BUTTER GROOVE

Hello kitty fondant cake

2013-11-30T14:19:00.001+08:00

A simple mini 6" cake fondant cake decorated with a hand molded Hello Kitty figurine.

Brownie cookies

2013-07-28T14:47:00.002+08:00

They look like cookies but taste so much like brownie... chewy and fudgy with a lil bit of saltiness. I used cacao barry 66% chocolate- I love my chocolate to be bittersweet. This will be an absolute favorite chocolate lovers out there. If you are looking for crunchy cookies, please skip this recipe! They are meant to be slightly crisp on the outside and chewy like a brownie on the inside.

RECIPE
Adapted from Benjamin Chocolatier

Makes 12 med-large cookies

225g dark chocolate
30g unsalted butter
2 eggs
130g sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp baking powder
35g plain flour
sea salt flakes, optional

1. Preheat oven to 175 degree C fan or 180 degree C convection.
2. Place chocolate and butter in a microwave proof bowl and heat until melted. *or use a double boiler
3. Whisk eggs, vanilla and sugar until light and fluffy
4. Slowly pour in chocolate mixture, whisking constantly, followed by flour and baking powder
5. Spoon batter out and sprinkle sea salt flakes
6. Bake for 10-12 mins.

Durian Puff

2013-07-11T14:32:00.002+08:00

Collapsing choux pastries are bad enough.. How about a interview session turned critic session? Double the heartache. Question- How can we have job experience if there are people out there who doesn't give us a chance because we doesn't have a job experience? Get me?

I admit, I am not looking for a job as enthusiastic as I was 1 month back. It's a bittersweet kind of thing.. Having a full time job means that I'll be leaving my part time job. I've been with the company for almost 4 years and I've been given so many opportunities.

Sometimes I felt really bad during interviews because... I LIED. Hey, I can possibly say 'I am not open to changes', 'I don't really enjoy interacting with people'.. Can I? Guess I'm going off topic now. Ermmm, sorry I need to vent out my frustrations.

My pretty decent looking choux pastries. Look at the crispy cookies topping or you can call it craquelin. My first batch of choux pastry collapsed and shrink like a deflated balloon. Looking at all the miserable looking collapsed choux pastries, the first thing was to blame the myself from using a different recipe when I already have a foolproof recipe. Turns out, it's my impatient personality to blame. All I have to do was to leave it in the oven longer for it to be drier. Lesson learnt!

Don't they look like beard papa's cookie cream puff?

RECIPE

Adapted from Nasi Lemak Lover

Craquelin:

75g butter
75g brown sugar
90g all purpose flour, sifted

1. Beat butter and brown sugar till light and creamy.
2. Add in sifted flour, mix to combine.
3. Keep in fridge to harden.
4. Place dough in between two sheets of plastic sheet, roll into thin sheet (1-2mm).

*I cut the dough into squares and refrigerate them to harden and transfer the harden dough onto the choux batter. Dough will break apart if you try to transfer them when there are soft.

Choux:

125g milk
125g water
125 salted butter/ unsalted + 5g salt
5g sugar
250g eggs ( 5 medium eggs ), lightly beaten
163g all purpose flour, sifted

1. Boil together milk, water, butter and sugar in a saucepan over medium high flame.
2. Remove from heat, using a wooden spoon, quickly stir in sifted flour until combined and mixture comes together into a ball. Return to low heat and cook, stirring constantly until the mixture leaves the sides of the saucepan and film forms on the bottom of the pan (3-4mins).
3. Transfer the dough to a clean mixing bowl and stir the dough till reach room temperature(no steam).
4. Gradually add in egg mixture and stir to incorporate using a wooden spatula or mixer. Mix thoroughly until desired texture (batter should hang down about 20s before dropping down).
5. Pour batter into a piping bag fitted with a #1A piping tip. Pipe on a baking tray line with non-stick baking paper, allow 2"-3" gap in between each batter. Place prepared craquelin topping on each batter.
6. Bake at preheated oven at 190c for 20mins.
7. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Durian cream:

100g non dairy cream (I used dairy and added some icing sugar)
120g durian flesh, mashed well

1. Whisk cream until stiff
2. Stir in durian flesh and icing sugar (if using)

Japanese cheesecake

2013-06-30T16:45:00.002+08:00

New York, German or Japanese cheesecake. Baked or non-baked. They belong to cheesecake family but with a different type of preparing method. Some are heavy while some are light. Some uses whipped egg whites while some uses whipped cream..

And here's my take on the cotton soft Japanese cheesecake. Japanese cheesecakes are light, cottony and soft, almost like eating clouds. Why is the cheesecake so soft and fluffy? Egg whites are whipped till stiff and folded into the cream cheese mixture, this produces a really cottony and fluffy cake.

Speaking about egg whites... Let me share what I've been doing. I've embark on a whole new teaching journey of cake decorations and baking. I'm just a beginner and a freelance instructor and it means a lot to me. I enjoy sharing what I know to the students (who are all older than me), and also that's the reason why I started this blog.. SHARING!

Alright, back to the egg whites story. I was teaching a group of students on how to beat egg whites until stiff peak. Egg whites can be hard to handle. Why? Firstly, egg whites are really 'sensitive' to oil. You would not be able to whip up the egg whites if it got into contact with oil and even the yolks. Next, depending on your mixer, it can take sometimes to whipped up the whites- patience and practice is the key to success. A student asked me whether it matters, soft or stiff peak because it was taking 'forever' to whip. Of course it does, it would affect the batter!

