2006-08-31 @ 12:53 a.m.
cupcakes and truffles

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2006-08-27 @ 6:33 p.m.
marshmallow brownies

i have grown quite tired of the marshmallow flowers that i have used time and again as decorations for cupcakes and cakes so i thought i'd use them all up for a batch of marshmallow brownies.

this is my trusted brownie book because the first time i made fudge brownies it was good. and from then till now, i've only tried three recipes in there, fudge brownie, super fudge brownies and a chocolate fudge recipe.

so when nisrin gave me a tub of honeycomb brownies on friday, i was inspired to try the other "non-conventional" recipes in the book.

baking with marshmallows is tricky because they floated to the surface of the batter. halfway through i had to take a fork and press them down.

the result was quite pleasing, they were sufficiently fudgy without being dry. and because i reduced the amount of sugar, they weren't cloyingly sweet.

marshmallow brownies [adapted]

150g butter, chopped
125g dark chocolate, chopped
3 eggs
220g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
125g plain flour
30g cocoa powder
45g mini marshmallows

1. preheat oven to 160 degrees. brush a brownie pan/shallow tin with melted butter. line the pan with baking paper, extending over the two sides.

2. melt the butter and chocolate over a low flame in a saucepan. remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.

3. beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla together in a large bowl, with a wire whisk, until well combined. sift flour and cocoa powder together. whisk in chocolate mixture into the eggs and stir in the flour and cocoa, do not overbeat. fold in marshmallows.

4. pour into tin and bake for 30-40 minutes, depending on the texture you desire. cool in tin, and then in refrigerator. when cold and firm, cut into squares.

next week i have three orders. i hope i'll have a fun time whipping up the goodies and more importantly, hope they turn out alright.

and this was the cake which zee ordered. she gave me positive feedback and i was pleased, because this was my first big-cake order.

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2006-08-26 @ 12:22 a.m.
more cupcakes

i hope they tasted alright.

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2006-08-23 @ 10:50 p.m.
blueberry cheesecake cups

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2006-08-22 @ 1:46 a.m.
panna cotta and cakes

yesterday i tried a green tea panna cotta recipe but it didn't turn out well. it was really soft, and it turns to liquid within like two hours outside of the fridge. when i came back i froze one and ate it half an hour later and it tasted like ice cream. i should find another recipe and attempt it again.

tonight i experimented on another chocolate cake recipe and i have to say i didn't like it much. it was a tad too sweet and the consistency was fudgey and brownie-like. not the fluffiness and moistness i was looking for.

tomorrow i'm meeting aleen to get some notes and for her to pass me her brother's wedding invite. i intended to make these for her as an advanced teachers' day gift (!) but now i've to write her a note regarding the potentially killer-sweetness combo the cakes and cream have.

i left six for home. i don't know if they'll even be eaten.

tomorrow i'm baking cheesecake cups for the boy's mother, on wednesday 22 chocolate cupcakes for the mother's class, on thursday 11 more for the mother, 13 cupcakes and 7 cheesecake cups for nana's aunt. i like. :)

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2006-08-17 @ 1:17 a.m.
cupcakes medley

i was just telling the boy it is so hard to get that elusive perfect chocolate cupcake recipe (or maybe my quality control is just bad). the first time i tried lemon cream cheese cupcakes it was a success, nutella cupcakes; ditto, chocolate chip cupcakes; ditto. i don't know why purely chocolate is a bit of a trouble-maker.

tonight i tried this recipe for orders from my sister's friends but something was missing. i shall try out a couple of recipes from betty saw's tempt and see how it goes.

nonetheless, here are the pictures.

two sets for two boys,

and another two sets for two girls i'm meeting tomorrow, after a long time. :)

and nana, thank you for the referral. i owe you some food. :)

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2006-08-16 @ 12:37 a.m.
cocoa fudge cookies

i've been wanting to try this for a couple of months and tonight i finally did. two bags will go to shidah and the boy when i meet them for lecture tomorrow; a "welcome-back-to-school" perk-me-up. :) and another bag for sarina when i meet her for coffee tomorrow evening.

the cookies had a crisp chewy exterior and a soft centre. i thought the contrasting textures came together nicely. the chocolate flavour is intense without being cloyingly sweet.

and tomorrow i shall trying making a batch of these. to think that i've already started school!

to chitz and sharon; i can't seem leave comments in the comment box, so i'm doing it here.

chitz: thank you for the compliments, it really spurs me on. and for the recipe too! once i've tried it i'll post it up. sharon: actually it was my friend who got them for me. it's from a shop at jurong west st 52, near jurong springs cc.

