Devil Food Chocolate Cake

The last time I baked for my boyfriend was 4 years ago. We had just started dating and it was his birthday. I wasn't that enthusiastic as I am now with baking but I still baked him cupcakes. It were mini cupcakes, I don't remember what flavour, with peanut butter frosting. The frosting was hideous! And watery! I tried to draw on the small cupcakes but all went fugly.

But it still was my first ever homemade cupcakes/cake for him.

I decided to surprise the boyfriend yesterday so I baked him a cake. Not the usual humble cakes I usually baked. It was a chocolate cake!

My piping skills sucks T_T I really don't know how to decorate a cake. Seriously, it took me a longer time to frost than baking!

And the boyfriend and housmates and officemate (Oh now I am blushing) loved it!! Sumpah tak tipu!

I drove in the middle of the night from my house to KL just to meet him but I couldn't resist to had one slice of it. So I brought along a knife and a tupperware, for me! Hahahahaha.

And this is how it looks like :) Pretty, no?

Devil Food Chocolate Cake
From Kitchen Guardian

Cake:

1 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
65g butter
1 large egg
1tsp vanilla essence
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup warm water

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees. Sift together all the dry ingredients; flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg.
3. Add dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk+warm water mixture in three batches begin and ending with the flour.
4. Add in vanilla essence and continue mixing.
5. Pour into a greased pan and bake for 30 minutes. I used a 9 inch heart shaped pan and had to baked twice. Double the ingredients or use a smaller pan if you want a higher cake.

Cream Cheese frosting:

250g cream cheese at room temperature
125g butter
1 cup icing sugar (Yikes! I use 1/2 cup. Enough with all the fat :p )
1 tsp vanilla essence

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add in butter and continue mixing until light and creamy. Add in sifted icing sugar and mix well. Lastly, add vanilla essence.

Chocolate Ganache:

250 ml double cream/whipping cream/ thickened cream
300g dark chocolate/baking chocolate chopped

In a double boiler, warm the cream until it is hot enough to melt the chocolate. Remove from the heat and mix in the chopped chocolate. Stir until melted. Let it cool before use.

To assemble:

After both of the cakes has cooled down (remember I baked twice?), spread few big spoon of cream cheese on top of the first cake. Spread evenly. Arranged slices of strawberries on top of it then spread another layer of cream cheese.

Take another cake and put it on top of the first one. Spread evenly cream cheese frosting all over the cake, at the sides and on top of it. Put it in the fridge for 15 minutes. Take it out and pour ganache all over the cake.

Deco it as you wish ;) Good Luck!

Cookies galore!

Christmas is coming. We're going back to our hometown, Sabah. I know I have to bake something for them. And I baked, as usual, my famous M&M's cookies :)

And also the regular Chocolate Chips Cookies.

Sorry. No recipe for this one :) But I can assure, this is the best cookies you'd ever had! I have few secret ingredients which make it even more 'Amos'!

And I found this recipe from a blog. It was claimed to be the almost Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies, I tried it and blergh. It didn't taste the same at all! I baked an even better cookie!

I substitute chocolate chips with one cup of chopped Daims. Although I still like the praline-like, fudgy caramel, I hate it when it tasted a lot like a kuih raya, not a cookie. So sad.

But if you insist in baking it;

Almost Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Bisousatoi

250g butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp coffee oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup blended oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup ground almons
1 cup chopped daim/chocolate chips
2 cups self raising flour

1. Two hours before bakng, beat in the egg with vanilla and coffee oil. Let it stand at room temperature.
2. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add salt. Mix in the egg and stir in blended oats, ground almonds, walnuts and daim. Fold in the flour.
3. Bake for 10 minutes (mine was 15 minutes) or according to your oven, for small cookies.

Pear and Walnut Cake

I have few entries/recipes to post today actually. Before I go for a holiday with the family, I better post all or I won't post it when I get back :p

Found this recipe few months ago. Actually I google-ed for an upside-down pear cake then I stumbled upon this recipe. It was from Su from Delectable. I love love love her artwork (as in the cakes. Hey, baking is an art okeh!).

