Wednesday 7 October 2015
Friday 2 October 2015
Birthday Cake
Yet another Frozen birthday cake.
Nope not complaining, in fact it is pretty easy compared to the ones using gum paste or fondant.
I mean sure it looks good and everything but eating it... ummm??
I like the edible images, limited sometimes but it works for me.
Never mind, each to their own taste and preferences.
As requested, the icing is buttercream, and baby pink. Although I noticed most Frozen cakes are either pale blue or white - snow or maybe to resemble ice??
No matter, I do as I am told LOL so pink it was, after all the birthday cake was for a cute little girl.
For the decoration, I piped pink stars at the border and topped them with colourful silver, gold, pink and blue balls. For the rest of the cake I used sugar craft (not made by me, but bought at Bakewell) butterflies, colourful chocolate sprinkles and of course the cast of the famous Disney animation - Frozen.
The cake itself was chocolate sponge cake, again by request. It was a four layered cake, (2 recipes of said cake) using square shallow 12x12 in cake pan. I trimmed the edges slightly to fit the 11x11 in cake board.
Happy Birthday Putri!!
Nope not complaining, in fact it is pretty easy compared to the ones using gum paste or fondant.
I mean sure it looks good and everything but eating it... ummm??
I like the edible images, limited sometimes but it works for me.
Never mind, each to their own taste and preferences.
As requested, the icing is buttercream, and baby pink. Although I noticed most Frozen cakes are either pale blue or white - snow or maybe to resemble ice??
No matter, I do as I am told LOL so pink it was, after all the birthday cake was for a cute little girl.
For the decoration, I piped pink stars at the border and topped them with colourful silver, gold, pink and blue balls. For the rest of the cake I used sugar craft (not made by me, but bought at Bakewell) butterflies, colourful chocolate sprinkles and of course the cast of the famous Disney animation - Frozen.
The cake itself was chocolate sponge cake, again by request. It was a four layered cake, (2 recipes of said cake) using square shallow 12x12 in cake pan. I trimmed the edges slightly to fit the 11x11 in cake board.
Happy Birthday Putri!!
Thursday 2 July 2015
Bread Pudding
Another weakness during the fasting month.
Not a must have but a must eat at least once!
I was cleaning the fridge, throwing out what should have been ages ago!
I came across bread, burger buns actually. There were bought on a whim, at RM 1 per packet.
You know at the supermarkets when they mark down the prices of goods that are expiring?
Well, we kinda got carried away and bought some, then didn't quite know what to do with so much once we got home and ate half of it.
Despite being a stale and rather hard, this is when the egg mixture comes in handy, I managed to convert it into this delicious dessert.
I found an easy recipe on Mat Gebu's blog. But he did his with Butterscotch bread, now I had burger buns.
I trimmed the crusts a bit, tweaked the recipe a bit and doubled it.
Mat Gebu didn't butter his bread but I did. I think it makes it tastier.
A good dish to bring over to friend's, that is when you get invited for break fast or dinner or tea or lunch...
Butterscotch Bread Pudding
source: Dapur Tanpa Sempadan
Ingredients
5 pieces of bread (you can use whatever you want)
2 Tbsp chocolate chips
Chopped Raisin & Cherries (I added this)
Chopped Almonds or Walnuts (I added this)
1 cup milk
1 egg (beaten)
1 Tbsp castor sugar
1 Tbsp melted butter
1 tsp vanilla
Method
Greased an oven proof container or baking tin.
Whisk together eggs, sugar, vanilla, milk and melted butter. Put aside.
Butter the bread. Line half of the bread in the tin. Sprinkle the chocolate chips, raisin, cherries and nuts on the bread and pour half the eggy mixture over the bread.
Now line the rest of the bread and sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips, raisins, cherries and nuts.
Pour the rest of the eggy mixture. Using a spoon gently press down the pudding.
This is to ensure everything gets covered with the egg evenly.
Let the pudding rest for about 20 to 30 min in the fridge before baking.
Bake in the oven using a ban marie or simply put the baking tin with the pudding into a bigger tin filled with water.
Bake for about 30 min at 180C.
