Green Tea Red Bean Cake

This cake marks the history in my baking life! why ? ( I tell u later *)

I was quite obssessed with red beans , red bean bun, red bean soup, red bean pastry, ( I have a new - red bean tart, make soon) , and of cuz green tea with red bean cake.
I had an intention to pass this tin of red bean to my baker and make me a cake! just in case If anytime my sponge cake fails, I will not waste this red bean already, well anyway, I still need to try.

Again, I do not have any " cake decorating stand / revolving stand" in my house, do not bother to buy one either, too expensive as I only used it 1-2 times in a year. But today I need to use one! to help me out in creaming the cake. I think this is the only 'way' i can replace my cake revolving stand. Seng Seng's bicycle wheel! *


Hey, it works really! It turn around like the normal stand! I found it quite amused when I cream my cake on top of the wheel. and Now, even u have a real 'revolving stand', to help to spread the cream smoothly on a cake, need a lot of practice, and also again! I dont have the palette knife, aiks, whatever, i m not doing this for all times, just again 1-2 times in a year! I also realise, if you cannot make nice cream on the edge,or turn out unpresentable, argh, just finish off with lots of spinkles to cover up! ha haha



yum yum yum !



The green tea sponge cake turn out soft & fluffy. I m quite satisfy , as I did not scrimp on the red bean! lols!!!!

Ingredients ( 6" round cake)
cake flour 40g
green tea powder 5g
baking powder 1 t
corn flour 10g
olive oil 30g
milk 30g
egg yolk 50g
egg white 100g
cream of tartar 1 t
sugar 40g

[fillings]
some sweetenen cooked red bean
150g - 200g dairy cream
1 T powdered sugar
***** ( i cant figure out what is missing here)

[note: I m still not happy with the cream! I still think besides adding in sugar, there must be something to add in to make the cream tastier......like my baker's! ha ha, guess I need to continue pay more tuition fees here to break the code lols!!!!! G must be wanting to kill me ]

( Preheat oven at 180C)
1. Whisk the eggyolk with oil,milk and mix in flour, set aside.
2. Beat the eggwhite with cream of tartar until floamy, add in sugar , beat until soft peak.
3. Fold in step 1 into step 2 until incorporate.
4. bake at 180C for 20 mins

5. After baked, unmold the cake and over turn until completedly cool.
6. Carefully slice the cake.
7. Pour the dairy-cream in a bowl and fridge it at least 20 mins before whipped up.
8. After whipping the cream, spread on the cake, drop some red beans, cover with another layer of cream, and cover with the cake, repeat the same.
9. Fridge the cake for 1 hour.

Quicky

sometimes I just need something quick and tasty~ How I wish all cakes all pastry all in a box, just 1 mix, poof! everything nicely presented on a plate. ok, my castle on the cloud has gone!

I wasnt that fancy about korean instant noodle before, not until this korean movie ( korean version of F4), this is really a powefuly dreamy drama! everything is so perfect! ha ha, even the instant noodle they were eating - are so yummy! There you go, I bought my noodle in a cup of the above same brand one day, and eat in the office! so perfect! and the soup so yummy ! and I went back to the korean store at Asia City, bought the same brand, but in package form. Slightly spicy but still yum! I still think the noodle in a cup one nicer!

Korean instant noodle. hot hot !

Mango Mille Crepe

A Mille Crepe, A Thousand Thanks to dad for being so kind, so much considerations given, so everything to us~ ! Here's a mini 8 layer crepe ! ha ha, as opposed to a thousand layer ! mille means 'thousand' in french.


mum bought some apple mango from gaya street. 6 of them cost about RM 5. Being a bit 'high-spirit' today, I made some crepe, by sort of "play cheat" here. make 1 large sheet, cut into few pieces with cookie cutter, then spread with cream and mango, frozen it. Drizzle with some chocolate sauce & walnut. The crepe skin quite thick here, need more practice.

