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Am preparing myself for next week.. lots to bake and i dont think i will be able to update till after I am done.. sigh.. i thought its gonna be smooth sailing with hubs around to hang out with Sonia in the evening but i was wrong.. yesterday came the news that hes flying off to Germany on Monday for a couple of days.. arghhh.. how on earth am i gonna bake and at the same time be with Sonia.. i cant possibly let her watch telly 24/7 and i cant possibly be baking till the wee hrs since i hv to drive her to school every morning! theres one more page left in his passport and thats it.. he will not be able to travel till he gets his new passport and his wifey will be the most happiest woman alive ..  muakahkahkah - "evil grins"


Anyway I baked this simple classic cake for our simple classic weekend.. u can never go wrong with this kinda recipe.. equal amt of butter, sugar, flour and eggs.. it is said that the secret to a good victoria sandwich cake is that the weight of the flour, butter and sugar should be the same as the weight of the eggs you are using but i did it the other way around.. i decided to base it on one block of butter and for my eggs.. i cracked a few.. stirred it with a fork and weighed em..I hv baked it once early last year using Yani's recipe.. its a little different but the taste is still the same.. so bake it in the name of Queen Victoria and u will feel like a queen all week.. HA! definately not me for sure cos next week i will be a mad baker... arggghhh am such a whiner!!! heres the recipe folks.. oh bef i go.. i wanna thank Herda for ordering macs last wed.. am glad u loved it!

Ingredients
250g unsalted butter
250g sugar
250g self raising flour
250g eggs - crack 4 eggs and weigh ok
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp milk

For The “Filling and Decorating”:
6 tbsp Fruit compote or jam - I did my own strawberry and raspberry compote
1 punnet of strawberry - slice and mix with a tbsp of sugar.. mix em and set aside for 15mins
8 tbsp double cream - i used 250ml and added 2 tbsp of icing sugar... whipped till it was soft /medium peak.
Confectioner’s sugar, to sprinkle on the top of the cake

Method:
Preheat the oven to 160C
Mix together the self raising flour and salt. Set aside.
Put the butter in a bowl (or the bowl of your KA) with the castor sugar and beat together until really light, pale and fluffy.
Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Then incorporate the vanilla extract.
Sift the flour and fold it in delicately with a metal spatula to combine.
Add enough milk in order to get a smooth dropping cake dough consistency.
Pour into two greased 8" round pan and smooth out the top with a spatula.
Bake in the centre of the oven for about 30 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then remove the baking paper and turn out onto a wire rack that's covered in a clean cotton tea towel to prevent marking. Cool completely.
Place the bottom of the cake on a cake stand/dish, then spread generously with the compote/jam.. pipe ur whipped cream and then then place sliced strawberry evenly... (pour the juices on top of the whipped cream).. carefully sandwich together.
Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar just before serving.


Ok i got to go and get my baking pantry stocked up.. Have a wonderful weekend with ur loved ones!


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Hubs is in Vietnam which makes me one lazy woman.. not really in the mood to bake anything.. no one to tell me off when i bake something simple.. call me sadist lol but bec of his constructive critism.. i manage to try out a much more challenging recipes and without my readers trying out some of the recipes in my blog.. i wouldnt hv the motivation to keep on trying.. so thank you all for visiting and for trying it out!


Strawberry Oreo Chiffon cake recipe was adapted fm my previous post.. i found Oreo with strawberry cream and quickly got myself strawberry yogurt to compliment the taste.. i decided to add raspeberry paste instead of strawberry to gv a stronger taste.. hubs likes it alot but commented that it tastes somewhat artificial.. hmmm .. Sonia on the other hand loves it.. so gv this recipe a try if u havent cos this chiffon cake recipe is sure a keeper!


Anyway during the last week of school hols.. my kitchen was invaded by not one but three kids lol.. i love having kids baking away in my kitchen.. its fun and usually when there are more than one Sonia.. I tend to forget stuff.. this time around i had forgotten to let them add sugar and also eggs! arghhh.. whats up with me! look at the end product of their muffins lol.. it looks.. err..  not their fault really!


