Up Side Down Persimmon Cake

I hope it is not too late to wish you a very happy New 2013!

I had been quite busy with my work during 2012, though working from home mostly, it really eaten up times, on top of that, I had been travelling for projects often too.

I have been craving for desserts or something sweet lately, with a few almost overiping persimmons in the fridge, I alter the recipe of up side down pineapple cake to this :)

I gotta the original recipe from here.

Ingredients

Fruit layer:
45g salted butter
120g brown sugar
2 persimmons, thickly sliced
some dried cranberries

Cake layer:
120g unsalted butter
100g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
200g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
130ml milk

1. for fruit layer: melt salted butter in cake pan, add brown sugar and cook til sugar is metled and begins to bubble.  Remove from heat and let cool.  Once cool, arrange sliced persimmon and add cranberries to add more taste.  Set aside
2. Whisk butter and sugar until fluffy, add vanilla, then eggs, one at a time, until smooth
3. Sift flour, baking powder and salt
4. Stir in 1/3 portion of dry ingredients, then 1/2 portion of milk into batter, fold well, then continue with same portion of dry ingredient and milk until the flour is just incorporated into the batter
5. Pour batter over fruit, bake for 45 minutes at 180C in preheated oven
6. Remove from oven, let cool about 20 minutes, then place a plate on top, flip the cake out from the tin, becareful of the spilling hot caramel :) 
7. Best serve while warm

You may find the caramel a bit too dark on the cake, no, I didn't burn it, as I used the Gula Merah 冰花糖 instead of brown sugar :p

Also, since I reduced the sugar in the cake (compare with original recipe), the caramel helped enhance the flavor of the cake very much, love the buttery flavor too!

Ham & Corn Steamed Cake

I bought this recipe book about steamed cake / bread from BookFest @ Malaysia on Mon.  Most of the recipes are savory cakes, I seldom eat savory cake, thus would love to give it a try.

Ingredients
Make 6

8 tbsps cake flour
4 tbsps fine cornmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
2 tbsps brown sugar
4 tbsps milk
1 tbsp corn oil
2 pinch salt

3 tbsps sweet corn
3 pieces ham, cubed

1. Mixed cake flour, cornmeal and baking powder in a bowl
2. Beat egg and sugar in another bowl with a whisk
3. Pour in milk into egg mixture, mix well, then fold in (1)
4. Once mixture is not lumpy, mix in corn oil and salt, fold til just combine
5. Add in sweet corn and cubed ham into batter, lightly stir mixture
6. Spoon batter into muffin cups
7. Boil water in steamer, once boiled, place (6) into steamer, steam for 12 - 15 minutes on medium flame

The verdict - not bad for a change from sweet cake, yum!

It is so easy & fast to have all these cakes ready, not more than 30 min, I'll definitely try out other recipes in the book

Strawberry Cake

I bought 3kg of strawberries back from Cameron Highland last weekend, we ate some of it, gave some to neighbor & friend, froze some in the freezer but there are still many more in the fridge.  Thus, I better think of something before they turn rotten in another day or 2.

I googled and found this recipe from Martha Stewart's website.

Ingredients

90g unsalted butter, softened
180g flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
180g sugar + 2 tbsp
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
400g strawberries, hulled and halved

You may find the method in the link above.

The cake is fluffy, moist but not wet,

very sweet but with a hint of sourness from the strawberries

Having big pieces with a mug of coffee really made me satisfying

Horlicks & Cocoa Marble Chiffon Cake

Baked this chiffon cake for our Cameron Highland trip with family and relatives over the weekend.

Ingredients

120ml milk
50g butter
80g cake flour
30g Horlicks powder
5 egg yolks

5 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
60g sugar

2 tsp cocoa powder

The different tones at the outer body

The inner colors

Wanna a piece any one?

Ear Piercing

We had been talking of having little girl's ears pierce since she was 6 years old, she had been pushing the day from year to year, and finally we did it!

