Chocolate Coconut Cake

I think there's something funny about desiccated coconut in desserts - you don't normally eat it on its own and its not very fun to eat (as opposed to shoving a huge handful of chocolate chips in your mouth), but once you have a bite of a dessert with them in it ... it becomes so more-ish! Why!? 

Anyway, that's what happened to me. I took a bite of a coconut macaroon and for some reason I had this craving to make a coconut chocolate based dessert. It was really odd because I don't even normally like macaroons, I honestly think they're overpriced and ridiculously sweet. But hey, cravings have got to be fulfilled so I took the opportunity to make a coconut cake when my boyfriend had to bring a cake for his team at work.

The recipe is adapted from BBC Good Food's recipe:

Isaac's coconut chocolate squares

I basically doubled the recipe to make a cake instead of squares, and re-adapted the icing. I used fluid ounces to measure because I use a measuring cup.

Ingredients

• 200g butter, softened
• 200g caster sugar / 8 fl oz 
• 3 eggs
• 220g self-raising flour / 8 fl oz , sifted
• 1 heaped tsp baking powder 
• 2 heaped tbsp cocoa powder / 80g sachet
• 5 tbsp milk
• 100g desiccated coconut (optional)

• 150g - 200g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 25g butter
• 2 tbsp caster sugar / icing sugar
• 1 tsp coffee powder (optional)
• 2 - 3 tbsp cream / milk 
• 100g desiccated coconut
• Handfuls of chocolate chips (optional)

Method

Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees (fan) or 180 degrees. Line an 8 inch/20cm cake tin (I prefer a deep cake tin) with baking paper and butter the edges. 
2. Beat together butter and sugar until thick and creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time, alternating with a few tablespoons of flour at a time until all the flour is used. 
3. Sift in cocoa powder and mix completely. Stir in the milk and desiccated coconut (optional).
4. Bake the cake for 30 - 40 minutes until an inserted toothpick / knife comes out clean. Leave to cool.

Icing

1. Place a pyrex bowl (or any bowl that can sustain heat) on top of a pan of simmering water. Break in the chocolate and mix it with the butter in the bowl. Once melted, stir in the sugar, cream and coffee powder (optional). Leave to cool.
2. Turn the cake over and remove the baking paper. Flip it back again onto a plate and spread the icing on the cake (once the icing has cooled). Sprinkle the desiccated coconut and chocolate chips. 

Alternatively, you can also melt the chocolate and butter in a microwave (I'm always worried about burning it so I do it for 10 seconds at medium power and I keep checking it). It works perfectly fine although it might be more difficult to incorporate the cream which would help soften the icing. Otherwise, the icing would still be tasty but the chocolate might set which creates a hard layer of icing that you may have to struggle piercing through when you try and cut it!

I haven't got a picture yet but when I make it again I'll defo put it up. :) It's a great, non-sweet cake which is really easy to eat. 

Nutella Cuppycakes

So the best thing about not having anything to do, is the time to make cupcakes. I've never been a huge fan of Nutella but I sure was pleased to try out making the cupcakes and boy are they tasty. I still kind of need to work on my icing but I'm sure I'll get round to that eventually!

What you need to realise first is that there isn't any actual Nutella in the cupcake batter. You can scoop into the cupcake and fill it with nutella, and then ice it with nutella icing. However, the chocolate cupcake recipe is beautiful and I adapted it from Ali at Gimmesomeoven. However, I took the icing recipe from Karen at Kitchentreaty and was a little more generous with the nutella.

Nutella Cupcake Recipe

Chocolate Cupcakes

• 1 cup softened butter (about 125g butter, half of a 250g block)
• 1 1/2 cups fine brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup coffee (any coffee will do, I used the instant powdered type which was quick!)
• 1 jar nutella

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees celcius and line the cupcake tray with cupcake liners
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time
3. In a separate bowl, sift flour, cocoa and baking powder. In another bowl, stir the milk with the coffee.
4. While mixing, add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and alternate with the milk mixture until a smooth batter is formed
5. Using two spoons or an icing pipe, fill the cupcake liners with batter until 3/4 full
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean
7. Let cupcakes cool. Once cool, cut a circle on the top of the cake to pull out the top (think of it like a hat). Fill it with nutella and replace the top of the cake.

