Dyson bladeless fan AM06

When I got this in the post, it felt like Christmas has come early. The launch of this Dyson Desk Fan AM06 is so timely for me, cos I was in the midst of creating a play room for my little boy. The room has an air-conditioning unit installed, but I don't want him to be in an air-cond room 24/7 so I wanted a fan that can cool the room effectively, yet safe to be in the vicinity. Dyson is always the one and only choice for stand or desk fan in baby's room cos it is bladeless and it's superbly easy to clean. Most importantly, it looks sleek and super cool. We had an old model of Dyson AM02 stand fan in our guest room for a few years, but that generates quite a bit of noise when operating at high air flow. It was good as a white noise generator when the little fella was younger, but not anymore as he grows up. My eyes lit up with joy when I realized that this new model AM06 is 75% quieter, as stated on the box.

 

 

 

Both of us were excited as we took out the new and sleek-looking gadget from the box. The little fella located the remote control while I tried to assemble the fan. The fan came in two large pieces, and was super-easy to assemble, there are arrows shown on the connecting point, all I had to do was to align the arrows and gently turn and snap. It's done!  An instruction manual comes along with it. But I didn't need to refer to it to assemble it, and I had to assemble it quick cos the little fella was waiting anxiously to try out the remote control.  Boys and gadgets... >.<

 

 

It comes with a small stylish-looking remote control that operates the

• Turning ON/ OFF
• Airflow control (air flow intensity from 1-10)
• Oscillation ON/ OFF
• Sleep timer

The sleep timer feature is a new addition to AM06, allowing me to program the fan to turn off after pre-set intervals ranging from 15 minutes to 9 hours.

 

The reason why I love Dyson's gadgets are that they are designed by real human who actually uses the stuffs. Or else, they wouldn't have thought of creating the remote control, and the remote control is designed to be magnetic and curvy so that it attaches to the fan, so it's easy to store and locate. Or else, I wouldn't know the ideal location to store a mini remote control like this. It'll just get misplaced.

 

There's one feature which I didn't find out until much later on. It's tiltable!! Let's say if I have the fan placed on the floor and I'm seated up on a chair or sofa, I can tilt it upward for better and more direct air flow. Vice versa, it can also tilted backward so that the air flow is directed downwards. 

 

Now, is it effective? Does it cools the room efficiently? It was a warm and stuffy evening when we tried out the fan. I turned it on and within about 5 minutes, the room was effectively cooled. I went out of the room and when I re-entered the room, the room felt cool as if it had the air-cond on. This is seriously a good investment since the electricity bills has been on the hike and we've been trying to cut down our air-cond usage in such warm and stuffy weather. The new AM06 has been designed consume less electricity compared to their previous model.

 

 

 

The next time you're in the toilet or restrooms in major international airports or shopping malls, check out their hand dryers, they could be made by Dyson. Dyson makes very effective hand dryer that dries within 10 seconds, making them very cost and time efficient. It is the same technology they have used on their bladeless fan range. The same technology creates the smooth and constant air flow from the fan.  It draws in air and amplifies it 15 times which is wonderful for cooling the room in our warm Malaysian weather.

 

TIPS to new moms

• Have a fan on while your newborn sleeps. It dramatically cuts the risk of sudden infant death SIDS. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1070816/Keeping-fan-babies-sleep-dramatically-cut-cot-death-risk.html#ixzz32smkmpE7
• White noise helps to sooth your newborn to sleep. I relied a lot on white noise when the little fella was cranky and refused to sleep. The Dyson bladeless fan AM02 was a great white noise generator for me.

 

My verdict on the new Dyson bladeless fan AM06

 

I have been very impressed by the new and improved unit and would definitely recommend it to anyone shopping for a new fan for their home, office or your baby's room. It is safe, it is cool-looking and most importantly, it effectively cools the room. It makes a great gift for housewarming too. So far, I could find nothing wrong or negative about the fan itself.  It cost RM1329 in Malaysia and comes with two year warranty.

 

Find out more about Dyson on their Facebook or their website http://www.dyson.my/. Find Dyson's Malaysia's retailers here.