Danish carefully placed the muffin pan in my oven.. his first time ever! All three took turns to mix, scoop and place the tray in the oven.. 


The moment their chocolate muffins came out of the oven.. all three kids started munching on it.. mom and dad came too so of cos they got one piece each and within a few sec.. i saw that look.. the look of "yukie" on all of their faces muahahaha.. muffin was bitter and blahhh.. dad finished it and we all started laughing when mom said.. "ahhh if u wanna bake something for ur dad .. bake this muffin!" hahaha


I quickly did a second batch .. this time alone .. and within half an hr .. a perfect batch of muffins were baked.. they were gone just when i took them out of the oven.. i managed to put aside a few for them to bring home.. moral of the story.. am not fit to be a teacher .. just YET! hahaha

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup baking cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups dark or white chocolate chips

Method
- Preheat oven to 190°C/400°F – Line at least 18 muffin tin cups
- Mix the flour, brown sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a large bowl using a whisk.
- Mix the eggs, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla extract in another bowl. Use the same whisk to whisk them together.
- Stir the dry ingredients into the wet until just mixed.
- Fold in the white chocolate chunks.
- Fill the muffin cups until almost full (if you want them to achieve a proper muffin top)
- Bake in oven for 14-18 minutes until cake tester inserted into the muffin comes out clean.
- Cool for 5-10 minutes in pans before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Source: Cakeb00k

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Had ur brekkie yet?? i think ever since i've been back on this pill.. the only kinda food that i feel like eating in the morning is fruits.. fruits and fruits.. dont know why.. just dont feel like eating anything heavy..


I baked these scones yesterday thinking that this morning i would be munching on these scones.. that wasnt the case eventho i am a super big fan of scones.. dont get me wrong yah.. this is one scone that u shud and u will be wanting to bake.. the aroma.. the flaky texture of this scone was ohhh so purrfectttt.. plus no way hozay u can get scones with peach filling in ur bakery! hehe


Ok ok.. there is actually a factual story behind these scones.. do u remember we were in Cameron Highlands early this month? well if u were to go back to that post.. u will notice that we had tea and scones at The Lakehouse.. honestly? we were pretty dissapointed with it.. as it was already past 3pm.. we thought it would be nice to stop over at The Lakehouse to hv some kind of high tea.. when u think of high tea.. u will be thinking of petite fours.. chocolates and flaky buttery warm scones.. we got there.. ordered our coffee/tea and when it finally arrived.. i noticed their scones didnt even look like scones.. more like a round biscuit that doesnt even resemble scones.. didnt wanna think bad and decided to try it and oh boy were we disappointed.. :o(

So of cos its natural that when i saw this pic.. i thought of our time at The Lakehouse.. i really hope that they will do something abt it cos my super duper hubs has talked to their management abt it - he figured it better to let them know the truth what he thinks..(and they have replied that they will this week start a complete revamp...)

So ok.. heres the recipe to these scones.. i've kept one piece aside for me to munch later..one for Sonia's lunch box.. one for Hairi and the rest goes to hubs and his work mates!


... scroll down for the method and if u wanna see the step by step pics.. u can go to Joy the Baker! and oh bef i forgot.. i added fresh blueberries too!


Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 200 degrees C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut in shortening and butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Use your hands to break the fat cutes into the dry ingredients. Some of the fat bits will be the size of peas and some fat bits will be the size of oat flakes. In another bowl, combine egg, milk, and vanilla, and beat lightly with a fork. Add the liquid to flour mixture all at once, stirring enough to make a soft dough.

Turn out onto a floured board and knead about 15 times. If the butter has warmed too much in the making of the dough, shape the batter into a dish, wrap in plastic wrap, and let rest in the fridge for 15 minutes. If the butter is still cool, shape the dough into a disk and, on a well floured surface, roll dough to a little less than 1/2-inch thickness. My dough was about 12-inches long and 10-inches tall. The dough will be rolled just thinner than a biscuit dough that you would cut biscuits from.

