To-Bake List 2014/15

Made from Scratch Strawberry cake

http://thekitchenmccabe.com/2014/10/09/made-scratch-strawberries-cream-cake/

Neapolitan Cupcakes

http://www.cookingclassy.com/2014/09/neapolitan-cupcakes/

Mini Brownie Butter Cakes 

http://rasamalaysia.com/mini-brownie-butter-cake-recipe/

Starbucks Cupcakes

http://natventures.tumblr.com/post/18062563920/starbucks-cupcakes

Strawberry Shortcake

http://roxanashomebaking.com/strawberry-shortcake-cake-recipe/

Rose Buttercream Cake

http://thecakeblog.com/2014/02/rose-water-buttercream-cake.html

Copycat Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

http://www.cookingclassy.com/2014/01/copycat-krispy-kreme-doughnuts/

Strawberry Custard Tarts

http://www.deliciouseveryday.com/strawberry-custard-tarts/#_a5y_p=1376486

Happy Teacher's Day 2014

Ordered a batch of honey for Baby Kwok #1's teachers in school as their Teacher's day gift. However, got a shock at how mini they were so Prince Charming suggested baking something to go along with the honey. Had a big bag of Granola sitting in the fridge so I thought, maybe a Granola fruit muffins but ended up, I forgotten to add in the granolas! 

Been getting really forgetful nowadays. Anyway, the muffins were also Baby Kwok #1's breakfast as well as Prince Charming. Both gave their thumbs up for the muffins! I ate one and was also surprised at how flavourful these muffins were. The best thing that I ever heard from the Prince Charming "Hey, they looked so cafe styled and they really taste so good. Like those we get in Starbucks or angmoh bakery!" 

On a side note, I should have been more generous with the crumble toppings. They were so so so good and goes so so so well with the muffins!

Look at those mini honey! 

Love these cupcake liners and toppers that I got from one of the online shop :)

Baby Kwok#1 loves those cubed size plums! 

They were organic and taste really fresh!

To make these:

Muffins

• 195g All purpose flour (US metric 1 1/2 cup)
• 65g Caster sugar (US metric 1/2 cup)
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Baking powder
• 1 Egg (approx 55g)
• 100g Milk 
• 70g Oil
• 2 Organic plums, cut into bite size

Crumble toppings

• 60g Butter, melted
• 45g All purpose flour
• 50g Brown coarse sugar

1. Combine the dry ingredients together and set aside.
2. Preheat your oven to 200°°C
3. Meanwhile, combine the ingredients for the crumble toppings and mix till it resembles crumbs like mixture.
4. In a mixing bowl, mix egg, oil and milk. Add in the dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Mix in your plums and mix gently. Pour your batter into a pipping bag
6. Line your muffin tray with cupcake liners. Snip a slightly bigger opening on the pipping bag 
7. Pipe the mixture into the liners. Sprinkle the top with a generous amount of crumble toppings.
8. Bake the muffins for 20 ~ 22 mins

Chocolate Chiffon-Sponge cupcakes

No idea what I am talking about? You should just try this recipe! It was something that came by pure luck yet it has the texture and taste that I really like (so do Prince Charming!)

If you are looking for a cake that has a texture in between Chiffon and Sponge, this will be the right one for you :) Perfect texture for a cupcake! Not greasy - Light and spongy and fluffy :)

To make this:

95g of cake flour
75g egg yolks
70g brown sugar

60ml Oil

10g Cocoa powder (I used bittersweet kind)

4 tbsp water 

3 tbsp fresh milk

130g egg whites
80g brown sugar

1. In a mixing bowl, combine yolks, sugar, oil. Add in flour, water, milk and cocoa powder. Mix well. Ensure that the batter is not lumpy to avoid affecting the texture. If the batter appears to be too thick, you can add in more milk to get a slightly runny mixture (not too runny - Mixture should form a ribbon trail)
2. Preheat oven to 170°C
3. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites till foamy then add in sugar gradually till peaks achieved. Note: Do not overheat egg whites. This might causes collapse of the cake
4. Add half of the egg white mixture (meringue) into the yolk-flour mixture. Fold well. Add in the remaining egg white mixture into the cake batter. Ensure that you fold well.
5. Pour your ready batter into little cupcake liners and bake for 35 mins

All natural Purple Chiffon cake

Finally managed to get some purple sweet potatoes! Was looking up and down the whole of Singapore for them and just when I was about to drop the idea, I found it at Finest Supermarket! Wheeeeee....

