Fruit Cake

2nd attempt on fruit cake

Made 2 of it on CNY eve, one for my parents and the other for myself

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CNY baking -Sugee Cookies

Sugee Cookies with Chocolate

Sugee Cookies

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CNY baking -Pineapple Tarts

Open Pineapple tarts, crumbly texture for the pastry base.

Open & closed pineapple tarts in containers ready to be distributed.

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Eggless Blueberry cake

First attempt trying to bake an eggless blueberry cake. When i was given a request from my friend to bake an eggless cake for her bf, i was clueless, can the cake 'fa' with no eggs. So i did a search online, most of the cakes looks really thin and finally i found a recipe which is eggless and suitable for vegetarian. In the morning, my friend who supposed to bake a cake for her bf, turned up ecstatically, waiting for me to prepare the ingredients for baking.

The only thing she did for the whole process is shifting the flour and slowly fold in the dry ingredients.. :) The end product came out successfully and surprisingly the cake did rise slightly but comparing it to a cake that requires egg, its like a small hill. In the evening, when i was baking pineapple tarts for CNY, my friend bf actually called and commented that the cake is simply delicious and he enjoyed it, haha.. it actually made my day after working on the pineapple tarts for the whole afternoon.

ta da.. heres the Eggless Blueberry cake




Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour (256gm)
1/3 cup butter, at room temperature (76gm)
3/4 sugar (96ml)
1/2 apple sauce (80gm)
1tsp vanilla extract
1tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup low fat sour cream
1 cup frozen/ frozen blueberries ( do not thaw if frozen)
3-4 tbsp cinnamon sugar (add sugar + cinnamon powder*) for topping
* i ommited this
3-4 tbsp cinnamon sugar (add sugar + cinnamon powder) for topping

Method
1. Cream the sugar and butter together.
2. Add the applesauce and vanilla and blend some more.
3. Combine the dry ingredients except blueberry in a bowl, mix well.
4. Add these to the wet ingredients and blend. Fold in the blueberries.
5. Grease a Cake tin and spoon half the batter into the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and then spoon the remaining batter. Top it off with some more of the topping.
6. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 40-45 min or until the skewer inserted in the center comes out clean

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Mango pudding

Mango pudding for BBQ dinner gathering.


This is a nice recipe from Florence blog, i can't find mango crystals at supermarkets therefore replaced it with gelatin and sugar. Original recipes calls for aloe Vera cubes but i omit it.

Ingredients: (12 jelly cups)
(A)
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
250ml boiling hot water
240g mango puree (made from fresh mangoes)
100ml whipping cream or evaporated milk

(B)
1 pack mango flavoured jelly crystals - about 90g
5 tsp gelatin powder
3 - 4 tbsp sugar

( Replaced with 30gm of gelatine powder & 80gm of sugar if jelly crystals is unavailable)

375 boiling water, add in moderately. Stopped adding boiling water if mixture is too watery.

(C) 2 fresh mangoes, diced

Method:
1. Lightly beat eggs in a big mixing bowl. Add in 250ml hot boiling water, stirring all the time to prevent eggs from curdling. Strain egg mixture, add in the mango puree and whipping cream or evaporated milk. Mix gently till well blended.
2. Put all ingredients in (B) into a large mixing bowl and stir till jelly crystals, gelatin and sugar dissolved.
3. Mix both egg and jelly mixture together till well combined.
4. Pour mixture into jelly cups that are rinsed with cool drinking water. Add in spoonfuls of (C) - the cubed mango pieces into individual cups.
5. Chill in the refrigerator till set.
6. Serve chilled drenched with evaporated milk or mango puree and extra serving of mango and aloe vera cubes.

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Baileys no-baked Cheesecake

Friends coming over for New year's even countdown and watching of fireworks. Can you believe it, we do have fireworks display at heartland. This is the 3rd year that we are able to watch fireworks display just at the empty land beside my block. Will post some images of the fireworks. After watching it for 3mins, we realised that the display is actually shorter and not as grand like last year, well, everywhere is cutting cost, smaller fireworks. Hopefully they don't cut to zero budget for fireworks for 2009 new years even countdown.

