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.

Steam chocolate cake & brownies

Using recipes from BH’s blog, these are what I made for Hayden’s birthday party at d childcare. Not much but at least I made all of this myself... Hopefully 1 day, he’ll appreciate the amt of sleep I lost doing this for him…

Steam chocolate cake & brownies

Steam moist chocolate cake

Hayden’s birthday coming up & I decided to try out BH’s tested recipe – steam chocolate cake for his class party. For testing purpose, I halved all the ingredients & d pix reflected d result…

Colleagues LOVED it! All mentioned that it’s moist enough for them. & so, so easy to prepare!

MIlk Cupcake

As Hayden has not been feeling well past wk, thus, I decided to steam up some cupcakes for him. This rd, I added raisin to it but Hayden still preferred w/o raisin.

Mini Donuts_II

Hayden kept asking for d donuts this morning so I decided to give it another go. But this time, I made some modification to try out using self-rising flour instead of all-purpose flour. I also added thicken cream cause I do not have large egg on-hand. Success! At least half of d batch were. I think it’s mainly because I was still afraid to fill d hole too much, thus, d uneven result. But at least half looks ‘tall’ enough & even color throughout.

Adjusted ingredients

• 75g self- rising flour
• 35g sugar
• 2 tbsp coco powder
• 60ml fresh milk
• 15ml thicken cream
• 1 egg
• 2tbsp unsalted butter (melted)

Method same as previous rd.

Baked mini Donuts

Bought this donut maker during my last wk in Bkk & decided to give it a try last nite. However, as I have mis-read d recipe, d end pdt was not very good looking – flat & discolored. D recipe requested for 10ml but I have spooned only 6-7ml onto d cup because it’s alrdy overflowing to d side! Thus d flat looking donuts. But am not able to explained d 2-tone color.

But Hayden loves it! He finished 7 pieces during d walk from home to his sch!

• 75g All-purpose flour
• 35g sugar
• 2 tbsp coco powder
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 75ml fresh milk
• 1 egg
• 30g unsalted butter (melted)

1. Preheat donut maker for 5 mins.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl be4 adding d wet ingredients.
3. Stir till well mixed & smooth.
4. Fill each hole with 10ml of batter.
5. Close the lid and lock the latch.
6. Bake for 2 mins. Allow to cool & if desired, coat with icing sugar or top with jam for a sweeter version.

Chocolate Cheesecake

In 2 days time, we will be packing & moving out of Bkk! Time really flies! 3yr in Bkk (including 9mths of baking) & with no future plan of getting an oven in SG, d only regret that I have is – why I didn’t try out this Chocolate Cheesecake sooner! OMG! Hubby’s ofc gals felt that it tasted just like d cheesecake from Secret Recipes! WOW! Maybe this is really a good reason to get a new oven?

Base Ingredients

• 100g digestive biscuits, crushed
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 45g unsalted butter (melted)

Mix all well & press on d bottom of a 16cm spring form pan.

Fillings Ingredients

• 110g dark chocolate (chopped)
• 2 tbsp whipping cream
• 250g cream cheese (room temperature)
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 egg (room temperature)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Melt chocolate in the heavy cream in a double boiler.
2. In another bowl, mix cream cheese & sugar well be4 adding in d egg & vanilla extract.
3. Then fold in d chocolate mixture. If u prefer a cake with marble effect, dont overmix.
4. Pour fillings into the spring form pan.
5. Bake in a preheated 150C oven until it is set, ard 45-60 mins.

