Dad's birthday

My dad's birthday falls on 31 December but we're celebrating tomorrow.  Here's the cake I baked for him, I hope he will like it.

To be continued....

Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

My first batch of gingerbread cookies were quite pale after bake so I decided to bake another lot with cocoa powder.  Satisfied :)

My 2nd attempt on decorated cookies and they turned out better than my expectation :) Happy!

Packed and ready to be given away.

Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
63g butter, room temperature
85g light brown sugar
150g sugar syrup
420g plain flour
20g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2.5 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
70ml water

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree C.
2. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt & spices together.
3. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy, add molasses and cream till well mixed.
4. Add in the flour and water alternately and mix till combined.
5. Rest mixture for 10-15 minutes.
6. Roll dough on a very lightly floured surface or waxed paper and cut into your desired design.
7. Bake for between 10 - 12 minutes depending on the thickness of your cookies. Cookie is done when it springs back lightly when pressed.
8. Leave to cool completely before decorating with icing.

Yule Log Cake

To welcome DH home, I made a Chocolate Nutella Yule Log Cake :)

I was hesitant prior to making this as I've failed my swiss roll previously.  Searched online to find out more about rolling the cake as per my understanding, there are 2 ways of rolling:

1. To roll the cake fresh from the oven while it is still hot.

2. To cool the cake completely before rolling.

I may have overbaked my cake last time so this time round, I eye-balled the cake and baked at exactly 12 mins.  And instead of waiting for it to cool, I decided to use the first method and rolled it while it was still hot.  It did crack a little but at least it was rollable.

The skin got stucked to the parchment paper when I unrolled it but since I was planning to have the cake frosted, I could't be bothered to sprinkle some sugar onto the parchment paper before rolling (see notes below).

This was baked in 11" x 14" pan but since it was an impromptu decision to bake this cake, I do not have any cake board nor cake box to contain the cake.  Searched high and low for a suitable box and found this microwaveable container (about 6" x 6").  Lined the base with aluminium foil and proceed to frost the cake.  However, I wasn't able to put any decorations on it as the lid was just touching the tip of the cake.

These were the balance cake that couldn't fit into the container so we had it for our afternoon tea.

Served it with some decorations and the kids were thrilled!

Without any whipping cream on hand, I decided to try out buttercream frosting.  Instead of using melted chocolate, I added Nutella to the buttercream to get a nice brown.  Both DS2 and I prefer fresh cream but DD1 loves it and licked up every single bit of cream on her plate.

The kids helped with the decorations and this was what they came up with.  Abit overwhelming as they were trying to put every single decoration onto the cake.

I used the same sugar roll recipe but modified it into a chocolate cake instead.  Also, I do not have enough cake flour so I substituted the balance with all purpose flour.  Not too bad for my standard (alright, I must admit I'm not a fussy eater) but kids commented they couldn't taste the chocolate at all.

Yes, I've finally made my very first swiss roll successfully!  After this episode, I feel more confident making swiss roll ^-^

Chocolate Swiss Roll

Ingredients

4 egg yolk

45g cake flour
40g plain flour

15g cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

40ml corn oil

4 egg white

60g caster sugar

Butter cream/whipped cream/jam

Method

1. Sift cake flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda.
2. Whisk egg white for a while then add in caster sugar gradually. Whisk till medium peak.
3. Drop in the egg yolk one by one into the beating egg white until finish and beat on low for another 3 mins.
4. Stop the machine, fold in the sifted flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda.
5. Fold in cornoil and pour into a 11" x 14" tray and bake at pre-heated oven of 200C for about 10 - 12 mins.
6. When the cake is cooked, let it cool in the oven for 5 mins. Turn cake out onto a piece of parchment paper (*see notes below) and immediately roll up the sponge cake together with the paper.  Leave to cool completely.
7. Unroll the cake carefully and spread a layer of whipped cream/butter cream/jam onto the sponge cake.  Roll it up again and chill in fridge before serving.

Notes

Sprinkle some sugar onto a parchment paper before inverting the cake and roll up into a swiss roll. This helps to prevent the skin from sticking onto the parchment paper.