Made this cheesecake for the gathering.


For an 8-inch round cake:
BASE:
1 small pack Malteser candies,crushed to bits with food processor
About 12 digestive biscuits,crushed to crumbs with food processor
50g butter,melted

FILLING:
1 block Philadelphia cream cheese,softened
1 tsp vanilla
25ml to 30ml Baileys
200ml whipping cream
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup boiling water
1 and half tbsp gelatine powder

Swirl:
1 tbsp butter
50g dark chocolate

HOW:
For base,mix crushed Maltesers,crumbs and butter together. Press and smooth evenly in an 8-inch springform pan. Place in a freezer while you get on with the filling.

In boiling water,sprinkle gelatine evenly,leave to "bloom" for 2 minutes. Stir to dissolve.
In microwave,melt butter and chocolate in 30 sec bursts...stir to combine.


In your mixer or using a whisk,whip cream till stiff peaks form,chill.
In a mixer (no need to wash after whipping cream) or food processor,cream the cheese and sugar on high speed till smooth,beat in lemon juice and vanilla.
Stir gelatine mixture,(while resting,some gelatine will settle to the bottom...) and beat in to combine.
Fold in whipped cream...remove tin from freezer.

Pour about 1/4 of batter into chocolate mixture,stir to mix....
Mix in Baileys with white batter.
Pour about half of white batter into tin,add half of chocolate batter,swirl to combine.
Add other half of white batter,top with spoonfuls of remaining chocolate batter,swirling to marble patterns.
Chill overnight.
To serve,run a knife along the sides of the cake,unmould,and slice

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Christmas Fruit Cake

This post is actually long over-due. Due to the busy season of christmas, new year's eve gatherings followed by CNY celebrations, gambling and all the gatherings, finally i have time for blogging all my christmas and cny bakes.

I have always wanted to bake a Christmas fruit cake. My mum likes to make either fruit cake or butter cake during festive season like xmas and CNY to feed us for breakfast because most of the shops and easteries will be closed for CNY. I did a search online for Christmas fruit cake recipe and accidentally i found out the history of fruit cake. In america and in western countries, fruit cake is a must for Christmas especially for the winter season. A Xmas/ traditional fruit cake can be preserved in a air tight container or wrapped tightly with aluminium foil can be kept up to 3 months. To keep the cake moist, you can brush the fruit cake with Rum/ brandy every week.

I actually baked another fruit cake on eve on CNY, i preserved it with aluminium foil wrapped around it for 1 month. My hubby and i had the last few pieces 2 days ago and it taste perfectly nice and the fruits mix with rum taste great!


Ingredients: (8" round cake pan)
225g butter (at room temperature)
130g light muscovado sugar
4 egg yolks (at room temperature)
1/2 - 3/4 tsp salt
15g orange zest
15g lemon zest
4 tbsp orange juice

300g plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
3/4 - 1 tsp all spice

300g - 400g mixed dried fruits (soaked in 3 - 4 tbsp of your favorite liquer)
5 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50g caster sugar

Method:
1. Soak dried fruits in liquer for at least 24 hours.
2. Preheat oven at 170C. Line the bottom of baking pan with 2 layers of baking paper. Either line the sides or grease the sides.
3. Sieve flour, baking powder and spice and leave aside for use later. Remove 50g of this flour mixture and mix it into the dried fruits.
4. Cream butter till soft, add in the salt and muscovado sugar and beat till mixture is pale and fluffy.
5. Beat in the yolk one at a time. Add in the orange and lemon zest.
6. Mix in the orange juice alternating with sieved flour mixture till well combined.
7. Beat egg whites till bubbly, add in the cream of tartar and beat till it is white in color. Add in sugar by thirds and beat till stiff peaks formed.
8. Fold whites into the butter mixture gently.
9. Add in dried fruits and mix gently.
10. Pour batter into cake pan and smooth out the surface with a wet spatula, at the same time make a very shallow hallow in the middle of the batter for even rising.
11. Reduce oven temperature to 160C and bake for 90 - 100 minutes or till cooked and golden brown.
12. Drizzle cooked cake with a tablespoon of liquer and leave it to cool in its baking pan.

