Spring's here, showing you our collection of Citibank's hong bao over the years. Happy CNY
Came across Orangette's Lemon Yogurt Cake, and since it had been a while since I last baked a cake, I had to try this one. As it is, I had waited a day before attempting. To my dismay, the cake did not turn out as it should :( If you look at the slides above, you'll see that the texture is not cake like at all, it's very kueh like! Must have converted the recipe wrongly. But give credit where credit's due, this is about the easiest cake to put together. No hassle of setting up the mixer, just a big mixing bowl and wooden spoon. I will most definitely try this again. The kueh is rather tasty, and since 3 big eggs were added, it's rather eggy, but not off-putting, if you know what I mean.
As I was agonising over this setback, I checked Happy Home Baker's site just to look at the texture of their cakes. And I found another variation of it, with proper weights of the ingredient. Why didn't I find this earlier? Wonder who's gonna eat this kueh. BTW, SE this is another super easy bake which you can attempt, don't be fooled by the result of this bake, k?
Update (30 Jan 2008): Baked the Orange Yogurt Cake tonight. And boy, was it good and easy! I had watched the video on Orangette's blog and it inspired me to give it another shot. It was a real orangey cake, suitable for people who enjoy the fruit, like my son. A certain birthday person was treated to a piece and complimented it. Guess it suits the person's tastebuds more than Asians? But I had enjoyed it very much. Btw SE, sorry to hear about the little accident in your kitchen. Hope that won't put you off baking. How about steaming a cake?
This is the toughest challenge yet. Kuey Bangkit, I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I didn't expect it to be this tough.
Frying the tapioca flour was about the easiest part of this. I fried the flour a few days ago, and got down to baking it only this afternoon. Mom told me that the flour/dough would "slide" and I didn't understand her. But after mixing the flour into the egg+coconut mixture, I thought the dough was really really dry. Perhaps I was too kiasu and added too much flour, afterall the recipe called for 400 g of flour! I had to call mom to check. She thought it sounded dry and suggested that I add one more egg yolk. I had, by then, used the entire packet of coconut cream. Guess it's not to be, even though they look like the real KB, other than the strong coconut fragrance, they are not sweet enough. I had reminded myself NOT to reduce any sugar and added 5 extra gram of sugar. They aren't melt in your mouth either, I'm so sad.
My kids love this cookie so much they finished almost all of the first tray of cookies! This is definitely be another regular recipe from now on. What I plan to do differently is to NOT use self-raising flour in future. Look at how much the cookies expanded and flattened (the original is behind). Also, I may just add 2 tsp of cornflour so the texture will be a little crumbly. I hesitated this time and did not add cornflour. These turned out very cripsy.
My daughter insisted that I bake this again today, after the KB. She insisted on adding only M&M without any chocolate chips. I added 1 big tbsp of cornflour, and I like the bite better. However, this cookie is much better with chocolate chips.
This is my all time weakness during CNY. In the last few years, I had finally learnt to control myself, not to take more than 2 or 3 each time I opened the bottle. I'm always on the lookout for good quality, delicious, melt-in-the-mouth pineapple tarts for sale. I'm glad to say that I can now make my own, something I would be proud of.
Thanks Gina, for sharing such a wonderful recipe. Most people would guard it but you have so kindly shared such a winner. I made a small batch, only one-third of the recipe. I managed to make 26 pieces. Oh, one other thing, took a short-cut and used Sun Lik's pineapple jam. Mrs Wong said it had just arrived when I went over yesterday. I have another pack from PH waiting in the fridge, not so hopeful about this one though :P
The recipe calls them colourful cups but I want to call them rainbow cookies. They're so adorable right? Ok, there's a dent on top, as I had used self-raising flour instead of plain flour. I didn't want to open a new bag of flour just for 140 g of flour, although the recipe didn't ask for any raising agent. May be I could try making a colourful cupcake instead! So far, I haven't had much success with cupcakes though. The most successful would have to be longan muffins.
