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。