Custard
Ingredients
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp castor sugar
1 Tbsp custard powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
Method
In a pot combine all the ingredients and cook over a slow fire.
Continue cooking until the custard thickens. Keep stirring to avoid custard being
lumpy or burned.
Cut the cooled bread pudding into squares or bite size and drizzle the custard over it.
Delicious!
Happy Baking!
Not a must have but a must eat at least once!
I was cleaning the fridge, throwing out what should have been ages ago!
I came across bread, burger buns actually. There were bought on a whim, at RM 1 per packet.
You know at the supermarkets when they mark down the prices of goods that are expiring?
Well, we kinda got carried away and bought some, then didn't quite know what to do with so much once we got home and ate half of it.
Despite being a stale and rather hard, this is when the egg mixture comes in handy, I managed to convert it into this delicious dessert.
I found an easy recipe on Mat Gebu's blog. But he did his with Butterscotch bread, now I had burger buns.
I trimmed the crusts a bit, tweaked the recipe a bit and doubled it.
Mat Gebu didn't butter his bread but I did. I think it makes it tastier.
A good dish to bring over to friend's, that is when you get invited for break fast or dinner or tea or lunch...
Butterscotch Bread Pudding
source: Dapur Tanpa Sempadan
Ingredients
5 pieces of bread (you can use whatever you want)
2 Tbsp chocolate chips
Chopped Raisin & Cherries (I added this)
Chopped Almonds or Walnuts (I added this)
1 cup milk
1 egg (beaten)
1 Tbsp castor sugar
1 Tbsp melted butter
1 tsp vanilla
Method
Greased an oven proof container or baking tin.
Whisk together eggs, sugar, vanilla, milk and melted butter. Put aside.
Butter the bread. Line half of the bread in the tin. Sprinkle the chocolate chips, raisin, cherries and nuts on the bread and pour half the eggy mixture over the bread.
Now line the rest of the bread and sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips, raisins, cherries and nuts.
Pour the rest of the eggy mixture. Using a spoon gently press down the pudding.
This is to ensure everything gets covered with the egg evenly.
Let the pudding rest for about 20 to 30 min in the fridge before baking.
Bake in the oven using a ban marie or simply put the baking tin with the pudding into a bigger tin filled with water.
Bake for about 30 min at 180C.
Custard
Ingredients
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp castor sugar
1 Tbsp custard powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
Method
In a pot combine all the ingredients and cook over a slow fire.
Continue cooking until the custard thickens. Keep stirring to avoid custard being
lumpy or burned.
Cut the cooled bread pudding into squares or bite size and drizzle the custard over it.
Delicious!
Happy Baking!
Eggless Caramel Pudding
I don't know why but when Ramadan comes along, puddings are something I crave - a lot!
Ha! Ha! Maybe I just want the sugar! That won't go don't well with my waist line or cholesterol level!
But I guess once in a while is okay, kut? Well I dug up an old recipe which I tried out last year.
Surprisingly I never did it again in the months of the year. Wonder why? ^ ^
I remember liking it a lot because there were no eggs involved! Sometimes, especially in steamed or baked puddings, the eggy taste is so prominent that it turns me off the dish no matter how delicious it is.
Happy Baking.
Ha! Ha! Maybe I just want the sugar! That won't go don't well with my waist line or cholesterol level!
But I guess once in a while is okay, kut? Well I dug up an old recipe which I tried out last year.
Surprisingly I never did it again in the months of the year. Wonder why? ^ ^
I remember liking it a lot because there were no eggs involved! Sometimes, especially in steamed or baked puddings, the eggy taste is so prominent that it turns me off the dish no matter how delicious it is.
The pudding is basically easy, the ingredients readily available at supermarkets.
No worries as this pudding doesn't require any steaming just pop it into the fridge to cool and set.
But you still have to do the caramel and cook the mixture over the stove for a bit.
Nothing is easy in life ~
I split the mixture into two because I wanted to give some to a friend.
The recipe is not that big but can't eat too much of a good thing and sharing is healthy.
I used a round and rectangle food container, the ones where food is usually t'pau in.
Making the caramel is a bit tricky as the recipe requires that the sugar is burnt in a baking tin.
