Taking a long break

I am taking a long break from blogging. No particular reason, just plain lazy.

Apple Crumbles

I am guilty, guilty of not able to take the photo and upload the photo. Firstly, my camera run out battery. Then I am just simply lazy to take the photos. So, I am guilty. Anyway, I made Apple Crumbles last Sunday. No, I do not have the photos.

It was an ok effort by me. I bake the Apple Crumbles in the microwave convection oven, so it did not have the brown effect of the crumbles.

Anyway, here is the recipe:

Filling:

4 apples ( I use Granny Smith)
1 tsp of ground cinnamon
25 g brown sugar

Crumbles:

175 g self raising flour
110 g of almond with skin
75 g of butter (cut into small pieces)
2 tsp of ground cinnamon
110 g of brown sugar

Instruction:

Peel and core the apples. Cut it into small pieces. Mixed with brown sugar and ground cinnamon. Put into baking dish and put aside.

Rub butter with flour until it turn into crumbles like form.Pour everything (except the almond) into a bowl. Put almond into food process and grind it into small pieces. Pour the almond into the crumbles and mixed.

Pour the crumbles onto the apples (loosely, do not press into the apples). Bake for 40 min at 180 C or until golden brown.

Apple Pie & Ice Cream - the perfect marriage

Ok, sound very ambitious. After almost a month of not doing any baking and updating this blog, I made two dishes that are perfect for each other last weekend. Yes! TWO dishes.

No photo yet but will upload later.

Apple Pie

4 Granny Smith Apple (of small size)*
1/3 cup of sugar
1/2 of ground cinnamon

200 g butter (original recipe use 250 g)
500 g of multipurpose flour
5 tbsp of ice water
1 egg (lightly beat)
a pinch of salt

Instruction

Peel and core the apple. Cut it into small pieces. Pour in sugar and cinnamon into the apple. Cook on slow fire until soft. Put aside to cool.

Rub butter with flour until it turns to breadcrumbs like dough. Put in egg and ice water, knead until it become soft dough. Cover with damp towel and let it rest for 15 to 20 min. I put it in the fridge.

Divide the dough into two parts. One part is about 2/3 of the dough and the other is about 1/3 of the dough to cover the pie later.Roll the dough into round shape, enough to cover about 8 inch pie baking dish.

Put in the filling prepared earlier into the baking dish. Brush off the rim of the dough with egg wash. This will act as a glue for the cover.Roll the other dough into round shape and cover the pie. Brush the pie with egg again. Make 4 small incisions on top of the pie to let out the steam from the pie during the baking process.

Bake for 45 min ~ 1 hour in 200~180 C or until golden brown.

Milo Ice cream

300 g coffee mate
2 cup of fresh milk
75 g of castor sugar
2 tsp of gelatin
2tbsp of hot water
150 g Milo (instant cocoa powder)
choc chip or rice

Instruction

Dissolve coffee mate, sugar and milk. Add in Milo. Stir until no lump. Put aside.
Dissolve gelatin with hot water. Add into the milk mixture. Stir. Strain through a strainer and put it in the freezer until half frozen. Whisk until it double in volume. Freeze again until half frozen. Add in chocolate chip or rice or raisin. Stir again. Freeze until firm. Serve with apple pie or eat on its own!!

It is so heavenly!....

Red Bean Bun

Bake the bun this morning, I dont have sesame seed so here's plain looking red bean bun. It is deliciously fresh bun with not so sweet red bean paste. I bought the red bean paste from Bagus Baking Supplies in Shah Alam. I love that shop. Bought my candy thermometer there for RM40.00. I want to make gummy worm candy. Watch up for that soon (if only I could find the time and peace of mind!!)

To Sir(Madam) With Love

I made for Aisyah's Teacher's Day celebration at her school. I just hope it reaches the school in one piece!!

Cake: Custard Marble Cupcake
frosting: Buttercream
Theme: Bouquet of flowers and a book

Mini Spinach Quiche

I have Macaroni & Carrot Soup left over, some spinach and sweet pastry dough. This is the outcome. I owe a lot of recipe, I will write the recipe later but now I have to prepare lunch. Today's lunch would Chicken Stew, White Rice, Stir Fry Broccoli with prawn ball and most probably sambal bilis with jering. How's that sound?!!!

I am no soccer fan!!

Baking and decorating a cake needs patient and passion. I might have the passion but not the patient. The temperature got too warm in my kitchen, I was having a tough time with the icing. I had to put the icing a few times in the fridge to bring the temperature down. My hands were warm, and then I realised I was not feeling too well. My neck was sore, I might have pulled a my neck muscle during one of those bad coughs spell. Anyway, totally forgot how a soccer ball looks like (the patent), so this is it. Not my best work yet.

