Chocolate Cupcake Surprise

Bittersweet? You either love it or loathe it!
That's what I did on a whim!
I decided to play around with my recipe. With some tweaking, this was the result!

Ingredients:

A
115 g plain flour
115 g caster sugar ( I used 90 g)
60 g cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

B
1 large egg
160 ml milk
50 g butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

C
80 ml boiling water
1 teaspoon Nescafe mixed with boiling water

Lindt chocolate balls
Some Jamaican rum
Nutella

Method:

1. Place ingredients in A and mix well. Set aside.

2. Beat egg lightly and mix with ingredients in B.

3. Pour B mixture to A and beat at medium speed for about 2 minutes.

4. Add boiling water mixed with nescafe into mixture and manually mix till combined.

5. Fill cupcake case halfway. Place chocolate ball in the centre.

6. Bake in preheated oven at 160 deg.C for 12 to 15 minutes depending on size of cupcake.

7. Cool and drizzle some rum on the top. Spread some nutella on it.

Nutella for those who loathe bittersweet!

Lindt dark chocolate balls, all melted in the centre

Steamed Fish with Chai Po

Hello there! I've been MIA for quite a while.
Probably went astray and couldn't find my way back.
Nah! Seriously, I have been procastinating! That's a 'bad' word!
Blame it on K-drama! Blame it on Plants & Zombies!
Okay! Okay! The blame's on me!


A couple of weeks ago, my dear hubby went on another fishing trip. This time he spent 4 days and 3 nights on the high seas off some Indonesian island. The weather was bad, the waves were high, the boat was rocking, getting seasick was inevitable! I was anxious for his safety especially after the recent incident off Pulau Aur.
Thank God! He returned safely with a big load of fish! Though the sea was rough, the catch was good! What price to pay for such rewards!!
As usual,we distributed the fish to relatives, friends and neighbours.
And we kept some favourites and this one ended up on the table the very next day!

The Red Grouper was Number ONE on our table, dressed in
chai po!

The crew scaling the Snappers, making it easier for me!

More Snappers!

Groupers grouping in a group! (LoL!)

Steamed Fish with Chai Po
A packet of sweet chai po (preserved white radish)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 to 4 chilli padi, sliced
Spring onions for garnishing
Oil

1. Saute garlic for a minute, then add in chai po and chilli and fry for 5 minutes. Set aside.

2. Prepare steamer. Once water boils, place fish in and steam for about 8 mimutes. Timing to cook fish depends on its size and thickness.

3. Once fish is done, pour chai po over and garnish. Yum!

Fin up! You're first !

Yummy Yum Yum!

Custard Cream Puffs

I made these for one of the Ladies' meetings some time ago.

I am simply in a state of inertia where blogging is concerned.

K-drama is partly to be blamed - I'm practically hooked!

I used to bake a few hundred puffs daily, usually with durian filling. I recall how I had to wake up at four in the morning just to fill up the puffs so that my hubby could deliver them to the various shops by 7a.m and how I had to rush to work after that. Those were my hectic days - that was the kind of life I had led for over 20 years! Festive seasons were the worst time where a couple of hours' sleep was a luxury! Whenever I reminisce my baking journey, the thought of it just seem to drain my energy away.

Enough of rambling!

Now to post the recipe for the choux pastry.

Choux Pastry:

240 ml water

120g butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 tablespoon caster sugar

160g plain flour, sifted

4 large eggs

Method:

1. Place water, butter, salt and sugar in a pot and bring it to a boil.

2. Lower heat and pour in flour and immediately stir with a wooden spoon to mix into a soft dough. Remove from heat and transfer to a mixing bowl.

3. Add in eggs, one at a time and use an electric mixer to beat in the eggs.

4. Fill up an icing bag with a round nozzle attached. Pipe out circular mounds on a greased tray.

5. Bake in preheated oven at 170 deg C for 15 minutes. ( Puffs must be sufficiently baked so that they will not shrink and flatten after when cooled.)

6. Once cooled, slit side of puff and spoon custard into it or fill icing bag with nozzle and pipe out any filling.

Gleaming, waiting to be baked!

See how they have puffed up!

Simple Salad

I've been away too long from blogging.

I hardly cook or bake anything new or authentic enough to be posted.

My meals are very simple and it's the usual fare. Quite boring!

I seldom bake as I'm trying to cut down on my calorie intake.

I am eating healthy and exercising quite regularly.

Since December last year, I've shed 8 kilograms!

