Purple Sweet Potato Muffins 紫番薯玛芬

I bought some purple sweet potato from the store. Realized that I have not baked for ages, hence I decided to bake some muffins with it. Not bad at all. We were so satisfied to have some home made fluffy muffins for our Sunday breakfast. Life is simple.

Purple Sweet Potato Muffins 紫番薯玛芬

Yields for 11 muffins

Ingredients:
300g self-raising flour
170g caster sugar ( I used 160g instead as the sweet potato is very sweet)
3 eggs
125g unsalted butter, melted
125ml milk
100g purple sweet potato, steamed, peeled and mashed
additional milk (to mix up with mashed sweet potato)

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C.

2. Mix up the mashed sweet potato with the additional milk prepared. Add milk a little at a time, repeat the step until you get the thickness like mashed banana.

3. Sift self raising flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar, eggs, butter and milk. Add the mashed sweet potato and milk mixture. Mix until just combined. 

4. Scoop the batter into muffin trays/ muffin cups. Bake for 25 minutes.

5. Take out the muffins and leave it cool before serving.

Coffee Flavoured Butter Cake

This is an ad-hoc baking. I don’t have self-raising flour on hand, so I just mixed the plain flour with baking powder into self-raising flour. Although the cake looks ugly, but it is moist and aromatic. I'm not satisfied with its texture and marble pattern. The texture is rough, and the marble effect proved that I'm not a good baker. To improve the texture, I will try the egg separated method for the next attempt. :)

Coffee Flavoured Butter Cake
Makes a 8" square cake

Ingredients:
250gm butter
200gm castor sugar
220gm plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp double action baking powder
4 eggs
18gm 2 in 1 coffee mixed with 1 tbsp water
8 tbsp evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla essence

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line the cake pan with baking paper.
2. Beat butter & sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs one at a time beating well after addition.
4. Fold in the sifted flour, baking powder and baking soda to mix.
5. Pour in milk, vanilla essence and stir to mix.
6. Take half of the batter to mix with coffee.
7. Pour the coffee batter to mix with the rest of the batter.
8. Bake in the preheat oven for 50 minutes.

Steamed Orange Cake

My another attempt of making a steamed cake. This cake is specially made for my mum as she doesn't take dairy products. She is allergic to cow's milk, butter, cream, ice-cream and everything related to cow. Oh, my poor mum.

I tried to use superfine flour in this cake. The texture is different than my earlier steamed cake that was made with normal plain flour. I like its springy texture.  It's definitely the healthier type of sugar-reduced cake, with very little vegetable oil. I can gobbled down 4 pieces in one go without feeling guilty. :P

Steamed Orange Cake
Make one 8”x8” square cake

Ingredients:
(A) – prepare in a big mixing bowl
5 eggs
160gm Castor sugar

(B) – sifted
190gm super fine flour
¾ tsp baking powder

(C) – mixed
zest of 1 orange
4tbsp orange juice
3tbsp sunflower oil

Steps:
1. Line the baking pan with baking paper.
2. Using electric mixer, beat (A) under high speed until fluffy.
3. Add (B) and beat under low speed until well mixed. Pour in (C) to mix.
4. Using a spatula, transfer the batter to the pre-lined cake pan. Loosely cover the top with aluminum foil.
5. Steam over high flame for 25 minutes.

Banana Muffin - The Creaming Method

It's been a long time since my last baking. I got ripe bananas that I couldn't finish up, so I used it to bake some banana muffins. My earlier banana muffin baking was using muffin method. This time, I decided to try the creaming method. Overall, the result is pretty impressive. This is my own recipe that is modified from the banana cake.

Banana Muffin
Yields for 10 muffins

Ingredients:
3 eggs
200gm plain flour
2tsp of baking powder
120gm fine sugar
120gm salted butter
220gm of bananas, mashed
1tsp vanilla essence
3tbsp evaporated milk

Steps:
1. Preheat oven at 180C.
2. Get ready the paper cups.
3. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add egg one at a time, and continue to beat until well combine. Add vanilla essence and milk to mix well.
5. Sieve in flour and baking powder to the wet ingredients. Fold it in the wet ingredients until just well combine.
6. Fold the mashed banana into the batter.
7. Transfer the batter into the paper cups.
8. Bake the cake under 180C for 40 minutes or until brown.

