What's Bakin'? #4

      Hi People! Sorry if you're too OVERWHELMED by the totally awesome picture below. This, by the way is our fourth edition of What's Bakin'? Wow, time flys... Anyway, the photo below was gotten off my friend's Facebook page, I just think its so cute! A complete set from The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. My eyes totally caught on the blueberry cheesecake below. Its just... Awesome!









      So here's a little script of humor I wrote myself, I was just mulling around and then this popped into my head:

Guy 1: How 'bout baking a pie?

Guy 2: That's going to be a piece of cake.

Guy 1: No, I'm baking a pie.

Guy 2: Yeah I'm saying should be a piece of cake.

Guy 1: I think you mean piece of pie.

Guy 2: Does it have to be a piece of pie?

Guy 1: ...No if you want I can make you something else.

Guy 2: No! Okay, look, make your pie, I'm just saying its going to be easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.

Guy 1: You want me to make a peas and lemon pie? I don't think that's a good combo...

Guy 2: GAHH!!! JUST MAKE YOUR PIE!!!

      Okay, I know I'm not the ultimate comedian, you probably wouldn't understand the first time 'round. I think you'll get it once you read it again.

      Anyway, lookie here! Its a whole platter of sweet treats! This photo was taken in the Equinox, Singapore. A fancy restaurant located high at the tippy-top of what used to be one of Singapore's tallest buildings. You can see the view of the city down below. What we have here are... A blueberry scone, a cherry choux, a chocolate covered strawberry, an eclair and some other things I don't know the names of.

      Then here, we have two cute little cupcakes from Twelve Cupcakes. Received from a supporter of my dad's when he was out selling his new book. I was ecstatic when I saw them. They may have gotten a little ruined on the journey home. One of them's Red Velvet if I'm not wrong, and the other's cookies and cream. Look, they even come in these individual cupcake holders!

Cupcake Crazy,
An Lyn
xoxo

Healthy cooking for your kids: Banana Cinnamon Bread and Butter Pudding

       Hi Readers! I'm back, and to celebrate here's a special "pudding" recipe. (It's special because its probably the only pudding recipe I ever posted. Heh.) Anyway, its under the Family Meals category in the book so check. it. out.

Banana Cinnamon Bread

and Butter Pudding

Ingredients:

unsalted butter for greasing

2 bananas, peeled and sliced

8 slices malted homemade bread

(lightly buttered and cut in half diagonally, crusts removed)

2 tablespoon demerara sugar

3 large eggs

300 ml full-fat milk

1&1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoon clear honey

How to Bake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease baking dish and arrange banana slices at the bottom. Top with bread slices, overlapping each slice to cover the banana. Whisk the sugar, eggs, milk and cinnamon together in a bowl and pour over the bread. Drizzle over the honey and bake for 30-40 minutes till risen and golden. Serves 4.

It does not happen all at once. There is no instant pudding.

~ W. Edwards Deming

      Oh, and another thing, I may not be posting on Wednesdays for now. I'm really not sure, But I will DEFINITELY be posting on Friday and Sunday. I will do my best readers, believe in your fellow baking-believer.

Holey Cheesecakes!*

Dear readers,

      You're probably wondering why I haven't posted last Wednesday. Well, the reason is, I've been grounded. Don't ask, seriously. No computer for more than a week.

      So the next time I'll be posting would be about... say, Friday this week? I know, horrible. I'm hoping I won't loose all my readers during this period of grief and lack of internet access.

      Please, please, PLEASE, don't leave me! Because I've got some awesome recipes and posts that I'd like for you to read. And also, if you are a blogger, like me, feel free to comment, just click the" No Comments" button at the bottom of each post and type away!

      Just so you know, this post was originally hand written and passed to my siblings for them to help me type it out. Visit their blogs here: http://cheeelyn.blogspot.sg/ and http://cheeshawhur.blogspot.sg/. Again, sorry for all the inconvenience caused.

Your faithful baking blogger,
An Lyn

*I know the title is a bit " cheesy" hah! get it? No, but seriously. I couldn't think of a better one.

Healthy Cooking for Your Kids: Plum Crisp

     Hey guys, I'm really sorry for not being able to post last Wednesday. I was banned from using the computer for a while, so bear with me folks, please. Just so you know, i won't be updating my blog this Wednesday either. Really sorry for the inconvenience caused! Now, I'm not exactly sure what this is, probably some sort of pudding or something, but I'm DYING to try some. Aren't you? The recipe's really easy too! And apparently, its Italian.

Plum Crisp

Ingredients:

750g ripe plums, stoned and halved

75g jumbo oats

50g flaked almonds

50g shelled pecan nuts, chopped

4 tablespoon clear honey

2 tablespoons demerara sugar

50g unsalted butter

Greek-style yogurt, to serve

How to Make

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Arrange the plums at the bottom of a baking dish. Put the oats, almonds, nuts, honey and sugar in a bowl. Melt the butter in a small sauce pan over low heat,  pour into the oat mixture and stir to combine. Spoon over the plums. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove the dish from the oven and serve hot with Greek-style yogurt. Serves 4.