Seduction Brownies

Tomorrow is Halloween & Hayden is required to bring 1 dish to his sch party. So here I was, searching for a easy recipe to try out, when I went back to Cookie Baker Lynn’s blog. She really loves brownies & as I was browsing through, I saw a rather simple recipe that I think I shd be able to handle so here goes - Seduction Brownies.
It’s really a very easy recipe but am not sure why my brownies does not look like d original pics. At first, I thot it might be because I didn’t prepare d ganache (didn’t want d kids to get too much chcocolate). Then I realised d round baking pan might be d reason. D brownie came out with BIG cracks all around & d inside r still slightly wet. I was still trying to figure out whether to consider this a failure when Hubby happened to walk in & saw it. He’s a chocolate fan & requested for a slice so I cut 1 for him to taste. He loved it! MIL also tried a bite & find it very bitter at first, followed by a sweet taste after it has ‘flow’ down her throat. Interesting cause I have alrdy reduced d amt of sugar. Mmm….
But now with a slice in my hubby’s tummy & cracks all over it, I cant send this to Hayden’s sch. So I baked another 1, this time using d same size pan as stated in d original post – 20cm square baking pan. This time, d brownie looks so much better than d 1st attempt & there is no visible cracks on d brownie after it’s be remove from d oven! Hurray! Even though it still looks flatter as compared to d original pics but shd still be consider a success (at least to me) ;-p

Hubby's ofc gals commented d rd brownie is not soft enough. However, Hayden's sch loves d flatter brownie. So I guess I shd be baking this in d square pan next time.
115g unsalted butter
115g unsweetened chocolate chips
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup or 105g all-purpose flour
½ cup or 65g chopped almonds

1. Preheat oven to 140C. Butter an 20cm square baking dish.
2. Melt butter & unsweetened chocolate in a double boiler, stirring often.
3. Once melted, remove from heat be4 stirring in d sugar, followed by eggs & vanilla extract.
4. Fold in d flour & nuts, stirring just till incorporated. Scrape batter into prepared pan & smooth d top.
5. Bake for 25 mins. Cool completely on a wire rack be4 cutting.

Milo FunnyFaces Cookies

Was directed to this recipe by BH & decided to give it a try tonite. However, with MIL nagging abt giving d 2 toddlers too much chocolate, I decided to try replace with marshmallows instead. But what a horror when I checked d cookies 10mins into d baking process – those cookies that r stuffed with marshmallows r cracking open & marshmallows r flowing out of d dough! (pic1) Yuk!
And even after lowing d temp from 140C to 130C, I noticed that my entire 1st batch was burned only after 15mins in d oven! Argh!
So in d end, I have to throw away d entire 1st batch. For d 2nd batch, I decided to just follow d recipe & insert chocolate chips into d dough. However, I lower d temp in order to ensure no burned cookies again.

(1)
180g butter, soften at room temp
80g Milo
(2)
200g cake flour
25g corn flour
25g milk powder
(3)
100g chocolate chips
some chocolate rice
some Koko Krunch

Method:
1. Pre-heat oven to 130C. Line baking tray with baking paper and set aside.
2. Sieve (2).
3. Cream (1) be4 adding (2) to form dough.
4. Divide dough into 10g each. Put 3 chocolate chips into each piece of dough & roll into balls.
5. Prepare d faces as u c please.
6. Bake at 130C for abt 20 mins.
7. Leave to cool on wire rack before storing in an airtight container.

Brownie Bites

I was really quite disappointed with most of my bakes recently. Of course this does not included those that were baked in d ABM, which has been gg on quite well so far. I was told that most of my failures might have been due to my little understanding of d oven that I am using. Friends told me that I need to really ‘learn’ how d oven really works, that meant besides reading d manual. So nowadays, I tried to stand by d oven whenever am baking to c if I can ‘understand’ it.

N with no success in past cookies testing, I decided to give this brownie recipe from Cookie Baker Lynn’s blog a try instead. It’s a very easy recipe & I still have problem with it due to my oven. D temp is always giving me problem.

1st batch of bigger size brownies were too dry after only 10mins @ a lower temp of 150c. 2nd batch of smaller size brownies were better but still consider dry in d middle, given d fact that brownie shd be rather wet in d middle. I also reduced d amt of sugar cause we dont really like too sweet.

Am really starting to think maybe am not suitable/capable of baking anything else but bread with ABM! Sigh…

• 113g unsalted butter, cut into chunks
• 58g unsweetened chocolate bits
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• pinch of baking powder & salt
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1½ tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 150C.