Chocolate Cupcake

I made these chocolate cupcakes with reference to ncrazykitchen, but it was not as fluffy as her version. Her recipe measurement is by spoon and bowl. Perhaps if I have the right measurement for the milk, I would be able to have better cupcakes. Anyway, these chocolate cupcakes are suitable for the Christmas theme, which is 2 days away from now. Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

Birthday Cake with Yogurt Frosting

Remember what I mentioned earlier that I hope to make a frosting birthday cake for my dear? Yes, mission accomplished! Though it didn't turned out as beautiful as those selling in bakery shop. But hey, this is my first time making a frosting cake without proper tools, so I think the result is still acceptable. :-)

The base is a chocolate cake. I make a 2 layers of it, with peach-yogurt sandwiched in between. Then, it is topped with yogurt, and decorated with peach and strawberry. This is so called my version of healthy frosting cake. About 750g of plain yogurt is prepared for the frosting purpose. After draining off the water from the yogurt, what's left is only 260g in cream cheese form.

This cake is dedicated to my dear on his special day. Happy Birthday, my dear!

Cotton Cake 棉花蛋糕

I chanced upon this Cotton Cake from Sonia's blog - Nasi Lemak Lover.  The recipe was originated by Jane's Corner. I tried to bake one immediately since I have all the ingredients on hand.

Now I know why it is called cotton cake. It's soft, moist, milky but light. This is my first time baking in water-bath.  No regret of trying this recipe, and I will bake it again later. Both hubby and I love this type of moist cake.

The result compensates my frustration due to a failure in baking a vanilla sponge cake in that morning. Phew......

Cotton Cake 棉花蛋糕 (Recipe Adapted From Nasi Lemak Lover)

makes 2 x (3”x6”) Aluminum tin

Ingredients:

30g butter

40g cake flour

40g Evaporated milk

3 egg yolk (big size)

3 egg white (big size)

40g sugar

1tsp corn flour

Steps:

1. In a pot, melt butter over low flame.

2. Pour melted butter in a mixing bowl, sift in cake flour, stir well till a thick paste.

3. Lightly beaten egg yolks using a hand whisk, slowly add in milk, mix well.

4. Slowly pour egg yolk mixture (No3) into butter mixture (No2), whisk till well combined.

5. In another mixing bowl, beat egg white under high speed till foamy (about 1 min).

6. Gradually add in sugar, continue beat.

7. Add in corn flour, beat till soft peak form.

8. Take 1/3 of egg white mixture mix with egg yolk mixture (No4) using a hand whisk, stir till well combine.

9. Gentle fold in the balance egg white using a spatula, combine well, but don’t over mix.

10. Spoon batter into cake pan, smooth the top of the batter, lightly tap cake pans on counter to bring air bubbles to top.

11. Bake over water-bath at 170c for 8mins, reduce to 150c and bake another 20mins.

12. Up side down the freshly baked cake on a wire rack until it's completely cool before removing from cake pan.

Fruit Sponge Cake

Fruit sponge cake is the classic dessert to have for one's birthday. This sponge cake is soft and smooth, and the fluffy texture is kind of melting in your mouth. With a lavish coat of whipped cream and peach sandwiched in between the sponge cake, it tastes heavenly.

This fruit cake is just divine. I'm still drooling while writing this. Thanks to my dear! The cake  was bought by him from Bread History in Queensbay Mall.

