A Muffin Odyssey

Muffins! This was what I frequently made when I first started baking. Relatively simpler to make compared to cakes and cookies since most recipes do not require creaming the butter.
A matter of whisking the wet and dry ingredients together and voila! Yet sometimes, things can still go wrong. Overmixing, and you will get a tough muffin but the question is always the tenderncy to overmix or undermix due to this paranoia. I mean, it is quite hard to judge when to stop mixing the batter. Plenty of trials and errors, I would say. Even now, I would not dare to claim to have master the art of baking muffins yet. There is still plenty of room for improvement. That said, here are some of my muffin experiments with mixed results. Some are pretty good where as others are near disasterous. You figure out which is which.

1) My 1st muffins: Ice-cream Muffins


2) Strawberry Milk Peach Muffins


3) Pumpkin Muffins


4) Pandan Coconut Muffins


5) Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins


6) Chocolate Chip Muffins


7) Chocolate & Orange Muffins


8) Sweet Corn Muffins


Special Note: Most of the recipes above are from this forum. This is also where I learned most of baking tips and skills. Definitely a site rich with baking/cooking resources! http://www.kitchencapers.net/phpbb/index.php

To be continued....

Today's Breakfast: Red Bean Loaf

This is for today's breakfast, Red Bean Loaf. I have to say that this wasn't the shape I had in mind. Was playing around in trying to mould it into a fancy shape, gave up because it wasn't going right so ended up in this shape. Nice?

To Mommy Dearest... (Pandan Layer Cake)

To my mommy dearest, I shall bake for you your favourite cake, a Pandan Layer Cake. I hope that you will like it as this is my first try and I have not had a very successful experience in making sponge cake and dealing with agar-agar.

After sliced:

Fly Me To The Moon (Baking mooncakes, Part One)

The Mooncake Festival is drawing near. Thought this would be an appropriate time to add another new baking experience to my growing resume.

So here's my first baked mooncake, aka Mini Lotus Paste Mooncake.



Note: I find the skin to be a little too tough. I actually burned the bottom of some of the minis and had to use the knife to scrap off the burned bits. As for lotus paste, I discard any bravery to make my own and bought it from the store. Overall, the end result was not bad. But I have another different recipe for making mooncake pastry which I shall try this weekend.

Easiest Recipe Ever? Carrot Walnut Cake/Bread

This is definitely the easiest recipe that I'd baked so far. Granted, it is baked through the microwave and not the oven. So the entire cooking + preparation time took less than 20 minutes.

Ladies & Gentlemen, presenting the easiest Carrot & Walnut Cake:


This is the link to the recipe: http://www.kitchencapers.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=3271

Today's Breakfast: Sweet Honey Almond Loaf

This is what I made for breakfast today. Can you say yummy?

Yummy Yams! A mission accomplished!

Mission accomplished. Had been meaning to try my hands at making steamed yam cake (orr kueh, in Hokkien) since last year. Finally did it yesterday.


It's not a tough recipe but quite labouring though (i.e., imagine stirring of the thick batter in a hot kitchen). Luckily I have my maid to help me, I just need to give the instructions (haha). ;P

However, I did not follow the recipe to the T. First of all, I could not find chinese mushrooms in our pantry so I substituted with "mok yee" (a type of chinese dried black fungus). Also I added additional salt and sugar here and there. Lastly, I lost count of the number of cups of water that I added in, for it never seems to be quite enough. Also, steaming took about 90 mins instead of 50-60 mins stated in the recipe (I guess I was being overly cautious in making sure that all parts are cooked).

Result: My family, especially my mom, like it. For me, I would prefer the texture to be drier or more solid but my mom said it's better being slightly wet. However, we all agreed that it would be even better with more yams in it!

Note: Do not mashed all the yam. Leave some in cubes to provide more bite in the finished yam cake.

After steaming:


After garnishing:


Sliced:


Close-up:

Bananas over Bananas! A continuous adventure... (Part 2)

Recently, tried out a few other bananas recipe.

1) Banana Andama bread (Recipe from a favourite blog).
I don't know what Andama bread means, so don't ask. This is the name of the recipe and I am just following, that's all. This is a rather unusual bread. It uses molasses as well and this gives the bread a slightly rustic flavour. Not bad but I would say it is an acquired taste though.


