Showing posts with label cake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cake. Show all posts

Monday, June 17, 2013

Happy Father's Day Homemade Dinner

Homemade Happy Father's Day Dinner Hong Kong
We had a simple dinner at home celebrating Father's Day. I didn't make that cake. It's a black and white chocolate mousse cake from Arome bakery, costs about HK$160 (credit card discount) with a free pack of "Japanese" cookies. Good deal!

The dinner prep was really a father-son bonding session. What on earth were they trying to make?
Homemade Happy Father's Day Dinner Hong Kong

This. Homemade roast pork - the recipe comes with the halogen cooking pot.
Homemade Happy Father's Day Dinner Hong Kong

Did it work?
Homemade Happy Father's Day Dinner Hong Kong
We love how it is transparent and we can all argue about the state of the food in the cooking pot. Perfect ice breaker for family gathering!

The father-son bonding only got stronger from there.
Homemade Happy Father's Day Dinner Hong Kong
Proven by how SC and his dad collaborated plucking out remnants of pig hair...

...and after 15+30 minutes... voila!
Homemade Happy Father's Day Dinner Hong Kong
Tasty roast pork! The meat's tender enough. The skin could use a little more poking, but not bad at all!

Here's MIL whacking away the siu yuk. She looked damn cool doing it. Don't mess with her.
Homemade Happy Father's Day Dinner Hong Kong
Tasted AMAZING with rice. Not advisable for those on low carb diet :D

We also had beef curry. Very spicy.
Homemade Happy Father's Day Dinner Hong Kong

And fish wrapped mangoes FIL learnt from TV.
Homemade Happy Father's Day Dinner Hong Kong
If I could ever find that TV chef who taught this, Imma have to whack him/her with a cutting board. What a waste of beautiful fresh mangoes!

The cake has tool box shaped chocolate. Everybody loved it.
Homemade Happy Father's Day Dinner Hong Kong
I grew up without a dad, but I love celebrating father's day with SC's family :)

Happy belated father's day, y'all. Hope you had a fantastic father's day celebration :)

Friday, July 8, 2011

Lapis Legit Pandan from Holland Bakery, Jakarta, Indonesia

Lapit Legit Pandan from Bentolicious
A gadzillion thanks to Lia of Bloglicious for bringing me this delicious cake all the way from Indonesia! I am so touched beyond belief.

Have you ever met your fellow bloggers before?
At first, I was a bit weary about meeting anyone, since I am an antisocial bitch. I am an online person who always try my very best to avoid any human interaction (scary, right?). I thought bloggers are supposed to stay behind the yellow line? Whatever happened to that? I guess it's changed. Now bloggers meet people too. And not all of us are antisocial, only me. ^_^'

After meeting a few Hong Kong tweeps, I started to enjoy meeting people that I normally interact with online, and I am very happy that now I can even call some of them my close friends! Yippie!

Sometimes, you've been stalking them online so much, you felt as if you've already known the person inside out. From her tweets and her online persona, I knew that Lia is absolutely lovely. We had a blast hanging out.

Now the cake.
Lapit Legit Pandan from Bentolicious
This is something that I can't get in Hong Kong.
OK, there are some packaged ones available in Indo shops, but they comparing them to this? It's like comparing flavorful, moist, rich, fragrant and buttery cake to...a piece of cardboard (I am sorry!). A few slices of this cake, cups of hot jasmine tea, and a good book. That'd make a perfect lazy weekend afternoon tea.

Happy almost weekend, y'all!

PS. Lia, I can never thank you enough! ^_^

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Rose Shaped Chocolate Cake from Patisserie Tony Wong, Kowloon City, Hong Kong

Patisserie Tony Wong Rose Chocolate Cake
This has got to be one of the most gorgeous cakes I've ever seen! Look at those chocolate rose petals!
Patisserie Tony Wong Rose Chocolate Cake
We were having this cake at Athena's birthday party last weekend. When it was unboxed, there was a collective "ahhhhh" and we gawked at the cake for a good 15 minutes at least...and we surely photographed the cake like there's no tomorrow.

We proceeded to debating on how we should "divide" the cake, as it is obviously too pretty to slice.
We screamed in unison when the birthday girl did this.
Patisserie Tony Wong Rose Chocolate Cake

What's under those beautiful petals?
Patisserie Tony Wong Rose Chocolate Cake
More chocolatey yumminess!

