Steam Sponge Cake（鸡蛋糕）

I'm determined to try making 鸡蛋糕 again after a not-so-successful attempt last Wednesday. I think I didn't beat the egg mixture long enough so the cake was rather flat and dry, though the taste was pretty good.

My second try today yields better texture and fragrance.


I'm following closely to the recipe on Baking On Cloud 9. More reference from Cookbake Legacy, Random Ramblings and Fenying's Blog. I'll definitely try the other recipes later.

Ingredients

200g self-raising flour
200g sugar
4 eggs

Method

1. Beat eggs and sugar together till light pale and ribbon stage

2. Gradually fold in the flour till mix well.

3. Pour the mixture into a baking pan and sprinkle sugar across the mixture into a + sign.

4. Steam on high heat for 25 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

Sweet and Simple Bakes: Oatmeal and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here are the cookies baked on this hot and windy Sunday afternoon. It's Sweet and Simple Bakes' 10th monthly baking challenge, but it's my 1st...


The surface of my cookies are not as smooth as those made by Ms Maria and Rosie from Sweet and Simple Bakes. Agree that it's an easy recipe.

Ingredients

110g (4oz) butter, softened
110g (4oz) caster sugar
110g (4oz) soft brown sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla extract
250g (9oz) porridge oats (rolled oats)
110g (4oz) self-raising flour
1 level tsp salt
110g (4oz) chocolate chips, raisins or chopped nuts (I used chocolate chips and raisins)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C

2. Cream the butter in a large bowl or in an electric food mixer until soft.

3. Add the sugars and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.

4. Add the egg, water and vanilla extract while still beating.

5. Reduce the speed and gently mix in the oats, flour, salt and raisins to form a dough.

6. Using your hands, roll the dough into walnut sized balls and place slightly apart on two baking trays.

7. Bake in the oven for 12-25 minutes or until light golden brown but still slightly soft in the centre.

8. Allow to cool on the trays for a minute before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

My First Cinnamon Roll

It's my "off" day today, ie no need to go to work. How about trying to make my first "edible" bread?

I've been reading on the wonderfully soft bread at Do What I Like for a few days. It looks like I have almost all the ingredients required, except the condensed milk. We don't particularly like condensed milk because of its sweetness, perhaps I can just add some more skim milk to replace the liquid content? Anyway, try and see what will happen.

Mixing the ingredients into a dough and then kneading by hand for about 25 minutes. Still wondering if it was enough of kneading. Well, looked like the dough was smooth enough for its first rising. Meanwhile, went online to do more research on how long to knead the dough and found this interesting site called Baking911.com.

After about 1 hour of rising, I was amazed to see the dough has risen to double in size. The yeast was working. Took out the dough to punch it down and to shape. Then it was a time of wondering how to shape the dough. After shaping, the little doughs were sent for their second rising for about 1 hour. After that, the little doughs were sent for the 15 minutes' bake in a 190C oven.

After close to 13 minutes of baking, it looked like it was getting a bit too hot in the oven and I could see the buns getting a little dark. Took out all the buns from the oven immediately to prevent the buns from getting too heated up. Here is how they look like...

Had a quick bite after it cooled a little. It was slightly crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. It wasn't sweet, perhaps due to the lack of condensed milk. Add more sugar next time? Maybe I'll just buy a can of condensed milk and remember to lower the temperature. Perhaps a breadmaker can help in the kneading process. Maybe I can attend a breadmaking course to learn more. ;-)

Chocolate Marble Cake

Mum bought a $2.15 "marble cake" last weekend. How could it be so cheap? The ingredients were flour, eggs, oil and many other flavourings and colourings. And the marble look was on the surface of the cake only. Sigh, told mum that she should have just let me know that she wanted to eat some cakes and I would have gladly make some for her. But she seems to enjoy eating that $2.15 cake because it was so cheap...

The homemade one, though costs slightly more, is definitely healthier than the one that uses a lot of flavourings and colourings.

I came across a marble cake recipe at All That Matters and adjusted it to use whatever ingredients I have in my cabinet, ie top flour and brown sugar.

It's a learning experience for me. I realised that I could not whisk the egg white and brown sugar to a soft peak as required by the original recipe.