The plastic container can't hold the hot sticky sugar. So what I did was burn the sugar in a pot
let it cool slightly and then pour it into the container.
But as you can see the effects isn't a smooth caramel top as it should be. Bit of caramel can still be seen.
But it tastes just as good. I recommend using a heat proof container like baking tin.
Once the pudding has set, it takes about 3 to 4 hours. Lightly tap the surface and if it is already hard, okay time to tip it over. Run a butter knife along the sides to loosen it and flip it over with a plate.
Caution! There will be sticky but good sugar running down as well.
I posted this recipe before and you can see it here. You can also see from the pictures my earlier pudding's caramel top is smooth.
Saturday 27 June 2015
Birthday Cakes!
If only the month of June was like the rest of the year...
Hah! I wish.
For this month I baked 3 birthday cakes, yep even for me that's quite a record and achievement.
I enjoyed it but wished I had more time for the Ben 10 cake. It was a rather last minute thingy... but I was told the birthday boy loved it and had a good time. He is only 7 and perhaps not quite aware of how horribly made the cake actually was!!
The first was a (another) Black Forest Cake, a birthday cake for my mum.
I made her one last year and thought that maybe this year mum wanted another cake or not at all...
She has her times when she'll just devour cake and there are times when she won't even look at one.
So another Black Forest it was and not it wasn't a surprise cake affair as we went shopping for the ingredients together! She kept saying "make it nicely" "make it properly" each time she entered the kitchen when I was baking the cake. Talk about pressure ~ but Thank God the cake came out well, in fact very well! Mum loved it so much that she ate quite a lot, more than her usual 'one small piece'.
Next was a Frozen Birthday cake for my lovely beloved niece who turned 5! Oh how time flies and she has definitely grown! The frosting was fresh cream, with a light hint of pink and edible pics of her favourite character of the Disney animation.
Yep, she enjoyed the cake I think but I believe she enjoyed eating Elsa and Anna more!!
Ben 10 was almost similar but I used green instead and M & M for deco to go with the edible hero.
Like I said, I wished I had more time and would have decorated the cake much more.
All three cakes were chocolate sponges.
Recipe as below:
Chocolate Sponge
source : I can't remember
Ingredients
5 eggs (I reduced it to 4 as I used Gred A eggs)
170g castor sugar
1 tsp heap ovalette
100g Super Fine Flour (All purpose also can but SFF is better)
1 tsp (heap) baking powder
40g / 1 1/2 Tbsp Cocoa powder
70g oil (corn or any vegetable oil also can)
Method
In a bowl using hand mixer beat eggs, sugar and ovalette until light and fluffy.
Gradually add in the flour and cocoa powder, (I did three times) and continue beating at low speed.
When just combined, drizzle in the oil, beating briefly only.
Next, using a large spatula slowly fold the mixture and carefully not to knock out the air.
Pour the batter into prepared greased and lined cake tins. For the Black Forest I used 3, 22 cm cake tins to get three layers. For the Frozen and Ben 10 I only used 2.
Bake at 160 for 15 min. or until cook. Careful not to over cook the sponges or you'll have a very dry cake.
Happy Baking.
Hah! I wish.
For this month I baked 3 birthday cakes, yep even for me that's quite a record and achievement.
I enjoyed it but wished I had more time for the Ben 10 cake. It was a rather last minute thingy... but I was told the birthday boy loved it and had a good time. He is only 7 and perhaps not quite aware of how horribly made the cake actually was!!
The first was a (another) Black Forest Cake, a birthday cake for my mum.
I made her one last year and thought that maybe this year mum wanted another cake or not at all...
She has her times when she'll just devour cake and there are times when she won't even look at one.
So another Black Forest it was and not it wasn't a surprise cake affair as we went shopping for the ingredients together! She kept saying "make it nicely" "make it properly" each time she entered the kitchen when I was baking the cake. Talk about pressure ~ but Thank God the cake came out well, in fact very well! Mum loved it so much that she ate quite a lot, more than her usual 'one small piece'.
Next was a Frozen Birthday cake for my lovely beloved niece who turned 5! Oh how time flies and she has definitely grown! The frosting was fresh cream, with a light hint of pink and edible pics of her favourite character of the Disney animation.