Now I understand how teachers feel when their students are chatting and not listening to instructions.. Haha, I felt extremely apologetic to all my teachers right now.

RECIPE

Adapted from Just One Cookbook

Makes a 9" cake

400 g (14.1 oz) cream cheese, at room temperature
60 g (6 Tbsp.) granulated sugar
60 g (about 4 Tbsp.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 egg yolks, at room temperature
200 ml heavy cream, at room temperature
10 ml (2 tsp.) lemon juice
1 Tbsp. rum
80g (2.8 oz/about 8 Tbsp.) all purpose flour
6 egg whites
100g (10 Tbsp.) granulated sugar for meringue

1. Preheat oven to 320F (160C) degree.
2. Wrap foil at the bottom of the spring form pan to prevent water from sipping in.
3. In stand mixer, beat cream cheese and 60g granulated sugar until smooth. Add in butter and beat well.
4. Beat egg yolk first and then add to the mixture.
5. Then add heavy cream and mix until well combined.
6. Add lemon juice and rum and mix until the batter is very smooth.
7. Sift flour twice. Add in the flour all at once and mix. Leave batter aside.
8. Whisk egg whites and add 100g sugar in three separate times. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks.
9. Fold egg whites into cream cheese mixture.
10. Pour batter into prepared pan.
11. Steam bake at 320F (160C) for 60 minutes or until light golden brown. Then reduce temperature to 300F (150C) degree and bake for 30 minutes.
12. When the cake is nicely baked, keep the oven door ajar for 15 mins before removing the pan from the oven. This will prevent the cake from collapsing due to the temperature difference.

Despicable Me Minions

2013-06-25T13:13:00.001+08:00

Featuring the cute minion from Despicable Me. The haze was really bad for the past couple of days and luckily it's a lot better now. Since the haze was terrible and I do not need to work, I've decided to practice making some fondant figurines.

Wanted to do a step by step tutorial but the lighting was really bad since I can't open the window so here's the cute minion figurine.

It is rather easy to make but due to the humility, the body of the minion was so soft even with lots of tylose powder added. (I'm using satin ice fondant) If I've to make it again, I'll definitely allow the body to harden up for a day before proceeding to add the other elements in.

Banana cake

2013-06-19T20:17:00.002+08:00

What happened to over ripe bananas that is way too mushy and well, not so appetizing? Ermm, and don't forget about the annoying fruit flies. No, neither am I going to leave it there until somebody eats it (not in my family for sure... There's always leftovers) nor am I going to throw it away.

Bananas ain't one of my fav fruit (love lychees!) but banana CAKE is. Love adding lots and lots of mashed bananas into my batter, and probably cheat a lil by adding in a tiny drop of banana creme flavour oil from LorAnn. Yes, just a tiny drop.. You don't want the cake to taste too artificial. You can totally omit the essence/oil but I like the banana flavour to be stronger.

Sour milk or sour cream? I've tried using recipes that uses both and here's my pick.. Recipe that uses sour cream. Both are good but sour cream produces a cake that is moister and that's one of the key factor I am very concern with my cakes. I like my sour cream to be FULL FAT. How about sour milk? Sour milk or buttermilk is one ingredient that also helps in producing a moister cake. It is very easy to make sour milk if you do not have buttermilk in your fridge. A real easy substitute- 1 cup milk and 1 tbsp lemon juice/white vinegar, stir well and leave to rest for 5 mins.

Off topic.. Singapore has been experiencing bad haze for the past few days due to the burning of forests in Sumatra island(Those poor animals/creatures are now homeless..). The haze is so bad that all the high rise buildings in Raffles Place are blurry. PSI has crossed the unhealthy range and it's now at 161. Ahh, better stay at home and bake.

Anyway, back to my banana cake. I did some tweaking of the recipe..

RECIPE

180g butter, softened
160g sugar
2 eggs
5 ripe bananas, coarsely mashed
1/8 tsp banana essence, optional
4 tbsp sour cream
240g plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Toppings:
2-3 ripe bananas, thinly sliced &

1/4 lemon juice
or
Sprinkle cinnamon
or
Sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree C
2. Sift tgt flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt
3. Cream butter, sugar and essence until light and creamy
4. Lightly beat eggs tgt
5. Add in beaten eggs into butter mixture slowly to prevent curdling
6. Mix sour cream and mashed bananas tgt in a bowl
7. At low speed, add in flour, alternately with banana mixture in 3 additions
8. Pour batter into a greased and lined 8" pan and bake for 45-50 mins

Baked cheesecake

2013-06-17T13:08:00.002+08:00

While some people love their cheesecake to have the strong aroma and flavour, my family on the other hand prefer it to be milder.. As much as I like having a slice of cheesecake every now and then, I will never finish the whole slice if the cheesecake is too heavy.

This recipe had been with me for many years and of course, I had baked this countless times.

*I can't rmb which source I got this recipe from

RECIPE

Base:
200g Digestive biscuit
90g Unsalted butter (melted)

1. Crashed the digestive biscuit.
2. Pour the melted butter into it and mix well.
3. Press the digestive biscuit into a 10-inch springform pan and refrigerate before use.

Filling:
500g Cream cheese

175g sugar (A)

4 egg yolks
4 egg whites
Juice and zest of half lemon

87g sugar (B)

250g whipping cream

1. Cream cream cheese and sugar (A) until creamy.
2. Add in egg yolks one at a time and mix well.
3. Add in lemon juice and zest.
4. Pour in whipping cream.
5. Whisk egg white and sugar (B) to a soft peak.
6. Add to cheese mixture and mix well.
7. Pour cheese mixture into a prepared cake pan and steam bake it at 150ºC for 2-2½ hrs.
8. Refrigerate for a few hours before serving.

