I had moved~

Decided to do so because the misalignment is getting real irritating.

Visit:

Bake Cook Love

I had moved~

Decided to do so because the misalignment is getting real irritating.

Visit:

Bake Cook Love

Classic Butter Cookies (w glazed cherries)

Sticky little glazed cherries. Very Christmas-colour, don't you think so?

My mum was also a lazy baker. Comparing, she's even lazier than me. It must had been in the blood. Glazed cherries was something that never failed to appear in the kitchen during CNY baking because my mum will cut them up into small little pieces and place them on the pipped butter cookies. Just for that little touch of colours, she always said.

Botak-looking butter cookies

Another thing she love (because its time saving and fuss-free), pipping of the buttery dough instead of using cookie cutter. It's fast and easy. Looks easy, but its hard to get them all to look the same, at least for me. I'm a newbie!!! haha

That tiny little touch that add colours to life..

She can do this perfectly identical looking cookies. But for me? I'm satisfied just how these look like. Its my virgin try! At least they taste the same.

Recipe

250g good quality butter
336g plain flour
112g icing sugar
1 egg white
glazed cherries for deco

Method

1) Cream butter and icing sugar
2) Add egg white slowly
3) Add plain flour
4) Pipe the dough on baking tray
5) Bake at 170C for 20min


Verdict
Pipping made the cookies thin and soft, which melts in the mouth. And seriously, fuss-free to do.

Back to basic.

The simpliest form of cookie.
Butter, flour, sugar and egg.

If only life is this simple.

Aspiring Bakers #13: Enjoy Cupcakes! (November 2011)

I was very excited when I saw that the theme for this month Aspiring Bakers is Cupcakes hosted by Min of Min's Blog from Happy Home Baking ! New in having this blog, and having been very 'into' cupcakes recently, I decided to submit an entry too! *very excited me*

The base recipe I used is same recipe I used in the previous entry. The only difference is the favours I mixed in, e.g. desiccated coconut, almond flakes, jam, nutella. Lazy me is greedy for many different favours to satisfy everyone and this recipe is very welcoming of the extra twist I threw in. It's really fuss free!

Various favours of cuppies waiting to be bake (jam, almond flakes)

New kid on the block: Ah Boi Coconut Cuppy

Recipe (adopted from an old recipe from Planta Margarine passed down from my mum):

8 1/2 oz Planta (i used butter)

5 eggs

7 1/2 oz sugar

9 oz plain flour + 1 1/2 tsp baking powder (sifted)

Method

1. Cream Planta for 5 mins

2. Add sugar and cream for another 10 mins

3. Add one egg at a time

4. Fold in the flour mixture till well mix

5. Scope to individual paper cupcake till 3/4 full

For cupcakes - 325 F for 20 to 25mins

** for nutella, jam, peanut butter, drop half-teaspoon on the cupcake mixture in the paper cuppies and fold in with a toothpick. Or for surprises, can drop the favours in the middle of the mixture

** for coconut favour, fixed some cupcake mixture with a generous amount of desiccated and bake accordingly.

As the recipe was from ages ago and also good enough as a butter cake, I like to call them Old-Fashion Butter Cupcake (w a modern twist) and submit to Aspiring Bakers #13: Enjoy Cupcakes! (November 2011). (hope it get accepted as my first entry!)

Old-fashion Butter Cupcake (w a modern twist)

I'm super proud to introduce this cupcakes that I had made in 2hours (including baking time). The recipe only called for 5 items, but I always wanted to try swirling Nutella into cupcakes, I decided to add some toppings too!

This is like the perfect butter cake recipe! Its actually older than me! My mum used to write in to Malaysia to request for the Planta recipe and this was one of them. However, I didn't have any Planta at home, so I replaced it with butter. Just as good!

My little fairy cupcakes waiting to be bake..
The toppings I tried were Nutella (confirm to be a hot favourite), peanut butter (I didn't like the after-baking colour so there wasn't many of this), raisin (in the middle of course) and plain.

the girl-next-door Ms Original

the Sexy Ms Nutella

the Exciting Mr Peanut Butter

the Mini Babies

I love love the colour contrast between the butter cake and Nutella. Love it! Taste-wise, its superb too!

I hope you can see how soft the cake actually is! Just like store-bought. Seriously. Those old-fashion bakery but with a modern twist (e.g. Nutella). Its soft, yet dense.


