handling the oven and pans as such. Yes, whenever I bake, I rule the whole kitchen so I never roped in their help in any way.

Luckily, the cake though shrunk at the sides and 'collapsed' in the centre, was still edibly moist and soft. Even Mom who was not a chocolate cake fan had a slice and was agreeable with the bake's softness.

Well, a non professional, no training, but an avid learner can be more original than anyone can imagine. Dont you agree ?

Blueberry Crumble Cake

2008-07-03T23:35:00.004+08:00

Yes, yes, blueberries again. Hye, in case you are unaware, blueberries contain anti oxidants which are good for our bodies. Oh, here i go again, making justification for my craving.

Last Sunday, I decided to bake one of my favourite receipe,Blueberry crumble cake with chopped macadamia nuts. The macadamia nuts were bought from Sun Lik about 2 months back and the pack has been 'sitting' in the fridge. Just look at the pictures, just look at that!

This receipe was from the ST's weekly Mind & Body. Simply enjoy the crunchiness and freshness of the macadamia nuts with every spoonful bite. Mom enjoyed it too as she favours cakes with the extra 'umph' i.e. the crunch factor. In fact, Mom and I love walnuts and macadamia nuts. Thats why we are so similar in many ways. I wont dwell into that too deeply though.

Thoroughly enjoyed the baking process. Lovely way to a perfect precious Sunday.

Traditional Sponge Cake

2008-06-24T23:44:00.004+08:00

I was into the mood to attempt the basic traditional sponge cake last Sunday. The good old simple sponge cake would be nice after all my various attempts of various mix and sorts.

Without hesitation, I surfed and found the receipe from Aunty Lucy's webpage. Yes, Aunty Lucy's bakes are fabulicious and yummilicious. And yes, I am still dreaming perhaps one fine day, I will make a house visit and devour her bakes. Greedy thoughts of mine!

The receipe steps seem simple. Yet, when I attempt it, it aint at all. It was challenging especially when the nicely whipped eggs with sugar seem to deflate almost instantly when I added in the flour and corn oil. You could imagine my frustration during the process as I looked helplessly as the egg mix with flour seem to diminish in proportion.

Though fortunately, the bake turned out decent, i.e. edible. It was on the dry and coarse. Maybe I should have been gentler during the mixing. Ah well, its my first attempt. And yes, it did taste like kueh bulu, a little at least.

Japanese Sweet Potato Ondeh ondeh

2008-06-18T15:16:00.013+08:00

I have'graduated' from my '6 months probation' into my new job role. Yes, i finally decided that 'enough is enough', i need a good rest, a decent day off, my entitlement. So yesterday afternoon, i smsed my supervisor, and she gave me the 'ok' for a weekday rest today.

After the weekly area meeting last evening, I decided to browse for 'inspiration' in NTUC for the making today. And in the wooden box were purplish Japanese sweet potato enticing me, drawing my attention. It was at the special price of 19 cts per 100g. I chose 5 cute looking sweet potatoes, all 500g ++, and decided that ondeh ondeh shall be the making today.

I simply love the strong purplish look of the sweet potatoes that needed no extra coloring. Yes, that my favourite color too. Together with orange, pink etc. Color your world ladies.

Following Florence's easy to follow receipe, this is my fresh homemade Japanese Sweet Potato ondeh ondeh coated with dessicated coconut.

Yumz, it goes well with a nice cuppa of tea or coffee later. Irresistable!

Oats raisin cookies

2008-06-15T20:21:00.006+08:00

This is the 2nd time i am baking oats raisins cookies with mixed spices. I love having mixed spices in the bakes if the receipe permits. Or even mixed herbs for that matter. The natural whiff or inhale just sets one drooling in the midst of the making.

I must admit that the shape of my biscuits aint attractive. The size of the biscuits are not the cutey bitesy size cos I am 'clumsy' and too greedy. Then again, making mini bites would have been too 'tedious' for me.

Simply enjoy indulging in the whiff of the biscuits during the bake. Lovely.

Two containers of biscuits baked for the day which could last for just 3 days if the 'consumption' rate is high. We'll see.

Stir Fried Vegetables

2008-06-08T23:54:00.003+08:00

After baking the blueberry cake, Mom was commenting that it was such a long while since I last cooked. Well, that seems quite true because I have been engrossed in work and then baking.

And so, to win Mom's 'heart', I checked the fridge and took out some balance stalks of "kai lan", celery, carrot and ham. Yes, it was a simple stir fried vegetable with no added seasoning needed as the ham in itself has salty taste plus the miscellaneous ingredients within the 2 thin slice of fats, meat etc. Lets not dwell into it too deeply.

All I did was to wash the vegetables, sliced and diced the vegetables and ham. With just tbsp of corn oil, stir fried using the Chinese wok, viola, this is the simplicity at its best. A healthy plate of vegetables.

Mom was teasing me for taking picture of this dish for my blogging. Well, I thought it will be nice to share that I do cook sometimes too. Sometimes perhaps more 'adventurous' than Mom's. Then again, there are always the branded Mom's dishes which cant be copied.

Ya, Mom's the word. You dont have to wait till Mother's Day. Right folks ?

Blueberry cake

2008-06-08T23:20:00.004+08:00

Yes, yes, its blueberry craze again. Just last week, blueberries were like selling for $5 ++ a punnet at NTUC. And to think that its the blueberries season now, that was considered expensive.

But hye, NTUC advertised on ST on 6 Jun. The blueberries are going off the shelf at the special price of $2.99 till 8 Jun 08. Now, thats something worth 'celebrating'. Money saving and fruitydelicious. So off I went today and grabbed 3 punnets. Mom will 'nag' again if she knew I had bought blueberries again. Well, thats before 'clearing' the 2 punnets of frozen blueberries for this yoghurt blueberry cake.

I just love the moist and softness in every bite. And indulged I did. After dinner, I had small slices of the cake and with one scoop of blueberries icecream as dessert. Sinful you can call it.

Anyway, it was perfect way to complete the precious weekend. Yes, work resumes in a couple of hours time. Back to reality!

Marble Cake

2008-06-01T18:19:00.005+08:00

The craving comes, the action kicks in. This applies to me very often. And today, my craving is into chocolatety cake. Not the conventional dark chocolate brownies coz Mom's not into dark chocolately stuff. Ah yes, marble cake, the thought just 'hits' the mind waves.

This is my second attempt at baking marble cake. The receipe is from my favourite Aunty Lucy's blog page.

I am still far from attaining the "artistic" look. Alas. The consolation is that this is an improved version from the 1st trial. Moreover, I've got better 'feel' during the making. Which also means that this taste better than the last round. Thumbs up, a pat on my own back. Once in awhile, we ought to encourage ourselves rather than wait for others to motivate us. Being a go getter as I am, this is how I spur myself daily.

And while typing this, the whiff of mixed spice biscuits baking fills the whole house in the aroma of fragrance. Simply therapeutic. Nice.

"cosmopolitan" sushi

2008-05-25T23:42:00.004+08:00

Mom has been 'nagging' about the short rice which was bought by me for sushi making. It was like ages since I last made sushi for makan. And since my 'picky' brother is on business trip, we can mix and eat easy, delightful meal.

And so, after baking the chiffon cake, I gathered all the ingredients available and ended up with cosmopolitan sushi. well, theres the seaweed wrap(japan), the sushi short rice (japan), ham (local), carrot(malaysia), cucumber(malaysia), otak(local), crispy seaweed pork floss(local) all in the wraps. interesting taste too i must say. Theres sweetness from the carrot, slight saltish flavour from the ham, spice with the otak and crisp crunch of the cucumber. and guess what, we had bak kut chicken soup instead of the conventional miso soup. how original can one get?

that was how i spent my Sunday afternoon, baking and cooking for my Mom and my sisters.