Brush half of the rolled out dough with buttermilk. Arrange peach slices, in a single layer, across the buttermilk moistened dough. Sprinkle with half of the cinnamon sugar mixture. Carefully fold the empty side of dough over the peach sliced layer. Press gently together. Add a bit of flour to your hands and press the edges of the dough in, creating more of a rectangle shape than a half circle shape. Using a floured knife, slice dough into eight even pieces.

Place dough on prepared baking sheets, leaving about 1 1/2-inches of room around each scone for spread while baking. If dough has warmed, and feels mushy, place in the fridge for 20 minutes to rechill. Remove from the fridge. Brush each scone top with buttermilk, and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon sugar.

Bake scones for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving. Scones are best served warm, on the day they’re made, with soft butter.


Have a good mid week peeps!

32



Oh yeahhhh babyyyy! finally i did it! The tart that i hv been eyeing for the past oh dreadful weeks.. it was love at first sight for both hubster and me.. i was smitten by it and judging by the way it looks.. i know for sure.. this is it... my search for a luscious chocolate tart that has three delish chocolate layers ends here .. period! ohhhh thank you Citrus and Candy.. u got me at Hello! hahaha


Lets not talk more.. enjoy the pics.. enjoy the recipe cos i know for sure.. we will be having this tart over and over for the next two days! passt - u hv got to share this super rich chocolate tart with ur loved ones cos this tart is freaking devine.. plus sharing is caring ahaks!


Oh bef i go.. please please go and do urself a favour.. get the best chocolate there is.. i used a mixture of Cocoa Berry 66% and also Valrhona Equatorial (55%) for this tart.. u can also use a mixture of Valrhona Manjari 64% and Valrhona Jivara (40%) if u hv any on hand.. we are dark chocolate ppl.. so 66% and 55% works well with our tastebuds and ohhh.. i used Valrhona Cocoa Powder for my chocolate pastry and sauce! woot woot!


Aria Chocolate Tart
[Chocolate Pastry]
320g plain flour
60g cocoa
160g caster sugar
Pinch salt
160g cold butter, diced
2 eggs

[Chocolate tart mixture]
210g good quality dark chocolate (with high cocoa content), chopped
60g Valrhona Jivara chocolate, chopped – if unavailable then just use another 60g of the dark chocolate
60g butter, diced
315ml cream
3 eggs
2 egg yolks

[Chocolate glacage]
300g dark chocolate, chopped
240ml cream
300ml chocolate sauce (recipe below)

[Chocolate sauce - for the glacage]
60g cocoa
200ml water
120g caster sugar
25g butter, diced

Method
To make the pastry, preheat oven to 180°C. Place the flour, cocoa, sugar, salt and butter in the bowl of a food processor and process until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the eggs and process until dough just starts to come together.

Turn on to a lightly floured surface and gently knead until just smooth. Shape into a disc and cover with plastic wrap, then place in the fridge for 10 minutes to rest.

Roll out the pastry to a 15 x 40cm rectangle, about 3mm thick. Line a shallow rectangle 10 x 34cm (base measurement) fluted tart tin with a removable base with the pastry and trim any excess. Place in the fridge for 15 minutes to rest.. I used mini round tart tin..

Line pastry with baking paper and fill with rice. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove paper and rice and bake for a further 5-10 minutes or until firm to touch.

To make the tart mixture, preheat oven to 160°C. Place chocolate and butter in a bowl.

Place cream in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Pour cream over chocolate in bowl and stir until smooth, stir in eggs.

Pour chocolate mixture into tart shell up until about 3/4 full (you’ll need to leave enough room for the glacage). Bake for 25 minutes until the centre has just cooked and the top has just set. Take the tart out of the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before topping with the chocolate glacage (recipe follows after). Refrigerate tart in fridge until firm before serving. (i baked mine for 15mins at 150C)

For the chocolate sauce (for the glacage), combine cocoa, water and sugar in a saucepan and stir over heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, stir in butter until melted and mixed. Strain through a sieve placed over a bowl and set aside.

