2nd try at Banana choc muffins & pandan chiffon cake

I was supposed to make these together with maid yesterday but she started first while i put the 2 terrors to nap. They took 1.5hrs to eventually fall asleep and by the time i was out, she was already done with the preps and they were already baking in the oven. She also did pandan cake which sank yet again. Really dont know why chiffon is so hard to bake.

We used 10 bananas and the muffins turned out bit sticky but still alright.
Taste was good as before.


I packed and brought one of these to office this morning.



See? It still sank but the texture this time was less kueh-like. Spongier but still far from chiffon-quality! Why??
I should just drop by bengawan solo and ask them what the trick is.

This time, the little girl asked to eat the cake. I think this means it looks like a "cake" to her at least.

Ks had 1 muffin but didnt want the pandan.

New food plates!

Bought these for the kids for their meals. It's rather big and space-consuming but fun for them.

Banana choc chip cupcake & an attempt at baked rice

Baked the yummiest banana choc chip cupcakes yesterday. Total of 24. This recipe is for keeps. Cupcakes turned out moist, banana taste is sufficient and choc chips added flavour. The size was just great for kids, though wasnt quite enough for me. I had total of 4 just in the afternoon and Ks had 2. Nana prob didnt like the look of it, so didnt even try. Chie had 1. By the end of last night, just 11 were left.

The pink cups from Phoon Huat.

He enjoyed them a lot. Not usually a cake person but he took to these very well.

And we tried baked rice - mozarella cheese, sausage, chicken fillet, mushroom & broccoli.

This was before popping it into the oven. Was a tad bland for me and i found it very nee after a while.

Only ks liked it. Nana and chie didnt fancy it very much. Oh well, now we know.

New items from jjmamababy

Bought some new cookie/bread cutters last week and the package arrived yesterday!
I couldn't resist getting the cute car foodplates for the kids.



Cutters: Doraemon, Miffy, Anpanman & Rilakkuma.
I'm not quite a fan of doraemon but the cookies made from these cutters looked really nice.
I can't wait to start making cookies with them. Which should i start with??


You can't get these stuff from any of the kitty or sanrio outlets over here. I searched high and low on google to find these finally.
I'm still looking for shinkansen and melody cutters to complete the collection.
Can't wait.

Chocolate chip cookie

Decided to be adventurous and after sending the pandan to the oven, we prepared the batter to make chocolate chip cookies. My first attempt. It was pretty easy and fuss free. Didnt have to cut out the shapes or anything, so just had to drop spoonfuls onto the tray. I didnt really bother adjusting the shapes of the cookie batter or anything, they seemed to turn out alright in shapes, just that sizes not really standardised.

I got the recipe online, cant remember which website. Cos i had it printed out and filed into my recipe folder.

The first batter that went into the oven. I reduced the sugar by 30g so it wasnt too sweet.

The 2nd tray. Each tray could fill about 16 cookies. I did a total of 4 and a half trays.

Means about 70 cookies?

Recipe stated 10mins in the oven, but mine took about 20mins or so. Batter still looked wet after 10mins. Each time i peered into the oven to check on them, they just keep growing and growing in size! I must have added too much baking powder? They were like close to touching each other. The batter was like 50cents coin size when prepared..but they grew more than double.

The was the last tray. Some looked like squares, some circles. haha.

In 2hrs, me and maid finished baking pandan and cookies. I can't wait to bake a proper pandan chiffon cake again. Feel very bu gan yuan about it... Am gonna try till I can churn out one.

Pandan chiffon that didn't happen

For some reason, I'm unable to cut and copy the photos and texts so the photos are bit out of sequence here. The below pic was of the cake, after leaving to cool for an hour or so. It sank, sadly.

Finally the weekend is here and I can bake the pandan i've been wanting to. Unfortunately, the pandan chiffon cake turned out to be pandan kueh! What a joke. I guess it must have been the wrong flour used. Recipe stated top flour and i used plain flour. Should have used cake flour instead. However the texture of the pandan kueh was really nice and the pandan fragrance filled the house. We blended the pandan leaves to get the juice. Was a dark green colour.

I used the recipe from Happy Home Baker again.

The batter of pandan before popping it into the oven. The colour looks bit artificial here.

After 50mins, the cake (or so i thought...) turned out a nice brown at the top.

The toothpick turned out clean after pricking it into the cake. Felt soft and moist at the top.

Pandan fragrance was filling the entire house and kitchen. Really nice.. I love pandan!

