Marble Butter Cake

I got this recipe from one of my close friend at the time when we are still in secondary school. At that time I was only 16 years old. This is the very first cake I baked, my very own butter cake. Now, I don't have to refer the recipe for making this cake as it's already in my mind☻

Do you know what present I give my hubby on our first Valentine's Day celebration?? It's this butter cake and a big DIY pillow made by me...hehe!! I still can't afford to buy him a present at that time. My father are a big fan of this butter cake and whenever I bake this cake, I will give him some.

Ingredients:

250 g butter (I usually use SCS brand, softened)

220 g castor sugar

5 large eggs

250 g cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

a pinch of salt

2 tbsp choco powder

2 - 3 tbsp water

Method:

Sieve cake flour, baking powder and salt together. Set aside.

In a big bowl, cream butter and sugar until it's pale and creamy.

Add in egg one at a time, mix until it's well combined.

Fold in the cake flour slowly spoon by spoon.

Scoop 3-4 spoon of the cake batter into another smaller bowl. Mix the choco powder and water until it's fully dissolve, strain if necessary and add it into the spoon out batter to get the chocolate mix batter.

Add the vanilla essense to the remaining batter in the bigger bowl.

Scoop the vanilla batter the the baking pan and follow by the chocolate batter and repeat this action again. Cover the top of the cake with vanilla batter.

Use a chopstick to draw zic-zac on top of it to get some nice marble pattern for the cake.

Bake the cake at 160c for 30 mins or until it's golden brown and the toothpicks inserted came out clean.

Notes:

We can make the orange flavoured butter cake by just replace the 2 tbsp water with orange juice and add in 1 tbsp of finely chopped orange rind.

We can always replace the 2 tbsp of water with milk for the basic butter cake. It's a easy recipe for butter cake, try it!

**Always cracked our eggs on a seperate cup before adding it in the butter mixture. We doesn't want to add a spoiled egg in the mixture right?? **

PS : I use new bundt pan for baking this cake and I have to reduce the temperature of my oven to 150c and cover the top with an aluminium foil after 20 minutes baking time and it took more than 30mins for the cake to fully cook. I found this pan gets warm easily and the bottom of the cake got burnt before the top of the cake are brown and cooked.

Happy Baking!!

(Non-Halal) Stir-Fried Bitter Gourd With Roasted Pork

Bitter gourd or bitter melon (translated from Chinese: 苦瓜; pinyin: kǔguā) are one of my favourite. Today, I'm going to share a simple and easy recipe of this stir-fried bitter gourd with all of you. One of my favourite recipe!!

For those who loves Bitter Gourd, I bet you'll love this dishes for sure☻

Ingredients:

1 large bitter gourd (slice in 1/2cm thick)
300 g roasted pork (slice into bite size)
1-2 tbsp spicy bean paste (it depends to the saltiness of the bean paste)
8-10 cloves garlic (smashed, you can chopped it-I like to have a bite on it!)
sugar (to taste)
oil (for stir-frying)
1/2 cup water

What to do:

Cut the bitter gourd into half, use spoon to remove the seed. Slice into 1/2cm thick.

Place the sliced bitter gourd into a bowl and sprinkle some salt on it, make sure all the bitter gourd are well coated with salt. Left it for 15-30mins (this is to reduce to bitterness of the bitter gourd) before raise it with water.

Heat some oil in the work and stir in the smashed whole garlic until slightly brown and fragrant. Dish up and set aside. Stir in the roast pork with the remaining oil for few minutes. Add the spicy bean paste and sugar. Continue to cooking till it's fragrant and a little bit dry (lower the fire at this time)

Add in the bitter gourd and continue stir-fried it for 2-3 minutes, let the bitter gourd all coated with bean paste and cook till it's fragrant. Pour in water, add in the fried garlic and cover the wok. Let it simmer in low fire for 5-10 mins (it depends, if you like the bitter gourd softer, it'll take longer time)

Taste the dish and adjust the taste by adding some salt and sugar to taste before you switch off fire.

