Pandan Cendol Cake

This is the second time I'm making a cendol themed cake. The only difference is that I baked a pandan chiffon cake as the base instead of the vanilla chiffon cake. Also, I increased the concentration of the gula melaka syrup by reducing the water by half as compared to my first recipe, making the coconut frosting even more fragrant. Throw in the homemade cendol, red beans, "attap chee" (palm fuit), coconut milk, gula Melaka and fragrance from the homemade pandan juice, it"s like having a bowl of cendol, except that it's not ice cold ...........

Homemade Granola Bar

I've been wanting to bake a granola bar from scratch. Homemade granola bars are wholesome. You can add ingredients you fancy and control the sweetness. No preservatives. All fresh and natural ingredients. I googled around and found this recipe by Ina Garten from Food Network (Ina Garten's Homemade Granola Bars). I liked it and set about to baking it with some modifications to the recipe.

Pure Pumpkin Cheesecake

It's been a long time since i update my blog and this is the first one for year 2017. Have not been really baking since the busy period of Chinese New Year. That was a really busy time for me with the baking, cooking and spring cleaning. I'm so glad that it was over and I managed to squeeze in two short holidays of sightseeing and golf. That was great fun in the company of all the wonderful friends.

Finally got a push to start baking again. In fact, I baked 3 cakes all in all within 3 days. So happy to get that baking zest back and the cakes all turned out beautiful and delicious. Baked my nephew's favourite chocolate cake for his 19th birthday followed by this pure pumpkin cheesecake. This one is for the April babies in my cell group.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Western carrot cake is a cake that is a dessert and sweet with carrot as the main ingredient. On the other hand, chinese carrot cake is called fried carrot cake or "Chai Tao Kueh" or 炒萝卜糕. It is fragrant and savoury and its main ingredient is white radish. These two are complete opposites. Which one do you like? I like both ....

This carrot cake recipe is take from my favourite book by Rose Levy Beranbaum. It is very flavourful and moist. I frost it with the slightly tangy cream cheese frosting to balance the overall flavor. Yummy ......

Pandan Gula Melaka Chiffon Cake

I have baked many of my popular pandan chiffon cake but this is my first attempt at baking pandan chiffon cake using gula melaka. It is indeed very delicious and full of pandan, coconut fragrance. You just cannot simply stop at one slice..... No pandan paste used at all. Just pure pandan juice. You can see the color is slightly dull green-brown due to the brown gula melaka.

Chocolate Chunk Peanut Butter Chips Cookies

Pardon my tardiness and procrastination in updating my blog. These cookies were baked months ago (I think before christmas last year), but I was just too busy during the christmas and chinese new year period followed by laziness to update my blog. It sure takes a little effort to take photos, upload into the blog and write (or I should say type) a little story about the food and the recipe. And here I am, finally taking the time to update my blog with these beautiful, irresistible and delicious chocolate chunk cookies.

Chocolate Banana Walnut Cake

Chocolate, banana and walnut are simple ingredients that are available most of the time in my kitchen. It was a lazy afternoon that spurred me to bake. Otherwise I would be just idling my time away. Why not bake a chocolate banana walnut cake for afternoon teabreak and breakfast?

Fruity Rainbow Cake

When rainbow cake was the IT cake few years ago, I wasn't attracted to it. Maybe I found it tedious (it really is) and having to use artificial food colors. Furthermore, the colors will not add any flavor to the vanilla sponge cake. I'm not one who's fond of using artificial food colors. I prefer the au natural.

Mocha cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting

What inspired me to bake these little cupcakes? Hmm...., after tasting the cupcakes by Plain Vanilla at Yong Siak Street in Tiong Bahru enclave, I wanted to bake cupcakes that's soft, moist and light like theirs. Furthermore, I have vanilla swiss meringue buttercream in my freezer. A very good motivation since I do not need extra effort and time to make the buttercream. Not to forget the chopped peanuts too. Better use them while still fresh and crunchy.

Cordon Rose Cream Cheesecake

A rich and creamy cheesecake taken from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible. I adapted the recipe to include a digestive biscuit base to lend a crunch to the creamy custard. I don't normally bake cheesecake. It's just simply too rich, but delightfully delicious. It's perfectly fine to indulge in it occasionally. I baked this cake for my niece's 13th birthday. No more chocolate cake request from her. Vanilla cheesecake is her new favorite.

Good Old Coffee Peanut Cake

Feeling nostalgic? I miss those good old traditional little cakes topped with sweet-salty buttercream. These little cakes usually come in a box of 10 and given to relatives as part of an upcoming wedding celebration. The cakes usually come in small rectangular size of different flavors and colors. I remembered my sister, brother and I trying to reach out to our favourites before they ended up in each other's stomach. The decorations were simple - piped buttercream dotted with cherries, rainbow sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, edible wafer flowers, chopped peanuts or almond flakes. Back then, cakes are a luxury. Just like durians. I remembered my parents would spread out newspaper on the floor before opening up the thorny fruits. All of us would then compete how fast and how many of the pungent fruit we could eat. Imagine having one fruit in the mouth and the other hand holding on to another fruit. It was a luxury my family enjoyed. To finish off the durian feasting, my mom would put salt water on the durian husks for us to drink. It's supposedly to clear the heat in our body system as durians are considered heaty food. We would wash down with mangosteens too if they were available because mangosteens will neutralize the heatiness of the durians. Such wonderful and memorable good old days. Nowadays, I can eat all the durains I want at my own pace as my children and hubby don't fancy this pungent, thorny fruit. Not so exciting anymore ... Food always taste better if we have to fight for it. Don't you agree?

