Pineapple Carrot Cake

      

I was informed that carrot cake with pineapples is very delicious and I just had to try baking it to savour it. So, I went about experimenting with the ingredients that I have and the result was a delicious Pineapple Carrot Cake. It was moist and not too sweet. (I am always careful with sugar as I did not want my family to eat too sweet cakes.) I will be baking it again once I get hold of a can of pineapples as I did not have enough of it this time; the cake was gone in no time as I had my in-laws with me.

Ingredient:

Dry Ingredients:

• 250 g flour
• 7 g baking powder
• 4 g baking soda
• 3 g salt
• 3 g cinnamon powder

• 100 g chopped walnut (roasted)

Wet Ingredients:

• 130 g castor sugar
• 30 g brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 250 ml melted butter (can use corn oil)
• 225 g carrot
• 200 g pineapples (from the can)

Decoration:

• 12 pieces roasted walnut

Method:

• Whisk sugars and eggs till sugar has dissolved. Use all white sugar if you do not want a dark cake.

• Add melted butter and continue to mix till oil is incorporated.

• Add eggs, one at each time and whisk to incorporate each egg fully.

• Add flour and mix.

• Add carrots and pineapples. Mix well.

• Finally, add the chopped walnuts.

• Pour into 8 inch x 8 inch lined baking pan.

• Bake at a pre-heated oven at 180 deg C for 35 minutes or when a skewer inserted comes out clean.

• Immediately remove the cake from the pan and let it cool down completely before slicing it up.

• Enjoy.

 

Walnut Carrot Cake - Mixing Method

I sometimes use the creaming method and at other times the mixing method to bake my cakes. While the creaming method takes a longer time for me to bake a cake, I feel that the resultant crumb is finer. The mixing method is very easy and less time consuming as it just involves mixing all the ingredients and baking the batter. But in my opinion the crumb of the cake is not as smooth as the cake produced by the creaming method. However, I still use the mixing method due to time constraint.

Ingredients:

• 120 g all-purpose flour
• 120 g grated carrot
• 2 eggs
• 75 g light brown sugar
• 115 g melted butter
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
  
• 50 g chopped walnut (can add more) and a few pcs for decoration

Method:

• Sieve flour, baking powder and cinnamon powder.

• Beat eggs and sugar till sugar dissolves.

• Add the melted butter and continue to mix till the butter is incorporated.

• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Use a spatula to mix till all is well combined.

• Add the carrots and mix.

• Finally, add the chopped walnut. Mix till walnuts are evenly mixed.

• Pour batter into a 7 inch pan lined with parchment paper on the base. However, a 6 inch pan would give you a taller loaf. (This is a very small loaf.)

• Bake in pre-heated oven at 170 deg C for 30 minutes or when a skewer comes out clean when inserted at various parts of the cake.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

 

I love having Chocolate Chip Muffins as snacks. I can easily whip up a batch in less than an hour. Besides consuming them myself, I also share them with my daughters who are living away from me. They opined that these muffins are very delicious. I always make sure that I do not add a lot of sugar in them so that we can have a few muffins at one go.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 170 g sugar
• 150 g melted butter
• 170 g milk
• 290 g flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 100 g chocolate chips

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 175 deg C.

• Line your muffin tin with muffin or cupcake liners.

• Beat eggs and sugar.

• Add melted butter to it. Mix them well.

• Add milk to the mixture and mix them.

• Sieve flour, baking powder and salt.

• Add them to the wet ingredients.

• Mix till the flour cannot be seen. However, do not over mix the ingredients.

• Add the chocolate chips to the batter.

• Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin to the brim.

• Add more chocolate chips on top of the batter.

• Bake at 175 deg C for 25-30 minutes.

Braised Beancurd Stick and Napa Cabbage

If you have made your own soya bean milk before, you would have noticed a layer of skin forming on top of the surface when you are boiling it.  This is how fresh beancurd sheets are made. These sheets are rolled or folded into long tubes and dried to form dried beancurd sticks. They are also known as dried bean milk skin rolls, dried tofu skin rolls, Yuba, fu Zhu or tofu bamboo. They need to be rehydrated before you are able to use them. They can be braised, stewed, cooked in soups or stir-fried. Mildly flavoured, they absorb the flavours of whatever ingredients they are cooked in. They are delicious as one of the ingredients of vegetarian dishes.

Here, I have braised the beancurd stick with dried Shiitake mushroom and Napa cabbage.

Ingredients:

• 50 g dried beancurd sticks
• 150 g Napa cabbage
• 3 pcs Shiitake mushrooms
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper powder
• 500 ml water
• 1 small stalk of green onion, cut into 1 cm length
• 1 pc bird's eye chilli, cut into small pieces

Method:

• Rehydrate the beancurd sticks with hot water. For the beancurd sticks to be very soft, I prefer to rehydrate it overnight. When they have softened cut them into 4-inch length.

• Cut the Napa into 1-inch length.

• Soak the Shiitake mushrooms till they are soft. Slice them thinly.

• Heat the work with cooking oil.

• When the oil is hot, add the mushroom to the wok and fry till they are aromatic. Then add the chopped garlic and fry till it is fragrant.

• Add the beancurd stick and Napa cabbage to the wok. Stir-fry them for a few minutes.

• Add water to the wok.

• Cover the wok and let the ingredients simmer for about half an hour or till the beancurd sticks and Napa cabbage are very soft and the sauce is greatly reduced.

• Season with salt and pepper.

• Dish them up and decorate the dish with green onion and bird's eyes chilli.

• Serve hot with rice.

