Finally the rest of the fruit cake has been iced. Not much different from the smaller 2 but a bit tidier I believe. So this is it for the fruit cake for this year. Maybe I will attempt round ones next year. It's late and words escape me so I close the fruit cake story with some before photos.
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| Chopped pecans |
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| The mixed batter |
In the end I think it was passable, OCD kicking in now and I hope my two friends will be happy recipients of these two loaves. The other big half of the cake will be iced come weekend, that's for the in laws, measuring tape and level spirit will be required for that one so stay tuned for the second part of the Christmas fruit cake.
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| The two loaves |
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| Of course I sneaked a slice, it's been 5 weeks! |
This afternoon there was a desperate request for 'green cake' or better known to the rest of the world as pandan chiffon cake. The conversation went something like this
'I really really want the green cake'
'no, it takes a long time to make, how about tomorrow'
'But I want it now, I'll help you make it' goes off into the kitchen and started to clear a space on the table
'You put the ingredients here' so as commanded I proceeded to 'put the ingredients on the table'
Now cakes that are prone to collapsing and little helpers are not a good combo but I have seen this cake made in cupcake form. So I decided to half the recipe and make chiffon cupcakes. As it turns out, the cupcakes did not colaspe and my little helper, true to her words did a lot of the work. There was a bit of a volcanic action going on 7 minutes into the bake but once the temperature was adjusted it calmed down giving the end result a bit of a rustic look. Little helper happily ate two cupcakes as soon as it was done and left me to do all the washing up.
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| Unlike the full sized cake, no need to invert and cool |
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| Still as fully and soft |
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| There's not a lot I am proud of but this is one of them! |
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| Let is shine! |
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| Dark choc and cherries...match made in heaven! |
I haven't had this kuih in a long time, in fact you can say years. To be honest, I've never been a fan of this one but because some friends suggested it as something easy for a potluck lunch, I decided to make it. Not having fresh grated coconut, I tried making the filling with desiccated coconut, after caramelising the sugar I added the coconut with more water and from then on it was a bit of an experiment. I can't quite remember how 'wet' the filling should be so I decided to go for the dry to touch but when squeezed it's still oozes with the syrup...makes sense? Good!!
Oh, I also halved the recipe as I always end up with lots of batter but lo and behold..I ended up with only 10 pieces of kuih! Yikes! But lucky for me there some no shows so with meagre portioning ..all had a taste! Phew! Now best I go note down that half portion makes only 10 pieces on the recipe for future references!
This is a back post, a while ago a friend of mine shared her macarons recipe, one which she took a class for which was very kind of her. This is the first time I attempted Italian meringue, this is the one using sugar syrup to make. The meringue was not too difficult to make, it was the piping that was challenged for me. Just using drawn circles, it was hard to get the piping going at a consistent rate in order to end up with circles that would pair up. I've made another batch since the first try, it turned out to be quite fun as you get to play with colours of the shells as well as dream up flavours for the filling, I've tried lemon cream, dark chocolate ganache and green tea buttercream..all yummy!
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| The green tea one |
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| Italian meringue |
This is my attempt at the acclaimed japanese cotton soft cheesecake. Actually, it's my second attempt, the first one, just 24 hours earlier was not what one would call a success. After the usual searching for the recipe to try and watching countless uTube videos, I settled for one and went for it. After turning up the motivation crank to full , I discovered I only had 3 eggs instead of 6 but I was still determined so I halved everything and before you know I was watching tv waiting for the ding of the timer. As the forces that be will have it, baking is not as easy sailing as that. The cake (this is the first one btw) rose and rose while I was focused on the tv and the top cracked open, bringing to mind mount vesuvious. After which once removed from the oven proceeded to deflate and resembled something like a flat tyre. Nevertheless it still went into the fridge for the required time before being consumed as per the recipe...oh, only it actually didn't as someone (not me) forgot to put it in the fridge after promising to do so. Which meant that cake nbr1 was really not meant to be. So on to cake nbr2, deciding to give the recipe another go, I started again, this time watching the cake like a hawk. End result, not too bad, there's still a bit of a collapsed but passable. Though it tastes good, would I try again? Maybe but not in the near future.
I was speaking to my sis this morning and she mentioned bak huu and I thought it's been a long time since I had any and since I had a pork fillet in the fridge.....why not? I did happen to have a recipe for it, just never tried it so no surfing the net required and it only required 3 ingredients...pork, light soya and rock sugar! So easy, boil everything in the slow cooker till the meat starts to colaspe, shred then fry in the pan till dry. hmmm, need to run to the supermarket to buy bread now as I have nothing to eat it with!
