Gingko, dried beancurd skin & balrey dessert (白果腐竹薏米糖水）

Haha, by looking at the title it is like something very sophisticated right?! Actually this is not. This dessert i ate a lot during my pregnancy, as it seems it will helps for baby skins. hmm... i really not so sure about that ler...:(

But this dessert is very nice and i love it so much :)

Ingredients (A):

70g barley/ jobstears seed (washed)
1-1.5 liter water (based on own judgement)
4 pandan leaves (washed and tied up a knot)

Ingredient (B):
350g water
120g yellow can sugar
4 pandan leaves (washed and tied up a knot)

Ingredients (C):
30 gingko nuts (break shells, soak and remove skin and remove bitter core)

75g dried beancurd skin – approx 1 big piece (break into small pieces, soak until soft and drain)
1 egg (add in 1 tsp water and lightly beaten)

Methods:
1) Bring ingredient A to boil, reduce to low heat and continue to simmer for 30-45 mins.
2) At the same time, bring gingko nuts and ingredients B to boil and reduce heat to medium for 20 mins, till gingko nuts are cooked and softened. Remove pandan leaves and set aside (including the sugar syrup).
3) When the barley splits open (softened), remove pandan leaves. Add in gingko nuts (with the sugar syrup) and soaked beancurd skin, cook for another 5 mins. Taste (add in more rock sugar if necessary).
4) Bring the heat to high for 5 seconds and turn off the heat. Immediately, add in the beaten egg slowly (like a tiny stream) and use a spatula to swirl the dessert in clockwise until the shredded eggs (蛋花) can be seen on the surface. Serve.

Recipe adopted from food-4tots

Honey Cupcakes

Today i wanted to bake something simple, easy yet delicous. I came across this beautiful cupcake from Anncoo Journal blog so immediate i decided to bake this, also because my girls they adore cupcake :) maybe for them it is cute :) hehe

I baked it in small cup which allows me to makes 30 small cup :) and if according to the original recipe and bake in big cup it will only makes 10. I like to bake in small cup to attract my girl to eat it. ;) *wink*

This is the simplest recipe i had ever tried so far and this is definetly a keeper :) yummy

Ingredients:-

125g Butter (softened)

90g Caster sugar (i reduce from original recipe)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp Honey

2 Eggs

185g Super fine flour (Original called for plain flour)

1 tsp Baking powder

125ml Milk

Method:-

1. Pre-heat oven 170C

2. Shift flour and baking powder together and set aside

3. Beat butter, sugar, vanila essense and honey until light and creamy

4. Gradually add the eggs and beat until well combined

5. Add flour mixture and milk alternaltely and beat until just combined (Do not over beat it, else you will get dense cake)

6. Spoon batter into cupcake cup and baked for 25mins or until skewer comes out clean.

7. Cool on the rack before serve

Recipe adopted from Anncoo Journal

Orange cake and Orange swiss roll with orange cream cheese

When i first read this blog, 1st thing come to my mind was i am going to bake Rio - Blu cake for my girl for her coming birthday 1st June. She will definetly love it. :) and quickly i search Youtube and found a link teaching how to deco a cake to look like Rio - Blu - BOOKMARKED already. hehe...

Why i link this to my girl birthday cake?! Because i wanted to bake orange cake which is not so rich in favor and it is soft to eat because this is using chiffon matters, and best things was Wendy (blogger name) not using artificial coloring. :) Using blueberry to replace the color and this is a brilliant idea. :) love it ..

I am very satisfied with the cake texture, but not satified at all with the Orange Cream Cheese filling. :( sigh
Swiss roll still ok because i spread less orange cream cheese filling but i spread more to the cake. therefore you will feel the bitterness of the orange skin. So next time will not pandai-pandai replace the kumquat (original recipe called for kumquat) to orange. hehehe :P

  Ingredients: Orange sponge

Yolk batter
7 egg yolks
35gm sugar
70gm vegetable oil
70gm orange juice
1 Tbsp orange zest
140gm cake flour
½ tsp baking powder

Meringue
7 egg whites
70gm sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Method:

1. Preheat oven at 160(fan)/180C. Prepare an 7 inch pan. Line the base only.  10" X 14" swiss roll pan, and line.
2. Prepare yolk batter. Combine all the wet ingredients + sugar + orange zest. Sift cake flour + baking powder together and combine with everything until a smooth batter forms.
3. Prepare meringue. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peaks and beat in sugar gradually until stiff peaks form (hooked peak).
4. Prepare final batter. Fold ¼ of meringue into yolk batter until well combined. Repeat with another ¼. Pour the yolk batter into remaining meringue and fold until well combined (Fold not stir and it should look very foamy). Pour batter into prepared pan.