Marbled butter cake

2013-06-14T14:19:00.001+08:00

I went a lil crazy over cosmetics lately.. All the insane sales going on caused my brain to be slightly wrecked. 3 lipsticks, 1 foundation, 1 concealer, 1 eyebrow mascara and 4 more new eye shadow palettes that I'll get on Monday. Not only over cosmetics but baking and cake decor tools. The urge of buying everything especially when you are working in a shop selling all sorts of cake decor tools, imagine 2 levels! Yes, throughout the 3 years working at the shop on a part time basis, I've purchased so many tools that was left untouched in my cabinet. YES, not even once did I use most of them.. Exchangeable cake scraper, a few candy molds, chocolate molds...... Geez, the only excuses I always told myself was that they are NONPERISHABLE. I've been controlling myself from getting all those pretty range of food gel colouring but sometimes you just need EVERYTHING you see.

Besides... I'm actually thinking of getting a CAMERA to take nice photos. Yea, probably that should be my priority by just looking at all the horrible looking photos on the blog. But it can cost me an arm and a leg, especially when I still can't find a full time job. Well, thankfully I'm not jobless.. Yea to part time job.

I love my silicon cake mold that I got from Daiso for just 2 bucks each.. For a lazy person like me, they are the best invention ever. No greasing and lining.. LOVE IT.

I must confess that NO I didn't bake them recently, there are probably super backdated, 1-2 months? Anyway, here's the recipe.. They are worth the try but not fantastic in my opinion. FYI, I've very picky taste buds.

RECIPE

Adapted from Bisous a Toi

270g unsalted
1/4tsp salt
250g Hong Kong flour
230g caster sugar
10g cocoa powder
6 large eggs
2 tbsp condense milk
1 tbsp ovalette
1 tbsp tap water
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla / vanilla powder
1 tbsp black forest paste/ chocolate paste (optional)
Nutella spread (optional)

1) Beat butter, milk and vanilla together and beat until fluffy. Set aside.
2) In another bowl whisk eggs, ovalette, water, baking powder, flour and sugar into a mixing bowl. Beat until fluffy and thick.
3) Combine batter A and B. Mix well.
4) Remove the 1 / 4 of batter and mix with cocoa powder and black forest paste. Stir well.
5) Prepare greased cake tin measuring 8 x 8 inches
6) Add 3 scoops of plain dough and a scoop of cocoa mix, and repeat this method until all the batter are use.. marble it ..
7) Bake cake batter in oven at 180C for 45-50 minutes.
8) Let the cake cool before slicing it into two parts and spread with Nutella. (optional) Leave in fridge for a few hrs or a night before serving.

Dorie Greenspan's cream scones

2013-06-13T17:49:00.001+08:00

After attempting this recipe for sour cream scones, I was wondering what's the difference between a recipe using sour cream and recipe using cream. With my tiny bit of knowledge, sour cream is an ingredient that I would make the end product packed with moistness. Like any recipe that uses sour cream, indeed it was really moist.

Instead of sour cream, this recipe from Dorie Greenspan uses cream which most of the scones recipes I've encountered uses. Cream, is a fattening ingredient that also ensure the baked goods to be moist and packed full with flavour. Thumbs up for this recipe- Not too dry interior and a really good crisp outer crust.

Instead of leaving the scones plain, dark chocolate chips are added in for the chocoholic monster in me. I like Ghirardelli 60% baking chocolate chips. Not too expensive yet they taste so amazing!

RECIPE
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours

1 egg
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small cubes
chocolate chips, optional

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Beat egg and cream together and set aside.
3. Set aside. In large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together.
4. Add the butter and rub it into the flour until it resembles bread crumbs.
5. Pour the egg and cream into the flour/butter mixture and stir to combine.
6. Shape the dough into circles
7. Bake the scones for 20-22 minutes, until the are nicely browned.

Serve immediately
Store any leftovers in an airtight container and reheat the scones before serving.

Tish Boyle's plainly perfect pound cake

2013-06-11T17:47:00.000+08:00

A good old pound cake from the book, The Cake Book by Tish boyle. Like what the name says, the cake is indeed perfect.. Moist, buttery and fragrance from the citrus zest. I've been wanting to try this recipe out after baking Tish Boyle's luxe pound cake months ago. I didn't blog about it but you can find the recipe here. Compared to the luxe pound cake, this cake gets a higher score from me. Well, luxe pound cake uses almond extract which is my 'enemy'. I've never been a fan of almond flavoured dessert. There is this strong and distinct smell that I do not appreciate. On the other hand, my mum loves almond desserts.. The stronger the 'fragrance' (hmmm?) the better it is.

If you do notice, I hardly uses recipe that involves using cream. I love stocking up my baking supplies, butter, chocolate, flour... but never cream. The cream comes in either a way too small carton or a way too big carton. My favourite brand comes only in 1L carton and there's no way I can finish them before they turned bad. But here comes a solution, freezing the cream. Instead of placing the whole carton into the freezer, I divided the cream into smaller bags for convenience.

RECIPE
Adapted from Tish Boyle's The Cake Book

200g Plain flour
1/4 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Salt
227g Unsalted butter (softened)
250g castor sugar
4 Large eggs
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1 tsp grated orange zest
1 tsp vanilla extract
80ml Heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 170C.
2. Sift tgt flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Cream butter until creamy, add in sugar gradually. Continue beating for 4 mins until light and fluffy.
4. Reduce the mixing speed of the mixer to low and add eggs one at a time, mixed well.
5. Add in citrus zest and vanilla extract.
6. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with cream.
7. Pour into the 2 prepared 3"x 7" cake mold (greased & lined) and bake for 60-70 mins.

