Chicken Rice

We have chicken rice for dinner today. I make use of this disposable bento plate (from Daiso) for my kids, with chicken in one dish and mixed veg in the other. As usual, the veg & tomatoes are left untouched! :(

Butter Cookies

I am so sick of making chocolate cookies using the same recipe I made earlier, so, I did not add the cocoa powder and has it replaced with AP flour. Surprisingly, the taste is fantastic, however, I still find it a little sweet even though I have reduced the sugar and used brown sugar instead. Again, I have my girl to help me mold the cookies & we use the balance to make little stars and birds (my new cookies cutter addition)!

Here's the recipe:

175g Powdered sugar

135g Butter

1/4 tsp Salt

1 egg

[200g cake flour

A-[30g plain flour (in replace for cocoa powder)

[1/2 tsp baking powder

1. Preheat Oven to 170deg C. Grease a baking sheet. Mix and shift A.

2. Soften the butter at room tempertature. Cream butter and sugar in an electric mixer until fluffy and pale. Add the egg and mix well. Fold in A and salt then mix into a smooth dough. Divide the dough into 40 small balls and place them on a greased baking sheet. I used hand to flatten the ball and use cookie cutter to press them into shapes and decorate as desire.

3. Bake for 10minutes.

Birthday Chocolate Torte

I have bought some colourings during my shopping trip to the bake supplies shop in Jurong.. I have intended to use Chocolate Ganache, however, I could not find the Heavy Cream this morning at the Shop N Save near my house and I was lazy to walk further, hence, I use Red Man Quick Whipping cream together with the colouring to decorate the whole cake, also I cut the cake into half and have cut Strawberries fillings with purple buttercream (wonder how it will taste with the chocolate torte). I hope the birthday girl will like it!

Horlick Doggie Cookies

My girl has again requested for cookies, hence, made this Horlick Doggie cookies. I have used Milo instead of Horlick for the last time, now, since there is horlick in the cabinet, I thought to give this a try to see the contrast in colour, I have replaced the eyes using icing stars. Looks better I think! I'm going to bring to give to my nephew as he is celebrating his 2 yo birthday today (so happened to be my birthday too!)

My sis even strike 4D using his birthday & mine birthday on Wed!

Happy Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

This is the 1st birthday cake I made for myself. I am quite satisfied with the result. Adopting the recipe of Chocolate Torte from Happy Homebaking, However, since I am making a 9" cake, I multiply all ingredients by 1.5 and has replaced Dark Chocolate with Semi-Sweet Chocolate (the only chocolate among my ingredients!
Can't wait to taste the cake! Will update later on the taste.
Below is the colour of the cake without 'dressing up'

I am so happy that the cake is well received and my sis ordered one for her niece's birthday tmr.

Japanese Cheesecake

This is taken just taken out from oven!

Look! It shrink!

Finally, can enjoy the fruit of the hard work! It is so yummy that my husband thought I have bought it from the store!

Found this recipe from Seadragon's blog.

Makes one 20cm cheesecake.

[Ingredients]
250g cream cheese
200ml thickened cream (35% milkfat)
40g (1/3 cup) cornflour
4 egg yolks
75g (1/3 cup) caster sugar (A)
finely grated zest from 1 lemon
40ml (2 tablespoons) lemon juice
4 egg whites
75g (1/3 cup) caster sugar (B)

[Preparation]
1. Preheat oven to 150°C. Grease a 20cm round cake tin and line bottom with baking paper.
2. Dissolve cream cheese with thickened cream in a bowl placed over simmering water (or in a double-boiler). Remove from heat. Whisk until smooth (forget this step!). Cool slightly.
3. Beat egg yolks with caster sugar (A), lemon zest and juice. Gradually whisk the warm cheese mixture into the yolk mixture. Fold in cornflour.
4. Beat egg whites until foamy with uniform tiny bubbles. Gradually beat in caster sugar (B), spoonful by spoonful, until firm but not to stiff peaks stage.
5. Fold 1/3 of the meringue into the cheese mixture. Repeat two more times with the rest of the meringue.
6. Pour batter into the prepared tin. Place the cake tin in a deep roasting tray and fill the tray with hot water to halfway up the sides of the cake tin and bake at 150°C for one hour
7. Let cool completely before turning out. If the cake is hard to turn out, assist it by placing the tin over warm water briefly. Glaze the top of the cheesecake before serving.

Fun with Meal

Went to Daiso this afternoon to search for new tools to enhance the kids' meal, found the car and flower egg pan, the rice ball mold and small shaped containers for dishes. Somehow, the eggs were overcooked in the egg pan & I have to use another pan to flip them to the other side so that they are fully cooked. As for the rice ball, it's easy, just fill the rice and press them through and a nice roung rice ball is formed. Here, I have cut vegetables, fish ball, fish into the shaped containers. However, as usual, the veg will be left untouched :(, however, they still ate some egg and fish ball. As for the rice, they finish it 1st before eating other dishes.