Green Tea Chiffon Cake

2008-05-25T23:19:00.003+08:00

I was reading the ST Lifestyle earlier on today. And there, on my favourite food pages were the glorious pages of food, food, food. And yes, chiffon cake is the selection for the day. Looks like chiffon cakes are emerging as the new HOT favourite with the many varieties to tempt every taste buds.

I was 'debating' to myself this afternoon about going to Prime Supermarket or NTUC to get the promotional priced butter for keeps in the fridge for my next bakes. Well, as the thought lingered, the rain started. With that, simply, it means, I will stay at home and bake then, I declared to Mom.

Automatically, I picked up my handwritten book filled with receipes from various sources. And it dawned upon me that my last attempt at baking a chiffon cake was last year. Seems the right time to give it a try again I reckon, being that I have improved on my skills. ( i believe so. i guess.)

I chose the green tea chiffon cake receipe from Florence. As I do not own a cake mixer, every step was hard work with my pair of hands. From creaming to mixing to whisking to blending etc. Oh, my arms ache. To add to it all, despite the rain, the air was humid. So there I was, perspiring in strain, enduring and engaging my utmost effort to whisk the egg whites till stiff peak. Phew.

Yeah, finally! A normal, well baked, decent risen look for a chiffon cake. Notwithstanding that the surface looks kinda burnt, but the texture is soft. Just look at that. I am pleased. Very pleased with myself.

Not the 'kueh' look anymore, was the comment from my sister.

Indeed, it looks like a Green Tea Chiffon Cake afterall.

Steamed banana cake

2008-05-19T18:43:00.005+08:00

With its two toned look, at first glimpse, it looks like a hamster on wheels. Then, let your imagination run abit more, its a brown beetle car on light yellow 'wheels'.

This is my 1st attempt of steamed banana cake yesterday noon. This is a receipe which I found in Aunty Lucy's website recently. My mom loves banana cake and coming across this steamed version just sets me on ready mode to attempt the making. As always, Aunty Lucy's receipes are direct and clear. Being a good student, I followed the steps and managed to get this cake ready within an hour.

And yes, the texture of the cake was soft especially when it was warm. Yumz yummy. And the texture is still moist and soft even though it was kept in the fridge over night. A winner receipe for keeps and yes, thank you Aunty Lucy, you are always the link for the goodness surrouding bakes.

Cheerios.

Fruit Pastry Cake

2008-05-19T18:31:00.003+08:00

Lovely isnt it. Blame me not for being so honestly showing off this 'art work' of mine. I had 'wows' from friends who only had view of this via mms only. Wicked one would say of me with just the picture to show around, however, taste beyond them far. Hahhah.

Well, this fruit pastry cake, a receipe from Vi from Imperial Kitchen is a winner with my family members. And this was baked 2 weeks ago after one of those weekly grocery shop in NTUC. Uh huh, the strawberries, the fresh black plums and the fresh blueberries, grabbed and placed into the shopping basket, with it came the magical freshness of goodness all in one bake. How greedy can one be? Thats me you would pointing at. I would respond in glee coz its my family whom i wish to please.

Somehow still hopeful to try out more varied bakes as time goes by. Its a hobby, a passion, something i enjoy to utilise my valuable time. Hope its the same for you, fellow bakers & food lovers and all. Life is short, lets eat to our delight. Ah yes, in moderation, a reminder for all, lest we regret and pray that we should have eaten less instead of more. =p

American Carrot Cake

2008-04-27T22:59:00.004+08:00

Its been quite some while as I deliberated on the abstainence after my recent chicken pox 'outbreak'. (assurance granted, it wasnt that bad either). I was told to stay away from eggs for as long as I can. ( eh, 100 days i hear). However, my mind questioned on how could 3 medium size eggs, in a average size home baked cake could affect the scars, which as it seems, are taking the longest time to heal. Patience behold, well, forgotten i have, that gone are the days when youthful as I was before when speedy healing was at its peak, versus now age as catches up, so scars healing takes time. Time indeed, waits for no man.

Digress I shall not. Yes, allow me to re introduce the all time favourite of mine, the American Carrot Cake. This receipe was borrowed from none other than Aunty Lucy. There was this craving that was unstoppable. I love the natural aroma of spices and herbs. Thoroughly enjoyed the process of inhaling the aroma of the mixed spices during the mixing process, and the whiff of the mixed spice when the cake was in the oven baking, the fragrance lingers the whole house. Divine is the word. Its truly therapeutic for me. A great way for destressing as all focus were on ensuring that the bake not only has to be well baked, (not overbaked), in good shape ( and not in flop), and the taste must be the right too, and of course, hopefully better than before.

Yes, the main critic, my Mom, loves it, so that would mean that it is a pass rate! She nodded as she finished up a slice which initially she felt was too big a slice. Well, I enjoyed a 'slimmer' slice of the cake myself too, the crunch of the generous walnut pieces, with the grated carrots.

A lovely carrot cake which will last for another day I suppose.

Strawberry Grapes Marshmellow cake

2008-04-15T22:08:00.007+08:00

oh yes, i have been rather busy at work, managing new group of individuals who are new to me as i am to them. Starting afresh in a new environment with new working colleagues can be a toll if not for this hobby cum passion i can indulge myself in by immersing thoroughly into the frame of mind in perfecting the look, taste, color and layout of the cake.

this has been one of the favourites which i have been drooling over from the posts from LeeLee of Baking Mom and Jestina from Hut of Cranberry. And over the weekend, i finally decided that my craving was beyond restrain and i took a ride from my brother who was heading towards town area, and he drove me to the nearest NTUC at Bukit Panjang. Boy, i was glad to grab one punnet of strawberries and one punnet of dark colored seedless grapes and HL fresh milk.

upon reaching home, i took out the receipe and started working on the biscuit base using digestive biscuits and unsalted butter. followed by the marshmellow layer and then the jello layer after freezing the sliced strawberries and bite size seedless grapes. all the works of boiling, chilling, freezing, slicing, mixing, stirring were all worthwhile.

my sisters and Mom gave thumbs up for this and looking at the pictures, i am glad that this round of the making of this strawberry and grapes marshmellow cake turned out wonderful 2nd attempt. i simply love the color, the taste and yes, every bite was gorgeous goodness of pleasure indeed.

thank you LeeLee for sharing the wonderful receipe. yumz.

Eggless Mixed Spices Bread

2008-04-07T22:40:00.003+08:00

For those who have read my posting in Imperial Index, I am still in the recovering state from my delayed chicken pox 'controlled' outbreak. yupz, getting chicken pox at my age is no joke i must let you know. And so, for those of you who have yet to 'experience' the outbreak, go for your jabs or you will regret as I am because I have to keep to simple and light diet for next 100 days it seems. So no seafood, no fried stuff, no chicken meat, no eggs, no beans, no chillies or curry or spicy stuff. Boy, feeling so deprived.

With that, it also means that any bakes that I want to attempt to bake has to be eggless and not so oily too. Hence, using the same sweet bun receipe from Lee Lee, I had to tweak the receipe to suit my present needs. So this turned out to be a fair looking, soft white, mixed spices power bread. I must confess that using self raising flour instead of bread flour and plain flour was a grave mistake though the bread turned out edible and soft. It was tiring during the hands on dough making process. Naturally, my arms are still aching from the strain caused yesterday. (especially when i had to try all means to get the yeast to ferment and for the dough to rise, that was fruitless 2 hours of waiting and reattempting to roll the dough. conclusion then was = no more wrong usage of flour!)

