Scones

Big FAN loves scones.  So tried baking some for him  This recipe that I use baked almost like 10 small scones.  As the kids don't really like it and Big FAN can only gobble up 2.  I have to just chuck the remainder in the fridge.  And guess what I ate scones for tea break for like 3 consecutive days....still love it though....hi hi...  Here's the recipe, can't really remember where I got it from.  But enjoy!


Easy Scones

Ingredients

• 375 g all-purpose flour
• 100 g white sugar
• 25 g baking powder
• 3 g salt
• 170 g butter
• 1 egg, beaten
• 235 ml milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter. Mix the egg and milk in a small bowl, and stir into flour mixture until moistened.
3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead briefly. Roll dough out into a 1/2 inch thick round. Cut into 8 wedges, and place on the prepared baking sheet.
4. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

Fluffy Pancakes for Kids Lunchbox

Ok, this post is way late.  But here's what I have been cooking.  My SMALL FAN loves pancakes, so have been making this for his snack box to bring to school.   Enjoy!


Here's the recipe:

Fluffy Pancakes
Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup melted butter or canola oil

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Combine the egg, milk and shortening; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
2. Pour batter by 1/4 cupful onto a greased hot griddle. Cook under low heat. Turn when bubbles form on top of pancakes; cook until the second side is golden brown.

Milo Cupcakes

My SMALL FAN has recently started swimming class. So we make it a family outing every saturday to go swimming together Hubby, Mommy & Baby FAN (while SMALL FAN is in his swimming class).  After swimming however, the kids get really hungry and is always asking for food.  So decided to baked some cupcakes so that I could bring it to the pool and they can eat it after the swim.  Modified my chocolate oatmeal cupcakes recipe and replace the cocoa with Milo, and wah lah....MILO Cupcakes...Yum.

Milo Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup butter (115g)
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 of raw sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (I use self-raising flour)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (opmitted this since I'm using self raising flour)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons Milo
• Mixed Nuts (for decorations)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 8x8 inch pan.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the rolled oats and butter. Mix in boiling water. Set aside to cool.

3. Beat together the brown sugar, eggs and vanilla; add to cooled oat mixture and mix well.

4. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and milo. Add to wet ingredients and mix well. Pour into cupcakes cup and put a whole nuts in each cupcakes.

5. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool, and remove pan

Angry Bird Birthday Cake

It's SMALL FAN's 6 years old birthday and he requested for an angry bird cake for his birthday party.  I kinda check out the market and it cost $100 plus to $200 to ordered one.  So I thought maybe I can try making one myself.  First of all I cut down on the $$$$ and I also get to control what goes in the cake. 

I'm not a really good baker, not too confident of making fondant angry birds, so decided to buy the angry bird toy to use as the decoration.  I killed 2 birds with one stone on this, first of all, I can cut down on the time making the birds and also, I won't end up with a few coloured, sugar birds that I don't know what to do with it (don't think I will let my kids eat it since it will be loaded with sugar and colouring) but best of all, the angry bird toy can be clean up and given to SMALL FAN as his birthday present. 

Bought this angry bird toy set from Gmarket, the cataput comes with the angry bird theme song and sound...really cool.  Check in out below.

Here's what I did to make the cake. I use my favourite Chocolate Oatmeal Cupcake recipe to make the cake base. I make about 3 portion of 7 inch cake.  Then I cut out the desired shape and cover it with my buttercream frosting which I coloured green.  Then I use whatever remaining cakes I have and form it into a square block using buttercream frosting as the glue. Then I covered the block with a brown fondant that I bought from Phoon Huat, they have their own house version call REDMAN fondant, which cost $7 for a 500g pack.  Finally I decorated the cakes with the angry bird toys, some kitkat and a lovely happy birthday candles, and use a little of the brown fondant to make my SMALL FAN's name.  Wah lah...my proud creation!



I think the kids really love the cake, cause this is what is remain of the cake.


To complete the angry bird theme, I also made an Angry Bird Pinata for him.  The kids have a great time destroying it!

Mini Nobaked Cheesecakes with Mango Sauce

Wah...it's been almost 2 months since I last updated my blog...guess I'm really getting lazy.
Well, here's a nice recipe that I stumble recently will looking for a dessert to bring over for a family dinner to celebrate our national day.  Really simple but it was a real hit with the kids, I have to stop my son from eating more so his cousins can have it. Guess what I made?  Nobaked Lemon cheesecake with Mango sauce.  YUM.

