Butterfly cupcakes & Little nutella-filled cakes

Most of the Saturday morning, I would laze longer in bed with my little baby actively awake and playing on his own with his toys. Seeing that I'm still sleeping, he would either climb over my body umpteen times, or pestering me to read a book to him, or just to wake up and play with him. This morning is not unusual, except that I took out the recipe book which i have left at my bedside table few days ago, and flipped through the pages with my little baby. Am I inspiring him to be a baker or chef? Nothing of the sort, though I will not object if he chose this path... then i can be celebrity baker/chef's mommy ;-)

The cute butterfly cupcakes caught my eyes. My little baby likes it too! After I told him that I'm going to bake it for him, he can't stop asking me for it and I've to explain to him that I can only do it in the afternoon. Okay, he got distracted for a while and start asking again. Finally got him to take his afternoon nap, and have time to start preparing to bake the cupcakes. The recipe is easy but before I could finish baking, my little baby woke up and started asking for butterfly cupcake again. He got impatient and asked me to seat him in the baby chair; that's his usual tea-time place. I've to rush through decorating one cupcake and immediately give it to him. He's that demanding! The only rewarding remark given by little baby on the cupcake is "very nice", and makes all efforts worthwhile! He had 2 butterfly cuppies ;-) I like the cupcake texture too, soft and smooth, when fresh out of the oven!

Butterfly Cupcakes
(Recipe adapted from Baking a Commonsense Guide)

Ingredients/ Method:
120g unsalted butter, softened
120g caster sugar (original recipe use 180g)
185g self-raising flour
125ml milk
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla essence (original recipe did not add this)

1/4cup whipping cream. whipped
some strawberry jam
icing sugar, to dust

1) Preheat oven to 180 deg C.
2) Beat egg, sugar, milk, butter and vanilla essence with electric beater. Add in flour and beat till mixture is smooth and pale.
3) Pour mixture into lined baking cups, 2/3 filled.
4) Bake for 30 mins. Transfer to wire rack to cool.
5) Cut shallow rounds from the centre of each cake using point of a sharp knife.
6) Spoon 2 tsp whipped cream into each cavity, top with some strawberry jam and position 2 halves of cake tops in the jam to resemble butterfly wings. Dust with icing sugar.

I used half of the above recipe to bake Little nutella-filled cakes. Pour batter into lined baking cups, 1/3 filled. Top with 1tsp nutella and cover with batter upto 2/3 of baking cup. I've greedily add too much nutella and T says it overwhelmed the cake.

Added lemon juice and zest to left-over whipped cream

to decorate the little nutella-filled cakes

咕嚕肉

My poor baby is suddenly down with lung infection on Saturday and although he's still as active as ever, we have to constantly monitor his temperature doesn't shoot up and that his breathing is okay. Actually we were negligent in picking up from his constant coughs and runny nose for the past weeks, and had administered the usual cough and flu medication. T & me each took a day off this week to take care of little baby, and luckily everything went well and his condition seems to be stable so far.

My aunt ivy is very kind enough to prepare lunch (and our everyday dinner) especially knowing that little baby requires a very strict diet during this period. Her house is a 15 mins walk from where we stay. The route to my aunt's house used to be very unpleasant as it's extremely hot and seems never-ending. But since about 2 years ago, there are very nice trees, plants and flowers planted along the route, and these provided good shades and nice scenery. Whilst walking today, we discovered mimosa (touch-me-not) and this got my little baby fascinated and it was fun playing with it for a good 5-10mins. Although little baby still can't remember 'mimosa', he can tell his daddy 'touch leaf and close', which is good enough for his age ;-p

Since there are some time to spare this afternoon, i asked my aunt whether i can cook 咕嚕肉 for dinner. This is one of my favourite dishes. I remembered my mum learnt this dish from the community centre when i was in primary 3 0r 4, and thereafter she cooked it so often knowing that we all like it very much! Although i was her kitchen little helper then, i didn't master her skills in cooking. Here's how my 咕嚕肉 fare:-

Marbled cream cheese brownie

Overall the weekend, i finally managed to find some time to bake something. When breaking the eggs, I was caught by surprise and got excited by the sight of..... a twins! Then i realised that Mrs. Kwok have got twins on the same day...so much of a coincidence! Actually I don't mind to have a real twins (real baby), and so does Mrs. Kwok!

