Chocolate Cupcakes

Kimi said he wanted to eat colourful 'Chocolate Cake'. The lazy Mummy lazy to make separate icing for the cake topping, so I decided to sprinkle some colourful sugarballs on top of the chocolate cake to make it looked colourful. Hope Kimi will like it!

Recipe:
100g Butter, softened
200g Sugar (I used Icing Sugar)
2 Eggs
3/4 tsp Vanilla essence
125ml cup milk (I replaced with Chocolate Milk)
1 tsp Baking soda
1/2 cup Boiling water (with 1 tsp Nescafe Classic Instant Coffee powder)
200g Flour
1/4 tsp Salt
3 tsp Baking powder
40g Cocoa powder

*Note: I change the coffee powder with Milo powder so that Kimi can eat the cake without caffeine.

Methods:
1) Sift flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa powder in bowl. Dissolve baking soda in milk.
2) Cream butter and sugar until light. Add essence and eggs, continue beating.
3) Add in the rest of the ingredients (milk, milo liquid and flour ingredients), beat till smooth.
4) Spoon batter into greased paper cases to 3/4 full.
5) Bake in a preheated oven at 150C for about 25 minutes or until skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
6) Leave to cool on rack.

 

Recipe taken from: http://www.anncoojournal.com/2010/01/must-try-chocolate-cupcakes_10.html

I adjusted a little bit from the original recipe to fit into Kimi's requirements :)

Oreo Condensed Milk Mini Cheesecake

Nothing much to do on a Friday night, supposed to go back Taiping to visit Nico, but might need to postpone the trip. So I have decided to bake! I have this cheesecake recipe with me for some time but has not been able to try it out. I couldn't recall where I got this recipe from, but I learnt it from a blog, if not mistaken…

Recipe:
250 gm cream cheese
150gm sweetened condensed milk
[However, I only put in 100gm to make it not too sweet]
2 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon of cream of tartar
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 tube of Oreo

Methods:
1) Separate the Oreo biscuits and leave only 12 pieces without cream.
2) Beat the rest of the biscuits together with the filling in a food processor.
3) Place 1 teaspoon of Oreo crumb onto the paper cups, lightly press the crumbs to flatten.

4) Beat the eggs white, add in cream of tartar, then continue to beat. Add in sugar and beat till stiff. Set aside.
5) Beat the cream cheese on low speed until smooth (for 1 or 2 minutes). Add in condensed milk and egg yolks. Beat on low speed for one more minute. Fold in the egg whites.
6) Spoon (Item 5) into the prepared paper cups.

7) Top with an Oreo biscuit.

You can break it and put at anywhere you like. But the lazy me chose the easiest way to do which is to just put the whole biscuit on top.

8) Bake for 20 minutes in a waterbath.
[Preheat the oven at 150C and boil water after this]
9) Leave to cool in oven, door ajar. Cool completely before chilling.
10) Best to chill for 3 hours or more before serving.

Finally, the mini cheesecake is ready to be served!

However, this time, I think I had deflated the egg whites, hence made the outcome of the cake looked short. Not so successful this round. Hope I can improve it to bake it better and look nicer on the next round.

But most of all, hope Kimi and Nico will like it! Hehe :)

Cashew Nut Cookies

This year CNY, I am thinking of trying out to bake some CNY cookies myself. Searched on the Internet and decided to try out one of the recipes on 'Cashew Nut Cookies' since I have some raw cashew nuts at home. I might as well make use of them. Hehe :)

~ Cashew Nut Cookies ~

Ingredients:-
125g Butter

90g Icing Sugar
1/2 tsp Sodium Bicarbonate
210g Flour
1/2 tbsp Milk Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
100g Ground roasted cashew nuts
1/2 Egg
1tsp Vanilla essence

Cashew Nuts (Halves it and bake-half cooked for topping)
Extra egg for egg wash
Preheat oven at 170 degree C

Note:
I cut half of the ingredients measurements from the original recipe to test for this very first time.

Methods:
1) Sift flour, milk powder, soda powder and salt together. Set aside.

2) Ground roasted cashew nuts.

3) Cream butter and icing sugar till light and fluffy.
4) Add eggs and vanilla essence till mix well.
5) In low speed, add sifted flours and ground cashew nut till a soft dough.
6) Chill till firm.

7) Roll the dough to the same thickness. Use a cookie mould to shape the dough. I choose a flower shape for this time. Line the cut dough on a baking tray.
8) Place cashew nut on it and slightly press.

9) Egg wash to seal the nut and dough gap so that the cashew nut won't drop out easily.

10) Bake at 170 degree C for around 15-20 minutes.

Dang.... Dang.... My end results fresh from the oven…

11) Set aside for cooling before packaging. Hehehe :) Can’t wait to taste it myself!!

With the amount of ingredients as above, I can make one and a half container size as below.

I packed one container nicely to keep for Chinese New Year, and the balance of the cookies.... Well, Kimi ate some of it and of course I bring them to the office to share with my lovely colleagues on the next day. I personally quite like the outcome of this recipe. Hehe.... the taste of it really not bad :) Really worth a try ~

A Baking Session with Kimi

On Tuesday evening, when I picked up Kimi from the Nursery, the teacher there passed me a note informed us that this Friday they are going to organize a Class Party. This party is to mark the last day of school and also a farewell party for the children who are going to Primary One next year.

