Melting Brownies

What can i say about this? well, this is the best brownies i've ever made so far. With melted chocolate in the center, my friends at work gave me two thumbs up. One of them said, she'll give me 5 thumbs up if only she have it.... From now on, i will stick to this recipe for brownies and maybe some modification with peanut butter and or cream cheese next time. To make it even more special, i also made a recipe card for this one.


Source: discussion at NCC yahoo groups and of course...with slight modification.

Mango Cheesecake

It is mango season here in Taiwan. Mango is always my favorite fruit. There is a dessert shop near my working place called Ice Monster and their 芒果芋头冰 , literally mean mango+yam mixed with shaved ice+condensed milk is really to die for. I have really really huge appetite lately with 5-7 meals a day!! hahaa...and i've been buy this mango ice for a week without break. In order to used up my half package of cream cheese, i made this cheesecake with... of course, mango topping!!

Recipe for mango cheesecake

Ingredients:
500 g cream cheese, room temperature
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup mango flavored yoghurt
Mango, extra yoghurt and oreo biscuits without cream, as required

- Beat cream cheese and sugar until fluffy, add egg one at time and beat until incorporated. Stir in yoghurt, mix well. Arrange oreo on the side of baking pan, pour the batter in and bake in preheated oven at 180 for 50-55 minutes, until the center of the cake has been set. Cool for up to 2 hours in fridge. For topping, mix cubed mango with yoghurt and pour over cooled cake.

Banana Chocolate Cake

I just stepped into the house when i smell something sweet from my kitchen. It was banana that i bought 4 days ago, before i left for long weekend in the mountain with some friends. For me, banana is the best fruit for baking and it always satisfying. I love combination of banana + chocolate. Wonder why no one sell chocolate with banana flavor out there.
Recipe from Stephanie Jaworski at joyofbaking.com

Orange Cheesecake

Browse through daring baker's blog, i found a lot of luscious and tempting cheesecake as their April's challenge is cheesecake. Their post really makes me drool and luckily i still have a pack of cream cheese and orange in my fridge.
Recipe tweaked from my previous Oreo cheesecake

Ingredients:
for base:
1 1/2 cups ritz cracker crumb
1/4 c melted butter

for cake:
500 g cream cheese, room temperature
2 eggs
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup whole milk
1 orange rind, finely grated
1/2 cup powdered sugar

for topping (optional):
1 tbsp orange flavored jelly powder
1/3 cup water

- For base, mix cracker crumb with butter, press into baking pan and set aside. Beat cream cheese with sugar until smooth, add eggs 1 at time, beat until fully incorporated. Add in milk, orange juice and rind, stir well. Pour the batter into prepared base crust. Steam bake in preheated oven at 180 degrees celcius for 40-45 minutes. For topping, prepare jelly as directed and let it cool. Arrange sliced orange on top, pour jelly on top of cooled cake. Let it set in the fridge for about 3-4 hours.

Rich Chocolate Cake

As Asian and a beginner cook, i often confused when reading recipe using American standard measurement. It's not a cup that make me headache but stick, ounces, pints, quarts, gallon etc really make me crazy. I'm totally idiot when it comes to maths and yeah, my brother called me as a "mathematics's idiot". I remember that i used to argue with my math teacher back when i was in high school. But still, i'm doing pretty good in physics. Strange right?


I was thinking about this cake, and have no problem at all when reading the recipe, i've made that cake before and it turned out great, so i decide to use that recipe again.
I was pretty sure that 1 stick butter is equal to 226 grams, how.....where that conversion come from??? Without checking converter, i started baking. Feel like something amiss when i fold in the flour. Butter amount seems too much compared to the other ingredients. And yes it is, i used 2 sticks butter instead of 1!!! Thinking about dumping my batter to the trash, but i can't afford to waste anymore food, so i go on bake my cake and it turned out to be rich, fudgy and soft(almost like melt in mouth, when it warm). This was my first failed cake that turned out to be so good.

Ohh...reminder, 1 stick butter is 113 grams :)

Dried Longan Muffin

Longan is native fruit of southeast asia. In Chinese it called long yuan which is literally mean dragon's eye fruit. More information about longan can be found here. Dried longan muffin is another famous Taiwanese delicacy. It is easily available almost in every corner of bakery in Taiwan. However, every one of them has their special taste or texture. It usually topped with either chopped walnut or pine nut.