Serve hot with rice.

Notes:

You can always replace the spicy bean paste with the non-spicy one if you don't like it spicy. For those who love spicy, you can always add some fresh chili slices in it. Add less bean paste first, some bean paste might taste salty and adjust the taste later after we cook the dishes. I buy the roasted pork from market. Just in case you can't get the roasted pork at your place, you can always replace it with pork belly meat. It taste just nice!

HAPPY COOKING!

Homemade Pandan Kaya

I've been buying the ready-made "kaya" (coconut jam) all the while for bread and my bao's filling. My grandma used to cook her own kaya. When I was small, I use to ate the kaya she cook for us. Her kaya are smooth and taste heavenly yummy. I got to know from my mom that, she use duck eggs for her kaya and added caramel in it. But, unfortunately... I didn't learn from her and I don't have her kaya recipe. My mom told me, my grandma don't have any particular recipe for her kaya. She'll measure all her ingredients with her cups, bowls or by hand, she just got her own recipe ~ lol..

After learning to make the steamed buns "bao". I just wanted to make my own kaya, when think of it's free from preservatives, colouring and it taste better as well. I browse for the kaya recipe and came across this simple and easy recipe in Kitchen Caper. Looking at the the kaya in her picture, it is really smooth with it's lovely natural green colour by using screwpine leaves. But, I didn't get the smooth kaya as seen in the Kitchen Caper's blog, I think I have "overcooked" my kaya, overcooking will produces lumpy kaya (next time I shall cook it in real slow fire***)

Here is the recipe for Pandan Kaya.

(Recipe from HERE)

Ingredients:

4 eggs

330 g castor sugar (if you want sweeter kaya, pls increase the sugar to 340/350 g)

400 ml coconut milk

8-10 piece pandan (screwpine leave)

Method:

Blend pandan (screwpine) leaves with 100ml of the coconut milk in a blender. Strain to discard pulp.
In a mixing bowl, lightly beat all the eggs.
Add sugar into beaten eggs. Use a hand whisk to stir mixture until all sugar dissolves (Note 1).
Add coconut milk and pandan juice in (1) into egg mixture. Stir well.
Pour kaya mixture through a sieve (Note 2) into another mixing bowl (stainless steel preferred).
Bring a pot of water to boil. Reduce fire and place mixing bowl over pot of barely simmering water(Note 3). The fire should be really slow (Note 4). Stir kaya occasionally for the first 25 minutes. When kaya starts to thicken, stir it continuously.
When kaya reaches the desired thickness, takes at least another 1 hour, remove it from heat. Cool completely (Note 5) before storing it in a clean jar. Keep refrigerated.
Spread over bread, plain crackers, serimuka etc.

NOTES:
1. It takes longer to dissolve granulated sugar than castor sugar. Make sure all the sugar dissolves before adding coconut milk.
2. The purpose of pouring kaya mixture through a sieve is to eliminate big air bubbles, formed during the whisking process. Existence of air bubbles will result in non-consistent or lumpy kaya.
3. I suggested double boiler heating method as this method would give a considerably slow heating effect to the kaya mixture. However, if your stove does come with a slow fire function, use direct method. The whole cooking time will be reduced.
4. With the real slow fire I was using, it took about 25 minutes before kaya mixture started to thicken. After this stage, stir mixture continuously as it gets thicken faster.
5. Kaya will turn thicker when it is cool.

Happy Cooking!

(Non-Halal) Black Bean Pork Ribs Soup

I think everyone knows this phrase "An Apple A Day, Keep The Doctor Away" but did you know that eating 7 black beans a day, keep the diseases away??? I read this from an article in a health magazine about Black Beans, its nutrients content and its health benefits, etc..etc... so, take more black beans for good health .. hahaha!! For more health information about this healthy food - BLACK BEAN and it's nutrition. Please click HERE (just in case you are unaware about it, please read!! )

Black beans and pork ribs makes good combination for this soup. It doesn't taste that delicious if we replace pork ribs with chicken. I have my own secret recipe for this soup by adding few slices of ginseng in it. It taste extremely delicious that everyone must try okay?? That's how I trick my kids to have ginseng as well ~lol. The ginseng chicken soup taste way too bitter for them.

pic above: The different between the cooked and un-cooked black beans. It'll expand double it's size when the beans are cooked.

