Tangerine Chiffon Cake

My earliest memory of a homemade cake was a orange chiffon cake made by my grandmother. However, the memory of taste and smell of that cake had faded together with time until recently. I tasted an orange chiffon cake made by KS' aunt and memories of that fragrant, citrusy, moist cake came flooding back. I adapted the recipe to use up the leftover mandarin oranges from CNY. The taste of the cake is wonderful! So now, I can easily whip up a batch of orange chiffon cake for myself whenever nostalgia hits me :)

Tangy Valentine Lemon Butter Cake

The Straits Times ran a series of DIY projects recently in response to the current 'cheap is chic' media climate. One of the DIY projects featured was a recipe for Orange Butter Cake provided by Judy Koh of Creative Culinaire . I had saved a cut out of the recipe as I wanted to try it out. Before I had the time to do so, my colleague TT tried out the recipe and provided feedback that it was difficult to incorporate the egg yolk butter mixture with the egg whites. Bearing in mind TT's experience with the batter, I made a slight adjustment to the recipe to make the butter mixture less thick. I also substituted the orange juice and zest with lemon.

This cake was done with the help of my older daughter as a Valentine's Day gift for hubby. She was my bowl holder, manual whisker, flour sifter and lemon juice extractor. :) We presented the cake to him when he returned home in the evening. But hubby gave me a bigger surprise with a bouquet of flowers *wide grin*


Lemon Butter Cake

160 gm butter (Golden Churn)
10 gm sugar
5 egg yolks
1/2 tsp lemon essence
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp lemon zest
100 gm cake flour (Phoon Huat)
1/2 tsp baking powder
35 - 40 ml lemon juice
4 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
80 gm sugar

1) Cream softened butter and 10gm sugar (The recipe called for the use of electric mixture, but I used a manual balloon whisk)
2) When the butter and sugar are well combined and the mixture is a whittish shade, add egg yolks one at a time, beating till just incorporated
3) Add lemon essence, vanilla essence and lemon zest
4) Sift together flour and baking powder
5) Add the flour and lemon juice in 3 alternative batches to the butter mixture
6) In a clean and dry bowl, add cream of tartar to 4 egg whites and beat
7) Once egg whites have turned white, gradually add the sugar. Continue beating until soft peaks are formed
8) Fold egg whites into butter mixture in 3 batches (be careful not to deflate the egg whites as the butter mixture is rather thick)
9) Pour mixture into a greased and lined 18cm cake tin.
10) Bake in 160C oven for 35 min. Check doneness with clean skewer test (Note: Original recipe calls for 180C oven and baking time of 45min

If Icing is preferred;
Cream 120gm cream cheese and 40gm icing until smooth. Add colouring if desired and spread onto cooled cake

Fruit Salad Wonton Cups

One last gathering before the end of 15 days of Lunar New Year. I needed something quick and easy to fix up for our potluck contribution to the gathering as we only returned home the night before. So decided do a simple appetizer - fruit salad in wonton cups. First saw such wonton cups at rojakrendevous and later saw a how to video by Rachel Ray.

The cups were really easy to do. Just brush the wonton skins with olive oil, position the skins into mini muffin cups, sprinkle with a bit of salt and bake the skins in 170C oven for about 9mins or until the skins turn brown and crisp. Take out the baked cups to cool before using. Now the cups are ready to hold whatever you want to put in it!

I did a simple fruit salad as the filling for the wonton cups. Japanese zuchinni were chosen for its crunchy texture, strawberries and mango were added for sweetness, grapefruit was included to brighten the mixture and lastly raisins to raise the overall sweetness and to add another texture to the salad.

Kueh Bangkit

Kueh Bangkit is one of my favourite Chinese New Year goodies. Kueh Bangkit that melt in the mouth are the best! Recently bought a new book by Y3K on Chinese New Year goodies, and had flagged out a few recipes that I would like to try for this Chinese New Year. One of the recipes is for Kueh Bangkit and one of the forum member, Peng, had tried out this recipe with good results. So decided try this recipe. The resulting cookie is the type that I like - slightly crispy on the outside but melts in the mouth.

