Rocky Chocolate w/berries&candies

For his birthday celebration in school, Hayden has requested me not to make his birthday cake this year because he wanted something more ‘colourful’ so we bought him a Transformer pic cake instead. But we still need to bring something else for d party so I went online to search for something that’s hassle-free & decided on this recipe from Wendy – super easy & everyone loves it, including the teachers & staffs of the school! I held out Wendy’s link to everyone who asked for d recipe!

Rocky Chocolate w/berries&candies

White Chocolate with berries/candies
800g white chocolate
2 ½ cup mini marshmallows
2 cup dried cranberries + gummy candies + ½ cup for topping

1) Line up a 9x13” pan with paper for easy removal;
2) Melt d chocolate in a pot over hot water. Allow to cool slightly till it’s warm to touch;
3) Mix the marshmallows & berries/candies well be4 adding into d chocolate mixture;
4) Pour mixture onto prepared pan & spread it out evenly. Ensure marshmallows are submerge;
5) Sprinkle d topping out evenly & gently press down to ensure it stick to mixture;
6) Allow to solidify in d fridge overnite be4 cutting it into cubes.

SB Marshmallow Cake & Milk Cupcakes

Hayden’s birthday is today so last nite, with no oven, I decided on making d SB marshmallow cake for his sch. However, I was only able to make a much smaller one so to ‘top’ it up; I also steam some milk cupcakes to bring along.
For this rd, I decided to use orea cookies as base since most of his classmate will be under 3yrs. However, even though I have made this quite a number of times, I was still unable to ‘catch’d right timing & thus, some of d cut strawberries sunken into d cake since it's not 'frozen' long enough. I tried to ‘save’ it but d cake is alrdy in ‘unsaved’ mode. I still went ahead & ‘cover’ it up with d jello. Hopefully, none will notice it.
As for d steam cupcake, I used 2 diff flavor pkt milk for a colored effect - Strawberries & Milo. Also, this time, I top up d batter till almost overflowing & mgd to get d ‘smiling’ effect after steaming! Job Well Done!
Hayden took 1 as BF & loved it! This is really a big improvement cause he rejected d last rd of unsmiling cupcake. Hurray!!!

Raspberry Coffee Cake

Another day of trying to ‘utilise all bal ingredients’. Long, long ago, I saved this recipe on my to-dos cause I love d simplicity of it. But then, I realised I cant find d main ingredient – Bisquick mix, in d local supermkt & recipe was 'shelved'. Then last wk, for some forgotten reason, I ‘researched’ on d word Bisquick & found out what Bisquick mix is made up of! Thus, tonite, I finally get to give this simply/easy recipe a try. Of course again, I made some changes. For example, instead of a green apple, I used frozen raspberries. And because of d frozen raspberries, I reduced d milk amt to cater for d liquid that will be released from d frozen raspberries during baking.
End result – quite a bland cake, 1 can only taste a bit of saltiness here & there (although am not sure why since I only added ¾tsp of salt). D top is a bit crusty but underneath is a very soft cake. Both Hubby & MIL prefer yesterday’s peach-a-berry tart as compared to this cake. In fact, Hubby's ofc's gals thot I forgotten to put in sugar! That's how bland it was!

• 2 cups Bisquick mix*
• ½ cup low-fat milk
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup frozen raspberries (unthawed)

* replaced with 2cups flour + 3tsp bking powder + ¾tsp of salt + 2tbsp melted unsalted butter

1. Preheat oven to 190C.
2. Grease 9" round pan. Mix all ingredients & spread ½ batter onto pan.
3. Put in d raspberries & spread d rest of d batter onto of it.
4. Bake 30 mins or until golden brown, testing with a toothpick.

Peach-a-Berry tart

Another interesting recipe for me to utilize some of my bal ingredients – Peach-a-Berry pie. As usual, I made some changes in order to finish up my ingredients. Also, recipe requires 2 pie crust but I only used 1 as base, thus, my pie is kind of ‘topless’, looking more like tart than pie.
End result – a very ugly looking pie but taste GREAT! D sour taste of d raspberries adds a very nice ‘touch’ to d overall sweetness of d pie. D bal streusel topping that I added on top also added a crusty ‘bite’ to d pie, which to me, is a nice additional too. But might slice up d peaches next time in order to make it look better. Or maybe it's supposed to look so ugly, thus, d need for a 2nd crust to cover it up... mmmmm

• 1 can of halves peaches – drained
• 1 cup frozen raspberries – thawed & drained
• ½ cup white sugar
• 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 pie crust
• ½ cup Streusel Topping

1. Preheat oven to 190C.
2. Gently mix peaches & berries with sugar, flour, & cinnamon. Transfer all onto d pie crust. Sprinkle with streusel toppings be4 spreading thin slices of unsalted butter across d top.
3. Bake 50 mins in d preheated oven, until crust is golden brown.