Recipe

8 1/2 oz Planta (i used butter)
5 eggs
7 1/2 oz sugar
9 oz plain flour + 1 1/2 tsp baking powder (sifted)

Method
1. Cream Planta for 5 mins
2. Add sugar and cream for another 10 mins
3. Add one egg at a time
4. Fold in the flour mixture

For cupcakes - 325 F for 20 to 25mins


Verdict:

Loving it! Taking this as a base for cupcakes and adding different toppings is like adding a little excitement. I don't mind re-doing this any time! It's simply really easy. And making it into Mini Babies, one can easily pop them into the mouth. Simply irresistible. =)=)=)=) (4/5)

Little Mini Baby Cupcakes are simply irresistible.

Homemade BBQ-alike Mid Wings

Anyone saw the above machine before??? I have no idea what it's called. But I can say, it produces very good chicken (just add honey). I lined the bottom with a layer of aluminum foil for easy cleaning after cooking.

Marinated chicken lined nicely inside the pot waiting to be cooked healthy. I classified this as healthy cooking because no oil is involved. And part of the chicken oil was being forced out too! How other best ways to enjoy chicken with skin without feeling guilty?

The end product:

Marinate 15 mid wings:

3 big teaspoon of honey (i used the cheap types you can easily find in supermarket)

1 tablespoon of oyster sauce

dash of sesame oil (i swear by this to make any dish more fragrance)

1 tablespoon of chinese cooking oil

dash of black pepper

Cooking time: 40mins, 150 degree C to 200 degree C

It was longer than the suggested cooking time that came with the machine as I turned the wings and changed their positions every 10 to 15mins to have them evenly browned.

It's just so simple!

Verdict:

Everyone said it's good! Seriously. Having 15 pieces to share between 6 pax left them quite unsatisfied. But I have no idea how many the 'pot' can hold as we hadn't use it in the longest time! A pretty fuss free way to get BBQ-alike chicken at home to satisfy the craving. The only thing lacking was the charcoal scent. Other then that, the whole family pretty much love this dish. =)=)=)=)=) (5/5)

BBQ food at home cannot get easier than this.

Tiramisu (cream cheese) Birthday Cake

This is my first handmade birthday cake for someone special - Mr Boyfriend. It was his 24th and we are kinda on a tight budget. So instead of having the celebration outside, I made this for him. Somehow, he found out about it and it wasn't a surprise anymore! Kinda sad.

After knowing, he requested to do some decoration on the cake. Since it's his special day, he's the boss. His wish was granted. We bought some icing tube and had some fun decorating before cake cutting.

The end product:

Recipe adapted from Wen's Delight .

I had some slight modification for the coffee mixture which was simpler. A pretty comfy-food-worthy cake made with a large large dose of LOVE! Beat that! =D

Verdict:

It wasn't easy making this cake. There was quite a number of steps and took me 3hours x 2man to create this whole thing from nothing! But it was pretty much worth the trouble. Everyone love it! Most importance I guess is the Bailey's. A very smoothing touch to the cake. I seriously dislike those Tiramisu which uses Rum, which I find too strong. Unless there's a request, unlikely to re-do this cake. I'm a lazy girl remember? *wink* =)=) (2/5)

CP Shrimp Patties

Had always wanted to try this shrimp patties from CP since my friend had been recommending it for a long long time. And one fine day, I needed to get more stuffs to hit $30 at NTUC to get a sticker. So I finally bought this!

Each box contains 4 individually packed pieces. Pretty convenient and no need to defrost due to the food sticking to each other by ice. I guess that added to the price.

As usual, being the lazy me, I only over-bake it instead of deep-frying it. Available in all leading supermarkets.

Verdict:

Was kind of disappointed by this product of CP. In general, frozen food from CP are slightly more costly than other brands due to their quality. I personally, believe in their branding and quality. Thought crispy, but the breaded layer was too thick as compared to the shrimp filling itself, to my opinion. The shrimp bites are not satisfying enough too, unlike the nuggets. Taste wise wasn't that great too. This will be first and last box. Not worth the price. =)=)=) (3/5) Easy to serve, but not worth the time and money.

Piccolo the Coffee Machine

This is my new toy (ard. $200)! Bought this earlier this week at Tangs. They are actually having an offer on this series of coffee machine for a certain quantity for each colour. But, not wanting to get one with the colour that I don't really fancy, I paid a bit more to get the red colour machine. The difference between the offer package and the normal package is $30, so I guess it was not that much of a difference.

Tangs offered a total of 4 favours and I bought all four to try! Each box cost $10.90. And depending on the favours, you can get either 16 cups or 8 cups. So basically, it's $0.70 (espressos) versus $1.40 (any other favours).

This is how the capsules look like..

