~ Black Bottom Cupcakes

Modified from:

Allrecipe

Description:
Rich and gooey chocolate cream cheese cupcakes.

Ingredients:
1 package (250g) cream cheese
1 egg
1/4 C white sugar
1 C mini chocolate chips
1 1/2 C flour
3/4 C white sugar
1/4 C cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 C warm water
1/3 C vegetable oil
1 tbps distilled vinegar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 160 deg. Line muffin tins with paper cups.
2. Beat cream cheese, egg, 1/4C sugar and 1/8tsp vanilla until light and fluffy. Do not overmix, stop when there are no more lumps. Stir in chocolate chips and set aside.
3. Mix wet ingredients (water, 3/4C sugar, distilled vinegar, vanilla and oil) together.
4. Whisk dry ingredients (flour, cocoa and baking soda) in a separate bowl. Make a well in the centre and stir in the pre-mixed wet ingredients till well-blended.
5. Fill muffin tins 1/3 full with the batter and top with a dollop of the cream cheese mixture in 2.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 30min till lightly browned, and cool on wire rack.

Remarks:
Batter produces good soft chocolate cupcake that rises well. Chocolate chips account partly for the gooey-ness, can be omitted. Cream cheese mixture is slightly too sweet, and its amount is too much. Perhaps to reduce sugar to 1 tbsp and reduce cream cheese and egg by half. The cupcake turned soggy after a day or two due to the cream cheese mixture, should try to reduce cream cheese portion.

~ Persimmon Bread

Modified from:
Allrecipes

Description:
Moist spice bread made with ripe persimmons.

Ingredients:
5/6 C persimmon pulp

1 tsp baking soda
1 C brown sugar
1/4 C vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 tsp cinnmon
3/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 C flour
Chopped almonds

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 175 deg. Grease and flour 9X12" baking pan.
2. Stir pulp and baking soda together and let it stand for 5 min to thicken it.
3. Cream eggs with sugar and oil. Add in spices and salt. Mix in pulp and flour alternately till well blended. Pour into prepared pan and sprinkle generously with chopped almonds over the batter.
4. Bake for 1 hour in oven, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 min before removing to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

Remarks
Soft on the exterior while moist in the center, should reduce temperature and bake for longer time. Sugar can be reduced to 3/4C as persimmons are sweet already. Can't really taste the persimmons though.

~ Kueh Lapis

Modified from:
Florence's

Description:
Colourful chewy nyonya nine-layered kueh. The favourite of kids!

Ingredients:
125 g tapioca flour
45 g rice flour
200 ml coconut milk
100 g sugar
140 ml warm water
1 tsp pandan essence
Red colouring

Directions:
1. Mix tapioca flour and rice flour together.
2. Dissolve sugar in warm water, and add in coconut milk.
3. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Stir in essence, and divide batter into 3 portions.
4. Add varying quantities of red colouring to suitable colours (red and pink) for two portions of batter.
5. Pour first layer of red batter into greased 4"X5" tray and steam for 10min. Do the same for the rest, alternating each colour till all is used up.
6. Cool completely before slicing with plastic knife.

Remarks:
Soft and chewy with appropriate sweetness. Pandan taste was overwhelming, could just add 1/4 tsp to one of the coloured portions instead of adding to all the portions.

~ Tang Yuan

Taken from:
Tiff's! :)

Description:
Springy glutinous rice balls immersed in sweet ginger broth; a festive dessert for Dong Zhi (the Winter Solstice)~

Ingredients:
2 C glutinous rice flour
5/8 C boiled and cooled water
1/2 tsp pandan essence (optional)
Red colouring
1/2 C rock sugar
1 knob ginger
Bunch of pandan leaves
900ml water

Directions:
1. Mix flour, 5/8 C water and essence to form dough. Adjust with 1 tbsp of water/flour accordingly.
2. Separate into two bowls, and tint one of the dough with red colouring. Knead the white dough first for 8-10min and roll into 1.5cm balls. Do the same for the pink dough.
3. Boil together pandan leaves, ginger and sugar in 900ml water to make the broth. Prepare a basin of cold water.
4. Cook balls in the broth till they float. Plunge the cooked balls into the basin of cold water for awhile to stop the cooking process. Serve hot with broth.

