Sunday, December 28, 2008

Flourless Hazelnut Chocolate Cake (to die for ......)


Actually thinking back, one of the earliest post on my blog was about a flourless chocolate cake Esther baked for me for my b'day. This time I am baking the same cake for her for her birthday haha! This is a very rich chocolate cake, with hazelnut meal, and I experimented baking with a slower method instead of what the recipe says to make the cake more moist and thus easier to handle. Using the original recipe the cake will crack a little and make it challenging especially when transferring from bake pan to serving plate. Not that there is any problem with the cracking, it's perfectly fine. But since this is for birthday, I wanted to ensure it is presentable.

The recipe baking time is 1 hour but it took mine about 1.5 hours. The method i used is simply baking it in a roasting pan filled with hot water.

This is another timeless recipe, and is taken from Women's Weekly Cookbook.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Mini Cheesecakes (decorated)




Baked some mini cheesecake for a Christmas dinner. I find this mini cheesecake quite time consuming to make especially if you don't want it to be too plain and want to make it a bit special (i.e to decorate). What i did was to make it 3 layers to make it look more pretty.

The first layer is the crushed biscuits to form the base, then the cream cheese and ricotta cheese mixture and for the last layer I used gelatin and also decorated some with chocolate (thanks to the help of Esther). I divided the batter into 3 types - green tea (added matcha powder), passionafruit (added canned passionfruit syrup) and plain. With the passionfruit ones I then added the passionfruit gelatin. As for the rest I decided to put my piping tools to good use and between Esther & I, we came up with all crazy/creative ideas (like the piggy face, the taichi style, the pac man ghost, the $ sign etc - can you spot them in the photo? maybe not all due to my photo angle). It was a lot of fun *_^ Thanks for your help Esther, I wouldn't have had the motivation to decorate it if you were not there helping.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Mango 'Loh Mai Zhi' 糯米糍


Mango is a really nice summer fruit, and one of the best ways to enjoy this fruit is to make Mango'Loh Mai Zhi'. You can subsitute the mango with crushed peanuts and black sesame paste, red bean paste, lotus paste etc or can even be creative and come up with something new. It also refrigerates well, up to 4-5 days.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Simple Short Bread


One of my favourite biscuits is shortbread. You know, just the simple heavenly buttery flavour that melt in your mouth ... hmm. And the recipe is so simple - just 3 ingredients:

One pound of Butter (at room temperature
1 cup of Icing Sugar
3.5 cup of plain flour
(optional: you can add 1 tsp of vanilla extract is so desired)

Combine all ingredients in a big bowl and then have fun getting your hands dirty by rubbing the butter into the flour until it is well combined and come to a consistent texture.
Then either scoop spoonful of dough on to baking sheets or roll dough out on a slightly floured surface and cut out the shape of your liking using your favourite cookie cutter and bake in moderate pre-heater oven (abour 320 degrees F, depending on your oven) for about 10-15 min or until just turn slightly brown on the edges. It's really that simple. Use good quality butter, it does make a difference!

You can also get creative and decorate with chocolate on top =>
This is a different shortbread than one I made last month. The previous one is piped and literally crumble and melt in your mouth. This one is firmer and hence can be cut out in different shapes. Anyway both are my favourites!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Napoleon Cake from a friend

Got a nice surprise today after coming home from work. Hubby brought something back from work and told me "oh Adrian passed something to you from Sarah" I was so excited as I try to figure out what it could be? Dumpling? cake? biscuits? It was actually Napoleon cake (I think this is what it is called?). It was home made and consists of layers of pastry and cream and fruits. It was yummy and I took a couple of picture before it is all devoured ^_^



Saturday, December 13, 2008

Hazelnut Squares



Have not been able to do much cooking last week due to recovering from a gastro virus. both hubby and I fell sick at the same time, still could not figure out whether it was something we ate, or one caught some virus and passed to another. Whatever the cause was, it has prevented me from any cooking, as not only did I feel weak and tired, I did not have much appetite and also didn't want to pass my virus to anyone else from my cooking.

