Last day of the month

Time really flies. I just realised that today is the last day of November.

Frankly speaking, to me, this year passes by really quickly. Perhaps my days were so jammed pack that I have no time to get bored.

For the last two years, I didn't have a chance to bake my favourite Hampton Fruit Cake.

I can't recall what I'd done for the year before last (that is how bad my memory is right now) but last year we were away so we didn't spent Christmas in town.

This year, I promised V that I will bake her one. Just good timing for me to "nuture" my fruitcake with loving tender care before I present that to her.

I turned some to cupcakes with the remaining batter.



Another recipe I wanted to try was Hazelnut & Chocolate Cupcakes. A new book I acquired during the book fair. The reason I chose this was because my kids, especially my son, loves Nutella.



This turned out to be a nice and fluffy cake. The method is also very fuss free. I should have divided the batter equally into 12 as stated in the book. This batter actually rises quite high and looks out of shape as I made only 9 pieces.

Verdict: It goes really well with the frosting.



Will definitely explore more recipes from this book.

Hampton Fruit Cake
What you need:

Soak overnight in 50ml of rum:

200g raisins
200g currants
150g mixed peel
50g glaced cherries

Melt:

250g butter
250g sugar
Mixed in 4 eggs, one at a time when butter is slightly cool.

Sift together

350g sifted flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
1/4 tsp each of ground cardamon, cinnamon, coriander, clove, nutmeg and ginger

50g nuts
grated skin of one lemon
grated skin of one orange

Method

Add flour to butter mixture, a little at a time. Mix well.

Add fruit mixture to the batter. Add in your favourite nuts and grated skin of lemon and orange.

Bake for 1.5 hours at 150°C.

Note: Generously brush cognac or brandy over the cake for the next three days.

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Hazelnut and Chocolate Cupcake

Source: The Hummingbird Bakery

What you need:

100g plain flour
20g cocoa powder
140g castor sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
40g butter
120ml milk
1 egg
120g nutella

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 degree. Greased muffin tray.

Add flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a mixer. Beat with a paddle attachment till sandy crumbs.

Add in milk and beat to incorporate.

Add in egg and further beat till smooth.

Divide batter equally into 12 muffin cups.

Bake for 20 mins or till cooked.

Cool on rack and frost.

Frosting:

100g Butter
50g icing sugar
10ml milk or more depending on consistency preferred
30g nutella

A not so new toy

Some months ago, I bought a Happy Call Pan from a spree. Didn't get an opportunity to use it till this week when I cooked some saba with terayaki sauce for dinner.

I was amazed how easy and fuss free this pan brought me. I think I cooked my dinner under 15 mins.

So now I am game to try more recipes.

Actually I am really slacking alot this week. Just not motivated to do anything, not even packing. Reason also being that my son is home all day long and it is really tough to manage him.

Despite setting down the ground rules, he still takes every opportunity to break it. It is really tough to play policeman all the time! To be honest, I am totally exhausted by this.

For example, I was down with a bad cold yesterday so I was on medication and was dozing off and on. Guess what, besides that one hour of study, he spent the whole day jumping from psp, you tube, computer and TV even though the ground rule was only for one and half hour allowed.

Despite me borrowing story books for him, those become white elephant on the table. His eyes are showing strain and he is always looking tired. I wish I can be blind and be oblivious.

With his gangster like attitude, it makes my life so unbearable as well. So these days, I hide myself in my room to seek peace and solace when I know I can no longer take the shit.

Back to my Happy Call pan experience. Another recipe I wanted to try is Muah Chee. Actually this reminded me of an experience that we had. Our very first guided tour. The guide was really incompetent but the trip was saved because we had very good company.

Once we were home, we actually organised a gathering and it was how the friend taught me how to make a mean Muah Chee. His version is really fragrant as it was cooked over shallot oil instead of steaming.



Unfortunately I don't know why we never bother to keep in touch after the gathering. I guess our busy work schedule caught up with us.