Mini Nobaked Cheesecakes with Mango Sauce

For the Cheesecake

Crust

• 1 1/4 cups or 105 g digestive biscuits
• 1/4 cup or 125g margarine, softened (thought the butter was too much as my crust turns out a little soggy, I'm going to use 80g next time)
• 1/4 cup or 50g sugar (thought it's a little too much cause it's a bit on the sweet side, next time I might reduce it to 30g)

Filling         

• 1 (8 ounce or 250g) package cream cheese
• 1/2 cup or 125g powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/2 cup of heavy cream, whipped (the cake turns out a little soft, so I would cut down the cream to 1/4 cup next time I'm doing it to see if it hardens better)

Directions

1. Put digestive biscuit in a ziplock bag and get the kids to smash it until it resemble fine bread crumbs. Mix the crumbs into melted margarine and sugar until well incorporated. Press into individual cupcakes mold.
2. Beat together the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and lemon juice in a bowl until smooth and spreadable. Whisk whipped cream.  Then fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture until smooth. Pour cream cheese into cupcakes lined with the crumbs. Smooth the top with a spatula, and refrigerate until firm, about 2 to 3 hours.  Pour Mango sauce over and served.
3. I made about 25 super mini cupcakes.

Mango Sauce Topping

 3 cups mangos, peeled, seeded and chopped

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon orange juice

some water

Directions

1.  In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the mangoes, butter, brown sugar, lemon juice, orange juice, and a little water. Stir until the mixture thickens. Add more water to the right consistency. Remove from heat and serve or keep it in the refrigerator  and serve it cold.

Persimmon Cake

My Dad gave me a whole box of Persimmons, I have been trying really hard to finish it before it spoil, but it's just too much.  So, I search the net for a recipe to help me make use of these ripe persimmons and I found this. The recipe was relatively easy to make and the cake actually tasted quite good, however, it tasted a litlle too chewy for my liking. Will probably make it again if I have lots of persimmons to get rid of.

 

Persimmon Cake

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sugar (I reduce the sugar to 1 cup and it's still a little too sweet for me)
• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups persimmon pulp
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

1.Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch loaf pan.


2.Whisk together the flour baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a bowl, set aside. Whisk together the eggs, persimmon pulp, milk, and vanilla extract in a separate bowl until smooth. Fold the persimmon mixture into the flour mixture until no dry lumps remain. Pour into the prepared pan.

3.Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan, and allow to cool completely on a wire rack before icing.  I make the cake into cupcakes and baked it in the oven for about 20 minutes instead.

Birthday Cupcakes

Ok, I haven't been updating my blog for quite a while.  Getting really lazy and proscatinating.  So here I am updating what I have been keeping in my picture file of recipes for the pass one month.   First of all, celebarted my girl's birthday with a nice pink birthday cupcakes.  I used my carrot cakes recipe from my old post, then top the cake with a super tasty cream cheese frosting which I dyed it pink and use the nice pink cups that I bought from Phoon Huat, sprinkle some colured sprinkles and wa la....a sweet birthday cupcakes.

 

Here's the recipe for the Cream Cheese Frosting:

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 package of cream cheese (250g), soften
• 1/4 cup of butter, soften
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup of icing sugar

1. In a bowl, cream cream cheese and butter until creamy.
2. Mix in the vanilla extract.
3. Fold in the icing sugar.
4. Now you can start piping.  Store leftover in refridgerator.

Cupcakes ! Cupcakes ! Cupcakes !

For the past few weeks, I have been having friends coming over to my place for afternoon tea.  So, was in a cupcakes making mood and since Christmas is coming, my cupcakes was all in a really colourful and christmasee look.

Chocolate Oatmeal Christmas Tree Cupcakes
I did this using the chocolate oatmeal cupcake recipe and the fondant icing from my older post.

Colourful Carrot Cupcakes
I did this using the Carrot Cupcake recipe from my older post and just iced the cakes with a mixture of icing sugar and milk and sprinkles with colourful candy sprinkles.

The kids enjoyed it.  Bonn Appetite!