2) Banana Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
This is utterly delicious. The lemon provides a refreshing zing to the cake while the poppy seeds add a nice crunch. But this cake is a danger to any plans to diet though...(you know what I mean) ;-p


3) Healthy Low-Fat Wholemeal Banana Loaf
This cake is healthy just as the one above is rather sinful. It only uses 1 tablespoon of oil. Other wholesome ingredients include wholemeal flour, oats, low-fat buttermilk and of course, bananas. However, just as the one above was very popular with my family, this one is hardly touched. *sigh* Oh well, at least I tried to bake something healthy for them. It's their loss...(heh heh)

"Red Tortoise" Steamed Kueh

Did you take a double-take when you read the headline above? Yup, you read right! What you see below are really called "red tortoise" steamed kueh. Or at least, they are in the Hokkien dialect. Red tortoise is a direct translation from its original namesake known as "Ang Koo" in Hokkien. But why are they called "Ang Koo" in the first place? I think I better not dwell in the meaning too much (not that I know for sure anyway) except that I know they are supposed to represent good luck and fortune.
Anyway, if you scroll below and take a look at the pics, you will notice that my "ang koos" are anything but red. (except for the letter on the plain ones).
I found a good and healthy recipe from Florence and used lotus paste and red bean paste as fillings. The lighter ones are sans coloring and the green ones are pandan-flavoured. Both are good although the latter seems to be the crowd's favourite...

Click on title for link to recipe.

Experiment with Tarts & Chilled Mooncake

I have baked egg tarts before but I have always taken the shortcut and used a ready-made frozen pie pastry bought from the store instead of making my own.

Recently, I tried making egg tarts from the scratch based on a much raved-about recipe from a forum that I subsribed too. And after making it, I understood what the rave was all about. These tarts are seriously good. The crust is rich and buttery, and the filling, delicious!


And for some added variation (actually, I ran out of the egg tart filling), Chocolate Almond Tart:


Since I have the time, also took the opportunity to try my hand at making some mini pandan 'pingpei' mooncakes with lotus paste. Mini because I mis-interpreted the recipe and used only half portion of the originally required filling. Otherwise, these are supposed to be full-sized mooncakes!

Since today is a holiday, I made these....

Today is Malaysia's 48th Independence Day. We call it Merdeka Day. Most importantly, it is a holiday. *grin*

Anyway, I spent most of the day in the kitchen making these. But let me warn you that they are not exactly pretty sights....

1) Chocolate Orange Swirl muffins
Made a mistake by accidentally adding an additional half cup of liquid resulting in a chewy center. Taste was gorgeous though....


2) Cappucino Huat Kueh
Erm, something went wrong here. I used a very simple and easy recipe that seems to be "too easy to be good"... I reckon I was right the first time. :(


3) Seafood Pizza
SIL wanted to learn to make pizza so I taught her. I wasn't too satisfied with the end result though although they were quite yummy. I would prefer to make the crust thinner as opposed to making a thick-crust pizza which these were.

All Dressed Up!

Cupcakes! What more can I say about cupcakes? I mean, it is almost a basic and fundamental recipe to bake for wannabe bakers. Honestly speaking, I am not a fan of cupcakes and hence, have no impulse to bake cupcakes till now. Why the sudden interest? Well, I have been visiting a few food blogs lately, and was very impressed with the often cute or gorgeous looking cupcakes. I mean, how can you not like a the look of a nicely frosted cupcakes? Anyway, after viewing one particular recipe on a member’s blog, I decided to make my first “fancy-looking” cupcakes. (Also helped by the reminder that I still have a tub of ready-made chocolate fudge frosting left in the fridge).

This recipe is a relatively healthier option in the sense that it uses less butter. The recipe is called Neopolitan (that means a combination of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry as in the ice-cream flavour, get it?) Buttermilk Cupcakes. These cupcakes are rather good. Moist and good, although the 2nd batch were slightly over-baked (I seems to have a habit of doing this!) resulting in a more chewy texture. For me the recipe yields 6 medium size cupcakes and 6 smaller ones.

In short, I have to say it was quite a joy looking at the end result of the frosted cupcakes.

Fresh out from the oven and before frosting. (Note the different colored layers)

After frosting.

