Banana Cake and Indonesian Layer Cake or Spekkoek

Have been having lots of visitors dropping by during tea time and I decided to make some cakes for my friends.  When we have a cuppa, I will serve the cakes warm...verdict...delicious.

Banana Cake is very popular in Malaysia and Singapore and I have been eating banana cake since I could remember.  Since bananas are so cheap in Malaysia and Singapore and you can even find banana trees in quite a number of house gardens, banana cake will be baked at least once a week in most households.

Another cake which I made for my friends is the Indonesian Layer Cake (Spekkoek).  It is also known as a Dutch-Indonesian Layer Cake which originated from this cake called Baumkuchen.  It takes ages to do it as I had to bake layer by layer but the finished product is just awesomely yummylicious.

Here's the photos of my Indonesian Layer Cake and Banana Cake.

Indonesian Layer Cake (Spekkoek)

Banana Cake

Thank you so much for loving my cakes my dearest friends...let's have tea again soon and catch up!!!

Ngo Hiang or Lor Bak

Ngo Hiang or Lor Bak is a local snack which you can find in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. This dish is from the Hokkien and Teochew community.  The stuffing will be rolled inside a beancurd skin and then deep-fried.  It is served with chilli sauce or sambal.

My other half was telling me about his childhood days where he will have ngo hiang with bee hoon as his breakfast. As for me, lor bak is kind of a snack where we will have it during tea time (between lunch and dinner).  Since we were able to find beancurd skin in the supermart...we just had to do make these babies at home..wohoo.

Here's a photo of our Ngo Hiang or Lor Bak.

So happy to say that everyone including our 2 precious loved it!!!
 

Hainanese Chicken Chop...Again!

Hainanese Chicken Chop made a comeback recently as we managed to get some cheap chicken at our local supermart.  So, we got busy cutting and marinating the chicken pieces.  A little history about this baby...

Hainanese Chicken Chop is not from Hainan.  I don't think the Hainanese ever heard of this dish.  This humble dish originated from Malaysia and Singapore during the British times.  According to my Grandma, a lot of Hainanese become cooks, chefs, kitchen hands, etc during the British colonial days. These superb cooks / chefs came out with the own local version of the chicken schnitzel.

This time around, we mixed some mixed veggies into the sauce and this forces our kids to eat it as its in the sauce... :)

Here's a photo of our Hainanese Chicken Chop

Will be posting more soon.....see you all later!

Happy Chinese New Year 2014

Chinese New Year (CNY) is coming...this year it falls on the 31st January 2014.  I really miss the cookies, the food, the family gatherings and even the on-going CNY songs which drives me nuts sometimes....haha!!! So..each year without fail, I will make sure I will bake some cookies to remind myself, my hubby and also my 2 kids how CNY is celebrated...feels like....I want my kids to experience it and I want to build it into their lives.  After all...we are Asians and are proud of being Asians.

So...here's some of the CNY cookies which I have baked / made:

Almond London Cookies (my version)
No idea where this cookies comes from...but I am sure its not from London.  This is a must have in my family during CNY.

Kueh Bangkit (Tapioca Cookies)
From what I know, Kueh Bangkit was an alter offerings for our ancestors long long time ago and its shaped as money/currency so that our ancestors will have money to spend in their next life.  Now, its one of the "must have" during CNY.

Kueh Dahlia (Daisy Cookies)
This is another "must have" during CNY.  The Kueh Dahlia is similar to a  butter cookie but the magic is that once you pop it into your mouth, it melts...delicious!

Pineapple Tarts

This is also call the "Ong Lai!"cookies (Welcome Wealth in Chinese Hokkien) and this is another "must have" during CNY.  Since I do not have a pineapple tart mould, I had to make everything by hand and used a cookie cutter.

Ribbon Biscuits

Lastly...this is another "must have" in my family during CNY.  Some of my hubby's friends just love to eat this while drinking beer...haha

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!

Happy New Year To You

Happy New Year to you!

