White chocolate cheesecake and lemon cream cheese cupcakes

Merry Christmas to all visiting my blog. Ya, its christmas, but I am not capable of baking a log cake so with an expiring packet of white droplet chocolate and Philly cheese (good offer in NTUC now), I tried the white chocolate cheesecake from 孟老师's book.

The cake is a little on the sweet side, perhaps due to the white chocolate. Its also a little harder than those cheesecakes that I tried from coffee joints. My kids can't even finish a small piece, but they can finish the whole piece (which is bigger) bought from the coffee joints. This probably means that the cake isn't to their liking too. Had problem with the white chocolate too. The instructions told me to melt it and have it on standby ... I melted it and took it out of the hot water and it turns hard again when I am ready to use it. However, I am surprised that I cant turn the harden white chocolate back to "melted" state.

Here's the white chocolate cheesecake.


Besides the white chocolate cheesecake, my friend has provided me with a lemon cream cheese cupcake recipe. It's straight forward and doesn't require mixer so I went ahead to try out too. The cupcakes rises a little in the oven but sank when they are cooling, however, my friend's did not sink.

The cupcakes are so soft and light, and they taste fantastically nice. Both my kids had two on the first try. The down side is the sugar and butter involved. My friend advise to cut down on sugar and butter, so will have to try the recipe again with new proportion.

Here's how they looked. (Sorry, I do not know how to "collage" them)





吃完了凤梨芝士蛋糕，看到那包白巧克力在二月就要到期了，赶紧翻查食谱，就在孟老师的书里找到用到白巧克力和芝士的食谱。我的白巧克力乳酪蛋糕就诞生了。这蛋糕超甜，还好只是个6寸的，一人一小片，再给我妈和老弟，第二天就解决了。用剩的100克芝士刚好用在一位朋友给的柠檬芝士小蛋糕。这个小蛋糕真赞，不知怎么形容，反正好吃就对了。我孩子还一口气吃两个。

Pineapple cheesecake

Made this cake because I have the ingredients at hand.
This is an easy recipe from the "Easy Stir n Bake Cakes' book by Kevin Chia.
I became the proud owner of 3 new cake making books 2 weeks ago and one of them is this. This book's recipes guarantee 100% success rate (just what I need, isn't it?). I especially love this book because the recipes do not require mixer, just require simple mixing or a few stirs, perfect for lazy people like me.

I had not much of a trouble at all throughout the whole process, and my boy loves the cake so much that he asked for 2nd helping. He even ask me to bake it again.

After trying two recipes from this book, I really did not have any trouble getting good tasty cake. Perhaps all thanks to the extra baking powder, bicar, alot of oil and alot of egg. My mother says, all cakes with alot of oil and eggs taste good. So, I should start to experiment with same recipes by putting in less oil.

So I share with you the recipe and my bake below.

Ingredients

180g cream cheese
120g caster sugar
90ml corn oil
3 eggs
130g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
170g canned pineapple (diced)

Method

1) Grease and line a 10cm x 20cm (4 x 8 inches) loaf pan. Preheat oven to 170dC.
2) Stir cream cheese and sugar over simmering water until soft and smooth. Remove form heat. Stir in oil and eggs until well combined.
3) Combine flour, baking powder and soda. Fold into cheese mixture together with pineapple dices until well blended.
4) Spoon mixture into prepared pan. Bake in oven for 40 - 45 minutes or until cooked. Stand for 10 minutes and turning on to wire rack to cool.






超市的芝士有折扣，所以赶紧买了两块回来（还是最后的两块，幸好我手快）。加上打算拿来做比萨的罐头黄梨，这“凤梨起司蛋糕”就诞生了。它是个手拌式蛋糕，食谱出自于蔡高晋老师的书，书名“手拌式蛋糕”。我这个懒虫，最喜欢易做，少功夫的事，况且还是100巴仙成功率的食谱。可惜，这些食谱的油和蛋份量蛮多，相信日后需要尝试看减少油的份量，否则我不久就会升级变超级大肥妈了。

p/s : Sorry, somehow the features for formatting my text is gone, so I can only arrange the recipe as neat as I can.

Pumpkin cakes and more pumpkin cakes

Since the school holiday started, I am busy in bringing the kids out and about, so did not really bake alot. Anyway, the kids accepted my pumpkin "cup"cake so I tried the recipe again since I did not add ground hazelnut previously. The kids still like it. Good :). I still bake in cups since it is more convenient.

My sister in law also tried her hands on the same recipe, and her cake look more like the one printed out in the book. I am thinking if it makes a difference grating the pumpkin or shredding it by knife so I baked two batches on last friday night.

Indeed, the pumpkin in the batch where pumpkin is shredded by knife shows well but not in the grated batch. Anyway, both taste nice. I gave some to my friend whom I met on saturday morning and she gave good reviews.

This time, I only put in 100ml of oil. The cakes still taste good to me.

I still have half of a big pumpkin in the fridge. Mother in law gave it to me. I am sick of doing the same thing .. so got to look for new recipes.

Here's two samples from a batch with ground hazelnut. I did not picture any from the last batch since its the same thing.




学校假期开始后，我忙着带孩子出去走走， 所以并没有专注于烘焙。不过，上回的南瓜蛋糕没用ground hazelnut, 所以这次特别买来加进去。我也减少了油，只放了100ml. 我还是在星期五的晚上大概十点才开工，因为想隔天拿些给朋友试吃。还好朋友与她家人都说不错。虽然我孩子还是喜欢，但我还是要用别的食谱来解决还在我冰橱的那半粒南瓜。

Couch potato - chinese dishes

This is not the name of some bakes. I just finished watching Kylie Kwong on Discovery channel - Travel and living. This is one of my favourite channel where I catch programs from travel and cooking. Kylie cooked Kung Bao chicken, and Ma Po To Fu and a few other dishes today. The seasonings she put into the dishes are namely brown sugar, then soy sauce to balance the sweetness and then black vinegar to balance the oil, then the chinese wine and sesame oil. It seems like a standard, and all the dishes looks shiny with the oil coating the ingredients. So lovely looking. How to be healthy when tasty dishes are often pretty oily. My mother used to tell me that my grandma would always tell her to cook with alot of oil, else the dish would not taste good. My mother in law's dishes are often oily too .. but of cos they are tasty.

Another program that I always watch is Nigella Express. Can often pick up some tips here and there, but I usually do not jot down and they get forgotten. Anyway, if I am to use pre washed ingredients, ready made ingredients, with all the right utensils lying around readily to be pick up and used, and do not need to do wash up after that, I believe cooking will be much enjoyable and fast too.

Ok, I just want to jot down what I have seen in Kylie's program just now.

Kung Bao Chicken (only manage to see her start from stir frying the chicken)
She mentioned corn flour coating the chicken pieces making them shiny. I think she then add the peanuts, then the seasonings, then the dried chilli, then dish up.

Ma Po Tou fu
She start with pounding a chilli paste with dried chilli flakes and szechuan peppercorns. Add oil to bind the mixture. Heat up the wok with oil, then stir fry garlic and ginger, then the prepared chilli paste. In goes the minced meat, then soy sauce and then water to "create" the sauce. I forgot what is the order of the standard seasonings thou. Then in goes the diced tofu, quick stir and dish up.