Nutella Frosting

• 1 cup butter, softened (250g)
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup nutella
• 1 tsp vanilla
• pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp heavy whipping cream

In a large bowl, whip butter and 1 cup of sugar. Add nutella, vanilla, salt and cream and whip with remaining 1 cup of sugar. If the icing is too soft, add more sugar. (I decided to have it soft as I didn't want my icing too sweet)

They're really good, seriously.

Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes

There were meteor showers last week! I got majorly excited about it and my maternal instinct kicked in to pack two thermos flasks of earl grey tea, blankets, and gluten-free chocolate cupcakes! It was my first attempt at using gluten-free flour so I didn't know how it would turn out but it turned out great! I also had the luxury of decorating them with lots of pink. Gosh, such a princess!

Recipe for Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 250g of softened butter (1/2 cup)
• 1 cup of caster sugar
• 1 1/2 cups of gluten-free flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/4 cup of cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp milk
• 3 eggs

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees/Gas Mark 4. Line cupcake tin with cupcake casings.
2. In a large mixing bowl, sift flour, baking powder and xantham gum together.
3. In a separate bowl, mix butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs and flour alternately. Sift in cocoa powder and finally add the milk to form a smooth batter.
4. To put the batter into the cupcake casings, either use a piping bag OR use a large tablespoon and teaspoon. With a large tablespoon, scoop a generous amount of batter and scrape it off into the casing with the teaspoon in one movement. The batter should fill the each casing to at about 3/4 full.
5. Bake in the oven for 12 - 15 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
6. Ice with buttercream icing

For Buttercream icing, simply mix 150g of butter with 280g of sifted icing sugar, 1-2 tsp of milk and 1 tsp vanilla. 

Strawberry Cream Cake

June is the perfect time for summer cakes despite the rain as you can enjoy summer by baking your cake and eating it too! The strawberry season was perfect in early June and I this cake went quickly as soon as it was set on the table. It's incredibly simple and a delight to make!

I modified this recipe from BBC good food's recipe of their amazing Victorian Sponge Cake, which was obviously very vital to making a nice fluffy cake. The link is:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/victoriaspongewithst_90309

Definitely preferable if you have two sandwich tins so you can make a little layer inbetween them which just adds to its look!

Recipe

Ingredients:
For Victorian Sponge Cake (directly from BBC Good Food),
225g of butter
225g of caster sugar
225g of self-raising flour

4 large free-range eggs
1 tsp of vanilla essence
For filling and garnish,
200g whipping cream (no need to be accurate; but more is better!)
125g of strawberries (depending on how much you want on it!)
2 tbsp caster sugar

Directions:

1. Prepare two 17cm sandwich tins by lining them with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4.
2. Sift the flour in a large bowl. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Now add the eggs and flour into the butter mix. To do so, slowly add flour into the butter mix, alternating with each egg. I use this technique to ensure the batter doesn't get too dry or wet and to not overbeat the mix. Add 1 tsp of vanilla essence.
5.  Pour the mix equally into both sandwich tins and level it with a spatula. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Leave to cool.
6. Flip the cakes upside-down and peel off the baking paper. Turn them over again and set them side by side.
7.  For the topping and filling, first cut the strawberries into quarters.
8. Using a mixer (as it is much easier!), beat the whipping cream with the caster sugar until it is slightly stiff and forms small peaks. Do not overbeat it as it will curdle!
9. Using a spatula (or the blunt edge of a wide knife), spread the whipped cream over one of the cakes. Then place the strawberries generously over the cake. Put the other cake on top of this and repeat by spreading the whipped cream. Decorate it with the strawberries and you're ready to eat!

