Steamed Egg White Cake

This year, the orders for my pineapple tarts was massive!   Thank god for the help I got from Mom, hubby and also niece.  And since we had a few public holidays just before the CNY, it really helped us gather momentum and finish up the orders in time, phew!

As you  may know, pineapple tarts only use egg yolks and that left me with many huge batches of egg whites so much so that I threw away most of it!   No space in the fridge!  Even the freezer is full (of butter!!).  So I just saved a small batch which I thought I would be hard-working enough to whip up some biscotti for sendiri makan but ... but .. but .. once I completed all the cookie orders, I just dont feel like baking anymore.

Saved it till after CNY and finally, I decided to whip up something easy and nice for breakfast.  This is my colorful steamed egg white cake that I wish to share with all my readers.   Do also read the notes I have written after the recipe.  

Steamed Egg White Cake

500 ml egg white

220 gm castor sugar

1 tbsp ovalette

1/2 tsp salt

100 ml full cream/fresh milk

50 gm melted butter/oil

280 gm self raising flour (sifted)

essence & food coloring

• Heat steamer at medium high heat.
• Mix egg whites, sugar, ovalette and salt till medium-stiff peak
• Sift in flour and add into egg white mixture.  Mix it lightly till well combined
• Mix milk and butter together
• Add the milk butter mixture into the egg white mixture
• Mix lightly till well combined again
• Divide into 4 parts and add essence & a little bit of coloring on each part
• To prepare baking pan, place baking paper on bottom of pan.  Oil/Butter the sides and coat with flour (for easy removal of cake when its done).
• Pour in first layer, level the batter and steam for 7 minutes.
• Repeat till all 4 layers are done.

Notes :-

1. I separated my batter into 4 but you can do more or less layers. Just even the amounts out so that you have even layers when baked.   if you are a perfectionist, you can weight the batter into each bowl.  I just eye-balled mine.
2. I used 4 different essence/flavours (mocha, lemon, orange & pandan) but I dont feel it went well all-together. Prefer to use a single plain vanilla for all 4 layers the next time I bake this.
3. When mixing in the colors, keep it light cos they turn darker/stronger after baking.
4. Make sure fire is not on high cos we dont want the water to be in a rolling boil.  Just hot enough to have an even bake.  I used medium fire on my stove throughout the steaming process.  
5. Had it for breakfast & evening tea the next day and it still stays soft & moist.

Hope you will give this easy recipe a try :)

Assembling an Ice Cream Cake

As promised, here is how one can easily assemble an ice cream cake at home.   There is no hard & fast rule and no proper recipe.  Just use how much you feel you want and of course also depending on the size of your cake ring. I mentioned cake ring because its easier to remove the ring after the cake has frozen compared to removing it from a cake pan.   Its basically a bottomless cake pan LOL!!

For a 7 in round cake ring (as per my photo), I used 150gm of crushed oreos mixed with 60 gms of melted butter.   Oh!  Did I tell you I found pre-crushed oreos in the bakery store - walau, so convenient now!!     Place your cake ring on a cake board or a plate that you would be using to serve the whole cake.  Which means, once the cake is done, you  dont need to transfer it onto another board or plate for cutting ceremony :D

Place the mixed crushed oreos inside the cake ring and use your metal spoon or bottom of a glass/cup and compared the oreos to the cake board.  Freeze it for 1 hr.   Yes, inside the freezer. 

While freezing that, remove a tub of ice cream and let it melt slightly in room temperature.   Once you can mix it with your spoon and its spreadable, you can the spread the half-melted ice cream onto your oreo base.   Level them properly and do ensure you fill up all corners properly.   Freeze again for 30 mins.    If you would like to try more than one flavours (mine had 4 layers), repeat this step with other flavours.   Once all done, freeze it overnight.  IMPORTANT cos it really melts easily if its out of the fridge.

You can top/decorate it with whatever you like ie chocolate chips, oreo biscuits, fruits and I choose fresh strawberries & a bit more of the crushed oreos.   Then again, you can either have the berries on top fresh or like mine - frozen as well.    For toppings, add it to the cake once you are done layering the last layer of ice-cream.      But if you like your toppings/fruits fresh and not frozen, what you can do is - after its frozen overnight, and just before serving, use a knife, run it over hot water and slowly swipe over the top layer of ice cream.  As soon as a thin layer of the top melts, you can stick your fruits on it.