Here's a step by step (well almost, heh) guide to making kueh bangkit.

1. Heat wok, the add sago flour with cut pandan leaves . The sago flour is slighty damp as seen from the photo below. Stir fry sago flour with pandan leaves. I stir fried 500 gm with about 10 pandan leaves.

2. Stir fry the flour until the flour density lightens. The flour will be very fluffy and may 'fly'. This may take about 20 mins or so. Note the difference between the flour density in the 2 pics.

3. Remove pandan leaves and allow the flour to cool before storing. Keep the flour for at least 2 days or longer. My mum-in-law explained that if the flour is used immediately, it will be too dry and may soak up excessive coconut milk.

4. Ingredients for Kueh Bangkit
- 100 g icing sugur
- 1 egg yolk (i use the yolk of a 62 gm egg)
- 100 concentrated coconut milk (Ayam brand, but i believe fresh coconut will taste better)
- 300 sago flour (sieved)

Mix egg, sugar and coconut milk until sugar dissolved. Strain mixture. Add the coconut mixture to the sago flour. Knead dough until everything comes together. It may seem that the liquid is not sufficient but continue kneading until the dough can stand on its own without toppling over and has a non-shiny look. Rest dough for 1 hour or longer. This allows the coconut milk flavour to develop. Keep the dough covered with a damp cloth . 5. Roll out the dough until about 1/2 cm thick and cut out cookies. If the dough sticks, stain the cookie cutter with some flour before cutting. Bake at 140C for 15 mins (note: my oven is hotter than usual, the recipe stated 160C for 20-25 min or until the cookie is baked through but not golden)

6. I 'inherited' my hubby's beloved grandma's kueh bangkit cutters. Things from the old days can really last. the cutters feel very solid and heavy, unlike our metal cutters nowadays. Cookies using her cutters:

7. I was also given a few traditional moulds from another relative so i tried to make a few trays of kueh bangkit using the moulds. It is more tedious than using a cutter, but it was quite fun and the cookies look nicer.
8. How to use such moulds? Just dust the moulds with fried flour, pinch a bit of dough and squish the dough into the mould. Cut the excess away with a knife. Tap on the table to release the dough. Feels a bit like playing with playdough. :) 8. End result to welcome the Year of the Ox!

Apple Crumble Cake

My colleagues and I had been at the receiving end of another colleague's mother's generosity for the past few weeks. SK's mom had been bringing her tea time goodies to office 2 to 3 times a week. Her repertoire of goodies is amazingly wide, from asian snacks, japanese food, western pastries...and my favourite is her peach crumble. Unlike the usual crumble, her peach crumble is very light. I searched through my recipe books for a recipe that I thought could replicate her peach crumble and found a crumble cake recipe in 'Cafe Cakes' by Australian Women's Weekly. So I adapted the recipe and baked it as my contribution to a Christmas potluck party.

The original recipe called for pears but since I did not have any at home, I replaced the pears with apples. The apples were first simmered in a cinnamon sugar syrup to sweeten and infuse the apples with the aromatic cinnamon scent before adding the apples to the crumble cake mixture. In a Christmasy mood, I further spiced up the crumble cake with a dash of nutmeg and more ground cinnamon. While the apple crumble cake is very yummy, it is a much heavier cake than SK's mom's version, so I guess, I still need to ask if she could share her recipe with me :)

Apple Crumble Cake
(Adapted from Cafe Cakes by Australian Women's Weekly)

Cinnamon Syrup
500 ml water
190 gm castor sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
3 small green apples (about 360g)

Combine water, sugar and cinnamon in a large frying pan; stir over heat without boiling, until sugar dissolves. Add apples and let them simmer uncovered until just tender (about 5-10 mins). Drain apples

Cake Mixture
100gm castor sugar
50gm brown sugar
125 gm unsalted butter
pinch of salt
2 eggs
225 gm self raising flour
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Beat butter with both sugar and salt until light and fluffly. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just combine. Add vanilla essence. Add flour, ground cinnomon, ground nutmeg; beat at low speed until just combined. Divide and spread mixture into ramekins. Top cake mixture with half apples and half crumble topping. Repeat with remaining apples and crumble topping. Bake at 160 degrees for 1 hour. Cool cake in tin

Crumble Topping
75 gm plain flour
75 gm sugar
65 gm unsalted butter
pinch of salt
75 gm shredded coconut.

