Malaysian Honeycomb Cake

My Mum has been going on about this recipe for months, ever since she figured out how obsessed I was with baking. She insisted over and over that I had to try this recipe because it was so easy and delicious. Finally, it seems she could wait no longer for me to ask for the recipe and I had an email from my Dad which contained the recipe in a Word document that she had made my Dad type out. Hint hint, make the damn cake!

I remember eating this honeycomb cake (also known as ant nest cake or kuih sarang semut) as a child. It's different to a regular caramel sponge or mud cake, with a very firm, springy texture which is closer to the texture of a kuih than a crumbly cake. The interior is riddled with 'tunnels' and is dark and rich in flavour from the caramelised sugar.

I was nervous about making this cake for a few reasons. First of all, while I could remember eating it as a child, I couldn't remember if it was actually nice or just something full of sugar that anyone would like as a child. My Mum's instructions were a bit vague so I was worried I would end up with a flat pancake rather than a high, bubbly cake. And would other people even like eating it, with its strange, almost gelatinous texture?

Ooh yeah look at those tunnels!

Turns out I had nothing to worry about. A quick phone call to Mum to step through her instructions and it turned out perfectly. It was a little painful because I stirred my sugar a little too vigorously and splashed it on my hand a couple times, ow. But it was worth the pain, because the end result was SO much better than my faded childhood memories. The cake was dark and so moist. It was rich in flavour without being heavy, in fact it was quite light and moreish because it was so full of bubbly tunnels. And it was so exciting to cut out that first slice of the cake and to see those long tunnels running through the cake just like I had wanted. A was a big fan of this cake and so were my friends, much to my surprise. A preferred it when it was hot out of the oven with a crisp dark brown crust around the outside, whilst I preferred it a day later after leaving in a container overnight to become more moist and springy (as recommended by Mum).

Malaysian Honeycomb Cake (Kuih Sarang Semut)
(recipe from my Mum)
1 & 3/4 cups sugar
2 cups water
½ tin condensed milk (approx 200g)
170g butter, softened
2 cups plain flour
4 tsp bicarb soda
8 eggs
1 tsp Vanilla essence
Note: These measurements will either make one very large cake or two medium cakes. Feel free to halve the quantities

Place sugar in a medium saucepan and gradually heat, stirring regularly so that it caramelises but does not burn.

When all the sugar is dissolved and brown, add the 2 cups of water. Do this very carefully as it may spit when the water hits the hot sugar. At this point you might freak out because the sugar will instantly crystallise and look a bit like this:

Don't worry, it was meant to do that! Just keep stirring over the heat until the sugar dissolves back into the mixture. Take off the heat and then place aside to cool.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C. In a large mixing bowl use an electric mixer to beat butter and condensed milk & mix until well combined. Add eggs one at a time to butter & milk mixture, beating in well. Sift flour & soda bicarb together, then fold into mixture. Add vanilla essence and stir until combined. Add the cooled sugar syrup to above mixture and stir gently until just combined.

Pour into a greased and baking paper lined bottom, large springform tin or two 20 cm round tins. (Whatever tins you use make sure not to fill past the 3/4 level as these cakes will rise a fair bit) Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Smaller, thinner cake which turned out darker but less gelatinous

Thicker, lighter cake with more tunnels and springy texture

In other news, thank you to the amazing Ellie from Almost Bourdain for passing on this Kreativ Blogger Award to me. It's very sweet and it totally made my day to receive it for my silly blog, which only started up at the end of March in an attempt to hold on to my favourite food memories from my trip to Malaysia and Thailand. It's quite amazing how things have changed since then! So thanks again to Ellie, and to anyone who bothers to read this random blog :)

The Kreativ Blogger award comes with some rules:

1. You must thank the person who has given you the award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who has nominated you for the award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on which of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated

So here are 7 random facts about me...no idea if they will be interesting to anyone or not!

1. I was born in Perth but have also lived in Qatar and Malaysia. The Pizza Hut in Qatar was the most popular restaurant in town when I was there (about 15 years ago), haha!
2. I've been with my boyfriend for nearly 8 years. He took me to my first formal when I was 16 and got his eyebrow pierced for it as a surprise because I had mentioned they were hot
3. I have a Master in Biomedical Engineering. I was a couple years into my degree before I totally grasped what Biomedical Engineering was. Apparently this is pretty normal though!
4. My favourite fake word is 'abortional' (I picked it up from A), which roughly translates to "a poor effort", e.g. "The Ashes have been abortional so far" or "That BOFAG was abortional".
5. I sometimes eat scones for dinner.
6. As a child I was so shy that I was scared to answer the phone.
7. I have a pet cockatiel named Doodle. He's a total bogan, when you walk past him he will wolf whistle at you and say "Hello, howya goin mate?"
   