PME Sugar flowers

2013-06-06T15:17:00.001+08:00

Roses and freesia, they are among my favourite flowers learnt in PME sugar flower module. Yes, I was busy for the last few weeks.. Busy learning and preparing for my finale cake for my PME class. Well, I was stressed out, not by my instructor but myself. That's the con of being a perfectionist (hmm, probably just in cake deco/baking). A total of 5 lessons, each lasting for 5 hours.. No, there are not long at all! 5 hours may seems to be so damn long but NO, time passes so quickly when we are so focused on our flowers.

Yes, practice practice practice! Practice makes perfect (well, near perfect).

Did I say practice??

'Like' Butter Groove on facebook now! Or follow Butter Groove on Instagram for my updates :)

Traditional Madeleine

2013-05-26T15:44:00.000+08:00

Yea, I'm back to blogging after almost a month of hiatus. I was busy, busy with something stressful yet enjoyable.. I'll blog about it soon :)

Well, I got my madeleine mold from Daiso long ago but I just didn't feel like baking madeleines. The process is long.. Why? This recipe requires refrigerating for at least 3 hours or up to 2 days. Hmm, refrigerating the batter would actually helps it to produce the classic madeleine hump but... it's not the case for this recipe. I did some googling and many bloggers who tried this recipe didn't get any hump as well :S

Anyway.. I got all my books from either fishpond or bookdepository . They are so much cheaper than local bookstores and most importantly, FREE SHIPPING! Yeaaa, no worries about lost parcel as they would actually replace a new copy for you if your parcel fails to reach you within a month or so. Happens to me when I ordered Tish Boyle's The cake book . Thumbs up for their great service!!

Okayyyyy.. Recipe time :)

RECIPE

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours

Please note that I halved the recipe & converted the measurements to grams

Makes 6 large/18 minis

41g all purpose flour
1/4tsp + 1/8tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
56g sugar
Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
1 large egg, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
43g melted butter, cooled

1. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt
2. Rub sugar and lemon zest with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
3. Add in egg to the bowl
4. Working with a whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat the egg and sugar together on medium-high until pale, thick and light, 2 to 3mins.
5. Beat in vanilla extract
6. With a rubber spatula, fold in dry ingredients, followed by melted butter
7. Press a piece if plastic wrap against the surface of the batter and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or for up to 2 days. Alternatively, you can spoon the batter into the madeleine molds, covered and refrigerate.**
8. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
9. Grease and lightly flour the madeleine mold**. Spoon batter to mold, filling almost to the top.
10. Bake for 11-13 mins for large madeleine or 8-10mins for the minis or until golden and tops spring back when touched.
11. Dust madeleines with icing sugar before serving.

Serving: Serve the cookies when they are only slightly warm or when they reach room temp.
Storing: Madeleines should be eaten soon after they are made. Alternatively, you can keep them overnight in a sealed container or wrapped well and freeze them for up to 2 months.

Graduation trip to Taiwan

2013-04-28T16:32:00.001+08:00

Neglected my blog for awhile after returning from my trip to the lovely country, Taiwan. I entered a state of post-vacation blues after coming back to the hot sunny Singapore..

I had an awesome time in Taiwan!

I LOVE the weather in Taiwan! I can finally wear my thick jackets and trench coat without looking out of place and perspiring like crazy. The difference between Singaporean and Taiwanese..

Dressing: No t-shirt, shorts and slipper! I do know that the girls in Taiwan do dress well through all the Taiwan television shows that I watched occasionally. However, I was surprised that the guys dress up too! No sloppy look as compared to most of the guys in Singapore. (No offence guys!)

Friendliness: I was impressed by how friendly the retail staff are. They actually encouraged their customers to take down the clothes from the rack and try it! I can just feel free to touch their merchandises without the stares from the staff. Definitely a thumbs up!!

Train etiquette: People do queue for the train and even for the escalator. That's something rare in Sg.. Most of the time, people will be rushing into the train and rushing to snatch the empty seats! When someone just stood up from the seat, most of us Singaporean would immediately rush to the seat, ME INCLUDED! However back in Tw, it's so different! No snatching of seats!! Priority seats are really PRIORITY for them.. The seats are mostly left empty for the elderly, children, pregnant..

We had a hard time choosing which hotel to stay and I'm glad we chose SWIIO Hotel which is located in Xi men ding and just a few minutes walk to the MRT.

Love the theme of the hotel!

Here's the itinerary I had planned for our 6D5N trip..

Taipei Itinerary

Day 1:

Afternoon – Settled down at the Hotel

Night – Shida Night market

Day 2:

Morning – Jiu Fen

Afternoon/Late afternoon – Shi Fen

Night – Explore Xi men ding

Day 3 (13/4 Saturday):

Morning – Xin Bei Tou

Afternoon – Dan Shui

Night – Explore Xi men ding

Day 4 (14/4 Sunday):

Morning – ~~Maokong Gondola~~

Afternoon – Wu Fen Pu

Night – Raohe night market

Day 5 (15/4 Monday):

Morning – ~~Yang Ming Shan~~

Afternoon – ~~Taipei main station underground mall~~ Shida night market

Late afternoon / Night – Shilin night market

Day 6 (16/4 Tuesday):

Morning/ afternoon: Explore Xi men ding

Flight @ 4.10 pm

I'll blog more about each day soon!