2. In the saucepan, melt butter & chocolate over low heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture is smooth. Transfer mixture to a medium bowl & set aside to cool.


3. Sift flour, baking powder, & salt together into another bowl.


4. Stir sugar, eggs & vanilla extract into d cooled chocolate mixture until well combined be4 adding flour mixture. Stir until blended.


5. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling them only 2/3 full. Bake for 8-10 mins, or until set but still soft in d center, because brownies r supposed to be wet.


6. Let brownies cool in muffin cups on a wire rack for abt 10 mins, be4 removing them completely.

Chocolate chips cookies

Hayden requested for cookies 2days ago & with time on hand, I decided to give it a try today. With so many choices on web, I decided on this recipe from JoyofBaking but changed d raisin to chocolate chips instead because I have so much left over. Half all d ingredients for my 1st cookies attempt in case it didn’t turn out right.

As I dont have mixer, I used d mini food processor & it got 'burn' out after 5 pulse! OMG! Show hubby d smoke that's coming out of d processor & here's what he said "maybe it's time u go ahead & get d KitchenAid instead" YES!

Never knew baking cookies can be so easy! 1st batch was great & it came off easily from d baking pan. But for some reason unknown, had problem getting d 2nd batch off & I cracked all of them in d end(as u can c from d pic). 3rd & 4th batch were ok through. Mmmm... cant remember what I have done diff..


MIL complained why I gave such 'heaty' food to Hayden but who cares when Hayden loves it.. ;-p

Ingredients

• 1 cup (130g) all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ cup (105g) light brown sugar
• 85g unsalted butter, softened
• ½ large egg
• 30 ml low-fat milk
• ½ cup chocolate chips

Mix all well & spoon onto baking pan. Bake @ 170c for ard 10mins for each batch. Allow to cool down be4 puting into container.

Chocolate & vanilla marble cake

Really love d marble effect of this Rachel Allen's cake recipe, enough to give it a try even through I don’t have a mixer. Man! Such hard work whisking d cream, then d sugar! But I did it & end result is quite worth all d hard work trying to cream d butter by hand!

However, cant really c much of d marble effect on my cake. Guess I didn’t draw enough swirls through d cake. Also, I changed d timing & temp as my oven burned easily. () r what I have changed/replaced.

• 225g Butter, softern
• 225g Caster sugar (brown sugar)
• 4 Eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 225g Plain flour (cake flour)
• 2 tsp Baking powder
• 50ml Milk
• 50g Cocoa powder (40g only)

1. Preheat oven to 180C (160c).
2. Cream butter in a large bowl till soft. Add sugar & beat until mixture is light and fluffy.
3. Whisk eggs & vanilla extract together in a small bowl. Gradually add eggs to butter mixture, beating all the time.
4. Sift in flour & baking powder & fold in gently to mix, then add milk & mix gently to combine.
5. Tip half of the cake mixture into another large bowl & fold in sifted cocoa powder.
6. Place cake mixtures into baking pan/tin by alternating spoonfuls of d vanilla batter with d chocolate batter, then with a chopsticker or similar implement, gently draw swirls through d cake mixture to ‘marblise’ it. Don’t overmix or u won’t have that wonderful marble effect.
7. Bake in d oven for 45mins (25mins) or till a skewer inserted into d middle comes out clean.
8. Turn cake out onto a wire rack & allow to cool be4 serving.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

After trying to finish as much ingredients in d fridge for d HMB, there’s still some bal whipping cream to be utilize. So I decided on this Chocolate Chip muffin recipe to use it up. Original recipe yield 12 regular sized muffins but I split it up into lots of tiny muffins & 11 smalls.







End result - muffins didnt raise nicely but both testers (hubby & MIL) said quite soft & fluffy with crispy top due to d toppings.

