Vanilla Sponge cake - 2 ways!

I made a vanilla sponge cake using a premixed powder for my sister on her birthday. I didn't finished the whole packet for her cake so today I made something out from the remaining cake mix.

Mini Vanilla Sponge Cake topped with Blueberry Jam

Sometimes I like to use cake mix cos it save a lot of time. According to the instruction printed on the box, I just need to add ovalette, melted butter, eggs and milk (according to the amount needed). Beat all the ingredients together (for about 2 to 3 mins, till the batter is fluffy). Then spoon the batter into the cupcake paper and baked in a preheat oven at 180C for about 20mins or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake to rest and cool for about 5 mins. Topped the cakes with some blueberry jam.

Spongy Vanilla Square with Chocolate Filling

Using the same batter as above, pour the batter into a 8" square pan (greased with butter). Bake in a preheat oven at 180C for 30mins or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake to rest and cool for a while. Cut the cake into squares, and half the cake. Pipe some chocolate frosting in the middle then combine the 2 layers back together.

Chocolate cupcakes

I have a very nice and friendly Indian neighbor. She is a SAHM too and she can cook very nice Indian dishes. I am so blessed to have her as my neighbor as she often cooks very nice curry and share with me. As in return, I will bake some cakes or cupcakes for her (she is a cake lover). She cooked some curry fish over yesterday and believe me, the curry was awesome!

Then I baked some chocolate cupcakes for her as her daughter loves chocolate.

Chocolate Cupcake
*makes 10 cupcakes*

Ingredients:
140g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar, sifted
2 large eggs
120g self-rising flour, sifted
2tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
1 tsp baking powder, sifted
2 tbsp milk (only if the mixture is a bit dry)

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180c. Line the muffin pan with muffin cups.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time. Mix until even.
3. Mix the flour, baking powder and cocoa in a bowl then fold into the wet mixture until even. Add milk if needed.
3. Spoon the batter in the paper liners. Bake the cupcakes in the preheated oven for 20mins, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Leave the cupcake to cool for about 10 to 15 mins before putting on the frosting.

Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients:
90g chocolate (melted and set to cool)
1/2 cup butter (either salted or unsalted)
1/4 cup icing sugar

Method:
Use a electric mixer, beat butter for about 1min. Add sugar and beat for another 2 mins. Lastly, add the chocolate and beat for 2 to 3 mins or until the frosting become glossy and smooth.

This is how the cupcakes look like fresh from oven.

 

After frosting and decorated with some chocolate chips.

Mango Cupcake

Hubby bought a few mangoes last Friday. Tried one on Friday night and it's a bit sour. Hubby requested to make something out of them... I had been wanted to bake some mango cupcakes for long already! I couldn't find any mango few months back till recently. Delighted when hubby request me to bake! Got this recipe from the net and here is the site.

Mango Cupcake
*makes 10 cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup self rising flour (sifted)
1 tsp. baking powder (sifted)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (sifted)
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
2 eggs
2 tbsp. milk (if the mixture is a bit dry)
2/3 cup diced mangoes

For the topping: (I leave out the topping)
1 cup heavy whipping cream, chilled
2/3 cup mango puree
1/3 cup sugar

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350F/ 170C. Line your muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until the sugar are dissolved.
3. Add the egg, one at a time into the mixture and beat well.
4. In another bowl, mix the flour and the baking powder together.
5. Slowly fold in the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and mix well. Then add the diced mangoes. 6. Spoon the mixture into the pan and bake for about 20 min or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

For the topping:
1. Beat whipping cream on medium speed for about five minutes, until soft peaks form. Add sugar.
2. Cut up your mangoes, remove all the skin. Then, use a food processor or blender to puree the mangoes.
3. Add the mango to the whipped cream. Keep refrigerated.

Celebrating Yao's birthday

Back dated post

My youngest sister, Yao came all the way from Kuching to Penang to pay us a short visit from 15 till 18 Apr. So coincident that it was her birthday on the 15th. So we celebrated her birthday for her in Penang. She was so excited, as well as Samuel as he was very close to this "yi-yi". Yao works as a hair stylist in a saloon in Kuching and the saloon closed from 15 till 18 Apr for its "company trip". All Yao's colleagues together with the boss flew to KL but Yao requested to come to Penang. Her boss was very kind to grand her her birthday wish. :)

15 Apr, Monday
Yao arrived Penang around 11:15am on 15 Apr. She had to wait for me at the airport for nearly one hour as I had to pick up Samuel first before I could go and fetch her. After I picked her up from the airport, we headed to Sunway Carnival for a simple lunch as we were going to Tao for buffet in the evening! As I mentioned earlier, it was her birthday! So, there must be a birthday cake right? I made a simple vanilla sponge cake, with blueberry jam filling in the middle and chocolate ganache. As I had very limited of time, so I used the pre-mixed sponge cake powder I got from a bakery shop. After I baked the cake, I cut the cake into half, spread thick layer of blueberry jam in between the cake, and then combined the two slices together again. Then I made this chocolate ganache by referring to here.

