Non-Bake Matcha Tofu Cheesecake 免烤抹茶豆腐芝士蛋糕

Made this cake for this year's Mother's Day and my 90-year-old grandmother loves it. As she is on a soft diet, this cake was easy for her to swallow as it literally melts in the mouth.

Ombre Rose Cake for my 13th wedding anniversary

This is the second year that I have made a wedding anniversary cake for myself and hubby. Last year, I made a red dragonfruit non-bake cheesecake for the occasion as I had just started baking not long and could only do something simpler.

Ombre Petal Cake

Shortly after my friend Annie ordered a birthday cake for her son's birthday, if you could remember that I did a Charlotte cake for that occasion. She ordered another birthday cake from me, this time for her daughter who was turning 4 years old. Again, she specified that no chocolate to be used.


As I have just attempted an Ombre Rose Cake, I wanted to challenge myself further by doing an Ombre petal cake this time. This is definitely more challenging and takes a longer time to do. To be able to concentrate doing this without any disturbances from my kids, I chose to decorate the cake in the wee hours after they have gone to bed.

I am happy to be alone doing something which I enjoy even if I have to sacrifice my sleep. The piping of the petals is not as straight forward as the rose design. After each single pipe, I have to use a small spatula to swipe across horizontally before I pipe again. This is more tedious and I was also racing against time as the cream was melting fast due to the extra step and becomes difficult to pipe. I had to run to the fridge to chill the cream time after time. Felt a sign of relief when I finally completed the cake hours later. However, I do need to improve in this piping skill as you can see it was not done perfectly.

I chose an orange theme as it is the birthday girl's favourite colour. A little unusual as I always thought pink would be the choice instead. :p

Am glad that it was well received again and scored high on its look and colour. Most important the birthday girl was very happy with the cake and I was glad to make her day special. :)

© Copyright 2013 bakingtaitai.blogspot.sg

Red bean paste steam buns & Char Siew Bao (Roasted pork steam buns) 豆沙包 / 叉烧包




第一次做包子，还可以吗？

喜欢烘培的我，偶尔也想尝试做些中式点心。之前在网上看过大同小异的包点食谱，但都有使用白油。 我本身比较不喜欢用白油，所以至到最近看到不用白油的包子食谱，就把之前收集的食谱拿来比较一下。参考之后，混合一些部份，就做了以下的食谱。第一次做，选择了比较容易包的豆沙包， 也是我女儿最爱的包子，味道还不错！可是，喜欢叉烧包的小儿子，就在一旁呱呱叫，说妈妈不公平，只做了姐姐喜欢的口味。所以为了安抚他，就说妈妈下一次一定会做叉烧包给他吃。为了不让他等太久，一个礼拜后就履行我的诺言。叉烧包不比豆沙包容易，因为豆沙馅我是买现成的，叉烧馅就要自己准备了。还有包法也比较有挑战性。 我觉得这次不是包的很美，需要多加练习。你们可以上youtube找一找‘如何包包子’的视频，看着学习。

Besides baking, I like to make Chinese Tim Sum too. I have wanted to make steam bao for long but those recipes which I had come across use shortening. It is one ingredient which I prefer not to use. Recently, I saw a bao recipe which does not use shortening at all. I refer to the bao recipes I have on hand and came up with the following recipe. My first attempt was Tao Sa Bao (Red bean paste steam bun) which my daughter loves and the second attempt was my son's favourite Char Siew Bao. 

Digestive Cake with Cranberry & Chocolate Chips

As I have a packed of opened McVities Digestive biscuits in my fridge which was expiring soon, I decided to make a cake out of it. I  recalled a Digestive cake recipe which my friend Joyce shared with me some time ago. This cake has a drier texture, my girl likes it but I prefer a moist cake, will try adding more milk if I bake this again.