Nutella Cheesecake w/pie crust

OMG! I have 3 blocks of Phil cream cheese to finish up within 1 wk be4 our big move back! OMG! Thus, shortlisted these 2 recipes for testing. Recipe does not required blueberries but I added whatever bal I have in my freezer to finish it up.
End result – d crust does not goes well with d cheesecake fillings cause it needs to be bake longer. Thus, will definitely need to blind bake it first if planning to use it for cheesecake fillings again. Other than that, both testers love it. In fact, Hubby took 3 slices!
Pie Crust ingredients

• 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter, chilled
• 4tbsp ice water

Whisk flour & salt in mixing bowl be4 cutting d cold butter into d mixture with a pastry blender. Stop once mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Drizzle ice water over flour tbsp by tbsp until d dough comes together. Wrap dough in plastic wrap & chill for minimum 30mins be4 rolling it out into crust base. Blind-bake it for at least 20mins @ 170C be4 adding fillings.

Cheesecake Fillings ingredients

• 1 block (250g) Philadelphia Cream cheese, softened
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp nutella
• some frozen blueberries

Whisk cream cheese & sugar until well mix. Then add egg & vanilla till well blended. Lastly, stir in nutella. Don’t over-mix so that u can c a slight marble effect. Pour fillings onto crust & tap it to even out d fillings across d crust. Bake in d pre-heated oven for 20min @ 170C. Allow to cool be putting it into d fridge for 2 hrs or overnite be4 serving.

Cinnamon Cranberries bread

As mentioned in my previous post, am trying to finish up as much bal ingredients as fast as I can be4 d big move. Thus, I modified this recipe a bit to include whatever I can ‘throw’ in.
End result - very tall & soft loaf with only a slight tangy lemon after-taste.

• 1 cup low-fat milk
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 3 cups bread flour
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 1½ tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2½ tsp yeast
• ½ cup dried cranberries
• Grated zest of 1 lemon

Put all ingredients into d ABM according to made. Select basic with light crust setting & start.

SB Marshmallow Cake_III

Hubby’s ofc gals requested for d Strawberry Marshmallow cake so I checked for ingredients. No normal UHT milk but lots of strawberry pkt milk, no red/pink color jello but got blue (berries flavour) color jello… mmm… I went ahead & made it. So here’s a diff color version of d SB MM cake (no-bake).

Blueberry Lemon Coffee Cake

Was just browsing ard d web when I chanced upon Kevin’s blog & drawn by some of his bakes. I was very interested in 1 of his BF recipe – Blueberry & Lemon Coffee cake. However, with 2 toddlers ard, am not sure if coffee cake is d right thing for them until I found out that a coffee cake does not necessarily have coffee! D name mainly suggest serving d cake with coffee! Great, since tomorrow is Sunday, I decided to give this recipe a try.
It’s really a very simple cake. However, hubby & MIL prefer me to reduce d amt of sugar so I decided to omit d toppings. Also, as mentioned in my past few bakes, I believed weather temp plays a part in d batter so instead of adding all d milk at 1 go, I pour it in part by part & stop when I feel that d batter is wet enough. So there will be some slight diff betw my ingredients as compared to d originator – Kevin’s.
End result – OMG! It tasted really GOOD! I wld actually considered this a success bake even though it’s flatter as compared against Kevin’s cake given d fact I actually used a smaller pan (8’x8’). I really love it! MIL commented that she can tasted very strong lemon but hubby brushed that aside & said it’s actually very nicely done, very light & fluffy. ;->

Ingredients:
2 cup flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
90g butter (soften)
2/3 cups sugar
2 eggs
100ml milk
1 cup wild blueberries
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

Directions:
1. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
2. Cream butter & sugar in a bowl.
3. Mix in eggs.
4. Fold d flour mixture & milk into butter/sugar mixture.
5. Fold in blueberries.
6. Pour mixture into a greased 8' x 8' baking pan. Sprinkle grated lemon rind over d top.
7. Bake in a preheated 170C oven for abt 35 mins.
note - Kevin also mentioned this coffee cake freezes well so it can easily be store away in d freezer for another time.