May every great new day

Bring you sweet surprises--

A happiness buffet.

Happy New Year to you,

And when the new year’s done,

May the next year be even better,

Full of pleasure, joy and fun.

By Joanna Fuchs

We spent our NY Eve slaving in the kitchen to prepare a little feast to say goodbye to year 2013 and to welcome the year 2014.  Here's what we cooked for our little celebration:

Prawn Crackers

Fried Rice

Sweet & Sour Fish

Oyster Sauce Greens

HK Egg Tarts

Fondant Cake with a Pony to kick off 2014

Here's the photos of our little celebration..........

See you all soon...

Happy New Year 2014....

Tiffany Box Cake & A Very Merry Christmas to All...

My very last order before Christmas....

Yes...a customer wanted to order a Tiffany Box Cake for her daughter's 21st birthday and I only had 24 hours to do it.  So...I told her that I will try my very best.  I baked the mudcake, crumb coat it and lay the fondant over it and worked on it to make it look like a tiffany box. I am happy to say that the customer was happy with the cake and I am really hoping that her daughter will be happy with it too.  Here's the tiffany box cake which I made.

After that...hubby and I were buying buying ingredients for our family Christmas dinner....

***

Here's what we cooked for 2013's Christmas...

Till we meet again...

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!!!

Happy Tang Check Day!!! [ Winter Solstice or “dong zhi” (冬至) ]

Happy Tang Check Day!!!  This year the tang check falls on the 22 Dec 2013.

Today is the day where families will get-together and eat tong yun, a sweet dessert made from glutinous rice balls.  Today is the day where everyone becomes 1 year older.  So, what does Dong Zhi means? Simply, it means winter has arrived.

I remember seeing my Grandma busy in the kitchen making the glutinous rice dough, preparing the filling for the tong yuns and making the sweet soup the goes with it.  She will then colour the dough and from what I know, red represents good luck and white represents prosperity.

Here's a photo of my humble tong yun..

Happy Thang Check, everyone!!!

Lemon Meringue Cheesecake

I know that some people loves a good old lemon meringue pie and others would just die for a good lemon cheesecake.  So, what if these two desserts can be combined and then everyone can enjoy the best of both worlds? Well...you can and its in the form of Lemon Meringue Cheesecake.  I have been trying to get the right smooth and creamy texture of the cheesecake, the tanginess of the lemon and the heavenly crispy bite of the meringue and this is what I finally came out with.  Since I had extra meringue, I made some meringue cookies.  I was a little worried that my lemon meringue cheesecake will be a huge failure but....phew!!!.... everyone who tasted it loved it...wohoo!!!  Here's a photo of my lemon meringue cheesecake...

Here's to the "best of both worlds".....

Cakes and Cupcakes

My two precious have finished their schools for this year and I wanted to thank both of their teachers for teaching my children for the year.  So, I decided to make some cupcakes and cakes to show my appreciation.

Number One Teacher
By Joanna Fuchs

I’m happy that you’re my teacher;
I enjoy each lesson you teach.
As my role model you inspire me
To dream and to work and to reach.

With your kindness you get my attention;
Every day you are planting a seed
Of curiosity and motivation
To know and to grow and succeed.

You help me fulfill my potential;
I’m thankful for all that you’ve done.
I admire you each day, and I just want to say,
As a teacher, you’re number one!

Here's what I managed to do within a day....

After that...I remembered that my boss's birthday is just in a few days time and since he loves Japanese food, I decided to make him some cupcakes in the form of sushi.  Fingers cross....really hope he will like it...

That's all for today....am planning what we are going to do for Christmas...

Bye.........

Everything Peranakan...

Peranakan Chinese....this is term which I am proud of as I am a halfie and Peranakan Chinese runs in my blood.  Peranakan Chinese call themselves Babas (for the men) and Nyonyas (for the women).  So, what does "peranakan" means? It means descendant and we are mixed race descendants of part of chinese and part of malay.  Some of the Peranakans are Christians / Catholics and others are Buddhists and other religions.  The Peranakan food is influenced by Malay culture as the Nyonya food uses a lot of Malay herbs and spices.