Crepe Ingredients
1/2 cup flour
1 egg
1/2 cup milk + 2 T milk
pinch of salt
1 T butter

Fillings
whipped cream
fresh mango

1. mix all the crepe ingredients together, make sure no lumps in the batter. I sieve the batter after mix.
2. heat up a pan, drop some butter / oil, pour the batter, make the crepe as thin as possible. ( really, need lots of practice + patience)
3. stack up the crepe, let cool.
4. Spread the crepe with some cream in middle, some mango on top, and repeat the same.
( I slice the mango with peeler, which helps a lot!)
5. make some chocolate sauce. I melt 2 T of chocolate chips in microwave, then mix 3-5 T of cream to dilute it, adjust it to your likings.

Chicken Cabbage Dumpling, AKA Chinese Ravioli

I made some very basic & easy dumplings for next week breakfast.

Did you realise most "wo-tiah" or "sui-jiao" ( pan fried or boiled) dumplings in KK are filled with dark colour meat, which is quite flavourful, with lots of minced onion and Tung coi especially for Shan Tung style dumpling! Of cuz I like them, I m not complaining.
However When I had my dumplings in Brisbane, they were filled with cabbages! and were not bathed in "dark soya", but well-seasoned. My fren's aunty also made dumpling with lots of cabbages!
Well, I think when we eat dumpling, it should balance with lots of vege (fiber)considering pounds of meat and carbohydrate counts here ( the skin) !

Ingredients (makes 50)
120 g Cabbage
250g Chicken fillet (minced)
20g ginger ( minced)
1 bunch of green shallot

(I used soup tablespoon to measure)
1 T sesame oil
3T cooking oil
1 T light soya
1 T oyster sauce


1. cut the cabbage and green shallot into tiny pieces
2. minced the meat with cleaver ( not too fine) dont use blender, it gives different texture. Use cleaver to chop on board! haha
3. Mix everything in a big bowl, marinate for 30 minutes in fridge.
4. put 1 teaspoon of meat in the center of the dumpling skin ( I bought my skin from Recipe House, Damai) , wet the half edge of the skin with water, and close it firmly. Frozen them!

Mixture of vege, meat and seasonings.

I like the bites of ginger, so I slice it thinly, julienne it, and dice it !

Simply boil it with pot of hot water, until all dumpling floating on top. That's the sign of cooked. I like how the 'crunchiness' of the cabbage when I eat it.

Cheese Chiffon Cake ( CCC )

I google quite a lot on Cheese Chiffon cake recipe ! non of them to my liking! Instead, I created my own cheese chiffon cake recipe! I modify from a Pandan chiffon cake tat I printed yesterday, it turned out fluffy , cottony , not dried. I wanted to pipe some lemon cream on top for decorations, again, no lemon, and I m so lazy go out to buy one!

Ingredients

3 egg yolks

30g castor sugar

75g cake flour

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp lemon juice ( add some zest if u like)

120ml milk

120g cheddar cheese

3 egg white

30g castor sugar

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Method

1. Prehead oven to 160C

2. Cut Cheddar cheese into cubes. Heat up the milk in a pan on slow fire. melt the cheese in the milk, keep stirring. Make sure dont cook on high fire, otherwise, cheese will cuddle up. Off fire and set aside to cool.

3. Cream the egg yolks with sugar until creamy pale. Then add in olive oil, milk, lemon juice. Mixed well and fold in the flour, set aside. ( I used hand-held mixer to beat)

4. Beat the eggwhites with cream of tartar until foamy, then add in sugar bit by bit until stiff.

5. FOR ME, I pour the eggyolk batter into the eggwhite in 1 go, and fold until incorporate.

6. Pour into a 18cm chiffon tin. Bake at 160C for 33 - 35 mins. ( everyone's oven varies here, mine is on the Hot side. so I turned to 160C. If built in oven, i guess 180?)

Cheddar cheese ..

Milk after cooked with cheddar cheese. I used a whisk to keep stirring until smooth after cooked.

egg white

Egg yolk batter into egg white

After pour into cake tin, hold the tube and side together, bang the pan on a table several times to release air bubbles in the batter. This will help to make a smooth surface, rather than use a spatula to spread smoothly.

