Xmas Brownies Cupcakes

X'mas is around the corner and I always like preparing goodies bags and small gifts for my friends. And this time around, I decided to bake my favourite cocoa brownies in cupcake form and top each brownies with x'mas mini ornaments. (For recipe of cocoa brownies, you can go to my brownies category.)

I love this mini x'mas ornaments. My friends were thrilled when they each received a brownies cupcake.

Yummy goodies bags. One can never go wrong when you fill the whole bag with sweet treats. :)

Thank you for visiting my blog and take time to go through my blog articles. I wish that everyone has a wonderful Christmas! And no, I will not stop baking because it is always a joy when I bake. And whoever you are, baking does heighten one's mood. If you wish  to unwind, bake. Sharing your bakes means sharing your joy too. I will learn one new recipe and post it here before 2011 makes it departure for 2012.

Joyeux Noel !!

Egg Tarts

Finally, I got my lazy self to bake again. And yes, I get down to bake egg tarts. I love egg tarts. Be it Singapour version ou HK version. The latter definitely tastes better. This is my first attempt, so I was rather nervous. Studying recipes is a necessity for me as I do not wish to fail badly ( but I was prepared to fail  since it was my first attempt). Thankfully, I chanced upon Auntie Yochana's recipe for ET.

And yes, this egg tart recipe is definitely a keeper!!! However, my ETs are definitely not a looker. :)

I got up early in the morning on Saturday to prepare the ingredients for my ET.  Reason being I wanted to bring my fresh bakes for my classmates in my french class. And I am so glad that they enjoyed the tarts. Not trying to say that I bake well but rather, the recipe is awesome. However, I find that I still have quite abit of custard filling leftovers, so I got to make extra dough.

Recipe:
Ingredients:
Pate Sucree:
125 gm. Butter - chilled ( I use lurpak unsalted butter)
60 gm. icing sugar
1/2 egg white
1 egg yolk
200 gm. plain flour
1/2 tsp. vanilla essence
Egg Custard:
280 gm. fresh milk
160 gm. sugar ( I reduced to 130gm )
3 eggs
1 tsp. rum (I omitted)
1/2 tsp. vanilla essence
Method:
(1) For pate sucree: beat butter and icing sugar till well-mixed.
(2) Add in white and yolk and mix.
(3) Add in vanilla essence and then the flour and mix into a dough. Rest for 10 mins. Press dough into small tart moulds.
(4) Bake the tart shell till half-cooked.
(5) For egg custard, heat sugar and milk together. Once sugar dissolves, off heat.
(6) Whisk eggs and pour into the milk mixture. Do not whisk till frothy.
(7) Add in vanilla essece.
(8) Sift the egg custard and pour into tart moulds and bake at 175C for 20 mins  or till egg custard sets.

I will bake this again and before I do that, I am going to buy egg tart moulds. For egg tart lovers, do give this a try. Pardon my ugly looking tarts, but they do taste yummy!!! This is a fairly easy bake. Enjoy!!

Updated photo on 4/11/11:

Bought aluminium foil tart moulds. Now, my egg tarts looked decent now. :)

White chocolate cheesecake

Bonjour, ça fait long temps! Finally, I'm back to baking. Yes, finally. Aujourd'hui, je vous propose chocolat blanc fromage au gateau. J'ai mangé une delice chocolat blanc fromage au gateau dans un restaurant dernière vendredi soir.

Je ne peux pas trouve chocolat blanc, alors j'ai acheté hershey's white chocolates with cookies bits.

Recette de Kraft

I tweaked the recipe. I always prefer oreo base. I used digestive biscuits only when I make no-baked cheesecake. I find the cheesecake a little too sweet, I will use less sugar next time since white chocolate is already sweet on its own. Bon apetit! :)

Happy 2nd Birthday!!

Oui, c'est bonne anniversaire de ma blog! Aujourd'hui, il a deux ans. Je suis très desolée pour pas baking depuis aout. Je suis occupé avec travail et plus travail. J'écrive en français parce que je apprends français. Mon français n'est pas bonne mais pas de probléme.

J'apprenais français pour onze mois et je suis toujours amoureuse de la langue. J'adore aller l'ecole, mes camarades de classe et mon professor. I love french, yes, I said before. However, french always got me confused. There are always exceptions. Pourquoi il  y a des exceptions? J'aime français mais je n'aime les exceptions!!!

I will bake soon if I don't get too busy at work. I started this blog for the love of baking and I got hooked since. I hope to write more articles on my baking adventures and one day in better french. Last but not least, I am happy to know really sweet blog friends who are generous to share their lovely recipes on their blogs and constantly visiting my blog. Life is good. Merci beaucoup pour visiter mon blog.