Patisserie Tony Wong Rose Chocolate Cake
My favorite part of the cake's definitely those chocolate petals. As for the cake itself, it would be nice if there were some non chocolate elements in there to prevent us from getting chocolate overdose. There's a pink version of this cake which is as pretty if not prettier. I am soo gonna try it next time ;)

Check out Patisserie Tony Wong's website here.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The Making & Behind the Scene - Hello Kitty Food Blogger Sausage Sculpture for the Cock Up

Hello Kitty Food Blogger - My Blog is Cuter Than Yours - Cocktail Sausage Food Sculpture
All the mess and madness before the cocktail sausage cook up.

I didn't plan to make a sausage sculpture before, I knew cutetifying food isn't my forte.
Hello Kitty Food Blogger - My Blog is Cuter Than Yours - Cocktail Sausage Food Sculpture

What did I plan to make?
Welcome to my Hall of FAILURES.
Cocktail Sausage Cheesecake
Cocktail Sausage Savoury Cheesecake. 
The idea sounded good in my head, I used Maid brand's honey cocktail sausages, they're a bit sweet, so I thought they would work. I thought of making tarts instead of a huge cake, topped with glazed apples, peaches, or grapes, or a mix of fruits...maybe garnished with a piece of thinly sliced, deep fried crispy cocktail sausage.

Wow. Ambitious, wasn't I?

Well, obviously, I failed. Hard.
Cocktail Sausage Cheesecake
I food processed the cocktail sausages into the cheesecake batter. The cheesecake ended up fluffy, more Japan than New York, which was fine, but the tiny bits of sausage made the cake super weird, and not in a good way. I probably should've left them sliced to give the cake bits of bite. You can see that I've failed the cream cracker crust too. I was too impatient waiting for it to set. Oppps.
I'll do better next time...

Apple Cocktail Sausage Savoury Crumble
Apple, Pear & Cocktail Sausage Savoury Crumble
Again, the idea sounded good in my head, but the whole thing tasted so damn weird. I should've probably leave the fruits uncooked or pickled. Crisp the sausages and make the crumble separately and assemble them together in small shot glasses or something. This crumble topping was savoury, maybe I should've made the crumble topping sweet? I dunno, but I'll explore this idea and try again.

I realized I should stick to what I know instead of trying to be a smart ass, I'm a one trick pony after all. Heheheh. That's how I ended up with my dishes, sweet & sour sausages and the Indonesian sate sosis.

As for the Hello Kitty craziness...
I just wanted to have fun and create something mad for the event, instead of just bringing dishes.
I thought of making a whole table of food bloggers, most of them would resemble the bloggers who would attend the event, but OK, that's too damn ambitious, there's no way I could do that.

Then I thought of creating a mini me (a food blogger) out of cocktail sausages, but ok that's so damn narcissistic, I feel disgusted even as I am typing this up. Ugh.

So what's cute, somewhat relevant to Hong Kong, and relevant to the event?
Uh huh! Hello Kitty food blogger, my friend.
Hello Kitty Food Blogger - My Blog is Cuter Than Yours - Cocktail Sausage Food Sculpture
I used these light colored small sausages. A tanned Hello Kitty would be cute too, but I tried to be as close as its original colors.

I bought a variety of stuff to realize my Kitty ambition.
Hello Kitty Food Blogger - My Blog is Cuter Than Yours - Cocktail Sausage Food Sculpture
Seaweed and seaweed strands for the eyes and whiskers, cheese for the nose, maybe add some food coloring for the red bow. Crackers and cracker sticks in case I need to build a table...

Hello Kitty Food Blogger - My Blog is Cuter Than Yours - Cocktail Sausage Food Sculpture
I had to make a lot of plan Bs...it's hard to stick anything to the sausages as they're oily! Everything slides down and fall off when touched, especially after the oil's dried out. I ended up using rice for the nose, stuck it to the face using a toothpick. I used honey as glue, small sharp scissors and tweezers helped a lot!

Hello Kitty Food Blogger - My Blog is Cuter Than Yours - Cocktail Sausage Food Sculpture
What's a food blogger without food? This was pretty straight forward. Rice, seaweed strands, toothpicks and sliced cocktail sausages to resemble luncheon meat. Very Hong Kong la!