We Chinese believe to have ears pierce on the day of Guan Yin Dan 观音旦, I don't know why but I told little girl that Guan Yin Niang Niang 观音娘娘 would bless her and it may be painless during the piercing process :p

Mum told me yesterday that it is Guan Yin Dan today, I asked little girl, will she have it done this time, she just briefly answered me "Yes." and went back to her play with the cousins.

This morning, I reconfirmed with her again, her answer was still yes, thus before she regretted, hubby & I brought her to Poh Kong Jewelry at PJ State to get it done.

She drama when the staff brought out the 'gun', started crying and drama-ing...  After some further talk to her, she finally sat still, holding my hands firmly.  2 female staffs pierced her ears in 1 go, it was done so fast that I didn't even realize.  Little girl cried but without any screams, thank goodness!  It was over so fast :)

We brought her to Chatime nearby to enjoy her fav. drink Passion fruitt QQ to soothe & calm her down.

She looks so grown up with the ear rings, and it will be time for me to spend more $$ on her ear rings now :)

Double Chocolate & Orange Chiffon

Me:  Hey, baby, you wanna a cake?  I feel like baking
LG:  Ok
Me:  What cake do you want?
LG:  Chocolate chiffon!
Me:  Again, we just had it not long ago  * showed her the last chocolate chip chiffon posting *
LG:  I still want chocolate chiffon!

Ok, she won, but I don't wanna repeat the same old chocolate chiffon, then I remembered hubby told me orange flavor goes well with chocolate, why don't I give it a try?

Ingredients

120ml juice from 1 orange + milk
1 tsp orange zest
50g butter
30g white sugar

80g flour
20g cocoa powder
5 egg yolks

5 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
60g brown sugar

80g chocolate chips

I used tang mien method for this chiffon, thus it was so spongy & moist.  Really, orange flavor really blend well with chocolate, even little girl who dislike orange flavor (from artificial flavoring) adored this chiffon cake :)

Curry Potato Bun

Little girl able to take spicy food now, when I told her I was going to bake her some curry potato buns, she was very delighted.

For the bread dough, I used this recipe, as for the filling, I just simply stir-fried the following ingredients together.

Curry filling ingredients


2 medium size potatoes, cubed & steamed
1 onion, chopped
100g minced pork
1 tbsp curry powder
pinch of salt

The buns were very soft, but I made a mistake of didn't put in more salt, these buns would be marvelous if they were bit more salty.

Look at my wrapping skill, totally failed, out of 12 buns, I had 5 with open mouth :(

Cranberry Scones

The hotel that I worked with over my last project in KK, did not serve any good desserts, it was very disappointing!  When I was home for a week break from the project, I craved for something sweet, so this was what I gotta for myself.

I adapted the recipe from Joy of Baking, but altered it to what I had left in pantry.

Ingredients


120g flour
10g wheat bran
30g instant oat
60g sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
80g cold butter
100g dried cranberries
160ml milk

I used all the flour I had on hand but it was not enough as per the recipe, I dug the wheat bran I left in the fridge, hm... still not enough, what else can I put in... instant oat, this should be good to go in.  Now, I gotta my own recipe :)

Love the fluffiness of the scones, love it with butter and jam, yam....  Having 2 of the scones with a mug of coffee, made me full, satisfied and happy for the whole morning.

Chocolate Chip Chiffon Cake

Apologize for being idle for so long....  I turned lazy on taking photos and updating blog :p

This is one cake that I owed little girl for a long time, baked it yesterday before all my baking equipments turn rusty and fill by spider webs.

I used tang mian method for this chiffon, it is very moist, soft and fluffy.

Ingredients

120ml milk
2 tbsp choco powder
50g butter
100g flour
5 egg yolks

5 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
60g sugar

80g chocolate chips

Bake at 170C for 10 min, 150C for 35 min

I really enjoy the texture and yumminess from the chocolate flavor of this cake.

Tuna Sandwiches Again Bento (406)

Tuna sandwiches and fish balls

 Pineapple cubes and strawberries

Assorted candies and mini mandarin orange