• ½ cup unsalted butter, melted & cooled
• 2 large eggs
• 240ml whipping cream
• 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cups white sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Topping (mix together):

• 1 tbsp white sugar
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

1. In a bowl whisk together eggs, milk, & vanilla extract.
2. In another large bowl shift together flour, sugar, baking powder, & salt.
3. Stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Then fold wet ingredients into dry with a rubber spatula, along with the melted butter.
5. Stir only until ingredients r combined. Do Not over mix or muffin will turn out tough.
6. Fill pre-line muffin cups with batter & sprinkle a little topping on each muffin.
7. Place in pre-heated oven & bake @ 180C for abt 15-18mins.
8. Move to a wire rack & let cool for abt 5 mins be4 removing from muffin cups.

Mayonnaise Chocolate Cake

I have always wanted to try this recipe from BH's blog & today, I finally have d time to do it. I think d cake collapsed during baking cause when I removed d aluminum foil, I saw a big hollow gap. But when I turn it over to remove from pan, it's looks GREAT from opp view.. sigh.. guess I need to try this again..

Ingredients

• 110g mayonnaise
• 125ml buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 120g all-purpose plain flour
• 20g cocoa powder
• 1-1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
• 110g brown sugar

Method
1.Line a 7" square baking tin with parchment paper (no need to grease).
2.Sift flour, cocoa & bicarbonate soda together.
3.Put sugar & d sifted flour mixture into a bowl.
4.In a separate bowl, mix d mayo, vanilla essence & buttermilk till smooth.
5.Add mayo mixture to d flour & mix till d batter is smooth.
6.Pour mixture into pan & bake at 160 deg C for 20-25 mins.

Cocoa Muffins w/Yogurt

Need to finish up d last cup of yogurt & decided to give this recipe a try. Original recipe asked for ¼cup cocoa powder. But I made a BIG mistake sieving ¾cup cocoa powder instead! So to make up for d diff, I omitted d ½cup chocolate chips instead.
End result – looks horrible (similar to my first 2 attempts) but not sweet at all! Good enough to share with Hayden’s teachers & Hubby’s ofc ;->

1¾ cup All-purpose flour
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
¾ cup brown sugar
¾ cup cocoa powder
100g butter, melted
1 egg
1 cup plain yoghurt
½ cup milk
½ tsp vanilla essence

Method
1) Preheat oven at 180C
2) Sieve flour, bicarbonate soda & cocoa powder together. Stir in sugar.
3) Beat egg & vanilla essence be4 adding in all d wet ingredients into flour mixture.
4) Fold till batter is dampened, but not smooth.
5) Spoon batter evenly into lined/greased muffin tray.
6) Bake for 20 mins or till skewer comes out clean.

Brownie cupcake

Saw what Shopoholic2802 did with her left-over batter & decided to give it another go since my 1st attempt failed. I half all d stated ingredients in Blessed Homemaker's recipe & baked it for only 30mins @ 160c. Am I glad I took it out after 27mins cause d top is starting to blacken. Result not as smooth as Shopoholic2802's but still taste as good.

• 90g melted butter
• 90g brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 60g self-raising flour
• 35g cocoa powder

1. Mix melted butter w/brown sugar till well combined;
2. Add in eggs 1 at a time, mixing well. Stir in vanilla essence;
3. Fold in flour & cocoa powder till smooth;
4. Pour batter into pan & bake in preheated oven @ 170C for 40mins or till cooked.

Brownie

Past 2 days were buzy cause Hayden had fever & thus lots of running ard. He’s finally well enough to go school today, thus, I thot I give this recipe that I saw from my friend’s blog a try. However, I half all d ingredients & omit d cream cheese filling. Instead, I put marshmallows on top. Big mistake cause end result looks horrible, BUT, taste really great!

• 180g melted butter
• 270g brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 120g self-raising flour
• 70g cocoa powder
• Some marshmallows
  

1. Mix melted butter with brown sugar until well combined.
2. Add in eggs, one at at ime, mixing well after each addition. Stir in vanilla essence.
3. Gently fold in flour and cocoa powder and stir till smooth.
4. Pour brownie batter into loaf pan, sprinkle top with marshmallows.
5. Bake in preheated oven 170C for 40 min.s or until cooked.