Yoghurt Panna cotta

I found out abt Bill Granger when I was searching for a good/easy scone recipe. After gg through some of his recipes & shows, I realised he always tries to provide simple & easy recipes to suit any novice who’s interested in learning to cook/bake. N because of that, I became a fan! So there’s another simple dessert recipe 'Yoghurt Pannacotta' from Bill Granger. I dont really know what Panna Cotta meant until I researched for it on Wikipedia. It actually & literally meant "cooked cream" in Italian.
I actually made this 2 days ago but posted-phone d posting cause am missing 1 ingredient for d topping. However, after 2 days, I still have not got d rose-water. So I decided to replace it with honey instead. It’s really a very easy dessert to prepare. Taste a little heavy (due to d cream), bit sour (due to d raspberries) & sweet (due to d honey) all at 1 mouth. Great add-on after a light meal!

• 185 ml Cream
• 55 g caster sugar
• ½ tsp Vanilla extract
• 1½ leaves Gelatine
• 250 g Honey yoghurt

1. Place cream, sugar & vanilla extract in a saucepan over a medium heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved, then just bring to the boil before removing from heat.


2. Soak gelatin leaves in cold water until soft. Squeeze out excess water & drop it into the hot cream mixture & whisk until dissolved.


3. Add yoghurt & whisk until smooth. Strain mixture through a fine sieve.


4. Divide mixture betw four 100 ml cup, cover with plastic wrap & chill for minimum 3 hours, or until just set.

Toppings

• ½ cup of frozen rasberries, thawed
• ½ tbsp icing sugar sifted
• 1 tbsp honey, runny

Place half of d rasberries in a glass bowl & crush with a fork. Stir in the icing sugar & taste for sweetness. Fold in remaining raspberries & d honey. Chill until ready to serve. To serve, place spoonfuls of the honey rasberries on top of each pannacotta & serve immediately.

Blueberries Cake

With so many good reviews on this banana cake from Baking Mum, I decided to give it a try. But instead of banana, I used blueberries since I have so much in d freezer.
As usually, even under watchful eyes, d top of d cake still got burned. ;-( But after slicing off d burned top, d inside looks ok & taste moist/soft. MIL said a bit crumpy but overall, good.

Ingredients
(1)
90g soften unsalted butter
65g brown sugar

(2) 1 Egg

(3)
25g whipping cream
½ tsp vanilla essence

(4)
125g Cake flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
110g thawed blueberries

Method:

1. Cream (1) till light & creamy.
2. Pour in egg slowly & beat till creamy.
3. Add in (3) & mix well.
4. Fold in (4) till well combined. Do Not overmix.
5. Pour into an 6" round tray & bake @ 150C for abt 45mins or till cooked.

Dried Tomato Orange loaf

Am still trying to finish up whatever bal dried pdts I have on hand & went online searching for recipes. Saw this interesting recipe & decided to give it a try. However, made some modification to use up whatever I have on hand. I also blended d dried tomatoes because Hayden don’t like to c bits in his bread.
End result – very moist loaf but cant really taste d tomatoes.

• 1 1/8 cups buttermilk
• 28g soften butter
• 2 tbsp honey
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 7g active dry yeast
• 1 orange zest grated
• 1 cup sweetened dried tomatoes

Blueberry breakfast scones

With yesterday’s cheesecake failure (well, not really failure. Just a bit wet due to d unthraw raspberries), I decided to search my to-do list for another new recipe to try out & decided on Bill Granger’s Blueberry breakfast scones. However, after reading HHB’s comments on d stickiness of d dough, I decided to made few slight modification.
Next rd, might want to increase d amt of d blueberries. But other than that, a SUPER, SUPER, SUPER EASY, SOFT & TASTY scones! We all loved it! It’s alrdy 9+pm but we all took a slice each! Another good scone recipe for keeping! T Q Bill Granger, for sharing!

Ingredients (modified)

• 250 g all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder
• A pinch of salt
• 100 g cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup whipping cream
• 1/3 cup blueberries, frozen
  

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Pulse flour, sugar, baking powder & salt in a food processor until combined.
3. Add butter & pulse until it is roughly combined.
4. Pour mixture into mixing bowl & fold in egg & cream. Gently mix in blueberries w/o breaking it.
5. Turn dough onto a baking tray & press into a 1-2cm thick circle. Cut into 8wedges to allow even baking in-&-out.
6. Bake for 20-25 mins or until golden. Served warm for best result.

Peanut butter & Raspberry Cheesecake

Never tried baked cheesecake be4 & hands r itching to give it a try. So I went recipe searching on web & found this interesting recipe for my 1st attempt. But as usual, I made some modifications due to limited/unavailable ingredients.
As u can c from d pic, d top got burned & after slicing off d burned top, there's lots of cracks on d surface of d cheesecake. Might want to use fresh raspberry cause frozen ones give out water which caused d cheesecake to be slightly runny (as seen in d pic of d inside).