Bonne journée, bisous
Corine

Dîner français

24 Septembre 2011: Après ma classe le samedi soir, mes camarades et moi sommes allés dîner à Le Bon Marche; restaurant français. J'ai dit à mes camarades de classe, " Parler français et parler un peu anglais dans le restaurant! Tu ne peux pas manges si tu parles beaucoup anglais..." Haha, tu sais quoi, notre français ne sommes pas bonne. On parle plus anglais que français à la fin. Nous nous sommes amusés.

Complimentary Foie gras

Lamb shank avec vin rouge.

Apple Tart Tatin

Molten chocolate cake. Il est pas mal mais très cher.

Dîner était bon. Mes camarades sont droles! Nous visitons autre restaurants français la prochain fois.

Vacances: Hong Kong

J'ai allé pour vacances à Hong Kong en Septembre avec ma famille. J'ai resteé dans l'hotel de Metropark Kowloon. J'adore beaucoup beaucoup HK. I love the food and enjoys shopping there especially during summer time.

Wong Tai Sin Temple: a very popular et famous temple with the locals and tourists.

We went HK during the mid-autumn festival. These are the country's festive's decorations; gigantic lanterns. Aren't they beautiful? I felt like a kid all over again. :) 

This is the traditional red bean cake. I'm not a fan of it but I don't a piece.

Typical breakfast on a normal day in HK. I wanted to go to some popular eatery for breakfast but it was closed for a few days due to mid-autumn festival. What a shame! So, we settled for a normal and not that nice set meal.  

Roasted goose, something I will never miss when I am in HK. I will bring my friends for a roasted goose dinner as we do not have goose in Singapour but duck.

My favourite dim sum restaurant: Maxim's Palace

Gongcha: Green tea bubble tea with pearls. Popular drinks with locals and me!!!

Bought a pair of platforms and wedges. Very comfy.

The clothes I bought at H&M. They can last me till next year. :)

I guess I enjoyed myself to the fullest this time round. I had a great company; i.e. my family. So, visit Hong Kong if you have not.

Brownies pour mes amis

Bonjour mes amis!! J'adore faire cuire mais je suis très très occupé parce que de travail dernières semaines. Ce samedi, j'ai dejeuner avec mes classmates et mon professeur: J'apportais brownies (recette ici). Je faisais ça ce samedi matin avant ma classe. C'était mon anniversaire, alors mes classmates ont chanté 'Happy Birthday' pour moi en français!!! Je suis très très heureuse!!!

:

Quel delice! Mon classmate et professeur faisaient délicieux pains mais j'ai oublié prendre les photos.

Cadeau de mon ami pour ma bonne anniversaire... Le chien orange est mignon!!!

Bonne Dimanche Mes Amis!!!!

Gâteau marbré

Ce dimanche soir, je vous propose une recette: Gâteau marbré.J'aime beaucoup ça. Cette recette est facile. Je prends la recette d'ici.

Bon appetit!

Shortbread cookies II

Salut tout le monde! Aujourd'hui, je vous propose shortbread cookies (SC). J'aime beaucoup cette recette, la texture est granuleuse et fondre dans votre bouche. Mes amis et famille aiment les cookies aussi. Tu peux trouve cette recette ici. Lurpak beurre est le meilleur pour faire des biscuits mais très cher!!! J'espère que je peux  écrire plus en français la prochaine fois. 

Bon appétit

Double chocolate chips cookies

Avant je continuez, je veux dire, Happy Father's Day! pour mon père who did a great job for bringing my siblings and me up, always making sacrifices for the family. Merci beaucoup Dad, without you, I wouldn't be what I am now. Without you, I wouldn't have the luxury to travel around the world, and obtained my tertiary education. There are many more countless great things you have done for me where there is no way I can finish penning in this post. Thank you, Dad and I am so blessed that you're my parent. I love you, Dad.

Aujourd'hui, je vais cuire faire double chocolate chips cookies. Ma préféré, le favori de ma mère et le favori de tout le monde qui a la dent sucrée.

Recipe:


- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
-1/2 cup fine sugar, sifted
- 1 egg, room temperature
-1/4 cup brown sugar, sifted
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1 pinch of salt
- 3/4 cup plain flour, sifted
-1/4 cup corn flour, sifted
-1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips ( I use ghiradelli choco chips)
-1/3 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)


1. Pre-heat oven to 180 deg celsius. In a mixing bowl, place both sugars, egg, butter, vanilla extract and mix well.

2. Add in salt, plain flour, corn flour and cocoa powder to the mixture in (1) and mix well. Mix in  in chocolate chips and walnuts. Drop by spoonfuls of teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheet. Place the cookie dough in the oven and bake for 15mins. Leave the cookies to cool completely before eating them. Enjoy!! 