I made 3 lots of kaya in the last 3 days! The first lot was the normal caramel kaya made the night before a friend's party for pulut tai tai. Since it was made late at night, I think I sort of lost concentration and probably stirred too long as though not burnt the kaya was of a weird texture but still edible. The next day when the pulut tai tai was ready, I had some spare time and so decided to whip up a new batch of kaya for my friend instead of using the one I made previously. This time, I made the pandan version, it turned out much better, in fact I liked it so much that I made more the next day for myself as I was dreaming of kaya toast!
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| Kaya toast... Best breakfast ever! |
I was making ang ku kuih again... This time for a friend's friend's daughter's birthday, so they had to be perfect! I made some changes to the recipe I used previously which was already good but I needed the ang ku to stay nice and soft for longer. With the changes, which I have now written down before I forget which tips worked, the angku stayed soft till the next day! Wow, even I was impressed, hahaha... The ones I made for the party was with the mini moulds, no pictures as I had to rush them off in time for the birthday party. After the delivery, I can home and made up some more with the medium sized mould, these are the ones in the picts.
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| Inside, green bean filling |
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| Glossy and chewy! |
This is my take on Kedgeree, which is a fish, spices, rice and eggs all in one dish from colonial India which is popular here. My take on this dish simply means to remove all the time consuming steps and use only the main ingredients! I used smoked mackerel instead of haddock as that's what I had. Instead of poaching the fish in bay infused milk, I pan fried the fish before flaking. Then in the style of the typical Asian fried rice, I fried the dish up then topped with sliced boiled egg...oh, and I added spinach to top up the vege/fibre content of the dish. It kinds of remains me of a Malay dish but can't think which!
Pickled green chillies are a great accompaniment of most noodle dishes...my favourites to have them with are Char Hor Fun, Hokkien Char and or course Wanton mee. Quick and simple to make, scald, add vinegar, sugar and salt and leave it to do its magic in the fridge overnight...yumm!
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| Just made |
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| After a night in the fridge |
This is a back post, I can't believe I forgot about this one. For a really long time I've been wanting to make croissants, am always fascinated with the folding of the dough to make the layers. I finally did get round to it using a recipe from the great British Bakeoff. To results was ok-ish, which means the hunt for a better recipe is on, however it will be a while before I will attempt it again...too much waiting in between steps!
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| Mini me having a go at the dough |
I first saw this on the Great British Bakeoff, the shiny ganache like topping on a moist chocolate base looks really lush. So when it's other half's birthday, what better time to give it a test. Though I was up at the crack of dawn on the birthday day to make the cake, the first thing I read on the recipe was that this is a cake that is best eaten a day after it was baked...bummer! I don't happen to have a time machine with me so there's not really much I can do but to go with it. We left it till really late at night to cut the cake, poor little one was past her bedtime and only the excitement of getting cake and blowing candles kept her awake. The cake tasted just ok and I had to reign in my disappointment and hold judgement till the next day. As it turns out, the cake was lovely, moist and chocolatey the next day, so thanks Mary Berry for a lovely recipe.
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| Fastest way to ruin a cake is with shaky icing writing! |
It's pot luck time again! What to bring for sharing....not wanting to have a manic morning cooking and too lazy to get in to town to the chinese supermarket for Asian ingredients, I decided to go for a store cupboard staple that I can make the night before. There's always pandan in the freezer, tinned coconut milk in the larder, no waiting for butter to get to room temperature what better choice could there be? So pandan cake it is, I've made this numerous times and my mantra while making this is ...be patient when whisking the eggs whites, be patient when whisking the egg whites, be patient when whisking the egg whites AND you will be rewarded!
So two hours later, cake is baked and ready! I can watch tv while waiting for it cool, sleep in tomorrow morning and turn up at the pot luck not looking harassed! I call that a WIN!
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| Cake cooling |
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| Before de-tinning, less cracking on the top than usual, I must have been a patient whisker this time round |
One of the recent things that I have on my 'shopping list' for trips back to Malaysia is the blue pea flower or bunga telang. It is mainly used to colour food naturally. By crushing the petals and squeezing the juice out..normally just a few drops, you get pretty shades of blues and purples. So now, everytine I get back to malaysia, I'll get a bag or two of these flowers in their dried form.
So this time, I'm making Pulut tai tai which is steamed glutinous rice topped with kaya (a coconut kind of jam). This is also the first time I'm attempting to make kaya, as it turned out, the kaya recipe that I used was great if I may say so. I will definitely make more.
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