This is really good after a heavy dinner :D  Cold & refreshing!

Do check out the race car themed cake I did for his school party :D

Chee Cheong Fun Sushi

Although I enjoy baking & cake decorating, Im totally hopeless when it comes to cooking.   My MIL used to ask me ... when are you going to cook some real food for my son?  LOL!   Well, after almost 7 yrs of marrying her son, she has stopped asking edi .. muahahaha.

We recently celebrated Bryan's 5th birthday with a small family dinner at home and I decided to try  my hand at assembling food.   I'm not good in cooking ma, so I assemble ready made food instead lor!  

Remember this from one of the blogs many moons back and here is a look at my try at it.   It's real easy to assemble food LOL!!

Just unroll a few rolls of CCF from your morning market, cut into strips whatever you'd like to fill it with and just roll.   For me, I made 2 versions as mom & I dont take seaweed.

Version 1 - seaweed, carrots, japanese cucumbers, immitation crabsticks + fresh salad and a dash of mayonaisse.

Version 2 - thinly pan fried eggs, carrots, japanese cucumbers, taiwanese sausages (fried them first) + fresh salad and a dash of mayonaisse. 

Do give it a try .. its pretty easy and actually, looks quite attractive on the dinner table too :)

Baking again ...

But this time, its for lunch and its not a cake. Lunch on weekends is a headache for me. I dont really like to cook full meals and its difficult to cook for 2 as well. So before we end up with another plate of chicken rice, I decided to use up the puff pastry that's been sitting in my freezer for a good 3 mths!!! But dont worry lah, its not expired yet.

I opened up a can of tuna in oil (I dont fancy the one with water cos it does not taste as good) and marinated it with some lemon juice. Then I chopped up the onion and chillies to be mixed in. Be generous with your mayonnaise if you want it to taste real good. So, if you are on a diet, dont eat this at all. And if you want to eat this, do it the right way .. muahahahahaha. Salt and pepper to be added according to your liking.

Before putting it into your oven, brush some egg white over the pastry. Then bake until its nicely puffed and color is golden brown.

I am surprised with how easy it is handling puff pastry. And oh boy, after baking it, it sure does smell and taste really good! Even hubby said it was nice, which is rare cos he would prefer the "cina" food normally.

A really nice X'Mas gathering!

I am glad the night turned out well. My first x'mas dinner was not fantastic (food wise) but boleh tahan lah. Almost 3/4 kena sapu habis and therefore, not too much leftovers.

Not much time for pics but here's sharing with you what I managed to capture.

Below is the kinda-miserable turkey we ordered. Initially, when I went to pick it up, I was disappointed that it turned out so small. But during dinner, I was glad it was just the right size. I saved some meat and the bones for an awesome turkey porridge to come!



And here is the duck bruchetta that my great old pal helped me with! So thankful for his help. It turned out great! My SIL is asking for the recipe!

Prepared the salad in the afternoon and kept it chilled. Only poured the dressing over about dinner time. Sauteed some broccoli with ham too, for those we dont take fresh vege. I liked thi salad a lot. Next round, should add more nuts for a crunchy bite!

I tried being a bit creative and used my bento cutter to make some x'mas tree shaped watermelon. But I could not stomach the wastage that comes with this method. So I improvised and made "bigger" trees instead! Do you like it?

This is the konnyaku jelly I made the night before. Taste wise was at the right level of sweetness and texture wise, was quite ok. I shall keep to this recipe of 850ml of water + 220 gm sugar to 1 packet of konnyaku jelly. Its perfect for me.

Sad that I dont have any pics of my prawn mango wanton! And the warm spaghetti that mom helped dish out! And no pics of my warm brownie nor my ribena cheesecake! Or the lychee fizzy .. aiyoh!

This is my first experience at hosting a dinner. And I am glad it went quite ok. So more sessions in Year 2010!!!!

Best Steamed Egg Cake Ever!

I think I have finally found a really good, easy and simple recipe that yields the same quality as those selling in the shops/market! And it uses such basic ingredients!

