Steamed Chocolate Walnuts Mixed Fruits Cake

Got this recipe from a book "Steam a cake" by Amy Wong.   I was attracted to this chocolate cake with walnuts and apple but I replaced apple with mixed fruits instead. What I can say about this cake - though don't look pretty but taste yummy! The texture was very soft and the walnuts added a wonderful crunch to the cake. Very happy that everyone in the family likes it. 

Ingredients

200g butter (softened)
130g brown sugar
3 eggs
80g mixed fruits
80g walnuts

Sifted together:
130g self raising flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder

Directions

1. Beat butter and brown sugar till fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time and blend well.
2. Add in sifted flour and cocoa powder. Mix well.
3. Add in mixed fruits and walnut and stir evenly.
4. Pour mixture into a greased mould, and steam for 30 mins.

CNY Cookies

The coming weekends will be extremely busy but fulfilling for me, baking all the cookies for Chinese New Year. 

 Honey Cornflakes Cups

 Chocolate Chips Cookies

 German Cookies

Christmas Fruit Cake

I have always liked Christmas Fruit Cake with lots & lots of mixed fruits and no rum in it. I found this recipe and thinking how I can modify it without rum and still taste nice and moist. Finally, after experimenting a few times, I managed to get the best Christmas Fruit Cake I always wanted.  

I have modified the ingredients as follows: 
1/2 tsp Mixed spice (replaced with Cinnamon)
100g Pitted prune (omitted)
2 tbsp Rum (replaced with 6 tbsp orange juice)
2 tbsp Rum compound (omitted)
Orange zest from one orange (omitted)

Ingredients

250g Butter
125g Sugar
4 Eggs

Sift together:
200g Plain flour
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Cinnamon

Mixed together:
500g Mixed dried fruit
little hot water
4 tbsp Orange juice

Nicely packed for my friends.

100g Walnut - chop to small pieces
5 tbsp Orange juice
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a large bowl, add mixed dried fruits together with a little hot water and 4 tbsp of orange juice and mix well, cover with cling wrap until next day.
2. Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy, slowly add in 5 tbsp orange juice and vanilla extract, mix well.
3. Add eggs, one at a time and scrape bowl.
4. Add 1/4 portion of flour to the mixed dried fruit. Slowly add 3/4 portion of flour mixture to butter mixture, mix well. Stop machine.
5. Pour in mixed dried fruit and chopped walnut, mix well with a rubber spatula then pour into cake tin. Bang tin on table once to settle the content.
6. Bake at preheated oven at 160 deg C for 1 1/2 hour. **After about 30-40 mins when the cake starts to turn brown, cover cake with foil loosely on top and continue baking.
7. Leave cake to cool before slicing.

Chocolate Marshmallows

It's really fun making these chocolate marshmallows for the kids. Really easy to make and the kids will definitely love it. 

Ingredients

Melting chocolate
Marshmallows
Sticks
Decoratives:
Colorful sprinkles
Candies (Carrot/Strawberry/Alphabets)
Flowers marshmallows

Directions

1. In a small bowl, add in melting chocolate and microwave it till chocolate slightly melted and stir well all melted.
2. Skew the marshmallow to stick and dip marshmallow up to midway.
3. Decorate marshmallow with sprinkles and candies of your choice.
4. Stand it in a container (make sure some space between each sticks) and leave it to dry in fridge for 1 hr.
5. Bag the marshmallows and keep in fridge till ready to give out.

Xmas American Carrot Cake

This is for party at Cynthia's house

This is for Office Xmas Party

Instead of the usual Log Cake we used to eat, I have decided to make these Xmas American Carrot Cakes for 2 parties. Very happy that they were well received by all!

Steamed Banana Muffins

Since there were no breakfast for the kids, so I made these Steamed Banana Muffins for them. I used the Steamed Pumpkin Muffins recipe and just replaced with banana. The texture was soft but I felt they were not sweet enough. I think its important to use ripe banana (especially those with many dots on the skin) in order to get that excellent banana sweetness. 

Mini Fruit Tarts (1)

With the leftover whipping cream after making the potato pies, I used it to make mini fruit tarts. Though time consuming moulding all the small pastry crust but they really looked pretty with the different fruits combination. 

Ingredients

Pastry Crust:

100g Sugar

1 Egg

175g Butter

350g Plain flour

Enborg whipping cream

1 can diced peach
Strawberries
Blueberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.

