NESTUM Shortbread with Chocolate Rice

I found this on NESTUM website. The cereal paired with the butter smell is very fragrant. It seems that anything cooked or baked with the cereal is very fragrant such as Nestum Cereal Prawn. So, I make this again, for Chinese New Year!

It is also good for tea time too with a glass of milk or hot chocolate. But this can very addictive, you just can't stop eating! :D So I am keeping this recipe.

Source: NESTUM Rice Shortbread

Ingredients:

• 1¼ cups flour, sifted

  

  Arranged on the baking tray

• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¼ cup rice flour
• ¼ cup caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 150g salted butter
• ½ cup chocolate rice
• 1 cup NESTUM original cereal

Methods:

1. Sift flour, baking powder and rice flour into a bowl. 
2. Stir in NESTLÉ NESTUM Original and chocolate rice. Set aside.
3. In another mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 
4. Add in vanilla essence and egg and mix until well combined. 
5. Fold in the flour mixture.
6. Take level teaspoons of dough and place the dough on lightly greased baking trays. (I usually don't grease my tray.)
7. Press the dough down with a bottle cap.
8. Bake in preheated 180°C oven for 10-15 minutes or until lightly brown. (For my oven, I usually put a tray near the lowest rack and another tray near the highest rack and then half way through baking, I rotate the tray, so that they are evenly cooked and not too brown on either the top or the bottom surface.)

All flatten and ready for the oven!

All done!!!

This post is linked at Cook and Celebrate: Chinese New Year 2016 hosted by Yen from GoodyFoodies, Diana from The Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids at here.

Chocolate Mud Cake

I didn't realize that a chocolate mud cake is actually quite easy to make, no need to beat butter for at least 10 minutes, so you may not even need to use the mixer (less things to wash, yay!). More time is actually taken to measure and get the ingredients ready. 

This recipe is adapted from Bake Like a Pro - Chocolate Mud Cake video. Look at the list of ingredients below. *sweat* I left out the salt because I used salted butter and I totally forgotten about the vegetable oil *duh*. But without the oil, the cake is less oily, I suppose it's a good thing that I forgot the oil.

Ingredients:

• 240g plain flour
• 60g cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking powder (I used double action)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda 
• 180 ml water 
• 250g salted butter (I used Emborg, it is softer)
• 120ml milk
• 4 eggs (65g)
• 385g fine granulated sugar
• 220g dark chocolate 
• 2 tbsp instant coffee powder

Method:

1. Grease and line the base and sides of a 8" round baking tin with parchment paper. Ensure that the parchment lining the sides comes up above the tin.
2. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder. 
3. Boil the water in a sauce pan, once the water is boiling, add in coffee powder.
4. Once the coffee powder has dissolved, add in the butter, dark chocolate and melt them under low heat until it is melted.
5. Add in sugar and whisk well until it is completely melted.
6. Pour this in a mixing bowl and set aside to cool down.
7. Add in milk to the mixing bowl and whisk until well combined.
8. Add in one egg at a time and whisk again until well combined.
9. Add in the sifted flour mix in and mix until well combined.
10. Pour the batter into the baking tin and bake in a preheated oven at 150 degree C for 2 hours.
11. Once done, remove it from oven and let it cool completely in the baking tin. (While cooling down, the middle of the cake shrinks tremendously compared to the sides, so I am guessing the middle of the cake wasn't cooked properly. I need to figure out a way to ensure the heat in the oven is uniform and reaching the middle of the cake properly in the 2 hours time frame.)

This is how the batter looks like after mixing very in...

Just got into the oven...

Uh...rising and rising and rising...

After cooling down...

Looking very moist at the sides but urghh...sinking like there's no tomorrow in the middle...

I am linking this to Yen from GoodyFoodies, Diana from The Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids plus Cook and Celebrate:Christmas at here.

