Back to the Lapis. I baked this again because my father’s 76 year old Malay doctor friend had been refusing to charge him when he went to see him for a skin condition. My father had been unwilling to go back for a follow up session because he knew the doctor is not going to charge him again. ( For those who are not familiar – this is an Asian thing. We feel indebted when we receive free things from friends.)  To force my father to go back to the clinic again, I volunteered to present the doctor with a Lapis when we go back again.To be quite honest, at one point, I did wonder if it would be appropriate to present a 76 year old man with a cholesterol laden sweet but I went ahead with it anyway because, the Lapis is generally perceived as an indulgent treat and is extremely popular with the Malays (and non-Malays alike).  In fact, I have not met anyone, who does not enjoy the Lapis.Coincidentally I saw Rima’s gorgeous Mocha Lapis post last week. It was the most perfect lapis I have ever seen in my life. The texture looked exceptionally gorgeous. I was literally brimming with excitement until I saw the recipe…. The 9 inch cake uses 45 egg yolks, almost 1kg of butter and a mind whopping amount of sugar. I baulked and chickened out.

I decided to take a few elements from Rima’s recipe and came up with a modified, recipe.
I am still extremely pleased with the texture of this Lapis and I hope with more practice, my lapis would one day look as good as Rima’s.

Mocha Kuih Lapis

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In a world laden with processed food and additives, garlics boost our immunity and minimise heart ailments. Leek on the other hand,is a great source of fibre and has laxative, antiseptic and anti-arthritic properties.Cooking a recipe like this will have all your neighbours thinking that you are a great cook. The aroma is intoxicating and evokes imagery of sizzling gourmet food. It doesn’t hurt when the recipe is really easy to manage.
So who’s afraid of the aromatics???

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When I was growing up, cakes did not look anything like what we see today – we almost never saw anything with fresh cream and one can totally forget about intricate entremets. What we had then were rustic, simple and predictable. I recall that we would always look forward to marriage celebrations among family friends, waiting for the day when they would personally deliver the red invitation card and the box of engagement cake. Yes, those were strange times when the bride/ groom family would be running around distributing dozens of boxes of cakes and wedding invitation cards. Depending on how close one is to the family, one may get either one or two boxes of wedding cakes.

The contents of those cake boxes were almost always the same- typically an assortment of 10 slices of sponge cakes frosted with delicious butter cream. Some would be crusted with chocolate rice, others would be dotted with colourful jams.  Quite often, the ones with chocolate would get snapped up first after which we would reach for those topped with jams… The tradition has become simplified over the years. Nobody runs around distributing cakes on their engagement day anymore. Instead these have been replaced by cake vouchers which one can redeem from the bakery stores.

When I spotted these in Alex Goh’s Creative Making Of Cakes, I knew that I would have to make these just  to revisit childhood nostalgia. My cake is not completely the same as what we used to have.The sponge cake is more refined, the butter cream is fluffier and lighter and the jam tasted less artificial than what I used to have 30 years ago…(even though I tried to buy the cheapest jam I could find off the supermarket shelf) but it still managed to give me flash backs of those pink floral cake boxes tied with raffia ribbon and those lacquered red invitation cards…gosh, I have not seen those in ages!

If you are from the same era as I am, you will love this. Memories are the world’s most potent ingredients…

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Of course, with affluence and greater exposure to everything in the world, our palate has become more discerning. I don’t think those wrinkly cream puffs with dry pasty custards would work any more.  Thankfully, there are still many ways to ‘glam up’ the humble Pate A Choux. One can let one’s imagination take flight and work with a myriad of interesting cream fillings as exemplified by ZenChef’s creation. Or, if you are, like me too lazy to whip up a pastry cream ( my secret confession – creme patissiere is one of my least favourite things to prepare) , there are still many other ways to add pizzazz to your choux puffs.I made an easy chocolate sauce here to line the plate with and simply sandwich the puffs with Haagan Daz Caramel Biscuit & Cream ice cream. Present this to your guests on a plate like the way I did and they would think that they are eating dessert in a fine-dining restaurant!