She also stir fry a dish of shitake mushroom with tomato. Looks good, but mushroom with tomato? Cant remember much of the dish now. *sigh* Thats how short my memory is. But I think the final picture of the dishes has carrot and sugar snap or snow pea.

I am not a good cook or baker, but I can sit all day just to watch all the cooking programs.

Pumpkin cake in cups

I chanced upon this pumpkin cake from the blog (Pure enjoyment) by KWF.
I always like mixer free bakes, and pumpkin is a very nutritious fruit/vegetable that I would like my kids to take. They do not like pumpkins cooked in anyway (so do I) and since they love cakes, this would be a good try to get them take in pumpkin. I have learnt that the size of cake pan matters in the success rate of the cake, but I really do not have the right size loaf pan, so I give it a try with the cups. I chose the original recipe but replace caster with brown sugar since I feel that brown sugar is healthier.

Look at the shimmering tops of the pumpkin "cup" cake. A pity I did not take note of the time that I use躲 on this batch.



My girl and hubby love it, so did my mother. I also gave a few to my boy's classmate's mummy and she too commented that it is good. I think it is a little too sweet (not sure if its the sugar or pumpkin, but the raw pumpkin is sweet) and it is too oily ... perhaps I have omited the ground nuts, thats why? My boy didn't really like the taste, and I am not sure if it is the aroma from the brown sugar. I told him I will give it a go with caster sugar just for him.

I have just gotten hold of ground hazelnut and the right size loaf pan. Will buy pumpkin tomorrow then will have to find a time to bake it. I think I am also going to get this book.

Here's the dissected pumpkin cake.



南瓜是一种营养丰富的瓜果，但我和家人都不爱吃煮炒方式的南瓜，所以看到这则南瓜蛋糕食谱，非常兴奋。
以上图片就是成果了。不知是黄糖味重还是什么，唯有我儿子不爱。我朋友也说好吃。那南瓜本是甜的，所以不知那蛋糕的甜是来自黄糖还是南瓜。还有就是油了点，但不知是否是因我没放花生粉。
明天我就要去买南瓜，加上刚买的花生粉，用普通糖，再做一次来诱我儿子。
有谁知道南瓜可生吃吗？因我爱上生南瓜！

Play Cheat Chilli Tuna Puff

I came across a blog or somewhere in the net that
mention using roti prata to make the skin of curry
puff, so since I have two frozen prata slices, i open
a can of chilli tuna and try it out.

I have to half the round prata, wait for a while for
the skin to thaw, put in the filling, fold and seal
it by using a fork to press all round the edges. Then
egg wash the puff and send it to oven.

I made 4 puffs with the pratas, only one is presentable,
cos by trial and error, I only manage to seal my puff
properly with the ok amount of filling. Anyway, after
baking for sometime, the puff still breaks open (goes
to show that I did not seal it properly still) due to
the "boiling" chilli tuna sauce (guess I must drain more
of the sauce off).

Another problem is that the puff are flat on one side
since it is place flat on the baking tray ... so still
not so presentable leh.

Anyway, can eat can liao, fast and good and tasty.
Maybe next time try other filling.

最近不知何故，总感觉很累所以少上网。这puff是我十月尾尝试的。做法
再简单不过，最适合我这种懒人。就只是拿现成印度煎饼当puff皮，里边
放料，包起，外皮涂蛋液，就放进烘炉。这是我在网上看到的做法但我已
不知资料源头在哪儿了。不过，成品是好吃的。

A report on 2 past "projects"

Wao, its almost a month that I have not been baking. No doubt
I hope to start baking frequently soon, but I have other jobs
at hand at the moment, plus a lousy mood these few weeks.

I have previously baked the "Mash potato cheese muffin"
featured in small small baker's blog. Not very successful
(like not well cooked and cheese is burnt!) , so I will not talk
about it here till I get it done well enough. But this muffin is
really very tasty, even my kids asked me to bake again. I
guess they love the cheese taste.

Then I tried my hands on self made ice cream (which is my
favourite food). I made toblerrone ice cream using the recipe
from small small baker too. It really taste so yummy and rich.
I find that it has the texture of italian gelato that I have eaten
in italy during my honeymoon many years ago. My mum thinks
it really taste like ice cream, but my hubby said it did not make
him want to eat more when he finish a small portion (even
thou he said it is tasty). Anyway, I am happy I can make ice
cream. Here's mine.



最近心情不是很好，又忙于一些琐碎事所以没烘焙。不过几天
前还是在晚上烘了small small baker 介绍的mash potato
cheese muffin。但是成品不理想，所以不提了。
然后我跟着small small baker 的冰淇淋食谱自制冰淇淋想讨
自己欢心。虽然没人能证实我的冰淇淋成功否，但我妈妈吃了
说好吃，像。除了老公。他说虽好吃，但吃了却没有想再吃。
其实那不是更好，我可以独吞。哈哈。

Lemon curd cake recipe

Sorry for the lateness. Tired + busy + away from home + sick
so ..... (but still no excuses hor)

Anyway here's the recipe for the Lemon curd cake
(from Phoon Huat)

Ingredients for sponge cake (make 2 8" or 9" pan)

Egg Yolk                                                     5 nos
"Red Man" Caster Sugar                         35 gm
Egg white                                                   4 nos
"Red Man" Caster Sugar                         35 gm
Lemon Skin and juice                               1 nos
"Red Man " Cake flour                             120 gm
"Gold Tree" Butter Unsalted (melted)  25 gm

Method

1. Mix egg yolk and sugar until creamy.
2. Mix egg white and sugar until soft peak.
3. Mix 1 and 2 mixture together and add in lemon juice and
    skin, slowly add in flour and melted butter.
4.  Pour into tray and bake at 190dC for 15 minutes.

Ingredients for Lemon Curd Filling

Lemon juice                                                50 ml
"Gold Tree" butter unsalted                     75 gm
"Red Man" Fine sugar                               100 gm
egg                                                                 3 nos
Mllac Cream                                                250 gm
"Red Man" Gelatine Powder                      15 gm
water                                                             45 ml

Method

1. Whisk lemon juice, sugar and egg on the stove until thick and
    little boil.
2. Add in gelatine and mix well.
3. Add in soft butter and mix well until cool.
4. Lastly mix with whipped cream.
5. Pour half of the filling on the sponge, repeat the process
    1 more time, chilled before serve.

I hope you all understand the recipe posted above as I do not
have time to rephrase it clearer. I had problem understanding
it cos I am not the one who went for the demo. Anyway I find
that their instructions are not very detailed, so for that only
time I went, I jot down alot of my own notes. Furthermore,
the chef in the demo class change the measurement during the
class at times.

Anyway, the one I made taste alright. I wish you all the best.
Got to get some sleep now.

Lemon Curd Cake

Oh, this close up reveals all the flaws.

This cake is made with a recipe from Phoon Huat. My mother
who went for the demo, brought back a tiny piece and my kids
like it, so requested for it.

The taste of the lemon curd is very refreshing, and nice. The
sponge cake base is still very soft, even thou my cake
collapsed and was dense at the bottom. It is suppose to be a
sponge base, lemon curd filling, sponge layer, lemon curd filling
cake, but I made this in the morning where I have to rush off
to somewhere after lunch, so it is very rush. Infact, I was
cooking the lemon filling and cooking my pasta lunch at the
same time. Anyway, my sponge cake base is too flat to be spilt
into two layers, so I just pour the filling on top.

