festive indulgence

Brownies are one of my family's all time favourite baked goods. They take very little time to prepare and are so simple that anyone can bake a batch with ease.

They are excellent homemade Christmas treats to giveaway to any chocolate fans.

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It's the time of the year again when I start to crave for holiday treats!

Here's my first Christmas bake, a batch of simple wholemeal banana cupcakes...easily prepared with just a few quick stir using a manual whisk and a spatula.

Korean Style Tofu Salad

This Korean style tofu salad is an easy side dish that I will put together whenever I have some leftover salad mix.

easy okonomiyaki お好み焼き

Okonomi-yaki (お好み焼き) is a Japanese savoury omelette or pancake like dish, which literally means "grill (yaki) what you like/want (okonomi)". As the name suggests, it is a very versatile dish that has many adaptations and various topping options. There are however two distinct types of okonomiyaki...the Kansai (or Osaka) style and the Hiroshima style.

Halloween Pumpkin Bread Buns

I made these pumpkins look-a-like pumpkin bread buns with pumpkin filling on a whim since we don't celebrate Halloween.

Burger with oven baked sweet potato croquettes

I was reading The Experimental Cook's latest post on archar when it hit on me that, in a few years time, we will soon be two old folks at home too (^_^!)

In fact, we are already living like two old folks, especially on a weekday during school terms. Whenever my better half is at home for lunch, I will put in some extra 'effort' to prepare a decent but quick meal...just like this burger, made with store bought wholemeal buns ;p
The extra work went into making some baked croquettes which I had meant to serve as a side for dinner that evening.

curry buns

I have been in a bread making frenzy lately. There's this something about bread making. If you ever take a break from making bread, you wouldn't want to bake any, but once you retrieve a tray of freshly made buns from your oven, you wouldn't want to stop at just one batch. It's so addictive that I keep wanting to make a fresh loaf of bread or a tray of buns everyday!

onigirazu

Just after I wrote about chigiri pan or pull apart bread buns in my previous post, I came to know about onigirazu, another (not too new) food trend in Japan.

I was at the local bookstore browsing the shelves of cookbooks when the text "不用捏饭团" on a book spine caught my attention. The Chinese text means rice ball or "onigiri" that is made without having to shape or squeeze.

pull apart sandwich buns

I can't remember how I stumbled upon this site, Japan Info, but I am glad I did as I got to learn about a new bread making craze in Japan. Since I am not into facebook or instagram, I am really very slow when it comes to following the latest food trend.

From a post on the 'Japan Info' site, I got to know about chigiri pan, chigiri refers to pull apart while pan refers to bread. Besides transforming the pull apart bread buns into adorable cartoon characters, chigiri pan can also be served as sandwich buns.

Easy Teriyaki Salmon

I seldom post recipes on home cook meals since I started this blog with the intention of sharing my baking experience. Furthermore, by the time I am done cooking, the lightning condition becomes unfavourable for me to take any any decent photos to share them here. Unlike baked goods, I can take my time or plan it in such a way that I could photograph them under natural lighting, I am not able to do so for cooked dishes.

Recently I started documenting my home cooked dishes with my mobile phone, mainly for my own reference or send them to my better half to show him what he missed out on when he was away ;)

I find it so much easier to take snap shots of the food with a phone camera as I can get it done within a couple of minutes before serving the meal. Some photos turn out not too bad, that is, if they are viewed on my phone ;) The images would appear grainy if displayed on a bigger, high resolution screen. Sometimes, the colour turn out a bit off. Nonetheless, I would still like to share my daily home cooked meals here whenever I am able to take a clear image of the dish and most importantly, when I get really excited with a delicious dish that is quick and easy to prepare.

Mango Salad, two ways

I have a few large mangoes which although taste sweet but they are not that juicy and the flesh is quite firm. Usually we prefer to eat mango on its own, but this time, I used some to make salad.

cafe food at home

I am guilty again for the long absence. I have no new posts as I have not been baking that often. Instead of baking, I find myself getting more interested in cooking.

Unlike baking, I do not always follow recipes to the t when it comes to day-to-day cooking. I tend to replace or substitute ingredients freely and I could get away with eyeballing the amount of ingredients or seasonings I put in the dish. As such, I find it difficult to share cooking recipes especially when I am not a good cook to begin with.

Chocolate and Chestnuts Cake

This is a fuss free birthday cake I baked for my teenage child. He didn't want to celebrate the occasion at all, but I thought we should all deserve a homemade treat on this special day.

oil-free chocolate banana muffins

This is my second attempt at baking these oil free chocolate banana muffins. In fact, I made them before baking the oil-free chocolate chiffon cake which I posted earlier. The first attempt was not that successful as the texture of the muffins was a little dense with a slight kueh-like texture.

oil-free chocolate chiffon cake

怎么可能?!
无添加奶油 &油还是一样好吃?!

This is the subtitle of a cookbook, which means, 'How could that be possible?! It still tastes as good without adding butter or oil?!'

When my baking friend showed me her oil free chocolate banana muffins made following a recipe from this cookbook, 好吃不发胖低卡甜点 (loosely translated as: delicious low-calories desserts), I got really interested.

Pork Floss and Sesame Seeds Cookies

I am on a baking spree since the beginning of the June school holidays, making cakes and cookies for my children to enjoy as they are spending more time at home.

Steamed Tofu with Egg 嫩豆腐蒸蛋

I have recently started on the road to a healthier lifestyle, being more mindful of what I put in my mouth and exercise more regularly. I am watching my diet, making sure I increase my protein and fibre intake, but lower carb and reduce fat and sugar intake. Since young, my diet is mainly high in carb, low protein, low fibre. I am a rice, noodles, bread person, so it is quite challenging to plan my meals to cater to my diet and the rest of the family.

Luo Han Guo with Lotus Roots dessert 罗汉果莲藕甜汤

It has been a few months since I last updated my blog...it feels good to be able to sit down and post something today.

Yoghurt Soufflé Cake

Chanced upon this 酸奶蛋糕 yoghurt cake from a Chinese website when I googled for a recipe to use up the two small tubs of yoghurt before they expire.

As mentioned in several Chinese blog posts, the finished cake resembles a Japanese souffle cheesecake. This is something rather 'unusual' from a usual 'yoghurt cake'...which tends to be more dense and butter cake-like.

an easy crowd pleaser

I made these easy muffins for my younger child's school outing yesterday. He was supposed to bring sandwiches but we would need to be out the whole morning, I thought it was not a good idea to let sandwiches go without refrigeration for hours especially in hot weather. Upon checking with the organisers, he told me it would be ok to bring muffins instead.

I would love to bake a batch of our favourite blueberry muffins but I decided to opt for a guaranteed crowd pleaser...chocolate-chocolate chips muffins :)

Most chocolate flavoured muffin recipes which I have came across seem to use quite a substantial amount of sugar and fat. I believe they would yield really moist and rich chocolate crumbs, but I prefer something lighter and yet taste as moist and chocolatey. I played around with my usual 'go-to' muffin recipe, substituting a few tablespoons of the flour with cocoa powder and used an extra tablespoon of sugar so that the muffins wouldn't turn out too bitter-sweet.