Wake Up and Smell the Cake

It's hard fasting while most are not. Haha. And I'm already hungry this early in the morning! Sigh. It's only Day 2 of 8, and I hope to complete at least 6 within Syawal! I'm bored of sorts lately. It's quite cyclical, once in a couple of months or so. This time round I think I'm getting tired of raya. I want a day that I can sit at home with no plans at all, so I can catch up on my housework and laze around with my family. I am, after all, the Raya Grinch. In other news, I turned 31 two days ago! Hijrah calendar of course. I haven't written a random post like this in ages, mostly it's recording of recipes these days. Maybe I should pen down such thoughts again.

After the egg tarts, I slowly built up the ingredients for shepherd's pie. Reason being I can't cook for a long period of time without having kids cutting in for attention. So I boiled the cauliflower (a whole head!) first while cooking baby's food, let it rest for some time, before frying the minced meat. That too rested in the frying pan until it turned cold. Haha. I added red capsicum, curry powder, coriander powder and 2 sprigs of curry leaves to the meat to make it fragrant. I mashed the cauliflower with low fat milk and cheese, also at another time when the baby was taking her noon nap. Managed to get 4 loaves/servings of shepherd's pie, one I baked for lunch and the other 3 refrigerated for the next few days' breakfasts. Easy peasy, bake it for half an hour, let it rest for another half hour and pack for work! It tastes better after a day, maybe because the cheese and cauliflower and milk have all blended well together. I did not make measurements

Finally got down to making some egg tarts and using up my store bought tart shells. I got them from Phoon Huat, and intended to make some savoury tarts for guests but those were just my never ending dreams. And another of my dream is to make sabsuka, and hence 2 dozen eggs in my fridge plus 2kg of minced meat in the freezer. I know right. Ha. Ha. Eggs need to be used up first, and after sifting through many recipes, I found one simple one that uses low fat milk which I have. None other than one of my favourite sites, Baking Bites ! They use only egg yolks. The egg whites I decided to make a fritatta of some sort but didn't turn out too well so not sharing it here. Egg Tarts 5 medium egg yolks 2/3 cup low fat milk splash of vanilla oil 1/2 cup sugar Whisk all together, pour into a measuring cup for easy pouring into the tart shells. Take tart shells out of the freezer and pour the custard in. Bake for 17-20 minutes at 170 degrees. These are husband-approved! Thoug

Made my cookies already! So happy. Was contemplating on making meringue kisses but looking at the time it will take in the oven and also the time I took contemplating, haha weekend over! :p Made the usual stuff. Almond London (2 batches!), pineapple tarts, chocolate chip cookies and cornflake cookies. Making cookies is laborious but I don't seem tired from it. The Husband said I'm having fun in the kitchen haha. I didn't take any photos for the cookies, mainly cos they are recipes I've used before. These 4 cookies, I won't look to other recipes. Not planning a major overhaul of the house, just cleaning up some things here and there. Most of the house has been springcleaned and unwanted things thrown pre-Ramadan. Am also not a big fan of dressing up the house just for raya, I like to keep it neat and practical. After all I have a boy with toys everywhere and a girl who is crawling and starting to climb all over. We had a change of carpet, and some new cus

Yes! No longer in my 20s as of yesterday haha. Getting older, I definitely can feel it. From the knee aches, back aches, to the reactions I realise I have on certain issues. More laid back, more composed and I'm learning to be more patient. Growing up definitely. Yesterday's celebration was simple, I didn't want buffet spreads or fancy cafes. Getting too old for such things haha! Buffet during Ramadan is not advisable, plus it's expensive. Cafes, so far all I've tried were disappointing, many people said sedap sedap but ok ok only, so I shall skip that and get food which I know is good. I actually wanted to eat Indian rojak ahhaha. But we ended up at Spize cos well rojak is usually at a hawker centre heh but Spize was good too cos we had a good table. Earlier in office, Husband surprised me with a bouquet of flowers on my table! Overjoyed! Too happy :) I don't usually ask for flowers, but hey which girl doesn't love getting flowers! Especially surpris

Yesterday I was on leave for my baby boy's birthday day out. Was feeling extra hardworking so I cooked salted egg chicken for sahur. Got up earlier to prepare and I'm glad I did! Later that morning I made bombay briyani for buka. Baby girl was at my mum's for the day so we can give full attention to the birthday boy. Salted Egg Chicken These take less than an hour to make, fast and easy peasy and totally yummy! I don't have to buy outside anymore! This is husband-approved! 2 chicken breasts (the big one, not the small pieces) 1 egg white Cornstarch + 1/2 tsp salt 2 tbsp butter 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped 1 inch ginger, finely chopped 3 salted egg yolks, mashed Evaporated milk, about 7-10 tbsp, depending on how thick you want the gravy to be 20 curry leaves, the more the merrier 2 cili padi (I didn't have this so I used 2 green chilies) Cut the chicken into bite sized cubes. Coat them with egg white, then in the cornstarch dip, then deep fr