I must say, the cake base is really very soft and light. I like
this cake very much, but the whip cream, the butter, the eggs
are all quite fattening.   Wondering will lemon offset the
effect.

Will update recipe later, too tired to type now.

Orea Yogurt Cake with Chocolate Crumbles

So, did the chocolate crumble scare u? Ya, those are suppose
to be chocolate crumble, but I am not sure did I do it correctly.
It is so difficult to rub butter into flour to make crumbs like
texture, and since it is so wet, so I just add flour and add flour
and add flour till I see sandy, crumb like texture. Then I just
bake as required by the recipe and sprinkle them onto the
yogurt filling top and the sides (cos I have alot of them).

This is a Oreo yogurt cake, made from following recipe in
Happy Homebaking's website. She has done hers so nicely
and I am tempted to make one since I have to use up my
yogurt (really sick of my chocolate marble cake). Usually I do
not have much problem with non bake cake, but this time I
find jelly like substance at the bottom of the filling. Anyway,
its edible, so I just ignore it for the time being.

Non bake cakes are always welcomed by my kids, so I had no
problem in finishing the cake.

不知要笑我不自量力，还是夸我勇于尝试。不好好安分做些简单
反而去自找麻烦。 不过没法啦，得用完我的那一大罐 无糖yogurt，
所以除了那个失败多次的巧克力蛋糕，我就来一个冷的蛋糕，
因为孩子喜欢冷品，所以希望能快点儿解决那个yogurt.

这回上场的是Happy Homebaking 的 Oreo Yogurt Cake.
本来不必烘的蛋糕，我是没什么问题的，但这次不知为什么，
蛋糕的yogurt馅的底部有jelly的踪迹。反正是熟的，就不管啦。
白白的蛋糕，怕有点儿吓人，所以也有样学样，尝试chocolate
crumble (这就是我不自量力的地方）。结果就是以上的样子，
过程我就不想多说啦。

可不可告诉我，我是不自量力， 还是勇于尝试？不过，连续三次
同样的蛋糕，我真的吃腻了。

A much better try now

My kids have been asking for Zebra cake. They told me,
"Mummy, practice make perfect" (erm, this is what I told my
boy on his music practice). However, I got to use up the yogurt
and to try Happy Homebaking's recipe which has different
metric of measurement (of the same recipe that I failed), so 
here I am, the low fat chocolate marble cake again.


 Sorry, I took a big bite.

Now did u see that this time is better? However, I think I can
still see traces of greenish colored parts randomly somewhere.
The cake still sank abit when cooling. *sigh* Must find out
what's wrong. Hubby commented that all my cakes sank.
Anyway, not that I am giving up, but I think I had enough
eating the same cake in such a short time thou it is really tasty.

The next time I bake this cake, I must remember to buy a
smaller tub of yogurt, or perhaps try a vanilla flavour one,
and to use a round baking pan then a loaf pan since the round
pan give a better result (or perhaps I am lucky this time).

看到了吗？这次还可以吧。不过其实我还是看到某些地方好象
没熟透， 不过我已烘了很久，蛋糕底部就快要焦了。我已吃腻了，
过些日子再尝试吧。 不过， 一定要记得用 Happy Homebaking
的食谱。

Another go at the Low Fat Chocolate Marble cake

I got a big tub of no sugar added, natural yogurt and its too
"sour" just to eat it on its own, so I am trying to use it on
baking.

Looked through my blog and found the low fat chocolate
marble cake uses yogurt .. but that wasn't such a successful
bake. Didn't manage to find any recipe that interest me that 
night and so I 've got no choice for the time being.

Had a hard time making this cake cos I got other housework
in between. Similarly, the result is not very satisfactory.
The cake rose but sank when cooling down. Cracks form on
top. However, I tented it this time so the top isn't so hard.

Upon cutting, I still find moist moist part at the bottom of
the cake. Am still unsure if the part results from the sinking
of cake or uncooked ( inital temperature is correct but not
sure if it changes in that one hour cos I can't see the
thermometer .. but I baked it for at least 1hr 15 min
liao). Furthermore, the cake has shrink away from the loaf
pan and the skewer comes out clean.
Anyway cooked or uncooked, they still went down my
family's members' tummy.

Look at that dreadful moist moist patch. (Sorry to my friends
and readers for all my nasty looking bakes)


It so happen that I am browsing other websites prior to
writing this post and guess what, Happy Homebaker has
adapt this recipe and tweak it to make her son's birthday
cake and its such a success. There are also more successful
stories on this cake while I ..........

Well, with the tub of yogurt sitting in my fridge, I can always
try this recipe again. This time I will follow Happy
Homebaker's recipe which has measurements in kg and ml
rather then cups. Perhaps, I will also use this recipe to make
my girl her bday cake in Oct, or my mum's bday cake in sept
(my mum only fancies cake that are filling)

Wish me luck.

又是一个不成功的蛋糕 （有图为证）。第二次了，还是这样。
材料还有，如再次尝试，要跟Happy Homebaker 的食谱了。
 

Banana Cake (2nd try)

I think I am successful in the banana cake the first time round.
This time, I give it a go again and omit the wholemeal flour
since the family don't like it. I also did not use Del monte type
of banana.

I am expecting it to look and taste as good as the previous try
but ...... so dissappointed, the cake looks very wet or rather
moist? ( sure cooked since i bake it for more than an hr).
It is more wet at the bottom of the cake, which looks like
banana all sinked to the bottom.

Anyway, the rest of my family like it. Now I must go and
请教 the experts on why is it kind of wet.

Here's the banana cake from this round.

Egg tarts after a long break

My kids requested for egg tarts. Its has been a long time since
I bake them because my mother usually is the one who makes.
My mother doesn't come over to help me now, so I have to do
the job myself this time.

I have used my mother's amended recipe. Ingredients wise are
the same, except that she adjusted the recipe to be able to
produce 18 egg tarts instead of the usual 10.

I am still too lazy to wash my mixer, so i hand cream my butter
and sugar. So tiring! I stopped to rest many times before I am
satisfied with my batter. My mum came over while I am
baking the first batch of 9 egg tarts, and she carried on with the
2nd batch while I cook dinner.

I can't remember during the first time that I bake, did my
egg custard bloat up. Anyway, all my mum's and this time's
bloated high up and of cos sink back when the tarts are out
from the oven. I also noticed that the crust are very soft
after a day. It should be due to the flour used. Perhaps I
should change to use plain flour instead of cake flour.

The first picture shows the first batch and 2nd showed the 
2nd batch. 2nd batch has sunken centres. Perhaps the first
batch isn't baked for long enough, so the rise of egg custard
is not high, thus doesn't sink as low. Anyway, they are as
tasty and were eaten all up in no time. Infact, the 2nd day
she baked another batch for my cousin who came by to
taste the egg tarts (and of cos take some home).

 
Not sure what is wrong with the bubbled centre.


The sunken centre.

