Wake Up and Smell the Cake

I was so determined to make bread that I woke up at 5.30 as I do on weekdays. And I did it! So happy :) I did one recipe of sweet bun that I learnt in my breads course. Totally love my Kenwood mixer! Here's to many more bakes using the Kenwood! I got the Titanium Major, the bowl's huge at 6.7 litres. But you'll never know when you need a big one, and since I'm buying this for long term use, might as well buy a very good and reliable one. Bosch seems good too with a huge power output. Anyway. Here are the pictures! So after mixing the dough in the mixer for about 12 minutes, here it is after some kneading using the hand. Left for proofing for an hour. Good thing I can use my counter top to knead dough! It doubled! So happy! I asked my son if he wanted to punch the dough, he touched it instead -_- He didn't want to punch it because he said it was sticky. Haha. Knead and then design, I made into butter buns and raisin cranberry rolls. Got 10 x 60g bu

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

I took overripe bananas from my mum last Friday to make cake, and it turned out wonderful! Made banana walnut muffins and once again I used another recipe (hurhur) and this time I promise I will not look for any other banana cake recipes huahuahua. Cos this one is husband approved! I like this one because it uses oil instead of butter and less than my mum's banana bread. I added 2 splashes (haha what a unit of measurement) of buttermilk to make it moist and fluffy. Banana Walnut Muffins from Tyler Florence 3/4 cup oil (they used melted butter) 2 cups flour 1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda 1 cup sugar 1 bowl mashed overripe bananas (5 pieces) 2 eggs 2 splashes haha of buttermilk, maybe about 1/3 cup chopped walnuts In the big bowl, mix together flour, bicarbonate soda and sugar. Mix the wet ingredients together: oil, eggs and buttermilk. Buttermilk should be added here but when I was doing, I added in last because the batter was thick and I wanted i

Wanted to make chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting for SIL's birthday but the Husband wanted red velvet with nutella like Fluff Bakery's. I have never made cupcakes like Fluff's especially the frosting because I have not mastered frosting and I had disasters with whipped cream. So for this round to make the cream cheese frosting lighter, I added mascarpone. But still not as light as fluff's and I hate to admit but I guess they use whipped cream. Le sigh. Next time maybe.  This red velvet cake uses oil instead of butter, and with so much fluid no wonder it's moist. The batter was so runny too! Made me worry that I didn't measure enough flour haha. The recipe is so easy I wrote the following without referring to the original recipe! Red Velvet Cupcakes by divascancook 3/4 cup canola oil 1 cup buttermilk  1/2 cup hot water 2 eggs 2 cups sugar 2 cups flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 2 tbsp cocoa powder 1 tsp or mo

Yesterday night I was still on my hardworking cook streak and so I fried laksa mum's style to be eaten with marinated chicken wings this morning. I always prepare sahur the night before because I know I can't bear to wake up at 4 to cook in a rush. Haha. My mum's laksa goreng is something like bee hoon goreng taucho, and I love it a lot. Got the recipe from her and this is the second time I'm making them. The first time I didn't have taucho and it was a little too salty. This time round although I have taucho I still didn't have vegetables haha. Oh wells. A better try than the first, but still not perfect yet! Laksa Goreng Taucho 420g laksa noodles (because the packet is in 420g haha), washed 1 onion, sliced 4 tbsp chili paste 2-3 tbsp taucho, try not to take the water, just the beans 1 sq cm belacan 1 tbsp sugar 3 tbsp udang kering, soaked for a while Prawns. scrambled eggs (3) and sliced fishballs Tumbuk the taucho, belacan and udang kering u

Good morning! We had a good weekend, but it was really really hot to the point where I ironed clothes in aircon and with the fan on haha. Also! It's the start of my 3rd trimester yay! And what a way to start 3rd trimester than a dream about giving birth. Such a tiring dream -_- Saturday morning I cooked an early lunch for Husband's korma ayam brunch (yup repeat telecast), and later I made apple raisin muffins which he approves!! Seldom does he approve fruit related bakes so this is an achievement! He did ask though if eating that qualifies eating fruit. I would like to think so too ahhahaha. I've made apple cupcakes using this moist apple cake recipe ! I've used this before, in an earlier post . Totally love it. I added raisins as well for a sweeter bite. Would have been nice to have walnuts too. Moist Apple Mini Cakes 4 apples, peeled cored & diced 3/4 tbsp cinnamon 3/4 tbsp sugar (supposed to be 3 but I followed wrongly but still turned out fine wit

