Fruits

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My Cousin asked me whether can I baked a fruitcake for him, I agreed to bake for him because he is such a nice guy who is ever ready to render help to my family. Since christmas spirit is in the air, I baked a fruitcake apart from the usual fruitcake that I have baked, this is the first time, I add cocoa powder into it. I bought mixed fruits from Phoon Huat and soaked in liquor for a few days. I did not realise that Phoon Huat mixed fruits got no cherry inside, no wonder it was so cheap. I did not believe my friend, when she told me no cherry, I went to seperate the fruits and yes, she was right, red and green bits are from papaya.

Did not have confidence in adding cocoa powder to the fruitcake and after researching and saw a published article in the newspaper, and I go ahead with it and baked.

After a few days, check with my cousin, they have loved the cake and effort is not wasted and they even want to order. No way... I am no professional... alot of stress...:(.. whew...

Below is the recipe from the newpaper.

MAKE IT YOURSELF: EASY CHRISTMAS FRUIT CAKE
INGREDIENTS
500g cranberries
500g raisins
200g butter, softened
200g dark brown sugar
175ml Lyle's Golden Syrup
125 ml cognac
1 tsp mixed spice
2 Tbs cocoa
4 eggs, beaten
225g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
To decorate:
1 Tbs icing sugar
METHOD
1. Preheat the oven to 150 deg C. Line the sides and bottom of a 24cm round cake tin with baking paper. Set aside.
2. Place the dried fruit, butter, sugar, golden syrup, mixed spice and cocoa into a large pot.
3. Heat the mixture, stirring frequently, over low heat until the mixture reaches a simmer.
4. Add the cognac as you are stirring the mixture and let it simmer for another 10 minutes.
5. Remove the pot from the heat and set it aside to cool. It should be cool enough so that the eggs will not cook when added to the mixture.
6. Beat the eggs and set it aside. In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and baking soda together.
7. Fold the eggs into the fruit mixture in three batches.
8. Fold in the flour in three batches and mix well until all the ingredients are well combined.
9. Pour the mixture into the lined cake tin and bake for about 45 minutes to an hour until a skewer comes out clean when poked through the centre of the cake. It may be a little sticky because of the fruit.
10. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Decorate the cake with sifted icing sugar.
Variations:
1. You can use any type of dried fruit and nut, in proportions to your liking, as long as the total weight adds up to 1kg. The fruits should be about the same size. Cut large dried fruits, such as apricots, into smaller pieces.
2. For a more alcoholic taste, marinate the dried fruit in cognac for up to one week. Nuts should not be marinated.
3. Bake the cake at least three to five days in advance so that the cake has time to rest and age. If you prefer a stronger taste of alcohol, poke some holes in cake with a wooden skewer, then brush the surface with cognac every few days.
4. For a non-alcoholic version, replace 125 ml of cognac with the juice of two large orange.



The spirit of giving is getting into me and last night baked 2 cranberry butter cake for him and my mother. Cranberries are suppose to be antioxident and have some medical benefits and well it is a in thing now, and friends around me is baking this fruits. I think the uneveness of the colour of the cake, I don't know whether do my oven needs calibration. Well! have to moniter....

Lastly, I wished everyone have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I will be doing this lor!

Turkey

I asked my brother whether he wanted a turkey to celebrate Christmas, but my sis-in-law requested for her birthday on Monday. Well, no problem to me, took half day leave to bake turkey for her.



In the meanwhile, while waiting for the turkey to be baked, I made a peach tart, for her as well for dessert using my new microwave oven. My first try, hmmm... think is not so bad. ha! Ha!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Christmas does really gets into me, Duuno where I got the energy, juz feel like doing baking and trying things.


Always curious about christmas stollen and I try one of the recipes that was given to me. Was statisfied with the finished products and especially from my loved ones and they loved it. Last night made another batch to be given away. Well, that's the spirit of Christmas.

jelleeeeeeeeeee

A friend was telling me chrysanthemim konnyaku jelly was nice, tasted and I quite like it, and decided to make some. I have not made any konnyaku jelly before.

We have been drinking chrysanthemim tea all along, whether it's at the restaurant or at home and the flowers is suppose to have some medicinal properties and is good for our body especially when it's a hot day. It's a good way of making into small little jellies, especially when you open the frig, on and off, there's goes one into your mouth....

