Wake Up and Smell the Cake

Had 5 apples leftover, too many for cake, too little for pie, and also I was lazy to make pie crust so apple crisp it is! It's like apple crumble without the base pastry. Win-win though, less carbs and less hassle. This was a hit! Though next time I think we can do with slightly less sugar for the topping. I made this in my mum's kitchen, brought over the ingredients in ziploc bags during raya visiting hahaha. Apple Crisp (original recipe here ) 5 apples, skinned and diced 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon  2 cups flour (or 1 cup oats + 1 cup flour) 1 cup brown sugar 1/4 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp baking soda 1/2 cup melted butter Mix the sugar and ground cinnamon in the baking dish. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, brown sugar, baking powder and baking soda together. Add in the melted butter and mix using a fork or your finger tips and make crumbs. Sprinkle the crumbs over the apples, and bake for 45 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

Dubbed the best chocolate cake recipe , it's similar to what I've tried before where I add hot water and use oil for the cake. It's a great cake base where frosting is needed, and frosting involves loads of butter so this feels healthier . HAHA. I had a craving for a slice of homemade chocolate fudge cake after watching It's Complicated on Netflix. The cake looks sooo good. I'm still not satisfied with this type of frosting though, feels like eating sugar. It frosts the cake well, but just that I feel like eating sugar. I really really should try my hand at swiss meringue buttercream or flour buttercream. Ingredients for the cake 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups sugar 3/4 cup dutch processed cocoa powder 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp salt 1 cup milk buttermilk 1/2 cup vegetable canola oil 2 large eggs 1 cup boiling water Sift flour, cocoa powder baking soda and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the sugar and salt and mix

Went to my sister's house on May Day to clear her peanut butter chips. She preferred brownies to blondies, so here it is! And once again I used yet another recipe, but I'm happy with this fudgy version with a crinkle top! Got the recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction which shares amazing recipes. Ingredients 10 Tablespoons (145g) unsalted butter 1 and 1/4 cups (250g) granulated sugar 3/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons (74g) Dutch processed cocoa powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla essence 2 large eggs 1/2 cup (62g) all-purpose flour 1 cup (180g) peanut butter chips Melt the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla in a pot and mix well. Sift in the cocoa powder, mix. Add in the eggs, mix. Sift in the flour, mix and we're done! Of course add in the chips at the end. I added chocolate chips too for good measure haha. Bake for 30 min in an 8 inch square pan. The brownies are so fudgy, decadent and oh so good! I have Reese's peanut butter cups to use up and this

Another clear the fridge recipe! This time round I was clearing the large eggs I bought to do macarons and were expiring soon, also clearing salted caramel chips, hazelnuts and brown sugar. I think this is my first time making blondies, and it's like brownies but no cocoa. Anything fudgy and sweet is definitely good. This recipe makes 2 trays of 8x8 and good enough to bring round to many colleagues. They were snapped up pretty fast too! I should be making another batch soon :) Blondies 226g butter, melted 2 tsp vanilla essence 250g light brown sugar 100g caster sugar 2 large eggs + 1 normal egg 285g flour 2 tsp cornflour/starch 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 1 packet Hershey's sea salt caramel chips 250g hazelnuts Melt the butter with the sugar and mix well. I didn't have 250g of light brown sugar but about 180g of dark brown sugar, so I just topped up the rest with caster sugar instead. My blondies turned out darker cos of the dark brown sugar, so t

I did it! I finally tried and it wasn't a failure! Wasn't a full success, but not bad for my first try! I made sure I found a recipe tried and tested by either Singaporean or Malaysian cos of our humidity, and I've found a recurring recipe which seems safe to try . Furthermore there was a step by step guide! I found a chocolate version too which is basically the same thing but replace 10g of almond meal with cocoa powder. Ingredients Egg whites from 2 large eggs, 80g (I used AA size) at room temperature 65g caster sugar 80g almond meal 140g icing sugar colouring vanilla essence (few drops only) Before anything else, line baking trays with baking paper with the shape drawn. Recipe says 20 cent coin, I used 50 cent but was still kinda small. And at the end of it I just did free hand which somehow was better. Next time I'm not wasting time drawing haha. Sift icing sugar and almond meal. Was hard to sift almond, so next time grind the icing sugar with the al

