Easy Apple Spice Cake

The Husband found some really delicious New Zealand apples at the supermarket near our place.

So I decided to use some of those apples to make an apple cake for a potluck with my family today.

Every major festival, my extended family would gather at my uncle's place for a potluck session. Today's potluck was to celebrate the the Mid Autumn Festival.

The Chinese celebrate the Mid Autumn Festival, also called Mooncake Festival on the 15th day of the eighth Chinese lunar month when the moon is at its fullest and brightest. This year's Mid-Autumn Festival falls on 12 Sep, so we are celebrating it in advance.

As with every potluck, there is too much food to go around so I was initially disappointed that this apple cake wasn't flying off the table. But then my grandma and aunt, both great cooks, gave me a thumbs up for the cake... and everyone who ate it seemed to like it.

The brother-in-law was also very quick to suggest that he would packed home the rest of the cake.. so I think this turned out to be a pretty good recipe, after all.

And it is a really easy recipe too. The original recipe is from marthastewart.com

Ingredients
Dry ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
Wet ingredients
1 3/4 cups sugar (original recipe says 2 cups)
3 large eggs
1 1/3 cups vegetable oil (I use canola oil)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Others
3 cups apples, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup chopped nuts, pecans or walnuts (optional, I used macadamia nuts)

What I did
1. Preheat the oven to 180 deg C
2. Sift all the dry ingredients together
3. Cream the wet ingredients together using the paddle attachment of the electric mixer until the mixture turns lemon yellow
4. Gradually add the sifted dry ingredients to the mixture, mixing at medium speed
5. Gently mix in the apples and nuts.
6. Pour the mixture into a 9 inch cake pan, or a 12 cup Bundt pan (Spray the pan and lightly dust with some flour before pouring the mixture in). I added some blueberries on top today, as I had some extra blueberries at home.
7. Bake for 90 mins (The original recipe says 75 - 90 mins but I've found that the cake cooks only at about 90 mins. If the top gets too brown, cover the pan with an aluminium foil in the last 20 - 15 mins of baking)

This cake is wonderful when served warm, ideally with some good vanilla ice-cream. I had it warm and after it cooled down and I definitely think warm is much better.

Easy Almond Granola

Homemade granola is super easy and it is also healthy to boot.

You can't really go too wrong so as long as you use some common sense - I don't think measuring out stuff is some important.

For this granola, I added some quick cooking oats to traditional rolled oats and I found that the granola came out crunchier.

Ingredients
- Quick cooking oats and rolled oats (about 1:4)
- A couple of tablespoon of canola oil
- A good bit of honey diluted with a few tablespoons of water
- 1 tsp of cinnamon powder
- A handful of almonds

What I did
1. Mix the oats well with cinnamon powder and almonds
2. Mix the oil and honey water together and pour over mixture. What is important here is you get the oats to be all very lightly moisten with the liquid/ oil mixture
3. Spread the mixture over Silpat and bake for about 30 - 40 minutes at 160 deg C, or until the oats are a gold-brownish colour
4. As the granola cools, it will turn crisp. After it cools completely, store in an airtight container and it should last for about a month

Ugly Flourless Cake

This cake is called the Ugly Cake.

It also has no flour so it is not only ugly, but flourless.

The Brother-in-law loves this cake though and after eating one at our place, he politely asked if he could pack home a slice.

My mother says it's like eating a piece of soft chocolate, which is I think by far the closest description to what eating this cake feels like.

This is of course another bake by The Husband and I think it's by far his personal favourite. I have no favourites. So far, I've enjoyed every single cake and dessert.

Souffle Au Fromage

We bought a delicious souffle-like cheesecake from a Japanese fair sometime back and it was super light and delicious but also rather pricey.

The Husband made a similar cake yesterday.

He got his recipe from this cookbook by a famous Japanese pastry chef. This cake is made very much the way you would make a souffle - by beating egg whites to a soft peak and then adding in cheese. Unlike a souffle, it is baked in a water-bath for a rather long time (about 70 mins), so the cake doesn't raise very much but yet has a souffle-like texture.

A similar recipe I'd like to try would be this. The cake in this recipe looks very much like those you'd find in Japanese cake shops.

The cake didn't look very impressive but oh it was really very good - it was airy light with a hint of cheese, eggs and lemon. This is a truly melt in your mouth type of cake.

I had 2 big slices and briefly considered going for a third.

With such frequent bakes happening in our kitchen, I'm getting lots of opportunities to practice my photo taking skills of food!

Molten Chocolate Cake

The Husband baked this today.

This has been on my to-bake list since forever.. and I've not done it.. The Husband spoke about this yesterday and I got to eat it for tea this afternoon.

I'm such a procrastinator!

This cake really yummy - it has a really rich chocolate taste. The centre is not as molten in that it didn't flow right out.. but it was lava-like enough... somewhat like very soft egg yolk.