Ribena Cheesecake

I bought a bottle of Ribena cordial for qutie sometime, have been trying to do something to make used of it.  So finally, decided to make a Ribena Cheesecake with it.  The cheesecake turns out beautifully although I personally fill that it tasted more like Jelly then cheesecake.  Maybe I added too much yoghurt and gelatin, next time I may reduce the yogurt to 150ml and gelatin to 1.5 tablespoon instead and see if it taste better.

 

Here's the original recipe from Happy Homebaking, enjoy:

Ribena Cheesecake

 

Ingredients

 

crust:

• 150g digestive biscuits, finely crushed
• 60g butter, melted

filling:

• 100ml water
• 20g (2 tablespoons) gelatin granules/powder
• 250g cream cheese, soften at room temperature
• 75g caster sugar
• 250ml (1 cup) natural plain yogurt
• 75ml Ribena blackcurrant juice cordial

 topping:

• 100ml water
• 2 teaspoons gelatin granules/powder
• 80ml Ribena blackcurrant juice cordial

Method:

 

1. Line the sides of a 18-20cm round pan (with a removable base) with parchment paper or clear plastic sheet (I cut out a strip of plastic sheet from a cookie bag), set aside. To make the crust, combine crushed digestive biscuits and melted butter together in a mixing bowl. With the back of a spoon, press the biscuit crumbs onto the base of the prepared pan. Chill in the freezer compartment for at least 1 hour. (To ensure the crust is even, I used the base of a flat-bottom glass to press down the crumbs.)
2. Filling: Measure water into a bowl and sprinkle in the gelatin (without stirring with a spoon). Set aside to allow the gelatin grains to swell (10 mins) before setting the bowl over a pot of simmering hot water. Stir with a spoon and once the gelatin melts, remove the bowl from the pot and set aside to cool to room temperature.
3. With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. Add in the gelatin solution and yogurt, beat till the mixture turns smooth.
4. Divide mixture evenly into two bowls (about 1 cup each). Add 75ml of Ribena into one of the bowls and mix well with a spatula.
5. Spoon the two mixtures in alternate blobs into the chilled crust. Level top and swirl with a knife through the mixture to create a marble effect. Refrigerate until set (about 2 hours as stated in the recipe, but I left mine to set over night since I omitted the topping).
6. Topping: Measure water into a bowl and sprinkle in the gelatin. Set aside to allow the gelatin grains to swell (10 mins) before setting the bowl over a pot of simmering hot water. Stir with a spoon and once the gelatin melts, remove bowl from the pot and stir in 80ml of Ribena. Set aside to cool. When completely cooled, pour mixture over the cheesecake and chill for several hours or overnight until set.

 

Ice Cream Birthday Cake

It's Big FAN's big day, so decided to bake a special cake for him.  Big FAN is not a cake person, he don't like sweet stuff, so decided that instead of making a cake for him, maybe I make something that he would like to eat like ice cream?  So search the net for an ice cream cake recipe and stumble upon this Black Forest Ice Cream Cake from BIY.com.  Decided to do a similar cake like this and here's my own version.

 

Ice Cream Chocolate Cake

 

For the Cake (this make a small 8" cake)

• 3/4 cups self-raising flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cups milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt, set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until smooth. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients, alternately with the milk. Once all of the ingredients have been incorporated, mix on high speed of an electric mixer for 2 to 3 minutes. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  
4. Cut cake into half horizontally.

For the Chocolate Ganache

1. Heat 1/2 cup cream, then add 100gm baking chocolate. Be sure not to burn the chocolate.
2. Add 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
3. Cool mixture. To check if it's ready, a dropof ganache onto the mixture should disappear quickly.

Assembling the Cake

1. Soften ice cream by allowing it to thaw in room temperature for a while
2. Lay 1st layer of cake on the bottom of the 8" pan and spread with 1/4 tub of ice cream
3. Lay 2nd cake layer on top of the ice cream, and spread with another 1/4 tub of the ice cream. The cover entire pan with aluminium foil and freeze for at least 1 day
4. Glaze the cake - pour 1/2 lukewarm ganache onto the cake surface, quickly swirl it around until entire surface is covered.  Ganache will harden almost immediately due to the cold surface.  Cover with foil again to freeze.
5. For piping with ganache, whip it quickly in mixer until color lightens and ganache achieves a consistency of buttercream.
6. To remove the cake from the pan, dip a towel into hot boiling water, squeeze out excess.  Lay cake pan onto the hot towel and wipe sides with it thus loosening the cake from the cake pan.  Then life the cake out of the pan and onto a serving plate.  You may want to put the cake back into the freezer to chill before decorating 
7. 1 hour before serving, take the cake out of the freezer.  Pipe large swirls of whipped chocolate ganache around the edges of the cake. After the cake is prepared, leave the decorated cake in the refrigerator to thaw a little before cutting.