Change of my blog title

I change my blog name today. I dont want people to get confused with Sugar (the channel on AFC - hosted by Anna Olson).

Not my best work yet!

I am not too happy with this one. The cake was ok but the decoration is a bit messy. I wish I could done better for little Aini. Anyway, enjoy the cake. The cake is Marble Cake but I could hardly get any marble patent on it.

Here something I did after I have completed little Aini's cup cakes. Recipe will be posted later.

In The Garden

Another Masterpiece

Another masterpiece done on Saturday at BWY. It was ok class, not enough time to actually master the skill. No lunch break. Luckily bawak roti as alas perut.

The cake (chocolate moist cake) is about 3 inch in diameter and 2 inch in heights. Topping is fondant and royal icing. Good for corporate gift or special gift.

Chocolate Moist Cake

Chocolate Moist Cake with chocolate Ganache as topping. 6 inch-cake, about half a kilo. Available in buttercream icing as well. Need three days notice!.Send comment for pricing.

note: photo taken using handphone with 2 Meg resolution.

Sausage Bun

Made mini sausage bun for breakfast on Tuesday. Made cinnamon roll too but a bit too burn to upload, taste wise is ok.

Updated 16/6/2008:

Recipe:

2.5 cup of high protein flour (can also use all purpose flour)
1 egg
1 packet of yeast
1/4 cup of warm water *
3 tbsp of sugar
1/2 tsp of salt
1 stick of butter (to brush and glaze the bun)

* you can also use warm milk

Instruction:

1) Dissolve yeast in warm water, add a little bit of sugar (1 tsp) to active the yeast faster. Let it stand until creamy (abt 10 minutes)
2) Put together sugar, salt and 1/2 cup of flour first. Add in the egg and the yeast. Add 1/2 cup of flour one at the time until finish. Mixed everything until it combine.
3) Lightly flour the counter top or your container. Knead the flour for 8 minutes. Put in the container and cover with damp towel.
4) Let it rise to double of its original size. Sometime, I just let it rise for 10~15 minutes.
5) Punch the flour to let the gas out. Roll on lightly floured surface.
6) Brush the rolled flour with butter.
7) Cut a strip of the rolled flour and wrap around the sausage.
8) Arrange them in a baking dish, about 1/2 inch apart. Brush off with butter.
9) Let it rise for 40 min before baking or you can cover them with plastic wrap and keep it refrigerate for overnight (bake it tommorrow morning)
10) Bake at 200 C for 14~15 mins

Otherwise, you can also use ready made pastry sheet (available at leading supermarket or you can also check up in any supplier for bakery supplies and accessories). Rolled the sheet around the sausage, cut the pastry sheet until you reach the sausage (dont cut the sausage off!!), brush of with egg. Bake at 180 C for 20~25 min. But this one will be crispy.

Another day at BWY

Made this last Saturday at BWY, from the top:
1) Bird Nest
2) Flower
3) Butterfly
4) Happy Birthday
5) Ice cream cone
6) Tropical
7)Baby Bibs
8) Lady Hat
9) Present



Wanna place order? he he.. drop a comment.

Pumpkin Pie Cupcake

No, it is not a tomato. It supposed to look like pumpkin but I misplaced my red coloring. A combination on red and orange will make the pumpkin skin color. More to come. Watch up for more photos and recipe.

Rose Tart

My project did not ends with the baking class. I make this for Siti's hantaran. It was hard labor, not for someone who do not have the patience. Found the recipe from here and the photographed step in here. Thank you so much to these two wonderful persons (even I dont know them personally), they really inspire me to try. Anyway, Siti love it (the look and the taste). Frankly, lots of pujian from the siblings and the mak-mak saudara.

Recipe :

Ingredients:-

3/4 cup of icing sugar

1/2 cup of margerine

1/2 cup of butter mentega

1 cup of cornstarch

1 egg york

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 3/4 cup of all purpose flour

Strawberry or Raspberry Jam

Paper cup (small size)

Round cookies cutter

Instruction:

1) Beat margerine, butter and icing sugar until well mixed.

2) Add in egg york, vanilla essence and beat until it creamed.

3) Add in cornstarch into the mixture, mixed it well.

4) Add in all purpose flour bit by bit until it become a soft dough.

5) Roll the dough about 1/2 cm thick. Cut with cookies cutter.

6) Spread the jam on top of the cut dough, fold it over to make half circle.

7) Bend the half circle to make "U" shape. Do two of this shape.

8) Combine the two "U" shapes to assemble a Rose.

9) Transfer to the paper cup.

10) Bake in pre-heated oven at 150C for 10-15 minutes.

11) Cool it down on rack before storing.

12) Make around 40 pieces.