Recipe for Dried longan muffin

Ingredients:

150 g cake flour
110 g brown sugar
65 g dried longan soaked in 3/4 cup hot water, cooled, squeezed and juice reserved.
2 eggs
70 ml melted butter
1/2 cup longan juice
1/2 cup chopped walnut
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup pine nut for topping

-Sift cake flour, salt and baking powder, set aside. Beat egg and sugar till white and fluffy, add in longan juice, vanilla extract and melted butter , stir until well mixed. Fold in flour lightly. Add in chopped walnut and dried longan. Spoon the batter to the paper cup, top with pine nut. Bake at preheated oven at 180 for 30-35 minutes.

Black Glutinous Rice Cake

Like i said before, i'm not a big fan of steamed cake, but when it comes to leftover thingy, then i really have no choice.
I've been keep this leftover homemade black glutinous rice powder (from making this cookies) for about 4 months. Luckily it still fresh and fragrant, since it placed in the fridge. Never imagined before, that glutinous rice powder can be used for cake, until i found this recipe. I was quite sure that the cake will turned out hard and sticky. I'm so surprised when i opened my steamer, the cake rise beautifully, it has dark purpelish color and the combination of coconut milk - black glutinous rice powder smell heavenly.

Recipe for steamed black glutinous rice cake.
Source: NCC

Ingredients :
6 eggs
200 gr sugar
350 gr black glutinous rice powder
150 ml corn oil
200 ml coconut milk
1 tsp ovalette/cake emulsifier
¼ tsp salt

- Beat egg, sugar, salt and ovalette until white and fluffy, fold in black glutinous rice flour and stir lightly. Add corn oil and coconut milk, stir until well mixed. Pour the batter to 2 loaf pan and steam for 40 minutes( i halved the recipe and steam for 35 minutes)

Steamed Smiling Cake (Bolu Kukus)

Few months ago, i joined this group and for this past few days, everyone was talking about this smiling steamed cake. I get hooked, curious and challenged by reading their post. In the end, i push myself to try to make this cake, though i'm not a big fan of steamed cake.
It took me 6 times to make the cake smile beautifully. Yeah, 6 TIMES, with 5 fails and 1 success. I wasted countless eggs, sugar, milk, flour and my precious energy and time. Everything went to the trash.
This cake is similar to chinese fa gau, only different in taste and texture, it has smoother and softer texture compared to fa gau which is made from rice flour. And this smiling cake also suitable for vegetarian.
So, here is the recipe, adapted from Vania modified by me.

Ingredients:
2 egg white
4 egg yolk
240 g caster sugar
250 g all purpose flour
175 ml fresh milk
Few drops of pandan essence/any food colouring

- Heat up steamer and muffin tin(lined with paper cup) for 10 minutes. Beat egg and sugar at high speed until white and fluffy, add milk stir well. Fold in flour and stir until well mixed. Reserve a cup of the batter and add pandan essence. Spoon the plain batter into lined muffin tin topped with 2 tsp green batter.
Steam at HIGH heat for 17-20 minutes. DO NOT open the steamer in first 10 minutes, otherwise it will not smile at all.

** From my(6 times) experience, cake emulsifier(ovalette) is not required as long as you can beat egg and sugar until thick and fluffy.

Strawberry Swiss Rolls

Strawberry now is in season. I bought a box of fresh and beautiful tiny strawberry from night market last night and it only cost half of the usual price. Beautiful and delicious dessert, that's the first thing come to my mind when i saw strawberries.
Too bad, the berries season only lasts for only 3-4 weeks here. Click here for the swiss roll recipe.

Lapis Surabaya

Wow...it's been 3 long weeks since my last post. I was in blue mood for entering my kitchen after big long feast of Chinese new year. And today, i bake this cake for the sake of new post. Lapis literally mean layer and Surabaya is one of the big city in Indonesia and it is my hometown. So, lapis surabaya will be layered Surabayanese cake in English :)
The chocolate layer turned to be dense caused by over mixing. However, it tasted great and my kitchen smell heavenly while it baking in the oven.
Recipe adapted from aunty Yochana

Nutella Swiss Roll

Hahaaa....my swiss rolls 'marathon' is not over yet. I bake a lot of swiss rolls for Christmas give away. And some friends decorate it to make a Christmas log.