What is more mortifying than to

feel that you have missed the plum

for want of courage to shake the tree?

~ Logan P. Smith

      Wow, I really have to try that someday... Well, that's all for now, look forward to more from Healthy Cooking for Your Kids! : D

Healthy Cooking for Your Kids: Raspberry Fool

      Hi! Today I'm featuring something a little different, its called Raspberry Fool. A little something to be served for dessert. Very petite and elegant, may be served for a little girl's tea party as well!

Raspberry Fool

Ingredients:

300g fresh raspberries, plus extra to decorate

225g natural/Greek-style yogurt

1 tablespoon clear honey

1 egg white

 50g toasted flaked almonds

How to Make

Put the raspberries in a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Pour the puree through a fine nylon sieve to remove the seeds, then fold the yogurt in a large bowl. Stir in honey. In a separate grease-free bowl, whisk the egg white until beginning to stiffen,  then fold into raspberry mixture. Spoon into individual glasses, cover with clingfilm, and chill for 3 hours. Scatter with almonds and leftover raspberries. Serves 4.

 "There's nothing as sweet or sour as a raspberry."

~ Unknown

      Well! Hope that was nice, it reminds me of ice cream... If only I weren't so allergic to eggs, then I could try some without turning into a huge pimple about to pop.

Healthy Cooking for your Kids: Party Carrot Cake

     Having a party and can't think of good-enough snacks? Here's a totally cute picture, and recipe of course, of Party Carrot cake!

 

Party Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

unsalted butter for greasing

125g light brown self raising flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of sea salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

 125g demerara sugar

50g shelled walnuts, chopped

2 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed

100g carrots, peeled and finely grated

150 ml light sunflower oil

2 eggs beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

cream cheese (optional)

3 ready-to-eatdreid apricots

green confectionery snake / green licorice

How to Bake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line a 8-inch round cookie tin. Mix the flours, baking powder, salt and spices together in a large bowl and stir in the sugar and walnuts. Add the bananas and carrots and mix well. In a separate bowl mix the oil, eggs and vanilla extract together. Pour into the flour mixture and mix well to combine. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and level the surface. Bake in a preheated oven for one hour, test to see if its cooked by inserting a skewer into the center. If it comes out clean, the cake is done. If not, bake for another 10 minutes and test again. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin. Turn the cake out onto a serving plate and top with cream cheese. To make mini "carrots" for decoration, cut each apricot in half horizontally and cut the snake into twelve 1&1/4-inch lengths. Use two pieces to form a "stem" and roll an apricot half around it to form a mini carrot. Repeat until you have 6 "carrots", then use to decorate a cake.

     Just a reminder all of these recipes are from Healthy Cooking for Your Kids, an awesome cook book for kids. Look for more here!

Healthy Cooking for your Kids: Cheese Star Biscuits

      Hi. So, biscuits again huh. Biscuits and cookies... Many of you may think there's no difference . But there is. Cookies: a small cake made from stiff, sweet dough. Biscuits: a kind of bread in small, soft cakes.* There's obviously a lot we don't know about them.

Cheese Star Biscuits

Ingredients:

150g butter, softened

175g Parmesan Cheese, finely grated

50g mature Cheddar cheese, finely grated

100g plain flour, extra for dusting

75g wholemeal plain flour

pinch of sea salt

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon full-fat milk

25g sesame seeds or linseeds

How to Bake

Beat the butter with cheeses in a bowl until well combined. Add the flours and salt and stir to combine. Mix in the egg yolk and oil to form a soft dough. Wrap the dough in a clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Remove dough from refridgerator, unwrap it and roll out on a floured work surface. Using a star shaped cookie cutter, cut out 35 stars, rerolling the trimmings where possible. Place them on a non-stick baking sheet, brush the milk and scatter over the seeds. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until golden. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.



When I get tired, I start eating things that

I wouldn't normally crave, like biscuits, because

they'll give me a bit of energy to keep going.

~ Carol Vorderman 

 

       So, there you go, your Cheese Star Biscuits. Nothing much for me to say. Its back to school for me, so I gotta hit the books. Till the next recipe. ; )

Healthy Cooking for your Kids: Strawberry Cupcakes

      And once again we are on the subject of cupcakes. I mean, just think about it... Cup. Cake. Its basically a cake made in a cup or something... Or made in the size of a cup... Oh this is really confusing. Anyway, lets cut to the chase, Strawberry Cupcakes anyone?

Strawberry Cupcakes

Ingredients:

125g unsalted butter, softened

75g unrefined castor sugar

50g demerara sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs, beaten

75g white self-raising flour

50g light-brown self-raising flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 large strawberries, mashed

5 strawberries, halved

(or 10 whole wild strawberries)

3 tablespoons mascarpone cheese

How to Bake

Preheat the oven to 2350 degrees F. Line 10 holes of a muffin tin with cake paper cases. Beat the butter with the sugars in a bowl until pale and fluffy, then beat in the vanilla extract. Add half the egg and beat well. In a separate bowl, mix the flours and cinnamon together, then add half to the butter mixture and stir to combine. Add the remaining egg and flour mixture and stir to combine. Add mashed strawberries and mix well. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to cool on a wire rack. Just before serving, spread thinly with the mascarpone cheese and top with a strawberry half or a whole wild strawberry.

