Wedding Cake & Valentine Chocolates

This was what I've been working for...a 3 tiers wedding cake for my dear cousin. Not quite satisfied with the final touched but it was all going quite well with the right taste..;p

The recipe of the cakes I've used here was my favourite Chocolate moist cake that is in my top list!

Please refer to the cake recipe here!

I've added fillings to the cake too (scroll down for the fillings recipe) Then the coating was just a simple Chocolate ganache ( Chocolate & cream)

 The flowers was done earlier and were packed (as shown below) for her to keep as souvenir.

Recipe for the cake fillings:
4 tbsps cornflour
1.5 cups evaporated milk
1 cup condensed milk
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tbps butter

~ Cook the above ingredients in a pot over double boiler till spreading consistency.My next project,,,,tthe Valentine Chocolates for friends!!

Googled this recipe and I love it so much! It's so simple and it can be done even though you don't even know how to cook!!

Fillings:
100g icing sugar
2 tbsps rapsberry flavors (any flavors you desire)
1 tbsp butter
~ Mix all ingredients together and make into small little balls, set aside.

Coating:
~ Melt 300g good quality dark chocolates over double boiler (I used Beryl's dark chocolate)

Making the Chocolates:
~ Brush alittle melted chocolate at the bottom of each mold to avoid any bubbles.
~ Spoon a small amount of melted chocolate into the mould then put the fillings in the middle
~ Spoon more melted chocolate to cover the mould.
~ Keep in the fridge for about 10-15 mins. Remove the set chocolates from the mould and you'll have a pretty yummy chocolates!!

Happy Valentine!!!

Almond Brittles

Hi all, it's weekend again! School holidays have just started and I bet everyone is so busy with their holiday schedules. Hmm....where are you planning to go this year? I have no idea yet in fact my daughter is enjoying her playtime with her schoolmates everyday. Early this morning I've sent her to ice skating nearby and she had so much fun playing with her friends even though they meet up everyday. Sometimes I just wonder what's their conversations are besides school..;p

Well, besides all the repeated recipe I'm trying to cook for these few days, here's a not-so-special snacks that I'll like to share. I found this recipe from one of the old magazine when I'm trying to rearrange my bookshelf that day. A very simple non-bake snack that I think everyone will adore.

Ingredients:
200g castor sugar
6 tbsps water
60g butter (salted)
200g almond flakes (lightly toast and keep warm)

Method:
~ Prepare a swissroll tray and lined with parchment paper
~ Toast the almond flakes until lightly brown and keep warm
~ Cook the sugar and water in a pot until sugar caramelized
~ Add in butter into sugar syrup and cook until turns to dark caramel color. Be careful not to burn the syrup.
~ Remove the syrup from heat and add in almond flakes. Stir well.
~ Then spread the mixture onto prepared lined tray. Remember to spread until even and thin. (shown above)
~ Then quickly make lines on the spread brittles with a plastic knife so that it's easy to break into small pieces when it turns hard. (shown below)
~ Cool nicely then break into pieces and store in an airtight container.

It is so easy and delicious. My daughter has requested another batch of it. It was so yummy when goes with my favourite long black. Guess this is one of the best to give away during X'mas or Chinese New Year!

Have A Nice Weekend!

Macadamia Chocolate Chips Cookies

Chocolates! Bet everyone can't resist this sweet and tasty snacks huh! I love chocolates as much as my daughter. We can both wallop up few bars of chocolates in a day..haha! 

I have alot chocolate cookies recipes and all are so yummy and tasty and just can't finish to try out all of them. Here, one of the yummilicious one that I'll like to share. Recipe adapted from one of my collection books, with some changes as I can't get some of the ingredients from my nearby bakery store. 

Anyway it turned out super delicious and they never stay long in my cookie jar..;p

I think you can judge how delicious they were from the pictures below...(even though they were badly captured)...haha!

Ingredients:

115g butter

115g brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

115g dark chocolate (roughly chopped)

50g raisins

100g macadamia nuts (roughly chopped)

Method:
~ Preheat oven at 190'C
~ Cream butter with sugar until pale and fluffy
~ Add in egg and vanilla and beat well
~ Stir in flour into the mixture and fold in lightly with a metal spoon
~ Add in chopped chocolate, chopped nuts and raisins and stir well
~ Spoon small spoonful of the mixture onto prepared tin and leaving space for spreading
~ Bake for 15-20 minutes until beginning to turn pale golden
~ Cool for 2-3 minutes and transfer to wire rack to cool completely

Look at the chocolate!! It melted when you bite them and the crunch of the nuts just come so well with the cookies. Trust me...its heaven!
If you like chocolates.....please try this!!

Cheers!

Fried Pumpkin Kueh 南瓜饼

I love pumpkin, its a cultivar of the squash plant, love the deep yellow to orange color. 

I've tried to make some kueh with this beautiful squash long time ago, the colors turned out so beautifully and the sweetness of the squash is so tasteful. 

Here a simple recipe that I'll like to share....Fried Pumpkin Kueh (南瓜饼) which is very famous

Recipe adapted from the web and I've made some changes to suit our own taste. 

I've tried this natural kueh at one of the Chinese restaurant near Kuala Lumpur but when I went back last 2 weeks, the restaurant has closed down. The food were really nice and tasty there, I'm wondering why they closed down without any notice. Anyhow, I've tried out some of their recipes myself and this was one of them.

I'm very satisfied with the outcome and of course when my family love them as much as I do.
Crispy at the outside and chewy inside, very tasty!
Here's the recipe....

