Happy Birthday Princess

My princess requested for another birthday cake ~ a marble butter cake. Here's the specification she gave me ~ she wants me to bake a look alike cake as her book.
Here's my version and she gave me a passed on that :) We bake this cake together and my prince help with the decoration on the cake side with M&M peanuts chocolate. For him his reward was M&M and pop goes into his mouth.My happy princess with her cakeThis time round i'm using my cousin recipe.

Ingredients

250g butter

180g sugar

5-6 eggs

200g self raising flour

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1. Beat butter & sugar till white
2. Add in eggs
3. Add Self raising flour and finally the vanilla essence
4. Bake at 180c for 45-50 mins

Christmas Eve

Today is X'mas Eve, I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone out there reading this blog

A Berry Merry Christmas

This morning woke up early @ 4.30am cos son vomited. I guess he could have over eat, so a good time to clear his system. Though it was a big clean up for me and my hubby, sterile son bed, clean up the room and laudry for his soil pyjamas & bedsheet. After which hubby went back to sleep and me carry on with my baking.

My first bake this morning - Pandan Chiffon Cake for my SIL, bringing over for her family this evening. This time round i try using self-raising flour as suggested by my friend, she said it might be more fluffy. I'm not sure, lets test it out and see how it goes after the cut.

Managed to test out the cake, wasn't satisfied with the flour used. Probably i'll try using cake flour or stick to the original top flour than :(

Follow by the Best Brownie, i did half portion. This smaller version was to give ourselves a mini treat for x'mas eve. (just 4 of us in office cos the rest were on shutdown leaves)

Princess Birthday Party

Today is my little Princess 4th birthday party.

A special request from my princess, she wanted a Barbie doll 3D cake. This cake was carefully selected and chosen by her and it came with a set of clothing to change but ... forgot to snap a picture and now she has started playing with it. My princess was so excited and kept reminding her daddy to pickup the cake. She also keep pestering me to bring her to the party venue since morning, she said her friends are waiting for her.

This is a cross section of the barbie doll 3D cake look like

Chocolate cupcakes

Today mei mei is having a birthday party celebration with her friends. I decided to bake some chocolate cupcake for the party childrens parents to eat. I started my bake around 9am whereby i need to get everything ready by 1plus ~ baking + frosting. I double the portion of the recipe and it gave me 33 cuppies

Here's the chocolate cupcake recipe

Ingredients
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp bicarbonate soda
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 tsp salt
50g butter
1 1/3 cup castor sugar
2 eggs
3/4 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup milk

Method

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, bicarbonate soda, cocoa & salt. Set aside
2. In a large bowl, cream butter & sugar until light and fluffy, add in eggs one at the time.
3. Stir in vanilla and add flour mixture alternately with milk and mix well
4. Fill the muffin cups slightly more than half
5. Bake for 15 - 17 mins @ 180c

Cupcake before frosting

Cuppies after frostingButtercream icing

• 35g shortening
• 35g butter softened
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 tbsp milk

Method

1. In large bowl, cream shortening & butter with electric mixer.
2. Add vanilla and sugar, beating at medium speed
3. When all sugar has been mixed in icing will appear dry
4. Add milk beat at medium speed until light fluffy

Gingerbread Man

Very excited over this bake~Gingerbread man. I wanted to make it for give away on saturday morning. I came home exhausted and late on Friday night, so off to bed. I dragged myself up at 4.30am and did my earliest bake. I managed to make 36 gingerbread man.

Here's the recipe :-

Ingredients
65g butter
80g light brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
180g golden syrup
445g plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp mixed spice
1/4 tsp gound cinnamon
3/4 tsp gound ginger
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp UHT Milk(milk wash)

Methods

1. Sift flour, baking soda & spices together and set aside
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar, salt together until light & fluffy
3. Beat in the egg slowly into the cream mixture
4. Fold in the flour & golden syrup alternately until well combine.
5. Add in vanilla essence and mix well
6. Rest dough in the fridge for 15 mins
7. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface
8. Use a cookies cutter and cut out the dough
9. Place it on a greased tray and brush the dough with UHT milk before bake @ 180c for 10-12 mins
10. Decorate it with icing sugar & chocolate after the cookies cool off

These are the naked gingerbread man & woman

Lemon Icing

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 2-3 tbsp lemon juiceIn a small bowl combine icing sugar & lemon. Add enough lemon juice to make the icing thick & pourable but not runny. You can always add a bit of extra sugar to thick it if you add too much and stir until very smooth. I didn't have very time trying to pipe out the icing, instead i used my hand o make. It's like doing gum paste, kinda of fun though.

