Wake Up and Smell the Cake

Did a quick meal cos while I plan to cook a proper one (not that this wasn't proper), but just that even Sundays are so packed that I can't even find time?! So this was the quick meal as requested by Husband, recipe adapted from a website but here's what I used. A week ago I tried something to this effect but didn't have the leaves and I added carrot instead. Also, the choice of chicken part makes a difference. The fillet/breast absorbs more sauce.  Say hello to my new Cosmic Cookware pan! Thai Basil Chicken 3 packets of chicken fillet/breasts, about 700g chicken? 1 tbsp oyster sauce 1 tbsp soy sauce 2 tbsp fish sauce 1 heapful tbsp brown sugar 1 onion, sliced thinly 6 garlic, minced 5 chili padi A whole bunch of thai basil leaves, sliced All sauces into a bowl and mix, typical stir-fry and add leaves last. Cheap, good and yummy! Serve with a sunny side up and rice. [I realise I have made this before, with a simpler recipe here . But this is a better version!]  

I've been on a cookie baking spree for a few weeks now, from huge soft cookies to crunchy cookies.  Below are two recipes which are worth trying, I made the first one twice already, and the close-to-Famous-Amos cookie yesterday. I've attempted another recipe a few years ago, with coffee oil, almond and oatmeal, and this version here uses malted milk powder instead. The second attempt seems closer, or maybe I can combine the two and get a better result? In any case, here's recipe #1, from Rasa Malaysia . Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies 250g butter, softened 110g brown sugar 120g caster sugar 2 eggs 1/4 tsp baking soda 80g cornstarch 320g flour 50g cocoa powder (actually it's less but I accidentally added more and it's better) 250g chocolate chips (this is the minimum) The recipe said bake at 200 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes, but that won't give crunchy cookies. I baked at 14 to 16 minutes instead, depending on the size. But the chocolate chips won't be melt

Tub of mascarpone waiting to be used sits in my fridge and was contemplating if I should do another batch of kunefe, or try out a cheesecake since I have cream cheese too which is expiring soon. Also have kids' leftover biscuits to clear. These kids will say I love this snack! And keep asking for more and you need to go find them cos you didn't know they'd finish them so fast, and when you actually do stock up at home, they moved on to another snack. So. I'm left with a packet of opened, unfinished Zoo biscuits. Googled and found this recipe , so cheesecake it is! I did half the recipe and was more than enough still. This is a keeper recipe, the cheesecake is not heavy, not cheesy and the crust is oh so GOOD. Lotus biscuits, even though only 2, made a difference and almonds too! Love the nutty flavour it gives to crusts.  In you go, zoo biscuits. No need for Graham crackers. Cheesecake 250g cream cheese 250g mascarpone cheese (1 tub) 2 eggs

I've tried a few times to perfect this, and I think I'm getting close! The trick is to use more santan, more flour, less liquid. Also, I cooked it over the stove first before putting it in the oven.  Kuih Bakar Pandan 2/3 cup + 1 tbsp flour 2/3 cup sugar 2/3 cup coconut cream 2/3 cup pandan juice + coconut milk 2 eggs Heat the pan over the stove. Pour batter in and cover the top. Cook for a few minutes until the sides are cooked and doesn't stick to the pan. Put it in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for about 45 minutes, depending on how thick the batter.

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

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

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.

Soooo. My last post was exactly a year ago! I have been meaning to update with recipes mostly, but that too I did not make time for, so finalehhh I am writing. I'll post recipes first, cos I'm lazy to upload pictures. Nagasari Jagung Original recipe: http://narny.blogspot.sg/2010/08/nagasari-jagung.html 450ml water 175g sugar 1 pandan leaf Boil the above until the sugar dissolves. 1 packet Hoon Kueh flour (120g) 200 ml water In another pot, mix flour bit by bit in the water and gently simmer. I used a whisk. My first time making this, I had a hard time removing the lumps cos I added the flour all at once! Add the sugar water. 250ml thick coconut cream (the Kara brand, I didn't try coconut milk thinking it'll be diluted) 1/2 tsp salt 1 box corn kernel (Del Monte, wash away the water) Add the coconut and salt into the simmering mixture and whisk until it reaches boiling point (5 minutes). Finally add the corn and stir for another 1 min. Spoon 2 tbsp

Husband was feeling under the weather, so I decided to make sayur asam. From scratch. The last time (the first time) I made it, I used a paste I bought from Indonesia so it was easy peasy. There are quite a few recipes, and I used one from this website since it looks relatively simple. Sayur Asam Blended/pound spices: 1 thumb-size of galangal 4 shallots 1 bird's eye chili 5 red chili 4 cloves garlic 5 candlenuts 1 tsp of shrimp paste/belacan Other ingredients: Peanuts Long beans (about 5?) 2 sweet corns (cut into 2 inch pieces) 1/2 head of cabbage (cut into large piece) 3 tomatoes (quartered) 1 carrot 3 bay leaves/daun salam 2 asam keping, for good measure 2 Tbsp of seedless tamarind paste in water 1 gula melaka cylinder Salt to taste (abt 1 1/2 tsp?) Those ingredients are not easy to pound using my stone pestle and mortar, yet not enough to blend in blender. I should have used food processor instead hahaha. Oh wells. Fry the blended ingredients in