To finish the glacage, place chocolate in a large bowl. Place cream in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Pour cream over the chocolate in the bowl and stir until smooth. Add in the chocolate sauce that you just made and stir (recipe above). When the completed tart has cooled, spoon or pour the glacage over the tart and place in fridge until firm.


Do hop over to Masterchef where she got the original recipe fm.. hv a wonderful weekend kids!

49



Am thinking of doing wordless wed simply bec theres not much stuff to talk abt.. took Sonia to watch Hi5 last Monday.. she was ecstatic of cos.. i managed to get the front row seats.. she was singing and dancing bef the show started but after seeing them up close.. she no longer wanted to dance lol.. she also got what she wanted.. a photo taken with them and a big hug fm KC..


So this week is bake for leisure week.. i started with blueberry muffins .. followed by double chocolate chiffon cake which i later dumped in my food processor to be ground into small pieces.. the chiffon cake is now in my freezer for another baking project.. yesterday i decided to bake durian tart after i saw a box of durians in my freezer.. hehehe i think all of us hv some kinda hidden treasure in our freezer.. u will never know what u can find.. i hv two refrigerators in my house.. go figure! ahaks


While I was in KL.. i saw Ayin posted this tart recipe.. i told myself that i shud gv this recipe a try since hubs is a big fan of durian.. i've seen tarts with peanut butter fillings.. i've seen tarts with date fillings.. i've seen tarts with cream cheese fillings.. but never with durian..


Thank you Ayin for sharing.. i didnt hv any milk powder on hand and had to add more cake flour since my dough was a little sticky.. i also added vanilla powder to my dough.. below is the revised recipe yah...


Method
- Preheat oven to 140C
- Whisk butter with sifted icing sugar.. add in egg yolk and continue to whisk.. add in vanilla powder and sifted cake flour and salt in it.. set aside.
- Blend durian flesh with sugar and pinch of salt.. add abt 50ml of water to it and continue to blend.
- Cook durian mixture in a non stick pot till thicken (looks like lempuk actually) - let it cool
- Scoop 1/2 tbsp of pastry.. roll it and press it down.. add in ur durian filling and cover it back.. roll it neatly.. press it a little to make it ovalish and press top with fork..
- Once done.. bake ur tart for 20 mins.. brush top with egg yolk+milk mixture and continue to bake for another 10mins


I also baked pineapple tart especially for someone who is 'allergic' to durian smell hahaha


I only realized today that next week schools starts! arghhhhh!!!

8



Morning peeps.. monday blues.. err not really.. we had a wonderful weekend.. was out on Sat and stayed home on Sunday except in the morning.. we were in litle india and it seems like they are gonna have some kinda food festival?? i love going there and no wonder u see lots of tourist there unlike the old malay village.. dont know why it didnt kick in.. too far maybe?? i dont think thats the reason.. i know for sure that if i am a tourist i wud like to visit all the important places in S'pore.. Anyway since its fathers day.. hubs had 'ordered' me not to spend too much time in the kitchen.. we had brekkie and bought briyani rice for dinner.. went to the wet market and guess what we saw?? Yabbies.. yep the tiny so called crayfish.. both of us were like.. OMG.. been awhile! the last time we had that was when we were in Adelaide.. oh i miss Adelaide huhu.. will hv Yabby for dinner tonight!


So it was fathers day yesterday.. wished my dad and thats it.. had wanted to go to dad's place but both hubs and sonia fell asleep while watching telly.. so the plan to go to parents place and also to get a few stuff for my baking pantry didnt happen.. Sonia and I later baked something for hubs.. nothing fancy .. just something simple that Sonia could handle.. hmm i dont even remember I baked something for my dad last year.. i know for sure i did the chocolate truffle cuppies in 2010.. same time last year we were in Malacca and this year Sonia baked something for hubs..

Preheat oven to 175°C and line a 12-cup standard muffin pan with baking cups; coat baking cups with cooking spray. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the mixture.

Combine buttermilk, egg, honey, brown sugar, oil, vanilla, and lemon zest in a medium bowl; add to flour mixture and stir just until combined. Gently fold in blueberries.

