Vanilla Ice-cream

Vanilla Ice-cream recipe from Nigella Lawson. I am a great fan of her shows. Because she is not a professional chef, i admire her ability to concoct recipes up on her own.

While doing the custard for this, i thought i overcooked my custard and was greatly disappointed in the beginning but later it turned out well after the freezing. :)) My photog said my ice-cream taste great! Sooo i am very happy! :D

Oh yes, this is also the first time i used vanilla pods!! (the black dots - vanilla seeds!)

Pandan Cake - *Failure*!!

This one i am totally upset!!! ARGGHHHHHH! I forgot to add one main ingredient..?! I forgot to add oil as required in the recipe! Pfft! Although the pandan cake looks ok, however, it is quite wet at the bottom and doesn't have a very 'smooth' taste imo la.. ARGHHHHH..how can i forget that 80ml of oil?!

NOTE (Jan 20, 2009): I think i know what i did wrong (beside forgetting the oil). I didn't turn the pan upside down. I read that this is very important step. To turn the tube pan upside down and let it cool for at least 30mins upside down so that the layers will not fall flat at the bottom due to the weight! Ok..i learn something. :) Will try again soon.

Kueh Bangkit

True to my words, i made Kueh Bangkit today after i came back from a day of shopping and walking almost all day! Kueh Bangkit turned out crunchy and also has the melts-in-the-mouth with a sweet hint of coconut texture. Quite nice la... Not difficult to make BUT..using the small cookie cutter is very tedious - i had like 3 whole large trays of cookies...

Rich Amond Cookies

This is the asian version of almond cookies. Uses a bit of butter and also peanut oil. Texture is light and fluffy. Quite nice except i think cos i used a tiny cookie cutter..i find it really tedious to cut the dough into shapes..took me quite a long time. I wanted to bake Kueh Bangkit today but when i was all ready, the recipie said i was suppose to fry the flour with pandan leaves then leave it to cool overnight?!

Suji Cookies

Since CNY is coming and Karen asked earlier if i am gonna bake any CNY goodies..i decided to give a go with asian style cookies. I got hold of some CNY cookie recipes - and one of them is this... I tried this cos this is the easiest to make..hahahahaha..that's why! Very easy and not much work..i also like the soft light texture. Maybe before CNY should bake fresh ones again..LOL! This batch cannot last till CNY..LOL!

PS: Dunno if i should try pineapple tarts or not..looks like not easy... i'll try the others first them maybe the tarts last..:P

Christmas Turkey *success*!!!! :D

I'm really very happy that my first roast Turkey is a success!! Yipee!! Took about 3 hours to roast the turkey but it is worth every effort. Turkey turned out really very juicy, soft and succulent! So much better what i use to buy from hotels! So i think everybody should roast their own turkey..so much better! And this year is the first time that there are no leftover turkey!

No shepherd pie's photo ..but as usual, it is everyone's fave! lol!

Fruit Tarts

My 2nd time making fruit tarts and this time round turned out well..the crust turned out thin and crispy...now i finally know the 'technique'..:)

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Orange Chocolate Cupcakes

After my bread failure, i had to bake something right..LOL! So, cupcake is the easiest, fool-proof recipe..:P Yippee!!!...and it did turn out well. :D However, i think i might have 'over-swirled' the orange and chocolate batter a bit too much imo.

No Knead Bread - *Failure*!! :P

I followed the recipe from Chef Micheal Smith's "Chef At Home" - No Knead Bread..but somehow something went wrong! hahahahaha..my bread ended up with the texture of a sour-dough bread more than the nice light and fluffy bread which i was expecting. I don't know what's wrong..though. Maybe i rested it too long for the 2nd stage - instead of 2 hours, the dough was rest for like 6 hours cos i couldn't get back home any earlier.. Dunno..*shrugs*..

Almond Tuiles

Very very tedious work to bake these biscuits. But the hard work is paid off with great tasting biscuits. I tried this recipe just to finish my egg whites! It's same recipe as "fortune cookies" except with almond flakes.

Jam Cookies

This recipe is easy to do and is the first cookie dough i made that isn't sticky or needs refrigeration! It's easy, fuss free and the best part is.... it taste great!! I like the jam part especially! Anyway today's cookies taste much better than yesterday's hard almond cookies...