Yep, she enjoyed the cake I think but I believe she enjoyed eating Elsa and Anna more!!
Ben 10 was almost similar but I used green instead and M & M for deco to go with the edible hero.
Like I said, I wished I had more time and would have decorated the cake much more.
All three cakes were chocolate sponges.
Recipe as below:
Chocolate Sponge
source : I can't remember
Ingredients
5 eggs (I reduced it to 4 as I used Gred A eggs)
170g castor sugar
1 tsp heap ovalette
100g Super Fine Flour (All purpose also can but SFF is better)
1 tsp (heap) baking powder
40g / 1 1/2 Tbsp Cocoa powder
70g oil (corn or any vegetable oil also can)
Method
In a bowl using hand mixer beat eggs, sugar and ovalette until light and fluffy.
Gradually add in the flour and cocoa powder, (I did three times) and continue beating at low speed.
When just combined, drizzle in the oil, beating briefly only.
Next, using a large spatula slowly fold the mixture and carefully not to knock out the air.
Pour the batter into prepared greased and lined cake tins. For the Black Forest I used 3, 22 cm cake tins to get three layers. For the Frozen and Ben 10 I only used 2.
Bake at 160 for 15 min. or until cook. Careful not to over cook the sponges or you'll have a very dry cake.
Happy Baking.
Wednesday 6 May 2015
Doughnuts
Yes, doughnuts again!
Actually it was for my Mum, who had a craving for the sweet tea time treat.
I guess it was from watching too much Donut Showndown on Diva!
The recipe we tried before this didn't turn out to well and had too many steps.
I hate long winding recipes, so I browse the internet until I came across one that suited my
laziness!
The recipe had egg, I just only found out that! All this while the recipes I had tried and tested for doughnuts had no eggs! Tak palah, only one egg, so okaylah tu.
The best part no need for special flour, plain old tepung gandum is used.
But maybe next time I'll add a bit of vanilla essence...
So are you up for it? The original recipe required the dough to be made into small balls, and later stuffed with jam but I just cut it out with a doughnut cutter and got much more than 12.
The sugar part is a bit confusing at first but basically all the recipe needs from the stated 4 Tbsp is
1 Tbsp and 1/2 tsp only. The rest was used to roll the freshly cooked doughnuts.
Doughnuts
source: BBC Good Food
Ingredients
1 Tbsp dried yeast (I tipped the entire sachet)
4 Tbsp castor sugar
150ml warmed milk (1 min on med in the mircowave is good enough)
8 oz /225g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
50g melted butter (2 Tbsp)
1 beaten egg
Method
In a bowl mix the yeast. 1/2 tsp sugar and 2 Tbsp milk.
Let it stand for 15 minutes or until it becomes foamy.
Sieve the flour and add in 1 Tbsp sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the
yeast mixture, melted butter, rest of the milk and the egg. Mix well, you might need
a bit of flour is the dough is sticky. Knead the dough until it smooth.
Let the dough stand, covered in a warm place for 45 minutes or until double in size.
Knead again for about 5 minutes, roll the dough into small balls or use a doughnut cutter.
Place the doughnuts onto a tray and let it stand for another 30 minutes or until dough has double it size.
Heat up the oil in a frying pan or kuali or wok. Gently lift the doughnuts from the tray and drop them into the oil. Fry until golden brown. Toss the excess oil and roll the cooked doughnuts in the rest of the sugar.
All done! Makanlah!
The original recipe, after the balls has cooked, make a small slit at the side and pipe in jam.
I think rolling in sugar is easy and yummy.
Do try it, as it is worth the long wait. It helps if you are doing something else...
But don't leave the dough out too long as it will dry up.
Good Luck!
Actually it was for my Mum, who had a craving for the sweet tea time treat.
I guess it was from watching too much Donut Showndown on Diva!
The recipe we tried before this didn't turn out to well and had too many steps.
I hate long winding recipes, so I browse the internet until I came across one that suited my
laziness!
The recipe had egg, I just only found out that! All this while the recipes I had tried and tested for doughnuts had no eggs! Tak palah, only one egg, so okaylah tu.