Chocolate Cream CupCake

Baked this cupcake for Siti's wedding. Well, not before I took a class at Bake With Yen in Bandar Puteri. It was fun and so informative. Here is the recipe. It costs me RM30.00 but I am giving this for free but you have to pay for the experience and other parts of the learning experience.
Chocolate Cream Cupcake Recipe

Ingredients:
1) 300 g self raising flour*
2) 60 g chocolate powder
3) 300 g butter
4) 250 g brown sugar**
5) 2 tbsp buttermilk flavour
6) 5 eggs
7) 200 g fresh milk
8) 100 g chocolate chips

Instruction:
1) Shift flour with chocolate power. Put aside.
2)Beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time and then add buttermilk flavor
3) Stir in the dry ingredients, alternating with the milk
4) Add in chocolate chips
5) Pour batter into cupcake casing
6) Bake at 170 C for 25 minutes.

* - you can also use superfine flour as substitute to the self raising flour. Add 1 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp of baking soda. Do not forget to shift them.
** you can also use white sugar as a substitute to brown sugar
*** make around 20 cuppies using casing no 11

Apam Gula Hangus

People, I have gone beyond my comfort zone. I made Apam Gula Hangus. Found the recipe here. It was soft and fluffy. I made them into a bite-size. Got 24 pieces and with some leftover batter since I do not have time to cook them. MySarah dah mengamuk.

Ingredients:

• 2 egss
  
• 1 cup of sugar
  
• 1 cup of water
  
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil
  
• 2 tbsp of butter (original recipe uses magarine)
  
• 2 tbsp condensed milk
  
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 cup of flour
  

Instructions:

Heat up the sugar until it turns brownish, take great care not to burn the sugar, add water and stir until all the browned sugar dissolved and caramelized. Leave it too cool.

Put eggs, vegetable oil, butter, condensed milk into food processor or blender, mix it well for 3 minutes. Add the caramelized sugar and baking soda into the mixture and mix again.

Finally, add flour and mix it well again.

Grease a muffin tray and put the batter about 1/2 full. Put into steamer and steam about 20 minute. The time depends on the size of the Apam. If it is one large tray, it takes longer to cook (about 45 min). Please refer to the original recipe.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes (an update)

I make this for Nina's birthday. This time it came up soft and fluffy. The secret - very ripe banana and I added in 3 tbsp of milk. The batter is a bit thick, that's why I added in the milk.

I use buttercream icing, nozzle (wilton 233 and I cant remember the other one to make drop flower).

The recipe can be found here.

Custard Cupcakes

Found the recipe from here. Sound so delicious, after a few weeks of looking at the recipe, I made a batch of it last night. The result: 1) the look not so pretty, mine overflow and a bit brownish on the top. I can always conceal it with the icing. 2) the taste - it was so good, so fluffy and soft. I can taste the custard. Best of all, the color is so pretty, smooth yellow in the inside.

The recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup of flour
1 cup of custard flour
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of butter (softened it)
4 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Instruction:

1) shift flour, custard flour, baking powder and baking soda. Put aside
2) Beat butter and sugar until it cream
3) Add in and beat one egg at the time
4) Finally, add in the flour. Mixed well
5) Put them the cupcake casing
6) Bake for 23 minute at 175C

Bread Pudding

There would normally leftover bread at our house. Previously, we would save the bread and feed them to the fishes at Taman Bukit Jalil. Well, the kids are excited first, feeding the fishes. After a while they got bored of it, no longer excited like every time we announce that we would go to Taman Bukit Jalil. Now, I just turn the bread into the most delicious bread pudding. It is a tad too sweet for some but the cinnamon and the raisin balanced the taste. I even made custard sauce to go with it. The taste is just heavenly for a sweet tooth like me.

The recipe (I got it from here):

Ingredients:
6 pieces of bread
3 tbsp of butter
1/2 cup of sugar (original recipe: 3/4 cup of sugar)
2 cups of milk
1 tsp of cinnamon powder
1 tsp of vanilla essence
4 eggs
1/2 cup of raisin (or up to your liking)

Instruction:
1) spread butter on the bread
2) break the bread into small pieces ( I just cut them into half) and arrange them in the baking dish, layered them with raisin. Put aside
3) Beat the 4 egg, add 2 milk, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla essence
4) Pour into the bread. Press with fork to make sure the bread absorb the milk.
5) Bake at 180 C for 45 minutes or until golden brown.

Custard sauce:

he he he This is a cheating custard sauce!! Pour milk into pan, stir at slow fire, add sugar, vanilla essence and custard flour. The amount is "agak-agak"! Stir to make sure it did not cuddle. If it does, strain it using strainer Anyway, it tastes as good!!

Pan cake

I make for breakfast on Friday morning. I search through the internet and most of the recipe requires about 4 cups of flour. I dont want to make that much!!

