Tag Archives: baking

baking, Cake

Carrot & Walnut Cake

Ingredients:

flour 1 cup

cinnamon powder  1 tsp

salt 1/2 tsp

baking powder 1/2 tsp

baking soda 1/4 tsp

brown sugar 1/2 cup

white sugar 1/4 cup

eggs 2

vanilla 1/2 tsp

vegetable oil 1/2 cup

grated carrots 1 1/2 cup

finely chopped walnut 1 cup

 

  1. Preheat oven to 180 Degree C.
  2. Cream vegetable oil with brown sugar & white sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Mix well.
  3. Sieve all the dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, baking powder) to avoid any lump.
  4. Add dry ingredients into oil & sugar mixture 1/3 at a time, to make sure they are well combined.
  5. Finally add in grated carrot and walnut. Mix well.
  6. Into the oven and bake for 20-25 mins. Check with toothpick. If it comes out clean, then the cake is done.

https://flic.kr/p/2gLUou8

Very simple and the cake is really good.

banana, bread, Cake, Uncategorized

Walnut Banana Bread

3 Comments

Banana is one of my husband’s favorite fruit. But sometimes, He forgot to eat them, and banana got ripe very quickly. So I would use them to make smoothie or cake or bread.

This summer when we went back to my hometown, we brought so many walnut back. My mom just cracked them and store the shell-removed walnut in 2 large containers. My husband likes walnut, so he adds some in his yogurt. Yet, we still have a lot. So I tried to bake something with walnut and banana.

Ingredients:

Bananas 2

butter 1/2 cup

white sugar 1 cup

eggs 2

vanilla 1/2 tsp

flour 1 cup

baking soda 1 tsp

salt 1/2 tsp

cinnamon powder 1/2 tsp

chopped & toasted walnut 1 cup

 

  1. Preheat oven to 170 Degree C.
  2. Cream butter and sugar together till light and fluffy.
  3. Add in 2 beaten eggs and vanilla. Stir well.
  4. Add in mashed bananas. Mix them together.
  5. Sieve in all the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon powder. Mix till combined.
  6. Butter spray the loaf pan. Dust it with flour.
  7. Pour all the batter into the pan.
  8. Into the oven for 50-60 mins. Check with a toothpick. If it comes out clean then it’s done.

Let it cool down for a little while.

Cut it and you will find it’s very moistened and firm.

Full of walnut and banana flavor. Very nice!

chocolate, Cookie

Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Long time no baking.

Today, my student suddenly cancelled his lesson, so I have another day off. I decided to make some chocolate cookies.

Ingredients:

butter 1/2 cup (I only have salted butter in the fridge. You can use unsalted butter too. Just remember to add in 1/2 tsp salt in the dough)

white sugar 1/2 cup

brown sugar 1/2 cup

egg 1

vanilla 1 tsp

flour  1 & 1/4  cup

baking soda 1/2 tsp

chocolate chips  1 & 1/2 cup

walnut 1 cup (chopped and toasted. You can preheat oven to 150 degree C, and toast for about 10-15 mins. Just take them out when you can smell the aroma.)

 

  1. Cream butter with sugar (whit and brown) till light.
  2. Beat in egg.
  3. Add in vanilla. Give it a good stir.
  4. Sieve in flour and baking soda. Combine till just blended.
  5. Add in chocolate chips and walnut. Stir well.
  6. Scoop 1 tbsp dough and make a dough ball. Place them on the tray. And put into fridge for about 40 mins.
  7. Preheat oven to 170 Degree C, and bake for 15-18 mins.

https://flic.kr/p/2gBjHhR

Delicious and well-shaped.

baking, blueberry, Cake, Uncategorized

Blueberry Lemon Cake

3 Comments

My husband and I are not big fans of fresh blueberry. But we both like food made from blueberry, like jam or cake. So if I buy blueberries from supermarket, it means I will bake something with blueberry.

Preheat oven to 180 degree C.

Ingredients:

Butter 130g

Sugar 120g

Vanilla 1 tsp

Egg 1

Flour 190g

Baking powder 1 tsp

Salt 1/4 tsp

Zest of 1 lemon

Milk 1/2 cup

Blueberry 2 cups

Flour 1 tablespoon

Lemon juice 1 tablespoon

1. Cream butter with sugar till light and fluffy.

2. Add in vanilla. And eggs one by one.

3. Mix fry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and zest of lemon) together.

4. Add flour and milk into butter mixture alternately. 1/2 flour and 1/2 milk one time.

5. Add 1 tablespoon flour and lemon juice into blueberries. Toss a bit.

6. Place 1/2 batter into baking pan. Over it spread 1/2 blueberries. Then add in the rest batter. And top it with rest blueberries. Light press blueberries into the batter.

The batter is done:

After 60 mins.

Cool down for a while.

I was too lazy to make any glaze. So i just sprinkle icing sugar over the top.

