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Sunday, July 15, 2012

Take a Break



Hey, dear friends, I'm taking a break from blogging in the next couple of weeks as we are in the midst of doing a minor renovation to the house.  I can't cook, can't bake (waa!waa!waa!) and my house is in such a mess.  Minor reno or not, it can cause the whole household to be in chaotic messy and dusty mode.  However, I shall be dropping into yours as and when I have the opportunity in-between cleaning up.

Once the reno is done, I'm gonna comeback with a vengeance..muaahaahahaa!
:D:D:D:D:D:D


Saturday, July 7, 2012

Devil's Food




Look at these smooth juicy sweet apricots! Do your mouth water by just looking at it?  Fresh apricots are not cheap in this part of the world.  While whiling away my time after work in one of the high end mall near my work place, came across these apricots in the supermarket and they were on sale  - only RM9.90 per punnet.  So juicy and sweet!


Ok..this post is not about apricots.  The recipe which I'm going to share with you have got nothing to do with apricots or any fruits at all.  I just can't resist showing you the picture of these wonderful fruit, ..lol!

Actually all I want to share with you is a lovely and easy to bake Devil's Food cake which is oil-based.  This recipe is from 'Bake' by Nick Malgieri.  You know that I'm quite lazy at times.  I baked this a couple of weeks ago - at that time, I just itched to bake something but don't want too complicated a recipe.  Searched through the mountains of books that I owned, found this recipe which is just perfect and of course, delicious as well..hope you'll try this.  It's so easy to make.

I doubled the recipe for 2 cakes..one for us and the other for my neighbour who is ever so happy to receive any bakes from me..:D



 Look at this!  It's so moist.


 The texture is similar to steam cakes.

Serve with a dollop of whipped cream..yummy!

Here's the recipe..makes two 23cm round layers, 5 cm high. (since I want the cake without any frosting, I made single layer but doubled this recipe to get 2 cakes but taller than 5 cm)


110g unsweetened chocolate, cut into small pieces (I used semi-sweet chocolate)
240 ml boiling water (boil, then measured)
225g granulated sugar (since I used semi-sweet choc, I reduced the sugar to 100g)
195g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
225g light brown sugar (I used 100g as I think 225g is way too much)
120 ml vegetable oil, such as safflower
110g soured cream (if you've been following me, yup, this is the one ingredient that became my deciding factor into baking this cake! haahahaa)
2 medium eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2tsp vanilla extract

1. Prepare two 23 x 5 cm cake tins, pre-heat oven to 180dC.
2. Place the choc in a large mixing bowl and pour the hot water over it. shake the bowl to make sure all the choc is submerged, then let stand for a few minutes to melt the choc.
3. In a mixing bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, salt and b.o.s. and set aside.
4. whisk the choc and water until smooth, then whisk in the brown sugar, oil, soured cream, eggs and vanilla one at a time, whisking smooth after each addition.
5. Whisk in the flour mixture about one third at a time.  Batter will be very runny.
6. Divide the batter between the cake tins and bake until risen and firm about 30-35 mins.
7. Let cakes stand in the tins for 5 mins, then unmould to racks, turn right side up and cool completely. to finish as a sandwich cake, use your choice of frosting.

Oh, by the way, today is my sis birthday..Happy Birthday, Dear Sis! May Lord Buddha bless you with good health, happiness and keep you safe always! Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu!





Friday, July 6, 2012

Addictive Blog Award



Blog Award


I am so honored to receive my second award thus far!  This time, I would like to thank Andrea V from Get Your Feast On! for giving me this award.  She has many creative and wonderful mouth watering recipes.  She has a way in describing her food and thoughts.  Do visit her blog if you have the time.  Many thanks, Andrea!


The rules are: 
  • Thank the person who nominated you and link them back. 
  • Share a little bit about why you started blogging.
 I never thought I would start blogging until my youngest sis who was actively blogging at that time, started to encourage me to start a food blog.  Since I have a passion to baking much more than cooking (although I do cook a fair bit), I thought 'ok, why not!'.   I can share my success and not so successful recipes with anyone who is willing to listen to me.  So, I hope and I'd like to think that I had you glued to my blog...lol
  • Copy and paste the award onto your blog. 
  • Nominate up to 10 other bloggers you think are addictive enough to deserve the award.
Ok..here's a tough one..er..ok..I'll just pick a number and go with that.  Since 8 is a lucky number for Chinese, I'll choose 8 blog friends of mine who I'd like to give this award to..so here they are:


Months of Edible Celebrations
Canela Kitchen
Frozen Wings
Jisha's Kitchen
Chez Entity
Hiperica di Lady Boheme
There's Always Thyme To Cook
I-Lost In Austen

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Sour Cream Berry Muffins


Yup! Sour cream again! Told you I'm crazy with recipes that has sour cream in it..hahaa now you know how crazily I am over it.

Made these muffins a couple of weeks ago but never got the time to post it in.  So here goes.  (I don't have to tell you how soft and del-iiii-cious they tasted. wink! wink!)

This is the 2nd recipe that I tried from this wonderful book.  2 recipes down, 748 more to go! Wow, a whole lot of muffins to bake!





Makes 15 muffins

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream (yum yum!)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups raspberries, blueberries or blackberries (I used blueberries)

Pre-heat oven to 200d C.
1. In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
2. In medium bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, oil, vanilla until well blended.
3. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just blended. Gently fold in berries.
4. Fill batter in muffin cups and bake for 20 - 25 mins until done.  Transfer to wire rack and cool completely.




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