Soup cooked with claypot and coal stove are always taste the BEST. But nowadays, the younger generation don't have a coal stove at home and don't even know how to use it. For me, I will use the double-boiling method or slow cooker as replacement. The soup we cook won't dries up with this 2 method and the meat retained it's juice and sweetness. It's definitely taste better than the boiling method. We'll get really clear soup too ~☻

My all time favourite Black Bean Soup.... Here is the recipe!! ☻~

Ingredients:

100g black bean
250g - 300g pork ribs(I use 300g)
6-8 slice ginseng(I put 8 slices)
15 red dates
1 tbsp wolf berries
1 tsp salt or to taste
1.5 litre water(add in a little more water if you want more soup)

Method:

Pick up damage black bean and raise, clean it with water. Place the black beans in a bowl and pre-soak it overnight. The beans will expand to double its actual size.

Wash and blanch the pork ribs with hot boiling water (for clearer soup and clean the meat purposes) and place the meat into double-boiler pot. Add in pre-soaked black beans, red dates, wolf berries and ginseng slices.

Pour in 1.5 litre water (normally I will use hot water for faster boiling) and fill the lower layer of the pot water and start cooking it in high heat till the water are boiling.

Once the water are boiling, turn down the heat and cook it in low heat for 60mins.

After 60mins, the black beans shall be soft at this time. Turn off the heat and add salt to taste.

Serve warm.

(serve: 5-6 medium bowl soup)

HAPPY COOKING!! ~☻

Basic Bao's Skin Recipe - Steamed Buns

Guess what I've been doing recently??? hahaha...it's this steamed buns and I really got addicted with it. Luckily, my kids still loved it even though they have this almost everyday. Must be yummy right??

Good "bao"(包) skin plays an important role in making a delicious "bao". Normally the delicious baos we can get at the coffeeshop out there are so soft, white and yummy. I got to know that, they'll add certain ingredients like ammonia, shortening, double action baking powder and vinegar to get that quality baos. It's added to make the bao's texture soft, fluffy and white. I don't know if the ingredients used will harm our body in long term, if we took too much of it. I was looking for a recipe that will produce the same quality baos but, use less of those ingredients. Simple and easy one, something that's more healthy for my family, my kids and I got this wonderful recipe from close friend of mine. They even teach me how to prove the dough correctly. Thank you, Hsien & Ai Lee!!

☻~ The picture above shows how soft and spongy texture the baos make from this recipe. I asked my son to press the bao with his finger and it's just back to it's shape as soon as he take off his finger. It's very soft and fluffy. TRUST ME!

Pic above: Char Siu filling bao on the left and kaya filling bao on the right.

Okay as I've promised, I speed up to post this recipe specially for my friends Wendy & Constance.

Ingredients:

(yield 19-20 buns)

130 g warm water
5 g instant yeast
300 g flour (I use Bluekey's "Bao" Flour)
80 g icing sugar
30 g oil

some 2"x2" paper for lining the baos

What to do!

In a big bowl (*allow some space for the mixture to expand), stir slowly to mix the yeast with warm water and a tablespoon of icing sugar (from the 80g icing sugar). Cover the cup with wet cloth. Set aside and let it prove for 45mins.

Meanwhile, sieve flour and icing sugar together into a big mixing bowl.

After 45 mins, stir the yeast mixture. Add in oil and yeast mixture into the sieve flour. Use a spoon to mix it to crumble and start kneading the dough with hand. The dough will be a bit sticky at first, knead until it's soft and smooth. It takes approximately 20-25mins depend on how you knead it. Cover the bowl with wet cloth or cling wrap and let the dough rest for 15mins.

