Chocolate Rice Banana Muffin

Sort of.

I kinda made up the recipe myself and realised its a tad too sweet. I didn't know what I was doing so i sliced a banana and slipped a slice in the centre. The muffin turned out to be interesting. The top part was slightly crusty and chocolaty and the centre was soft with mushy banana.

I think I had 3 of these yummy treats.

Chocolate Rice Banana Muffin
2 cups self raising flour
100g butter, cubed
2 eggs
1/2 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup milk(or less, depending on mixture)
1 teaspoon baking powder
chocolate rice for topping
1 banana, sliced
1/2 tsp salt

• Preheat oven to 180 deg.
• Sift the flour and baking powder. Set aside.
• Beat the 2 eggs and raw sugar. Set aside for later use.
  
• Rub in the butter into the flour until it becomes crumbly buttery mixture.
  
• Pour in the egg mixture to the flour.
  
• With a light hand, use a fork to gently mix them together.
  
• Stir in milk until it all comes together and just combined like a muffin mix.
  
• DO NOT OVERMIX.
• Spoon a little batter in the cupcake liner or aluminium case.
  
• Place a slice of banana and cover the banana with more batter until full.
  
• Sprinkle chocolate rice on top
  
• Bake them for about 15-20mins.

Savoury Cheese Muffins

I am jumping for joy as I took the muffins out from the tray last night. This was my first attempt in baking something savoury and I must say I like the smell, taste and looks of it. Gab did not want any sweet bakes anymore because I told her that I wanted to try out olive oil brownies. I thought of a cheese muffin immediately and I really cannot remember the source of recipe.

I have added a few things to the muffin batter and initially wanted to name this as the Cheese & Chives muffin but after much consideration, I think this generic name suits it better as I may just change a few ingredients in the future.

Savoury Cheese Muffins
2 cups self raising flour
2 eggs
1 cup fresh milk
1 cup grated cheddar cheese*
1/4 cup olive oil
1 level tbsp raw sugar
bunch of chives*
chilli flakes*
1/2 tsp salt

• Preheat oven to 180 deg.
• Sift the flour and set aside.
• I used Kraft's Cheddar Cheese and grated them to a little more than a cup.
• Set some grated cheese aside for use later on top of the muffins.
• Mix flour, grated cheese, chilli flakes in a bowl.
• Beat 2 eggs, raw sugar with a fork until it bubbles.
• Stir in the olive oil, followed by the milk and chives.
• Make a well in the flour mixture and pour the egg mix into the well.
• Use a fork and stir everything until it is just combined. DO NOT OVERMIX.
• Line the muffin pan with cupcake liners and spoon until it is 2/3 full.
• Bake them for about 15-20mins.

Garlic mustard sauce
1 clove of garlic minced
1 tsp of English mustard sauce (I used Coleman's)
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 tbsp of lemon juice
3 tbsp of mayonnaise

• Mix them well and you get this wonderful sauce!

Notes:

• I made about 11 muffins. You can get 12 or more if the mixture in each cup is lesser or the liner is smaller.
• *You can substitute the ingredients with other alternatives like stronger cheeses, or replace the chives with scallions or chilli flakes with paprika.*
• The sauce can give you dragon's breath because of the raw garlic but it is absolutely delicious!
• This muffin is not very cheesy so it is suitable for many people.
• The tangy sauce can actually make you eat more than one muffin at a go.
• You could use them as a side dish.
• Thanks Gab & Anna!!! For simply everything!!!

Light, golden fluffy goodness!!

X'mas assorted cookies

Assortment of shortbread cookies!

I have to credit Vanna White first because without any assistance, I would not be able to complete this almost impossible task.

I followed 2 recipes and hence have 2 types of dough. Recipes were taken and adapted from Exclusively Food & Joy of Baking. The only thing that I have substituted for both recipes is the vanilla extract with the organic vanilla pods that I have on hand. Feel free to use either one.

Melting Moments Recipe (Review & Notes):

• Dough was pretty soft to work with so I had left them in the fridge for about an hour before working with it. I needed quite a bit of flour to prevent them from sticking.
• The oven and baking tray was a little small so I had to bake them in many batches hence the different flavours because I was bored.
• Instead of baking at 150 degs, I baked the cookies at 190 degs for 30mins each batch as they did not get cooked after 20mins.
• They will not change colour.
• They had a milky taste to it and crumbles in your mouth.
• I could change the butter to a better quality one the next time.
• Flavours: Original & Cinnamon sugar.
• My melting moments cookie does not have the lemon icing in between.
  