Although I'm still a beginner in baking, but I hope I can bake a simple fruit sponge cake for him in this coming September. Basically I have an idea in my mind, let's see if my simple and healthy version of fruit cake will work out fine. Wish me luck. :P

Banana Cake

This is an impromptu baking just to consume the leftover ripe bananas. I was hesitating whether or not to decorate the cake a  little bit so that it could look prettier. So, I sacrifice one banana for the toppings. Well,  the whole banana cake doesn’t really look outstanding... however, the individual slices of banana cake looks lovely. The cake tastes good too with my own measurement of ingredients. Everything is just nice, the taste, the texture and the look. It was my first attempt of baking a banana cake. Overall, I’m quite satisfied with this fruitful baking session.

Hmm...yummy! This is my breakfast for the next day. I gave some to my parents and hubby gobbled up the rest.

Banana Cake

Yields for a 8" diameter cake

Ingredients:

3 eggs
200gm self raising flour
1tsp of baking powder
120gm fine sugar
120gm salted butter
200gm of bananas, mashed
1tsp vanilla essence

Steps:

1. Preheat oven at 180C.

2. Line the 8" diameter cake tin base with baking paper.

3. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

4. Add egg one at a time, and continue to beat until well combine. Add vanilla essence to mix well.

3. Sieve in flour and baking powder to the wet ingredients. Fold it in the wet ingredients.

4. Fold the mashed banana into the batter.

5. Transfer the batter into the baking tray. Decorate the top with sliced banana (optional).

6. Bake the cake under 180C for 40 minutes or until cooked.

7. When it's done, leave it cool before cutting.

Blueberry Muffins

I came across this blueberry muffins recipe in Noobcook. I was drooling over the yummy looking muffins with juicy blueberries oozing out. Unfortunately, it was not easy to get fresh and cheap imported blueberries in Penang. I'm so disappointed until last few days when hubby brought back a tub of 125g blueberry. :) Hurray, finally I can hands on to make my own blueberry muffins.

I'm not good in baking. The muffins that I made in the past were either too hard or without the "dome" shape. I was lucky enough to have Food 4 Tots pointed out the possibilities of my mistake. She told me it could be due to the measurement, the pan, the mixing method and the baking temperature. This time, I take note all the above and follow on trust-able recipe by Noobcook, I can now announce that I've successfully baked a batch of fluffy and nice looking muffins! Can you imagine how happy I am? :D

Blueberry Muffins (Recipe adapted from Noobcook)
Yields for 5 big muffins and 4 small muffins

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (190g) plain flour
1 1/2 eggs, beaten
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1 cup (225g) caster sugar
125g blueberries
1/2 cup (125 ml) milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
65 grams melted butter at room temperature

Steps:

1. Sift flour, baking powder and sugar together, and mix well.

2. Add in milk, vanilla extract, eggs and butter and stir until just blended (and lumpy). Be careful not to over mix as it will result in a tough texture.

3. Fold in the blueberries into the mixture. Place baking cases in muffin tins. Spoon the mixture into the cases till almost full.

4. Bake for 20 minutes in preheated oven of 200C (400F) or until slightly golden brown. Allow to rest for several minutes before serving.

A note from Noobcook:
Store for a day in an airtight container. Freeze extras in ziplock bags and whenever you need a muffin or two, toast them for a few minutes in the oven till they are warm.

Banana Muffin

I'm not satisfied with my earlier muffin recipes, so here I am, trying my luck to bake another small batch of banana muffins. With my previous experience and some tips I learned from Food for Tots, I happy to say that this is the most successful muffin that I've baked so far. The banana muffin is soft and moist even it's kept till the next day.

Just that I have one more question. Why my muffin doesn't raise like a "volcano"? Did I over-mix it? :P

Banana Muffin

Yield for 12 mini muffins

Ingredients:

100gm of multi-purpose flour

1 tsp of baking soda

100gm of banana, mashed

40gm of Sunflower oil

50gm of fine sugar

2 Omega 3 eggs

60gm evaporated milk

1 tsp vanila essence

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees C. Paper line the muffin tin.

2. In a small bowl, beat egg and sugar. Combine mashed banana, sunflower oil, milk and vanilla essence. Beat lightly. In a large bowl, mix flour and baking powder. Sieve the flour to the wet ingredients and mix together.