Christmas Fruit Cake

I am not a big fan of fruits in butter cakes. I just felt that the taste doesn't quite pair up. But well, that's just me. Maybe I'm just being weird. ^_^ Anyway, since Christmas was around the corner and I wanted to make something Christmas-y, I chose to make a boozy fruit cake. Other than the rum added into the cake, I am also supposed to feed the cake with alcohol every 2-3 days.

The recipe is adapted from Anncoo Journal - Christmas Fruit Cake. It called for 500g of mixed fruit. I was like "hmm....it felt like a lot of fruits". But maybe it should have that much of dried fruits. Anyway, I only put in about 1/4 of the 500g of mixed fruits. I think this resulted in a shorter cake as I suppose the fruits can help with the heights of the cake. 

But oh well, I hope it still tastes good!

Ingredients:

• 250g butter
• 125g sugar 
• 4 large eggs (65g)
• 200g plain flour 
• 1/2 tsp baking powder  
• 150g mixed dried fruit (I used cranberry, raisins and apricots)
• 100g pitted prune - chopped
• 8 tbsp rum (for the dried fruits)
• 100g walnut - chopped
• 2 tbsp rum (for the cake batter)
• 2 tbsp orange juice 
• Orange zest from one orange 
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract

Method:

1. Prepare the dried fruits 1 day in advance. Add the dried fruit and pitted prune together with 8 tbsp of rum and mix well. Let the fruits soaked until the next day. I keep them in the refrigerator.
2. Beat butter and sugar untill light and fluffy, 
3. Add in rum, orange juice, orange zest and vanilla extract and mix well.
4. Add in egg yolks first, one by one, then followed by egg whites (the yolks and the whites do not need to be separated). After all the eggs are in, the batter will curdle, beat at high speed until the batter is smoother again.
5. Add 1/4 portion of flour to the mixed dried fruit and distribute the flour evenly.. 
6. Slowly add 3/4 portion of flour to butter mixture and mix well.
7. Add in mixed dried fruit and chopped walnut and mix well with a rubber spatula.
8. Pour the batter into a 8" square baking tin. 
9. Bake at preheated oven at 160 degree Celsius for 1 1/2 hour.
10. After the cake is done, take out the cake from the oven and let it cool slightly. While it is still warm, brush 3-4 tbsp of rum on to fruit cake
11. Leave cake to cool, wrap the cake with cling wrap and store in the fridge.
12. Pour 2-3 tbsp of rum on cake every three days until it is ready to serve.

This is how the batter look like after beating it past the curdling stage. It becomes
softer and creamier. Perhaps this caused the cake to be a little crumbly...

Getting ready for the oven...

Baking for the next 1 1/2 hours...

Doesn't seem to rise that much...the fruits are probably a bit heavy...

I am linking this to Yen from GoodyFoodies, Diana from The Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids plus Cook and Celebrate:Christmas at here.

Walnut Streusel Butter Cake

Walnut and butter cake...hmm...a combination I have been KIV-ing for some time. So, now finally, there is an opportunity to bake it and it's going to be a streusel coffee type of cake. There is no coffee in the cake, but I think it's named as coffee cake as this is the type of cake that is nice to have during coffee (or maybe tea) break. 

I found this recipe from My Kitchen Snippets - Walnut Streusel Coffee Cake. The butter cake itself tastes delicious but I'm slightly disappointed with the slight imperfection....WET LINES..... >_< ...I guess I should use a rack to hold the baking pan instead. Perhaps that's what caused the heat not evenly distributed at the bottom of the pan.