My cup of cappuccino :

Verdict:

This is a pretty good way to get a nice hot cup of coffee at the comfort of your home. Comparing to other brands of coffee machine, Nescafe offers the most affordable range. (otherwise I won't have bought it too!) It was a happy buy. Everyone so far that tried the coffee (Mocha with extra shot, Latte, Cappuccino) have good feedback. So I guess the machine is here to stay. Hopefully it last. Btw, it comes with 2-years warranty and made in Switzerland. =)=)=)=)=) (5/5) This is even easier than cooking a packet of instant noodles!

Tung Lok Signature @ Vivo (I)

Recently, my family and I went to have lunch at Tung Lok Seafood at Vivo City. The food really did live up to the name of Tung Lok. But, service was kinda lacking on that day. Maybe because they are full house. A place definitely worth going back to when you just gotten your paycheck.


Signature Roast Pork This is definitely their signature. Sold out pretty fast. We ordered only one servicing initially and wanted to add another order, but it was gone! That's fast. Skin was crispy, but there's better ones out there too.

Deep-fried Sliver Fish Pretty nice to munch on but the batter is kinda on the thick side for such a small fish. But something I will opt for if given the choice between this and roasted pork.

Soup
Can't remember what soup we ordered but it's pretty good! There's pork, sea cucumber to name a few. But if the many other dishes to stomach, this was being neglected.

3-eggs Vege

Another well received dish. For the vege we chose spinach and it went very well with the eggs, namely, normal chicken egg, century egg and salted egg. Simply love the combination of this dish. Somehow, the texture of all the eggs and vege just goes very well with each other, the softness of the vege, the slightly harden century egg, roughness of the salted egg yolk, each coated with the normal egg.


Braised 扣肉This doesn't come with the steamed bun, but came with the deep-fried ones. Pork was soft and the sauce though look very glue-y, it's rather smooth to slurp down. A must try if you like 三层肉.


Exotic Curry Prawn

The guys love love this, but I dislike the curry ingredients that were left in the gravy. Every spoon of gravy will have lots of dried chilli, onions, spices bits that are used. Not my type of gravy. But the taste is good! Prawns are not overcooked though left in the claypot. A must try if you like curry stuffs. Served with deep-fried buns. Yummy.

White pepper prawns with vermicelli

This is my favourite! Prawns are halved and seasoned with white pepper and garlic. Love the vermicelli the most! It basically contained all the essence of taste in the claypot. Super yummy! A rather light-taste prawn dish compared to the above.


Steamed fish in Hong Kong style

A rather small fish but the six of us, but it's the quality that matters. Fish is fresh, as expected from a restaurant, and the sauce is superb. But not a must try.


Coconut ice-cream served in coconut

Had this to end off the heavy lunch. It took us nearly 2 hours to finish everything and leave the restaurant. A pretty nice experience as it was our first time there. The dessert is really a good ending to the whole meal. It simply hit the spot. There's some mango pomelo inside too. A very good mix.

Verdict:

This meal is TOTALLY fuss free! There's no washing to be done, nothing to prepare off, besides dressing up to a nice relaxing meal. If you look at the pricing individually, they are not that expensive and rather worth the quality. A good place to bring your parents or future in-laws. There will bound to be something for everyone. =)=)=)=)=) (5/5)

ps total damage for the meal above with all the rice, tea etc, was nearly $300.

The Gourment Collection - Garlic Bread Spice Blend

Noticed this new collection of spices at NTUC and I can't control myself and bought one bottle of the Garlic Bread Spice Blend. According to the packaging, this collection is made in Vietnam with both imported and local ingredients. If I didn't recall wrongly, one big bottle of 170g cost around $6 at NTUC. They also have sea salt, black pepper, and some other blends for pasta.

The suggested recipe is Garlic Bread and so decided to go with it.

The Gourmet Collection Garlic Bread

1) Butter some bread

2) Sprinkle the spice blend generously over

3) Toast the bread in a toaster oven for 5 minutes

4) Serve warm

Verdict:

Interestingly, the spice blend has some dried chili in it, and hence, spicy garlic bread. Not something I fancy. But boyfriend like the hint of spiciness in his garlic bread. And you do have to sprinkle the spice blend generously as the taste is quite mild. Overall was still alright. But I wish the bottle comes with a cover with holes so as to ease the sprinkling. Otherwise I have to pour some into a bowl and use a spoon to sprinkler over the bread. Will try with pasta next time, should go well with it. This is as fuss-free as homemade garlic bread can go if you don't like store-brought garlic butter spread and yet don't wish to chop your own garlic. =)=)=)=)=) (5/5)

xTina's simple Roti-John


Wanting a slightly better breakfast besides toasting the baguettes in the toaster oven, I decided to prepare a simplified xTina's Roti-John.