Aren't these just so cute? Taste pretty good too, interesting texture, almost like melt in your mouth! But it's a little tedious to make due to the steps involved. Besides, the dough is really soft, so need to refrigerate it for a while before cutting. Even after leaving them in the fridge for close to 2 days, cutting these requires some skill and practice. It's rewarding though, seeing how these turned out. Must thank kwf for giving me the tip not to overbake them as the colour did lighten somewhat. But it was a good experience.
I was so encouraged that I baked this on back to back days! The first comment was from a friend who received a loaf of it. She told me that we don't have to buy any more banana cake, and I would have to show her how to bake this.
I got the recipe from Kitchen Capers, guess I cannot share the recipe without permission. All I can say is that from the ingredients, one can just TELL that this WILL work. In fact, I had a scare when I was mixing the flour + banana mixture with the beaten eggs. Perhaps the eggs were too big and there was too much eggs for the flour mixture. I had a shock when I poured the mixture into the pans, the flour mixture were still at the bottom! I had to mix again and pray that the cakes turn out.
I used an 8 by 8 inch square pan for the second attempt. This time, I did the mixing somewhat differently and added chocolate chips. Those who tasted it thought it was good as well. Thanks so much for your kind words. You'll definitely get to eat more. Since you've all lost so much weight in the 6 months over in Europe, you deserve to be fed :)
This is the second attempt. Yummy!
Well, not exactly my first bakes for 2008, but couldn't resist not choosing such a celebratory frame! Also, these were taken with the new cybershot phone, the K770i.
The Peanut Butter Cups will be a hit with peanut butter fans, like my son. However, as we were too eager to taste them, they were not probably set when we ate it. Besides, the peanut butter used is a little creamy. Be warned though, these are nothing but sugar! Perfect for people with sweet-tooth.
Finally, I have found a butter cookie recipe that is a sure winner and therefore a keeper. This is the same recipe as the Disney cookies. This version uses custard powder instead of corn flour. Must say the custard powder has rendered a rather unique bite. Too lazy to roll and cut cookies, so did something really simple and let the taste speak for itself. Will bring some samples to see if anybody would place order for them.
This is a wonderful recipe, smells and taste gorgeous, if that word can be used for food. What's lacking is the taste and smell of longans. My girl commented that there wasn't enough longans in the muffins. You can find this wonderful recipe from Delicious Asian Baked Treats. I shall be making more of this, definitely.
I got the verdict for the cocoa puff cream cake today. It tasted like ice-cream cake, and I was encouraged to take orders for it. Wow! May be I should make another mango peach charlotte cake as sample also. I am sure I have enough whipping cream for these. Am I in business yet?
Happy New Year my friends! Here's wishing the new year brings you new cheer and hope.
Had the annual gathering for friends and their families at our humble abode on new year's eve. There was plenty to eat, from main courses to desserts. However, since some of the main courses were catered and my Canon camera is not with me, I didn't bother to take photos of the spread with my mobile phone. Only took pix of the chocolate molten cake and *mango peach charlotte cake. *Thanks Happy Home Baking for the recipe.
Both cakes recieved good comments. I think I finally got the hang for both cakes. Yes, one must invest in good chocolate for the choc molten cake. This was the reason for getting the great reviews, the chocolate! As for the mango peach charlotte cake, after the mistake from the first attempt (won't even bother to refer you to it), I laid another layer of sponge fingers at the bottom. Even considering a sponge cake bottom next time, see how ... What I definitely need to do differently is either use a smaller pan/cake ring or line the sides with sponge fingers before adding the yogurt layer.
I also made a ^cocoa puff cream cake as I had a one-litre carton of non-diary whipping cream. This is my second attempt but I didn't taste this one as I gave it away. Hoping to hear good things about it, yet to find out. ^Thanks Do What I Like for the recipe.