This is an amazingly light cake, which makes it so more-ish and impressive when presented! So I definitely recommend making this to those who have that nagging strawberry craving as I made it out of a whim and it turned out great! Effortless and tasty, just what every girl wants ;)

A very Simple Rainbow Cake

This year has been a huge test on my baking skills, and I've been constantly chosen to be the birthday baker. So as my time in university draws to an end, I decided to end the last birthday cake with a bunch of colours shoved into one cake - the really lazy rainbow cake!

What most bakers do is, with much TLC, bake a layer of cake in a sandwich tin in a different colour. I decided to skip all that hassle, and merge it together to create some chaos. 

The idea is simple. Make the batter for a sponge/white cake and split it into several bowls. Colour each one in a different colour and shove it back into a tin and bake it. Yes, I make it sound crude but you'll get it easier that way. So here's the recipe for a Simple White Cake, and then the procedure will explain the process of making the rainbow cake:

Ingredients

•  1 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 cup butter (approximately 250g)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups of self-raising flour, sifted (alternatively use all-purpose flour and 1 3/4 tsp of baking powder)
• 1/4 cup milk

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees/Gas Mark 4. Use an 8x2 inch pan or a 9x1.5 inch pan. 
2. Using a large mixing bowl, mix softened butter with sugar until fluffy. Add the sifted flour alternately with the eggs and mix. Finally, add the milk to get a smooth batter.
3. Separate the batter into as many bowls as you want colours. So if you want 5 colours, split the batter into 5 batches. Easiest way of doing this is just getting the three prime colours to make blue, red, yellow, green and orange batter.
4. Then like a marble cake, alternate the batter into the cake tin. Your cake will end up with chunks of colours as seen below. You can also swirl the batter to create a more marbled effect.
5. Finally, bake the cake in the preheated oven for 30 - 45 minutes until an insert toothpick comes out clean.

So that's all fine and dandy. For the icing, I used a buttercream icing:

• Just mix 150g softened butter with 250g sifted icing sugar and 1-2tsp of milk and 1 tsp of vanilla extract. I usually just mix the icing until it forms stiff peaks.

Then you can colour the cake whatever colour you want! I opted for a sunny orangey pink colour which was more of an accident than a colour. The best part of course comes when you cut into the cake to see all the pretty colours!

Pollen Street Social Review

Recently announced to become a Michelin 1-star restaurant in 2011, I found the Pollen Street Social website incredibly appealing with an exciting selection of food.

Particularly for students who want to give themselves a treat, this place offers a reasonably priced 2-course meal for £22.00 and 3-course for £25.50 for its lunch set menu.

It's located at Pollen Street, a tiny walkway off Regent Street, London.

It's website is easy to use and allows quick reservations online, which they will re-confirm with you a day before your reservation: http://www.pollenstreetsocial.com/.

The place was definitely bustling with energy since 2pm that afternoon, filled with busy office-goers on their lunch breaks which was ideal for me and my boyfriend as it was more relaxed and didn't demand a great amount of etiquette from us. The waiters were incredibly suave, who each had a different task. Certain captains and waiters were in charge or food or drink exclusively and did not hesitate to let you know every detail on your order. You would first be provided with butter, olives and a selection of bread from a basket, which they would happily offer you more after you've finished.

Starters were slightly underwhelming. I had a slow-cooked egg with smoked haddock, finished with smoked haddock and parsely soup. Louis had foie-gras with ham and chickpeas topped with squid. While I thought my little dish was far too smokey, Louis thought his looked like something out of a spam can (but was nevertheless tasty).

The main course was probably the best meal of the day. I had a slow-cooked lamb neck fillet with mashed potatoes and parsnip while Louis had hake and leek in what I imagined was a beautiful butter and cockels sauce. The meat and the fish were cooked so perfectly; the lamb flaked at the touch of my fork and the sauce combined perfectly with the whole meal. The hake too, was soft and was a great combination with the leek which made it refreshing.

Not to mention, the house wine for both red and white were very good, particularly the Pollen Street white wine. At £8.00 a glass, it was worth it!