Notes:
I used only 300g of mixed dried fruits, so the sweetness for the cake is just right.

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A Western Affair 3

Heres the Menu

Soup of the day - mushroom soup ( we gallop the soup before i can take any pictures)
Grilled chicken chops with herbs
Grilled Garlic Prawns
Leftovers turkey panfried with mushrooms

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Nissin Noodles with Luncheon Meat and Fried Egg

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Home made Wanton with hongkong noodles

Wanton ingredients



Wrapped wantons ready to be cooked

Wanton noodles with char siew and veggies

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Stir Fried Chicken with Apples

Trying out a new dish, Stir Fried Chicken with Apples.

I adapted the original recipe from Peng's Kitchen Blog

Ingredients:
Half a chicken
1 red apple
2 tsp of plum sauce
2 Shallots
1 Onions
A few slices of ginger
1 tsb of oil
1 tsp of soy sauce
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp of lemon juice

Method:
1. Season chicken with soy sauce, pepper & 1 tsp of plum sauce.
1. Heat up 1 tsb of oil, Stir fried chicken with garlic, shallots and onions. Add in chicken, stir fried till cooked, add in 1 tsp of plum sauce, add in abit of water, stir fried till cooked.
2. Add in apples, cook for about 10 mins or till gravy slowly dries up.
3. Dash some parley on the dish. Ready to serve.

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Milk bun

This is my 3rd attempt on bread making, i adapted the recipe from Happy home baking blog. Having the idea of not giving up on bread making, i decide to bake it again today. I do not have a pullman tray so i used a baking tin. Instead of shaping 3 swiss roll dough, I shape it into 2 portion of longish dough to fill up the tray. This time, it took about 2hrs to fill up the tin. It did not rise super high but it fill almost 90% of the baking tin and the taste of it is so much better den previous time.

To me, it looks like a milk bun instead of milk loaf.. keke. the turn out is great, very soft inside.



143g fresh milk (I used HL low-fat fresh milk)
35g egg
25g caster sugar
5g salt
250g bread flour
4g Instant yeast
38g butter (unsalted)

1. Place milk, egg, followed by caster sugar, salt, bread flour and yeast into the pan of the bread machine. Set to Dough function. Add in the butter after 8 ~ 10 mins into the kneading cycle. Continue to let the bread machine do the kneading. Stop the machine after the kneading cycle. Re-start the machine and let the dough knead for another 10mins before stopping the machine.
2. Remove dough from the bread pan, let it proof in room temperature in a mixing bowl, covered with cling wrap. Let proof for 60mins.
3. Remove dough and punch out the gas. Divide dough into 3 equal portion. Roll and shape into balls. Let the doughs rest and relax for 15 mins. (this 'relaxing' time is needed so that the dough will be easier to roll out and shaped).
4. On a lightly floured surface, flatten one dough and roll out into a longish shape. Roll up the dough swiss-roll style. Do the same for the two remaining doughs.
5. Flatten the rolled-up dough and roll out again into a long rectangular shape. Roll up tightly, and make as many rolls you can, swiss-roll style for the second time. Do the same for the two remaining doughs.
6. Place doughs in lightly greased bread tin/pan. Let the doughs proof for the second time, until it fills up 80% of the tin/pan. Cover with cling wrap.
7. Bake at pre-heated oven at 180 ~ 190 deg C for 30 to 35mins.
   
8. Unmould the bread immediately when removed from the oven. Let cool completely before slicing.

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Cranberry cupcake

While waiting for the bread dough to proof, i made some cranberry cupcake with the remaining egg and fresh milk.

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Milky Loaf

After browsing some of the baker's blogs on bread making. I made 2 loaves of bread on sun and monday but the end result wasnt as good. Not sure what's the problem. The 2nd proofing didn't go well, after proofing for 2hrs, it did not rise very high dough it rise doubled size of the dough.