Thank God we have recovered, and with no end to this cold rainy weather in sight (can't believe this is summer, it feels like winter!), I decided to try out the Hazelnut Squares recipe. Esther gave me this huge tin of hazelnut meal which I thought I can put to good use. Hazelnit is one of my favourite nuts, so are everything else made from hazelnut like Nutella, yum!

This is a very simple, easy to make biscuit, the challenging bit was to spread it evenly. Mine was thicker on the centre, plus I used a bigger tray that what the recipe called for as this is the only thing I have close to the requirement. The important thing is - it taste very good, rich with Hazelnut flavour.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Chinese Radish Cake 蘿蔔絲餅

After 2 weeks of baking overdose (baked 3 batches of cookies and 4 cakes in the last 3 weeks), I have had enough of baking and decided to switch gear and go back to chinese cooking =)

Not that I haven't been cooking chinese food, I mean I make chinese dishes for dinner most of the time. Steamed fish, stir fry vegies, wonton noodle soup and all that but I want to make something new, something I love to eat and a special treat. I stumbled across a cooking demo video clip on youtube last week, teaching people how to make Chinese Radish Cake 蘿蔔絲餅 which makes me mouth watering. I cannot even recall how I got to the link, I was simply surfing the net visiting many inspiring food blogs and then just like a poor man discovering treasures, I was captivated by this demo. For some talented cooks, making a new dish straight from a recipe book is so easy and they achieve the ideal result on first attempt. As for me I learn better from watching how people cook so this video demo is perfect for me.

The timing can’t be better too, hubby was away on a photoshoot helping a friend to capture precious moments of ballet dancers in Frankston all day. And as if it was fated to be, we reached the internet bandwidth and the speed dropped to a snaily pace in the evening. Reluctantly I have to press the "pause" button on watching my current "must-see" Taiwanese series (fated to love you). But this gave me the incentive to get up from my chair and leave my laptop and I quickly sprung into action in the kitchen.



The challenge of this dish for me lies in making the "skin". The filling is very yummy, can be be served as a dish on its own too. As it was getting a bit late I only used up half of the filling and freeze the other half for next time. not sure if it will freeze well, will tell ya next time.
Hubby finally came home at about 11:30pm. To reward his hard work taking photos today I fed him the freshly fried radish cake, hot from the pan ^_^

Monday, December 1, 2008

Baked Chocolate Cheese Cake and Passionfruit Rasberry Cake



One of the end of year thanksgiving dinner organised by church group, I was requested to bring cakes. As the dinner is on weeknight, I decided to go conservative and bake something I have experimented before to save time. Work has been very busy lately (surprisingly given we are in the middle of restructuring and awaiting the outcome of my job).

Someone once told me when you do not know what food to bring to a group dinner because you do not know the preference of people well, always bring something you love to eat. Chances are if you like it, someone else would like it too. And if luck is against you and no one likes it, at least you like it and can enjoy it. I reckon this is good advice, and I'm sticking to it LOL.

So here are my two favourite cakes - Baked Chocolate Cheese Cake and Passionfruit Rasberry Cake.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Meaning of Christmas

Christmas is coming! Yes, it's now less than a month away from Christmas. Shopping centres are beautifully decorated with Christmas decorations and even with the fear of a potential recession due to current global financial market meltdown, department stores still bustled with people and activity.

Myers popular yearly Christmas window display theme is "How Santa Really Works". Needless to say, long queue forms outside the window everyday especially at lunch time, everyone wants to take a peek at it! Though the art work was really nice and very detailed too (see the photos below), let's not forget what Christmas really means.







For many, it means holiday, a break from work. To some, celebration and partying and food and alcohol. Yet some people see it as a time for gifts and spending time with fanily. No doubt all this are activities we do during this holiday season, but the real meaning of Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ.