The dessert was not incredibly impressive for the cheese selection. You were given the choice to select your own cheese or have them select it for you, which you will be given different flavours of crackers, accompanied by pickled chutney of somekind. The sliver of cheeses were very thin and I wouldn't recommend it for the price paid. Possibly better off buying yourself a nice block of expensive tasty cheese.

However, the blackforest sorbet, chocolate mousse with cherry liqueur was amazing. The combination of chocolate with the sour sorbet was gorgeous and I would definitely recommend that.

Overall, the restaurant had a good ambience for the energetic (definitely not for one who is looking for privacy) and you'd be surrounded by friendly waiters and receptionists who are willing to cater to your every need. While the food didn't tick all the boxes, it was still a great experience but I would remain skeptical on the lunch menu on the website as it changes and was not updated, which was initially a little disappointing when we first sat down.

Walnut Carrot Cake Recipe

Whew, I finally made a decent cake last term! With my hands failing me with my chocolate cake that looked like a burger to my crunchy apple crumble, I must say I was really proud to have made this Walnut Carrot Cake! I know I've made a walnut carrot cake before, but I think this one is particularly tasty and moist because of the icing and the deep cake tin that I used. :)

This recipe was altered from the allrecipes recipe:
http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/18529/carrot-walnut-cake.aspx
which is by the way, an amazing recipe. I modified it slightly so here's my version:

Ingredients:

• 375g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
• coffee mix (1 tsp instant coffee and 2 tsp hot water)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 225g butter, softened
• 220g brown caster sugar
  
• 200g white caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 125g chopped walnuts
• 440g grated carrots

Icing:

• 200g cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 70g butter
• 100g icing sugar

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees/gas mark 4. Line a deep cake tin 10" with greaseproof paper and grease the sides.
   
2. Sift dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, bicarb) together into a large mixing bowl.
   
3. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix until light and fluffy. Pour in the coffee mix.
4. Add the sifted ingredients. Mix well.
   
5. Fold in the carrots and then the walnuts. Save some walnuts for garnish.
6. Bake for 1 hour until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
7. For the icing, mix the cream cheese with vanilla essence. Then add butter and sugar until smooth. Spread on cooled cake and top the edges with bits of walnuts.
   

It's a great recipe if you want a nice moist cake that is not oily like the traditional recipes. It's really simple to make (except the immense power used to grate carrots) so I would recommend it as an easy cake make! ;)

Homemade Fun Cakes '11

Here are a bunch of awesome cakes made by me and my housemates over the academic year 10/11! :)
I made a cake for Mark's Birthday. Banana white chocolate cake as the frisbee and chocolate cake as the base. I tried to make it look like a frisbee on ground but didn't really look it. At least it tasted yummy!

My awesome birthday cake made by Mark Jones. Marble Chocolate Fudge cake Mmmm...


Mark Jones' Coffee Walnut Cake which was amazing! Even Cat who didn't fancy coffee cake loved it. :D
Cat's awesome World Cake! Made for Natasha Dudas' birthday. We brought this all the way to the park too to enjoy it with the Royal Wedding! (I coloured the flags...)
Angry Birds cake with joint effort of the house. Of course most of it done by the amazing Catrin Eira! :)
The birds! All Cat's good work.

There were lots more like Cat's amazing cookies, Golden Snitch cake, Victorian Sponge and pies! But I can't just give away all her little secrets, can I? Well, truth is I don't have the pictures so maybe next time. :P

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

When I got back from London, I was super bored in the house so I ended up baking a lovely white chocolate cheesecake. It was my first attempt to do so and it turned out very well. I would recommend this recipe to advanced beginners as it is quite easy to make (if you've made a plain cheesecake before!)