Decorated Christmas Cookie Trees

Finally got to use the xmas tree cutter that my sis bought back from Japan. I really like the chubbiness of this cutter and found it amusing that the land of super slim people actually stock such a 'fat' cookie cutter.


The cookies are made for the little kiddos attending my older girl's playgroup xmas party. Icing the 4o+ cookies and drying them in our humid December weather really takes alot of time! But it was really enjoyable. I think I will probably make more decorated cookies in future, and got to practise my icing skills too!


Had a bit of leftover dough and decided to try the stained glass cookie that I had read from Martha Stewart's site. Looks deceptively easy but it's really not. The smashed up hard candies get super sticky in our hot weather, and ended up sticking on the fingers rather than staying put nicely in the cut out hole. But the end result is quite pretty!

Recreating Memories

Tried this cake the first time at Tamade Restaurant when i was barely out of my twenties. My friend HZ was raving about good this cake was and insisted that we travel to Tamade to try it...and boy, was it good. Cakey exterior with a molten chocolate surprise. Still remembered how the tartness of poached pear accompanying the cake had complimented the richness of the cake perfectly.


A decade down, recipes for this cake can be found everywhere and many home bakers have replicated the dish. I had been collecting recipes for this cake for a while, but didn't have a chance to attempt it as I didn't have any ramekins. After grabbing a few ramekins from my favourite Daiso @ Vivocity, I decided to make use of my precious stash of 66% Valrhona Feve and set out to recreate my memories.

And it was a success! Use of good chocolate is a must for this recipe, as the taste of the chocolate is really the focal point of the this dessert. Pairing the cake with some strawberries and good quality vanilla ice-cream truly compliments the rich chocolate taste of the molten lava.

Molten Lava Cake
(Recipe from Anna of Sugar-Inc)

60 g Unsalted butter, cubed and soften
80g Caster sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla paste
2 small eggs (about 50g each without shell)
60g Plain flour, sifted
180ml Whipping cream
200g Valrhona Pure Caraibe Feve (66%), melted & cooled

1) Whisk butter and sugar together until light and fluffy using a balloon whisk
2) Add in egg and vanilla paste and blend till smooth
3) Stir in the sifted flour until it is combined
4) Then, stir in whipping cream until blended
5) Lastly, added in the melted and cooled chocolate.
6) Fill ramekins with mixture and baked at 180C for 10-13 mins,
7) Cake is done when toothpick test at the side of the cake emerge with a few loose crumbs.

The 10 min Cake

Bitten by the baking bug but no time to spare to bake? This cake is the answer. Super quick to whip up but does not compromise on taste. (and saves time on washing time since electric mixer is not required). The result is a super moist, tender crumb accompanied with the fragrance of browned butter.

Blueberry Yoghurt Cake

200g cake flour
1tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
130 gm sugar
200 g plain yoghurt
1 small egg (about 55 g with shell)
50 g dried blueberries, presoaked in water for about 20mins
100g melted butter

1) Greased cake tin with butter and preheat oven to 160C
2) Stir cake flour, baking powder and baking soda. Sift and set aside
3) Beat egg and add plain yoghurt. mix well
4) Add sugar into the mixture and mix until incorporated
5) Add drained blueberries
6) Add sieved flour and mix lightly
7) Add melted butter. Mix lightly to ensure all melted butter and incorporated into mixture
8) Pour mixture into cake tin till till 1/2 full
9) Bake for 45 mins. Check doneness with clean toothpick test.