This shall be my last bake before cny ( i hope!!!) I have been baking quite often and it's kinda draining my allowance, time and sleep away. Chocolate chip blondies were supposed to be last bake but i just couldnt resist the temptation to bake when i am at home. Anyway, fruit tarts sits at the top of my to-bake-list. I have baked fruit tarts several times but still unable to get a satisfying attempt. I prefer my crusts to be thick. The sweet crust pastry is able to make about 30 thick mini fruit tarts. I made the pastry cream twice. Failed at my first attempt because i didnt control the fire and my custard sat on the stove for too long. In the end, the custard became more like egg curd. The second attempt was better than the first. Actually i am looking for  a lighter pastry cream recipe. I read somewhere that i can add some whipped cream to my pastry cream for a lighter version. I've yet to try but i will definitely do it one day. My fruit tarts looked so dull. Fruit tarts are usually colourful. I wanted to get so many fruits in the supermarket but i am pretty broke this month so i ended up with blackberries and kiwi. Strawberries and blueberries cost $6 + each!!! Do note that they should be only assembled when you want to serve them and serve chilled. I baked the tarts and prepared the cream the day before and stored them in an air tight container. Brought the tarts to school for my friends. As there's no fridge, they were at room temperature for more than half a day and they were quite soft by the time i gave to my friends. I guess if that's the case, prolly can extend baking time by slightly longer.

Ingredients(Sweet Crust Pastry) 

65g butter
65g margarine
65g icing sugar
250g plain flour
1/2 egg
1tsp vanilla extract

1. Measure butter, margarine, icing sugar and plain flour in a large mixing bowl. 
2. Use yr fingers, incorporate the cubes of butter and margarine into the flour and sugar by rubbing your thumbs against your fingers until you end up with a fine, crumbly mixture.  
3. Add the eggs and vanilla extract to the mixture and gently work it together till you have a ball of dough.
4. Let it rest for ten mins. 
5. Divide the dough and press them into tart trays. (I didnt have tart trays so i substituted with mini muffin tins.) Prick some holes with fork.
6. Bake for about 12-15 mins, until golden brown. 

Ingredients ( Pastry cream) 
60g sugar
2 egg yolks
1 1/5 tbsp corn starch
1 tsp vanilla extract
150 ml of milk

1. Simmer milk and vanilla extract. 
2. Mix sugar and egg yolks until even.
3. Add corn starch
4. Whisking constantly, slowly pour the hot milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture. Strain the mixture if egg starts to curdle. pour mixture back into saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly until it thickens and remove from heat. 
5. Add butter and mix evenly. 
6. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly onto the surface of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.

Supposed to be white chocolate chip blondies but apparently i cant find white chocolate chips at the supermarket. Had the strong urge to bake that very night, so i had no choice but to use the normal chocolate chips. I've gotten this recipe from one of my favourite youtube chef, Laura Vitale. I baked this blondie long time ago, with white chocolate chips and there's really a difference between white chocolate chip and chocolate chips. I prefer the one with white chocolate chips though. The most recent blondie with chocolate chips is delicious too and it received good comments. I guess it's just personal preference. You should try this. THese blondies are really really good.

Ingredients: ( adapted from here)
1 Cup plus 2 Tbsp of All Purpose Flour
1 tsp of Baking Powder
¼ tsp of Salt
80g Brown Sugar
40g of Granulated Sugar
1/3 Cup of Unsalted Butter at room temperature
½ tsp of Vanilla Extract
1 Large Egg
2 Tbsp of yogurt/sourcream
1 Cup of Chocolate Chips
Process,

1) Preheat your oven to 350. Grease a 8 by8 baking pan and line the bottom with parchment paper, set aside.

2) Add 2 tbsp of the flour to the chocolate chips and stir to make sure all the chocolate chips are coated in the flour. Set aside.

3) Add the baking powder and salt to the remaining flour and set aside.

4) In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugars, add the egg, vanilla and sour cream, mix until you have a smooth mixture.

5) Add the flour mixture and mix to combine. Fold in your chocolate chip mixture and spread the batter evenly in your prepared pan.

6) Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting into bars.

I am having breakfast in school right now. one of my all time fav breakfast and it really makes my day! :> Everyone should really try this. Simple Sandwich with egg, Ham and Shredded cucumber + my hot tea. Perfect breakfast to start my day. Browsed through several recipes online and there are so many recipes i wna try. But mum just packed the kitchen and she warned me not to mess up before chinese new year. 1st up on the list, fruit tarts. I love mini fruit tarts.Baked several times before but i cant seem to get the custard right. It's either too curdled or too soft. Next, tiramisu. Already on my waiting list for a long long time and who doesnt like tiramisu? Followed by, Rum balls. My sister bought some rum cake balls from her work place and they were really awesome. Next, Cheesecake. Cheesecake sits firmly at the top of my favourites. If not for the calories, i can have cheesecake for all my meals. But i haven been able to get cheesecake right. It's always too floury. I love the newyork cheesecake at Bakerzin. The blueberry cheesecake at coffeebean is pretty good too. Best thing is the one at coffeebean is cheaper than the rest. Then, Red Velvet Cake. Cant emphasise enough that i have baked this for a million times, still unable to find my favourite recipe. But i am gna get it right.soon. Another thing that i've always wanted to make is Spanakopita. It's a spinach phyllo pastry and it's really delicious, esp the ones served at Blukouzina. Not forgetting more Salad recipes. Ok, gna get back to work now.