It was a long day of waiting and baking.. waiting for the proof. It took me about 5hrs to make this bread including the 3hrs of proofing. My hubby commented that should have just buy a loaf of bread for $2, why waste 5hrs making bread? hahaha.. well i would say its a sense of accomplishment and eating the bread that you have made your own, its kind of joy too.

I suspect the following problems:
1) The baking tin is not the correct size
2) During the 2nd proofing, after an hr, the clingwrap stick onto the dough, i carefully remove it but i think i deflate the dough :( the dough collapse abit.

Any shifu can advise on my problems?

1st proofing, pretty nice shape

Slice of the bread, texture was quite soft

After 30mins of baking.

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A Western dinner night

Grown tired of chinese food, we decide to have a western food feast, just the 2 of us..

We had this with Boiled potatoes!

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More Cream Puffs & Durian Puffs

Here comes the durian season, we feasted on durians for the past 2 weeks, damn fattening and sinful.. haha, after indulging in the durians, we left some for durian for the puffs. In total, i made about 32 puffs. 16 for cream puffs and 16 for durian cream puffs.

Durian Cream Puffs (yield about 16nos.)



Choux Pastery - i use the same recipe from my previous post

Durian Fillings
200 or 250 ml of non-diary whipping cream
equivalent amount of durian pulps
10 gm of gelatine powder
3 tbsp of hot water to dissolve gelatine powder

Whip up whipping cream to a soft peak.
Add in durian pulps and melted gelatine powder and mix well.
Put fillings in a piping bag and pipe it out into the baked choux pastry. If you like, you can just spoon the fillings into the pastry too.
Dust the top of the pastry with some snow powder and leave it in fridge to chill before serving.
(If you leave it in freezer, it will taste like eating durian puffs ice-cream.)

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Watching the ladies from SMH making very nice puffy Cream puffs, i also made some today. The bakes turn out fantastic! Puffy and soft, suprisingly my hubby likes it, amazing cos he dun really like sweet stuffs. After comparing a few recipes, i decide to us the recipe is from yochanna' webbie again.. keke.. im a fan of hers!

pastry puffing in the oven

puff pastry with custard cream in it

Choux Paste:

85 gm. water
50 gm. Butter
60 gm. Plain flour
125 gm. eggs (about 2 eggs)

Custard filling:
420 gm. fresh milk
150 gm. sugar
5 eggs - beaten lightly
30 gm. Butter
25 gm. flour
25 gm. cornflour
1/2 tsp. Vanilla esssence

Method for choux paste:

(1) Boil water and butter till boiling.
(2) Pour in all the flour and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon till paste is not sticky and leaving the side of the pan. Remove from heat and let it cool till lukewarm.
(3) Stir in eggs and mix till it becomes a smooth paste.
(4) Fill paste into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe onto a baking tray. Makes about 15 nos.
(5) Bake at 180C for about 20 mins. or till puffed up and golden in colour.
(6) For filling: Boil milk with sugar till sugar dissolves.
(7) Meantime, mix cornflour and flour together and then mix in the 5 beaten eggs. Seive mixture.
(8) Remove hot milk from stove, pour gradually into the egg mixture and stir till well mixed. Return to stove again and cook over low heat till custard thickens.
(9) Stir in butter, vanilla essence and rum and set aside to cool.
(10) Cut cream puffs but not cut through, pipe some custard filling into the puff and close back the top put.
(11) Serve.

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Steam Yam Cake

Finally pick up the courage to make steam yam cake last week, my mum makes very nice yam. Im afraid that mine will not be as nice as my mum's. Overall was nice, in laws says 'can sell already' but i think its still need improvement, yam was slightly hard and abit bland, i dare not add too much salt, will improve on that further.

This recipe is adapted from yochanna's blog but i modified abit.

