KookyCulinary

Once upon a time, this cupcake was the rage of many food bloggers. Many had even adapted to their own version using local ingredients like kaya (coconut jam). As for me, being the Nutella-lover that I am, I am sticking to the Nutella version.

This recipe was originally from Donna Hay but was modified by Nic of Baking Bites. This is her recipe.

10 tbsp(140 grams) butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups (200 grams) sifted all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
Nutella, approx. 1/3 cup

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners.
2. Cream together butter and sugar until light, 2 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated. Don’t worry if the batter doesn’t look smooth. Add vanilla. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder until batter is uniform and no flour remains.
3. Using an ice cream scoop, fill each muffin liner with batter. They should be 3/4 full, if you’re not using a scoop.
4. Top each cake with 1 1/2 tsp Nutella. Swirl Nutella in with a toothpick, making sure to fold a bit of batter up over the nutella. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Makes 12.

It has been donkey years since I last ate Portuguese egg tart. I remember I was still living in KL when the Portuguese egg tart was very popular. Everytime the bakery near my house comes out with a freshly baked tray of portuguese egg tart, it was instantly gone. I am sure that the novelty has since worn off but I still remember that I loved it.

So when I was browsing through one of recipe books and saw the recipe, I suddenly had a craving for Portuguese egg tart. It turned out to be a very easy recipe especially since I used the frozen ready-made puff pastry crust. The result . . . . .

The only problem I had was that I think the suggested oven temperature was a little too high for my oven. So I didn’t have the chance to let the top crust burn a little. I had to remove it early because the bottom crust was getting a little burnt. Next time I will probably lower the temperature a little. Tastewise, it was good. Will definitely make it again.

Recipe:
500gm puff pastry
200gm whipping cream
300gm milk
80gm sugar
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1/4 tsp vanilla

• Roll out the pastry to a rectangular shape. Then roll it up like a swiss roll. Chill in the fridge till firm.
• Cook the whipping cream and milk to 70C. Stir in sugar and cook till sugar dissolves.
• Add in the beaten eggs and egg yolks. Mix till well-blended. Add in vanilla. Set aside to cool.
• Divide the pastry into 25gm portions. Flatten the pastry and roll it out and press into muffin mold
• Pour the filling into the pastry and bake at 425 for 20-25 mins.

* Recipe source: Alex Goh’s Irresistible Pastry

There are some days when a girl just needs lots of chocolate to cheer herself up and this is where this yummy chocolate mud cake comes in. It is very very rich, chocolaty and so so delicious!!! Thanks to Judy for this delicious recipe. Too bad Judy doesn’t blog anymore ‘cos I’ve got one less blog to drool over. I really miss seeing her mouthwatering food!!

Remember these cookies that I made sometime ago?

I’ve had a few request for the royal icing recipe. So here it is. So sorry for posting it so late.

Royal icing is a smooth hard-drying icing. It works great for icing cookies and decorating cakes. Royal icing is traditionally made with egg white but personally I am a little apprehensive about eating raw egg white due to salmonella. So I substituted it with meringue powder. This is the Wilton meringue powder that I use. You should be able to get it at your local baking supply store.

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons meringue powder
4 cups icing sugar
6 tablespoon warm water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or lemon juice
Food coloring

Mix all ingredients and beat with a mixer till stiff peaks form. It takes about 5 - 7 minutes. If necessary, add more powdered sugar or water to get the right consistency. This can be used to pipe a border around the cookie. Then to “flood” the center of the cookie, you need to thin it down by adding 1/2 tsp of water at a time till you get the right consistency. If the royal icing is not used immediately, keep it in an airtight container because royal icing hardens when exposed to air.  

I saw this gorgeous carrot cake in a magazine and I knew that I had to try it. Instead of the usual 2 layer carrot cake, this carrot cake had 6 layers of cake and icing. Unfortunately……..

I didn’t end up with 6 layers! The cake that I made did not turn out like the one in the magazine. I realized that I made 2 major mistake. The first was that I used my food processor to grate the carrot and it ended up being too fine. It would have been better if it had been a little rougher and thus more bite to it and probably a little less watery. Then I didn’t use the right size pan. Mine was a little too big, so the cake ended up a little flatter than I wanted. Other than that, I really like this cake. I will have to try it again soon.

I am so sorry if you were having problems accessing this blog the past couple of days. I upgraded my wordpress and ran into some trouble. If you are interested, read here. Anyway, it looks ok now. So hopefully I won’t run into any more problems. Please let me know if you encounter any problem. Thanks!

ok, now back to food!! I was looking through my photos when I found this chocolate madeleine that I made some time ago. I’ve made plain madeleines before but not chocolate. So I found a recipe on the internet and tried it.

It looks good but I found that the crust did not turn slightly crispy like it should. I am not sure whether it’s due to the recipe or my madeleine mold. I will have to try out another recipe soon to test it out.

Every month, I would borrow the book From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan from the library, only to bookmark some recipes and returning it every month without making anything. Finally after many months, while my parents were in town, I finally managed to try out one of the recipe that I had previously bookmarked.

Since it is blueberry season now, what better recipe to try than the Orange Berry Muffin? This recipe is very easy and quick to make. The verdict? Usually I find muffin recipes to be too sweet but I was surprised to find that this muffin is not sweet at all. The sweetness of the muffin comes from the blueberries which is what I like. This is definitely a keeper.  

I have not been cooking at all this week since my parents are here. Either we have been eating out or my mom has been cooking. I have become so lazy!! I think it’s going to be hard for me to start cooking again after they leave next week.

Anyway, this is something that I made before I left for my cruise. It was for Lil’ C’s last day of school. I decided to make a simple gift for her teacher. A cookie bouquet!

The cookie bouquet is made up of shortbread cookies on a lollipop stick and decorated with royal icing. This is my first attempt at making the cookie bouquet. Not quite satisfied with it. It was fun making it though.

It’s been a long time since I last baked. For the last couple of months, I have been very busy playing “travel agent” for my family (See my other blog for details if you are interested) and being a chauffeur for my little girl. Who knew that a 3 year old could have so many activities! Ever so often, I would look longingly at my very long to-bake list but alas, my tired body keeps saying no. So the long list goes back into my recipe folder.

Then last week I finally had a chance to cross one recipe of my to-bake list. It was Lil’ C’s last day of preschool and I had promised to bring a dessert to the year-end picnic. I decided to make something that I have been wanting to bake for a long time - the Chocolate Cheesecake.

What does the cheese layer remind you of? Doesn’t it look like a seahorse? Haha… It was not intentional but somehow the cheesecake layer sank and formed this cute shape. I guess I didn’t do a good job layering the cake. Even so, the cake turned out really nice. I like the cake slightly chilled just because of the cheesecake layer. The recipe can be found here.

All packed up and ready for the picnic. I decided to serve this cake bite-sized just because it is much easier to eat and less messy at a picnic.

Ok, I promise this is the last of my Chinese New Year bakes. How can it be Chinese New Year without pineapple tarts, right?

I actually made the fillings a week ago but have never gotten around the make the tarts. Actually I also could not decide which recipe to try since there are so many different recipes out on the internet! Then on Saturday, I went to a Chinese New Year potluck with my bible study group. There I met a new friend A who generously shared her easy recipe for the pineapple tart. A, thanks for a great and easy recipe. It’s delicious!! Hope you’ll be coming back here for vacation again soon.