Recognition by Baking Member

I felt so honoured that my name was mentioned by one of the Baking members, Pearl Long from Chef William Tan Baking Fans. All my hard work exploring recipes and writing my blog has really paid off.

Moist Banana Walnut Cake

I had so much craving for banana walnut cake and so I whipped up this Moist Banana Walnut Cake to satisfy myself. It was indeed yummilicious!

1st Baking Class

This was my first baking class with 2 adorable kids, making cupcakes for their beloved teachers. Enjoyed the session very much and hope I can have more classes to build up my confidence.

Japanese Cheesecake

I coincidentally came across this recipe from ieatishootipost and since I still have a block of Philadelphia cream cheese in the fridge, so I took up the challenge to bake this "Not So Easy To Make" cake. In this recipe, it even helps to analyse the different mistakes for the failing results. I have repeatedly gone through the video to well prepare myself for this challenge. The most worrying attribute is my portable oven which I have yet to try on such water bath bakes. Luckily, the oven didn't fail me and I made a successful Japanese Cheesecake. Feeling great satisfaction with this bake! 

Ingredients 

250g Philadelphia cream cheese
6 egg yolks
70g castor sugar
60g butter
100g fresh milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp lemon zest
60g cake flour
20g cornflour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla essence

6 egg whites
1/4 cream of tartar
70g castor sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200 deg C. 
2. Grease 8" round pan and line bottom with baking paper.
3. Hand whisk cream cheese till smooth over a warm water bath.
4. Add yolks and whisk, follow by adding 70g sugar and whisk.
5. Microwave milk and butter, add into batter. 
6. Add vanilla, salt, lemon juice, lemon zest and whisk.
7. Remove from water bath, sift in flour and fold into mixture (with hand whisk)
8. Whisk egg whites at low speed till foamy.
9. Add cream of tartar and beat till bubbles becomes very small but still visible.
10.Gradually add sugar and beat till just before soft peak.
11. Fold 1/3 of meringue into batter with hand whisk, follow by the next 2 times of 1/3 meringue with spatula.
12. Pour into cake pan and tap the pan on the counter to release air bubbles.
13. Bake at bottom rack with water bath at 180 deg for 13mins and lower to 150 deg for 10mins. Turn off the oven and leave cake in the oven for 30mins. Open the door of the oven slightly at the end of the baking for 10 mins for cake to cool down.

Oreo Cupcakes

I was astonished when someone in Facebook mentioned that there is no need to use mixer for this recipe. But reading in detail, this recipe is still advisable to use mixer as we need to beat the batter till smooth and pale, using hand whisk will be quite tedious. However, what I like about this recipe is, we just have to combine all the ingredients together and whisk (except the crushed Oreo at the last stage) - fast and easy. Also, I love the buttery taste of the cake and the texture is soft with the right sweetness. Definitely a good recipe to keep.

Ingredients 

115g butter (room temperature)
80g sugar
2 eggs
115g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
6 large Oreo cookies (crushed)
Mini Oreo cookies (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C. 
2. Sift flour into a mixer bowl. Add sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla essence into the flour.
3. Beat mixture until smooth and pale.
4. Add in Oreo cookies and mix well.
5. Spoon batter into muffin cups (yield 11 cups) until half full and bake for 25-30 mins.
6. Top with mini Oreo cookies.

Healthilicious Pumpkin Cake

Made this Healtilicious Pumpkin Cake for my colleague Jeannie Wu as her belated Birthday gift!

No Bake Avalanche Cookies

I came across this recipe from Cookies and Cups and immediately caught my interest as I will be able to clear the white chocolate and peanut butter in my fridge. The original recipe used full white chocolate but I thought it will definitely be too sweet so I added milk chocolate to blend out the sweetness and I am glad that the sweetness was just right. As the original recipe used cups, I estimated and converted to grams for my easy reference. You could add more chocolate if you like it with more coatings.

Ingredients 

1 box Kellog's rice cereal (130g)
150g milk chocolate
200g white chocolate
100g marshmallows
85g peanut butter

Directions

1. Pour rice cereal and marshmallows in a bowl.
2. Microwave the chocolate until it starts to melt.
3. Add in peanut butter and mix until melted and smooth.
4. Spoon the mixture on top on the rice cereal and marshmallows and stir to coat.
5. Pour the mixture into cupcake fillers and put them in the fridge to set it.

Ice-cream Cupcakes

This is an amazing recipe with the use of 2 ingredients only. My first attempt was with strawberry flavour ice cream but it was not successful, perhaps I added strawberries into the cupcakes and it turned out wet. My 2nd attempt was with chocolate ice cream and it was excellent. Though the top of the cupcakes were a little chewy but the texture of the cakes were as good as normal cupcakes. In my own opinion, they were not as sweet but perfect with a scope of ice cream. 

