I’m currently in my final year in University and I’ve been super super busy with projects and reports. Am still struggling with my final year report! Urgh!

Over the past few months, I been trying some new recipes(some successful and some not too successful…haha!) but I have not had the time to update regularly!

My apologies also to all those who left me comments! I have tried my best to reply most of them! Hope it helps!

I have posted a recipe on Yogurt Marble Cupcakes. I totally enjoyed this cupcake. It was simple, moist yet there was a twist of vanilla and chocolate flavour in each bite! *drools*

I’ll try my best to post up a couple more recipes that I have tried recently!

Till then, have fun drooling/baking everyone! hehe…

Yogurt Marble Cake 

Ingredients (A)
85g unsalted butter, cut into pieces 170g sugar (original recipe uses 200g)
2 tsps vanilla extract

Ingredients (B) -
whisk together till smooth
2 tsp instant coffee granules
37g unsweetened cocoa powder
70g sugar
60 ml water

Ingredients (C)
2 eggs

Ingredients (D) -
sift together 225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp plus 1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

240 ml unsweetened nonfat yogurt

1) Preheat oven to 180C.Grease a 21 cm tube pan.

2) Cream butter and sugar in (A) till light and creamy. Beat in vanilla. Dribble in (C) slowly, about 1 tbsp at a time, beating constantly for about 2 mins*

3) On LOW speed, beat in 1/3 of (D). Mix until just combined. Beat in ½ the yogurt. Beat in 1/2 of the remaining flour mixture, followed by the rest of the yogurt. Lastly, beat in the rest of the flour. Take care not to overmix.

4) Measure out about half of the batter and fold in (B). Set aside.

5) Alternate large spoonfuls of the white and chocolate batters into the pan.

6)Use a table knife to marble the batters together in a zig-zag or circular motion, taking care not to blend them too much.

7) Bake for 45 to 50 mins till skewer inserted comes out clean. 8)Cool in pan for 10 mins. Unmold and cool completely.

* if mixture curdles after adding in eggs, try adding in 2 tbsps of the flour mixture and beat on LOW. Mixture should look smoother, continue adding flour and yogurt.

Hi all!

Wow… I’ve been MIA for quite some time now!

Well, school has been crazy. Final year is really taking a toll on me. And it is preventing me from enjoying one of my fav hobbies: baking…

I do bake a cake every once in a while, but I have not really tried many new recipes recently…

And so, I have nothing much to share because of that!

Anyway, this apple cake I got here is really yummy…

But I won’t be sharing this recipe because it’s my aunt’s recipe and I didn’t get permission to share it publicly!

But all I can say is that this cake is super easy peasy to make because it doesn’t require the use of a mixer! haha….(Just the kind of cake a lazy girl like me would like!)

And it tastes fantastic!

I baked one on Sunday and it was gone almost immediately!

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Enjoy the pics for now… I’ll check if I can share the recipe here.

Till then, have a good day everyone!

Hehe…

I took a long hiatus again!

Well, I’ve currently undergoing my internship at an engineering company and have literally very little energy left when I get home. haha…

But this week, I celebrated my bday and decided to bake something nice for my colleagues and friends. It was so good that they finished the share that I saved for my family! And so, to appease my family, as I’m typing this post, there’s another one baking in the oven! (And the whole house smells heavenly now!!!!)

I chanced upon this recipe on KC(by ilovebaking) and decided to give it a go!

What a good choice! The cake was delicious! And the lemon frosting was a great compliment to the moist citrusy cake!

Give it a try when you’re free! Its a relatively simple recipe with great results!

Refreshing Lemon Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
250 grams butter (1 bar)
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
grated zest from 1 large lemon
200 ml sour cream

Lemon Glaze:
1/2 cup sifted icing sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter
3 teaspoons lemon juice

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Thoroughly butter and flour a 9-inch bundt pan; tap pan on edge of sink to shake out excess flour.
Set pan aside.2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl; set aside.

2. If you love more lemon frosting on top, by all means, make another batch!

3. Original recipe calls for 2 cups of sugar. I REFUSED to use that much sugar because its so sinful! And so, the 1st time I made it, I used slightly less than 1 cup of sugar and still felt that it could have been less sweet (maybe its my low tolerance for sugar!). And so, if you prefer your cake to be sweeter, please adjust accordingly. I used 3/4 cup of sugar for my 2nd cake and when I licked the cake batter(heh… I love licking left-over cake batter! Its a gd preview of the actual cake!), it tasted less sweet than the prev. cake.

