Butter Cake

I had this recipe for a while courtesy from one of the Chefs who happens to be one of the instructor during one of my Cake Deco course, 2 years ago. Recently, I had to bake for my friend son's birthday and she has always loved vanilla and butter cakes. I decided to use this recipe which I have adjusted some of the ingredients. I do not like a cake too sweet and can you imagine a sweet cake with buttercream frosting, it will make my sugar level sky rocketing....LOL!!
Anyway the full recipe is good for a 10 inch cake pan but when I bake this cake, I actually use a 6 inch round cake pan and 8 inch square pan.

Well, I like plain butter cake to go with my tea, a wonderful treat for a perfect afternoon. Happy Baking all and here's the recipe:-



Ingredients:-
400 gm butter
350 gm caster sugar
7 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
400 gm self raising flour
200 gm fresh milk

Method:-
1. Grease and line with baking paper a 10 inch baking pan.
1. Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
2. Add egg one at a time and beat till fully incorporated.
3. Add essence vanilla and mix well.
4. Fold in the sifted flour and milk alternately.
5. Pour batter in a cake pan and bake in a preheated oven 180C for 50 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean.


Note: to make Self Raising Flour, simply combine 1kg of plain flour and tbsp baking powder - sieved.

Macadamian Cheese Cake

I am privileged to share this wonderful recipe to my readers. Thanks to my Sifu Datin Permaisuri whom as always, so willingly sharing her good recipes with everyone. God bless you always my fren, Insyaallah.

Trust me its not hard to make this delicious cake for you to serve the family or as a gift to bring to your friend's house when you are invited. When you read the recipe you might think there's just too many steps but its not difficult. Give it a go and you will enjoy another scrumptious treat.

Ingredients:-

(For the batter)
600 gm cream cheese (at room temperature)
100 gm caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs (lightly beaten)

(For the base)
160 gm digestive biscuits
40 gm butter (melted)

(For Nut brittle)
150 gm macadamia nuts
90 gm caster sugar

(For Caramel Sauce)
65gm butter
160 gm caster sugar
100 ml whipping cream

Method:-


For the nut brittle
1. Scatter the macadamia nuts over a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown. (You can skip this process by buying the readily roasted macadamian nuts like I did)
★ Line a baking tray with parchment paper (this is to put the nut brittle in to cool it down later)
2. Place the sugar in a large saucepan. Heat gently until the sugar melts. Do not stir until the sugar browns. Add the roasted nut and carefully mix with a wooden spoon until most of the nuts are coated with caramelised sugar. Pour them onto baking tray and leave to cool until the brittle hardened. Chop very roughly and set aside.

For Caramel Sauce
1. Put sugar, butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan and stir constantly over medium heat with a wooden spoon until it becomes dark brown caramel. Be careful not to burn. Add the cream and stir vigorously until all mixes well. Let it cool.

For the cake
1. Pre-heat oven to 140C - 285F, grease a 20 cm loose base cake tin (springform).
2. Whiz the bisucits in a food processor (or put in a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin until it becomes like bread crumb). Add the melted butter and mix to a wet, sandy consistency, Put the mixture in the tin and flatten with a spoon. Set aside.
3. Beat sugar and cream cheese till smooth. Add the beaten egg and continue to beat until fully incorporated. Add the vanila extract and mix well.
4. Pour the batter over the biscuit base and place in the oven for about 60-70 minutes (or until the wooden skewer comes out clean). Let the cake cool completely. You can remove the cake more easily when it is completely cool and set or chill if for couple of hours.

To finish the cake, dust with icing sugar. Spoon the sauce in the middle of the cake, allow it to spill over. Scatter the nut brittle on top. the cake will keep in the fridge for 3 days.

Recipe courtesy of Ana.

Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes

A friend recently asked me to bake for her Halloween Party and her son's birthday too. She wanted a mix of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes. In making chocolate cupcakes, I do not have a problem at all as the recipe I usually use is reliable but when it comes to Vanilla cupcakes.........sigh sometimes ok and most of the time K O. Have been searching for a reliable recipe for ages until I found one from glorioustreats.blogspot.com. Thank you Gloria.





Here's the recipe

Ingredients:-
1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup buttermilk

Method:-
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Sieve together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. Beat eggs for 10-20 seconds and add sugar. Continue to beat till well incorporated.
4. Add vanilla essence and oil and continute to beat.
5. Add flour and buttermilk alternately.
6. Fill liners 2/3 full. (But I only fill my liners 1/2 full)
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes depending on the size of your liner.

Cool completely before frosting them with buttercream icing.

Indeed, we all had a good time at the Halloween Party and the kids was a bit reluctant to leave when its time to say bye-bye. Trick or Treat!!

Chocolate Cake

Last Saturday we were invited to a friend's place to celebrate their son's new achievement. At a tender age of 9, he has completed reading the Holy Quran. Of course dont compare if you are in Malaysia or any other Muslim country, I know there are even younger children who has become Tahfiz (Tahfiz means a person who memorise the Holy Quran) at an even younger age. But being abroad and not living in a Muslim environment with scarce source of ustaz/ustazah, I am very impressed and putting me to shame as none of my children has done it. Alhamdulillah, I have got a new mission to achieve this time to ensure that my kids will be able to complete the Holy Quran and Insyaallah, to have Majlis Khatam Quran for them one day. It was a simple do with him reciting to us Surah Al-Fatihah and some Ayat from the Separa and finish off with a Doa. It sure did touch my heart and it was so rejuvenating.

My other half requested that I made chocolate cake for us to bring along. Here's the recipe I got from my PIC quite a while ago.

