Cupcakes And Others

Ju who reads my blog, asked me sometime in January if I could make her some cupcakes and she'll pay me for them.

That was my very first cake order with payment.

She was in fact my only paying customer. Haha. She subsequently ordered two more times from me, and the last order was just last Friday.

She likes the butter cream frosting with lots of sprinkles, because that's how her children like them.

I mix sugar sprinkles with tiny Japanese jellies, and I thought they look kind of sweet.

This round, I negotiated with her, and instead of 30 cupcakes, she took 20 cupcakes and pay less; and the other 10 cupcakes I kept them for my girls; since I never put frosting on cupcakes everytime I bake for them except on their birthdays, I thought I'll let them enjoy some frosted cupcakes 6 months early.

I can't make fancy stuff, or come out with fancy decorations, at least for now, but I try to use the best ingredients. No shortening nor vegetable oil in the frosting, although they make the cupcake last longer out in the open, they give you an aftertaste. I use only butter, which makes the cupcakes taste very much nicer; at least that's the opinion of my hubs and I. The last 2 rounds, Ju wanted M&Ms, and that's what each of her cupcake was topped with. Besides the cupcakes, Ju also ordered the sponge cake with soy bean frosting. I didn't take a photo of it, because I was in a hurry to pack every thing up, but this is how it looked like, minus the tiny golden sugar beads.

That's my youngest sister's birthday cake. She wanted this very healthy cake for her birthday last week after she's tasted my dad's low fat birthday cake, so I made her one, and that's my birthday present for her.

Ju's preference is the cupcakes and I can understand why. Some thing so low in fat, cannot compete with little cakes packed with the wonderful taste of butter. :)

Dorsett Scones

Did you realise everytime you make a visit to Cameron Highlands, you come back craving for scones? Such is the case with my friend, Michelle, who came back screaming for scones, and in the process influenced me into baking some as well.

It's not her influence that I love scones. Something about its buttery, doughy, crumbly texture and taste that appeal to me. Especially when it's served with a dollop of cream (not whipped cream from the can, which I can't stand its chemical taste, but cream whipped fresh), some strawberry jam, and a nice hot cup of English tea.

That was the kind of treat we'll splurge on during university days where we lived on a very tight budget; birthdays or a special occasion were celebrated in tea houses serving scones.

In KL, I love the little scones that Delicious serves, and the almond cream scones that you can get from Heistand. Now that I bake, scones are mainly made at home.

I'd tried a couple of reciepes and by far, this is my favourite.

♥Dorset Scones♥
Adapted from All Around The World Cookbook by Sheila Lukins
Make 12 scones

You'll need
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
113g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
1 large egg
Approximately 1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup dried currants (optional)

Method

1) Place the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and nutmeg in a food processor and pulse on and off to combine the ingredients. Add the cold butter and pulse 15 to 20 times until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

2) Break the egg into a small bowl and whisk lightly. Pour half the egg into a 1/2 cup measuring cup and fill to the top with milk. Pour the liquid over the flour mixture and process for about 10seconds until the dough forms large curds. Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured work surface.

3) Quickly and gently knead in the currants (or whatever you want to go with the scones). Pat or roll the dough 1/2 inch thick. Cut into 2 1/4 inch rounds with a biscuit cutter (I use a wine glass to cut mine into rounds). Gently reroll the scraps and continue to cut all the dough.

4) Place the scones on ungreased baking sheets and chill for 15 minutes. They can be covered and refrigerated at this point for as long as overnight.

5) Preheat oven to 230 C

6) Add 1 tbs milk to the remaining half egg and, using a pastry brush, moisten the top of each scones with the egg wash.

7) Bake until the tops are lightly colored, about 15 minutes. Cool on wire racks for at least 10 minutes before serving.

I actually made two batches of these, half using dried currants for the kids, another half using almond slivers for the adults. The dough were left to chill over night, and then baked early the morning.

I packed some for my neighbours, so a few families in the neighbourhood had fresh scones for breakfast that morning.

For our family, I then whipped some double cream. We have ours eaten with dollop of cream and strawberry jam, while my daughters like theirs with just butter (actually more of the process of spreading the butter).

Paired with a cup of hot tea... bliss!