The camera's made of sausage wrapped with seaweed. This failed in the end, after a while, the seaweed peeled off..and I had a bit of a disaster with the bow too...the cheese melted. I was so upset. I tried to keep everything savoury, as if we're going to end up eating the whole thing (warning, food poisoning?), but in the end I gave up and made the bow and camera out of pink Sugus candies.
Hello Kitty Food Blogger - My Blog is Cuter Than Yours - Cocktail Sausage Food Sculpture
The slogan "my blog is cuter than yours" was made out of alphabet pasta and changed the banner to resemble a talk icon.

Whew! It's been so long since I've been so mad.
It felt so good, I look forward to more madness.

More pics are posted on my Facebook Page.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Mint Chocolate Chips Cakes with Fresh Mint Leaves from My "Herb Garden"

Mint Chocolate Chips Cakes
Some people hate mint flavored baked goods/drinks because the minty flavor and scent reminded them of...tooth paste/mouth wash?
How many of you feel this way? I'm curious.
SC is one of them, he absolutely hates mint flavor (when it's not tooth paste/mouthwash/chewing gum/after dinner mints) and always asked me not to bake anything...minty.
I dunno...but I love it, I always order minty stuff from time to time.
I find the flavor, refreshing and cooling, especially love it for summer.

Anyway, I am the one who bakes stuff at home, so I get the final say.
Mint it was.
Mint Chocolate Chips Cakes
I used peppermint essence, but to crank it up a notch, I included quite a bit of mint leaves from my tiny and miserable "herb garden". My hands felt all minty after picking these tiny mint leaves. I love it!

Look at those tiny little green spots in the cake...cuter than green food coloring, don't you think?
Mint Chocolate Chips Cakes
Recipe
(yields 6 cupcakes)
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- a pinch of salt
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tsp peppermint essence
- a few sprigs of mint leaves (you can use less, my plant is not really "healthy" so the leaves are so tiny!)
- about 10 chocolate chips per cake

I did this the absolutely lazy way.
Preheat oven to 180C, pour all ingredients (except chocolate chips) into food processor (since I need to break down the mint leaves into tiny spots anyway), pulse until well mixed and the mint leaves are all broken into tiny spots. Pour into muffin tray lined with paper, add chocolate chips, bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Minty fresh!

If I wasn't too lazy I'd make some minted buttercream/cream cheese frosting...but of course I was too lazy.
Maybe next time la.

What other flavors I can mix with mint?

Friday, March 25, 2011

Mango Mille Feuille from Dessert Playground, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Yesterday, we celebrated a friend's birthday and ended up dinner with this gorgeous cake.
Mango Mille Feuille from Dessert Playground
Look at them roses! They aren't perfect, the cream and layering of the cake looks a bit sloppy and some mango slices were a bit..wilted? But we think that they still look pretty damn amazing! We walked right pass the dessert store, and immediately abandoned any other cake ideas that we had and went for it. We just hoped it tastes good.

Mango Mille Feuille from Dessert Playground
And it did taste good. The layered crepes were so thin, it was so easy to cut through, it's creamy with just enough sweetness, not overwhelming, and there were bits of mango in it too. The only unfortunate bit was some mango slices with stringy bits from the mango pit, but other than that, it wasn't bad at all. Despite being totally stuffed from dinner, we still managed to make room for this sweet & creamy treat.

A cake like this costs HK$338

Dessert Playground 

沛公甜品

Shop E, G/F, Rose Mansion, 1 Prat Avenue, Tsim Sha Tsui
Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2411 1139

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Chocolate Chips and Cheese Muffins - Muffin Coklat Keju

Muffin Coklat Keju - Choco Chips & Cheese Muffins
A classic Indonesian flavor combo that I always miss. I love the use of cheeses in baked goods, and tried incorporating them in these easy muffins. They aren't perfect. When used in Indonesian baked goods such as buns, which are normally consumed in room temperature, the cheese would be in a form of small savory bits (not melted) which bring out the best of the chocolate (and/or banana) flavor it's paired with. I aimed for having some gooey, melted cheese, at least when the muffins were freshly baked, but I think I did it wrong. If I wanted some gooey stuff, I should've added a chunk of cheese (and chocolate) in the middle instead of stirring grated cheeses into the batter. Oh wells, I'll try again next time.