2. Place sugar, egg and butter in mixer and beat until sugar is just dissolved. Add sifted plain flour and mix until dough holds together. Press dough evenly to the aluminium fillers and make some holes in the base of tarts.
3. Bake at 180 degree Celsius for 20 mins till lightly brown, then remove and let cool.

4. In a medium-sized heatproof bowl, beat the whipping cream till heavy peak.

6. Spread whipped cream evenly over cooled crust.

7. Top with fruits and glaze with peach syrup to prevent fruits from drying up.

Potato Pies

December has been a very busy month for me, with some vacation overseas and preparation for Xmas parties. Finally I can find some time to sit down to do my blog writing. So you will see quite a few recipes coming up.

I decided to make this Potato Pies after my colleague, Elaine gave me the mini aluminium fillers. I made these for a gathering at my house and everyone liked the pies. It was indeed a nice bit-sized and yummy Potato Pie. 

Ingredients

Pastry Crust:

100g Sugar

1 Egg

175g Butter

350g Plain flour

Fillings:
500g or 2 packs of chicken breast/legs
1 carrot (diced)
1 large onion (diced)
1 can button mushroom (sliced)
olive oil

Marinate chicken:
3 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tsp of Knorr seasoning
2 tbsp dark soya sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp Parsley flakes
some pepper
1 tbsp corn flour mix with 3 tbsp of water (to thicken the gravy)

Potato Toppings:

500-550g Potatoes (peeled, boil or microwave till cooked)

2 tbsp Soft butter

2 tbsp Whipping cream

1 Egg

1/2 tsp Salt or add to taste

Parsley flakes

Directions

Pastry Crust

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.

2. Place sugar, egg and butter in mixer and beat until sugar is just dissolved. Add sifted plain flour and mix until dough holds together. Press dough evenly to the aluminium fillers and make some holes in the base of tarts.

3. Bake at 180 degree Celsius for 10 mins, then remove and let cool.
Fillings
4. Heat up pan with olive oil. Saute diced onion till its fragrant and soft. Add diced carrots and cook for a while. Stir in the chicken, continue to cook in medium heat. Add in mushroom slices and pour in the cornflour mixture till thicken. Taste and add more seasoning to your preference. Set aside.
Potato toppings

5. Using a fork to mash potatoes and add butter, whipping cream, egg and salt. Mix well.
6. Scoop the chicken fillings evenly into each pastry crust.
7. Fill piping bag with mashed potato and pipe onto chicken filling. Sprinkle some parsley flakes on top.
8. Bake in preheated oven at 200C for 20 mins or until light golden brown.

Crunchy Butter Cookies

I was attracted to this cookies recipe with almond meal in it and decided to make these before going for my vacation tomorrow (3-6 Dec 2012). Indeed, these cookies were crunchy but I felt that they were not sweet enough. I will add another 20g icing sugar the next time I bake these again. 

Ingredients

105g Unsalted Butter (soften)

60g Icing Sugar (original 40g)

35g Egg

120g Plain Flour

35g Almond Meal

1g Salt

Directions

1. Whisk butter with icing sugar

2. Gradually add in egg

3. Sieve in the plain flour with almond meal till well-mixed

4. Transfer dough to piping bag with nozzle.

5. Pipe on grease-proof baking paper & bake at 180deg C for about 20 minutes.

Mini Mixed Fruit Cake

My dearest colleagues has given me this fantastic birthday present and I love it so much that I could not wait to fill my bakes on it. So I baked these Mini Mixed Fruit Cake and it just made a perfect match to the Hello Kitty cake tier tray. 

I am hesitant to add rum in this fruit cake as my kids will always be the ones finishing them, so I have replaced it with lemon juice instead. Though it did not have the taste of the usual heavy fruit cake (those with rum in it), these were soft and yummy. I will definitely bake (in a loaf) for Christmas. 

Ingredients

125g Melted Butter
40g Sugar
3 Large eggs, lightly beaten
120g Self raising flour
100g Natural yoghurt
80g Dried mixed fruit + 1 tbsp lemon juice(mix together)
1 tsp Vanilla extra

Directions

1. Mix the mixed fruit with 1 tbsp lemon juice and set aside for 30 minutes or longer.
2. In a large bowl, mix well melted butter and sugar together then add beaten eggs, natural yoghurt and vanilla extract. Mix well with a hand whisk.
3. Sieve in self raising flour, mix well and sprinkle some flour onto dried mixed fruit and fold in with a rubber spatula (do not over mix).
4. Spoon mixture to muffin cups or liners to 3/4 full and sprinkle extra mixed fruit on top.
5. Bake at preheated oven at 190C for 20-25 mins or skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.