4 24 28 29 35 42 34

The set of numbers are definitely not my vital statistics or codes to my safe box; it's the winning numbers of yesterday's Toto $6 million draw. Although i did not buy any Toto tickets for yesterday's draw, I prepared some 'huat kueh' (發糕) especially for my Wendy's mil and relatives for them to "FATT FATT" (發發). Not too sure whether any of them is a overnight millionaires? If not, we still have the Hong Bao Draw on 26 Feb 2010 ;-) Good luck everyone!

The 'huat kuehs' are nicely packed and given as a gift to my Wendy's mil! We went to their house on the 2nd day of CNY, and as usual, we enjoyed the sumptuous dinner prepared by her .

These lovely sweet hearts paper cases is one of my favourites and i had used them for my mini 'huat kuehs'.

To good health and wealth in 2010!

大年初一 (Lunar New Year)

Before the first day of lunar new year ends, I would like to wish all of you ....

花開富貴

旺旺來

春風得意

金銀財寶享不完

八星報喜, 喜臨門

甜甜蜜蜜

(My boy requested me to take picture of the cream crackers

& his hand together with the dessert ;-p)

Walnut snowballs

My production for CNY is running very low, it seem that energy has been sapped. Nevertheless, other than pineapple nastar tarts, i managed to bake some walnut snowballs. Actually, I have plans to bake so many cookies (at least 4 or 5 types), and tagged all my recipe books, but in end I only managed to bake 2. With CNY approaching in 3 days' time, I won't have any time to do any more baking.

So for now, here's Walnut snowballs to share with all my friends here. These little snowballs are very fragile, and it has the melt-in-your-mouth texture. I believe it will taste as good with other condiments like almonds or peanuts.

Fresh walnuts are easily available these days

Ingredients/ Method:

(Yields about 120 little snowballs)

(A)
227g butter
35g icing sugar
1 egg yolk

(B)
1 tbsp rum
1/2 tsp vanilla essence (optional)

(C)
350g plain flour, sieved
1/2 tsp baking powder
60g walnuts, chopped coarsely

(D)
icing sugar for dusting

1) Cream ingredients (A) until combined. Add in ingredient (B), beat until blended.
2) Fold in ingredient (C), mix to form a soft dough. Scale at 6gm each portion and shape into rounds.
3) Arrange balls on lined baking tray.
4) Bake in pre-heated oven at 150 deg C for 25 to 30 mins.
5) Cool cookies slightly, dust top with icing sugar.
6) Store in airtight jars.

Customised Hello Kitty stickers are so cute!!

Now, these "limited edition" cookies are packed and ready to be given to my family & relatives. Hopefully I can bake more next year in order to give to each and everyone of them ;-)

祝: 虎年行好運, 虎虎身威.

Catching up

..... with CNY baking. I know I've been slacked with blogging and baking for at least 3 weeks. This blog would probably be neglected for even longer period, but because I really like baking my own pineapple tarts that pushed me to start preparing the pineapple paste last week. The usual shredding, cooking, and rolling them into little balls.

Unlike years of making all covered up, i wanted to 'expose' them!! Open tart or nastar? A very ignorant me, I thought the nastar was using a knife to cut the pastry across many times. I tried that before and of course, the outcome was disastrous! Until recently i saw a post from Quinn that i realised that there is actually a tool to make nastar, and it cost only a few bucks. I did open tarts before, like 4 years ago, and i still have the moulds.

Ok, Sunday is a good time to start baking CNY cookies, and here it goes. But only nastar. Because there's not enough pineapple paste left for open tart. Maybe next year? There are probably about 190 pineapple nastar, and they are definitely prettier than my closed pineapple tarts ;-)

With some leftover dough, i added chocolate rice and 'concorted' my own Butterfly cookies.

Tiramisu Charlotte Cake

My laptop is giving me problems again!!! Urgggh! It happened after we got a free subscription for virus and the usual activity of checking mails, editing photos, write a post, etc became snail slow. I really couldn't stand the speed (pun intended) and the frustration that sometimes the laptop get hanged after i open a few application, and even shutting down the laptop is a pain!

The last straw came when chatting for 2 lines in msn with my friend, the laptop decided to stop responding for more than 2 times today. Out goes the virus scan - bye ;-) Hopefully i won't have other problems with the laptop or its speed.

All these technie problem made blogging a nag, which is why my tiramisu charlotte cake took a while to be here. I love how the cake looks in Happy Home Baking, and of course, mine couldn't hold a candle to hers. Although the cake taste good, it was almost 'melting' by the time we eat the cake. Luckily the recipient of my cake is very pleased with it, and thank me profusely. She's none other than my aunt wendy's mil. If i could put up the pictures taken during that day, you could see how happy she was on that day, because it's another of our big family gathering and celebration! The next time i attempt this delicious and pretty cake, i would probably add gelatine.

Oreo lemon non-baked cheesecake (Icebox cheesecake)

Many times i got stuck in what i want to write in my blog, and how to start writing or have an opening statement... just like now.