One of David Meece's song say of this quite well:

We Were The Reason
David Meece
As little childrenWe would dream of Christmas morn
Of all the gifts and toysWe knew we’d find
But we never realized a baby born one blessed night
Gave us the greatest gift of our lives
We were the reasonThat He gave His life
We were the reasonThat He suffered and died
To a world that was lostHe gave all He could give
To show us the reason to live
As the years went by we learned more about gifts
The giving of ourselves and what that means
On a dark and cloudy dayA man hung crying in the rain
All because of love, all because of love
I’ve finally found the reason for living
It’s in giving every part of my heart to Him
In all that I do every word that I say
I’ll be giving my all just for Him, for Him
He is my reason to live

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Rich Shortbread

After baking the Choc Chips Cookies, hubby requested another type of cookies. You know, the type that melt in your mouth. Hence I baked another batch of cookies - Rich Shortbread. I do get a lot of satisfaction cooking/baking for my my hubby, but he is such a non-fussy eater, he usually just eats everything I cook. So I jumped at every occasion when he specifically requested I make something for him.

If you are wondering if there is a lot of butter in the cookies, you are right! Very little sugar. Other ingredients are flour and vanilla essence and eggs, that's all!! Very easy and it literally melt in your mouth and crumble easily. Yummy!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Chocolate Chip Cookies & ANZAC biscuits

The weather in Melbourne had been very cold lately. Definitely not the typical November Spring weather with rain and wind and temperature below 20 degress C. This is actually a perfect time to heat up the oven and bake some cookies! Flipping through the recipe books I became greedy and tempted tp try many recipes. At the end, I just couldn't resiste the good old chocolate chip cookies and ANZAC cookies!!

Instead of the small sized choc chip cookies I have opted to make the bigger size cookies this time. This cookies turned out crispy on the outside but a bit chewy inside, i wonder if it is because of its size?

The cookies didn't stay long in the container for long .... who can resisit chocolate chip cookies?!





As for the ANZAC cookies, this time it turned out a bit dry and because I reduced the sugar by 1/4 cup, it actually made a quite a difference to the overall taste of the cookies. This is a recipe I have tried before so I decided to make some variation to the measurement but though it is still ok, it is not as tasty as last time. The lesson - stick to the recipe!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Volunteering (World Vision) at Richmond

One of the great initiatives my company is involved in is giving to the community. And of the ways this is done is by giving staff one day volunteering leave per calendar year. Staff can use this one day paid leave to assist any charitable/non profit organisations. This is the second time I utilise this leave, and both times I have chosen World Vision as the organisation i would help.

The previous time I volunteered, it was at Burwood East but this is now being handled by a financial organisation's back office processing at Richmond, where I used to work. Hence I took this opportunity to catch up with Suleka and also saw many familiar faces ... it was great!

The work involves is really very simple - it involves mail opening, sorting the action slips depending on what the child sponsor has elected. For example, donation $5 or over, by cheque or credit card, cash (Yes! some poeple actually send in CASH). Sadly there are also those who willingly donated but they forgot to write credit card details or expiry date! Some poeple also advised changes of address, emails etc so it definitely requires attention to details when sorting the slips. As Christmas is appraching, there are heaps of mails coming in, especially those Xmas cards from sponsor to the child. Some people also send in their photos, personal letters, additional gifts like stickers etc. It is very touching to see the personal touch, and the generousity of the Australian people.

Stack of sorted Xmas card, I think I handled at least 1,500 letters yesterday!


Met many nice people in the processing centre, Federico from Philipines and Priya from Sri Lanka, thanks for making me so at home there. I enjoyed the chats while sorting the mails!

This is truly a great experience, doing something different to my normal work. I am trully encouraged just knowing that there are so many generous giver out there who give to a great cause - sponsoring needy children, provising practical help (money goes to support their living, education, immunisation etc).

If you are not currently sponsoring any child, would you please consider?

