Blueberry Cake

Bought a tub of fresh blueberries which were on sale. Normally I wouldn't buy them cos they are pretty expensive and would only get them for special occasions or when there's a bargain :)

Searched for a suitable recipe to use my tub of blueberries and found this blueberry cake recipe with a nice streusel topping... I've always loved to eat blueberries in muffins etc, so I thought I'd try something different! The bite into it was very comforting, it's especially nice when u eat it a little warm, it just crumbles into ur mouth! It was a welcoming change indeed, very delicious for tea, breakfast or just anytime of the day!

Blueberry Cake Recipe

from Joy of Baking

Streusel Topping:

1/3 cup (45 grams) all purpose flour

1/3 cup (65 grams) granulated white sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup (56 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Cake Batter:

1 cup (130 grams) all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup (56 grams) (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated white sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup (80 ml) milk

2 cups fresh blueberries

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C).

Butter, or spray with a nonstick vegetable spray, an 8 x 8 inch (20 x 20 cm) square pan or an 8 inch (20 cm) round cake pan.

For streusel topping: In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, and ground cinnamon. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or fork until it resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside while you make the cake batter.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter.

Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.

Add the egg and vanilla and beat until incorporated.

Add the flour mixture, alternately with the milk, and beat only until combined.

Spread the batter onto the bottom of the prepared pan, smoothing the top with an offset spatula.
Evenly arrange the blueberries on top of the cake batter and then sprinkle with the streusel topping.

Bake for about 40 - 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool slightly.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Gifts from My Oven :)

Made this chocolate muesli banana bread for my friend and sis. Loved the little loaf cases I got from Daiso, so pretty to giveaway your bakes in this!

I used the same recipe here. Just substitute with mashed bananas!

Pandan Chiffon Cake

I've always loved to eat Pandan chiffon cake since I was little, so fluffy, so light, so airy. In other words, you don't really feel guilty eating a couple of slices haha... Before venturing into baking this chiffon cake, I've always thought it as a daunting task. Searching for recipes is one thing, but actually baking the cake is another ball game altogether!

After baking a few chiffon cakes, I've found chiffon cakes to be the most challenging bakes of all time. You have to be so gentle when making this cake, the beating of the egg whites till stiff peaks, folding the whites into the yolks mixture, taking care not to burst the bubbles you have worked so hard in beating. Whites cannot be overbeaten, the whisks and bowl that you whisk has to be clean and grease free, otherwise you will never achieve stiff peaks.

I've had my fair share of disasters in making chiffon cakes, but this one turned out perfect. James loves to eat this too, so normally when I buy a packet of coconut milk, I can make it on 2 occasions.

Stiff peaks

Pandan Chiffon Cake recipe (18cm)

from here

Ingredients:

Batter A :

3 egg yolks

40 gm castor sugar

75 gm self raising flour, sifted

1 tbsp olive oil

100 ml coconut milk

1 tsp pandan paste

Batter B :

3 egg whites

40 gm sugar

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Method :

1. Whisk egg yolks with sugar till creamy. Then add in olive oil, coconut milk and pandan paste. Mixed well and fold in the flour. Set aside.

2. Whisk egg white with sugar and cream of tartar till stiff.

3. Fold in egg yolks batter into the egg whites batter. Mixed well and pour into a chiffon cake pan. ( I used a 18 cm pan )

4. Bake at 180 DC for 40 minutes. Invert the cake pan over a cooling rack and let it cool completely. Once cooled use a sharp knife to separate the chiffon cake from the cake pan.

Apple Chocolate Muesli Bread

Was rummaging through my fridge the other day and found a pack of Chocolate Muesli which I 'abandoned' some time ago. After checking that it's not expired yet, I decided to quickly look for a recipe which I can utilise it otherwise it'll go to waste :)

I like this recipe as it uses muesli which is healthy, and uses soya milk instead of normal milk. I added rolled oats on top of the loaf, a very healthy loaf of goodness indeed!

Freshly baked loaf of bread

The chocolate melted nicely with the baked apples

Chocolate muesli which I used

Apple Chocolate Muesli Bread

from Baking Bites

Ingredients:

1 cup muesli

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 cup vanilla soy milk

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup diced apples

Method:

Preheat oven to 375F and grease and 8×4-inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together muesli, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg.

In a small bowl, beat egg with sugar, then add in soy milk, oil and vanilla.

Add sugar mixture to flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Stir in blueberries.

Pour batter into prepared pan and top with a few tablespoons of oats or muesli.

Bake at 375F for 55-60 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.

Remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Makes 1 loaf.