Ingredients 

200g ice-cream (of your choice)
80g self-raising flour

Directions

1. Melt ice-cream in microwave for 30 secs.
2. Transfer melted ice-cream to mixing bowl and add in flour.
3. Bake at 160C for 20-25 mins

Mexican Raisin Bun

This is my old time recipe which I missed it so much and today I decided to make it again. Somehow this time, I felt that it was not as easy as before. As I am using a smaller portable oven, I am not able to bake all the bread dough at one go. I had difficulty transferring the risen dough from the tray to the baking pan (I should have placed the dough on a piece of baking paper instead). Also, to make it to perfection, I definitely need a bread dough mixer as it's really tedious to use hand knead.

Ingredients 

(A)
230g high protein flour
5g instant yeast
170g water
1/8 tsp bread improver

(B)
20g egg
60g castor sugar
1/4 tsp salt
25g cold water
2.5g instant yeast

(C)
30g butter
30g high protein flour

Topping:
60g butter
60g icing sugar
1 egg
60g flour

Filling:
Raisins
Butter
         

Directions

1. Mix (A) till even, rest for 1- 1 1/2 hours.
2. Add in (B) to (A), mix well to smooth dough, add in (C) and knead to form a smooth dough. Rest for 15 mins.
3. Divide batter into 30g each and shape them into balls. Let them rest for 5-10 mins.
4. Flatten the dough, wrap in raisin and butter, knead into balls place onto greased tray, let them prove double in size.
5. Mix the topping and put the topping into a piping bag. Pipe some topping on the bun bag. Pipe some topping on the bun dough.
6. Bake at 190 Deg C for 12-15 mins.

Steamed Milo Cake

I came across this recipe from Cassandra Poh from Facebook Baking Community. I did not expect that these mould could make such beautiful steamed cake and since I had these mould, I gave it a shot. For the first batch, I purely added milo without the cocoa powder but I felt they were not sweet and there was not much of milo flavour. I added cocoa powder to the second batch and true enough, they were so much tastier. I would definitely make this often as it is quite easy to make it. 

Ingredients 

50g sugar
3 eggs
30g 3-in-1 milo
65g milk
70g melted butter
130g self raising flour
10g cocoa powder

Directions

1. Mix eggs and sugar until dissolved.
2. Add in milo milk and melted butter.
3. Add the self raising flour and cocoa powder.
4. Lastly, pour mixture into mould and steam for 15 mins.

Walnut Butter Cake

I just love butter cake with walnuts and when I came across this recipe from Facebook Baking Community, immediately I got into action to whip this up. The only flaw to this cake that it was not as buttery as I wanted it to be. Perhaps, I should reduce the crushed walnuts in the cake from original 60g to 30g and will try it out for my next bake. 

Ingredients 

110g all-purpose flour
60g walnuts (30g crushed, 30g whole)
1 tsp baking powder
125g salted butter room temp
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
80g fine sugar
2 Tbsp milk

Directions

1. Grease the pan with butter. Sift the flour and baking powder, set aside.
2. Cream butter, vanilla extract and sugar till fluffy and pale (take about 4 mins using electric hand mixer at speed 2). Add in the eggs one at a time, cream until well combined before adding another one.
3. Fold the flour, ground walnut and milk, and mix to combine well. Transfer the batter into the greased pan, shake gently to level off the batter. Sprinkle the whole walnuts on the top.
4. Bake at a pre-heated oven at 180C for about 30-35 mins or until a cake tester inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Chocolate Cake (Steamed)

I am glad that this steamed chocolate cake tasted as good as bake ones. There is no need to use electric mixer and the texture were soft and moist. I am happy that my kids love it and could not differentiate it from steam or bake :p

Ingredients 

200g Castor sugar
200g Full Cream evaporated milk
1 tsp Vanilla essence
180g Butter
2 eggs
100g Plain flour
50g Cocoa powder
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda

Chocolate Fudge Topping
100g Condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
30g butter (melted)
pinch of salt

Directions

1. Combine castor sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla essence and butter in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved and butter is melted, remove from heat and keep warm.
2. Add beaten eggs into the slightly cold evaporated milk mixture and stir till well mix.
3. Sieve flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda into a large mixing bowl, then pour the eggs mixture over the flour and stir till well mix (cake batter should be runny).
4. Heat up steamer and lined, grease baking pan.
5. Pour batter into lined pan and place the pan into the steamer and cover the top of pan loosely with a piece of aluminium.
6. Steam over medium heat for 45 mins.
7. Cool the cake in pan before turning out for further decoration.

For Chocolate Fudge Topping
1. Combine the sieved cocoa powder and condensed milk and melted butter.
2. Stir over low heat till thicken.
3. Cool the chocolate topping a little before spreading on the cake.

