Cake pops

Ever seen a very cute cake pop created by a lady named Bakerella on my Flickr account two years back. But then, at that time, I was only being attracted by her nicely-taken cake pops' photos and not the cake, lol! Gone are the days when I'd devoted my time for work. Now I'm absolutely madly in love with baking. Blissful~

It had never came across to my mind that one day I'm making my own cake pops and or; baking. Life is incredibly unpredictable. It might sounds insane to you but to me.. it means a lot. ;)

To make a cake pop, you would need a cake, any flavors. (I'd baked a 9" round chocolate cake) It could be muffins, cupcakes and etc. Use your clean hands to crumble your cake into small crumbs. And then add some home-made frosting, bread jam or nutella of two tablespoons at a time to have the consistency of a dough-like.

Use a large ice-cream scoop or tablespoon (2x) to have all cake pops at same amount or size. Melt small amount of the chocolate to stick the lollipop sticks into the cake balls. It acts like a glue. When all done, freeze them for about 10-15 min or 20-30 min for refrigeration. Melt the candy melt or dark/white chocolate beforehand you takes them out for dipping.

Also, get ready your sprinkles for decorations afterwards. :)

Cake balls

Melt the white/dark chocolate. (Chocolate compound types)

Lovely sprinkles~ 

End product

Munch!

They love it.

Keep them refrigerated when you can't finished.

Note: I've skipped taking photos of certain processes as I'm the food maker, as well a Photographer. At this moment like that, I can't multitask. lol. But... I will try next time.

Addicted to R.A.I.N.B.O.W

PSLE results have just been announced recently.. and a Big Congratulations to my dearest niece who has successfully promoted to Secondary school next year. Been finding a good excuse to celebrate.. and this is the right time to bake a rainbow cake again! Haha! Passed with flying rainbow colours~

This time round, I find it more tastier and the texture more fluffy. Glad that everyone loves it. :)

For the rainbow cake recipe, please refer to here. :)

Low fat banana bread

With two leftover fully ripe bananas lying in my kitchen, I just can't helped looking for a banana recipe. Lucky me found a pretty simple and tasty recipe. My fussy youngest boy loved it so much that he had eaten 3 slices of it! And the sweetness came from the bananas.

Recipe and method adapted by Joy of Baking.

12 slices

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (240 ml) mashed ripe bananas (about 2 large bananas) 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• ½ cup (120 ml) low-fat plain yogurt 
• ¼ cup (60 ml) canola, vegetable, or corn oil 
• ¾ cup (165 grams) light brown sugar 
• 1 large egg or 2 large (60 grams) egg whites 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour 
• ½ cup (65 grams) whole wheat flour 
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 
• ¼  teaspoon salt 

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180°C and place the rack in the center of the oven. Spray an 8 x 4 inch (20 x 10 cm) loaf pan with a nonstick vegetable cooking spray. 
• In a large bowl, mix the mashed bananas with the baking soda and yogurt. Allow to sit while you prepare the rest of the batter. 
• Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, egg or egg whites, and vanilla. 
• In another large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, ground cinnamon and salt. 
• Then combine the banana mixture with the oil mixture and then add to the flour mixture. Stir just until all the ingredients are moistened. 
• Pour into the prepared pan and smooth the top. 
• Bake for about 45 - 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. 
• Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. 

Nicely baked.

Puffy and moisten texture.

Enjoy this slice of banana bread with coffee or tea.

Enjoy!

Banana Chocolate Cupcakes

I'd bought a bunch of large bananas over the weekend. Decided to let it ripe thoroughly before I start to use them. It is said to be more sweet and soft when fully ripe.

Don't throw the bananas away when you see the black spots. They are soft and sweet. Ideal for baking!

Mash the bananas

Recipe and method adapted by Joy of Baking.

12 servings

• 1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar 
• 1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour 
• ⅓ cup (35 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder (regular or Dutch-processed) 
• ¾ teaspoons baking powder 
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda 
• ¼ teaspoon salt 
• 1 large egg 
• ½ cup mashed ripe bananas (about 1 medium sized banana) 
• ½ cup (120 ml) warm water 
• ¼ cup (60 ml) milk
• ¼ cup (60 ml) canola, corn, or vegetable oil 
• ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract 

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180°C and place rack in the center of the oven. 
• Line 12 regular-sized muffin cups with paper liners or spray each cup with a non stick vegetable spray. 
• In a large bowl whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 
• In another large bowl, whisk together the egg, mashed banana, water, milk, oil, and vanilla extract. 
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir, or whisk, until combined. (The batter is quite thin.) 
• Pour or scoop the batter into the muffin cups, about 3/4 full, and bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. 
• Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. 

Fresh from oven!

Ingredients for frosting:

• 3 ounces (90 grams) unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped 
• 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature 
• 1 cup (120 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

• Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. 
• Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. 
• In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy (about 1 minute). 
• Add the sugar and beat until it is light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. 
• Add the chocolate and beat on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until frosting is smooth and glossy (about 2 -3 minutes). 

I melted the chocolate chip by using double boiler method.

Let the melted chocolate be cool completely before you proceed to the next step.

Ready to serve!

Bread baking

Bought a mini (not very mini also) power mixer couple days ago, and decided to bake some bread. Simple plain white bread. I'm not really a bread lover.. but somehow every household have to own one. Haha.

Alright. It's just an excuse. I'm absolutely in love with baking!

Let's get the ball rolling then.