We went to pick up David from his company before we headed to Tao Cuisine. I was told by the waitress while I called to make the reservation that if we managed to arrive before 6:30pm, we were entitled for 10% discount. Unfortunately we didn't make it. Anyway, we had a great time eating there and we just love the cheese baked scallops! And the oysters, Oh and the sashimi... and many more. Oh, and they were serving durian ice-cream that night! mmmm.... irresistible!Didn't manage to take many photos during the dinner as we were busy ordering food and eating... :)

 It was a great fun. After the dinner we went home for cake cutting "ceremony" for the birthday girl.

16 Apr, Tue
After we sent Samuel to school in the morning, I brought Yao to the morning market as I needed to do some marketing. Then we headed home to prepare lunch. We didn't go anywhere till 5pm. We sent out car to polish at Sunway Carnival and waited there for David to join us for dinner. David arrived around 6pm and we headed to Sakae Sushi for dinner.

17 Apr, Wed
I applied a day off for Samuel from his kindy as Yao and I wanted to go shopping at Queensbay Mall! I made the move around 11am and went to have our early lunch first when we reached there. We had a great meal at Dragon-i then went shopping. Or... more like window shopping as both Yao and I didn't get anything special. I just got a few t-shirt from Padini Concept Store. Night time we went for lok lok! Yes! My favorite. We used to go to the stall at Chang Ling Park. We performed quite well that night... hahaha... averagely each of us had around 10 to 13 sticks. yum!

Yao only stayed for 3 days 2 nights as she had to get back to work on 19th. Samuel was very happy to see his favorite "yi-yi" and he did anything also want "yi-yi" to do with him. Like, sleep also wanted Yao to sleep together with him, even bathing also wanted the "yi-yi" to wait outside the bathroom... (-_-)" Samuel was sad when "yi-yi" went back to Kuching. Hopefully Yao can come to see us again soon in the future.

Ipoh ~ 2D1N Lost World of Tambun Trip (6 - 7 April)

Church friend, Sister Cheryl，旭云 and our family went for a 2 days 1 night weekend gateway at Tambun Lost World Theme Park. Really want to thank Sister 旭云 for getting the Groupon offer for this trip. It was quite cheap... er... about RM280 for 2 adults, including one night stay at the Lost World Hotel (breakfast for 2 was included), entrance for the parks and hot spring spa at night. Children's tickets needed to buy separately. We got Samuel's ticket through online at RM32.80 (entrance to the parks) and RM12+ for the night time hot spring and spa.

We started our journey from Cheryl's house around 7am. It was raining that morning (heavy rain I would say). But thank God for His mercy, no more rain after we entered the highway!

It took us about 2 1/2 hours to reach Ipoh. Ipoh is Ze-yng's (Cherly's husband) home town so he knows the place very well. He brought us to have breakfast at a coffee shop which serve very nice 云吞面 and 猪肠粉。 Sadly David and I were busy eating so we didn't mange to take the photos of the food we had. I only managed to snap the photo of the 猪肠粉.

All the children - Samuel, Vanya and Alisya were very happy and excited about the trip!

We had the famous white coffee and it was really good. Totally different from those that we used to have in Penang. We also had the 云吞面 and 猪肠粉.

We arrived at the Lost World Theme Park around 10am, got the tickets and started our fun time!

We spent most of the time at the Water Park. We checked in to our hotel around 4pm. Took a shower, the children had a short nap then we went for dinner at a very nice chicken rice shop. Highly recommended. The 河粉汤 was very nice, the chicken was not very oily, the tauge was very crispy and "fat"and lastly the fish + meat balls soup was awesome!

Onn Kee Taugeh

No. 48, 51, 53, Jalan Yau Tet Shin, 30300, Ipoh, Perak 30300

After dinner we went walked walked at the pasar malam and a bakery shop to buy some souvenir for David to be brought back for his colleagues. 

We woke up around 8am the next morning and went for the hotel breakfast and headed to 极乐洞 for sight seeing.

We checked out around 12:30pm and went for lunch before we headed home to Penang. The children were very tired after the 2 days trip. The princesses knocked out while we were waiting for our lunch at a yong tau fu shop. And Samuel fell asleep in the car.