Carrot Cupcakes

Ok, this post is kinda a delayed post, I made this cupcakes for a national day celebration at my SIL's place. Wanted to make a simple cupcakes for the kids to decorate with the fondant icing I made in my earlier post. As usual, wanted my kid to eat something healthy instead of just sugar laden cakes, so, search the link and found this Carrot Cake recipe from www.allrecipes.com. It was really easy to make and it actually tasted quite nice, it doesn't have the carrot taste and the kids ate it like any other cakes. Am going to make this cakes again, a definite keeper for me.

Carrot Cupcakes

Ingredients & Directions

• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (I opmitted this)
• 2 cups white sugar (I replace this with 3/4 of brown sugar)
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 3 cups grated carrots

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease two 9 inch round cake pans.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon and sugar. Add the oil and eggs, mix until blended, then stir in the carrots and nuts. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven. A toothpick inserted into the cake should come out clean. Cool cakes on wire racks before removing from pans.

Happy National Day, Singapore!

National Day is coming.  My sis-in-law invited us to her place to celebrate.  I decided to make some cupcakes and get the kids to decorate it there at her place.  However, I was worried that all the icing and creaming maybe a little too messy (don't want her to be cleaning the house after we left), so decide to do a not so messy icing, that is, a fondant.  At least it's like playing playdough for the kids and it wouldn't create too much of a mess.  Search the web for an easy recipe and stumble upon this Marshmallow Fondant from allrecipes.com  I decided to give it a try, it was actually quite easy.  I made 2 colour, one white and one red as that's our Singapore Flag's colour.  However, I make a huge mess with my first attempt as I was too eager to knead the dough, so I added half the icing into the marshmallow and started kneading it, it was a sticky messy and it took me almost an hour to get the dough into the correct texture.  So for my next attempt, I have learnt from my mistake, I melt the marshmallow with a little water, then pour in as much of the icing as I can until I form a really stiff dough, than I put on a disposable gloves, coated it with lots of butter, take a chopping board and put it with lots of icing, then took out the entire dough and started kneaded it.  It was so much easier this time round and I manage to get the dough ready in 15 minutes....phew....

I also realised that I should make the dough in small portion as it was so much easier to handle since I'm using it for cupcakes.  Here's my small portion recipe:

Marshmallow Fondant

• 100g of Marshmallow
• 2 teaspoon of water
• 250g to 300g of icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla essence
• food colouring
• 1 tbs of butter

1. Put marshmallow and water in a microwavable bowl and microwave for 30sec to melt the marshmallow.
2. Stir in the vanilla essence and food colouring and 100g of icing sugar. Wait for a while and let the mixture cool down.
3. Pour in another 200g of icing sugar and stir until you form a very stiff mixture.
4. Put dough in a flat surface, preferably on a chopping board or something that won't get stained by the food colouring, that have been generously covered with icing sugar. Then wear a disposable gloves and apply a generous amount of butter or shortening on the gloves.
5. Start kneading the dough until it become soft and pialable.  Then wrap dough in a cling wrap and refrigerate overnight or until ready to use.
6. To use the dough, take it out of the refridgerator to let it soften slightly before working on it.  Enjoy!

This is how the end result looks like with the carrot cupcakes and cream cheese frosting that I made in my next post.  The fondant kinda melted when the kids was working on it, so it looks kinda messy but the fondant was really tasty, the kids was eating it while decorating the cakes.

Waffle Donuts

I'm still in my quest for the perfect donut recipes as that's the only type of bread that my Baby FAN eat (beside ice-cream bread). So I just have to buy this waffle maker when I saw it on sale at NTUC, it allows me to make sandwiches, waffles and donuts. 

My Waffle Maker



So, I searh around the net for a recipe that calls for Donut Batter and uses donut maker but don't have much luck, stumble upon this one http://www.hungrybrowser.com/phaedrus/m031102.htm and decided that I should just give it a try. 

The Donut turns out really nice but it tasted more like a waffle then a donut.  But it actually tasted quite nice and was reall fun to eat since it's very small and cute.  My boy can eat 3 at a go.  I'm definitely going to use this recipe again but maybe next time I try using the waffle plate instead of the donut plate.

