Spiderman Birthday

My nephew turned 12 over the weekend and he requested for a Spiderman cake. I happily agreed but little did I know that making superheroes aren’t as straightforward as they seem. The first Spidey that I made turned out too big for the cake, and then it fell apart when I tried to adjust it. The second Spidey, half the size of Spidey 1 seemed a little bit better. Let me just add that drawing Spidey’s attire with black food ink isn’t as fun as it seems. Or maybe I need a little bit more practice. :)

My orange butter cake with orange buttercream frosting is covered by brown fondant, with a city scene all around. I love how the contrasting yellow windows pop up and make the cake stand out even more. For a little fun factor, I added in a crescent moon and tiny stars. Spidey is climbing up the side of the cake and I have white spiderweb on the top, with Mark’s name written in freehand.

Char Siu Pao (barbeque pork bun)

Char siu paos are a staple in any dimsum place anywhere in the world. While there are many types of paos out there, char siu paos are one of my absolute favourite kind (the other one that I like is the lotus paste paos). I love char siu anything, really. :)

My cooking project today was making char siu paos.
Making the paos is really fun because it's literally fail-proof. I made three dozen mini paos (1 oz dough each) - small enough to be eaten in 3 bites. Char siu paos are not hard to make at all and the process surprisingly didn't take a long time at all. Living in Penang means that ready-cooked char siu is easily found and I won't have to make it from scratch (not like I know how to :p). It took me less than 4 hours, and we had freshly steamed paos for afternoon tea. My lucky friends got fed some paos too since I met up with them for dinner.

Ingredients:
Cooking the filling:
500g char siu (finely cubed)
3 Tbsp char siu dripping
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
3 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp black sauce
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp roasted sesame seeds
1/2 tsp chicken stock powder
1 Tbsp tapioca flour (diluted in a little bit of water)

Making the bread:
500g superfine, superwhite flour
6g instant yeast
100g sugar (1/2 cup)
50g shortening (1/4 cup)
230g water (10oz)

Directions: 
1. Cook the filling - add in all the ingredients and cook until the char siu is well-coated with the sauces.
2. Mix the flour, instant yeast, shortening, sugar and water together. Remember to make a well in the dry ingredients before pouring in the water.
3. Knead with hand for 10-15 minutes or until the dough becomes smooth and extensible.
4. Scale the dough to 1oz each. Or 1 1/2oz if you want a bigger pao. Round each portion and leave to rest for 10 minutes.
5. Flatten the dough, scoop in about a teaspoon of filling and wrap by folding the edge of the dough. Give the top of the pao a little twist.
6. Place each dough on a small piece of grease-proof paper.
7. Allow the doughs to rest for 20 minutes before steaming.
8. Put the dough pieces in a heated steamer and steam for 10 minutes.

The paos were extremely tasty, especially when nice and warm, freshly out of the steamer. And might I add very healthy because I used lean meat, no colouring and no emulsifiers. Maybe that explains why the pao bread texture wasn't as soft and fluffy after it turned cold.

Sago Pudding with Gula Melaka

I am on a cooking roll and this has been one really productive weekend! This afternoon's project is a simple sago pudding, all readily chilled to have for dessert tonight. Sago pudding has always been one of my favourite local desserts and yes, I really am that impulsive when something comes to mind. :)

Ingredients:
200g sago pearls
200g palm sugar (gula melaka)
Brown sugar
White sugar
1/4 cup water
1 cup coconut milk
A pinch of salt
One stalk of pandan (screwpine) leave, tied into a knot

Directions:
1. Soak the sago in water until it softens, then sieve away the water.
2. Boil a pot full of water. When water boils, add in the sago. Constantly stir to ensure that the sago doesn't form lumps. The sago will look translucent when cooked.
3. Strain with a sieve and run the sago under cold water to wash away the starch. Pour into moulds and chill until set.
4. To make the syrup, stir the water, palm sugar and pandan leave over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Stir in some brown and white sugar (the aim is to create a thick, caramelized syrup). Make sure the sugar has dissolved.
5. Remove the pot from the stove. Pour in the coconut milk and a pinch of salt, and stir to mix. Throw pandan leave away. Strain mixture through a fine sieve into a gravy jug or a syrup pitcher.
6. Serve each individual sago portion onto a plate, topped with brown sugar syrup.