The recipe ( I get it from somewhere but forgot to note down the url, with due respect, this recipe belongs to whoever post it there):

1 egg
3 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
1 cup of flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk (I used milk instead)

Directions:

1) Whisk egg and cooled butter lightly in a bowl (make sure the egg and butter are at room temperature)
2) Sift together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt
3) Add dry ingredients to egg mixture
4) Stir until batter is well mixed
5) Add buttermilk* (I used milk) and stir again until mixed, batter will be lumpy.
6) Pour a scoopful laddle onto preheated griddle
7) Cook until bubbles appear all round, then turn over and cook until golden brown.

*the original recipe:

to substitute buttermilk: 1 cup of milk and add with 1 1/3 tbsp cream of tartar. Allow to stand for 5-10 minutes.

note: I also found somewhere, we can also used lime juice or vinegar to replace the cream of tartar.

To me, milk is good enough!!

Cinnamon Rolls

This is the most successful attempt I have made. So far, it turned out very good every time I did them. But I still need to find out how to maintain the softness and the glaze after it cools down. Best eaten when it is still hot. The smells of fresh cinnamon rolls in the morning beats everything else, even nasi lemak or roti canai!!

Here it goes (I get the recipe from here):

Ingredients:

1 package of active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 egg room temperature
2.5 cups of bread flour

1/4 butter (softened)

Mixed together and leave aside:

1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar

Instructions:
1) In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy about 10 minutes. (I put a 1tsp of sugar to further activate the yeast)
2) In a large bowl, combine the yeast mixture with the sugar, salt, egg and 1 cup flour; stir well to combine. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well with each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead untill smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Cover with a damp cloth and let rest for 10 minutes.
3) Lightly grease an 8x8 inch square baling pan. Roll dough out on lightly floures surface to 1/4 inch thick rectangle. Smear the dough with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar. Roll up the dough along the long edge until it forms a roll. Slice the roll into 16 equal size pieces ans place them in the pan with the cut side up.
4) Cover pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or cover and let it rise at room temperature until it doubled in volume, about 45 minutes.
5) Preheat oven to 200 C. Bake rolls until golden brown about 17~20 minutes.

Chocolate Moist Cupcakes

I also made these for Izzaty's birthday party. I made a big heart shape chocolate moist for her too but did not have the time to take the photo. The cake fell onto the floor (the whole thing!!) and had to be thrown away into the dustbin. Ini case bibik kelam-kabut dengan Izzaty & Sarah, sampai jatuh cake tuh!! Anyway, I dont have the time to bake another cake so off I went to Secret Recipe to buy the Chocolate Moist Cake!!

This particular recipe is dump everything in and mix. No eggs are used.

Recipe - I got this from here.

1.5 Cups of flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup water
1 tsp vinegar

Mix all of the ingredients well with mixer. It should be brown and smooth. Free from lumps. Bake at 175 C for 25 minutes.

Water can be substituted with milk. Oil can be substituted with melted butter.

Frosting:

I think the best frosting is Chocolate Ganache. If you have the equipment to fill the cake with the chocolate ganache is much better!! For Izzaty's birthday party, I used the chocolate buttercream frosting, decorated with pink flowers and green "ranting". Actually this was my first attempt to decorate cupcake. Never able to reach to frosting phase as the cake normally gone by the time I am ready to frost the cupcakes.

Banana Choc Chip Cuppies

I got this recipe from a website (http://cuppincakesforyou.blogspot.com/) but modified it to make my own. The taste is heavenly, the look is ok but the texture may be a bit "apam like" to some people. So if you want a fluffy one, this is not the one. However, I have done it a few times and each time, it came up differently. It depends on how ripe the banana is!! This particular one, I made for Izzaty's birthday party.

The recipe:

Banana Chocolate Chip Cup Cake

1.5 cup flour
1 cup banana (I use ripe pisang berangan)
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar (you can use 1/2 sugar but it is tad too sweet for me)*
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
Chocolate chip (to your liking)

*original recipe use 1 cup of sugar but it was so sweet. I guess she used pisang montel.

Instruction:
1) Shift flour, salt and baking soda. Put aside
2) Cream butter and sugar. Then add in egg and vanilla
3) Add in the dry items into the mixture in 3 stages. Mix well. I use the electric mixture.
4) Add in the chocolate chip.
5) Scoop the mixture into the cup
6) Bake for 20 min at 180.

The recipe gives about 16 cupcakes but it depends on the size of your cup.

Frosting:

Use the cream cheese frosting

1 pack of cream cheese
1/2 cup of butter
icing sugar ( frankly I have no idea how much I put in)

Mix until smooth

My new passion!!

This will kick start my new passion - baking. Been wanting to do it for quite some time now.

More to come - all about Sugar!!!