Here's how much donuts I have made with the recipe

This is the actual size of the small donut waffle

This is how the inside of the donut looks inside

 

Here's the recipe:

Donut Waffles

 

Ingredients n Directions:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 egg 
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 4 tbsp cooking oil
• 1/4 tsp salt

1. Stir dry ingredients together.
2. Add egg, vanilla, and milk and beat one minute with electric mixer or vigorously by hand. Add oil and beat one minute more. Add oil and beat one minute more.
3. Blend in the dry ingredients.
4. Preheat donut maker for 10 minutes. Pour batter into cavities in bottom of donut maker. close lid and bake for 5 minutes. Remove carefully with fork and place on grate or rack.
5. Makes 12 donuts.

Variations:

Any other extract may be substituted for the vanilla. You can also add 1/2 cup of nuts, raisins, or coconut to the batter. 1/2 cup chocolate chips may also be added. This is especially good if you add 1/4 teaspoon orange extract to the vanilla glaze.

Afternote:
I used this recipe to make waffles and it turns out quite nice and crispy.  Here's the final product.

Fa Gao (Huat Kueh)

With my boy going into Primary School in 2 years time, I have to start thinking about which school to put him.  So decided to put him in the school which is only 2 busstop away.  As a kiasu parents like many others, I decided to work as a parent volunteers, so as to secure a place for him as well as for me to find out more about the school so that I can make a better decision on whether this school is right for him.

Today, I'm starting my first day as a PV to help their school in their Little Planters programme.  Beside this, I have also volunteer to be involved in their Racial Harmony day, which we are supposed to provide samples of traditional food items for the kids to try out.  So, I volunteered to make Fa Gao as searching the internet, Fa Gao seems to be a relatively easy item to make in large quantity.  So, for the pass 2 weeks, I have be experimenting on Fa Gao recipe.  Stumble upon, this one from the following blog:
http://hutofcranberry.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html

Fa Gao Recipe


Original Version:

•  250g sifted Self-raising flour
• 200g Brown sugar
• 220g Coconut Milk (½coconut, mixed with 100g water, Squeezed out coconut milk)

 Hut of Cranberry's Modified Version:

• 250g sifted Self-raising flour
• 170g Dark Brown sugar
• 250g Fresh Packed Coconut Milk (you can get it from NTUC or supermarkets)

 Method:

1. Mix Self-raising flour & Dark Brown sugar into a mixing bowl.
2. Add in Coconut milk and mix until well-combined.
3. Line aluminum cup with paper cup.
4. Pour batter into cup till 90% full, steam with high heat for 15 minutes.

I decided to give it a try.  I wanted to buy ready made Coconut milk (so I don't need to spend too much time squeeze coconut) and found this NTUC Fairprice housebrand of Coconut Cream.  I'm not sure what's the different between Cream or Milk, but instead of the 250ml milk stated in her recipe, I added 200ml of the Coconut Cream and have to add an additional 100ml of water so as to get the batter to reach the desired consistency.  I also simmer the coconut cream with a leaf of Pandan leaf to make the Fa Gao smell nicer. Luckily, my Fa Gao open up really nicely.  However, I do find that it's a little too dense for my liking but my mom said the traditional Fa Gao should be dense like this.  I'm going to try making Fa Gao again this weekend using a different brand of Coconut milk and see how it turns out....keeping my finger crossed that my Fa Gao will "Huat" this time round.  Here's how it looks like:

Flourless Chocolate Cake

It's that time of the year again and I just have to try baking a cake for myself.  As it's my own birthday cake, I decided to indulge in something I like and make a cake of it, Chocolate.  Had wanted to make a normal chocolate cake but stumble upon this cake recipe in allrecipes.com and decided to give it a try as the review sound really good.  The cake was super simple to make, it takes me only about 15 minutes to prepare and 30 minutes to bake.  The verdict, tasted really nice, not too reach and not too sweet...I served it with strawberries, the sourish strawberries compliment really well with the chocolate...yum yum....going to make this again, it's too easy not to make it again. Best of all it's gluten free since no flour involved and as I have cut down the sugar, it's also not as sinful as other chocolate cakes.