Chocolate Almond Cookies - Recipe

This is the first time I'm trying out Keiko Ishida's recipe. I'd always love the cakes and biscuits from Japan, and when I saw there's a book with collection of cakes, cookies and pastries that marry tradional French-style baking techniques with Japanese flavours such as green tea, soy bean and black sesame, I have to get it.

♥Chocolate Almond Cookies♥
Adopted from Okashi, Sweet Treats Made With Love by Keiko Ishida
Make about 70 biscuits

You'll need

80g Blanched almond slivers
300g Cake flour
40g Cocoa powder
240g Unsalted butter, softened
140g Icing sugar
A pinch of salt
2 Egg yolks
Fine granulated white sugar for dusting

Method

1) Prehead oven at 150C, then bake almond slivers for 20minutes. Sift flour and cocoa powder.

2) Beat butter, sugar and salt until softened. Add egg yolk and mix well.

3) Fold flour and cocoa powder into utter mixture using a spatula. Add (cooled) toasted almond slivers and fold through. Chill dough in a refrigerator for about 15minutes.

4) Divide cookie dough into 4 portion. Place each portion on a piece of parchment papaer and shape into logs about 4cm in diameter. Wrap logs with partment paper chill in refrigerator. If not baking the cookies immediately, wrap logs in cling film and freeze for up to 2months.

5) Prehead oven to 160C.

6) For frozen logs, leave out to soften, ~ 15mins. Slice cookie dough log into 7mm-thick pieces. Roll edges of cookies in some granulated sugar. Place cookies on baking tray lined with nonstick baking mat and bake for about 20mins. Remove from head and leave to cool on wire rack.

Miso Paste Chicken And Potato Stew

I love the taste of Ayam Pongteh, the chicken and potato stew that is cooked with preserved bean paste (tau-chu), Nonya style. I had made it a couple of times for dinner, and it was a hit with the children.

One day, I bought a small tub of light miso from the organic shop, and thought I'll try to make Ayam Pongteh with miso instead of the preserved soy bean paste, which will make the dish a tad healthier.

♥Miso Paste Chicken And Potato Stew♥
Ingredient is in estimation, and you can adjust according to your taste.

You'll need (estimation)

500g chicken pieces
400g potato, quarter them (do not use russet or potatos meant for making mash, as the potatos will be mashed up during the cooking process, and you'll end up with a stew with very thick sauce with few potato pieces)
3tbs of miso paste
4tbs of mirin (or chinese wine)
1tbs of soy sauce
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbs of sugar
1/2 cup of water (if you like more sauce, then you can increase it to 1 cup)

Method

1) Season chicken pieces in soy sauce for about 30mins. Mix sugar into miso paste with little water until it becomes a runny paste.

2) Fry potato in enough oil (shallow fry) till slightly brown. Remove and set aside.

3) In the same pan or wok, keep enough oil to slightly fry the chicken pieces until brown. Remove and set aside.

4) Use a clean wok or pan, heat about 2tbs of oil and then fry the garlic and ginger until fragrant. Pour in chicken pieces and the potatos, and then add in the miso sauce, fry and coat the chicken and potato pieces in sauce, about 2 minutes. Once coated, pour in the mirin and stir fry for another 2 minutes.

5) Pour in the water, and stir to ensure sauce is mixed well, once the sauce starts bubbling, turn down the heat, cover the pan or wok and let it simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes. Stirring occasionally so that the bottom does not get burnt.

The end result is a lighter colour stew, which has a hint of Japanese flavour. My hubs said it has a more refined taste compared the ayam ponteh which I made with tauchu or fermented soy bean paste.

Note : Adjust the ingredient accordingly to suit your taste, or you liking

Homemade Nutmeg Juice/Syrup (豆蔻水)

We all have tasted or used nutmeg one way or another, and most of the time, it's the spice that we use, which is produced from the seed. The flesh of the nutmeg, if we'd eaten before, will be pickled or shredded with sugar.

Have you tried the juice before? Not common in KL, but in Penang, most of the coffee shops served nutmeg juice, and two types are available, the white one (which is not boiled) and the red one (which is boiled). We'd tried both, and our preference is the red one. My eldest daugther, especially likes it when it's chilled.