Aaaand in no particular order (of course), I would like to pass on the Kreativ Blogger Award to these wonderful bloggers:
Leona & Lis from pigged-out
Anita from Leave Room for Dessert
Betty the Hungry Girl
Jackie from Pham Fatale
Rilsta from My Food Trail
Chris & Time from the way it crumbles
Babs from Love2Bake

Simple Dinners - Neil Perry's Soy Sauce Chicken

This dish is Number 1 on my list of easy dinners to whip up. It's SO easy, so yummy and will last you several days and you can use the leftovers to make all sorts of yummy things. Here's the deal; you buy a whole chicken and whatever vegetables you want to serve with it and then you basically throw the chicken in a pot of sauce and forget about it. And somehow you end up with a delicious meal. Sounds too good to be true? Here it is.

Neil Perry's Soy Sauce Chicken
(from Simply Asian by Neil Perry)

1 free-range chicken (approx 1.4 kg)
1 cup light soy sauce
1 cup shao xing wine
1 cup sugar
5 whole star anise

Bring a large pot of water to the boil and then turn off the heat. After 5 minutes, plunge the chicken, breast side down, into the pot and leave for 1 minute. Remove the chicken and discard the water. Rinse the chicken in cold water and dry with kitchen paper. (I usually am too lazy and skip this step to save time. It doesn't seem to affect the dish toooo much)

In a pot that will fit the chicken snugly, combine the soy, shao xing, star anise, sugar and 2 cups water. Bring to the boil and cook for 5 minutes , then add the chicken, breast side down and simmer for 30 minutes (if I skipped the first step then I do this with the lid on for the first 10 minutes).

Remove from the heat then turn the chicken over, put a lid on the pot and leave to stand for 30 minutes. Do not remove the lid during this time or the chicken will not finish cooking properly.

Remove the chicken from the broth. Use a spoon to scoop some oil or scum that might be floating over the top of the broth. (My mum has a nifty meshed scooper designed just for this job) Chop the chicken chinese style and reassemble on a serving platter. Serve with vegetables (I like serving with steamed brocolli) and the cooking broth with steamed rice, or simply with Szechaun salt and pepper.

No matter how many times I have learnt to chop a chicken, I always end up hacking into it and it looks like a shredded, mangled mess. So apologies for the messy presentation. But it was still wonderfully succulent and the sauce is so delectable. It has that great balance of sweet, salty and sour with the depth of flavour and fantastic aroma from the star anise.

The best bit is that you are usually left over with so much sauce that you can use it even when you've eaten up all the chicken. I use the sauce as a marinade for steaks and other meat dishes, and also use the sauce and any leftover meat and veges to make the most delicious fried rice. You get seriously good value out of this recipe!

Lemon Oreo Cheesecake Slice

You know it's going to be a good day when you walk in to work and see this sign: "Please take a lemon. Free to a good meal!" That was just too good to be true! I asked Mr Rabbit if I could take a couple of these enormous lemons he had plucked from his Dad's lemon tree and he replied, "Take three!" It was kind of awesome. I was suddenly stuck with the lemon dilemma, what to do with them? Lemon curd seemed the most obvious choice at the time.

A ♥ for the boy who was cranky with me

While making up this wonderful lemon curd with my super juicy lemons, I came across a great looking lemon cheesecake square recipe. I'm such a sucker for slices and cheesecake, it was too good to resist. I also remembered Billy from A table for two mentioning the idea of using oreo biscuits as a cheesecake crust and have been craving it ever since. I was a bit apprehensive at the idea of mixing citrus with a chocolate crust, then I remembered Karen's amazing chocolate lime brulee tart so I waved off the worry and gave it a go.

Lemon Oreo Cheesecake Squares
(adapted from the Golden Book of Patisserie)
For the base:
160g oreo biscuits (or any other biscuit of your choice)
1/3 cup (90g) butter melted

For the cheesecake:
250g cream cheese
1/2 cup (100g) sugar
5 tbsp lemon curd
3 tbsp cornflour
1 large egg, lightly beaten

For the lemon curd:
1/3 cup (70g) caster sugar
1/4 cup (60ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup (60g) unsalted butter, cubed

Prepare the lemon curd first; Stir the sugar, lemon juice and zest in a small saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Beat the egg yoks in a heatproof bowl and gradually add the hot lemon mixture. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve.