I thought the rare sight of twin egg would mean a smooth and successful baking, but it was not meant to be. I had so many blunders, even though the recipe seemed so easy, that I almost gave up half-way. As expected, my marbled cream cheese brownie didn't look appetising, and in fact does not really look like a brownie, unlike the one did by smallsmallbaker. The only thing is that it tasted good, though not the usual creamy & fudgey texture we used to eat for our brownie.

Hazelnut cocoa bread

These days I've not been using the oven that often, partly due to my rather busy schedule, which gets me tired easily (or age catching up), my boy is seeking more attention from me and i tuck him to bed every night (and sometimes fell asleep before he does), I've got the BM which satisfy my baking-crave, or am i getting lazy? Actually, there's couple of recipes which i'm dying to try out, and ingredients have been bought, but things are not moving. I envy other bloggers who seem to be baking or cooking something almost every other day.

After the successful Crunchy Peanut Butter Loaf, I wanted to do the same recipe again, but thought of modifying the recipe to see how it will develop. I'm one person who's not systematic and do not like the 'same old thing', and my baking follows this trait. I've been toying the idea of replacing the peanut butter with nutella for the last couple of days, and did it yesterday. Unfortunately, the aroma and taste of nutella is not distinct, in fact not evident at all, in the loaf. Nevertheless, the bread is still soft, so soft that it made slicing them so difficult. It looks like those bread you see at coffee-shop, and may taste good toasted and spread with kaya and thick-sliced butter.

We had the bread this morning for our breakfast. And everyone of us have our 'preferred' spread. Little baby has strawberry jam, daddy has nutella, mummy has peanut butter.

The cheese slice is for little baby's growing needs and calcium intake, and shared with mummy.

Hazelnut Cocoa Bread

Ingredients/ Method
300ml water (i use 2/3 fresh milk, 1/3 water)
3 tbsp nutella
1 tbsp oil
450g bread flour
1 1/2tsp salt
2 tsp caster sugar
2 tbsp milk powder
1 1/4tsp instant yeast

1. Pour water into BM. Add in nutella, oil and half the flour.
2. Sprinkle salt, sugar and milk powder. Cover with remaining flour. Lastly make an indent on the flour and add in the yeast.
3. Set the BM at Basic mode, Light crust and 900g size.
4. I turn off the BM 7 mins before the pre-set time.

Qingming Festival (清明节)

Yesterday was the actual day of Qing Ming (清明节), the time where we pay our respect to our loved ones who have gone to a better place before us. It is also called tomb-sweeping (掃墓), but these days because of land scarcity, these tomb or graves are mostly shifted to columbarium.

On all occasions, I love to prepare food that my mum liked to eat. Since I didnt take leave this time round, I can only prepare things that are simple and do not require alot of cooking time. Not elaborate, but good ol' stuff, i hope. Old-style 鸡蛋糕 and fried bee hoon with canned pig trotters, plus grilled drumstick. We used to have the fried bee hoon ever so often as supper whenever we played mahjong on Saturday nights, thus this dish always bring back many good (and tasty) memories. Although fried bee hoon seems easy enough, i'm not really good at cooking it. The bee hoon turned out 'brittle', which i think is due to too much frying or too much water, must remember these 2 points the next time i cook this dish again.

Old-style 鸡蛋糕

Ingredients/ Method
3 large eggs
300gm plain flour
300gm sugar (will reduce to 200gm the next time)
170ml F&N orange juice

1. Sift plain flour and set aside.
2. Beat eggs and sugar until mixture turns pale and thick, about 20-25 mins using the mixer.
3. Fold in flour into egg mixture gently, until well mixed.
4. Pour in orange juice into the mixture and stir in one direction gently, and until well mixed.
5. Pour mixture into prepared cane basket with plastic suitable for steaming. Steam on high heat for 1 hour.

*To have your cake smile at you, sprinkle sugar across the mixture before putting into the steamer.

* This 鸡蛋糕 tasted better than my earlier one. The aerated orange juice acts as an rising agent, as people in the old days hardly use commercial stuff like baking powder or soda.

Since we were going out early in the morning, I baked a loaf of Crunchy Peanut Butter bread and packed this as cheese sandwiches, just in case my little one gets hungry before the prayers end. This bread turned out really soft and fragant, and by far the best loaf the breadmaker has churned out. I would definitely baked this again!