Recipe

16 gm Konnyaku Powder } Mix together
50 gm of Sugar }

50 gms Chrysanthemun Flowers } Boil water and one water boil put in the flowers
1500 litres of water } and let it boil for awile and let it infuse

150 gm rock sugar

Take 950ml boiled chrysanthemum water and boil together with rock sugar.
Once boil, add in Konnyaku powder + sugar in.
Stir and one boil, remove from fire
Pour into moulds and frig

If you want, you can add in some wolfberries or the flower in the mould for decoration

Smile... is what I want

It's me happy to see you smile, but I got many types of smile from you 密密笑，委笑， 一痕 笑........, never the less, one day I will make you smile wider and the way I like it. I should consider that it's a half success. I quite like the taste which do not have the ammonia smell when cooked.



I have used 3 days dough proofing and the recipe can be found from Prima to made the skin and today the skin is not cotton fluffy that I have taste before. From what I heard that this smiling pau need high pressure stove (mei hua lu) to make the pau smile. Knowing that my gas stove fire is not strong enough, I use induction cooker to steam and this is what I get.

Anyway, I will try again, next time will try knead the dough longer and remember to top up the level of water in the pot. I have check and the level of water is very low. according to my home expert, he say must have more water to push the pressure.... theory??? I may have problem in pleating also????

Belated Moocakes

S was telling me how good is Goodwood Park snowskin durian mooncake, and I search through web and there are few places of recommendation. Went to Goodwood Park and Marriot Hotel to by durian snowskin just to try. I tried one from Emicakes too.

I was crazy and curious, and beento places to learn and finally had it at Anna Cooking Art taught by Chef Winnie.

Eat hers and I made using her recipe, taste turn out to be different, maybe it's the durian that I have houth that's alter the taste??? Was telling S and discussing and asking, decided to go another round by twitching some ingredients in the recipe, Had it on the texture and taste and decided that this recipe is a keeper. Comfirmed by my 51/2 year old niece who wanted as big as a birthday cake..hee!hee! Have to wait for durian season again.Thank god, now don't have good durians and I am taking a break from this thorn fruit, getting a bit sick.



My friends has been making agar agar mooncake, and has given me some. S gave me chendol red bean agar agar mooncke, another friend, c, gave a box of assorted agar agar mooncake. The other 3 flavours has been eaten only that's is left is lychee agar agar mooncake. It was wonderful of them to share with me. Thank you S & C.

A request

One day, one of the angels request me to bake a brownie for her. Normally any request from any angels, I don't have a heart to refuse any.

Morning went to buy a 7" square brownie tin and I use 4 eggs for the brownie batter, but it was too much, and my smallest cake tin is a heart shape and it turn out that I have 2 brownies in different size.



Assemble the 2 cakes together with chocolate ganache. Found that it's not easy to do especially with converture chocolate and time constrain and it's very messy.
Manage to put together and present it to her. Hope that she and her sisters will love it.

hibernating

Have been hibernating, in true fact just plain lazy... I like Jane love to eat bread. Today made potato foccasia bread for lunch.

Sad to say, my oriental man do not like the taste of rosemary or any other western herbs, not like me, I eat anything especially western food. Should cook more with herbs to let him immune to smell and taste... hee!hee!

Doing what others do

Long time did not blog about what I am doing. Just a update to you that now I am crazy in learning how to make dim sum. Juz to be honest, I am a bit lazy in blogging also...

Lately. my friend Jane and Sharon has been baking chiffon cake from ieatishootipost's blog and I have to try knowing the high successful rate of making thisnbeautiful pandan chiffon cake.

Despite of cutting down 20gm of sugar, I still found the cake is a bit sweet to my liking. The texture is light and porous. My hubby like it.

Hunger

Last friday(Good Friday), was out shopping with hubby to buy a new sofa and we had a late lunch. We won't be able to have our usual dinner , only supper. He asked me to make bread.

Tried out the soft bun recipe and manage to do ham and cheese bun but my rounding of dough was not so good but at least I manage to make it look presentable. hee! hee! This is my second try and I quite like the recipe because the next day the bread is soft but not as soft as outside bakery where they put bread improver. I quite like it.

Huat Ah!

Surfing the net and came across Japanese Cotton Cheesecake and I do have a block of cream cheese, decided to bake it. I like to eat cheesecake whether heavy or light.
I must have made a mistake by putting a tray with hot water in the oven and together the oven heat up so does the temperature of the mater. After I put the batter in the oven, about 5 minuts later, the surface of the cake begins to puff up. Half an hour later, checked again, the cake has crack and risen up double the size, Normally, I don;t like to see the cake rise very fast, from there I know that the cake is not done properly in some process.



When the cake cooled down, it has shrnk, luckily despite of the looks, the cake is still cotton soft and yummy. Let my friends taste and they like it.

Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

Ingredients:
140g/5 oz. fine granulated sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
50g/2 oz. butter
250g/9 oz. cream cheese
100 ml/3 fluid oz. fresh milk
1 tbsp. lemon juice
60g/2 oz. cake flour /superfine flour
20g/1 oz. cornflour (cornstarch)
1/4 tsp. salt

Instructions:
(Preheat oven to 160deg)

1. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. (Softening the cream cheese WITHOUT its foil, in a microwave helps speed up this step. Should take 15-20s depending on your microwave)

2.Cool the mixture. Mix in lemon juice, egg yolks and then fold in the flour and cornflour.

3. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.

4. Fold egg white mixture 1/3 at a time, to the cheese mixture until the batter is even.

5. Pour into a 8-inch round cake pan (Lightly grease and line the bottom and sides of the pan with greaseproof baking paper or parchment paper).

4. Bake cheesecake in a water bath for 1 hours 10 minutes or until set and golden brown.

pleats

This is my second attempt making pau since last year. It's seems to be a long time, so is my breadmaker. Use the breadmaker today, to make the dough, after 5 mins, pop goes my circuit breaker, guess that there is some dampness inside the electrical components. Trying to prolong the life of my cake mixer, I buy the breadmaker to help me to knead the dough.

I have a light ear, when hearing that a certain equipment is good, I will be tempted.

Now I am aiming to learn photography and I still need practising on the pleats of the pau.

a failed attempt

a not successful pandan chiffon that I made last night, the top sink a little bit, Haiz... despite of the looks the pandan chiffon is moist and fluffy, still edible, we have for breakfast this morning. Will try until succeed, any advise for me to improve my chiffon? Would appreciate your help.

For those who wanted to try the recipe, I use Prima recipe. Enjoy :)


PANDAN CHIFFON CAKE
100 g PrimaFlour Top Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tbsp Pandan Juice
100 ml Coconut Milk
4 Egg Yolks
50 ml Corn Oil
¼ tsp Green Colouring
5 Egg Whites
¼ tsp Cream of Tartar
100 g Castor Sugar
Pinch of Salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 170°.

Extract pandan juice from finely pounded pandan leaves and add to coconut milk.

Add egg yolk, 50 g sugar, oil, colouring and salt to the coconut mixture. Mix well using hand whisk.

Sift PrimaFlour Top Flour and baking powder and fold into mixture. Mix until smooth. Set aside.

Beat egg whites and tartar at high speed until formy. Add remaining 50 g sugar and beat until stiff.

Add 1/3 beaten egg white to the yolk mixture and mix using a hand whisk.

Slowly fold in this mixture to the remaining 2/3 of beaten egg whites.

Pour mixture into an ungreased 18cm chiffon tin and bake for about 50mins.

Turn tin over on a cake rack to cool before loosening cake.

Green Tea

My friend, Daphne gave me present which was a can of green tea powder from Japan. According to her, it has a short shelf life. Seeing friends have been baking chiffon, follow the trend, decided to bake a green tea chiffon cake. I can never baked a perfect chiffon, but it still acceptable, this type of cake is not my forte, maybe it was lack of practice, Should make it a habit to bake a chiffon every month to get the perfection. Why not.(encouraging myself)



Tasted the baked green tea chiffon and the taste of the green tea was superb and fragant, and I did not add colouring and that's was the natural colour of the green tea powder. The colour is beautiful. hmmmm I loved it. Thanks Daphne, for making my chiffon wonderful despite of some defects. :)

festive mood

Still in the mood of celebrating Chinese New Year, decided to bake a butter cake using a sunflower bundt pan which I have bought from Phoon Huat last year which was not in use. Since it is still festive, decided to use mandarin orange as the theme. I use the orange segments from a can and soaked in orange liquor for awhile.

I was tempted by the aroma whisk out from the process of the baking. Was not satisfied with the outlook of the baked cake, I don't have a even colour.. must do research...... but I like the taste of the cake, tangy, sour, sweet and buttery.. yum.. yum...

Radish

Seeing my friend, Sharon and upon hearing that she always made steamed radish cake (law pak ko) and have favourable feedbacks, must be good, curious and never made it before, I give it a try.
Following her guidelines and recipe from Do What I Like's blog, and manage to did one on saturday night.
Before I made this, I surf the website and there's various way of making it and I choose the easiest method and made a slight alteration to the original recipe. I have put in some "tung mien fen" in the flour mixture.

The next day, I slice it and pan fried on a non-stick pan without oil, tasted and it was yummy and the recipe was a keeper. Let Sharon try in the afternoon, she said it's the same as hers. I have passed. Thanks Sharon & Thanks Florence :)

Holely Marble

Have a busy preparation for CNY and on the eve I baked 3 fruitcakes, one marble cake and 2 prune cranberry butter cake and all was given away. And I was exhausted to do any cake and start preparing for a meal for a gathering on the second day of CNY. Too busy to take pictures for my blog.