Return to the heatproof bowl and place over a saucepan of simmering water. Cook, stirring continuously, until the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon. Do not allow the mixture to boil. Remove from the heat and add the butter cubes, one at a time, stirring until fully combined. Cover mixture with baking paper and refrigerate.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Butter or line a 23cm square baking pan. Place biscuits in a food processor and pulse to fine crumbs. With the processor on low speed, gradually add the melted butter until well blended. Firmly press the mixture into the prepared pan to form a smooth, even layer.

Beat the cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at low speed until smooth. Beat in the lemon curd, corn flour and egg. Spoon the topping over the cookie base. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until firm to the touch. Cool completely before cutting into squares (I refrigerated it for a couple of hours first).

The only problem here was that I had made my curd up earlier and made it not very sour, so that it was lovely on its own, but paired with the dark oreo crust the lemon did not come through as much as I would have liked. If I had the chance I would have made the curd used for this cheesecake slice much more lemony so it balanced well with the very strong flavour from the oreo biscuits. Or I would go back to my favourite ginger nut crust ;) The contrast of the light cheesecake with the dark crust was very pretty though, and these pop-in-your-mouth morsels were well appreciated by my workmates, including Mr Rabbit who was pleased to see the lemons going to good use!

White Chocolate & Baked Rhubarb Tarts

One of my favourite things to do with my baking experiments is bring them into work (so that they don't stay at home where I can eat all of it). It's especially fun when I get to give it to my friend Peter Pad Thai, since we have a hilarious ongoing Iron Chef-style "judging" session with everything I bring in and he will give it a score out of 5. He's a very tough critic hahaha! It's all in good humour of course :) Anyway, I've recently figured out the easiest way to get a guaranteed high score out of Peter Pad Thai, because the two highest scoring things have been my Ginger & Lime Curd Tart and these White Choc & Baked Rhubarb tarts.

This was a surprise considering I had been disappointed and irritated with these tarts while making them, because for some unknown reason I used a random internet recipe shortcrust pastry recipe instead one of the many successful ones that I've used in the past. It was tough and cracking and I made them far too thick so they seemed really dry and rock hard. Weirdly enough they worked well with the filling once I was done with them because they helped to neutralise the sweetness of the white chocolate.

Rhubarb is fantastic to pair with white chocolate, especially when you bake it using Dorie Greenspan's recipe. The recipe uses very little sugar so the rhubarb is still rather tart and this helps balance out the intense sweetness of the white chocolate filling. Sometimes I am really hesistant to use white chocolate in my desserts because it can be so darn sweet, but this filling was perfect. They would be perfect as part of an afternoon tea with the girls, or for the end of a dinner party. I haven't included the recipe I used for the pastry because I wouldn't use it again and I'm sure that even the frozen pastry would be better.

White Chocolate & Baked Rhubarb Tarts

Shortcrust pastry of your choice (frozen or from scratch, I liked this recipe cos it was easy)
200g white chocolate, roughly chopped
1/2 cup thickened cream
Baked rhubarb (see Dorie Greenspan's recipe below)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Chill your pastry dough until firm. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to desired thickness (mine was about 4mm thick and I would probably make it half and thick in the future if the dough is tough enough for it). Use a 7-8cm round cutter and place into pan or moulds. (I used mini tart foils). Bake uncovered for about 15 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool enough to unmould the tarts and then cool completely on a wire rack.

Slowly heat the cream in a small saucepan on low heat until it is almost boiling. Remove from the heat and stir in white chocolate until completely melted. Set aside to cool and thicken slightly, about half an hour. Carefully spoon or pipe white chocolate filling into your mini tart shells and then gently top with baked rhubarb.

Baked Rhubarb (I used about half of this for the tarts)
(recipe from Dorie Greenspan)
1/2 cup sugar (or more to taste)
Grated zest of 1 lemon or 1/2 orange (I used orange)
Honey, optional, for serving

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.

Cut the rhubarb into pieces about 2 inches long (of course you can cut them shorter, if you'd like) and toss them into a baking dish that will hold them comfortably. Sprinkle over the sugar and zest and stir everything around until the rhubarb is covered with sugar. Set aside for about 5 minutes, or just long enough for a little syrup to start to form.

Cover the baking dish with foil and roast the rhubarb for 15 minutes. Take a peek and if the sugar isn't almost completely melted, stir the rhubarb, re-cover the pan with the foil and roast a few mintues more. Now remove the foil and let the rhubarb roast for another 5 minutes or so, until the syrup is bubbling.