I should challenge The Husband to make souffle next!

He used his own recipe for this cake. The one I wanted to bake was the Big Melt-down recipe from Kitchen Tigress.

More Homemade Desserts

The Husband is on a roll.

He made quite a number of desserts yesterday.

The strawberry dessert is a variation of the mango one he made earlier in the week. The egg pudding is nice - I love the bottle that it was made in.

The coconut cookies are really nice too. These are made by shaping each cookie by hand.

At this rate, I can forget about my diet.

 Layered strawberry dessert. This is not as sweet as
the mango one but that's why I like it!

 

Strawberry mousse

 Egg Pudding

Coconut cookies

These are shaped by hand

Mango Delight Dessert

This is the other dessert The Husband made yesterday.

There are 3 layers in this dessert - vanilla panna cotta at the bottom, mango cubes in the middle and mango mousse on the top.

My favourite is the panna cotta layer - silky smooth with real vanilla beans.

Yummy!

Chocolate Almond Cookies

I had a girls day out today with some of my fellow blogger friends.

The Husband was at home and he mentioned that he'd be making some desserts.

One of them was a batch of these chocolate almond cookies. These look so delicate and classy. I liked how the silvers of sliced almonds contrast against the dark brown colour of the cookies. They taste pretty good too - crispy and not too sweet.

The Husband refuses to share his recipe so I'd just have to be contented with eating them. These would go great with a cup of cappuccino.

Green Tea Butter Cake

I really liked this cake. It was yummy. Even The Husband said so and he is not usually that keen on my cakes.

This recipe would bake better in a regular pound cake pan but I wanted to use my new silicon pan, so the cake turned out very thin.

This is baked using a butter cake recipe I like very much. It is not a "healthy" recipe but the extra cream and egg yolks make this butter cake moist and rich!

Ingredients
130g butter
90g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 whole eggs + 2 egg yolks
45g milk
45g cream or evaporated milk
140g cake flour, sifted
10g matcha powder (use cake flour instead if you want to just make butter cake)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
A small handful of chocolate chips (optional)


What I did
1. Cream butter, sugar and salt until light
2. Beat all the eggs together and add to the butter, bit by bit
3. Sift the flour and matcha powder together
4. Add in half the flour into the butter-egg mixture, alternating with the milk and cream
5. Gently mix the chocolate chips in
6. Bake in a pound cake pan for 180 deg C until cooked. About 30 - 40 minutes

By the way, this is the last picture taken on my wooden balcony table - the table has rotted under the sun and rain and I've thrown it out. It was becoming quite a mushroom farm! A pity really - I liked this table, bench and chair set..

Cupcakes Challenge and Blog Stats

Blogger has this relatively new feature where you can view your blog statistics via Blogger Home > Stats.

Recently, I noticed that my previous posts about the 100 Cupcake Challenge received lots of visits. (See all four parts here - Part 1, 2, 3 and 4)

As I'm puzzling over this, I also realised I haven't been baking any bread or cakes for quite a while now.

I really should get started on it! I haven't been making much progress with my To-Bake list and there are lots I want to do!

Work has been stressful of late.. and very frustrating. But I really shouldn't be using that as an excuse not to bake. After all, baking is a relaxing way to de-stress.

The famous Red velvet cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes 

(from the show on TLC channel - DC cupcakes)

Hot Cross Buns for Easter

A dear friend of mine, J, gave me 2 boxes of hot cross buns for Easter. She orders it from this lady every year to give out to her friends.

These hot cross buns keep really well in the fridge and are really yummy when toasted and eaten with a little cold butter.

A hot cross bun is a sweet bun made with spices, raisins and candied citrus fruits, marked with a cross on the top. The cross can be made with icing sugar and water or a mixture of flour and water. The cross is supposed to symbolise the cross that Jesus died on.. and as a result this bread is eaten on Good Friday and Easter, to remember the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I love to eat this bread! I have a recipe for hot cross buns from my baking class.. so I think, I should really try to make a batch this month!

Easy Homemade Apple Strudel

This is a very easy recipe to make since it uses frozen puff pastry.

I didn't use any specific recipe from a book or anything to make this - I just threw the ingredients together and thankfully, it worked.

To be honest, I am not very sure if this is more an apple pie or an apple strudel.. but hey.. since I made it, I can call it whatever I like... no?

Preparation time - 15-20 mins (not including time taken to thaw the frozen pastry), baking time - 20 mins

Ingredients
2 large apples, peeled and diced/ sliced depending on your preference
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp water
A handful of raisins and dried cranberry
2 tbsp of vanilla sugar (or plain sugar is also fine)
250g frozen puff pastry
1 beaten egg, for brushing pastry

What I did
1. Mix the apples, cinnamon, raisins, water and sugar together
2. Microwave on high for about 3-4 mins and set aside to cool
3. Roll out the puff pastry into a long rectangular piece
4. Put the apples on one side of the pastry and fold it over
5. Seal off the sides of the pastry and score the sides/ top of the pastry
6. Brush with beaten egg
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 deg C for 20 mins, or until pastry is golden brown

Zucchini Bread

"I haven't been baking for quite a while now."