Remarks:
QQ and yummy! Topped up with some water for the broth as some of the water evaporated during boiling. Added pandan essence discreetly to the dough to mask the strong glutinous rice taste =x

~ Wanton Dumplings

Taken from:
Mum's

Description:
Tantalising concoction of minced meat (fish, prawn, pork), fungus, veggies, chestnuts wrapped in wanton wrappers~ Deep-fried or boiled in Caixin soup~

Ingredients:

-

Directions:
-

Remarks:
Filling was made by Mum, I only did the wrapping :p As always, the dumplings turned out lip-smacking good!

~ Almond Oatmeal Bars

Modified from:

Allrecipe

Description:
Healthy chewy oatmeal bar frosted with chocolate, added raisins pack a punch to the nutty taste.

Ingredients:

1 egg
1/4 C white sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
1 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp almond
140 g instant oatmeal
1/2 C chopped almonds
1/4 C dried raisins
100 g chocolate chips
10 g butter

Directions:
1. Whip egg, sugar, butter and vanilla essence together.
2. Fold in oatmeal, raisins and chopped almonds.
3. Press dough into well-greased 6" round pan, and bake in preheated oven at 170deg for 20min.
4. Cut into bars when warm.
5. Frost with chocolate cream made by microwaving 100g chocolate chips with 10g butter.
6. Store in refrigerator.

Remarks:
Would prefer it to be less sweet, but overall taste was unexpectedly good. Chocolate frosting and raisins complemented the otherwise plain oatmeal bar.

~ Sesame Raisin Coffee Cookies

Modified from:

Rosa's

Description:
A nutty cake-like sesame cookie spotted with Californian raisins and with a suggestion of coffee~ Crisp on the outside and cake-like on the inside when warm, transforms into a soft cookie after cooling.

Ingredients:
1 C flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp butter
1/4 C white sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp coffee emulco
50 ml milk
1/2 C toasted black sesame
1/2 C raisins

Directions:
1. Whisk dry ingredients together in big bowl.
2. Beat butter and sugar together till fluffy. Mix in vanilla essence, emulco and milk till well-combined. Put the mixing bowl over warm water to speed up the mixing process.
3. Stir in dry ingredients and sesame. Adjust with more flour if batter is too runny. Stir in raisins.
4. Drop by tablespoons onto baking tray and bake in preheated oven at 170deg for 15min till lightly-browned, turning baking tray around at 12th min. Cool for 5min on tray before transfering to wire rack for complete cooling.

Remarks:
Prefer to add in more sesame or coffee powder to enhance the taste.

~ Orange Swiss Roll

Modified from:
Mum's

Description:
Swiss roll with chiffon cake base, slathered with delectable orange marmalade spread!

Ingredients:
(1)
5 egg whites
80 g sugar

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

(2)
5 egg yolks
40 g sugar
1/2 tsp orange essence
2 tbsp orange juice

(3)
100 g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

3 1/3 tbsp oil

Icing sugar
Orange marmalade

Directions:
1. Whisk (1) till fluffy, and transfer to bowl.
2. Beat (2) and fold in (1).
3. Fold in (3) and lastly stir in oil. Pour into 9X12" greased baking tray lined with waxed paper.
4. Bake at 160 deg for 15 min, or till middle of cake springs back when lightly touched.
5. Cool for 5 min, and turn cake onto a kitchen towel lightly dusted with icing sugar. Peel off waxed paper and roll cake in towel, starting with the short side. Cool completely on wire rack.
6. Unroll cake, spread jam to within 0.5" of edges. Roll up again and refrigerate for 1h.