Cake is very moist.

banana, Cake, Uncategorized

Upside Down Banana Cake

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I tried banana cake before:

Banana Cake

This upside down banana cake is kind of an improved version of banana cake. It’s a combination of banana cake and caramelized banana top.

Ingredients:

Butter 80g

Sugar 120g

Egg 1

Flour 140g

Milk 1/4 Cup

Baking Soda 1 tsp

Baking powder 1 tsp

Ripe Bananas 2

Vanilla 1 tsp

Salt 1 pinch

Cinnamon powder 1 tsp

Butter 3 Tablespoon

brown sugar 1/4 cup

vanilla 1/2 tsp

Banana 1

1. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

2. Add in egg, vanilla and baking soda. Stir well.

3. Add in 2 mashed bananas and milk. Stir well.

4. Add in flour, salt and cinnamon. Mix them well and set aside.

5. Preheat oven to 180 degree C.

6. Add 3 Tablespoon butter and 1/4 cup brown sugar into a sauce pan. Turn to low heat and stir till sugar melts.

7. Cut an another banana into slices and arrange at the bottom of baking pan.

8. Pour the butter & brown sugar mixture into the pan.

9. At last pour the batter in.

10. Into the oven and bake for 30-40 mins.

Cool down a bit. Cover the cake with a plate. Then flip it over.

And voila!

https://flic.kr/p/2dK55G3

Really moisture.

My husband loves it.

Cake, chocolate

Recipe: Chocolate Pound Cake

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I always ask my husband about which pic to choose as featured image of blog. He gives me his opinion usually from a very different perspective.

He chose this picture for this blog. And his reason is that this picture look like it’s snowing.

I was like: WHAT???

Anyway, I still followed his advice.

If you always do baking at home and search baking recipes on YouTube. I bet you know Stephanie Jaworski from Joy Of Baking. She gives so many great recipes and demonstrations, which are very easy and hardly to fail. I really like her videos. And I tried some of her recipes, they turned out really great.

I followed her instructions about this Chocolate pound cake, except I reduced sugar and I didn’t do the glaze at the end.

Her video demonstration is here:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gI8ShUTkJf8

If you don’t have time for video, I can show you the steps:

Preheat oven to 180 degree C.

1. Dissolve 25g cocoa powder in 60 ml very hot boiling water. Set aside to cool down.

2. Prepare dry ingredients: 180g flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt. Mix them well.

3. Cream 225g butter with 200g white sugar (in video, she says 250g. I reduced sugar to keep it less sweet) till light. Add in 1 tsp vanilla extract. And 4 eggs one by one.

4. Add in cocoa water mixture. Stir well.

5. Add in 1/2 dry ingredients and 2 tablespoon milk. Mix well. Then add the rest dry ingredients.

6. Patter in baking pan. Bake for about 60 mins.

https://flic.kr/p/Q5d3uA

When it’s 50mins, I checked with toothpick, it didn’t come out very clean, so I baked for another 10 mins. I didn’t make the glaze and just dust icing sugar instead. Yeah, that’s why my husband related it to snowing.

See? Stephanie’s instruction is always simple and clear to catch up with.

My husband loves the cake.

bread, Uncategorized

Pork Floss & Spring Onion Bun

2 Comments

I made pork floss the other day, and the idea of making pork floss & spring onion bun came to me. I don’t have much experience of making bread. So I search on YouTube and found this video:

I just followed this recipe.

If you want to make pork floss at home, you can please refer to my previous blog:

Homemade Pork Floss

For those who cannot read Chinese, I can help to do some translation:

Ingredients for bread

salt 2g

sugar 10g

yeast 4g

egg 1

butter 20g

bread flour 230g

water 100g

  1. dissolve yeast in warm water and rest for 10 mins.
  2. Mix all dry ingredients.
  3. Combine all ingredients above except butter till it become a dough.
  4.  Cut butter into the dough. Two options: bread machine or by your hands. I knead the dough by my hands. I was kneading it and watching a TV drama at the same time. The whole kneading process last for 1 and a half episode.
  5. Place the dough in a bowl, cover with plastic warp and let it rise till 2 times big.
  6. Flatter it into a disc. Put it into a 27×27 baking pan.
  7. Place the baking pan into oven, with a big bowl of hot water underneath. Let the dough rise again till 2 times big.
  8. Preheat oven to 180 degree c.
  9. Brush dough with egg. Sprinkle white sesame and spring onion (green part).
  10. Into the oven and bake for 12 mins.
  11. Cut bread into squares or whatever shape you like.
  12. Take two pieces of them. Brush the back with mayonnaise. Sprinkle a little pork floss. Stick them together. Then brush the edges with mayonnaise, dip in pork floss.

https://flic.kr/p/2cxLaFi

I was very generous with pork floss and used all the pork floss I made before. I have to admit that my bread is not so soft as the ones sold in bakery shop. My husband still like them though.