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

After a few failed attempts at chocolate chip cookies (they spread out and get stuck to the pan), my cookie confidence is boosted after this recipe! There's a few types of recipes claiming to be famous amos choc chip cookies, and I tried the one which looks easiest. Which is the real famous amos? ;) I bought coffee oil which supposedly gives the "free smells", and now my larder smells of coffee haha. Got the recipe from here , but it's been on so many blogs. 225g unsalted butter, softened 200g brown sugar (on hindsight maybe if I used normal sugar it'll be more crunchy?) 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp coffee oil 1 egg Seeds from 1 vanilla pod 1/4 cup oats, processed to bits in a chopper 1/4 cup ground almond LOTS of semi-sweet chocolate chips 300g self-raising flour (I used normal flour + 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda) At least 2 hours or the night before, beat egg with vanilla and coffee oil to infuse. Refrigerate. Beat butter, suga

For Husband's birthday, I didn't want to make a cake like I normally do. Was supposed to surprise him with a roti kirai cake instead, and some yummy beef rendang . Didn't have time to make the happy birthday bunting to poke through the cake though, he woke up earlier than I expected and already took a piece haha. Managed to cook the beef rendang and roti kirai in the wee hours (3.30am!) of the morning, on a working weekday no less! Thank God for my pressure cooker, which did the cooking of the meat (tumis excluded) in half an hour, and if I had done normal stove cooking it would take more than 2 hours. Roti Kirai 1 box of low fat coconut milk (not cream) 450ml water 3/4 tsp salt 2 eggs 2 cups flour Yellow colouring (I used tumeric powder) *recipe edited and 8 August 2017 and it's Husband Approved!*

I have too many things to post. The latest being my second attempt at sugee almond pudding. Along the way I did roti kirai for the Husband's birthday, with beef rendang, failed doughnuts, and now I can't remember what else! OH. Almost famous amos cookies! Let's do them one at a time. First is the sugee almond pudding. I followed the same recipe but I had rose water this time round and that made all the difference. I still did not follow the recipe exactly because I didn't toast the almonds in ghee, used store bought ground almonds, but seems good enough anyway. One batch can serve 8 to 10 people. 900ml water 1 cup sugar 2 tsp rose water 3 cardamoms 400ml evaporated milk (1 can) 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 cup ground almonds 150g semolina Raisins Heat the water, sugar, rose water and cardamoms until it comes to a boiling point.  Reduce the heat to a simmer and add the ground almonds, salt and milk. Don't let mixture come to a boil.  Add in the semol

This is a long overdue post! But I have to finish it anyway because of the recipe I'd like to use in the future. Few Saturdays ago I made sugee cake like FINALLY. I bought semolina flour after my little shopping trip to Phoon Huat, among other things haha. I made one batch with one pack of butter, but made into 2 cakes of 7 inches each. Sugee Almond Cake adapted from Guai Shu Shu 225g butter 225g sugar 225g almond meal 225g semolina flour vanilla 1 tbsp baking powder 5 eggs 50ml milk Using the electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add vanilla, eggs one by one and mix well. Mix in the almond meal and semolina flour and baking powder, then milk. Bake in the oven at 170 degrees for about 45 minutes or more depending on the thickness of your cake. I like the fact that this cake rose levelly unlike my usual butter cakes done by hand (maybe mixer's the trick), or maybe the ingredients play a part. The plain cake Passionfruit version! I added ab

I guess this has to be the healthiest muffins I've ever made. I made them this morning for breakfast. Very quick, mixing + baking + cooling took about an hour. It's a win-win muffin of sorts; trying to clear my oats, bananas and yoghurt, and at the same time make a healthy snack to hopefully boost my milk production. I adapted the recipe from here , but I don't have a huge food processor (I have those small ones that comes with the blender, and the baby food steamer cum processor) hence I couldn't blend all in. I just processed the sugar and oats together and mixed with the other ingredients. 2 cups oats 1/4 cup sugar 3 medium ripe bananas 1 cup yoghurt 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 2 eggs It's amazing, no oil! They turned out moist, but because I didn't process the oats to be really fine, it kinda tasted like eating cooked oatmeal. But still good cos it has a bite and even the Husband said it's okay. I added chocolate covertures