Let's say that with this recipe, I am confident of getting good results 100% of the time.

Ingredients:

• 4 large eggs (abt 60gm each, weight with shell)
• 180 gm castor sugar
• 230 gm self raising flour
• 80 ml 100 Plus

Method:

• Grease a 8" round pan and prepare steaming tray.
• Whip eggs till light and frothy, abt 10 mins with hand mixer.
• Then gradually add sugar in say 3 batches, whip well each time.
• Slowly fold in flour in 3 batches, careful not to deflate the beaten eggs.
• Add in 100Plus and mix well.
• Pour into pan.
• In order to get an "x" on top, sprinkle sugar over the ready batter in "x" shaped line.
• Place pan in steamear when water is rapidly boiling.
• Shd be ready in abt 35 minutes but check for doneness before removing from steamer.

I have since made this 3 times for breakfast and each and every time, we enjoyed it thorougly especially the lil fart!!!! Its light and spongy and not overly sweet .. really good for whole day snacking too! Best of all, I dont need to crank up the oven in this ridiculously hot weather!

Rainbow Layered Jelly

Here is my simple recipe for a simple jelly dessert.


Ingredients

11gm (one pack) of agar-agar powder
180gm castor sugar
750ml purified water
some food coloring

Method

• Mix sugar and agar-agar powder together in a pot so that when we boil it, the agar-agar powder melts well.
• Add water to the pot and boil under slow fire till sugar melts.
• When melted, turn fire to low and keep it hot so that the agar-agar mixture does not harden.
• Take one cup of the mixture and add in some food coloring.
• Pour into mould and let it cool and slightly harden.
• Then take another cup of mixture and mix with another color of food coloring of your choice.
• Repeat process till all agar-agar mixture has been used up.
• Let it cool and harden completely in the fridge.
• Best enjoyed cold.

To hasten the cooling process, I shoved them into my freezer for 2 mins at each layer! That is me ... so 'tak sabar'!

Now I know why they can sell these at such expensive prices! The costs includes tonnes of PATIENCE!!!!

Steamed Egg Sponge Cake

I was feeling much better yesterday night and decided to satisfy my itch in baking. However, my bitter memories of my very recent sore-throat, terrible flu and fever last week told me to forget about the oven but instead steam one.


I settled for an easy recipe which requires less butter and something not too sweet and ended up with a modified recipe from Amy Beh. Also, a recipe that uses a small can of condensed milk seemed "healthier" than 250gms of sugar ... well at least that's what I think la.

Ingredients:
125gm butter at room temperature
180gm self-raising flour, sifted twice
3 large eggs
1 small can of condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
a pinch of salt
some food coloring (optional)

Method:

• Grease an 8" round pan.
• Beat butter till light & fluffy.
• Then beat in eggs well, one at a time.
• Add the can of condensed milk, essence & salt. Beat till well mixed.
• (I beat it till it doubles in volume).
• Slowly fold in the flour.
• Divide mixture into 3 equal parts & add coloring to 2 parts.
• Pour batter alternatively into the pan.
• Steam for about 25-30 minutes till done.

Remember to sieve the flour so that the cake will be softer. You can also use Hong Kong flour if you prefer as its finer. And its important to have room temperature butter, else when you beat it, it turns out yucky and not fluffy and light. And oh ya, make sure water is boiling rapidly before you put in your cake to steam okay?

Since lil one was screaming "cake! cake" once he started see me taking out my beater, I decided to make it colourful for his sake. To cheer him up! If it was my choice, a simple cake with some chocolate flavouring marbled in, would be my favourite .. hehehe. Otherwise, this is just as nice when its plain.

Lil one loved it .. cos we "pretended" it was his birthday .. with candles and all .. and he tried blowing the cake after we sang the "birthday song" ... hahaha. Good practice for his upcoming birthday dinner. Guess what cake I ordered for him? The clue is "clue" ... hehehe.


P/S: My apologies for some bad pics ... took via my mobile phone.

Easy Banana Cake

When I first wanted to learn how to bake, I was looking out for real easy recipes that used only basic ingredients for the cake. I just did not want to spend a "mini fortune" buying all those fancy gadgets and ingredients and only use it once or twice in baking.