Anyway, Pear and Walnut cake tasted a lot like a carrot cake. Maybe because of the spice in it. I love it! But maybe I could make few adjustment from the recipe, and hey, I think this is a great recipe for orang tua ;) But of course, reduce the amount of sugar ay.

This is not a doughnut!

Pear and Walnut Cake
Adapted from Su Delectable

150g butter at room temperature
1 1/4 cup caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 pear juice (I used Orang juice :p )
2 large peckham pear diced roughly (I used 3 small ones)
1/2 cup walnuts (chopped)
1/3 cup raisins/sultanas
2 tsp ground mixed spice (or all spices)
2 tbsp honey (I omit)

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
2. Sieve together all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and mixed spice). Mix into the butter mixture alternately with the pear juice. Stir in walnuts, raisins/sultanas and pear.
3. Spoon the mixture onto a 9 inch pan (I used a bundt pan which I think you can use less than 9 inch to get a higher cake). Spread evenly and bake for one hour at 170 degrees.
4. For the frosting, beat 100g cream cheese with 1tbsp honey and chopped walnuts until smooth. Spread on top of the cake when its cooled.

Note:

• Reduce the amount of the sugar. I think this cake was a tad too sweet for my liking. I don't like a spiced cake to be sweet. Maybe you can use around 1 cup.
• Use brown sugar instead of the white sugar. It will enhance the flavour of the pear. Even much better, beat 3/4 sugar with the butter. Use the remaining sugar (1/4) saute it with the pear for a while until it turns brown. Remove from the heat. You'll get a crunchier pear afterward.
  

Condensed Milk Pound Cake

I first saw this cake on Mykitchensnippets. Although I was tempting to bake one, but half of me was trying to justify sponge cake is not my kind of cake. I hate spongy cake. And I hate chiffon cake even more. I hate it when everytime I took a bite of a spongy cake, all I can taste is - air.

And so I found another recipe from Bisousatoi. I checked the recipe twice, completely differ from the previous one. I scrutinized both pictures from both recipes, and so I baked the later one.

And it was awesome! You can't even taste the condensed milk of course. (What was there to taste? It was all sugar in thick yet thin milk. Got what I mean?) It was buttery. And soft. I think this is another version of a butter cake.The best butter cake so far.

I sprinkled some chocolate chips on top of it. Hoping it would be a prettier cake. But all went to my stomach. And I had to cut my sugar and carbs intake for a week. Super joy.

Click on the link for the recipe ;)

Banana Chocolate Cake

My boyfriend loves buying banana. But nobody eat that too many banana in the house, only me and my brother what do you expect? So most of the time I would let it ripen for few days and bake it rightaway.

Remember when I made the blueberry chilled cheesecake for my brother? On the same day also I baked another cake: Banana Chocolate Cake.

We drove back to Jb right after its done, and it still warm when we arrived 3 hours later. Its a habit of me, I just thought that I should brought home a homemade cake everytime balik kampung.

And I love this cake! Seriously! The 2tbsp milk powder, although small quantity, you can tasted it. Milky but not overpowering. It is moist, milky, not that chocolatey and the banana flavour is just right for the cake. This is so far my best banana cake :)

I always scared of any recipe that uses egg whites that beaten until fluffy. Wrong technique of folding or if you don't beat it until it stiff, your cake will sink. And I have a phobia of sinking cakes. But to my surprise, though I had to hand-whisked my egg whites, the cake turn out really really well!

Sorry for the low quality pictures though.

Banana Chocolate Cake
Adapted from Bisousatoi

200g butter
200g brown sugar
6 eggs yolk
2 eggs white (whisk until stiff)
200g flour sifted with
1/4tsp baking powder and
2tbsp full cream milk powder
1 cup chocolate chips
4 medium sized bananas - mashed
1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Grease and line your pan, I used an 8inch round pan. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees.
2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in yolk, one at a time, beat well until incorporated.
3. Fold in the flour, milk and baking powder using a spatula.
4. Gently, fold in eggs white.
5. Add in mashed bananas and the chocolate chips. Pour the batter onto your pan.
6. Bake for 35 minutes or more until it is done.

