Salted caramel chocolate cake

It's other half's 40th birthday, so what cake? A friend was also baking a birthday and she decided on a gooey moist salted caramel chocolate cake. I decided to give it a go too as I've not made salted caramel before.

Oh! It is evil this thing called salted caramel! I'm not the kind who likes to lick spoons when cooking or baking but this salted caramel calls to me and just can't help myself! Consider this a warning for those brave enough to try! And yes, I made some chocolate shards for the first time too but the excitement of the salted caramel overshadows it.

Pure indulgence!

I went for a moist sponge instead of gooey as per my friend

 

 

Chocolate shards and icing

 

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Flooded icing cookies

It's been a struggle getting back into work mode since a great holiday back to Malaysia. So this weekend something to remind me of the whole point of going to work i.e. to pay for the things I enjoy, is much needed. A friend shared a video she came across on uTube ...what else is there than to let myself be suckered in and give it a go. So this is the result of trying out flooded icing and wet on wet techniques. It was fun and not too complicated but as always working with icing sugar, the cleanup is not so fun. And since I'm not a fan of super sweet biscuits, I'm going to need willing volunteers to eat them!

Made some pink ones too

 

 

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Ikan masak asam

I'm not sure what the name of the fish is that we normally make this dish with at home but easiest for me to get here is salmon without having to worry too much about it being fresh. My Vietnamese coriander has been growing on the window ledge and it has got to the point where it normally keels over and starts to wilt. I don't know why but this is probably the 6th plant I have and this one was given to me by a friend so I really want to keep it going. I figured maybe the previous ones died from under pruning so I needed to take the top leaves off. But of course I didn't want to just throw the leaves away, the whole point of having the plant is to eat it! Anyway long story short, one of my favourite dish with this daun kesom is masak asam. So plant pruned, tummy satisfied!

Daun kesom or vietnamese coriander

 

 

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Pop your own corn

It was a typical lazy Saturday afternoon, watching movies on the TV when we were attacked by the need to munch and crunch. I remembered that I picked up a bag of corn some time back and never got round to experimenting with popping my own corn. So a quick scan of the net and finger in the air selection of corn popping method, we were off. Then it was quick decision time, should we go buttered? Salted? Or caramel? In the end it was to be all three!! One thing to note, I used coconut oil to pop the corn which is healthier (pre buttering, salting and caramelising of course) and smells great!

Was it good? Well the saying goes a picture tells a thousand words. Btw I do feed the little one!

 

 

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Koay teow th'ng

There is no easy way to spell this dish and the only way is what makes sense to me phonetically. This is basically flat rice noodles in tasty broth. I can't remember what it was now but something put this noodle soup dish in my mind and won't let me enjoy other food until I have satisfied the craving for this. It's a shame that it was an impromptu dish this time as I would have loved to have some fish balls and fish cakes in it. Instead what I made was rather authentic i.e. the soup base was made from duck stock instead or the 'cheat' chicken stock. It turned out to be quite tasty and more importantly close to the taste in my mind so craving satisfied!

 

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Christmas fruit cake part 2

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.

Chopped pecans

 

The mixed batter

 

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Christmas fruit cake part 1

Baking requires patience as the saying goes, how about five weeks of patience? Five weeks is how long I've waited to cut into this Christmas fruit cake full of dried fruits and pecan nuts, diligently laced with rum week after week. Yes, I said rum and not brandy. I'm not a fan of this rich cake but with the rum it's not too bad! So after five weeks, I finally get to the fun part, this is the make it or break it step of the process. Decorating is not my strong point so armed with pictures from the net, icing sugar and marzipan we begin. The end result was a design not like any I googled, it's was improvised as the first ribbon I used for my 'I think I can do this design' which was all fancy and sparkly left gold dust on the cake...inedible gold dust, oh dear! So the cake got stripped off, icing and all and we start again.

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.

The two loaves

 

Of course I sneaked a slice, it's been 5 weeks!

 

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Pandan chiffon cupcakes

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.

Unlike the full sized cake, no need to invert and cool

 

 

Still as fully and soft

 

 

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