Shortbread cookies Recipe (Review & Notes):

• Same as above except that this was easier to work with because of more flour.
• For the Jam Drop cookie, just use your thumb to make that little "well" for the jam.
• The strawberry jam needed was very little so be aware and careful when spooning the jam onto the little "well".
• I used the strawberry milk choco bits that I got from Phoon Huat and scattered in the dough.
• Can increase the flavours for all the cookies.
• Shortbread tastes drier and more crisp.
• Flavours: Star Shaped Shortbread, White Chocolate chip cookie, Jam Drop Cookie, Strawberry Milk cookie.
• Can keep up to 2 weeks when refrigerated.

I can take orders for up to 3 flavours @ S$13.

Thank you. Cheers!

Banana Loaf with White Chocolate Chips

I had some leftover bananas so I decided to bake something small. I got myself those aluminum loaf pans like those for Sara Lee cakes so it was more convenient. You can purchase them at Phoon Huat. This recipe was inspired by my previous effort to make the banana cake.

Banana Loaf with White Chocolate Chips
80g butter
50g sugar
1 egg
2 ripe bananas
50g self raising flour
50g Quaker oatmeal
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
handful of white chocolate chips
dash of cinnamon powder

• Preheat oven to 180 deg.
• Cream butter and sugar. Do not panic if they do not cream well.
• Add the egg to the butter and continue to blend them.
• Add the bananas, reserving about half of the banana for slicing and decorating the loaf. You can pre-mash the bananas before adding them.
• The mixture will curdle but will all come together when you add the dry ingredients.
• Add oatmeal and the flour and bicarbonate of soda. Do not overmix.
• Fold in the white chocolate chips and cinnamon powder.
• Pour the batter into the loaf pan and decorate it with the banana slices and some white chocolate chips.
• Bake them for about 15-20mins or until it has risen well.

Notes:
The banana loaf's texture is more grainy and crumbly.
I did not have enough flour this time so the oatmeal is replaceable.

Cupcakes: Peanut Buttercream & Maple Buttercream

This was totally an experiment. The texture for some of the cupcakes were slightly harder than expected but luckily for me, they were still pretty edible after dressing them with flavoured buttercream. Anyone who has good sponge cake recipes, please let me know.

Waiting to be dressed...

Sponge Cupcakes (Makes about 18 small cupcakes)
4 eggs
110g sugar
110g flour
25g melted butter

• Preheat oven to 200 deg.
• Whisk whole eggs and sugar together until thick batter consistency. The batter should be pale and creamy and coats the whisk when you lift the whisk up. About 10mins.
• Fold in the flour and ensure that all are properly mixed.
• Add the melted butter and fold in carefully.
• Spoon the batter into the cupcake casings until almost full or 2/3 full.
• Bake for 8-10mins.
• Let the cupcakes cool.

Buttercream
125g butter
80g powdered sugar
1 heaped teaspoon cocoa powder (Optional)

• Whip the butter until it is pale and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and cocoa powder.
• The cocoa powder was added to give the buttercream some colour. It did not make any difference to the taste of the buttercream.

Peanut Buttercream
3 tablespoons (or more) creamy peanut butter

• Add the peanut butter to HALF of the creamed mixture and continue to whip.

Assembling:
1 orange rind
1 tablespoon orange marmalade mixed with 1 tablespoon of hot water

• Brush the marmalade mixture generously on the top of the cupcake.
• Pipe the peanut buttercream on top and sprinkle orange rind as garnish.

Maple Buttercream
3 tablespoons maple syrup

• Add the maple syrup to the other HALF of the creamed mixture and continue to whip.

Assembling:
White chocolate chips
Strawberry choco flakes
Hundreds & Thousands (Rainbow sprinkles)

• Spoon the maple buttercream on top, spread and sprinkle the toppings as garnish.

Strawberry Crumble

1st helping

I was inspired to bake something out of the strawberries because I grabbed 2 punnets at S$4.65, which was considered quite affordable. I baked 2 batches using one punnet each time and this has inspired me to consider other filling options like blueberries or apples in future.

Sliced strawberries

Strawberry Crumble:
For the crumble and base
11/4 cup of self raising flour
1/2 cup sugar
125g of cold butter (salted)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder - Optional
5 teaspoons of beaten egg mixture

Strawberry filling
1 punnet of strawberry (250g)
2 teaspoon of cornflour
1/4 cup of sugar

• Preheat your oven to 180 deg.
• Slice the strawberries and mix the cornflour and sugar and leave them aside for later use.
• Put the flour, sugar, cinnamon powder and cubes of cold butter in a bowl.
• Use a fork and start mashing the butter in the flour to make it look like breadcrumbs.
• Once the mixture is like breadcrumbs, add in the egg mixture.
• Mix them until lumpy.
• Place half of the dough mixture on a baking pan (4"x8") and use your hands to press them down until the dough covers the bottom of the pan.
• Place the strawberries nicely on top.
• spread the crumble on top of the strawberries. You may wish to sprinkle some extra sugar or cinnamon.
• Bake for 20mins or until the fillings start bubbling. It will resemble like strawberry jam.
• Let cool completely before cutting them up.
• Stare your baked good in awe, pat yourself on the back and enjoy.