Dark and red.

I uploaded these pictures few days ago while trying to find the recipe.

Sorry! I couldn't find it! Seriously! Usually I would jot down everything - the recipe on my recipe book. But these brownies, I baked it for a friend in the morning, during raya haji. Kelam kabut bagai so I just baked by directly following the instruction from Allrecipe.com

And now tak jumpa :(

Because I love the browniesssss! Especially when I put marshmallows on top!

And red velvet cake. I don't really like it so I won't post the recipe :p Although my sister's friends love it.

Chilled Blueberry Cheesecake

My brother loves cheesecake. There's just something between him and cheesecake. Especially raspberries.

One day, I was going to leave him for the weekend. Him and exam week. Grrrrrr I know! And that was when I decided to bake make him a cheesecake. Chilled cheesecake! But since I was left with a can of opened blueberries from pancake sauce leftover few days before, I said sorry to him and pour the whole 3/4 of the sauce on top of my beautiful chilled cheesecake.

I don't know if its a good idea or not but at first I thought it would be awesome.

Even my boyfriend couldn't resist the temptation right after he got home from work.

But the sauce just couldn't stop dripping all over the cake. Now, I know it wasn't a good idea. Too much blueberries.

But it was a perfect chilled cheesecake. Perfect perfect perrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....!

I used the leftover brownies from previous baking (I skipped I know! I couldn't find the pictures!), pulse it in a food processor until it becomes crumbs. Pack it at the base of your tin and refrigerate it while you make the filling.

As for the filling, I just used the exact method and ingredients from the box: beat 2 cream cheese together with 1/2 can of sweetened condensed milk, 2tbsp sugar, and 2tbsp gelatine dissolved in 1/2 cup warm water for at least 15 minutes before using. Pour on your base then continue refrigerate it for overnight.

There. I made two of my lovely boys smiled that day.

Orange and Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

I always envied those pretty and cute marshmallow pops. I always adore those breathtaking dessert table. And I tried to make one, for my sister's engagement. It wasn't that disastrous but it wasn't that special either. I was working on that day so I had so little time to prepare everything on time.


Baked 100 cupcakes for the door gift too. I used this recipe. It never fails me for a vanilla cupcakes.

I need to be adventurous. I know I can't do bungee jumping (although I am dying to do that) because I am afraid of height so I need to be adventurous in food. In baking specifically.

I had some oranges in the fridge and thought of trying a new recipe for cupcakes. I woke up later, start my gear and two hours later I'd baked these:

Orange and Chocolate Chips Cupcake.

I know it weren't the prettiest naked cupcakes you had ever seen. I just had this problem with estimating the batter content in a cup. I had to spoon and bake one cupcake before I bake the rest to test.

I did that on all cupcakes.

But the cupcakes were delicious! Moist, juicy with the perfect sweetness!

Now, if you have some oranges, try and bake this. You'll be amaze with the cupcakes. Just make sure you cut off at least 1/4 of the sugar if you intend to sloshing it with any frosting.

Orange and Chocolate Chips Cupcake

3 eggs
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 cups flour sifted with 2tsp baking powder
juice of 1 orange
zest of 1/2 orange
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees. In a medium bowl, beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time until well incorporated.
2. Add flour and milk, alternating , begin and ending with the flour. Mix well. Add juice and the zest and continue beating.
3. Lastly, fold in chocolate chips.
4. Divide the batter evenly and bake for 18 to 20 minutes.

Congo Bar

I know I know. I haven't blogging for quite a while :p Finally I've got some time to update. Will update more later but its weekend already :( You know I am busy on weekends with errrrrr stuff?

Congo Bar

Adapted from Bakerella

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter, softened
2cups (or less) brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Set aside.
Stir brown sugar into softened (not melted) butter in another large bowl until butter disappears. You can use the back of your spoon to help incorporate the two together.
Add eggs one at a time to butter mixture and stir well after each egg.
Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts. Mix well.
Add dry flour mixture and stir until well combined.