 

Are you a Dyson fan too?

 

Disclaimer: Product provided. No compensation received. The honest opinions are my own.

Japanese cotton cheese chiffon (very good)

I made a good cream cheese chiffon two days back, it was good, moist and fluffy. But I felt that the cheese flavor is too light. I wanted more to it. And I wanted to give it more tang. So I kinda modified the recipe and came out with this. This is superb!! Finger licking good. I baked it at night, when cooled, I left it in the fridge. The next morning, we had it for breakfast. It tastes just like the Japanese cotton cheesecake we buy from the café. The sweetness is just right. This was baked for my little fella and the family. But if you're baking it for guests or giving it away as gift, you may wanna up the sugar by half or 1 tablespoon.

P/S edited on 11/3/2015
I have made passion fruit chiffon cake by replacing 40g of fresh milk with passion fruit *its juice and its flesh and reduced the lemon juice from 2tsp to 1tsp. Ka cha ka cha.. this is the sound you'll hear when you're biting on the chiffon cake because of the seeds from the passion fruit. For my little fella, I gave him the slices that hasn't got the seeds. I think he may spit them out and refuses to eat the rest if he bites on the seeds. It was lovely. The way the creaminess from the cheese combo with the tang from the passion fruit made this a very nice, especially if stored in fridge and eaten the next day. 

Ingredients

• 50g vegetable oil (I used grapeseed oil)
• 110g cream cheese
• 40g fresh milk
• 5 egg yolks
• 1 whole egg
• 60g cake flour + 2tsp corn flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1.5tbsp brown sugar (or 2tbsp sugar if you're making this for guests)
• 2tsp apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice)

• 5 egg white
• 4tbsp brown sugar

Baked using an 18cm chiffon tube

1. In a bowl, dissolve cream cheese over a pot of boiling water. Add in milk and oil. Combine and make sure there are no lumps.
2. Sift in cake flour, corn flour and salt. Set aside to cool down.
3. Separate egg white and yolk in two separate bowls. Once the cream cheese mix has cooled down to a temperature that doesn't scald, add in the egg yolk one after one, and the whole egg. 
4. Mix with a plastic spatula, add in vinegar or lemon juice and this becomes the egg yolk batter. Sit aside for use later (may keep in fridge for better results).
5. In another bowl, beat egg white till foamy, add in sugar in 3 separate batches until stiff peak forms.
6. Scoop out 1/3 of the egg white peak and add into the egg yolk batter. When combined evenly, add it back to the remaining egg white peak. Combine evenly with a spatula.
7. Pour the chiffo batter into the chiffon tube pan, topped bake in a preheated oven at 150deg C for 40min. *I tented an aluminum foil over the top of chiffon at 20th min to avoid over browning of the top.
8. Invert cake to cool once out of the oven.

Charcoal bun with black sesame and fig 黑芝麻竹碳面包（无花果）

 

 

 

This charcoal bun recipe is very similar to the rye bun I baked a few days ago. I added bamboo charcoal powder to it, making it black in color, which creates a great contract when topped with either white sesame seeds or rolled oat. There are no taste to bamboo charcoal powder, but the buns still smell nice because of the rye flour used and the chopped dried fig imparts a very pleasant fruity sweetness and bite to it.

 

An occasional intake of bamboo charcoal is great for the body. Bamboo charcoal contains carbon, its negative ionic charge attracts positive ionic charges (of toxins and poisons) causing them to bind and then escorts them out of the body via the eliminative channel of the intestines. I might have eaten something dirty over the weekend which gave me bad bloating and flatulence, so I made this, hoping that it'll help relieve my poor tummy.

 

I have always baked my bread using an adapted and modified scalded dough method by Alex Goh which yield very soft and fluffy bread without adding any softener. It is easy and straight forward. You'll just need to scald 100g of bread flour with 70g of hot water, simply mix it with a spoon or folk, cover up, leave in chiller while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. When all the other ingredients are well combined and kneaded, add in the pre-prepared scalded flour and knead till evenly combined. The results are very worth the extra step taken. I have tried all sorts of method that claims to yield soft fluffy bread. This method, too, can produce bread with the same kind of fluffiness.

