Fruit Cake

Fruit Cake

My dear husband having bad cough. Pity him.

Yesterday, while I was doing the Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix,

he asked "Ain't you are baking fruit cake for friends?"

I replied "No".  I know he is disappointed upon hearing my reply because 

Fruit Cake is his favourite.   I thought this year will give a miss

on baking fruit cake for our friends celebrating Christmas.  At the end,

still has to bake for my dear husband.So this morning, embark my journey

to bake Fruit Cake for him.

This morning, I have goose bump while hearing news that another

plane lost.  This time will be the third tragedy for Malaysia in Year 2014.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the families involved.

This Fruit Cake recipe adapted from Donna Hay, Grandma's Christmas Cake.

Soak 500g of Mixed Fruits with 90ml Brandy (short of Brandy, I used Whisky)

overnight or few hours.

Soaked Mixed Fruits.

110g Brown Sugar.

2 Eggs.

150g Butter.

168g  Flour (shifted) with 1/4 tsp of Bicarbonate Soda.

Note : The above ingredients were halves from the original recipe and

some were not added due to limited ingredients.

Beat Butter and Brown Sugar until light and creamy.

Add the Eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition.

While beating, add some Flour if the batter curdle.

Mix the Flour mixture to the soaked Mixed Fruits until

all the Mixed Fruits well coated with Flour.

Add the butter mixture.

And stir until well combined.

Pour into lined round cake tin and baked at 180 Degree Celsius

for 1 1/2 hours.

Allow to cool in the tin.

Dear Husband, this whole cake is not for you only, do remember 

to save some pieces for me and our daughter.  

I better save some also for my mother because she also love Fruit Cake.

Enjoy Eating.

I am submitting this post to

"Cook and Celebrate : Christmas 2014"

organised by

Yen, Eat Your Heart Out,

Diana, Domestic Goddess Wannabe and

Zoe, Bake For Happy Kids.

I am submitting this post to 

"Cook-Your-Book #19"

organised by

Joyce, Kitchen Flavours.

21st Birthday Red Velvet Cake

21st Birthday Red Velvet Cake

Recently, our dearest daughter celebrated her 21st Birthday.

Is it a good thing? Answer will be yes and no.

Yes because she has grown up to be a wonderful person and

No because she will be leaving the nest soon.

Before her birthday falls on 25th August, I was cracking my

head what kind of girlie cake to bake for her.

End up baking this lovely Red Velvet Cake and she loves it.

Will share this easy recipe soon.

 This picture was taken during my birthday beginning of this month.

We had wonderful feast of ribs/sausages at Morganfield's, Pavilion.

 Our lovely children.  Both of them has turn out kind and wonderful.

We are very proud of them.

Happy Birthday to our dear daughter/sister.

You have bought us immense joy since you came into this world.

May you continue to be successful in all your life's endeavours.

We couldn't believe how swiftly time has passed us by.

You are such a big girl now!  

May you reach all your dreams and aspirations in life.  

We like to call ourselves as proud parents / brother 

to see you grow up to be a kind and wonderful young lady. 

Happy Birthday.

Nearly forgotten, Congratulations to your outstanding

result in your 1st Year Law.  Keep up the work.

All these young lads/gals are my daughters' friends

from school/college.  We had a small party for her

and her friends at Hotel Istana's Coffee House

celebrating her 21st Birthday.

Hope you all have enjoyed this wonderful day.

Those who are inside and not inside this photo,

we would to thank you from the bottom of our heart

for coming to celebrate our daughter's birthday.

Alcohol Free Fruit Cake

Alcohol Free Fruit Cake

If you serve me Butter Cake or Fruit Cake, I will take the latter

and same goes to my husband.  Both of us will enjoy it with our

cup of green tea/milo (me of course) or coffee/tea (my husband).

This cake is not dry but moist and lastly, it is not crumbly.

My family and my colleagues have enjoyed this Fruit Cake.

I adapted this recipe from Wendy, wendyinkk and did some

slight modification.   Her fruit cake is nicer in colour and texture.

Is it because of the slight modification?  Aiyah! never mind lah,

as long as we all have enjoyed it.  Am I right?

 150g Caster Sugar

250g Butter

4 Eggs

225g Flour

2 tbsp of Orange zest (omitted)

450g Mixed Fruits and macerate with 200ml Orange juice for 1 day

 Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in eggs, one by one, beating well after each addition.

 Mix in flour until well combined.

 Fold in mixed fruits.

 Mix until well combined.

 Pour into two loaf pans and bake at 180 Degree Celsius for

40 minutes (depends on individual oven).

 Let it cool for 15 minutes before taking it out.

According to Wendy, it is more flavourful if we let the

cake sit inside the fridge wrapped up for 5 days.

The choice is yours.

Hmm, I want to eat it now - again and again (I am such a greedy pig).

I am submitting this post to Little Thumbs Up event

with this month theme "Flour" organised by
Zoe, Bake for Happy Kids,

Doreen, My Little Favourite DIY and
hosted by Diana, Domestic Gooddess Wannabe.

