My first cake order!!

I got my first cake order last month!

Carrot Cake

with cream cheese frosting

To those of you who have tried this cake you know how good it is :)

If you want the recipe, do scroll down and look for it cos i've made this and blog about it before.

But if you are too lazy, drop me a note to order one...

Chocolate Cranberry Biscotti

I am not a fan of biscotti. If you are not sure what it is, well you know those long-ish shaped hard cookies they sell in Starbucks, yup, thats biscotti. Its an Italian double baked cookie . Traditionally it is Almond flavored. Nowadays there are all sort of variations. I choose to make this version with chocolate and cranberry because i have never baked with berries and thought this a good start.

I wanted to bake this simply because i saw a few cyber bakers making them and thought i could do it.

Thought, ladies and gents, being the operative word. Boy was i in for one hell of a mess... but like life, sometimes you just gotta get in there and get dirty once in a while. The batter was too watery, i could not roll it as required. I didn't know if i should have added more flour or chilled it. And I didn't have a serrated knife so cutting became a chore.

If you decide you wanna give it a try, please do because it tastes absolutely choco-licious. You can get the recipe here

Happy baking
xoxo

a sabbatical

It's been a month since i've gone missing from cyberspace. Yes, i acknowledge and thank you for the complains, gentle reminders and nudges.

I've been BUSY people, gimme a break i do have a life :)

A lot has happened since my last post, i think i'll fill you in on what has been happening over the past 30 days or so..
~I Quit!
I left my job at RM. It was a really hard decision to make because i loved my job and the company and if things had been different i would have stayed. But alas, all things happen for a reason.

~Island getaway
Hopped on a train headed up north one Sunday afternoon with my bestie for the long awaited and much planned getaway. Langkawi was fabulous, people who know me on a personal level know how much i love getting burnt in the sun, and that is exactly what i spend 2/3 of the break doing.

~ L is for the way you look at me...
Yes i am in Love. And though it will sound really silly life does seem so much more brighter and full of possibilities when one is in Love.

~ Back to the Grind
Started a new job in a very well known publishing house. Though it was not really what i signed up for, i some how find the job growing on me. Things have been pretty good at the new place, it has just the right mix of ME structure and RM laid backness.

OK enough of about me, how have you my lovely readers been?
Yes i have been baking, thou not diligently even though the lovely people at RM bought me 2 bags full of bake ware and a Nigella Lawson cook book.
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here's a little old favorite i made for breakfast one saturday morning before shopping with the girlies...


I used the usual recipe which i've published before but added more Walnuts for that extra crunch. Baking is not like mathematics or science, there is no fixed formula, you got to mix it up sometimes, have some fun and go with your gut instincts. Very much like life. And no matter how it turns out, your friends and family will definitely help you eat it.



Happy baking
xoxo

Berrylicious Muffins

After body combat class last Sunday i stopped by the pasar malam to stock up on my veges and fruits. And guess what i bought?

Strawberries!

It was really cheap so i decided to buy 3 packs thinking i could make them into muffins. I rushed home, flipped through my Nigella cook book (thanks Mel!!) and could not find anything! Apparently our dear miss Nigella doesn't make Strawberry Muffins! Thank god for the Internet!

I found a really easy recipe here

Note: I didn't have ground nutmeg ( i don't even know what nutmeg is!) so i used cinnamon instead. And i also added a mashed banana, which i think helped make it so moist. The batter was more runnier than other muffin batters i've mixed in the past and it took about 25 minutes for mine to cook.

To make this healthier you can opt to use 1 cup wholemeal flour, lessen the amount of sugar you sprinkle on the strawberries and just add more fruit. I also think adding walnuts into these babies would make it taste even better.


Now the people closest to me at my previous job would know that i hardly eat the things i bake, but this mind you was far too good to say no to. The muffins turned out soft and moist and tasted just right.

Do give this a try, i promise you'd enjoy it.

Happy baking
xoxo

Carrot Muffins

Carrot and Cheese go together like vodka and cranberry juice. They were just made for each other. Both strong and flavorful with distinct characteristics of their own. But when paired together for a purpose, they just bring a whole new meaning to the word YummYYY.


I have been reading this exquisite blog titled How to Eat a cup Cake. My god can this girl bake!! and all her cupcakes have frosting of some sort and look so so pretty. I have yet to teach myself the art of frosting. Anyways, after spending half a day in the office ogling at this wonderful blog i decided to give it a go.

I used the same Carrot cake recipe i posted sometime ago. The only difference is i used muffin tins instead of the cake pan. I also got myself a nifty icing pump thingy which helped me a lot in decorating these babies.

Happy baking
xoxo

Banana Muffin

I made this sometime ago and forgot to blog about it. Banana Muffins are pretty simple to make and there are loads of recipes out there. I used the one from Allrecipes because it was recommended by a friend but made some twists to it as usual.

I used Half wholemeal flour and half self raising flour and added walnuts to give it a bit of a crunch. I also omitted the white sugar and used almost double the bananas. The recipe also had a crumble topping but i decided not too do that bit.

Happy baking
xoxo

Wholemeal Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

This was indeed one of the best cakes i have ever had. I got the recipe for Chefspiration.