Bob the builder

BoB The Builder , Can We Fix it ? Yes We Can !~ ( I suppose that should be sing by my baker! lols)

Pretty aye ? The so great about "D" is, D can change the Bob standing position to right with his imagination ! ( Original drawing for BoB The Builder is standing on the left hand side of the truck, named Scoop)

The room was full of "oohs & aahs" when I opened the cake box ! Especially Seng seng boy! He screams !! He is so happy & excited with the cake drawings!

He said we are noisy when we sang birthday song for him ! notty!

Happy Birthday Seng Seng Boy ! He is 5 this year.

This is my dearest notty seng seng boy ! he is really "cute" with his words, sometimes.

You will be surprised why I'm the one helping him cutting cake!both parents are busy with 'snap snap snap"

I'm trying not to spoilt the precious Bob-The-Builder drawing, by cutting here and there to avoid ! ha ha

This little boy, after the first cut with the plastic knife, he actually "clean the knife with his tongue"!! he is licking clean the knife"! eyewww!!!! the crowd requested to wash the knife before the 2nd cut ! ha ha ha ! he likes the cream so much! until without our attention, he stole '3-mini-balls' ( pearl piped cream) on the cake! quickly pop into his mouth! he really really love the cream.

" 3-mini-balls" stolen by seng seng boy

My dad keep telling me this is ice-cream cake! and the whole crowd tot this is ice=cream cake! This was normal sponge cake sandwiched with mango & blueberry and dairy cream! It was the cream that tasted so much like ice-cream when it's still cold.

A rare concoction ! mango + blueberry. sounds odd, but it is really nice ! yum yum

my baker --> www.ganache-ganache.blogspot.com

Seng Seng mom told me this is the prettiest cake ever since his 1st birthday!

Tell me how you tackle such situationssss

I need to get something out from my chest!

I feel really bad to put on blog, but seriously, i need consultations from everyone, gimme some advises on how to handle such situationsss . ( note: i put many sssss is because this is not the first time )

I have a grandma, a weirdo tat , make it this way, ungrateful creature at all !
I give a good example here: -
Last saturday, I organised a small dinner at Winner Hotel ( a restaurant in town tat you really need advance booking, otherwise, u do not have any seats at all, in order words, u can tell how famous it is.)
I have planned for this early dinner celebration ( due to next sat my cousin birthday, and i dont want to eat on actual day as lots of restaurant will be very pack) for Father's day. so I have booked the table and even pre-ordered the dishes. I put 5 persons for 6 dishes.

On Saturday morning, while we were having dim sum breakfast, I was suggesting to Dad, why not we invite Grandma too ? Dad happily said ok. But sis & mum not like it ( note: I get Grandma to join us, because I tot of this is a family gathering event, let her eat good food, enjoy a bit), eventhough I myself also not like Grandma, but, as a respect, I have to.

We order Yam pork (Kou-rou), fish maw soup, fried kai lan, steamed white pomfret Teochew style , fried prawns and crispy chicken. Overall the bill is at RM 130 ++ only.

This afternoon, I received a huge complaints from mum & sis tat, grandma 'bad-mouth' about us, the 4 of us, me, 2 sis, and mother, except father! ( grandma is the person tat only love her own sons, so she hardly complaint about her own sons, means my father)

1. She said we brought her to the lousiest restaurant !
2. she said we ordered the most yuckiest food at all!
3. she said we wasted money!
4. lastly, mum warn me not to invite grandma anymore! ( what a negative support here)

( I almost cried out when I hear the comment 1 & 2. because, the food are considered medium ranking food u see, as compared to we everyweekend brought her to eat at those cheap kopitiam..) She complained the soup is lousy! ( excuse me U grandma! the fish maw soup is Good!) and U make me feel embarassed when you dip my pomfret into tomato ketchup and eat!!!! are you telling the Chef in Winner hotel tat the food is tasteless?

She commented the yuckiest food, probably non of the dish she likes, because she only eat Sweet & sour food, which I hightly object to it! I feel really really hurt ! really really not nice!

THe most hurt here is, she even said to us during the dinner " The dish okay ah, not bad, somemore only 130++ )...now she said different things to other people !

Is this the beginning of the road I should learn how to go along ? Now I am thinking, what if one day my future Mother in Law is like that ?

