Pumpkin Chocolate Cake

Now that both my kids are attending school, I find myself baking more, especially muffins and cakes - since they make great school snacks and afternoon tea. 

The easiest, quickest, 2-ingredient Homemade Chocolate Sauce; and Homemade Milkshake

We've been having a heatwave of late.  It's been scorching hot in the last two weeks, so I thought of making some cold milkshake for the kids as a treat, especially when they come back from their evening playtime in the park.

Easy Desserts Back-to-Back: Recipe 2 - Avocado and Durian Smoothie

I first discovered this ultra yummylicious drink at a Vietnamese restaurant in Adelaide last year. 

A good friend of mine took us to this no-frills, cheap-and-good eatery in the suburbs for some good pho and I ordered this drink.  It just knocked my socks off! SO GOOD!  How did it take me this long to discover that avocado and durian can turn out to be such a heavenly union?


Avocado and Durian Milkshake
Serves 2

• 1 ripened avocado
• 1/2 cup of sweet durian flesh (best to use D2 or D24)
• 3 Tbspn condensed milk
• 1 cup of ice cubes
• Water

Method

1. Add all the ingredients into a high powered blender (strong enough to crush ice) and blend until smooth and creamy. Serve immediately.

 

 

Easy Desserts Back-to-Back: Recipe 1 - Caramelised Bananas with Gula Melaka on Hot Waffles

Now that my kids are older, they've been regularly requesting for dessert after dinner *gasp*. 

I've had to put on my thinking cap to come up with some simple desserts that the whole family can enjoy.  This is one of the easy desserts that i make regularly. 

Caramelised Bananas with Gula Melaka on Hot Waffles
Serves 2

This fusion, western-local recipe marries the sweetness of pisang emas with gula melaka on toasty hot waffle for an all round family friendly dessert.  For extra indulgence, top it with a scoop of vanilla icecream.

• 2 medium size ripened pisang emas
• 2 pieces of store bought waffle, lightly toasted
• A knob of butter
• 1/2 tbspn brown sugar
• 3 Tbspn of chopped gula melaka
• 1 Tbspn of chopped nuts (walnut / pecan / roasted peanuts

Method

1. Cut the banana into chunks. Melt the butter in a pan and add the brown sugar.  Once the sugar starts to caramelize, add the bananas and swirl quickly to just soften and coat them with the mixture.  Set aside.  
2. Melt the gula melaka in a small saucepan and let it cool.  I usually make extra to keep for other uses as well.
3. Top the waffle with the bananas, sprinkle the chopped nuts and drizzle the gula melaka on top.  Serve immediately.

 

Custard Puffs with Lemon Custard Filling

Ever since I bought my new oven - a full size, free standing Zanussi - I've been on a baking spree.

Fluffy Banana Pancakes

You must be thinking - not another banana pancake recipe again!

Ipoh's 3 best desserts

Ipoh folks love their local desserts with a passion. The fact that there is even a street called Tong Sui Kai (Desserts Street) attests to this.

 

Apple Tarte Tatin Deconstructed

I am a fan of all things baked with apples; and am constantly on the lookout for easy recipes using this fruit.

Banana and Chocolate Kuih Bingka

A few weeks ago I was craving for banana chocolate cakes.  Yeah, not just banana cakes or chocolate cakes.  It HAS to be a banana chocolate cake.

Easy Brownies with AMC Cookware

The more I use my AMC Cookware, the more I love how fuss-free it makes my cooking.  Nowadays I hardly use my non-stick pans or my electricity-guzzling oven or even my regular pressure cooker. 

Durian Mini Muffins - Bake Along's 2nd Anniversary

We had a small tub of durians left, so i decided to make a cake with it.  I had originally wanted to make this Durian Yogurt Cake, but realised I didn't have yogurt and enough eggs.  Too lazy to run out to the minimart nearby, so I googled around abit and found this easy muffin recipe.

Avocado Back-to-Back : Avocado Mousse with Gula Melaka

 

This dessert is really bad for me.  It combines four of my favourite ingredients, so I ended up eating triple double portion.  I go weak at gula melaka, so I kept stealing extra spoonfuls to flood my mousse.  If Gasing Hill was next to my house, I could have sprinted up and down the entire track several times just on a sugar high LOL!

Easy Homemade Durian Icecream

I made this a few weeks ago in anticipation of the dwindling durian season.

Sweet Seaweed Soup with Red Dates and Longan

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you can look back at 2012 with fondness at the good things that have happened, and learned from the not-so-good things that took place.  Indeed we look forward to better things in 2013 - good health and safety, successes and achievements, more great recipes (mustn't forget that!) and for us Christians, a closer walk with Jesus. 

Righto! I thought it would be nice symbolically to start my first post on the first day of this new year with something sweet - a classic Chinese sweet soup/"tong sui" with red dates, dried longan and seaweed. 

You might ask - seaweed?

Yeah, think of it as a more cost effective alternative to bird nest ;P  Beauty food really - packed with calcium and collagen.  I recently did another post on using this white seaweed from East Malaysia - check it out here

Sweet Seaweed Soup with Red Dates and Longan

• 120g seaweed, rinsed weight (very small handful is sufficient, it will expand once soaked)
• 20 jumbo red dates, deseeded
• 1/2 cup dried longan, rinsed
• 200g rock cane sugar
• 1.8 litre filtered water

1.  Soak the seaweed for about 3 hours, changing water 3-4 times until there is no briny or fishy smell.  Snip into short pieces.

2.  Bring the water to a boil, add in the red dates and longan and turn down to simmer for about 30min.  Use the back of a ladle to flatten the red dates to release more flavour.

3.  Add the cane sugar and simmer until it has completed melted.

4.  Finally add the seaweed, bring to a quick boil and switch off the fire.  Let the soup rest for about 15min before serving.

Christmas Menu: Dessert - Browned Butter Brownies with Baileys

I called these the 4B Brownies because there are 4 Bs in the description - Browned Butter Brownies with Baileys.  If you love brownies that are super fudgey and moist, then you are gonna SWOON over these babies.  They are superb!

Lemon Yogurt Cake with Lemon Glaze

This is a no-frills, comfy cake that's perfect for a lazy afternoon tea, as a simple dessert or to bring to an informal gathering of friends or family.  Totally understated. 

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

If you have been following my blog for a while, you would know that I am no baker.  I'm better at cooking dishes than baking cakes and pastries. 

They say baking is a science.  It works on precise measurements and temperature.  Tamper with it, and you will be courting disaster.

Easy Chocolate Sauce

After I made my banana sorbet, it occurred to me that it would be nice to have it with some chocolate sauce.  I went looking for a bottle in the supermarket, but the only brand that i like was Hershey, and it was quite pricey.  So I thought, maybe I can try to make my own.

Banana Sorbet - Can't Get Any Simpler Than This

This is truly a one ingredient recipe, believe it or not. 

Chocolate and Irish Cream Frozen Yogurt

Did i hear you said "Decadent!"?

Yea, my thoughts exactly :)

Then again, adding yogurt balances the health scale somewhat, especially since I made it with my homemade yogurt.  So this is really a decadently healthy dessert.  A classic oxymoron, if there is one.