Haha… I’m sorry for disappearing for such a long time. Been extremely busy with school. And though I’ve baked a couple of times since I last updated, I don’t have the time to sit down and do the collages and post the recipes!

Anyway, this is one of the more recent recipe that I tried… Its fantastic! And very easy to make! Fantastic for fellow lazy chefs out there.

When I first stumbled upon this recipe by Rusti at Kitchencapers, I was extremely intrigued by it! Firstly, because this uses cream crackers in a very unique way! I eat my cream crackers either with cheese or kaya, or dunk them into my milo or coffee… I never imagine that I could use cream crackers to make a dish! 

Unlike the traditional Italian lasagne, which has layers of pasta sheets and a tomato meat filling, this dish has layers of cream crackers and meat! I guess thats why its called ‘Oriental Lasagne’!

This simple and very filling dish’s main ingredients are cream crackers, eggs, evaporated milk and meat. I used luncheon meat this time. But you can put in almost any other types of meat. Like minced chicken, pork, beef, or Spam, or even vegetarian style(with potatoes, tofu, mixed vegs…). I mentioned that its very filling because I just had a small slice and I felt very full after that(but then again, I’m a mouse when it comes to eating… haha!)

Give this dish a try… Its very simple and doesn’t need baking! Serve this warm and with your favourite chili sauce or ketchup! Yum! 真好吃!

Recipe inside!

ORIENTAL LASAGNE
Ingredients:
36 pcs cream crackers
5 eggs
1 can evaporated milk
Prepared fillings

Fillings:
1 tbsp of oil
1 large can of luncheon meat
1 large onion
6-8 button mushrooms (canned type)
1 clove garlic (chopped)
2 chilli padi (chopped)
1 big chilli(chopped)
1 tbsp Chinese parsley (chopped)
1/2 tbsp curry powder
 Pepper to taste Method – Filling
1)Cut luncheon meat,onion and mushrooms into small cubes
2)Heat 1/2 tbsp of oil till hot and saute onions till translucent.
3)Add garlics and continue frying till fragrant.
4)Push onions to the size of the frying pan, add remaining 1/2 tbsp of oil to heat.
5)Add curry powder and chillies and fry till fragrant.
6)Combine everything with onion, luncheon meat, mushrooms.
7)Fry till evenly mixed and season with pepper.
8)Lastly add in the parsley.
9)Divide into 3 portions and set aside.

Method – Assembling
1)Oil and line a 23 x 23cm square tin. Meantime, bring big steamer to boil.
2)Beat eggs and evaporated milk well. Season with pinch of salt and pepper.
3)Soak 9 pieces of cream crackers briefly in egg mixture.
4)Line the tin with the soaked crackers in a 3 x 3 fashion.
4)Top with one portion of the fillings.
5)Repeat with 2 more layers of soaked crackers/fillings and end with a layer of soaked crackers on top.
6)Pour the balance egg mixture into the tin and leave to soak for about 3-5 minutes.
7)Compress gently with a spatula so that the top layer will also be immersed in the egg mixture.
8)Steam for 15-20 minutes depending on your flame.
9)Cool slightly before removing.
10) Serve warm with your favourite sauce!

Notes:
1. I used a slightly smaller pan and ended up with 5 layers of crackers. But I would recommend cutting down on the number of layers of crackers since it can be very filling!
2. You may have to trim the sides of the crackers to fit the pan. Use a sharp knife and gently cut the crackers into shape before soaking them in the egg mixture.
3. You can prepare the meat filling before hand(as in the day before or earlier, just remember to keep the fillings in the fridge!) and assemble it when you need it. This is great as a last-min lunch/supper/snack/potluck dish/picnic dish! Enjoy!

This recipe is fantastic. Really it is! Haha.. But, I’m so sorry to have posted this so late, else many of you could have made this for the CNY!

An additional bonus? Its SUPER SUPER easy to make! Haha… It’s literally lazychef-approved! Cos its just dump all into one bowl, mix, shape and bake! I like!

