A worthwhile try to bake these lovely buns. First time baking them so mind the shaping. You can put in any kind of filling in this bun. Not too sweet so it's even great eating them plain. I put some sausages - try stuffing in more coz the bun will expand double in size. The rest I put in some red bean paste. Glazed with egg and topped with almond slices.

http://happyhomebaking.blogspot.com/2007/01/sweet-buns.html

Red bean in pau waiting to be steamed. Yes covered it to hide blemishes :)

Recipe for pau/bun:

http://happyhomebaking.blogspot.com/2010/02/fun-with-steamed-buns.html

Okay...slightly overbaked and I mixed the chocolate chips inside so it melted and disappeared instead of sprinkling on top....sharks...LOL.

Here is this delicious recipe:

http://happyhomebaking.blogspot.com/2007/03/chocolate-chips-brownie-muffins.html

This recipe yields for a Mint Brownie. Here is the recipe

Ingredients: 14-g butter (melted), 170g brown sugar, 25g coca powder, 3 eggs, 150g plain flour, 1 tb dried mint leaves (grounded)

Garnishing: 50g pumpkin seeds

Method:

Combine melted butter and brown sugar into mixing bowl. Add in cocoa powder, mix well. Leave aside for 3 minutes.

Add in eggs, one at a time, mix well after each addition

Gently fold in floour and grounded mint leaves until form batter. Spread batter into small square paper cups, Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds on top.

Bake in preheated ove at 170c for 25 minutes until cooked.

I beat the butter and the sugar - perhaps I should melt it instead. It didn't say it got to be mixed using a mixer anyway. The texture is soft and light. I am surprised it rose w/o baking powder.

nice finger food..... so easy to make

Ingredients: 1/2 cup sifted flour, 1 ts baking powder, 1/2 ts salt, 1/2 ts parika or chilly powder, 1 tb butter, 1 cup soft breadcrumbs, 2 tbs milk , 1cup grated cheese.

Method: sift flour, baking powder, slat and paprika toegether. Rub in butter with finger tips. Add bread crumbs, milk and cheese and mix thoroughly. Roll to 1/4" thickness on floured board. Cut into narrow strips and bake in moderate oven for 20 mins or until golden brown.

Taken from a very old torn recipe book w/o a cover. So I do not know who is the author. LOL

Ingredients: 7oz butter, 9oz sugar, 6 eggs, 9 oz self raising flour or 8 osz flour sifted with 2 ts baking powder. Juice of 1/2 orange (three tbs), 1ts vanilla (or grated rind of 1/2 orange), a little cochineal.

Method:

Cream butter and sugar till light. Add yolks of eggs, one at a time, beating well after additon of each egg. When light add the egg whites which have been beaten to a stiff froth, foldling it in. Add flour, folding it in, and when mixture is smooth, add orange juice and vanilla. Pour half the mixture into a square or round deep cake tin which has been lined and greased. Then add a little cochineal to remaining mixture to make a pretty pink.(??) Pour mixture on to that in tin. Bake in moderately hot oven for about 1 hour or till cake leaves sides of pan. When cook cover cake with Fudge frosting.

Ingredients A: 200g plain flour,1/2 ts baking powder, 60g Nestle conr flakes finely blended (mix).

Ingredients B: 130g butter, 50g vegetable shortening, 145g caster sugar (mix).

Ingredients C: 2 1/2 tb grated orange peel, 3 tb orange juice, 1 egg yolk (small) (mix).

1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted and dissolved in 2 tbs warm water with finely siliced orange peel.

Method: Mix ingredients A with nestle corn flakes. Rub in ingerdeints B wit Nestle corn flkaes mixtures until resembles a fine bread crumbs. Stir in sugar. Add in ingredients C and mix until soft dough forms. Roll dough 6mm thick in between 2 plastic sheets. Cut with desired cookies cutter. Place dough on lightly greased baking trays. Bake in preheated oven 180C for 17-20mins or until golden brown. Pipe icing sugar on cool cookies an decorate with finely sliced orange peel.

Makes about 10 dozen.

I think I will stick to my orange cupcakes....