DOUGHNUTS! Boy was I sooo happy when the dough rose! I have low confidence handling bread. But these are soft and yummy! Only thing is I can't make a small batch, don't know if it'll work. So lots of doughnuts to go round. Original recipe:  https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017060-doughnuts INGREDIENTS 1 ¼ cups milk 2 ¼ teaspoons (one package) active dry yeast 2 eggs 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled ¼ cup granulated sugar 1 teaspoon salt 4 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out the dough Oil for frying PREPARATION Heat the milk until it is warm but not hot. In a large bowl, combine it with the yeast. Stir lightly, and let sit until the mixture is foamy, about 5 minutes. Using an electric mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, beat the eggs, butter, sugar and salt into the yeast mixture. Add half of the flour (2 cups plus 2 tablespoons), and mix until combined, then mix in the rest of the flour until the

This recipe is a keeper cookie base for crunchy cookies! Original recipe:  http://jihashafie.blogspot.com/2014/08/m-chocolate-chip-cookies.html Sifted: 2 1/4 flour 2 tbsp corn flour 1/2 tsp baking soda 2 milk powder, but I didn't have so I substituted with flour Pinch of salt Other Ingredients: 250g butter, softened 150g castor sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla essence 1 egg yolk 1 cup chocolate chips 100g nuts Scoop teaspoonfuls onto baking tray, bake for 20min at 160 degrees.

When daddy is away, we bake! HAHA.  Bake we did, while daddy's plane was taxiing. I wanted to try florentine almond cookies for the longest time, and finally I did! And it's almost finished now too. Thinking of making more tonight. Super simple! I bought the premix from Phoon Huat quite some time ago. Also bought almond slivers, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.  I used this recipe here , and here's the ingredients I used. 70g almond flakes 25g pumpkin seeds 35g sunflower seeds 50g florentine powder Line an at least 9x9 inch tray (I used a 9 inch round tray) with baking paper. Mix all the ingredients together and lay flat on the baking tray. Bake at 160 degrees Celsius for 14 minutes. They told to cut right after taking out from the oven, but it hasn't set yet so I didn't. Once cooled I broke it into shards. SEDAP ok! Feel less guilty eating this compared to a cookie. HAHAHAHA. Didn't get much though. And after the kids saw me b

YESSS I DID IT. I tried Ben's Cookies (orange chocolate chip) recently, and honestly I didn't like it. I'd rather buy Famous Amos but I have friends who love it, so I decided to try making my own and see how it'll turn out. I really splurged on this, with tips from friends, because this is an indulgent cookie after all! There's a few recipes around, and I used this , with the recipe below: Ben's Cookies 275g self raising flour (I used 265g flour + 10g baking powder) 200g butter 50g cocoa powder 300g caster sugar 1 egg 150g milk chocolate morsels (I used Nestle Toll House brand) 150g white chocolate (I used Nestle Toll House brand) 1 bar of Lindt sea salt dark chocolate, break into pieces Cream butter with sugar, then egg, then flour like how you'd make a cake. I used a spatula for mixing, just because I used the spatula to scrape off all the butter from the wrapper. You can use a wooden ladle too. Add in chocolate chips. Roll into b

I love boneless chicken. Easy to cook. I also buy boneless chicken mainly for the kids' homemade nuggets, but last weekend I cooked for myself too. Made some easy stir fry, adapted from Orange Soy Sauce Chicken . Didn't use soy sauce but used oyster sauce. Orange Juice Chicken Stir Fry 700g boneless chicken cubes 4 cloves garlic Juice from 3 oranges 2 tbsp oyster sauce 1 tbsp honey 1 cili padi, 2 red chilis Handful of roasted peanuts Smash the garlic and chop finely. Slice the chilis. Fry the chili in oil, then add in garlic. Add the chicken and fry for a few minutes. Add in the orange juice, oyster sauce and honey. Cook until sauce thickens. I removed the cili padi right after cooking. Husband approves this! Though only for 1 meal, no reheating. Haha. I'm amazed he wanted to give this a try, and even more amazed that he likes it! Also made roti kirai and chicken curry (boneless chicken to the rescue again!) the day after because the kids had a taste of

