Heart-2-Heart Cake（心心相印蛋糕）

Heart-2-Heart (心心相印）Cake

As in my earlier post on Valentine's Day Baking, I made this Heart-2-Heart (心心相印) cake on Valentine's day with a happy helper who is always too eagerly to get involved.  :)    

 

My happy & serious little helper  :)

I like the way this cake was prepared - all in and mix!  Simple, easy & fast.  Just simply put all the ingredients together in a large bowl, mix/beat all together, instead of mixing in stages as most recipes called for.  And the cake tasted delicious, especially the buttercream frosting......the taste and smell are still fresh in my mind.  Personally i felt that is thus far the best tasted frosting i had on my baking.

I tried my 1st attempt of rosettes design using the Wilton stat tip and was pretty satisfied with my 1st trial. 

As i always like to have cake with fruits, i used Strawberry this time both in the middle layer as well as the decoration on the cake.  

I can't recommend much on the buttercream frosting, if you do bake a cake and would like to have some buttercream frosting, you can give this a try and i hope you do like the buttercream taste as much as i do.  :)

Ingredients:

For the cake

• 285ml shifted all purpose flour
• 285g unsalted butter
• 285ml white sugar
• 5 eggs
• 2.5tsp (12.5ml) baking powder
• 1tsp vanila extract

For the buttercream

• 150g soften unsalted butter
• 340g icing sugar
• 3TBSP (45ml) warm water
• 1/2tsp vanila extract

For the deco

• Strawberries (slides for the layer and some on top of the cake)
• Heart-shape splinklers (i used wilton 'Fill Your Heart' sprinkles)

Steps:

For the cake

1. Spray two 9' heart-shape baking pans with non-stick vegetable spray and set aside
2. Preheat oven to 350F/180C
3. Shift the flour into a large bowl
4. Add all the ingredients (except vanila extract) into the bowl and combine/whisk all together
5. Beat the ingredients together slowly with the electrical mixer, then increase to medium speed, continue beating until the mixture is smooth and creamy (about few minutes).  Mix in the vanila extract last
6. Divide and transfer the mixture to the two pans and bake for 30-40min 
7. If a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake come out clean, the cake is ready to be removed from the oven 
8. Let the cake cool completely on a wire rack prior to frosting

Start to prepare the buttercream while waiting for the cake cool.  To prepare the buttercream frosting:

1. Beat the soften butter until smooth with the electrical mixer
2. Gradually add in the icing sugar and beat well
3. Add the water and beat until smooth
4. Mix in the vanila extract last

To assemble and for deco:

1. Spread a layer of buttercream on one of the cake surface, then put in the strawberries slices
2. Place the other cake on top to make a layer cake
3. Decorate it with rosettes and strawberries in the edge of the cake, and sieve icing sugar on top (i sieved a heart-shape).  Then i made a few rosettes in heartshape on the middle of the cake and complete the entire deco with the fill in my heart sprinkles. 

 Recipe Source: How To Make Cakes

Fried Egg (荷包蛋)

Well....to for many experienced cook, this may be too simple to even mention it.  However, to a not so skillful cook like me, it really took me few attempts to make this simple fried egg to an acceptable taste & look.  It's always either over-cook, loosely apart like normal fried egg or looked too ugly.  Finally i think i've succeeded in making a little bit presentable fried egg in this manner.  I scored myself a B on this and hopefully i could get a A in near future.  :)

Ingredients:

1. Eggs
2. Vegetable Oil
3. Soy Source

Steps:

1. Heat up a frying pan with oil (a little bit more oil to avoid sticky pan) on medium temperature
2. Add egg into the frying pan, bring the temperature to low heat 
3. Cover the egg yolk with the egg white
4. Slowly flip-over the egg to avoid the eggs yolk from coming out, continue frying to ensure both side are on medium cook
5. Slowly transfer it to the serving plate, add few drop of soya source on top for serving

Note:

• It helps to cook one egg at a time to avoid over-cook or egg yolks leaking out.  (perhaps only for a not-so skillful cook like me).  :)

Our Hearts Want GREEN......STOP LYNAS!



'MY HEART WANT GREEN!'


I always baked for my 3 lovers at home, this time, i baked for the country i love, Malaysia!

Though I'm far away from Malaysia now, but my heart (and my hubby's too) has the same wish as most Malaysian:  Save Malaysia, STOP LYNAS!  I did a simple baking in my kitchen yesterday to show my little support and made our little wish...STOP LYNAS.