Gula melaka chiffon cake

2013-04-05T18:33:00.000+08:00

I've been baking chiffon cake quite frequently lately.. It's so much less sinful as compared to munching on buttercake.

Gula melaka aka palm sugar can add in a distinct taste and it is really fragrant.. Try to find the best gula melaka you can find. The cake is really fragrant however, it would be better if there's more gula melaka taste.. The problem is on the gula melaka that I'm using as suggested by my mum. The quality of the ingredients definitely will affect how the cake turns out!

I would definitely make it again sooooooon! I love it!

RECIPE
Adapted from Happy Flour

4 egg yolk
3tbsp cooking oil
1/8tsp salt
95g cake flour
1/4tsp baking powder
95g gula melaka (chopped)
65g thick coconut milk

4 egg white
1/4tsp cream of tartar
30g caster sugar

1. Preheat oven to 175C.
2. Melt gula melaka and coconut milk together over low fire.
3. Set aside to cool.
4. Sift flour, salt and baking powder together.
5. Use a hand whisk mix egg yolk, oil, gula melaka syrup and flour together.
6. Whisk until well combined.
7. Use a cake mixer and whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar till frothy.
8. Gradually add in the sugar and whisk till stiff peaks form.
9. Fold in 1/4 of the meringue into the egg yolk mixture until combined.
10.Then fold in the rest of the meringue lightly until well combined.
11.Pour batter into a 21cm tube pan.
12.Put into a preheated oven and bake for 40-45mins.
13.Remove from oven, invert cake onto table until completely cool.
14.Remove from pan and serve.

Sour cream chocolate chip scones

2013-03-30T13:59:00.000+08:00

Yes, I've finally completed the itinerary plan for my Taiwan trip which is in 2 weeks time!! The more I research, the more excited I am!! Can't wait to eat all the delicious food and also the SHOPPING~ Wu Fen Pu, Jiu Fen, Xi Men Ding......

This is my first time making scones and I must say it went quite well.. It was really tender, I guess the sour cream did its amazing work here. It was a tad bland because I forgot to add in the 2 tbsp granulated sugar!!! Yes, I should go through the recipe thoroughly!! And also, I forgot to sprinkle sugar on the scones before baking..

I need to change my bad habit of not reading the ingredient lists and instructions before baking..

Instead of cutting it into triangles, I simply rolled it into balls which are a lot easier.. I didn't want to dirty and clean up the table! Heh, when laziness kicks in...

Munching on the scone while watching crayon shinchan.. Childhood cartoon is the best!

Here's the recipe that you should try..

RECIPE
Cookie Madness's sour cream choco chip scones
Serves: 8

2 cups all-purpose flour (9 oz)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, very cold and cut into bits
1 large egg
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Mix flour, both sugars, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a mixing bowl.
3. Scatter the cut up butter over flour mixture and using your fingers or a pastry cutter or fork, work the butter into the flour until flour mixture is very coarse.
4. In a small bowl, whisk egg, sour cream and vanilla until smooth. Stir sour cream mixture into flour mixture until large dough clumps form. Add the chips.
5. When dough just starts to come together, turn it onto a clean surface and shape it into a 7 inch circle. If you prefer, you can make 2 rectangles. Slice the circle into 8 triangles or slice each rectangle into 4 triangles. Arrange triangles a few inches apart on a cookie sheet.
6. Bake until golden, about 15 to 17 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes and serve warm or at room temperature.

Magnolia chocolate cupcake

2013-03-24T14:13:00.003+08:00

Cupcake hype? My cupcake baking addiction had died down.. This magnolia chocolate cupcakes were baked months ago but I've totally forgotten about it. Cupcakes have always been a hot topic - the mini cakes are very popular!! You can find so many cupcake shops everywhere.. More and more shops are focusing more on the taste rather than piling the cupcake with fondant decorations.

However, baking trend changes..

From cupcakes -> cake pops -> ombre cake -> cake push pops -> baked doughnuts and so on...

So what's 2013 baking trends?!

I did a lil googling and this is what I found out..

MINI ECLAIRS?

MINI DOUGHNUTS?

MARSHMALLOWS?

MACARONS?

I guess bite size desserts are still ever popular!!

Okayyyyyyy... It's recipe time!

RECIPE

Adapted from Food.com

Makes 24 cupcakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F.
2. Melt chocolate over a double boiler, leave to cool.
3. Sift flour and baking soda tgt.
4. Cream butter until smooth.
5. Add in sugar and continue mixing until pale and creamy.
6. Add eggs, one at a time. Mix well
7. Add dry ingredients, in 3 parts, alternating with buttermilk & vanilla mixture.
8. Bake for 20-25mins.

Healthy banana ice cream

2013-03-23T16:05:00.000+08:00

Pardon for my not so appetizing photo of the ice cream..

My mum brought back bananas for me to make banana cake since I really need to finish up the tub of sour cream before it expiry.. The left over bananas are just sitting on the table and the bunch of fruit flies are just so annoying!

Why not freeze the bananas and turn them into delicious healthy ice cream?!

The banana ice cream was really creamy and sweet! I don't feel guilty at all for eating it at night.. A good method for people who are craving for ice cream yet afraid to indulge in the sinful dessert. And also, it is so easy! No ice cream maker required and you simply need just ONE ingredients!

