lazy days.....

I had a lazy 4 months away from my blog, hahaha ... I am sooo lazy... havent had the time or the energy to post for awhile.. should definitely be one of my new year resolutions... to blog more!! ...

Time has passed sooo quick and even though I have been away from the kitchen for all this time, it doesnt mean I've stopped eating all things sweet... ^^ ....

Lets start with a Birthday slice...

this is a slice of carrot cake that one of my colleagues bought me for my birthday from a local cafe near where we work. This is one of the best carrot cakes I have tasted. It was moist and not too sweet. Often you get cakes that are just overpowered with sweetness... this cake was just right. Needless to say I ate it all .... pretty quick... umm my mouth is watering just thinking about it....

Pandan Chiffon Cake

I love the pandan cakes that you can buy from chinese supermarkets or bakeries. Pandan is of Malaysian origin and comes in the form of a leaf. The cake is made from the juice of pandan leaves, and so the colour of the cake appears light green.

I attempted to make this once before and failed considerable. The cake just sunk as soon as it came out the oven and so was not light and fluffy. My sister found a recipe on the internet and asked if I could make it for her. I was dubious but thought I'd give it a try anyway. U can find the recipe below, taken from http://nyonyafood.rasamalaysia.com/

Pandan Chiffon Cake Recipe

Ingredients

Step 1:

8 medium egg yolks
2oz  fine sugar
2oz Pandan /Screwpine Leaves Juice ( Made from blending 6 Screwpine leaves with 2 – 3 oz water)
3oz corn oil or olive oil
5oz self raising flour

Method:

1. Beat egg yolk and sugar lightly with a hand whisk till sugar dissolve.
2. Stir  in pandan juice and corn oil.
3. Fold self raising flour into egg mixture.
4. Set aside.

Step 2:

Ingredients:

8 egg whites
5 oz fine sugar
pinch of salt

Method:

1. Beat egg whites till frothy. Slowly add in sugar and pinch of salt while beating at high speed.
2. Beat until the egg white is stiff and shining but not dry. ( About 3 minutes)

Step 3:

1. Preheat oven at 175 degrees Celsius.
2. Use a spatula and gently fold egg yolk mixture into the egg white mixture(meringue).
3. Pour into an ungreased 25cm tube pan.
4. Bake for 40-45 minutes.
5. Once cake is cooked, remove cake from oven immediately and invert  pan onto wire rack. Let it cool before removing cake from pan.

I couldn't get hold of any leaves for this recipe so I used pandan food flavouring instead, you can buy this from chinese supermarkets. This seemed to work, although next time I might put a little more in the mixture. I was really careful of how much flavouring to put in, as the pandan flavouring tastes bitter and really strong. The last thing I wanted was to put too much in and have a bitter cake.

The cake was a success this time, although there are still areas to improve on. It was light, moist and fluffy with little sunkage... though the overall appearance of the cake could be better. But I was happy that it tasted good and had some good feedback from my sister and other guinea pigs I have!

Abu Dhabi Dessert

Its been a long long while since the last blog... (shameful...lol).... so here I am blogging about the things I should have done.

Went to Abu Dhabi in May, and needless to say I ate a lot and I mean a lot of good food!! Combined with sun, pool and sand... you really cant go wrong. We stayed at the Beach Rotana, where it housed many of the city's best restaurants. We particularly loved the Rosebuds Restaurant... cos it was buffet style... ahaha... and of course with any buffet hotel restaurants comes with it an extensive dessert selection!!!

Only a small selection of the desserts available.... I didn't have the stomach to try all of them, and cos they were not all labelled, I can only guess what some of desserts were.

Creme Caremel...yum yum....

 

This one was super yummy, a light fluffy vanilla cheesecake decorated with fresh fruit... I had two helpings!! ehehe

Lime Moouse Cake with a light freshly whipped cream on top, garnished with a cherry and chocolate stick.
Very tangy and refreshing dessert, a good twist on the lemon curd puddings you normally find.

Didn't have any stomach space to try these, these were strawberry and orange fool pots!!!

Eastern Sweets... Baklava.... Yum!!! ^^

Black Forest Cake

My friend Nas' bday cake - Aug 2008

My friend Thomas' bday cake - Aug 2008

My friend Kathys bday cake - Feb 2008

Black Forest!!... Mine and my friends Kathy's favourite!!!!
It was a surprise, as I turned up on her doorstep unannounced with this cake.
Though the journey there was a little bumpy and the cake slid a little.
But apparantly the cake went down a treat though. Made me happy. :)

Dad's bday cake - Feb 2009

Vanilla sponge frosted with strawberry freshly whipped cream.

Grandad's bday cake - Oct 2008

Grandma's bday cake - July 2008

Chocolated sponge cake with strawberries, mini meringues and chocolate shavings.

Mum's bday cake - May 2008

Chocolate sponge cake frosting with freshly whipped cream. Decorated with chocolate dipped strawberries and dusted blueberries.

Dad's bday cake - Feb 2008

A moist white chocolate mousse cake with peach and orange jelly.

Grandad's bday cake Oct 2006

Vanilla sponge cake with freshly whipped cream. Fresh berries frosted with icing sugar.

Grandma's bday cake July 2006

Second attempt at making a birthday cake.
As you can tell I am a big fan of strawberries
: )

First ever cake - Stepmum's bday cake May 2006

As you can see not very pretty looking... but not bad for a first attempt I thought..