Alternatively, some people don't mix the coconut milk with the syrup but instead serve them separately.

Oyakodon

On the menu tonight was oyakodon. Oyakodon is essentially a japanese chicken and egg rice bowl. A lot of blogs explain that it literally means "parent (oya) and child (ko)", because both the chicken (parent) and egg (child) are represented in this dish.

Oyakodon is an extremely easy one dish meal to prepare and it took me a little under 30 minutes from preparation to serving dinner, apart from cooking the rice. It's a wonderful fast-cooking dish to prepare if you have nothing but eggs and chicken in the fridge, and you want a nice filling feeling in your tummy.
This is my second favourite donburi dish next to katsu don. The preparation style is pretty much the same, except the chicken meat is not deep fried in this case. Recipe is adapted from justonecookbook.

Ingredients: (for 3 portions)
6 fillets of chicken meat
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 onions, sliced thinly or cut into rings
Seasoned seaweed

Seasonings:
2/3 cup dashi stock (Japanese soup stock made of dried bonito flakes and dried kelp)
3 Tbsp mirin (Japanese rice wine)
1 tsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp sake (optional)

Directions:
1. Cut the chicken meat into bite sizes.
2. In a frying pan, heat the seasoning sauce and bring to boil. Spread the onion into the pan until the onions look soft.
3. Place chicken into the pan, distributed evenly around. Cover the frying pan with a lid and keep the heat on high until the liquid boils. Remove the scum if any.
4. Lower heat and cook until chicken is cook.You can lightly stir the chicken and onion while cooking.
5. Slowly pour the eggs into the pan. Make sure that the eggs are dispersed evenly around. When the egg is about 80% cooked, turn off the heat.
6. Transfer the chicken and egg mixture onto a bowl filled with steamed rice. Garnish with seasoned seaweed. I served my oyakodon with homemade miso soup.

Chicken Katsu Don

Mum says I'm like my dad in many ways. Especially when it comes to food. When a certain food comes to my mind and I crave it, I tend to do everything I can to get my hands on it. Dad tells me that he foresees me flying between continents in the future, all for the sake of food. I might need to save up a lot of money to be able to do that! :p

I was chatting with my friend Karen in Singapore this morning, and one of the things we talked about was how cool it would be if we both lived in the same city and we could have dinner parties and cookouts. From there, it led to what's cooking in our kitchen this weekend and we both decided we'd try cooking a donburi (rice bowl) dish.

I was planning on making oyakodon during the weekend, but as it is, I happened to come home early from work today with katsu don on my mind and since mum hadn't started on dinner yet, it was perfect timing for me to take over. A quick trip to Cold Storage and Tesco for my ingredients and then I'm on my way to cooking my katsu don (recipe adapted from Nami's awesome blog).

Ingredients: (for 3 portions)
6 fillets of chicken meat
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 egg
1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
Oil for deep frying
2 onions, sliced thinly or cut into rings
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Seasoned seaweed
Spring onions

Seasonings:
2/3 cup dashi stock (Japanese soup stock made of dried bonito flakes and dried kelp)
1 1/2 Tbsp mirin (Japanese rice wine)
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp sake (optional)

Directions:
1. Season chicken fillets with salt and pepper, then dredge in flour, eggs and panko.
2. Deep fry the chicken meat until golden brown, then drain excess oil away. Set aside.
3. Prepare seasonings and stir to combine well. Pour the seasonings into a frying pan and bring to a boil. Add in the onions, lower heat and let the mixture simmer until the onions look soft.
4. Put the chicken katsu into the pan, and turn up the heat to a medium high. Pour egg evenly into the pan.
5. When the egg is half cooked, turn off the heat.
6. Serve rice in a bowl, with the chicken and egg mixture. Garnish with seasoned seaweed and spring onions. I served my katsu on brown rice because that's what we eat at home.

