Wake Up and Smell the Cake

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

Ingredients 1 bag marshmallows 200g (Phoon Huat's doesn't melt easily) 1 box krispies 175g 1/4 cup butter (55g) Melt the butter in a big pot. Once melted, add in marshmallows and melt that down too. Once melted with the butter, add in rice krispies, mix and spread in a buttered (I used oil spray) glass baking dish and pat it down to shape. Glass tray is best, easiest to clean. On second try, I tried using 1 box of rice krispies that was 130g in weight, with 250g bag of marshmallows and use butter 50g. If wanna use 300g marshmallows also can. Better proportion.

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

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

I harvested my first Thai basil leaves last Saturday! That's about 3 weeks since planting. Decided to try out a small batch of Thai basil stir fry chicken. I think I can harvest again this Saturday, the leaves grow really quickly since I have three sets of plants. Thai Basil Chicken Stir Fry 200g chicken breast, sliced thinly then marinated Marinade: 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil 1 small onion 3 cloves garlic 2 cili padi, sliced 1tbsp brown sugar 1 tbsp fish sauce Basil leaves, sliced It's really easy to make! I think I might make again, with minced beef instead. This will be a staple go-to food since I'm always having Thai basil leaves all the time hahaha.

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

Recording my plantui progress. Bought on 11 November 2017, planted Thai basil on 12 November 2017 and coriander and kale on 14 November 2017. Or maybe I should count as 15 November 2017 since 14 was on sleep mode only. 17 November 2017, day 2. Seeds not opening up yet!! WHYYY. Day 2. I see sprouting! This takes faster to grow than the other 2. I see growth here as well! Day 6 I do hope the coriander will grow! Maybe it'll take longer. Will update at the 10th day, when the lights are supposed to change.

Finally FINALLY I got my indoor gardening set thanks to dearest Husband! :) Was aiming for clickandgrow and plantui, and we settled for plantui though more expensive, but can fit 6 pods at a time and the light seems better. So YAY! I've been trying to grow herbs at my home but since we're not at home most of sunlight time, we can't grow much. I tried pandan leaves but it eventually died, mint grew but more of a survival thing rather than growing fully leafy. All these because we don't put our plants in direct sunlight, and our windows are tinted. We have money plants though, which I put in the sun only on weekends but those plants can survive anything so those don't count. HAHA. With my very own plantui I hope to grow my own herbs! I started out with Thai basil on Sunday (cos who wants normal basil when you have Thai basil!) and yesterday I added in 1 pod kale and 2 pods coriander. Will be updating on the progress soon! So far I see that the thai basil se

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! 

Kids were sick over the Deepavali holiday so I made macaroni soup, only for me to finish practically the entire pot. Pfft. First time making it, and I used minced beef meat like my mum, but I didn't put leafy greens in. Instead I added carrot and baby corn. Also used a cube of Maggi chicken stock for some flavour. 1 cube shouldn't hurt right? Haha. It turned out alright, but the household aren't soup eaters. Anyway just to document, no recipe used. Just fried 1 onion sliced, with 3 cloves chopped garlic, then 300g minced meat (250g should have been fine). Added water only after the minced meat was cooked. Also added 1 tsp black pepper, 1 cube chicken stock and 1 tsp salt. Oh and spring onions. Also when we were grocery shopping, the boy wanted to eat mushroom soup, since he said he tried it in school before and he likes it. So we bought 1 can (I know I cheated) and added mushrooms which I already have. Guess how much he ate. THREE spoonfuls. *rolls eyes*

YES. Another stir fry! HAHA. Cos that's easy to cook for meal prep Sundays! Also I was clearing out the larder and fridge, checking for expired items, throwing out food we won't be eating and since it's post-Raya, I have one larder tray filled with only empty containers. Haha. This round's stir fry aim is to finish up the limes in the fridge, and I came across this Thai concoction of sorts, which sounds yummy and could gel well with pasta. I didn't follow exactly the recipe so I shan't link it, so here's my take. Coconut Lime Chicken Stir Fry Chicken cubes (again, never measure. 400g?) 1 small onion, sliced 3 red chilis, sliced 1 cili padi, sliced 1/2 inch ginger + 4 cloves garlic, pound 100ml coconut milk 2 tbsp honey 2 tbsp oyster sauce Fry the onion and chilis in oil until onions are golden. Add in the pound garlic and ginger and fry. Add the chicken, then oyster sauce, coconut milk and honey and fry until chicken is cooked. You can add a

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

Made the best Alfredo ever! From the many past experiments, use real cream, and never go overboard with cheese! I had leftover thickened cream about to expire, bought them for cupcake icing but never got down to using it. Chicken Alfredo 1 tub of thickened cream 1 tbsp butter Diced vegetables (I used carrots, capsicum and corn) Garlic powder, about 3 tsp hurhur 1/2 tsp black pepper 1/2 tsp smoked paprika Cooked chicken, shredded (same amount of veg) 1/2 cup grated pizza cheese Cook the vegetables in minimal oil. Add butter, chicken and cream at low heat. Add the spices, stir and add cheese. Once cheese melted, it's done!