Nonetheless, it was great fun to 'play with food' again yesterday and the fragrance emitted from the bake is simply heavenly and yes, its the freshness of it all that makes it all worth while.

Blueberry crumble

2008-03-29T22:02:00.004+08:00

Oops, pardon me for being so disorganised that my blogs are been keyed in not in sequential order. this one was baked like 3 months back i think. {oh, what the heck, right, its postings to share of the little efforts in the baking scene of mine. (*blush*)}

This receipe was from the one of the weekly Urban receipes which instantly got me into the state of mind = " i wanna try to bake this! looks yummy!" we are all 'looped' and has accepted practically that prices of everything else are rising except our fixed pay (thats work life people. so be real! ). and my mind was like, ok, if a slice of this cost about $5 at those air con cafes, lets make more slices by topping it up abit more and baking it myself.

Bought 2 punnets of blueberries from NTUC during one of their special price period, and went about baking this cake which was well liked especially by my 3rd sister who enjoyed the crunch of the crumble before sinking her teeth into the moist bit of the cake itself, savouring each mouthful indulging in the freshness of blueberries, a mix of sweet and sour.

try it too if you have the cutting of the urban receipe. otherwhich, i can recommend my favourite Aunty Yochana's blogsite to discover more receipes too !!!

Fried Pumpkin Cake

2008-03-29T21:47:00.004+08:00

To disengage myself from the discomfort of my state, i resorted to helping Mom clear the 'due to expire' glutinous rice flour. Rummaging through the fridge, i found a quarter pumpkin and remembered my favourite blogger, Aunty Yochana's receipe on Fried Pumpkin Cake. And i distinctly remembered her typing that its "delicious". Pumpkin has always been Mom's favourite and with the twist that this receipe offers with the sweetness from the lotus seed paste, i believe it would be an instant hit.

So there i go again, taking up almost 3 hours with the mashing of steamed pumpkin, mixing the flour and all ingredients together with the mashed steamed pumpkin into a dough, then making into more than 40 portions. and tada ~ heres my round round version of the fried pumpkin cake with some 'naked' roundies coz i ran out of white sesame seeds. and i must agree that it taste delish especially when eaten warm and goes well with a nice cuppa of afternoon tea of kopi break.

Thank you Aunty Lucy for the receipe to the 'rescue'!

Fruit Pastry

2008-03-29T21:23:00.005+08:00

howdi, its been months since i last blogged on my bakes and stuff. allow me to explain.

my Nokia handphone 'died' on me some months back and it took me awhile to find the suitable replacement in Samsung E950. ( i am still looking for another handphone as this is still not the ONE!). And being a non techno geek, it was only recently that i managed to 'squeeze' time to figure out the functions and features of this new gadget.
i had started on a new job few months back and was overcoming the odds of many changes, ie new workplace, new learnings, new colleagues, new systems etc... well, that kept me away from this leisure passion of mine. (and i believe i lost weight too. in the healthy way).
and of coz, now i am typing now with a new pc which my sister decided to 'invest' in as the old pc was really 'tortoise slow' and kept 'hanging' (you know, stalling and taking the 'longest' time to engage to next screen etc)

and now, i am resuming my leisure hobby again, and yes, its making time, proper planning must kick in otherwise, its no fun manz, all work and no play. no ~ no~. =p

This fruit pastry was baked last month following an amazing lady, Vi from Imperial Index of which i have been a member since last year. i had an assortment of canned mixed tropical fruit cocktail (p.s. i was assigned the task to do 'clear' it) and fresh blueberries. and i remembered Vi's receipe in Imperial and so i went about doing the bake. {then again, i believe that it would even be better if i had used fresh fruits instead.}

Nonetheless, i love the receipe and the texture. it is a keeper indeed! thankz Vi !

Mixed Fruits Marshmellow Cake

2007-12-15T22:36:00.000+08:00

Mom's the word especially when the 'effect of urgency', i.e. speed, to have something done soon, and yes, I mean, quite immediate, not just literally. Mom was clearing the kitchen cabinet and expressed 'awe and amazement' at the variation of bottles of 'things' I have bought due to my growing baking interest.

So there she was, 'urging' me to 'finish up' the baking ingredients as CNY is around the corner and the cabinet space is meant for our yearly goodies and stocks. Well, I wouldnt even begin to attempt to explain the uses of each of the bottled spices, powder etc unless someone can assist in translating very accurately the 'rationale' for me to convey to my Mom dearest.

Arh well, so there I was, speedily checking out what to clear up first.

Had been doing quite abit of oven cake baking, and having bought a can of half peach and a packet of marshmellow, I suddenly recall the marshmellow cake using the receipe in LeeLee's blogsite. This very same receipe was re adapted and repeatedly showcased in Jestina's blogsite too. And managed to get add in slices of fresh kiwis and blueberries to color it up abit.

Clumsily, the gelatine was not well mixed with syrup causing the liquid to flow and damp the table when I removed the cake ring. As much as I tried to salvage, the appearance and the height of the cake was sadly flat.

Nevertheless, this is indeed a receipe of keep. Ya, next round, I should get it right. I believe.

BlueBerry Sour Cream Cake

2007-12-09T23:06:00.000+08:00

Theres this cup of 200ml sour cream sitting in the fridge and with the expiry date coming up in another week's time, I 'resolve' to do something with it soon. So, I grabbed two puns of lovely looking Australia fresh blueberries from Yishun NTUC last evening by chance and settled down to baking BlueBerry Sour Cream Cake for the very first time this afternoon.

Very often I have seen and read about using yoghurt as an alternate to sour cream but thought it best to 'stick' with, as far as possible with the original receipe. The inspiration originated from Zu's blogsite, and after verifying the measurement with her, this is my end product. The only adjustment made is a reduced amount of sugar content.

The cake texture is moist and rich within. Then again, as I was not able to adjust my oven temperature, the top layer was abit crust like instead. 'Nothing beats homebaked cake', Mom said earlier as she 'sampled' my BlueBerry Sour Cream cake.

This sure is a fragrant filled Sunday of bake

Ginger Nutz Biscuit

2007-12-01T22:50:00.000+08:00

Just felt the need to bake something today and decided to bake ginger nutz cookie, a receipe which i came across from a borrowed library book titled "500 Cookies". I believe some of the ladies whose blogsites i visit actually have this cookie book and this is just one of the many other treasured cooking or baking books they own. For me, as for now, I am not certain how long this interest will last so I would merely follow the receipe from the book and bake as instructed.

There were no nuts added into the ingredients, and so given that fact, I have no idea on why the name of the cookie as such. However, as it requires the natural flavouring of ginger powder and mixed spices, I knew this is one cookie I must attempt to bake.

During the preparation, the 'dough' was soft and wet and had to be chilled in the fridge for one hour. So, i left it in the fridge and went out to the nearest shopping mall to purchase some groceries and necessities for Mom. Well, I got home only 2 hours after. And the dough was too chilled to roll into shape, I resorted to thawing the dough by placing the bowl above the top of the fridge instead of using the microwave oven. Its not the most conventional method but at least I need not worry about how many seconds or minutes to thaw it sufficiently for the suitable state to roll.