And so..  I baked the ALL NATURAL PURPLE CHIFFON CAKE! All natural because no added colouring! The purple colour comes from the sweet potatoes! Love the colours so much! Baby Kwok #1 enjoyed this snack and gobbled one up within minutes. I made them into small cupcakes for him and Baby Kwok #2. The little princess love them too but because she's only 10+ months old, I do not want to expose her to that much sugar (seems okay to us but a lot to infants). Anyway, it is quite a healthy snack for the adults so do give it a try!

Love the colour! 

Baby Kwok #1 enjoying his tea break :) 

He is a cake person like me!!

To make this, you'll need:

- 85g Cake flour

- 50g/ml Oil

- 3 Egg yolks

- 20g Sugar

- 3 Tbsp water

- 4 Egg whites

- 50g Sugar

- 100g mashed Purple sweet potatoes

- 3 Tbsp milk ( I replaced it with infant formula milk as I am giving as a snack to Baby Kwok #2)

- Some diced Purple sweet potatoes

1. In a bowl, mix yolks, sugar and oil. Combine well.
2. In another bowl, combine the mashed sweet potatoes and milk. Add this mixture into the yolk mixture in step 1
3. Add the water and cake flour into the mixture from step 2. Set aside. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180°C
4. In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg whites till foamy. Add in the sugar gradually till you obtained a glossy meringue with peaks.
5. Take half of the meringue and fold into the cake batter from Step 3. Add the remaining meringue into the batter and fold well.
6. Pour the batter into a chiffon pan or cake pan. Tap to release air/gas trapped in the batter before baking. Bake for 30 mins.

Basic Macaron shell recipe

I have people who sent me numerous private messages in Facebook for the recipe that I am currently using for my macarons. I can't say this is the perfect recipe for everyone but it does work well for me (At least, I get feets on my macrons after so many attempts).

Also, this recipe is less sweet as compared to many recipes on the Internet. The ratio between the icing sugar and almond meal is almost 1:1 which makes it acceptable. Most of the recipes that I have googled online were in the ratio of 1:2 (Almond vs Icing) and the sweetness is far from what I can accept - No doubt macarons were meant to be sweet.

Anyway, I am still constantly looking out for other recipes to try out before I can conclude which is the right and perfect macaron recipe. So till then, I'll post the current one that I like at the moment.

To make these macarons, you will need:

- 30g Egg whites
- 30g Caster sugar

- 35g Icing sugar
- 30g Almond meal

1. In a mixing bowl, beat the egg whites till foamy. Add in 1/2 of the caster sugar and continue to beat. Gradually add the remaining sugar until you have peaks. This is called Meringue. Your meringue should be glossy and have define peaks when you lift your mixer up. 
2. Sift your Almond meal and icing sugar in another separate bowl. Ensure that you get very fine mixture almost like a flour. This determines the texture of your macarons. If your almond sugar mixture is not as fine, your macarons will have rough surfaces.
3. Add your meringue to the almond sugar mixture and blend well. When the meringue and almond mixture get incorporate well, press the batter down and then scoop up for a few times. This is known as Macaronage - the step that determines if your macarons will have feet or not. The consistency of your mixture should be like a lava texture. (Never seen lava? Just lift your spatula and see how the mixture drop down. You should see a ribbon trail when the mixture drops from your spatula. 
4. Pour the ready batter into a piping bag. Pipe the batter into little round shapes. Tap to release the air bubbles and leave to dry for about 20-30mins. 
5. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 170°C for 5 mins then turning down to 150°C.
6. Bake for 15 mins and leave to cool

For the fillings, you can use jam, nutella or self made some buttercream to assemble the macrons!