Homemade Tang Yuan soup

I've always loved tang yuans since young. I remembered my grandma used to make this during the festival and we always had 2 colours- white & pink, of cos the latter is my favourite :) I love the smell of the dough too when we were all rolling the balls together, those were the times, excellent memories embedded in my heart :) The chewy texture of the balls are to die for! It can be plain balls or can be filled with black sesame paste/red bean/peanuts etc. For this recipe, I made them plain, but with a variety of colours! :)

Recipe for Tang Yuan Soup

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup glutinous rice flour

2 sweet potatoes, cubed

1 tblsp barley

1 pc. gula melaka (cylinder shaped)

Few slices of ginger

Food colourings- green, blue, pink (optional)

1 tsp pandan essence

Water

Method:

1. Boil sweet potatoes, ginger slices & barley in a pot of boiling water till soft

2. Add pandan essence & gula melaka and continue to simmer on low fire

3. Mix flour with enough water and use hands to form a soft dough, or till it doesn't stick to the sides of the bowl. Don't add too much at once, at a little at a time
4. Divide dough into 4 portions

5. Use toothpick to dab colourings onto the dough, a little goes a long way (see picture above)

6. Mix colouring into dough till desired colours achieved.

7. In a separate pot of boiling water, roll dough into balls and drop them in.

8. Once they float up, dish them into the 1st pot with all other ingredients.

9. Let all the tang yuans simmer for a while to allow all flavours to mingle.

10. Serve hot!

This makes a lovely dessert, easy and quick to make!

Mango Oat & Orange Poppyseed Muffins

Saw this basic recipe for Banana Oat Muffins and since it sounded so healthy, I ought to give it a try :) Since I had no ripen bananas in my kitchen, I did have a really ripe mango my hubby's friend gave. So in goes the mango into my muffin recipe :)

You have heard of the combo of lemon & poppyseeds or orange & poppyseeds, but have you heard of mango with poppyseeds? I honestly have not. Well, I altered the recipe accordingly to try out this new flavour! I must say that some fruits are better eaten fresh, like mango for instance. You can taste a hint of mango flavour in the muffins, but you can't taste the pungent mango flavour like you would if you ate it fresh :)

Recipe for Mango Oat & Orange Poppyseed Muffins

from Happy Home Baking

Ingredients:

(makes 12 standard sized muffins, I used bigger cups as above and got 6 muffins)

120g plain flour

94g oat bran (I used rolled oats)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 box (net wt. 42.5g) Sun.Maid raisins (I did not use raisins in this recipe)

1 egg, lightly beaten

100g sugar

1/4 cup oil

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

3 medium sized bananas, mashed (I used mashed mangoes for Mango oat muffins and orange paste + poppy seeds for Orange poppyseed muffins instead)

1 ripe mango

1 tblsp poppyseeds

1 tsp orange paste

Method:

1. Mix flour, oat bran, baking powder, baking soda and raisins in a bowl.
2. Combine egg, sugar, oil, vanilla essence and mashed bananas in another bowl.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture. Stir until just blended.
4. Fill muffin cups/liners till almost full. Bake in preheated oven at 200 degC for 20 to 25 mins.

This recipe is adapted from "The 250 Best Muffin Recipes, by Esther Brody".

Chocolate cake-bread (no-bake)

I've always been intrigued by no-bake recipes, somehow the words 'no-bake' always attracts me. No-bake cheesecakes, cookies etc. It gives me the feeling that it's much easier than baking recipes hehe... Well, I have to say that not all of them turn out right though.

This teaches me not to just pick any random recipe from the web from unknown sources or sites which cannot be trusted, they don't give a ^%%$ about whether your bake turns out right or not! After all, you wouldn't want all your pain & sweat to go down the drain or right into the bin right!

Anyway, that is one of the reasons why I started this blog, to share recipes with friends who share the same passion as me. And all recipes that I've posted in this blog have been tried & tested by me, that is why every recipe is only posted once I've tried them out, always accompanied with a photo of the finished product. I've learned through the hard way, now I want my friends not to follow my footsteps :)

Ok back to this recipe, this chocolate cake actually makes use of bread, you can opt for white or wholemeal, it's entirely up to you. Choose a chocolate which you like to eat out of hand. So you can actually say it's more of a chocolate bread. Very interesting texture, extremely easy to make. Easy to satisfy any chocolate cravings you've been having ;)



Chocolate cake (no-bake)
Recipe from here

Ingredients:

6-8 slices of bread (shredded)
60g unsalted butter
120ml cream
3 tablespoon rum (use more if you want a stronger flavour!)
200g chocolate

*I used a loaf pan, line pan with aluminium foil, extra on the sides to lift up the cake easily later

Method:

1. Double boil butter & chocolate to melt
2. Once melted, remove from heat, stir in cream & rum
3. Add in shredded bread
4. Mix to combine (it'll be fairly thick)
5. Scoop into ready lined mould, press hard into mould
6. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
7. To remove, just lift up aluminium foil.
8. Cut & serve, enjoy! :)

Mix in cream & rum into melted chocolate + butter

Toss in bread and mix to combine

Press hard into mould