The muah chee recipe taught to me was nothing close to what I am going to do now. I think this version is much healthier and less arm power. So if you are craving for muah chee and wanted a quick fix, these chewy and yet don’t stick to your teeth texture will be your answer.



Have a go.

What you need:

200g glutinous rice flour
300ml water
1 tbsp shallot oil + 1 tsp
1 tsp sugar
pinch of salt
A generous amount of fried shallot

Peanut and sugar mixture

150g chopped roasted peanuts
50g fine sugar

Method (Happy Call Pan)

Mix everything in a bowl. Stir till it is lump free. Sieve.

Heat up pan.

Add another tsp of shallot oil.

Pour in the batter and let it cook for 5 mins.

Open the lid and give it a good thorough stir.

Close lid and cook for another 5 mins, repeat one more time by adding a generous amount of fried shallot. Blend well.

Remove from pan.

Cut dough with oiled scissor and coat with peanut and sugar mixture.

Hearing from me less often?

JW is home for a visit and we wanted to have a small gathering. I feel that having it at home is more condusive than at a cafe or restuarant, so I offered my place.

Afterall, this will be my last party for the year because by tomorrow onwards, I will be busy with packing.

Sieving through my loots required time. Decision has to be made whether to keep or throw. Being a sentimental freak, I seriously wonder whether this can be attained to keep the move a minimal as the new place will be fully furnished with new items.

My goal is to keep my new home cluster free. Geesh... wondering whether this will be a mission impossible.

Well let's not talk about that for now.

For tonight's party, I decided to go spicy. Been a long time since I last had briyani rice. So off I went to get a pack of long grain rice.

Best way to eat briyani is with curries isn’t it?

Beef rendang is always a hot favourite.



I also tried out a new recipe, Madras Chicken. Didn't quite like this as I prefer more spice!



Another new recipe, Tahu Balls and I am surprised that it turned out really good. Best to eat them freshly made.



No more time to have made a vegetable curry so a stir fried Mixed Vegetable.



I prepared an interesting dessert, Sea Coral Jelly but will blog about this another day.

DP also contributed a Lana Wannabe cake but unfortunately, we were so busy chatting that we forgotten to take a picture.

Ended the dinner with choice of durian ice cream which KF, her daughter and GL gave a thumbs up. DP and JW didn't like Durian so they had passionfruit and Manago Ice Cream instead. Glad that they enjoyed these home made ice cream.

The evening was really enjoyable as we have not seen DP since she left Singapore at the age of 14.

I am already looking forward to having another one at my new place.

So in the meantime, you might be hearing from me less often for this two months.

Ciao

Source: Zarina's Easy Cooking

Tahu Balls

What you need:

1 taukwa, mashed
1 small carrot - peel and diced fine
2 stalks of coriander leaves, chopped fine
1 stalk of spring onion, chopped fine
1 red chilli, chopped fine
1/4 tsp pepper
salt to taste
1 egg (half to use in mixture and half to dip)
Plain flour
oil for deep frying

Method

Combine ingredients and mixed well.

Shaped into balls.

Dip tahu balls into egg and then coat with flour.

Deep fry till golden brown.

Friendship

Lately, I haven’t been able to feel motivated to blog. I just realised that I neglected my blog for over a week.

Though I did bake for Cupcake Fantasies but other than that, I was not inspired, not motivated and not driven.

After two days of spending some beautiful time with friends, my spirit finally picked up. Thanks to them for cheering me on. How can I live without you girls?

Talking about friendship, during my college days, we were known as the three musketeers. After school, I lost touch with one and that is VA. Been looking for her for years and thanks to Face book, I finally found her last year.

Of course I was delighted to reconnect back with her. Surprisingly, it seems like we went through a time machine. Nothing changed, we still clicked on well and our wave length never changed after all these years. She is still sincere and true.

When VA announced that she was getting married, I had mixed feeling. On one hand, I felt really happy for her but on the other, I am sad. I went through so much to locate her and when I finally found her, our reunion was short lived.