Merry Christmas

Wishing all friends and visitor a very merry Christmas and best wishes for the new year.

Here is my ugly Christmas log that i made today.
Christmas is not public holiday here in Taiwan since most of the residents are Buddhist. My boss treat me a fabulous dinner last night, give away some 'hong pao' too and let me off from work today. Thanks boss for being such...... nice boss of course!! Stay that way :D !!

Strawberry Swiss Rolls

Another beautiful swiss roll made by me, heheee....
My next attempts is macaron, so just wish me luck.

Ingredients:
3 medium eggs
60 g sugar
80 g cake flour
30 ml corn oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
strawberry jam as required

-Beat egg and sugar till light and fluffy, fold in flour, vanilla essence and corn oil. Bake in preheated oven at 180 degrees for 12 minutes. Spread with strawberry jam and roll up.

Devil's Food Cake With Peanut Butter Chips Frosting

I become chocolate freak again recently. It's only few days ago since i bake beautiful, super rich and sweet chocolate muffin. I'm about to take some pictures of it, and somehow my camera disappear again. Found it out under my messy blanket finally.
Today is devil's food cake again with creamy peanut butter chips frosting.
For peanut butter frosting:

1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup milk
1-2/3 cups peanut butter chips(i use Reese's)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar

-Combine butter, milk and peanut butter chips in medium saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla. Place powdered sugar in medium bowl. Gradually add chip mixture, beating until well blended. Cool, stirring occasionally, until of spreading consistency (about 1 hour)

Lemon Bars

This recipe had been queue-up for long time in my trying list, but sometime i would prefer trying fancy and not-so-easy recipe rather than the simple one. Yesterday, i went through my trying list again and i attempted to bake it almost immediately hehee....
It is very easy and simple yet awfully delicious. I purposely cut down the sugar to keep the strong sourish lemon flavor, since i'm a big fan of lemon.
Recipe from Stephanie Jaworski at joyofbaking.com

Chocolate Swiss Roll

Hi hi.... i'm comeback again with my "new skill" in making swiss roll hahaa....how i really excited about it. I made chocolate swiss roll today and the sponge cake turned a bit dense due to over pressing while it is still warm. I should let it cool before rolling next time.
It still taste yummy however. All the ingredients and instruction are same with the previous vanilla swiss roll, i only reduce the amount of flour, adding cocoa powder and extra sugar.

Vanilla Swiss Roll

Finally!!!! after 7-8 attempts, here come the result. Yes, this is my very first success swiss roll, the rest went to the garbage bin. I was jumping up and down in my kitchen till sister call me seng cing ping hahaa...
Recipe come from Aunty Yochana It called for ovalette/cake stabilizer, but i omit it since i run out of stock, it still turn out beautifully and best of all, this recipe did not require folding method which to me is kinda dreading job.
Yipeee.... i can make Christmas log for this coming Christmas.

Cupcakes and Japanese Cheesecake

I bake these cakes few days ago for gathering in a friend house. These are peanut butter cupcake, oreo cupcake and japanese cheesecake. Some of them said, oreo cupcake is my speciality, since i've been bake oreo cupcakes for them couple of times

Layered Cheese Cake

My second attempts of making layered cake. The layers still messy, not much different with my first one.... i need more and more practice.
Like the first layered cake, this recipe also adapted from Aunty Yochana thank you aunty, for sharing such great recipes.

Cakey Pine Nut Brownies

Compared to the fudgy one, i would prefer this cakey type of brownies. I've try the fudgy brownies few times and it always has strong smell of egg, which i hate most. I don't know, whether it should be that way or i do it in the wrong way.

Ingredients:

65 g bittersweet chocolate
115 g butter
170 g fine sugar
40 g cake flour
100 g pine nut
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt

- Melt chopped chocolate and butter in microwave and stir until smooth. Beat egg and sugar till a bit creamy(not too creamy) add salt and vanilla essence, stir in melted chocolate and fold in flour. Pour half of the batter into baking pan, sprinkle with half pine nut and pour the rest of the batter and topped with the rest of the nuts.
Bake in preheated oven at 180 for 25-30 mins