Tree Pancake

This is not the 1st time I make pancake from the premix, but the first time using the egg mold to mold the shape. I am very inspired by Peony from My Culinary Journal to make meals interesting for the kids. Therefore, I search my drawer for this mold that I remember I bought some time back to make this pancake. The kids were very delighted to see this and finishes all the pancake that was in their plates.

Another Brownie

This is my 1st attempt to write wordings on a cake. Tell me what you think!

Chocolate Chips Bun

After 3 years break of making Bread, here it is, requested by my girl. However, when she got home, it is not appealing enough to lure her to try it. But, my boy finish one little one within minutes.

The dough is knead with my bare hands, no bread machine at the moment. The original recipe named: Oblong dinner rolls, but after it rise, it became round in shape, so now I called them, bun, instead.

Curb Meat and Turnip Cake (Carrot Cake)

My first try on Carrot cake, recipe from "The Snack Book-Hong Kong Style".

Ingredients
600g Rice Flour
1800g Turnip
2 strips of Chinese sausage
112.5g Cured meat (I skipped this ingredient)
75g Dried Shrimp
1T. Deep-fried Chopped shallot
Small amt of: Salt, Pepper

Method
1. Dice the Chinese sausage, cured meat and dried shrimps; mix with chopped deep-fried shallot, Uset 3 tbsp of oil to stir fry. (Ing A)
2. Peel turnip, cut into shreds, by using 3 cups of water to boil it till cooked and transparent. Add salt and pepper, mix them with Ing A. (Ing B)
3. Add 3 cups of water to rice powder, stir it into a paste, add Ing B. Stir-fry in a pan till it becomes sticky paste, press in a mould (brush with oil). Steam for 1 hour till no sticky paste stick on the chopstick when tested. It can be served directly or slice and pan fried.

Milo Doggie Cookies

My girl has been pestering me to make these lovely cookies when she saw it when I was browsing Happy Homebaker's blog.

Brownie Muffins

I have been thinking to make muffin for a long time. Went to Phoon Huat this morning to get my utensils (muffin mold & cups). I think for a first time, this is not too bad. Inside is a little moist, however, the surface is a little hard (crispy). I made this using recipe from one of the blogger, (sorry, forget who). Below is the recipe, modified:

Ingredients:
(makes 6 muffins, with diameter 2.5" by height 1.5" muffin cups)
80g butter, chopped into chunks
150g dark eating chocolate, chopped
85g raw sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100g plain flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
A handful of chocolate chips

Method:
Preheat oven to 200 degC.
Line muffin pan with paper liners.
Sift together flour and cocoa powder, set aside.
Place butter in a saucepan, melt over low heat. Once the butter starts to melt, add in the sugar.
Stir to prevent sugar from getting burnt. Add in the chocolate and stir still smooth.
Transfer chocolate mixture to a mixing bowl.
Stir in the eggs gradually, followed by the vanilla extract, then the sifted flour & cocoa powder mixture.
Stir till just incorporated.
Divide batter into muffin cups.
Sprinkle with chocolate chips and bake for 20 mins or until skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Do not over bake as the muffins may get dry.

Brownie

This is the best brownie I have made so far. The texture is moist, soft, yet not too sweet. With tips from expertise, I modify the original recipe as follows:

Ingredients
250gm Butter
200gm semi-sweet chocolate block
5 medium eggs, room temperature
1/4 tsp salt
1 cups raw sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup walnuts pecans, chopped (optional)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 175 degree celcus
2. Grease a 13 X 9 inch baking pan
3. In a double boiler, melt butter and chocolate. Remove from heat.
4. Cool chocolate for 5 minutes
5. Using an electric mixer, beat eggs and salt in a large bowl until lemon colored and foamy.
6. Add sugar and continue beating until mixture is well blended.
7. Stir in vanilla.
8. Add cooled chocolate to mixture.
9. Fold in flour. Do not over mix.
10. Gently fold nuts into batter.
11. Pour batter into prepared pan.
12. Bake for 20 to 25mins until a wooden stick inserted into the center comes out clean.
13. Cool in baking pan.

Serve with Chocolate syrup to add sweetness to the brownie as shown below.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I need to use up my balance shortening from making Mooncake (which is a failure that I will not post). Hence, after flipping through my cookbook, saw this recipe.

Bailey's Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake

When I was making this Cheesecake for this recipe, I was thinking how to decorate the top so that it will look nice and not plain and boring, hence, I scoop out a bowl of the mixture before adding the chocolate. This portion is too small to make the swirl inside the cake, hence, it only appears on the surface.

Chocolate Cheesecake

Irish Cream Chocolate Cheesecake

My first Real Cheesecake, adopted recipe from the web plus my modification to reduce the sugar. I am quite proud of myself when it comes out from the oven. The top is so nice until my son created a hole in it. I have no choice but to decorate it with whipping cream and chocolate shaving. I did not expect it to turn out so nice & I had received compliments on it.

Chocolate Cookies

Another batch of chocolate cookies, done with the help of my darling girl.