Birthday 2012

My birthday cake for the year! A Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio Mango, Milk Chocolate, Ginger cake. Check out the furry little gingerbread bears! :)

Pineapple & ginger cupcakes

Managed to put this one together without a recipe and it still turned out quite good!

Ingredients: -
115g butter
115g caster sugar
115g self raising flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup crushed canned pineapple
1/2 teaspoon mixed spices/ cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated ginger

Icing
3/4 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon pineapple juice
1/2  teaspoon softened butter

Method: -
Heat oven to 180C.

Mix butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add in eggs and mix well.

Sift flour into mixture. Mix in crushed pineapple, grated ginger and mixed spices.

Bake until nicely browned.

For the icing, mix all the ingredients together in a heatproof bowl sitting in another bowl of hot water to help the ingredients blend together. The icing hardened up quite quickly so you have to be quick! I wanted to sprinkle chai sugar over the top but the icing already set.

More Caramel Corn

Rennyu Ichigo (Condensed milk & strawberry) - had some of these 2 years ago


Kogashi Caramel - Limited edition 40th anniversary nice shiny pack!

Carnival Cookies

Saw this post on Cook Republic that day and I knew I had to try it! No butter and sugar! Guilt free snacking! :) I think it makes a great breakfast food as well.

It probably would look better with chopped chocolate but I was a bit lazy and used chocolate chips.




Ingredients
3 large over ripe mashed bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup macadamia oil
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup hazelnut meal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cups crushed peanuts
1 cup choc chips
1 1/2 cups popped corn

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Line two baking sheets with baking paper.

In a large bowl, combine the bananas, vanilla and macadamia oil. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk together the oats, hazelnut meal, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and mixed spice. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix to combine. Fold in the chocolate, peanuts and popped corn.

The dough might appear looser than most cookies, but that is alright. Heap 1 tablespoon worth of cookie dough on to your palm and shape small balls. Place about 1 inch apart on baking sheets. Bake for approximately 15-18 minutes until golden, swapping the baking sheet back to front once during the baking process. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Will stay just fine in the fridge for a week in an air-tight container.

Fresh cherry & almond cake

Have been holding on to this recipe for a while and since it is cherry season now, I thought I'd give it a go. It has turned out yummy! I have baked it twice already .

Ingredients: -
1 cup almond meal
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
125g unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cup fresh cherries, pitted and chopped

Method: -
Preheat oven to 180C. Combine almond meal and flour sifted with baking powder and salt.

Beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one. Fold in almond meal mixture. Add vanilla and cherries, mixing well.

These can be made into individual cupcakes or a whole cake which is what I have done. Bake about 20 minutes (cupcakes) or 35 minutes (whole cake) or until cooked when tested.

Autumn Caramel Corn flavours

This is rather late for the season but it's because I try not to eat them immediately!
Here are Marron (chestnut) Aji and Honey Maple Caramel Corn.

Double chocolate loaf cake

Someone said recently that I bake lots of cookies but not cakes. So I decided to show him and since he is always after chocolate cake, I found this recipe. I also added a heap of craisins that I found in my pantry :)

Ingredients: -
175g softened butter , plus extra for greasing
175g golden caster sugar
3 eggs
140g self-raising flour
85g ground almonds
½ tsp baking powder
100ml milk
4 tbsp cocoa powder
50g plain chocolate chips or chunks

Method: -
Heat oven to 160C. Grease and line a 2lb/900g loaf tin with a long strip of baking parchment. I used my square tin because I wasn't sure if my loaf tin was large enough.

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, flour, almonds, baking powder, milk and cocoa until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips, then scrape into the tin. Bake for 45-50 mins until golden, risen and a skewer poked in the centre comes out clean.

Cool in the tin, then lift out onto a wire rack over some kitchen paper.

Pineapple Upside Down cake

Had friends coming over last Saturday and thought of a pineapple upside down cake for dessert while flipping through a magazine. I always look around for a simple recipe because if it is not simple, I probably wouldn't try it. Found this one from Nigella Lawson. It turned out great although I used a square tin instead of the round one.