Ingredients:
9" spring form pan (or slightly smaller)
1/2 packet of plain digestive biscuits
1/4 cup melted butter
1 packet of frozen raspberries
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp cornstarch
4 spoons of sifted flour
2 packets of cream cheese (each 250g)
1 packet of single cream (about 180g)
1/2 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 cup white chocolate chunks
1 tsp vanilla essence

Directions:
1. To make the base, crumble the digestive biscuits into the spring form pan. Mash the biscuits and mix with melted butter until it clumps together to form the cheesecake base. Press down the base and smoothen until it forms a flat surface. When done, put the base in the freezer.
2. To make the raspberry sauce, in a small saucepan, add the frozen raspberries. Add 2 tbsp sugar, water and cornstarch. Stir and bring to a boil for 5 minutes or until the sauce is thick. Sift/strain the sauce to remove the raspberry seeds.
3. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Melt the white chocolate chunks in the microwave in a bowl. Add cream and mix.
4. In a large bowl, combine cream cheese and sugar. Mix until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add 4 tbsp of flour. Stir in the melted chocolate and cream. Finally, add 1 tsp of vanilla essence.
5. Take the base out of the freezer. Wrap the bottom of the springform pan with aluminium foil. Pour half the batter onto the base. Add three tablespoons of raspberry sauce. Then top it off with the other half of the batter and another three tablespoons of raspberry sauce. Use a knife and swirl the batter with the sauce to create a marbled effect.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour. When it's baked, let it cool in the oven for a few hours. Then, remove from oven, wrap in clingfilm and put it in the fridge overnight before serving.
7. Remember you can keep the extra raspberry sauce which is very tasty with the cake!

^_^ Omnomnomwhitecholoateraspberrycheesecake. It's such a mouthful isn't it?

Bento Box

Few weeks ago, me and Louis made Bento boxes! It was amazing! Not much to talk about recipes here, just gonna post up some lovely pictures. :)

In it contains:
Sushi rice
Sugarsnaps
Carrots
Tuna mayo
Octodogs
Salad

Not bad for a packed lunch I would say! Louis made the snail and I made the heart-shaped tuna. Yay!

Molten Chocolate Cupcakes

Molten Chocolate Cupcakes! (warning: Must be eaten instantly!)

I got bored of making cupcakes stuffed with chocolate bars because they harden and I don't own a microwave so I couldn't possibly be re-cooking my cupcakes again and again. So one day I had some excess chocolate sauce and this idea popped up in my head! They don't last very well in the heat of Malaysia though, but I think it was still worth the effort!

Note!
Try to make the chocolate cream a day earlier in order for it to set nicely. (Semi solid-liquid)

Ingredients:
Batter:
1 1/2 cup self-raising/all purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar (use less if white sugar)
6 tbsp cocoa powder - more if you like it more chocolatey
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
3-5 tbsp milk
1 cup butter

Filling:
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 bar of cooking chocolate (6 squares)
1/2 tsp condensed milk
1/2 tsp coffee powder
1 tbsp butter

Directions:
Filling:
Using a double boiler / heatproof bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, melt cooking chocolate. Add sour cream and stir. Add milk, powder and butter. Stir until combined. Remove from heat and let it set.

Be careful of the chocolate that you use. In Malaysia, cooking chocolate doesn't clump and mixes easily with cream. In England however, you might have to melt the chocolate initially, let it cool. Then heat up the cream and add it to the bowl of chocolate and mix vigorously.

Batter:

1. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder and cocoa together. In a separate bowl, mix butter and sugar until creamy. Slowly add sifted ingredients and eggs alternatively (so that the mixture doesn't get too dry) and then add in milk. Mix until smooth.

2. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. In a muffin tray, add a spoonful of batter. Then add a teaspoonful of the filling, and top it off with more batter until the cup is 3/4 full. Repeat on all cups and bake for 15 minutes. Be careful to place the filling in the middle of the batter so that it doesn't ooze out excessively.

P.S: Alternatively, use chocolate squares (just bars of any plain chocolate) as the filling. Use same recipe for batter but replace step 2. by adding a square of chocolate in the middle of the batter. They will be gooey temporarily but may harden later on. This will be fine if you have a microwave to heat it up. My original recipe makes the cupcakes more moist and gooey if you like that sort of thing. ;)

Walnut Carrot Cake

This is a simple recipe for a lovely walnut carrot cake that I just made. Of course, carrot cakes taste much better if the flour is light and fluffy. To make the cake extra "light", my grandma told me to measure the amount of flour needed and put it in a tray and leave it in the sun for a few hours. If you don't have the luxury of sun, then pop it in the oven for a few minutes (5 min on low temperature).

