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Labels: chicken salad, dressing, fruits, salad, vegetables, yoghurt dressing

Yesterday was my birthday. I'm now 23! (Wow I feel old.) Happy birthday to me! In honour of the day my mother likes to term "the most painful day of her life", I decided to bake a birthday cake for myself. After doing lots of research online I decided to try out a recipe for red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. I've always loved the colour of red velvet cake and I've never actually tried baking a two-layer cake before, so I wanted to challenge myself.

The recipe I used is from Bakerella - click for the link! Her photos are gorgeous and mine just don't match up to them, but the results were, I'm sure, equally satisfying. The cake is super moist! I wasn't too sure if I liked the cake when I first tried it, but it received rave reviews and it's starting to grow on me!

I didn't make any changes to the original recipe except that my baking time was longer (but I think that's just my oven) and I only used 2 and a half cups of confectioner's sugar instead of 6 for the frosting. It was more than sweet enough for me already. Next time I think I'll add more cream cheese, because the frosting wasn't cheesy enough for my liking.

Also, I felt that my frosting was runny and it wasn't easy to frost the cake. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's because I used much lesser sugar than the recipe called for? The sugar is supposed to thicken the frosting, I assume? Hmmm.

Just a little anecdote to share: Overall this cake turned out a success, but the journey was pretty rough. The cakes I had previously made tend to crack, so I did some googling and read that it was probably due to overheating. I decided to salvage this with a solution I found on some website - I placed the cake tin in a baking pan full of water when baking. Well - the results were DISASTROUS. My first layer came out mushy and ruined even after like 45 minutes of baking. I was distraught but refused to give up. It was my birthday cake! So after 5 minutes of moaning, I whipped up a new batch (I still had batter for one cake layer left, so I halved the recipe to make a new bowl of batter)... this time without following the whole water in a pan thing. Strangely enough, my cakes didn't crack this time round! Hmmm... a birthday miracle?

Photos and recipe ahead. Sorry for the poor quality photos. One day, when (if?) I become a skilled food photographer, I'll look back at the first couple of entries in my blog and cringe...

Labels: cake, cream cheese frosting, red velvet cake

Another long overdue post. I'm not sure when I baked these cookies but I think it was around last month. Didn't get the time to write up a proper post, and since I'm being so unproductive academic-wise tonight, I might as well be productive blog-wise :P

So, as you can tell from the title of this post, this recipe is about a cookie within a cookie. To be specific, an oreo cookie within a chocolate chip cookie. I first came across this idea from a really cute baking blog, Picky Palate. Every sweet tooth should really check this blog out! And really, the name of the recipe alone sounds fantastic - what's not to love about the idea of everyone's favourite sandwich cookie stuffed in a good old traditional chocolate chip cookie?

I still remember how these cookies came about. I was having a really bad day and I just had this overwhelming urge to bake. On the train home I suddenly thought of this recipe, and that I had a huge bag of mini oreos at home. The original recipe used normal-sized double stuffed oreos but I decided mini oreos could do too. I had to make two trips to two different supermarkets in a bid to find the cookie mix (the first supermarket I went to didn't stock it) but it was well worth it. No better therapy than baking, I say. My mood lifted the minute I plucked the box off the shelf. :)

These cookies are both ridiculously easy and ridiculously yummy. The recipe is a no-brainer - click on the link above for it! Basically, just follow the instructions on the box mix (I followed the original recipe and used Betty Crocker), then wrap up an oreo cookie with some cookie dough to make one proper stuffed cookie. As stated in the original recipe, remember to completely seal up your oreo cookie with the dough. It's a really cute surprise for your unsuspecting family and friends!

More notes: because I used mini oreos, I didn't use as much dough as the original recipe called for. I find that having two mini oreos within a cookie is much more satisfying than one. ;) Oh, and one more thing: sticking the dough into the fridge for a while helps - it hardens the dough slightly and makes it less sticky and easier to shape.

I'm having another bout of cookie craving already just looking through my old photos. Maybe it's time to whip up another batch? :P

Labels: chocolate, cookies, oreos

2011 will end in nearly five hours here! It's been a great year, and I have many things to be thankful for. Even though I don't have celebratory plans this New Year's Eve, I'm still pretty excited about the new year - both excited and nervous, to be honest - and what it will bring! I'm going to graduate and (hopefully) find a job that I will truly enjoy in 2012. It's not going to be an easy year. Bring it on, I say!

My last baking attempt of 2011 was the most yummylicious Red Wine Chocolate Cake, which I baked twice during the Christmas period as gifts for my family and friends. It's a really delicious cake. It's really soft but at the same time, a very solid cake - not the crumbly sort. The red wine taste is subtle and just right. Everyone loved it and there just wasn't enough to go around - I barely had enough for myself! :( Nevermind, though - I'm glad to have found such a keeper of a recipe that I can use many times in the new year!