I realise a cupcake and a butter cake recipe should be different after making this cupcake, cos a butter cake will typically separate from the tray and you can just pop it out but you're not supposed to do that with cupcakes. This is by far the best vanilla cupcake I've ever made, with a really pretty bump and super light, perfect for frosting. I've also made a good basic frosting and this time I really used the proper recipe hahaha. My princess has been bugging me DAILY to make princess cupcakes, and I finally got round to it by printing the princess pictures and pasting them on these bamboo sticks which is used for mini kebabs I guess? I did go round looking for ready made cupcake toppers (Robinsons, Toys R Us and Phoon Huat) but they didn't sell. Only found upper half dolls (no clothes) at Robinsons and Phoon Huat but I was lazy to make fondant clothes so no. And Robinsons charged $20 for the pack of 4 dolls, but Phoon Huat charges $12 only! Rip off. I assembl

Baked for cousin's birthday party, and he requested for a non-chocolate cake. Since I had only key lime in the fridge that can be used for baking, so it's fruity lime zest time! My frosting didn't turn out well, and what I gather from Google is that I overwhipped the cream cheese. Ohwells. I always have a problem with frosting. I think it's high time to STRICTLY follow 1 frosting recipe and stop making agarations. The key lime cake itself was yummy! My daughter likes it too! Won't mind making it again if I have leftover limes. I used yoghurt instead of sour cream cos that's what I have, and it adds to the tangy flavour. Recipe from here Key Lime Cake 1 3/4 cup flour 1 tsp baking powder + 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 cup butter 1 1/4 cup sugar 2 large eggs (I used 2 1/2) 3 tbsp fresh key lime juice 1 tbsp grated lime zest 3/4 cup yoghurt When frosting fails, use sprinkles. HAHA

It's that raya baking time again! :) Yesterday I made another batch of Nutella tarts (made 1 batch for personal consumption a week ago) partly for my sister and part for me, and chocolate chip cookies. This time round I used my mum's chocolate chip recipe instead of the so called "Almost Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies", and I think this tastes more like Famous Amos! And this yields way more too, for 1 block of butter. Less sinful too perhaps? HAHA. There are no pictures, probably I'll update later and include pictures. Nutella Tart 1 tin butter 3 eggs + 1 egg yolk 3 tbsp susu manis 2 tbsp ghee 1 1/2 tsp salt 700 - 800g flour (I never measure) Bake tarts at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes, take them out to cool. Once cooled, pipe Nutella. Bake them again at 160 degrees Celsius for 5 or 6 minutes to harden the Nutella a little bit. Mak's Chocolate Chip Cookie I made some adjustments, the flour is supposed to be 5 cups, but I reduced to 4

This is the best bread pudding I've ever made thus far! Even Husband thinks so. It was so good I made it twice in the past weekend, and also I've realised how to bake it right. I baked it slightly longer the second time cos the middle was still wobbly, but I should have just left it at 35 minutes cos the custard was sort of cooking still after removing from the oven. I wanted to make Carousel's bread pudding recipe but seeing the amount of cream, I give up. I'd rather find a recipe that uses things that I can find in my fridge at any time. Bread Pudding 1/2 loaf Gardenia white bread 3 eggs, beaten 2 cups milk 1/3 cup sugar 1 tbsp condensed milk 2 tbsp butter Raisins and sliced almonds Tear the bread into pieces and throw into an 8 inch pan together with raisins. In a pot, heat milk, condensed milk, sugar and butter and stir until all are melted together. Set aside to cool until it's warm to the touch. While stirring the milk mixture, pour in slowly the