The best part no need for special flour, plain old tepung gandum is used.
But maybe next time I'll add a bit of vanilla essence...
So are you up for it? The original recipe required the dough to be made into small balls, and later stuffed with jam but I just cut it out with a doughnut cutter and got much more than 12.
The sugar part is a bit confusing at first but basically all the recipe needs from the stated 4 Tbsp is
1 Tbsp and 1/2 tsp only. The rest was used to roll the freshly cooked doughnuts.
Doughnuts
source: BBC Good Food
Ingredients
1 Tbsp dried yeast (I tipped the entire sachet)
4 Tbsp castor sugar
150ml warmed milk (1 min on med in the mircowave is good enough)
8 oz /225g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
50g melted butter (2 Tbsp)
1 beaten egg
Method
In a bowl mix the yeast. 1/2 tsp sugar and 2 Tbsp milk.
Let it stand for 15 minutes or until it becomes foamy.
Sieve the flour and add in 1 Tbsp sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the
yeast mixture, melted butter, rest of the milk and the egg. Mix well, you might need
a bit of flour is the dough is sticky. Knead the dough until it smooth.
Let the dough stand, covered in a warm place for 45 minutes or until double in size.
Knead again for about 5 minutes, roll the dough into small balls or use a doughnut cutter.
Place the doughnuts onto a tray and let it stand for another 30 minutes or until dough has double it size.
Heat up the oil in a frying pan or kuali or wok. Gently lift the doughnuts from the tray and drop them into the oil. Fry until golden brown. Toss the excess oil and roll the cooked doughnuts in the rest of the sugar.
All done! Makanlah!
The original recipe, after the balls has cooked, make a small slit at the side and pipe in jam.
I think rolling in sugar is easy and yummy.
Do try it, as it is worth the long wait. It helps if you are doing something else...
But don't leave the dough out too long as it will dry up.
Good Luck!
Cream Puffs
Cream Puffs, or choux pastry not to be confused with the other cream puff recipe I uploaded.
The Japanese Crispy Cream Puff has an extra piping of butter cream before baking.
So there is a crispy layer or skin on the puffs when cooked.
Where else this one is soft and smooth with a fine dusting of icing sugar.
In the original recipe the puffs are dipped in melted chocolate and has orange chocolate filling.
I followed the recipe for the choux pastry. And the method is my take after several tries and errors!
Cream Puffs
source: The Australian Women Weekly Cookbooks (Chocolate Cookbook)
Choux Pastry
75g butter, chopped
1 cup water
1 cup plain flour
4 cold eggs
In a pot combine water and chopped butter. It is advisable for the butter to be of room temperature and chopped into small cubes so that it melts faster.
Once the butter is all melted, turn down the heat and add in all of the flour.
Using a wooden spoon stir vigorously until combine and the dough pulls away from the sides of the pot and forms a ball.
Turn of the heat and allow the dough to cool.
At this point some recipes say to continue beating with a hand mixer or transfer the dough to another bowl.
I just let it cool in the pot, stirring occasionally for it to cool. It takes about 20 minutes or so.
I read that real cold eggs will also help cool down the dough that's why I said cold eggs.
Don't make the mistake I made several times of adding eggs when the dough is still very warm.
You will end up with a mixture that is running and will not puff up at all.
Once the dough is reasonable cool, add the eggs one at a time and continue beating.
I use a wooden spoon but you could use a hand mixer.
Keep adding the eggs and beating until the mixture is smooth and glossy.
You can either pipe the mixture onto a greased oven tray or use tea spoon to drop the mixture onto the tray. I personally found the tea spoon way faster and easier.
Bake for 10 min on high heat and later the next 15 min lower the temperature.
Once it puffs up and is golden brown, take out and cool on cooling rack.
Once cooled, split the puff with a knife or scissors. Pipe in the custard into the puffs.
Lastly dust some icing sugar on the top.
Happy Baking.
Tuesday 5 May 2015
Busy holiday weekend
Last weekend was another of those long weekend that simply stretches!
I personally love them but at the same time it does put a dent on daily activities like paying bills, yep I still do it the old fashion way, take a number and patiently wait my turn at the post office.
