Pandan Sponge Cake

I was so excited to receive my Hello Kitty Hot Stamp and I cannot stop trying it out on my bakes. Since there were no breakfast, I made this Pandan Sponge Cake and added my lovely Hello Kitty stamp. Pretty!

Ingredients

75g oil
90g cake flour
60g milk
6 egg yolks
Pandan Paste

6 egg white
75g caster sugar

Directions

1. Heat oil in microwave for 2 min.
2. Mix oil to flour till no crumb.
3. Add in milk and yolk mix to smoothen the batter.
4. Whisk egg white, slowly add in sugar and beat till stiff peak.
5. Add 1/3 of  meringue to yolk batter and mix well.
6. Pour mixture into the rest of the meringue and fold till just combined.
7. Steam bake at 150 Deg C for 60mins. (Note: to remember add hot water for the water bath)

Snowskin Mooncakes 2017

After a break of 2 years, my colleague requested me to teach her how to make these Snowskin Mooncakes. It was like a refresher for me but it went smooth and all turned out as cute as before. I had also made for my Legal Team Colleagues and hope they like it too!

21st Birthday Bakes

I was requested by my daughter to bake for her 21st Birthday. I decided to bake Brownies, Fruit Tarts, cupcakes and an American Carrot Cake Birthday Cake. I was elated that all my bakes were so well presented on the dessert table and with a professional photographer, all my bakes looked so beautiful! This indeed brings my bakes to the next level and increase my confidence as well as exposure with more orders coming in. 

Pandan Hot Milk Cake

Tried baking this Pandan Hot Milk Cake from a young aspiring baker, Javier Tan. I like to view his recipe posts as they are interesting and I am sure he has great potential to be a professional baker. However, my Hot Milk cake did not really turn out the same texture as his, mine were a little fluffy whereas his cakes were denser. Nevertheless, they tasted wonderful with strong pandan and coconut flavour. Looking forward to see more of his recipes. 

Recipe with modifications

Ingredients

120g  Plain Flour (sifted)
150g Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
2 Large Eggs
113g unsalted Butter (cut into cubes)
60g Coconut Milk
60g Full Cream Milk
1/2 tsp Pandan Paste
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 160 degrees C and line your 8 x 8 inches baking tray with parchment paper.
2. Beat the eggs until light and frothy.
3. Add in the sugar, pandan paste, vanilla extract and salt to the eggs until all the sugar has dissolved. Set aside.
4. In a saucepan, mix together the two milks with the butter and heat at medium low, stirring constantly until the butter has dissolved.
5. Using one hand, pour in the butter and milk mixture into the sugar and egg mixture. Use your other hand to constantly stir the sugar and egg mixture to dissipate the heat to prevent the eggs from being cooked.
6. Combine the baking powder and all purpose flour in a mixing bowl, and sift it in. If already sifted, add in directly. Stir until just combined.
7. Pour into your baking tray. Tap against the counter a few times to prevent excessive air bubbles from being trapped.
8. Bake for about 20 minutes at 160 degrees C. At the 20 minutes mark, increase the temperature to 180 degrees C and bake for another 10 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
9. Cool the cake at a wire tray for about 30 minutes before consuming. You can cool it upside down to get the same density as my cake!

Gula Melaka Sponge Cake

Another experiment using the Taiwan Traditional Cake recipe. I replaced Milk with Gula Melaka. However, the Gula Melaka flavour was not strong enough to stand out. It was a good attempt though and a practice for my egg white folding method. I am able to yield a smooth top and sponge texture. 

Ingredients

75g oil
90g cake flour
60g Gula Melaka (melted with a little water)
6 egg yolks
250g of cream cheese

6 egg white
75g caster sugar

Directions

1. Heat oil in microwave for 2 min.
2. Mix oil to flour till no crumb.
3. Add in melted Gula Melaka, egg yolk and softened cream cheese, mix to smoothen the batter.
4. Whisk egg white, slowly add in sugar and beat till stiff peak.
5. Add 1/3 of  meringue to yolk batter and mix well.
6. Pour mixture into the rest of the meringue and fold till just combined.
7. Steam bake at 150 Deg C for 60mins. (Note: to remember add hot water for the water bath)

Homemade Blueberry Jam with Puff Pastries

Bought ready made puff pastries from Phoon Huat and came in handy for making these pastries with Homemade Blueberry. Thanks to Liz for sharing this recipe. 

