Wake Up and Smell the Cake

Yes I finally made them! I thought I'd take about 2 days but I finished them in the morning. That's pretty quick! Got up early to do the pandan cupcakes first, no one to disturb me. Decided to make the frosting before storing the cakes since I had the time. Recipe adapted from here . Pandan Cupcake 125g butter 2 eggs 150g sugar 200g self raising flour 3 tbsp homemade pandan extract 80g coconut milk +20g water Coconut cream cheese frosting (aka experiment) 250g cream cheese 120g butter Finished off my icing sugar, probably 3/4 cup Splashes of coconut milk Grated coconut Some gula melaka syrup Cream the butter and sugar like the normal cake method. Add eggs one by one until batter incorporated. Add in the flour and milk mixture in a flour - milk - flour sequence. Since I didn't use any green colouring, my cupcakes turned out pale green. The top is more brown that green too. Made holes using a knife and ate all those cut out pieces huahuahua. That

Ramadan is here, which means lots of dates, and time to think of ways to keep my supply up. I looked for a dates brownie recipe and came across this recipe from Annabel Langbein which uses a whole lot of dates and is the ultimate chocolate brownie. I halved the recipe cos it's just too much, and pitting and chopping a cup of dates is rather time consuming. Ultimate Chocolate Brownies 1 cup pitted and chopped dates 1/2 tsp baking soda 3/8 cup boiling water 150ml oil 2 eggs 1 cup sugar (can reduce) 1/2 cup cocoa 1/2 cup flour 1/4 tsp baking powder Soak the chopped dates in the baking soda and boiling water, then add oil and mix all together. Mash them to get a creamy consistency. I didn't fully mash them, there were still some chunks of dates in the brownies but can't really tell. Let it rest for about 20 minutes or until the mixture is no longer hot. In a large separate bowl, add sugar, then sift in the flour, baking powder and cocoa. I used Valrho

Being at my mum's for the weekend, naturally I'll have loads of free time haha. No housework of my own to do. Since my sister and husband were coming, I decided to bake something to share the fats around. I had cream cheese and butter to use, and this was one of the recent crazes among baking bloggers, the butter chocolate cheese cake. But my sister didn't want a chocolate version hence, just butter cake with cream cheese filling or centre. I adapted the recipe from here , didn't add in milk because the eggs I used were already big and the batter is quite liquid. Butter Cream Cheese Cake 225g butter, softened 6 oz caster sugar 8 oz flour, sifted 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 4 eggs 250g cream cheese 4 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp flour 1 egg Cream the butter and sugar together. Add in egg one at a time and mix well. Add in the flour and baking powder and that's your cake batter. Cream the cream cheese with the sugar, then egg and flour. I didn't use an

I finally did kuih bakar pandan! I bought the mould ages ago and after making home made pandan extract I finally did it. Haha. I tried both cooking on the pan on top of the stove and by oven, and the stove version is much better. Anyway I kinda overcooked the one in the oven and it stuck to the pan.  Husband told me about how his late grandmother used to make these over the stove and he loved it so much, and I've been wanting to recreate it even though she didn't leave behind any recipe and I did not get the chance to meet her. And I'm proud to say Husband loves it! Totally made my day :) The recipe is super simple, I memorised it already! I got it from Azie Kitchen , she tried it a few times and loved it and the recipe is easy so I gave it a try. 1 cup coconut milk (not Kara cream, I used Ayam brand low fat coconut milk) 1 cup flour 1 cup sugar 1 cup pandan juice (2-3 tbsp thick pandan extract + water) 3 eggs Mix them all up and make sure no lumps

No mood to work. 22 more days to EDD and 10 more working days less weekends and MCs! Haha. And this weather is perfect to sleep in. Yesterday I was at home so I made pineapple tarts! The lengths I go to to get Golden Churn butter in the tin, omg! I could have given birth seriously. I searched aisles and aisles at 2 NTUCs, 2 baking shops, whole of Chong Pang and finally found one last tin, slightly old cos the due date is October this year, and super pricey at $9.90! But I bought it cos there's no way I'm searching anymore. Apparently Phoon Huat doesn't carry Golden Churn brand, and NTUC and Giant are supposed to have them but maybe too many makcik2 and kakak2 buy oredi. Le sigh. I went Giant at Sembawang thinking there'd be stock there since it's big but I asked 2 staff and they don't know where it is either. Great. So I resorted to buying the block butter at the refrigerated section. I made 1 batch only since I only had 1 tin of butter, but at the ra

Yesterday was one of those days I was really hardworking in the kitchen. Cooked Junior's broccoli soup and got started on my beef rendang. I wanted to try cooking pulut kuning using the rice cooker, what rendang compliments pulut kuning beautifully. My SIL just got back from Bandung and I requested this from her! Haha. Have no idea what it's called, but on the packet it says "sale pisang". I love it a lot but can't seem to find it here. This beats getting cloth or clothes as presents haha! She gave me 5 packets summore. I'm a happy girl! :) Anyway back to rendang. Husband requested the addition of kerisik, though I don't know how that will help except bring more fats in :/ I still stuck to my mum's recipe because I refuse to try others hahaha. Once that was about done, I started on the glutinous rice. I tried the recipe from here , and I think I should have reduced the amount of coconut cream and replaced with water. Pulut Kuning Rice Cook

