PANDAN LAYER CAKE AND AWARDS

 

My Kak Queenie, this is for you, hehehe ENJOY! *hugs & muahhzz..*

Chiffon Cake

Ingredients (A)
4 egg yolks
60 mls corn oil
120gm cake flour /plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
60 gm castor sugar
4 tbsp milk
1 tsp pandan paste

Ingredients (B)
4 egg white
60 gm castor sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

PANDAN CUSTARD

500 mls thick santan
150 gm sugar
4 tbsp hoen kwe powder
2 tsp agar agar powder
2 tsp instant jelly
1 tsp pandan paste
100 gm shredded coconut

My dear Sha, don't forget your tissues and bib & thank you for torturing me day and night with your bombastic cooking. hehehehe

My dear Elisabeth, one of the ingredients in this cake @ Pandan Paste, reminded me of the  UNFORGETTABLE GREEN CHRISTMAS, only you and I know the greenly story.LOL

Method
1. Line a 8 in cake pan with greaseproof paper
2. Pre heat oven at 180 deg c
3. Sift flour and baking powder
4. Mix all the (A) ingredients and cream until smooth, keep aside
5. Beat egg white with cream of tartar until frothy, add sugar and cream until stiff
6. Fold egg white mixture into egg yolk mixture lightly until well blend
7. Bake at 180 deg c for 40 to 45 mins
8. Cool completely and slice the cake into two

To cook the pandan custard

1. Mix coconut milk with instant jelly, agar agar powder, sugar, pandan paste. Mix well.
2. Mix hoen kwe powder with 2 tbsp water, mix well & keep aside
3. Cook the coconut mixture until boil then add the hoen kwe powder and cook till thicken.
4. Use immediately.

To assemble the cake

1. Put 1 part of the cake on a plate and use a cake ring or 8in cake pan
2. Spread half the pandan custard on the cake, let it set slightly, place the other piece of cake on top.
3. Spread the balance pandan custard on top the cake.
4. Chill in the fridge till set
5. Decorate the side and top with shredded coconut
6. Slice the cake and serve with ice coffee

Hoen Kwe flour

Cake Ring

To all my friends, have a beautiful Sunday.

Awards from my friends

I would like to thank Sheoh of Sheohyan for passing me the Happy Blogger award. Thank you for thinking of me. Hope to see you play more "masak-masak" in the kitchen.LOL * A big cyber hugs for you*




I would like to thank Anuja of simple-baking for passing me the Sunshine award and Versatile Blogger award. Thank you for thinking of me. I'm so glad to discover your blog with great recipes. You're truly a passionate baker/cook and writes a lovely food blog.* A big cyber hugs for you*

I'm passing all the 3 awards to our beautiful and lovely Novelist cum awarded Master Chef Cik Shahriah of The Writer's Cooking.  Our daily *hugs & muahhzzz...*


Have a great week ahead. Thank you for dropping by my blog.

MINI BURGER & FRENCH FRIES AND THANK YOU TO .........

First of all I would like to thank my new blogger friend a lovely & beautiful Malay lady who is a Malaysian Novelist cum Awarded Master Chef
Shahriah Abdullah a BIG THANK YOU TO YOU, MY DEAR.
It's really a big surprise to me, so gracious and kind of your complementing me in your humble blog. I love your posting, you put me in cloud nine, guess I might not be able to sleep tonight. LOL

Our lovely Shahriah is publishing her first cookbook, it'll be available in the bookstore very soon. She can bake and cook very well, her recipes are simple yet so mouth watering and tempting.

Above two pictures are her published Malay novels.

Cik Shahriah, this bouquet of beautiful roses for you, my compliments to you for being so kind and gracious of you to mention about my MAGIC BURGER in you posting. I'm very glad to meet you. For you my dear,

If friends were flowers,
I would not pick you!
I'll let you grow in the garden and activate you,
with love and care so that I can keep you
as a friend forever.

A big big cyber hugs from me.