Crunchy Peanut Butter Bread
(Recipe adapted from Happy Homebaker)
Ingredients/ Method
300ml water
3 tbsp crunchy peanut butter
1 tbsp oil
450g bread flour
1 1/2tsp salt
2 tsp caster sugar
2 tbsp milk powder
1 1/4tsp instant yeast

1. Pour water into BM. Add in peanut butter, oil and half the flour.
2. Sprinkle salt, sugar and milk powder. Cover with remaining flour. Lastly make an indent on the flour and add in the yeast.
3. Set the BM at Basic mode, Light crust and 900g size.
4. I turn off the BM 10mins before the pre-set time.

It's going to be bread again....

After I got the breadmaker, making bread is like a breeze. No hassle, just simple measurements, and we get fresh bread without any addictives anytime we want. It's good that there are many tried and tested recipes as well baking tips around, and the only problem is choosing which recipe to use.

This is my fourth loaf of bread, the third being a raisin loaf following a recipe which churn out bread that need strong jaws to chew. It might not be the recipe's fault as i accidentally re-start the BM mid-way through the process, and not knowing what to do, i just let the BM did all the work all over again. The raisin loaf was supposed to be our little treat to bring to the zoo on sunday, and also to pass some over to my aunt cat to try out. Since the loaf didn't work out, we discarded it, very wasted but no choice *sigh*

I rely alot (actually solely) on HHB's advices on making bread using BM so far, though she did prompt me to get some books from the library. I may do it after I finish digesting her blog on bread, which seems like an encyclopedia! (Note: The raisin loaf is definitely not using HHB's recipe.)

Back to my fourth loaf, i tried Milk Loaf and the result is satisfying, but not as soft and fluffy as can be seen in HHB's blog. The crust is slightly thick and too brown, which I understood is the characteristic of a BM. Read somewhere that we can reduce the baking time to achieve not-so-thick and over-browned crust. I tried stopping the machine 5 mins before the complete cycle, but I think stopping the BM 10mins earlier might achieve better result. This morning, we had the bread spread with margarine and sprinkled with some sugar, the taste of bread is really nice!

Ingredients/ Method

143g fresh milk

35g egg

25g caster sugar

5g salt

250g bread flour

4g instant yeast

38g unsalted butter

1. Add milk, egg, caster sugar, salt, bread flour to the breadmaker. Create an indent in the flour, and add in the yeast.

2. Switch to Dough mode and let it knead for 20 mins. At the 8-10th mins, add in butter.

3. After the kneading, set the BM to Sweet mode and let it run the complete cycle. Stop the BM 5-10mins before the pre-set time.

French Toast

a special heart-shaped french toast for little zak

I baked my 2nd loaf of hokkaido milky bread on Thursday night, and since I didn't leave the loaf in the breadmaker overnight, the skin is not as hard as the 1st one. The texture of bread is also softer and much nicer this time. Anyway, I've some left-over bread today, and i woke up early to make simple and easy french toast for our breakfast, just in time before T leaves for work. Me and little baby had our warm and fresh french toast with a cup of Milo. Simple luxury ;-)




Ingredients/ Method
6 slices of bread, sides cut off
3 eggs (small sized)
1/2 tsp sugar (not sweet enough, can increase to 1/2 tbsp)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup fresh milk
butter

1. Beat eggs, and add milk, sugar, salt. Mix well.
2. Oil frying pan with butter.
3. Coat bread in egg mixture, and transfer to pan. Pan-fried on medium heat until golden brown.

Finally, there's bread

So far, I've tried several times in making bread by hand, and whenever I see a recipe easy enough, I would try it out, but these have never been successful or edible. Since T got me a mixer for my birthday gift, I was contemplating whether should I get a breadmaker as a gift for myself. Was looking around and searching the internet for a reasonably-priced one, and just then I got a sms in the morning a week before my bday. My aunty cat smsed me to look around for clues on my bday gift. As I was busy at the office that day, i wasn't about to go and find. Checked my office emails and saw a notification from blogger "Candy Sweet said you will soon get a breadmaker... stay tuned." I knew she must be the one! She's called Candy gu-gu for a reason, there's always sweets for the children whenever she's around. She does that when i was a little girl, and now she's doing the same to my little baby. As a little girl together with my other siblings, she will hand-made "ti-kum" with sweets, crackers etc as prizes. Presents were always sweets, chocolate, crackers stacked and shaped into either house or ship or whatever. These would make us very very happy and excited. Those were the good ol' days!

