Strawberry Chocolate Birthday Cake

After the contaminated Chocolate cake incident, i really fear of it happening it again. But i really wanted to make a birthday cake for my niece. So i decided to go ahead to use the chocolate cake recipe but with whipped cream topping & decoration instead of the chocolate ganache.

When i started folding in the beaten eggs white into the chocolate batter because i noticed the bottom still remains as soft perk.... i made a big mistake by attempting beating the balance eggs white again. Instead of becoming stiff perk, it became deflated :( since it was late at nite, i continue to fold into the chocolate batter hoping the cake to turn out at least the hight that i can layer into 2 slices.

after putting in the oven for 15 minutes... it raised. but was not as high as the first chocolate sponge cake i made. It collapsed further after taken out of the oven... but i still managed to slice it.

well... everyone was happy & my family was surprised that i had nicely done up the birthday cake for the princess.... well off course i did share with them the contaminated chocolate incident... but they will dare to try out my 1st home-made birthday cake.... yummy...

Chocolate Fudge Cake

My niece birthday celebration is this coming sat, so i try to bake a chocolate fudge cake for her.

I used Yochana's recipe http://auntyyochana.blogspot.com/2008/01/chocolate-fudge-cake.html, the cake turn out to be quite a success.

I manage to bake the sponge cake tall & mosit & cut it into 3 layers for the chocolate ganache. After assembled the cake, cream the whole with ganache and decorate with the vanilla topping bought from Mediya.... this is the first time i use this topping cream.... wow... it was soooo sweet! Wondering is there any way to make it less sweet.

After the fun decoration, i put the cake into the fridge to chill a little & also to let the ganache set. My boy was happy to see this chocholate cake & wanted to have a piece. After cutting, he just refused to eat so me & hubby finished up this piece of rich chocolate cake instead.

BUT... late in the nite my tummy wasn't feeling right... & started gg toilet for a few time from 4am~6am. wow.... i thought maybe i ate too much & drink fruity lite, drink juice so was ended up diarrhoea. Then morning, hubby told me he also had diarrhoea :(

I was like oh no... must the cake. this is the only food we had together. Till now, i am still thinking what could have gone wrong. So am having a second thought of baking this chocolate Fudge cake for my niece BD.

Pooh & Piglet Butter Cookie

Just bought a set of Pooh & Piglet cookier cutter & stamp from Kai Kai shop in Chinatown Point. So decided to make butter cookie using these cute cutter on Tues night as i am on leave for Wed.

I used the recipe from Happy Home baking... she also uses the same set of cutter... http://happyhomebaking.blogspot.com/2007/04/smiles-from-100-aker-wood.html

I started the process abt 11 till 1.30am... wow i didn't expect to use so much time just baking these butter cookies. This was actually due to in-efficency of my micro-wave oven. I can only put 1 small tray each time at 15 min, so total spent of 1hr just for the baking.

After making the dough, i roll out flat & put it in the frigde hopping is easier for cutting out. But i was wrong. It breaks easily & need to be really careful & gently in handling the cut-out dough. after few cuttings, i manage to find a easier way.

Flatten the dough, cut & stamp the pooh, then push the cutter all the way so the edge & onto my hand then tsf to the tray before removing the cutter.

so after all the hard work... these are all my smiling poohs & piglets.

Chilled Blueberries Cheesecake

This is another blueberries cake. Non-baked cheesecake using the balance blueberries from my blueberries muffins.

I used the recipe from Jenny, just change the flavor to blueberries & added in rebina cordial to swirl on the top layer but the attemp was not so successful. Shall try again next time.

Colorful Layered Agar Agar

My niece's birthday is just round the corner, so my sister plan to make smthing different for her this year.... Agar-Agar Cake..... i gave her the link for Yochana's & some other blogs with the cartoons & beautiful agar agar creation for reference & we decided to go phoon huat shop for the suitable mold, agar agar powder & coloring.

She bough a candy mold with sunflower, bear, moon, star etc & a square tray for the base. we did the experiment the next day at my mum's plc. The process was fun & result was "not bad" for the 1st timer... the only setback was the layered agar agar came off easily especially for the agar agar from candy mold ... so next time we have to try scratching the top light before pouring the next layer.

Blueberries Muffin

Seeing many blogs whipping up cakes, muffins with blueberries so was tempted to bake as well.

This will be the 1st time for me to use fresh berries for my baking, so i wan quite excited abt it.