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2006-08-13 @ 1:10 p.m.
hersheys brownies

after lunch i got a little bored so i decided to bake a batch of brownies. because the usual recipe that i follow in the mini periplus cookbook "brownies, fudges and toppings" uses dark chocolate, i wanted to see how a brownie using cocoa powder would turn out to be.

yesterday while reading the baker's blog, i decided to give the hershey's best brownies a try.

it tasted alright, but in my opinion it resembled more of a dense chocolate cake. i don't know if the texture is meant to be cake-like. if not then i must have made a couple of mistakes along the way. i prefer brownies to be fudgy and sticky instead of cakey. (so does the boy) so i guess i'll stick to my usual recipe or continue the search for a more fudgy and sticky one!

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2006-08-13 @ 12:30 a.m.
mango cake

the mango cake i baked for azlina's birthday gathering tonight. actually the sponge cracked at one part, but it was successfully covered up by the buttercream. presumably i took it out too quickly from the tin.

all in all i was quite pleased, just thought that tarter mangoes would do the trick. the mangoes were a tad too sweet, making it "clash" with the already sweet cream.

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2006-08-11 @ 11:38 p.m.
chocolate truffle bouquet

tonight i made two truffle bouquets - one for my aunt and one for azlina, as part of their birthday presents.

i've been wanting to do a cookie bouquet for the longest time but somehow there's always an element of deliberation because of the worry that the cookies will go soft. but that problem will not happen with truffles, so i decided to give it a go. and i must say i'm quite satisfied. tomorrow before they get to the respective recipients, my mother will help me wrap them in cellophane paper.

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2006-08-09 @ 11:40 p.m.
lemon cupcakes with lemon butter icing

initially i wanted to make these but i realised i wasn't that ready to work with meringues, so i whipped up a lemon butter icing instead.

so i used her lemon cupcake recipe and it turned out good, not too dense and not too fluffy either. when it was done the tops didn't brown so i wondered if i did something wrong but it tasted nice, and that's all that mattered.

it's a refreshing change. i must start experimenting with more fruit-based cakes. this recipe is a keeper, and the next time round i shall banish my fears and make the meringue topping.

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2006-08-08 @ 10:18 p.m.
vanilla pudding chocolate cookies

i had this recipe stored for quite sometime in my notebook, so i decided to bake a batch yesterday because i contracted a huge itch that wouldn't go away after food-blog-hopping.

i made a few alterations, which i think paved the way for a disaster during the initial stage.

because the vanilla pudding mix i had was an 85g box, i added an additional 20g of flour to the batter. i used chocolate chunks instead of chocolate chips. and i presume one of the major mistakes was not letting the butter cool completely.

the batter. (which i kept eating while transferring them onto the baking sheets)

and isn't it amazing that unbaked spoonfuls of this size,

mutate into humongous mounds like these!

from the second tray onwards (thank goodness i baked one sheet at a time), i drastically reduced the size of each cookie and yielded better results.

i'm not experienced enough to tweak recipes after a lesser-than-stellar attempt, but i think i shall remember to completely cool the butter and either reduce the amount of baking powder or increase the proportion of flour. i personally like this recipe because of the chewy texture and the extra vanilla flavour coming from the pudding mix. and i think i shall reduce the amount of sugar because it was a little too sweet. the boy finished the whole cont ainer (about 30 cookies? - alright, i had a few myself) throughout our mini-picnic and the ride home, so yes, i might have found a recipe that deserves a (modified) second chance.

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2006-08-06 @ 8:43 p.m.
strawberry cheesecake and chocolate cupcakes

on second thoughts, i realised that the colour combination is a bit off. and i baked the cupcakes at the wrong temperature! i only realised it three-quarters into the baking time. anyway nana, i hope it's edible because it definitely wasn't my best. :(

this is the strawberry cheesecake. i hope it tastes better than the cupcakes. -_-

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2006-08-02 @ 12:27 a.m.
cupcakes

birthday cupcakes for the boy's sister.

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2006-07-27 @ 11:09 p.m.
devils food chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream

orange tinted buttercream with marzipan flowers,

mini tester-versions,

violet tinted buttercream with sugar daisies.

and nine for the birthday girl.

i've got to practise on my swirls.

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2006-07-25 @ 11:44 p.m.
disastrous chocolate cream cheese cups

that is a picture of a chocolate cream cheese cup. i admit it looks rather cute, but i don't think it tastes good.

i wanted to test the recipe out for a possible gift but now i've changed my mind. getting the mini cupcake liners coated with chocolate wasn't an easy task, and peeling them off was even harder. sides chipped, bottoms holed. i know i should have used foil cups. now i wonder if coating chocolate is a better alternative to normal cooking/baking chocolate.

so if the boy fails to eat these, they'll go to the bin.

