Yu Sheng

Something mum left me.. she had been using this to shred the veg for yu sheng for as long as i can remember.. she didn't let me use this tool for fear that i may cut my fingers.. i remember in recent years, i didn't bother about her and just went ahead to shred the radish.. i had to prove to her i could do it.. and well, the main purpose was that shredding the veg looked fun! it still is.. :) and today i did her proud..

happy lunar new year to everyone.. wishing you good health, happiness and prosperity in the coming year!

Banana Cake

at dad's request...

Ingredients:
230g butter
200g sugar
5 eggs
230g self-raising flour
300g bananas (mashed)
2 tsp baking powder

Method:
1) Beat butter with sugar for about 10 mins then add in egg one at a time. Beat well.
2) Sieve flour with baking powder.
3) Add the mashed banana into the butter mixture then fold in the flour.
4) Bake in the oven at 180C for 45 mins or until toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Happy Lunar New Year!!

Bake one lot of cookies yesterday and 3 lots today.. More than 600 cookies baked in total.. KO-ed after spending 6 hours in the kitchen today.. zzz...

The last time i baked THIS much was probably about 4 years ago.. gosh.. hope they like the cookies :)

Chocolate Chip Cookies w Chopped Walnuts

German Green Tea Butter Cookies

This cookie literally melts in your mouth! it's THAT soft, melty and fragile...

Ingredients
250g butter (i used salted butter)
80g icing sugar (sifted)
250g potato starch
100g plain flour
1 tsp (or more) green tea powder

Method
1. Beat butter and icing sugar till well combined.
2. Sift in potato starch and plain flour. Mix well.
3. Divide batter into 2.
4. In one batter, add in the green tea powder and mix well.
5. Take some dough from each batter, roll into a ball and lightly press it on a baking tray.
6. Bake in a pre-heated oven 170C for 20 minutes.

Note: You can replace green tea powder with cocoa powder.

Walnut Cake

walnuts bought from Melbourne, Australia

fresh eggs

sitting pretty in a fancy mould

i hate hate HATE separating yolks from whites.. well to be specific, i HATE it when i gotta break the egg into a bowl before the separation.. the simple reason is cos IF the stupid yolk gets mixed up with the white, there goes a wasted egg.. so i always have to standby at least 11 eggs (or preferably more) even though the recipe calls for 10.. hahaha... i'm an absolute noob when it comes to cracking eggs nicely into a bowl even though the eggs are fresh.. 

today i had 11 eggs in my fridge and i used up all.. the "wasted" egg.. well, i added it into my instant noodles which i had for breakfast..

didn't have spare to try how this lot of walnut cakes turned out.. but my friends all gave the thumbs up! so i guess i passed.. phew!

Blueberry Streusel Muffins

pre-baked muffins

the final product!

Recipe from joyofbaking.com

not exactly something i would choose to eat but blueberries were on offer that day so i just had to get some!!

really easy to make recipe again from my fave website.. no mixer required! completed this within just a couple of hours on a Sat morning.. the only "complaint" i have is that the muffin top doesn't brown as much as i would like it too.. and with my white muffin cups.. the muffins look really blah.. BUT i decided to put it against a dark background and wow! the muffin looks really good! super love the second picture :)

Lemon Curd Tart

a friend recommended me the lemon cream tart from carpenter and cook.. finally got a chance to try it last week and it was really good! i recall seeing a lemon curd recipe from joyofbaking.com so i decided to try make it myself :P

Lemon Curd Recipe & Video from joyofbaking.com

the video was really helpful as it showed just how thick the curd should be after like 10mins of constant whisking..

didn't take a picture of the bowl of lemon curd i made but anyway, i thought it tasted a little sweet so perhaps will reduce the sugar by about 50g the next time i make it..

for tart shells, i used my own recipe:

200g butter

100g icing sugar

1 egg

380g plain flour

1 tsp vanilla essence

* Beat the first 3 ingredients until creamy then add in vanilla essence and plain flour to form a dough. 

* Press pastry in tart mould and bake at 180C for 15 minutes. Leave to cool before use.

tart shells baking in the oven... made like 40+ shells...

applied a layer of chocolate in the inner shell to prevent the crust from becoming soggy after curd is added in it...

final product!