Lychee Cupcakes

Trying out a new flavour with the basic cupcakes recipe & reduced 50% sugar.

Lychee Cupcakes Recipe : 

Makes 16 - 18 mini cupcakes 

Ingredients : 

18 pieces of canned lychees 

100g butter , soften at room temperature. 

100g self raising flour 

50g brown sugar

2 eggs 

Preparation steps : 

1. Cream butter & sugar until creamy. 

2. Add in the eggs. Mix well. 

3. Add in the flour & mix well. 

4. Line the cupcakes tray with paper liners. Fill up 1/2 to 3/4 full. I used ikea papers liners. Add lychee on each batter, gently pressed lychee into batter. 

5. Baked at preheated oven at 180 degree C for 20 minutes or until cook. 

6. Remove from the oven & leave to cool on the cooling rack. 

Chin's notes: 

1. I did not use the mixer for this cupcake. Reference to Easy vanilla cupcakes.

2. Brown sugar compliments the lychee taste. You can always replace with white sugar. 

3. If you do not have self raising flour, use  all purpose flour + 1 tsp baking powder. 

Bon appétit ! 

Patchwork blanket made from old sheets

A "New" Blanket

Finally completed the patchwork blanket made from old favorite bedsheets , pillow covers & bolster covers!! Took me almost 3 months, a project which I started in August. Fortunately I managed to complete in 2014! ;) 

I started with this old bedsheet. It was one of my favourite. 

I try to cut out as many prints in big squares ( 10" x 10" ) like below.

Then, arranged the prints to have a feel of the final product. 

Once I'm statisfied with the arrangement, I stitched them to form a big rectangular. 

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Likewise for the back piece made from bolter & pillow covers. They are easier as the pieces were bigger!! 

Stitched the 2 pieces together, I get "new" blanket!! 

Mission accomplished!!! 

Spicy prawns

This yummy recipe was shared by my friend Cindy who prepared lots of yummy peranakan dishes!

Spicy prawns Recipe

10 Dried chillies 

5  Shallots 

1 Candlenut

1 tsp Belacan - pengang 

Oil for cooking 

Salt & sugar to taste. 

400g of prawns (without shell) 

Methods : 

1. Clean the prawns. 

2. Pound / blend the above ingredients. 

3. Heat the wok & add the oil, add in the pounded chillies. Fry until fragrant.

4. Add in the prawns, fry until cook , add some water for gravy & add in the salt & sugar. 

5. Dish out & serve with steamed rice or coconut fragrant rice. 

Chin'a notes: 

1. Dried chillies can be very spicy, remove the seeds it will be less spicy. 

2. Add more sugar can also make it less spicy. 

3. This is also a great recipe for squids. 

Bon appétit ! 

Kok-chai or mini peanut puff

Can't remembered when was the last time I had these.

Saw Lucinda Lau from Baking's Corner posted the recipe below & decided to give it a try .. They were time consuming but it is worth it all cos they are yummy!!! The pastry texture are nice & crispy. 

Recipe from Lucinda Lau from Baking's Corner 

Kok-chai - mini puffs recipe 

Ingredients : 

Dough - 

300g Plain flour ( sifted ) 

1/2 bowl / 125g cooking oil

1/2 bowl of water 

Peanuts Fillings - 

300g Peanuts ( cooked & finely pounded) 

100g sugar 

30g sesame seeds toasted 

Methods : 

1. Prepare the peanuts fillings & set aside. It can be done a few days before. 

2. Prepare the dough. Put all the flour in the mixing bowl. Make a well & add the oil. Combine the flour & the oil to form a dough. 

3. Slowly add in the water & knead to form a smooth & soft dough. Do not add in all the water at once. Add in half, knead and add a little water when needed until the dough is smooth & soft.

4. Divide your dough, about 5g each ( or lesser), make a ball & flatten with rolling pin. Put the peanut fillings in the middle then seal the edges gently, pinch & fold to get the lace prints on the edges. 

5. Deep fry until they are golden brown & cook. 

Chin's notes :

1. You can replace the peanuts fillings with sambal dried shrimps / heah bee hiam. 

2. Make them as small as you can. Mine is a bit big. 

3. Here is a video as a reference to folding the edges. ( added on 04/01/2015)

http://youtu.be/4bvSWxY1AVU

Easy Vanilla Cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcakes with Sugar Glacé & Fondant

All time favourite, vanilla cupcakes. Playing with sugar glacé & fondant, got the cute rose idea from the web & wanted to try it out. It was not that difficult to make.

Video tutorial for vanilla cupcakes:

http://youtu.be/EsgqxMxuF7o

Vanilla Cupcakes

Easy Vanilla Cupcakes Recipe :

Make 12 cupcakes. 

Ingredients :

115g self raising flour 

115g sugar 

115g butter at rm temperature 

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method :

1. Cream butter & sugar, then adds eggs & vanilla & finally flour. 

2. Line the baking tray with cupcake liners. 

3. Fill each liner 2/3 full with batter. 

4. Baked in preheated oven at 180C for 15 - 20 mins. 

5. Perform the toothpick test. It should come out clean when cake is cooked. 

6. Let it cool completely before you add decoration on the cupcakes. 

Bon appétit !! 

Chin's notes: 

1. Can sprinkle chocolate & nuts toppings on the batter & bake. 

2. If you do not like vanilla, you can remove the vanilla, then it will be come a butter cake.

3. Other decorating ideas your cupcakes.

Video tutorial for sugar glacé:

http://youtu.be/xCOXwOhlDQs

Sugar Glacé with M&Ms

Decorated with Fondant

Japanese Cottony Cheesecake

I yet to master this recipe.. My first attempt. Baked 2 cakes in a single session.  One successful looking cake but the other not so slightly....

Here is the recipe, there are many people who tried this recipe successfully!! I'm determine one day I can bake beautiful Japanese cottony cheesecake! 😉

http://ieatishootipost.sg/japanese-cheesecake-recipe-almost-everything-need-know/

Thick Corn Soup

A Simple & easy to make soup, I love thick soup but I just found out that my kids do not like thick soup. Hmmm..

Here is the recipe the soup & hope you like them. 

Serve 5 

Ingredients :

200g minced pork / chicken meat.

1 tbsp of oyster sauce 

1 tbsp of shaoxing cooking wine

100g of corns - I used canned corns

1 large egg lightly beaten

1" ginger - thinly sliced

2 clove of garlic - chopped 

2 tbsp of cooking oil

Light soya sauce to taste

Pepper to taste

3-4 tbsp of corn flour mix with some water for thickening the soup. 

Preparation Steps : 

1. Marinate the meat, with oyster sauce, shaoxing wine & set aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. 

2. Heat up the wok, add in the cooking oil. Fry the garlic & ginger until they are fragrant.

3. Add in the meat & fry until they are almost cooked. Add in the 5 bowls (about 1L) of water. Add in the corns, soya sauce & bring to boil.

4. Stirring the soup while you pour in the corn flour mixture. You have to stir otherwise you'll get lots of starch lumps in your soup. 

5. Turn off the flame, hold your eggs high & pour in the egg. Swirl around the wok of soup. 

6. Serve hot, garnish with spring onions & with a dash of pepper! 

Chin's notes: 

1. Use lesser corn flour if you do not like very thick soup. My soup bowl is about 200ml of water. 

2. Careful when you pour in the corn flour mixture, remember to keep stirring the soup while you pour in corn flour mixture to prevent starch lumps.

3. Can be served with black vinegar if you like vinegar. But I prefer them as it is with some pepper. 

Bon appétit !