Remove the pan from the oven and let the rhubarb cool to just warm or to room temperature; chill, if you'd like. Well packed, the rhubarb can stay in the fridge for 3 days.

Simple Dinners - Guinness Cottage Pie

I come from a big big family. Not my immediate family, that's quite little but my extended family is just enormous. I love going back to Malaysia to visit because there's so many of them that I get to visit, spend time and eat wonderful food with. Unfortunately I don't get to see all of them very often. This recipe comes from one of my dear cousins who I haven't seen in a very long time. I remember her making this for me the last time she came to visit Sydney, it was warm and hearty and perfect for the winter months. She reminded me of it again after she saw my blog and so I asked her for the recipe one particular evening when I was really craving something extra hearty.

While others had referred to the pie as a shepherd's pie in the past, it's actually a cottage pie because of the beef mince, it would need lamb mince to be considered a real shepherd's pie (my brother educated me on this fact recently, lambs->shepherds *dawn of realisation*) I tried to find lamb mince but was unlucky, so a cottage pie it was to be. Unfortunately I had already started improvising my own recipe before I received my cousin's email, so I hope you don't mind Pris, I have strayed from your original recipe a little bit!

Guinness Cottage Pie
500g beef mince
1 can Guinness Stout
2-3 bay leaves
1 large onion, diced
2 large carrots, diced
1/4 celery bunch, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely diced
1/4 cup tomato paste (I didn't have any so I used 1/2 tomato sauce 1/2 HP sauce it was AWESOME)
Chicken or beef stock
1 whole star anise
Approx 7-10 large potatoes
Milk & butter
Fresh ground pepper and sea salt for seasoning

Chop vegetables. Heat some olive oil in a large pot or pan (I used my wok hehe) on medium heat and add onion, carrot celery, bay leaves and a pinch of salt. Cook until all vegetables are starting to soften and add garlic in. Toss until all vegetables are tender and starting to colour. Remove from pan and set aside. Peel potatoes and boil in a large pot of water until soft (10-15 mins).

Turn heat up to high and add more oil if needed. When pan is hot enough, add mince meat, break up and stir until browned. Add tomato paste (or tomato sauce and HP sauce), star anise, Guinness and chicken stock + fresh pepper (to taste). Star anise is my secret ingredient for a lot of meat dishes, it just adds so much depth to a dish and boosts the meatiness of meat (I know that sounds weird but it really does). You have to be careful not to let it overpower the dish as it can be very strong. I use it in so many of my dishes; my bolognese sauce, chicken casseroles and soy sauce chickens.

Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes. Mix in your softened vegetables, cover with a lid and simmer on low heat for at least 15 minutes. If your mixture is still watery, simmer with the lid off to thicken sauce. If you really need to you can add flour a tsp at a time to thicken the sauce but I didn't need to do this. When it is the desired consistency, spoon mixture into a large oven safe dish or smaller individual ramekins (try to fish out the bay leaves and star anise). Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.

When your potatoes are tender, drain water and mash. Add a knob of butter and a huge splash of milk. Making good mash potatoes was one of the first things my brother taught me (along with perfect rice in the microwave). For me the key is really good quality butter but not too much of it, a pinch of sea salt and way more milk that you think you need. I almost saturate my potatoes with milk because the potato tends to soak it up quite quickly and the milk makes the mash extra moist. Sometimes I add way too much but then I just stick the potatoes in the microwave for a few minutes to thicken it. I usually prefer desirees for mash.

Pipe or spoon mash over your pie. I liked the piping because the sharp edges went all golden brown and crunchy when placed in the oven. Place in your hot oven until the top is golden brown.

A was extremely happy with his dinner. It definitely appealed to his inner Brit and he enjoyed it with a ton of tomato sauce. He claimed it tasted just like how you would want a cottage pie to taste, which I consider a success since I've never made it before :)mi4p3utc87

Chocolate Peppermint Creams

I've wanted to try this recipe for ages, being a HUGE fan of the mint & chocolate combination. I was obsessed with after dinner mints as a kid and would eat a whole pack of After Eights in one go. I can eat a whole pack of Mint Slices no problems, it's quite disgusting.

I took some really terrible photos of these biscuits because I thought they looked so damn ugly after I made them that I wasn't sure if I was going to post about it. In fact, I was calling them star-shaped poos for the rest of the day.