3. Fill up the muffin cups. Bake at 170 degrees C for 25 minutes.

4. Take out the muffin and leave it cool before serving.

Pumpkin Muffin

I bought a huge pumpkin at a very low cost, so I decided to give myself a sweet treat. Here's my second batch of muffin hot from the oven. I baked a total of 18 mini muffins.

When the mini muffin were taken straight out from the oven, it tasted so soft and moist, but it turned harder the next day. Did I over mix the dry and moist ingredients? Too little butter? Anyone can help me on this? 

Pumpkin Muffin
Yield for 18 mini muffins

Ingredients:

1.5 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

50gm of melted butter
1/2 cup of milk

200gm of pumpkin

2 large eggs

slightly less than 1/2 cup white fine sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 tsp salt

Method:

1. To prepare the pumpkin puree, cut the pumpkin into wedges.  Steam it over high heat for 5 minutes. Leave it cool and mash it. Set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 190 degrees C. Paper line the muffin tin.

3. In a small bowl, combine butter, milk, vanilla essence and egg. Beat lightly. In a large bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. Add pumpkin puree. Pour in milk mixture and stir together.

4. Fill muffin cups. Bake at 190 degrees C for 25 minutes.

5. Take out the muffin and leave it cool before serving.

Lemon Yogurt Cup Cakes

Initially my plan is to bake a yogurt cake rather than cup cakes, but something went wrong on the batter. So, I changed my plan to bake cup cakes instead. Luckily it turned out fine! The result is fragrant and springy cupcakes...and delicious too :)

Ingredients:

180 flour, sifted
1tsp baking powder
200gm plain yogurt
120gm egg
120gm fine sugar
50gm sunflower oil
zest of 1 medium-size lemon
juice of 1 medium-size lemon
1tsp vanilla essence

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees C. Paper line the cup cake tin.

2. In a large bowl, combine yogurt, sugar, vanilla essence, lemon zest, lemon juice and egg. Beat lightly.

3. Mix it with flour and baking powder. Pour in the oil to mix well.

4. Fill muffin cups. Bake at 190 degrees C for 25 minutes.

5. Take out the muffin and leave it cool before serving.

Strawberry Muffin 草莓玛芬

Last Sunday was very hot, we canceled our plan to go out and decided to stay at home. I utilized my time to do some baking. Hence, here's my first batch of muffin baking hot from the oven.

炎热的星期天下午，心情显得闷闷地。我俩打消了外出的念头。难得闲在家里正好利用空档时间来烘焙。 来，看看我新鲜出炉的小松糕。

I just recalled that it's been years that I didn't bake muffins. That was since my last cooking class in secondary school. But, I can still remember baking muffin is much more easier that baking a cake.

我还记得这我中学毕业以来的第一次烘制小玛芬。印象中，烘烤玛玢可比烘烤蛋糕来得容易。

Does it look good?

怎么样？看起来还不赖吧？

StrawberryMuffin草莓玛芬

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups self raising flour
1 Omega-3 egg
1 tsp baking powder
slightly less than 1/2 cup white fine sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup melted butter
3 tbsp of home made strawberry jam

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees C. Paper line the muffin tin.

2. In a small bowl, combine butter, milk, and egg. Beat lightly. In a large bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder and sugar.Add the strawberry jam. Pour in milk mixture and stir together.

3. Fill muffin cups. Bake at 190 degrees C for 25 minutes.

4. Take out the muffin and leave it cool before serving.

Mango Yogurt Cake (Baked in Rice Cooker) 电饭锅做蛋糕

After the several successes of cake baking in the rice cooker, I endeavored to try a new flavour. It's my own mix and match kind of experimental recipe. I'm proud to say that it turns out yummy! :)

Initially after baking, the cake was a bit dry. Surprisingly within a night, it transformed into moist, fragrant and soft cake. It's unbelievable! Anyone knows the theory behind? Please share with me.