Green Tea Chinese Steamed Sponge Cake (Kai Dan Gao)

Green Tea Chinese Steamed

Sponge Cake (Kai Dan Gao) 

 There are a few bloggers out there who have successfully steamed
Matcha Mushipan (Japanese Steamed Cup Breads) but for me, it's

a failure even though my colleagues said the texture and taste are great.

It is just does not pass my text.  Well, with all the frustrations I had, I told

my colleagues that maybe I should use my trusted Chinese Steamed Sponge

Cake recipe (click here for the recipe) that I posted many years ago.
But, this time, I'll just add the Green Tea Powder only.

One of my closed colleagues said "Yeap! you should do that!".  And without

any hesitation, I did it on the same weekend and the result is wonderful.

150g Castor Sugar / 180g Self Raising Flour / 4 Eggs

1tbsp Matcha Powder (Green Tea Powder) / 50ml Sprite or 7 Ups

1/2 tbsp Vanilla Extract (original is 1 tbsp)

Beat all the eggs until frosty.

Add in the Castor Sugar and beat until creamy and thick.

Add in Vanilla Extract and beat until well combined.

Divide the combined Self Raising Flour with the Matcha Powder

into two batches.  Beat in the 1st batch of the flour and alternate with 

Sprite or 7 Ups and ending with the 2nd batch of the flour 

until well combined.

The batter is ready to be poured into moulds.

Make sure the water to steam the cakes are boiling before you pour

the batter into the mould.

Lay a tea cloth (like the picture above) to avoid dripping water drop 

onto the cakes, if not, your cakes will be mushy.  

Steamed for less than 15 minutes.  Do check after 10 minutes.

It is cooked when the skewer comes out clean.

Too happy with the result until I have forgotten to take picture of the

texture of the cakes.....heizzzzzz!

Have a nice weekend.

Kikuo's Orange Butter Cake With Cream Cheese Topping

Kikuo's Orange Butter Cake

with Cream Cheese Topping

This recipe never fail me.  I have baked this Orange Butter Cake

so many times until I have lost count of it.

Baked it this afternoon and am so tired because yesterday night

went for midnight movie "Captain America" with my kids and 

reached home around 2.45 am.  Yes, indeed very late but we have enjoyed 

ourselves.  Woke up around 8.00 am to do some errands with my husband.

After that went shopping with him for few hours.  Now already am sleepy!!!

Click here for the Cream Cheese Kikuo's Orange Butter Cake or

click for the Kikuo's Orange Butter Cake.

I am submitting this post to Little Thumbs Up event

with this month theme "Orange" organised by

Zoe, Bake for Happy Kids,

Doreen, My Little Favourite DIY and

hosted by Ann, Anncoo Journal.

Quote for the day :-

“Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.” 
― Mahatma Gandhi

Marble Cake

Marble Cake

When I saw Zoe's blog Bake for Happy Kids and her baking pals will be

having Bake Along Theme "Marble Cake", I do not hesitate to join in because

we all Asian loves to eat Marble Cake.   This time I am not baking 

using my recipe but I am using recipe from Stephanie from Joy of Baking.  

This cake came out moist, bit of sweet, not happy with the swirls

but the taste still superb.  Next bake will reduce the sugar.

Lastly, I still prefer my recipe...hahaha (so bad of me) because

I wanted my Marble Cake to be full of butter taste and a bit dry.

Today, while preparing all those ingredients, I found myself to be

so unorganized. Told my son that maybe since today is a non working day, 

maybe my brain has been switched off to sleeping mode.

I told myself, hope the cake will come out great.

Well, at the end, it did not fail me.

 140g semisweet chocolate (chopped and melt).

295g Flour (shift together with baking powder and baking soda).

2 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder and 1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda.

170g Butter (room temperature).

3 Eggs (room temperature).

1/3 cup (80 ml) Sour Cream or Plain Yogurt (room temperature).

1/2 cup (120 ml) Milk (room temperature).

1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract.

250g Caster Sugar (will reduce to 220g).

 Beat butter until smooth and well combined.

 Add in the caster sugar and beat until light and fluffy.

 Add in egg one at a time and beat until well combine.

Note : In between I add in 1 tablespoon of flour to avoid the batter from curdling.

 Add in vanilla extract and sour cream and beat until well combined.

 Beat in the flour mixture in three additions alternating with the milk to the 

batter and ending with the flour until well combined.

 Look like this after all the ingredients have been well combined.

 Transfer a little more than half of batter to another bowl.

Add in the melted chocolate to the lesser batter.

Mix the chocolate mixture and the lesser batter until well combined. 

With the plain batter and chocolate batter, put big spoonful of it 

into a prepared tin, alternating the two batters. 

Look like this before you use a skewer to draw swirls.

Look like this after you have drawn swirls. 

Bake for 45 minutes at 190 Degree Celsius (depends on individual oven). 

Let it cool for around 30 minutes before removing the cake. 

Since I wanted it to be dried in texture, I re-bake it.

So stubborn of me....what to do when I wanted to enjoy it with my

favourite drink green tea.

Have a Happy Weekend.

I am submitting this post, Marble Cake to Bake Along event

with theme "Marble Cake" organized by 

Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids,

Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and

Lena from Frozen Wings.