I took the recipe from a cooking blog that I really enjoy reading, 17andbaking. I barely made any changes to the recipe, except for a few - I simply couldn't find Dutch cocoa powder here, so I used normal cocoa powder from Red Man, a local brand, but didn't make the adjustments indicated for natural-processed cocoa. The red wine I used wasn't any quality one either - it was some bottle that I picked up from the Airport's Duty-Free store :P. Lastly, I didn't have a tin that was exactly 9x5 inch; mine was slightly smaller but still worked. Anyhow, the cake turned out most delish anyway :)

Here's the recipe below. Enjoy, and Happy New Year! :)

Red Wine Chocolate Cake
Adapted from 17andbaking

Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (6 7/8 ounces) firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (4 ounces) granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
3/4 cup red wine
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (6 3/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (2 5/8 ounces) Dutch cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Steps
Preheat the oven to 325 F. Butter and flour a 9×5″ loaf pan.

Beat the butter on medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugars and cream until lightened and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the egg until well combined, then mix in the wine, yogurt, and vanilla. The batter might look curdled, but don’t worry. Sift in the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir with a spoon until there are no streaks of flour left, scraping down the sides of the bowl and being careful not to over mix.

Scrape the batter into the loaf pan and bake 60-70 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool the loaf in the pan on a rack for 10-15 minutes, then run a knife around the edges and turn it out.

Labels: cake, chocolate, festive, wine

I am currently in the midst of my school holidays (my final ones, I might add), finally free from studying and examinations - at least for a short while. Doing a thesis means that I'm not exactly free from the clutches of school even now, but still, I appreciate the break. It's refreshing being able to wake up at 11am, to be able to walk down the empty streets of town on Monday afternoons, go out for family lunches and dinners, pick seashells by the beach, window shop, etc, etc, and of course, finally get down to baking.

I hadn't forgotten my resolution to bake every month. However, I didn't keep to it - life just got in the way and I found myself unable to take time out to do so. I feel guilty, but I've also come to realize that baking, being a leisurely pasttime, a hobby, shouldn't be something that I'm striving so hard to achieve. The resolution was like some sort of target or quota I had to meet. That kind of takes the fun out of the whole process.

So, now resolution-free, I decided to kickstart my holiday baking with something different.

I've been sticking pretty much to the safe side of baking - meaning, I kept trying out similar recipes. Typically, they included chocolate. I love chocolate, and it was hard finding something else to bake partly because there are SO MANY chocolate recipes that I want to try. However, I think it's time I widen my baking experience a little ;)



When I saw the recipe for an Upside Down Apple Cake at Stephanie's Kitchen, I knew this was going to be the something different I wanted to try. I've never baked with apples, and the idea of an upside down cake with soft, gooey, yummy apples layered on top sounded so good. This isn't a difficult recipe, and fresh out of the oven, this cake is absolutely delicious. I was popping pieces of cake in my mouth even as I was cutting it up.





I felt that this cake tastes best warm and fresh out of the oven. Even though I hadn't any, I imagine that it'd be heaven paired with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Two days later, the cake became more moist and pudding-like, and while that may appeal to some, I prefer a more cakey texture to go with the apples.

It sure feels good to be able to bake again, and I'm really in a baking/cooking mood these days. In fact, so much so that I've already planned what to bake next! Updates soon! :)

Click on the link mentioned above if you want the recipe!

Labels: apple, cake, fruit

There is nothing more heartwarming than a dish well-remembered from childhood. I'm fortunate enough to have plenty of those. They include home-cooked dishes with rice, the simplest and most homely chocolate cake I've ever had from my old neighbourhood bakery, and round sandwich cookies with a sweet, chewy jam centre.

And then there's marble cake.

Funnily enough, I didn't start out liking marble cake. It was a frequent appearance for breakfast and afternoon snacks, but it was more popular with my mum and sister. I didn't hate it, but I didn't particularly like the taste either. Gooey, creamy cakes were more my thing.

Perhaps you could say that my taste has changed as I grew older, or maybe it's simply an acquired taste for me. I now appreciate marble cake for how simple it is - both to make and to eat. Good on its own, even better with a mug of steaming coffee.



I made this cake on 9th August, National Day. I proclaim it my birthday cake to Singapore - I mean, it's only fitting that I present a cake I grew up on to the country I grew up in, right? ;)

This recipe is a keeper. It's so simple and fuss-free, and with wonderful results. The texture is perfect. The chocolate was just right. And I absolutely love how yellow the cake is. It has always seemed a bit miraculous to me, silly as it sounds - how does marble cake get so yellow when you don't add any yellow food colouring?



To celebrate the fact that I was baking a whole cake for no special reason (it's kind of a big deal for me, seeing how cupcakes and cookies are more typically my thing), I went out and bought an 8-inch cake tin. I'm glad I used that instead of my 9-inch one. I love fat, springy cakes, and I imagine that it'd have been much flatter if I had used a larger tin.



I took the recipe from BBC. Judging from the number of positive reviews on the website, you definitely can't go wrong!

Enjoy! :)

Labels: cake, chocolate, marble cake