Sharing Session on Cupcake Making

Thanks Brenda for showing us the making of cupcake.

Brenda invited us to her place yesterday to show us "the making of Chocolate Cupcakes". She shared with us many tips (use a pouring cup to fill the muffin cups with batter) and terms about baking of cupcakes. She even showed us the steps of mixing the ingredients and explained to us in detail. I have taken some pictures of her cupcakes to show you.
Look at the colours of the buttercream. So bright and beautiful!

The flower was made of fondant (sugar paste or gum paste).
Brenda measures the ingredients...

The buttercream above looks like a flower. So beautiful!

I'm going to try her recipe myself.

If you want to try it, here's the recipe...

Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (plain flour)

1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoons of baking powder

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 1/3 cups white sugar (fine sugar or castor sugar)

2 eggs (room temperature)

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (can use vanilla essence)

1 cup milk (UHT milk or fresh milk)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 deg C. Line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs one at the time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well.

4. Fill the muffin cups slightly more than half full.

5. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a stick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

6. Frost with your favourite frosting when cool.

Chicken Curry

This Thai Green Curry is "sedap" (delicious)!
Sue Jean prefers this curry, it's not very spicy but yummy!

We had these curry for lunch. *burp*!

You can find both curries at Sun Plaza's Foodcourt, Level 3.

Making of You Tiao ~ Hong Kong Style

You Tiao

Adapted from Chinese Snacks, Wei-Chuan's Cookbook

makes about 10 seven inch pieces.

Ingredients:

260 g bread flour (about 2 cups)

175 ml water (about 2/3 cup)

1 tsp baking powder

2/3 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp alum

1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Mix water with baking powder, baking soda, alum, and salt until dissolved. Pour this solution in the flour and mix until combined. The mixture will be sticky so make sure to wet your hands periodically to mix.

2. Let this sit for about 30 minutes and gently use your fingers to knead until dough is more elastic.

3. Spray a plastic ziploc bag with oil and place the dough in the bag. Place a heavy object on top to flatten the dough. Let sit for 4 hours.

4. Heat enough oil for deep frying to about 350-375 F. 5. Use scissors to cut a side of the zip loc bag to open. Cut dough in half, and slice each half to ten equal pieces, about 3/4 inch wide. Stack two pieces together and use the back of a knife to press the middle to make an indentation.

White Chocolate Chips Chocolate Cookies

These crunchy chocolate cookies studded with white chocolate chips is the reverse of many chocolate chips cookies.
This recipe makes 4 dozen. So I freeze half of the dough in the plastic container and scoop out spoonfuls of dough to bake whenever we have a hankering for freshly baked cookies.

Ingredients:
2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I use Hersley Brand)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
250g salted butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup castor sugar
2 eggs
100g white chocolate chips (you can add more if you like)

Method:
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at the time, mixing well after each addition.
Sift in the dry ingredients and mix until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips. Refrigerate the dough until firm, about 1-2 hours.
Preheat the oven at 165 deg C. Place a baking paper on the baking sheet or grease the tray with butter. Use a teaspoon to scoop the dough and shape into a round ball. Place the round dough 2 inches apart from each other on the baking sheet and bake for about 12-15 minutes, or until the edges turn crispy.
Let the cookies sit on the baking sheets for a few minutes before lifting them off and cool completely on a wire rack. Store these cookies (cooled) in an airtight container, can keep for 4 to 5 days.

Baked Vegeroni with Bacon and Cheese

Yesterday I baked this dish again. This time I use bacon instead of fresh chicken meat. Also the "Can Soup" has been replaced with Mushroom Soup without chicken in it. The only seasoning I used for this dish is ground black pepper. No salt added, as the bacon is quite salty.

As for the recipe, you can refer here.

Thai Fried Tang Hoon

This fried tang-hoon (glass noodle) is delicious! I didn't fry it though. I bought this from a Thai Viet Stall at "Kopitiam" at level 3, Sun Plaza. It's only S$3.60 after a 10 % discount (must use Kopitiam Card for payment). Usual Price is $4.00 which is about the same price as most "zi-char" stalls at coffeeshops.