Ingredients:

• Walnuts, crushed (use half for filling and half for topping)
  
• Half a carrot, peeled and shredded
• 1/2 a block of butter (250g/ 1 cup)
  
• 1 1/2 cup of all purpose flour [better if self-raising flour]
  
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 3 eggs
  
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/2 tsp ground cinammon
• 1 tsp coffee powder
• 1/2 cup milk
  

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, blend butter and sugar together until creamy. (some bits of sugar may be hanging around, don't worry about it).
2. Sift flour and baking powder in a separate bowl.
3. Add eggs one at a time, alternating with the sifted ingredients to ensure steady texture of the batter. Add coffee powder and cinnamon.
4. The batter must not be too dry or too wet. When you pick up the batter with a spoon and tip it slightly, the batter will fall smoothly into the bowl
5. If the batter is too dry, add milk slowly while stirring until desired texture.
6. Using a spoon or spatula, mix in the shredded carrots and crushed walnuts.
   
7. Pour the batter in an average sized cake tin (normally 9x9 inch). Sprinkle the rest of the walnuts on top of the cake.
   
8. Bake for 45 minutes at 180 degrees.

Note! Add as much walnuts as you like as it is your cake! The more the better, of course at a bigger cost. Also, don't overdo it as you want more cake than nuts really! :)

Most cakes have other spices put in the cake such as nutmeg etc, but I don't really like the smell. If you want you could add that but I personally think that coffee has the best fragrance. ^^

Chocolate Chip Cookies

There is nothing better than a warm batch of chocolate chip cookies to let yourself munch on the whole day~! Tastes so good with anything and everything, milk, tea, you name it! Made this bunch for my flatmates and they loved it! :D

Ingredients:

• 180g sifted flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
• chocolate chips
• 120g butter
• 140g sugar (caster or coarse sugar is fine)
• 1 egg
  

Procedure:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine butter and sugar and mix until blended. Add the egg in and mix.
2. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder and bicarbonate soda together. Add the sifted ingredients into the mixing bowl of butter one at a time and mix. If the mix gets too dry, add a bit of milk but only about a tbsp a time.
3. Once the batter is mixed well, use a teaspoonful of batter and drop the it on a greased tray or a tray lined with greasing paper.
4. Put chocolate chips on top of each drop of batter. Alternatively, you can mix in the chocolate chips with the batter before dropping it onto the tray.
5. Bake at 180 degrees for 15 minutes and voila you have cookies!

Note: Cookies may seem more crumbly when just out of the oven and more crispy if you let them sit for a while. So don't judge a cookie till it sits long enough!

Pancakes for Pancake Day

I have never heard of pancake day but when the UK introduced me to it, I was celebrating it like a true pancake lover! Unfortunately, unlike many English people, I made American Pancakes! Boo me I know but I also had some English Pancakes so I'm going international here.
American Pancakes:

• 350g of self-raising flour
• 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 310ml milk (1 1/4 cups)
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp melted butter
  

Procedure:

1. In a mixing bowl, sift together flour and baking powder. Add salt and sugar
2. Stir the dry ingredients. Make a well in the middle of the sifted ingredients and crack in one egg, 3 tbsp melted butter and 300ml milk. Mix until batter thickens. Set aside
3. Using a frying pan, heat up oil or butter (about 1 tbsp oil). Coat the pan. Scoop about 1/2 a ladle of batter into the pan and swirl the pan to spread the batter. Leave it for a while.
4. When the batter starts to bubble slightly on the top, flip the pancake over. When both sides look golden brown, remove and serve with ice cream and strawberries.
   

