Mixed Fruits Almond Biscotti

Hi, how is everyone doing? Any plan for this coming weekend's holiday? (it's a public holiday for Malaysia) It's a long weekend, so I'll be away from Thursday....yippie! Lately I've been busy baking for friends, well just happen that their daughters's birthday fall in the same month..;D Another 2 more to go for this week..;p

I take this opportunity to get more practice on piping and decorating, and most of all I really enjoy it..:)

Well, while baking for them, I do have some time to bake for myself too. Other than repeating the old recipes, I've done something new too....Biscotti! Yummy!!



I love biscotti especially when I'm taking my coffee. I usually bought them from "Coffee Bean" where I love their "Mama's Biscotti". Never thought of baking it and thought it is quite difficult but its not at all.




Got this recipe on the web but with some modification, here's my version..;)



75g Butter

75g Sugar

2 eggs

240g Plain flour

1 tsp Baking powder

1/4 tsp Baking soda

1 tsp Lemon zest

1tsp Lime zest

1 tsp Orange zest

A hand full of roasted almonds



~ Mix plain flour, baking powder and baking soda together.

~ Rub butter into flour mixture until resembles coarse crumbs.

~ Make a well in the center and add in eggs and other ingredients. Mix into a dough with hands and cut dough into half.

~ Flatten dough on a parchment paper and egg wash.

~ Bake at 200'C for 15 minutes until golden brown.

~ Remove from oven and cut into slices and place slices on the parchment paper (inside facing up)

~ Bake again at 180'C for another 20 minutes until dry.

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Here's 2 photos I'll like to sahre.....2 little princesses's birthday cakes..:) How's my piping?...haha!

Pai-seh pai-seh...;p (so thick skin)

Wish everyone has a nice weekend, see you next week...:)

A Nice Weekend

A nice and relax weekend spent in my sister's house. Then a visit to my parent's place and inlaws'. Again I enjoyed my food alot.....heavy tea breaks, dinner and supper...yummy! Tea breaks was my mother's butter cake and a cup of coffee...it was heaven..;p The cake was freshly baked by the time we reached..:)
Then dinner was the Vietnamese Steamboat which was totally new to me. A Vietnamese restaurant newly opened near my sis's house and the price is reasonable. It's consider very cheap if compare with KL. After a super heavy dinner, we had durians for supper...haha! Super full that I can't really sleep well that day...hahaha!

Here's the Vietnamese Steamboat I mentioned.....
See the fruits?...It was the base for the soup, which means that we need to boil it with the soup before we add others. (Freshly cut pineapples, starfruits and tomatoes)

It looks weird but taste nice. Well, it was my first time anyway..;D

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Some photos to share....another of my projects for a Birthday guy..:)

Cheers!

Birthday Cakes for Little Ones

Mega Sales is here! Have been shopping and shopping for the last weekends..:) Good thing I got the things I've been looking for, especially those kitchen stuffs at Ikea...*YEAH* !! I almost brought back the whole Ikea..haha! I find that shopping for kitchen stuffs or baking stuffs are more interesting then shopping in a boutique. Agree?...;p

Alright, today's post is nothing special anyway, just some photos I've taken for these 2 day's projects. Having so-call orders from friends, I've baked some carrot cupcakes and a chocolate cake for their little ones's birthday.

The 1st, carrot cakes displayed in a (2oz) paper cups with some little cute bunnies and carrots for a 2 year old little girl.

2 little baskets for the carrots............

..........little bunny..............

....& some carrots.

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The other one is the chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. A very last minute notice, so I can only do it with simple decorations...;p Find it kind of messy but hopefully they like it.

Found a cute candle for this cake but it's naked...haha! So I moulded a pink dress for it..:D

Only some bugs, butterflies and flowers for the cake...oh how I wish I can do more than that.

Happy Birthday Sweeties

Cassava Bibingka Cake 椰香薯糕

Its another weekend, time really flies. Everything is moving fast, did you notice that there are mooncakes selling in the market already? Oh dear, its not even the 7th month of the lunar calendar. Btw, I've ate some from certain brands already...heehee..;p

Okay, today's bakes.......Cassava Bibingka Cake. Well cassava is "ubi kayu" or tapioca. When I see my dear friend (Honeybeesweets) made her 3-layered Steamed Tapioca Kueh, I can't wait to try her recipe. But too bad I can't find any pandan leaves today. Just imagine the whole area here no pandan leaves selling?....:(

Okay, since I've already bought some cassava, will just bake it with my old recipe. Even its my old recipe, it's new in my blog...:) (made this before I started blogging actually) This is a porpular desert in Manila, Philippine. With the cheddar cheese which is left over from the previous post, it's just right for this recipe.