Ingredients:-

250gm butter
1 3/4 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/3 cup hot water
3 tbsp milk powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:-
1. Combine cocoa powder and hot water, mix well and set aside.
2. Sieve together plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and milk powder.
3. Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs one at a time and beat till fully incorporated.
5. Add vanilla essence.
6. Add 1/3 flour mixture and 1/3 cocoa mixture alternately. Repeat till finish.
7. Bake in a preheated oven 160C for 50 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean.

Let the cake cool completely before spreading with butter cream or chocolate ganache.

Chocolate Ganache

250 ml cream
250 gm dark chocolate or milk chocolate (up to your liking)
30 gm butter
a pinch of salt
1tbsp of caster sugar (optional)


Method:
1. Heat the cream until it begins to boil. Remove from heat.
2. Add the chopped chocolate, sugar and salt. Stir.
3. Add the butter and still till become smooth.
4. Chill the chocolate mixture for a while before spreading in onto the cake.

Putu Mayam or Iddiappam or String Hoppers

Its still not too late to wish all my Indian friends Happy Deepavali. Diwali or Deepavali popularly known as the "festival of lights," is a festival celebrated between mid-October and mid-November for different reasons. For Hindus, Diwali is one of the most important festivals of the year and is celebrated in families by performing traditional activities together in their homes. In Malaysia, Deepavali is another important celebration. Growing up in a country of multi-races, I have fond memories of Deepavali too. I remember when I was small, we went to our neighbours house for Deepavali and was served Putu Mayam with Chicken Curry and was surprised coz the only way I know of eating it, is with brown sugar and freshly grated coconut. Lol..how pathetic. But today, Putu Mayam and chicken curry is no longer a rare sight on our dining table.
Being away from home, not that we celebrate Deepavali but just to add some cheerful mood for the day or to make it sound grandeur in the kitchen, I made Putu Mayam and chicken curry for dinner.

Putu Mayam or most commonly known as idiyappam or string hoppers is a dish from Southern India. Being married to one, I was taught by MIL to make them. It is made of rice flour, salt and water. It is generally served as the main course at breakfast or dinner together with curry (potato, egg, fish or meat curry) and coconut chutney. It is not usually served at lunch.

Here's how to make it:-
Ingredients:-

500 gm rice flour
1tsp salt
600ml boiling water

Method:
1. Mix flour and salt in a bowl.
2. Add the boiling water and by using a wooden spatula combine all ingredients to make a soft dough.
3. Put the dough into the pressing mould and press the dough into a round shape on a bamboo rack and steam for7-10 minutes depending on the size. Repeat till finish.

Serve with your favorite curry or like me, I simply enjoy eating them with fresly grated coconut and brown sugar.

I'm back with ............Marvelous Marble Cake

Assalamualaikum and Greetings to all my fellow readers
Yes, it's been more than a year since my last entry. Lol.......no explanation on my part or shall I say I was hybernating. Well, since I owe family members and friends a lot of recipe and becoming forgetful of late. I better start putting my entries again for my loved ones future reference.
Otherwise, Alhamdulillah, I am all fine and healthy and so busy with my role as the Manager of Home Affairs.

Anyway, long story short, I went home last week and was so lucky to have a friend baked me her marble cake or shall I say marbleous cake. It was really the taste I was expecting when I ate them. Yes, I love to bake but usually doesnt eat them and there's only a few cake that I like. Was so happy that I got to share her marbleous cake with my family and she did bake another one for me to bring back to HK so that I could share it with my PA and my other half, unfortunately didnt have time to pick it up at her house.......sigh.......takde rezki la tu. But I told her to keep the cake in the freezer for me till I return next...lol!!

Left KL very early morning and got home around 3 in the afternoon and didnt sleep at all the nite before. Feeling so exhausted as I reached home but somehow couldnt go to sleep and feeling restless. Hb wasnt home when I arrived and thought of making something sweet for tea. Jump off from the sofa and head straight to the kitchen. Yes, it was the marble cake I made using half of the ingredients from my friend's original recipe.
Unfortunately, I didnt have few ingredients i.e. ovalette and choc. emulco but that doesnt dampen my spirit to bake. A quick call to my baking sifu friend and voilla................done!! Thanks again Ana for sharing your recipe. God bless you my fren.
The cake turned out allright and tasted good but it wasnt light and fluffy as Ana made coz I did not have the ovalette. Went to few supermarkets here yesterday and looking for ovalette but couldnt find any on the shelf. Perhaps, I have to go to the special bakery store to find them here or otherwise wait for my PIC who will be coming soon from KL and bring me some.


Trust me it is so easy to make this cake and I simply luv it!! The tip here is to use good quality butter. Here's the recipe

Ingredients:
250gm butter (I use Lurpark unsalted butter) at room temperature
150 gm caster sugar
3 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
1 tsp essence vanilla
1 tsp ovalette (I didnt use at all)
2 tbsp condensed milk
175gm plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp chocolate emulco (optional, I didnt use either as I dont have any)

Method:-
1. Sieve together flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside.
2. In a mixer, combine butter, sugar, eggs, ovalette, condensed milk and essence vanilla. Beat until well mix for 10 minutes.
3. Add in the flour mixture and mix until fully incorporated.
4. Divide batter into 2 portion. Add chocolate emulco and cocoa powder into half of the batter.
5. Grease and flour pan or line with baking paper. I use 9 x 4 inch rectangular mould.
6. Scoop the batter alternating between plain and cocoa mixture. Repeat till finish.
7. Bake in a preheated oven 150C for 1 hour 10 minutes.

On the same day, half gone and when my other half complimented saying the cake was nice.........mak ai...akak senyum sampai ke telinga you!! Selamat mencuba.