I baked this cake for my son’s 5-yo birthday. This is definitely not an ‘easy or simple’ cake to bake. It took me 2 days to make it.

I am not good at cake decoration, but this one is quite easy to make, although the surface is not as smooth as Secret Recipe. LOL! Ian’s comment this time was: “Hmm… Yummy!”. And BIL said, “Wah, your cake baking skill has improved.” FIL said nothing but, “Tasty”. But I think it is rather too sweet! The sweetness comes from the chocolates.

Here is the recipe…

INGREDIENTS
Sponge Cake
5 eggs
140g caster sugar
1.5 tbsp chocolate emulco
50g plain flour
50g corn flour
50g self raising flour
20g cocoa powder
25ml corn oil

Syrup
2 tbsp instant coffee powder
15 tbsp UHT whipping cream

Mousse
750ml UHT whipping cream
165g dark chocolate, melted
165g white chocolate, melted

Chocolate Topping
150ml UHT whipping cream
350g dark chocolate
1tbsp butter

Decoration
150g Rich whipping cream (whipped till peaked)
Some icing sugar

METHOD
1. Line and greast a 9″ cake tin. Preheat oven at 180 C.
2. Whisk eggs and sugar at high speed until think and creamy (not just frothy, but creamy!). Add in emulco.
3. Fold in sieved flours (plain, corn, self-raising, cocoa).
4. Fold in oil.
5. Pour into cake tin and bake for 40 min.
6. Slice cake horizontally into 4 pieces after cake is cooled.
7. Prepare syrup by mixing the ingredients well.
8. Mousse: Whisk cream until slightly thickened but not peaked. Remove 1/3 into a separate bowl, mix in cooled melted dark chocolate and stir well. Mix melted white chocolate into the remaining 2/3 cream, mix well and then split into 2 equal portions.
9. Place a layer of cake in a 9″ loose-base tin. Brush syrup on the surface. Spread a portion of white chocolate mousse. Top with a layer of cake, brush with syrup and spread a portion of dark chocolate mousse. Top with the 3rd layer of cake, brush with syrup and spread the last portion of white chocolate mousse. Cover the cake with the last layer of cake. Chill overnight.
10. Spread the whole cake with a thin layer of whipped cream. Refrigerate cake until set.
11. Topping: Double boil cream, add in chopped chocolate and butter, stir until all melted and mixed well.
12. Place cake on a wire rack. Pour over chocolate topping and sprinkle some icing sugar for ‘snowing effect’. If you want, can decorate with some fruits on top – before the chocolate topping hardens!

Well, since early last year, I have been trying to reduce meat intake. I think I still cannot go complete vegetarian yet, so I am still eating fish.

Now that I cook myself, frying fish became a challenge to me. I have been having problems when fishes stick to the wok. Whether I grill, fry or roast my fish, a large chunk of meat would be wasted – torn off and stuck on the wok, at the end become charcoal.

Luckily I have 2 seefu (teachers) around, my mom and MIL. This time, it was MIL who told me this ‘secret’. Apparently, if you add a little salt into the oil before frying, the fish will not stick.

I immediately try it, and it works 100% of the time!

Not only it won’t stick to the wok, the salt also helps season the fish. So, with this method, I don’t even season or marinade my fish before frying!!

I stumbled upon this so called Jamie Oliver’s American style pancake one day, and decided to give it a try.

I like it very much instantly! It is different from other pancakes, because it is more fluffy. Ian and Isabel wallopped all very quickly.

I chose choc chip as the filling/topping because my kids only like chocolate. They didn’t even want maple syrup although finally accepted it after I tried to persuade.

INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
4oz (115g) multipurpose flour
1 heaped tsp baking powder
5fl oz (140ml) milk
A pinch of salt

METHOD
1. Separate egg white from yolks.
2. Mix yolks, flour, baking powder and milk until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk egg white and salt until peaked.
4. Fold the white into the yolk/flour mixture.
5. Heat a non-stick pan on medium.
6. Pour some batter and fry for a few minutes until it starts to turn golden and firm.
7. Sprinkle some toppings on the uncooked side, and then turn the pancake.
8. Continue frying until both sides are golden.
9. Serve with maple syrup, chocolate syrup, butter, or anything you can think of!