Ingredients:
200g pumpkin (cut into small cubes)
200g Glutinous flour
50g castor sugar
alittle salt
alittle water (not neccesary)

Method:
~ Steamed the pumpkin till soft then mashed.
~ Mix all ingredients in a large bowl except water until well mixed.
~ Add alittle water if the dough doesn't form.
~ Round up dough into a small ball (about 20g) and flatten.
~ Heat up alittle cooking oil (about 2-3 tbsps ), panfry the kueh at medium heat until both sides are golden brown.
~ Place cooked kueh on greasing paper to remove some extra oil and serve hot.

Cheers!

Yam & Sweet Potatoes Sweet Dessert 炸年糕

Hi all, how are you guys? I've been missing from here since last year December, and I hope I'll get to blog more this coming days to share my recipes. 

Here's a sweet dessert that I made last month, and it tastes really good. I'm not so sure what this sticky sweet kueh called in English, in mandarin we call it "nian gao" (年糕.) Which this kueh we only eat it during Chinese New Year.

I've fried it with a different way this time with mashed sweet potatoes and yam. Have a look at the bottom, it was very easy.

Very crispy outside and soft & sticky inside. Really yummy!!

Recipe:
100g plain flour
alittle salt to taste
1 egg
about 50-60g water

** mixed all the ingredients above with the water addedslowly until you get a sticky starchy flour paste. set aside.

"nian gao" 年糕 - cut into stripes
*60g yam, steamed and mashed
*60g sweet potatoes, steamed and mashed

**the amount of the yam and sweet potatoes depends to individual.
* wrap the 年糕 with the mashed yam and sweet potatoes like shown below.

* deep fried in some hot oil at medium heat.

I will definitely stick to this recipe next year when I get this kueh. I was really surprise it turned out so nice and it was well received by my family.

Have a look at the inside....you can never resist this.

Cheers!!

Rapsberry & Cheese Delight

Special treats for my niece! Thinking what to bake for her on her birthday but instead of cakes that will make her fat....so this light desert is what I think will suits her since she's on a diet...LOL!! Anyway...cheese...hmm is fattening though...haha!

Well, this is not very special from any special chef's recipe. It's just something she loves..."rapsberry & cheese"...so I just combined them and put it in a cup. Looks tempting though....^^

Very easy and it was done within an hour. No bake and no fuss!! I personally like the combination and the colour of the cream cheese...beautiful! The tatse?!...PERFECT!!

Ingredients:
170g rapsberries
250g cream cheese
100g whipping cream
75g sugar
150g digestive biscuits
30g butter (melted)

Method:
~ Mashed the rapsberries and keep aside.
~ Beat cream cheese, sugar and whipping cream till fluffy.
~ Mix in the mashed rapsberry and sti well.
~ Smashed digestive biscuits into crumbs and add in melted butter and mix well.
~ Scoop the biscuits follow by the rapsberries cream layer by layer into a cup.
~ Chill before serve.

See the biscuits and the cream?! Melt in the mouth and appetizing...wonderful!!
Try it and you'll know. Its easy as ABC...:))

Cheers!

Cutie Strawberry Rolls

Few days ago, my aunt (舅母) sent me a link bout this cute strawberry roll, once I opened it, my reaction was...WAH!!! SO CUTE!! While I was planning to try it out, my aunt and my youngest sis have posted theirs..haha! Their work was so fine and nice..:) So without any delay, I did mine this morning!
This was from a blogger in Taiwan, and of course everything was written in Mandarin. You can have a look at hers here.

Not much changes have been made here, I used some pandan paste for the strawberries leaves instead..;p And why is my rolls got holes ha? Maybe I've folded it too much..:(

See, this is how it looks after bake...so cute isn't it...haha! Anyway I think I should post the recipe here which I'll translate it to English for my own reference.

Egg yolk Batter:

6 egg yolks

20g sugar

60g fresh milk

45g cornoil (original called for salad oil)

100g cake flour (original called for low gluten flour)

15g cornflour

Egg Whites:

6 egg whites (original called for 5.5 egg whites)

70g sugar

Ingredients for little strawberries:

20g egg whites

10g sugar

few drops strawberry paste or red colouring

** some cocoa powder diluted in some water (brown color)

** some pandan paste (green color~leaves)

Fillings:

Some whipped cream and some halved fresh strawberries.

Method:

~ First, preheat the oven at 180'C. Then lightly whisk the egg yolks together with 20g sugar, then add in fresh milk and coinoil and mix well.

~ Add in cake flour and cornflour and stir well. Set aside.

~ Spoon out 30g egg yolk batter and mix in the red colouring or strawberry paste. Mix well.

~ Whisk the egg whites and sugar (ingredients for little strawberries) till half soft peak form and add in the prepared 30g egg yolk batter. Stir well.

~ Spoon the pink batter into a piping bag with tip #3. Pipe some little triangles onto lined tray (10"x14").

~ Bake at 180'C for 1 minute then set aside.

~ Whisk the 6 egg whites together with the 70g sugar until peak form.

~ Fold into the remaining egg yolk batter. Then pour batter over the half-baked strawberries.

~ Flatten the top with a spatula and bake at 175'-180'C for 12-13 minutes.

~ Transfer on to wire rack to cool completely. Then slice into half.

~ Once completely cooled, spread the whipped cream and place some strawberries on the cream and roll up.

~ Once the rolls are stable, colour the strawberries with prepared cocoa powder and pandan paste.

** For more step by step details and pictures, you can find it here.

There'll be 2 rolls all together, and I did one with a cute Hello Kitty...does it look okay?....LOL

Luckily when I asked my daughter what can she see here, she did answer Hello Kitty...haha!

Texture is super soft. Maybe I'll try it with some other fruits. Kiwi? Orange? Banana? Or maybe durian...;p

Cheers!!