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 love clearing out the ingredients in my kitchen. Feels good to see the fridge getting emptier without having to throw things away. I made cod potato cakes, or what I'd call fish begedil, early yesterday morning! Complete with breadcrumbs :) They were really yummy, but a bit too soft that some sorta broke while frying. Maybe if I let them cool in the fridge it would have been better. Or I could use fried potatoes instead of boiled like we do in begedil. Loosely adapted from  BBC Good Food . Cod Potato Cakes (makes 12) 1 cod fillet, about 160g 4 small to medium potatoes Milk (as usual I didn't measure) Water (same here!) 2 bay leaves 1 lime Salt & pepper 1 piece of already or almost expired bread, blitzed Skin and cut potatoes into cubes, boil them in water till soft. While potato is cooking, heat up equal parts water and milk in another pan for the fish. Add in the 2 bay leaves and cook the fish till tender. Strain the potatoes, then mash them. Season

Back to work after the long weekend! One of the days Husband requested for ayam masak merah, and good thing I bought coriander leaves and the tomyam spices set before the holidays. This recipe my friends, is totally Husband approved! I used my mama's recipe and accidentally doubled the tomato puree (I know it's one can but I forgot there's a smaller can hurhur) but seems fine still. 1 kg chicken, already fried 2 medium onions, minced 5 cloves garlic, minced 1 stalk lemongrass, cut into 3 and bruised 8 tbsp cili kisar 1 1/2 tsp salt 2 - 3 tbsp sugar 140g tomato puree Coriander leaves (the more the merrier) No pictures though but I could do this again! Amazingly I didn't bake for the past 4 days. I did make my no egg banana pancake and I caramelised some bananas to go with it. Have been thinking about making bread with tangzhong but as usual, I will look for soooo many recipes, read and re-read before actually doing it. I could have done it yesterday

Too many bananas over the weekend! We had one bunch, and I took home another bunch from a family gathering. Googled all sorts of banana recipes from pies to cakes to ice cream. Managed to use up 15 bananas which is a lot, and I still have about 6 more. Hurhur. Saturday morning I made jemput-jemput pisang, then I made chocolate banana spring rolls to be refrigerated and fried later, and in the afternoon I took out my Kenwood for some banana cake. Moist Banana Cake with Greek Yoghurt from Baking Bites 3 cups all purpose flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 227g butter, softened (the recipe used half cup butter, half cup oil) 2 cups sugar 3 eggs 1 tbsp vanilla 1 cup plain Greek yoghurt 1 1/2 cups mashed banana (they said approx 3 large, but I used 8 medium sized ones) Cream butter with sugar, then add the eggs one at a time. Add in half of the flour, then the greek yoghurt, and then rest of the flour. I used my Kenwood mixer for these! Haha so happy can us

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

So I finally did something with the speculoos spread. Made it into a cheesecake with the biscoff biscuits as the base! As usual I engaged my little boy for some help. I let him beat up the biscuits in the ziploc bag and he loved it so much! He said he was very excited hahaha. This recipe was a campak2 recipe, I based on a few websites I saw, and pretty much used whatever I had in the fridge. Speculoos Cheesecake 30 biscoff biscuits, crushed 25g melted butter 2x 8oz cream cheese 3 eggs 1/4 cup yoghurt 1/4 cup thickened cream 300g speculoos spread 150g sugar Add melted butter to crushed biscoff biscuits, then transfer to an 8 inch springform pan and flatten to make the crust. Use a mixer to mix the rest of the ingredients together, then pour into the pan and bake for about 50-55 minutes at 170 degrees Celsius. I was supposed to use a water bath method but my oven can't fit the 9x13 inch roasting pan hurhur. It turned out fine, with some cracks near the sides,

I attended my first ever baking class, bread module and I love what I learnt! I've always been scared of making breads because of the fear that the bread won't rise and I don't know how to knead. So I decided to attend a class at Zan's Treats. We learnt two basic recipes, one for savoury one for sweet bun. And we made 7 types from it. The dough was mixed in the mixer using the dough hook, then kneaded a bit before proofing. We did it in pairs so one set of dough per person. Look at the dough! So high it stretched the cling wrap! Made a pattern for this so it'll look nice haha And ta-da!!  So exciting! I am now more confident of making breads. I hope I can make it without a mixer, I only have the handheld one and my two hands huahuahua. I wanna make cinnamon buns too!

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