Finally all the gingerbread are packed and ready to give away. Out of the house at 9.20am

I was very happy about this bake as many kids like it cos the ginger & cinnamon smell is not strong. In fact their parents were surprised that their kiddos like my gingerbread when most time they won't eat. :p

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Last night I reached home slightly early than usual from working late still. I managed to rush to ntuc before they closed for the day. Grab a packet of coconut milk and eggs (the most important ingredients for this bake). I started my bake around 10 plus and only finish the 2 bake at 1 midnight (yawn)

What was my bake than ... I did 1 big Pandan Chiffon Cake for my dear colleagues at the office and 5 mini one for my home consumption (my mommy favourite).

Here's the picture of the big one for office...

So happy ! My kampung folks here like it....

Pineapple cake

Here's a belated birthday cake for my MIL. As usual a last mins noticed from hubby. Need to search thru' all the recipe and come out with an easy & ready ingredients at home.

As my SIL family was picking my family up to my in law place, so no time to waste. Once the cake was out of the oven, pop out it goes into the box and off we run.

Though rushy job but result was encouraging and worth it. The cake was moist and soft, tasty but not too sweet. Cake was well rec'd by all (what a relief on my 1st attempt). I'll be back for more with this bake. Here is my bake #2 on Sunday.
Ingredients
Topping
6 slices rings pineapple
3 glazed cherries (sliced to half)

Cake
160g castor sugar
165g butter
3 eggs
175g flour
1 1/2 baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 cup pineapple juice (fm the can of pineapple)

* optional
mix in some chopped pineapple to the batter to add some texture

Methods

1. Grease the 8" round cake pan. Arrange the pineapple slices and place the cherry in the centre of each pineapple ring. Set aside
2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside
3. Cream butter and sugar until mixture is light and fluffy. Add in 1 egg at a time and add in vanilla.
4. Add flour mixture alternate with pineapple juice, beat them well
5. Fold in the chopped pineapple (optional) before pouring the batter to the prepared pan (side note : fill the cake to slightly more than half of the pan, need make way for the raise of the cake. I pour the remain and make into a mini pineapple cake for my mom)
6. Bake at 180c for 45 - 55 mins or until the test comes out clean. Let the cake cool in te pan on rack for 15mins. Run thru' the cake side before invert the cake onto the plate. (I've omitted this part of cooling the cake, as i'm in a real rush otherwise the look of the cake would have been nicer w/o the crack)

Snowman Bread

Quite an intensive baking on Sunday. Here's my bake #1

I used my BM for the dough. I actually did 2 types of bread snowman & otah. (different filling & shaping) with the same dough. I did only 5 snowmans and about 6 round otah buns. I forgot to take a snap of the otah bun.
Ingredients
330g bread flour
7.5g instant yeast
195g cold water
1/8 tsp bread improver
20g egg
60g castor sugar
1/4 tsp salt
30g butter

Filling
chocolate chips (for eyes & head filling)
sliced cheese (body filling)
biscuit stick (nose)
honey star (button)
sprinkle (scarf)
(mix icing sugar + warm water and use it as glue)

For otah bun, I used my favourite Muar prawn otah. I cooked the otah separately before adding it as a filling when shaping the dough

Methods

1. Put in the ingredients according to your normal BM sequence.
2. Let the dough rest for 1-1 1/2 hr
3. Divide the dough to 20g snowman head, 40g body. Shape it to the respective shape and with filling inside. Let them rest for 5-10 mins and again prove double size or so
4. Egg wash before bake at 180 for 10-12mins

Best Brownie

Getting ready for an early X'mas party in the office today. Woke up super early this morning at 6.30am though i drag myself out of my bed.

Here's the orginated recipe of Hershey Best Brownie of my bake today.


Ingredients (here's my version)
125g butter melted
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup Hershey Cocoa
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup semi sweet Hershey chocolate chips

Method

1. Preheat 175c
2. Stir together butter, sugar and vanilla in bowl. Add eggs: beat well with spoon. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt: gradually add to egg mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips.
3. Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan
4. Bake 20 - 25 mins or until brownies begin to pull away from side of pan

Butter Cinnamon Roll

This is the next bake. In fact my mom like this cinnamon roll better. She said it smell goods and the texture is soft. My felt is next time i should put more Cinnamon powder to it.