Back to work. We spent most of the weekend at home since Junior is down with chicken pox. Saturday's menu is ayam masak korma and pengat pisang. Both are The Husband's cravings. So morning I managed to cook pengat pisang for breakfast using the same recipe as before. Got started on my ayam masak korma. I decided to follow the recipe on the korma powder packet cos it seems simple enough and it's catered to that specific spice anyway. So for 1 whole chicken, this is the recipe. Ayam Masak Korma 1 whole chicken 2 onions, thinly sliced 2 cloves, 1 cardamom 1 star anise 5 cloves garlic 3 cm ginger 1 tbsp chili paste (I added because I didn't have fresh chilis) 5 tbsp korma powder, Malabar brand 2 tbsp meat curry powder, Malabar brand 1 packet Kara coconut cream (200ml) Potatoes and cherry tomatoes Thinly slice the onions, pound garlic and ginger together. Fry the sliced onions in oil. Add in the cloves, cardamom and star anise to fry together. On

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

My parents are home! Yay! My mum is still sick though hope she gets better :( The welcome home asam pedas was a success! I realised I didn't have to go all the way to Geylang Serai market on Friday during lunch to get ingredients cos I went to the market to get fish and Chong Pang is pretty self sufficient anyway. It wasn't really cheap at Geylang either! Oh wells. Lesson learnt. This is my second time making asam pedas using the recipe from the Malay Heritage Cooking cookbook. I made some slight changes like the method. Asam Pedas Ground paste: 50 dried chilis, cut into small pieces & soaked in hot water 70g belacan 5 onions, sliced 15 gloves garlic 2 1/2 ginger Asam pulp, 200g soaked in water (but I didn't use all) 3 stalks lemon grass, bruised 2kg ikan kerisi (about 3 tails) Laksa leaves (daun kesum), about 30 leaves Lady's fingers, about 30-40 Salt 1 1/2 tsp Sugar 2 tbsp Prepare ground paste in a blender to form a paste. Heat oil in a

It has been a roller coaster of a weekend! We finally went for Junior's hearing test and thankfully he did not need to be sedated cos he sat like a good boy listening via the earpiece. Thank God. Went home, cooked lunch of our version of ayam masak merah. I still can't get the gravy texture same like my mum's. I wonder why. Makes me feel like getting a handheld blender and blend the onions etc. Later that evening, was part 1 of project caterer for SIL's house: making brownies. I decided to add in a little twist and include red velvet swirl brownies too, but because it's a bit more tedious, I only made 2 batches. The normal cocoa brownies I made 4 batches and sprinkled with lots of chopped almonds. I used a cocoa recipe from ovenhaven . Below is the recipe: Cocoa Brownies 1/2 cup butter, melted 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (not dutch processed) 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 2 tsp vanilla 1/2 cup flour 1/4 tsp salt Melt the butter, add in sugar and

Saturday boy was I busy in the kitchen! Went to the market earlier and was home by 9.40am and got started cooking! The siblings wanted chicken fajitas so I quickly sliced the chicken meat and marinated (fajitas mix + paprika + black pepper + dried basil) before Junior & I went to the market. Junior made my heart melt: all those times spent baking and cooking with him paid off! He now is officially my little baker! I didn't want to bake anything, but he sorta forced me. How can I refuse when he took out the whisk and ladle and even the sugar! But before that, Junior was busy helping me cook! On the menu for the day: Chicken Fajitas Sindhi Briyani (Shan mix) Potato Soup for Junior Potato soup is really simple. Peel & cut potatoes, boil and add cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and fish/chicken cubes in and cook together. I throw in a teeny bit of salt, and some dried basil. It's even yummy for adults! So on to the biryani! I was kind of eager to cook biryani whe