Cake, Uncategorized

Cinnamon Walnut Coffee Cake

4 Comments

It’s been a long time for me to do baking since last time. Recently, my husband starts to have coffee almost everyday. Why doesn’t he have coffee before? That’s because he’s afraid he would be addicted to coffee. But why he drinks coffee now? That’s because he cannot resist the attraction of coffee. Yeah, I know sometimes my husband is so complicated and contradictory.  Sign~

Since he picks up the habit of drinking coffee, baking a coffee cake sounds a good idea to me.

Ingredients:

chopped walnut 1 cup

brown sugar  1/4  cup

cinnamon powder 1 tsp

flour  1 tbsp

coffee 2g (I didn’t intend to add coffee. Just that my husband heard I was going to bake a coffee cake. He lent his coffee to me very generously. Yeah, he didn’t know coffee cake is to be served with coffee, not made from coffee.)

ALL THE FIVE INGREDIENTS ABOVE IS TO FOR TOPPING AND FILLINGS. Mix them well in a bowl and set aside.

For the cake:

butter 1/2 cup

sugar 1 cup

vanilla  1 tsp

egg 2

baking soda 1/2 tsp

baking powder 1 tsp

salt 1/4 tsp

flour 2/3 1 cup

plain yogurt 3/4 cup

preheat oven to 180 degree C.

  1. Cream butter with sugar till light and fluffy.
  2.  Add in vanilla and eggs (one by one).  Mix well.
  3. Mix baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour in a bowl.
  4. Add 1/3 dry ingredients into butter, then 1/2 yogurt. Add the rest dry ingredients and yogurt alternately. Mix well before adding.
  5. Spread 1/2 batter into the baking pan. Sprinkle around 1/3 walnut & cinnamon mixture over it.
  6. Add the rest cake batter, and top with the rest walnut & cinnamon mixture.
  7. Into the oven for 40-50 mins.

https://flic.kr/p/2c9xKqM

Very nice.

Breakfast

Oatmeal Bar

2 Comments

When I made an adventurous journey in my kitchen searching for cookies, I found a pack of rolled oats. Then I remembered I bought it to make chocolate chip cookies. Now there is still 1/3 left.

When I explored the fridge for any ready-to-eat food, I found some black currant jam left in the bottle. My husband bought it long time ago to spread on his bread. I checked the expiry date, still safe to eat. So I decided to make this oatmeal bar to consume both oats and black currant jam.

Ingredients:

2 cups of oats

80g butter

70g flour

70g brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1. Place oats, sugar, flour, salt and baking soda in a big bowl. Mix them well.

2. Cut in butter. Make all ingredients into crumbs with ginger. This may take a little while.

3. Preheat oven to 180 degree C.

4. Press 2/3 crumbs into the baking pan very firmly.

5. Spread jam over it. Apart from jam, you can also choose peanut butter or Nutella.

6. Sprinkle the rest crumbs on top.

In to the oven, bake for 30-35 mins till golden brown.

Cool down and cut into squares.

You can put them in an airtight box and save for breakfast.

https://flic.kr/p/29XRA2W

You can also add in chopped nuts. And reduced oats. And I cut down brown sugar so mine oatmeal bars are not very sweet. If you really like it to be more sweet, you can add more sugar.

Chicken

Oven Roasted Crispy Whole Chicken With Potatoes

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My chicken is a small one around 800g, which is enough for two people’s serving. I think I mentioned before that my husband is a meat lover. I was pretty sure he’s gonna love this dish before I even started cooking it.

1. Remove chicken’s head and butt, of course. Cut the chest open with a sharp knife. Sprinkle salt all over the chicken on both sides. Rub a bit by hands.

2. For the marinade:

1 tablespoon cooking wine, 1 tablespoon light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon chopped garlic, 1/2 tablespoon chopped ginger, 1/2 tablespoon sugar, 1/2 tablespoon hoisin sauce ( you may find out that my recipe is pretty Chinese style).

3. Poke chicken several times with a toothpick. Then put it in a bag. Pour all the marinade in. Give the chicken a good massage. Put into refrigerator for overnight. Trust me, the flavor will definitely go in.

4. Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Prepare potatoes. Wash them clean and pat with kitchen towel till dry. Cut into halves. ( if potatoes are kind of medium size, better cut into fours). Sprinkle salt, paprika powder and olive oil. Toss a a bit.

5. Take the chicken out. Wipe chicken skin with kitchen towel. I even used a hair dryer to make sure skin is very dry. How insane I am! Better fix the chicken like the posture in the pic below. You can use toothpick like I did.

https://flic.kr/p/2bBsJaB

6. Spread butter onto the chicken skin. I’m very generous with butter.

7. Place chicken in a baking tray with skin side up. Scatter potatoes around it. Potatoes better not under chicken. I found pieces under chicken were still a bit hard and raw.

8. Into the oven for 30 mins. Then turn to 200 degree C and roast for another 10 mins to get the skin crispier. Incredible smell will fill up your kitchen.

Just as I expected, my husband really really loved it.