My other half was looking through the old photos and we saw the Nyonya Kueh and we just had to satisfy our tastebuds.  Hence, I ransacked the kitchen and started making some kueh.  Here's what I came out with...
Pulut Tai-Tai which is delicious with Kaya Jam
Pulut Inti
Ondeh-Ondeh
Kaya Toast

Here's the photos of our version of the Nyonya Kueh...

Homemade Kaya Jam
Kaya Toast

Ondeh-Ondeh, Pulut Tai-Tai which is eaten with Kaya Jam and Pulut Inti

Close-up of Pulut Inti & Ondeh-Ondeh

We finished everything within a day....haha!  That's how much we missed the nyonya kueh...

Till next time....salut!

Nasi Paprik & Curry Fish

Been a little busy as my 2 precious are finishing their last semester before the school holidays, planning what we will be doing, where we will be going, doing some Christmas shopping, etc, etc, etc.  A Mother's job is never ending.  I even heard a Mom saying...she is Mom of all trades...haha! That's a good one...and of course, its the truth...a Mother is a wife, a sister, a cousin, a student, a teacher, a friend, a counselor, a mediator, a nurse, an IT expert, a magician, a nurse....the list goes on and on.

We have been doing our Christmas shopping and we walked pass a Thai Restaurant and voila....amazingly, we saw "Nasi Pataya" and "Nasi Paprik"....but when we saw the price....my other half decided that it would be cheaper to cook it ourselves.  So, we did just that.  Some people believe that Nasi Paprik comes from Thailand but others think that its from North Malaysia.  However, a buddy of mine who is from Thailand kindly informed me that Padprik is actually 2 words: Pad - Stir-fry & Prik = Spicy like chilli.  We have been eating Nasi Paprik since we were little and till now, we still love it so much.  Here's a photo of our nasi padprik.

A few days later, we met up with a friend of ours and he shared with us how awesome it was flying home to meet his parents and having so many yummylicious food and one dish just shouted to us - Curry Fish!!! My other half and I just looked at each other with "THAT LOOK" and we knew we had to cook it at home soon....you know how it is when you have been married for so long... So, here's the photo of our version of the Curry Fish which we ate with rice.

I know that my version of fish curry has a nyonya and chinese influence to it as this is my Grandma's recipe.  I love adding okra / ladies fingers and cabbage into the curry plus taupok.  Sometimes, we even add some indian drumsticks into the curry too....its really delicious!!!

Till next time...happy holidays!!!

Baking, Baking in the Kitchen

Christmas is coming and what better way to entice my family than to baked myself a fruitcake.  As we do not take alcohol, I made a non-alcoholic fruitcake using juices.  I remember when I was young and my Grandma will line us (her precious grandchildren) up and put us to work on the dining table.  She will be busy cutting her fruitcakes into pieces and all of us will be busy wrapping it up for our relatives, neighbours and friends.  Once the job is done, she will cook us our favourite dinner dishes.  While wrapping these cakes, we will be spoiled with Milo Dinosaur, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Currypuffs and Prawn Crackers.  I have never stop following this tradition of my Grandma's....I am still making fruitcakes....yes, siree!!!

Here's a photo of my 1st fruitcake for this year...

This fruitcake only lasted 2 days in this household....haha!

The next day, I was pestered by my little Princess to bake her some focaccia bread.  It seems that this bread originated from Italy and mostly seasoned with olive oil, salt and some herbs.  Here's a photo of my focaccia bread...managed to bake 2 slabs.

And...the following day, my other half wanted some butter cake. I tend to bake butter cake every week. Sometimes, I change it a little and transforms it to a marble butter cake so that everyone in the house will not be bored with it.  I not to sure if I have posted any butter or marble butter cakes before in this blog...so, I decided to post one today.  As you know, when someone mentions butter cake, you know that the main ingredient will be butter.  I have been eating butter cakes since I was a toddler.  This recipe has been passed down from one generation to the next and I am going to pass this down to my kids.  Here's a photo of my marble butter cake.