I can't help but smile when I see a cupcake,

or any baked good for that matter.

~ Chee An Lyn

       Well, that was pretty good wasn't it? I love how the cheese goes with the strawberry to give it that sweet and salty (maybe cheesy) taste. More soon from Healthy Cooking for your Kids.

What's Bakin'? #3

      Hold up! Stop with the recipes for a second will ya? Okay, maybe we won't stop, but just give me a second, I have to tell you something. People, this is What's Bakin'? #3!

      So, Today we're featuring Sponge Cakes and Butter Biscuits! But today, You're lucky cause I'm not going to bore you with interviews on how it tasted.

     First off, get a load of these pictures of the Sponge Cakes I made. The lighter one's Steamed Sponge Cake, the others of darker shades are baked. Scroll down to view the recipe that goes with it.

      Oh yeah, those black squiggly lines? Let me tell you, they're not frosting or anything, they weren't supposed to be there. Yeah, either one of my pesky little siblings could've done that. And now I can't remove it. Its most probably my brother really, he does this a lot of the time. So just don't get the wrong idea.

Steamed Sponge Cake

Ingredients:
50g flour
2 eggs
50g castor sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

How to Make

Prepare the steamer and grease the pudding bowls. Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a mixing bowl. Fold int the sifted flour, add the vanilla essence and stir. Pour the mixture into the greased bowls. Cover the top of the bowls with greaseproof paper. Steam from 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool before turning the cake out. Serve with jam, cream, yogurt and ice cream. Serves 2.

I've never come across anyone who doesn't

love a piece of cake once in a while.

~ Chee An Lyn

       By the way, this recipe is from my Home Econs textbook, TeenLife. And it says here, that you can make a Chocolate sponge cake using 75g flour, 1 level dessertspoon cocoa powder, 2 eggs and 50g fine sugar. If you want to bake it instead, then set the temperature to 190 degrees (this is a Singaporean recipe, so we don't use Fahrenheit here).

      Ahhhh... much better! See now they don't have faces drawn on by my brother via Gimp (Photo-editing software). 

      Okay, so guess where I got the following recipe from? Go on! Guess! Okay, okay I'll tell you. I got it from my brother's homework. English homework to be exact. Its a comprehension, so they probably had to answer questions on the recipe or something. I don't know, all I looked at was the recipe. And, its not even that difficult. Its probably the easiest recipe I've come across.

 

Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

50g butter

75g sugar

1 egg

100g plain flour

How to Bake
Turn on the oven before you start. (Should be around 350 degrees F. It doesn't state the temperature here.) Spread a thin layer of butter on a tray. Beat the softened butter and sugar together in a bowl. Then beat the egg in a separate bowl and add it to the butter and sugar. Add the flour and mix well to form a dough. Roll the dough flat on a board and use a cookie cutter to shape the cookies. Place them on the tray and bake in the oven till golden brown.

A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.

~ Unknown

      Haha! I love that quote! I know the recipe isn't of such good quality so I had to write it a little differently. Look, it don't even say how many cookies it makes!  Its from a piece of homework that's why. But, its good. Anything baked is definitely good.

Healthy Cooking for your Kids: Blueberry Bran Muffins

      Hi! Really sorry about not being able to post anything on Sunday, I was out of the house with no internet connection. But I'm here now. Judging by the picture in this book, these muffins are Uber-delish (pronounced: ooo-ber. I couldn't find the "U" with two dots over it, so we'll just have to go with this).

Blueberry Bran Muffins

Ingredients:

150g white plain flour

100glight brown self-raising flour

1 tablespoon oat bran

2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

pinch of salt

50g demerara sugar

1 tablespoon clear honey

1 large egg

200ml buttermilk

150g fresh blueberries

How to Bake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 10 holes of a muffin tin with muffin paper cases. Preferably purple, to complete the look. Mix the flours, bran, and baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt together in a bowl and stir in the sugar. Whisk the honey, egg, and buttermilk together in a jug. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir briefly to combine don't over mix - the mixture should still be a little lumpy. Fold in the blueberries. Spoon the mixture into paper cases and bake for 20 minutes until risen and lightly browned. Remove the muffins from the oven and leave to cool. Makes 10.  

 A film is just like a muffin. You make it.

You put it on the table. One person might say,

''Oh, I don't like it". One might say it's the best muffin

ever made. One might say it's an awful muffin.

It's hard for me to say. It's for me to make the muffin.

~ Denzel Washington

      Well, yes that's all for now. Just look at that little bit of blueberry peaking out of the muffin. Ahh... Its a wonderful sight. I know, totally wierd weird (I hate this word) but I can't help but smile when I see a muffin or any baked good for that matter.