Lessons learned from my donburi attempt:
1. Turn the heat really high just prior to adding in the egg so that the egg cooks fast and the katsu remains crispy. I was a little too slow so my fried chicken ended up losing its crispiness (what a waste of my deep frying effort because I really dislike getting burnt by spitting oil).
2. My katsu seemed like a mess when arranged on the rice. Next time I must remember to slice up the meat and arrange it nicely in the pan before I pour the egg in. That way, I'll be able to scoop up the meat and egg together and put it straight on top of the rice instead of doing it the other way around and end up with a yummy but not-so-aesthetic-looking piece of meat! :p

Guacamole Dip

I have a holiday today, so as usual when I am lazing around at home, I tend to think of food. Since I still had a packet of Chachos sitting around in the kitchen, I thought I'd make a quick guacamole dip that we could have for a healthy tea-time snack. It's so easy, it only takes all of 15 minutes to prepare (but of course my food presentation could use some improvement :p).

I don't have a specific recipe for this dip, I pretty much just use what I have available.

Ingredients:
2 ripe avocados, mashed up
1 tomato, finely diced
1 small onion, finely diced
1 pip of garlic, finely chopped
Freshly squeezed lime juice (this keeps the avocado from oxidizing), the amount varies according to taste, but usually it's about 2 Tbsp or so.
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp olive oil
Fresh basil, chopped (optional)
1 Tbsp sour cream (optional)
Jalapeno or cilantro, chopped (optional)

Directions: 
1. Mix everything up and stir till everything is blended.
2. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Chuck in the refrigerator for a while for the flavors to blend. Serve with chips.  

A cupcake full of Malaysian goodness

I'm not competitive by nature, but when my friend told me about this contest and when I had a look at the things that some of the contestants did, I was in disbelief! I knew without a doubt that I could do much better.

So here's my take of what makes 1Malaysia. To me, 1Malaysia means living in harmony in a multiracial environment that is unique of our country. My cupcake shows the three major races - Malay, Chinese and Indian (I had an Iban and a Kadazan too but they couldn't fit into my little cupcake) standing under a starry Malaysian sky. Cuteness overload all over!

This contest is judged by the number of LIKES for each picture, and the top 55 entries with the most LIKES will be chosen for a bake-off. Now if only I could clock up to at least 200 votes. :p
So please vote for me (before 20th September):

http://apps.facebook.com/cupcake_challenge/
1. LIKE the Celcom page. It will then take you to the photo gallery.
2. I'm on page 45.

Snow White and her men (The dwarfs, not the huntsman!)

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go!

This song was playing in my head the whole time I worked on my weekend project. The order this time around was for a Snow White and the 7 dwarfs theme on 26 chocolate cupcakes. Celine, who turns 8 today, is short for her age so her mother nicknames her "小矮", meaning little dwarf or something along that line. And that is how we ended up on this theme.

I surprised myself with my little men because of their cuteness overdose. From Dopey with his big ears, to Sneezy with his red nose, to Sleepy who was nodding off and looks like he's almost falling off from the cupcake, to my Grumpy who seems like he's sulking in a corner by himself, to Bashful who just looks so shy, to Doc with his signature glasses (although I have to say that he looks a little like Smee in Peter Pan), and lastly Happy who just looks happy. My signature princess needs to take a back seat this time around because she's been overshadowed by her merry men. Snow White looks rather tubby because she's been having too many apples. You'll see why in the last picture way at the bottom of the page.

I had a tremendously fun time making my little sugar figurines and better still, I had family chip in to help out - not because I can't get the work done by myself, but it's always fun to have company when one works.
I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Snow White with the 7 dwarfs, and the infamous red apple. My sister gave me that brilliant idea (on the apple, that is). I was originally just going to create animals.