Ingredients: 
Cake:

• 250g salted butter 
• 270g flour 
• 230g caster sugar 
• 5 eggs (65g each)
• 1 tsp baking powder 
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• ½ cup milk

Streusel:

• 3 tbsp butter
• 1 cup chopped walnuts 
• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar 
• ¼ cup flour 
• 1 tsp cinnamon 
• ½ tsp salt 

Method:

1. Mix all the streusel ingredients together and set it aside.  
2. Preheat oven to 175°C. 
3. Grease and line an 8” round baking pan with parchment paper. 
4. Combine flour and baking powder and sift into a bowl.
5. Beat butter and sugar until light, fluffy and creamy. 
6. Beat in egg yolks first, 1 at a time until well combined. then slowly add the egg whites and gently beat it in. 
7. Add in vanilla. 
8. Add the flour portion and milk alternately into the butter mixture in 3 batches. Mix well. 
9. Pour 1/2 of batter into the baking pan. Sprinkle half of streusel mixture on top of the batter. 
10. Pour the balance batter on top of the streusel. Sprinkle the balance of the streusel on top. 
11. Bake the cake for about 1 hour or until golden brown or tester inserted at the center comes out clean.
12. Let the cake cool in the baking pan.

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy

Getting there, a little bit more

Beat in the egg yolks

Beat in the egg whites

Add in 1/3 of the flour and mix

Add in milk and mix

The look of the batter of everything is mixed in

In the oven.

The cake height towards the end of the baking time.
Quite confident this will turn out well until.....

Ughh....wet lines in the middle...

Ughh....more wet lines at the middle and bottom...
Nevertheless the taste is good.

Update 19 Sep 2015:

Not satisfied with the previous results I tried the recipe again, it's looking so much better now. I think this time I beat the sugar and butter for at least 10 minutes and baking it on a rack instead of the pan.

Oh good, wet lines are gone...I think all streusel mix will go to the top of the cake next time....

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up ~ August 2015

Event Theme : Brown Sugar and Molassses

organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen of My Little Favourite DIY 

and hosted by Jess of Bakericious

Dual Layer Chocolate Chiffon Cake

Still soft and fluffy though the cocoa portion looks dense as that area is near the top of the oven,

I adapted this recipe from The Domestic Goddess Wannabe - Duo Layer Chocolate Oreo Chiffon Cake. She called it Duo Layer Chocolate Oreo Chiffon Cake. I guess I'll have to call mine as Duo Layer Chocolate Munchy Chiffon Cake as I replaced the Oreo cookies and Munchy Cookies. ^_^ 

It required a bit more work compared to a normal chiffon cake as there are 2 layers of batter to prepare but I think the effort is all worth it. As the chocolate is main actor in the cake, so use the best cocoa powder that you can afford. It makes a whole lot of difference.

As with most of the chiffon cake that I have baked over the years, the top half shrinks and looks denser than the bottom half even though the cake is still soft.

Beaten egg yolks in lighter yellow

The cocoa powder and chocolate chips portion

The cookies portion

The meringue stiff peak

Just got into the oven

Almost done!

Pheww...lucky no major shrinkage...

The sides of the cake, after being unmoulded

Ingredients

• 6 egg yolks (separated from whole eggs weighed 65g, left at room temperature for half an hour to 1 hour, note to self: do not leave it out for too log)
• 50g caster sugar

  

  Standing tall...

• 70g corn oil 
• 100g cake flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (I actually have forgotten to add this...haizz...)
• 110ml chocolate milk (I made the chocolate milk from fresh milk and Hersheys' cocoa powder and a bit of sugar as I find commercial chocolate milk will have some kind of thickener in it or some kind of preservative or flavoring)
• 5 Oreo cookies, discard filling and crushed (I used Munchy in this bake, maybe I'll try Oreo next...)
• 2 tablespoons Hersheys' cocoa powder
• 20g semi-sweet Hersheys' chocolate chips
• 6 egg whites (separated from whole eggs weighed 65g, left at room temperature for half an hour to 1 hour)
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 70g caster sugar

Methods:

1. Sift the cake flour and baking powder (and also salt).
2. Whisk egg yolks and 50g sugar until the sugar is melted and the batter turns to a lighter shade of yellow.
3. Add in the oil and whisk till well combined.