Remarks:
Chiffon cake base was rather dense as the cake was rolled/compressed while warm. More suitable to use a swiss roll base instead. Possible to reduce sugar content in the recipe as icing sugar already adds on sweetness. Marmalade makes the cake really moist, can try cream cheese spread instead.

~ French Meringues

Modified from:
Allrecipes

Description:
Low caloric crispy marshmallow treat!

Ingredients:
1 egg white
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 C sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 110 deg. Line cookie sheet with foil.
2. Beat warmed egg white and cream of tartar to soft peaks. Gradually add sugar, continuing to beat until whites form stiff peaks. Pipe on the prepared cookie sheets.
3.Bake for 1 1/2 hours in preheated oven. Meringues should be completely dry on the inside. Do not allow them to brown. Turn off oven. Keep oven door ajar, and let meringues sit in the oven until completely cool. Loosen from foil with metal spatula. Store in airtight container with baking soda as dessicant in cool dry place for up to 2 months.

Remarks
Too sweet and moist (despite baking for almost 3h; perhaps due to humid and rainy day).

~ Kueh Bangkit

Modified from:
-

Description:
Traditional melt-in-your mouth Chinese New Year cookie adored by many! Crisp white exterior and infused with pungent coconut and a pandan aroma~

Ingredients:
300 g tapioca flour
1 tbsp butter, melted
1 egg yolk
80 g icing sugar
150 ml coconut milk
1 tsp pandan essence

Directions:
1. Place a paper towel on a microwave-safe bowl, add tapioca flour and microwave on high for 1min. Set aside and let it cool.
2. Microwave extra flour for kneading purposes.
3. Sift tapioca flour and icing sugar. Add melted butter, yolk, coconut milk and essence. Knead until a pliable dough is formed. Adjust with flour/coconut milk by tbsps.
4. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to about 3mm. Cut into shapes and arrange on well-floured baking tray. Bake in preheated oven at 170 deg for 15 min.

Remarks:
Relatively soft, only crisp for those cookies which were slightly brown. Gets more flavoursome with time, and can be kept for quite a long time.

~ Banana Cake

Modified from:
Allrecipes

Description:
Soft and moist, with the wholesome goodness of banana and raisins.

Ingredients:
150 g flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
50 g butter
80 g white sugar
1 egg
2 ripe bananas, mashed
80 ml buttermilk
Handful of raisins/chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 170 deg. Grease and flour 8" round pans. In a small bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg. Mix in the bananas. Add flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk to the creamed mixture. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. Remove from oven, and place on a damp tea towel to cool.

Remarks:
Needs more sugar (dusted with icing a few times) and one more banana for greater taste! Tad bit too moist for liking, can be baked for a longer time. Raisins imparted moisture to cake upon storage.

~ Cranberry Orange Meltaways

Modified from:
Martha's

Description:
Crisp, melt-in-your-mouth cookies with the tangy taste of orange and chewy cranberry bits!

Ingredients:

10 tbsp butter, room temp

2/3 C confectioners' sugar

Grated zest of 1orange

2 tbsp orange juice

1 tsp orange essence
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 3/4 C + 3tbsp flour

1 tbsp cornstarch/potatostarch
1/2 C dried cranberries

Directions:
1. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add orange zest, juice, and vanilla; beat until fluffy.
2. Whisk together flour, cornstarch, and salt. Beat into butter mixture till combined. Add in cranberries.
3. Roll dough into two 1 1/4-inch-diameter logs. Chill at least 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 350/175 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
5. Slice dough into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Place rounds on baking sheets, spaced 1 inch apart.
6. Bake until barely golden (~15 min). Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool slightly (8-10 min). Dust with icing sugar. Bake or freeze remaining dough up to 2 months. Store baked cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Remarks:
Sweetness was just right, and cookie was slightly off from a true melt-away, somewhat more like a crispy cookie. Mini chocolate chips were added for some cookies but they did not complement as much as the cranberries.

~ Disclaimer

This blog consists of my humble opinions, and there is no intention of any malice in all blog posts. 

Thus, I shall take no responsibility for anything else that matters. Period. =)