This is the before bake picture of the Cinnamon Roll.
What you see and here's what you get
Ingredients
280g Bread flour
15g milk powder
2.5g bread improver
60g castor sugar
1/2tsp salt
70g water
6g instant yeast
100g fresh milk
50g butter

Method (I make some modification to it)

1. I used my BM to help make the dough
2. After which i take out cover and leave it to prove for 30 mins
3. Keep in fridge for 15 mins
4. Roll till square flat sheet, apply with butter, sprinkle cinnamon powder and castor sugar. Roll up
5. Cut into appropriate section (i did abt 8 portion) as to fit into my bread cup. Let it prove double in size
6. Bake at 190c for 15-20 mins

Chocolate Bread

I got a new book on Saturday "面包DIY Home Bread". There were 2 recipes that caught my eyes and couldn't decide which to make. Since the ingredient qty look reasonable (half of my usual bake), so i decided to bake both.

My dear princess wanted to be in the picture before i send the bread to the oven. Anyway she helped me with the egg wash.

Not a very clear shot, but the texture of the bread is really soft and I'm really satisfied.

Ingredients
300g Bread flour
5g milk powder
3g bread improver
10g choc powder
50g castor sugar
1/2 tsp salt
30g egg
180g cold water
7.5g instant yeast
1/2tsp choc elmuco
15g butter
15g shortening

Method

1. I used my BM to knead the dough. (uses the normal BM sequence)
2. After remove fm BM cover the dough and rest for 30 mins
3. Divide into 40g each. Let them prove for 10 mins. Roll into balls
4. Arrange into a square greased tin. Let it prove double in size, brush with egg wash
5. Bake at 180c for 20-25 mins

Tiffany Cafe-Furama Hotel Buffet

Yesterday was our departmental buffet lunch at Furama Hotel~Tiffany Cafe. What so special ? It's a hotel Halal buffet, kinda of hard to find in S'pore. Importantly we could have a good meal together with our fellow Muslim colleagues.

This was the best dish at the buffet. My creation ... " Brownie with ice cream ". I've ate to my heart content and had 3 round serving of it. No wonder my cough still haven't recover and my dear friends here are still teasing me about the ice cream i took till now :p

What's Up for Dinner - Japanese Curry

A special request from my hubby - Japanese Curry. I complied for dinner tonight as Son loved it a lot. He had 3 serving of it - though it's spicy hot. Very encouraging, as he keep praising me as he request for more.

Ingredient
1 small box S&B Golden Curry sauce mix - Hot
2 small tray of chicken fillet fm Cold Storage (cut to cube)
3 med potatoes (cut to cube)
1 carrot (cut to cube)
onions (eliminate - i don't like eating)
2 1/2 cups water
butter

Method

1. I used my favourite Tanyu pot to stir fry chicken in butter
2. Add in potatoes & carrots
3. Add water and bring to boil
4. make sure potatoes & carrots are cooked and soft.
5. break in the curry sauce mix into piece and stir till completely melted
6. stir constantly and serve hot over rice

I've added some furikake on the steamed rice to make it more tasty

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Finally, I'm back ! I've been really busy and worst of all is that i was very sick for the past 1 week. As of today, i'm coughing lesser now. Today my aunt & cousin came by my place to visit my mom (she had her eye operation on Thur). She's into recovery now. We took the opportunity and show my relative how to bake pandan chiffon cake. (Though i'm half past six on that) My cousin elder than me was very very pleased with the outcome of the cake (finally i've succeed and passed my chiffon cake) She even wants me to buy for her the mini chiffon tin @ Daiso. The chances of me visiting Daiso will be higher than her.

Proudly presenting you my suceessful Pandan Chiffon Cake.


Here's the original from Prima, i've made some modification to it.