I tried making nutmeg syrup last year after our Penang trip, and it's posted here. We just got back again from Penang a couple of days back, and I got more fresh nutmeg to make the syrup. This time, I brought back extra for my neighbour to make nutmeg enzyme.

♥Recipe to Make Fresh Nutmeg Syrup/豆蔻水♥
Make about 1litre syrup
You'll need
2Kg fresh nutmeg
700g rock sugar (the ones in cubes)

Method

1) Clean nutmeg and scrap off any dirt from its surface (I soak mine in garbage enzyme for a couple of minutes after cleaning)

2) Half the nutmegs, and pick out the seeds. You can keep the seed for future use especially for baking.

3) Smash the nutmegs with a pestle or the back of a knife.

4) Layer the nutmeg and sugar in a big slow cooker. 1 layer nutmeg, 1 layer sugar.

5) Turn on slow cooker at high, and leave it to boil for 3hrs.

6) Turn slow cooker to low, and boil another 6 hrs.

7) Sift the drink, and store the syrup in clean container.

This is how the boiled nutmeg looked. Deep reddish in colour. At this point, drawn by the aroma of the drink my eldest daugther came in, saw what I was doing and declared, "Oh mum, you are a wonderful cook."

If not using immediately, store the syrup in refrigerator. I actaully put the pulp back into the slow cooker, add 1.5 glass of water and boil it on auto for another 8hrs to get a less concentrated syrup.

8 ) To serve, mix syrup with water. The original recipe calls for 2Kg nutmeg 1Kg sugar, because I reduced the sugar in mine, the syrup is less sweet so when mixed with water, it's more concentrated.

This is the dark reddish syrup.

This is what the drink looked like after mixing with water.

We all think it taste best when chilled. My daugter thinks it tastes like a cross between Sarsi and Ribenna.

Green Tea Chiffon Cake

Chiffon cake can be bought for RM4 per whole cake in the night market in KL. Therefore, I'd never thought of making one since they are so cheap and widely available. That is until I saw the recipe for Green Tea Chiffon Cake in Okashi Sweet Treats Made With Love by Keiko Ishida.

Kids love green tea, and since I have 2 small cans of green tea powder which have been sitting in the freezer (they keep better, tip I got from the internet) for a long period of time, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to use them.

They are expensive macha (green tea powder) which hubs bought from Japan, very rich and fragrant which make the tea bitter if taken as a beverage. When used in this recipe, it adds such a nice flavour to the green tea chiffon cake.

♥Green Tea Chiffon Cake♥
adapted from Okashi Sweet Treats Made With Love by Keiko Ishida
Make one 20cm cake

You'll need

70g Cake flour
10g Green tea powder
5 Egg yolk
20g Castor Sugar
70g Water
60g Canola oil

Maringue
5 Egg white
90g Castor Sugar
10g Rice Flour

Method :

1) Preheat oven to 160C

2) Sift flour and green tea powder twice. Combine egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and mix well. Add water and canola oil and blend together. Add flour and green tea powder mixture and mix until batter becomes sticky. Set aside.

3) Make meringue. Combine sugar and rice flour. Beat egg whites until foamy. Add half of sugar and flour mixture and continue beating for a few minutes, then add remaining sugar and flour mixture and beat until egg whites are glossy, with stiff peaks.

4) Add one third of meringue into egg yolk mixture and fold in lightly, then add remaining meringue and fold to incorporate completely.

5) Pour batter into an ungreased chiffon cake tube pan. Bake for 40-50minutes. When cake is done, remove from oven and turn it over (yes, turn it over, so the cake won't collapse), leaving it to cool.

6) Once cake has cooled completely, carefully run a knife or spatula around the sides of the cake to loosen it before inverting onto a wire rack.

The cake has a very dark green colour. I'm not sure if you get the green tea from the baking supply shop (which contain colouring), will the colour be lighter and brighter.

I packed some for neighbour to try out.

The cake uses very little fat as you can see from the recipe. It's very light, cottony and moist, and it has a very rich tea flavour. My daughters said these are like cotton cake. The whole family, who loves green tea, like the cake so much, I made it twice in a row.