Ingredients: -
Butter for greasing
2 x 15ml tablespoons sugar
6 slices pineapple from a 425g can, plus 3 x 15ml tablespoons of the juice
Glace cherries for decorating
100g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
100g soft butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs

Method: -
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Butter a tarte Tatin tin (24cm wide at the top and 20cm diameter at the bottom) or use a 23cm cake tin (neither loose-bottomed nor springform).

Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of sugar on top of the buttered base, and then arrange the pineapple slices.

Fill each pineapple ring with a glace cherry, and then dot one in each of the spaces in between.

Put the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, butter, caster sugar and eggs into a food processor and run the motor until the batter is smooth. (I mixed by hand so it is the usual order of butter and sugar until light and fluffy, eggs, and then flour, baking powder & bicarbonate of soda sifted in.) Then pour in the 3 tablespoons of pineapple juice to thin it a little.

Pour this mixture carefully over the cherry-studded pineapple rings; it will only just cover it, so spread it out gently.

Bake for 30 minutes, then ease a spatula around the edge of the tin, place a plate on top and, with one deft move, turn it upside-down.

Attempting macarons

Thought I'd give this a try and I think it has turned out better than I expected, given my fear of not being able to get egg whites to the required consistency without a cake mixer. Also had no food colouring so this is not coloured but it is rosewater flavoured :)

There are only a couple that actually look like how it should but at least there are some...

Vanilla Ice Aji Caramel Corn

Even though I just came back from Japan, I saw this in the Asian grocery here and still had to get it. Don't know where you actually get Caramel Corn in Japan itself (apart from the giant one that I found in a funky bookstore!). Don't really see it in supermarkets, drugstores, or even snack shops!

Giant caramel corn!

I found the most amazing Caramel Corn in the last trip to Japan - Giant ones. These are huge! Each piece is approximately 5 times larger than the normal ones. Very cute but you really cannot eat that many at one go.

The flavour is a matcha dessert of some sort but I cannot tell what it is.

Fancy sweets!

Went by the Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio today. So many yummy sounding sweets in one place! We bought a Chocolate, Caramel, Hazelnut & Mango spread, a Spicy Pineapple Jam, Persian Delight Dark Chocolate, a Coconut|Passionfruit|Ginger|Mint cup and an entire Chocolate|Mandarin|Salted Caramel cake! A bit extravagant but still, a treat for ourselves once in a while :)

Little apple pies

Thought I'd try out this recipe after watching someone bake an apple pie on TV recently. I can't really be bothered to make an entire large pie, so these mini ones using puff pastry are probably easy enough.

Ingredients: -
2 sheets frozen puff pastry
12 ounces cut up red baking apples (approx. 2 medium sized apples)
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons flour
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 beaten egg

Method: -
Thaw puff pastry according to directions on package. Heat oven to 175C.

Peel, core and chop apples up coarsely. Combine apples with sugar, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Flour surface lightly and cut pastry sheet into nine 3x3 squares.

Place approximately 1/4 cup apple mixture on each square and brush edge with beaten egg. Place second pastry square on the top of the already filled pastry to form a pocket. Press down border with fingers to seal and then press with fork to decorate the edges. Make a 1-inch L shape incision into each pie and fold back the pastry flap.

Place on ungreased cookie sheet and give each one an egg wash. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until golden.

Result: Not bad at all! The filling tastes quite good although I wish I knew how to fit more in them before baking.

Blueberry intense chocolate cookies

Tried out last week's cookie recipe with a bar of Lindt Blueberry Intense. Wow, I didn't realise that the berry flavours in that bar are so powerful! The cookies now have a lovely fruity taste :) Quite different but still great for my cookie fix this week. I might try using all the different flavoured bars over time!

Itsy Bitsy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cannot remember how I came across this recipe but I am glad I did. They are yummy!

Ingredients: -
5 ounces (approx 140g) good-quality semi-sweet chocolate bar
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (but you can substitute unbleached all-purpose flour)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup walnuts, very, very finely chopped (by hand)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
scant 1 cup natural cane sugar (or brown sugar)
scant 1 tablespoon organic unsulphured molasses (blackstrap)
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup large-grain sugar (for ex: turbinado)

Method: -
Preheat your oven to 350F (175C) degrees. Line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper.