Suppose to be Chicken pie but I substitute the ingredient with chicken curry puff filling..so should I say the Malaysian version of Chicken pie ala Curry Chicken Pie? :D The crust is not bad considered that it was so simple to make. Taste more on the butter side but it's ok.

For the recipe - Chicken Pie:

http://bakingmum.blogspot.com/2006/12/recent-bakes.html

Crust taken fr: http://www.101cookingrecipes.com/eurasian-recipes/chicken-pie.php

Looks so easy to make, I thought it would fail but it's not bad. worked well with the curry paste as it wasn't soggy (paste was dry).

As for the chicken curry filling

http://www.malaysianfood.net/recipes/recipecurrypuffs.htm

Next coming up - Apple Pie.....ooo.....

I wanted to bake some cupcakes for the family to try. Decided ok, then I need to do some minor decoration....

Tried the cream butter icing and did my own design which didn't exactly look that great. Well need some practice on the icing....

Recipe: http://www.joyofbaking.com/VanillaCupcakes.html

Hot from the oven.....

Had a bite of the muffin and this is how it looks....

Hehe...not exactly thousand treasures on the cup cakes coz I didn't want the kids to eat too much of those, it's merely decorative and to entice them to finish the cakes!

This recipe is nice...the texture of the cake turned out moist and very soft..it didn't sink at all though when I did the batter it looked soft, not watery...just light and fluffy.

Easy to make...just need a beater for the sugar and butter and the rest you just need to fold it in.

I used cake flour i/o plain flour - 170g

Castor sugar - 200g

1 ts vanila extract

1/4 ts salt

1 1/2 ts baking powder

2 eggs

Butter - 115 g

milk 125ml

Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy

then mix in the eggs and continue to beat

Add in the vanila essence

Then mixed the sifted dry ingredients and add in the milk, bit by bit

Then put the batter to the cupcakes

Bake for 20 mins 190C

Voila

then decorate as you wish.

It has been a while since I baked anything as I have been busy experimenting cooking dishes. I baked some marble cupcakes for my little boy who has been harrasing me for them. Not bad for the first time though I made some mistakes eg. I didn't swirl the mixture of the cocoa batter with the plain batter to give it the marble effect. I only did it a little bit so it's not exactly `marble-lie'. :D

Plus I think I cheated a bit on the ingredients so I had some cracks at the top of the cakes which didn't affect the texture as it was still smooth and light. Probably over baked it a little as I thought it was for 30 minutes but in actualy fact 20 minutes.

Got the recipe from: Little Girl Big Appetite Marble Cupcakes

I also didn't use the heavy cream as I didn't have them in the fridge and also it's difficult to find them in the supermarket. Anyway....

There is also another site which you can experiment : Marble Cupcakes

Here are two sites with some good tips on possibilities of failed beautiful cupcakes. I found it helpful and a guide in manipulating the ingredients. Most importantly follow the recipe.

http://www.ingredientexperts.com/content/view/41/53/

http://www.landolakes.com/tips/Faqs_print.cfm?QCategoryID=2

I suppose it isn't that important especially with cupcakes you normally put frosting on top to cover up any possible blemishes...hehehe......

This is the large version...err...looks like....*** censored...

In the oven, waiting......yummy.....

Almond nuts is my favourite! So is this lovely biscuit.....

it costs a lot to purchase them and always thought it was difficult to make until.......

voila.....

Only thing is it's difficult cutting it to thin slices, tends to break when I tried to cut it thin. Definitely you cannot be stingy with the nuts! I suppose you can use this recipe by replacing other nuts like pistachios, add in some orange peel.....but I will sure make this over and over again. Got to get a good knife! I left it a bit too long to cool (had to pick up my kids), so when I got back the `log' was harden....thank God I didn't need a chain saw...:D

Bake it to crisp....maybe next time I will lower the tempreture to prevent burning.

(aikes..I just realised I missed the self raising flour..still it turned out ok!)

