Bonjour Paris!
Oui, Je suis dans Paris. Je reste dans un hôtel à la Gare du Nord maintenant. My basic french is really basic. A gauche, a droite, continuez tout droite helps me alot. Also BOnjour, merci beaucoup, pour aller etc... I wish I know more french. Oh well, another 1 yr of french lessons should do me good.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Bonjour Paris!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Carrot cake II
I made carrot cake again. This time round I made a square shaped CC. The height of the cake is lower than the round bake pan I used to bake CC the previous occasion. It seems to me cakes somehow look more yum when they r tall and round shaped. Personal opinion.
I am elated when I saw the baked square CC. I added more walnuts too. I understand that some carrot cakes included raisins but I omitted them. I prefer raisins on their own. I baked CC on Tuesday evening because I want to make a petite size CC ( by cutting the big square into small squares) for one of my good friends (always so supportive), May to celebrate her coming birthday on 3th Dec 2010. The recipe is adapted from Joy of Baking, which can be found in my earlier post on carrot cake.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Piped butter cookies
What can one do on a Friday evening? If I'm not out on a friday night, I may bake/ watch my favourite Hong Kong drama/ small talk with my parents. And today I decided to bake. Yes, bake!!! My friends like to say there are 101 ways to get from home to town. Likewise for baking. Same type of ingredients may allow you to create more than one type of desserts.
RECIPE adapted from: A Baker's Videoblog (tweaked slightly)
Ingredients:
2 cups of plain flour/all purpose flour (sifted)
3/4 cup of icing sugar (sifted)
2 tsp of vanilla extract
250g unsalted butter cut into cubes ( I used President brand for a change )
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Line baking tray with greaseproof paper.
2. Cream butter in mixer till fluffy. Sift icing sugar over butter, followed by flour. Mix. Add vanilla essence and mix till combined.
3. Pipe circular shapes onto baking trays. Optional: Place pineapple filling in the middle of the shapes.
4. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes till cookies are light golden brown. Allow cookies to cool.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Happy Birthday Koffie!!
Made a birthday cake for my good friend's dog, Koffie. I made sure the ingredients used were fit for its diet. I tried the cake and it tasted alright. Haha... Slightly more bland than the normal cakes we ususally have, still, it is edible. I baked peanut butter carrot cake with low fat cream cheese frosting. I hope Koffie will like the cake I baked for it.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Mon premiere lecon in Francaise
Bonjour! J'ai mon premiere lecon de francaise last Samedi. Mon francaise professeur est tres bonne. Ok, I tried my best in writing french without using goggle translation. It was really fun learning french with my classmates. Mon professeur taught us to sing 'ABCDEFG....XYZ' in french. Very cool I think. Everyone had a good laugh.
So, what did I learn? Je suis Singapourienne. Je m'apelle Corine. C-O-R-I-N-E. J'habite a' ..... Une, deux, trois....etc. It is fun. Really is. I hope to learn more vocabulary and write a simple article in French in no time.
Merci et à bientôt.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Prix
Friday, October 22, 2010
Le Petite Nicolas
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Carrot Cake
3/4 pound (340 grams) raw carrots (about 2 1/2 cups finely grated)
2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups (300 grams) granulated white sugar
1 cup (240 ml) safflower, vegetable or canola oil (or other flavorless oil)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Frosting:
1/4 cup (57 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
8 ounces (227 grams) cream cheese, room temperature
2 cups (230 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon (4 grams) pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (outer yellow skin)
Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Butter or spray two - 9 x 2 inch (23 x 5 cm) cake pans and line the bottoms of the pans with a circle of parchment paper.
Toast the pecans or walnuts for about 8 minutes or until lightly browned and fragrant. Let cool and then chop coarsely.
Peel and finely grate the carrots. Set aside.
In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and ground cinnamon. Set aside.