Yes animals. In the cartoon, you know in that forest scene where Snow White and Prince Charming live happily ever after and all that, they're surrounded by a bevy of deer, birds and rabbits? Well if you don't know, it's best you watch the Disney cartoon again. :)

The birdies in the cartoon are purple, red and yellow. I got my colours wrong but hey at least I got my animals right.

And then there are my bambis, but lots of people tell me they look like wolves or foxes. Oh well! :p

This picture was the basis of my theme. See what I mean by the animals? Poor rabbits had to be substituted with red apples. And Prince Charming and his lovely castle, as well as everyone's most disliked character the witch (I figured no kid would be interested in the old hag) had to be left out. If my customer had ordered more cakes, I would have added some mushroom and flowers too. I'm OCD, I know, but that's the trait of a perfectionist. :)

And finally the complete theme; for little Celine who turns 8. I hope she becomes the envy of all her friends. :)

Pineapple Upside-down Cake

After a month hiatus, I'm back in the kitchen with a vengeance. Two weeks in Sydney and hanging around in plenty of kitchens, my fingers are itching to do something in my own kitchen. So today I made a pineapple upside down cake. It was very impulsive, but that's just me. This cake was adapted from the recipe that I got from the JoyOfBaking website.

This was my first time baking an upside-down cake. After a few pokes here and there, it seemed like the cake was perfectly baked. But after popping it out of the cake in, for some reason, the base seemed a bit soggy. Into the oven the cake went again - which resulted in a little burnt portions. Oh well, first times are always buggy but it's the trial and errors that make all of us better bakers! :)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups cake flour (195g)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter (113g)
1 cup granulated sugar (200g)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup milk (120ml)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 can tinned pineapple, drained
A few maraschino cherries (optional)

For the topping:
4 Tbsp butter (55 g)
3/4 cup light brown sugar (160g)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 177C.
2. Basic preparations are as such:
a) Rub some butter all over a round cake tin.
b) Drain the pineapple slices and pat dry (else the syrup will make the cake base soggy).
c) Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peaks form.
3. To prepare the topping, place butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan and stir over medium heat until the mixture becomes liquid. Continue cooking, without stirring, for a few more minutes until the sugar starts to caramelize. You can see bubbles forming around the edges of the mixture. Remove from heat and pour into the cake pan.
4. Arrange the pineapple slices on top of the sugar mixture. Pop cherries in the center of each slice to give it some colour.
5. In a large bowl, mix up the flour, baking powder and salt.
6. In a different bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in the vanilla extract. Add in the egg yolks one at a time.
7. Add in the flour mixture, alternating with milk, in 3 additions ending with the dry ingredients.
8. Fold in the beaten egg whites into the cake batter in two additions. Then pour the batter into the cake pan. Smooth out the tops. Bake for about 1 hour or until top of cake turns brown.
9. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the edges of the pan and then invert the cake on a serving plate.

Teddy Bear Birthday

I come from a huge family, where I have so many extended family scattered everywhere that I don't even know some of them. Thankfully there's Facebook, which helps me reconnect with my family members. It is thanks to Facebook where my niece Jasmine saw that I made pretty cakes, and asked if I would make a cake for her mother. All she wanted was a teddy bear figurine.

I baked a carrot cake this time around (not the best kind of cake to use when working with fondant because cream cheese melts under fondant), covered with pink fondant and topped with a teddy bear sitting in a field of many flowers. One thing to do in the near future is possibly more practice on handcrafted 3D flowers instead of using plungers to cut out the shapes, and maybe I should explore the usage of starbursts in my designs. :)
Here's my teddy bear cake today with my not-very-sophisticated-looking flowers.