I used really ripe banana for the sweetness and slice them for easier blending. Bring out the frozen bananas and blend them in the blender. The mixture may look chunky at first but all you need to do is to continue blending them and it would come nicely together - creamy.. Like how ice cream should look like.

Be CREATIVE! You can add in nutella, peanut butter, jam, chocolate chip and so on...

Now, enjoy your guilt free ice cream!!

My cake decorating adventure..

2013-03-21T17:36:00.002+08:00

My cake decorating journey started from making fondant from scratch! I remembered using a recipe involving mixing of raw egg whites, glucose, icing sugar & other ingredients together to form the sugar paste. The horror of using raw eggs!! Definitely would stay away from any recipe using raw eggs now, I don't want to put the people who are eating my cakes at risk of contracting salmonella. That was the first time I've come in contact with sugar paste, A.K.A fondant..

After looking at all the beautiful decorated cakes, I decided to try it out myself.. I had absolutely no idea what was I doing back then, it was all trial and error.. The internet was my best friend, learning all the tricks from fellow bloggers and cake forums.

And then.. I FELL IN LOVE WITH........... CAKE DECORATING OF COURSE!!

Slowly, I tried out other fondant recipes and marshmallow fondant became my favourite. But right now, I would never ever make my own fondant. It's too much work!! :/

I started having my own online cupcake business.. Sadly, the business didn't last long. Well, I can't remember why I closed my mini cupcake business..

My friends were my biggest motivation! I was proud of presenting my decorated cupcakes to them, and they loved it. Hahah.. Thinking back, they were really a batch of nice friends who had extremely sweet tooth. The icing was choking sweet, I used classic american buttercream which uses butter, icing sugar, milk/water and flavouring. I've moved on and now I'm loving meringue butter cream which are a lot less sweet!

Loving my wilton #1M tip!

A garden themed cupcakes that I made for my grandma's birthday.. The 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' tag was actually from my paper craft machine.. It was used to imprint on papers but it worked well on fondant too.

Well, my frosting is not really butter butter cream since I didn't use butter at all! I used planta margarine.. Why?! Butter are rather expensive and since margarine are a lot cheaper... why not? Hahah. What was I thinking back then?!?! The thing about using planta margarine is that my frosting holds the shape so well even under the scorching sun for hours!!

Right now, I would never ever replace butter with margarine! NEVER!! I believe in using the best quality ingredients you can find.. (I'm using elle et vire butter, valrhona coco powder, cacao barry etc) It really do make a HUGE different.

My go-to cupcake recipe back then was from 500 Muffins and Cupcakes.. They are so easy to make and remember!!

RECIPE

225g butter

225g sugar

225g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

10 crushed oreos

1. Preheat oven to 175 degree C.

2. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla.

3. Add in sifted dry ingredients - mix well.

4. Fold in crushed oreos.

5. Bake for 20 mins

Pandan chiffon cake

2013-03-20T13:26:00.003+08:00

Pandan leaves, coconut milk and my blender.. After the tedious blending and squeezing out of pandan juice, the chiffon cake is so much different as compared to using just pandan paste/essence.

After blending, it's time to squeeze out all the precious drops of pandan juice! So much work... Alternatively, the short cut would be using pandan paste which are not too bad either.

Alright, recipe time...

RECIPE
Adapted from Kitchen Tigress

Source: Adapted from Kiamnianwong's recipe
(Recipe for one 21-cm cake)

100 g pandan leaves, use only soft and moist young leaves
buy 250 g and use only 100 g of the innermost, light green leaves
70 g freshly squeezed coconut milk, undiluted

180 g egg whites
½ tsp cream of tartar
50 g sugar

60 g egg yolks
50 g sugar
60 g vegetable oil
¼ tsp salt
100 g cake flour, sifted with baking powder
1 tsp baking powder

1.Preheat oven to 180°C (355°F).

2. Wash and roughly chop pandan leaves. Whilst still damp, blend with coconut milk and 1 tbsp water. Strain, pressing leaves hard. Discard pulp. You should have a green liquid weighing 95 g. Set aside.

3. Whisk egg whites with sugar and cream of tartar till just reaching stiff peaks. Set aside.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar till pale, thick and creamy (ribbon stage). Add green coconut milk, then vegetable oil, whisking till evenly mixed. Gradually add flour mixture, along with salt, again whisking till just evenly mixed. Add egg whites in 3 batches, whisking gently by hand in electric whisk's direction. Scrape down with spatula before mixing last batch of egg whites.

5. Bang mixing bowl against worktop 2-3 times to remove air bubbles. Pour batter into 21 cm 2-piece chiffon tin that's not non-stick, slowly so that air bubbles still trapped in the batter are released. Run a chopstick round side of tin to remove more air bubbles. Level and smooth top.

6. Bake cake in bottom of oven till risen and almost level with top of tin, about 15 minutes. Cake should now be very slightly brown and not cracked. Place baking tray in top of oven to block top heat. Continue baking till inserted skewer comes out clean, 20 minutes or so. Cake should now be slightly cracked. Remove tray from top of oven. Continue baking till top of cake is dry and medium-brown, another 5-10 minutes

7. Remove cake from oven. Invert onto a bottle. Leave till cool, an hour or so. Cut cake out of the tin.

Creamy Scrambled Eggs

2013-03-12T14:40:00.000+08:00

Gordon Ramsay's scrambled eggs, accompanied with my absolute favourite garlic toast for brunch. Added in full fat sour cream which resulted in a really creamy and tasty scrambled eggs. They are so good! I've made this type of scrambled eggs for many times using just milk but there's always something *missing*. The taste is not flavouful enough and now I've find the answer.. Nothing can beat SOUR CREAM!