Next time, I shall fry my version of fried "tanghoon" using the ingredients like Cabbage, large onions, chinese celery, bean sprouts, carrots, eggs, fresh prawns, fresh squids, and "tang-hoon of course.

Cute baby

How to solve a Rubik's Cube

Part 1 -

Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW_BBp3FPMQ

How to solve it easily - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lss4rR8N8as

Baked Macaroni with Cheese

Yummy cheese...

This is our lunch for today. Sue Jean told me she can't wait to eat it.

With some ingredients...
Ready to eat...
Hot and fresh from the oven..

Baked Macaroni and Cheese
Macaroni is children’s favourite dish. The colourful variety makes for a more attractive presentation and green macaroni is often spinach-enriched, making it a useful source of iron.

Serves: 4 people

Ingredients:
150g Vegeroni Spirals Macaroni
1 can (300g) Cream of chicken mushroom soup
300ml Water
125g grated Mozzarella Cheese
150 - 200g Fresh Chicken Breast
1 large White Onion (diced)
1 Tomato (diced)
2 tsp Butter
a pinch of black pepper and salt to taste


Method:
Bring water to the boil in a pot, adding 1/2 teaspoon butter and a tablespoon of salt. Boil the pasta for about 10 minutes until it is tender. Drain and leave aside to cool.

Heat butter in frying pan and fry diced onions until fragrant. Add diced chicken and stir fry for a minute. Add diced tomatoes and season with a dash of pepper and salt. Turn off the heat and leave aside to cool.

Heat the can soup with 1 can (300ml) of water. Place macaroni in oven proof dish and pour hot soup over to the depth of the dish.

Mix onion, tomato and chicken mixture into the cooked macaroni and mix well. Sprinkle cheese over the macaroni mixture with a generous sprinkle of black pepper.

Bake in the oven at 190 deg C for about 10 minutes or until cheese melts and turns a golden brown. Serve warm.

Soft and Moist Banana Cake

Freshly Baked Soft and Moist Banana Cake.
Ready to eat...
The texture from the cuppies...
Small cuppies...
The texture from the loaf...

I have come out with this recipe, I did an experiment, by adding a little milk and extra butter, the cake will become a little moist and soft. The rest of the ingredients are quite similar to most of the banana cake recipes. The amount of the ingredients can be changed a little to suit your taste.

Soft and Moist Banana Cake
This recipe yield 6 small cuppies and a loaf.

Ingredients:
250g salted butter
1 1/2 cups castor sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
4 tbsp milk
1 1/2 cups mashed banana
2 cups plain flour (sift together with 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda and 1 tsp baking powder)
Some Walnuts to sprinkle on top

Method:
Cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Add in eggs, vanilla essence and milk and mix well.
Add mashed banana into the mixture and mix well. Finally add in sifted flour and mix well.
Pour into a loaf pan (I use Pyrex baking loaf pan).
Bake in preheated oven at 160 deg C for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. If the top layer turns brown after 15 minutes, cover it with a piece of aluminium foil.
Cool cakes in the pan then remove. Use a sharp knife to slice and serve.

Sue Jean's Photo Frame

Hello Kitty Photo Frame ~ coloured by Sue Jean

Sue Jean showed me this photo frame when I was picking her up from her school at 1 pm yesterday.

She was very happy and told me lots of things about her school. Her form teacher, Mrs Lee gave everybody a photo frame to colour in class. She used coloured pens (probably was given by her teacher) to "paint" it. So colourful and nice! I told her. She told me to print a photo of her with her brother, Ray Han and was eager to show her friends the photo on it today.

The photo can't be printed due to some problems with the printer driver, so need to re-install the driver. The photo wasn't ready yet, Sue Jean told me it's ok mummy, can do it later. So sweet of her!