I first saw this recipe on Florence’s blog but I tweaked it a bit so as to add more peanuts(Since Daddy loves peanuts! In fact, he loved this peanut cookie so much, I had to make an additional portion!).

If you want this to be very authentic peanut cookies, I’d suggest that you use peanut oil. But I wanted to make it more ‘healthy’, so I used corn oil instead.

Peanut Cookies 

Ingredients:
250g ground peanut powder
200g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
110g icing sugar
1/4 tsp salt
140g corn oil

Egg wash:
1 egg yolk lightly beaten with 1 tsp water

Method:

1. Mix ground peanut powder, plain flour, baking powder, icing sugar and salt in a big mixing bowl till well combined.
3. Pour in oil slowly and mix till a piable dough is formed. You might need a little more than the stated amount if the dough is too dry.
4. Shape into small bite-size pieces. I used a bottle cap and cling film to get a consistant shape.
5. Place about 2cm apart on lined baking sheet. Apply egg wash.
6. Bake at 170C for 18-22 minutes or till golden brown(depending on oven).

Notes:
1. Use icing sugar instead of castor sugar to get a finer textured cookie.
2. If you add too much oil, the cookie would be very crumbly.
3. You may get the ground peanut powder from baking shops(like Phoon Huat in Singapore.) However, if you’re keen on getting the best cookies, I’d recommend that you roast about 250grams of peanuts and grind them into powder. But yes, the easy way out is to buy pre-ground peanut powder. Works just as well.

*edit: Pour in the oil a bit at a time until you have reached the right consistancy. This is to ensure that you do not put in too much oil, or else, the baked product would be very crumbly!*

Enjoy!

(PS: Sorry for the boring collage. Will try and make nicer collages the next time around. I have a couple more stuff to post! So, stay tuned!)

(Picture credits: t0shi0)

Yes yes, I know, such a slacker huh?

But well… it was a fantastic break… I enjoyed myself lots, even though all I was doing was relaxing… Heh! But unfortunately, all good things must come to an end!

In fact, today’s the 1st day of school! But this sem, I have no classes on Mondays. How nice huh? No Monday blues! Weee!

Yesterday, I made this pretty lil’ darling. I got a fantastic cupcake book from my bestie(Thanks Kai dear!) during christmas and I was so fascinated with this cake! Its simple, but yet, it looked so adorable. 

Tada!

Yeap, its just a simple vanilla cupcake and you can put any kind of jam inside the cake! From strawberry jam, to mango jam or even durian pulp! Its really up to you!

After baking the cupcake, slice off the top of the cupcake with a knife, fill with about 1/2 – 1 teaspoon of jam, then top with freshly whipped cream(non-dairy kinds or dairy kinds will do fine) put back the top and finish the decorations by piping the body, feelers and eyes and putting a little sugar dragee to form the eye balls!~

Yeap! Its THAT EASY! hehe…

There are tons of simple cupcake recipes out there, so try any of your favourite and have fun decorating!

I realised that its been a long long time since I last baked cookies… and well, I’ve been craving for cookies… hehe…

And so, with the newly bought cornmeal(I’ve been waiting very very long for this cornmeal… because I’ve been wanting to bake the famous Kenny Rogers corn muffins…), I decided to try this recipe.

The original recipe required me to chill the dough, then roll it out and cut. But, I think the cookie dough was far too soft, and in our crazily hot weather, the dough soften really faster than expected. So in the end, I scooped out small heaps of the dough, rolled them into a ball between my palms, then I lightly pressed them down onto the cookie tray.

Also, the original recipe was one that required vanilla essence… I have a huge bottle of pure vanilla essence(500ml!) which I picked up in Tijuana, Mexico when I was on my student exchange trip in the States. BUT, haha, I didn’t use it this time. Some how, my taste bud wanted something citrus-y and I grated in orange rind into the cookie mixture instead. Boy was I glad with the results! 

The little grittiness from the cornmeal, the orange fragrance, the chewy and slightly sour tasting raisin was a fantastic blend. Mmm… and guess what? I baked 3 dozen pieces yesterday and today, less than a dozen is left! haha… I guess it is a hit with everyone at home.

I think I’m gonna bake this for CNY next year… it is a really fragrant and yummilicious cookie which I’m sure people would enjoy.