In November, her hubby to be, TW came to Singapore to “fetch” her back to the States. For the first time, I met this man who was able to put butterflies into my dear friend's tummy, making her feel loved. He is just like VA, down to earth, humble and sincere. A perfect match.

They just got married on 11 November 2011.

Here I wish them a blissful marriage and happiness always.

Now let me present to you Ebleskivers. You see, I got interested in this one when I watch AFC one day and just couldn’t get it off my head. Google and found that they actually sell this pan in Amazon. I immediately got TW to hand carried one back for me. So sweet isn't he?



This recipe is really awesome. Soft and fluffy. I did spend quite a fair bit of time experimenting the batter to get it in a ball shape.

Didn't have bananas as shown in AFC so I added chocolate instead.

For this one, it was the last bites of chocolate I had left, thus it didn't ooze melted chocolate but next round, I will made sure every one has a big chunk of it.

Will definitely make these again soon.



Enough said, dig in.

Source: Brassfield bites

What you need:

2 cup of buttermilk
258g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
57g castor sugar
3 eggs

Method

Separate eggs.

Whisk egg white till stiff.

Mix yolks with buttermilk.

Add in dry ingredients to the milk mixture.

Fold in white.

Pour batter in ebleskiver pan and add in chocolate chunk, cooked till golden brown on one side and flip over to brown the other side.

Serve hot with a dash of icing sugar.

The weather

The weather of late is really awesome besides the rain though and the thoughts of our laundry and I don’t think I will ever owned a dryer. Other than that, I really love it! You see I am more afraid of heat (which often gives me migraine) than the cold.

With a chilled out Sat as son is away for his soccer training and there isn't any more Sunday School (yes it is on a Sat), we spent a carefree and relaxing Sat morning.

After sending son off to school, I decided to swing by the wet market and then impromptu, I got some grated coconut for I wanted to make oneh oneh as I brought some purple sweet potatoes before the weekend.



I love ondeh ondeh but I dislike eating the desiccated coconut but surprisingly, this one is alright for me. It didn’t get stuck in my throat!

I just love how it turned out. The purple ondeh ondeh matches so nicely with the white grated coconut! And I love the texture as well!



Join me.

Source: Do What I Like

What you need:

150g steamed sweet potato
150g glutinous rice flour
6 tbsp water or more
1 tsp corn oil
chopped pieces of gula melaka
freshly grated coconut

Method:

Steam the sweet potato until soft.

In a bowl, mash the sweet potato, add in the glutinous rice flour, water and oil.

Knead till a smooth dough is formed. You can add more water if the dough is dry.

Chop gula melaka into bite size pieces.

Divide dough into 20g each and wrap in the gula melaka.

Put the wrapped balls into a big pot of boiling water.

Fish them out when the ball floats.

Toss them on to a plate filled with grated coconut and coat all around the balls.

A delayed post

After my late night outing on Sunday, I was totally whacked the next few days. I guess it had to do with my age. I can no longer keep up with late nights anymore it seems.

Then on Monday, my good friend V and her hubby invited us out for brunch and subsequently we ended shopping. Its sure been a long time I last went to those malls.

Though I did prepared a Bake Tapioca Kueh for Aspiring Baker but I didn't have anymore energy to sit down and write a post out of it in the evenings.



My daughter was asking about her Annual trick or treat for Halloween but I was just too tired to bring her there after our outing. On top of it, my hubby was also down. He was suffering from upset tummy. So we took this as an excuse to stay home instead.

After all, she didn't have enough sleep on Sunday and I am definitely not prepared for her to fall sick now.

Using the leftover tapioca, I turned this into Tapioca Balls. Actually, these are rather addictive!



Last but not least, I tried out a new recipe few weeks ago and really like it very much but I didn't blog about it.

I made this again when my friend and her son came over for lunch. They really like it very much and so I am sharing this, Black Pepper Chicken with you.



Hope you like these.