I also tried the non-bake cheese cake recipes quite a number of times but they failed terribly. Perhaps I do not know how to dissolve the gelatine properly, hence they dont turn out so "well done". So I stopped trying those because cheese dont really come cheap these days you know.

Moreover, knowing that I am starting from ground zero, I better learn the very basic cakes that we usually enjoy every now and then. Other than the butter cake, I tried baking banana cakes quite a few times then (before I had my blog). It has been a while since I baked it, and so I did it again.

My supply of bananas are usually from my MIL as she uses them for prayers and some for own consumption too. Surely there will be some that are ripening too fast for us to enjoy them fresh, so off they go into my baking tin *hee hee*.

I cannot seem to find the source for the recipe so I shall not post up the recipe here as yet. However, if you are keen to try it, do let me know and I shall work "harder" to find the original recipe :-)

Or if you have a good recipe to share, do let me know. I will be happy to try it too.

Practical Valentine's Day Gifts!

If you have read some of my fun tags or meme, you should have realised by now that I am not a shopaholic *not-so-surprised smile*. I am also more stingy with myself than others, meaning, I don't mind buying expensive meals or stuff for hubby or mom but I do mind spending it on myself. Strange eh?

So what did I get myself for Valentine's Day? Something really really practical. I bought a new slingbag that can work for both office & casual use (2-in-1). My old bag was a gift from my sis who bought it from Singapore a couple of years ago. Now so "koyak" and "charn" already. In fact, its not only a Valentine's Day gift, its also a "bonus cum new year" gift too (3-in-1).

And then I bought a purse to replace my 15 year old purse (which I still love to bits!). I really really sayang to replace this purse which I bought in Robinson's Singapore during the good old days. I still remember it costs me S$79 then. At that time, heart so pain but I feel in love with it. Until now, I cannot find another "love" that can match my "love" for my old purse. Love is blind indeed .. hahaha.

What did I get hubby? Nothing really. Cos so far we dont really have the "gift-exchange" thingy that we practise each year, but hubby did ask me if I wanted any special gift in particular. I told him, I will just go get a bag to replace the "koyak" bag that I am using now lor ...

But how can I NOT get hubby anything right? Heeeeee... heeee.... so I baked him a cake. Its not any cake okay, its a CREAM CHEESE LOVE BUTTER CAKE! Yeah, dont play-play. Got money also cannot buy it. Baked it on Friday night, after work, at Mom's place as usual.


You can get the full recipe here but for this version, I added 2 tbsp of fresh milk, and that's it! It was perfect. Not crumbly like the previous time. All gone by the next day!

So how did we spend Valentine's Day? Well, we had to optimise the use of our only day off. I mean, only on Saturdays, we are free to do the things we want to do, without having to get into the office and without having to take care of lil one. And having the house ready soon, we have been spending most of the Saturdays window shopping, ideas-hunting, meeting up with suppliers for kitchen cabinets, interior designers, and also visiting expos and exhibitions every now and then. And last Saturday was no different. Had a follow-up discussion with a kitchen cabinet supplier and an interior designer.

For dinner, I stayed back at Mom's place cos my aunt & cousin was visiting with their lil one so thought maybe my brat could better spend his time playing with his lil cousin too. Dad was happily driving off to spend his Valentine dinner with his entire family. And this is the very first time since we met that we are separated for Valentine's dinner.

So what did you guys do on Valentine's Day?

Condensed Milk Pound Cake

This must be one of the most easiest cake recipes I have ever attempted. It is a perfect recipe for bake-dummies like me *grin*. In fact, it was sooo easy that I actually doubt it will work. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a try since I had an hour to spare at mom's place and mom willingly took care of the brat while I prepared the ingredients to bake.


Ingredients

3/4 cans of a large condensed milk tin
4 eggs, lightly beaten before pouring into dry ingredients
120gm of self-raising flour
50gm butter, melted & cooled

Method

• Preheat oven to 180C and grease a 8in round pan.
• Pour all ingredients together into a bowl and mix well. I used a hand-held mixer to bring it all together for 2-3 mins or so.
• Pour into pan and bake for abt 30-40 mins or till cooked. Test with skewer for doneness.
• Remove from oven and rest on wirerack to cool.