The baguettes are from Delifrance. Easily available and you can always get the staff to slice it up or half it for you. Fuss-free! =D


xTina's Simple Roti-John

1) Since my baguettes are already 2-day-old, I slightly toasted them on a flat-pan with butter for the baguettes to be slightly crispy. Remove from pan.

2) Beat up two eggs and chop some onions. I used two mini onions.

3) Stir-fry the onions with some butter. Season with a pinch of garlic salt and black pepper, to taste. Remove from pan and add into the eggs mixture.

4) Slice some cheese, can omit if you don't like cheese.

5) Butter the flat pan, mine was 22cm. Remove from heat and pour in all the eggs mixture. Place the cheese apart from each other according to the position of how you want to place your sliced baguettes on the pan.

6) Put the pan back to heat and position the baguettes accordingly to the cheese. Mine can hold 6 slices.

7) Let the egg cook for awhile and turn-over when its less runny. Remove and serve once the egg is cooked.


Verdict:

Though quite a number of steps, but its actually pretty easy! Its really a pretty fuss-free way to prepare a warm breakfast. Pair it with a cup of coffee or Milo if you like. Personally, I like the slight hint of spiciness from the black pepper and the melted cheese oozing out when I bite into the roti-john. Can try adding some ham too. =)=)=)=) (4/5 as you would need to do some preparation but definitely worth the trouble)

Woh Hup Kung Po Sauce

Woh Hup is one of the more popular ready-to-use sauces in Singapore and widely available in supermarkets. Know why I love such stuffs? Because its fuss-free! The bottles of sauces are already jam-packed with favour. Just add in meat and/ or vege and you can easily create a tasty dish for everyone.

First sauce to say 'Hello' to everyone would be Kung Po Sauce.

What I did was cut up two pieces of chicken breast meat to bite size and marinate it with about 3 teaspoon of Kung Po Sauce, some corn flour and sesame oil. I just love sesame oil and adds a little to almost everything I cook. I also like to throw in some sliced onion into bottled sauce + meat dishes, I marinated the onions together with the chicken meat.

Normally I will marinate my stuffs for at least an hour before cooking.

For cooking, I fried around 3 tablespoon of the sauce in oil first before pouring in the marinated chicken and onions in. Added some water too as I didnt want the gravy to be too dry and also not to dry up the meat as I'm using chicken breast.

And tada~ One meat dish on the dinning table done in less than 15 minutes cooking time.

P.s. add some sugar if you find the sauce too spicy.

Isnt that easy?

Verdict:

The sauce is good enough to do without any other seasoning, which makes it super fuss-free. But a tad too spicy for it. The spiciness will starts to well up from your throat after eating. The gravy and onions are good enough for me to go with my plain rice. Overall, something you should buy for a quick and easy dish anytime. =)=)=)=)=) (5/5)

Decent cooking cannot get easier than this.

Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre


Chinatown is the heart of the Chinese culture in Singapore. Not only is it a blasting little place during the Chinese New Year period, it houses lots of the traditional handmade delicacies. Though I did not grew up there, but my mum used to buy foodie from Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre for the family. The must-buy list had always been glutinous rice and sweet potato ball. For at least the last 20 years, the taste from these two stalls had not changed. But of course, the list of to-eat-food at Chinatown Complex are much much more than these.

Niu Che Shui Famous Glutinous Rice
Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre
#02-40

For all the times we went, the queue for this stall is forever growing, till the glutinous rice are sold out. It used to sell for $0.70 per plate and there's a big tea dispenser in front of the stall. Now, its $1.20, $1.50 and $2. But of course, the serving had increased too. According to my mum, this is the traditional Cantonese glutinous rice. And the only stall in Singapore that sells it. Its kinda sad that the uncle removed the tea, but its still as good as ever. Each plate will be piled with a mini hill of the glutinous rice and covered with a layer of crispy stuffs that consist of dry shrimps and garlic. This is something definitely worth waking up early for.

Xiang Xiang Cooked Food
Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre
#02-68

I hearts their golden balls (sweet potato balls) to the max! Its crispy on the outside and chewy in the inside. Everyone will be waiting for this golden balls at the stall because its always - roll the balls, deep fry, let it cool down, packed into paper bags and gone! Its fleshly made and highly demand. But this is not the only thing that is popular for this stall, EVERYTHING IS! The display is literally empty and every order comes directly from the 'kitchen'.

Stuffs I tried:
Sweet potato balls - 8pcs for $1 (MUST TRY!)