Presenting my Mini Burger & French Fries... taa..da....

I skip the sesame seed on top the burger because my son does not like it.

Added some oats to resembles the sesame seeds

I'm submitting the following recipes for the April Fool Challenge in very Good Recipes. Closing date is 30th April 2012. The challenge is to prepare a dish with recipe that look like something but is actually made out of something completely different.
Actually this is my last minute decision to participate for the challenge. Hopefully it's presentable and appropriate for the challenge.

April Fool French Fries

Ingredients
2 slices of white bread (chilled in fridge till firmed)
Butter / margarine
Sugar

1. Cut the bread to the size of french fries.
2. Spread butter or margarine on both side of the bread.
3. Lay on greased tray, sprinkle with castor sugar.
4. Baked in pre heat oven 160 deg c for 20 mins until golden brown and crispy.
Don't forget to turn the french fries bread to get even color.
5. Leave to cool completely and store in air tight container.

 April Fool Burger Cake

Ingredients
210gm butter
210gm castor sugar
4 large eggs
300gm plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp milk
1 tbsp cocoa powder mix with 1.5tbsp hot water
1/2 tbsp apricot jam mixed with a little hot water to use as glue.

1. Mix the cocoa power with hot water into paste.
2. Sieved flour and baking powder twice.
3. Cream butter and sugar till light and creamy.
4. Add egg one at a time and beat till well blend but do not over beat.
5. Add vanilla extract.
6. Add flour alternate with milk and mix well.
7. Scoop out 1 small bowl of cake batter and mix with cocoa mixture, mixed well. Bake the chocolate batter separately. (For the burger meat)
8. Line the muffin cups with paper liners, scoop the cake batter into liners and bake at 160 deg c for 20 to 25 mins or until cook.
9. Leave to cool. Slice the vanilla cupcake into 2 pieces and the chocolate cupcake into 3 pieces. Glue the burger using apricot jam.
10.Assemble the burger using sugar paste as cheese, lettuce and chilli sauce.

I love the melting effect of the cheese

Yours truly took a bite of the burger...

April Fool Challenge

on Very Good Recipes

Wish me good luck!
Have a great week ahead to all my friends. Thank you for dropping by. Cheers!

THAI PUMPKIN DESSERT

Health benefits of pumpkin

Pumpkin contains lots of goodness like antioxidant, carotenoids, particularly alpha hydroxy-acids, beta-carotenes, it’s a good source of vitamins A, C, K, E and lots of minerals, including magnesium, potassium, zinc and iron.Pumpkin help to reduce the sign of aging.

Sangkaya

Sankaya or Thai pumpkin dessert is a Thai-style inside out pumpkin pie in which a lightly sweetened coconut milk and egg custard is steamed inside of a hollowed out pumpkin. A perfect balance of textures, the steamed egg custard inside shows the influence of the Portuguese on Thai cuisine, who introduced the idea of adding eggs to desserts in the 1600's. In Thailand, Sankaya is a popular street vendor sweet.

Palm sugar/Gula Melaka

Ingredients
1 pumpkin weight 1.5kg
3 large eggs
150 mls thick coconut milk
75 mls water
60 gm palm sugar/ gula melaka / (IF BROWN SUGAR USE 100GM)
(CAN USE BROWN SUGAR IF PALM SUGAR NOT AVAILABLE IN YOUR COUNTRY)
1 tbsp rice flour
1/4 tsp pandan paste (optional)
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of salt

1. Wash and scrub pumpkin, dry with towel.
2. Cut about 1/4 of the upper part pumpkin, keep aside.
3. Scoop out the pulp and seeds, put pumpkin aside.
4. Melt the palm sugar with 75mls water.
5. Mix coconut milk, rice flour, pandan paste, cinnamon, salt till well blend.
Add the palm sugar mixture.
6. Beat egg slightly, add into the coconut mixture, sieve 3 times.
7. Prepare steamer. ( Wait till water boil before put in the pumpkin.)
8. Pour the egg mixture into the pumpkin about 3/4 full, put the pumpkin on a stainless steel plate, put the pumpkin lid at the side, steam for 45 mins or till custard cook using high heat.
9. Cool completely and chill in the fridge before cutting.

