Kuih Bakar

I had made this a long time ago but it seems i havent posted up the recipe yet!

This tasted so nice, not too sweet, loved the texture. I remember when i made it, i forgot to stir the flour though and by the time i realised i had already sprinkled sesame seeds on top and put it in the oven (doh'?) so i had to take it out, add the flour, mix it, then re-sprinkle sesame seeds.. LOL what a clutz.

Recipe down below after all the photo's :O)

Kuih Bakar Recipe
(Adapted from My Kitchen Snippets)

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups of sugar
2 cups of flour
1 cup of pandan juice (6 pandan leaves + 1 cup of water - blended and sieved)
2 1/4 cups of coconut milk
4 large eggs
2 tbsp of melted butter
1 tsp of pandan paste
1 tbsp of sesame seeds (optional)

Method

Pre-heat oven to 325 degree F and greased a 8" x 8" square baking pan.

Mix all the above ingredients except sesame seeds until well combined.

Pour mixture into baking pan and sprinkle with some sesame seeds and bake until golden brown or skewer comes out clean when tested. It should take an hour.

Cool it down before cutting.

First time - Hummingbird Cake

I've always heard of how moist Hummingbird cakes can be, and simple to make as well (and no butter, oil is used instead) so i had to try & make one myself, one Friday evening James my new baking companion & I started really late around 10pm or so and took about two hours including the cooling down time, and it was fun and the cake was certainly moist & superb tasting i will come back to this cake in the future again im sure :O)

Ingredients

250g self-raising flour

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground coriander

270g brown sugar

440g can crushed pineapple, drained

50g desiccated coconut

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

2 eggs, lightly beaten

250ml (1 cup) sunflower oil

Cream cheese icing

100g cream cheese

50g unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

225g (1 1/2 cups) icing sugar mixture

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts, to garnish (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 170°C.

Grease and line the base of a 23cm square cake pan. Sift flour and spices into a large bowl. Add sugar, pineapple, coconut, banana, walnuts, eggs and oil. Stir to combine.

Spread into lined pan and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Place on a rack and set aside to cool.

To make icing, place cheese, butter, vanilla and icing sugar in an electric mixer and beat until smooth. Spread on top of cooled cake. Garnish with saultana's.

Thanks to James for helping make the cake & take photo's as well :D

Blueberry Olive Oil Cake

Grocery shopping on a Sunday night i found punnets of blueberries at $5 a pop - usually they are $10 so i grabbed a punnet, and found this recipe :O)

Brought it into footy the next night for everyone, i hope the team liked it hehe. The cake is different, with the olive oil its denser yet tastes lighter then a normal butter based cake, and i find it stayed moist after one or two days as well.

Ingredients

Moro Extra Light Olive Oil Cooking Spray

1 cup Moro Extra Light Olive Oil

3 eggs

3/4 cup caster sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups self-raising flour, sifted

3/4 cup milk

1 cup frozen blueberries

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Spray a 6cm deep, 19cm square cake pan with oil. Line base and sides with 2 layers of baking paper.

Place oil, eggs, sugar and extract in a bowl. Whisk to combine.

Add half the flour. Stir to combine. Add half the milk. Stir to combine. Repeat with remaining flour and milk.

Pour mixture into prepared pan. Sprinkle with blueberries.

Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted into centre of cake comes out clean (cover cake with foil during cooking if over browning).

Stand cake in pan for 10 minutes. Line a wire rack with baking paper. Turn cake top-side up onto a wire rack to cool.

Rainbow Cake

I've always wanted to make a rainbow-layered cake, but got discouraged from the many baking tins needed (if not, then the re-using of one cake pan which would take forever). BUt when my bestie Ann asked me on facebook if i wanted to make this, i couldnt say no :)

Cake
2 sticks (226 g) butter, room temp
2 1/3 c (466 g) sugar
5 egg whites, room temp
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 c (375 g) flour
4 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 1/2 c (355 g) milk, warmed for 30 sec in microwave to bring to room temp
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple GEL food coloring. Liquid will not be vibrant enough!

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Oil and line how ever many 9” cake pans you have (I have three and I just reused them).

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Cream the sugar and butter, then add the egg whites (I cracked them all into one bowl) and add them a little at a time. Add the vanilla and mix until fully incorporated. Then, alternating between wet and dry, add the milk and flour mixture in two parts.

Divide the batter amongst 6 bowls (I did it by weight. Weigh your mixing bowl before you begin adding ingredients and then subtract the weight of the bowl from the final measurement after the batter is completed. Divide that number by six and add that weight of batter to each bowl), and then whisk a fair amount of the appropriate food color into each bowl. Pour into the pans and bake for 15 minutes each.