English Pancakes:

• 100g flour
• 1egg
• 300ml milk
• pinch of salt

Procedure:

1. In a bowl, sift flour. Make a well in the flour and add salt, egg and milk. Mix the batter until smooth.
2. Heat oil/butter in the frying pan. Pour batter slowly until it coats the base of the pan.
   
3. When the sides form a crusty look, flip pancake over. When golden brown, remove and serve with lemon juice and sugar or with chocolate sauce.
   
4. For other ideas, make savoury pancakes by adding ham and cheese in the middle or chicken cream cheese.
   

Chocolate Cheesecake

Basically, just use the previous recipe of baked cheesecake (below) and top it with chocolate ganache. I will put up the recipe for the chocolate ganache

Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
2 squares/1 ounce squares semisweet cooking chocolate
1/2 cup sugar (or less if your chocolate is sweet)
1/4 cup cocoa powder sifted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt (about a pinch)

Directions:

1. Using a double boiler or a saucepan over medium-low heat, melt butter and chocolate squares together. Using a whisk, whisk sugar, whipping cream, cocoa powder, vanilla and salt until incorporated. Cook for about 2 minutes while whisking consistently.
   
2. Leave to cool, the chocolate will harden. Use a butter knife or a spoon to spread on top of the chilled cheesecake. Make decorations with the front and back of the fork alternately. Place in fridge or serve directly.
   

Baked Cheesecake

Easy to bake cheesecake, it's rich and creamy and just heavenly.

Ingredients:
Filling:
2 pounds cream cheese (250g)
3/4 cup white sugar (if you like it less sweet, use 1/2 cup or slightly below 3/4 cup)
2 eggs
2 tbsp corn starch
1 cup sour cream (one packet, 250 g)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Base:
1 1/2 cups digestive biscuits (depending how thick or thin you want it)
6 tbsp melted butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 205 degrees celcius.
2. Crush digestive biscuits with a fork in a large bowl (or your baking tin) or use a food processor. Mix the crumbs with butter to make them stick. Press the mixture onto the base of the baking pan to form the base. Place in the freezer.
3. Using a mixer, cream 3/4 cup sugar (or less) and cream cheese until smooth. Beat in eggs, vanilla, cornstarch until just mixed. Using a spatula, stir in sour cream until blended.
   
4. Remove base from fridge and pour the filling on top of the base.
   
5. Bake the cake at 205 degrees for 10 min. Without opening the oven door, reduce temperature to 100 degrees and bake for 45 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave to cool for about 2-3 hours. When cooled to room temperature, refridgerate overnight.

Note!

• Do NOT open the oven door during baking.
  
• Taste the filling before pouring onto crust to ensure the sweetness is at your level.
• If you want to make a lemon cheesecake, just use this same recipe but squeeze in half a lemon and grated lemon rind.

Enjoy!

Snowskin Mooncake Recipe

This is an easy to make (definitely more cost saving) for the mooncake festival if you're on a tight budget.

Before you start, you need to buy the "stamps" or "moulds" to make the pretty designs on your mooncake.

Ingredients:
75g fried glutinous rice flour (Koh fun)
90g icing sugar
33g shortening (do not put in fridge)
75g cold drinking water (water with ice if you like, but be careful of the volume)
1/2 tsp condensed milk
1-2 tsp vanilla essence
colouring/flavouring (I use green tea powder)
Kuaci (melon seeds) - optional
Lotus paste/red bean paste (Bought in packets in bake shops)
Salted egg yolks - optional

Method:

1. Sift koh fun and icing sugar in a large mixing bowl
2. Scoop up shortening into cubes with a teaspoon and add into the sifted mixture. Mix until you get a crumb like texture.
3. Add condensed milk, vanilla essence and colouring/flavouring (I use about 2 tbsp green tea powder). Add water a bit at a time until finish and mix to form a dough. Clump the flour together and knead until you get a smooth dough.
4. Set dough aside for 20 minutes.
5. Using a tablespoon, scoop out filling (about half a tablespoon) and form small balls with your hands. (preferably 30g each). If you want, put kuaci inside the filling and roll it into shape.
6. After the dough is set, tear up the dough (relative to filling) about 20g each and knead before use. Make a ball of dough. Flour the table and with your hands, or on your palm, flatten the ball of dough to a disc.
7. Place the dough on your hand and the ball of filling in the center of the dough. Wrap up the filling with the dough
8. Cover the filling completely with the dough and make round balls. Dust the balls with the koh fun flour.
9. With an appropriate size of stamp or mould, put the ball under the mould, press it in (or onto the table with the mould) and push the lever. Lift from table and push the dough out and ta-dah!