This is so difficult mama... hehe

There... now its better....


Fill each baking cup with a rounded tablespoon of batter, then add 1 teaspoon whipped cream cheese. Top with another rounded tablespoon of batter (each baking cup will be 2/3 full) and sprinkle demerara sugar evenly over muffins. Bake for 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let muffins cool in pan on a wire rack for 2 minutes before removing from pan to serve warm or cool completely. Store leftover muffins in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 2 days.


Time to serve papa with a warm blueberry cream cheese muffins.. below is the recipe..


Ingredients
Blueberry-Cream Cheese Muffins
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup I used buttermilk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup honey
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup brown sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/4 cup Whipped cream cheese
1 Tbsp Demerara sugar for sprinkling



Ok got to go.. am taking Sonia out in a moment which means no baking.. i need to stock up my baking pantry first! and oh bef i go. lemme gv my thanks to CT, Azizah and also Lyn for ordering..

Oreo Cuppies with Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Mama Doroschs' Carrot Cake
Macarons
S'more Pie 
21


Dont u just love it after u have written three paragraphs of ur thoughts and everything gets deleted just like that? grrrr.. Salam Jumaat peeps.. i know its been a few days but each time i wanna pin down my thoughts i cant possibly do so.. for the past couple of days Sonia has been sleeping with me.. she knows that each time papa is away.. she gets the chance to sleep in our bedroom.. so with her next to me.. its not "advisable" to be typing away my thoughts..

I hv been busy baking and at the same time been out and abt with Sonia.. hubs had to fly to Bangkok last tuesday for an urgent meeting.. he seems to be travelling a lot more frequent than bef and i hope his body can take it.. i remember long time ago when he was working in his dad's company.. he fainted while in the plane.. sigh..


Anyway hubs got home late last night.. I hv a full house again.. doesnt make any difference nowadays.. i used to cook light whenever hubs was not around but with Hairi around.. rice is our main staple.. am cutting back on a lot of stuff to reduce "weight" ;).. i cant afford to hv my left heel hurt again and it looks like the new pill that i am taking is working well with my body.. so we will see...

So ok.. i prepared this kuih last wed.. i dont know why i decided on this.. probably bec i know mom will love it.. gave her half and the rest went to sis Wati.. i had a tiny slice and love the taste and the richness of this kuih.. the bottom part is a little hard tho and i will definitely add more coconut milk next time.. Recipe i got fm Ayu and original recipe is fm Bro Rozzan..














Ingredients
Bottom Layer
1¾ cup(212g) green bean flour
1½ cup sugar
3½ cup thick coconut milk - i used 2 cups of thick and topped the rest with water.. will use 4 cups of coconut milk next time
1 tsp rose water
3 eggs - mix lightly - next time i will use 4 eggs
pinch of salt

Method
Blend everything in a blender and sieve it into a big pot.. cook it till thicken and pour ur mixture into a 26cm round pan that has been greased and heat in ur steamer. Steam it for half an hr.

Ingredients
Top Layer
6 eggs - mix lightly
2½ cup thick coconut - i used 1 1/2 cup of thick coconut with 1 cup of water
1½ cup sugar - i used 1 cup
4 tbsp flour
1 tbsp rose water - i used 1/2 tbsp
1/2 tsp salt
a few drops of yellow food colouring

Method
Blend everything in blender and sieve it into a big pot.. cook it till it slightly thicken and pour it on top of ur bottom layer.. steam it for abt 45min to an hr ..



So thats it dearies.. i hv to go.. i hv to bake cuppies and also a cake for an order tmrw.. got to pipe fillings for all my macs too..


Have a good weekend peeps!

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About Me

My photo
Hi.. I am a SAHM to 2 kiddoes..19yr old boy n 2 year old girl.. met my Austrian hubby here in Singapore and hv been living here all my life... my love for baking started when i was 6mths preggie to my daughter, Sonia... my addiction to baking has not stop eversince.. I hope to learn as much as i can abt baking and decorating and then share it with u along the way..