Nutella Frosted Cupcakes

Today I baked some cupcakes for my kids.  According to the 2 elder ones, the cupcakes tasted alright (probably because I omit vanilla) but the top is yummy!  The top is crusty and they like it that way.  The cupcakes are soft and fluffy but slightly bland, probably also because I've reduced the sugar from 3/4 cup to 1/2 cup.  Then again, sweetness is just right for us.  I definitely need to make an extra effort to source for pure vanilla extract.

I was plain lazy and filled the batter almost to the brim.  While the cuppies were baking in the oven, they overflowed and some corners even dropped off.  This recipe should yield 12 cuppies but I only had 10.  Laziness is definitely not the way to baking.

I thought I've stirred in the nutella well but it's only limited to the surface :-(

Nutella Frosted Cupcakes
Makes 12

Ingredients
140g butter, softened
100g white sugar
3 eggs
200g sifted all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
Some nutella

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Cream together butter and sugar until light.
3. Add in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated. Don’t worry if the batter doesn’t look smooth.
4. Stir in sifted flour, salt and baking powder until batter is uniform and no flour remains.
5. Using an ice cream scoop, fill each muffin liner with batter. Top each cake with 1 tsp Nutella. Swirl Nutella in with a toothpick, making sure to fold a bit of batter up over the nutella.
6. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean.
7. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Home alone

I hate walking the dog,
I hate walking the dog 2 -  3 times daily,
I hate walking the dog 2 - 3 times daily with 3 young children,
I hate walking the dog 2 - 3 times daily with 3 young children running around the park,
I hate walking the dog 2 - 3 times daily with 2 young children running around the park and 1 toddler in my arms,
I hate walking the dog 2 - 3 times daily with 2 young children and 1 toddler in my arm, and having to pick up the poo after the dog,
I hate walking the dog 2 - 3 times daily with 3 young children when it rains!

But, I still love my dog.

Earl Grey Tea Muffins

I'm still struggling with blogger...  For every recipe posted, I will create a shortcut under individual category so it's easier for viewers to search for recipes but after upgrading to the latest version, I'm unable to do so, kept getting "Error Page".  I'm an IT IDIOT but that does not deter me from blogging.  I hope I can find a solution to it fast.

I was trying to finish up my earl grey tea bags so I made some muffins.  Instead of using raisins, I replaced them with currants.  Also, I reduced the sugar slightly but it was still a bit too sweet.  Nevertheless, it tasted great! 

Earl Grey Tea Muffins
Makes 12
Ingredients
450ml boiling water
2 Earl Grey tea bags
120g currants
2 eggs
110g butter, melted
375g all-purpose flour
2 tbsp double action baking powder
Pinch of salt
170g castor sugar

Method

1. Pour the boiling water over the tea bags; infuse for 10 minutes. Strain tea onto currants and set aside to soak for 1 hour.
2. Strain the tea into a measuring jug and make up to 300ml with additional water, if necessary.
3. Preheat oven at 200 degC. Line muffin tray with paper cups.
4. Sift flours, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl. Add sugar into the flour mixture. Use a whisk to lightly blend the mixture.
5. In another mixing bowl, combine eggs, tea and melted butter.
6. Make a well in the middle of dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and mix just until all the flour is moistened. Fold currants into batter. The batter should look lumpy. Do not overmix.
7. Divide batter into 12 muffin cups. Reduce temperature to 180degC and bake muffins for 25-30 minutes or until well risen.
8. Transfer to wire racks to let cool.

Purchases

Just to share what I've bought on Saturday, with compliments from DH :)

Candles - large 144 pcs
Candles - small 288 pcs
Cookie bags - 500g
Dessert cups - 20 pcs
Cupcake liners
Muffin cups - 100pcs

Gingerbread Cookies

I finally found out what happened to blogger!  I was still using the old version and thus could only do text entry :P

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I've been lagging as DH was finally home last week after a 2 weeks' stay in Manila and we spent most of our time outdoors.  Brought kids to the Singapore Zoo (twice) and MacRitchie Reservoir Park.  The kids had a great time!