Give it a try too…

What you’ll need:

• 170 g butter, softened
• 135 g white sugar
• 1 egg
• 190 g all-purpose flour
• 60 g cornmeal
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Grated rind of 1 orange(about 1 teaspoon- 1 1/2 teaspoon) 
• 70 g raisins

What to do:

1. In a large bowl, blend butter and sugar until creamy. Add egg and beat well.
2. In another bowl, stir together flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt; gradually add to butter mixture. Add orange rind and blend thoroughly. Stir in the raisins.
3. Form dough into ball, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and chill until firm, about 1 hour.
4. Scoop out 1 tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball between your palms. Place 1 inch apart on lightly greased cookie sheet, then flatten slightly.
5. Bake in 350 degree F (175 degrees C) oven for 15-19 minutes or until edges are golden. Store in airtight container.

Notes:

1. You may reduce sugar to about 110g if you do not want it to be too sweet. The original was 150grams.
2. The time required for the baking is dependent on the thickness and size of your cookie. Mine was rather large and thick, so it took a bit longer. Adjust accordingly.

I’m back! I’m back! I’m back! Weeeeeeee!

Haha… Sorry for the over excitement… But I miss baking and cooking so much!!!

And yes, for my very 1st bake: Bread ‘baked’ in a rice cooker!

Someone in the forum that I frequent(KC), introduced us to this clip which shows how bread can be made in a rice cooker! And I told the fellow people that I’ll give this a try once my exams are over!

Some background on how this bread was created.

There is a popular anime series in Japan called “Yakitake!! Japan”. Yakitake means ‘freshly baked’ in Japanese and well, Japan has a double meaning: first being Japan as a country, and Pan is the Japanese translation of ‘bread’. The anime’s story is about a boy called Kazuma Azuma who posessed solar hands and is a prodigy at baking bread(because the yeast thrive very well in his warm hands, allowing his bread to rise faster).

Ja-Pan#2(yes, he names all his bread ‘Ja-Pan #X’ where X is the number) is one of the bread that he creates using a rice cooker.

I was rather intrigued when I first read about and watched the clip and since I had a modern rice cooker, I thought it would be a good experiment to take on!

This is a very simple recipe however it is very time consuming(took me 5 and 1/2 hours!), so I’d advice that you make this only if you’re very free(like me now! hahaha!). And you MUST have a modern rice cooker to bake this.

When I say modern, I mean this:

And NOT this:

Why the modern type? Because it has a timer capability that allows one to set the timer. Also, they come with a micro-computer that adjust a constant temperature while you cook your rice, porriage, slow-cook etc…  For the older types, all they have is one button that you press down when you want to cook your rice.

This bread had a mellow, a slight salty taste to it and was a lil’ chewy. I guess this must be due to the fact that Japanese like chewy and sticky food, like their mochi and rice…  I feel that the butter and milk both made this bread very fragrant and enhanced the taste of the bread.

So, for those of you who have a modern rice cooker, you can consider making this interesting bread… It’s quite easy and shouldn’t be that difficult to follow…

(haha… I’m very tempted to skip writing out the recipe, but I shall be nice… )

What you need:
350g Bread Flour
21g Butter
21g Sugar
35ml Milk
180ml Water
5g Dry Yeast
6.5g Salt

(As you can tell from the video, they said that an important step in making bread is in the measurements, so I would suggest using a digital scale to measure out the ingredients.)

What to do:(Nothing beats watching the video on how to do it. So, watch it!)
1. Mix some warm water with the yeast and put aside.
2. Put in the remaining ingredients, except the butter.
3. Mix and knead until all the ingredients combine together and you can shape it into a ball.
4. Take the ball of dough and put the butter into the centre of the dough. Knead the butter into the dough until it combines together and the dough becomes less oily and less sticky. Shape into a ball shape again.
5. Leave the dough in the rice cooker pot and cover with a cloth, let it rise for an hour in a warm area(primary fermentation).
6. After an hour, lift the dough and drop it from a height of 50cm to release the air trapped inside the dough. (DO NOT punch the dough, they were very adamant about it in the video!)
7. Put it back into the pot, cover and let it rise again for another hour(secondary fermentation).
8. Put pot with risen dough into the rice cooker, set timer for 1 hour.
9. After it finishes the 1st cycle, turn it over using a spatula. Start the 2nd cycle of 1 hour.
10. After the 2nd cycle, turn it over again. Start the last and final cycle(weee!)
11. When the 3rd cycle has completed, remove the bread and leave it on a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy!