Soft Butter cake

* mini birthday cake *

Fluffy Cloud, Warming Breeze ...
Lately I have googled a number of butter cakes recipe. everyone describes their cake as " The best, The only " recipe they had. so many " the The the" , which one is the real good butter cake ?
I realise western cakes are more dense, less-fluffy, and rich. Asian ( not all, but mostly) prefer soft, fluffy( but not airy) , bit spongy will do.

I took a reicpe from Loving Baking 's yummy butter cake. I changed 70% of the recipe, it turned out really good. Here's my own version of "soft" butter cake.
Ingredients
125g salted butter
30g sugar ( use fine sugar)
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence ( I omitted this, I explain why**)
45g Egg yolk (estimated 3 yolks)
1 Tbps milk
80g Cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
80g eggwhite
1 T cream of tartar
30g Sugar ( use fine sugar)

** I omitted vanilla essence in this butter cake. I always find the aroma of the vanilla essence is too overpowering ! I can't smell my "butter" even if I only drop 1/4 teasppoon of vanilla. Sometimes I find vanilla essence a bit like cough syrup! anyway, that is my personal opinion only. And this cake has a nice buttery smell without vanilla essence added.
Method
1. Preheat oven to 170C. Grease 6" round cake tin , put aside.
2. Beat butter, sugar until light and creamy. Add in the yolk one at one time and continue beat until creamy, add in 1 T milk.
3. Fold in sieved cake flour and baking powder into the step 2.
4. Whisk egg white with cream of tartar, then add in sugar. Whisk until Soft peaks.
5. For me, I pour the creamed butter mixture Into the eggwhite in one go, and fold until fully incorporated.
6. Bake the cake for 38 minutres at 170C. ( I think everyone's oven temperature varies here, so always check with skewer or toothpick comes clean, then considered cooked)
7. Remove the cake from tin and let cool.


Ha ha , my top part slight burnt, sigh, what an oven! However, the texture of the cake is soft, slighty spongy eggy feel, and moist, when I say moist, it means it does not climb on ur throat where you need water to flush down!

my sis last minute require a cake for friends, she wanted me to make a card like this , but I told her due to time constraint, this mini buttercake will do ; )

Sandakan Trip

We drove to Sandakan during the weekend for a 3Days 2Nights trip. I had some shopping spree in Sandakan ! I bought my tuna tin ayam brand ! which is really cheap! I bought 10 tins. I mean 3.90 as compared to 4.50 / 4.70 in KK, even just a few cents difference, well, at least I'm happy that my tuna are cheaper ! I bought some cheap nice imported Tops! I feel like I m staying at Brunei, but gooing down to Miri for weekend shopping.

After coming back from Sandakan, I decide to carry lots of celery and carrot stickss in my pocket anytime to remind me of 'detoxification' . A Strong word to remind myself that I had too much of prawns and pork during these short trip. my body is full of acidy now!

Here are some very distinctively good dishes I must bring to your attention, ur stomach's attention what I mean ;p

"Kam-Heong" fried prawn. Deep fried prawn with curry leave and cut cillies & Garlic. Very Good! The prawns are so fresh and big , and it is so crispy !

Dark soya Squid! Heavy Wok Breath and is tender to chew ! The sauce is the key taste here.

and the above 2 dishes u can eat at Jalan Sim Sim, The 8th Bridge. The good about this place is, U can pick your own fresh-catch seafood, and tell the chef how u want to be cooked. That's what we did.

Look at this pic. The left side where a lady with an apron, is an area of selling fresh-catch seafood ! so they are just next to each other. pick ur order, and find ur seat , ready to be served.


This is braised pork rib. In cantonese, is called " Qing-Haul" kuat. Very special name, very special meat to eat. ha ha ha

Deep Fried Prawn with Egg Yolk + Curry leave. Very Very Very nice.

These 2 dishes are from a shop named " Ga-Fan" restaurant, near IJM area.

I eat a lot, but I didnt take much photos, considering most pic are taken at nite, or during day time, relatives eating with us, u feel awkward when taking picture. Like the pork picture that I took, a guy which sitting at few tables away, immediately came and ask why taking photo? what is so special about the dish? U get what I mean???????????????????? I feel like telling him off don't be so Kampung !!!