Sometimes my choice of recipes are made because of lack of ingredients, like this no egg no butter chocolate banana cake. While I do have butter, I ran out of eggs. So I ended up baking a rather healthy cake that's worth making again! Original recipe here , and my tweaks below. No Egg No Butter Chocolate Banana Cake 2 cups flour, sifted 1 1/2 cup sugar 2/3 cup cocoa powder 1 tsp baking soda 2 tsp apple cider vinegar 1 1/2 cup hot water 1/4 cup oil 4 large bananas, mashed Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Grease and flour an 8 (9 also can) inch pan and set aside. Mash the bananas in a bowl. Sieve flour, cocoa powder and baking soda in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, add the hot water, apple cider vinegar, oil to the sugar and melt the sugar completely. Add the banana puree and mix. Add the flour mixture and mix well. Don't overmix. Pour into baking tin and bake for 50 minutes. I made some simple cream cheese frosting (250g cream cheese + 100g butt

Start of a new year! My little boy is in K2, and princess is starting school, same place as her brother. Over the weekend we made cupcakes for a get together and for some at home, since Husband loves red velvet cupcakes. Used a repeat of this recipe , cos since Husband doesn't like change when it comes to food,  I won't google for a new one. Plus I could get like 30 cupcakes per batch! But I didn't manage to make proper frosting since: I didn't have enough icing sugar. The ants in my house are amazonian ants. They went into the supposedly air tight container and ate my icing sugar. Happily eating my icing sugar. Luckily I have some left in another packet, but wasn't enough so I ground some normal sugar to top up. Was supposed to buy mascarpone cheese but Friday plans changed, so could only get cream cheese. Frosting didn't turn out as light. Hence, sinful. Frosting wasn't enough for all! For the first time, I don't have enough frosting! Even

Husband is away, thankfully not a lot of times this year. I have not blogged for ages!! I have also not been cooking or baking much, just the usuals so nothing new that I can post. Finally my princess wants to help me bake. We made oreo cupcakes, which after baking was yummy, but the day after, a bit dense. But the office people finished them up anyway! Oreo Cupcakes 250g butter 1 cup sugar 4 eggs 2 cups flour 1 tsp baking powder 10 oreos (with cream) crushed Chocolate chips I let Princess mix them all up, no 1 egg then mix then another egg method. Didn't even bother to sift the flour hehe. Turns out okay! Maybe next time I can cut 1 egg and add milk instead for softness? This is more sinful (250g butter!!) than the Oreo Muffins , maybe I shall stick to the other recipe instead and omit the baking soda. Also, some of the cupcakes were dripping with butter oil! I drained them with kitchen towel. If they were just a cake block, the base would be real

It's been ages (in my definition) since I last baked, what with the 3 weeks in UK and the prep weeks before that. I wanted the kids to help out in some way, so I enticed them by making pokeball frosting, and also using hundreds and thousands sprinkles. I made the cakes on Saturday evening, a simple whisk using my Kenwood and a repeat of the Moist Banana Cake with Yoghurt though I substituted yoghurt with milk + cream + apple cider vinegar. The cake batter is a lot, I got 15 cupcakes + 1 Hello Kitty cake. We frosted 9 cupcakes as pokeballs, and the rest with the balance of cream cheese frosting and added hundreds and thousands. My frosting wasn't stiff enough and I wonder why. Maybe I shouldn't have added the lil bit of whipping cream. I used 125g butter + 250g cream cheese + about 3-4 cups of icing sugar. Maybe I should reduce the butter next time. Junior did the black lines on the pokeballs, he didn't want to frost the red (pink actually) and the white. He al

Yet another dessert to clear the fridge, banana oat crumble. Crumble, pies, cobblers are the best way to clear fruits! These used so little flour! Banana Oat Crumble 4 -5 bananas, sliced into circles 1/4 cup flour 1/4 cup brown sugar 1 cup oats Sprinkle of cinnamon powder 4 tbsp butter Chopped walnuts Chocolate chips Put the sliced bananas in ramekins, I used 6. Add in the walnuts. In another bowl, mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon and oats well. Add in butter. I find that using hands is the best, and after all you're going to sprinkle them over the bananas. I added in chocolate chips last, cos I forgot about it, and seems like it was a good thing too so it can hold some shape! Haha. I'm using Aalst chocolate, which is yummy but way cheaper than Ghirardelli or Valrhona. Husband approved! Cos it has chocolate chips -_-" Yesterday Junior did the first part of his holiday project, which is to cook something healthy and document in a scrapbook.