Sablés viennois

Today I wanted to bake sablés viennois (viennese shortbread "SV"). I noted there is a difference in typical shortbread cookies and viennese shortbread from the various recipes I found online. For SV, we add egg whites, but in other shortbread cookies, we don't. I like my cookies to have a strong buttery taste like danish butter cookies and eggless too. My family prefers SV because they are not too sweet. 

Pour une trentaine de sablés : (recipe adapted from Pierre Hermé)

225 g de farine ( I used self-raising flour, parce que je n'ai pas plain flour)

190 g de beurre bien mou

75 g de sucre glace

30 g de blanc d'œuf

2 pincées de fleur de sel

1/4 de cuillère à café de vanille en poudre 

Dans le bol de votre robot, travailler le beurre bien mou avec le sucre glace, le sel, la vanille et le blanc d'œuf jusqu'à obtenir une crème onctueuse. Ajouter alors la farine et dès que celle ci est incorporée, arrêter de travailler la pâte. Transvaser l'appareil dans une poche munie d'une grosse douille cannelée et dresser vos sablés en forme de "S" sur une plaque tapissée de papier cuisson. Cuire 12 à 15 min à 180 C° et laisser refroidir sur une grille !

Enjoy!

Muffins aux bananes

Voici la recette de muffins aux bananes. J'aime gâteau à la banane. Il y a une différence entre les muffins aux bananes et gâteau à la banane? Un peu, je pense. Il n'est pas très important, les deux sont tout aussi délicieuses. Les muffins sont doux et humide. Très bonne!!

Cette recette est un gardien! Bon apetit!!

Recette adapted from Cat Can Cook:

Banana Muffins (makes 12 muffins)

-3 or 4 Large bananas, mashed (the more bananas the moister, I use 6 small ones)
-1/2 cup white sugar 
-1 slightly beaten egg
-1/3 cup melted margarine or butter ( I used Lurpak unsalted butter)
-1 teaspoon baking soda (I didn't have baking soda, so I substituted with 2 tsps of BP)
-1 teaspoon baking powder 
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1 1/2 cups flour (I used plain flour or all-purpose flour)

Mix the mashed banana, sugar, egg and margarine together. Set aside. In a separate bowl, mix together baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour. Mix wet and dry ingredients all together. Pour into greased muffin tins, and bake in 350 degrees F oven for approximately 20 minutes. 

Brownies cheesecake

Bonjour mes amis! Je suis vraiment désolé. J'ai été très occupé dernièrment et n'a pas eu le temps de cuisson. Aujourd'hui, je vais faire cuire brownies cheesecake. J'aime brownies et j'aime aussi cheesecake. Et toi? 

Bon apetit!

Recette:

Ingrédients:

Brownies battre- (adapted from Food Network)

250g beurre ( I used Golden churn), melted

Half cup plain flour, sifted

1 cup cocoa powder, sifted

3/4 cup tightly packed brown sugar, sifted

1/2 cup fine white sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 eggs

Cheesecake battre- (adapted from All Recipes)

1 package / 8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup fine white sugar

3/4 cup milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp plain flour

1 egg

1/2 cup sour cream

1. Pre-heat oven at 160deg celsius. Melt the butter and set aside.

2. Beat the eggs till pale yellow and foamy. Add both sugars, plain flour, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, melted butter and mix well. Pour the mixture into the baking tray and set aside.

3.In a large bowl, mix cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Blend in milk, and then mix in the eggs one at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate. Mix in sour cream, vanilla and flour until smooth. Pour the cheesecake mixture on top of the brownies batter and bake for 45mins. Cool completely and chill in the fridge until under serving. 

Chocolat macarons

Aujourd'hui, je vais faire cuire les macarons au chocolat. J'ai mangé mon macarons première fois à Paris. Faire macarons sont difficiles. La première fois, j'ai échoué. La deuxième fois, j'ai réussi. Je suis très heureux. Pardon, mon français n'est pas bon. :)

Bon appetit!

La recette est prise à partir d'ici (Pure Gourmandise). Bonne semaine mes amis et à bientôt!!

Carrot Cake Again

Yes, I made carrot cake (CC) again at the request of a good friend, M. M tried the CC I made some time back and wanted a whole cake for her family. She doesn't want too big a cake, so I made her a single layer cake for her. However, the CC batter allowed me to fill two cake trays where I used one square and one round baking tray. You can find the recipe here.

Square carrot cake

Round carrot cake. I used the bottom of the cake as the top as the surface is more even.

Yum... cream cheese frosting!!!

Now it looks even more yummylicious with the topping of walnuts pieces. :) Enjoy!!