Instead of the petite size of 3cm as recommended in the receipe book, my cookies were, well 5cm thereabouts as I was in a rush to get them baked and get ready for dinner. The aroma was carried by the windy blows of chill air (this is closest to winter season that our tropical island is experiencing), getting our senses awakened by the baking process of ginger powder and mixed spices powder. Not only did it fill the kitchen, but also the hall with the natural fragrance, simply 'aromatherapic'. (this may not be an approved word in dictionary.)

This is about the closest to ginger bread cookie i could make. Not the ginger bread man shaped, but the simplicity of the flat rounds to carry it through to whet the appetite. This should do just fine, I think.

Lao Pao Bing 2

2007-11-30T22:22:00.000+08:00

Baked my 1st batch of lao pao bing about a month plus ago and today, sudden craving dawned upon me. With Mom's concurrence, within the next minute, I grabbed my hand written receipe book (rather than printing on A4 size paper, i have already got 4 ring notebooks jotting my favourite receipes for easy browse and carry around. =p). And as always, the kitchen, my domain until the bake is complete. Pretty domineering some may say, but I cant 'accomodate' having to shift or move here and there during the process of the preparation, its rather 'disturbing' lah. Anyway, I am THE one to clean up all the utensils and stuff without any help anyway, so that also explains why I can 'command' the space occupancy for that time zone.

I flipped to my favourite page of intent = Florence's revised receipe on Lao Pao Bing. And viola, I must say that technically my skills have improved (picture as evidence. =D). Just look at this latest batch of one dozen, all equally shaped and adorned with egg glaze to give it the shine. Of course, if I had sprinkled some white sesame seeds on the surface, that would have even been prettier in sight. The fillings are melting smooth compared to the last batch and even Mom was generous to give me thumbs up too! Lovely bitez.

Credit goes to Florence for the revised receipe.

Cinnamon Loaf

2007-11-22T17:47:00.000+08:00

Theres another blogsite which I have been visiting these days and that is Happy Home Baking. And recently, as mentioned in her blog, (quote in summary), with feedback from her regular visitors who like me, were lamenting about how 'challenging' bread making is without a breadmaker. Spontaneously, she baked her recent green tea with red bean bread with her hands. Inspired somewhat by her, I had a go at bread making with my small hands earlier on. (p.s. I am a fleshy gal but with comparatively smaller wrist and bony hands. no, no, i am no alien though. haha.)

Following a receipe from Baking Mum, LeeLee, http://bakingmum.blogspot.com/2006/10/bread-paradise.html, and instead of ingredients filled buns, i tweaked the receipe to become Cinnamon Loaf bread instead. This is my 2nd attempt at this receipe and this round turned out far better than my 1st try, which was about 2 months back.

However, I must profess that kneading bread dough with just my pair of hands was no easy task especially when I had kinda 'hurt' my left wrist over the weekend due to accidental careless carrying of my shopping bags. Thus, I was gentler in certain kneading movements, whilst on further minutes, more pressure with focus on my right hand. At the end of the initial 15 mins of manual kneading, boy, you can imagine how relieved I was that the dough was nicely formed and I could relax my arms while the dough was left to 'proof' for the 1st one hour.

Then came the 2nd round of 'punching' of the air from the dough that had rested for an hour. WIth every punch, i could heard the 'suppressed' air bubble burst, 'pop' pop'. Followed with the roll dough, and instead of using melted butter or fresh milk, I used a tsp condensed milk mixed with a tsp of water to 'moisturise' the dough before sprinkling on the cinnamon powder and brown sugar and roll up. Set it aside in greased pan for another hour of proofing.

Baking time was about half an hour and after 1 hour of cooling the loaf on the wire rack, as I was preparing to use the knife to detach the loaf, I was thrilled instead that the loaf slipped off from the pan and landed neatly on the wire rack.

Oh yes, finally a successful hand made freshly baked Cinnamon Loaf which I can safely declare is 'edible', 'soft', 'cottony' with crispy crust (fresh & warm fm oven) .... hmmm... i love the fragrance of cinnamon.

Credit goes to LeeLee for the receipe and Happy Home Baking for showing the way to hands- on bread making.

Lychee Muffins

2007-11-20T22:15:00.000+08:00

Last month Jestina (Hut of Cranberry) 'tickled' my tastebuds with her beautiful bakes of Lychee Muffins and recently, LeeLee (Baking Mum), followed the same receipe and loaded her blogsite with the lovely pictures posting. Alas, again, there I began to drool. As one of the fellow blogger said, 'dont drool, follow the receipe and bake your own.'

So on this wet, gloomy Tuesday, (notwithstanding), I finally got down to baking these lovely muffins of my own too. I am not exaggerating in mention that even during the preparation stage of just stirring and blending the ingredients, you can already smell the lovely fruitty fragrance from the lychees, and plus 30 mins of setting aside time for the mixture to 'thicken', goodness, my kitchen smells simply heavenly.

And when the muffins were in the oven, baking, with the dampness from the rain, the heaviness of the air with the cool wind blowing, the aroma of the bakes immensely filtered into the whole house (well, mine is a small HDB flat, small space, so the smell was like full coverage), and maybe, the fresh baking aroma 'found' its way into my neighbours' domain as well, perhaps. Gosh, I wonder if any of them had drooled.

The muffins were soft and fluffy sweetened by the crunch of the juicy pieces of bite size lychees. yumz.

Thanks to Jestina for sharing the receipe.

Cookies Combi

2007-11-20T21:52:00.000+08:00

One blogsite venture leads to another, from Ching's Little Corner of Mine with making reference to Chawanmushi, with receipe originating from Gina, this chain of links gave 'birth' to my own version of cookies combi from the receipe.

Unconventionally, and greedily, I added combi of roasted white sesame seeds, raisins, nestum cereal, dessicated coconut for my cookie. With the additional of just 10g of melted butter, I 'resorted' to adding more nestum cereal and chilling it in the freezer a little while for the dough to be more 'manageable'.

Then again, you would realise that my cookies do not have the pretty rounded shaped. But taste wise, these are original crunchy cookies ladden with combi of wholesome goodness which as I quote my Mom : " you wont be able to buy from any shop outside."

Credit goes to the lovely ladies who have generously shared their receipes as they have indirectly assisted in the making of these cookies.

Chocolate Crunchies

2007-11-14T22:54:00.000+08:00

Coincidentally, many blogsites which I have visited recently are 'booming' with temptalicious chocolate bakes. The variety are far ranging from simple brownie to oozing hot chocolate in cuppa etc.... with rum, or brandy, or kirsch or even my favourite baileys too etc etc. The craving starts and the temptation was overwhelming. I must make something homemade with 'chocolatety' element. Then again, I was not in the 'mess up and clean up the kitchen on your own' mood, so I resorted to something simple.

I recall my sister bringing back mini Hari Raya homemade chocolate cookies from her Malay colleague, and coming across a simple receipe from a receipe book, I decided its worth a try. The receipe was tweaked according to my preference. Instead of unsalted butter, corn oil was used, and instead of crisp rice cereal, Kellogs corn flakes was used. Gathering all the basic ingredients, in less than an hour, my first batch of homemade chocolate crunchies.

The process was simply a breeze. Unbelievable though it may seem, this is the 1st time I am melting chocolate bars using the double boil method. My brother liked the crunchiness while sister says its abit too sweet. Perhaps I'll use the plain unsweetened or even better, bitter black chocolate crunchies next time.

Simple delight. Crunch.

Steamed Pumpkin

2007-11-12T15:40:00.000+08:00

One of Mom's favourite vegetable is pumpkin. And she would usually whip it up as a dish on the table frying the pumpkin in their chopped chunky pieces with oil and dashes of light soya sauce and salt for taste. Whenever i have a chance to 'woo' her palate, it shall be steamed pumpkin kueh instead.