On the note, it is stated, 'The children will have potluck session to share goodies brought from home'. Oh... such a late notice, what shall I do then? This is my first experience and I am not too sure what I need to prepare for Kimi. Not wanting him to bring junk food to school, so I spent a Tuesday night to think of what Kimi can bring for the party.

Finally, I decided to bake for him :) I searched a few recipes online which were suitable for kids. At the end I had 2 in mind. So on Wednesday lunch hour, I made a trip to the bakery shop and bought the ingredients needed. After work on Wednesday night, I tried out for the first time so that I can know what to adjust on the recipe. I want to make sure that the cakes are edible when Kimi brings it to school on Friday.

Thursday night, the real baking started!

This is what I bake - Banana Muffins ~ I choose an easier and healthier recipe for the kids. Hope they will like it!

The ingredients were 2 portions which I tested to bake on Wednesday night.
On Thursday, I doubled up the ingredients because 2 portions can only bake around 11 muffins.

Kimi - The Baker Assistant of the Night!

 

 

 

The outcome after 10 minutes (half time) & 20 minutes (full time) of baking ~

 

 

And the little assistant comes again....
This round is to help to arrange the muffins into the box properly.

 

Finally.... There are ready to be served!!

 

Hope the children @ Kimi's Nursery love the muffins ;)

 

Banana Muffin's Recipe which a friend of mine shares it with me. The recipes she shares uses cups as measurement. I calculated them into Grams so that easier for me to measure the ingredients.

Recipe:
2 medium size bananas (Mashed)

2 eggs

120g Canola Oil

100g Icing Sugar (But I replace this with Brown Sugar)

130g Self Raising Flour

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence (Optional)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 Baking Powder (This one I add in myself as my first attempt the muffins look flat. Hehe....)

Methods:

1) Beat eggs, sugar and canola oil for around 5 minutes until they are foamy.
2) Fold in the raising flour and mashed bananas.
3) Add in some vanilla essence (if needed)
4) Spoon the mixture into the paper cups until they are around 3/4 full.

Preheat the oven at 170C. Bake for around 20 minutes or until they are golden brown on top.

This is a very easy recipe and it only takes me around 20 minutes for preparations and 20 minutes for baking. Not hassle and easy to clean up the mess after bake.

I double up the portions and it can bake for 24 - 26 muffins.

Kimi loves it very much and ate up 2 muffins after they cold down. I stop him from continue to ask for more because I worry later not enough for him to bring to school to share. Hehe :)

My First Bread Baking Experience

Date: 12th August 2012

I went to my first baking bread class on this day. Very great experience I had! I am a person who loves baking, but cannot bake well. So I hope can always improve my baking skills. Baking bread is one of the things that I have totally zero knowledge. So decided to take up a class and learn the bread dough making steps. It was a hands-on class so I got to experience it myself together with my team members.

The chef is friendly and willingly to share his experience with us. A few of the team members are quite skillful and I gain some new knowledge from them too. It was indeed a very enjoyable and happy class!

 

 

 

Well, I do not know after this class, will I practice what I have learned back at home or not.... Hehe... But at least now I know a bit on how a bread baking looks like. So happy! Hope I really will take the effort to practice at home and can make nice bread for my 2 lovely sons soon ~

More information on the culinary studio which I have attended, please visit: http://www.at19culinary.com

Chocolate Walnut Mini Cupcakes

After so many years stayed in a rented house, I stopped baking for so many years... Finally, I have moved into my own house with an oven which allows me to bake whenever I want. Really very happy! I am doing what I have been liking all these while ♥ Hope I can learn to bake more delicious cakes for my lovely families in the near future ~

Last night, I took out the old-looking recipe book of mine with loads of dusts on it. The dusts were there since many years back and finally, I have decided to give it a clean! Browsing through the dusty recipe book brings back so much memories for me... I am missing those time when I baked together with my Mum and sisters back in Pontian!

07.05.2012: Today I tried out the Chocolate Walnut Cake recipe which I used to bake it many years ago... First attempt after so many years, and luckily they turned out successfully :) Hubby is the first lucky person who gets to taste it. He is a person who does not like to eat cakes, but then he is willing to try it out for me. Glad that he finds the cupcake taste nice! He says can bake for Kimi to try too ~

~ The outcome ~

 

 

~ In The Oven ~

 

Recipe to share:

Butter                        250 grams
Eggs                           8 Noz (To use 8 noz egg yolks and 7 noz egg white)
Flour                          170 grams
Baking Powder         1/2 Teaspoon
Icing Sugar                230 grams
Chopped Walnuts    80 grams
Chocolate Chips       30 grams

Methods:
1) To separate egg yolks and egg white – (To use 8 noz egg yolks and 7 noz egg white)
2) Cream the butter and add in eggs yolks to beat well.
3) Beat the egg white with the sugar. Then fold in No.2 and mix well.
4) Then add in the flour and baking powder. Fold in the chocolate chips and walnut. Mix well.
5) Bake the mixture at 150°C for about one hour in a 10” tray. When the cake is half-cooked, apply the egg yolk on top. Continue baking till the cake is done.

Note: I use around 40 minutes to bake the mini cupcakes size as above. The amount of ingredients I use as above can bake for 20 mini cupcakes.