 

It was a fun and blessed trip. Enjoy the bonding among the families. The children enjoyed the companion of each other. The laughter and sharing are the most valuable memory. Hope we can have another trip together soon. :) 

Blueberry Paste Muffins

Back dated post

Made these blueberry paste muffins for our trip to Ipoh last Sat. The muffins were soft and smelled like blueberry. Hubby said they were nice (happy!). Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
4oz Butter (unsalted)
2oz Caster Sugar
2 eggs
4oz Self Raising Flour
4 tsp of Blueberry paste (or blueberry jam)

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/fan. Line a muffin tray with 8 muffin cases.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs with a spoonful of flour until all the eggs are combined. Fold in the remaining flour.
3. Spoon half the mixture into the bottoms of the muffin cases, spreading the mixture out to the edges.
4. Spoon half a teaspoon of paste/jam into the centre of the cases, on top of the cake mixture. Use the remaining cake mixture to top up the muffin cases and spread the mixture evenly, trying to cover any gaps at the sides of the cases to prevent the jam leaking out. (Using a fork for this is easiest!)
5. Bake for around 20 minutes, until the cakes are risen, lightly golden and spring back from a light press in the middle.

The kids love them, as well as the adults. Will blog about the trip to Ipoh in my next post. Stay tune!

Benefits of lemon water

Saw quite a few of my FB friends shared about the benefits of drinking lemon water. Maybe I can share it here too.

I remembered when I worked as a banker last time, I had a customer who was at her late 40s but she looked like early 30s. I asked what was her secret of maintaining her young look. She told me she had lemon water daily. Or 90% of the water she had, there's lemon in it. She claimed that she never use any expensive facial product or taking any supplements. So, I guess it's the lemon water that does the "magic". She even told me how to choose good lemons. Basically look for those lemons with smooth skin. Feel it with your hands, make sure there is no lump. Look for those lemons with bright yellow color and no green spots. I surfed the net and found these tips on how to pick fresh lemons. Have a look.

Ok, here are the top 10, among a lot, benefits of drinking lemon water.

1. Boosts your immune system: Lemons are high in vitamin C and potassium, which stimulates brain and nerve function. Potassium also helps control blood pressure.

2. Balances pH: Lemon is one of the most alkaline foods around. (this surprised me!)Yes, lemon has citric acid but it does not create acidity in the body once metabolized, so, you’ll reduce your body’s overall acidity.

3. Helps with weight loss: To fight hunger cravings maintain a more alkaline diet, this is because lemons are high in pectin fiber. (wao!!)
 
4. Aids digestion: It encourages the liver to produce bile which is an acid that required for digestion, which reduces heartburn and constipation.

5. Is a diuretic: Lemons increase the rate of urination in the body, which helps purify it from toxins, therefore, helps keep your urinary tract healthy.

6. Clears skin: Lemon water purges toxins from the blood which helps keep skin clear as well, this is thanks to the vitamin C component helps decrease wrinkles and blemishes. (I am so going to make drinking lemon water my habit!!)
 
7. Freshens breath: The citric acid can erode tooth enamel, so it can help relieve tooth pain and gingivitis.

8. Relieves respiratory problems: Warm lemon water helps get rid of chest infections and halt those pesky coughs.

9. Keeps you zen: Vitamin C is one of the first things depleted when you subject your mind and body to stress.

10. Helps kick the coffee habit: Normally after a glass of hot lemon water, you don’t crave coffee in the morning. Try it yourself!

Let's stock our fridge up with some lemons and give lemon water a try :)

Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Back dated post

It has been a bout a week since I last baked a cake or something. It was because I had finished most of the ingredients - like baking powder, flour, muffin cups... Suddenly I felt like wanna back something. I browsed through my pantry and found there was a bar of chocolate. I quickly went to search for a recipe online and this picture of chocolate chunk muffins caught my eyes ( I love chocolate... or you can say I am obsessed with chocolate)

I just could not resist it. So right after David reached home from work, I zoomed out to get the ingredients that I needed. I prefer muffins over cakes cos I think it's less hassle as I just throw away the cups after I finish the muffin. There is  no need of a knife to cut and no need of cleaning the plates... So here is the recipe for the chocolate chunk muffins. Like usual, I cut 40% of the sugar amount. And this time it worked perfectly. No more "too sweet" issue. Yeah!

I sprinkled some chocolate chips on top of the batter before I put them into the oven. I had one of the muffins right after they had cooled down. When I cut the muffin into half, the chocolate chunk in the middle already melted and it was like oozing out... aaawww.... satisfaction!