And lastly, a buddy of mine wanted us to try this recipe - CRONUTS.  What is a cronut? Its actually a huge craze right now around the world.  It is an invention by Chef Dominique Ansel for Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York City. Cronut is a combination of croissant and donut.  Here's a photo of our homemade cronuts...

That's all for this time...happy baking, everyone!!!

Chicken Pie....

Chicken pies.....yummy....this is THE pie which I will safe up my pocket money to buy when I was young.  Oooo...the creamy gravy which oozes out when I bite into the pie....glorious!  I kept pestering my Grandma to teach me how to create these babies and finally, she gave in.  I must say its hard work for a 10 year old but I wrote the recipe down and I got working.  You don't know how I felt when I bit into my very first chicken pie.....I jumped, I screamed....I could still remember that day....haha!

Every since I mastered that pie, my Grandma made sure I made it whenever its on her "To Do List" but I didn't complain coz Chicken Pie was and still is my favourite pie.  I will make sure that I do the shortcrust pastry first and place it into the fridge.  Then I will make the filling.  My Grandma will make the Puff Pastry (her own secret recipe).  When I grew older, she decided to teach me how to create  puff pastry at home and I was impressed.

Here's my version of my Grandma's Chicken Pie.....my family loves it!!!

Have a wonderful pie-day, everyone!!!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Who took the cookie from the cookie jar?
No me!
Then who???

Who doesn't look chocolate chip cookies?  So far, I have never met someone who doesn't like it.  My two precious love it and so does my other half.  My little Prince...he is 7 years old now proudly informed dear old Mummy that chocolate chip cookies originated from USA and it was discovered by accident.  He was so proud to know the history of this little cookie and I am just so proud of him being so proud....that's my son!!!  To add to my son's discovery, there's a lady called  Ruth Wakefield accidentally made it in 1930.  It seems that a bar of chocolate fell into the cookie dough due to the mixer's strong vibration and the mixer broke the bar into pieces......tadaa....chocolate chip cookie is discovered.

I remember how we had dunking competitions when my Grandma bakes chocolate chip cookies.  My cousins and I will be begging our Moms and Grandma for milk and we will start the competition. Whoever can finish 10 cookies and the glass of milk will be the winner. Ooo....those childish things we do...haha!

Here's a photo of my chocolate chip cookies.  I am a firm believer of re-cycling and I must say these blue danish cookie tins are quite air-tight.  I have been using these blue tins for ages to store my cookies and no one ever complained that the cookies have gone stale.

This box of cookies vanished in 3 days.....

Curry Puffs

Curry Puffs or karipap or even epok-epok...that's what this little delicious snack is called in my household. If you venture to Malaysia or Singapore, curry puffs are sold every where.  One can say its similar to a little pie and it is filled with curry chicken, potatoes and sometimes even a piece of hard boiled egg.  Most of the time, curry puffs are being deep fried. Besides curry chicken, you can also find chilli sardine puffs and even vegetarian curry puffs.  However, I still prefer my Grandma's good old chicken curry puffs.

Hubby and I were watching a cooking show and curry puff was one of the snacks which the Chef tried in travels to South East Asia.  We just had to have some and so, hubby and I made this together.  We made it, deep fried it and ate it in the same day...haha!

Here's a photo of our humble curry puffs.

One word....delicious!!!

Kueh Bahulu (Mini Egg Cake)

Kueh Bahulu is a sentimental kueh for me as this little cutie is especially baked during festive seasons such as Chinese New Year, Christmas, etc.  When I was little, my Grandma will gather all her baking stuff and will bring it under the house where the charcoal fire has been lighted and burning softly.  My Grandma will then sit at the front of the charcoal burner and make these kueh bahulu.  My aunties will be there chit-chatting with my Grandma and helps her un-mould these kueh bahulu.  And I will be there holding the fan and upon instruction, I will be fanning away to ensure that there's always constant fire in the charcoal burner. Gosh...how I miss my Grandma Rosa L.