Ingredient
(A)
4 Egg Yolks
50g castor sugar
1/4 tsp salt
35ml Canola oil / corn / vegetable
100ml coconut milk }
1 tsp pandan paste } mix

(B)
100g Top flour / plain flour }
1 tsp baking powder } sift together

(C)
5 Egg whites
50gm castor sugar }
1/4 tsp cream of tartar } mix

Method

1. Using hand whisk mix (A) until well blended. Add (B) and mix well
2. On a separate bowl, whisk egg whites until soft peaks from using high speed until foamy. Add sugar & cream of tartar, continue whipping until stiff (like snow) * Don't overbeat and this process are done in a very quick manner.
3. Quickly use a spatula take 1/4 of the meringue and slowly fold into the egg yolk mixture in the earlier bowl. Mix until well combine. Finally add in the remaining meringue and mix well
4. Pour mixture into an ungreased chiffon tin and bake for about 40-45 mins @ 170c. * Bake at the lower rack (i used 4 mini chiffon tins fm Daiso and 1 smaller PH mini chiffon tin)
5. Immediately turn tin over on a cake rack to cool before loosening cake

Personally i preferred the mini chiffon tin from Daiso. Mainly the quality is stainless steel and is bigger in size as compared to PH one. To make it even more convincing it was cheap and good.

Oreo chocolate butter cake

When i was about to head down to NTUC Fairprice with Mei to buy some bread, suddenly son said that his class is having a party tomorrow. My jaw almost drop as it's about 8plus and he wants me to bake something for him to bring to school to share (30 kids & 2 teachers). Hmmm ... Oreo (kids favourite). Son seems pleased with my suggestion, i rush down grab a pack of oreo. Using my reliable butter cake- i added chocolate paste and oreo to it. Here's the simple and easy .... Oreo chocolate butter cake
This week will be filled with heavy baking as well as a busy personal and work week. Lots of happening.

Bananas cupcake

This is my favourite. I had it made several times and had received many praises for this :p all credit to jthorge . I did some adjustment to it.
Today is mei school meet-the-parent session, bake this for her teachers. As for son is a sharing with his friends.

Ingredients

250g butter

1 1/2 cups castor sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

4 tbsp milk

2 cups mashed banana (I used red meat bananas)

2 cups plain flour (sift together with 1 tsp bicarbonate soda and 1 tsp baking powder)

2 bananas (sliced) as topping

Method

1. Cream butter & sugar in a mixing bowl
2. Add in eggs, vanilla esscence, milk and mix well
3. Add mashed banana into the mixture and mix well
4. Finally add in sifted flour and mix well
5. Pour into the cuppies and add in a slice of banana
6. Bake at 175c for 20-25 mins

It's really soft and moist

Will be baking chocolate chip cookie on Wed for Mei Thursday year end class party.

Milo Chiffon Cake

I bought 4 mini Chiffon cake tin on Thur & today from Daiso, that was the motivation behind me for the chiffon bake today. So far I only get 1 successful chiffon bake. What about today ... hmmm mix mix lor. I bake 4 mini chiffon cake but only 3 of them turn out quite well, the other not so lor ... why ????

Cos i went to wrap the cake tin with a alumimum foil to prevent leakage. (hahah ... me really 画蛇添足) By doing that my cake base was not probably bake only the top layer can be eaten.

Another mistake i made was, i forgot to add in the flour just before pouring the batter into the bake tin. (aiyo so forgetful... sign of age). Thanksfully the result of the cake still turn out well, though with some hipcup here and there.
I uses Rei, Alex Goh recipe and modifiy a little here and there and now becomes like this ...

Ingredient
(A)
4 eggs yolks
30g castor sugar
1/4 tsp salt
40g canola oil (alternative choice veg / corn oil)
130g UHT milk
3 tbsp Milo
1/2 tbsp cocoa powder

(B)
* 120g cake flour
* 1/2 tbsp baking powder
* sift 2 x

(C)
5 egg whites
80g castor sugar } mix
1/2 tsp cream of tartar }

Method

1. Mix (A) until well blend. Add (B) and mix well
2. In a separate bowl whisk egg whites in (C) until soft peaks form. Add in sugar & cream of tartar. Continue whipping until stiff (this process should be very quick)
3. Take 1/4 of the meringue and mix with the egg yolk mixture from step (1) until well combined. Add the remaining meringue and mix well.
4. Pour the batter into food cake tin and bake at 170c for 40-45 mins
5. Immediately remove from oven and invert the pan and let it cool
6. When it is cool, remove it from the mould

Ah Ping 1st attempt

Well Done ah Ping ! For your 1st attempt on Almond cupcake. Thanks for sharing with us.