Have fun making these little french cookies!

Pastel colored Macarons

I baked Macarons AGAIN! Hahaha!!! I am just hooked into baking these delicate little french cookies. There is no way to describe the happiness when you see the feet appearing on them. It's like.... you were running for a marathon thinking you might just give up halfway and the next moment you realised you have reached the finishing line. Bad description but well you know what I am trying to explain.

Baby Kwok #2 birthday party will be approaching soon and we have set a Little Pony theme for the party. The first thing that comes to mind about Little Pony - Rainbow, Pastel, colourful. I am getting so excited about decorating for the party as well as setting up a candy bar. When you have a girl, you get to do more things! (Oh well, I mean comparing to preparing a boy's party vs a girl's party, it makes a huge difference)

So.. here I present my pastel coloured macarons! Happy with the result but not what I was looking for so that means more posts on macarons soon! :P

Pastel coloured Macarons

(A combination of Pink, Blue and Yellow)

Prince Charming requested for a light dinner so we decided to have wraps. The requester did not make any comments after his dinner so I guessed that equals to "Not so nice" LOL! He only questioned about the marinate of the chicken fillet which I used as a filling. Hmm.. I think he hates that filling. Opps...

Our dinner! 

Chicken fillet wraps with Romaine salad and chips

Rainbow Chiffon cake

I baked a rainbow! The recent trend of baking anything rainbow has caught me!

Been so obsessed with baking colorful stuffs lately ;) Was thinking of attempting to bake Rainbow-ed macarons but because I wasn't that confident with my macaron skills thus decided to put it on pause (Till I perfect my macarons then). And then, I was amazed with the Rainbow cakes that I saw on Pinterest and on the Internet  (e.g. Martha Stewart, Kerry Cooks and Pixelated Crumb), I almost wanted to bake one  for Baby Kwok #1's 4th Birthday! Oh well, but the boy requested for a Transformers cake (hmpf!) so I dropped that idea.

With the recent leg issue that I faced with Baby Kwok #1, I was a little down. Even though, the Orthopedist has mentioned that his leg seems okay as she did not observed any pain when the cast was removed and he could stand and squat, I am still worried. After the cast removal, Baby Kwok #1 is still limping :( The way he walk is worrying me. I googled and results were showing that it is pretty normal that the child may be reluctant to walk or walk weirdly during the 1st few days (or even week) after going off the cast but it still depressing. I get so stressed when I see the boy limping and get fed up by asking him what's wrong! I think that scares him a little. Sigh... Prince Charming said I am overly paranoid but seriously, WHO wouldn't be worried?! I appreciate some kind advise from parents who have similar experiences so please do send me a comment!

 

Anyway, decided to bake a Rainbow Chiffon to make myself feel better. Colors perks me up!

To make this, you will need:

Cake batter

• 80g Flour
• 60g Vegetable oil
• 60ml Water
• 20g Sugar (I used caster sugar)
• 70g Egg yolks

Meringue

• 180g Egg whites
• 90g Sugar
• 10g Corn starch

1. In a mixing bowl, combine yolks, sugar and oil. Mixed well
   
2. Add flour and water to the yolk mixture. Mix and ensure that the batter is lump free. (Lumps affects the texture of the cake)
   
3. Divide the mixture into 4 bowls (more if you are doing more colors). Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 170°C
   
4. In a separate mixing bowl, beat egg whites till foamy. Add in sugar and corn starch gradually till mixture get transformed into peaks. Do not over beat the mixture - You can check the consistency on and off to ensure you get the right texture. Meringue with soft peaks works well but I prefers a slightly solid peak but not to the extend of very stiff peaks.
   