I baked a 8' vanilla cake in green colour and cut into smaller heart-shapes with the cookie cutters.  My 5yrs old asked why the hearts are all in green colour and not pink/red, i just told her that this time, our hearts want GREEN, for Malaysia.

'OUR HEARTS WANT GREEN!'

I also baked the vanilla cupcake with a GREEN heart-shape inside.  Came across this interesting idea from an article with a pink heart inside a cupcake, i thought to give it a try on Valentine's day, but i was too busy with the 9' 'heart-2-heart' valentine's cake and the valentine's dinner on that day.  Now, when i read 'bout the news on LYNAS in Malaysia, i think if our cupcake ever has a heart, it also wants GREEN, hence i made a Green heart inside the cupcake instead.  This was my first try and i was crossing my fingers hoping that it turned out good.  Unfortunately, my heart-shape cutter was a bit too big, hence the effect was not that great where the heart-shape was not obvious on the cupcake...perhaps from another angle, my wish for GREEN is too great that my cupcake's Green Heart became that big too.  ;0



Do you see the GREEN-HEART?  



Besides the baking, i also did a little heart-shape thing on the fruit and veggie green juice that my hubby prepared for us. 

Little heart on our green juice

We can't tell enough that how desperate we wish to STOP LYNAS in Malaysia and whenever i saw GREEN stuff, it just made me felt like making a little heart on that, OUR HEARTS WANT GREEN!  May the decision maker in Malaysia hear the voices from millions of Malaysian from anywhere of the world, STOP LYNAS, PLEASE....??

   



  

Bitter Melon Tofu Soup

This is a simple to cook yet nutritious soup.  Many Chinese would have heard it from the elderly that bitter-melon soup is believed to help reduce the 'heaty' inside one's body (降火).  Heard from a friend (SY) that if added tofu in the bitter-melon soup would have some medication effect and would be more effective to reduce 'heaty'.  Regardless if it's true, at least the taste itself is well accepted by my two little lovers.

I always in a dilemma if to buy bitter-melon whenever i do my marketing.  Not only that i don't know much on how to cook it, but also on the challenge of getting the two little lovers to eat them in view of its bitter taste.  Now this soup recipe has helped to solve the concern.

This soup tasted surprisingly nice.  Well, you can still taste a bit of bitter, but not very much.  And by adding the tomatoes gave it some sour taste that just balance it out a bit.  My two litter lovers mixed it with their rice and kind of having a 'rice-soup' whenever i cooked this for them.   

If you do have little one at home and would like them to have some bitter-melon, this would be a good try.  :)

Ingredients:

• 1 bitter-melon
• 2-3 tomatoes
• 1 slice of Tofu (soft or medium firm)
• Pork meat/rib
• Water
• A pitch of salt (to add to taste)

Steps:

• Thoroughly wash/clean the pork meat/rib; bitter-melon, tomatoes
• Cut the bitter-melon into half, remove all the seeds and slice into pieces
• Cut tomatoes into slices
• Bring a pot of water to boil
• Put all ingredients in the pot
• Continue boil for 1-1.5hrs
• Add a pitch of salt last to add to taste

The Best Porridge Ever

I was down with fever yesterday and was lying on the bed almost the whole day.  Hubby be the cook of the day, the housemaid to complete the house chores and the babysitter for our two little lovers.  He helped to bathed them and get them changed, feed them, entertained them and put them into sleep for their nap time.  I'm thankful for him being such a supportive hubby.

He cooked a big pot of porridge for us.  I skipped the lunch as i was not felling well and didn't feel like coming down from the bed.  I had it for dinner instead and it was the best porridge that i have tasted..(and i tought i tasted love too.  ;P ).  Our two little lovers enjoyed it as much as i did.  In fact, my 5yrs old asked me to cook the same porridge for them the next day.  The porridge that i used to cook are a bit sticky where i used low temperatue to boil it for 1.5-2hrs.  My hubby's version is a bit watery and i guess my two litter lovers like this version better. 



