Apple Roses Pie

Couple of months ago a friend of mine shared a video on how to make Apple Roses dessert video on Facebook and after watching it I'm hooked.  The video is from a food blogger called Cooking With Manuela and she has many wonderful recipes and videos. 

Here's my Apple Roses Pie.  It looks complicated but it's not.  So very easy and yet so pretty and delicious.  Don't worry, the link to this blogger and her video on how to make this is included below.
Have a go at this and your family will be awed by the beauty of this pie. :)

 



www.cookingwithmanuela.blogspot.com

http://www.cookingwithmanuela.blogspot.com/p/videos.html
 

Coffee and Cream Muffins

This will be my last baking post for this year as I'll be going for a month vacation in December. We've been planning for this holiday a year ago and we are very excited about this. Let me give you some clues on our vacation destination. Its gonna be someplace where its going to be winter, about 8 hours behind KL and expensive. Can you guess? If I have the time I might just post some pictures of our holiday... :)

So here's my last bake off - Coffee & Cream Muffins .. perfect for winter with a cup of hot latté! The photos are quite blurry. Snapped these with my new tablet and I need to figure out how to get the settings right.

 

2 cups plain flour

3/4 cups sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

2 tbsp granulated coffee

Pinch of salt

100 ml milk

185 ml double cream

100 ml oil

2 eggs

light brown sugar

 

1. Heat oven to 200d C and line tray with cupcake cases.

2. Sift all dry ingredients together. Mix all wet ingredients and beat together until combine.

3. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix till batter is lumpy.

4. Fill cupcakes 3/4 full and sprinkle brown sugar on top. 

5. Bake for 20-25 mins until done.

 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween Week!

I know I'm a few days ahead of Halloween but hey, I'm in the mood!!  I'm excited. I feel like a kid. I can't wait to showcase my creations.. and after today - it's Sunday today, I'm back to work tomorrow and will not have time to post anything during weekdays.  Since Halloween falls on Friday, yeah well, that's why I'm early this year.

Halloween is a time for one to have fun and be creative. Unfortunately, Halloween is not popular in this part of the world. Although some toy stores and costume stores do sell all kinds of scary and ghoulish items, not many will make a purchase unless someone throws a Halloween party.

We don't have kids going around 'treat or trick' in the neighborhood especially since kidnapping cases are on the rise. Parents will not usually allow their young children to be out of the house unattended. However, this does not stop one from being in the mood to be creative, rite.. Err hmm!

I look forward to Halloween each year as I have a different agenda.. that is to bake, to create and to share. This year I got my kids to put on their creative hat and be artistic. They simply love doing this as much as I.. So here, as promised in my earlier post, sharing our colorful creations and wishing you a wonderful and a very Happy Halloween!!

                                         

                             

       

                    

 

                    

                   

 

H A P P Y    H A L L O W E E N !

Cupcakes! Cupcakes! - Lavender! Carrot!

Hi everyone!  I'm back.  I've not forgotten you.  Even though I've not been posting anything in the past few months, I did however been visiting your blogs to have a peep at what you are up to. I'm glad to see you guys have been busy whipping up your goodies in your kitchen and I bet with Halloween coming, your ovens will be fully utilized.. I can't wait to see what you have in store for me.

Just so you know, I have started making Halloween cupcakes.  The mood strikes me like a sudden rainstorm in this monsoon season in this part of the world.  It comes and go without warning. Don't worry guys, I save all my clicks of the festive ghouls goodies and shall post them in time for The Halloween.. I promise! In the meantime, here are the recipes for the Lavender and Carrot Cupcakes.

When I first saw the lavender cupcakes recipe in the 'Hummingbird Bakery Cook Book', I was like 'Really!  Isn't Lavender used in soap or in aroma therapy of some kind?  Is this edible at all?'. Actually there is an edible lavender flower that is dried and used in tea or baking.  I bought some from one of my earlier vacation retreat at the highlands in Malaysia.  I add some of it into my tea.  The taste and smell is rather strong and I recommend that you use them sparingly or else it can be quite overwhelming.