5. Scoop the meringue into the cake batter mixture (step 3) equally. Add your desired color gel to the individual bowl. Fold and blend the meringue into the cake batter gently. (Do not over-fold as this might causes the chiffon to collapse)
   
6. Layer the mixture into the chiffon pan. Once done, tap the chiffon pan to release air bubbles/gas in the mixture. Bake for 33~35 mins.

Nutless Macarons + Happy 4th Birthday Little Claire!

Attempted macarons again and this time round, it is a nut-less version. You're not seeing wrongly, yes NUT-LESS! No almonds! I wouldn't say the recipe is a big success because I felt that it tasted a little heavy comparing to usual macarons. Sesame has this strong flavour that is too overpowering I suppose. Guess I need to tweet the ratio of the sesame and icing sugar to perfect this recipe.

Black sesame Macarons (Nut-less)

It is my little niece's Claire 4th birthday celebration today! We went over to my sis's place for a mini celebration for the pretty little "Elsa" in disguise LOL! The girls are so crazy over Frozen that they requested a Frozen themed party!

Happy Birthday Claire!

Been trying my best to bake/cook more so that I get to post more. Shall take it easy and do things slowly because it is really not easy managing 2 kids. Baby Kwok #2 is now at the crawling, standing unassisted mode 24/7. She used to be okay with sitting inside the Jumperoo or walker, but now that she is so mobile, she prefers to be on the floor crawling away or be carried by us. Pretty tiring for Prince Charming and myself!

It is even worst when she is at teething stage because she practically do not sleep during the night and would fuss and be cranky. She only has 5 teeth at the moment so I cannot imagine the road down when she starts popping more teeth.

Baby Kwok #1 fractured his left ankle last Friday :( He fell from the school's chair and hit against one of the table resulting in the hairline crack on the ankle bone. Went KK Hospital and was put on a soft cast. Was told not to let him walk until we attend the follow up review this coming Tuesday. I am really praying hard that the review will be a good one and he can remove his cast and be active again. It is really upset when you hear your child asking you "Mummy, is my leg okay?" Please pray for me that the review with the Orthopedist will be a good one!!!

I'm still alive!!!

Oh my! Can't believe that I have left my blog vacant for almost 7+ months! The last time I have posted something was back in Sept 2013. I do really need to find time to publish more posts here!!!!

Though I have not been updating my blog, I do bake and cook on and off. Just that I am plain lazy to  sign in to blogger and start the publishing EVEN THOUGH my heart tells me that I should just go ahead and write a post but my brain just would not listen :(

Finally had the chance to update my post- All thanks to the Prince Charming who has left to run for a marathon and my Baby Kwok #2 is up and roaming around!

Here's what I did for our dinner on 4/26/2014. I attempted Macarons again and they finally had broad feet that I was looking out for! Yay!

Broad feet Macarons! 

It was a dark pink btw, filter of my camera phone makes it look brownish 

Then, I fixed a easy simple western dinner for both of us.  Not too hard and really quick to make them and Prince Charming enjoyed his dinner so do I (even though it was not that full for us but we need to go light on our weighing scale)

Prince Charming's dinner.

Cheese sausage with baguette, Japanese corn and sunny side up

My dinner!

Blueberry bagel with corn and cheese sausage

Baby Kwok #1 and #2 had other food for dinner though. Baby Kwok #1 is not as adventurous with food and he usually prefers asian cuisine to western cuisine so when it comes to main meals (lunch, dinner) his request will always be - RICE, RICE, RICE. Baby Kwok #2 is only 9.5 months old so we are still very conserve with the food that we offers to her (although I have to admit that we are more chincai (easy-going) comparing to the time during Baby Kwok #1 - Middle child syndrome LOL!)

And.. I have not been publishing "professional studio" kind of pictures on my blog because Prince Charming has not been playing with his toy for quite sometime. Should I be taking up some lessons with him to learn how to capture pictures so that I can do it myself? Should I??