Recipe taken fr newspaper - unable to provide source

180g castor sugar, 2 medium sized eggs, 1/8 ts almond essence, 1/4 ts vanilla essence, 40g ground almonds, 135g whole almonds, rinsed and toasted, 50g almond flakes.

sifted: 180g plan flour, 45g self raising flour

Put eggs, essences and castor sugar in a mixing bowl. Beat until mixture turns fluffy. Gradually add sifted dry ingredients and mix in ground almonds. Stir in whole almonds and almond flakes. Combine until mixture turns into a sticky dough. Divide the dough into two portions, Lightly dust your hands with flour and form the potions into two long rolls. Place the rolls on a lightly greased tray and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180c for about 30-35 mins or until lightly golden brown. Place the baked rolls on a wire rack to cool. Using a serrated knife, cut the rolls crosswise into very think slices, Arrange the slices on a baking tray and bake again in a preheated oven at 160c for about 20-25 mins or until compltely dry and crispy. Halfway through baking, turn over the biscotti slices to ensure an evenness in the browning process. Transfer the biscotti to a wire rack to cool completely.

Wanted to find a recipe to make cookies which the kids can shape them with the cookie cutters I bought from the shop :D.

Found this but not exactly the texture I wished, nevertheless the kids gobbled it down. Taste like those commercial biscuits - perhaps the texture is too hard!

Will attempt with another similar recipe.

It's quite easy to bake cookies/biscuits, so I think I will not be buying commercial biscuits for a very long time to come.....I have so many more recipies to try! My mouth is already drooling, have not thought about the waist expansion....

P/s Don't remind me.....

Here is the recipe - fr All recipies

Ingredients

1 cup butter 1 cup white sugar 1 egg 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Cover dough, and chill for at least one hour. Chill cookie sheets.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Press dough out onto ungreased, chilled cookie sheets.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly golden at the edges. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks.

This is a very easy recipe to bake! Taste nice with added macademia nuts..haven't tried walnut, but I am sure it will taste just as good. Won't say it tastes like the Famous Amos Cookies, but it's good enough for me as it's so easy - took me 15 mins, but the recipe said 10.

I did it a bit longer hoping to get a crispier crust. I read that the longer you bake them it gets more cruncy, rather than chewy. So it depends on your taste bud!

Recipe is as follows:

Ingredients

(makes about 24 cookies)

115g butter, softened

115g caster sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

175g plain flour

175g plain or semisweet chocolate chips

Method

Preheat oven to 180degC. Line baking trays with parchment paper.

With a wooden spoon or electric mixer, cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until the mixture turns pale and fluffy.

Beat in the egg gradually. Mix well after each addition. Add in vanilla extract, mix well.

Sift the flour over the mixture, fold in with wooden spoon or a spatula. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Drop tablespoonfuls of the cookie dough onto the prepared baking tray. Leave some space between the cookies to allow for spreading. Flatten each cookie dough slightly with the back of a fork, keeping the shape as even as possible.

Bake for 10 mins or until golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Variations:

Chocolate - substitute 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder for the same amount of flour.

Replace chocolate chips with equal quantity of whole or coarsely chopped nuts such as macadamia nuts or hazelnuts; or use combination of both chocolate chips and nuts - 75g of each.

Source: Happy Home Baking

A mouth watering muffin.....the top are crumbs....of course mine didn't have enough crumbs..so you can see part of the muffins and I also cut down on the jam/sugar...don't like them too sweet.

Recipe as follows:

(adapted fr: http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2009/05/raspberry-and-jam-muffins/)

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup whole milk

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2- 1 cup frozen or fresh raspberries (or whatever berry you might have in your freezer or fridge, use as much of the bag or as little as you have left)

3 Tablespoons strawberry jam (or whatever fruit jam you have on hand)

For the topping:

3 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 1/2 tablespoons sugar

Put a rack in the upper third of oven and preheat to 375 degrees F. Generously butter muffin cups or line with cupcake papers.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over moderately low heat; remove from heat. Whisk in milk, egg, yolk and vanilla until well combined.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Add milk mixture and stir until just combined. Gently but thoroughly fold in the berries and the jam.

Divide batter among muffin cups and spread evenly.

