南瓜蒸糕

Steamed Pumpkin Cake....method of making illustrated by series of pictures :) able to understand the steps easily or is it confusing?

Steamed Blueberry Cake

Tired of baking cakes? try steaming method! :) light and fluffy texture with tinge of blueberry flavours...consider healthier 'cos using olive oil and without egg yolks added...

Ingredient

• 3 (115gm) egg whites
• 60gm sugar
• 4g ovalette
• 1gm salt
• 140gm cake flour, sifted
• 35ml milk
• 10ml olive oil
• 60gm blueberry jam

Method

1. Using a electrical whisk beat egg whites till foamy. Gradually add in sugar and beat till soft peak foam. Add in ovalette and beat for 1 min.
2. Combine milk, olive oil & blueberry jam.
3. Fold in flour & jam mixture alternately into egg whites foam.
   
4. Spoon batter into cupcakes cases. Place into preheated steamer and steam over medium heat for 20mins. (do not attempt to open the cover in between or else the cakes will not rise properly)
   

Tiramisu

A slice of indulgence!!....A classic Italian dessert, though my way of making not as authentic which uses Expresso & Kahlua, it still taste as delicious. This will not be served to my boy 'cos of caffeine & alcohol! At least he got to munch on the balanced sponge fingers ^-^....

Ingredient

Coffee Syrup:

• 100ml strong brewed coffee
• 100ml Bailey's Cream
  
• 1/2 tbsp rum essence
  

Cream Filling:

• 500g mascarpone cheese
• 6 tbsp icing sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
  
• 30ml Bailey's Cream
• 1 1/2 tbsp gelatine (dissolve in 1/4 warm water)
  
• 250gm non-diary whipping cream
• 36 sponge fingers
• cocoa powder
  

Method

1. With a wire whisk, beat cheese with sugar till smooth, stir in gelatine mixture, vanilla essence and baileys.
2. Using a electrical whisk, beat whipping cream till stiff peak formed.
3. Fold in 1/3 of the whipped cream into cheese mixture. Pour the batter into the balanced whipped cream and fold till combined.

Assemble the cake...

One at a time, gently dip sponge fingers (sugar side) in the coffee syrup. Place each dipped sponge fingers over a lined pan. I used a 8.5" Tupperware square container. It fits 9 sponge fingers per row. The container able to fit in 2 rows nicely. Before placing in the sponge fingers , I lined the container with foil extending over the edge so that I am able to remove the cake easily later on.

Spoon over half of the cheese filling. Spread evenly and dust cocoa powder over the filling. Repeat with another layer of sponge fingers. Drizzle 1 tsp coffee syrup over each sponge finger and spoon over the remaining filling. Spread and smooth the top. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

Just before serving, unmold the cake and dust the top with cocoa powder.

Spinach & Egg Tart

Prepared this tart in the morning, hopefully my boy will eat this for lunch. These few days I've not been feeling well, so could only prepare simple meals for him which is fish porridge :P The original recipe uses ricotta cheese, but when I saw a tub of 250gm cheese costing $8 plus, I think twice of buying that!! I decided to use another low fat cheese which is cottage cheese and much cheaper also, $3 plus for 200gm :)

Ingredient

• 600gm baby spinach
• 400gm cottage cheese
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 10gm fresh parsley, chopped
• 10gm fresh mint, chopped
• 1/2 tsp dried dill
• 8 cherry tomatoes, halved
• olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste
  

Method

1. Trim baby spinach & wash thoroughly. Boil spinach until tender, drain away water. Squeeze out excess water & pat dry, chop coarsely.
2. Toss cherry tomatoes with some olive oil and pinch of salt.
3. Combine spinach, herbs, eggs, cheese, pepper & 1 tsp salt in a mixing bowl. Mix well.
4. Line the sides & bottom of a 8" square pan. Pour mixture into the pan. Arrange tomatoes on top cut side up.
5. Bake in preheated oven at 160 deg cel for 1 hr 10mins . Stand in pan for 10mins before unmoulding. Cut & serve warm.

...end of the day....my boy finished the portion I served him except that he picked out the tomatoes! he even requested to bring some to school tomorrow! :)

Awards

Thanks Fatmum for dedicating these 2 awards for my blog :)

Blueberry Marble Pound Cake

Soft texture and nice marbling but lack of blueberry flavour! The 3 tbsp of fresh blueberry puree added is not intense enough, maybe next time will try to add some blueberry essence to the batter to enhance the flavour of this pound cake.

Ingredient
* 200gm unsalted butter
* 6gm sponge gel
* 90gm icing sugar, sifted
* 3gm salt
* 4 eggs, lightly beaten
* 225gm cake flour
* 3gm baking powder
* 2 tbsp milk
* 3 tbsp fresh blueberry puree



Method

1. Sift flour & baking powder. Set aside.
2. Using a electrical whisk, cream butter for 1 min on high speed. Add sponge gel, icing sugar & salt. Beat on high for 3 mins till mixture increase in volume & turns pale white.
3. Add beaten eggs gradually until evenly combined.
4. Add sifted flour and beat till evenly mixed. Add in milk. Mixture will be creamy & fluffy.
5. Scoop out 1 cup batter and mix in blueberry puree.
   