Luxury Oatmeal Cookies

A glamorous name for an old-fashioned oatmeal raisin cookies. You might be wondering why is this oatmeal raisin cookies being named as luxury oatmeal cookies. This recipe is taken from my favourite author, Rose Levy Beranbaum's latest cookbook - The Baking Bible. This book is divided into 4 types of baked goods - Cakes; Pies, tarts, and other pastries; Cookies and Candy and Breads and Yeast Pastries.

Cinnamon Raisin Bun

It's been a long, long time since I last baked breads. It's school holiday now and my teens are at home. That means there must be some food at home to fill hungry stomachs, especially for my growing son. Lots of time on my hand since I don't have to teach the kiddies during this school holiday and I can't golf because I injured my elbow - hairline fracture. Thought that I can golf all I want this holiday. Sigh ... What else can I do? Bake .... 

Japanese Souffle Cheesecake

Traditional baked cheesecake or Japanese Souffle cheesecake? I was deliberating between which of the 2 to bake for my mother's birthday celebration. The traditional one is more full-flavoured and richer, which will mean bad news for those watching their waistlines and cholesterol level. The Japanese version is lighter and milder, which is just fabulous for the health conscious with a sweet tooth. But I do know of friends who love cheesecake will only stand by the traditional baked cheesecake. In the end, I decided to go with the light Japanese version.

Fruity Christmas Log Cake

Christmas season is here again. This is the season where we remember God's precious gift to us - Jesus Christ, our saviour, Prince of Peace. It's a season filled with love, warmth, joy and hope.

When it's January, I look forward to December. It's the time when the kids have finished their exams and holidays begins. no more stress from school. A time for travelling and relaxation. A time for nice cool weather to enjoy outdoor activities, if it's not raining. A time to find reasons to shop and feast. A time to bake for family and friends. Lovely season, but it's gonna end soon and a new year begins .... 

This time round, I decided not to bake the usual log cake that I've been baking the past few years. I wanted something different, light and fruity (healthier I guess)  for my cell group Christmas party. Thus I settled on a light genoise sponge cake sprinkled with rum-flavoured syrup, frosted with vanilla fresh cream and filled and decorated with lots of strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. I'm so glad that my cell group members love it.

Pierre Herme Viennese Chocolate Sables

It's Christmas season again ..... Time to bake some cookies as gifts for friends. Let's go for one of the recipes in Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme's book - Viennese Chocolate Sables. Everyone (or I would say majority)  loves chocolate. Furthermore, I have leftover egg whites in the fridge. Don't waste them. And this recipe uses egg whites only. What a good timing .....

Chocolate Cappuccino Cake

Just in time to bake a cake for hubby's birthday after getting back from a golfing holiday in Hainan Island, China. Great golf courses, food and fun with a bunch of golfing buddies from the club. Weather this year was extremely hot, unexpected. Last year, all of us were unprepared and caught in an unusually cold weather. So we thought we'd better bring warmer clothing. But weather turned out otherwise .....

I can't remember when was the last time I baked a birthday cake for hubby, not to mention mine as our birthdays coincided with travels. I'm determined to bake one this year. Wanted to make a simple and fuss-free one - chocolate and coffee flavor. That's easy - chocolate genoise sponge cake with coffee-flavored fresh cream frosting, something I've not tried before. The closest one was coffee swiss meringue buttercream.

Devil's Food Cupcakes with assorted cream cheese frosting

 

Pardon me for my tardiness in updating my blog. I baked these cupcakes around the time of baking the Devil's Food Cake with Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting but did not update them into my blog. But better late than never .... Here they are - with two types of frosting - salted caramel cream cheese and strawberry cream cheese. Both frosting are deliciously good and go well with the bitter dark chocolate cupcake. The caramel frosting is sweet and salty while the strawberry frosting has a slight tartness to it and it's refreshing.

Chocolate Addiction - Devil's Food Cake with Salted Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

How time flies! It seems like just not too long ago that I baked a Royal Chocolate Praline cake for my son's 13th birthday. He's 14 now. It's a chocolate cake again that he requested. Deliberating between a genoise sponge cake, chiffon sponge cake or butter cake, I finally decided upon a Devil's Food Cake by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

Sweet & Salty - Salted Caramel Sauce

Honestly speaking, I've never like caramel, be it in chocolate or ice-cream. In chocolate, I hate the feeling of it being stuck to my teeth other than the sweetness. As for ice-cream, it's one flavour that I will not choose. My favourites are rum and raisin, strawberry, D24 durian and Mao Shan Wang durian. Until one day, I chanced upon sweet and salty caramel sauce ......