我的孩子叫我做他们其中之一的最爱--蛋塔。我已好久没做
蛋塔了， 因为我做了一次后，我妈就接手了这个任务。她把
食谱的份量改了，从十个到十八个， 因为十个真的不够我们
吃。
我自己（我妈没来帮我了）好久才把糖和牛油打发， 因为用手
力，而且停了很多次来休息双手。没关系啦，努力后的成果总
是甜的嘛。

A disastrous pandan chiffon cake

This is actually the third try on pandan chiffon cake. First time
on a square tray ended with malay kueh. 2nd time is a happy 
"sort of successful" pandan chiffon baked on a tube pan, and
today, its so sad .......

I used the full recipe(and even the pandan paste is not omited),
intending to make the remainders into cupcakes since mine is
not a 9 inch tube pan.

Happy churning out the egg yoke mixture, then follow by
beating the egg whites. This part is known to be very difficult
esp for newbies like me. I stopped the mixer so many times,
chking if its the right state. In the end, I stopped when I see
that the beaten egg whites are somewhat quite stiff.

I fold a little of the beaten egg whites into the egg yolk mixture
first, then a little again, then I pour the remain of the egg white
mixture and start trying to blend them while folding gently.

I filled the tube pan up to about two third full then pop it into
the oven. Half way through the baking, the top starts to crack.
I prepared the aluminium foil and tent it so that the top will
notget burnt.

It rose beautifully and after ard an hour and 10 minutes, I
finally took it out. The satay stick did not come out clean
after 45 minutes, so I carry on baking even after the stated
baking time.

I admire the cake for a very short while then invert it. Perhaps
its a small batter, so the cake did not rise beyond the centre
tube. After a while, I went to check on the cake and I saw the
ugly centre. The cake has sunk drastically in the centre.
Could it be due to egg whites not beaten enough?
Could it be due to too much folding?
Could it be due to sifting of flour (I only sift into the mixture,
meaning only one sift)?
Could it be the knock on top of the oven (I dropped my whisk
there)?
After reading through the recipe's owner's QnA (comments),
I think any of the above could have contributed to the sunken
centre. Could also be that my cake is not really cook through.

Anyway, will try it again since I love chiffon cake. My kids
enjoy the cake this time, and I think its not difficult to finish
the remaining quarter of the cake tomorrow. 

Now, I have to be contented with the beautiful skin of my 
sunken pandan chiffon cake.




chiffon 蛋糕模买了只用了一次，所以今天又买齐材料动工。
第一次，我用四方模，不成功。第二次用chiffon 蛋糕模，算还
可以。这次又不行了。蛋糕的中间陷了下去。这问题的原因可
有几个。 可能蛋白打不好，或蛋糕没熟透，又或。。。。
不过味道依然很好，现在那蛋糕只剩几片，明天就会没啦。
我会再尝试。。。。。。

Cookies and cream cupcakes (2nd try)

Kids asked for oreo muffins, so I bought a pack of oreo cookies
with chocolate and peanut cream, ready to make another
batch of cookies and cream cupcakes.

As I did it in the night and want to minimise noise, I did
everything manually. Hand cream the butter and sugar, then
add in egg one by one, then fold in the flour. The mixture did
curdled at first after I add in the egg, but after some vigorous
beating, the mixture went back to the batter form.

I did only half the recipe, so doing it manually is still acceptable.
I reduce the sugar further to 90g as I put the peanut and
chocolate cream (the cream between the cookies) into the
cupcake as "fillings" rather then throwing them away.

The outcome : taste same as the previous try, however the
look of them are disastrous (so no picture this time). Think I 
filled the cup a little too much, or perhaps the "fillings" bubbled
inside, so I ended up with little volcanoes during the baking
process.

No matter how they looked, the kids still love to eat. My cousin
get to try a little of it today (I made them 2 days ago) and she
like it too. Will be making them soon again for her.

孩子会要求了。他们叫我做oreo muffin。于是我买了oreo 饼，在
一个比较空闲的晚上动工。

这次我没浪费饼干里的cream。我把它们当馅料放进cupcake里。
大概我把cupcake面糊放得太满了，或是馅料滚起，我的cupcake
就像火山爆发，成品的样子有点儿不雅观 （所以没照片）。还好，
味道还是很好。孩子喜欢就好，不是吗？

Fresh from the oven - Brownie Muffin

It wasn't until I finished baking them just this morning that
I realised I  have baked them before.

The recipe is scribbled in my notebook, and I find the steps
easy so wanted to do it with my boy.

Very happy that my boy enjoyed himself and very happy
with myself that I can still manage to prepare lunch with this
baking session on.

Here are the lovely sinful, fattening muffins.


Please check out the recipe from JY's Baking Journal.

Like she say, the muffin is moist inside and has a crusty top.
Best of all, I do not need the mixer. However, the batter is
quite thick, so spooning into my muffin cups is a challenge.

好开心今早与孩子烘了些巧克力马芬。这食谱非常简单，
不需搅拌机，所以孩子很开心能帮上忙。赶快点击这里， 与孩
子一起做，促进亲子关系吧。

2nd try on Zebra cake

This zebra cake is indeed tasty. The whole family still likes to
eat.

With the failure of this try, I think I can conclude that the
chocolate sinks into the bottom of the cake cos it is too dense.
Will try to reduce the cocoa powder the next time.

Of cos it could be due to the fact that I alternate the batter
too slowly, but i did that slowly because the chocolate layer
spread out real slow. Heres the look of the 2nd trial.



So, this time, from the look of the cake, I can say I am half
successful, since the "zebra stripes" did stretch almost halfway.

The owner revised her recipe. Please visit her website for the
revised version.

我又尝试那可口的“斑马蛋糕”了。这次大概可以算是成功了

一半吧， 因为可见半条斑马条纹。巧克力那部分或许还是太

浓了。希望下次就百分百成功吧。食谱有所更改，请点击这里

查详。

My Tiramisu

If you did not see the title, would you know that this is
Tiramisu?

Ok, this is my version of tiramisu. I am trying to do a version
that my kids can eat. My friend has a chocolate version, so
I followed her no egg recipe, and with her tips on how to
convert it to a chocolate one, I made mine.

Basically, I am lazy and wouldnt want to use the mixer, so
I manually whisk both types of cheese together. Then I added
melted chocolate chips to make the chocolaty cream. Not too
sure why (must ask my friend), some of the melted
chocolate solidify into bits (my cheese mixture is not that cold)
and I stirred in icing sugar instead of normal sugar (afraid
that the sugar will not dissolve). Anyway, I leave the cheese
mixture with the chocolate bits.

I go on to make the chocolate dip instead of the coffee dip.
My friend has asked me to use cocoa powder with milk and
sugar but I play cheat, use milo and milk only.

Finally, able to assemble my tiramisu. Not wanting to use
cocoa powder to dust the cake, cos worry its too bitter for
the kids, so I use milo powder again. After all that hours of
chilling in the fridge, the milo powder seemed to soak up some
moisture (not sure from where) and the look on top isn’t pretty
anymore.

Luckily, my kids love the cake, they already had two small
helpings tonight.