When you remove them from the oven, let them rest on the cooling rack, in the pan, for ten minutes. Then flip, cover, and stash them in the fridge to cool quickly.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

To fill and crumb coat:
9 egg whites
1 ¾ c (350 g) sugar
4 sticks (532 g) of butter, room temp
2 tsp lemon extract

To frost:
5 egg whites
1 c (200 g) sugar
2 sticks (226 g) butter, room temp


Cook the egg whites and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the sugar is completely dissolved (test by rubbing some between your fingers. If it's completely smooth, it's done). Pour into another bowl (a stand mixer is preferable) and whip on high speed until room temp. Then, on a medium-slow speed, add the butter, waiting until each piece is completely incorporated before adding the next. After all the butter has been added, turn the mixer back to high speed and whip until it has come together, about five minutes.

If the buttercream seems soupy after all of the butter is added and does not come together after whipping, refrigerate for 5 to 7 minutes and continue whipping until it becomes fluffy and spreadable.

Super moist banana & almond cake

I was looking for a recipe to use up my ripened banana's, and ground almonds, and came across this. It looked simple enough, and i had the correct pan, so one fine Sunday morning i attempted to bake it. I didnt have any almonds so didnt top the cake with this, but i can imagine what a great crunch it would add.

The result: one very nutty and banana tasting cake :P

Looking back though, i should of maybe dusted some icing sugar on top to make it abit more pretty, and served it with a dollop of cream or something as it was slightly dry on its own (much like a plain cake, needing some icing/frosting of some sort?)

here's the recipe :O)

Ingredients

230g almond meal

2 eggs

50g brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

250g overripe bananas, peeled (approx 3 medium-sized fruit)

Juice 1/2 lemon

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup sliced almonds

Icing sugar,

to serve Natural yoghurt or creme fraiche, to serve 1.

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C.

Grease a 22cm fluted tart tin with removable base.

Take a large square of baking paper and moisten (give the whole thing a quick dip in some water, then carefully wring it out), then use it to line the tart tin (base and sides).

Beat eggs and sugar for 10 mins or until pale and fluffy, then stir through the ground almonds and baking powder.

Use a fork to mash the bananas, then stir in the lemon juice and vanilla.

Pour this into the almond mixture then stir to just combine.

Pour into tin and sprinkle over sliced almonds to cover the surface.

Bake 45 mins to an hour or until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and leave in tin on a wire rack till completely cooled.

Just before serving, dust lightly with icing sugar and serve with creme fraiche (if you want to be naughty) or natural yoghurt (if you want to be good)

BON APETIT!

Date Cake

I'm a big fan of sticky date puddings. I remember one night me & Anita were out in the city, we were feeling peckish (but didnt want to eat a meal) so we were at Darling Harbour and went into Nick's Seafood. We ordered one sticky date pudding, and one bowl of fries. It was about 8PM, and the waiter looked at us with a question mark on his face and asked "is that all?"

I don't see what was so wierd about ordering chips and a dessert ?! Anyway here is a photo of the dessert from Nick's, i still remember how good it tasted, hoping to go back soon .. and maybe just order fries and dessert again :P

I had found this recipe a few mths ago and emailed a copy to myself.. but i cant seem to find where i got it from :(

The cake is incredibly moist, and surprisingly light as well. The middle was a tiny bit undercooked but i still really enjoyed eating this cake. Next time i would probably make some butterscotch sauce to drizzle on top, now that would be heaven :)

You will need a 10-in (25 cm) Springform pan and some parchment paper. (If you use a pan with a smaller diameter, the cake may remain raw from the middle and cooked from the sides, so please do use a 10 in pan.)

Ingredients:

*250 g plump dates with seed. (If using stoned dates, you’ll have to adjust/decrease the amount)

*250 ml boiling water

*1 tsp baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)

*100 g butter, unsalted, brought to room temperature

*180 g sugar

*2 eggs

*150 g flour

*2 tsp baking powder

Preparation:

*Preheat your oven to 175C / 350F.

*Place parchment paper on top of the springform pan base and trace a circle. Line pan with parchment circle and butter and flour the sides.

Step 1: Prepare the date mixture:

*Deseed your dates by gently tearing them open from top to bottom.

*Chop dates fine.

*Bring 250 ml of water to a boil (I boil it in my kettle and then measure out 250 ml to be exact).

*Pour into saucepan, when water starts to boil, add baking soda, (it will froth).

*Add chopped dates and stir the mixture for 2-3 minutes.

*The date mixture should be on the thick side, not watery.

*Take off the stove and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes.

Step 2: Prepare the batter:

*Whip butter with sugar till light and fluffy.

*Add eggs slowly; they may curdle at first but keep whipping, the mixture will come together and become smooth.