Almond Cookies

This recipe calls for only egg whites and i have like 4 leftover egg whites due to the ice-cream i made earlier cos ice-cream only need egg yolks. So i found this recipe and made it. Because it has no butter nor egg yolk, only just a bit of flour, icing sugar and lots of blanched almonds, the cookies turned out quite hard..but yet addictive once you start eating it. :) I made one batch with icing and another batch without the icing bit. Icing ones look pretty but i don't really like to eat icing cos it is just too sweet for my tastebuds. :P But my photog loves the icing though..she said it is not too sweet..just right!

Panettoni

I got this recipe from Anna Olsen's show "Sugar". I didn't realise that this is actually a bread-form until half way when i realised my hand-held mixer cannot mix the dough anymore..hahahahaha...then i started mixing it by hand and the dough becomes very tough and i have to use all my strength to knead it..LOL! Eventually the Panettoni turns out quite ugly looking but tasted quite good though..hahahaha.. Will have to try again and next time with my kitchenaid mixer!!!

White Chocolate Ice-cream

Made my first home-made ice-cream. Not bad..everything turned out well.:D Except white chocolate is not my fave though, but ok la..the texture etc is ok - just like ice-cream.

Ricotta Cupcake

This ricotta cupcake is surprisingly easy to make and hassle-free. And turn out quite good! Ok ok..i just wanted to make it look good on photo so i dressed up a bit using the leftover blueberries (from the blueberry tarts)..LOL! It can be eaten on its own and still taste good. :)

Blueberry Tart

After the huge muffin pan episode, i went shopping and bought a new smaller pan (dunno what's it called..) ..and made some tarts again..this time round, i experimented with sweet crumbs crust, aka, also known as your digestive biscuit crust which turned out better than i expected. Pastry cream is the standard vanilla pastry cream i made from the peach tart episode... This is the favourite of my photographer and she absolutely loves it..she asked me to make these again soon.

Peach Tart

I did the shortcrust pastry using food processor and it is very fast and good but i find that i can't control or rather i can't 'feel' the dough consistency after adding liquid..and it became a bit softer than what it should be. But in the end the crust turned out quite well after baking. However, i didn't have a smaller pan and used the huge muffin pan which made the crust a bit too huge imo.

The next day, i made another batch of pastry by hand which i think is better but i haven't baked them yet..the pastry is in the freezer now..hahahaha..wait till whenever i feel like baking tarts again. LOL!

Japanese Cheesecake

Today is my off day and i set my mind to do another Cheesecake after not getting the first one (vanilla cheesecake) perfect..hahahaha...as you know, i like to have everything 'perfect'. LOL! :P

I had this recipe with me for a long time but never tried it before, so i can't remember where i got it from, but it was from someone who posted it on her blog or some website. My cheesecake finally turned out well - better than i expected and i want to say post a thank you to that person for her recipe but i can't cos i can't find the link anymore! I printed it out back then and never copied the link! :( PS: I just googled and found someone's blog with the same recipe but i didn't take it from her site though....here is the link - her photos has the whole toppings and all..which gives you an idea how it will look with the toppings..lol! mine is just plain).

Yup, the cake does look very plain, but you see, i like it plain..and all the icing stuff, i find them too sweet for my liking... What's great is everyone in my family likes it..even the extremely fussy one likes it!! LOL!

OMG Cookies

I got this recipe from Anna's blog here and it is really very very simple and easy to make.

I realized that the cookies over tasted 'richer/heavier' and more like a cake in the center though. So, you can't eat too much of this cookie without feeling sick in the stomach (well, at least to me!). Anyway, when the cookies are baking, they do smell very good like 'Famous Amos' cookies..but after a while, i felt sick in the stomach as i do usually after inhaling too much sweet smell..LOL!