After 15mins, the dough are ready to be wrapped with its fillings. Cut and weight the dough into 30g (you can always make bigger one like 40g) balls. Start to fill the dough with fillings of your choice (kaya/coconut jam, tausa/red bean paste, lian yong/lotus paste, corn paste or bbq pork etc..)

To assembles the "BAO"

Roll the 30g dough ball into 2" diameter, this time make sure the edges are thinner than the centre part. Spoon the fillings in the centre of the skin, fold and seal it.

Place the fold and seal top face the lined paper (it's totally opposite from BBQ baos where the sealing part are on the top)

Continue to finished up all the dough. Make sure you cover the finished bao's with a wet cloth to prevent it from dries up. Let the bao's rest at somewhere warm for about 30-45mins (this depend on how long you take to fold and seal all your baos) At this time you can starts to get your steamer ready. Water in the steamer must be boiling before you put the baos to steam.

PLEASE TAKE NOTE : If you are spending longer time to wrap the baos then maybe you have to cut short the time to *20mins-25mins, before you steamed it in high heat. (You should see the bao's grown bigger after 30mins proofing~☻)

Notes: Please take note, over proofing the bao dough will cause the "wrinkled" skin on the baos. You can always replace the oil with the "same amount" of shortening (just in case you still have it at home) but, I prefer just using corn oil. The texture of the skin are very much depend on how you knead the dough, make sure you knead it the right way by fold and push down the dough with your wrist, repeat this action till the dough are smooth. It's not press the dough with our palm actually !!!☻

Tips: For easier wrapping, folding and sealing. Always refrigerated the fillings we want to use for at least 1-2 hrs before we using them. This will makes the filling sticking together and turn hard and it won't mess the skin when we fold and seal the skin. You can always cook your own kaya or just get the ready made fillings from the supermarket.

P/S: Please do leave me a message if you are using this recipe and leave me your link as I would love to see on how your bao's skin turn out and if this recipe really works for you!!!

AMY

Easy Steamed Cake - "Ma Lai Koh"

I come through this steamed cake "Ma Lai Koh" recipe at My Kitchen Snippets and give it a try. Why not other types of cakes or kuih but I choose to make this??? It's all because of my girls. They both loves this type of cake and will ask me to buy for them whenever they follows me to the market. There are pandan flavour and palm sugar one sold at the market. I will try out the palm sugar one next time.

Very simple and yet delicious cake. My daughters told me, "Mommy, this cake is delicious!!!" ~☻ All the tiredness recharged when we heard this right??? ~lol (wink*)

Here is the recipe for this steamed cake - "Ma Lai Koh".

(Recipe from My Kitchen Snippets)

Ingredients:

(A)
5 eggs
200 g castor sugar (I use 190 g)

(B)
100 ml vegetable oil (I use corn oil)
130 ml milk

(C)
280 g flour (I use cake flour)
4 tbsp custard powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 of baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Method:

Sieve together the ingredients in (C) in a bowl and set aside.

Whisk (A) until light and creamy. Fold in (B) and then (C) until well combined.

Pour cake batter into a well greased 8"x8" pan and steam it on high heat for 30 mins or until skewer comes out clean when tested.

Let the cake cool complete before cutting.

Notes: The custard powder is added to make the cake turn out in yellow colour and it doesn't help much with it's flavour. You may omit it if you are making the pandan or palm sugar flavour cakes.

Sweet Cinnamon Rolls

After I take out all my baking ingredients in my kitchen cupboard to wipe and rearrange them back. I checked one by one it's expired date and only notice that I still got one pack of Bread Flour untouched which is expiring very soon on 30 April. Oh my god, I must finished this 1kg bread flour in one week time. I think I will use it to make some sweet buns and use it for making Pizza Crust again. Since I still didn't get myself a bread maker, kneading the dough using my hand are really time consuming.

I read most of the recipes for making bread are using machine to knead the dough, I don't know if I can hand knead the dough. Again, this time I use the recipe from Constance and I just shape it the other way making them into small buns.

HAPPY BAKING!!