Notes:
1. I poured out 180ml of warm water and used part of it to mix the yeast, because I read somewhere that someone had problems with a sticky dough, so I didn’t want to add too much water.
2. In the final cycle, I would suggest that you check on your rice cooker because for my case, the thermostat kept shortening the overall cooking time because the rice cooker was hot inside and didn’t need the time to heat up the food that was inside.
3. Be prepared to wait a long time while this bread is being baked. I guess its good in a way, just knead the dough, dump it aside, go do your other chores, come back after an hour, check on it, then go back and do your chores, then throw it into the rice cooker and just check on it every hour. For me, I was playing this game, Cake Mania(cos I like to bake mah!), while waiting it out… haha… very fun, and a good time waster…

Sorry for the delay in this posting!!!

Well, 2 excuses reasons…

1: I made 2 cheesecakes, first one on thursday, and I couldn’t cut it up because Mummy was bringing it for a gathering, and the second one on Sat, which I cut up on Sunday(to take pics and for Mummy to give away-she gave half to her friend)

2: I fell ill yesterday after lunch and have been having high fever. Am feeling much better now, so no worries. Just need more rest…

And yes, back to the cheesecake.

I was only supposed to bake one cake this week, but since there were left over ingredients, I decided to bake another(since the whole family love it!)…

I first tried this recipe a year back(before I started this blog) and I have been reminding myself that the next time I bake this, I have to use an 8-inch springform pan(I’m currently using a 9-inch) otherwise, my cake would be flat! Guess what? This time, I tried to look for an 8-inch but the baking shops ran out of them(due to all the festivities)! And so. Flat cheesecake again.

But thank goodness, the cake was well received by the ladies at my mum’s gathering and yes, it still tastes wonderful.

The tangy taste from the lemon complements the sweet blueberry jam. And though the cheese portion was ultra-rich, the thick biscuit crust helped to tone it down.

I adapted this recipe from Irene’s version…

Enjoy!

What you need!

Base
250g digestive biscuits
120g butter

Filling
375g cream cheese
110g castor sugar
2 medium eggs
60ml lemon juice(from 1 and 1/2 small lemons)
100ml dairy whipping cream
1 tbsp cornflour, sifted
Grated rind from 1 lemon

Topping
100g blueberry filling(Available from Phoon Huat!)

What to do!

1) Prepare a 8 inch loose bottom or springform round cake tin. Wrap loose base of tin with aluminium foil or parchment paper.

2) To prepare base, melt butter . Use a little of the melted butter to lightly grease bottom and sides of cake tin.

3) Place biscuits in food processor and process until finely crushed. Transfer to a bowl. Add melted butter and stir until crumbs are moistened by butter. Transfer crumbs to the prepared cake tin. Press crumbs until it is flat and compact.

4) Preheat oven at 180 degC. Place the tin with the crumbs into the oven and bake for 10~12  minutes.

5)Cream cheese and castor sugar until light and smooth. Add eggs one at a time, incorporate it well into cream cheese mixture after each addition. Do not overbeat the eggs.

6) Add juice and whipping cream. Beat well.

7) Finally, fold sifted cornflour and grated rind into batter.

8.) Pour cream cheese mixture over biscuit base. Tap sides of cake tin a little to break large, noticeable air bubbles on the surface of filling.

9) Bake cheesecake using top and bottom heat of oven at 170degC for 40 mins or until surface of cheesecake is just set/cooked. The whole baking should take about 35-40 minutes.

10) Leave to cool. Run a thin knife blade carefully around inside rim of tin to loosen the sides of cheesecake. Remove cheesecake from cake tin. Unwrap aluminium foil from base of cake tin. Transfer the whole cheesecake, with the aluminium foil, to a cake board. Wrap aluminium foil over the cake board. Refrigerate cheesecake overnight.

11) Decorate top of cheesecake with blueberry filling.

