Lemon Curd to die for!

This is my first time making lemon curd - and now I am addicted to it! 

Lemons are one of my favorite fruity ingredient. The perfect tang to a rich buttery cake... or to a creamy cheese frosting...

This thick curd is perfect for filling up cupcakes, eaten with pancakes or scones! Or you could make a yummy lemon curd tart... Mmm.. the possibilities are limitless! ( Maybe because I love it so much, I want to add it to everything..)

I tried a hand out on making fine dining art - swirly and dotted curd around a nice white plate.. haha.
What do you think?

I got my lemon curd recipe from here. It worked the first time I tried making it - making the recipe FOOL-proof :P 

Ingredients

• 2 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup (165g) caster sugar
• 1/3 cup (80g) chilled unsalted butter
• Zest and juice of 2 lemons

Method

Whisk whole eggs, yolks and sugar in a saucepan until smooth, then place pan over a low heat. Add the butter, juice and zest and whisk continuously until thickened. Strain through a sieve into a sterilised jar. Lemon curd keeps, covered, in the fridge for 2 weeks.

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  It goes perfectly with butter cakes... :)

  
  

A Different Chocolate Chip Cookie!

Chocolate chip cookies are delicious, but boring.

Everyone loves chocolate chip cookies - I try to inhale as much as possible, whenever I pass by a Famous Amos cookie stand. But the thing is, it's always the same ol' thing when it comes to chocolate chip cookies. It's cookies - and chocolate chips. Once in awhile you'd get nuts (normal), or the healthy sort with raisins and oats (err...).

I'm the sort of baker that likes doing things, well... different. I've tried chocolate chip cookies with raisins, cornflakes, marshmallows, and peanut butter before. But I've had an idea in my mind for quite some time now... Snickers! ;D

Snickers would be amazing! It already has most of the stuff perfect for a chocolate chip cookie. It has chocolate of course, nuts, chewy caramel and that nougat-y fluffy thing. Snickers are my favorite candy bar :)

I was also keen on the idea of a minty flavor. Too much chocolate could be a little too rich. (In Malay, we call it jelak - which means the grossed out feeling you get  when you eat too much of something) So for half the cookie batch, I made chocolate mint cookies. What I used, was left over candy canes from Christmas.

What? Don't waste them....! They are still edible! (some have gone a little soft and chewy - but that just made it better!)

I think it went perfectly well with the chocolate chips :D

The only issue with these extra ingredients in my cookies were that the caramel from the snickers sorta melted, bubbled into a gooey substance and oozed out of the cookies. Kinda looked a little gross... The candy canes also melted in the heat, oozed out, and hardened again into a glassy pool around the cookies.

Here is my basic chocolate chip recipe:

125gm unsalted butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 3/4 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips

- Beat the butter, sugars and egg till light and fluffy.
- Stir in sifted flour and chocolate chips.
- Drop onto tray and bake at 180 degrees until lightly brown

For Snicker Chip cookies
- reduce chocolate chips to 1/4 cup
- chop up 2 bars of Snickers and add into dough

For Minty Cookies
- add in 1/4 cup of chopped up candy canes

If you have any more ideas of what to chop up into a chocolate chip cookie... Please SHARE! :D I always love new ideas! :D :D

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How to Make Flaky Spiral Pastry

Oops... Ate it before I could take a pic :P

The flaky spiral pastry I used to make the Chinese New Year Dragon Balls is a great recipe. You could use it to make all sorts of stuff. Fill it up with curried potatoes and minced meat to make light crispy curry puffs. Or sweet meat to make 'Siew Pao' - little paos?. You could also use those ready made fillings - taro, lotus paste or red bean. Whatever the filling, make sure that it's tasty, because the pastry hasn't got much sugar or salt in it for taste.

Those spirals makes the pastry crumbly and flaky... also makes it really pretty

It's a little complicated, and a whole lot of work - but believe me it's worth it! The flaky, and crumbly texture compliments a soft gooey filling perfectly! And the pride you feel when watching the spirals form as it bakes cannot be described :D

Water Dough: (Dough A)

125gm Plain Flour

20gm Caster Sugar

50gm oil

60ml water

Oil Dough: (Dough B)

120gm Self Raising Flour 

60gm Oil

(colouring if desired)

Mix the two doughs separately - I add colouring to one of them, just so I don't get confused...

Now for the rolling... this is rather important. It's vital that it is done this way, to achieve the pretty spiral effect. Follow the pictures below, and you'll be just fine...

Thats a looong picture.
I tried to draw the tutorial... but I just couldn't!