猜到图片里的蛋糕是tiramisu吗? 为了让孩子也能吃，我用了
我朋友的巧克力食谱， 但又没完全跟从。我怕巧克力粉太苦，
就改用milo粉。加溶解了的巧克力进芝士里头， 好成为巧克力
芝士cream，但液体巧克力却凝固了，造成cream里头有巧克力
bits. 不管怎么样，孩子爱吃就好。

Piping flowers

I had fun piping. Bought a piping set from Daiso long time back,
but never like to eat cake with cream, so never had the chance
to try it out.

Bought some traditional cakes from neighbourhood bakery
shops, those with piped flowers and sweet gel... my kids like
them and i told them i will make some for them.

I am lazy to make the sponge cake, so my mum made for me
using premix, but we are not very good at slicing cake into two,
so spent a long time on that part and leaves no time to make
coloured buttercream.

Thanks to my friend, Joyce, who helped me with making the
buttercream. I am lazy to use mixer as I only wanted a small
amount, so I whipped by hand. I added peanut butter to the
cream but the color contrast is not so obvious.

My kids love the cakes .. must be the piped patterns. Its
something new to them. Above are the designs I tried before 
I rush off to pick up my boy from school.

Its fun, will try to do again. This time I want to get other tips.
The ones I got are too big to make little designs.

用手劳动。打发了些牛油，加了花生酱，挤了些花样上妈妈烘
的海绵蛋糕。还过得去？

Giant chocolate chip cookies

I find the picture quite nice, but a pity the cookie not well done.
I can still see the brownish raw sugar sticking around. The
cookie is also quite hard, perhaps overbaked?

Its so difficult to decide if the cookie is done since it is chocolate
in color.  Had to do chocolate chip cookie cos my chips are
expiring.

Here's the recipe, taken from the only baking book that i have.

Giant Choc Chip Cookies

Ingredients :
175g/6oz self raising flour
25g/1oz cocoa powder
75g/3oz soft-tub salted butter or margarine
50g/2oz granulated sugar
50g/2oz golden caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
50g/2oz plain chocolate chips
25g/1oz white chocolate chips
2 tsp milk

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180dC/350F/Gas 4.
Lightly grease two baking sheets. Sift the flour and cocoa into
a bowl.

2. Place all the ingerdients (except the chocolate chips) into a
bowl and mix thoroughly to make a soft dough. Gradually 
work in the chocolate chips.

3. Place 6 large spoonfuls of the mixture, well apart, on each
baking sheet and flatten slightly with the back of a wetted
spoon.

4. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes until risen, light golden and just
firm to touch. Leave on the trays to firm up 2-3 minutes, then
lift on to a wire rack to cook using a palette knife.

So .. after reading the recipe, easy right ? No need mixer, just
dump everything in a bowl and mix. But I still failed leh.
Infact, the recipe say the biscuit will expand, and ask me to
put the biscuit well space out, but mine did not spread.

Did this last thursday, but till today the biscuit still around.
Hubby and kids both like the cookies, but I have stored it
away from sight so no one ate it.

总是无法做好巧克力饼干。 都是黑黑的，很难确定是否烘熟了。
这次，糖又没溶，饼又有些硬。希望能做多些，从失败中学习。

Inari Sushi

Nothing about baking on this post, but want my friends who
read my blog to know what crazy thing I have done today. 
Did you notice anything wrong with the inari?

My kids love eating sushi. I love making sushi, but it is really
alot of work and the sushi get all eaten up before I even 
finish rolling and cutting them. Ya, I am a slow coach.

The easiest sushi to make (in my opinion) is the inari. Buy
ready pack soya pockets, stuff cooked rice, my kids will be
happily munching away. But the NTUC near my house do not
sell the ready made pockets, and i have to travel to Giant to
get them. I don't always have the time to travel to Giant just
to get the pockets. So finally, i decide to make my own using
chinese tofu puff.

I search the internet for recipes and finally decided on this.
3 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons Mirin or sweet Japanese cooking wine
1 and ¼ cup Dashi or fish stock

1. I soaked the tofu puffs in boiling water to remove oil.
    Squeeze them dry.
    (by now I had a feeling that I am stupid to do that cos the
      puff is so absorbent, worried it will soak up all the sauce)

2. Combine the above ingredients accept dashi stock (cos I
    don't have). Put the tofu puffs into the boiling sauce and let
    it simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes, on a slow heat.

3. I leave them to cool in the pot after 20 minutes and by the
    time I want to squeeze the puff dry, the sauce are all
    soaked up. About 1.5 tablespoon sauce are squeeze out
    after that.

So, thats the soy pockets I made. The puff are rough, not like
the japanese's, but of course, since it is chinese tofu puff. Taste
wise, I think I will reduce a little soy sauce and sugar the next
round. Ya, I think I will do this crazy thing again, cos my hubby
and kids like it, and they do not mind the rough texture.
HA HA HA.

爱吃寿司吗？我爱，尤其是 inari sushi, 就是那种褐色包包，里头
包着饭的那种。我家附近的超市没卖现成的，所以想尝试用华人
豆卜来代替。在网上找了做法就动工了。味道还可以，不过咸了
点。孩子，先生都没嫌弃，也赞不错，所以以后就不必费时间到
偏远的大超市卖了。

Lovely Pearly Earrings

I never realise mixing pearl with crystal can be so pretty (ok, its
my own opinion).

Anyway, this earring is so simple to make. I hope to wear it
when i dress in a more girlish way.

Purposely chosen a simple earring hook. I think the previous
ones too old fashioned.

耳环漂亮吗？是我做的， 但不难哦。喜欢？去找材料自己做吧。
找我帮你做也可以哦。

Zebra Cake

My friend just baked zebra cake not too long ago. The name
sounds interesting so I got the recipe from her and finally
baked it yesterday. The ingredients are very simple, readily
available for anyone who bakes frequently, so not difficult
for me to decide when to bake it.

The recipe I noticed, is from the blog Farida’s Azerbaijani
Cookbook. Please refer to the site for recipe. The night before
I started baking, i did some searching, and realise some
recipes uses yogurt or condense milk. This recipe I refer to
only says milk, so I used fresh milk (worrying that the batter
might be too runny).

All the mixing is not difficult. I left the mixer to cream the eggs
(used 5 eggs since it requires 4 large ones but mine is not big)
and sugar for me while i measured the other ingredients. Then
I pour in the oil and milk (followed recipe to the T but it does
seems a huge amount of sugar and oil). The difficult part is the
mixing of flour cos the batter is already very full (ok my mixer
bowl is too small). The flour also get lumpy easily. Finally, it
came to the last part of preparing the batter for baking.

I have read that some batter are too watery that it runs over
the chocolate part, so i did my pouring slowly. I went,
white batter, wait, chocolate batter, wait, white batter, wait ..
till the pan is almost full. I did have lovely rings of alternating
white and chocolate. Then I remembered abt banging the cake
tin to remove air bubbles, so i went "thud thud thud" then put
the lovely looking cake into the oven and wait patiently for it
to bake and cool.

The cake still look lovely with the rings on top but the inside,
a disaster. This is how it looks.


I did not lie. There is really rings on top, can you spot it below?


Anyway, not sure if it has to do with the banging or the slow
pouring, that the denser chocolate batter sink down below.
No matter what, it is a tasty cake, infact, just enough sweetness.
I will try again to see if I can create the strips inside the cake.
I would like to thank the recipe owner for the lovely recipe.