My Alice in Wonderland

This weekend I created one of my most elaborate sugar works ever and I'm so crazy pleased with the results. It's like this: I've always wanted to decorate a cake like this but never had the opportunity to do so. Most people prefer cupcakes. So when CL asked if I'd bake her a cake for her baby's 1st birthday, I said yes! And when she said that she wanted an Alice (in Wonderland) for the cake topper, I was so up to the challenge.

CL's requirements was simple: orange butter cake with buttercream icing, pastel colours, and an Alice.
Here's what I came up with.

I don't mean to blow my own trumpet but I am so pleased with my details. From Alice's hair to her clothes and shoes, to Dinah the kitten. Yea, as everyone wonders why the cat has no stripes, I have to clarify that that's not the Cheshire Cat at all. If one watches the cartoon, there is a scene in the beginning where Alice plays with her kitten just before she drifts off to sleep and dreams that she's in Wonderland. So there. I do know my cartoons! :p

And this is my inspiration. Not exactly identical but (if I may just repeat again), I'm so pleased with my creation! :D I can't wait to get my next cake order!

Sambal brinjal

I only learnt how to eat brinjals a few years back. When I was little, the only thing that I would eat was beans. All sorts of beans - long beans, french beans, green peas and basically any kind of legumes. Leafy vegetables was a big no and same goes for the unconventional types like brinjals. Now I'm a big fan of brinjals ... very ironic indeed.

Anyhow, the method to cook sambal brinjals is very similar to sambal okra. It's amazing how a simple method can be reused for many kinds of dishes. Anything simple wins my vote!

Ingredients:
One brinjal, sliced in little pieces. Make sure the core is removed.
Fresh chilli, unseeded
Shallots
Dried shrimp
1 tsp Belacan powder
Cooking oil
Some water
Soy sauce to taste 
Salt and a little bit of turmeric (kunyit powder) for seasoning

Directions:
1. Season the brinjals in salt and turmeric powder. Then pan fry the brinjals until they are cooked and soft.
2. Pound the chilli, shallots and dried shrimp together until it becomes a paste. Add in the belacan powder and mix.
3. Heat the wok and add the cooking oil. Saute the paste until fragrant.
4. Add in the brinjals. Stir fry for a few minutes until the okra becomes sticky and cooked.
5. Add some soy sauce to taste. Dish out and serve hot.

Sambal okra

I'm not a big vege eater, but there are a few types of vegetables that I absolutely adore and could eat them everyday without fail. One of them is okra, or ladies fingers. I love my okra cooked any way, but my favourite is when it is cooked with sambal.

It is extremely easy to cook this dish but I can never seem to get the hang of 'agak-agak'-ing (estimating) my ingredients. But that's how it is with local cooking, so that's one thing that I need to get used to. In a nutshell, here's how to cook this yummy dish. You'll have to 'guesstimate' the amount needed for the ingredients. :p

Ingredients:
Fresh okra, sliced diagonally 
Fresh chilli, unseeded
Shallots
Dried shrimp
1 tsp Belacan powder
Cooking oil
Some water
Soy sauce to taste 

Directions:
1. Pound the chilli, shallots and dried shrimp together until it becomes a paste. Add in the belacan powder and mix.
2. Heat the wok and add the cooking oil. Saute the paste until fragrant.
3. Add in the okra. Stir fry for a few minutes until the okra becomes sticky and cooked. Add in some water while stirfrying.
4. Add some soy sauce to taste. Dish out and serve hot.

Today, mum and I cooked up a very Malaysian feast for lunch. Nasi lemak, served with my sambal okra, peanuts and sambal anchovies, fried fish and fried turmeric chicken, and hard boiled eggs with raw cucumber on the side. So good!

Cinnamon roll

Ever since the cafeteria started selling cinnamon rolls, I've not been able to stop myself from buying one a day for my breakfast. Mind you, it's not that economical, not to mention that it's not too good for my diet. Since it was a long weekend, I decided to try my hand at baking bread this time around. I found this recipe from one of my favourite recipe blogs, the Little Teochew. It's always reliable and never fails to disappoint me.