Ondeh Ondeh - 3 pcs for $1 (so-so, had tried better ones. but hot selling too)

Tapioca Kuih - 3 pcs for $1 (Must try too! Texture is good and taste gentle)

Fried Dumpling - $0.60 each (This is another traditional snacks. The plain-type of Chinese dumpling that are yellow in colour are being cut up and coated with a layer of flour before sending it to be deep fried and seasoned with some salt and pepper before eating. Another must try as no one else is selling this)

1950s Kopi and Toast Bread
Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre
#02-48

My brother highly recommend the 'kopi' (coffee) from this stall. I tried the teh-O (tea with sugar only) and its good! Both sweetness and thickness of the tea is just nice. And there's a fragrance coming from the cup of tea. But the traditional kaya toast that I ordered is kinda disappointing - the butter did not melt at all. Meaning the bread had already cooled down when they place the butter on it. But overall, the drinks are worth queuing up for.


Its pretty nice to wake up super early once in awhile for these traditional breakfast and soak yourself in our grandparents 'playground'. The parents can even do some marketing at the basement level!

Oreo Cheesecake (no-bake)

Im addicted to cheesecake-making. The only tough part is whipping the heavy cream. Thereafter, its pretty simple and fool-proof. However, this is the first time I did the gelatin powder the correct way - soak in water first, then using the double-boil method to dissolve it, cool to room temperature. O ya, and also doing the biscuit base in advance. Besides these, I declared no-bake cheesecake a fuss-free foodie!!


1. the whipped cream 2. dissolved gelatin powder 3. creamy base ready to pour into the tin

Tada~ My end product after chilling it for 4 hours.

Center view, which is better and looks more like an Oreo cake.

Vedict:

Its really an Oreo cheesecake, with only a hint of cream cheese in it. Suitable for those who doesn't really like cheese as the Oreo taste is pretty overwhelming. For future 'bake', will most likely increase the proportion for a 'taller' cake and lessen the Oreo amount to be mix into the 'body'. Overall, a successful attempt and pretty fuss-free! =)=)=)=) (4/5)

Recipe (modified from smallsmallbaker.blogspot.com/2011/05/non-bake-oreo-cheesecake.html)

Ingredients (makes one 6 inch loose-base round tin)

Biscuit Base: (i used 2 share of this)
50g Oreo cookies
25g melted butter

Cream Cheese Filling:
125g cream cheese
20g icing sugar (original called for 15g, but i didnt use any honey, so increased to 20g)
30ml milk
1/2 tbsp gelatin powder + 35g water
130ml whipping cream - whipped till medium peak (dairy or non-dairy)

6 Oreo cookies, blend finely or crush to small pieces (original called for 5, again, because i didnt use honey, hence the increase)

Method

Biscuit Base:
1. Remove the cream from the Oreo cookies. Blend or crush the cookies as fine as possible.
2. Combine with the melted butter. Press firmly onto the base of the cake tin.
3. Chill for at least 2 hours.

Cream Cheese Filling:
1. Measure water into a bowl and sprinkle in the gelatin (without stirring with a spoon). Set aside to allow the gelatin grains to swell (10 mins) before setting the bowl over a pot of simmering hot water. Stir with a spoon and once the gelatin melts, remove the bowl from the pot and set aside to cool to room temperature.
2. Beat cream cheese with icing sugar till well combined.
3. Add in fresh milk and mix till well combined. Add in gelatin mixture and mix well.
4. Fold in whipped cream and divide mixture into 2 portions.
5. Fold in crushed Oreo cookies.
6. Pour the Oreo cream cheese filling onto the set white cream cheese and level it.
7. Put into the fridge to let it set for 2 to 3 hours.
8. Slice and serve chilled.

LeLe Pork Chives Dumpling

LeLe Pork Chives Dumpling

I hearts fuss-free food! Since the time I learn to cook for myself via microwave and mini oven, I had always love feasting my eyes on the rows and rows of frozen food at supermarkets.

The first item to make it to the webby would be frozen dumplings! Theres a few brands in a normal supermarket and I was looking for a smaller packet as these are often left untouched in the freezer after a few times. So here we go...




Decided to cook the dumpling with instant noodles.

Tada~ My end product. Threw in another 2 taiwan hotdog too. (they are my favourite, no matter boiled or BBQ)

Verdict:

LeLe Pork Chives Dumpling: Skin is abit on the thick side. However, this might be the reason why the dumpling is able to survive the boiling and stiring. But the filling is 100% and with lots of chives. A healthy addition to the bowl of instant noodles. Worth having a packet in the freezer. =)=)=) (3/5)

Taiwan Hotdog: Though not the star of this entry, its my personal favourite! =)=)=)=)=)=) (6/5 because Im bais! haha)