I cut the pumpkin when it's still warm

Preferably to cut after chilled 8 hours in the fridge

Pumpkin Seed

The seeds are also worth latching on to. Pumpkin seeds, also called pepitas, are loaded with minerals, seem to have an anti-inflammatory effect, and may even help protect against prostate cancer and osteoporosis. A quarter cup has about 5 grams of effective carb and 1.5 grams of fiber.

Uncooked pumpkin seed.

1. Rinse pumpkin seeds under cold water and pick out the pulp. Dry the pumpkin seed with towel.

2. Place the pumpkin seeds in a single layer on an oiled baking sheet, stirring to coat.

3. Sprinkle with salt and bake at 150 deg c until toasted, about 25 minutes, checking and stirring after 10 minutes.

4. Cool completely and store in air tight container.

Toasted pumpkin seed

Have a beautiful Sunday to all my friends.

Beautiful And Broken....

Presenting my Rilakkuma's Swiss roll.....

Do not fear mistake, everyone fails at something. I never give up.....

Free hand drawing by yours truly.
Oh.. beary bear, I left angry bird because of you and I just recovered from my egg-zosted experience so you better be a good boy &  behave yourself.

Line Swiss roll pan with greaseproof paper, put bear design underneath the greaseproof paper.

Put 1 to 2 tbsp dark brown cake batter in piping bag, pipe the outline. Bake for 1 min.

Filled the bear body with light brown cake batter, baked for 1.5 min. Turn over and remove the greaseproof paper slowly.

Ouch...ouch... oh beary bear, how could you be so heartless?
After all the things that I've been through,
After all the things I got into,
Can you see the pain in my eyes?
It hurts me so bad, you're breaking me.....

Time for transformation again with deco sauce/whip.
Looks like I'm very good in transformation...hahaha if there is an award for failure and disaster turn into opportunities, don't forget me ya! I shall be the first person in the queue for the award. LOL

I hate that no matter how hard I try, you are the only desire in my heart.
Oh...beary bear... this is the best I can rescue you...please bear with me.

Recipe courtesy from Veronica's Kitchen

Sponge cake:

A) 6 egg yolks
20 g fine caster sugar

B) 60 g fresh milk
45 g corn oil

C) 100 g plain flour
15 g corn flour

D) 5 egg whites
70 g fine caster sugar

For bear ingredient:
e) 20 g egg white
10 g fine caster sugar

chiffon cake method

1/ Place ingredients A into a mixing bowl, mix well. Add ingredients B & stir, mix until smooth.

2/ Add sifted flours (ingredient C) into egg yolk mixture until well blend.

Making bear design:

1/ Line greased proof paper/Glad Bake onto a swiss roll tray.

2/ Beat ingredients (e) until stiff but not dry.

3/ Take 30 g (about 2 tbsp) from the egg yolk mixture. Mix well with the egg white mixture from step (2). Take 1 tbsp of the cake batter mix with dark brown color for the outlined and balance lighter brown colour for the bear body.

4/ Pipe the outline of the design on the pre-prepared swiss roll tray. Bake in preheated oven for 1 minutes at   190 deg C. Remove from oven immediately when is done. Filled the bear body with light brown batter, bake for 1.5 mins at 190 deg C. Keep aside.

Back to the sponge cake:

1) Beat 5 1/2 egg whites ((about 210 g, the 1/2 egg white is from (e) until peak form but not dry.
2) Mix in the balance egg yolk mixture until mixture is well combined.

3) Pour into the swiss roll tray, use a spatula to level evenly. Bake for 12 - 13 minutes at 190 degree C.

4/ Remove from oven, turn over and remove the greaseproof paper slowly, then turn back again.