I was thinking about that to myself at the supermarket when I saw this lady putting up some zucchini on the racks.

So I had to get a couple to make a zucchini bread. I've never tried before but I think it is like carrot cake, only easier to grate.

This recipe turned out alright - nice and moist as I had hoped. I shredded the zucchini with the green skin still on so my cake has interesting green bits on it. But I realised I had no cinnamon at home halfway through so the cake was not as fragrant as I hoped. And the recipe called for 2 1/4 cups of sugar which is way too much. I used 2 cups and found the cake still very sweet. Maybe because I also dumped in 1/2 a cup of mini chocolate chips. Nevertheless, I'd try going for 1 1/2 cups of sugar next time.

Recipes adapted from here.

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups white sugar (I reckon 1 1/2 cups would be enough)
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts

What I did
1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 165 degrees C
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl
3. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well.
4. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into pans
5. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean

Skinny Prawns and Avocado Pizza

I like pizzas with a thin, crispy crust. Pizzas are one of the things I really like to make at home. I wish The Husband like pizzas a lot more so I can keep making lots of it at home.

Thin crust pizza usually requires preparation in advance. Supposedly, the dough will be really good if you let it raise slowly in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Too bad, I only read about this a few hours before dinner time.

This pizza recipe doesn't call for slow rising of the dough so it is perfect for a last minute pizza. I like this recipe because it is pretty simple and the addition of corn meal gives it a nice texture. If I have to do this again though, I have a feeling that baking it for about 5 mins before heaping up with all the ingredients would result in a more crackly pizza.

Ingredients
2 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup water
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 tsp yellow cornmeal or wholemeal flour

What I did
1. Mix all the ingredients together except for the dry yeast and water
2. Make a little well in the centre of the flour mixture
3. Add in the yeast and water
4. Knead until smooth
5. Let rise until dough doubles in size (about 1 hour)
6. Spread whatever ingredients you like on top of the dough. I added some red pesto sauce for the base, mini portebello mushrooms, prawns, avocado and some mixed mozzarella and cheddar cheese

For another easy to make pizza dough - see here.

Simple walnut raisin bread

This is another simple bread recipe I really like. You can actually add what you like to it. But a handful of walnuts and raisins work really well.

I like to add like slightly less yeast to my bread but I've got to learn to proof my bread properly. I have been lazy and have leaving them in my kitchen which is air-conditioned... so even after 2 hours of proofing, they don't seem to be getting anywhere. I'd have to move them to somewhere more humid to get those lovely air pockets and a softer texture..

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients
225g flour (I used a mixture of wholemeal - 100g and bread flour - 125g)
4g to 6g instant yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp olive oil
125ml water
50g chopped walnuts (optional)
50g raisins or dried cranberries or sun-dried tomatoes (optional)

What I did
1. Mix everything together except the walnuts and raisins
2. Knead into a smooth dough
3. Add the walnuts and raisins and knead into dough
4. Cover and proof for 45 mins to 2 hours (depending on your room conditions and amount of yeast)
5. Shape into a long oval shape and place on silpat, or lightly oiled baking tray
6. Proof until double in size - 45 mins to 2 hours
7. Bake at 200 deg C for 25 mins
8. Take out, let cool on a rack

This bread makes a very good open sandwich. It also goes well with a thick soup, like corn soup or mushroom soup.

Simple homemade granola

One of my favourite frozen yogurt is Yami Yogurt. I like the peach flavour at Yami Yogurt so much.. I don't think I've ever ordered another flavour before. And I like the granola topping so much that I've never really ordered another topping before.

I've never figured out the brand of the granola they use.. but I decided to make some of my own so that I can have healthier breakfast on weekdays.. I got the general idea of the recipe from Evan's blog.. but I just simply added what I liked and had at home to the granola too.

My version of homemade granola consisted of:
- 3 cups of old fashion rolled oats
- A small handful of raisins and dried cranberries
- A small handful of macadamia nuts, sliced almonds and some sunflower seeds
- A tablespoon of dessicated coconut

I mixed everything together with a little bit of salt and then addded in a mixture of canola oil and honey (2 tablespoon oil with half a cup of honey)

Then everything went into the oven at 160 deg C for 40 mins. Be sure to line your baking tray with silpat for this. I used a non-stick pan but the granola still stuck on to the tray after it cooled.

The granola should be stored in an airtight container when it is completely cooled.

The results? A weeks' full of granola to go with fruity yogurt. I'd be trying a different variation sometime soon again.