Making bread is really easy, and more fuss-free than baking cakes. My mini rolls came out of the oven nice and warm, just in time for tea. Takes just three big bites to finish each roll. :)
There were many more leftovers to give away and some more to eat for breakfast AND tea the next day.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup whole milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp dry yeast
2 2/3 cups plain flour (+ 1/3 cup)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
100g unsalted butter - melted
1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder, mixed together
Sultanas to sprinkle

Directions:
1. Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan. Scald the mixture, turn off the heat and leave to cool for about 30 minutes. When mixture is lukewarm, sprinkle in the dry yeast. Let it sit for a minute.
2. Stir in 2 2/3 cups of flour into the mixture. Cover and let it rise for at least an hour.

3. In a separate bowl, add 1/3 cup of flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together. 

4. When ready to prepare the rolls, sprinkle rolling surface generously with flour. Form a rough rectangle with the dough, then roll it out thin. Try to maintain a general rectangle surface.
5. Drizzle melted butter over the dough, followed by the sugar + cinnamon powder mix. Sprinkle sultanas on top. Roll up the dough and pinch the seam of the roll to seal it.
6. Cut the roll approximately 1 inch thick and lay them in a greased baking tray. Remember to leave a little space in between the rolls for them to rise.
7. Let the rolls rise for about half hour until they look bloated, then bake at 180C for about 25 minutes until they are golden on the surface.

Cupcake season

I tell my customers that my cupcakes are seasonal.
Seasonal, in the sense that it depends on my mood. And for now it seems like my groove is back on again.

I baked these Disney-themed cuppies last week for a little birthday party. My customer gave me the freedom to create whatever characters I wanted, so I came up with Mickeys and Minnies, Donalds and Daisies topping chocolate cupcakes. She also wanted two princesses (it seems like my princesses are a recurrent demand this season).

This week, I had another order of cupcakes for a kiddy birthday party. Another free hand to create my fondant. Glee! :)
I made a variety of designs consisting of HAPPY BDAY cut-outs with 2-dimensional bears, red and baby blue teddy bears, daisies, and of course my highly-wanted princesses. Try guessing which character each princess represents?

And here's the full picture. I should have themed my cakes as the Disney princesses (remember those kick-ass princesses from Shrek?) meets Goldilock's (many) bears. :p

Can't wait to see what I'm able to create for my next order next month! I'm hoping to surprise myself too.

Happy Dumpling Festival!

Every year, I make dumplings with my mum. It's a wonderful bonding experience and it is lots of fun cooking with mum. No recipes today but just some pictures to share. I wish everyone could try out our delicious dumplings! :)

Matcha swiss roll

My baking groove is back in action. For now.
I've always been a sucker for green tea. And because for the past week I've been craving for some green tea flavours on my palate, I decided to try out a matcha swiss roll recipe that I found on RasaMalaysia. The contributor of this recipe happens to be a friend of my SIL, and she's the one who taught me the art of fondant many years ago! :)

Swiss rolls are easy to prepare once one gets the hang of it. The preparation time is short but I took a bit longer because I beat my egg yolks and whites by hand. It's tiring but the amount was a wee bit too little to use the mixer. So about half hour to prepare, 10 minutes to bake, about an hour to chill ... and my swiss roll is ready just in time for tea time.

This recipe bakes one swiss roll log, but the filling ingredients are enough for two logs. Just nice for me because this was my second swiss roll attempt. I baked my first roll yesterday; it turned out quite disastrous and I wasn't very satisfied. Thankfully I had some remaining filling left which meant that I could try again today. Yays! I'm getting there!

Ingredients:
For the cake:
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
1/4 cup fine sugar
1/2 cup cake flour plus 2 tsp matcha powder
2 tablespoons melted butter

For the filling: 
1/2 cups whipping cream (I used 200ml of whipping cream and found that it was double the amount needed for one swiss roll)
1 tablespoon sugar
Canned red bean filling (I bought the S&W brand red kidney beans soaked in syrup - the ones used for ice kacang)

Directions: 
Preparing the filling:
Whip the cream with sugar until creamy and thick. Chill in the refrigerator until cake is ready to be assembled.