The flavors aren't too bad, I did achieve that savory-sweet thing I wanted.
Muffin Coklat Keju - Choco Chips & Cheese Muffins
Recipe
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1/2 cup milk
- 3 handfuls of grated cheese (I used mozzarella and cheddar)
- Chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180C, mix all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, mix wet ingredients (except cheese and chocolate chips) in another bowl, make a well in the dry ingredient mixture, pour wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Add a handful of grated cheeses. Pour batter into muffin tray lined with paper cups until half full, add grated cheeses & chocolate chips, top with more batter, add more cheeses and chocolate chips on top. Serve hot.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Pink Rose & Dark Chocolate Chips Cake

Rose & Dark Choco Cake
Here's another Valentine's Day easy baking idea.
Something pink, something rosy, something sweet with a touch of dark choco.
Perfect!

If you are not as lazy as me, add cream cheese or buttercream frosting with bits of rose tea petals...your Valentine (if not, your girlfriends) will be so impressed!
Rose & Dark Choco Cake
Recipe
(yields 6 small cupcake)
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tsp rose essence
- a tiny drop of rose pink food coloring
- 1/2 cup milk
- about 5-8 dark chocolate chips per cake

Preheat oven to 180C, mix all dry ingredients, mix wet ingredients in another bowl. Make well in the dry ingredients, add wet ingredients, mix until just combined, pour into muffin tray lined with paper cupcake liners until 3/4 full (add dark choco chips in each cake), bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

SC asked if he can customize his own cake, I said yes...and here's what he did:
Rose & Dark Choco Cake
He added a couple of cashews and a gunk of peanut butter.
It may look hideous, but hey, peanut butter always tastes nice, right? Does it complement the rose fragrance? Ahem, nope. Luckily, SC is the one responsible finishing his own creations (sometimes he creates something nice though, so I always give his creations a try). Hehehe.

Happy Valentine's Day from a girl who's always a victim of commercialized "special occasions" of any kind.
Don't forget to share yours, if you celebrated it.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Canned Peach Syrupy Cake

Canned Peach Syrupy Cake
I saw Pioneer Woman's Cherry Cake Pudding and it was instant love. You know my love for anything involving canned goodes? But, remember my inability to follow recipes? Yes, it persists!

Actually (trying desperately to justify myself), it was because I was in the mood for something sweet, but I didn't have canned cherries, pecans or whipping cream. So I just did mine with canned peach. It's easy to make and tasted pretty damn fantastic. I love the crispy top and the fluffy cake, love it more when it absorbed the tangy syrup. A bit of a warning, it's sweet. Sweet sweet, even after I reduced the sugar for the sauce. Too bad I didn't make the whipped cream part, it would've balanced out the sweetness. But we still love it. SC, who claimed that he doesn't like anything sweet, ate the most of the cake ;p

Canned Peach Syrupy Cake
Recipe (adapted from Pioneer Woman's Cherry Cake Pudding)
Cake
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tbsp softened butter
- 1 egg
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/3 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 can of peach halves in syrup (cut into smaller chunks, drained, juice reserved)


Syrup sauce
- all the juice from the canned peach
- 2 tbsp sugar 
- 1 tbsp flour
- 1 tbsp butter
- a dash of vanilla

Preheat oven to 150C. Butter a baking pan.

Cream sugar and butter (I used hand mixer), add egg, mix well. Add flour, baking powder and salt into the mix alternatively with milk. Mix well. Add chunks of peaches and mix with spatula. Pour batter into pan, smooth out the surface and bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown and no longer jiggly.

A few minutes before the cake is done, make the sauce. Mix all the ingredients into a sauce pot and bring to boil until thickened.

The recipe advised to drizzle the syrup all over the cake, but I did it on each individual serving.

The cake tasted fantastic even without the syrup, the crisp surface kinda reminded me of Indonesian bolu. I am definitely making this cake again, with a different type of (canned) fruit.