Recipe and method adapted by Olivias Kitchen. Before I start, get ready a clean tea towel. It's to cover the bread for rising.

Ingredients:

• 600g Strong White Bread Flour 
• 7g Easy Dry Yeast 
• 1 tsp brown sugar 
• 2 tsp salt 
• 400 ml lukewarm water 
• 3 tblsp melted butter

Method:

• Add first 4 ingredients in a big bowl
• Add water gradually, not at once. (left about 200-300 ml)
• add melted butter and add water gradually; then knead either by hand or by machine for 5 mins. 
• Put the dough in a loaf tin
• Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for approx 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in size. 
• Cook in a preheated oven 200°C for 30 mins.
• Once baked, let it cool completely before you take the bread out of the tin and cut.

Dry yeast

You would need brown sugar and some salt

melted butter

Almost ready. Sprinkled some flour on the clean table top. Bring the dough out and start to do last kneading by hand.

Fit the dough into loaf tin and cover with clean tea towel 

Bye for now. I'll see you in another 45 min. (I placed them in the cupboard.)

Rised with double size! :) Sprinkle some flour on top before we put into the oven.

Smell nice and looks nice! 

See the texture.

Then enjoy the bread with your favorite jam or butter!

Trust me, with this simple, light and healthy recipe that you would want to bake this over and over again. :)

Enjoy!

Tea caramel muffins

Wanted to try out Laura Vitale's Chai Tea muffin but unfortunately I couldn't find any Chai in any supermarkets. (While typing, I just remembered that I actually could try my luck at Mustafa, haha!) Chai is simply the word for “tea” in Hindi.

Anyways, everything is still the same except I'd tweaked the recipe by just substituting the Chai to caramel tea and pumpkin spice to mixed spice.

Caramel tea

It can be used in all cakes, muffins, puddings.

Recipe and method adapted by Laura Vitale

12 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of All Purpose Flour 
• 2 tsp of Baking Powder 
• ½ tsp of Baking Soda 
• ½ tsp of Salt 
• ¾ cup of Granulated Sugar (I put ½ cup instead of ¾)
• 1 tsp of Mixed Spice 
• ¼ cup of Vegetable Oil 
• 1 Tsp of Vanilla Extract 
• 1 ¼ cup of Milk 
• 4 Caramel Tea Bags 
• 2 Eggs 
• ¾ cup of Chopped Walnuts, toasted

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 175°C, line 2 muffin tin with 18 liners and set aside. 
• In a small saucepan, add the milk and bring it to a simmer, turn the heat off and add the tea bags, allow it to steep for 5 minutes. 
• Squeeze out the tea bags and discard. 
• In a large bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and mixed spice, set aside. 
• In a small bowl, add the walnuts and ½ cup of the dry ingredients, toss the walnuts around to make sure they are all coated in the dry mixture. 
• In another large bowl, using a hand held electric mixer, whisk together the sugar, eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla extract. 
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and continue to mix with your mixer wile streaming in the caramel tea milk mixture. Fold in the walnuts and mix through just until they are evenly distributed. 
• Divide the batter evenly among-st the lined muffin tins and bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center. Cool completely on a wire rack.

add the tea bags into the simmering milk and allow it to steep for about 5 min

some toasted walnuts to be mix into the batter, to have the crunchy bite.

Oops! Just a peek. :P

Tea caramel muffins

Overall verdict of this slightly tweaked recipe, it tasted quite nice. A little caramel, a little sweet and I love the walnuts hiding inside. <3

Enjoy!

I love my new toy!

I can't believe that I got this at only $19.95! Such a good gggrrraaabbb at Vivocity Giant! Goodness me and I can't sleep tonight. LOL!!

Electronic kitchen scale

The bowl is detachable. 

I super love the cup measurement. And there are 5 measuring modes which are:

• Weight
• Water volume
• Milk volume
• Oil volume
• Flour volume

Go get yours now! :)

Nutella cookies

Recipe and method adapted by Laura Vitale.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup of Unsalted Butter at room temperature 
• ½ cup of Brown Sugar 
• ½ cup of Granulated Sugar 
• 1 cup of Nutella 
• 2 Eggs 
• 1 tsp of Vanilla Extract 
• 2 cups of All Purpose Flour 
• 1 tsp of Baking Soda 
• ¼ tsp of Salt 
• 1 Tbsp of Cocoa Powder

Method:

• Preheat your oven to 140°C (my cookies over burnt when I followed her oven temperature at 190 ), line a few baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. 
• In a small bowl, mix together the flour, salt, cocoa powder and baking soda, set aside. 
• In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and both kinds of sugar. Add the egg, vanilla and nutella and mix to incorporate well. 
• Add the dry ingredients and mix everything together until your dough comes together. 
• Using a small ice cream scoop, scoop out the cookie dough on your prepared baking sheets a few inches apart. (I used a small spoon instead of a ice-cream scoop)
• Bake them for about 10 minutes. (they will look very puffy as they bake but they will flatten as they cool) 
• Let them cool completely.

½ cup of Brown Sugar, ½ cup of Granulated Sugar

½ cup of Unsalted Butter at room temperature

1 tsp of Baking Soda, 1 Tbsp of Cocoa Powder

Gosh. My yummy nutella. 

Mix together the flour, salt, cocoa powder and baking soda, set aside.

Cream together the butter and both kinds of sugar 

 add the eggs;

then the vanilla and nutella and mix to incorporate well.

Add the dry ingredients and mix everything together until your dough comes together.

Nice!