Coat a 13 X 9 pan with non-stick spray and spread batter evenly into dish.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Make sure you don’t over bake.

Order is on!

One of the so many reason I was busy during my long silence here was: I was busy baking for others. The first time I started baking, it was for myself. Just to fulfill my temptations. Then I baked for the families. Then my friends. Then people started to order my cakes/cupcakes.

So there, I finally taking order for the cakes. Or cupcakes.

I am not that pro when it comes to decorating/frosting. So at the moment, I will only offer design from my previous collection. If you do wish to order anything, please make sure it is based on the designs provided.

You can choose from any flavour available: vanilla / chocolate / coconut

The size of the solo cup is fixed: 2 oz. But do ask me if you need a bigger one. I will try to quote a new price for you.

I do not offer delivery, but we can plan something maybe I will be somewhere around your place at that time.

And no, I DO NOT do fondant.

This one comes with 4 cupcakes toppers at the grassy cuppies. Lupa nak letak.

Email me at kookies.order[at]gmail.com

I would be more than happy to hear anything from you!

Sicilian's Orange Cake

Sorry sorry sorry foe the lack of updates. I'd been very busy but my baking obsession continues as usual every weekend :) I left my memory card in the office (lets just hope I don't accidentally lost it cause I have tons of my baking pictures in it, hurm) so hopefully I have some time tomorrow to go and get it. Not that my office is that far, so no excuse for me I guess?

Here, some of what I found in my another memory card (everyone needs two, I know). Sicilian's Orange Cake. I baked an orange cake once before. Other than the almond, I do think both of the cake were amazing. They tasted alike, but Sicilian's was a bit buttery and moist whilst the other one was almond-y yet so moist and soft. So try it and tell me which one you prefer.

Sicilian's Orange Cake
(You can find the recipe almost everywhere)

Ingredients:

250g butter at room temperature
250g sugar (1 1/2 cup or less)
4 medium eggs
250g flour (1 1/2 cup or less)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 1/2 tsp finely grated orange zest

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until white anf fluffy around 4-5 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
   
3. Add orange zest. Add all the flour at once and mix slowly. Pour in the orange juice and mix.
4. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes depending on your oven

ps: I noticed that this cake brown to quickly even when it is halfway done. Cover it with an aluminium foil. It might helps. I don't use icing for this recipe. I can't resist the temptation to try it rightaway. Hehe.

Cheesecake Galore!

One of the cheesecake I baked during my open house last two weeks. This is what happened when you keep it for so long, I forgot which recipe did I used!! Hahahaha. Oh kejap, I think I remember something (yes I should try shouting next time if I forgot something). Ah yesss. That's the one.

This cake was loved by everyone! Ceh semua I baked was loved by everyone (this is not a statement). Hehehe. Ok now seriously, everyone's loved it!

Baked White Chocolate Cheesecake

Adapted from Homesweethome

150 gm digestive biscuit/crushed

80gm butter/melted

180gm white chocolate

500gm cream cheese (at room temperature)

300gm sour cream (I don't have this)

3/4 cup caster sugar

1tsp vanilla essence

3 eggs

Chocolate ganache/whipping cream

1. Heat the oven at 160 Degrees Celcius. Prepare your baking pan.
2. Grate coarsely 3/4 of your white chocolate (leave some for hiasan)
3. Mix together the biscuit crumbs and melted butter. Press evenly on your baking pan and chill for 30 minutes.
4. In another bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla essence until well incorporated. Then add eggs, one at a time.
5. Pour the cream cheese mixture onto the biscuit pastry and mix in the grated white chocolate. Stir gently with a fork.
6. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes.
7. When it is done, turn off the oven and open the door a bit but do not take your cake out. Let it be in the oven for the next 2-3 hours.
8. Chill the cake in the fridge for 4 hours.
9. (Since I ran out of whipping cream) Pour chocolate ganache on top of the cake. Sprinkle the leftover white chocolate. Ready to be serve when it has cool completely.