Ingredients

3 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1.5 tbsp cornstarch dissolved into 3 tablespoons water
1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. Place 1 1/2 cups blueberries in a small saucepan. Cover with water and add sugar and vanilla. Heat over medium-high heat until mixture comes to a low boil and blueberries just start to break apart.
2. Add dissolved cornstarch to saucepan and bring mixture to a rolling boil. Turn heat down and simmer on low heat for 2-3 minutes, or until sauce reaches desired consistency. Add water, one tablespoon at a time, if the sauce gets too thick.
3. Remove from heat. Add remaining blueberries and stir gently. Serve warm or cold.

Steamed Egg Muffins (鸡蛋糕)

                                      2 September 2017                     13 September 2015


13 September 2015

As I still have leftover soda water from making my Fish Fillet, I decided to use it to make my favourite Steamed Egg Muffins. I really love these red fillers which contrasted with the yellow colour of the muffins. 

2 September 2017 
Craving for 鸡蛋糕, so decided to make some and added pandan paste to have Pandan Steamed Egg Muffin. 

Taiwan Traditional Cake with Cream Cheese

Here's my experiment baking Taiwan Traditional Cake with added cream cheese and it was a success! However, I felt the eggs had overpowered the cream cheese flavour. Wonder what will happen if I reduce the amount of egg yolks to see if it will have stronger cream cheese flavour. My next experiment, so stay tuned!

Ingredients

75g oil
90g cake flour
60g milk
6 egg yolks
250g of cream cheese

6 egg white
75g caster sugar

Directions

1. Heat oil in microwave for 2 min.
2. Mix oil to flour till no crumb.
3. Add in milk, egg yolk and softened cream cheese, mix to smoothen the batter.
4. Whisk egg white, slowly add in sugar and beat till stiff peak.
5. Add 1/3 of  meringue to yolk batter and mix well.
6. Pour mixture into the rest of the meringue and fold till just combined.
7. Steam bake at 150 Deg C for 60mins. (Note: to remember add hot water for the water bath)

Taiwan Traditional Cake

It is a trend now for this Taiwan Traditional Cake (原味古早味蛋糕) and you can see the long queue to buy this cake. I bought it to try it myself too and indeed it had a very soft texture. I was lucky to come across this recipe on Facebook and the steps are simple, so I decided to give it a try. As usual, I was quite worried about the folding method, so I did this cake with extra care, making sure not to fold too long. I was so elated that the cake turned out with a beautiful top, without any cracks. In order for me to keep note of this recipe, I did a video for my future reference. Hope it will also help others who are struggling with folding method recipes.

Recipe with modification

Ingredients

75g oil
90g cake flour
60g milk
6 egg yolks

6 egg white
75g caster sugar

Directions

1. Heat oil in microwave for 2 min.
2. Mix oil to flour till no crumb.
3. Add in milk and yolk mix to smoothen the batter.
4. Whisk egg white, slowly add in sugar and beat till stiff peak.
5. Add 1/3 of  meringue to yolk batter and mix well.
6. Pour mixture into the rest of the meringue and fold till just combined.
7. Steam bake at 150 Deg C for 60mins. (Note: to remember add hot water for the water bath)

Lemon Pound Cake

I came across another interesting recipe in Facebook and decided to give it a try. The steps were easy with mixing all the ingredients together. I knew this is going to be heavy cake which my son will definitely love it. Just added my own preference to the cake with Lemon Icing to give the cake a refreshing flavour.

Recipe with modification

Ingredients

480g plain flour
450g butter
500g sugar
190g milk
6 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. Layer Ingredients and Mix. Preheat oven to 160 Deg C. Place flour, sugar, butter, milk, eggs, and vanilla (in that order) in 4-qt. bowl of a heavy-duty electric stand mixer. Beat at low speed 1 minute, stopping to scrape down sides. Beat at medium speed 2 minutes.
2. Pour and Bake. Pour into a greased and floured 10-inch (16-cup) tube pan, and smooth. Bake at 325° for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack, and cool completely (about 1 hour).

Super soft Banana Cake

I love banana cakes and coincidentally spotted this recipe in my Facebook Group "We❤ Recipes" and immediately started to try it out.