Ingredients
Base

• 100g diestive biscuits, crushed into crumbs
• 43g melted butter
• 50g nutella, top with frozen raspberries

Combine biscuits with melted butter & press mixture into a 16cm spring-form cake tin. Spread nutella over biscuit base, making sure to leave ard 2cm gap all around edge. Set raspberries in d centre of d base.

Fillings

• 325g cream cheese
• 75g caster sugar
• 2 large Eggs
• 100g crunchy peanut butter

1. Set the oven to 160C. Combine biscuits with melted butter & press mixture into a 16cm spring-form cake tin.
2. Place cream cheese & sugar into blender & pulse till smooth. Add eggs & pulse again.
3. Transfer mixture to a bowl & fold in peanut butter.
4. Pour d peanut/cheese mixture over raspberries/nutella & bake for abt 1 hour or until it is set & springy.

Blueberry Streusel Scones

I really love scones & with time on hand, I decided to give this Blueberry Streusel Scones a try as tomorrow’s bf instead of bread. However, the dough came out quite wet, might be due to d unthaw blueberries, which gives out more water during mixing. Thus, it’s quite diff to knead d dough into a circle. So, I tried to pat it into my 15cm round & 5.5cm thick baking pan instead. After 20mins in d oven, with d top slightly burned, I took it out but realized d inside is still uncooked due to d thickness. So I cut it open & put it back for another 20mins. D toppings got too burned to eat but at least d inside r done.
End result – a very soft, soft tasty scone! Even through its thick, it’s very soft & not too sour at all. Hubby also liked it as he took a slice as dessert.

Streusel Topping:

• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup all purpose flour
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Cut butter into small pieces & coat with flour be4 placing all ingredients into a mini food processor. Pulses till crumbly. Note that leftover streusel can be stored in a covered container in the fridge for a few weeks.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 6 tbsp cold, unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup milk
  

1. In a large mixing bowl, sieve flour & baking powder together. Add in salt & sugar & mix them well. Cut butter into small pieces & coat with flour be4 placing them into a mini food processor. Add more flour & do 3 pulses. Then add them back into d flour & whisk ard be4 putting d flour-butter mixture into d fridge for minimum 30 mins.


2. Lightly beat d egg be4 combining with milk & vanilla extract. Remove flour-butter mixture from fridge. Gently fold in the blueberries be4 adding d liquid mixture & stir until just combined. Mixture will be sticky, moist & lumpy. Gather up the mixture & place it into a zip-lock bag. Give it a few light kneading so that it comes together to form a dough. DO NOT over work d dough. Place dough bag into fridge for abt 30mins.


3. On a lightly floured surface, dust hands with some flour & pat out d dough into 1 ½ inch thickness circle. Place dough on baking pan.


4. Sprinkle toppings onto scone & bake at preheated oven at 200degC for abt 15-20 mins or until d tops r golden brown. Remove from oven & place on a wire rack. Serve warm.


5. They should keep well overnite too. Covered & can be stored for a few days (if it last).

Blueberry Cheddar Cheese Pancakes

Having problem getting Hayden to eat again. Not sure if this is part of his growing process or what.. sigh.. Usually, he will drink a bottle of milk when he wakes up in d morning but today, after asking for d bottle, he actually didnt want to drink it. So last min, I rushed to d kitchen to check what I have in d fridge for a quick bf recipe & saw d cheddar cheese. That's when I remembered I had BH's Blueberry Cheddar Cheese pancakes recipe on my to-dos so here goes.
End result - very light & fluffy indeed! & as usually, since Hayden hate to c 'black' thingy in his food, I opt out blueberry from his spoon of batter. I only put 1 tbsp of batter for each of his pancakes & he ate 5 pieces! GREAT! Surprisingly both hubby & MIL preferred it w/o d blueberry too!

Due to d rush, I have modified d recipe abit.

• ½ cup flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• Pinch of salt & cinnamon
• 1½ tbsp sugar
• ½ cup cheddar cheese
• 1 small pkt milk (ard 110g)
• 1 egg (lightly beaten)
• 1 tbsp butter (melted, or oil)
• ¼ cup blueberries (I used frozen)

1. Put all ingredients into a big mixing bowl & whisked them together.
2. Heat up d pan & spoon batter into pan.
3. Cook till both surface is golden brown.