Easy Blueberry Muffins with Surprise

These blueberry muffins are really simple to make.. Being someone who likes to use the electronic weighing scale, I like all recipes where the measurements come in grams so no judgment is required apart from reading off the scale.

So, I was a little surprise to see Ting saying the other day that she likes recipes with cups only as measurement... but I think even Ting would agree with me that this recipe is super easy. In all, it took me about 30 mins to put everything together.

It is a really healthy muffin too! This recipe uses low-fat yogurt to make the muffins soft and moist. There isn't a lot of oil and sugar used too so I think it makes a really good breakfast muffin. You might want to be more generous with the sugar if your blueberries are really sour. The Husband didn't like these because the blueberries were too sour for him..

The surprise for these muffins are the little pieces of Philadelphia cream cheese I stuck into the centre of every little muffin. These aren't really neccessary but I like the charm of a little surprise now and then in my bakes.

Original recipe from joyofbaking.com

Ingredients (makes 12 muffins or 24 mini ones)
Wet ingredients
1 cup (240 ml) plain yogurt (regular or low fat)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup (60 ml) canola or corn oil
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients
2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Others
1 1/4 cups (100 grams) fresh or frozen blueberries
Small pieces of cream cheese

What I did
1. Preheat oven to 190 deg C
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together
3. Whisk all the wet ingredients together
4. Take a spoonful of the dry ingredients and mix it with the washed blueberries
5. Gentle mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients together. Don't overmix.
6. Fold in the blueberries gently
7. Scoop the batter into muffin liners or silicon muffin trays and stick a piece of cream cheese into each muffin
8. Bake for 15 to 20 mins.

 See the little piece of cheese in the muffin? (Picture on top left)

Onion Focaccia with Walnuts and Herbs

Onion Focaccia with Walnut and Herbs and a wee bit of sun-dried tomatoes

I love to bake focaccia.

Mainly, it is because I have a really simple, hard-to-go-wrong recipe. The recipe I have is really simple.. and I like it because of the use of honey. Somehow, I feel it makes the dough a little stickier.. but the end product always turns out pretty decent.

Today, I did a variation of my good old focaccia recipe.

Ingredients
380g Flour (2 parts bread flour, 1 part plain flour and 1 part wholemeal flour)
A good pinch of Salt
1 tsp Sugar
8g Instant Yeast
12g Honey
240g Ice water
20g Oliver Oil

Additional Ingredients (Optional - this is the bit where you can add what you like)
Some finely sliced yellow onions, stir-fried with a bit of olive oil until brown and quite dry
A handful of chopped walnuts
A few finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes
Some fresh rosemary (I used some frozen ones - from my rosemary plant before it died)

What I did
1. Mix all the dry ingredients
2. Mix all the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and knead until smooth
3. Add in the optional ingredients and knead well
4. Proof til double in size (about 1 hour)
5. Punch down and shape as desired. I ended up making 6 round pieces of bread
6. Proof for another 60 minutes, or until double in thickness
7. Bake at approx 190 deg C for 20 minutes.

I ate this warm and hm.. this is a bread that can be eaten plain on its own - no olive oil or butter required..

I like shaping my focaccia like that.. with 5 dimples on the top

The onions in this bread made it really fragrant~~

Blueberry Muffins

I think blueberries are the best kind of berries. The name itself is beautiful - "blueberry" - it brings to mind a host of confectionery like blueberry cheesecake, blueberry pancakes and blueberry muffins. Oddly, the name also makes me think of blue bead necklaces and bubble gum.

I also like blueberries because they tend to taste sweet. I have never had a really sour blueberry before..

Blueberries tend to be quite expensive in the supermarkets.. so when I saw them going for about SGD2.50 for 100g recently, I immediately bought some.

This recipe is from Baking with Julia. The original recipe called for sour cream, which I didn't have at home - so I replaced it with buttermilk instead. I ended up having to bake a little longer as buttermilk is not as dense as sour cream.

Blueberry muffins with fresh blueberries

Ingredients
Dry ingredients
1 3/4 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp salt
Wet ingredients
1/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup milk
Others
113g unsalted butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk

What I did
1. Preheat oven to 200 deg C
2. Sift all dry ingredients twice and set aside
3. Mix the wet ingredients together
4. Cream butter until light, using a mixer with the paddle
5. Add in sugar and cream until no longer grainy
6. Add in eggs and beat until fluffy
7. Remove from mixer and add in half the dry ingredients and half the wet ingredients
8. Fold until just combined, then add the rest of the dry ingredients and wet ingredients and then fold until just combined
9. Fold in the fresh blueberries (the recipe suggested 1 pint of blueberries - I would think 100g is more than enough)
10.  Fill the muffin cups to about 2/3 full each
11. Bake for 18 - 20 minutes (depending on your muffin size)

Enjoy!