 PS: This is what a springform pan looks like:

I know that there are some really fervant and excited readers who can’t wait for my new post! haha…

The past 2 weeks have been crazy at school. Lab reports that need to be submitted, quizzes that need to be studied for… And the term-end exams that are coming soon!!! Sobs! Might stop for a while but not yet… :p

Actually, I made a black forest swiss roll last week! Yummy! But it cracked slightly while rolling and I refuse to post the picture of it. So ugly! haha… I’m a bit hesistant to try making it again, but the next time I do it, I’ll post the picture and recipe k?

This week, I’m gonna bake a blueberry cheesecake. This time, I promise to post the pic and recipe when I’m done with it!

And so…

For now, please enjoy the other entries k?

Thank you!

Love,

Rachel aka thelazychef

Crazily hot… and now, its sooo hazy! Argh!

Everyone is getting irritated by the heat and haze. Eye and throat irritations, breathing difficulties, asthma in kids… etc etc…

And so, what a better time to cook something cooling!

And so, thelazychef presents:

I posted this recipe in KC quite some time back, but now, I’ll share this here. Definately a good dessert for the old and young… And here’s a tip! Chill it cos it’s super refreshing to have a nice cold dessert in our ridiculous weather!!!

And and and…. the best thing about this recipe? Its ULTRA easy to make! Yay!

I love a good recipe that is easy and fuss-free. haha… ya, but my mummy would just say that I’m lazy! But hey! I’m thelazychef! hahaha…

This recipe has no strict rules to it. Just dump all ingredients into a big big pot(trust me on the BIG part, cos you can chill leftovers and everyone will gobble it up in a day or two…) and boil till it is fragrant and all the ingredients is soft!

What you’ll need:

1 pack fresh sea coconut(this is available in the wet markets, some vegetable sellers sell them, certain fruit sellers sell them too. You’ll have to ask around. Remember, this is the FRESH one, not canned ones.)

Rock sugar( add in accordingly to your taste preference!)

What to do:

Remove the light brown skin off the sea coconut, it should slide off easily for those soft ones, slice the sea coconut into about 5~8mm thick slices.

Once the water has come to a boil again, lower the flame intensity and let it continue to boil till the soup turns light brown in colour and taste flavourful.

Tada! Enjoy it hot or chill cooled dessert in fridge for 3~4 hours before serving!
Notes:

There is no hard and fast rule to the making of this dessert. So, its really up to you to estimate how much ingredients you need. If need be, add more longans and red dates for better taste!

Ask the vegetable seller to choose a packet of sea coconuts which are softer, cos soft sea coconuts taste better and are much easier to cook!

 

These potato wedges are a very healthy alternative to deep fried french fries and its really easy peasy! Healthy olive oil is used and you don’t have to worry about oil splattering all over the place! I first got this easy recipe on KC, from purplegirl. And I made this quite a number of times when I was in States during my exchange program. Its a fantastic side dish for my grilled chicken or any western style food you have…

And the guys whom I stay with, never fail to finish up all these wedges! Everytime I make it, I increase the quantity(as compared to the previous times) but they will definately finish up everything! haha…

This wedges are best eaten when fresh from oven as it is crispy on the outside and hot and fluffy in the inside. And it doesn’t taste that good once it’s cool. So it is very important to time your main meal appropriately when the potato is almost finish roasting. With this recipe, you can forget about buying all those frozen fries and deep frying it in all that oil. 
Whip up your own healthy version! (This is more than enough for 2 person’s side dish)What you’ll need:
1. About 500g Russet potatoes, peeled & cut lengthwise into 1/2 inch thick sticks
2. salt
3. Extra virgin olive oil

1) Cut the potato sticks, and put them into a pot of water(tap water will do) to get rid of extra starch in the potatoes.

2) After soaking for a while, rinse the potatoes & drain well. Return them to the pot with enough water. Add 1/2 tsp salt. Put on stove and bring them to a boil.  As soon as it boils, reduce heat & boil for 3 mins. Drain the potatoes well & spread them on a kitchen paper towel to dry. 3) Preheat your oven to 220 degrees celcius. Place the potatoes strips on a large baking sheet. Make sure you do not overcrowd. Sprinkle olive oil generously over them. Gently toss it to mix well with the oil.

Okay… This is supposed to be Steamed Pumpkin Kueh, but I decided to give it an English name… (“Ang-moh-fy” it…!!)

For those who don’t know, this is a typical Chinese savoury snack. It is often eaten during breakfast or as a tea-time snack… And it goes very well with spicy chilli sauce. There are several variants to it, where the pumpkin can be substituted with carrots or yam.