Ingredients:
220 gm. Rice flour
300 gm. Yam - cut into cubes
20 gm. Tapioca flour
2 tsp. 5-spice powder
850 ml. water (divide into 2 portions of 425 ml. each)
5 shallots - sliced

30 gm. chinese sausage - lap cheong - diced
60 gm. roasted pork -siew yok - diced
50 gm. Dried shrimps - soaked then chopped coarsely
4 nos. mushrooms -soaked and diced
2 Tbsp. cooking oil
1 Tbsp. cooking oil - put into boiling water

Seasoning:
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. Vetsin
1 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. sesame oil


Method:

(1) Fry yam with 2 Tbsp. oil and toss with 5-spice powder, leave aside.
(2) Fry the shallots until fragrant, add in dried shrimps and fry till dried shrimps starts to jump then add in chinese sausage, roasted pork and mushrooms . Dish up and leave aside.
(3) Mix the rice flour, wheat starch and tapioca flour with 400 ml. water. Add in seasoning and stir.
(4) In a wok, boil the 400 gm. water till boiling. Add in 1 Tbsp. cooking oil. Off the heat, pour in the rice flour mixture and stir till mixture thickens. On the the heat again and cook over low heat till mixture thickens, pour in 2/3 of the dried shrimp mixture and stir till well-mixed.
(5) Pour into an 8" oiled square tray and level the top.
(6) Steam for about 45 mins.
(7) Sprinkle the balance 1/3 of the dried shrimps mixture on top and steam for another 5 mins.
(8) Leave to cool before slicing.
(9) Sprinkle chillies, fried shallot and spring onion on top and serve with chillie sauce.

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Chicken Pie

Pastry:
200 gm butter
250 gm plain flour
110 gm plain yoghurt ( i omit the yoghurt)
1 tsp sugar
1 egg yolk
A pinch of salt

Put all the ingredients into the mixing bowl except yoghurt, and mix to a crumble. Add in yoghurt and mix to a dough. Dough will be very soft so need to keep it refrigerated for at least 30 mins.

Filling:
12 oz diced potatoes
1 big onion diced
50 gm mixed vegetable (or more if you like)
Sliced canned mushrooms (amt up to you)
2 chicken breast diced
1 tbsp corn starch or potato starch mixed with 2 tbsp water
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Heat abt 2 tbsp of oil and fry potatoes with abt 4 fl oz of water and 1/2 tsp salt until soft. Set aside. In a clean wok, heat 2 tbsp oil. Fry the onion until transparent. Add mixed vegetable, mushroom, chicken. Fry for a while to break up chicken. Add in potatoes. Add in abt 4 fl oz of water and cook for abt 5 mins. Add in salt, sugar and pepper. Add in the cornstarch and stir to thicken mixture. Set aside for later use.

The steps for the chicken pie will be as per normal. You can either do big pie or mini pie. Just need to roll out the dough, cut the size required and place in a pie dish. Poke hole on the base using a fork and place ingredients on top. Cut another piece of dough to cover the top. Poke a few more times using fork on the cover of the pie and brush with 1 beaten egg. Baked in a preheated oven at 180C for 30 mins.

The pastry turn out very crumbly, like apple crumble pie pastry, not sure issit because i omit the yoghurt.

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Orange Chiffon Cake

2nd attempt on chiffon cakes

Ingredients:
(A)
4 egg yolks
75 ml. Orange juice
40 ml. water
85 ml. corn oil
90 gm. sugar
150 gm. Hong Kong flour or Cake flour
3 gm. Salt
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Orange emulco

(B)
5 egg white
1/8 tsp. Cream of Tartar
100 gm. sugar

Method:
(1) Mix all the ingredients (A) together and stir till smooth.
(2) Whisk egg white with cream of tartar for 1 min. then gradually pour in sugar and whisk till medium-stiff peak.
(3) Fold mixture (1) and (2) together and pour into a 23 cm. tube pan.
(4) Bake at 180c for about 1 hour or till cake is cooked through.
(5) Overturn cake (still in the pan) onto a wire rack and leave it to cool down completely.
(6) Remove cake from tube pan and slice.
(7) Serve.

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