Whoever does work today is not normal. Haha. Eve of a public holiday yet no half day oh the pain! Saturday my siblings came over for lunch, and cooking was yet another diner dash. On the menu was daging masak merah and very simple fried cabbage. Butter cookies was supposed to be an after-lunch activity but it was changed to butter cake because of lack of time. I also had to go to the post office to get Junior's books that arrived but were too big for the mail box. Maybe I should have one big mail box outside my door and ask the postman to deposit it there instead. The queue at the post office was so long! When I came at about 10, I was like 60th in queue?! So Junior and I went to get some groceries while waiting for our turn, and when we came back, the number only moved up by 20. Damn. By the time we were done and back home, It was 11.30! Not enough time to cook the meat! Thankfully Junior explored his new books on his own quietly, so I had time to cook. Multi-tasked: frying

Good morning! Not the best of mornings. I have this irritating woozy feeling lingering somewhere in my head. Or eyes. Don't really know which is the cause. Weekend was kinda okay. I made Husband-approved banana cake with chocolate chips! Haha. I wanted to use the leftover yoghurt but it seems that Husband threw it away already so I had to do with milk + vinegar. I went back to my mum's trusty banana recipe and I got it right this time! Previously I didn't, so I made changes and used another recipe too, but I was determined to get back the soft fluffy banana cake (not banana bread) that I grew up with. It's difficult to find a real banana cake recipe because most are banana bread, but I want the soft and moist cake, not a cake full of flour. This time round, I took my time creaming the butter with sugar, and then with eggs till I got the right consistency of air in the cake. I used self raising flour too and I sieved it. The result is just like my mum's cake

Meant to talk about rendang last week cos we made beef rendang the weekend before, and since I made rendang again (by request of Husband) yesterday, the recipe is still fresh in my head so here I am typing on the bus to class. So pardon me for the lack of bullet points etc. Class. Haha. I skipped last week's class cos I was at my mum's hurhur, this week need to go cos next week is the last lesson already, and I can't go for that either because I'll be in Jakarta for a work trip. Busy huh. Anyway back to the rendang! This is my mum's recipe and it doesn't use kerisik, and that should be the shredded coconut thingy? Haha. Anyway this got the approval of dear Husband so I'm happy! Ingredients 1kg beef/chicken 4 onions 8 cloves garlic 2 inches ginger 4 sticks of lemongrass 4 tbsp ketumbar powder 2 tbsp jintan halus powder 5 tbsp cili kisar 200ml coconut cream About 10-15 lime leaves 5 tbsp sugar +/- Salt to taste Slice lemongrass very thin

For the first time I halved a recipe. I need to start reducing my cake recipes or spread the fats so it won't all end up at my butt. The weekend was filled with weddings, began on Friday night, went home late, whole day Saturday and two weddings on Sunday. Despite that I still managed to squeeze time to bake yesterday morning with my little boy. I let him mix the butter, which he gladly touched and spread on the floor (!!), and he refused to give me back the ladle when he was having fun 'creaming' the butter and sugar together. I decided to make them in cupcake form rather than a 7 inch cake pan so that it'll be more interesting for Junior. This recipe makes exactly 12 cupcakes, just nice. Instead of the normal butter cake, I used ground almonds too so that I can reduce my stock and at the same time get a nuttier cake. Ingredients 125g butter 50g ground almonds 100g flour 1 tsp baking powder 100g sugar 1 tsp vanilla paste 3 eggs 12 tsp nutella Cream butter

Oh goddd I hate stomachaches. All that churning and squirming and not knowing why! Anyway. I'm back from Lombok and back to office sadly hahaha. Lombok deserves a post on its own so I'll save that for later. Made a vanilla bean bundt cake on Christmas after a dry baking spell haha. To my horror there were no vanilla bean cake recipes in my recipe books so I googled and use this recipe by butteredup . Vanilla Bean Bundt Cake 3 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 2 sticks butter, softened (I reduced by 1/4 stick) 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar 2 vanilla beans, halved lengthwise 5 eggs 1 cup + 2 tbsp milk + 1 tbsp vinegar (original recipe is 1 cup buttermilk) Preheat oven to 170°C. Generously butter pan and dust with flour.  Whisk together dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and baking soda.  Beat together butter and sugar in an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy. Scrape seeds from vanilla beans with tip of a