Chocolate Chips Muffins

Makes 8 ~ 10 muffins
Ingredients	Amounts
Cake Flour	200g
Baking Powder	2 tsp
Fresh Milk	120ml
Butter	100g
Sugar	80g
Eggs (Beaten)	2

1. Soften the butter at room temperature. Using an electrical mixer, blend the butter finely. The butter should reveal a light pale yellowish colour.
   
   
2. Preheat oven 170 degree Celsius for 7~10 mins.
   
   
3. Stir in the sugar bit by bit. Continue to blend the mixture with the help of the mixer.
   
   
4. Add in the beaten eggs. Do not pour all at one go. Do it slowly to ensure batter is blended fully with the eggs.
   
   
5. Pour in 60ml of the milk. Sift the flour and baking powder. Blend half of the flour mixture into the butter batter.
   
   
6. When the mixture is finely blended, pour in the remaining milk and flour mixture.
   
   
7. Continue to blend till mixture is smooth and silky.
   
   
8. Pour the ready batter into the muffin cups. Bring to bake at 170 degree Celsius for 25 mins.

Baked these muffins on sunday for our snacks. I promised to bake some for my colleagues, therefore, a woman with integrity normally holds her up promises, I am baking more of the muffins.

As Hubby fell deep in love with these muffins, he urged me to baked some for his colleagues. So here I am, baking EVEN MORE muffins. I think I can bake these muffins with my eyes close.

My New Helper 飛利浦

Remember my previous post mentioning about getting some essential tools for my baking obsessions? If you can't recall, you may click here. My dream came 1/4 true. I realised I'm quite a lucky charm sometimes. Everything that I wished for normally come true, except for the fact that their values gets a few times lower than what I usually wanted. It's still lucky! =P

Anyway, last Friday, after posting about my obsessions about what I really wanted, my Hubby asked if I wanted to get myself a stand mixer. I was like " Gosh, is that for real or are you just kidding me?". Fact is, he mean it, reality is, yes a stand mixer but not the KitchenAid Pink cutie. I know its a no way deal to get that pink mixer. It's so godness expensive! No matter what, I'm gald. At least I've got a stand mixer. I don't have to use my bare hands to mix the egg whites anymore! Come people, cheer for my Hubby Kuo~ Hurray!

So, let me introduce my new helper. I name him 飛利浦 which means Philip. 飛利浦 might be small in size but he's quite combat alright. I've used him to bake my muffins and charlotte cake. Very powerful helper! Hehehe~ Come, kiss 飛利浦 !

This is 飛利浦 also known as Philip.

Fine Dining Do-It-Yourself

Appetizer - Salmon Cheese Roll

Makes 2 sets Appetizers
Ingredients	Amounts
Fresh Salmon	4 big slice
Olive oil	4 tbsp
Thymes	Approx. 1 tsp
Oregano	Approx. 1 tsp
Sugar	2 tsp
Salt	1 tint
White Vinegar	3 tsp
Black Pepper	A little
Green Lettuce	5-7 slices
Purple Cabbage	7 slices
CreamCheese	50g

1. Marinate the fresh salmon with salt, sugar, vinegar, black pepper and olive oil. Allow 3-5 mins of marination.
   


2. Allow the cream cheese to soften at room temperature. Mash it using a spoon and combine the herbs together.
   


3. Cut the vegetables into fine shreds. Mix the shredded vegetables together and arrange them onto the plate.
   


4. Roll the salmon slices with the cheese filling. Arrange the fish roll onto the plate of shredded vegetables. Chill for a while and it is ready to be serve.
   

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Main Dish - Rosemary Spaghetti

Rosemary Chicken Drumstick

Ingredients	Amounts
Chicken Drumstick (Alternative switch to Chicken Thigh)	2 big ones
Rosemary	4 tbsp
Black Pepper	Approx. 1 tsp
Minced Onions	Half of a small one
Honey	2 tbsp
Dark Soy Sauce	2 tbsp
Olive oil	3 tsp

1. Marinate the chicken drumstick with the above ingredients.
   
   
2. Bring the chicken drumstick to grill at 250 degree celsius for about 30 mins. You may apply a coat of honey on the chicken at ard 25 mins and bring to grill for another 5 mins.

Recommended to leave the marination progress for 1 night.

* Having the chicken drumstick to soaked in the marination sauce overnight will ensure the tenderness of the poultry and also the enhance taste.*

Rosemary Spaghetti

Ingredients	Amounts
Spaghetti	Own preference
Rosemary	Approx. 2 tsp
Thymes	Approx. 2 tsp
Dried Parsley	Approx. 2 tsp
Oregano	Approx. 2 tsp
Salt	2 tint
Olive oil	3 tsp
Fresh Mushrooms (Diced)	5 pieces
Minced garlic	2 tbsp

1. Bring the spaghetti to boil in a pot of water.
   Remember to add in a little of olive oil and salt to the water.
   This will prevent the noodles from sticking together, also adding tint of aroma to the noodles.
   
   
2. Once the spaghetti is ready, in a pan, heat up the olive oil in low heat. Mildy fry the minced garlic and Mushrooms. Next, stir in the cooked noodles.
   