7" round pan:-
5. Bake the cake for 30-35 minutes or until done. Remove from oven and let the cake totally cool before removing cake from pan.
6. Slice cake into 2 slices and fill with orange cream cheese filling. Cover and chill for 2 hours minimum.

10" X 14" swiss roll:-

5. Bake the cake for 20-35 minutes or until done. Immediately invert it on rack after removal from oven. Leave to cool (about 10 minutes). Remove the baking paper and let it cool completely.

6. Spread the orange cream cheese and hold the cake with both hands and roll gently.

7. When swiss roll is rolled up, make sure the ending portion facing downward. Keep the roll in the refrigerator at least 30 mins before serve. 

 Original recipe : Table for 2 or more...

Orange Cream Cheese

Original recipe called for kumquat, but i do not have it on hand. I had search Tesco, giant and carefour still cannot find, guest it is not seasson now. :( so i pandai-pandai replace it with 1/2 orange with skin on. :P and the result was amazing.... BITTER. :(  hehe

Anyway, i will try again using kumquat because my house kumquat going to ripe soon. Yeah....

Ingredients:
10 kumquats ( I replace with 1/2 orange with skin on)
½ cup water or more
25gm sugar or more (depending on the kumquat’ s taste)
125gm cream cheese, room temperature
60gm butter, slightly softened

Method:

Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in cold kumquat puree. Taste it. If not sweet enough, add some caster sugar and beat a while. Use this to fill cake.

Note:-
Do this step in advance. Half kumquats and remove seeds. Slice them thinly and place in a saucepan together with sugar and water (amount should cover the sliced kumquats nicely, if not, add more). Bring to a boil and lower heat to simmer until kumquats are soft. Blitz the kumquats together with the syrup until a coarse puree forms. Let it cool down. It should be at the consistency of ketchup. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge, it will further thicken.

hehe, i do not border to change the word kumquat to Orange because it is a NO GO and please do not replace it. :P

Original recipe: Table for 2 or more...

Mini Pandan Kaya Swiss Roll

Finally today i have time to bake this after few weeks of sick, busy with works and etc... actually i read this blog long time and bookmarked it immediately because my girl love to eat swiss roll. Usually kindy will provide those brought from hypermarket which i do not like her to eat it. Just imagine manufacturing date Jan'12 and expiring on Dec'12. WHAT!!!!!!!!!! OMG... please do not give it to my girl. :(

So i decided to learn and bake swiss roll myself so i can give her bring to kindy as snack. :) I am quite happy with the look and taste and my girl also approve it. :p haha

See how small i am :) can be fit into the 'soup' spoon. haha

Recipe adapted from Vivian Pang kitchen 

Ingredients:

(A)

3 egg yolks

1 tbsp (15g) sugar

1/4 tsp salt

30g vegetable oil (2 tbsp)

35ml pandan juice (2 tbsp + 1/2 tsp)

(B)

65g cake flour 

(C)

3 egg whites

1 tbsp (15g) sugar

(D)

Kaya for spreading

Method :

1. Pour egg yolks and sugar in a bowl. Whisk till sugar dissolves.

2. Add the remaining ingredients in (A) into the bowl. Stir well.

3. Fold in sifted flour. Mix till smooth.

4. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites till frothy. Add sugar gradually and beat till stiff.

5. Fold in 1/3 of the whites into the yolk mixture till well incorporated.

6. Pour in the remaining egg whites and fold gently till well combined.

7. Pour batter into a swiss roll tray (10" X 14") lined with greased baking paper. Smooth the surface with a scrapper. Bake in the pre-heated oven 160C for 20-22 minutes. 

8. Immediately invert it on rack after removal from oven. Leave to cool (about 10 minutes). Remove the baking paper and let it cool completely.

9. When the cake has cool down, used a knife to slit 2 lines, but the cake is still attached to each other. Spread kaya evenly on the surface. Leave 1cm remain unspread.

10. Hold the cake with both hands and roll gently. Since the pan is rectangle size so roll it from the long side to get a mini roll. If you wish to have a normal size roll then just roll it from the short side.

11. When the swiss roll is rolled up, make sure the ending portion facing downward. Keep the roll in the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before cut and serve.