Lavender Angel Cake

SIL bought me a pack of dried lavender flowers on her honeymoon and also passed me a stack of recipes from the "farm". However, I had other plans. *snigger*....

I've been wanting to try baking angelcake for the longest time. I have ample supply of egg whites to experiment with. And I shortlisted a recipe that seemed simple enough.

The cake turned out well... and I'm sharing the recipe here. :)

What you need

• 180gm egg white
• 75gm castor sugar
• 80gm cake flour
• 1/2 - 1 tsp dried lavender (depends on how strong your flowers are)

What to do

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
• Sift cake flour and set aside.
• Whip egg white till frothy, slowly add in castor sugar. Whip till stiff peaks.
• Fold in sifted flour and lavender flowers into whipped egg whites till well combined.
• Pour batter into mold. I used mini chiffon mold from Daiso. This amt of batter filled 3 molds nicely.
• Bake at 180 degrees (it took 20mins for the cake to be baked in the mini molds). For bigger molds, it shd take ard 35mins. Test with skewer, it shd come out clean.

• When baked, cool cake by placing the mold upside down immediately and wait till totally cooled before unmolding.

GONG HEI FATT CHOY!

Finally a day before CNY's eve.... I was trying my best to finish the pineapple tarts yesterday... and I got a sudden attack of migraine when I smelled some paint. I think it's probably a neighbour doing some paintwork ahead of CNY. The smell of the paint triggered the attack and it got so bad that I was tearing while wrapping the tarts. LOL... I did most using my usual recipe and one batch using butter in the recipe... both are melt-in-the-mouth texture, so I'm really pleased how they turned out. More importantly, I've completed the pineapple tarts, all 250pcs of them... here's how they look. :)

These are dried shrimp cookies... did it during one of my recipe-testing sessions. i quite like these but nephew said it tasted too fishy. :P

I wish everyone an OX-picious new year!

May health, wealth and happiness be with you everyday! GONG HEI FATT CHOY!

CNY bakes again

I find that I'm slacking very badly this year for cny. Till now, I've not started on my pineapple tarts! *yikes*..... I've tried out a few recipes... some are not ideal, and I don't even bother taking any photos of the bakes.
These cookies I did are crunchy and delicious... I used a choc chip cookies recipe as a base and added white choc chips and macadamia nuts and made some modifications too. Received some very good reviews for these cookies.. and suggestions that I should sell them for the next CNY! *now, THAT's an early start!*

CNY bakes

Well, this is not baked by deep fried... sinful but delicious....
After slaving over the deep fryer for a whole 2 hours, I got myself 2 huge containers of kuih rose which I could not stop myself from munching... tho' my hands still smelt so oily after soaping and washing a couple of times.

Many of the kuih rose are "deformed" but the taste is so good!

Here's how mine looks... a hit with everyone in the family.. probably will nid to make another batch of these b4 cny!

Black forest cake

Baked this cake for my dear friend who's b'day falls on Monday. I've been trying out some cookies recipes for cny and also planned this cake at the same time... AND... there's also cny shopping to do! Busy busy busy....Anyway, I hope the Birthday gal love the cake!

Happy Birthday FION!

Wish you wealth, health, beauty and happiness!

Oreo Buttercake

Alot of bakers tried the oreo yogurt cake and raved about it but I personally prefer to buttercake version of it. I do not have much luck baking with yogurt. The bakes usually turned out dense and heavy... not like what everyone described their cakes to be. So I'm better off doing buttercakes... nevermind the amt of butter or sugar or wadeva. :P

I bought a pack of very cute polka dots PINK muffin cups when I went to replenish my baking supplies lately. And this is just so perfect with the oreo cakes. However, I'm too greedy when filling in the batter... everything started to overflow once it started to bake in the oven... oh well...

Here's the recipe....

What you need

• 200gm butter
• 160gm sugar (original recipe asked for 200gm)
• 200gm self-raising flour
• 4eggs
• 1tbsp hot water
• 1tbsp instant coffee
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 15pcs of oreos (broken into small pieces) (original recipe asked for 10pcs only)

What to do

• Preheat oven to 175C. Sift flour and set aside.
• Dissolve instant coffee in hot water. Mix in vanilla extract. Set aside.
• Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time.
• Pour in liquid coffee and vanilla extract. Mix well.
• Pour in sifted flour in 3 equal parts... mixer on low speed. Mix till everything is well combined.
• Scoop batter to fill 1/3 of muffin cup, drop in some oreos... then top with some more batter, till cup is 3/4 full. (Do not be greedy, like me, the batter will overflow!). To finish off, place half an oreo (or 1/4 of an oreo... depends on how much of an oreo fan u are) onto the top of the batter.
• Send muffin cups to the oven, bake for abt 30mins or till skewer comes out clean.

Eggwhite Marble Cake

I used mini chiffon tin bought from Daiso. The batter can fill up to 4 of those tins! Since it's new tins, I probably need to use it more often so that my cake will have a nice golden crust which is absent in all these cakes now. The cake is abit on the sweet side, even tho' I've further reduced the amt of sugar from the recipe. Guess next time I bake these, the amt of sugar can be reduced another 10gms. I divided the batter into 3 batches, added chocolate and strawberry pastes into 2 of the batches... pretty colours rite?

Sorrie, I'll not share the recipe of this cake... same reason as given by Elyn. I love taking pics of the cake... I hope it looks as soft and moist in the pictures as the cake tasted. Enjoy the photos!

Reflections & Moving Forward....

First of all, a very Happy New Year everyone!

I spent my last moments of 2008 and first moments of 2009 stuck in traffic. LOL... Bro offered to drive us to catch the fireworks at Marina Barrage and I was all for it as it'll be a good chance to let the kids experience not sleeping past midnight and watching fireworks. However, the kids fell asleep before we even left the house and so we're left with 4 adults. Made our way to Marina Barrage and there was a terrible jam. When we're within 1km or so, we were turned back by the traffic police as the car park was totally bursting. So changed of plans last minute and I suggested that we drive down Shenton Way and find a parking lot... guess it was a really bad decision... but then again... all roads around the city were jammed! So there we were, trapped in a jam and listening to the countdown on the radio. We did see fireworks tho'... glimpses of it in between the tall bldgs! Made a turn at the nearest junction to go home after that as the show was over by then. I hope this is no indication of how my 2009 will be!

2008 had been a roller-coaster year for me. There were plenty of ups and downs. Some bad decisions I made years before came back to haunt me before the year ended. I would not say I regretted making those decisions, but alot of what-ifs did flash thru my mind. I guess I just needed to brace up and move on. Needless to say, I've made some decisions in 2008 which I hope will turn out fine in the years to come. I did manage to attend a couple of baking classes which I really enjoyed and benefited from. On the home front, I had less issues with family and friends compared to 2007 which I am really grateful for! Career-wise, I've moved on to another company which I am enjoying myself better.

Moving on 2009.... Cherilynn is starting her primary school education. I believe she'll have no problems adapting to it. As for DS, I wish for him to be more sensible. It's gonna be a tough year ahead judging from my horoscope and zodiac forecast, not forgetting the bad economy.But whatever life throws at me, I've got no choice but shoulder on.

For now, I count my blessings. At least compared to others, I'm still blessed... with loved ones, health and a job. I did not make any resolutions for this year. Just hoping that it'll be a smooth-sailing year.... and finally get to feel happy again.