A wonderful excuse to change my wardrobe!

My younger daughter occasionally fixes salad for her meals.

This is my share of the salad.

She shared with me how she did the hard-boiled egg.

Simply boil a small pot of water. Once the water is boiled, turn off heat and put in the egg and cover.

After 12 minutes, remove and you'll have a lovely hard-boiled egg that is not overdone!

Romaine, oak, cherry tomatoes, turkey ham, egg

and Caesar's dressing

Coffee Date Loaf

My friend, Sue emailed this recipe and a picture of the date loaf she had made a couple of weeks ago.

Since I have 2 packets of dates bought from JB recently, I thought I should give it a try.

I used sun-dried dates which are not preserved with sugar, so they are naturally sweet. These dates are usually available during the Muslim fasting month and it's the best time to buy them. At other times, the dates available would be those that are preserved with added sugar.

This date loaf is healthy, moist, soft, not-so-sweet and delicious!

This brand of dates is by far the best that I've tasted.

The dates are still attached to the branches.

Ingredients: (23cm x 13cm or 9" x 3" loaf tin)

A

1 cup chopped dates

1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda

1 cup hot water mixed with 1 heaped teaspoon nescafe

B

1 large egg

1 tablespoon butter, softened

1 and 1/2 cup Self-raising flour

1/4 cup fine sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Place dates in bowl and sprinkle bicarbonate soda over it and pour hot water. Set aside.

2. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and flour and add in dates. Beat for 2 minutes at medium speed.

3. Pour into greased and lined loaf tin and bake in preheated oven at 170 deg C for 35 to 40 minutes.

4. Cool, slice and eat it on its own or spread some butter or cream cheese. Yum!

Unbelievably soft and moist!

Prawns in Coconut Milk

This is one of my MIL's recipes. She learnt cooking from her MIL who hailed from one of the Batak tribes in Sumatra. Hence my FIL is a descendant of the Bataks. Hmmm.... interesting!

I used to cook this quite frequently before. I had actually forgotten about it until my hubby's friend gave us some freshwater blue prawns. Some of them were really huge and had very long 'pincers'.

Since freshwater prawns are not as 'sweet-tasting' as saltwater ones, I thought that it would be better cooked in spices. So what better way to cook them was in "Udang masak Lemak" as my MIL would term it!

They sure have long nasty-looking pincers!

Ingredients:

Large prawns, about 10 or more

To be ground together:

14 candlenuts (buah keras)

2 medium-sized onions

5 or more fresh red chilli

4 chilli padi

1 thumb-sized turmeric (kunyit)

1 pce 6cm-lemon grass (serai), sliced

30g belachan

3 medium potatoes, cubed to preferred size

1 litre water

1 fresh coconut milk (obtain 250ml 'first' milk & 1 litre 'second' milk

Oil

2 pces 10-cm lemon grass, bruised

Kaffir lime leaves (optional)

Salt to taste

1. Heat enough oil and saute ground spices bruise lemon grass till fragrant.

2. Add 'second' coconut milk and potatoes. Add salt and cook till potatoes are soft. Remove from pot.

3. Add prawns and 'first' coconut milk and bring to boil until prawns have just curled up nicely.

Turn off heat and serve with rice.

Not so nasty but tasty!

Check out the bulbous head!

Moist n Soft Chocolate Cake

This is a very easy-to-bake chocolate cake. It takes about 10 minutes to prepare and bakes in about 12 minutes in cupcake cases. In total, it took me about half an hour to produce 16 cupcakes from half of the recipe!

Ingredients:

A

1 3/4 cups plain flour

2 cups caster sugar

3/4 cup cocoa (use good cocoa for a good chocolatey flavour)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate soda

1 teaspoon salt

B

3 medium-sized eggs

1 cup UHT milk or chocolate milk

1/2 cup oil (I used canola oil)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

C

1 cup boiling water

2 1/2 teaspoons Nescafe, dissolved in boiling water

Method:

1. Place all dry ingredients A in mixer and mix well to combine.

2. Mix all liquids in B before adding to A. Beat at high speed for 2 minutes.

3. Remove and stir in boiling water pre-mixed with Nescafe by hand. The consistency of the mixture is not thick but runny.

4. Fill cupcake cases 3/4 full and bake in preheated oven at 160 deg for 12 minutes.

This recipe bakes about 30 to 32 cupcakes or 2-layered 9-inch round tins for frosting.

The cake would go well with some chocolate ganache or frosting.