My parents have been into pumpkins recently(wonder if it’s because Halloween is approaching?) and my mother bought a lovely Japanese pumpkin and asked if I could create a dish out of it…

So I searched around for a recipe that used pumpkin as its main ingredient, and I found this lovely recipe from Kitchencapers and it is by Gina, the kind and lovely owner of the forum. I adapted her recipe slightly though, since my family wanted chinese sausages in the cake.

Verdict?

Grandma(whose makes delicious steamed pumpkin, carrot or yam cakes) gave me the thumbs up! So… it was a good achievement!

Mummy, Daddy and brother loves it too that within 3 days, we finished 1kg of this! (I made 2kg, gave 1/4kg to neighbour, another 1/4kg to grandma and the remaining to the bf…)

This recipe’s process is rather tedious(for someone so lazy like me!) but the results are worth it! So, since Halloween is coming, give this pumpkin treat a try!

Ingredients:
800 g pumpkin(remove seeds, hard skin then slice into thin pieces) 
(My pumpkin was 1.2kg with skin, and after removing all the skin and seeds, I had about 750g of pumpkin flesh…)

Batter mix:
500 g rice flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
6 cups hot water

Fillings: 
80 g dried shrimps(soften with water, minced)
2 chinese sausages(diced)
70g of preserved waxed chinese ham(optional)
15 chinese preserved mushrooms(soften, sliced thinly)
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp pepper

(Credits: Gina from KC)

If you’ve been a faithful reader of my blog… you would have remembered my steamed moist chocolate cake… I often rave about this one(to friends and family)because it is deliciously moist and ulterly yummy…

Well, I have been into all things small and cute recently… must be my work with my new interest(just started my jewellery blog, selling my little darlings!)

And so, I decided to recreate my all-time fav chocolate cake in a mini-version! And instead of adding chocolate sauce on top, I added mini chocolate chips into the cakes…

Verdict?

A great pop-in-your-mouth size and still amazingly delicious. Mmmm… 

Try it!

Just follow the same recipe as the huge standard version, but this time, add chocolate chips into the batter, and steam them for 8 to 10 minutes. Simple as that!

I have made kaya a couple of times…

Simply because my family lovesss kaya. And it is SO simple to make!

I use my trusty breadmaker when it comes to making kaya(I use the ‘jam’ function which only takes 1 hour!), but if you don’t have a breadmaker, you can cook it over the stove(though you may have to stand there and stir constantly as you don’t want it to burn!) or you may use a slowcooker(but you have to stir often too and this is definately a longer process- taking almost 5-7 hours)

This time round, I made kaya for my mum’s friend. She mentioned to my mum that she loves kaya, but doesn’t like the kinds that you can buy from Ya Kun or Killiney Kopitiam because they were too sweet for her liking. And my mum told her that I make kaya for the family and often use lesser sugar for a healthier kaya(well, actually, kaya is pretty unhealthy with all the eggs and coconut milk, but every thing in moderation is fine…)

And so, my mum went out and bought lots of eggs, pandan leaves and coconut milk and commissioned me to make a big batch of kaya for her friend… haha…

It’s actually very very simple.

Ingredients you need:

1 cup Coconut milk
1 cup Eggs(about 3-4 medium to large size eggs)
1 cup sugar(already reduced from 2 cups)
10-15 pieces of pandan leaves, washed and wiped dry.

(This recipe makes roughly about 1 and 1/2 cups of kaya)

1. Wash, dry and tie up bundles of about 5 pandan leaves in each bundle(like in the pic above)
2. Measure out eggs, then beat lightly till yolk and white mixed.
3. Pour all(as in sugar, coconut milk and eggs) into breadmaker tin(like in picture above) and throw in bundles of pandan leaves.
4. Set on ‘Jam’ function.
5. Check on kaya after some time and make sure sides are mixed too.
6. When the breadmaker completes the function, take it out and cool for a while, remove all the pandan leaves, then put into a blender and blend lightly till it is smooth.