Baking Taitai's Breadmaker basic loaf recipe 烘培太太面包机的基本面包配方 (中英食谱）

  

I got my Kenwood breadmaker two months ago and it's a wedding anniversary gift from my the other half. Actually, I was the one who requested for it and was gleaming with joy when he agreed to buy for me. Well, you see I have a really small kitchen at home and there is simply no more space for another 'toy' as the counter top sits other 'toys' like the KitchenAid mixer and Philip's Airfyer which I have added over the two years since I picked up baking.  So, this breadmaker have to make do with a space on my dining table. (update: It is now sitting on my newly built Dry Kitchen top :) ) I am happy with this new addition as it has helped to churn out healthy homemade bread for me without much effort. Especially on super busy days, I have no time for conventional oven baking, I just let the breadmaker do all the job for me and I still get to enjoy a freshly homebake loaf without any preservatives. The heavenly smell of the bread lifted my mood too.

Homemade Matcha (Green tea) Ice-Cream Tutorial Recipe 抹茶冰淇淋 （中英食谱教程）

You can easily make ice-cream at home without owning an ice-cream maker. I chance upon this Chinese translated ice-cream recipe book written by a Korean who owns a patisserie - BaQueen.
The first recipe which I tried from the book is the Matcha ice-cream as my daughter and I love Matcha desserts. This dessert turns out to be superlicious and if you are a matcha lover like me, you must give this a try! No regrets!

Japanese Cotton Cheesecake 日式芝士蛋糕 (中英食谱）

This is another popular Japanese dessert which my family loves. Before I picked up baking, we used to buy it from Breadtalk or Ichiban Sushi outlets which sells the Fiesta Japanese Cheesecake. I remember during my younger days, I love to eat the all rage 'Miki Ojisan No Mise Cheesecake' (also known as the cheesecake with an imprint of the cartoon chef with closed eyes) from Paragon. Back then, this light cheesecake was so popular that there was always a long queue to buy it. Somehow, this brand has not withstood the test of time and has faded into the background. Now to get a fix of this childhood favourite, one would have to head down to Jason’s Market Place in Raffles City. Since I can bake my own now, I can bake it anytime when I have a craving for it. :p

My 2013 Chinese New Year Bakes

Blogging is something new to me and I know it takes time and effort to maintain it. Being a stay home mum with two active kids and without any helper, I have put the idea of starting a blog behind me due to my busy schedule. However, I have received constant encouragement from my friends to start one to share my bakes and recipes. In February this year, I started my Facebook baking page to share my bakes and experiences. It has been well received and in just five months, it has more than 800 likes. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my friends and readers of my baking page who has been supporting me all this while. Recently, I have received feedbacks that finding my shared recipes on the baking page is not so easy as one have to scroll down to earlier posts to search for it and it is quite cumbersome, hence the birth of this blog. I hope you enjoy reading my blog and trying out the recipes which I will be sharing as I experiment in my humble kitchen. :)

Like to start off by sharing the Chinese New Year bakes which I have done for my family and friends this year and it is also the first year that I have attempted to bake instead of buying from the store. As it is the year of the snake, I made some 'snake' Danish butter cookies which I am very pleased with the look and taste. Each piece is unique on it's own and they differ in look and shape as they are done with free hand piping. Don't you think some are quite cute-looking? ;p

The photo below shows my first attempt of pineapple tarts. I must say it is hard work. No wonder the hefty price you have to pay especially for homemade ones. My friend Emily has generously shared her recipe with me and I love the melt-in-the-mouth texture!





My first attempt of pineapple tarts



More variations of pineapple tarts 

 

 

Click here to see the Danish Butter Cookies recipe which I have used to make these snake cookies.  

As my daughter is born in the year of the Snake, these snake cookies were made specially for her. Not forgetting my little boy who is born in the year of the Pig, I made some 'pig' pineapple tarts for him. Now nobody says I am unfair. ;)

Click here to see the German Butter Cookies recipe. 

Upon seeing my friend, Lai Yong, who posted her homemade Bak Kwa on Facebook, I was tempted to try it out at home. She was really kind to share the recipe with me and thanks to her advice that I managed to produce tasty and healthy homemade bak kwa for my family.

Click here for Homemade Pork Jerky (Bak Kwa) Recipe. 

Don't they look like store-bought ones?

 

These almond cookies are my mum's favourite and she couldn't stop eating at one.  

© Copyright 2013 bakingtaitai.blogspot.sg