Mango Yogurt Cake

260gm of mango yogurt
120 gm of Caster sugar
4 eggs (Grade B) at room temperature
50gm of sunflower oil
200gm of self-raising flour
1 tsp of baking powder

Method:

1. Beat the eggs and Caster sugar under high speed until fluffy. (I beat it for about 15 minutes)

2. Pour in the yogurt and mix well.

3. Gently fold in the sifted flour and baking powder with plastic spatula.

4. Lastly, add the sunflower oil and mix well with spatula.

5. Using spatula, transfer the batter into inner pot of rice cooker. Give the pot a few good shake to remove the air trapped in the batter.

6. Bake the cake using "quick cook" menu.

7. When it's done, leave it cool. Upside turn the pot to leave the cake bottom-up on a big plate.

Orange Cake (Bake In Rice Cooker) 电饭锅做蛋糕

This orange cake is the similar recipe to my earlier lemon cake. With the micro computer rice cooker around, the orange cake is quick and easy to make. Since I was in baking mood last weekend, I baked two orange cakes to share with my family and friends.

I made some minor modification on my earlier recipe and I observe some improvement this round. Besides the prettier appearance, the cake is fluffy, light and moist. With the little effort, you'll get a healthier version of cake with no margarine and butter.

Orange Cake
Yields for 12 pieces

Ingredients:

5 grade C eggs
180gm self raising flour, sifted
1 tsp of baking powder
120gm Castor sugar
50gm sunflower oil
1 orange, finely grated zest
3tbsp orange juice

Method:

1. Beat the eggs and Caster sugar under high speed until fluffy. (I beat it for about 15 minutes).

2. Add the orange zest and orange juice. Gently fold in the sifted flour and baking powder with plastic spatula.

3. Pour in the sunflower oil and mix well with spatula.

4. Using spatula, transfer the batter into inner pot of rice cooker. Give the pot a few good shake to remove the air trapped in the batter.

5. Bake the cake using "quick cook" menu.

6. When it's done, leave it cool. Upside turn the pot to leave the cake bottom-up on a big plate.

Strawberry Moment Dessert Cafe @ Cameron Highlands

Strawberry Moment Dessert Cafe
24, Jalan Angsana Satu, Brinchang Point,39100, Cameron Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia.
605-4912061
Website: http://www.strawberrymoment.com/

During the recent get away to Cameron Highlands, we spent a lovely afternoon at Strawberry Moment for a tea break. Enjoying the afternoon tea under the cool weather was kind of relaxing. It was non-peak season and the place was not crowded. Just perfect for a quiet afternoon tea!

Strawberry Strudel RM6.90/slice

How could we resist to order this photogenic strawberry strudel? The pastry was nice, just that the strawberries were similar to the ones that we had, sour and bland :P

Mango Cheese Cake

This mango cheesecake is oozing with delicious mango in a saucy, sweet topping. The strawberry and mouse complements the creamy cheesecake. The base beneath is a thin layer of sponge cake. Ah...forget about the calories intake. I just love it!

We ordered a cup of strawberry tea and strawberry flavored white coffee. Something different, huh.

Pandan Butter Cake

I'm so fancy over any desserts boiled with pandan leaves and all sorts of pandan cakes. I stumbled upon Aunty Yochana's pandan kaya butter cake when I hopped over to her blog the other day. Without much hesitation, I immediately decided to give this fool-proof recipe a try.

While baking, the fragrance flowing from the oven is extremely inviting. I'm glad that cake popped out from the oven in its beautiful splendor (with some cracks anyway). It's fluffy, moist and flavored with pandan extract and coconut milk. The buttery cake is so delightful. :)

I will give it another try with homemade pandan juice. I' know I'll be excited tasting my cake with natural pandan fragrance, and of course I'll be happy seeing the chlorophyll imparting the lovely green to my cake.

