Marble Cake

When i saw the marble cake baked by Baking Mum yesterday, i saved it under my *must try* receipe. However, when i woke up this morning, i thought maybe i should do it today since i've got a can of evaporated milk which can't be kept for too long. I woke up at 8am, play with my little baby and by 9.30am the cake is ready to be baked.

Ingredients/ Method:
250g butter
200g caster sugar
6 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
270g self-raising flour
30g cocoa powder
1/2 to 3/4 cup evaporated milk

1. Preheat oven at 160 deg C.
2. Beat butter and sugar until white and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time and mix well.. Then add in vanilla essence and evaporated milk and mix well.
3. Separate butter mixture into 2 portion. Fold in sifted flour into 1 portion of butter mixture and mix well. Pour mixture into lined cake tin.
4. Mix sifted cocoa powder into the other portion of butter mixture. Pour into flour-butter mixture and create marble effects by applying few strokes using knife.
5. Bake at 160 deg C for 1 hour. Cake is ready when skewer inserted come out clean.
6. Cool on wire rack.

A Sweet Beginning

When my mum was around, she will always prepare a sweet dessert on the first day of lunar new year, and we must have it first thing in the morning. She said it signifies sweet beginning and thus everything will be very smooth-sailing for that year. This is one of the traditions that i will follow through.

Ingredients/ Method:

1 cup dried longan
1 cup dried red dates
1/2 cup winter melon
mandarin orange peel
water chestnut (left-over from ngoh hiang)
rock sugar
12500ml water

1. Cut the mandarin orange peel into very small pieces. Do not add too much as it will cause the dessert to be bitter.
2. Put everything into slow cooker and boil overnight.

A very happy lunar new year to all, and here's my treat of sweet dessert to you! May the year be as sweet and smooth-sailing as ever ;-)

My other CNY bakes

This is the first year that i made so many new year goodies, and also doing a new batch of pineapple tarts using the original recipe. Plus i also did ngoh hiang and huat kueh, both my mum's specialty and favourite.

My favourite pineapple tarts!

Almond cookies

Peanut cookies n Almond Milk cookies


Soft & fluffy Huat Kueh - my mum's favourite!

Huat Kueh

Ingredients/ Method:

500g gula melaka

500g coconut milk

500g self-raising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1. Cook gula melaka with about 150ml water until dissolve. Leave to cool before use.

2. Mix cooled gula melaka with coconut milk. Add in about 200ml water, and mix evenly.

3. Add in flour, baking powder and baking soda into gula melaka mixture, till well mixed. Mixture should look gluey.

4. Prepare steamer.

5. I use tart mould for my huat kueh. Pour mixture into tart mould lined with paper cup. For small huat kueh, steam for 15 mins. For medium size huat kueh, steam for 20 mins.

Ngoh Hiang - an inch away from my mum's standard

Ngoh Hiang

Ingredients/ Method:

1.5kg pork (五花肉)

375g fish meat

250g water chestnut

6 medium-sized mushroom

300g prawns

4 tbsp corn flour

12 pcs cream cracker

3 tbsp light soya sauce

2 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp five spice powder

pepper - to taste

few stalks of spring onion & chinese parsley

1 pcs beancurd sheet

1. Peel and chop water chestnut into small cubes.

2. Soak mushroom in hotwater for 20 mins. Remove the stalk. Cut the mushroom into small cubes.

3. Devine the prawns and chop the prawns into very small pieces.

4. Pound the cream cracker until powder form.

5. Cut spring onion and chinese parsley into small pieces.

6. Add all ingredients evenly and mixture ready to be rolled onto beancurd sheet. Amount of meat depends on your own preference.

7. Steam the rolled ngoh hiang for 10-15 mins. Cooled before frying, and ready to be served.

Note:

Steamed ngoh hiang can be stored in freezer for 1 month before consumption.

Pineapple Tarts (part 2)

Wishing everyone a Happy, Prosperous, Healthy Year of Ox, and many succesful and delicious baking!

牛年快乐

笑口常開

年年有余

Ingredients/ Method:-

Dough
750g butter
525 Hong Kong flour
525g plain flour
1 tsp butter milk essence
100g milk powder
20g custard powder
120g soft brown sugar
4 1/2 egg yolk (about 81 g)
1 1/2 egg white (abt 53.5g)
1/2 tsp salt


1. Beat all ingredients, except Hong Kong flour and plain flour, till pale white.
2. Add flour and mix evenly. Do not over-mixed.
3. Keep in fridge for 30 mins before use.


Filling

10 half-ripe pineapple
750g brown sugar
1/2tsp cinnamon powder (optional)


1. Grate the pineapples and drained the juice.
2. Cook the grated pineapples in a pot over medium heat. After about 5 mins add in the sugar and continue cooking until the pineapples are dry. (Takes about 2 hours)
3. Leave to cool before use.


- Egg washed pineapple tart.
- Bake tarts on greased tray at 175 deg C for 25 mins.