Notes:

*edited* The kaya will look like lumpy curdy chunks in a watery substance once the breadmaker has completed its cycle. This is NORMAL. You are supposed to blend it to acheive the smooth texture, ie, what we buy off the shelves. You may find that there might be quite a bit of water(this is just sugar water), so drain out some of this water and blend the remainder. You may add in more sugar water if you find your kaya too thick while blending. I hope this will iron out any misunderstandings about the product!

1. You may blend it till it is completely smooth too. I like my kaya with a bit of bits in it, so that you can taste the kaya bits rather than a smooth paste.
2. If you prefer a little sweeter, add another 1/4 to 1/2 cup more sugar.
3. If you cook this over the stove, you may not need to blend it since you are constantly stirring the kaya.
4. You may put in more pandan leaves if you want it to be greener… Alternatively, you may pound or blend a portion of the pandan leaves and strain it for the pandan juice and put it into the mixture before cooking.
5. If you’re cooking over the stove, the pot you’re using should NOT be warm/hot when you place the ingredients in to mix. If the pot is hot, the eggs would cook immediately, resulting in scrambled eggs!

*Ask questions if you need help! Just leave me a comment and I’ll try to help!

I’m back in Singapore. Actually I was back since early August but I was busy preparing for my new school term(in fact, I touch down in Singapore on the first day of school!) and getting in tune to school life again… I’m in Year 3 now, so I told myself, I must be more serious in my studies from now on!

US was wonderful! Had so much fun! I visited so many different cities- San Diego, Tijuana in Mexico, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Palm Springs… Visited several national parks and amusement parks like Disneyland and Universal Studios… I’ll post a couple of pics once I have collated all my pics and have time to sort them out!

Food in the States was good… though portions were ALWAYS huge! Being a small eater, I always had to share my meal or couldn’t finish my own portions… My friends and I had lots of pizzas, mexican food, margaritas, churros, pancakes, burgers, and other typical American food when we were there. 

I cooked quite a bit too- made typical chinese food like porriage, chicken macaroni, fried rice, pork chops, grilled chicken, curries, rice with dishes… because I was the ‘mother hen’ among my friends and knew a bit more about cooking than the rest, but didn’t bake much, just made the occasional quiche and blueberry muffins…

But I must say that this treat was a eye-opener for me. Learnt alot while i was there.

I’ll post some pics soon… and yes… try more recipes and post recipes of food that I made when I was in the states…

I'm going away tmr, to the States for a 6 weeks Summer Exchange Program at UCLA. Doubt I'll have any chance to bake while I'm there… But I'll be cooking for my group of friends though, so I'll post up any recipes that I've tried and are nice. But yes, unfortunately, I'll miss my oven lots when I'm away!

I've been busy packing and getting ready for my trip, sorry I've not been updating as regularly! I may not be able to blog as much when I'm the States too, but I'll update as often as I can!

So, till I blog again, eat lots of local Singapore food for me!!!

(PS: You can check out my 'adventures in US' in my personal blog… I'll be posting many pics, so hop over there when you're free!)

Ooo…

Baby cakes…

The sound of it just sounds so cute doesn't it?

Okok, they are just cupcakes with a cuter name… Hehehehe…

I got this recipe from Gina from KC…Her version was made of cranberries but I had a pack of dried blueberries and decided to have a blueberry one instead…

This recipe uses a tub of natural yogurt, making it moist and soft.

Once again, I cut the sugar down cos my mum doesn't like cakes to be too sweet… 

Overall, I like the texture… it was fluffy and had a nice crust when it was eaten warm. (I baked it yesterday night… I just had one for breakfast this morn… the crust is no longer there but the smell of the muffin is sweeter and more fragrant!)

The sweetness complemented the slight sourness of the blueberries. So overall, it was a good recipe. Would definately try the cranberry version soon…

Makes 24 baby cakes

What to do! 
1. In a small bowl, add yoghurt and blueberries to mix together.
2. Let it stand for 30 mins(room temperature).
3. In a cake mixer bowl, add butter and sugar to beat till creamy.
4. Add eggs, 1 at a time to mix.
5. Add vanilla essence to mix.
6. Turn off cake mixer.
7. Add blueberry yoghurt mixture and mix with a spoon till evenly mixed.
8. Fold in sifted flour/baking powder till well blended.
9. Put paper cups into muffin tray.
10. Spoon mix into each cup.
11. Baked in preheated oven 180C for 20 mins till golden brown.
12. Serve warm.

Enjoy!