1. Take your dough A and dough B
2. Roll out dough A
3. Put dough B on the rolled out dough A
4. Wrap dough B in dough A
5. Roll out the wrapped doughs
6. Start to roll up the flattened doughs, like how you roll up a carpet
7. & 8. Your rolled up dough. Now arrange the rolled up dough vertically.
9. & 10. Roll flat the dough, make sure its long and vertical
11. & 12. Now, start to roll up the dough, as you did in step 6, the other way. Now you'll get a similar rolled up dough as you did in step 7.
13. Cut the dough into two.
14. As you can see here, you'll get a pretty shell like spiral pattern
15,16. & 17. Lay it flat, spiral pattern facing up. Now, flatten it with your palm, or roll it with your rolling pin
18. Fill yummy goodies on the flattened dough
19. Now wrap up the dough, pinching it shut in the middle, and 20 is what you get when you turn it around

Remember to keep the doughs well moist - cover them with a damp cloth if you are working under a fan, or if  the rolling is taking some time.

You can choose to deep fry the pastry or bake it - I personally prefer baking. It's less work, and not as messy. Bake it at 220 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes - till the corners turn golden brown.

Phew... thats a long post. Have fun! :D And Enjoy!

Shared this at Good Cheap Eats!

Bunny Biscuits Again...

Second batch of Suji Bunny Biscuits - this time with a different recipe (and I found out its spelled 'Suji')

This recipe is slightly crunchier, less melt in your mouth - and has the cracked effect (spoiling my bunny faces in the process). However, I still think it is incredibly yummy :)

Lots of people were freaked out by my blue/green bunnies earlier; so I made normal coloured fellas this time. White bunnies with red eyes and rounded ears :D I think 'kuaci' seeds, or pumpkin seeds look nicer as ears compared to almond nibs...

Unbaked bunnies...

 The recipe is of course, really simple... and the dough is easier to shape as it's harder.

250gm Ghee, 1 tsp Vanilla Essence, 500g Self raising flour,  150gm Icing Sugar,  A pinch of salt ,  red colouring,  Pumpkin seeds

Mix flour, icing sugar and salt together, then slowly rub in the ghee and the vanilla essence. Mix till well combined, then knead with hands till a ball of dough is formed. Take a teaspoon full of dough and shape it into a little ball. Prick two small 'eyes' with colouring and stick on two pumpkin seeds for ears. Bake at 190 degrees for about 10-12 mins. 

Looks like a rabbit play pen

The year of the rabbit is generally supposed to be a good year for all. Its a peaceful, calm and a happy year. So, I wish you a great year ahead - with prosperity, happiness and an abundance of cookies :D

Lu Kam?

Lu Kam, or Mandarin Oranges are one of those other 'must haves' during Chinese New Year.

So, heres another innovation of mine... the Chinese New Year Orange Cookie :D

It tastes like oranges too - I added in some orange juice, and plenty of orange rind. 

Does it look anything like Lu Kams?

It isn't too difficult to make, and the ingredients are rather simple. The dough is also easy to work with.

What you need is:

2 1/2 cups of All Purpose Flour

Zest of 2 oranges

3/4 cups of sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup of butter

2 tsp orange juice

2 Tbs cream cheese

orange coloring

1. Mix the flour, orange zest salt and sugar together.
2. Slowly rub in the butter till well blended
3. Drop in cream cheese and orange coloring and juice. Mix slowly. After dough looks wet enough, take it out of the mixer and knead.
4. Roll little balls about the size of one teaspoon. I use a melon baller to get roughly the same size. Finally, use a stick and poke a shallow green dot on the top of the orange ball.
5. Bake at 190 degrees, for about 12 mins. 

Enjoy your new year cookies!

How to Make Watermelon Jelly!

Making watermelon jelly seems complicated, but it's actually not too difficult....

To make it seem even easier - here's an illustration! :D Cheers!

Try to get the inside container to be a little smaller than the outside one. I used a round Japanese bowl, and that worked out fine as a mould as well.

To make watermelon jelly, follow the instructions on the jelly packet. I used different types of jelly for the skin and the flesh, to get different textures.

Put in several drops of green coloring, or pandan essence for the 'skin' in the jelly.

For the watermelon 'flesh', substitute water for watermelon juice. No coloring needed, the red is just perfect!

Best consumed when craving for sweet stuff after dinner.... :D

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Ridiculously Easy! Insanely Delicious!

Baking itch.. baking itch... baking itch...
        Arghhh!! NO! NO! NO!
        On a diet... on a diet... On A DIET~!!!

DOMO! : How the heck do you run a baking blog when you're on a friggin' diet?!
Me :  :(
20 minutes later.....

Guess what this is. Ice-creaaaa....? Nope, it isn't ice cream.

It's my Frozen Banana Cream Cup!

Frozen Banana Cream Cup!

Fooled you didn't I?

It's healthy, Ohmygod! delicious and impossibly easy to make. Most importantly, eat it guilt FREE! (ok maybe 3% guilt because of the whipped cream... ) It tastes like thick, rich banana ice cream....