Tools of trade - staple machne, letter opener, pen and highlighter and you are set to go!

Processing Centre at Richmond (picture below). It was quiet in the morning as most of these macines are for processing cheques and vouchers, and the operators work afternoon shift till night.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Chicken Rice (my modified version)


One of my fondest childhood memory is having Hainanese Cchicken Rice with my cousins at a foodcourt near the Penang Bus Terminal. I was probably around 10 years old? During that period of my life, my family lived in a shop house with my grandmother and my other 2 uncles and their families. Including maid servants and other cousins who live in another state but visit from time to time, the shop house sometimes contained up to 18 people. My memory of the best chicken rice was at this run down foodcourt near the bus terminal where my cousins, my sister and I would sometimes go to on our own without adult supervision.

Memory is a interesting gift God has given to us. It consists more than just replay of the events/facts but sometimes we remember a person or an occasion by the senses, smell, thoughts. I can't really recall a lot of things about that place or how we could get away by going there on our own without adult supervsion, or how much we pay for the rice but the taste of the chicken rice stays vivid in my memory and whenevwer i recall this taste or when I smell the fragrant of the chicken rice, it brought back this sweet memory of my childhood.

So I decided to try making Hainanese Chicken Rice today. After doing google search, based on how much work i want to put in (as i have said before i do not fancy too complicated recipe), and taking into account my love for ginger and spring onion, I have modified the chicken rice. I chose to steam the whole chicken instead of putting it in boiling water as one recipe suggests, and I also made the mince ginger + spring onion suce that usually go with cantonese steam chicken instead of Hainanese Chicken Rice. (Love this sauce, I can eat a bowl of rice wit just this minced ginger + spring onion sauce!). The rice is so fragrant even as it was being cooked I can smell it! (this of course is because I used the chicken stock from the steamed chicken to cook the rice instead of water.)

One of the challenge lies not so much in the cooking, but the deboning of the cooked chicken. Authentic Hainanese Chicken Rice (HCC) is served with deboned chicken slices but I have left the drumstick without deboning simply because I think it looks better =)

To complete the meal, you MUST, yes you MUST I stressed again - have the garlic chillie sauce to go with the chicken.


There is heaven and earth difference having HCC with or without this garlic chillies sauce. You can make this from scratch, or purchase from asian grocery store. I am very picky with this chillie sauce. There are so many brands out there, but I prefer one with strong garlic and with a lighter red/orange colour over a darker red one. I think the lighter red means there are more garlic mince in there.

So as I put a spoonful of this chicken rice into my mouth and enjoying every bit of the chicken essence combined with the chillie sauce and soy sauce and ginger mince, it brings back the fond memory childhood again ....

Oh one more thing, I did not serve the chicken rice with soup (typically you will serve this with a small bowl of chicken soup with spring onion sprinkled on top) but i omitted this as i chose to store up the remaining chicken stock for use later as a soup base with wonton and dumpling I have made last weekend.





Friday, November 7, 2008

My fisrt layered cake - Layered Green Tea Pound Cake with Red Bean Filling

Layered Green Tea Pound Cake (with Red Bean Filling)


I have been day dreaming about making a layered cake but being a queen of procrastination, i have deferred this idea long enough. As we are celebrating 3 birthdays in the care group this week (Daniel, Eric & Sarah), I was determined that I should put my dream into action and bake the cake for them. I used a combination of 2 different recipes - green tea pound cake (one of my favourite cake at all time) and a recipe I read some time ago for the red bean filling (can't even find the blog anymore as i forgot to bookmark it!).

















The challenge lies in the layering and making the cream as I have never done that before. I baked the cake a bit too long, the top part was cracked
(even though the cream will hide this eventually it presented some risk when I cut the cake into halves sideway).

I cheated a bit as the cream I made was beaten for too long and the texture didn't turn out as anticipated. It was not smooth, but more coarse, when applied on the cake it doesn't look very presentable. To overcome this imperfection, I bought ready-made whipped cream and applied to the cake to make the finished product more soothing to the eyes. The finish touches - strawberries and matcha powder made the cake looks pretty good :) Now I am motivated to make a different layered cake!


