Sweet Buns

What do you think? My 1st attempt in making soft buns - hehehe! They are still not as soft as those you get at our local bakeries unfortunately, but not too bad overall.

Sausage & Peanut Butter buns

Noticed my fancy wrap around sausage buns on the right? ;)

The basic sweet bun dough recipe was taken from Baked & Steamed Bun Recipe book #42 by One Publisher whose recipes from Daniel Chong. I think I am still lacking in something from this recipe which I suspect is the kneading process of the dough. I will share the recipe with you all once I've manage to get a more desired texture of my dough, ok?

Sugee Cake

After almost 6 mths of delaying.. I've finally tried baking Sugee Cake ;) My son surprised me when my good fren Popes brought over some Sugee Cake she had baked using her Aunt's Recipe (if not mistaken)... he LOVED it! Eventhough it wasn't Chocolate :p



So here is Pope's Sugee Cake Recipe :

1 pound Butter (approx 420g)
1/2 pount Sugee (approx 300g)
8 eggs
1 pound Sugar (approx 400g)
1/2 pound Plain Flour (approx 85g)
2 Tsp Baking Powder
2 Tsp Vanilla Essence

This would approximately fit into a Square 8inch Baking Tin.

I personally made a smaller version .. I halved the ingredients and managed to fit the cake mix into a 7inch Round Baking Tin.

Optional:
1 Tbsp Brandy
Chopped Nuts
Rose Essence / All Spice Powder

Method

1. Dry Sugee before using (pan fry dry)

2. Cream (with mixer) 1/2 pound Butter with Sugee - put aside.

3. Cream other 1/2 pound Butter with Sugar. Then add the eggs & Beat well. Add the Butter + Sugee mixture in as well and continue to beat.

4. Add the Flour, Baking Powder, Brandy, Vanilla Essense.

5. Bake in Moderate Heat Oven (150'C - 180'C) for about 40mins to 1 hour (until cooked)

Feeling Good after a Slow Start to the Day

Started my day in slow-motion... restless heart. Thinking-thinking :

should I try to get the bread flour in the morning?
should I call HY and see if she's home for me to drop by for a chat & share my Choc Chochip Muffins with her?
should I rush home to bake another batch?
should I go deposit cheque?

Aaaahhhh! Questions - questions!

Ended up :

Sms HY to ask how SY is doing coz he was having a fever 2 days ago.
Depositing Cheque
Stayed home to cook my Stew & whip up lunch.

Felt Great with my Pork Rib Stew was cooking & the aroma of spices started to fuse together :)

Felt Great when I "innovated" all the left overs together

Felt Great when the pork stir-fry with Plum sauce tasted really appetising for the kids.

Chocolate ChocChip Muffin

This is Muffin recipe is taken from "Makan - Cupcakes, Muffins, & Scones" by Azza Pwanchik. She called it Double Chocolate Muffins

My son in particular, requested for this flavour ;)

Ingredients:
2 Cups Flour
3/4 Cup Cocoa Powder
1 Cup Sugar
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1 Large Egg
1 Cup Milk
1/2 Cup Butter
1 1/2 Cup Mini Chocolate Chips




Method
1. Combine Flour, Sugar, Cocoa & Baking Powder in Large Bowl.

2. Whisk Egg, Milk, & melted Butter seperately in another bowl. Then pour in liquid ingredients into the dry (flour, sugar etc).


3. Add Chocolate Chips, while stirring until all mixed. Spoon batter evenly into 12 greased 2 inch muffin pans.


4. Bake in preheated 200'C oven for 20 minutes.

Chocolate Cake Attempt #1 ~ Failure!

Looks can be deceiving... looks normal on the outside.

A closer look....

After I sliced a piece... it's texture is like alot of air bubble holes.. and very very wet in the middle though the whole outside is crispy.

A better shot of the inside. The middle is almost like a jelly which will not cook/dry up. This recipe required 250ml Milk & 250ml Hot Water which made the whole cake mixture into a hot chocolate drink texture. It was suppose to be baked at 180'C for 30-35mins only.... I ended up baking it for 1hr 45mins cause the middle was still bubbling in the oven :p

School Holidays Pig Out!

On the last day of the 2 week school holidays... some of us SAHMs managed to get together after much postponement due to clash in schedules or illness (the haze is here).



We had 9 course lunch including soup. I sort of over did it but we had mostly veggies. Fried Chuin Quin (Seafood & Meat Minced with veggies wrapped in Fu Chok Skin), Steamed Taufu, Char Siew, Bittergourd, Long Beans & Sweet Corn Omellete, Chap Chai, Salmon Fish , Baby Choi Sum and Lotus Root Soup.

My home made char siew, tasted better this time round I think due to a better cut in pork belly. Kids loved this

My all time favourite is Bittergourd. This time I fried it with basic rempah & Onions.

This is a new entry. Grilled Salmon bites. Initially grilled it with salt & pepper but it turned out to be too "fishy" in smell... not appetising at all. So fried it in the wok with my spur of the moment creation of sauce made up of Maggi Abalone Sauce + HP Sauce + Pepper. Turned out to be quite nice afterall :p