Snowskin Mooncake

Today we made some bite sized snowskin mooncake! It tasted really good and we had a variety of them, we made plain snowskin with lotus or red bean filling. And we also made green tea flavoured ones. :D

Soon, me and my friends are going to sell some mooncake so keep updated. :)

White Cupcakes w Pink icing + Recipe

These are easy to make white cupcakes. That is, they only have vanilla taste but you can really do anything with the recipe. You can make a good cake :D Or you can stir in chocolate, it really doesn't matter because these cupcakes are real good.

Some of the cupcakes in the pictures are out of shape (and they're only the size of a 20 sen coin) because I was experimenting with the mini cupcake holders (used for cookies)

So yeah, to be practical and have a good shape, you must have:
1. A large enough cupcake mould/pan
2. Cupcake holders as shown above that fits the mould.

Recipe for white cupcakes:
Ingredients:
1 cup of white sugar (slightly more than a cup for brown sugar)
1/2 cup butter (3/4 the stick or 1/2 will do) - chopped, at room temp
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp of baking powder
Milk should be added according to texture but for formal purposes I shall say 1/2 cup milk

Procedure:

1. Line the cupcake holders in the cupcake pan
2. In a bowl, sift the flour and baking powder (because baking powder sometimes becomes hard and crumbly)
   
3. In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. You would want the butter to be soft and cut up so it is much easier to mix. If not, you can just harass your mixer.
4. Beat in the eggs one at a time. (I like to separate my yolks and whites and beat the whites till fluffy because it makes the cake lighter. This applies for any cake you want to make more fluffy and light). Stir in vanilla
5. Add flour a tablespoon at a time and alternate with milk. The idea is to get a texture such that when a spatula is inserted into the batter and lifted to the air, the batter falls smoothly back into the bowl.

Then, line the cupcake holders with the batter. I placed a chocolate chip below the batter for extra taste (or you can add on top)Bake in preheated oven of 175 degrees celcius for 20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

For a normal size and well shaped cupcake, this is how it should look like. And there you have it! White cupcakes. But these go very well with icing! Because they're not so sweet.

Pink Icing (Warning! This recipe makes the mixing bowl very oily and may be found irritating to clean)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 to 2 cups icing sugar, depending on taste
few drops of vanilla essence
few drops of food colouring (red preferably, mine is cochineal colour)
few teaspoons of cream/milk (I prefer cream)

Procedure:

1. In mixing bowl, cream soft butter and shortening until smooth and well blended
2. Add icing sugar gradually
3. Add a few teaspoons of cream until desired texture
4. For colouring, add one drop of colouring and stir. If the colour is still bland, add another drop and stir again. Continue this process until desired colour.
   

It should looks something like this!
And the end result. :) This part is entirely up to your piping bag, and your artistic skill.

NOTE!:

• There will be a lot of icing to spare, mostly because of the amount of butter. So it would be better to make more cupcakes to finish off the icing.
• When adding icing sugar, add according to taste, make sure you taste your icing before piping it onto the cake.
• If you want to add on the icing, do not add too much sugar in your cake so that the sweetness offsets each other
• If you do not want to put the icing, adding chocolate chips into your batter could make a swell dessert as well! :D
• Sorry there are not a lot of guiding pix because I did this at night!

Icing is really fun when there are a lot of people helping out because everyone loves to customize their own icing design! Icing is also really helpful in parties, so give this a shot whenever you're making a bulk of cakes for a hungry bunch that also have a sweet tooth.