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Touted as the most popular muffins sold at Bourke Street Bakery, this is an easy, no-Kitchenaid-mixer-required kind of recipe. The down to earth simplicity brought me back to those early formative years when I did not own even a handheld mixer. It was really after I had a few easy successes with muffins that I was motivated to get a Kitchenaid mixer… from then onwards, I graduated to frosted cupcakes and had never looked back since.Unfortunately, in the pursuit of more fancy baked goods, I had turned somewhat snooty at the humble muffins – dismissing them as too easy for ‘my developed skill sets’…. yes, we can lose ourselves amidst fluffy clouds of meringue and silky smooth butter cream… The best way to be brought back to the earthiness of being would be to keep companions like Tish Boyle and Bourke Street close to you. Life can be simple and great …and at most times, simplicity is enough.Utterly moist and tender, this muffin achieves its lovely texture through the generous incorporation of butter, buttermilk and fresh succulent raspberries. I could literally feel a gush of hot steam rushing out of the oven when I opened the oven door.
The generous amount of dark chocolate used in the recipe would also delight chocolate lovers.

My Australian colleague had told me that their mixed berry muffins were outstanding but I bet he had not yet tasted these Dark Chocolate Raspberry muffins.

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This donut recipe is from an earlier issue of the Donna Hay Magazine. I had bookmarked this for the longest time but like many other little flags that are peeping out from the many cookbooks on my bookshelf, most of them continue to stay… shelved.  My bookmarked recipes kind of remind me of the 1000 concubines old Chinese Emperors used to house in the back quarters of the palace… beauties wistfully hoping to be picked by the emperor to pleasure him…  2 reasons made the sighting of this recipe memorable – the glossy chocolate honey glaze and the fact that these are made into bite sized. (I used a pineapple tart cutter, so you can imagine how small they are…)

Both the dough and the glaze were easy to make. Actual hands on time was less than 20mins and the rest was really leaving the the dough to proof and frying it in oil.

As much as I adore Donna Hay Magazine, I seldom cook or bake from it. I spend more time ogling at the photos than cooking from them… hence I wasn’t sure how this recipe would turn out.  The results are pretty good, as far as my limited exposure to donuts can tell. The dough is fluffy and suprisingly, not too greasy. The glaze, as expected, took the whole limelight. I liked it  that you can just pop this into the mouth and not have to munch through a whole full sized donut.

Definitely a great option for kid’s parties! So one trivial resolution completed and one more to go!

Recipe :
Baby Donuts With Chocolate Honey Glaze (From Donna Hay Magazine) 

1 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tbsp lukewarm water
1/4 cup lukewarm milk
1 tbsp caster sugar
25g butter, melted
1 1/4 cups (185g) all purpose flour
1 egg

Vegetable oil for deep frying

chocolate honey glaze
30g butter
1/4 cup (90g) honey ( I used only 30g)
1 tsp vanilla extract
110g dark chocolate

Method :
1. Place yeast, milk, water and sugar in a large bowl and set aside in a warm place for 10mins or until bubbles appear on the surface.
2. Add the butter, flour and egg to the yeast mixture and using a spatula, mix until a sticky dough forms.
3. Turn out into a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth.
4. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean, damp cloth and set aside to proof for 45 mins.
5. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 5 mins or until smooth and elastic . Roll out to 1 cm thickness and using a 3.5cm round cutter , cut 25 rounds from the dough.  Using a 1 cm round cutter, cut a small hole in the center of the donuts.
6. Place the rings on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper and set aside for 10 mins or until risen slightly.

7. While the donuts are proving ( I did this during the 45 mins proofing) , melt and mix chocolate , honey and butter in a bain marie (water bath) until smooth and glossy. Set aside.

8. Heat up oil in a deep saucepan until temperature of oil is 180C.  Fry the donuts in batches, giving roughly 3 mins on each side of the donut. Remove donuts from oil and place on oil absorbant paper.

9. While the donuts are still warm, dip them in the chocolate haze and place on a wire rack until set.

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