Chocolate Muffins - Orders (2014)

 Ordered by my colleague, Chin 7 Sep 2014

Ordered by my colleague, Jhoanne 29 Sep 2014

Almond Apple Muffins

I love this recipe as it's easy to make without the use of electric mixer. It's definitely a healthy bake as it has the use of apple and vegetable oil. My first bake was not sweet enough so I have added sugar to my 2nd lot and it's perfect!

Ingredients 

150g Ground Almond
1 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp honey
50g Sugar

1 red apple (cut into small cubes)
Raisins (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160 Deg C and prepare 16 mini muffin fillers.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground almond and baking powder together.
3. Add eggs, oil, ground cinnamon, honey and sugar to form a batter.
4. Fold in apples and raisins and spoon the batter into the prepared muffin fillers.
5. Bake for 30 mins until skewer inserted is clean and the crust are nice and golden.

Raisin & Cranberry Bread

I was actually planning to make Mexican Raisin Bun but when I spotted this recipe at the back of bread flour packet, I decided to give it a try. The steps were very easy to follow and not many ingredients required too. However, I felt the texture was not as soft as bread but more of a cake texture. The taste with Raisins, Cranberries and Almond added great flavor to the loaf. The other constraint is I did not have the right mixer to mix the dough, so I will do my next bread once I get hold of one soon. 

Ingredients

300g Bread Flour
7g Yeast
100g water
50g sugar
2 eggs

80g butter

Raisins
Almond Flakes

Directions

1. Put all ingredients into mixing bowl except butter and mix well.
2. Add butter and mix to a soft dough.
3. Cover the dough with cling film and rest 1 hour.
4. Turn the dough out on a lightly flour surface.
5. Flatten the dough and sprinkle raisins on it.
6. Roll up the dough and put into baking tin and sprinkle almond flakes on top.
7. Cover the dough and leave to rise at room temperature for 1-1.5 hr until the dough has risen to the top of the tin.
8. Bake the loaf at 180 Deg C for 35-40 mins or until golden brown.

Cranberry Muffins

I wanted to try out my portable oven if I can do other baking and I found this recipe (from Kenneth Goh) to do my experiment. After a few experiences using the oven, I felt the need to lower the temperature at least by 20 Deg C as stated by the recipe. Indeed, it came out with a nice texture and satisfactory dome! 

This recipe also has condensed milk which I have never used in my cakes before and I was curious how it will taste. Surprisingly, it tasted yummy and the combination with cranberries made it excellent (a mixture of little sweet and sour). I really love these muffins alot and just couldn't stop craving for more.

With slight modifications

Ingredients

145g plain yogurt
150g melted butter
200g self-raising flour
170g condensed milk
10g caster sugar
50g cranberries
2 eggs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160 Deg C and prepare 14 medium muffin paper cups.
2. Put melted butter, condensed milk, yogurt and eggs in a bowl, stir until well combined. 
3. Sift the flour and add the sugar in another bowl. Make a well in the centre of the bowl. Add the liquid ingredients followed by the cranberries. Stir using a tablespoon until well mixed. A bit of lump is acceptable in muffin preparation.
3. Transfer the batter into the muffin cups. Heat the preheated oven of 160 Deg C for 20 mins or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the muffins come clean.

Soya Milk Agar Agar Mooncakes 2014

 Made these Soya Milk Agar Agar Mooncakes for my Sis-In-Laws & Neighbour. 

Chawanmushi (Japanese Steamed Egg)

Exploring Chawanmushi with Fish & Veg Rice

Check out BeautyMe Cooking Recipe

Shanghai Mooncakes

Made another lot of Shanghai Mooncakes on 7 Sep 14

These are my favourite mooncakes that I loved to eat many years ago, unfortunately I am not able to find such good ones already. Until I came across this recipe from Fong's Kitchen and immediately after I gave my first bite on the mooncake, I was so elated. I gave some to my colleagues and relatives, they confirmed my judgement on this excellent recipe. 

I will definitely make these every Mid Autumn Festival :)

(With slight Modifications)

Ingredients

90g Planta
90g butter (salted)
60g sugar
2 tbsp milk
100g cake flour
140g plain flour
40g custard powder
3 tbsp parmesan cheese powder
Salted egg yolks

[Note: 15g Dough, 20g lotus paste +1/2 salted egg yolk]

Directions

1. Cream Planta, butter and sugar till creamy and white. Add in milk and cream well to combine. 
2. Sift cake flour, plain flour and custard powder together. Mix in parmesan cheese powder. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture to form a dough. 
3. Cut salted egg yolks into 1/2.  
4. Wrap each salted egg yolk in 20g lotus paste and roll it into an round shape. Set aside.
5. Divide the dough in 15g and wrap each lotus filling with the dough.
6. Bake in preheated oven of 150C for about 10 mins. Remove and apply egg wash. Bake again for about another 20 mins or till light golden brown.

Snowskin Mooncakes 2014

My yearly affair, made these Snow Skin Mooncakes for my colleagues, Sis-In -Laws and Neighbours.