For the topping:

Combine all the topping ingredients in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over batter in cups.

Bake until golden and crisp and a wooden pick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean, 18-22 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack for 15 minutes, then run a knife around edges of muffin tops and carefully remove from cups. Serve warm or at room temperature.

A recipe to keep and to repeat.

Yup....it's a crazy day indeed! Made another batch of muffins. The blueberry is almost finished!

This time I was expecting good muffins, unfortunately I substituted plain floor for the left over bread flour which I still had on the shelf. I assumed that it should be ok, but I think when the recipe says plain flour, just stick to it, don't try to be too smart.

However, it still turned out ok, I only thought that the top looked a bit `hard'. The inside is still alright, soft and moist when piping hot of course! Extremely sweet for me, maybe for some it's just nice and I also cut down on the raisins and chocolate chips. I used `organic' raisins which cost a bomb! So next time I will just use those normal baking raisins...can't afford to bake golden muffins in the long run!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

(makes 8 muffins)

250g plain flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup raisins

1 egg, beaten

60g unsalted butter, melted

175ml milk

150g granulated sugar

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 180degC (350 degF).

Melt butter in a saucepan, over low heat, set aside to cool.

Sieve together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a mixing bowl.

Add chocolate chips, raisins and mix with a spatula. Make a well in the centre.

Place egg, melted butter, milk and sugar in another bowl. Mix until thoroughly combined.

Pour the liquid mixture into the flour. With the spatula, gently fold all the ingredients to form a wet batter. Just mix until the flour are incorporate into the batter. DO NOT Over mix.

Spoon batter into paper muffin cups. Bake for 15~20mins until muffins turn golden brown or a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack.

Recipe fr Happy Home Baking

Found this recipe here: http://www.cacaoweb.net/chocolatemuffins.html

I mucked up in the batter. I didn't mix the wet ingredients co-currently with the dry ingredients.

I felt that the batter is too watery for muffin, and suspect that it might not even rise. But it did..but looked extremely volcanic...scary! Surprisingly the inside texture is soft - 2 eggs and lots of butter and milk! I will look for another recipe, I don't think I will bake this again.

Tips:

The next time you make those delicious muffins, mix it to the point that the wet and dry ingredients are combined but by no means smooth. In fact, if you have what looks like a lumpy mess in your bowl with bits of flour peaking through, that's when you know you have achieved muffin greatness.

Do not over mix the batter or tough muffins will result.

Use muffin cups on the pans..I didn't use any.

I read that you should fold it 12 times max..just enough.

For this, I overdone it.....coz it was so watery.

Better luck next time!

A close up view of how it looks out of the pan.

My muffins were a bit pale, I suppose I should have left it a bit longer in the oven but again the bottom part might be burnt...maybe it's a mini pan.....beats me..this is my first muffin attempt! Not bad......

It's so much easier to bake muffins than bread.

I was told there is a distinct difference btw cupcakes and muffins. It's the texture and cupcakes you decorate the top. Muffins is similar to bread making but a fast way!

Sorry, the mounts, hills, mountains, balls...whatever isn't even. The dough was way too sticky to make it smooth and yeah..yeah..Ok...I am still learning.....

I baked another bread today. I wanted a very soft texture like those I saw in the supermarket (Jusco) which melts in the mouth. I came across this recipe:

http://schneiderchen.de/237Hokkaido-Milky-Loaf.html

Take a look at the following images and be prepared to drool...I did.....oo la la...

A recipe worth to try and keep, it's easy and absolutely delicious.

Look at the bread texture....so fine....and light...melts in your mouth

I love bananas. So I decided to try a recipe on how to bake a banana bread. This person said that this recipe is supposed to be delicious passed down from one grandmother to another generation. I tried it. It's ok, but I wished I didn't put in that much sugar. It was slightly too sweet.

Easy to bake and fast..no kneading and rising required.

Note: Use Baking soda and not baking powder (ignorance). I baked this with baking powder. I was told that if you used baking powder, you will need at least 3 times the amount of baking soda, but that might affect the taste.

Ingredients

3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Method

No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.