*Slowly fold in flour and baking powder and keep whipping/mixing.

*Add in date mixture, with a spoon/spatula and gently stir.

*Batter will seem slightly thin, but since we’re using a pan with a wide base, don’t worry, the cake will cook through. Remember, this is a moist, pudding-like cake.

*Pour into Springform.

*Bake for 35 minutes, test to see if the toothpick comes out clean after 30 mins; I like this cake moist and goeey, please don’t overbake it.

Allow cake to rest half an hour before taking out of Springform pan, or serve by the spoonfuls immediately, like a soft pudding, with double, triple or clotted cream on top.

Enjoy!

Lamington Bites

I'm not sure what prompted me to make these cute lamington bites... It could possibly be the list of ever growing "to bake" recipes i have starred in my gmail :P

I'm sure most of you do this as well? See something online that you want to make ----> copy paste into an email ----> mail it to yourself ----> 'starr/bookmark' it for a later date. (or copy paste into word document, then save in a special folder called "bake when you have time!" or something along those lines. (i do this too actually hehe), or have a special bookmarked folder on your computer with a bunch of saved links (yes, i do this as well haha..)

From looking at my email right now i can tell you the last 10 things i've saved..

1. golden syrup scones link here

2. chocolate and peanut butter fondant link here

3. okinomiyaki from this website which i copied and paste so i'm not sure of the link

4. valentines day cupcakes (which i never got around to making) link here

5. caramelised banana crepes with roasted macadamias and caramel sauce link here

6. thumb print cookies link here

7. choc chip cookies link here

8. rainbow cake link here

9. spanakopita link here

10. red velvet cupcakes link here

80% sweet, 20% savoury.

But lamington bites weren't starred, bookmarked or saved anywhere. I think i saw them in a cooking magazine, a lamington squares recipe (must've been in food ideas because i have a bunch of them in my room). But i thought to myself why not make them into smaller bite sized pieces, less guiltier sized pieces that you can just pop into your mouth as a quick & naughty snack.

Well on this occasion, my sister was having some friends over so i thought i'd take this chance to treat them as my test tasting guinea pigs :P

I never knew how simple it was to make lamingtons at home. All it involves is baking cupcakes, make the icing, dip into icing, roll into coconut - and that's it.

The icing is absorbed into the outer layer of the cupcake, and when you roll it into the coconut - the coconut attaches itself to all the wet icing bits and you're left with a dry lamington piece :)

And the verdict? Almost all of them finished! I did try one small one myself (i only allow myself to try a small piece of my baking .. if i were to have anymore i'd be so fat, and all my hard work at the gym goneskies!)

Cupcake was moist, the chocolate icing had set with the coconut and it was like having a piece of chocolate cake, but with icing on all sides (if only that were true everytime you had a slice of cake hehe).

I REALLY recommend trying to make these at home, it was heaps of fun dipping and rolling and seeing the final product, and because its a cupcake mix instead of a sponge you get a bit more dense cake (well i prefer it this way over an airy spongey cake)

As you can see i've made small ones and large ones, personally the smaller ones are my favourite. And here is the recipe, have fun!

Cupcake batter:

makes about 12 muffin sized ( or 48 small cupcake sized)

1.1/3 cup plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

100g softened butter

3/4 cup casor sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tbs vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk

Pre heat oven to 170"c

Sift together flour & baking powder.

In a separate bowl, cream butter for 1-2 minutes. Add the sugar a third at a time, beating for two minutes after each addition. After the last addition, beat until mixture is light & fluffy and the sugar has almost dissolved.

Add eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition or until mixture is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat until combined.

Add a third of the flour to the creamed mixture, and beat on low speed until combined. Add half the milk and beat until combined. Repeat this process. Add the remaining third of the flour and beat until thoroughly combined (do not over beat cos this will toughen the mixture)

Spoon into cupcake patties and bake for 18-20 minutes. Remove cupcakes from tray and let cool completely before proceeding with the icing/coconut part below

Chocolate icing

300g (2 cups) icing sugar mixture

35g (1/3 cup) cocoa powder

60ml (1/4 cup) milk

60ml (1/4 cup) boiling water

170g (2 cups) desiccated coconut

To make the chocolate icing, sift the icing sugar and cocoa powder into a medium bowl.

Add the milk and water and stir until smooth.

Use 2 forks to dip each cupcake into the warm icing to evenly coat. Allow any excess icing to drip off.

Use your fingers to roll the cake in the coconut to evenly coat, then place on a wire rack.

Repeat with the remaining cupcakes, icing and coconut.

Set aside for 1 hour or until icing sets.