   
3. Add in the herbs combination and blend well. Allow the noodles to stew for some moments.
   
   
4. Top the noodles with salt, stir well and it is all ready to be serve.

Charlotte Cake

Cake Base

Makes a 6" cake
Ingredients	Amounts
Egg	2 Medium size
Sugar	30g
Cake flour	50g
Butter	2 Tbsp

1. Sift the cake flour 2~3 times.
   Place the grease paper within the cake mould.
   
   
2. Preheat oven to 175 degree Celsius.
   
   
3. Combine eggs and sugar in a bowl. Place the bowl over a pool of hot water.
   Mix the eggs and sugar using an Electrical mixer on turbo speed for about 10 mins.
   
   
4. Switch it to a lower speed and continue mixing the combination. When the mixture reflects a shiny and pale look with lesser big bubbles, it is ready.
   
   
5. Blend in the sifted flour slowly (approx 2~3 times). Blend well.
   
   
6. Take a little portion of (5) and mixed it with butter. Blend the remaining batter into the mixture.
   
   
7. Pour the batter into the cake mould and bake for 20-25 mins (Heat varies from different oven.)
   
   
8. Once ready, allow the cake to cool before applying whipped cream.

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Lady's Fingers

Makes 20 ~ 25 fingers
Ingredients	Amounts
Egg Whites	167g
Sugar	125g
Cake flour	125g
Egg Yolks	100g

Charlotte Fingers is commonly known as Lady's Fingers. Not the vegetable! ^_~

*Using a small egg as a gauge, 167g of egg whites is equivalent to 4 small egg whites and 100g of egg yolks is equivalent to 3 small egg yolks*

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees Celsius.
   
   
2. In a bowl, gently beat up the egg white. Add in 2/3 of the sugar bit by bit and continue to mix the egg white mixture till it becomes fluffy.
   
   
3. Combine egg yolks and the remaining sugar in another bowl. Add in 1/3 of (2) and blend well. Pour the remaining batter into the mixture and blend gently.
   
   
4. Sift the cake flour 3 times before adding them into (3). Blend well and stir thoroughly.
   
   
5. Arrange the greaseproof paper into the baking tray. Fill the batter into a pastry bag (You may DIY if you want, else you can get a re-usable kind from Phoon Huat) and squeeze the batter into long shape like of a finger.
   
   
6. Bake for approx. 7-10 mins. Once ready, allow cooling before using it on the cake.

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Cake's Decoration

Ingredients	Amounts
Fresh Whipping Cream	100ml
Sugar	50g
Strawberries	20-25 Medium size
Cranberry sauce	1 Can

1. Combine Whipping cream and sugar and beat it up with an Electrical mixer on turbo speed. Once the mixture is fluffy enough, you may stop the mixing process.
   
   
2. Cut the cake into half and spread some of the cream mixture onto one of the cake. Fill the cream layer with the cranberry sauce. You may wish to combine the cranberry sauce with the cream.
   
   
3. Cover the cake up and cream the whole cake.
   Arrange the fingers at the sides of the cake.
   
   
4. Decorate the cake by arranging strawberries in the center of the cake. You may sift some icing sugar on top of the strawberries for even nicer look. Chill the cake for about 10 mins and it ready to be serve.

Happy 4th Anniversary

Today marks the following:

• 4th year of our Lovely and Sweet Together Anniversary
  
• 1st year of Wedding Proposal

For the past 3 years, we normally dine out at some posh restaurants and buy each other posh presents. However, we decided to have something different this year. 雖然結婚了，但是Anniversary還是不能馬虎. Having our nest of our own, both of us decides to have our Anniversary dinner at home. :)

I whipped up the following menu with my uttermost love for my husband :

• Appetizer - Salmon Cheese Roll
  
• Main Dish - Rosemary Spaghetti


• Dessert - Charlotte Cake
  
• Beverages - Chill Earl Gray Tea
  

I spent almost the whole afternoon baking and preparing the food for dinner. Though tired, I still find it very 幸福 to be able to cook something for my wonderful Hubby. I always love culinary especially baking. Now with a home of our own, a kitchen of mine, I can cook and bake as much foodies as I like!

For your eyes only ;)

Appetizer : Salmon Cheese Roll
I marinated the Salmon with Olive oil. Wonderful sparks!

Dessert: Charlotte Cake
The fingers of my Charlotte cake appeared to be slightly burnt.
That's the only sad part of it. I over-estimated the temperature.
Nevertheless, the fingers taste fabulous! Taste like Shortbread to me~

Main Dish: Rosemary Spaghetti
The Spaghetti was fried with some herbs like Thymes, Oregano and Parsely.
Very good combination I can say

Tables of Delicacies

I believe many of you must be pondering why on earth that we are dining on the coffee-table. Well, both hubby and me really like the view outside our windows. It's a super big green field and you get to see sunset too! Romantic in other word, that makes it why we always love to dine on our coffee-table instead of the usual dining area.

Preparation starts now!

Satisfied with my 1st attempt on Charlotte Cake
* Please forgive the messy and ugly look =.=*

Bon appetit!