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2006-07-25 @ 12:25 a.m.
birthday cupcakes

for a friend whom i haven't sat down and talked for a very long time. and i really mean LONG. see you tomorrow. :)

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2006-07-17 @ 1:14 a.m.
strawberry cheese sponge with pink white-chocolate hearts

tonight i tried my hand at making sponge cakes for the first time. i always got put off by the daunting task of beating egg whites. my mother seldom makes them too, but she used to whip up a lot of chiffon cakes. my mother's birthday is on tuesday but we'll be cutting the cake on monday night since i'll be away the next day. so i decided to give it a go.

i actually wanted to bake later at night but she told me she wanted to "check the consistency" of the egg whites so i started earlier. and i'm proud to say it turned out good.

spongy and springy to the touch.

then came the task of filling and decorating. a cream cheese icing spread decked with slices of strawberry,

and then sandwiching it with the other half of the cake.

covered the whole cake with more cream cheese, and then the fun part came. i decided to do something new and pipe out coloured white chocolate on baking paper and then letting the hearts set in the freezer before taking them off and "sticking" them on the cake.

side view.

all in all, i'm satisfied. i just put the cake on the board in the fridge with a transparent cover (i ran out of boxes) so i hope the mother doesn't see it before tomorrow night. i already stuck a note on the fridge door though.

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2006-07-15 @ 7:55 p.m.
vanilla butter cutout cookies

vanilla butter stars and hearts for my mother. she's not into chocolatey stuff, and i scrapped the idea of making spiced cookies because i made them for her on mothers' day. so i decided a simple failproof recipe - buttered vanilla cutouts. :) crisp, light and buttery all at once.

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2006-07-11 @ 12:07 a.m.
chocolatey cheesiness

the blueberry cheesecake for aleen's mum;

the chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, (i filled a jar with these for aleen);

and blueberry cheese cupcakes for home and the boy.

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2006-07-07 @ 10:15 p.m.
nutella cupcakes

a nutella cupcake + glass of cold milk = perfect bedtime snack. recipe from here.

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2006-07-04 @ 11:53 p.m.
chocolate cupcakes

i always get cold feet whenever someone asks for an order, especially if i don't know that person. it makes me very scared because i wouldn't know his/her expectations, whether it is value-for-money/overcharged/edible/palatable . but this is part and parcel of learning, so i'll normally tell them to give me feedback be it good or bad, and then i'll work from there.

tonight i worked on 110 mini cupcakes. it was fun no doubt, but now my body's aching. now i'm just praying that they will be well-received.

IF i ever become a teacher, i'll just bake for them on youth day. a big IF.

only one problem - i couldn't get a smaller board so the cakes had to be spaced apart. i think i have a long way to go in presentation.

these are huge boxes, i'm devising a plan of how to carry them from my house to the carpark.

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2006-07-03 @ 10:01 p.m.
chocolate cake

a few of my mother's friends came over this afternoon to pay her a visit, so she asked me to bake a cake. i liked the flavour of the cake, it had a subtle chocolatey taste - not too rich nor overpowering. but i thought it was a tad too dry, probably because of the different tin size that i used. but my mother said the guests loved it, so i guess it's not that bad after all.

i really have to improve on my food photography though. bleargh.

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2006-06-30 @ 6:15 p.m.
oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies

a friend (whose name i shall not reveal in case the surprise falls flat) requested my help for a batch of cookies that had oatmeal and chocolate in them. i've never baked those before, so i had to do a little experiment before the real thing, and i'm glad it turned out good. the mother and the boy liked it a lot. i ended up eating a lot of the dough whilst rolling them into balls. it's quite healthy i guess because the amount of oats was more than the amount of flour.

i think oats in cookies go well with a lot of other things. i think next time i shall try substituting the chocolate chunks with other interesting bitsies like dried mangoes, craisins or dried apricots.

i'll bake another batch for my friend tomorrow, and i hope that the person it's intended for will love it as well.

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2006-06-18 @ 1:26 a.m.
chocolate cupcakes + chocolate ganache & lemon cream cheese cupcakes

arafah ordered these:

and these were made for hardee's belated birthday gathering. i love it, because it's light and i guess we needed a break from chocolate. :)

i think i made a mess with the swirls. because i couldn't get those circles right, i just decided to pipe haphazard lines. and the glittery yellowish thingies are pralines. i didn't know they were quite easy to make.

the next time round i'll add a bit more cheese and experiment with other fruits. peach, orange or strawberry perhaps.

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2006-06-15 @ 12:59 a.m.
chocolate shortbread drops

unadorned, cherried and silver dragee-d.

for two friends and the boy. (and some for the aunt)

i like shortbread because you just have to suck on it and it melts in your mouth. no effort is needed to effectively ingest it. but i think some people don't like their cookies to be non-crunchy. the texture of this one was soft and crumbly.