Notes:
The first crumble I did was too soggy because of too much egg. The second one has more crisp to it so it you like it crisp, add less egg to them.

Lining strawberries in the pan

The result!

2nd helping. Wish you could eat!

Swiss Rolls with Coffee Butter Cream

When I woke up yesterday morning, I had an urge to bake Swiss rolls even though I have not baked them before. I still have not decided whether to bake them until I was alone in the kitchen. I could hear my inner voice chanting "just do it..."

I was pretty pleased with the result and that got me to do the second roll. So here, I spent my Sunday afternoon baking.

This 2nd sponge cake is flavoured with coffee. Does not look very nice. :o(

I really spread the butter cream very thinly.

The 1st roll is on the right. The 2nd roll (all coffee flavoured) looks smaller.

In different lighting.

Cross section. The family loves it! :o)

Ta dah!!! My first swiss roll...

"Eat me! Eat me!!"

The pockets of flour.... :o(

Swiss Roll with Coffee Butter Cream:
The sponge cake
2 eggs
50g sugar
50g cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• Preheat oven to 200 deg.
• Using an electric whisk, just whisk the eggs for about 5-8 mins until it is thick enough to coat the whisk.
• Add sugar during the whisking of the egg.
• Sift cake flour and baking powder into the egg mixture. Fold in gently until the flour is incorporated thoroughly.
• Pour into a rectangular tray which is already lined with parchment paper and greased. (I am not good with measurement so please pick a suitably sized tray. Not more than 10" x 15")
• Spread it thinly.
• Bake the cake for about 7-10mins. The cake will spring back when you use your fingers to press them.
• I rolled the cake up and left it to cool before spreading butter cream as they will melt if the cake is still warm.

Coffee Butter Cream
125g butter
50g powdered sugar
1 heaped teaspoon Nescafe mixed with 1 tablespoon warm water

• Whip the butter until it is pale and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and coffee mixture. You can adjust both the sugar and coffee amount here to suit your taste. I did not really measure.
  
• Spread on the cake thinly. Mine was done thinly but somehow ended up with a thick butter cream filling. No complaints here though. ;oP
• Roll them up and place in fridge for about 30mins before cutting them.
• The cream is more than enough for 2 rolls so you may want to keep them for other uses.

Notes:

• Do mix the flour well because I ended with flour pockets in my swiss roll but luckily, no one minded.
• Cake flour is used here because the texture of the cake will be finer and it makes it easier to roll.
• Sponge cake is much drier than butter cake ones so having butter cream as the filling also makes it more appetising.
• Greasing the parchment paper is important because for the 2nd roll, I ended up with an uglier looking cake as a lot of cake was stuck to the paper.
• You can take them out 10mins before serving as the cream will be softer.

PS: I am just very excited that they turned out well hence I decided to put up most of their pictures although they are not in sequence. Enjoy!

Mini Brownie Cupcakes at Faeries' Tea Party

Cute little brownie...

This was fun to make because I will usually make the brownies in bigger trays. This recipe follows the basic brownie and was piped through and baked in those mini cupcake paper moulds. The width should measure about 1 inch or slightly bigger. As promised in a previous entry, I shall include the recipe here.

Brownies:
175g butter
120g sugar
50g plain flour
90g cocoa powder (sweetened)*
2 eggs
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add one egg each time and beat well.
Sift the flour and add to cocoa powder, salt & baking powder.
Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in portions of 4.
Each addition use blender on lowest speed to mix well.
For the last portion, use a spatula to fold in the flour.
Bake in oven for 30mins @ 180deg.

You can pour brownie batter into aluminium trays or non-stick baking pans.

You can also put the batter into a piping bag and pipe it to paper cupcake moulds until 2/3 full or as desired.

*If you are using unsweetened cocoa powder, you may increase the amount of sugar. I find this sufficiently sweet enough because a lot of recipes is too sweet for me.

The brownie batter after piping into the moulds...

Brownie cupcakes!

Cinnamoorolls at the Faeries' Tea Party

I have created this for a previous Brownie Tasting Party because it is an easy party dish. Here are some of the nicer photos of them. Yum...I am impressed by it too.

The rolls before the toppings.

The finished product!

Cinnamoorolls:
Bread
Melted Butter 175g
Cinnamon powder

5 Digestives (crumbled)
Icing sugar+Cream or you can use condensed milk
Maple syrup

Spread melted butter on bread using a brush.
Sprinkle cinnamon powder.
Roll them. Cut them like they are swiss rolls. Place on tray.
Continue until tray is full. Pour remaining butter on the rolls.
Topped with digestives and drizzle the icings and maple syrup.
Serve!