This is definitely a must keep recipe from Olady Bakes (which she adapted from Richard Goh) with the use of whole eggs and yet yield super soft and moist texture. Anyone could mistaken it as using meringue folding method (which I am quite poor at). Glad that this recipe rescued me from all the struggle and motivated me to bake more of such cakes. I am exploring to use pumpkin, cream cheese, sweet potatoes etc with this method and hopefully it will turn out as nice. Stay tuned for the results of my experiments :)

Recipe with modification

Baked this for Germaine's Birthday

Ingredients

3 large eggs
120g caster sugar
200g ripe banana (mash with fork)
1/4 tsp salt
150g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
80g oil
3/4 tsp cinnamon powder (optional)
50g crushed walnut (optional)

Directions

1. Sift flour with baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon powder.
2. Chop walnuts and mix with a tsp of flour (optional). Mash bananas with a fork.
3. Add eggs, sugar, banana and salt into a stand mixer (balloon whisk) and beat on high for 5-7 minutes till light and stiff peak.
4. Add flour in 3 batches. Beat on low for 10-15 seconds after each addition. Finally use a spatula to go around the sides and bottom gently to ensure a good mix with no clumps. Try not to deflate batter.
5. Take out about 1/4 of batter and add into the bowl of oil. Use a spatula to mix till even. This will take a few minutes.
6. Pour the oil mixture back into the main batter and mix with spatula till combined.
7.  Pour batter into lined cake tin and tap to release large bubbles. Bake for 40-45 min at 160 deg C, with top and bottom mode and switch to fan mode for last 5 mins.
8. Cool before slicing .

Orders (2017)

Glad to have another opportunity to bake these Chocolate Banana Cupcakes and Sponge with Buttercream for an order.  Thanks to my best friend Molly for the recommendation.

Curry Puffs-Baked/Fried

Have been wanting to make curry puff for sometime and finally attempted the baked and fried version. I guess fried curry puff still taste the best as the dough will be more crusty and crunchy. Glad that I did this experiment from Bake with Paws.

Recipe with modification

Ingredients

Potato Filling:
5 medium potatoes, around 430g (cut into small cubes)
1 large onion (roughly chopped)
2 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
3 to 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons meat/chicken curry paste (mixed with some water to become a paste)
Water
Salt to taste
¼ cube chicken stock (optional)
3 sprigs curry leaves

Water dough (A):
200g all purpose flour
60g vegetable oil
1 tablespoon sugar
100ml water

Oil dough (B):
160g all purpose flour
100g butter (room temperature)

1 egg + 1 teaspoon water (for egg wash)

Directions

Potato Filling:
1. Heat oil in a wok and saute garlic, onion and curry leaves.
2. Add in curry paste and stir for a while then add in potatoes.
3. Add some water and season with salt and chicken stock. Turn down the fire and let it simmer till potatoes are soft and curry is dried. Keep aside to let it cool before using.

Pastry and shape the curry puff:
1. Knead ingredients (A) and ingredients (B) separately into a dough by hand. Let them rest for 10 to 30 minutes.
2. Divide and shape the dough into 20 balls for each dough, around 19g for water dough and 13g for oil dough.
3. Wrap dough (B) into dough (A). Flatten into a thin sheet using a rolling pin and roll up like a swiss roll (do it twice). Flatten the dough and cut with “dough cutting ring”. As I do not have this size of cutting ring at home, I used plastic container cover (10cm or 4 inch diameter).
4. Place the potatoes filling, pinch the edges and crimp.
5. Preheat oven to 190C.
6. Brush the pastries with eggwash and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven. You may serve it hot or enjoy it cooled.

Fudgy Oreo Brownies

When I saw this recipe, I knew this is going to be my kids' favourite. These brownies are fudgy and chocolaty, and goes so well with Ice cream. Loaded with a lot of Oreo Cookies made it even more yumilicious! Thumbs up to Marsha for this recipe.

Recipe with modification

Ingredients

140g unsalted butter
300g sugar 300g
375g cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs cold
60g plain flour
90g chocolate chips
16 Oreos whole
Oreos chopped

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180Deg C. Line an 8x8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, and set aside.
2. Place the butter, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt into a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring after each one, until the butter is melted and the mixture feels very warm to the touch.
3. Mix in the eggs, one at a time. Fold in the flour until fully combined. Fold in the chocolate chips (they will melt into the batter, but it's fine! It helps produce a shiny top). Stir in the vanilla extract.
4. Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan, and spread out evenly. Place the whole Oreos evenly over the batter, and top with the remaining batter. Top with the broken Oreos.
5. Bake for 30 - 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out almost clean with a few moist crumbs. Allow to cool completely in the pan on a wire rack before cutting into squares.
Notes

Note: Brownies stay fresh, stored in an airtight container, at room temperature or in the fridge for up to 1 week. They also freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before serving.