Report of Saturday morning's cooking: double chocolate banana muffins, sayur asam jawa and fried chicken! Simple pleasures of food and finally one where there weren't leftovers. I need to manage my portions haha. I was under the weather - and still is - so lunch was simple. I used a ready made paste from Serambi Botani for the sayur asam jawa I bought when I was in Bogor. I just added in corn, long beans, carrot, cabbage and loads of peanuts! LOVE peanuts :) The vegetables made the soup sweet and yummeh. I tried the soup before the vegetables were cooked, and it was yuck. Tasted too much of asam. Once the flavours from the nuts, carrots and corn blends together, it was just what I needed for my throat. Made a quick spice mix of ground cumin, coriander, paprika salt and pepper for the chicken marinade before frying them. Soup + fried chicken + hot rice = yummy homemade meal. I made the double chocolate muffins earlier with Junior. I was craving for double choc muffins,

Junior came for abah's class (where I'm the student as well) last Saturday! He was the teacher's assistant, and thankfully an obedient one too for the long (in baby hours) four hours. Got up early to get things ready, and I was extra early so I made bread pudding for breakfast! My breakfast. Hahaha. This time round I used condensed milk only, no granulated sugar. Recipe: 6 or 7 slices of bread, torn to about 2 to 3 inch squares 388g tin of condensed milk 2 cups milk 3 eggs 1 box of raisins Sprinkle of sliced almonds Tear the bread and arrange them in the pan. I used an 8 by 8 inch square pan. Sprinkle raisins and almonds in the pan. Mix milk, condensed milk and eggs together in a bowl and pour into the baking pan. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Let the bread soak up the custard mixture while waiting for the oven to heat up. Bake for about 40 minutes. Yummy soft custardy bread pudding! Almost like my mum's. Almost. Tastes much nicer whe

I went to ToTT today! Another baking supplies shop visited! I'm left with the one at TKC and Sia Huat. I was there to check out the bundt pan collection and see how extensive a collection they have. And I was amazed! Aaahhhh bundt love!!! ♥♥♥♥♥ But but. Let's talk about going there. ToTT shares the building and carpark with Sime Darby. It's a good thing for husbands whose wives spend ages in the shop. Like me. They can just go next door and admire the cars. I was sort of enthralled when I entered. I didn't expect it to be so spacious and huge! The displays and arrangement is just beautiful. I went to the baking aisle to search for pans and there I found it! Shelves of bundt pans! Omg they have practically everything! From the classic bundt to the fancy ones such as castles and mini bundt pans too! I wish I own them all! I found souffle bowls/ramekins too and it's pretty cheap! Better than the ones I got at Daiso, more colourful and cheaper. Darn. T

Bought yet another baking tin. Hurhur. But this has been long outstanding. Bundt pan! Yippee! But I didn't get my pretty pretty Heritage Bundt Pan that I really really want cos that's really ex, like $90+ or something. Anyway it wasn't found at the shop I went yesterday. Soooo. Yesterday I was out and about in town for work related stuff, and my last stop was at Raffles Hotel which is GORGEOUS by the way!! It's like a mini botanic gardens in a hotel! Not to mention the classy vintage British decor! Anyway. My main point is, Raffles Hotel is beside Seah St which is!!! Where!! SunLik is located! Like FINALLY I get to visit that little shop tucked in the middle of a whole row of pubs. I read that that's the place to get good chocolate. Oh no! I just remembered I should have gotten Dutch processed cocoa there! Urgh. Anyway. I browsed around, and I found a Bundt pan! But only one design. Pictures courtesy of SunLik Trading . It is the classic Nordic Ware bundt p

Finally finally went to Daiso!! Wanted to go there for ages already! The first thing I came in, went to the cooking section. Found my ramekins! But they're not white. Oh wells. Can't be choosy for $2 ramekins! There were white ones, but super small white ramekins. And pie tarts too! Oooh so tempting! But I don't know when I'll make tarts hurhur. Actually I'm still thinking what I should bake using these ramekins. I remember having one of those "I wish I had ramekins right now" moments but I can't remember when. Maybe when I was making lava cake . Daiso is evil. It's so cheap you just feel like coming back again! Oh and did I mention there's a $2 weighing scale?! Measures up to a kilo but that's quite alright for baking isn't it! I mean, $2!! Dirt cheap lah. Not sure about the accuracy though. Didn't do much cleaning last weekend, very much spent lazing around at home just like what weekends should be like. I love being at ho

I have to curb my expenditure. I can go on and on with buying baking stuff. Yesterday I went to Kitchen Capers after a forced U-turn from going Bake King at Haig Road. Someone made me fuming mad and I sooo wasn't concentrating on where I was going, I missed my exit to PIE. And then I made one heck of a reroute, I ended up at Balestier Road and I went Kallang Bahru instead. No matter, cos I wanted to go to Kitchen Capers some day anyway. I got my mini loaf pan, baking paper, heart shaped springform pan, cupcake paper cups in baby blue with white polka dots! Oh and something I couldn't resist - Miffy cookie cutter yay! Can add on to my Chip & Dale cookie cutters hurhur. My Miffy cookie cutter and mini loaf pan. That's my measuring cup duckies set I bought from gmarket which I collected from the post office few days ago. Sooo cute! Actually there's still loads of things I wanna get, my list can go on and on. But these will do from now. I shall ban myself from bu

Other Half is up in the air. Sent him off at the airport. I pray that all goes well for him there. I know he'll present his paper well! :) I feel like baking cookies again. Haha! Very tempted to try the World Peace Cookies , though my sister said they look like cakes instead of cookies. But I'm sure that cookie monster will gobble them up all the same. Haha. Over the weekend, I think I found the perfect convection cum microwave oven! It is gorgeous and sleek. But on the expensive end: almost $1,000. The built-in oven is cheaper, weirdly. I always thought that such ovens are more expensive. Oh well. See how. In the mean time, I can always drop by my mum's house and use her oven there! Haha! The cookie monster will greatly appreciate.