RECIPE

Gordon Ramsay's Sublime Scrambled Eggs

6 large eggs

3 tbsp ice cold butter, diced

1-2 tbsp creme fraiche (I used sour cream)

Salt & pepper to taste

Few chive, snipped (Omitted)

1. Break the eggs into a cold, heavy-based pan, add half the butter, and place onto the stove over generous heat. Using a spatula, stir the eggs frequently to combine the yolks with the whites.

2. As the mixture begins to set, add the remaining butter. The eggs will take about 4-5 minutes to scramble – they should still be soft and quite lumpy. Don’t let them get too hot – keep moving the pan off and back on the heat.

3. Add the crème fraîche and season the eggs at the last minute, then add the snipped chives. Serve immediately.

Miss Teddy

2013-03-11T15:28:00.002+08:00

This cake was made almost 1 year ago!! Initially, the cake topper should be a forever friends bear but somehow it didn't turn out right but nonetheless, i think it still looks cute. Making fondant figures are so much fun and definitely practice makes perfect (okay, not perfect but almost almost!) The bear figure which I used was my second attempt cos the first bear was way too out of shape.

**Lesson learnt**

It's always good to prepare a cake that is sturdy and strong for transferring and covering with fondant!! Made a HUGE mistake of making a cake that was wayyyyy too fragile. Even moving the cake from the cooling rack to the board in ONE piece was a challenge. As expected, I broke the cake T.T Being a LAZY?! person, I didn't want to make another cake again so the cake pop method came into my mind! I smashed the cake and mixed it with buttercream. Next, wrap clingfilm around the cake tin and mold the cake crumb into a cake shape. IT WORKS!!!! When in doubt, improvise..

The cake was good though, so chocolatey and moist.

RECIPE

Tish boyle's Chocolate buttermilk cake from The Cake Book

Makes 6 individual cakes using a 6-cake bundtlette pan

1 cup/114g cake flour

1/2 cup/46g dutch proceesed cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup/170g unsalted butter, softened

1 1/4 cups/250g sugar

2 large eggs

3/4 cup/180ml buttermilk

2 tbsp Kahlua, optional

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 oz/113g bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F

2. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.

3. Cream butter and sugar until creamy

4. Add in eggs one at a time, mix well.

5. In a small bowl, stir buttermilk, vanilla and Kahlua(if using) together.

6. At low speed, add in dry ingredients to the butter mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk mixture.

7. Fold in chopped chocolate.

8. Bake for 25 to 30 mins.

CNY Sugi Cookies

2013-03-04T16:59:00.001+08:00

School's out! In a blink of an eye, I am now a graduand.. Anticipating the new phase in my life, it can be rather scary and exciting.

I didn't have the time to bake many CNY goodies this year since I was preparing for my main exam so the only goodies I made is these easy peasy suji cookies and my all time favourite melt-in-your mouth butter cookies. Suji cookies are extremely fragrant and flavourful as it uses ghee (clarified butter). It is an extremely fattening cookies but who cares, it's Chinese New Year!

Suji cookies are meant to remain white, pale after baking however, my family preferred it to be a lil golden. However, do not over bake it as it would be very hard after it cooled.

I've shared this recipe before but I'll post it here again..

RECIPE

Adapted from QBB

250g QBB
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
500g plain flour
2 teaspoons bicarbonate soda
170g icing sugar
3/4 teaspoon fine salt

1. Melt QBB over low heat and cool.
2. Add vanilla essence to cooled ghee.
3. Sift flour, bicarbonate soda, icing sugar and salt into mixing bowl.
4. Pour ghee mixture in flour mixture and knead well to form a firm dough.
5. Preheat the oven to 180°C .
6. Roll dough into melt-in-your-mouth ball sizes and place on greased tray.
7. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes till cooked but not brown. The cookies should be white and crumbly in texture.

Mafia themed cake

2013-02-02T00:36:00.002+08:00

I'm glad that I did not take the safe way and go with my old design for the cake! Being such a nice friend *erhmm*, I promised that I'll make her a special cake! Yeahhhhh. I, myself was excited too because the last fondant cake I did was almost 10 months agoooooo... I almost couldn't make the cake because the shop near my house ran out of white fondant! *pulls hair*

The fondant gun turned out quite alright as I molded it by referring to a picture. Here's how the gun looks like. Notice that the surface is rather glossy? Well, it is very very very hard to get nice black fondant from adding colouring into white fondant as it would get too sticky to work with. To get the nice black I wanted, I painted the surface with black colour & vodka.

I hand painted the leopard prints on the numbering and the cake boarder which took ages since I did 3 tones, black, brown and ivory. It took me 1 hour to just paint the boarder,! My poor neck couldn't take it and it was sooooo sore the next day. The mafia silhouette was craved out but I wasn't neat as it was so hard cutting small details such as the pocket.

I definitely need to improve on my covering skill!! This is my first time covering a square cake and look at the hideous bumps and the ugly boarder. I had to conceal the ugly boarder by adding fondant to cover it. :( I need to make more fondant cakes!!! Despite staying in the kitchen for hours baking and decorating the cake, it was all worth it after looking at the smiles on my friend's face. :D

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY!!