And of course the normally congested road, the infamous KL traffic is even more so.
I wonder why, after all the traffic reports on the radio say that the highways are equally congested, some several kilometers long. A few years back when ever there is a public holiday or eve of such an event its practically smooth sailing in the capital.
But now it a queue here, a traffic jam there and I'm not just talking about cars. Unfortunately the population of our dear city has grown so much, mostly with foreigners. Oh well, that's another story and I don't think this is where I ought to venture.
Back to my precious cakes!
I have NOT been updating my blog! Good grief does anyone even care? LOL
I planned on adding several more recipes for my own use of course but just haven't gotten around to it.
My other project of transferring old recipes from my battered book to a brand new one pun hasn't taken off either and all the while I keep finding and trying out new recipes and simply jotting them down in another book or pieces of paper!
Yes I did start with the weekend, and I have a fabulous one. I admit it was rather hectic and stressful but I enjoyed baking and made some money too! Now who can say no to that?
We didn't go anywhere but stayed close to home, went shopping at KWC and watched some wuxia films on TV.
Alhamdullilah for the rezeki God has bestowed onto me.
Thank you very much to dear friends who ordered and still enjoyed my baking. I sincerely hoped they had a good weekend holiday as well.
Afni, ordered a moist chocolate cake, a Victoria sandwich cake and cream puffs.
She requested that both cakes were baked in squared tins.
As decoration and a different twist from the norm, I crushed Cadbury Crunchie and sprinkling it on top of the chocolate cake's melted chocolate top. I froze the chocolate bar and smashed it with my rolling pin.
A dusting of icing sugar was enough for the Victoria Sandwich Cake but I piped a few lines of butter cream across the cake and stuck some fresh strawberries.
The cream puff well, remain as they were! The creamy custard filling justified everything else.
In addition to that there was also orders for birthday cakes!
Thanks to Suzila who wanted a marble cake with butter cream icing for her dad.
Another friend also celebrated his birthday that week, Happy Birthday Koko, many happy returns for the day! I hope he enjoyed the butter cake with chocolate cream icing.
If interested, recipes for each can be found in the blog.
Happy Baking.
I personally love them but at the same time it does put a dent on daily activities like paying bills, yep I still do it the old fashion way, take a number and patiently wait my turn at the post office.
And of course the normally congested road, the infamous KL traffic is even more so.
I wonder why, after all the traffic reports on the radio say that the highways are equally congested, some several kilometers long. A few years back when ever there is a public holiday or eve of such an event its practically smooth sailing in the capital.
But now it a queue here, a traffic jam there and I'm not just talking about cars. Unfortunately the population of our dear city has grown so much, mostly with foreigners. Oh well, that's another story and I don't think this is where I ought to venture.
Back to my precious cakes!
I have NOT been updating my blog! Good grief does anyone even care? LOL
I planned on adding several more recipes for my own use of course but just haven't gotten around to it.
My other project of transferring old recipes from my battered book to a brand new one pun hasn't taken off either and all the while I keep finding and trying out new recipes and simply jotting them down in another book or pieces of paper!
Yes I did start with the weekend, and I have a fabulous one. I admit it was rather hectic and stressful but I enjoyed baking and made some money too! Now who can say no to that?
We didn't go anywhere but stayed close to home, went shopping at KWC and watched some wuxia films on TV.
Alhamdullilah for the rezeki God has bestowed onto me.
Thank you very much to dear friends who ordered and still enjoyed my baking. I sincerely hoped they had a good weekend holiday as well.
Afni, ordered a moist chocolate cake, a Victoria sandwich cake and cream puffs.
She requested that both cakes were baked in squared tins.
As decoration and a different twist from the norm, I crushed Cadbury Crunchie and sprinkling it on top of the chocolate cake's melted chocolate top. I froze the chocolate bar and smashed it with my rolling pin.
A dusting of icing sugar was enough for the Victoria Sandwich Cake but I piped a few lines of butter cream across the cake and stuck some fresh strawberries.
The cream puff well, remain as they were! The creamy custard filling justified everything else.