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

We were watching Asian Food Channel, Cooking for Love programme and the menu for the day was rawon (slow cooked in the oven!), ikan pepes and durian creme brulee. I'm actually interested in the dessert, but Husband wanted the ikan pepes. So the next day he went to the market and then we prepared the fish together. Original recipe is here , but we kinda adapted it cos I wanted to try a hand at masak campak-campak and master it. Also I know there's many variations of ikan pepes but we absolutely LOVE this. So here's our recipe, which was just nice to cover 3 medium sized ikan merah. Ikan merah is a good fish since it's so soft! Ikan Pepes To blend: 2 onions 7 garlic 2 inches ginger 2 inches galangal 6 candlenuts 2 inches tumeric 10 red chilis 6 cili padi 4 cm sq belacan 4 lemongrass (stub keep for later) Other ingredients: 2 blocks gula melaka 2 asam keping 1 1/2 tsp salt 16 lime leaves 2 tbsp coriander powder Blend all the to-blend ingredien

Such a belated post but just had to record this down. The Husband loves mozzarella cheese sticks from Swensen's, and recently we found out the kids love them too! So I tried to recreate it at home, since I already have the coating ingredients (children LOVE  homemade chicken nuggets ). First try had the mozarella melting in the oil, so the second time I did double coating and increased the heat such that the coating will cook quickly. I used 2 egg, cornflour, panko breadcrumbs and a mix of the following spices: smoked paprika, black pepper, salt, cajun spices, garlic powder. And mozarella, of course. Here's the first attempt! Cheese melted out, but super yummy! So second batch, made with double coating i.e. cheese in flour, then egg, then flour, then egg, then panko mix. Take that Swensen's! HAHA. Of course it's not as neat as Swensen's cos that's like machine made and all, but I think I did well! 

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

Been making airfried chicken wings for the past two sahurs, cos Husband approves! I made my go-to chicken wing marinade using Nando's sauce and some other stuff, and airfried them with no oily mess of deep frying or baking in the oven, and at more than half the time required in the oven! Definite winner! Only downside is cleaning the basket. So for future reference, here's the recipe. 500g chicken wings (no drumlets) 2 tbsp Nando's sauce 1 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp soy sauce 1/2 tsp ground black pepper 1 tbsp tomato pesto Pinch of salt Marinate overnight. Airfry at 200 degrees Celsius for 8 minutes skin side up. Turn the wings on the other side and airfry for another 8 minutes. Crispy yummy skin, with juicy chicken inside! I love!

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

Yesterday night as I was prepping chicken for this morning's sahur, I was out of soy sauce and couldn't make kung pao chicken. Hence I made a never before tried concoction, and decide to throw in sesame oil for a twist. While I marinated the chicken, the sesame oil smell was strong, was afraid that Husband may not like it. But thankfully after frying, was toned down and in fact it was yummy! So I have to note this down, in case I need a quick stir fry. Spicy Sesame Oil Chicken Stir Fry 400g thigh boneless chicken (was 500g, but I removed skins), cut into strips 1 1/2 tbsp Nando's marinade 1 tsp sesame oil 3 tbsp kicap manis 1 tsp chili paste 1 1/2 (or 2 ) tbsp honey 1 tsp garlic powder Handful of wok fried peanuts Mix all wet sauces together with the chicken and marinate for about 15 minutes. Fry on a nonstick pan, until  the chicken is cooked. Sprinkle garlic powder and fried peanuts and cook till juices are reduced to the amount that you desire. Tada! It&#

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

I have done this a few times yet I did not write down the recipe. I also keep changing recipes all the time as a result. But this time I finally noted down! Kungpao Chicken Marinate for 30 minutes: 750g chicken breast cut into cubes 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar 1 tbsp light soy sauce 1 tbsp Sesame oil 1 tbsp corn flour For the sauce, mix in a bowl: 1 1/2 tbsp sugar 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar 1 tbsp soy sauce 4 tbsp water to help dissolve the sugar 2 tbsp kicap manis 2 tbsp corn flour Frying ingredients: 5 cloves garlic, minced 2 inches ginger, thinly sliced 12 to 16 dried chilis, soaked then halved chopped spring onions Cashews Marinate the chicken and set aside for 30 minutes.  Prepare the sauce in a separate bowl, make sure sugar is completely dissolved. I didn't add in the kicap manis initially, that was added in while cooking cos the taste wasn't there yet and the colour was too pale. Lightly fry cashew nuts with some oil and set aside. Can