So I got really lazy because I spent ages making dinner the other night but I really wanted to make these biscuits too, so I pressed on. Of course by the end when I had to dip my mint cream filled biscuits in melted chocolate I was lazy and rushed and didn't drip them off for long enough so the chocolate was an ugly mess. But when I brought them to work the next day the reaction was unexpected. Re said they were the best things I had ever made. Someone even said they were better than sex HAHA! They disappeared fast and I was lucky to save one for Asian Gaga who was so in love with them that she made me promise to make an entire batch for her Christmas present. I would have made more but the chocolate biscuits on their own were so cute and yummy that I kept snacking on them while I was waiting for them to cool!

Chocolate Peppermint Creams
(from the Essential Baking Cookbook)

65g unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup (60g) caster sugar
1/2 cup (60g) plain flour
1/3 cup (40g) self-raising flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp milk
300g dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Cream the butter and sugar in a small bowl with electric beaters until light and fluffy. Add the sifted flours and cocoa alternatively with the milk. Mix with a knife until the mixture forms a soft dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and gather together into a rough ball. Cut the dough in half.

Roll each half between two sheets of baking paper to 2mm thick. Slide onto a tray and refrigerate for 15 minutes, or until firm. Cut the dough into rounds using a 4cm round cutter (obviously I used a flower shaped cutter), re-rolling the dough scraps and cutting more rounds. Place on the trays, allowing room for spreading. Bake for 10 minutes or until firm. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the peppermint cream:
1 egg white
1 3/4 cup (215g) icing sugar, sifted
2-3 drops peppermint essense or oil, to taste

Put the egg white in a small, clean, dry bowl. Beat in the icing sugar 2 tablespoons at a time, using electric beaters on low speed. Add more icing sugar, if necessary, until a soft dough forms. Turn the dough onto a surface dusted with icing sugar and knead in enough icing sugar so that the dough is not sticky. Knead in the peppermint essence.

Roll a teaspoon of peppermint cream into a ball, and flatten slightly. Sandwich between 2 chocolate biscuits, pressing together to spead the peppermint to the edges. Repeat with the remaining filling and chocolate biscuits, keepping the filling covered as you work.

For the topping, put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and melt over a double boiler. Take off the heat but keep the bowl over the hot water while you work. Use a fork to dip the biscuits into the chocolate and allow any ecess to drain away. Place on a baking paper lined tray to set.

DO NOT DO WHAT I DID AND REST THEM ON THEIR SIDES. At first I thought this was a neat solution, but they ended up all wonky because I had so much excess chocolate on the biscuits and thats why I think they looked like little poos. If you lie them flat they'll be much prettier.

Hopefully the next time I make these (which will probably be sooner than Christmas) I will have the energy to make them look prettier :) I think the mint icing and the chocolate biscuits in this recipe make it 10 times better than a regular Mint Slice.

Black Pepper Shortbread (and Happy 100th post!)

I don't like to lie to you so I will let you know right now that these biscuits are VERY VERY BAD FOR YOU. There is a whole block of butter in them and once you eat one you will end up eating many more. I wanted to give these away but I ended up munching on most of them myself. Oh yes, these 100 blog posts have led to a fair amount of waist expansion. But it's been incredibly rewarding, I've eaten some amazing food, met some lovely people as a result and have been able to share my successful and disastrous baking experiments with you.

Yay 100 blog posts!

When I first saw the original recipe I assumed it was a savoury biscuit recipe because of the black pepper in it. But as I was putting it together I realised that with a cup of sugar it was actually a sweet biscuit. It was very confusing.

I still wanted to make a savoury shortbread so I lowered the amount of sugar and increased the salt. Even then these were still quite sweet, which is confusing at first bite, but really grows on you. But feel free to adjust the amount of sugar depending on how sweet/savoury you fancy it. They are so perfect in texture, they just melt in your mouth and are so buttery. I could have eaten more but I kept reminding myself of that whole block of butter.

Black Pepper Shortbread Cookies

(adapted from the Golden Book of Patisserie)

3 cups (450g) plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarb soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground sea salt
250g unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup (60 ml) heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Combine the flour, baking powder, bicarb soda, cinnamon, allspice and salt in a medium bowl. Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and creamy. With mixer on low speed, beat in the cream, mixed dry ingredients, and black pepper to form a smooth dough. Form the dough into a log about 4 cm in diameter. Wrap in cling film and refridgerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 190 degrees C. Line a baking tray and slice the dough 5mm thick and place cookies 2.5 cm apart on the sheets. Bake for 5-7 minutes or until just golden. Transfer to racks and let them cool completely.

A big thank you to anyone who has taken the time to read my little blog. It means a lot and I hope to keep it up for at least another 100 posts :) I will probably be slowing in frequency with my posts soon, if only I could spend more time baking, blogging and eating without all those annoying parts of life getting in the way!