In addition to that there was also orders for birthday cakes!
Thanks to Suzila who wanted a marble cake with butter cream icing for her dad.
Another friend also celebrated his birthday that week, Happy Birthday Koko, many happy returns for the day! I hope he enjoyed the butter cake with chocolate cream icing.
If interested, recipes for each can be found in the blog.
Happy Baking.
Thursday 12 March 2015
Birthday Cake
Marble Cake Birthday Cake, with Butter Cream.
Red Velvet Birthday Cake with Cream Cheese Icing.
Granola oh granola
Granola, hmm... I had them before.
I liked them but they were too expensive.
I switched to cereals and oats. But oats, as porridge after a while feels yucky and tasteless even with all the delicious toppings.
In fact I haven't had any for a long time, I often looked for the dried fruits under all that oats.
Then just the other night, I was watching a cooking programme on AFC, Urban Cook. An Indonesian cooking show actually and was fascinated by the way the show was done, quite different from our boring ones with a nosy, bored, uninterested 'host' and a over hyper chef...
What got my attention the most was how easy granola was prepared. Btw in that episode, he made granola bars, I didn't fancy egg whites in my granola even if it was baked...
So I surfed the net and searched for various recipes for granola.
I found some that were interesting but some didn't quite suited my taste buds or had too many steps.
Lastly I opted for an easy on on BBC Good Food.
I must say that I made it in the middle of the night, with ingredients that were in the fridge! So I left out a few things... but it was received very well by the masses and my next batch I'll try to stay true to the recipe.
As for the brown sugar bit, leave it out if you want. I just wanted the lovely taste and smell of caramel on the granola.
Since my mum loves raisins, I added a little bit more of dried fruits than required.
Here is the recipe, if you are interested. Like I said, I made some subtle changes, I believe that it should be suited to our individual taste and wallets.
Crunchy Granola with Berries and Cherries
source: BBC Good Food.
Ingredients
175g mixed nuts (I only had walnuts at that time)
450g oats (they didn't say rolled or instant but I used the instant one)
50g sesame seed
50g sunflower seed
100ml runny honey (I just scooped out the one in the small plastic bucket)
125ml sunflower oil (Any vegetable one will do)
80g dried berries and cherries (I used dried cranberries, raisins and apricots)
1 tsp salt (optional)
2 Tbsp brown sugar (I added this)
Method
Set the oven at 180C
Roughly chop all nuts and berries into at least bite size pieces.
In a bowl, combine all the oats, nuts, seeds and oats.
Pour in the honey and oil into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix well.
Tip the contents onto a baking tray and gently pat to even the mixture.
This is so it cooks evenly.
Lastly sprinkle the brown sugar over the oat mixture.
Bake for 25 to 30 min, until golden brown.
Keep stirring it, at least twice at intervals.
Keep checking because the oats burn easily.
Once golden brown, take out of the oven and cool.
When cooled, toss in the dried fruits or berries and mix well with the granola.
Now it is ready and can be stored in an air tight container.
Eat with milk, yogurt even ice cream is good or just on its own.
Drink lots of water.
Happy Baking.
I liked them but they were too expensive.
I switched to cereals and oats. But oats, as porridge after a while feels yucky and tasteless even with all the delicious toppings.
In fact I haven't had any for a long time, I often looked for the dried fruits under all that oats.
Then just the other night, I was watching a cooking programme on AFC, Urban Cook. An Indonesian cooking show actually and was fascinated by the way the show was done, quite different from our boring ones with a nosy, bored, uninterested 'host' and a over hyper chef...
What got my attention the most was how easy granola was prepared. Btw in that episode, he made granola bars, I didn't fancy egg whites in my granola even if it was baked...
So I surfed the net and searched for various recipes for granola.
I found some that were interesting but some didn't quite suited my taste buds or had too many steps.
Lastly I opted for an easy on on BBC Good Food.
I must say that I made it in the middle of the night, with ingredients that were in the fridge! So I left out a few things... but it was received very well by the masses and my next batch I'll try to stay true to the recipe.
As for the brown sugar bit, leave it out if you want. I just wanted the lovely taste and smell of caramel on the granola.