Some suggest that you sprinkle with some icing sugar while its hot but I omitted that. This cake is just mildly sweet as there is no sugar but just some condensed milk. If you still prefer it sweet like any other cakes, do try dusting the ready cake with icing sugar.

While baking, nothing happened for the first 20 minutes. I thought that most probably, this will go into the bin (just like a few other recipes that I have previously tried) but surprise .. surprise .. it raised well during the last 10 minutes and I managed to finish baking it at just the right time at the right doneness *smile*.

I only had one decent shot of the cake. Hubby commented that I always take the same shot of my cakes for my blog. So I decided to try another shot. Not being a pro at photography and on top of that, photo was taken at night, so please excuse me for a bad picture. The rest of the pictures were just blurrrr.....

If you are looking for an easy recipe without much fuss and simple ingredients, this is it!

Fruit Cake with Cream Cheese

I have been waiting and waiting for this week to arrive. Yeah! I'm on long leave and this is the only time I can bake in peace *smile*. I have been eyeing this recipe for quite a few weeks and finally I had a chance to bake it just before Christmas!

Its a pretty easy recipe to work with but nonetheless, I dont know why my cake turned out crumbly.
Taste wise, it was just delicious and sweetness was just right. I have never baked a cake that taste just nice like this one. I am so proud of myself .. hehehe.

Here is my modified recipe according to what I had in my pantry.


Fruit Cake with Cream Cheese
125 gm butter
125 gm cream cheese
180 gm fine granulated sugar
3 eggs (large)
200 gm cake flour + 1 tsp baking powder sifted together
100gm mixed fruits soaked 3 days before with 3 tbsp of brandy
a handful of chopped walnuts


Method:
Cream butter, cheese & sugar till creamy.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Mix 2 tbsp sifted flour with mixed fruits to prevent it from sinking while baking.
Fold in sifted flour and then stir in mixed fruits & nuts.
Pour into 8in round tin.
Bake in preheated oven at 175C for about 50 mins or till cooked.
Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.



For reference purposes, here is a pic of the batter ready to be baked.

Steamed Moist Choc Cake

I finally did a real bake after quite a number of weeks. Managed to get this recipe from a friend sometime back and she assured me that this recipe yields a really good and moist chocolate cake - which is exactly my kinda cake! And the best part is this cake is steamed and not baked - so definately a healthier choice and dont need to crank up the oven!

Ingredients

1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup granulated sugar (I used 3/4 cup castor sugar)
1 cup good quality cocoa powder (I used Hershey)
1 cup unsalted butter
¾ tsp instant coffee powder

3 large eggs (lightly beaten)
1/2 cup of condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla essence

1 1/4 cup self raising flour + 1 tsp baking soda

Method

• Mix the first part of ingredients together and cook over low fire until sugar and butter are completely melted. Ensure that you stir consistently so that the bottom does not get burnt. Shut off fire and let it cool slightly.
• Add the 2nd part of the ingredients into the cooked portion and stir till well mixed together.
• Sift the flour & baking soda together and gradually add it into the wet ingredients in 3 batches, each time ensure that it is mixed well and lump-free.
• Pour into a greased & lined 8-in pan
• Steam over high heat for about 45 minutes.
• Check for doneness.
• Cool it in the pan for 10 minutes.
• Then remove from pan and allow to cool completely.

Of course I did not have the luxury of time, so I only had time to allow the first mixture to cool down for 5 minutes before I added the eggs and the rest into it! Then I realised I ran out of vanilla essence! And then there was no condensed milk in the fridge! Great!

I had to make do with my full cream milk in the fridge which co-incidentally expired on the next day and without a single drop of essence. With my fingers crossed, I was hoping it would still turn out edible.

Mine was ready in exactly 45 mins and and as usual, no time to let it cool complete - started to remove from pan after 5 minutes and cut into smaller pieces to be taken home for MIL & SIL to try. The rest was for mom & sis at home for their breakfast the next day.

Hubby placed his first piece in his mouth. Did not say anything. Then I did the same. Wow! This recipe is a keeper! Totally rich, moist & yummilicious!

Hopefully someday I will have the courage to start on frosting. And I know pictures say a thousand words - so dont trust my photography skills - just go try steaming this - its really nice!