The kids digging in!

Bread: Ground-breaking discovery!

You may not think this is much but for someone like me who bakes bread frequently, this is substantially a mile-stone achievement. Discovering a really soft and delicious bread recipe, akin to those sold at good bakeries! Thanks to Florence, a notably good baker, I baked the softest and yummiest bread ever! Of course, there are a load of ingredients that went into the recipe as compared to an ordinary loaf of bread that includes different kind of milk (skim milk, condensed milk, creamer), different kind of flour (bread and cake flour) and eggs (1 egg and 2 yolks to be exact).

I used the recipe to make Light Raisin Cinnamon Rolls. So good! Best when served slightly warmed.

Frozen Treats

Another sweet temptation to add to my ever-growing list....

Just found out how easy it is to make our own frozen yoghurt ice-cream and even more surprise to find that it is really good too. And to ease my sense of guilt, it is relatively low-fat (for an ice-cream)....

Vanilla & Chocolate Swirls Chocolate Chip Yoghurt Ice-Cream

See the bits at the side? I couldn't wait to dig in before taking a pic!

Desserts for A Lady and for a D****?

If there is ever such thing as the most suitable name for a lady, I would say that it is Victoria. So when there is a cake known as Victoria Sponge Cake, I couldn't help but to think it must be created for a lady. That said, I never bothered to check on the history of this cake (you can do a search on the Net to find out more, if you are so inclined) so I would just stick to my own presumptions until told and proven otherwise.

This is a rather simple cake, strawberry jam sandwiched between a basic sponge cake sliced into 2 and dusted with icing sugar (optional). However, I felt as it the sponge cake can be further improved. I am still looking for the perfect cotton-y soft sponge cake recipe.


On the other end of the scale is a cake known as Devil's Food Cake. I read somewhere that its namesake came about due to the dark colour of the cake. I sure hope so, duh...Here's my attempt at baking this cake.

Crazy Baking Weekend Part 1

What do you call a weekend where you did nothing but bake? Yup, crazy! I guess I was on a "baking high" for otherwise why would I declined invitations to go out and instead, stayed home and bake? Sometimes, I don't understand myself too... :-)

1) Banana Chiffon Cake

2) Walnut Oats Bread

3) Pandan Coconut Bread


Continue to Part 2..."Nice to Look At , But...."

Nice to Look At But....(Part II of Crazy Baking Weekend)

I have been thinking about baking a chocolate cake. A darn good chocolate cake with frosting and all things sinful. I also bought a tub of Betty Crocker's Ready-made Chocolate Frosting so I decided this shall be it, I will bake a Chocolate Cake this weekend.

If it was up to me, I would bake a dark and gooey chocolate cake. But I have to think of my family (after all, I do not want to be the only person eating the cake) and I have doubts that they share the same tastes that I do.

Then I chance upon this recipe when I was browsing through the numerous chocolate cake recipes. It looked simple enough and better yet, it seems to be reasonably low-fat as well (not to mention a very captivating recipe title as well, "Died and Went To Heaven Chocolate Cake").

Everything went well until the final step when I stir in one cup of coffee. At that time, the mixture was very runny and liquidy. Although the recipe did say that the batter will be thin, but I wasn't sure whether can I call it a cake batter. It looked more like the consistency of some drink. Only then, I had difficulty recalling back whether did I add 1-1/4 cup or 1-3/4 cup of flour (the recipe called for the latter). Darn my slow memory!

Anyway, I tried to have some faith and put it back into the oven. I baked 10 minutes longer than asked for. Already, I had a strong suspicion that it will be more like a pudding-type cake rather than a moist cake. I tasted the crumbs and it tasted like it needed more help so I made some Butterscotch frosting from DreamWhip and Jell-O Fat-Free Instant Pudding in the Butterscotch flavour. I thought this would help.

The frosting by itself was delicious. And I think my very amateur skills in cake-decoration did fare not too bad this time. But upon cutting the cake and eagerly anticipating the taste of the cake, it was a BIG letdown. The cake was indeed pudding like and had firm up. Taste was not good. And the frosting, despite tasting delicious by itself did not go so well with the cake. Maybe if it was a proper sponge or pound cake, it would be better. Here's how it looked like:



Nice to look at but....