6. Spoon plain batter & blueberry batter alternately into a lined 9"x5" loaf pan and bake in preheated oven at 180 deg cel for 45mins. Cover lightly with foil if surface starts to brown too fast after 35-40mins. Continue to bake till skewer inserted comes out clean. Rest cake in pan for 10mins before cooling completely on rack.

Note: Will add in a tsp of blueberry essence together with the puree in future if I'm going to bake this again.

Baked Donuts

A common recipe shared among fellow bloggers! I tweaked the recipe slightly by using self-raising flour instead of plain flour. As I'm lazy to extract 2 tsp of lemon juice, so I replaced with 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar instead!

Mini Choco Chips Topping & Raisin Topping

My newly bought gadget, mini silicon donut pan

extra batter filled into a hello kitty silicon mould...always could not brown the cakes evenly when using siliconware, but in this case, I'm glad the kitty face is not 'blackened' ^-^

Ingredients
Recipes adapted from here 1, 2, 3...

Group (A)
1 cup self-raising flour
1/3 cup sugar

Group (B)
1 egg
150gm plain yogurt
1 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Toppings/ coating (optional)

Method :

1. Preheat oven at 200°C.
2. Grease the donut pan with butter and set aside.
3. Combine ingredient (A) in a large bowl.
4. Combine ingredient (B) in another bowl and beat lightly until well combined (creamier).
5. Add ingredient (B) into (A) by folding in until the batter is smooth.
6. Place the toppings at the bottom (if any).
7. Transfer batter into a piping bag and pipe batter into the greased pans.
8. Don’t overfill them as the batter will expand during baking. Only fill until ½ full if you want to see a donut hole.
9. Bake at 180°C for 8-10 minutes or until slightly golden brown. Test with a toothpick. It should come out clean when inserted near the center of the donut.
10. Remove from oven. Cool for 5 mins. Then remove donuts from pans and cool on wire rack.

Victoria Sandwich Cake

Simple one mix buttery sponge cake. The texture is very light & moist.



Ingredient

• 175gm self-raising flour, sifted
• 175gm unsalted butter, softened
• 150gm sugar
• 3 eggs
• pinch of salt
• berry jam

Method

1. Place all ingredient except jam in a mixing bowl. Using a electric whisk, beat on high speed for 3 mins until smooth & fluffy.
2. Spoon batter into a lined base 8" round pan and spread evenly. Bake in preheated oven at 180 deg cel for 35mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
3. Cool in pan for 10mins. Unmould can cool completely on wire rack. Slice cake into half, spread jam over.

Non-Yeast Bread Again...

Green Tea & Choco Swirl Bun




Ingredient (Green Tea Dough)

• 100gm plain flour
• 3gm baking powder
• 4gm green tea powder
• 7gm sugar
• pinch of salt
• 25gm lightly beaten eggs
• 40gm natural yoghurt

Method

1. Sift flour, baking powder & green tea powder together in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre of the bowl.
2. Mix sugar, salt, eggs & yoghurt together. Pour into the well. With a wooden spoon, gradually mix the flour into the eggs mixture to form a dough. Floured hand lightly, knead the dough till smooth. (pic as above)

Ingredient (Chocolate Dough)

• 115gm plain flour
• 3gm baking powder
• 10gm cocoa powder
  
• 7gm sugar
• pinch of salt
• 40gm lightly beaten eggs
• 50gm natural yoghurt
• 15gm melted chocolate
  

Method

1. Sift flour, baking powder & cocoa powder together in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre of the bowl.
2. Mix sugar, salt, eggs, yoghurt & melted chocolate together. Pour into the well. With a wooden spoon, gradually mix the flour into the eggs mixture to form a dough. Floured hand lightly, knead the dough till smooth. (pic as above)
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out green tea dough & chocolate dough and place the chocolate dough over the green tea dough. (pic as below). Roll up and cut into small portion. Shape into rounds and place it on a baking sheet.
4. Bake in preheated oven at 200 deg cel for 15mins. Cool completely on rack. Best consume within 2 days.

Non-Baked Oreo Cheesecake

Ingredients

Base...

• 120g digestive biscuits, chopped into fine crumbs (placed in ziplog bag & crush with roller pin)
• 50g melted butter

Filling...