Konnyaku Jelly

Mom wanted a butter cake but I told her, aiyoh, dont want lah, very tired lah. And then she highlighted to me that I still have a pack of konnyaku jelly and it has been some months gathering dust in the cabinet.

And since I have not baked for a long long time, I decided to just make this quickie instead, to replace the baking itch in me ...*smile*.

Konnyaku Jelly

1 packet of konnyaku jelly powder

160gm castor sugar

800gm water

a drop of coloring (if you prefer)

1 can of pineapple rings (cut into bite sizes)

• Bring water to boil.
• Shut off fire and add in castor sugar and the jelly powder.
• Stir till sugar melts completely.
• Let cool for a while.
• Place pineapple pieces into jelly moulds.
• Pour prepared jelly into moulds.
• Let it harden and cool down.
• Refrigerate.
• Serve it when its nice and cold.

I like my jelly nice and hard (not too soft) and not too sweet. You can use 180 or 200 gm of sugar if you have a sweet tooth. Or you can also use up to 900ml of water if you like. Its all up to individual preference.

This is one easy dessert that you can make anyday!

Sarawak Barley

I got a surprise package from my buddy in Kuching recently *smile*. She sent me a generous pack of barley from Sarawak, grown locally by the natives there. Thanks JT!















It taste rich and slightly creamier than the pre-packed ones I normally buy from the chinese medical hall ... hmmm... yummilicious!

Boil the barley in a pot of boiling water and add rock sugar to taste. A few screwpine leaves in the pot makes this drink very rich in aroma. When it starts to boil rapidly, turn down fire a little and boil over an hour or so. Or if you prefer the easier way, leave it to boil in a slow cooker. Turn it on at night and by next morning, you will have a healthy yummy barley drink :-)

You can enjoy it either hot or cold. My mom would usually cool them down and pour them into many water bottles and store them in the fridge for our hourly consumption as we would normally finish the whole pot by the next day *smile*.

Steamed Egg Sponge Cake

After I posted my butter cake recipe, one of my new found blogger-pals, Josephine (such a pretty girl!) asked me for a steamed egg cake recipe

I have several recipes bookmarked and decided to explore this particular recipe. It rose very well and turned out quite ok. It does not taste too sweet after steaming and perfect for my mom who is diabetic. She usually enjoys them for breakfast.

I cannot recall where I got this recipe from (I definately copied it from somewhere ... credit to the original baker) and should you be keen to try it, here is the full recipe.

Ingredients :-
6 large eggs
1 1/4 cups (250gm) sugar
2 cups (300gm) flour (I used superfine)
4 tbsp (80gm) butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp baking powder (omit if using self-raising flour)
a pinch of salt

Method :-
Whisk egg with sugar till white & fluffy or double/triple in volume.
Slowly fold in flour, baking powder, salt & vanilla essence.
Lastly add melted butter.
Pour into a well greased pan and steam for 25 mins or till done.

I scooped out 1/3 of the ready batter and mixed in some choc paste. Poured 1/3 of the original batter into the pan, then pour in the coffee-flavoured batter and topped with the remaining 1/3 batter. Use a chopstick to give the batter a quick swirl for some marbling effect. Ensure water is rapidly boiling before you put in your cake pan for steaming.

Viola! An easy peasy 4-step steamed cake in a jiffy! Absolutely idiot-proof cos I could do this - hahahahaha.

Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cookies

While my little one was fast asleep over the weekend, I quickly baked some cookies right after my butter cake! Wow .. was I in a mood for baking!

This is the first time I ever baked any cookies so I opted for something really simple and quick to mix together and a recipe that would require the most basic ingredients which I already had at home. So I got it from LCOM's ever reliable blog of recipes *smile*.


Can you see how yummilicious my giant cookies look? I got really excited seeing it expand in the oven and could not wait for it to finish baking. I did not have oats, so I dropped in some hazelnuts and chocolate chips instead.

I found the top still too "white" for me, so after 8 mins, I switched to top & bottom baking instead of just the bottom. My oven needed 13 mins. My first tray was baked at 15 mins but the bottom was slightly burnt, so I guess you need to see how your oven works and do not follow any recipe blindly.