烘了个斑马蛋糕。是什么东西？不清楚，可能是因为切了之后，
蛋糕里呈现斑马条纹吧。不过我失败了。蛋糕表面是有纹，但
里头就是半黄半黑的蛋糕。
现在我还不知哪儿出错。可能是我放进烘炉前，为了“除气泡”
敲击桌面所造成， 也可能是我倒粉糊太慢造成？巧克力粉糊
重，就沉底了。
但蛋糕味道好，糖虽多但甜度刚刚好。 我会再试一次看能否
成功。想看真正的斑马蛋糕就请劳驾到
http://azcookbook.wordpress.com/2008/02/15/zebra-cake/ 。

Update

Dear friends,

I am still around .. been not able to do much since kids are not
napping and not schooling. For the past one week, kids down
with fever and now still coughing (thus no Fathers' Day cake).
Been watching too much TV programs at night too and library
has this "double the books" promotion so I have alot of
beading books at home now and busy flipping them.

Hope I will be able to start my baking once the kids start
schooling again.

Meantime, take care.

Low Fat Chocolate Marble cake

Been not baking and kids are complaining they want to eat
cake. We have just finished a Sara Lee Chocolate Swiss pound
cake and that's the kids' favourite. So I went searching for a
pound cake recipe but knowing that pound cake is loaded with
butter, i search for a low fat one.

This one caught my eye, Low Fat Chocolate Marble cake from
here (Thanks Mandy). After reading, it doesnt seem too
difficult. It has yogurt as one of the ingredients and I know I
do not really like using yogurt, just don't quite like the texture
of the end product, but I guess, low fat, so no choice.

Everything went on quite smoothly, but I really don't know
how to make the swirl inside the cake, so I just mix the two
types of batter and get the kids to swirl the pattern on top.

In goes the cake, and the recipe says 45 minutes... but before
the time is up, the cake cracked.  I have to continue baking
cos the inside is not cooked. I ended up with a hard and burnt
crust. Anyway, the cake is still edible and with the chocolate
inside, it is still considered tasty. However, I noticed a greenish
patch at the bottom of the cake (did you spot it?) and am
wondering did that patch resulted from cake sinking after
cooling, or was it uncooked batter (told you i am still a newbie),
so I did not offer alot to my kids and eat most of them all up
myself (luckily the recipe says low fat).

Here's how it looks.


did you see the greenish "belt" below the chocolate part?

刚吃完Sara Lee的pound cake,孩子又吵要吃蛋糕，所以想
做个pound cake,但 pound cake 用很多牛油，所以找了个
low fat的巧克力云石蛋糕。
一切还算顺利， 直到烘烤时，还没够钟，蛋糕顶就裂开，里
面还没熟，所以就继续烘， 结果就有点焦了。
这蛋糕还真蛮好吃，但发现蛋糕底部有点青青的，不知是否
不熟，所以没给孩子多吃，自己把它给解决了（还好是低脂的)。

A Mothers' Day cake - Peach cheesecake

Another reason to bake a cake - Mothers' Day.

Read about this easy recipe at small small baker's blog. I
always like easy recipe, so even thou the cheese cost me $5
(so expensive, sob sob) but I still go ahead with this Peach
cheesecake.

Had a new heartshape loose bottom pan, 6 inch, just nice for
this recipe. Here's the cake.



Really very easy to complete (but I bake till the top cracked!),
very suitable for lazy people like me. One thing I find it
puzzling, biscuit base, fridge to harden, then bake it again
(the butter melt leh), so thou it turn out fine, but i feel the
biscuit base is a little soggy. Here's the cross section view.



Now I have the other half of cheese left, shd I make another
but omit the egg (cos i do not want to bake it)? I suppose the
egg act as a "binding agent" so if without the egg, will the
cheese and yogurt mixture bind? Or shd I make the cheese
muffin in  small small baker's last post. Thank you small small
baker for the recipes.

母亲节, 为自己烘了个芝士蛋糕. 步骤不难,不妨试试哦.

Banana chocolate cupcake

I have half a bunch of very ripe bananas hanging in my
kitchen, but our small family will not be able to finish
them in a day so I used them to make banana chocolate
cupcake, a combination of ingredients that I would like to 
try out for a long while.

It's a very simple recipe and I can't remember the source now
cos I just simply copy it out from the net in the wee hours.
Had the intention to do this with my kids but in the end,
I choose the easy way out.

Here's the recipe

1 1/2 cup self raising flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup melted butter or oil
1 cup milk
4-5 bananas finely chopped

Method :-

1.  Mix everything together till smooth and brown. Free of 
lumps.

2. Scoop into cups. Bake at 80 Dc for 25 minutes.

I had a problem thou, cos i m not sure how much is 4-5
bananas! Bananas come in all kind of sizes leh. Anyway, mine is
Del monte bananas. but medium size. Easy recipe rite?

So after mixing, i put the batter into cups and bake. I really
can't imagine, the batter is full of chopped bananas! I think
myself, this looks more like bake bananas then bake bananas
cupcake.

Anyway, the resulted cupcakes have quite a soggy inside,
perhaps from the bananas. Not sure if it shd be like that for
this reciepe, but my kids like it.

半串香蕉要烂了，所以拿来烘了banana chocolate cupcake.
做法不难，但我不太确定香蕉的分量怎么算，搅匀材料后，觉得
有很多香蕉。烘出来的cupcake 里头很湿。不管啦，孩子喜欢就
好。

Seaweed Round Cookies

I have seaweed sheets at home, and the picture in the recipe
book is so tempting that I went to buy seaweeds flakes to bake
the seaweed cookies.

This recipe, not easy for me ... I had problem rolling the dough
with seaweed sheets. I forgot about brushing the egg whites on
dough before putting the seaweed sheet. Would missing that
step contribute to the problem?

I also had problem cutting the roll since my knife is not sharp
enough. I have only these few pieces which are still
presentable.



The cookies are a little hard, not sure if i over bake them or
not, but my girl likes it. I find that they are only so so. I
think I will try just the dough with seaweed flakes the
next time if i use the same recipe.

Here's the recipe taken from 日本曲奇 Japanese Cookies.
Its a bilingual cookie recipe book.

Ingredients

80g butter
50 g caster sugar
1/2 egg
150g soft flour
1 slice of seaweed
1 teaspoon seaweed flakes
a little of egg white

Method
1. Soften butter under room temperature and whisk with
caster sugar till fluffy and creamy, then add beaten egg in and
mix thoroughly.

2. Sift soft flour and seaweed flakes, fold into (1) and knead
into dough.

3. Place the dough on a baking paper and brush a thin layer
of egg white on. Then place a slide of seaweed on top and
roll it up.

4. Chill the dough for around 2 hours until firm. Take it out and
cut into thick slides of around 0.5cm thick. Place them on a
baking tray that line with a baking paper.

5. Place the baking tray in an oven and bake at 170 dC for
15 - 20 minutes.

都说借了一本日式饼干食谱， 里头的食谱不象很难。这回
试做海苔圈心曲奇。 过程不是很顺利。紫菜片放了下去， 我
没办法把它卷得好。你看到的这几片是唯一样子过得去的。
卖相不好没关系，但我也觉得它不是很好吃。 肯定是我工夫
不到家吧。你们要试试， 然后教我几招。

Japanese cookies - coconut cookies and green tea cookies

Finally, after a cup of coffee and two cups of green tea in an
hour, that I manage to stay up to write this post.