I baked this healthy vegetarian baked rice with cheese, because I wanted something very simple. It is nicer if the rice is not too hard, and with a lot of tomato sauce with a lot of cheese on top.

INGREDIENTS
2 bowls of streamed/cooked rice
60g Broccoli
60g Cauliflower
2 Baby corn, blanched
1 tomato, diced
3 button mushrooms, sliced

SAUCE
3 tbsp ketchup
3 tbsp tomato pasta sauce
1 tsp sugar
Mixed herbs
1/4 tsp salt

TOPPING
100g shredded mozarella cheese
60g grated cheddar cheese

METHOD
1. Put cooked/steamed rice in casserole or oven proof dish.
2. Mix SAUCE well, cover the rice with sauce.
3. Top the sauce with all vegetables.
4. Cover all vegetables with mozarella and cheddar cheese.
5. Bake in preheated oven at 200′C for 10-15 min or until cheese turn golden.

* Serves 2 *

Last year my best friends introduced me to couscous, but since I didn’t cook much last year, I didn’t really pay attention to it. However, the impression of couscous still stays as –> a very simple and easily made dish.

I couldn’t find couscous in many stores here, but one day surprisingly I found it in Carrefour Kepong (couldn’t even find in Tesco Mutiara).

So, I bought 1 pack for a trial. Surprisingly, I love the taste and it is really simple to make. What I need is just some pasta sauce and some vegetables.

I made this a few times already, and every time the ingredients varies, really depend on what I have in my fridge.

For this one above, I happened to have only some carrots and zucchini left, and I was cooking for myself only. If you have other stuff in your fridge, you can make many variations from it. One that I really like is the combination of eggplants (brinjal), zucchini and carrots. You can use other ingredients like mushrooms, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. And if you like meat, you can include some sausages too.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 zucchini sliced
1/2 carrot sliced
4 to 6 spoonful of tomato pasta sauce (depending on how much saucy you like)
1/2 cup couscous
1 cup boiling water
1 tsp olive oil
Some salt to taste
A pinch of ground nutmeg

METHOD
1. Fry vegetables till golden and frangrant.
2. Add tomato paste and stir fry until well mixed.
3. Cover couscous with boiled water and olive oil and seasonings. Wait for 5 min (or depending on what written on package).
4. Serve couscous on plate together with vegetables.

Yummy, delicious, simple and filling lunch for me!

I picked this recipe from here. A reader of Suzette’s Parenting & Breastfeeding Blog wrote to me and we chatted for a while, then she recommended this site for baby weaning food. Though my children are way passed the stages in this blog, I think this pancake may still be liked.

This pancake is actually not sweet, so my children don’t like it very well. But I quite like the ‘natural’ sweetness – coming from soy milk, banana and choc chips only. It is different from other banana bancake recipes, because it uses MASHED banana - easier for younger children.

I modified the recipe a bit, replaced milk with soy milk as I don’t drink milk (ahem, and soy milk is a lot cheaper, LOL!). I also replaced butter with olive oil – healthier?

INGREDIENTS
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 tbsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 cups milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 banana sliced

METHOD
1. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. Stir in milk, oil and eggs, mix well.
3. Add sliced banana, mix well.
4. Fry in a non-stick pan until golden on both sides.
5. Served hot with cream, strawberry and maple syrup.

Here is the recipe for this healthy Sesame Cheesecake (healthy as MIL says, coming from the black sesame!).

INGREDIENTS
A
40g black sesame seeds, toasted
40g white sesame seeds, toasted
150ml fresh milk
500g cream cheese
3 egg yolks

B
3 egg whites
100g caster sugar

METHOD
1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Blend sesame seeds and milk in blender till fine.
3. Add remaining of A and blend till smooth.
4. In a separate clean bowl whisk ingredient B till peaked.
5. Fold (4) into (3) in 3 batches, mixed well.
6. Pour mixture into lined 8″ cake tin.
7. Steam-bake at 200C for 15 min or till surface is lightly brown.
8. Reduce heat to 150C and bake for 50 min.
9. Turn off heat and let it cool in oven for 1 hour with door ajar.
10. Chilled in fridge for 4 hours.
11. Remove, spread appricot glaze and chill for a while before serving.

I still cannot get the surface to brown, despite me prolonged the baking time. Anyhow, the taste is fantastic, although some may find it weird with the sesame (like my darling DH!).