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2006-06-07 @ 9:20 p.m.
steamed fruit cake

usually my mother would only make a fruitcake once a year - during hari raya puasa. she used to make layered cake (kek lapis) as well, but has since stopped because it's too troublesome, she says.

today is the boy's father's birthday, and according to the boy his dad likes fruitcake, so i thought i'd give it a go. (ye lah, score point sikit!)

the recipe was from mary gomes' "the eurasian cookbook", which i gave my mother for her birthday three years ago. it is surprisingly simple and yet horribly delicious.

however, instead of baking the cake, i steamed it. that's why it's so moist and buttery. this is a personal achievement because i always thought that fruitcakes fell under my mother's "domain." now i can do it as well!

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2006-06-05 @ 7:46 p.m.
betty yew's baked cheesecake (with canned blackberries)

CRUST

150g digestive/marie biscuit crumbs
90g butter, melted

FILLING

500g cream cheese, softened
80g castor sugar
3 eggs, separated
75g cream
30g plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
pinch of salt

grease well a 22cm springform cake pan. mix biscuit crumbs with melted butter and spread on base of pan, pressing mixture with hands or back of wooden spoon. refrigerate.

put cream cheese, half the sugar, egg yolks, cream, flour and vanilla essence into food processor/electric mixer and blend until smooth and creamy.

in a clean bowl, whisk egg whites with salt for two minutes until fluffy, then add remaining sugar gradually and beat until just stiff.

carefully mix cream cheese mixture with beaten egg whites and pour onto chilled crust.

bake in preheated 160 degrees celsius oven for 50 minutes or until centre is quite firm. turn off oven and leave cheesecake to cool inside oven with door ajar. chill in refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight.

** i made a couple of modifications. because i didn't have cream at hand, i mixed evaporated milk with water. i added a can of blackberries to the mixture plus a bit of the syrup.

i gave a third to the boy and another third to aleen. my mum said it was good. so yes, baked cheesecake mission accomplished. must do some fancy one the next time round.

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2006-06-03 @ 1:39 a.m.
chocolate chip cupcakes with blue & pink frosting

afizah, a girl whom i got to know at a religious course years ago (six? seven?) ordered a batch of chocolate chip cupcakes. because the batter yielded exactly 20, i did not get to taste the baked item. (i did taste the batter though and it was good) i hope they are palatable.

CUPCAKES

2 cups plain flour
2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
125g cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup plain yoghurt
1/4 cup milk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips/pieces

METHOD

in a large bowl, using an electric mixer on low speed, mix the flour, brown sugar and baking soda to blend them. add the butter and mix for 2 minutes, then mix in egg and vanilla. mix in the yoghurt and milk until the batter looks evenly moistened. mix in chocolate chips.

fill cupcake cases to three-quarters full. bake at 150 degrees celsius until tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes. cool the cupcakes completely.

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2006-05-30 @ 10:19 p.m.
cupcakes duo

my mother asked me to help bake her classes cupcakes and i was at it the whole afternoon. batch #1: yellow cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting and batch #2: chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting.

unfrosted cupcakes left to cool.

batch #1. the colour of the frosting is violet actually, i don't know why the hue is quite off in the picture.

batch #2.

i tweaked the frosting recipes because i didn't want it to be too sweet. i was reading a few recipe reviews and found out that some people actually add flour to the frosting mixture. i tried it and it worked. i didn't get any floury taste. maybe next time i should try using cornflour instead of plain flour. it gets a bit hard when chilled though.

all in all i was quite satisfied, although i could have decorated them better. i was rushing to get ready for tuition, that's why i was in quite a rush.

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2006-05-27 @ 10:44 p.m.
chocolate birthday cake

yesterday my cousin asked me if i could bake a cake for her friend's birthday. of course i obliged, for two reasons - one was that i was home the whole day and the other was a chance to practise. so after discussing the details with the cousin and her friend over msn, i conjured up images of how the finished cake would look like.

after spreading chocolate glaze and coloured sprinkles.

with blue piped rosettes and pink lettering.

the cousin is satisfied with how it looks and i just hope they will be content with how it tastes. (because i have no idea how!)

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2006-05-26 @ 1:27 a.m.
frosted chocolate chip cupcakes

after quite a hiatus, i decided to bake some chocolate chip cupcakes for the boy.

ps: fiza, if you want the recipe of the "original" chocolate cupcakes, go here. once you get the hang of it, you can play around with the ingredients. this time, i left out the cocoa powder and used chocolate chips.

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