Pretty in pink heart cakes

On my one week holiday break from work (yes, i only got a week & one day off!) i was baking something almost everyday :) This was the first.. i found it in the better homes & garden December issue, but instead of buying a sponge slab cake - i cut out hearts from cupcakes (a lot of wastage, but i never seem to get any 'cakes' right when i do try to bake them)

Cupcake batter:

makes about 12

1.1/3 cup plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

100g softened butter

3/4 cup casor sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tbs vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk

Pre heat oven to 170"c

Sift together flour & baking powder.

In a separate bowl, cream butter for 1-2 minutes. Add the sugar a third at a time, beating for two minutes after each addition. After the last addition, beat until mixture is light & fluffy and the sugar has almost dissolved.

Add eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition or until mixture is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat until combined.

Add a third of the flour to the creamed mixture, and beat on low speed until combined. Add half the milk and beat until combined. Repeat this process. Add the remaining third of the flour and beat until thoroughly combined (do not over beat cos this will toughen the mixture)

Spoon into cupcake patties and bake for 18-20 minutes. Remove cupcakes from tray and let cool completely before cutting out the hearts.

So as you can see i wasted a lot of cupcake (but not to fear, my mom likes eating plain cupcakes so she snacked on bits for a few days after hehe. An easier option is to make a slab of sponge cake, or to buy one (as the recipe in the mag calls for anyway)

to assemble the cakes:

Raspberry or strawberry jam whatever you have (about 2/3 cup)

1.5 cups icing sugar

1 tbs butter (at room temp)

2/3 tbs boiling water

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 drop red food coloring

edible sugar roses (or any other decoration that you want to use)

So, before you cut out your hearts , slice your cupcake in half horizontally first - then cut out the hearts from the top half and the bottom half separately (its neater this way rather then trying to do both top and bottom in one go)

spread one side with jam and sandwich with another piece.

Sift icing sugar into a small bowl and add butter. Stir in enough hot water to form a firm paste. Stir through vanilla and red food coloring until a runny icing forms. Stir till smooth.

Spoon icing over cakes allowing it to drizzle over sides. Top with decoration and set aside until the icing has set.

I actually ran out of butter, so my icing came out slightly translucent! But these cakes were so fun to make (it took me about 2.5 hrs all up but cos i was also watching a movie at the same time tee hee).

I had bought these heart shaped cookie cutters a few months back (impulse spend) so i'm glad i finally got to use them.

Another thing i did a lot over my break was play the new super mario on my DS - I'm totally addicted to it, that i sometimes snap at anyone who tries to ask me anything while i'm playing :)

Brunetti's

194-204 Faraday Street

Carlton VIC 3053 Australia

After a long stroll up and down the iconic Yarra River in Melbourne's City Centre, we ventured to the Crown casino to find a shop that served iced chai tea drinks. After almost getting lost (due to some area's being closed off) we came to find that the shop was no longer there :(

So a short drive later we found ourselves in Carlton, and Ann brought me to this busy shop cafe that took up almost a hand full of the street's numbers. With heaps of people lining up to buy the larger sized cakes and sweets, we pushed our way to the left of the long counter, where you can find small bite sized morsels, (and so you can taste more!)

All these 'mignon & dolci' (mignon meaning cute or dainty) were only $1.80 each, so we bought a few.. Well, Ann let me choose !! :) With another two rooms full of seats, we luckily scored one at the front behind the windows.

Coffee Mignon
profiterole filled with coffee custard & topped with a coffee fondent

Mini Lemon Tart
a shortbread base filled with lemon custard

Pistacchio mignon
profiterole filled with pistacchio custard and topped with a pistacchio fondent

Vanilla canolli & chocolate canolli
a crunchy pastry filled with vanilla/choclate custard

(the chocolate cannoli was missing icing sugar!)

three chocolates mousse cup

say 'dolci!'

After finishing our 6 desserts, Ann saw a $2 coin outside on the path ... if you look closely you can see Ann outside (red top) picking it up Lols. So with another $2 in wallet i bought another two!

Bigne San Giuseppe
a light doughnut pastry filled with
strega chantilly cream and coated in sugar

Chocolate cheese cake

My favourites have to be the chocolate cheese cake, the mousse cup, and the chocolate cannoli. When we finished we had to sit for a bit, and let idea of us just gorging on almost $16 worth of mini cakes sink in. At this point i was thinking "Yup. DEFINITELY going for a run in the morning!!"

Brunetti's was a nice cafe to sit & chat, and with such a huuuuuge selection of cakes, tarts, biscuits, mignon, chocolates and nougat to choose from, the store also offers gelati, icy granita's, fresh smoothies and juices, foccacia, salads, crepes & over 40 handmade chocolates.

One visit is absolutely not enough, but for our short weekend trip - it was.