Flourless Chocolate Cake
(make a thin 8" cake)

Ingredients and Directions

• 4 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate, chopped (I used cadbury dark chocolate instead)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar (I reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup as my chocolate is already sweet)
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder (I omitted this an replace it with another 2 ounce of cadbury dark chocolate)
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Cocoa Powder for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease an 8 inch round cake pan, and dust with cocoa powder.
2. In the top of a double boiler over lightly simmering water, melt chocolate and butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, cocoa powder, eggs, and vanilla. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Slices can also be reheated for 20 to 30 seconds in the microwave before serving.

 Had wanted to decorate the cake with a nice Granache but I ran out of time, so I just simply decorated the cake with a dusting of cocoa powder and strawberries.

A Colourful Cake for Mother's Day

Here's a Colourful Mango Pudding Yoghurt Cake for all mothers, Happy Mother's Day!

Saw this recipe from Happy Homebaking and I thought this is just the right cake for me to bring for my Mother's Day Celebration with my mom and family.  The original recipe called for Orea Biscuit but as we are not really orea fans, I decided to replace the crust with Digestive biscuits.  I think it's a big mistake cause the biscuits base turn soggy and it doesn't compliment well with the yoghurt pudding.  The pudding tasted quite nice with the fruits topping. Will probably make this cake again but not as a cake but a yogurt pudding dessert instead.  Here's the recipe:

Mango Yogurt Pudding Cake

(makes one 7" cake)

Ingredients & Directions:
for the biscuit base:

• 110g oreo cookies (remove cream and finely crumbled) - I replaced this with Digestive Biscuits
• 40g butter, melted and cool

for the filling:

• 300g fresh mangoes (use sweet, ripped fruits)
• juice from 1 passion fruit (remove seeds)
• 2 tablespoons caster sugar
• 200g mango flavoured yogurt (I used peach-mango flavour)
• 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoon gelatin powder
• 60 ml water 

some fruits for decoration

1. to make the biscuit base: Place oreo crumbs and melted butter in a bowl. Mix thoroughly with a spoon until the crumbs are moistened. Press the crumbs evenly into the base of a 7" round pan (with removable base). Use the back of the spoon, smooth out the crumbs and press firmly. You can also use a glass (with a flat base) to press down firmly. Freeze the base for at least 1 hour.
2. to make the filling: Measure water into a bowl and sprinkle in the gelatin (without stirring). Set aside to allow the gelatin grains to swell (10 mins) before setting the bowl over a pot of simmering hot water. Stir with a spoon and once the gelatin melts, remove the bowl from the pot and set aside to cool to room temperature. Blend mangoes, passion fruit juice, sugar, yogurt until the mixture becomes smooth. Add in the gelatin solution to the mixture, mix well. Pour mixture onto the biscuit base. Cover with cling wrap and leave to chill in the fridge over night or for at least 4-6 hours. Remove cake from fridge, unmold and decorate with fruits as desired. Keep the cake in the fridge before serving.

Orange Marble Cake

Bought some oranges a few weeks ago and it tasted really sour.  Can't seems to get another interested in eating it fresh.  So decided that I should use it as an ingredient instead.  So adapted a recipe from one of my earlier post and made this Orange Marble Cake.  The cake turns out really moist and the cocoa and orange combination was actually quite nice.  My only issue now is how to make the swirl such that the cake looks like a marble cake ;p

Orange Marble Cake

Ingredients & Directions

• 150g self-raising flour
• 125g salted butter
• 110g sugar
• 2 eggs (beaten)
• 2 tsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tbs milk
• 1 tbs orange juice
• 1 tsp orange cest

1.  Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add egg mixture gradually, beat well after each addition
3. Fold in sifted flour lightly into the mixture
4. Add orange juice, milk and vanilla essence and mix well.
5. Divide mixture into 2 equal portions
6. Add cocoa powder in one portion.
7. Scoop the white batter into a 6 inch oiled baking pan, then scoop the cocoa mixture on top. 
8. Use a teaspoon or sharp object to stir the batter lightly, but don't overmix.
9. Bake in a preheated oven at 175 deg cel for about 30 to 40 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.
10. Leave to cool & Enjoy!.

 

Milo Marble Cupcakes

Since SMALL FAN was at home with me in the morning, decided to spend some time with him making cupcakes with his favourite item, Milo.  Found this marble cupcake recipe from Sthorge Kitchen and decided to modified it by adding Milo.  The cakes turn out really nice and moist, it was still tasty on the 3rd day.  Yum Yum.