This is a receipe I had from one of those Asian chefs' home cooked favourites dishes and this one in particular is by a HK chef . So you can imagine the authentic taste. The ingredients which I have prepared are 500g of pumpkin, 6 small dried mushrooms, 1 lap cheong, 2 shallots, 2 tbsp oil, 100g rice flour, 40g plain flour and 3 tbsp dried shrimps. (the original receipe called for green prawns, which I have totally no idea. however, if you tell me tiger prawns or lobster, you would see the sparks and nods of acknowledgement from my expressive greed.)

The preparation was easy as it took me less than half an hour and right after one hour of steaming, this is what I got. A golden looking steamed pumpkin kueh. (some would have assumed it was custard made kueh at a glance). You can spot the lap cheong slices and the mushrooms.

The original name of this receipe is 'steamed savoury pumpkin cake', but for me, its more 'kueh like' in texture and taste. Mom likes this kueh and had already taken 3 slices once it was fully cooked and ready for devour.

Delightful warm slice for tea or a pan fried version for breakfast. Eat it the way you like it.....satisfying.

Black Sesame Daifuku Mochi

2007-11-09T17:32:00.000+08:00

extract of history from http://www.answers.com/ =
Daifuku were originally called Harabuto mochi (腹太餅, Harabuto mochi?) (belly thick rice cake) because of its filling nature. It is considered the ugliest of all the Wagashi, and is therefore called a "Polar Bear Poop." Later the name was changed to Daifuku mochi (大腹餅, Daifuku mochi?) (big belly rice cake). Since the pronunciation of Fuku (腹, Fuku?) (belly) and Fuku (福, Fuku?) (luck) is the same in Japanese, the name was further changed to Daifuku mochi (大福餅, Daifuku mochi?) (great luck rice cake), a bringer of good luck.

Interesting information indeed. And looking at my end product made earlier after reading the above history got me pondering if the title of this blog should be amended.

Having quite a fair amount of 'koh fen' in the kitchen cabinet nudged me to get my hands to do something about it before it expires next year. Then again, the thought of it laying and taking space somehow 'bothers' the mind.

Jotted a receipe from a cooking book some time back but cant remember exactly the original source. And with only black sesame paste available in the fridge, then lets make it Black Sesame Daifuku Mochi, well, the modified version.

The receipe actually states to knead the koh fen and margarine and lotus seed paste (i changed it to black sesame seed paste) and icing sugar and water into smooth dough and shape into desired shapes. So that differs from the wrapping thats was supposedly the more traditional and correct method. I highly recommend those interested in making mochis to check out LeeLee's blogsite. Hers looks great.

My end products resembles brownie topped with icing sugar, or jelly with icing sugar from a distance. Then again, when comparing this receipe with the snowskin mooncakes receipe, its practically the same.

Well, at least, I have used up some koh fen for this making. 500grams of koh fen more to go.

Chicken Pie

2007-11-08T14:43:00.000+08:00

Recovering from the disappointment of yesterday's failed attempt at chiffon cake baking (drama added indeed), since everyone's home today because of Deepavali {Happy Deepavali to all Indians !!!!}, i planned baking chicken pie for lunch since last night. So, last evening, I went NTUC to get the basic ingredients and arranged for Mom to get the US potatoes for me from the wet market.

I have viewed, reviewed, and seen how successful a handful of the talented ladies bake this lovely pastry and decided to give it a go myself as well. The receipe is from the wonderful Baking Mum, LeeLee http://bakingmum.blogspot.com/2006/12/recent-bakes.html. Her nimble hands woks up and bakes up and even crafts up all the wonderful looking dishes and bakes and icing patternz and sugar paste designs which never fails to amaze me.

So from 11am this morning, I started to get busy. First part was tricky as I do not have any prior basic knowledge on pastry dough making. However, fortunately, I managed through with abit of help from my sister who had to lend a hand to sift in more plain flour as the dough was simply too sticky and soft. Otherwise, all else went on well.

The only part about the receipe which I tweaked was adding mixed herbs and salt to marinate the chicken breast meat first for the flavouring to sink into the chicken meat for the extra 'umph' from the fragrance of mixed herbs.

As this is my first time chicken pie make and bake, I took abit more time during the preparation stage and at 1pm ++, we were all too hungry to wait an extra minute for the pastry to be more crispy. To add to it all, you can imagine the fabulous aroma from the bake which was making all of us drooling at the smell and getting more 'famished' with the rumble and tumble from the tummy.

The feedback I received were that the onions needed to be chopped more finely (not all are onion lover like me), and that the sugar added should be reduced and more pepper to whip up the taste.

About three quarters of the pie has been 'wiped' out as I am typing here. And this is a delightful nice homemade chicken pie made from scratch. Feels good.

All thanks to LeeLee for sharing the wonderful receipe.

Apple Grape Chiffon Cake

2007-11-07T18:15:00.000+08:00

Again, from the http://www.answers.com/ webpage,
Chiffon may refer to:
Chiffon, a type of fabric
Chiffon cake, a light, fluffy cake
Chiffonade, a French term for the cutting of herbs or leafy green vegetables into long, thin strips

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Baking chiffon cake is still is a 'love hate' process. I love to sink my teeth into a light, fluffy chiffon cake, and to be surrounded by so many talented ladies who bakes chiffon cakes like a breeze maketh me 'green' in the eyes. Despite having read so many Q & As on how to achieve the perfected, well risen cake. Again, and oh, chiffon chiffon, why art thou so tough for me?

This is not my 1st and well, hopefully, not the last trial at baking chiffon cake. Rather than baking the orange chiffon cake ( the original receipe ), I decided to tweak the flavour by using the Marigold Apple Grape 100% Fruit Juice instead. During the mixing, my mind was pondering how it will turn out as the color seemed odd with the mix with the egg yolks. The color was purplish brown.

Other than that change of the juice, I followed every single step diligently, even to the extent of whipping the egg white stiff peak with my two hands rather than using the mixing machine. And oh yes, my hands were reaching point of stiffness too after 15 mins of my 'manual' mode of medium speed.

When the cake was in the initial 15 mins of bake time, it was rising beautifully. So i stepped away from the kitchen and within the next 10 mins or so, my sense of smell sent me 'flying' to the kitchen to check the bake. What I saw displeased me. The exterior of the bake was turning 'chao ta'. Speedily, I took out the cake and inverted it on the wire rack to cool. But to no avail. The cake still shrunk, the texture within was dense.

Wonder what went wrong during the process :
1. the oven temperature ? (my oven is preset at 200 degrees)
2. the mixing process of egg yolk mixture with the egg white ?
3. the liquid weight / content ?
4. me ?

arh well.....chiffon chiffon chiffony..........

Orange Yoghurt Muffins

2007-11-05T18:25:00.000+08:00

Defination of Muffins from www.answers.com :
= A small, cup-shaped quick bread, often sweetened.
= An English muffin.

Interesting, eh, how food history and defination dates back to the ancient days.

As usual, my 'pattern' when it comes to what to bake depends largely on whats available or coming close to expiry. I believe alot of people share this common behaviour. (just a wild guess, do not quote me.)

From the last bake of lemon yoghurt muffins, I changed it to orange flavoured since thats the only citrus alternative available in my fridge. I added the grated zest of the sunkist orange as well to give the muffins the extra 'umph' of orange taste.

I must say that this is an easier way to get everyone in the house to have yoghurt rather than hoping that they help themselves to finish a small cuppa of 150ml of yoghurt. In any case, I have not acquired the taste of taking plain yoghurt either. It has to be the fruity, mixed yoghurt.