Baking the cake:
1. Preheat oven to 230C. Line and grease a rectangle cake pan. Prepare another piece of parchment paper the same size as the rectangle cake pan.
2. Beat the egg yolks and half the sugar until thick and pale.
3. In another bowl, beat the egg whites with the remaining sugar until stiff. Fold the egg yolk mixture into the egg white.
4. Fold in the flour mixture and the melted butter. Make sure that the egg white mixture is not deflated while folding in the flour and butter.
5. Pour batter into pan and bake for 10 minutes.
6. Remove from oven, let it cool for about a minute and then turn the cake on to the prepared piece of parchment paper and roll (to get the shape).
7. After a few minutes, unroll the cake. Spread an even layer of cream onto the cake and top with red beans. Roll the cake up from the long end firmly, wrap it up again with the parchment paper and chill for at least an hour before serving.

It definitely takes a few trial and errors to bake swiss rolls. As my mum says, one needs to be fast because else it becomes a wasted effort. So learning from my mistakes, here are three takeaway tips:
1. My first try yesterday resulted in really ugly and coarse swiss rolls. And as we all know, swiss rolls are supposed to look and taste delicate. So even though it tasted alright (I say alright because it was just okay), I found that there was too much red bean filling because the ones I bought were too big. This time, I sliced them up into smaller pieces. Note of the day, always do things in moderation!
2. Have everything prepared beforehand, especially the parchment paper. It only takes 10 minutes to bake, a minute to cool, and then you've gotta start rolling away else the cake cracks. No damage control can be done to save it, unfortunately.
3. Fold in everything carefully! With this, I'm talking about the egg yolk mixture into the egg white, and the flour and butter into the egg mixtures. The end mixture amount should be about the same as the initial egg white amount. Swiss rolls is all about air in the cake for that light texture. One wouldn't want to be eating chewy and dry cakes, right? :)

I definitely need some practice on neat slicing. Such pretty rolls ended up with whipped cream filling all over ... tsk tsk tsk :p

Japanese cotton cheesecake

I love long weekends, I really do!
And I love it especially when I have a lot of time on my hands to dabble in the kitchen.

While grocery shopping with mum today, I happened to walk pass the dairy section and came across cream cheese. Call me weird but I felt like it was calling out to me. :p I am weak and I succumbed to temptation, so today I attempted my very first Japanese cotton cheesecake. I love a good cheesecake (well, ANY kind of cheesecake really), and Japanese cotton cheesecakes are very different from other kinds of cheesecakes. They taste very light - almost like chiffon cakes, with a light whiff of cheese, and you don't feel too grossed out if you eat too much at one go.

I used The Little Teochew's recipe and my cheesecake turned out quite alright. One thing I like about this recipe, is that everything is in moderation (except for the eggs because this is supposed to be somewhat of a souffle). Not too much cheese, not too much sugar, and hardly any butter. It helps me feel less guilty about eating too much of this yummy cake. :p

Ingredients:
5oz (140g) fine granulated sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1.8oz (50g) butter
250g cream cheese
100ml fresh milk
2.11oz (60g) cake flour
0.7oz (20g) corn flour - I didn't have any so I substituted with tapioca flour, not sure if it made any difference
1/4 tsp salt

Directions: 
1. Preheat the oven at 160C. Put four tart molds filled with water at four corners of the oven to provide the sauna effect. This is a substitute method for a water bath.
2. Use a double boiler to melt the cream cheese, butter and milk.
3. Fold in the flour, cornflour, salt, and egg yolk into the cooled mixture. Mix well.
4. Strain the mixture to ensure that there are no lumpy bits.
5. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.
6. Fold in the egg whites into the cheese mixture.
7. Line springform cake pan (bottom and sides) and lightly grease. Pour mixture into cake pan, and cover loosely with aluminum foil. This prevents the top of the cake from browning.
8. Bake cheesecake for 1 hour 10 minutes, and then remove the aluminum foil and bake another few minutes until top of the cake is golden brown.
9. Leave cheesecake to cool in oven with door ajar for about 30 minutes to an hour. Sudden changes in temperature may cause the cake to cool too quickly and collapse, although the cake will sink regardless. This just slows down the process and the cheesecake won't sink so drastically.