Danish butter cookie

2013-01-25T21:18:00.001+08:00

34 more days till I complete my diploma (Provided that I don't fail any paper ._.) How time flies, I'll be officially graduating in May! While my friends are enrolling into university, me on the other hand, decided to start working.. I'm taking a break before I start my working life and I'll be having a graduation trip with my friend to Taiwan. All the shopping and food!! Our initial idea was to go to Korea because earlier on we were doing our work about Jeju Island during our Cruise tutorial class. We took 4 days to decide and book our tickets! It was so impromptu that it seems unreal to me. I was rather surprise to find out that it was not necessary to key in our passport details for our flight ticket?! :O

Chinese New Year is around the corner but this year, there would be no CNY cookies marathon baking this year. All the school work are taking a toll on me, I'm so exhausted by the mountain of work we need to finish. It's going to be a torturous week with all the submissions and presentations :(

Anyway, back to the cookies.. I love the blue tin Royal Dansky butter cookies which we used to munch when we are little. I really like these cookies because it's extremely fragrant and crunchy. I piped these pretty swirls with my #1M wilton tip. I got myself a cookie press as Christmas present online and guess what, it took more than a month before I received the item. The seller was really irresponsible, completely ignoring my email on my enquiry of the delivering time. Gosh, luckily it arrived before CNY so I can actually use it to bake some awesome goodies~~

RECIPE

Adapted from @kokken

95g Unsalted Butter
1g Fleur de Sel
1/8 tsp Vanilla paste
40g Powdered Sugar
15g Egg White
115g All purpose flour

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk unsalte butter with Fleur de Sel until creamy.
3. Add in powdered sugar and whisk until homogenous and creamy.
4. Add in egg white. ( The mixture may curdle a little but it will smoothen out after flour is added.
5. Add in flour and mix until well combined.
6. Scoop batter into a piping bag fitted with a star tip. Pipe circles/wreaths on a lined baking tray.
7. Bake at 180C for 10 -12 mins or until golden brown.
8. Cool down and store in air tight container.

Red velvet cupcake

2013-01-10T18:26:00.001+08:00

All I want to do now is to bake but my headache is killing me.. The weather is really a killer! I'm glad I finally have the courage to snip off my long hair that accompanied me for sooooo many years. I always have long hair and now I'm actually enjoying the change. NO REGRETS! I went to sit for a test in the afternoon and guess what, bammm, I guess I'm going to score quite low for that paper.. Talk about cramming a test into our super tight project schedules. Boohooooo.

Anyway, I volunteered to bake and decorate a fondant cake for my friend's 21st birthday party. I'm going to stick to a simple design with leopard prints border since she's a huge fan of LEOPARD PRINT! I shall see what else I can add in while decorating the cake. It's so much easier picturing what I want the cake to look like but... It's so different when I'm actually making it! Wish me luck, fingers crossed >.<

This recipe is called Sprinkles copycat red velvet cupcake! Yes, COPYCAT and SPRINKLES! How can I not try the recipe?! I've not tried the real deal before so I can't really compare how exactly similar are the cupcakes. This is my go to red velvet cupcake recipe at the moment, really moist and slightly more chocolaty. Since I'm not a big fan of choking sweet butter cream, I always prefer meringue butter cream which are lighter and less sweet. As much as I like meringue butter cream, it can be a tad troublesome to make (maybe because I'm just too lazy to do the extra steps). I like baking cupcakes but not so much on the butter cream since my family does not really fancy butter cream that much. Cupcakes with butter cream are only served during 'special occasion'.

I've met with some issues regarding sticky cupcake surface. I'm really particular about it since the surface became so sticky and 'wet' that it kind of affected the overall texture. I've read from forums that the sticky surface is caused by sugar and if I store it in a air tight container when they are still warm, humid weather etc. Well, for my case, the sticky surfaces only appeared if the recipe contains liquid like milk. Is liquid in the batter that caused the sticky top?! I've tried cupcake recipe without liquid and they came out really perfect, nice firm surface even after sitting overnight in the container.

Whoa, the tv is showing Top chef: Just desserts and they are making cupcakes!!!!

RECIPE

Adapted from: Kelly’s Copycat Sprinkles Red Velvet Cupcake
Recipe Makes 24 large, or 30 medium cupcakes

2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup buttermilk (or milk with 2 teaspoons lemon juice)
1 ounce red food coloring (I used lesser, depends on how red you want your cake to be)
4 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F.
2. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
3. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Beat in eggs one at a time.
5. Mix in sour cream, buttermilk, colouring and vanilla extract.
6. Slowly fold in the sifted dry ingredients.
7. Spoon batter into lined muffin pan, filling 2/3 for each muffin.
8. Bake for 18 to 22mins.

Cream cheese meringue buttercream
Adapted from Whisk Kid

3 (100g) egg whites
2/3 c (130g) sugar
10 Tbsp (142g) butter, cubed and at room temp
1 tsp vanilla
4 oz (113g) cream cheese, cubed and at room temp

1. In the base of a double boiler, bring water to a simmer. In the top bowl (or just a bowl to place over a pan of simmering water) combine the egg whites and sugar and whisk constantly until the mixture is hot to the touch (160F on a candy thermometer if you want to be completely accurate), about five minutes depending on the original temperature of the eggs.

2. When the mixture has warmed sufficiently, pour it into the bowl of your stand mixer and whip on high speed until the bottom of the bowl is room temperature, ten to fifteen minutes.

3. When the bowl is no longer warm, turn the mixer to medium-low and begin adding the butter piece by piece. Let each chunk incorporate completely before adding the next and don't rush the process!

4. After all of the butter has been added, add the vanilla and turn the speed back to high. Whip for about 3 minutes or until the buttercream comes together.

5. Turn the speed down to low and add the cream cheese, then mix on medium to fully incorporate.