Painstakingly, my aunt searched and searched and found the brand of breadmaker used by Happy Homebaker, and got the same model for me! She's really thoughtful in alot of things to the extent that some time, i admire her.

The first bread I wanted to make using the breadmaker is of course the very popular Hokkaido Milky Loaf did by HHB. The smell of freshly baked bread made me happy and seeing a nice brown loaf in the breadmaker got me excited 100times (exaggerated!) Now I can try out other interesting bread recipes from HHB. Hopefully and wishfully no more failed breads!

Ingredients/ Method
270g bread flour
30g cake flour
5g dry active yeast
15g milk powder
40g sugar
4.5g salt
1/2 egg
125g fresh milk
75g whipping cream (heavy cream)

1. Put fresh milk, egg, whipping cream, salt, sugar, milk powder, flour into the bread pan in the sequence of order. Lastly, make a dent in the flour and add in the yeast.
2. Set at 700g loaf size, choose light crust colour, program sweet.
3. The breadmaker does all the rest of the job! Amazing ;-)

Happy birthday to me

Yesterday was my bday and it is exceptionally tiring, and with a couple of new experiences, i truly enjoy my DAY!

1. Together with my boy, we went to Sugei Buloh Wetland Reserve. We tried the shortest route, which is the Mangrove track and mid-way, we stopped at one of the little huts, and he had his lunch whilst enjoying the sight of greeneries, insects, mudskipper, and sound of insects & birds singing. It's good to find such a 'ulu' place in bustling S'pore.

2. After the trip, we waited for the bus at the scheduled time. But somehow, the bus didn't turn up, and we were 'stranded' for almost an hour, and the sky has turned from bright and sunny to dark and gloomy. Just then, a lorry passed by, and the kind-hearted driver offered to bring us out of the 'ulu' place. Our very first hitch-hiking experience. However, I was 'reprimanded' by T for not thinking of our own safety!

3. Nothing usual is my baking, but i tried a new recipe, used my new mixer, baked in new baking tin, decorate in a new way! I was pretty excited when i tried my hand on the new mixer, and i think it really performs better than my old mixer. I made myself a cake in flower pot, i got this idea when i was surfing the net and the cake recipe was using Passion fruit yogurt pound cake from Honey Bee Sweets. It leaves a good after-taste and makes me crave for a second helping, and texture is smooth.

4. Surprisingly, my little baby sang 'Happy Birthday' to me whilst i was half-way baking! I gladly said thank you to him ;-)

5. I usually don't eat crab, but we went for crab dinner as my bday treat from my brother . We ordered the crab bee-hoon and 金沙螃蟹, they are superbly delicious! Of course, our cholesterol level is up by a few notches...kekeke

Passion Fruit Yogurt Pound Cake
Ingredients/ Method
150g plain flour
140g caster sugar (original uses 160g)
110g unsalted butter
2 eggs
70g plain yogurt
4 tbsp passionfruit juice (i used 3 passion fruit)
1/2tsp baking powder (original uses 1 1/2tsp, when i baked it, the quantity was missed out)
pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven at 180 deg C. Lined and greased cake tin.
2. Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, till well-mixed.
4. Add in yogurt till well mixed. Add in fruit juice and mix well.
5. Add in sifted flour, baking powder and salt, and mix well. Do not overbeat.
6. Bake for 40-45mins.

For anyone who wants to try their hand on flower pot cake, the decoration is easy, use crused oreo biscuits for the 'soil', and 'plant' the flower using satay stick.


Happy birthday to me!

Cooling, detox & cleanse

My little baby missed school on Friday again! Not after 2 letters from the school to inform us of few children in their centre was down with HFMD. Although it should be safe to send him to school as several precautions were taken, we are hesitant to do so, better to err on the safe side right? One of my aunties is a childcare centre teacher, and we consulted her with our 'concerns'. Similarly to alot of other common diseases like chicken pox, my little baby is likely to be carrying the HFMD bug by now, which deem him to be a HFMD-carrier. It is now upto his immune system to fight back the bug. To minimise the chance of getting HFMD is to cool, detox and cleanse his system, as we were told.

Something very simple and cheap.... grean bean cooked with black sugar. Just wash the green beans, put in a pot with water and let it boil for 5 to 8 mins. Add in black sugar to taste and it is ready to be served.