While DH was away, I baked alot as I didn't want to lug 3 kids to the stores to buy just a loaf of bread.  Thank goodness I've stocked up on quite alot of flour at home ;-)  To cut my story short, I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

My first attempt on decorated cookies.

Do you see the little dot on the right eye?  I don't know what happened but I get small dots like this one on some of the icing.

I first saw this recipe in Ginny's  blog 2 years ago but I didn't have time to make it.  I remember I bought a bottle of ground ginger then but kept till it expired but the bottle was still brand new, unopened!  Hahaha!

Finally found some time to make this but I replaced dark molasses with sugar syrup (from my mooncakes making).

I don't like crispy gingerbread cookie and had been in search for a soft cookie recipe.  If you are looking for one like me, look no further, this is it!

Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
63g butter, room temperature
85g light brown sugar
150g sugar syrup
438g plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
70ml water

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree C.
2. Sift flour, soda, salt & spices together.
3. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy, add molasses and cream till well mixed.
4. Add in the flour and water alternately and mix till combined. 
5. Rest mixture for 10-15 minutes.
6. Roll dough on a very lightly floured surface or waxed paper and cut into your desired design. Decorate with currants or chocolate chips (or decorate with royal icing after cookies have cooled).
7. Bake for between 10 - 12 minutes depending on the thickness of your cookies. Cookie is done when it springs back lightly when pressed.

Something wrong with blogger?

I've been having problem and cannot upload any pictures nor do anything fanciful (eg bold, italic, change colours, add link etc...). Doing a test entry here to see if my text will get posted.

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Yes, I can read my own entry but it is only restricted to text only as all the small icons disappeared! Will have to try again later.

Cornflakes Cookies

My kids love cornflakes (plain without milk) and with a balance bag of it, I made cornflakes cookies. I've never eaten any cornflakes cookies before (I've only baked cornflakes coated with honey) until sister C made them for CNY a few years ago. I thought it tasted pretty decent and I've been looking forward to her recipe. Then again, women of "ancient age" do not cook/bake with a recipe so I had to google and look for one, hoping that it will be as good as hers. I found this recipe and decided to give it a go since there's no creaming of butter and sugar. Yes, lazy mode was turned on again :P

I omit pure vanilla extract since I don't have them and I do not wish to use imitation/artificial flavoured ones. Also, I added in some dried currants for flavour and I must say these cookies are pretty good.

Cornflakes Cookies
Ingredients
(A)
12oml oil (I used sunflower oil)
1 large egg
1/4 cup sugar

(B)
1 1/4 cup self-raising flour
1 1/2 cup cornflakes

Method

1. Mix (A) in a bowl. Add in (B). Mix well with a spatula. Some cornflakes will crush when mixing.
2. Use a small cookie scoop and scoop cookie dough and place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
3. Bake at preheated 180C oven for 15-17 minutes.
4. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes before transferring it to cool completely on a wire rack.
5. Store in air-tight container.

Note

• Yield about 40 with my small cookie scoop.
• You should bake the cookie dough inside the paper case so that the dough will expand to fit the paper cup while baking.

Teriyaki Cod Fish

Not cod fish again? Yes, this will be my last entry on cod fish, at least for this week.

Here's another quick and easy recipe. Instead of steaming, I decided to pan fry my last 2 pcs of cod fish.

Teriyaki Cod Fish

Ingredients
2 pcs Cod fish fillets/steak

4 tablespoon teriyaki sauce

Method

1. Wash and pat dry cod fillets/steak with kitchen towel.
2. Marinate cod fish with 4 tablesppon of teriyaki sauce and set aside for 30 mins.
3. Fry fish in a non-stick pan till lightly burnt on both sides and pour in remaining marinate. Cook for another 1 - 2 mins.
4. Remove and serve hot.

Steam Cod Fish with Red Dates and Wolfberries

I try to make it a point to serve fish on a daily basis and since I bought 2 packets of frozen cod fish from our local supermarket, I have to think of different ways to cook them.