Ingredients:

• Rice    
• Water 
• Pork meat in slices
• Shredded carrot
• Potato (cut into pieces)
• Baby spinach

Steps:

• Thoroughly clean the rice in a runny water
• Fill a pot of water with half cup of rice
• Bring the pot of water into boil
• Add all the ingredients to the pot
• Continue to boil in a medium-high temperature for about 1/2-1hr

Roast Chicken

Hubby prepared this delicious roast chicken on New Year day and we loved it very much, especially the two little one.  So the loving father has also prepared this for his princess’s 5 years old birthday party.  Guess what?  The guests at the birthday party also like the chicken very much and commented it was really tasty.  Good job to the daddy!  J

I’ve therefore help to jot down his recipe as below, in case one day he forgets how to serve this chicken for us, I shall remind him…..then we can always enjoy this wonderful chicken, and with a very good excuse that his two little princess like to eat it, to get him into the kitchen to do some cooking for us….haha!  ;P



Roast chicken served with macaroni for the two little lovers



Ingredients:

·        Chicken

·        Salt (seasoning)

·        Half Onion & some garlic (insert into body gravity)

·        Butter (grease the skin b4 put into oven)

Steps:

1.     Preheat the oven to 375F (190C)

2.     Thoroughly clean the chicken & pat dry

3.     Place the chicken on a wire rack and grease the skin of the chicken with butter

4.     Season the chicken inside & out with lots of salt, place half onion and some garlic into the body cavity

5.     Put into the oven & bake for 1hr45mins

6.     Check that the meat has been properly cook before remove it out from the oven

He also added some fried veggie to serve together with the chicken.  The taste of the mixed veggie goes very well with the roast chicken, make it a perfect dish! 

Assorted Design Butter Cookies

I've always wanted to do some cookies for my two little lovers but having to roll the dough, chill it, cut it in shape with desired cutter as most recipe called for make me reluctant doing it as it seems to be very time consuming.  For a mom who has two little girls to take care of especially my younger one who still need pretty much attention, am afraid i won't have much time to complete the entire process called for.

Then, i came across this wonderful & handy cookie press from Wilton which addressed all my concerns.  I found it pretty useful as it's easy to use and enable me to make assorted design of cookies for different festive celebration in a rather quick manner.  There are a total of 12 fun disk designs which i can use to create batch after batch of cookies.   And I like the cookies made in bite-size where it’s easy for my two little lovers’ little hand to hold it well.  J



Butter cookies in assorted design that i made for CNY



I used it to make cookies for Christmas, Chinese New Year (CNY) and Valentine's Day so far as posted in my earlier post.  You can decorate it with any kind of deco you like on the cookies and i was having fun doing that with my two little lovers.  We decorated the cookies with colourful food sprinklers, colour icing writer etc, and you may colour the dough with assorted food gel paste colour you wish prior to baking as well.  I did that for my Valentine's day cookies where i used the pink colour food gel paste to make a heart-shape cookies.  I found those were cute!  ;P 



Christmas cookies deco in christmas theme

Heart-shape cookies in pink colour for Valentine's day

 Ingredients:

·        188g soften unsalted butter

·        125ml white sugar

·        1 egg

·        1 TBSP milk

·        1  tsp vanilla extract

·        438g all purpose flour

·        1 tsp baking powder

Steps:

·   Preheat over to 350F/180C

·   Thoroughly cream butter and sugar

·   Add egg, milk, vanilla & beat well

·   Stir together flour and baking powder in a bowl, gradually add to creamed mixture, mixing to make a smooth dough

·   Place dough into Cookie Press followed the manufacturer instruction and press it onto ungreased cookie sheet

·   Bake 7-10mins or until lightly browned around edges

·   Remove cookies from cookie sheet and cook on rack

Note:

·   The above recipe can yield about 45-55 cookies.  

·   For colour cookies, once the smooth dough is achieved, put some drop of the desired colour food gel paste into the dough and combine/mix it well to achieved the desired colour

·   Cool the cookie sheet in a fridge prior to use helps the dough shape hold better in the cookie sheet

·   If the dough is too soft to press it out where the shape doesn't form well, chill the dough for a quick while in a fridge

Valentine's Day Baking

 

Our home deco for Valentine's Day, with DIY heart-shape deco


Love is in the air….Yes..it’s Valentine’s day!  Happy Valentine’s day!

I started my 1st Valentine's day baking a week prior to Valentine’s day.  Yes, a week earlier.....hey, it is always never too early to celebrate LOVE ya!

My 1^st baking was the banana chocolate cupcake with M&M filling & deco.  I have always try to avoid much chocolate in my baking as afraid of it might be ‘too heaty’ for my two litter lovers.  But what would a valentine’s day celebration like without chocolate?  It doesn’t seem to be complete.  Hence, I’ve made an exception this round to make this banana chocolate cupcake following this recipe, and I found an excuse to convince myself that there’re fruit in the cake to make me feel less guilt.  ;P



M&M, Banana Chocolate cupcake





I also made the Valentine’s themed Elmo smoothies for my two little lovers for their afternoon snack to get the girls felt excited about the Valentine’s day approaching.  And the girls loved it very much, kept asking for it again the following day.  But I don’t quite satisfy with the Elmo’s look.  I was rushing to prepare this that day as it was late for the girls nap time.  I will try to do it again next time, I hope I can do it better then.  J 

My 2 little lovers just love this valentine's themed Elmo smoothies



I moved on to do the pink heart-shape cookies decorated with Wilton 'Fill Your Heart' sprinkles & icing writer during the weekend.  I actually love these cookies, found that they’re pretty cute and filled me up with Valentine’s day mood whenever I opened my kitchen cabinet and saw them sitting there in my transparent container.  They melt my heart before melt in my month..haha.