My cheesecake was a hit. I know this because my dad, who isn't much of a cheesecake fan, proclaimed that it was good. :)

I'll need a few more practices to perfect this cake, and perhaps over-bake it a little more to get a more golden top. I'll also have to remember to use a larger springform cake pan. I used my medium-sized one this time around, but the cake rose too high over the top.

Zucchini salad

It's been a while since I last updated this blog. :p
It's not that I haven't been cooking but some things that I cook are repeat recipes, so I don't quite see the point of repeating my posts.

I have a BBQ party to attend tonight, and I wasn't really planning on bringing anything else other than konnyaku jelly (which requires minimal effort to prepare because I've been so busy with work lately). At the last minute, I had some free time on my hands so it's a pretty impulsive last minute decision. I made a quick spree to the market to grab some ingredients.

I'm not a big fan of cucumbers, but I'll eat zucchinis. I was first introduced to this awesome dish by my SIL when she prepared this for dinner one night. Since then, I've been meaning to try this out but haven't had the chance. Until now. :)

Ingredients:
3 medium-sized zucchinis
1 small bunch of Chinese parsley
1 large yellow onion
1 lemon
A handful of dried shrimp
A handful of peanuts
1 Tbsp fish sauce
2 Tbsp sugar

Directions: 
1. Saute the dried shrimp till dry and crispy. Put aside to cool.
2. Saute the peanuts till fragrant. Put aside to cool. When cool, remove the shell off the peanuts.
3. Wash the vegetables properly. Grate the skin off the zucchini and slice thinly.
4. Thinly slice the onions. Cut up the Chinese parsley. Mix the vegetables together and toss.
5. Pour in the fish sauce, squeeze the lemon and add sugar to taste.
6. Use a pestle to pound the dried shrimp until fine texture, and add into the vegetable mix.
7. Pound the peanuts till moderately fine. Add into the vegetable mix.
8. Toss again and taste. Chill the salad till ready to serve.

I love the tangy taste of the lemon/fish sauce mixture. That, combined with the crunchiness of the zucchini and onions, and the fragrance of the peanuts and dried shrimp, makes this an extremely delicious salad. Easy to prepare, healthy and yummy!

Konnyaku jelly

I love a good jelly, especially on a hot day. Lately I've been having a konnyaku craze phase so good thing that there's a BBQ party coming up tomorrow night. I volunteered to bring konnyaku over.

And me being me, I had to scour the internet for konnyaku ideas and that is how I came across this recipe by the Blessed Homemaker. I love how Tesco is just a short drive away for me, so off I went to buy konnyaku powder. Tried out the preserved sour plum konnyaku jelly last night and it turned out so good. I'd have liked the sweet and sour tastes to be stronger though.

Ingredients:
8 preserved sour plums
250ml water
1 packet konnyaku jelly powder (10g)
3.5oz sugar
800ml water

Directions: 

1. Boil 250ml water and add in the preserved sour plums. Leave to stand for at least an hour then remove seeds of the sour plums.

2. In a small bowl, mix the konnyaku powder and sugar together.

3. Boil 800ml water in another pot and pour in the konnyaku mixture. Keep stirring until sugar has dissolved. 

4. Add in the sour plum mixture and stir well. Scoop into moulds and leave to cool. Chill in fridge.  

However in the end, I played safe and made another batch of  lychee flavoured ones instead. Not everyone will be so adventurous. :p