Double chocolate macadamia nut cookies

Melted chocolate and cocoa powder go into these cookies, making them double chocolaty for chocoholics. Blended oatmeal and macadamia nuts are added for extra crunch.

Marble Cupcakes

Have not been baking for quite some time. Baked these mini marble cakes in a silicone muffin pan after returning from family vacation in Paris and Brussels. It was freezing cold and the children got to see and feel snow. They were simply ecstatic and had a good time making snowballs and having snowfight. We were so lucky to get home the day before the snowstorm started. 

It's so crusty on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside.



Blackforest Cake dressed in White

This is specially baked for my cousin Jennifer's baby Bernice full month celebration. Since it's for kids, I omitted the liqueur in the chocolate sponge and chocolate mousse layer. If it's for adults, the sponge cake and mousse layer will be drenced with liqueur. It can be kirsch, rum or brandy. Sounds intoxicating?I took the sponge cake recipe and kirsh-flavoured whipped cream recipe from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. The chocolate whipped cream recipe is from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme.

Cup Sponge Cake

Soft and moist sponge cake baked in a cup. It's very light. Good enough for breakfast and tea. What do you think?
This recipe is taken from Florence in Do What I like blog.

Chocolate Muffin

Have been experimenting with the different ingredients and proportions to make yummy and moist chocolate muffins. This muffin uses corn or canola oil. It is therefore healthier than those made with butter and still taste as good.

Added some chocolate frostings to make it even more chocolatey.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

I would say I have finally perfected baking the pandan chiffon cake after many tries. At least this is the verdict given by family and friends who have tried it. Pandan chiffon cake, anyone?




Egg yolk mixture:

6 egg yolks
3 tbsp Pandan juice
120g coconut milk
1/4 tsp salt
40g corn oil
½ tsp Pandan Paste
60g castor sugar

Egg White Mixture:
6 egg white
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
80g castor sugar

115g cake flour
¾ tsp baking powder

Method:
(1) Mix all the egg yolk ingredients together and stir till smooth.
(2) Sift the cake flour and baking powder over the egg yolk mixture and fold gently.
(3) Whisk egg white using medium speed till foamy stage. Add in cream of tartar. Increase speed to medium high until soft peak stage and gradually pour in the sugar. Whisk at high speed until stiff peak forms.
(4) Take 1/3 of egg white mixture and fold gently into the egg yolk mixture. Pour this mixture into the egg white mixture and fold gently until well blended. Use a large balloon whisk or rubber spatula to fold.
(5) Pour into a 9" (23 cm) tube pan.
(6) Bake at 190°C for first 10 minutes followed by 180°C for about 20 to 25 min or until a tester inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
(7) Remove from oven, invert cake onto cooling rack until completely cooled before removing from the pan.
(8) Slice and serve.

Blackforest Cake

This blackforest cake is specially baked for my sister's birthday. It's her favourite cake. I used the chocolate genoise and whipped cream recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum Cake Bible book and the chocoate whipped cream from Pierre Herme Chocolate Desserts book. The cake is simply delicious (though the decoration needs more work and skill) and everybody liked it. I'm so happy.

The only problem I find is that fresh whipped cream cannot withstand the Singapore heat. The cream will tend to melt while creaming the cake. It's better to use the non-dairy whipping cream; but will not taste as good as fresh heavy cream though.

Football design birthday cake

It is my son, Ryan's 10th birthday. He's into soccer now and I promised to bake him a football design cake. Here it is! The design looks not too bad for a first time attempt at decorating a cake using buttercream. I baked him a vanilla-flavoured sponge cake with strawberry fresh cream filling. It is then topped up with buttercream piped into a football design. Personally, I think a chocolate sponge cake will taste much better than vanilla. But Ryan wanted a different flavour.

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Awfully Chocolate Cake

Baked this yummy-licious chocolate cake for little Alaina's birthday as requested by Celia. Have been trying to bake something close to Awfully Chocolate chocolate fudge cake. I must say I am happy with my cake this time. The cake comprises a layer of thick chocolate fudge sandwiched between two layers of soft and moist chocolate sponge cake. Top it up with Varlhona chocolate ganache and it's simply delicious. Decorated it simply with rainbow sprinkles and strawberries and it looks beautiful. Hope little Alaina will love it.

Chocolate Strawberry Cake

It is my niece, Adele's 8th birthday today. I baked a chocolate strawberry cake as requested by my sister. It consists of 2 layers of chocolate sponge cake sandwiched with chocolate mousse and sliced strawberries. It is then topped off with a layer of chocoate ganache decorated with strawberries and raspberries. Hope Adele will love it. Happy Birthday!

Here's a slice of the cake.

Durian Puffs & Chocolate Eclairs

Doris has so kindly requested me to bake durian puffs and chocolate eclairs for her grand nephew's 6-yr old birthday. Thank you Doris. It was quite a huge job for a real first order. It took me 3/4 of a day to complete everything. Although it was tiring, it was very satisfying.
Making the durian puffs was easy. Just need to remove the durian flesh and mix it with whipping cream. The making of the chocolate eclairs was much more tedious. First, I have to make the chocolate pastry cream (from Pierre Herme's recipe), followed by the chocolate sauce and chocolate glaze. But the result was fantastic. The chocolate cream and glaze were simply divine. Well worth the effort. But I need to work on glazing the puff better.

Chendol Agar-agar

Have been wanting to make this for a long time but was too lazy to do it as it takes a long time to cook the red beans. Since I have coconut milk and chendol in the fridge and they have to be used before they expire, I finally get to make it. I got this recipe from the Sunday Lifestyle and it was pretty easy to make. I'm happy with the taste. It's not too sweet with enough coconut and gula-melaka fragrance. I used a 7" by 7" cake tin for half the recipe. Will use a smaller tin next time for the same amount of recipe in order to have a taller agar-agar.

Blueberry Muffins

I baked some blueberry muffins for my son, Ryan to bring to school to eat during his recess time break. This boy is so passionate about football now that he would rather play than queue for his food during recess time. Now, he has no excuse for not eating. Have his muffin first and off to football! Baked some extras too for my three lovely golf friends (Janet Ting, Janet Sim and Christine) to enjoy during our game. Weather was fantastic and we had a good time.
This recipe was taken from Rose Levy Beranbaum Bread Bible. I reduced the amount of sugar by 10% and it's perfect.