Like what LCOM has said, this recipe is indeed a very good basic cookie recipe and there are endless combination of ingredients you can use to make a variety - so give it a try & enjoy!

Butter Cake

Mom requested for a steamed egg cake for prayers during the recent mid-autumn festival but I suggested we bake a butter cake instead as my mom's side of the family loves butter cakes.

They would normally consume quite a few of these cakes for breakfast during the first few days of chinese new year (don't really know why) so I tried this recipe and this is how mine turned out.


Not bad eh? I did not cut it as it was to be used for prayers but Mom told me, after prayers, they enjoyed the cake as the texture was really good and taste was nice. Again, another tap on my back for self motivation ...hee .. hee..

For the purpose of easy reference, here is the full recipe:-

250 gm. butter
1 tsp. vanilla essence
250 gm. castor sugar
3 eggs
330 gm. self-raising flour
180 ml. milk
pink food colouring
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
2 Tbsp. milk - extra

Method:
(1) Beat butter, vanilla essence and sugar until light and fluffy.
(2) Add in eggs one at a time.
(3) Stir in flour and milk in two batches. Divide mixture into 3 portions.(4) Blend sifted cocoa powder with extra milk and stir into one portion.(5) Add pink colouring into another portion and leaving the third portion plain.
(6) Drop alternate spoonfuls of mixtures into an 8" round pan. Use a chopstick to pull backwards and forward through the mixture.
(7) Bake cake about 1 hour at 175C. Stand cake 5 mins. in pan then tun onto wire rack to cool.

My mom likes it the "old-fashioned" way, so I omitted the coloring and marbling effects. Yummy!

Peach Upside Down Cake

Oh I am soooo happy! I was so excited to see my bake turn out so well. Although not as pretty as the original baker but I was pretty happy with my achievement.


Everyday I would visit My Kitchen Snippet's blog for some yummylicious bakes and recipes and finally I decided to try her Pineapple Upside Down cake. I had all the ingredients at home except pinepple and brown sugar so I decided to use my can of peaches which were originally planned for a marshmellow peach cake and ordinary sugar instead.



This recipe has a shorter baking time of about 45 mins only and the texture of the cake was just oh so lovely! Such easy recipes sure gives new bakers like me the confidence to continue learning how to bake! Perhaps I would try it again using pineapple some day *smile*.

Merdeka Open House 2008

How could I have promised her! Silly me! Crazy! Siow meh! Gosh, I have no choice but to now cook something!


Dont get me wrong, I love cooking & baking - but the thing is I'm just starting out with simple cakes, muffins & brownies - nothing fancy. But Babe_KL has been such a kind blogger and I promised her I will participate in this fun virtual party!


I decided on my mother's version of Mee Siam. Err .. mee siam is malaysian or not - heee??? But nevermind, I dont recall eating mee siam outside of Malaysia, so here is my simple recipe:-


Mee Siam
1 pack of meehoon (abt 400gm) - soak & drain well - set aside.
some shallots, garlic, chillies & lemon grass - blended together to form a paste
dried prawns (blended separately)
Cooking oil for frying paste
Salt to taste
Some vegetables (shredded) - I used cabbage & carrots


Method

• Heat up wok with some cooking oil.
• Place blended paste & dried prawns into oil & stir fry till you almost faint from the fabulous aroma filling up the air in your kitchen!
• Add salt to taste.




• When ready, add in meehoon & stir fry to coat noodles strands with the paste.
• Add some filtered water to soften meehoon while stir-frying.
• Once nicely coated, add in vegetables & stir well together.
• If needed, a few drops of soy sauce at this juncture.
• Once noodles are cooked, remove & serve.

I like my vege slightly raw & crunchy, so I normally just do a quick stir about 3 mins and its done.

This is the most simple noodle dish we normally cook at home. The best part is it can be served for either breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea - anytime you wish to enjoy it!

For my entry, I served it on a banana leaf and enjoyed it with a pair of chopsticks in the spirit of Merdeka! I love mine with some local mutton curry as a side dish.


Pardon me for the bad pictures as I snapped them during late evening and the lighting was bad + I had zero knowledge on all this photography thing - but hey - at least I tried & kept to my promise huh?