These work as great tea party food. Do not worry about the crumbles covering the rolls. That is the fun part, trying to dig out the rolls. This is not too sweet and not greasy at all so everyone can enjoy them.

Special thanks to my lovely assistant: Vanna White! From carrying everything, to setting up to helping to eat & everything else! :o)

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This is actually the second slice!

Over the weekend, I was in the mood to bake something fairly easy and did not require too many different ingredients. With the exception of buttermilk, the rest of the ingredients for this cake was easily acquired.

It was a rainy Sunday evening when I started baking. Measurements were made and the whole process of making that cake batter was literally, a piece of cake. In no time, I had sent the cake for baking and the whole thing took me around 50mins. I was happy to see that the cake was rising properly albeit the slight crack which was a disturbing sight for me. Other than that, I had no complaints.

Clockwise: the crack-> took a slice -> close-up -> cream cheese frosting

I had proudly spread the cream cheese frosting on top of the cake and served them without realising that I forgot to add in butter until much later. I had reduced the amount of sugar for both the cake and the frosting but it still tasted a little too sweet. Overall, I would still rate this cake as a success!!

Recipe taken and adapted from Exclusively Food:

Along the way I had made some adjustments myself so this is my version. To get the original version and the procedures, please click on the link above.

Banana Cake:
125g butter, softened
330g sugar ( I used 180g sugar)
3 ripe bananas
2 eggs
100ml buttermilk ( I substituted with fresh milk)
225g self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Cream Cheese Frosting:
90g cream cheese
45g butter
210g icing sugar ( I used 100g condensed milk)


This will be something that I will make again. Simply delicious!

Brownie Tasting Party!

This is a long overdue post. I was pretty busy for the past few weeks preparing for a tasting party that was held at this lovely place. As my hands were pretty busy preparing all the food items for that day, I could not take much pictures. All of them looks pretty blur.

The sweet treats!!

Here's the spread. There were a couple of items not shown.

Top row:
Brownies
Animal Crackers
Miscellaneous stuff like choco wafers, plates spoons...blah...

Center row:
Serviettes
Cinnamooroll
Arnott's Hundreds and thousands biscuits
Strawberries waiting to be topped with whipped cream

Bottom row:
Rooibos Tea
Canapes: Cucumber cream cheese + Cucumber Ham

Items not shown:
Rainbow Rose Berry Bread
Chocolate Pops, Peanut Pops. {Inspired by Bakerella.}

Those items in italics were made by yours truly. I will have another post dedicated to Brownies soon. Anyway, these brownies were pretty popular because each person had more than 2 pieces.

The peanut balls...

Chocolate Pops

You could find the original recipe at Bakerella's blog but I sort of modified it a little. I mentioned earlier that I had the chocolate and peanut butter pops at the party. Here is the recipe that I roughly remember.

Chocolate Pops:
Digestives (crumbled)
Cream cheese
some maple syrup
Coating Chocolate

♥ Mix the digestive crumbs to the cream cheese. Add a little maple syrup for flavouring. Roll them into balls. Melt the chocolate and let it stay cooler before dipping it into the chocolate. I put them in mini fluted cups so that its not messy.

The peanut version:
Peanut butter cookies (I got mine from Julie's)
Cream cheese
Coating Chocolate

♥ Same as Chocolate Pops.
The amount is through agaration so I really have no idea how much did I use. You could either increase or decrease the amount to suit your taste.

I thought of the name for Cinnamoorolls© because it sounds cute. This recipe was inspired by convenience. Hence, I shall "patent" this!! Will post up nicer pictures and dedicate another post for this.

By the end of it all...I was exhausted. So was my Vanna White. Nonetheless, it was an experience to prepare for such parties!

Tea Party

Sandwiches galore! One can almost expect sandwiches to make its presence in tea parties. As it was a birthday party, I was to come up with sandwiches to feed almost 50 pax! I made a few variety and added some ingredients.

Tuna & Chives Sandwich

Tuna Mix:
500gm tuna in brine (drained)
Handful of chives (chopped up)
Dijon Mayo (mustard + mayo = available in Carrefour)
Pepper to taste
This will make a not very salty filling for the sandwich.

Japanese Cucumber Sandwich

Slice Japanese cucumber.
Wipe dry.
Use cheese spread for the bread.

Egg Salad Sandwich

Egg Salad:
6 hardboiled eggs
Dijon Mayo
Handful of chives (chopped up)
Pepper to taste

Other food items that were lovingly prepared:
Chicken Ham & Cheese Sandwich
Salad
Chicken springroll
Chicken Wings (not in pics)
& Brownies

Food were mostly cleared and there were little wastage. This means that the food were either great or the guests were hungry. Yay!

Special thanks to my lovely assistant: Vanna White!!! for making everything possible.