Bread

More bread making using the recipe "Softest Bread Ever".

Chocolate Chips & Raisins Muffins

I am glad that I found this recipe as it does not require the use of an electric mixer, just hand whisk will do. The amazing thing was the soft texture which I guess came from the addition of yogurt and the sweetness from the raisins and chocolate chips made it a perfect combination. 

Definitely a must keep recipe!

Recipe with modifcation

Ingredients

250g plain flour
150g caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg (room temperature)
2 tsp vanilla extract
80g vegetable oil
240g yogurt (I used apple yogurt)
Raisins
Chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 200 Deg C.
2. Hand whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. Hand whisk together the egg, vanilla, vegetable oil, and yogurt. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and mix until just combined. Gently fold in the raisins and chocolate chips.
4. Fill 3/4 batter into muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Note: Muffins stay fresh in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. They also freeze well for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge.

Water Chestnut Sweet Soup

I came across this dessert from Anncoo which is so easy to make and a cooling dessert as well. It's nice to consume either hot or cold. The crunchiness from the water chestnut and natural sweetness makes this a perfect dessert to cook anytime.

Recipe with modification

Ingredients

12 fresh water chestnut (peeled & crushed to small pcs)
1200ml water
100g rock sugar or to taste
3 pandan leaves, knotted
1 tbsp goji berries
2 tbsp fresh water chestnut flour + 2 tbsp water to mix as thickening
1 egg white, lightly beaten (or use whole egg)

Directions

1. In a pot, boil water, rock sugar and pandan leaves till sugar dissolved.
2. Add in the chopped water chestnuts and goji berries, simmer at medium heat for 5 minutes.
3. Mix in the water chestnut flour liquid and keep stirring to boil.
4. Lastly drizzle in the beaten egg white and keep stirring with a fork and off heat.Can be served hot or chilled.

Cranberry Cookies (Orders 2017)

I am indeed fortunate to be given this opportunity to bake these Cranberry Cookies for a huge event. It was a great challenge and achievement for me.

Cranberry Sponge Cake

Cranberries are always my favourite in baking as they blend so well with cake and cookies. I love this Sponge Cake Recipe as not only the texture is soft it can even yield a tall nice top cake. The cranberries added a special flavour and some moist to the cake. I am sure to bake this cake more often.

With modifications :

Ingredients

320g self raising flour
280g caster sugar
280g butter
5 eggs
3 tbsp milk
Dried cranberries

Directions

1. Sieve flour into a large mixing bowl, add all other ingredients and mix on slow speed till well mix.
2. Increase speed to fast speed for another 2 mins, when you have a smooth batter (it will be quite thick/stiff).
3. Pour into 8" baking tin and baked in 150 Deg C for 1.5 hrs till brown or test with skewer if it comes out clean.

Sago Gula Melaka

Nothing will go wrong with Gula Melaka. Cooking Gula Melaka with pandan leaves really adds a beautiful fragrance to Sago. I always cooked Sago wrongly and this time I made it. Eating this dessert chilled is definitely cooling and the sweetness indeed makes one happy!

Recipe with modification

Ingredients

200g large pearl sago
2 litres water
200ml coconut milk
½ tsp salt
200g gula Melaka (palm sugar)
2 pandan leaves knotted
100 ml water

Directions

1. Bring 2 litres of water to boil in a pot. Add 200g large pearl sago and stir to prevent it from sticking together. Let it cook until sago becomes transparent.
2. Strain cooked sago and transfer to cold water. Strain after sago cools down. Refrigerate for 1 hour to let it set.
3. Cut and crush 200g gula Melaka. Heat 100ml water to pot. Add gula Melaka and 2 knotted pandan leaves. Bring to boil and let it thicken slightly. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Add 200ml coconut milk and ½ tsp salt. Stir and bring to boil, remove from heat and set aside.
5. Flip sago onto a bigger serving bowl once it sets.Add gula Melaka syrup and coconut milk.