Like the last round, the moist, soft texture of the muffins pleases my palate. i like.

Cream Corn Jelly

2007-11-03T23:11:00.000+08:00

I was in the 'craving' mood this morning to make dessert. So, while browsing the cabinet, I noticed the recently purchased can of cream sweet corn, two packets of Konnyaku Jelly powder and a small packet of coconut milk, I recalled that there was a receipe that 'inspired' the purchases. Bingo, its from Aunty Yochana's blogsite and reading through the steps, it does seem easy to follow, even for an amateur like me.

However, I had reduced the amount of coconut milk and cut down the sugar as my siblings and myself are 'sometimes' ( and i mean sometimes) calculating the intakes of the calories, sugar etc.

So there I was this late morning, for a change, with boiling pot of water and using the spoon, stirring, mixing and viola, after 20 mins of prep work, after one hour and half hours of set and chill, this was my end product of Cream Sweet Corn Jelly from a long curvy based tin.

One commented :"hmmm... as good as bengawan solo.", another commented :" texture not smooth.". My take, it can be better and it should be better next round. However, we did concur with the level of sweetness which was just right, and we love eating corn, the natural sweetness and the crunch with every bite. yumz.

Credit goes to Aunty Yochana for the receipe.

Beggar's Chicken

2007-10-31T10:55:00.000+08:00

'Resourcefully', I searched the history behind the given name to this dish. Seems that long time ago, a thief wrapped the stolen bird in clay and baked it in a hole in the ground to avoid being caught in the act. Clay and mud (natural earthenwares, which are now our modern casseroles) are natural insulators that can retain the natural juices of the food during the process of slow cooking. Smart aleck, i mean thief.

This was my 2nd attempt cooking this receipe which I found in Lee Lee, Baking Mum's blogsite some time back and this was cooked for last night's dinner. Arh, no mud or clay was used to wrap the chicken in retaining the juices and gravy, and in this current era, we are using the natural fragrance of lotus leaf wrapping and our 'modernised' aluminimum foil to insulate heat during the baking. However, I skipped the making of the outer most layer made from plain flour (you know, as a replacement of mud ./ clay wrap) but, as I wasnt in the mood to do it coz the last round when i attempted that, the hardened baked plain flour, it was tough to crack and had to be thrown once it was cracked open to unveil the end product.

Instead of baking the chicken for 3 hours, mine was only baked for 2 solid hours. Nevertheless, the chicken meat was tender, moistly soaked in the juices, and no knife was used for the breaking of the chicken parts. We, literally, could detach (tear in the ancient term in the act ) the parts as we desire as the chicken was already very cooked to the bones to the extent that breaking it was effortless.

Again, this dish was a winner with my family members who readily gave thumbs up. Credit goes to LeeLee for sharing the receipe.

Rainbow Wheels

2007-10-29T17:44:00.000+08:00

It has become 2nd nature for me to browse the shelves at the community library, in which i will dwell in the maze of rolls and rolls of shelves which houses a mass variety of books relating to interests, hobbies, reference or knowledge etc. Well, a visit at least once in 2 weeks when the books are almost due for return is deemed necessary so as not to incur additional 'cost' for any overdues. Alas, if only I had been so diligent during my schooling days, then perhaps, just perhaps, my English language could have fared better. But of course, things have taken a different course in my living years, so lets move ahead.

Came across this rather seasoned looking cooking book titled 'Asian High Tea Favourites' by Betty Saw, a renowed veteran chef in Malaysia, in the community library last week, and I was rather taken aback that the book was first published in 1979, that was when I was still a small kiddo. (shant elaborate further lest my age gets unveiled). A walk back to memory lanes.

Then again, the receipes in this book are interesting too as it is written by an Asian for Asians. And so I decided to give this receipe called 'Rainbow Wheels' a try out bake. At 1st glance, its color captures your attention, and then the guessing game of, is it swiss roll cake? rolled buns? Well, its actually baked cookies. Lovely right? But of course, I am not professionally trained nor skillful enough to roll the dough that perfectly, nor did i register the dough freezing time correctly, and hence, my end product looks like a 'deformed' semi circle instead of the perfected round shaped biscuit look in her book.

Even my Mom was 'enchanted' by the colors in this biscuit. And yes, this was inspired from the sightings of the wonderful colors array in Aunty Yochana's blogsite.

A colorful trial bake start for the week.

Marble Cake

2007-10-29T00:49:00.000+08:00

I've not been able to bake as frequent due to 2 main reasons :
a. flu and cough virus has caught up with me for the past 2 weeks ;
b. my 'avid' supporters in bakes, ie. my 2 sisters are away, having a well deserved holiday overseas.

And today, I decided to bake because my sisters are scheduled back on Tuesday morning. So, this bake should be good as a mini welcome munch for them. Bravely, I wanted to emulate the making of the lovely marble muffins which Aunty Yochana baked recently. The swirl patterns on her cakes simply looks artistically divine. Have a view via her receipe link at http://auntyyochana.blogspot.com/2007/10/marble-muffins.html and be convinced of her talent. Seeing is believing!

But alas, my bake did not turn out as arty as I desired (pardon my lack of 'technical' skill and my not so nimble hand work as this is a self learning process and I was never artistic to begin with. =p). No one said it was gonna be easy especially for amateurs like me. Ah well. Practice, practice and more practice.

And instead of muffins, i tweaked it and made a marble cake instead using a 8" inch round baking tin. And instead of using the fresh plain milk, i used the new-on-shelf, Marigold HL Strawberry flavoured milk. The cake looked flat, laddened heavily with more chocolate than the, well, intended effect. And my so called swirled effect was visible only from top view, only if you zoom in very, very closely.

Nevertheless, I am pleased with the texture of the cake. Moist and soft. During the baking, the aroma soaking the kitchen was scented with the whiff of strawberry milk mixed with chocolate, a delightful inhale.

Thank you Aunty Yochana for sharing the receipe. (p.s. i'll make it look better next round. hopefully. =p)

Lemon Yoghurt Muffins

2007-10-22T16:42:00.000+08:00

After last Tuesday's fried chicken wings for dinner, the following day I had sore throat, followed by fever, cold and coughs. Probably due to the weather also, but the main root for the sickly frame of mine, which i am certain was the 'over indulgence' of the deep fried chicken wings. Yupz, greedy me. =p

So you can imagine how 'trapped' I had been able not being able to access the kitchen to cook or to bake. Half the time for the last few days, i was blowing my 'biggy' nose one minute and then coughing within the next second. Felt so lousy. All I could do was to eat the medications timely to nurse and rebuild my stamina back again.

Feeling less zombie and much better today, i 'itched' to bake something simple. And while thinking, I searched the fridge and realised that the lemons which I bought about 2 weeks back were still untouched. One had turned mouldy, and had to be thrown away immediately. I needed to salvage ('make something good') out of the 3 remaining lemons and fast is THE word. (no wastage allowed!)

Promptly, I did a quick check online and found Aunty Yochana's receipe on Lemon Yoghurt Muffin. http://auntyyochana.blogspot.com/2007/06/lemon-yoghurt-muffins.html and incorporated some additions of the lemon zest and the glaze touches from another webpage.

Within an hour, I had 6 lemon yoghurt muffins, 3 with lemon glaze and the balance lemon juice into a small glass of lemonade. Pretty effortless but the warm muffins are moist and soft in texture and I had to quickly take a foto shoot of the remaining 4 muffins before its all gone.