Have been eyeing on this recipe for a long time and i finally get my hands on it. I had some left over cream cheese in the fridge so i decided to make some bailey's cream cheese frosting. I will usually cut down on the amount of sugar. However, there is no need to cut down on the sugar level. The cake isnt too sweet because of the volume of coffee and bailey's. Well, I will personally prefer a stronger bailey's taste. One more thing, I halved the recipe and still baked in an 8X8 inch cake tin because i didnt have enough butter. Just that the cake is slightly lower than the one in the original recipe.



The powdered sugar frosting seemed to seep into cake or sth. It turned brown the next day.

Ingredients ( Adapted from here)

125g grams plain flour

5/8  teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
47.5 grams natural cocoa powder
150 grams sugar
125 ml (1 cup) brewed strong coffee, can be hot or at room temperature
112.5 grams butter, chopped, can be cold or at room temperature
187.5  ml Baileys Irish Cream
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Butter a 8 x 8 x 3 inch tin and line the bottom with baking parchment / paper. Set aside.

Measure the plain flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Whisk the mixture with a wire whisk to distribute the baking soda and salt evenly.

In a small pot, measure the cocoa powder and sugar. Add in the coffee and butter. Heat the mixture on medium heat, and whisk frequently until all the butter has melted, and the cocoa powder and sugar has dissolved. Pour the cocoa-coffee into a large mixing bowl and let it rest for 10 minutes to cool down.

Stir in the Baileys. Crack in one egg into the cocoa-coffee mixture and whisk it in until it has been fully incorporated. Whisk in the second egg then whisk in the vanilla extract.

Sift in the flour mixture and whisk in gently until all the flour has been incorporated. The cake batter will be thin (very liquidy) and bubbly (because of the reaction between the baking soda and the cocoa powder). Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin. Lift up the tin and drop it on the table counter-top gently 3 to 5 times to remove excess air bubbles.

Bake the cake for 1/2h. Cover the top of the cake with aluminum foil and continue baking for 15 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake come out with very little crumbs.Place the cake tin on a wire rack and let it cool completely.

Slice, dust with icing sugar, and serve!

Ever heard of the stall yummy chiffon? I always buy yoghurt chiffon cake whenever i patronized the stall. I am a fan of yoghurt and yoghurt chiffon cake is definitely something i have always been wanting to bake since a long while. Instead of the usual chiffon cakes like Pandan and Orange chiffon cake, i decided to try something new and I ended up with a Cranberry yoghurt chiffon cake. however, i found this recipe slightly too eggy for me. The original recipe called for lemon zest and lemon juice. But i didnt have them on hand. So i substituted with orange zest and orange juice.

Recipe: (Original recipe adapted from here) :

5 Egg yolks
40g Caster sugar
65g Canola oil/salad oil
2 tsp orange juice
130g Natural yogurt
130g Plain flour (sifted)
orange zest from one orange
7 Egg whites
90g Caster sugar
95g Dried cranberries (cut to small pieces & sprinkle with 1/2 tbsp flour)

• In a large bowl, mix egg yolks, sugar and oil well with a hand whisk. Add lemon juice, lemon zest and yogurt into it, mix well again.


• Whisk egg whites till frothy, gradually add in the sugar in batches, mix well. Continue beating till egg whites are stiff but not dry.


• Use a hand whisk to mix 1/3 egg whites with mixture.


• Gently fold in the rest with a rubber spatula till well combined.


• Lastly gently fold in the cranberries pieces into mixture.


• Spoon batter into the cake mould up to 3/4 full evenly and bake at 180C for 15 mins, then lower temperature to 160 for another 20 mins or skewer comes out clean.


• Invert cake immediately on a wire rack to cool completely before unmoulding.

 

Red velvet cupcake is one of my favourite cupcake of all time. Loving the cream cheese frosting. So far, the best red velvet cupcake i've tasted is the one from 12 cupcakes. I've baked red velvet so many times, yet i still cant get it right. Tricky one indeed. This time round is pretty different from my previous attempt: Red velvet cupcake with cream cheese filling. The texture of the cake for the previous attempt is more like a sponge cake, this time round's was slightly more compact than the previous time. Got my recipe from baking addiction this time. Oh well, both are not what i am looking for. But the frosting this time round is able to stand more firmly than the previous time. I substituted part of butter in the frosting recipe with shortening. Still very sweet  though. i am always unable to get te cream cheese frosting right.  For some reasons, my frosting is always not white. It is somehow slightly yellow (and idk why. Is it because of the butter?). If you have any tips or good recipes for red velvet cupcakes, i'll be more than happy if you will share with me. Thank you! :>