Perhaps i should just leave it as Wordless Tuesday, or maybe not?

This Oreo Lemon non-baked cheesecake (aka icebox cheesecake) is made especially for my youngest aunt steph, whose birthday falls on this Thursday. We had a little celebration on Sunday and we will be getting a birthday treat from her this Friday. It's celebration-makan-and celebration-makan and more celebration-makan since Dec and it does not seem to end anytime soon ;-) That's how fortunate coming from a very big family like us!

Ingredients/ Method:

(Recipe adapted from Food-4Tots with modifications)

Crust

11 slices of digestive biscuits

55g unsalted butter, melted

1. Crush the biscuits and mix with melted butter and press firmly in 8" round springfoam baking tin.

2. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Filling

1 tbsp gelatine powder

3 tbsp hot water

250g cream cheese, room temp

40g caster sugar

2 large egg yolks

zest from 1 large lemon

3 tbsp lemon juice (i doubled the amount and it was too sour)

2 tsp cointreau (can omit)

150g diary whipping cream

Oreo topping

6 pieces of oreo biscuits, crushed finely

1. Dilute gelatine powder with hot water in small bowl until dissolve. Set aside.

2. Beat cream cheese and sugar until soft and creamy.

3. Add in egg yolks, followed by lemon zest. Mix well and set aside.

4. Pour dissolved gelatine powder into cream cheese mixture and mix quickly.

5. Add in lemon juice and cointreau. Mix well and set aside.

6. Whip cream with hand whisk till creamy and soft peak. Do not overbeat the cream.

7. Fold in whipped cream into cream cheese mixture until well combined.

8. Spoon filling onto crust. Smoothen the surface.

9. Spread crushed oreo biscuits onto the cake and press lightly.

10. Cover the baking tin with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours (best overnight) until firm before serving.

Closing 2009, Beginning 2010

As usual, Dec is always a busy month and with holidays, festive season celebrations, there's not much time left for baking and blogging. Hence, this space has been very quiet for more than a month!!

Nevertheless, to close year 2009, these are a few bakes that have not been posted. These are the not-so-satisfactory ones, except the last being a Banana Chocolate Cake which i did for my elder brother's birthday. Fortunately, it was a very well-received cake and it gave my baking-blogging 2009 a sweet closing ;-)

Strawberry Chiffon Sponge Cake

"Sour"-honey popcorns

Portugese egg tarts

Banana chocolate cake

Other than a sweet closing for 2009 in terms of baking, we had a wonderful time spent together as a family with our loved ones; our unplanned & impromptu night began with a simple dinner fare, followed by a ride to mt. faber (which was surprisingly very crowded) and ended up counting down at an almost secluded place - Soprano at Wessex Estate. That made our first second of year 2010 filled with love, joy, fun and warmth!!!

Happy New Year to everyone & thoroughly enjoy yourselves in year Twenty Ten B-)

Update 4 Jan 2010, recipe & video on banana chocolate cake(video link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM5vRvcIUvM&feature=related)

Ingredients/ Method:

203g whole eggs (6 nos.)

32g egg yolk (2 nos.)

135g caster sugar

21g glucose

1g salt

32g vegetable oil

21g cocoa powder

106g cake flour

1g baking soda

21g milk

1) Warm vegetable oil and put in cocoa powder until well mixed and dissolved. Set aside.

2) In a large bowl, add eggs, sugar, salt and beat on HIGH speed until foamy and double in volume, and sugar dissolve.

3) Add in glucose and beat on MEDIUM speed until ribbon stage.

4) Sift flour and baking soda over beaten egg mixture. Mix flour on LOW speed for 3 seconds just to combine most of the flour. Thereafter, turn to MEDIUM speed for approximately 20 seconds until mostly incorporated. Fold in the remaining traces of flour using rubber spatula.

5) Scoop some egg mixture and add into cocoa powder mixture to lighten the mixture. Thereafter, pour into egg mixture, add in milk and fold till well combined.

6) Pour batter into 8" round cake tin and bake at 170 deg C for 35 mins.

7) Invert the cake tin on cooling rack after removing from oven.

Chocolate Filling

2-3 Delmonte bananas

250g non-diary whipping cream

35g cocoa powder

35g hot water

2tsp instant coffee powder

1) Mix cocoa powder and coffee powder with hot water.

2) Whip the cream until stiff peak.

3) Add the cocoa-coffee mixture to the whipped cream.

Ganache
300g whipping cream
250g melted chocolate
50g butter

1) Mix all ingredients and microwave till well combined and smooth.

2) Leave to set before pouring onto cake.

To assemble

1) Slice the sponge cake into 3 layers.

2) Spread the chocolate filling on the first layer, and put freshly cut banana slice on the cake, and spread some chocolate filling on top of the banana slices.

3) Repeat Step 2.

4) Cream & crumb the entire cake with remaining chocolate filling.

5) Put the cake in the fridge for 10 mins so that it will be easier to spread the chocolate ganache.