So here is my recipe:

Ingredients

200g butter
160g brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
2 tbsp of low fat milk
200g top flour
1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp low fat milk
(mix thoroughly)

Method

1. Beat butter, sugar, vanilla essence until light and creamy

2. Add in one egg at a time and beat until creamy. Add in milk.

3. Fold in flour and baking powder

4. Spoon half of the mixture into a separate bowl. Add in cocoa mixture and stir well.

5. Drop alternate spoonfuls of mixtures into a pan. Use a chopstick to pull backwards and forward through the mixture.

6. Bake cake for 40 minutes in oven of 170 degree Celsius or when the skewer comes out clean. Turn the cake onto the wire rack to cool.

Roasted Lemongrass Chicken

Saw this recipe by Mrs Forrest Leong while searching for more lemongrass chicken recipes.

Ingredients

4 chicken thighs
3 stalks lemongrass, bruised (to be used for brushing thighs with oil)
2 Tbs cooking oil

Marinade

4 stalks lemongrass, ends trimmed and bruised
1 Tbs dark soy sauce
1 Tbs light soy sauce
2 Tbs oyster sauce
1 Tbs fish sauce
125ml water

Garnish (optional)

Cooking oil for deep-frying
2 stalks lemongrass, ends trimmed, finely sliced and fried

Method

1. Prepare this dish a day ahead or least 3 to 4 hours before serving.

2 Chop lemongrass finely. Heat a saucepan over medium heat. Add lemongrass and ingredients for marinade and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, cover saucepan with a lid and leave until completely cool.

3 When marinade is cool, transfer to a mixing bowl. Place chicken in to steep in the marinade. Leave for 3 to 4 hours or overnight in the refrigerator.

4 Preheat oven at 220 deg C.

5. Arrange chicken thighs on a baking tray. Dip bruised lemongrass stalks in oil and brush chicken thighs. Place thighs in preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, prepare garnish if desired. Heat oil for deep-frying, then deep-fry finely sliced lemongrass until crisp and golden brown. Set aside to drain well.

7. Remove chicken thighs from oven and place on a serving plate. Drain drippings from baking tray and serve as a dipping sauce. Serve immediately, garnished with deep-fried lemongrass, if using.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on September 30, 2007.

(Source: http://www.soshiok.com/articles/9602)


It's Yummy

Cooked this dish on Sunday. Mum said it is more fragrant than the one I did last week. Could be because I've marinated it overnight. Shall be cooking it again.

Grilled Lemongrass Chicken

I just want to smell the sweet-smelling aroma of lemongrass in this simple and easy-to-make dish. H said it smells good. Taste good too because H ate most of it. Well, I will see if there are better recipes around as I still have another 3 stalks of lemongrass.

Ingredients

6 pcs of chicken thighs
1 stalk of lemongrass (cut into 1.5inch in length and smashed)
3 tbsp of maple syrup
3 tbsp of dark soya sauce
3 tbsp of light soya sauce
2 tbsp of oyster sauce

Method

1. combine all the above ingredients and marinate for a couple of hours

2. grill the chicken thighs in a bread-toaster or oven for 30mins (turn over the chicken thighs after 15mins)

3. remove the chicken thighs and transfer to a plate.

4. pour the excess marinade and juice from grilling the chicken into a pan and bring to boil to reduce the quantity (cornstarch mixture may be added to thicken the sauce)

5. remove the sauce from the heat and pour it over the chicken thighs and serve.

Steam Radish Cake

It's 人日 today (everybody's birthday)!

I'm into my 3rd attempt over the last 3 weeks to make the steam radish cake, which is our breakfast over the next few days. The original recipe was extracted from Precious Moments. It's easy to make. It's delicious. It tastes even better if it is pan-fried till it's crispy on the surface and eaten with chilli sauce.

I have a 750g radish and I like dried chinese mushroom, so I've adjusted the recipe a bit:

Ingredients

750g radish (shredded & strained)
40g or 1 pc of chinese sausage (finely sliced)
30g dried shrimps (soaked & finely chopped)
30g dried chinese mushrooms (soaked & diced)
500ml liquid (from radish, water from soaking dried shrimps & dried mushrooms)
2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
1 tbsp oil

Seasoning:
2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp sugar
pepper

Batter:
220g rice flour
1.5 tbsp tapioca flour
400ml water

Method

1. Fry the garlic with oil till it's fragrant.

2. Add in dried shrimp, chinese sausage and dried mushroom to stir fry still fragrant.

3. Add in shredded radish, water, seasoning and simmer over low heat for 10-15 mins.

4. Lower the heat and add the batter

5. Stir until the mixture thickens.

6. Pour the thickened mixture into a tray.

7. Steam on high heat for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the chopstick comes out clean after inserting into the cake.

8. Cool thoroughly before cutting.