And this is another chessecake I baked last week. I have another box of cream cheese and some raspberries so Afi requested me to bake some. I halves the ingredients since they were only two of us at home (which took 3 days to finish!).

Strawberry-Raspberries Cheesecake Slice

Adapted from My Kitchen Snippets

3/4 cup crushed digestive biscuit

6 tbsp melted butter

250gm cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp flour

1 egg

3 tbsp strawberry jam

Fresh raspberries for decoration

1. Preheat the oven to 325 F. Grease and line a 6"x6" square baking pan with parchment paper.
2. Mix crumbs and butter together and press firmly on the bottom of the pan.
3. Beat cream cheese, sugar, flour in a bowl on medium speed until well blended. Add egg at low speed. Mix well. Pour over crust.
4. Drop the strawberry jam on different sites on the batter. Use a knife and make a marble effect on it.
5. Bake for 40 mins or until it is done. Refrigerate overnight before serving.
6. Arrange raspberries on top of the cake.

Bread Pudding

Ok ini recipe jump. Jump disini bermaksud lompat macam potong que because I want Yasmin to try it. Yas, I know you're reading this and this post is specially for you!

The first time I ate bread pudding was like 10-12 years ago. My sister baked it (yes kakak you baked before aite? Hehe). And that was also the last time I ate bread pudding. Pathetic I know. So, there were some leftovers of the sides of the breads (you know the hard/brown thing that people cut and throw when they're preparing for sandwiches?) from last Sunday sandwiches. I had 2 long loaf of Gardenia bread (What was I doing with that many sandwiches? Hehe) and I really don't want money wasted just like that if we throw it. So I keep it.

And yesterday I baked a bread pudding. Sedap sedap tak tipu tolong lah percaya!

Pecans streussel topping.

Sorry. I couldn't resist the temptation that even before I get my camera ready, I scooped it for food testing. Ok pass. Hahaha.

Actually this bread pudding has it custard sauce that goes with it but I wanted to try it first. I don't want it to be that sweet. I know I have sweet tooth but just as a precaution, when you have dessert in your place twice a week, hurm? And I reduced all the amount of sugar one quarter each. And I am relieved that I did! The sweetness, just perfect!

But what I didn't know, bread pudding is like your substitution of rice. I took one small square and not even finishing half, dah full. Eggs+breads? No wonder lah!

The Best Bread Pudding

Adapted from Paula Deen

Ingredients

2 cups granulated sugar (1 3/4 cups)

5 large beaten eggs

2 cups milk

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3 cups cubed Italian bread, allow to stale overnight in a bowl

1 cup packed light brown sugar (3/4 cup)

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup yellow raisins

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan.

Mix together granulated sugar, eggs, and milk in a bowl; add vanilla and raisins. Pour over cubed bread and let sit for 10 minutes.

In another bowl, mix and crumble together brown sugar, butter, and pecans.

Pour bread mixture into prepared pan. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture over the top and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until set. Remove from oven.

Coconut Cupcakes

I know the recipe called for coconut cupcakes but I can assure you it tasted more like the usual vanilla cupcakes. It was the best! Memang best. Dense and moist. And sedap! Sumpah!

It was for my friend's hantaran actually. I baked the trial cupcakes few days before, alter the ingredients a bit then voila!

Coconut Cupcakes
adapted from Tendercrumbs

6 oz (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup buttermilk (I substitute with coconut milk)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In 3 parts, alternately add the dry ingredients and the coconut milk to the batter, beginning and ending with the dry. Mix until just combined. Fold in coconut.

Line a muffin pan with paper liners. Fill each liner to the top with batter. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove to a baking rack and cool completely.

For the frosting, I'd been dying to try Italian Meringue Buttercream. I was told it was awesome so I just had to try. There were a few recipes/methods available but I opted for the simpler one.

But you know what? I hate how it tasted like. Macam ada one thick layer on my tongue after makan and it tasted empty. So no, I won't try it again unless someone assure me to.