Chocolate Loaf Cake

I love chocolate and any product made from chocolate or cocoa powder like chocolate butter cakes, brownies, chocolate fudge cakes, chocolate breads/buns, chocolate drinks, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate muffins, chocolate cup cakes, chocolate waffles and so on. While it is easy to buy these from cafes or bakeries, I find more satisfaction making them myself as I can control the amount of the ingredients that go into making them, for example, sugar. I will always use a lot less sugar in my cakes, etc. than the amount called for in the recipes.


When I bake any cake, I usually use the traditional creaming method. However, it is a more time-consuming method. An easier method is the mix and bake method. However, the texture of the cake using creaming method is finer than the mix and bake method.



Ingredients:

• 125 ml melted salted butter
• 170 g sugar
• 2 eggs
• 120 g cake flour
• 25 g cocoa powder
• 5 g instant coffee powder
• 1 tsp baking powder

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 180 deg. C.

• Grease and line an 8 inch x 4 inch x 4 inch pan with parchment paper. (You may use a shorter pan for a higher cake.)

• Mix melted butter and sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves.

• Add the eggs, one at a time. Whisk till the eggs combined with the melted butter and sugar.

• Sieve the dry ingredients - cake flour, cocoa powder, instant coffee powder and baking powder.

• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, a third at a time. Mix till the wet and the dry ingredients are well combined before adding the second third and the last third.

• Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

• Run an oiled knife along the middle of the batter to have nice crack on top. (See the photos above which show the natural crack i.e. I did not run an oiled knife along the top of the batter.)

• Bake the batter for 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the cake.

• Remove the pan from the oven and let the cake sit in the pan for 5 minutes before removing it from the pan.

• Remove the parchment paper and let the cake cools down completely before slicing it.

Poppy Seeds Buns/Bread (2)

 

We can vary the texture and taste of buns/breads by varying (either adding, subtracting or reducing) the amounts and types of ingredients that go into making them. In this second version of my poppy seeds bread, I added some baking soda and it became much more delicious. As I also vary the other dry and wet ingredients, this bread is not as soft as the first one.

Ingredients:

• 500 g bread flour
• 30 g sugar
• 25 g poppy seeds
• 3 g salt
• 5 g baking soda
• 225 g warm milk
• 75 g butter
• 1 egg
• (Optional - 1 egg + 1 tbsp milk for egg wash)

Method:

• Activate the yeast - add sugar to some of the warm milk, stir to dissolve the sugar and sprinkle the yeast on top. Set aside for 5-10 minutes.

• Add the dry ingredients - bread flour, poppy seeds, baking soda and salt into the yeast mixture to the bowl of your stand mixer. 

• Once the yeast has been activated (there are bubbles in the yeast mixture), pour it into the bowl of the stand mixer.

• Then add the remaining warm milk and egg to the bowl.

• Mix and knead the ingredients.

• When the dough has formed into a ball, add the butter to the bowl.

• Continue to knead the dough till it is smooth and elastic. Then transfer it to an oiled bowl.

• Cover the bowl with cling wrap and put a damp towel over it.

• Let the dough proof in a warm place till it has doubled in size.

• Lightly flour or grease your table top.

• Remove the dough from the bowl onto the floured / oiled surface.

• Punch out the air from the dough and knead it for about 5 minutes.

• Divide the dough into two.

• Roll them up into balls and place each ball into a round pan which has been greased and lined with parchment paper.  

• Let the dough proof until it has doubled in size.

• Pre-heat the oven at 175 degrees C.

• Bake the dough for 28 - 30 minutes until the buns are golden brown.

• You may:

• Eggwash (just egg yolk with some water) the dough just before baking.
• Brush the bread with butter immediately after you take the bread out of the oven.

•  Let them cool down on a metal rack before slicing or cutting them up.

• Enjoy.

Cheesey Garlic Butter Green Onion Buns

Cheesey Garlic Butter Green Onion Buns are good for breakfast and teatime. They are savoury and delicious to the bite. My second daughter said that it was so good. So I guess I will be making them more often for my children to enjoy.

Dough

• 325 g bread flour
• 30 g sugar
• 7 g yeast
• 1 egg
• 7 g salt
• 1 egg
• 160 g milk
• 50 g butter

Filling

• 25 g green onions
• 30 g butter
• 15 g garlic

Egg Wash

• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp milk

Method:

• Put all the ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer.

• Knead till a smooth dough ball is formed.

• Add butter to the bowl.

• Continue to knead till window pane is achieved.

• Transfer the dough to a greased clean bowl. Cover the bowl with a moist towel.

• Let the dough proof till it is double in size.

• While waiting for the dough to proof, prepare the fillings:
• cut the green onions into 0.5 cm length,
• chop the garlic,
• mix the green onions and garlic with butter,
• set the fillings aside.

• Once the dough has doubled in size, transfer it onto a counter top.

• Punch out the air from the dough.

• Knead the dough back into a round ball.

• Divide the dough into the number of buns that you want. Roll each piece into a dough ball.

• Flatten each piece into a flat round dough.

• Roll it up into a small rectangular dough.

• Place it onto a tray lined and greased parchment paper.

• Once all the dough balls have been shaped, cover them and let them proof till double in size.

• Once the shaped dough has double in size and ready for baking, use a sharp knife or a lame to make a slit on top of the dough.

• Use a small spoon to fill the slit or for a cleaner job, pipe the filling into the slit.

• Egg wash the top and sides of the dough. (If you do not wish to egg wash the dough, you may immediately brush the baked buns with melted butter when they are out of the oven.)

• Bake the dough in a pre-heated oven at 175 deg C for 18-20 min or till the buns are golden brown.

• When the buns are done remove them immediately onto a wire rack to be cooled down.