Heres how you do it:

• Take 3 ripe, frozen bananas (Cavendish Bananas taste creamier - I love DOLE, but any other brands would do fine)
• One spoonful of honey
• Two table spoons of milk

Blend them all in a food processor, and serve with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles :)

Dole bananas are slightly richer and creamier in taste. For the perfect ice cream texture :D

Enjoy your breakfast-dessert! 

And if you want it a little less creamy, and a little more smoothie - add more milk! You'll get a delicious smooth banana shake! Which makes this post now, perfect for this submission:

My Gingerbread Men!

 

This year of course, I could not resist making Gingerbread Domos! Rawr..

And then of course, the traditional ones....

Like I said in my previous post.... I don't think Christmas is complete without the smell of gingerbread men baking in the oven. It's my third year in a row making gingerbread.... and every year they look different! I try to diversify them - keeps the kids interested! :D

I found this recipe online on Quick Free Recipes site: http://www.quickfreerecipes.com/

I loved it because the dough was as foretold by the site name, quick to make and easy as well. I liked the texture of the dough that wasn't too difficult to roll out, and not too sticky either. 

When cutting out shapes, I like making my gingerbread men thick, but I find with this recipe, thinner dough makes them crunchier. The one thing I don't like about making gingerbread is that the time it takes to decorate the men, causes the cookies to go soft :(

Of course, I tweaked the recipe a little - and added in a couple of stuff I liked. Give it a try!

Gingerbread Men Recipe

350g plain flour
100g soft butter
1-2 teaspoons grated ginger
175g soft light brown sugar
1 egg
4 tablespoons of golden syrup

1 teaspoon of All Spice

Mix all the dry ingredients first (flour, all spice, ginger and sugar) and rub in the butter. Add the egg and the golden syrup and mix with a wooden spoon until it forms a dough. This is when you use your hands to knead the dough a little. Roll out the dough - I made mine roughly 5mm thick, and cut them with your cookie cutters. Bake at 180 degrees for 10 to 15 mins. Decorate with royal icing :)

Gingerbread Girls

Gingerbread Boys

                                      Merry Christmas!

How to Make A Christmas Tree Cake

How is a standing Christmas Tree Cake made? Well, here is an illustrated manual:

How To Make A Christmas Tree Cake

1. Make 2 portions of buttercake - with addition of chopped fruits, raisins, nuts and all spice.

2. If you are one of those people where everything must be weighed and measured properly, then the correct measurement of the cake pieces would be 5 x 5 inches, 4 x 4 inches, 3 x 3 inches, 2 x 2 inches and finally a tiny 1 x 1 inch to top. 

OR If you are like ME, and don't really like numbers, well then make them squares a little smaller than the previous one ;D

3. Stack the cake pieces, largest one at the bottom, of course- and arrange them so the corners stick out from the sides of the bigger squares, so you make pointy edges all around.

4. Use a star shaped piping nozzle, and fill it with green buttercream icing. Start piping 'pine leaves' on your cake. (It would make sense to pipe them, starting from below...)

5. Finally - now this is the fun part.... Start Decorating!! :D :D Use ribbons, but just make sure your guests don't eat them, colorful sweets, silver dragees, colorful chocolate sprinkles or well, what ever you want on your tree! Top it off with a sugar doll, or a star shaped candle! :D

6. Lastly, awe your friends and relatives during your Christmas Party! 

Have fun! :D

Choco-Domo-Pots!

Remember my previous post about Nigella? Well, this is one more reason I love her...

She makes baking sooooo easy! In fact it seems totally impossible for her to make something difficult. I saw her whip up these Choco-hoto-pots once, and my God did it look good!

But knowing Nigella's type of recipes, it was an absolute definite that her hoto-pots would be too sweet and too rich. So I decided to make it Domo-style! 

Choco-Domo-Pots!

I may look gooey, but I'm so yummy!

• 1 bar of butter (250gm)
• 3 oz of cooking chocolate
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 tbs flour
• 1/2 tbs coffee granules

You wanna know how easy it is? Melt the cooking chocolate and add in the butter. Now blitz the rest in together! Scoop them up and put them in ramekins, or muffin cups (fair warning - it's gonna be buttery, so try to avoid using muffin cups). Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for about 20 mins. Eat them HOT~!

Easy-Peesy Cupcake Recipe

Listen closely... I'm about to give up my all time secret cupcake recipe!!

Truth is, it's so simple it can hardly be called a secret.

Easy-Peesy Cupcake Recipe

200gm Unsalted butter

6 oz Caster Sugar

4 eggs

6 oz Self Raising Flour

1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence

Beat the butter and sugar till smooth, white and fluffy. Add in eggs one by one, then mix in the flour bit by bit. Add Vanilla Essence. This can be replaced with other flavoring - orange juice and rind, cocoa powder etc. Spoon into cupcake casings. Bake in preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for about 30 mins.
Good lord, that's easy!

To serve follow 3 simple steps:

1. Decorate with whipped cream, or butter cream
2. Add a sugar heart
3. Light a candle and give to Birthday Boy!