The cake seemed to be well received by all, some friends have requested for recipe so here it is:


Green Tea Pound Cake
125g butter (at room temperature)
3/4 cup of sugar
3 eggs
125g philladelphia cream cheese
1 cup plain flour
1/2 tbp baking powder
1/2 tsp green tea matcha powder (I actually used 4 times the amount as I love green tea)
1/2 tsp salt

Red Bean filling:
600ml thicken cream
1/2 cup red bean

Method:
Beat butter and sugar until fluffy and light. Add cream cheese and beat to mix well. Add in lightly beaten eggs (one at a time). Combine dry ingredients well and sift before folding into the mixture. Pour well combined mixture into lined 8"round cake pan and bake in preheated oven at 180C or 360F for 40-50 minutes. (note baking time can vary slightly depending on your oven).


When cake is cooled, cut into half.
Whip 300ml thicken cream until soft peak formed. Add in 1/2 cup of red bean and fold in gently with a spatula (I used pre made red bean from a can, easily obtained from Asian grocery store)
Spread the red bean cream filling on the top of the bottom half of the cake.
Cover with top layer of the cake.
Whip 300ml the remaining thicken cream (300ml) until soft peak and spread on top cake layer and side. Refrigerate and decorate with strawberries and green tea powder (or other more creative ideas!) before serving. ENJOY!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Girls lunch at Ambrosia





















If it wasn't for the girls lunch, Berwick remains one of the suburbs considered "out of reach" on my travel radar. Whenever Cranbourne, Berwick and Hallam is mentioned what come to mind first is always "so far away-leh". It was good go out of my comfort zone and break that "false impression" as it is really not far especially with East Link. It only takes under 35 minutes or so (we got lost on the way so it took a bit longer to get there today). Unfortunately Juliana wasn't able to join us today ... well there's always next time! In fact the next girls days out would be Warrandyte Market Day in December.

The place selected for our gathering this time is Ambrosia café-bar-foodstore at Berwick. Actually this is our second choice, the fist being Eighty One. Maybe it's meant to be, Eighty One wasn't opened for lunch on Saturday, so we ended up with Ambrosia.

This nice cafe-bar-foodstore was hidden in the residential area in Berwick. It's still probably a well kept secret - but with it's delicious food, reasonable prices, professional services and open, friendly atmosphere, it probably won't be a secret for too long =)

We started with Tapas plate with a selection of Chef's choice favourite which includes:
** little chicken meat balls with tomato concasse
** Sri Lankan spicy pan roll filled with beef mince
** lemon pepper & sea salt calamari
** delicious dips & flat bread
** chorizo sausage with roasted peppers

It was yummy ... but maybe a little less than we expected in terms of quantity...



















Choosing the main meal is a bit of time consuming exercise as there were too many choices, from light meals like pizzas, pastas, risotto, salad, burger, to main such as steak and salmon fillet etc. They all look mouth watering. Tania chose pizza with tandoori chicken, corn, mozzarella, with rocket & yoghurt raita. Suleka set her heart on for pizza with mince lamb and goat cheese and I picked fettuccini with scallop, prawn, mussels & fresh fish with tomato & garlic.
























There seems to be endless things to talk about, after all we probably haven't met up for 4 months now?? So i guess the only way is to stay on for dessert and coffee (what a perfect excuse! hehe)

There was a wide selection of desserts. We decided on Affagato: vanilla ice cream served with Baileys liqueur & espresso coffee, Toblerone Cheesecake and sticky date pudding.

Toblerone Cheesecake, Affogato and Sticky Date Pudding





















(opps sorry no photo for sticky date pudding too, the photo turned out blurr sigh*)
We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and
I particularly enjoyed the most divine toblerone cheesecake and sticky date pudding ...