(Note: I got problem with the chocolate ganache as it was either too watery or too solidified to spread or pour nicely on the cake. I ended up putting into the microwave to liquidify it, and back to the freezer to solidify it, a few times of doing the same thing just to get the right consistency. By then, my kitchen top and floor were in a mess, and had to clean up frequently as my house ants were very active & alert that day!!)

More fruits & walnuts wholemeal loaf

I've finally used up the almost-expired wholemeal flour; yippee!! Left with 160g of wholemeal flour, I made 2 portion of this recipe. Enough to give away to my other family members ;-) With some dried fruits left (cranberries, blueberries, tart berries), i added more golden raisins, goji berries (wolf berries) and toasted walnuts!

Other than the standard 20 mins & 60 mins proofing, the dough is left to proof for more than 6 hours and got another round of kneading, just because i over-slept!! You see, the dough was prepared after we came back from dinner, and my heavy eye-lids couldn't keep open for another minute. Think the texture was slightly affected, but not too much harm caused though.

(Note: To reduce the oven temperature to 180 deg C next time, as 190 deg C might be a little bit too hot and the crust is almost too black by end of baking time.

Siew Mai

Little children are usually fussy eaters especially during their proper meals. Mine is not exactly fussy but a "temperamental" eater i.e. during his meals, sometime he likes it with vegetables, sometimes he refuses them; sometimes he likes meat but other times he refuses to take them at all. One thing he definitely loves to eat these days is Siew Mai, and of course, junk food or tibits, ice-cream, chocolates, sweets, ANY time.

Other than dim sum restaurants where you will good siew mai, good ones are not readily available even though it sold at most coffeeshops, foodcourts, supermarkets. The frozen we bought from NTUC sucks and I won't even take a second piece. Nevertheless, my aunt ivy knows where to get good ones from the market stall she frequents, and they are a regulars on our dinning table.

Whilst at my dad's place last Saturday, I tried to make some siew mai but they fell under the look-alike but not taste-alike category. I thought they taste more like steamed 'wu xiang', anD my little boy lamented why the siew mai is so "dark" (in colour)!! He took them only with lots of ketchup...kekeke. So coincident that my mil also made siew mai on Sunday, it too didn't taste like those siew mai we eat at dim sum restaurants. Ok, got to look elsewhere for really good siew mai recipes, any recommendations?

Orange chiffon cake

At last, i got to try out 2 things yesterday at my dad's place .... (1) the broiler can be used to bake a cake (happy!!), (2) the orange chiffon cake which was a newspaper cut-out recipe and i had wanted to try for some time.

Now that i had to bring my little one for his music class every Sat, i got wake up early in order to get a ride from T, before he heads to his office. Which means to say that if i wanted to bake anything at my dad's place, i got to plan in advance, including preparation of baking tools and ingredients to bring over. Luckily my dad's place have most of the baking tools/ bulk items like weighing scale, broiler (to replace the oven), mixer, etc as my mom used them to whip up delicious food, snacks, kuehs, huat kuehs ;-) Till now, I can still find traces of 'remnants' on the weighing scale and mixer. As for the broiler, it had been serving us very well for at least 20-odd years, that is how reliable old gadgets are. I always remember one 'old' mixer which my mom bought when she attended some cooking classes when we were in our primary school, but i threw it away as it's slightly mal-function and we had got a new one for her. She would frequently bring it up how i threw her things away..... now that she's at a better place, somehow i won't want to throw any of these items away.

Anyway back to the orange chiffon cake, the recipe is straight forward and very easy to follow, without compromising on texture and taste. Except for the egg white which i had over-beaten slightly which i thought would fail the cake, it didn't, luckily. In fact, the cake rise so much higher than the 17cm tube pan that i don't have a flat chiffon cake. Otherwise, the cake is very springy to touch. On the day itself, the cake exudes very slight tinge of orange taste, but the following day, the orangey taste got deeper.

Ingredients/ Method

(Recipe is for 25cm tube pan, i halved the recipe using 17cm tube pan)

7 eggs

200g cake flour

2 tsp baking powder

200g icing sugar

150ml freshly squeezed orange juice (abt 3 oranges)

150ml corn oil

2 tbsp orange zest

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1. Pre-heat oven to 170 deg C.

2. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites. (abt 240ml egg whites)

3. Sieve cake flour, icing sugar, and baking powder into a mixing bowl.

4. Make a depression in the centre of the cake flour mixture, add egg yolks, orange juice and oil and stir until well combined.

5. Add orange zest to the mixture and stir well.

6. Beat egg white and cream of tartar on high speed until stiff.

7. Add in cake batter to the egg white gradually and fold gently in batches, until well mixed.

8. Pour into tube pan and abke for 50 mins at 170 deg C. ( I reduced baking time to 40 mins for 17cm tube pan).

9. When done, remove the tube pan from the oven and invert on a cooling rack and leave to stand for 2 hours.

10. Remove the cake from the tube pan by running a knife along the perimeter of the pan and inverting the cake onto a plate.