 Here's my little assistant in the background decorating the cupcakes with fondant flowers.. :)

This lavender cupcake is quite unique in its flavor.  The taste is alright and actually quite nice washing down with a cup of hot tea.  However, I am not a fan of it though.  But do give this a try.  You might like it better than I do.. :)

Lavender Cupcake:
(makes 12)
1/2 cup whole milk
3 tbsp dried lavender flowers
1 cup plain/all purpose flour
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 egg

1. Put the milk and lavender flowers in a bowl, cover and refrigerate for a few hours.
2. Preheat oven to 170dC.
3. Put the flour, sugar, baking powder and butter in an electric mixer and beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined.
4. Strain the lavender-infused milk and slowly pour into the flour mixture, beating well until all the ingredients are well mixed.  Add the egg and beat well.
5. Spoon mixture into the cupcake cases until two-thirds full and bake for 20-25 mins or until cake is done.  leave to cool and frost with Lavender Frosting.

Frosting:
2 tbsp whole milk
1 tbsp dried lavender flowers
2 cups icing sugar
5 tbsp (80g) butter
a couple of drops of purple food coloring

1. Put the milk and dried lavender flowers in a bowl, cover and refrigerate for a few hours.
2. Beat the sugar,, butter and food coloring with electric mixer on medium speed.  Turn to slow speed and strain the lavender-infused milk and slowly pour into the butter mixture.
3. Once incorporated, turn the speed to high and beat until frosting is light and fluffy.

Next, Carrot Cupcakes.. this recipe is simply irresistible.  I love the cream cheese frosting too. Baked these yummy cupcakes for my colleagues and they love it..!

Carrot Cupcake:
(Makes 36 of 3.25oz cups)
2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 ts ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
4 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3 cups shredded carrots
1 cup walnut, chopped
3/4 cup dark raisins

1. Preheat oven to 180dC. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.
2. With electric mixer, beat eggs and granulated and brown sugar, until blended.  Beat in oil, milk and vanilla.  Reduce speed to low, add flour and beat until smooth.  Fold in carrots, walnuts and raisins.  Mix well.
3. Spoon batter into cupcake cases slightly more than half full.  Bake for 20-25 mins or until cake is done.  Cool and frost.

Cream cheese froting:
250 cream cheese
150g butter
1 1/3 cup icing sugar

Mix all ingredients and beat until light and fluffy.

Oreo Cupcake

My youngest daughter: 'What are you making, mommy?'
Me: 'Oreo Cupcake'.
Daughter:  'Yipee.. can I help?'
Me: 'Yup!'


Then, off she went to tell her other two siblings about it and all of them are excited to taste the cupcakes. Well, I don't have to tell you that they love Oreos.  Who doesn't?  Be it if you are a kid or an adult, the reaction will be the same.. oooohhh Oreeeooosss!! lol

This is a wonderful cupcake recipe.  If you are entertaining at your child's birthday party or an-all adult tea-party, give this a try.  It's not too sweet and the whipping cream frosting is so perfect with Oreos. This is so popular that it lived up to it's name 'now you see it, now you don't'. Kakakakaka

Here's the recipe:

Makes 12 large cupcakes or 23 medium sized.

21/2 cups white flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 cup (240g) butter at room temperature

11/4 cups sugar

4 eggs

8 finely chopped Oreo cookies/biscuits

Frosting:

1 cup whipping cream (I used 1 1/2cup as I love more frosting on cupcakes especially with whipping cream)

3 tbsp powdered sugar

Oreo cookies crushed (but I used it whole instead or break in two)

How to do it?? Here's how:

1. Preheat oven to 170dC, Prepare muffin tin with paper cup liners.
2. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy at medium speed.
4. Lower speed to low and add eggs one at a time.
5. Gradually add the flour mixture and finally the chopped oreos.
6. Fill cupcake cases 3/4 full and bake for 20-25mins or until done.  Let cool and frost.

Frosting:
Beat whipping cream with the sugar until cream (soft peaks).  Add coarsely chopped oreos and mix well. Place a heaping tablespoon of frosting on top of each cupcake.
(I did not mix the oreos into the frosting but instead, just break them in two and place it on top of the frosting).

Bacon and Mushroom Quiche

This is my first attempt at baking a quiche.  My hubby and kids love quiche.  When they first ate this, it was baked by my sis and since then, they fell madly in love with it.  Sometimes when we have family get together, special request from my family to my sis, is to bake this.

Since they like its so much, I decided to make one a couple of weeks ago and yup, it's a hit!.  The recipe is taken from the link here.  I did however, adjusted the ingredient to our taste.  Basically, all the main ingredients are there.  I do hope you will try this as this is really good.

Tasteful and delicious!