My two kiddos were asking me about my good old days and I was telling them about kueh bahulu and such.  They were so curious that I decided to make some just for them to try it.  Furthermore, my other half was asking for it too.  As I do not have the kueh bahulu moulds, I decided to make do with my little mini muffin pan.

Here's my little kueh bahulu (mini muffin style)....

Hubby said that even though it doesn't look like kueh bahulu, the taste is just the SAME.... 

and....my 2 kiddos love it so much!!! :)

Roti Jala (Malaysian Net Bread) with Curry Chicken

Roti Jala means Net Bread.  This is a special dish which my Grandma will prepare to celebrate a special occasion...like birthdays, baby fullmoon, wedding...the list goes on.  My Grandma will make the batter in a bowl, sift it and pour the batter into a special 5 hole ladle. Then she will swirl it round and round a flat pan till it looks like a fish net.  We will eat this roti jala with my Grandma's curry chicken. 

Since I wanted to introduce this special dish to my children, I decided to make it for dinner today.  However, I do not have that special 5 hole ladle which my Grandma used to make Roti Jala. Therefore, I improvised and use a squeezy bottle.  It may not look as professional as my Grandma's, but the taste it just the same....I miss my Grandma so so much.

Here's a photo of my Roti Jala and Chicken Curry.

I am so glad my children love it as much as I do....wohoo!!!

Cakes which I made with love....

September is a busy month for me...there's always customers who are ordering cakes this month, love ones celebrating their birthdays, etc, etc, etc.  We had a joke at work about how come so many of our staffs birthdays fall in September and one of my colleagues said .....you guys figure it out yourselves...

Here's some of the cakes which I made for the month of September

That's all for now, folks!!!

Happy Birthday to all who are born in September!!!

Mee Bandung (Bandung Noodles)....are you from Indonesia?

Mee Bandung is not originated from Bandung, Indonesia. Its a 1-dish meal from Muar, Johor, Malaysia.  One of my Malay buddies informed me that Bandung means "Mixed".  Therefore, Mee Bandung means "Mixed Noodles".  Originally, Mee Bandung is a mix of Noodles and Eggs with Spicy Soup. However, through the years, Mee Bandung has added more ingredients into it and it is indeed "mixed".  One of my buddies proclaims that the Mee Bandung in Muar is the BEST and I hope that one day, I will be able to fly myself to Muar to savour it.  Here's my version of Mee Bandung...

My hubby and I ate this delicious 1-dish meal for lunch and dinner....one word - DELICIOUS!!!

Apple Crumble, Lemon Curd Tart and Chocolate Fleur de Sel Caramel Tart...what else can one want more...

Someone once commented that my Brown Betty was beautiful. There I was thinking who is this beautiful Betty?  Silly old me...I asked my Chef and he informed me that Brown Betty is a dessert in US and in the UK, its called the Crumble. Oh...I see, I said and we had a good laugh.  So, here's my Apple & Raisin Crumble which I made to share with a friend of ours and he loved it. :)  Here's a photo of my Apple & Raisin Crumble.

Besides Apple & Raisin Crumble, here's another 2 desserts which I just love ~ Lemon Curd Tart and  Chocolate Fleur de Sel Caramel Tart.  I have heard stories about how the lemon curd came about from my Chef and one of them is that Lemon Curd was called Lemon Cheese back in the good old days in Britian. Another story is about Lemon Curd are made for the rich to serve at tea parties and such.

Who would have thought that a hint of salt could enhance something sweet so much? Well, from what I know, my Chef told me that this trend started in France. It seems that it all started in Brittany where they were into salted butter caramels. So, I guess Chocolate Fleur de Sel Caramel Tart is a spin-off from salted butter caramels.  Here's a photo of my humble Lemon Curd Tart and  Chocolate Fleur de Sel Caramel Tart.

That's all for this post....happy baking everyone!!!