Since my mum loves raisins, I added a little bit more of dried fruits than required.
Here is the recipe, if you are interested. Like I said, I made some subtle changes, I believe that it should be suited to our individual taste and wallets.
Crunchy Granola with Berries and Cherries
source: BBC Good Food.
Ingredients
175g mixed nuts (I only had walnuts at that time)
450g oats (they didn't say rolled or instant but I used the instant one)
50g sesame seed
50g sunflower seed
100ml runny honey (I just scooped out the one in the small plastic bucket)
125ml sunflower oil (Any vegetable one will do)
80g dried berries and cherries (I used dried cranberries, raisins and apricots)
1 tsp salt (optional)
2 Tbsp brown sugar (I added this)
Method
Set the oven at 180C
Roughly chop all nuts and berries into at least bite size pieces.
In a bowl, combine all the oats, nuts, seeds and oats.
Pour in the honey and oil into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix well.
Tip the contents onto a baking tray and gently pat to even the mixture.
This is so it cooks evenly.
Lastly sprinkle the brown sugar over the oat mixture.
Bake for 25 to 30 min, until golden brown.
Keep stirring it, at least twice at intervals.
Keep checking because the oats burn easily.
Once golden brown, take out of the oven and cool.
When cooled, toss in the dried fruits or berries and mix well with the granola.
Now it is ready and can be stored in an air tight container.
Eat with milk, yogurt even ice cream is good or just on its own.
Drink lots of water.
Happy Baking.
Wednesday 11 February 2015
Marble Cake - Again!
A friend's birthday was last week, but didn't have time to make a cake on that special day.
So instead I made one a belated one.
I baked marble cake, and used butter cream for the topping.
Marble Butter Cake
source: QL Kitchen
Ingredient
225g butter
225g sugar
225g self raising flour
4 eggs
6 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
Method
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add in vanilla and the eggs one at a time, beat well.
Alternate 3 Tbsp milk and flour into the mixture.
Divide the batter into 2.
Leave one plain while the other add the cocoa powder and 3 Tbsp of milk.
Mix well to combine.
In a lined and greased cake tin or loaf pan, spoon in the mixture accordingly,
you can either put four small dollop of batter in the tin or
layer it, two spoon full of each batter at a time.
Either way the cake looks good.
Use a bamboo skewer and zig zag a pattern before baking.
Bake at 180 C for 1 hour.
Once cake is cool, you can either leave it as it is or spread the icing.
Butter cream icing.
Ingredients
125g butter
70g shortening
80g icing sugar
2 Tbsp of condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla.
Food colouring.
In a clean bowl, cream the butter and shortening until turns light and fluffy.
Add the vanilla.
In two batches, add the icing sugar into the butter mixture.
Once well mix, add the remaining icing sugar, continue beating,
The mixture is smooth and spreadable.
Spread onto cake and decorate as you like.
Happy Baking.
So instead I made one a belated one.
I baked marble cake, and used butter cream for the topping.
Marble Butter Cake
source: QL Kitchen
Ingredient
225g butter
225g sugar
225g self raising flour
4 eggs
6 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
Method
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add in vanilla and the eggs one at a time, beat well.
Alternate 3 Tbsp milk and flour into the mixture.
Divide the batter into 2.
Leave one plain while the other add the cocoa powder and 3 Tbsp of milk.
Mix well to combine.
In a lined and greased cake tin or loaf pan, spoon in the mixture accordingly,
you can either put four small dollop of batter in the tin or
layer it, two spoon full of each batter at a time.
Either way the cake looks good.
Use a bamboo skewer and zig zag a pattern before baking.
Bake at 180 C for 1 hour.
Once cake is cool, you can either leave it as it is or spread the icing.
Butter cream icing.
Ingredients
125g butter
70g shortening
80g icing sugar
2 Tbsp of condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla.
Food colouring.
In a clean bowl, cream the butter and shortening until turns light and fluffy.
Add the vanilla.
In two batches, add the icing sugar into the butter mixture.
Once well mix, add the remaining icing sugar, continue beating,
The mixture is smooth and spreadable.
Spread onto cake and decorate as you like.
Happy Baking.
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