Removing the cake from the pan. I burst out laughing when i saw how thin it was and realised

my chiffon was a flop! hahaha. When cut, it was not fluffy at all, it was like springy texture, like kueh lapis.

There you have it. My first attempt at pandan and pandan kueh.

My parents and brother loved it though. The taste was truly pandan. Not sure if it was due to the leaves or the pandan paste/essence that I added.

Miffy, Mickey & Kitty cookies

Finally had time to bake at parents' place over on Saturday. I bought these cookie cutters from kai kai and was delighted that they were pretty easy to use and cut out. The miffy cutters were old ones i ordered online previously. I got the recipe from happyhomebaking.blogspot.com - from her cinamoroll cookie cut out recipe. Don't know how to link it to her website so anyway her blog is the above address.


Chie who didnt nap that afternoon and she was keen to help me cut out the shapes.



This is how they looked after cutting out.

On to the pan..didnt have parchment paper so just greased the pan.

Fresh from the oven and left to cool.

Packed the cookies onto the lock&lock container. Made about total of 6 batches. Total of 80 cookies or so i think? Used van houten cocoa powder for the brown cookies and normal butter for the plain ones. Also added in some maple syrup cos I like the smell of it.

Gave some to niece yesterday and also brought some to 4 colleagues this morning. Didn't quite have enough so next time will definitely bake more. The kids love them too, cos been asking to eat every now and then. More popular than the cupcakes or muffins. Guess cos it's easy to eat and great for tiny fingers.

Thoughts.

Looking through my past bento posts. I can't believe i made them.
Kinda glad i diligently took pics of them cos at least have some keepsake now.
I still remember how stressful it was cutting the tiny bits of nori and parts for the faces.
Then when i see the pics of kids happily eating what i made, i have a sudden urge to pick it up again.

But lazy.

And also, am no longer staying on our own now so it's not my kitchen anymore where i can make anything i want anytime or peer into the fridge freely. But hey, i may still be able to do something during weekends at parents' place!

Ok.. will be sitting on this thought for now.

New Year 2011 cupcakes

And so, another year is going...as we welcome 2011. Supposed to be a good year for dragons so let's just hope it is really that way. The past 2.5yrs has been really shitty for me, filled with much uncertainty & resentment. We'll see if this new year brings forth more happiness & good health for me & everyone at home. I never was or liked being a sad person so give me some light! As i age, i realise how important health is. Without it, no amount of wealth or anything else in this world matters cos you're not even in the physical good state to enjoy and bask in it.

So, abundance of good health to everybody! Happy new year!

おせち料理 (Osechi) that we had on 1 Jan. This time, my dad didnt over-buy like last year. Can't stomach too much of these sweet stuff u know. The sashimi & sushi were refreshing sides and complimented the osechi very well.

Close-up of the warm molten choc cupcake. The inside is supposed to be slightly sticky and soft.


Uncooked cupcake batter before popping it into the oven.



First batch. Cracked at the top after i left it in there for 5 more mins cos it wasnt "crowning" very nicely.

Total cupcakes baked: 23

Only made a couple with green frosting (which failed miserably cos didnt know had to use buttercream/butter to stiffen the icing+water mixture) The green just kaput flat onto the cupcake.




Overall taste: i found it bit too sweet for my liking. Super rich cos of the choc melting inside too. After just having 1, you literally can feel your waistline expanding by 2 inches. They didnt "sell" so well too..i think cookies, though they require more time & effort, are easier to eat, cos they are small bites, great for kids' tea time snacks, goes well with coffee/tea and not too filling. And you can have like a few at one time without feeling irky.


So.
I'm sticking with cookies. Thinking of trying out the hello kitty and pooh cutters next.

X'mas 2010 cookies

Suddenly felt like baking some cookies after seeing some gingerbread man cookies on some blogs. So i rummaged thru my cobweb covered box of bento tools and selected a random few.
Ok not exactly a few, quite a lot.

Kids helping to cut the shapes out (at the beginning) and then i shooed them away cos they were just making too big a mess & starting to fight (as always)

Done cookies. Bit too thick my dad said. The dough wasnt very easy to cut as they seem to soften very quickly once removed from the fridge.

Made total of about 8 batches of cookies, that took 4hrs (with a dinner break in between). The shapes get better as we make cos there's a way to press down the cutter onto the dough and lifting it up gently so as not to break it. The cookies were a hit. Both at home with parents, kids, maid and also i brought a box with me to the X'mas party at lyne's and they loved it too. Was great with freshly brewed nespresso coffee.