Ingredients:
5 cups grated cassava (ubi kayu / tapioca)
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup melted butter
2 eggs
1 & 3/4 cups coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
~ Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, pour into a greased 9" square pan.
~ Half bake for 30 minutes or till half done at 180'C.
~ Pour topping and bake again.

Ingredients for Topping:
1 cup condensed milk
2 tbsps plain flour
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

Method:
~ Combine milk and flour in a saucepan and cook over low fire till bubbly.
~ Remove from heat and add in egg yolks.
~ Mix well, and cook over low fire again till slightly thick.
~ Pour onto the half baked cassava cake.
~ Top with cheddar cheese and bake again for another 20-25 minutes at 180'C.

The top is crispy wihile the inside is soft & tasty. YUM YUM!! My daughter asked me to bake this more often after trying the 1st bite..:) Well, I can't recall whether she ate this before or not but it was definetely a long long time ago that I once baked this.

Wish everyone has a nice weekend..;)

Tuna Bread Pudding

Have been a busy and boring day for me today. Busy as the non-stop paper works in office, boring as the hot weather that made me so moody. To refresh myself, I went shopping!! Sounds good right? ...heehee! Well, I didn't get anything anyway but felt better. Alright, then its time to think about dinner. Wondering in the fresh market, staring at those vegetables and meat....but nothing came into my mind. But when I passed by the dry ingredients and canned food, suddenly I thought of this bread pudding. And yes!...that's our dinner tonight!

Remember my mother did this once but can't really recall what's the ingredients in this pudding. All I know is there were tuna in it. Well, as you know that bread pudding is a dessert popular in British, Mexico and others. It used to be sweet as it is a dessert. The bread is soaked (often overnight), squeezed dry, and mixed with the other ingredients. The mixture is transferred into a dish and baked. But I changed it into something different today, and it was fantastic!!! Something that I never cooked before and most of all my daughter loves it so much..:)

I made it in a very simple way and these are the only ingredients you need.
Ingredients:
4 slices of bread (cubes)
3 cups of milk
2 eggs (beaten)
2 tsps salt
Some shredded cheddar cheese
A can of tuna in oil (drained & mashed)
1 tomato (chopped)
1 green pepper (chopped)
1 onion (chopped)
a little butter cubes


Method:
~ Beat eggs and salt together and mix with milk. Set aside.
~ Greased a 8x4" rectangle tin and fill a layer of bread cubes at the bottom.
~ Sprinkle some butter cubes and follow by the mashed tuna.
~ Then sprinkle some green peppers, tomato and onions and covered with shredded cheddar cheese.
~ Lastly cover the top with some bread cubes and pour the milk mixture all over to cover the bread.
~ Bake at 200'C for 25-30 mins and serve hot.


The top was so crispy and the inside is so creamy and soft. SUPER YUMMY!!!

It taste like pizza but it was much lighter. It was so good that my daughter and I finished the whole loaf of it. Yup!! Only 2 of us!! Asked why I didn't cook this for her before since it is so delicious..;p

Trust me, it was so good that you'll eat that all up by yourself..;) It was definetely a good bread pudding for dinner. Or should I say bread pizza?...haha!

I definetely had a great day after all...Cheers!!

Mocha Butter Cake

Spent the whole morning chatting with friends during breakfast then to register my daughter's primary school which she's going to standard 1 next year. Due to the long queue, we managed to finished by noon. Well, it seems all parents were so excited for their kids, we didn't even bother about the queue but feel happy..:) Okay, that's all about me for today, lets see what's in my supper list today.

A recipe adapted from Kevin Chai's "I love Butter Cake". Well, never know that there are so many kinds of butter cake, I meant I usually bake those plain butter cake or mix it with coffee. But in this book there are so many kinds of butter cake that I never try before, like this one....Mocha Butter Cake. I think I'm abit out dated if this is a very common recipe...;p

Btw, tried it out today, its alittle dry but I like the taste of it...not bad overall..:)



Recipe :

240g Butter
190g Castor sugar (has been reduced)
1/4 tsp Salt
4 eggs
4 tsps instant coffee powder
1.5 tbsps Cocoa powder
3 tbps Hot water
1 tsp Coffee paste
100g Walnuts (chopped)
240g Plain flour
1 tsp Baking powder

** I added 3 tbsps milk into the recipe.

Method :

~ Beat butter, sugar and salt till light and fluffy.

~ Add in eggs one at a time.

~ Melt cocoa powder and coffee powder with hot water, stir into butter mixture follow by coffee paste and chopped walnuts.

~ Fold in flour, baking powder and milk, mix until well blended.

~ Spread batter into a greased 9" round pan and bake for 30 minutes at 180'C.

~ Sprinkle with some cocoa powder if desire.

Its soft and most of all the taste of my favourite coffee...yummy! Can't wait for my supper tonight..;D