PS: Today (Dec-4) I baked the left-over dough into smaller cookies and they were better imo, crunchier which i like better and not so 'rich' tasting. However, my photog said she likes it bigger cos the sides are crustier and the center softer. This recipe can yield a lot of cookies, so can seperate the dough into half..half small cookies and half big cookies..lol! :)

Vanilla Light Cheesecake

I tried this receipe and everything turned out well except last min, i realised that i can't use a springform pan for water-bath baking! ARGGHHH..so upsetting..when i found water at the bottom of my cake! Thankfully, with my quick thinking (hahahaha), i put the cake back into the oven for a few mins and everything turned out better, still too moist but at least edible. But after putting it in the fridge, the next day, the cake tasted quite good actually..not perfect like i wanted it though..

Checkered Cookies

My very first attempt to make something so complicated..hahahaha..it was ok, except that i think our weather here is too hot for cookie dough sometimes. Maybe the 30 mins in the fridge should be like an hour in the fridge since the cookies melted too fast under the heat and spread 'out of shaped'..hahahaha..instead of what i thought it would be a rectangle?

Blueberry Muffins

This recipe calls for fresh blueberries which i did use but i don't know if i put in too many blueberries or that the oven temperature was not hot enough or that i over-stirred the batter? I know muffin batter has to be lumpy but do i leave the lumps like that with the flour still in bubbles or what? I don't really know. Anyway, the muffins end up tasting ok but i am just disappointed that it didn't raise up very much and that it doesn't look that the ones in Starbucks..hahahahaha..



I don't really know also why the inside of the muffin is so soft - maybe i put too many blueberries?

Roast Chicken

Today, i roasted a whole chicken for the very first time and i am really happy to report that it was such a great success!! Yippe!! The meat was soo juicy and the vegetable which i initially thought was burnt wasn't and tasted great! I got the recipe from Chef Michael Smith - and i am a fan of his show "Chef at Home", but somehow i can't find any of his cookbooks here though! Have to order them online via amazon.ca.

I've no photos of the chicken i roasted cos my 'photographer' was out and about shopping and when she got back, she just wanted to eat the chicken. Anyway, she took what's left over of the chicken though from her plate..LOL!... I know it's disgusting..but here's the pic..

Vanilla Cupcake with Oreo Icing

Tried this variation on my own following the basic vanilla cupcake receipe. I wanted to add raisins but didn't have a ny in stock, so I added chocolate chip instead. Turned out quite ok.

For icing, i place the crushed oreos into the basic cream-cheese icing and it tasted kind of like McFlurry Oreos.

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake

The recipe for this Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake can be found on their websitehere. Or it can also be found on the back of Hershey's cocoa powder box.  

I think this is a fool-proof recipe for any first timers like me!  Because of the great quality of the cocoa powder, it is impossible to make any mistake if you follow the recipe correctly.  Actually i forgot to add the vanilla extract in the batter, but later made it up for the extra batter i used for my mini-cupcakes. However, i can't really tell much difference between the cake and cupcake cos i all can taste is the great chocolaty taste! LOL!  

This recipe is prefect for any chocolate lovers like moi!  :D  

note: is there a way to make sure the cake rise evenly and not just the centre higher? i must go do some research googling..lol! if anyone knows, please lmk too!  
solutions: http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2006/06/why_cakes_dome.html

ps: i know i didn't do a good icing job..hahahaha..not easy to ice on a mini cupcake..that's my excuse :P 

Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Followed a recipe from one of my cookbooks and turned out pretty well. :) I used Nestle Mini Chocolate Chips which turned out quite well. Originally wanted Hershey's, but couldn't find them in the supermarket that i went earlier.

This recipe uses only egg yolk and doesn't 'spread' a lot when baking - perhaps that's why it is also softer and more crumbly in texture? *shrugs*..i dunno..lol! Must try other recipes first before i know the difference i guess in others, i guess!

Baking? Food Blog? Hmmmm...

After stumbling upon Anna's blog..i feel so motivated to bake! LOL! Plus i just got a new oven, so i wanna do some baking - but i am only a beginner in baking (i don't normally bake anything - only cook!) :D. Thus, i deleted all my previous boring posts and i think i will start a new blog detailing my attempt at baking! Even disastrous ones..hahahahahha!


I did bake cookies & chocolate cake this weekend. Will blog & post pics of that later.. The cookies & chocolate cake both didn't turn out bad..so *phew*...esp. my very first time! :P