As usually, i baked it on the friday nite so i can get the nieces & newphews to try.

When the baking time was up, i opened the microwave oven & saw all the blueberries burst out the blue/black juice... most of the muffin was covered with the "dark stain".... hmmmm wonder is this normal or was it due to overbake or high mircowave oven temperature.

Banana Shortbread

Hubby usually go for his Sunday cycling with his friends. Since there is nothing for his breakfast, i flip through Alex Goh's World of Bread recipe book & search for something that is easy & simple to make without proofing.

Original recipe was Banana with Walnut, but i don't have it so just replace with whatever i can find in my cabinate.... Apricot & Pumkin Seed. The combination turn out to be quite good. Hope hubby will like this shortbread for this breakfast ^-^

Almond Butter Cookie 2

Another baking of almond butter cookie again after all the good comments from the 1st batch.

This time, i use the colorful tiny beads to decorate instead of the almond flarks. Reasons to make it more attractive for little prince & also i ran out of almond flarks ;)

I tried using my new set of cutters but the dough was too soft to had it cut out nicely. As it was late at nite, i didnt border to keep in fridge for the dough to get harden, just wanted to get it done asap.

These cookies taste yummy, not as sweet as the 1st batch & the texture was so soft that it melts in you mouth. The nieces & nephews finished up all the cookies tdy when i brought to mum's place.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

After the 1st failure attemp of chiffon cake, I searched for other chiffon cake recipes & read up on the method & correct way of beating & folding of batter. Finally i decided to use this recipe from My Kitchen My Labortory http://mykitchenmylaboratory.blogspot.com/2006/01/nostalgia.html to try out on my 2nd chiffon cake.

I was so happy with the 2nd attemp of my Pandan Chiffon Cake. The texture was so soft, fluffy & moist. It still taste yummy after i replace the milk/coconut milk with evaporated milk.

With this successful baking, i am tempted to try using this recipe for Banana Chiffon Cake & i read some online recipe saying the adds on of mashed banana will not affect the out of the cake....hmmm.... will update once i try out.

Pumkin Chiffon Cake

Chiffon cake is difficult to make but i am still dare to try it despite of my 1st few "not-so-successful" cake baking .. kekeke. I plan to use the chiffon mold i bought from Phoon Huat. 1 small & 2 mini size.

I adapted Taro Chiffon cake recipe from http://auntyyochana.blogspot.com/2007/05/taro-chiffon-cake.html replacing Yam with Pumkin.

After all the mixing, beating & folding of all ingredients, i realised the batter was too much for my 3 molds. No choice, i filled in a little more into the each chiffon mold & used a small round pan for the balance.

Afer baking for abt 15 mins, the chiffons started to crack while raising. After baking for 30 mins, the cracks look like a flower ;( i immediately inverted all the 4 tins & let it cool for abt 20 mins before removing.

To my surprise, the cracks had closed up but slightly stickly. The cake sank quite a fair bit, the texture was soft & quite compact instead of fluffy. hmm... wondering what really went wrong. Could it be my mashed Pumkin too wet?

Sausage Bun

30 Jul, Thur, me & colleagues finally went for our long waited Ritz Carlton Buffet. Yummmy!!

Since i had taken half day off, i went home after the buffet planning to make the wholemeal loaf for my hubby again for him to eat on the way to Desaru on Fri.

While making the dough, i also made the sweet bun dough so that i can make sausage bun for little prince to eat as breakfast on sat. I kept the dough in the fridge till Fri night after i got back from work.

while making the bun, evan came back. he grabbed the sausage when he saw me shaping the bun.. but too bad, it cannot be eaten yet. So after i let it proofed for abt half hr & baked for 15 minutes, i let him have it after cooling for 20 minutes. He love the sausage bun & had another one on Sat morning ^-^.

Wholemeal Loaf

Last sat, I made the wholemeal loaf for Hubby so that he can eat for early breakfast before he went for his morning cycling.

I followed the cottage bread recipe from Alex's Goh recipe book & replace 20% of the bread flour with wholemeal flour. To make it more tastely, i added ham & cheese for 1 loaf & rasin for another loaf.

Since I am using a mircowave oven, so the oven temperature seems to be higher & the heat was uneven .... so i used to over baked some of my bread and cake for fear of not thoroughly cooked.

These 2 wholemeal loaf taste okay just slightly dry which could be due to overbaking. But most importantly Evan love the ham & cheese loaf! I was over the moon to see him eating happily.