Note:
a. The original recipe uses white sugar for cooking pineapple and no cinnamon added, which i followed the previous year i made these tarts. I will stick to the original recipe.

b. To have melt-in-your-mouth texture, avoid over-mixing the dough.
c. I made my tarts in 2 sizes - 12g dough and 10g pineapple filling, and 6g dough and 5g pineapple filling.
d. To test whether pineapple fillings is cooked, it should stick to the wooden spatula that need to be shaken off.
e. The above recipe yield 88 big tarts, and 167 small tarts, with some pineapple fillings left-over.

f. Use good quality butter.

Pineapple tarts

The equation of pineapple tarts: -

+ 2 hours of grating

=

+ 2 hours of cooking pineapple pulps

=

+

+ plain flour + HK flour + custard powder + salt

+ 5 1/2 hours of dough playing + baking

=

20 big pineapple tarts + 167 small pineapple tarts

=

Yummy + Satisfaction!

Another round of baking frenzy this weekend to finish the remaining pineapple filling and dough, and trying out some other new year goodies recipes. Stay tuned!

Hazelnut Cream Chocolate Cake & Blueberry Cheese Square

In the recent family parties, i've been tasked to prepare cake as they all know that i love to bake. This give me every opportunity to try out recipes, and let my family members be my guinea pigs. Sometimes, i really feel 'sorry' for them, cos most of my bakes are of average & edible standands only. Hopefully in this year 2009, i can dish out better bakes for my 'ardent supporters'....hahahah.

On the first weekend of 2009, we had another family party; this time to celebrate my aunt stephanie's and my aunt wendy's mother-in-law's birthday. For our family, we don't have very elaborate parties, just simple family gathering over a meal and sitting around in the house. However, it's not an easy feat, cos this usual gathering means preparing for at least 30 people or more. I'm thankful that i've a family of great parents, siblings, aunties and uncles, grand-dad, cousins, etc.

For this celebration, I've did a cake using the same recipe as my xmas logcake, and dessert being blueberry cheese square which i previously prepared as an 8-inch cake. Since i did not put up the recipe for my xmas logcake earlier, i shall do it in this post. It was actually one of those recipes that got many thumbs-up for those who have tried it - Steamed Chocolate Cake. Verdict: Easy, delicious, and keeper.

Ingredients/ Method:

Steamed Chocolate Cake

185g butter

250g fine sugar

200ml evaporated milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

125g all-purpose flour (plain flour)

70g cocoa powder

1/2tsp baking powder

1/2tsp baking soda

1/2tsp vanilla essence

1. Combine sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla essences and butter in a saucepan.

2. Stir over low heat until sugar dissoclved and butter melted. Remove from heat.

3. Add the beaten eggs into the slightly cooled mixture and stir till well mixed.

4. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda.

5. Add egg mixture over the flour and stir till well mixed.

6. Heat up the steamer.

7. Pour mixture into lined 8' cake tin and put into steamer. Put a piece of aluminium foil loosely over the cake tin.

8. Steamed for 45mins to 1 hour over medium heat.

9. Cool cake in pan before turning out for further decoration.

Hazelnut Cream

1 cup whipping cream

4 tbsp nutella

1. Mix nutella into whipped cream.

2. Decorate cake as desired.

A brand new year.....

The year 2008 is a year which i wish i can skip, and erase everything that has happened, including the creation of my blog. Obviously, no one can change a single thing that god has planned, and anything that has occurred, even if it happened a second ago. Hopefully, all the bad vibes in year 2008 are gone and away with the close of the year, and to welcome all the good things that await me in year 2009 and the many years to come. Count my blessings ;-)

Back to baking, i started the year with a traditional 雞蛋糕 which is meant for my grandfather's birthday. He has self-declared 1 Jan as his birthday since there isn't any record of his actual birth-date. He is 85 years old this year, and is always very encouraging in the food that i cooked or prepared. The only thing that he doesn't eat is chocolate, which he says got a 'bitter taste'.

This 雞蛋糕 is 100% preservative-free. The red 福 is used to disguise the ugly-looking top, which firstly didn't rise like it should be, and the top was 'trimmed' as it got damp when water drop onto the cake during the steaming process. Nevertheless, it still taste 'traditionally' good. There is a more traditional way of making 雞蛋糕 which i will elaborate the next time i attempt to make a (hopefully) more successful and better-looking cake.

Meanwhile, if anybody wishes to try it out, this is the recipe. You can consider adding 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp baking powder to the plain flour.

Ingredients/ Method:

300g plain flour
300g sugar
6 eggs

1. Sift the flour and set aside. Prepare wok for steaming.
2. Beat the eggs till pale white and slowly add in sugar. Continue to beat the egg mixture till ribbon-stage.
3. Fold in the flour to the egg mixture gently.
4. Pour batter into cake tin or basket lined with 'glass paper' 玻璃紙. Steam for 45 mins to 1 hour. Check for doneness when skewer inserted into centre of cake comes out clean.

(** Tried another version of steamed cake which yields better result)