   

   Aiks...top half still looks denser compared to the
   bottom half

4. Add in the chocolate milk and whisk till well combined.
5. Once combined, add the sifted cake flour mixture and whisk until just combined.
6. Measure the batter and divide this batter into 2 equal portions. 
7. Fold in the cocoa powder and chocolate chips in 1 portion. (Need to distribute the chocolate chips evenly so they don't all gather at the same spot.)
8. Fold in the crushed cookies in the other portion.
9. In a clean separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until foamy. Add in cream of tartar.
10. Whisk until soft peaks form.
11. Slowly, add 70g sugar while whisking and continue whisking until stiff peaks form.
12. Divide the meringue into 2 portions. Take 1/3 of the meringue from the first portion and fold it into the cocoa powder and chocolate chips portion. Once the batter is lighten slightly, fold the remaining 2/3 of the meringue gently into the batter until no white streaks remain.
13. Transfer 1/3 of the remaining meringue and fold into the cookies batter to lighten it. Fold the remaining 2/3 of the meringue gently into the batter until no white streaks remain.
14. Pour the Oreo batter into a 23cm ungreased tube pan.
15. Gently pour the cocoa powder and chocolate chip batter on top.
16. Tap the pan for about 3 times on the kitchen counter to remove trapped air bubbles. Jingle the pan the flatten the batter more.
17. Bake at 170°C for 60 minutes. (note to self: When preheating the oven, turn the fan on so the temperature is slightly higher and turn the fan off when it's preheated, so when the oven door is opened to let the cake in, the temperature drop will be close to the baking temperature.)
18. Once the cake is done, invert it immediately to cool. 

 

I am joining Best Recipes for Everyone, June 2015 Event : Secret of Chiffon and Roll Cakes

 Organized and hosted by Fion of Xuan Hom's Mom Kitchen Diary

Oreo Mocha Cake

This combination is seriously yummyyyy. The cake is moist and soft and I think that's due to the addition of whipping cream. Looking at the recipe, it is using icing sugar and the number of eggs used is less compared to the amount of butter used, so I'm pretty confident that there'll no curdling when beating the eggs into the creamed butter mixture. ^_^

As I followed the instructions to use 6 inch pan, I found that it is a bit small for the amount of batter prepared. I will try with a 7 inch or 8 inch pan next time.

This is adapted from The Domestic Goddess Wannabe - Chocolate Oreo Mocha Cake.

Ingredients:

• 250g salted butter (out from the fridge for about 20 minutes in a tropical climate with no air-cond)
• 150g icing sugar, sifted
• 3 eggs
• 4 tablespoon whipping cream
• 6 teaspoons instant coffee powder + 3 teaspoons hot water (combine this first and leave to cool)
• 210g cake flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 30g cocoa powder
• 60g Oreo cookies, crushed (place in a clean plastic bag, then I crush it with a wooden mooncake mould)
• Whole Oreo cookies (I used the standard size for this, they are cheaper compared to the mini size, but I guess it will look prettier using the mini size.)

Methods:

1. Lightly grease and line a 6" baking pan.
2. Cream butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg yolks (does not need a clean separation between the yolks and the white), one at a time, into the butter, mixing well after each addition.
4. Slowly add the remaining egg whites, mixing until well combined.
5. Add in the coffee and whipping cream. Mix until well combined.
6. Add the flour, baking soda and cocoa powder and mix until just combined.
7. Add the Oreo cookies and mix to combine.
8. Transfer the batter into a the baking pan.
9. Smooth the top and press the  whole Oreo cookies onto the batter.
10. Bake the cake at 160°C for 40-50 minutes. (Depending on your oven, so test the cake with a cake tester at 40th minute.)
11. Allow the cake to cool for 10-15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Beat butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy.

Add in egg yolk one at a time and mix until well combined.

After adding all the eggs

Add in the coffee and whipping cream

Mix until well combined

Arrange Oreo cookies on top

Luckily, the baking paper lining is quite high

All cool down and ready to be eaten

Hmm.....Moist and chocolaty...

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs Up organised by Bake for Happy Kids and My Little Favourite DIY, and hosted by Diana from the Domestic Goddess Wannabe