Gula Melaka Fa Gao @ Prosperity Kuih

2007-10-18T18:16:00.000+08:00

I've come across the making of this Gula Melaka (Ye Jiang Tang) Fa Gao in the blogsites of Jo's Deli, Aunty Peony's, Aunty Yochana. And today while browsing through Amy Beh's cooking book 3 which was borrowed from the community library, I decided that I had to try making it too.

Zooming into the steps, it seemed easy and it requires only basic ingredients. Oh yes, I am aware we are still couple of months to CNY, I thought I will start 'practising' on the goodies for Christmas and CNY, (some may say k.s. but I am a 'greenhorn' in the kitchen werkz, so gonna need more practice lah!). Hence, whenever I chance upon goodies receipes or when the craving 'tempts' the taste buds, but provided I happen to have the necessary ingredients at home, 'wonders' cook & bake in kitchen will kick start.

I have got some remainder chopped gula melaka in cling wrap 'sitting' in the fridge and this receipe just seemed right for my practise. I 'tweaked' the receipe abit by using canola oil instead of butter, used reduced amount of castor sugar in place of soft brown sugar, instead of using tea cups which is usually recommended, 6 small bowls were used instead.

The whole process of preparation sets off with the natural fragrance from dissolving gula melaka with pandan leaves, then once the coconut milk is added, the smell was sensational breathe in of goodness for the lungs, (my personal take on that. =p). An hour of waiting for the yeast to 'proof', the steaming in the mini tefal steamer. All in all, it took about 2 hours.

End product was 6 bowls of pale looking, gula melaka flavoured 'huat kueh' with only 2 ' fas'. Need to review on the steps again to get all to 'fa' for next making.

Nevertheless, the texture was moist, soft and just the right sweetness.

Banana Nut crunch cereal biscuit

2007-10-16T12:06:00.000+08:00

Out of the blues yesterday, Mom made a passing remark that 'theres nothing in the fridge to munch'. In that instant, I laughed and replied teasingly, ' ya hor, my fault, no bakes.' Last weekend, I was engrossed in some other arrangements and had 'neglected' to bake 'goodies'. And as I did not 'stock up' ingredients, there was not much variety or assortments I could whip up and I was at loss initially at what to bake.

As I was browsing over the containers (sometimes the word is 'ransack' ), I realised I had small balance of banana nut crunch cereal and my sister recently commented that I had not baked home made biscuits for quite some time already (which is very true ever since i started to dwell more focus and curiosity in cakes baking and kuehs making ).

So, I dug out my photocopied receipe and decided to bake (somewhat a twig from the original receipe), my version of simple, rounded, banana nut crunch cereal homebaked freshness biscuits. Its a two in one strike. =D

It took me less than an 1 hour to make a small container of baked banana nut crunch cereals biscuits. My very own round, round, plain plain looking biscuits. Freshness delights.

Simply love the aroma of bakes in progress. Do you share the same sentiments ?

American Carrot Cake

2007-10-12T10:45:00.000+08:00

Is this call impulse ? spontaneity ? craving ? whatever excuse I could think of. None better than, yes, I have done it! Yesterday evening, had this sudden desire(a better word?) to eat American Carrot Cake and I remember Aunty Yochana had a receipe on it and quickly browsed through the receipe steps and within minutes, you can visualise me busy in the kitchen, grating the carrots, chopping the walnuts, measuring the ingredients etc etc. Yes, the me in the kitchen in the very 'engaged' mode.

As usual, the 'sotong' me assumed that I had enough cake flour for the baking and only when I commenced on the weighing and measuring that I realised that there is slight shortfall. 'Should I re measure the rest of the ingredients?' I thought not. So, in the end, I had flour mixture of cake flour, self raising flour with abit of corn flour to sort of balance up, hopefully. Yeps, I was keeping my fingers crossed during the mixing.

And as I was going to follow the topping icing frosting layer exactly according to Aunty's receipe, I kinda reduced the sugar to the US carrot cake to only 150gm (half of the recommended sugar) instead so that the overall cake taste will not be too sweet. (coz theres a need to cut down on sugar intake for my Mom per se).

However, I was pretty generous with use of the cinnamon powder, instead of just 1.5tsp, I added in about 2.5tbsp. I love spice and herbs, both Chinese and Western. It sets off a natural, fragrant aroma that fills up the whole house and maybe my neighbour's as well. This is the link to Aunty's homemade goodness receipe for American carrot cake : http://auntyyochana.blogspot.com/2007/08/american-carrot-cake.html

The preparation time was about 30 mins, baking time about 1 hour, cooling time 1 hour (room temperature), mixing of the cream cheese about 10 mins, spreading of the topping on the cooled carrot cake about 5 mins, into the fridge for the topping to settle about 3 hrs. (all manual labour, yepz, you know, whisking with all my might, shifting the flour, grating the carrot, blending and mixing... phew.... )
{of coz the baking and the frosting will be the oven and the fridge. =D)

The whole process of the baking was really worthwhile. My 'Americano' Carrot Cake was dome shaped, perhaps because of the cake flour with baking powder plus self raising flour with corn flour. Ill trained as I am, the frosting layer is not levelled, but i like the unlevelled 'look' coz it reminds me of the snow covered rocky mountains in NZ when I was there for holiday some years back.

Lets say I would give myself a pass rate for this moist, soft, crunchy walnuts, topped with lemonly taste cream cheese frosting. Lovely!

Thank you Aunty Yochana for the generous sharing and guidance.

Wife's Biscuits @ Lao Por Bing

2007-10-09T18:44:00.000+08:00

Last week i visited Florence's blogpage during the daytime of 3 Oct and came across her latest bakes. Yes, its the popular Lao Por Bing of HK. Coincidentally, on same night, Aunty Yochana also loaded her wife's biscuits bakes in her blogpage. ' That does it,' i told myself. And very resourcefully started to search for the ingredients for the bakes the very next day and my 'desperation' (or kan cheong spirit rather)to the extent i even 'manjaing' to Aunty Yochana when the candied winter melon was not available in medical halls or even NTUC or even Cold Storage. Come to think of it, goodness me, so shy.

I managed to get the newly arrived candied winter melon last Sunday at Phoon Huat and got into the making and baking today. The process was not easy for me as i fumbled during the preparation getting confused over which shorterning weightage for which portion etc. Had a good laff at myself actually. After getting over that little huddle, the rest was easy. The rolling and wrapping was almost similar to that for the flaky mooncakes and the crispy moonies, of course with a slight twist. Check out the comprehensive steps to the receipe at Florence's blogpage at http://www.wlteef.blogspot.com/.

I simply love the aroma of the bakes and the crispy bite into the homemade freshness of my first batch of wife's biscuits. So pleased.

Thanks to Florence, the amazing lady from HK.

Brownies are a "hit"

2007-10-08T20:09:00.000+08:00

This has to be Jes's (Hut Of Cranberry) fault. (blessing in disguise. bear with me. =D). Why ? Well, because she posted such lovely brownies topped with melted chocolate and colorful icing & designs specially made for her kids and the other children on children's day, 1 Oct. Totally temptinglicious! (yep, theres no such word in any given dictionary.)

I am not (or was not) a chocolate lover but with the lure of the lovely posted pictures of chocolate related receipes whipped up by Aunty Yochana and Jes, alright, gradually I am getting 'influenced' to love the look and 'magnetic draw' of chocolates.

As always, I thickheadedly 'pester' Jes for the receipe and from which the link to another lovely Mommy, Brenda. From which I learnt that she had sourced the receipe from http://allreceipes.com/ , I couldnt wait to bake the brownies. And on Friday, I 'charged' my way to Phoon Huat in Sembawang and bought the basic ingredients (though I had wanted to purchase other ingredients for other tempting bakes as well, but there aint any stock on the shelves).