5) When cool, spread fresh cream and place strawberries, roll up and put in the fridge for about 20 -30 minutes.
**I used Raspberry jam and whipped cream for the Swiss roll filling.

5) Take out swiss roll, use a very fine brush to draw the bear eyes and mouth using melted chocolate or deco whip.

Oh.. beary bear, you look awful. Guess you must be wallowing in the mud??

Filling for the cake:
Whip 250 g fresh cream with 25 g sugar. Some fresh strawberries cut into 4 halves or into 2 halves.

Ok, despite the failed and ugly design, the Swiss roll is super cottony soft. The taste is awesome.
I'll give it another try until perfection. If I start something, I will finish it and do it well.

P/S  Just for a laugh, I'm perfectly okay, no emotional crushed! LOL
Simple Baking, I know you sure like my wackiness.

Have a nice week ahead. Thank you to all my friends who join me for the laughter.

I LOVE CROISSANTS

Croissant

Romeo & Juliet Croissant

A croissant is a buttery flaky pastry named for its distinctive crescent shape. It is also sometimes called a crescent from the French word for "crescent". Croissants are made of a leavened variant of puff pastry. The yeast dough is layered with pastry margarine or butter, rolled and folded 3 to 4 times in succession, then rolled into a sheet, a technique called laminating.

This innovation, along with the croissant's versatility and distinctive shape, has made it the best-known type of French pastry in much of the world. Today, the croissant remains popular in a continental breakfast.

Ingredients (16 pieces)
(Recipe source from Alex Goh Cookbook)

(A)210gm bread flour
40gm plain flour
30gm sugar
1 tsp salt
15gm milk powder
2 tsp instant yeast

(B)180ml water ( I use 150ml )

(C) 45gm butter

(D) 120gm pastry margarine

1. Mix (A) till well blended, add (B) and knead to form a dough.
2. Add (C) and knead to form a smooth dough. Cover with damp cloth or plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.(I USED MY BREADMAKER TO DO THE JOB. AFTER KNEAD CYCLE TAKE OUT THE DOUGH PUT IN PLASTIC MIXING BOWL COVER WITH CLING WRAP AND CHILL IN THE FRIDGE FOR 1 HOUR.)
3. Wrap (D) with plastic sheet and roll it out. Then take the dough out from the fridge and roll into a rectangular shape. Roll about 10mm thickness.
4. Place (D) on the bottom half of the dough and fold it up.
5. Then fold the bottom third up to the middle and the top third down to the middle. Turn the dough 90 deg and roll the dough into a rectangular shape and REPEAT one more time. Cover the dough and chill in the fridge for 20 mins.
6. Take out the dough and repeat step 5, cover the dough and chill in the fridge for 30 mins.
7. Take out the dough, divide into 3 or 4 parts. Roll the dough to 5mm thick, cut it crossways into equal triangles (W 13cm x H 17cm)then cut opening wide end to make a V shape. Roll them up to form crescent.
8. Place on grease tray, cover and let it prove for 45 mins
9. Brush with egg wash and bake at 190 deg for 15 mins.
10. Serve hot with any filling of your choice.
Taste good with sausage, scrambles eggs or sardine and extra garnishing eg. slice cucumber, tomato, lettuce, etc..

Chubby Croissant with tuna filling.

Tuna Filling

Ingredients

1 can tuna with mayonnaise
1 big onion ( chopped )
2 to 3 chili ( chopped finely )
1 tomato ( cut cube )
1 tsp sugar
Pepper to taste ( I used 1/4tsp)
2 tsp vinegar or 2 pieces calamondin (limau kasturi)

Marinate chopped onion with a pinch of salt for 10 mins.
Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
Cut calamondin into half and squeeze the juice, add into the tuna.
Chilled well in the fridge before serve.

NOTE: The following link is the step of folding and rolling croissant fromTheFreshLoaf

Have a nice week ahead  to all my dear friends. Enjoy!