In bowl of electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the eggs until frothy (about 1 minute). Gradually add the sugar and beat until the batter is thick and light colored (about 3 - 4 minutes). Add the oil in a steady stream and then beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated. With a large rubber spatula fold in the grated carrots and chopped nuts. Evenly divide the batter between the two prepared pans and bake 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. After about 5 -10 minutes invert the cakes onto the wire rack, remove the pans and parchment paper, and then cool completely before frosting.
To assemble: place one cake layer, top side down, onto your serving plate. Spread with about one third of the frosting. Gently place the other cake, top of cake facing down, onto the frosting, and spread the rest of the frosting over the top and sides of the cake. If desired, press toasted and finely chopped nuts on the sides of the cake and decorate the top of the cake with marzipan carrots (see below). Cover and refrigerate any leftovers.
Serves 10 - 12.
Cream Cheese Frosting: In bowl of electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the cream cheese and butter, on low speed, just until blended with no lumps. Gradually add the sifted powdered sugar and beat, on low speed, until fully incorporated and smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract, and lemon zest.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Bite size cookies
Ingredients--
- 250gm Lurpak unsalted butter
- Half cup granulated sugar
-3/4 cup packed brown sugar
-2 eggs
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (sifted)
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1 teaspoon cream of tar tar
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3.Bake for about 13 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Love the sweet gestures
Celebrated my birthday last week with my family, close friends and colleagues. Received really nice presents and was given birthday lunch/ dinner treats during my birthday week.
Monday, August 16, 2010
I am back!!
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Checkerboard Cake (Almost...)
Friday, July 2, 2010
Danish butter cookies
I made danish butter cookies again and with more shaped cookies cutters. Recipe can be found under Christmas Shortbread cookies. Simply love cookies cutters.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Butter Pound Cake
I have been watching almost every WC (World Cup) match except to miss a few (which I'm glad I miss those disappointing ones). I tried not to deprive myself of beauty sleep because of WC unless it is my Favourite Team; i.e. Brazil team playing. I waited 4 years to watch them play, no way am I gonna miss their matches. Having a slightly overdose of WC matches watching, I decided I should bake during one of my non-favourite teams WC time slot. And I decided to bake Butter pound cake. High calories count but make a nice comfort food choice.
- 1.5 cup of granulated sugar (fine white sugar), sifted
- 125g or 1 stick butter
- 1.5 cup of plain flour, sifted twice
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup buttermilk (since my nearest supermarket doesn't sell heavy cream, I don't see any damage of excluding heavy cream)
-1/2 teaspoon of lemon essence
-1/2 teaspoon of almond essence
-1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1. Pre-heat the oven at 170 degree celsius. Cream the butter and sugar till fluffy.
2. Add the buttermilk and mix until just incorporate into the butter mixture.
3. Add one egg at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Add all the flour all at one go and add the lemon essence, almond essence and vanilla extract and mix well.
5. Pour the batter into the baking pan and bake for 1 hr to 1hr 20mins or until a toothpick is inserted in the center comes out clean. Leave to cool completely before serving.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Happy Birthday G!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
World Cup 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
Hong Kong 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Banana Cake
- 1 tablespoon baking soda ( since I used SR flour, i omitted baking soda)
- 1 pinch salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup white sugar ( I use 3/4 cup)
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar (I use 1/2 cup)
- 2 eggs
- 4 ripe bananas, mashed -
- 2/3 cup buttermilk **
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
**For buttermilk, I substituted with 1 tbsp of lemon juice and 3/4 cup of low fat milk or any milk. You can make your own buttermilk. Prevent wastage of store bought ones and you can save some money too. =)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 - 8 inch round pans. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter, white sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in the bananas. Add flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk to the creamed mixture. Stir in chopped walnuts. Pour batter into the prepared pans.
Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes ( it took me 50mins for my banana cake to bake, so do check on your bake after 30mins for doneness). Remove from oven, and place on a damp tea towel to cool.