Sweet Scones

I love scones & when Shopoholic2802 baked some last week, I asked her for recipe to try out. Just got d recipe today but didnt have all d ingredients. However, my hands r itching to bake alrdy so I search my old files & found a scone recipe for kid, so here goes. End result - slightly hard crust but still edible scones. Hubby said quite good actually but it becomes too hard d next day to eat unless I pop it into d microwave.
Ingredients

• 225g all-purpose flour
• ¼ tsp salt
• 50g soften butter cut into pieces
• 25g sugar
• 120ml low-fat milk
• 50g sultanas

1. Pre-heat oven 220c.
2. Put flour, salt & butter in mixing bowl. Rub with fingertips till mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
3. Stir in sugar & sultanas.
4. Add milk & stir to make a smooth mixture.
5. Knead mixture till it formed a stiff dough.
6. Roll dough into 2.5cm thick circle, brush with milk.
7. Bake for abt 25mins.

Summer Berries Cheesecake (no baking)

Hubby's ofc gals requested for blueberries cheese cake & since I have some frozen summer berries left, I decided to give these 2 recipes (No-bake Cheesecake & Fluffy 2-step Ckeesecake) a try by combining them together into 1 cake (bery ambitious ;-p). Made lots of changes though..
End result – a very colorful berries cheese cake! & taste more like ice-cream cake instead. Both hubby & MIL loves it but I will need to wait till tomrw if hubby’s ofc gals share d same comments..

Base (8x8) (adapted from SB MM Cake)

• 200g digestive biscuits
• 80g melted butter

Crushed & mix well together. Press into pan & refrigerate for later use.

1st layer

• 250g cream cheese - soften
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 200g frozen summer berries
• 150ml whipping cream
• 100ml whipped cream

Blend all together till smooth be4 pouring onto d prepared base. Put into freezer for ard 15-20min.

2nd layer

• 200g cream cheese – soften
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 100ml whipped cream

Blend all together till smooth be4 pouring on top of d 1st layer. Put back into freezer for ard 15-20min.

Jello layer

• 50g jello
• 200ml water
• 2 tsp gelatin powder

Boil all till dissolved. Spoon onto cake & put back into fridge to chill.

Optional: u can place fresh fruits onto cake be4 spooning d jello layer.

SB Marshmallow cake again

Since I still have some ingredients left, I decided to finish all on d strawberry marshmallow cake again. However, after finishing d base & leaving it in d fridge, I realized I only have 90g marshmallow instead of d required 150g. But I decided to go ahead & apportion rest of d marshmallow fillings accordingly. Thus, I ended with a thinner middle layer, which actually works out fine because then, it's not as sweet as d 1st attempt. Great!

Adjusted Marshmallow filling:
90g Marshmallow
180ml UHT milk (full cream milk)
120ml Whipping cream
1.5 tsp Gelatine powder

Hokkaido Milky loaf w/ Wolfberries

This recipe really never fails me. This rd, I added a handful of wolfberries & it still never fails me. & it's still very soft on d 3rd day! :->

Strawberry Marshmallow Cake

Tomorrow is Hayden's sch end-term party & he's required to bring a dish. So I tried out this cake recipe that's been on my to-dos for d longest time. However, as there is no timing stated at all in d original web, mine 1st attempt was horrible! D marshmallow filling was not hardened enough when I pour in d jello filling! Thus, most of d jello fillings flow into d marshmallow filling, leaving behind only a very thin layer of jello to cover d sliced strawberries. So thin that some of d strawberries r sticking out! So to 'save' it, I used up d bal ½pkt jello & this time, I spooned it onto d cake & mgd to cover all d strawberries. Therefore, if u look closely at d cut cakes, u can c that some has mixed color in d marshmallow fillings.

Base:

200g digestive biscuits
80g melted butter
Crushed biscuits & mix well w/butter. Press into a 8” tin. Refrigerate for later use.

Marshmallow filling:
150g Marshmallow
300ml UHT milk (full cream milk)
200ml Whipping cream
2 tsp Gelatine powder
Put all the ingredients into a pot & boil over small fire till gelatine is dissolved.

Jello topping:
½ pkt Jello
200ml Water
2 tsp Gelatine powder
Boil all ingredients until dissolved.

Assembling the cake:
Pour marshmallow filling into d prepared baking tin w/biscuit base. Put in freezer until slightly harden but not totally frozen. Take it out & arrange sliced fresh strawberries. Put it back to freezer to harden a little. When slightly harden take it out & spoon d cooled Jello on top. Put in fridge to chill. Cut into small pieces to serve.