Steam Cod with Red Dates and Wolfberries
Ingredients
2 pcs Cod Fish Fillet/Steak (approx. 400g)
Some ginger, sliced
A handful of wolfberries, washed
8 - 12 pitted red dates, washed and cut into halves

Seasonings
1.5 tsp soya sauce
2 tbsp water
* mix together

Method

1. Steam red dates for 10 mins, set aside for further use.
2. Rinse cod fillet/steak and place on plate.
3. Mix all seasonings in a small bowl and spoon over cod fillet/steak.
4. Arrange ginger, pre-steamed red dates and wolfberries on top of fish.
5. Put into steamer and steam for about 10 - 15 minutes.
6. Serve warm.

Steam Cod Fish with Mushroom

The 2 elder ones went over to their cousin's house for 2 nights sleepover. I thought I deserved this good break but somehow, life seem so boring without them. And since it was just DD3 and myself, our dinner tonight was just steam rice and fish. No veggies tonight as I was just plain lazy to bring out the pan :P


We like to eat steam fish with some sauce so I added in 2 tbsp of water. DD3 finished up the last drip of sauce :)

Steam Cod Fish with Mushroom
Ingredients
2 pcs Cod Fish Fillet/Steak (approx. 300g)
3-4 Dried Mushrooms, cut into slices (pre-soaked in water till soft)
Some Ginger, sliced

Seasonings
1.5 tsp soya sauce
1 tsp Martel
2 tbsp water
* mix together

PS: You may add more seasonings for taste but we prefer ours mildly flavoured.
Method

1. Rinse mushroom and remove stems, soak in water till soft. Cut into slices.
2. Rinse cod fillet/steak and place on plate.
3. Mix all seasonings in a small bowl and spoon over cod fillet/steak.
4. Arrange ginger and mushroom slices on top of fish.
5. Put into steamer and steam for about 10 minutes.
6. Serve warm.

Steaming rice takes a long time but I took a short-cut and cooked it partially using the microwave on high for 3 mins before transferring to the steamer. The fish was then stacked on a higher rack above the rice and steamed together for 10 mins. This is basically plain lazy way of cooking :P

Pizza II

What are your expectations when you visit a food blog? For me, it will be pictures and recipes (no beautiful language needed for I don't speak good English myself :P). It'll be a bonus if there are step-by-step pictures. Pictures speak a thousand words and many-a-times, I'm inspired by all those wonderful pictures. If you are my regular reader, you will also know that I don't bother much with presentation. I couldn't be bothered with nice utensils or decorations to go along with the food/bakes. I know I don't cook/bake well, I'm also a lousy photographer but I'm trying my best to present my humble food/bakes in their best form.

Kids asked for pizza again and this was what I did. I realised I've been lagging in updating my blog again so I won't go into much details, will just let the pictures do the "talking".

Fresh button mushroom with sausage and cheese.

Nice long gluey cheese :-)

DD1 and DS2's all time favourite, Hawaiian pizza.

Honestly speaking, I just cannot understand what is the attraction about Hawaiian pizza, it is basically just ham and pineapple. Maybe the beauty lies in these 2 ingredients? Oh well.. I'm not a fan but I never fail to make this when we had home-made pizza as my kids love this.

This was originally a basic pizza base but we don't like thick crust, thus I reduced the recipe by half and rolled them really thin. The base was still slightly soft but the sides were crispy, nothing like the thin crust pizza I've made earlier. This recipe is good if you prefer thick crust.

Pizza Base

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup flour, sifted

100 - 120ml warm water

1 Tbsp oil

1 tsp salt

1/2 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp yeast

Method

1. Put all ingredients in breadmachine. Knead using dough cycle. If the mixture is too dry, add 1 tbsp of water at a time to form dough.
2. After the kneading cycle is completed, let it proof in machine for 30 - 45 mins or till double in size.
3. Punch down dough and divide into 2 equal portions.
4. Roll out each portion to a round, about 12" in size. Place dough on baking tray lined with parchment paper or on a well greased pan.
5. Dock with a fork all around the crust.
6. Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 8 - 10 mins. Set aside till further use.
7. Spread tomato paste over the dough and covering near end of edge (about 1 cm away). Add your favourite toppings and cheese.
8. Baked pizza in pre-heated oven at 200C for 10 - 12 mins or until the crust has turned golden brown and when the cheese has melted.
9. Serve and enjoy!