• 300ml whipping cream (I used Bulla Thickened Cream)
• 1 tablespoon gelatin powder
• 3 tablespoon boiling water
• 10ml lemon juice
• 250g cream cheese, soften at room temperature
• 50g icing sugar, sifted
  
• 45ml fresh milk
• 1 tbsp rum (I used 2 tsp rum flavourings)
  
• 10 pieces of oreo cookies (cream removed & coarsely chopped)(1 piece refers to half of the oreo cookies)
• extra finely chopped oreo cookies for decorating
  

Method

• Mix biscuit crumbs & melted butter together and press firmly with the help of a spoon onto the base of a 7" loosebased cake tin. Chill for 30 minutes.
• Beat whipping cream with electric mixer on low speed until 70% stiff or until mousse-like. Do not over beat. Keep in the fridge.
• Place gelatin powder, lemon juice & boiling water in a bowl. Heat a pot filled with water until just simmering and place the bowl inside the pot. Dissolve gelatin, lemon juice & boiling water in the bowl. Keep warm.
• With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, icing sugar, milk and rum essence until smooth & creamy. Blend in gelatin solution. Fold in whipping cream with a spatula.
• Pour half of the cheese mixture into the cake pan. Spread evenly. Chill for 15mins. With balance cheese mixture in mixing bowl, stir in coarsely chopped oreo cookies. Mix well. Pour the mixture over the plain cheese layer. Chill till set.
• Remove from pan and decorate with finely chopped oreo cookies.

Recipes adapted from HHB

Simple Lunch

In my childhood days, these are the typical dishes 包菜炒虾米，姜丝炒肉 which my mother prepared for our lunch!! Simple dishes served with a bowl of piping hot Teochew style porridge or called 稀饭 not 粥. Whats the different between these 2 terms? 粥 is being cooked till grains are thick & mushy whereas 稀饭 still retaining its shape and more rice liquid is retained. Yes I do remember cooking porridge/rice & stir-fry cabbage are the basic dishes which my mother started to teach me to cook when I was 11 yrs old!! Time flies and now I have my own family with 2 lovely child but my mother not around to share my joy with me....but at least I've sweet memories with her in the kitchen learning cooking skills from her :)

包菜炒虾米
Ingredient

• 1 medium cabbage, finely shredded
• 1/2 carrot, finely shredded
• 50gm dried shrimps
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic
• light soya sauce to taste
• dash of black pepper

Method

1. Wash dried shrimps thoroughly. Soak in some water till softened. Reserve liquid.
2. Heat some oil in wok. Fry softened dried shrimps till crispy & fragrant. Add garlic and fry for 1 min.
3. Add in cabbage & carrot. Mix evenly & stir-fry on high heat. Add reserved liquid & season to taste (adjust taste accordingly as dried shrimps are salty). Simmer till cabbage is soft. Serve.
   

姜丝炒肉片
Ingredient

• 200gm pork fillet, thinly sliced
• 3 tbsp thinly sliced ginger
• 1/2 tbsp chopped garlic
• 1 tsp light soya sauce
• 1 tsp dark soya sauce
• 1/4 tsp salt
  
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp cornflour

Method

1. Marinate pork fillet with seasoning for at least 30mins.
2. Heat some oil in pan. Saute ginger till fragrant & crispy. Add in garlic and mix evenly.
3. Add in marinated pork fillet and mix evenly. Add in a tbsp of water and add additional 1 tsp of light soya sauce to taste (adjust accordingly). Serve.
   

Earl Grey Fruit Loaf

This fruit loaf is not as fluffy compared to the cranberry & orange loaf I baked 2 days ago. The loaf is moist but the texture is slightly chewy almost like 'kueh', think I still prefer the previous loaf than this mixed fruit loaf in terms of taste & texture...

Ingredient

• 250gm mixed dried fruits
• 300ml cooled earl grey tea (steep 6 tea bags in boiling water)
• 100gm light brown sugar
• zest & juice of 1 orange
• zest & juice of 1 lemon
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 200gm plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Method

1. In a bowl, mix the dried fruits with the tea and leave to soak overnight.
2. Strain the soaked fruit, reserve the liquid in a bowl. Combine brown sugar, egg, zests & dried fruits.
3. Pour the orange juice & lemon in a measuring cup, top up tea liquid to yield 250ml. Stir the liquid & egg into the dried fruit mixture.
4. Sift flour, baking powder & salt twice. Fold the flour into the fruit mixture until combined.
5. Pour the batter into a lined 9x5" loaf pan and bake in preheated oven at 180 deg cel for 1hr or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cover surface with foil at the last 15mins to prevent over browning. Leave in pan for 10mins before umoulding. Cool completely on wire rack.
   

Fruity Jelly

Simple jelly making so I do not intend to write out the recipe :P I just cook a pack of Konnyaku Jelly according to package just that I reduce the amount of sugar used and added a 1/4 tsp of peach flavoring. To make the fruits 'float' in the jelly, spoon some jelly liquid into a mould, to hasten the firming process, I place the jelly mould into a bowl of ice water!...when the jelly is half set I spoon some chopped fruits over it follow by a few scoop of jelly liquid...place the mould into iced water...repeat process till mould is filled....