Mama's Moist Chocolate Cake

When I was younger... my mum used to make this Moist Chocolate Cake every festive season i.e. Chinese New Year and Christmas. I've never tried baking it myself before and this was my first attempt. I think her's was more moist.



Ingredients
1 Cup Evaporated Milk - at room tempreture } add together to get
1 Tbsp Vinegar } Soured Milk
1 1/2 Cup Flour
1 1/4 Cup Castor Sugar
1/2 Cup Cocoa Powder
1 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda Powder
125g Butter - melted
2 eggs
1 Tsp Vanilla Essence

Method
1. Grease tin and line bottom with greaseproof paper.
2. Add Evaporated Milk with Vinegar and let it stand to get Soured Milk
3. Sieve the Flour, Castor Sugar, Cocoa Powder and Baking Soda into mixer bowl.
4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients. Pour in the melted butter and half cup of Soured Milk. Beat at medium speed for 2 mins.
5. Add the remaining Soured Milk, eggs and vanilla essence - Beat at medium speed for another 2 minutes or so.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake at 180'C for 35 - 40mins or until cooked.


Happy Birthday Malaysia!

Bread with Breadmaking Machine ~ Attempt #2

Simply Perfect!

This is the 2nd attempt with the Breadmaking machine using the recipe from "Giant Book of Bread Machine Recipes" ~ Norman A. Garret.

It's suppose to be a Basic White Bread recipe using 3 Cups of Bread Flour... but I didn't have enough White Bread Flour at home. So I had 2.5 Cups White Bread Flour + 0.5 Cups of Wholemeal Bread Flour.

Everything else stayed the same.... the result is fantastic. Here's a 1.5 pound Light Wholemeal Bread Loaf :-)

Square California Raisin Brioche

This was from the FLAVOURS - California Raisins Baking Workshop I attended with my Taiso (elder SIL) during the last weekend of July. Chef Yukichi Matsubara from "The Loaf" ~ Tun M's bakery in Langkawi & Pavillion KL shared with us 3 recipes.This is called "Square California Raisin Brioche"

Overall the workshop was entertaining & worth attending. Plus Chef Yu is quite handsome too ;)

(makes 10)

160g High Protien (Bread) Flour
40g Plain or Cake Flour
14g Fresh Yeast or 6g Instant Dry Yeast
80ml Milk
40g Egg Yolk
34g Honey
3.6g Salt
20g Unsalted Butter (softened)
120g California Raisins, washed with hot water
40g Diced Candied Orange Peel
160g Cream Cheese, chilled



Almond Topping
40g Fine Sugar
80g Almond Powder
80g Egg White

Decoration

50g Almond Flakes

10g Icing Sugar

20g White Chocolate, melted in microwave, bain marie or double boiler

20no California Raisins

To make dough:

Sift the flours together. Stir the yeast into the milk. Place the flours, egg yolk, honey, salt and milk-and-yeast mixture in the bowl of a mixer. Using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed for 2 minutes. Add the butter and mix on medium-low speed for 8 minutes.

Add the California raisins and candied orange peel, and mix on low speed for another 2 minutes. Wrap the dough in cling film and set aside to prood for 1 hour at room tempreture.

To fold in the cheese:

Place the cream cheese on a piece of cling film and cover with another piece of cling film. Using a rolling pin, roll the cheese into a 12cm square sheet.

Dust the worktop with some flour and roll the bread dough into a 20cm square. Place the cream cheese in the centre of the bread dough and fold the four corners in... to cover the cheese (like a square envelope).

Roll the dough out to 40 x 20cm rectangle. Fold the top and bottom of the dough so that they overlap to form a 36 x 20cm sheet. Fold the two opposite ends of the dough so that they overlap to form a 20 x 12cm rectangle.

Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Roll it out to a 30 x 12 cm sheet. Cut the sheet in half too form two 30 x 6 cm rectangles. Cut each into five 6 cm squares to get 10 square pieces in total.

To add topping:

Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Place the bread squares on the tray. Mix the almond topping ingredients together and spread on the dough (about 15g each). Sprinkle with the almond flakes. Set aside to proof for 45 minutes at room tempreture.

To bake :

Preheat the oven to 180'C. Bake for 15 minutes or until brioche is golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool completely on wire rack.

To decorate:

Dust brioche with icing sugar and pipe the melted white chocolate on top in diagonal lines. Place 2 California raisins in the center of each brioche.

Bread with Breadmaking Machine ~ Failure??

Forgive my long silence.... have been distracted, down (but not out) & sort of lost my motivation to try anything new :p

Mummy, is this how a 1 pound white bread suppose to look like ? I followed the recipe to the dot.....

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.