My cute heart-shape valentine's spritz cookies, love it!



Gift it!  My 4yrs old lover packed this & given them to her friends



Of course, I won’t missed out a Valentine’s cake and I made this on Valentine’s day itself to celebrate the day with my 3 lovers at home.  It was my 1^st attempt of working on the rosettes design with Wilton star tip and I guess it was not too bad?  ;)  I called it the ‘心心相印’valentine’s cake.  J And it was delicious, especially the butter cream frosting, smell so great whenever I opened my fridge & I was addicted to it.    



My '心心相印' Valentine's Cake, Yummy!

I had also prepared the following menu to celebrate our 1^st Valentine’s day abroad in State and our stomach were pretty much satisfied and fulled with LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!  J

The Appetizer: Heart-shape Minced Pork; Sweet-corn in a Sweetheart 

 The Main Course: Soup of the day – Mushroom soup; Fish & wedges 

 

We complete our home-cooked western style set meal with Haagen-Dazs strawberry and the home made valentine’s cake for the dessert.  Mhmm….yummy yummy!!

And our Valentine’s day gift exchanged as below.  Nothing special, just a very simple one, is the thought that count, ya!  And, do you spot my home-made valentine’s card?  ;P

Happy Valentine's Day, my two little princess!

Happy Valentine’s Day to all!

CNY Baking & Celebration

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!  Happy 2012 Water Dragon year!

Again, another backdated post.  ;)

My kitchen usher in the 2012 Water Dragon year with the must have peanut cookies, fried sticky rice cake (煎年糕) and spring themed CNY cookies.  My two little lovers were having fun getting their hands dirty helping to made some of the cookies. 

 



Well, I didn’t prepare any reunion lunch or dinner on the eve of CNY as me & hubby were busy throwing a Rapunzel themed birthday party for our princess on the noon and we attended a reunion steamboat dinner with friends to celebrate our 1^st CNY in State. 

However, on day 2 of CNY, it was a tradition in my supportive lover’s family to have ‘开年飯’(loosely translate in English as welcoming new year meal) and we kept to this tradition by preparing a somewhat ‘full‘ dinner, as we normally won’t prepared that much dishes given that we’re only a small size family with two little mouths that didn’t really eat that much.

Day 2 CNY Meal

Again, my supportive lover here comes to help his not so experience & skillful spouse. ;P  There were many 1^st for me in preparing the day 2 CNY meal, most of the dishes are in fact my 1^st trial as I’ve never prepared them before:

• 1^st time of deepfried fish,
• 1^st time of crunchy mix veggie,
• 1^st time of ‘BangKuang Char’ (inspired from a friend’s dish), &
• 1^st time of black bean soup 

Luckily all dishes tasted pretty good and my lovers enjoyed them much.  (Again, chicken was not from me....u know who did that huh…haha).     

Yum Yum, we all have a great CNY celebration this year…at least make us not felt that homesick.  ;)

2011 Christmas & 2012 New Year Baking

Ho Ho Ho…MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Ya, this is backdated.  Just to captured the 2011 Christmas baking & 2012 New Year baking celebration with my 3 lovers.  ;P

I recieved a stand mixer from my supportive lover on Christmas and this lovely present just come in time for me to get my hands busy on many festive baking.  I guess he must be enjoying my baking so far and getting this present to encourage or support me on my baking journey?  :P

 So..what I bake for 2011 Christmas?  I did the yummy strawberry banana muffin followed a recipe from Joy of Baking,  Christmas spritz cookies & a Christmas cake! 

Then, soon approaching the 2012 New Year and my kitchen gets busy again with cooking & baking.  I prepared a layer New Year cake that filled with grape in the layer & deco with colour sprinklers as well as grape.  It was kind of set the celebration mood for my two little lovers.  :)

And in my kitchen cooking, below were what we had for our 2012 New Year day! 

2012 New Year meal for the little lovers

 

Ok, I’ve to confess that the baked chicken was not from me, but from my hubby and it was indeed very delicious.  Good job, daddy!  ;)