Finely chop the chocolate bar into 1/8-inch pieces, more like shavings really. Try to avoid big lumps and chunks, which make flattening out the cookie dough later more difficult.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, oats, walnuts, and shaved chocolate. Set aside.

Using a mixer (or by hand) beat the butter until fluffy. Beat in the sugar and mix until it is also light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Beat in the molasses, then the egg, mixing until both are well incorporated, scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Beat in the vanilla. Add the flour mix and stir by hand until the ingredients barely come together into a uniform dough.

Scoop out the dough in exact, level teaspoons, then tear those pieces of dough in two before rolling each 1/2 teaspoon of dough into a ball shape. Place two inches apart on the baking sheets. Gently flatten each dough ball into a thin, round patty with two fingers and then sprinkle the top of each cookie with a pinch of large-grain sugar. Bake for 7 minutes or until cookies are golden and fragrant. Remove from oven, and cool on a wire rack.

Makes about 12 dozen tiny, bite-sized cookies.

Strawberry and white chocolate muffins with pepitas

Seem to have a baking bug going these days. Spotted this recipe online and since I have strawberries in the fridge, I decided to try it for breakfast.

Ingredients: -
2 cups self-raising flour
½ cup castor sugar
1 cup milk
⅓ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
½ cup chopped strawberries
50g white chocolate buttons
3 tbsp pepitas

Method: -
Pre-heat oven to 200C. Combine flour and sugar in a large bowl. Combine milk, oil and eggs in a separate bowl, whisk lightly then stir in strawberries and chocolate buttons. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture, pour in the milk mixture and mix lightly. Spoon batter into six greased muffin tins (½-cup capacity) until three-quarters full. Sprinkle pepitas over muffins and bake for 25-35 minutes or until golden and cooked. Turn onto a wire rack to cool.

I had leftover easter chocolate so I used that instead. The muffins are really moist and not greasy which is really good. The toasted seeds on the top also become crunchy. My muffin tins were smaller and I got 16 muffins.

Earl grey tea cake

Spotted this recipe with my favourite tea in it so of course I had to try it out.

Ingredients: -
Melted butter, for greasing
2 Earl Grey tea bags
60ml (1/4 cup) boiling water
80ml (1/3 cup) milk
100g butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
160g (2/3 cup) caster sugar
190g (1 1/4 cups) self-raising flour

Marmalade icing
230g (1 1/2 cups) pure icing sugar
1 1/2 tbs breakfast marmalade
1 1/2 tbs fresh orange juice, approximately

Method: -
Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush 12 medium (80ml/1/3 cup) muffin pans with the melted butter to lightly grease.

Empty the tea leaves from the tea bags into a cup and add the boiling water. Set aside for 3 minutes. Stir in the milk and then transfer to a large bowl.

Mix butter and sugar until pale and creamy, then add eggs, the tea mixture and flour. Beat until the mixture is pale and creamy (the mixture may look slightly curdled).

Spoon the mixture evenly into the greased pans. Bake in preheated oven for 20-22 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted in the cakes comes out clean. Remove from the oven and set aside for 2-3 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool.

Meanwhile, to make the marmalade icing, combine the icing sugar and marmalade in a small bowl. Add enough juice to make a very thick paste.

Use a teaspoon dipped in hot water to spread the icing over the tops of the cooled cakes. Set aside for 15-20 minutes to allow the icing to set.

Keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Variation: Use a round 20cm cake pan, the base and side lined with non-stick baking paper. Bake in an oven preheated to 180C for 40-45 mins or until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Set aside for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool. Ice as above.

I made mine in a loaf pan and I don't usually bother with icing and it tastes great! ;)

Popcorn

Thought I would try making popcorn today. I didn't have any nuts at home to add into the mixture so it is just plain caramel. Looks great :)


Plain popcorn just popped


Caramel popcorn

Yay! I finally tried out my ninjabread men cookie cutters today! :)

Tried adding some fresh grated ginger this time but it is still not really spicy. Very yummy though! :)

Purple carrots

Made soup with the purple carrots I got from the farmers' market on Saturday. The purple is really intense! Just like beetroot but still tastes like carrot :)