Happy Lunar New Year

A new year, a new beginning,

To all my dear friends and family, may the year of dragon usher in prosperity and many golden opportunities for all of you.
Wishing all of you a Happy & Prosperous New Year.

Here are some of the cookies & dessert that I baked /cook for the new year.

Koi Fish Jelly

The sea shell at the background is courier all the way from my dear blogger friend of food and thrift in Florida

Koi fish using Konnyaku jelly powder.

This is the jelly mold and konnyaku jelly powder

Scoop out 3 tbsp of the konnyaku jelly, add red colour and mix well. Pour on the mold to make pattern for the koi fish.

Add canned longan or any fresh cut fruits.

Pour the jelly liquid into the fish mold and leave to set.

Ingredients

1 sachet konnyaku jelly powder
200 gm sugar
800mls water
3 tbsp fresh milk
some fresh cut fruits preferably kiwi or strawberry

1. Combined sugar with konnyaku jelly powder, mix well.
2. Boil the water, pour in the sugar and keep stirring.
3. Cook until boil, remove from stove add 3 tbsp milk and mix well.
4. Scoop out 3 tbsp of the jelly mixture, add coloring of your choice, mix well.
5. Pour into the fish mold and leave to set. Add fruits.
6. Pour the balance jelly mixture onto the fish mold and leave to set. Serve chill.



Pineapple Tarts

Jam Recipe 

2 medium pineapple
10 oz sugar
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
5 cloves
1 lemon

1. Cut the pineapples into chunk, blend till fine. Sieve the pineapple and discard the juice.
2. Squeeze the lemon juice add to the pineapple. Add the spices and cook in medium flame until almost dry. Takes about 3/4 hour.
3. Add sugar and keep stirring to prevent burnt. Cook for another 1 hour till almost
dry. Leave aside to cool completely. Jam can be store in air tight container and keep in freezer up to 6 months.

Butter Cookies

Ingredients

220gm plain flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
160gm butter
60gm icing sugar
1 egg white
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Almond slice/strips ( optional )

1. Sift flour and baking soda.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add in egg white and blend well.
4. Add vanilla, flour and mix well.
5. Scoop mixture into piping bag fix with star nozzle, pipe a rosette and place almond slice in the middle.
6. Bake at 160 deg c for 8 to 10 mins or until slightly brown.
7. Cool completely and store in air tight container.


Peanuts Cookies

Ingredients
300 gm roasted groundnuts
600gm flour
7 oz sugar
2 cups corn oil

1. Grind the peanuts until fine.
2. Mix flour,sugar, groundnuts until well blend.
3. Pour in the oil slowly and mixed till well blend.
4. Roll into small round ball, top with roasted peanuts and brush with egg wash.
5. Bake 170 deg C for 15 to 20 mins until slightly brown.
6. Store in air tight container.


Fruit cakes

Ingredients

250gm SCS butter
250gm brown sugar
50gm cocoa powder (optional)
300gm flour
25gm cornflour
2 tsp baking powder
5 eggs
300gm mix fruit ( soak in 1/4 cup liqueur )
100gm toasted almond ( chopped )
2 grated orange rind
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp ginger juice
1 tsp honey

1. Preheat oven to warm 120 C
2. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time.
Beat well after each addition.
3. Sieve flour, cornflour, cocoa powder, baking powder together.
Add honey,ginger juice,cinnamon powder, nutmeg,orange rind to the
creamed mixture. Add flour, mix fruit, chopped almond and mix until well blended.
4. Grease 8" cake tin, Line with double grease proof paper. Pour cake mixture
into baking tin. Bake cake at 150 c for 1 1/2 hours or until cook. Cool cake on
rack.

Note: Recipe from SCS butter


My new year gift

My blogger friend Elisabeth of food and Thrift sent me this parcel from Florida which I received yesterday. just in time for my Chinese New Year. Thank you so much my dear friend, nice to meet a wonderful lady like you. With hugs to you.

Long Champ tote bag from a friend,courier to me from Paris. Thank you so much my dear Friend T.