Imaginations run wild!

Baking is a form of art. Decorating is another form of art. A chef is no difference from an artist. One puts his/her artistic form into food & presentation, the other put it into paintwork or other kinds of sculpture.

I'm not a chef, nor an artist. However, I'd like to be an artistic chef! Hehee... I did some decorating on the cookies which I baked lately, hopefully to generate some interest in cookie art. I hope that will tempt you to sign up for the course which I'll be teaching! It's time to let your imaginations run wild and let your creative juice flow!

Gula Melaka Chiffon Cake

Baking has become part and parcel of a Saturday activity, unless I have appointment, out of town or other urgent stuff to attend to. I had earlier promised my youngest son to make scrambled eggs for breakfast on Saturday morning. To make it more wholesome, I made (almost) exactly what was sold in Hans breakfast set - scrambled eggs, cheese sausage and toast. I thought it wasn't that easy to make good scrambled eggs, at least to me. I've made them before, and it didn't taste like one. *yucks* He has been bugging us to bring him to Hans for the scrambled egg breakfast. So I thought I might as well make for him!

I searched for an easy to make recipe for scrambled eggs. It didn't take long to find one. This recipe from allrecipes was really good. I followed it and it turned out really good. I used 14 eggs for my family of 6! I used cheese sausage, and toasted white bread and spread them with margarine. The breakfast set was really sumptuous and nutritious! I was glad they love it!


After breakfast, I wasn't ready to just sit around. I browsed through the recipe on chiffons and decided that I should practice my chiffon method again. I have no banana nor blueberries on hand. Finally, I settled on the Gula Melaka Chiffon cake.

This chiffon was easy to manage. Nothing fanciful, just gula melaka with coconut milk. I think the most important ingredient is to get good gula melaka (palm sugar) to give the cake a nice coconut fragrance! When the cake was baking in the oven, the gula melaka aroma was very strong. However, after baking, the fragrant seemed to have evaporated with the heat too! I brought the cake over to my parents place for them. My dad frowned when I told them I made the chiffon cake. He took a small piece initially, and commented that it was nice. After that, he took another piece. Need I say more?



Here is the recipe, extracted from "Chiffon Cake is Done" by Kevin Chai.

Gula Melaka Chiffon Cake
Ingredients:
Egg yolk batter
150g Gula melaka
100ml Coconut milk
6 Egg yolks
4 tbsp Cooking oil
1/4 tsp Salt
140g Plain flour

Egg white foam
6 Egg whites
1/4tsp Cream of tartar
40g Caster sugar

Method:
1. To make egg yolk batter, melt the gula melaka and coconut milk over low heat. Remove and pour in a mixing bowl, leave to cool.
2. Combine with egg yolks, cooking oil and salt. Fold in flour until it forms batter.
3. To make egg white foam, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until mixture forms soft peaks.
4. Gradually add in sugar, beating at high speed until frothy and stiff peaks form.
5. Gently fold beaten egg white foam into egg yolk batter until blended.
6. Pour batter into ungreased 9" (22cm) tube pan. Bake in preheated oven at 170C (150C fan oven) for 45mins or until cooked.
7. Remove from oven, invert cake on top of a bottle until completely cooled.

Scrambled Eggs
Serves 6
Ingredients:
14 Eggs
2 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste (optional)
shredded cheese (optional)

Method:
1. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, mayonnaise and water using a whisk.
2. Melt margarine in a pan over low heat.
3. Pour in the eggs, and stir constantly as they cook. I used a whisk to stir round the pan. Cheese can be added at this juncture.
4. Remove the eggs to a plate when they are set, but still moist. Do not over cook.
5. Add salt and pepper only when eggs are on plate. Ketchup or chilli sauce also goes very well with scrambled eggs. Enjoy!

Simple and Good

Ever since I've started on some "pro" baking, I've not baked those simple and good treats - muffins! Muffins are actually very simple, doesn't need a mixer, just use whisk or spatula. I wasn't bothered with muffins all these while because I wanted very much to use my Kenwood mixer! Since I've already gotten myself some good and expensive mixer, might as well make use of it right? Hahaa... That was when, muffins are long forgotten.

Thanks to Anna for sharing her muffin recipe with me, I thought I might as well go easy with baking on a weekday. I tried baking an almond and chocolate chip muffins. It was really easy, and it turned out to be very fragrant and yummy! I used to love muffins a lot, but have forsake it for cupcakes. Suddenly, I realised I've fallen in love with muffins again! It's just a simple and good treat to bake and eat!!

It's a pound again!

It's got to be pound cake again! I've been trying out new recipes and baking new food now and then. Somehow, I just can't run away from baking some simple recipes again and again. There are some recipes which I just swear by! One of those had to be pound cakes and butter cakes! As my sour cream was expiring soon, I just had to use them, and try to use up all of them. So, the only cake that I can bake, is pound cakes. I baked two loaves, one for my colleagues tomorrow, and the other for my family. I baked the marbled pound cakes instead of the usual chocolate only or vanilla only. Then of course, I used my homemade vanilla extract.




I filled a small bottle of my homemade vanilla extract, and gave it to someone whom I know will appreciate it. I called it "limited edition", and it's rather precious to me. However, I'm willing to give to bakers or people who will appreciate the value of this extract. :)

Chocolate Fudge Cake

There were quite a number of raves about the steamed moist chocolate cake from Peng's Kitchen. One was from SSB, and the other from a colleague. When I saw how beautiful it was, I was tempted to try this also.

I did it as a Father's Day cake for my father-in-law. I frosted the cake with chocolate fudge. The overall taste and texture was really good. It's really worth making.




On the same day I steamed the cake, I also made a focaccia bread. My colleague gave me a jar of Rustic Tuscan Seasoning that she had bought from US previously. The seasoning smell very good. It was meant for chicken basically. As I don't roast chicken that often, I've decided it should go into my focaccia. True enough, with this seasoning, the focaccia was extremely extremely good!

Homemade Vanilla Extract

I've been waiting, waiting to put this up since two months back. But I had to hold myself back until the time is ripe, that is, about now? Since early March when my sister gave me a bunch of Madagascar Vanilla pods, I knew I had to try to "preserve" them as long as possible. I was rather careful and stingy about using them. Then I found a way to use them carefully - make vanilla extract!

Gina had taught me how to make them into vanilla extract by soaking them into Vodka. I followed her method closely from Kitchen Capers, and the extract was really good! This was the result of weeks and weeks of shaking and "standing". In one of the sites, I read that Vanilla Extracts matured over time, just like wines. That will mean that I can keep them for a long long time without them "expiring", isn't that great?