Here's the recipe, enjoy!

Milo Marble Cupcakes

 

Ingredients & Directions

• 150g self-raising flour
• 125g salted butter
• 125g sugar
• 2 eggs (beaten)
• 4 tbs Milo
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 tbs milk

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add egg mixture gradually, beat well after each addition
3. Fold in sifted flour lightly into the mixture
4. Add a little milk and vanilla essence and mix well.
5. Divide mixture into 2 equal portions
6. Add Milo powder in one portion.
7. Scoop a table spoon of the butter into the paper cup, add the milo batter over it, repeat until all the paper cups filled with 1/2 full batter.
8. Use a teaspoon or sharp object to stir the batter in the paper cups lightly, but don't overmix.
9. Bake in a preheated oven at 175 deg cel for about 25 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.
10. Leave to cool & Enjoy!.
    

Mini Cup Cakes

A friend of my asked me for a recipe for cupcakes so that she can make with her daugther.  Here's one that I tried some time ago but forgot to post.  The recipe is super simple.

Mini Cup Cakes

• 50g soft margarine
• 50g sugar
• 50g self-raising flour
• 1 egg

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg celsius.  Place 26 paper mini muffin cases on a large baking sheet or for my case, I made a slightly bigger one and use 12 cases instead.
2. Put all the ingredients for the cake into a mixing bowl and beat together well until smooth.
3. Divide the mixture among the cases and cook for 8 to 10 minutes until well risen and golden.  Depending on your oven, you might need to cook longer for bigger muffin, poke a toothpick into the cake and if it comes out clean, it's done.
4. Transfer cakes to a wire rack and leave to cool completely. Then decorate as you please.

You can used my birthday cupcake icing recipe to make the icing or you use this simple recipe that I used in the cupcakes in my pictures above.  I simply mix Icing Sugar with Milk until I achieve the right consistency I want. Alternatively, you can buy the icing from Phoon Huat, they sell lots of different type of icing and decorations at the shop.  Enjoy!

Chocolate Cheesecake Truffles

I wanted to bake a chocolate cheesecake for my hubby's birthday and found this recipe at allrecipes.com and thought it seems simple enough to do.  I half the original recipes as I just wanted a small cake that is not too much for the family.  I think I might have overbaked the cheesecake as it was rather hard and dense when we cut it.  Hubby say it was a little too rich for him.  I also think so too.  Well, after trying cheesecake made with condensed milk, yoghurt and whipped cream, I think I still like the cheesecake that is made with whipped cream best, it has the right consistency and texture that I like.  Now that I have tried out different type of cheesecake, my next target is to make chocolate cake (non-cheesecake).



Oh, I also tried making a ganache for the toppings of the cake and I must say it tasted really really good.  Will use this recipe for my other cakes again. Well, here's the recipe for the cheesecake and ganache:


Ingredients & Directions

For the Cheesecake 

• 150 grm Digestive Biscuits (the original recipe called for 18 OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies for a 9 inch pan) finely crushed
  
• 60 grm butter, melted (the original recipe was 2 tablespoons butter)
  
• 1.5 (8 ounce per packet) packages PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
• 1/2 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 (12 ounce) package BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunks, melted, slightly cooled (I use vanhouten dark eating chocolate instead)
  
• 1/4 cup coffee-flavored liqueur (optional) - I skipped this as I don't have any
  
• 2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F if using silver 6-inch springform pan (or to 275 degrees F if using dark nonstick 9-inch springform pan). Mix cookie crumbs and butter; press firmly onto bottom of pan. Set aside.
2. Beat cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add chocolate; mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour over crust.
3. Bake 1 hour 5 min. to 1 hour 10 min. or until center is almost set. Run knife or metal spatula around rim of pan to loosen cake; cool before removing rim of pan. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator. 

For the Ganache

• 1 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used vanhouten eating chocolate instead)
  
• 1 cups heavy cream
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Place chocolate chips in a large bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer. Pour the cream into a saucepan, and bring to a boil. As soon as the cream boils up to the top of the pan, quickly remove it from the heat, and pour it over the chips. Let stand for a minute or two, then stir with a whisk, or use the paddle attachment for the mixer, to mix until smooth. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl occasionally. Stir in the vanilla until well blended. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface, and allow to cool at room temperature, or in the refrigerator.