Borrowed a cookbook on japanese cookies and the steps to
make them are not difficult so went ahead to try 2 kinds last
friday.

Here's the coconut cookie, followed by green tea cookie.

 

 
Both types are very crispy and taste just right, not too sweet
or not too bland.

Here are what I want to note.

Coconut cookies :
The pictures shown in the recipe book didn't look so sticky 
after mixing in the flour. But funny thing is, it doesnt stick to 
my hand when i mould it to balls.

Green tea cookies :
Suppose to fridge and use cookie cutter, but as it is near dinner
time, I do not hv time to press so just mould them, flatten
them and bake without even putting the dough back to frigde.
Furthermore, I hv to agak the cooking time.
The first batch of green tea cookies almost turn brown. The
second batch is quite alright. This dough is not as sticky as the
 coconut cookies too.

Here are the recipes from the book Japanese Cookies :-

Coconut cookies

Ingredients

110g butter
90g sugar
1/2 egg
20g shredded coconut
125g soft flour
a little of salt
10g shredded coconut (for topping)

Method

1. Soften butter under room temperature and whisk with
sugar until fluffy and creamy, add beaten egg in and mix well.

2. Sift soft flour and salt together and fold into (1). Then add
shredded coconut and knead into dough.

3. Divide the dough into smaller portions, each weighing 20g.
Knead the dough into a round shape, then dip shredded coconut
on and place them on a baking tray that line with a baking paper.

4. Put the baking tray in an oven and bake at 170dC for 15-20
minutes.

Green Tea Cookies

Ingredients

100g butter
55g caster sugar
1/2 egg
70g soft flour
80g bread flour
1/8g baking powder (not sure if there is a mistake here, i use
1/8 tsp instead)
1/8g baking soda (used 1/8 tsp too)
2 tbsp powdered milk
8g green tea powder

Method

1. Soften butter under room temperature and whisk with
caster sugar until fluffy and creamy, add beaten egg in and mix
well.

2. Sift soft flour, bread flour, baking powder, baking soda,
powdered milk and green tea powder together, fold into (1)
and knead into dough.

3. Place the dough on a baking paper and roll it to 0.5cm thick
with a rolling pin. Chill it for 30 minutes until firm.

4. Take out the chilled pastry and cut into the favourite shape.
Place the pastry on a baking tray that line with a baking paper
and bake at 170dC for 15-20 minutes.


借了一本日式曲奇的食谱。里头的食谱步骤不难所以就一次过
做了两种。这两种饼甜度刚好也很脆。我喜欢。

Delicious mango cake

I have emailed the owner for her/his permission to put a link
in my blog but has gotten no reply yet. I guess it should be
alright since it can be googled anyway.

Why make this mango cake. Its sunday and I need to find
something to do with the kids to pass time. No biscuits because
I don't want to clean up the mess, so i search for simple recipes.

I have to decide between banana and mango (my good friend
gave me 3 big sweet juicy ones). After some googling, I came
out with 2, but did not have the complete ingredients for
banana cake so I did the mango cake.

Its low fat and has easy steps.

Its a little too sweet for my liking, and I did not even fill up
the 3/4 cup of sugar. But guess what, the cake is all gone by
monday. I bring two pieces for my friends to try when I meet
them that afternoon. One of them like it very much and asked
me for the recipe. Funny thing is, I cant detect any mango
frangrant smell. Did I dice the mango too small? Must I use an
unripe mango?

Here's the cake.

找了两个很容易做的蛋糕食谱， 打算和两个孩子消磨星期日
的早上。因其中一个的材料不齐全， 所以就只能做芒果蛋糕。
它虽然没有芒果的香味，但蛋糕在星期一就被吃光了。我还在
想为什么会没有香味。

A birthday cake for my boy

Got a good excuse to bake a cake, for my boy turning 5.


He did the deco himself cos I cannot manage to have it done
up before he is back from school.

Initially I thought the cake I have in mind is a non bake
chocolate mousse (ya wanted to bake this cake in mind for
some time liao) but after looking at the recipe, realise it isn't
 and was having difficulty finding one last night, so stick with
this recipe.

The recipe looks simple enough, melt ingredients, mix dry into
wet, no need mixer, I am happy. However, it took me the
whole afternoon from 1 plus to 6 to have it completed.
I can only say it might be faster if I have a bigger oven to
bake the two layers together and probably have more mixing
bowls so that I do not need to do wash up in the middle of the 
session.

Every step smooth going, no hiccups till the melting of white
chocolate (first time using) and blending it into the melted
butter for the white layer. Took quite sometime for the white
chocolate to be dissolved (ya the chocolate harden) into the
butter mixture.

The cake batter is not watery. I baked it one layer at a
time instead of 1 and 1/4 hour for two layers together as
stated in recipe, so I am lost at how long should my cake be
baked. Anyway the skewer came out clean after ard 35
minutes for both the layers.

This recipe (see below) uses little self raising flour and 1 egg
(per layer) so the cake did not rise too much, and maybe I
bake a little too long? cos the chocolate cake cracked. It even
break into several pieces when i transfer the layer to another 
base. Anyway I piece the pieces back like jigsaw puzzle and
luckily there is a frosting to be done so all can be covered up.

The most tricky part is the frosting. I whipped up the cream
to stiff stage then blend in the melted white chocolate. The
frosting changed into watery state, so I had a hard time
"applying" the frosting. The frosting did not harden even
after 2 hours in fridge. What has gone wrong? How should I do
this part? Maybe I should add the melted chocolate into the
cream then whipped it up? Any advices?

Anyway, the frosting should also apply in between layers but
I am worried that it is not enough to cover the whole cake
(must hide flaws mah) so you can only notice the little white
trickles of cream down the chocolate layer.


This cake is too sweet to my liking, and I did not even measure
my cup of sugar to the brim! Maybe it is also "sweeten" by the
frosting. My dh says the frosting taste like condensed milk. I 
suppose you can call this a very rich cake cos chocolates are
used in the layers.

有了个很好的理由让我尝试新食谱。今天做了个生日蛋糕给
儿子。食谱看似不难，但我还是第一次用白巧克力，所以还是
花了我大半天。这蛋糕有点太甜了，而且两层都有用巧克力，
所以不能多吃，会腻。我看，还是物以稀为贵。

Celebration Cake
Preparation time : 45 minutes
Cooking time : 1 1/4 hours
Makes one double 20cm round cake

Dark layer
3/4 cup plain flour
2 tablespoons self raising flour
2 tablespoons cocoa
125g butter, cubed
125g dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup hot water
2 teaspoons instant coffee powder (I forgot abt this)
2 tablespoons brandy (I omited this)
1 egg, lightly beaten

White layer
3/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup self raising flour
125g butter, cubed
125g white chocolate, chopped
3/4  cup caster sugar
1/2 cup hot water
2 tablespoons brandy (I omited this)
1 egg, lightly beaten

White chocolate cream
125g white chocolate, chopped
1 cup cream (I used 200 ml pack for convenience)
chocolate curls, for decoration

1. Preheat oven to 160Dc. Brush two deep 20 cm round cake
tins with melted butter or oil, line base and sides with paper;
grease paper.