Please do drop by her page and check out the wonderful goodies she makes. Truly inspirational i must admit, because every time i visit her blog i immediately start a list of things to buy for my next kitchen adventure.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I've always loved carrot cakes. The combination of carrots, nuts, raisins in cake is just heavenly. And eating it gives you that feel good feeling because it supposedly nutritious. So i decided to try making one over the weekend with my little helper Nic :)

Since I've started baking, I've always tried my best to make things at least a little less fattening and nutritious. But of course not skimping on the good stuff.

I looked high and low on the Internet for a proper carrot cake recipe but could not find one. All recipes i found used oil instead of butter (something i didn't like) and white flour. Alas finally at 2am on Sunday morning i sleepily tumbled upon the Perfect Carrot Cake from this lovely site. Yeah it still used oil, but at least it also used brown sugar and wholemeal :)

I didn't have self raising whole meal flour so i just used he regular kind.. and i didn't include the ground ginger and nutmeg cos i don't fancy these spices...

Ok ok..i messed up, i dont have a pretty photo to show because i couldn't wait for the cake to cool before i frosted it. :P Which explains the lack of pictures.

This cake turned out fabulous. Brought it to work the next day and got rave reviews... aren't my colleagues the luckiest ..

Happy baking

xoxo

Wholesome Goodness

This was my attempt to make something yummy and healthy, and surprisingly it was a success. Ladies and gents i give you a healthy, nutritious cake packed with wholesome goodness so you don't have to feel guilty when you binge :)
Wholemeal Banana Nut Loaf





I got the recipe from a cook book titled 75 Easy to Make Muffin Recipes.

What you need
115g butter at room temperature
115g caster sugar
2 eggs
115g plain flour
1 tspn baking powder/soda
1/2 tspn salt
1 tspn ground cinnamon
55g whole meal flour
3 large ripe bananas
1 tspn vanilla essence
55g chopped walnuts

Making it work
1. Pre heat oven at 180c.Line the bottom and sides of a loaf tin with grease proof paper and grease the paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.
4. Sift plain flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon on a bowl then spoon into butter mixtures and stir to blend.
5. Stir in wholemeal flour.(you have the option of sifting it first or not)
6. with a fork, mash the bananas to a puree then add into mixture.
7. Finally add the vanilla essence and nuts.
8. Pour into prepared tin and spread level.
9. Bake for 50-60 mins until skewer inserted into centre of cake comes out clean. Let it stand for 10mins before transferring to rack.

This is a perfect cake for tea or even a mid morning snack.

Happy baking

xoxo

Weekend baking spree -Part 1

Two weekends ago i woke up bright and early on Saturday and started baking cookies.

I must confess that this was officially the first time i ever baked cookies and it turned out pretty darn yummy.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
I got this recipe from Alex's website and was sold the minute i read it. Check out her site for the full recipe. Being the experimental freak that i am, i decided to add macadamia nuts for a bit of crunch.

**Note to readers, Cookies are different from Biscuits. Cookies are meant to be soft and gooey in the middle unlike biscuits which are hard and firm.

A little tip
~because of the baking powder, the cookie batter really expands when its baking so i'd advise to use teaspoonfuls instead for cutter shaped cookie :)

Best eaten with Hot coffee or Milk

Happy Baking

Welcome reader....

So i decided to start this blog because i started baking recently and wanted to share my experiments with the world like so many of you do.

I started baking in high school, my ex-classmates will attest to this. I started off with a simple chocolate cake recipe, twisted and tweaked it to suit my fancy, played around with the ingredients and ended up with my signature chocolicious cake.

To kick this blog of i have a recipe which is a spin off from my signature chocolate cake. I made this cake at my aunt's house in KK during the Christmas holidays. Hope you like it.
Festive Fruit Cake with Baccadi

What you will need
1 pack fruit mix
1 pack raisins
1 cup Baccadi (you should actually use Brandy which we ran out of)

**soak these in an air tight container for at least 2 days. The longer the better though

2 cups flour
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup coco
1 Tspn baking powder
1 Tspn Vanilla essence
1 cup milk
3 eggs
1 Tbspn coffee

Making it work:

1. Pre-heat over at 180C, Grease a 8 inch baking tin and line with baking paper.
   
2. Sift the flour, coco, baking powder and set aside.
   
3. Separate eggs.Whisk Egg whites till stiff. ( this means till it turns white and fluffy)
4. In a cup mix coffee powder with milk.
5. Cream the butter and sugar. When it turns pale add in one egg yoke at a time. Then finally add the vanilla essence.
   
6. Next, fold in the flour and milk, fruits which were soaking in bacadi and nuts if you want more bite to your cake.
   
7. Lastly fold in the egg whites.
8. Spoon mixture into greased baking tin and if you wanna get creative you can decorate with pecans or almonds.
   
9. Bake for 40-50 minutes. insert a skewer (or toothpick),if it comes out clean, your cake is done. Let it sit in the over for about 5 minutes then take it out and let cool for another hour.

Options
You can add a hand full of chopped peacans, sliced almonds, and macadamian nuts for a bit of added crunch to your cake. If you are in a hurry, its ok to not pre-soak your fruits, simple dump it all into the batter mix and add in about half a cup of Brandy. If you prefer the Halal version, just use fruits and nuts! Happy Baking
xoxo