Pandan Butter Cake
Recipe adapted from Aunty Yochana's Pandan Kaya Butter Cake with some modification

Ingredients:

250 gm butter
200 gm sugar ( I reduce to 170gm)
6 eggs
300 gm cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
200 gm coconut milk
1/4 tsp. salt (I omit this as salted butter is used)
3 tbsp. milk powder (I omit this too)
1 tsp. pandan essence
a drop of green coloring (I use 1 tsp pandan essence cum green coloring)

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar till creamy.

2. Add in egg one at a time and make sure it's properly mixed before adding in another egg. Pour in coconut milk and salt slowly and if it cuddles, put in some flour. Add in pandan paste and some green coloring.

3. Fold in cake flour, milk powder and baking powder and then pour into a 7" sq. tray (I used 8" baking pan) and bake at 175C (for me, I baked under 180C) for about 60 mins.

Lemon Cake Baked In Rice Cooker 电饭锅做蛋糕

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered a new method of baking a cake through here. I guess not many of us know about it, including me. But I learned and successfully baked a cake using my Panasonic microcomputer rice cooker.

Microcomputer rice cooker is super intelligent. Furthermore the inner pot is Diamond Fluorine coated, so it's a non stick pot. I manage to flip the cake from the pot without any problem. As you can see, the above photo is the bottom side of the cake.

This is the top view of the cake.

The cake texture is in between chiffon cake and margarine cake. It's moist and fluffy. I simply came out with my own recipe for the experiment. I keep the recipe simple with the essentials in kitchen. You'll just need flour, sugar, eggs and vegetable oil. To add a hint of fruit flavor, I added the lemon rind and lemon juice. I quite like this type of cake, because it contains no margarine, no cream and no butter, just the vegetable oil. It's definitely healthier.

With this, it marked a new record in my baking journey since July 2009. Although I'm just a newbie in baking, but I slowly gain my interest in it. I will slowly polish up my skill to go for more variety of cakes.

Lemon Cake
Yields for 12 pieces

Ingredients:

4 grade A eggs
180gm self raising flour, sifted
120gm fine sugar
50gm sunflower oil
1 lemon, finely grated zest
2tbsp lemon juice

Method:

1. Beat the eggs and Caster sugar under high speed until fluffy.

2. Add the lemon zest and lemon juice. Fold in the sifted flour with plastic spatula.

3. Pour in the sunflower oil and mix well with spatula.

4. Using spatula, transfer the batter into inner pot of rice cooker. Give the pot a few good shake to remove the air trapped in the batter.

5. Bake the cake using "quick cook" menu.

6. When it's done, leave it cool. Upside turn the pot to leave the cake bottom-up a big plate.

Cream Cracker Layer Cake

This version of steamed layer cake is quite easy to make. My 2 sisters learned this on a radio program years back. I made it once when I stayed with my eldest sister. She made the batter and I just helped out in the steaming process.

Now, I'm rolling up my sleeves to make one on my own. It supposed to have more thinner layers, but I'm not too skilled to do so. So, here's my version of 5-layers cake. :) Compared to butter cake and cereal butter cake, the layer cake's more compressed. This is due to no baking soda is used. It just raise a little when each layer is steamed.

Instead of flour, cream cracker powder is used. It enhances the fragrant smell to the cake. I quite like the slightly compressed texture. Just take 2 pieces, and it will able to fill up my tummy. It can be taken as breakfast or as afternoon tea. Even my mom who is allergy to dairy products smell the fragrant and fall in love with it. She used to feel like throw up whenever she smell the butter and milk. But surprisingly, she ate up majority of the cakes which I packed for my dad. :)



Steamed Layer Cake

Ingredients:

250gm butter
170gm Castor sugar
200gm cream cracker, blended
5 omega-3 eggs, beaten
2 & 1/2 tbsp coco powder

Method:

1. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

2. Add the beaten eggs in batches and mix well.

3. Pour in cream cracker powder in batches and mix well.

4. Divide the mixture into half. Add coco powder to one of the portion.

5. Spread a layer of original flavored batter in the baking tray. Steam for 5 minutes. Then continue with a layer of coco flavored batter and steam for 5 minutes. Continue doing this with alternating flavored batter until you finish up the batter.