Wow. I am so serious in this post, it doesn't even sound like me!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Steamed Double Chocolate Cake

Look who's creeping from under the table...
Steamed Chocolate Cake

I want chocolate cake, mama!
Steamed Chocolate Cake

I want. I want. I want.
Steamed Chocolate Cake
This is what people say in Cantonese "can see but can't eat" (yau tak tai, mo tak sek)

Poor baby.
I am always searching for a good chocolate cake recipe, and last weekend, I tried a recipe from Recipes for Keeps. A lazy bitch that I am, I didn't do the topping, which would totally elevate this soft, moist, fluffy, rich, not-too-sweet and very chocolatey cake. Ah well, maybe next time ;)

Recipe (my adaptation)
- 1 & 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey's)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup canola oil
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 3 eggs (beaten)
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 cup boiling water
- a lot of dark chocolate chips

Sift flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder and baking soda into a bowl, mix well. Make a well in the middle, add oil and milk, mix well, add beaten eggs, keep mixing, add vanilla essence, and boiling water, mix well. Add chocolate chips, pour into greased bowls/ramekins and steam for 15-20 minutes. If you use a large baking tray, the recipe instructed to steam for 45 minutes.

This is one recipe to keep. I owe baby Marcus steamed chocolate cakes ^_^

Monday, December 13, 2010

Instant Coffee & Chocolate Chip Cake

aIMG_0801
Remember my previous miserable failure?
This time, it's so much better.
Moist, soft, fluffy, the coffee flavor is there, with bites of coffee bits and dark chocolate chips, and as always, super easy to make.

Perfect for the always-sleepy workday afternoons.
If you're not an instant coffee kinda person, replace the instant coffee bit with your favorite.
aIMG_0814
Recipe
Dry ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp caster sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp instant coffee
Wet ingredients
- 1 sachet instant coffee (I used Old Town Hazelnut 3-1 Instant coffee. It does have a bit of sugar, if you are not using already sweetened coffee mix, add 1 more tbsp sugar), dissolve in a bit of hot water, top up with cool water to make 2/3 cup
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- a dash of vanilla essence
- I dunno if I was mad, but I added a dash of Korean soju in the mix just because I saw it sitting around in my fridge when I was picking up an egg, you can totally omit this
- about 10 small dark chocolate chips per cake (I use Hershey's)

Preheat oven to 180C, mix dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix wet ingredients in another bowl. Make a well in the mixture of dry ingredients, pour in the wet ingredients and mix. Pour into muffin mold lined with cupcake liners until about 3/4 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Wake up and smell the coffee!
Happy Monday!

Friday, December 10, 2010

La Maison du Chocolat Christmas 2010 Creation - Chocolate Raspberry Bûche

Cakes from La Maison du Chocolat
Another Friday indulgence for me, Chocolate Raspberry Bûche, La Maison du Chocolate's Christmas 2010 creation. What can I say? It's every bit as fantastic as it looks! A perfect balance of textures and flavors. Soft, smooth, crunchy, chewy, sweet, rich, chocolatey, sharp, with an explosion of runny tangy raspberry in the middle. Wonderful!

As it's super hard for me to get just one...we also ordered the Chestnut cake.
Cakes from La Maison du Chocolat
The combination of textures and chestnut flavor is there...but in comparison to the chocolate raspberry bûche, this is a lot more...subtle.

TGIF!

La Maison du Chocolat
Prince's Building - Shop 109
First Floor, 10 Charter Road, Central
Hong Kong
Tel : (+852) 2801 4122

http://www.lamaisonduchocolat.com/

Friday, November 26, 2010

Sweet Treats - Cakes from Le Salon De Thé de Joël Robuchon

Because it's Friday...
Because it's been a while since I'd been out during lunch hour...
Because I wanted something sweet after lunch...

This happened :D
Rose & Pistachio Cake from L'Atelier de Joel Robuchonh
Heheh.

This pistachio cake...

Rose & Pistachio Cake from L'Atelier de Joel Robuchonh
It's nutty and creamy, with a tinge of exotic tang. Yum.



And this rose cake...
Rose & Pistachio Cake from L'Atelier de Joel Robuchonh
It's super fragrant, light, and creamy.

It's the rosiest cake I've ever had.
Triple yums!
This one's totally worth the HK$40 price tag.



...and because I forgot to bring my good camera, these were just shot using iPhone4.
Apologies for posting sub par pictures :p

Le Salon De Thé de Joël Robuchon
Shop 315, 3/F, The Landmark, 16 Des Voeux Road Central, Central

Hong Kong中環德輔道中12-16號置地廣場315號舖
Tel: +852 2166 9088

Monday, November 22, 2010

Baking Failure - Coffee Chocolate Chip Cake

Coffee Choco Chip Cake
Looks good.
Tastes bad.
Dry.
Un-sweet.
Un-rich.
Un-fluffy.
Un-delicious.
Boo.

Just another baking failure.