The brownies were freshly baked yesterday as I was engaged in cooking up a new dish, "black vinegar chicken" for last Saturday's lunch. The receipe is from a cooking book which I borrowed from the Community Library. The chef is none other than the renowed Amy Beh, a household name in Malaysia for home cooked receipes. The dish turned out lovely with no picture taken to share. Nonetheless, only Mom and I savoured and enjoyed it most coz we both love the black vinegar spiced up with ginger soup. yums.

Alright, shant digress. I almost forgot to add sugar for the brownies during the making. By sheer chance, some of the mixture 'splattered' on my fingers during the mixing process, and when i was licking off from my finger that I realised that I forgot to add the sugar. So, you can imagine the 'panic' to blend the sugar in at almost the final blend and mix with my utmost effort and strength. Not exaggerating coz i was doing manual mixing using the wooden spoon and yes, theres a bubble on my right small finger. arh well.

Viola, it turned out tasting great ! Though the end product was just good old simple plain brownies with chopped walnuts, and though it does not have the 'professionally' levelled nicely look, the texture was cakey, moist and the aroma of the brownies at baking was welcoming amidst the humidity over the weekend. Its a thumbs up with my sisters and of course, with me too!

Thanks to Jes and Brenda for their joint sharing enabling me to whip up easy, home made brownies.

Sesame Seeds & Walnut Muffin

2007-10-01T22:30:00.000+08:00

There are many baking receipes that I would love to try my hands on making and today, while rummaging through the cabinets, some remaining balance of self raising flour and cake flour. And so had to make do with whatever ingredients in the house as the supermarket seems so far away under such humidity. (yep, thats my excuse.)

I came across this lovely receipe on Sesame Seeds & Walnut Muffin from Aunty Yochana's blogsite and as usual, drooled over. Unshyly and thickheadedly, I loaded Aunty with queries and she patiently gave me tips. Hence, I decided to give it a shot.

During preparation stage, what caught my attention were words in bold print which read "wash before use" on my recently purchased black and white sesame seeds packs from NTUC. Hadnt seen those bold words before from the previous leftover pack. Well, the product is Made In China, so there had to be some valid, good reason(s) for the recommendation. So, 'clumsily and obediently', the black and white sesame seeds were rinsed and washed before roasted under slow fire in the fry pan. Simply love the aura of the roasting sesame seeds, popping and jumping in the fry pan, fragrance refreshing.

Followed the steps in Aunty Yochana's receipe http://auntyyochana.blogspot.com/2007/08/sesame-and-walnuts-cupcakes.html and viola, lovely muffins (instead of cupcakes) for me. Even my brother who is not a cake eater, munched one and half portions with compliments on its unique taste and fragrance.

Thumbs up for this receipe! Thanks to Aunty Yochana for sharing.

Mid Autumn Day's Makings

2007-09-28T10:12:00.000+08:00

I am truly amazed and inspired into the wonderful baking creations of other talented ladies linked with Lee Lee, Florence and Jo. Its like a new-found world and hobby into the wonders and colors of baking and cooking arena. There are many other talented ladies out there! Theres Jes (hut of cranberry), Lucy(aunty yochana), Lily Wai and many more.

Mere surfing and visits to their daily blogs will simply take your breathe away with their cooking and baking passions and delights which also means that, you will be left drooling away, helplessly, literally spoken. And far beyond doubt, many will envy their immediate families and close friends who benefits from their give aways, well, in hope, soon that i could be one of the lucky receipient too. (teasing. =p)

And to catchup with their amazing talents, being an amateur, I follow ever so closely with their guiding steps to the makings of few new bakes and cooking for my family and they have been most encouraging, naturally.

On Mid Autumn's, i made my final batch of snow skin moonies. And thanks to the recommendation in the blogs of Jes, I managed to get a simple flower mould (the last of the last piece) from Ailin Bakery House with the help of the lady boss there. Though my intended purchase was something prettier, you know, like the ones Jes purchased, but just couldnt resist the mentality of "must get something" to make the trip worthwhile.

So tempted I was with the lure of the red wine berry paste from KCT posted in Jes's blog, I got a small pack from KCT and indeed, the taste was pleasing to the delight of my palate. Thanks Jes! Not forgetting, receipe with thanks from Aunty Yochana. =D

On Mom's suggestion, I went along with the idea to making sushi for dinner. Quite cool idea, as the sushi roll will be round round. Well, its the first time I am making sushi and yes, i fumbled here and there but the roll came out decent. No fancy japanese ingredients to go along as this was a 1st trial. Bought the basic stuff like sushi short rice, sushi vinegar seasoning, bamboo mat, bamboo spatula etc for the making. Once everything was ready, I rolled in cooked eggs, blanched carrot, cucumber and japanese pickled radish and that was my version of "futamaki", simplified version. "oishi" were compliments well received by me and boy, I was thrilled when the first roll came off quite pretty though theres room for improvement in the tightening of the rolls.

Theres plenty more to bake and cook and learn from the wonderful ladies. Me, an amateur, a follower will continue in looking out for more guidance in this new 'adventure'.

Spiral Yam Mooncakes

2007-09-21T00:22:00.000+08:00

Was still in the mood to challenge myself to complete, well, basically, the common variations to making mooncakes based on the dialect groups. Personally, yearly, without fail, our family will purchase the teochew spiral yam mooncakes from Eater Palace. This year may not be an exception. Others may beg to differ in the choice but to each his own, i would rather not argue.

So i "ventured" into Jo's site http://www.jodelibakery.netfirms.com/ and followed as closely as i possibly in hope to achieve the pretty spiral yam mooncakes that she made. as this is my first attempt, at least 4 out of 8 had the proper pretty spiral look. if only i had observed closely during the making process to focus on the importance of placing the paste in the centre where the "dune" shaped likeness could be seen on the pastry as i was rolling the finale roll before adding the paste, that could have made the difference.

in addition, i would need to improve on my yam paste texture did not achieve the paste-like texture at all. a pat on my own shoulders, well, at least i tried. =D

based on my personal attempts so far, i would rate the level of difficulty as follows :

most difficult = traditional brown skinned moonies

challenging = snow skin moonies

not so difficult = spiral moonies

easiest = flaky moonies

what about you ?

Traditional brown skinned mini moonies

2007-09-17T15:23:00.000+08:00

After 3 failed attempts in the making of the traditional brown skinned mooncakes, I must say I was really on the verge of giving up, you know, as in surrending white flag. Even my most supportive Mom was commenting about the wastage as in the hardened products were not edible and had to be thrown. The consolation was that the portions were small hence it was not huge wastage.

Then again, I have been told that baking brown skinned mooncakes are more challenging than making snow skin mooncakes. Not only on the baking timing, but also other areas like the kneading process etc. Then again, I was deep down curious to get to the root and find out what went wrong.

Last Saturday night, as I was browsing through the delightful, colorful pages of Florence latest blog pictures loaded with the wonderful creations of her baked and snow skin moonies, thick headedly I consulted her online about the hows and whats.

Florence is an amazing lady with great patience. View her blog page at http://www.wlteef.blogspot.com/ and you will be caught up in awe and amazement at her talents. And upon her advice, I picked up my broken pieces of shattered passion and followed her precise steps very closely.

And patiently, today being the 3rd day after the baking of the moonies. Yes, the texture turned out wonderful. Thanks Florence for your guidance!