Lobang

This is just right for fans like me.... check this out here S'pore Expo

Lizard Trap

Cool item i got - Lizard Trap. Lately, my house got so many lizard. So last night i decided to setup the trap, i have yet to find out what is the successful rate. (forgot to check this morning for the result) Anyway, here's how it look like.
Btw, i had done a couple of test. It has proven its effectiveness. I'm extremely happy with the result so were my family and went back to the departmental store to buy more.

Corn Muffins

My little helper

Here's the after bake, see pretty pose by mei

Here's where i got my source from Happy Cup

The texture was not as smooth can feel some cornmeal, maybe need to double sift the cornmeal. Other than that it taste alright, though not very much like Kenny Roger Corn Muffin.

Treat a Trick - 31 Oct 08

Didn't take much of Mei Mei picture as she was not really in a mood. Probably overwhelm by the large crowd and she even request to go home many times. As for Son ... he got lots of sweets & chocolate (so far no china made chocolate given :)

Halloween Butter Cupcake

Here's a quick bake for Halloween using half portion of my Marble Cake recipe. By removing the chocolate paste, it has turn into a good old butter cake.

This was my last minutes decision to bake some cupcake but i don't have much time for icing decor and the weather this afternoon was just too hot for me to go PH to buy the ready icing. So i just went to the computer and have the picture printed out instead. Still nice nice ah...

Happy Halloween !

Very excited as tonight my kids will be going treat a trick. This year my kids are more ready and dressed up for it.

Halloween orignated from Ireland but very much celebrated in America. Halloween was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) - commemorated the passing of the dead

The American tradition of "trick-or-treating". On Hallowmas the poor folks would go door to door to beg for food and receive food in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives on All Souls Day.

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

Pumpkin carving for America's Halloween celebration. Well there's many version of Jack-O-Lantern. Here's one ...
Irish folks have a legend of a drunken farmer name nicknamed "Stingy Jack", whose dealings with the devil led to him being turned back at both the gates of heaven and hell upon his death. Forced to wander the darkness of purgatory, Jack made an o'lantern from a turnip and lump of burning coal to guide his lost soul. History of the Jack O lantern

My favourite

Just bought this yesterday

Marble Cake

On saturday i did my mom favourite cheezy bread. The outcome was good and mom was very happy about it. Didn't get the picture taken :(

On sunday, my baked was marble cake. In fact this was the recipe i used, making my very 1st butter cake. Wander why such a small piece of cake right ? what happen to the rest of the cake. Well I baked that for my sister in law hubby birthday (again last minutes). With the left over batter, made them into cupcake.

Ingredients :
250 gm butter
230 gm castor sugar
4 eggs
250 gm self raising flour
1 tsp vanilla essence
6 tbsp UHT milk
1/2 tsp chocolate paste

Method :
1. Bake in 180c for about 50 mins
2. Beat Butter & sugar till white and fluffy
3. Add in eggs one at a time, alternating with flour
4. Add vanilla essence & milk
5. Portion out some batter and mix with chocolate paste

Take a step back what is the difference between these marble cake and the other marble cupcake ? Well i could said was the qty of egg used and milk difference. Other than that is the texture difference, to me both of the cake are equally good. Some of my friends have difference preference on those 2 cakes.

Go ahead and give it a try and see what is your liking.

Pandan Milk Bread

Here's where i got my inspiration Happy Cup. When it was baked the bread is kinda of soft and nice, i even spread some killiney kaya over it. Yummy ! I ate it right away after it was cool :p it was past mid night liao. It was supper for me after all the baking & washing up.

This morning when mom tried and said she misses my usual baked bread texture (using Alex Goh recipe) Hmmm will give it a shot again but ... i still got the luncheon bread recipe to try .... oh dear, i just can't decide now. I got too many things i wanted to bake and do now.... Probably will just depend on my mood mood than.


Though this recipe is eggless but it was very tasty.

Ingredient
178g milk
50g caster sugar
5g salt
250g bread flour
4g Instant yeast
38g canola oil
2 drop pandan paste

Method

1. I used the BM pre program to knead the dough (abt 1.5 hr)
2. Give a punch b4 shaping the dough into 12 mini balls and let it rest in room temperature for 15 mins
3. Flatten dough and roll out to swiss-roll style
4. Place dough on to the paper cup and let it proof for the 2nd time in enclosed area
5. Finally brush the dough with milk & sugar before sending it into the oven
6. Bake at 190c for 20 - 25 mins