Try again to bake a marble cake and for a very long time did not bake this, until my cousin requested for it. I was envy on Yochana's marble cake that has a very neat and even swirl, I guess it must be the technique of putting in the batter. This time round my marbling was so much better than the last time which have blotch of patches.

I have a holely marble cake today, gusss I didn't bang the tray to release the air. When there's is a imperfection in the things that you do, maybe you can tell the character of the person, "ran ran lai" or impatient.....

Gathering

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Yesterday went to a family gathering, and they requested for mee siam and they commented that it taste better than last year. I dunno know because when each time, I prepare the same dish, I will use a slightly different method in frying. I don't have a specify recipe, I just estimate but I like to put in alot of small and big onions in my chilli paste. Glad they like it.




At the same time, I bake a surprise cake for them. this time, I baked and assemble y Black Forest Cake in a square form. It's a practice for me and in a hurry to bake the cake, I forget to put in the butter, luckily the cake still rise and taste okay.

Preparation

Went to defu lane to buy ready made pineapple paste, made some pineapple tarts with it, bought some to office and my collegues like it. I am quite happy with the pineapple paste, it was not so sweet and the paste has a nice yellow golden colour.

My first pineapple tarts, I tried to crimp a rose, find it need a little bit more effort, for me alone, I would rather roll like a pillow, it faster in this way for me to make to give to my parents and siblings.

Decision

Next sunday, going to have a family gathering from my husband side. Normally, we would have a gathering during Christmas and Chinese New Year. Last Christmas, there's is no meet up and my sister-in-law suggested for an earlier gathering for CNY as the actual day, they are at overseas.

My husband suggested for me to cook mee siam, I don't like to do the same thing everytime. I told him, I go and do guo tie and see whether is it passable for a presentation next week. Looks like not so bad, but boring to do alone.



Earlier in the afternoon went Giant Tampines to do marketing, and bought the minced pork, I don't really like it, it's was too fine and I can't taste the texture of the meat. It's was not easy from the start when wrapping the dumplings but as I do through midway, I find it to be easier. No doubt the dough was a simple ingredients of flour and water, I like the texture, it's chewy. My hushand comment that I should put in more koo chye.

Never give up

It's a long time, I have not tried baking Kueh Lapis since I have failed baking in this quite a number of years ago. Since the spirit is in the air, tried baking again and after the 3rd try, I manage to achieve this after seeking advice from some friends. thank you.

Ist try, went to bake with grill on fan mode, result bottom overbake and top damp, put on my thinking cap, think it is, tried again 2nd time with grill no fan and reduce the temperature to 200 degrees, doesn't work, oil oozing out, result oily cake. This time round, after seeking advice on how to handle the oven, the cake much drier and the taste is more robust but there's is still a need for a little improvement.

Will be one of the items to my mother for CNY, she will be very happy, one of her favorite.

crossant dough

Confusing

It's my first time hearing "zhuang nai" and my friend said it's something like steam milk custard. One is cooked and let it set and the other steamed. She did one for me to try and I loved it and this is a typical cantonese dessert. Marvellously, this simple dessert only need 3 things - milk , sugar and ginger and yet taste as soft as beancurd(tau huay)... ginger milk custard is one of my favorite and I used to buy from HK dessert stall.

Found this on website, I myself haven't try this.

Milk Custard With Ginger Juice
What you need

200 ml Fresh milk
10 ml ginger juice
25 grams sugar

What you do

1) Boil Milk in the pot. Add sugar and let set for two minutes.
2) Pour milk in bowl with ginger juice.
3) Leave till set.
4) Serve Warm






Made frozen berries cupcakes today with raspberry buttercream. Sometimes I wonder what is the difference in muffins and cupcakes. Could it be the mini cakes with frosting on top is cupcake, and same cake no frosting is muffin. Very confusing hor.
Who cares, as long as it taste good. Daughter likes it, so do I.

My stupid theory, put in muffin cups and bake and I say this is a muffin, put a decoration on top, say this is a cupcake, it still will be a pass. I still think muffins are heavy in texture. Well this is going to be a debating end... haiz....



Went with Jane to learn on this passionfruit cake, put in practice and actually it was quite tedious in doing, a lot of steps. Despite with lots of hiccups along the way, still manage to assemble the whole cake. When practice alone,there's a lot of learning. ka-ran-ka-bo. I keep looking at the complete cake and realise something is missing, came to realise, I forgot to sprinkle some snow powder on top of meringue stick... haiz--
getting old... lost of memory... part and parcel of old age... Quite satisfied with the outcome of the whole cake. :)