2. To make dark layer :
Sift flours and cocoa into large mixing bowl. Make a well in the
centre. Place butter, chocolate, sugar, hot water and coffee in
basin or top of double saucepan. Stir over barely smmering
water until chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth; remove
from heat. Cool and stir in brandy.

3. Add chocolate mixture and egg to dry ingerdients. Stir wth
a wooden spoon until just combined; do not overbeat. Pour
the mixture into one of the prepared tins.

4. To make white layer : Sift flours into large mixing bowl.
Make a well in the centre. Place chocolate in basin or top of
double saucepan. Stir over barely simmering water until
melted; remove from heat. Combine butter, sugar and water
in a small pan. Stir over a low heat until butter has melted
and sugar dissolved. Gradually blend into chocolate. Cool.
Stir in brandy. Continue as for step 3.

5. Bake both cakes for 1 1/4 hour or until skewer comes out
clean when inserted in centre of cakes. Stand cakes in tins 10
minutes before turning onto wire rack to cool.

6. To make white chocolate cream : Melt chocolate as for step
4. Cool. Add cream, beating constantly with an electric mixer.

7. Sandwich cakes together with half of the white chocolate
cream. Cover top of cake with remainder; decorate with
chocolate curls.

Pearl sandwiches

How did it looked on me? ;-)

Has been looking for these pearl beads for a long time and
chanced upon them on the last trip to chinatown.

This design is also not my idea, but a design i seen on a huge
advertisement in a shopping centre. However, it is
definitely not the same material used, maybe not even same
on how it is made.

Here's another look.


找了好久终于让我碰上这些半椭圆形的珠。这个设计来自一个
商场的大型广告， 但材料和做法肯定不一样。还可以吧？

biscuits

After the mickey biscuit failure .. I tried again. This time with
cutters from Daiso. I use the recipe from Happy Homebaking .
(thanks HHB, what would I do without you.)

I had no time to finish the dough, so i did it in two batches (not
sure if the dough can keep or not, but I don't smell anything
funny today).

Now I got these.

Todays attempt

Yesterday's 

Cookies not cut cleanly. Cookies not evenly coloured ( I shall
blame the oven). Not perfect, but better then the previous
attempt. At least I do not see sugar crystal. Luckily I heed the 
advice from HHB of rolling them out on baking paper
( however I did not sandwiched the dough).
Yup, the dough did not stick to baking paper.

One sad thing though, the cookies are not going out fast like
HHB's (infact they are only eaten by me so far!).
My kids still prefer oreo cookies! But my boy said
he'll bring some as snacks to school tomorrow and will not
share with his classmates. hehehe.

Anyway, baking is my hobby so I shall not complain. Its fun
making these biscuits. Anybody out there want to have a bite?

我又尝试做饼了。不简单但好玩。用了两个下午，就得了以上
结果 （见图）. 不完美，颜色不一， 但至少不象上次那样看到糖粒。
听取了HHB 的建议，饼团才没粘桌，盖模后又易拿出来。这
里要谢谢她与我分享食谱。

Mango Mousse Cake

Had wanted to bake a mango mousse cake for hubby for his
birthday, but he fractured his wrist just a week before his big
day so wasn't quite in the mood to do anything major.

Now that his problem is more or less settled, so i went ahead.

Took the sponge cake recipe from a chinese recipe book
家庭小西点 that my mother bought at least a decade ago.
The sponge cake turn out pretty soft, but it is very sweet.
Did not note the ratio of sugar to the flour! But I wondered
why is it so soft and fluffy, is it the baking powder, or the
corn flour (ya it has corn flour as an ingredient).

Then I proceed to make the mousse using a recipe (strawberry
cake) from the book "Joy of making desserts" I borrowed from
the library.

The sponge cake is quite straight forward. However, the
mousse recipe said I should stir the milk and egg mixture
till it thickens, but after stiring for quite some time, I do not
see it thickens, so I just pour my gelatin in (instead of leaving
it to the  last as advise by recipe).

Called in my cousin to help with eating the cake since my dh
wanted to avoid eggs. She keep saying its nice its nice, but she
likes mango lah. My kids like it too (since it is chilled) and I
think it is pretty good too.

I think the next time I will increase the mousse and thin the
sponge cake. Its suppose to be mousse cake mah.

Here's how my mango mousse slice look like.


Here's the portion of ingredients for the amount of mousse I
made, so must remember to increase it next time.

whipped cream 200g
milk 150ml
sugar 100g
yolk 2 nos
mango bits 250g
gelatine 20g

Here's the original recipe (I replace strawberries with mango)

1 egg yolk
40 g sugar
60 ml milk
100g strawberies(mashed)
1 1/2 tbsps lemon juice
80 nl whipping cream( whisked till soft peaks)
8 g gelatine sheets
8 strawberies (with stems removed)

1. Soak gelatine sheets in iced water for 2 minutes until soft.
    Drain. Put into a bowl and place the bowl in hot water until the
    gelatine melts.
2. Mix egg yolks with sugar in a bowl. Bring milk to the boil and 
    pour into the egg mixture. Place the bowl over hot water and
    stir the egg mixture until it thickens.
3. Add mashed strawberries and lemon juice. Mix well.
4. Mix in whipping cream and the melted gelatine. This will set to
    become the mousse.

 

Custard cream puffs

Oh finally after so long, I have got something to share on
baking.

I made custard puffs today. Custard puff is one of my
favourite and I used to buy them often from Sin Lee Bakery (has
been closed for a few years).

I follow the recipe from e's joie website as recommended by
my friend. Mum helpped me out with measuring and preparing
the ingredients while i "cook".

I prepared the custard first. Put all ingredients in, keep
stiring, not difficult at all. Am very please with the custard.
However, after it cooled down (i did not put in fridge as
suggested in recipe), it kind of harden, like into a pudding. Not
sure if it is suppose to be that way. Am expecting a smooth
semi solid custard filling.

Then i prepare the shells. Not too difficult but i cant beat
vigorously as mention in the recipe since i used a small pot.
After that, i did not pipe the batter, i just spoon it onto foil.
I still remember my last attempt last year ... those puff sticks
to the baking paper. This time , its still the same. It sticks to
the foil. Look at the hole after i manage to peel the puff off.



Overall, the results is quite satisfactory to me. Looks a lovely
brownish crust, lovely yellow custard. Here are the rest.

a close up


However, i m not sure if I had the inside of the puff fully baked,
but i figure it is, since it is not sticky like the uncooked dough. I
am suppose to prick the puff, then dry it with the oven door
open for 10 - 15 minutes, but i m not sure if I shd turn off the
oven power first, so I prick and dry it with door ajar for 5
minutes. Anyone can tell me what shd I do after the crust is
nicely browned?

did u see the moist inside?

update : the puff did not stick if you grease the foil.

这是 custard puff （对不起， 不会翻译）， 我其中一种最爱的
糕点。不是很难做， 但始终不知我做对了吗， 不知里面烘熟
了吗。不过样子还过的去，味道也不错。烘焙时，锡纸要抹油，
不然 puff 就会粘着纸，puff 拔出来时，puff 底就一个洞了。