 

Here's the recipe

 

First, prepare the scalded dough

• 100g rye flour
• 70g hot water

Combine both with a folk or spoon. There is no need to knead. Just combine and leave in a container in refrigerator while you prepare the rest of the ingredients (about 15-20min). You can prepare this ahead and keep in the fridge for up to 24hours.

 

 

The main dough

*The ingredients are listed in the order they are added into my breadmaker

 

• 40g (about 3tbsp) rice bran oil
• 250g water
• 2tbsp brown sugar
• pinch of salt
• 2tbsp black sesame powder
• 1tbsp bamboo charcoal powder
• 300g high protein flour
• 100g all purpose flour
• 1tsp baker's yeast (instant active dry)

• 3 dried figs, chopped (added in after 25min of kneading time in the breadmaker)

 

1. I have kneaded the dough using the 'DOUGH' mode with my breadmaker.
2. When all the ingredients has combined together, I add the scalded dough in pieces.
3. After about 25min of kneading, I add in the chopped dried fig.
4. The breadmaker would finish kneading and go through a proving phase (about an hour).
5. Once it finishes its DOUGH mode, remove the dough from the breadmaker and punch it to remove trapped air.
6. To make buns, divide the dough into 8 equal round portions weighing about 100g each. Makeit round and smooth. Let the dough proof for another 45min or until the dough doubles its original size. **I have always done this second proof in an oven (without turning it on).
7. Brush top of loaf or buns with water and sprinkle with rolled oat.
8. Once the loaf or buns are ready to be baked, preheat the oven to 165deg C, bake for about 20min.
   

   
   

Cream cheese chiffon



Caught you! You little chiffon cake thief!!

Here's the cheekiliscious chiffon thief.

 





My little boy has this habit of grabbing a piece of my chiffon cake whenever I am still snapping photos of it. I used to stop him. But not anymore. I'm actually glad he loves my chiffon cake. It gives me great desire to bake more chiffon cakes for him. The other reason about chiffon cake is that I love to be able to remove it from the chiffon tin with my bare hands. It felt good to unmould a beautiful and almost perfect chiffon cake. 所谓的空手脱模，是非常有满足感的。 This recipe doesn't taste very heavy on the cheese, but it was very soft, moist and fluffy.

 

 

 

Ingredients

• 60g butter
• 80g cream cheese
• 60g fresh milk
• 5 egg yolks
• 1 whole egg
• 60g cake flour + 2tsp corn flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1tbsp brown sugar

 

• 5 egg white
• 4tbsp brown sugar

To create marble effect (Optional)

• 1tbsp cocoa powder
• 1tbsp hot water

Baked using an 18cm chiffon tube

 

1. In a bowl, dissolve cream cheese with butter over a pot of boiling water. Add in milk. Combine and make sure there are no lumps.
2. Sift in cake flour, corn flour and salt. Set aside to cool down.
3. Separate egg white and yolk in two separate bowls. Once the cream cheese mix has cooled down to a temperature that doesn't scald, add in the egg yolk one after one, and the whole egg. 
4. Mix with a plastic spatula and this becomes the egg yolk batter. Sit aside for use later (may keep in fridge for better results).
5. In another bowl, beat egg white till foamy, add in sugar in 3 separate batches until stiff peak forms.
6. Scoop out 1/3 of the egg white peak and add into the egg yolk batter. When combined evenly, add it back to the remaining egg white peak.
7. Combine cocoa powder with hot water. In another clean bowl, combine with about 2-3tbsp of batter.
8. Pour the white/ yellow batter into the chiffon tube pan, topped with cocoa batter and bake in a preheated oven at 150deg C for 40min. *I tented an aluminum foil over the top of chiffon at 20th min to avoid over browning of the top.
9. Invert cake to cool once out of the oven.

P/S: This recipe is quite a light one, most people won't be able to detect the cheese in it. I have later on modified this recipe by adding more cream cheese and replaced the butter with oil. Also added apple cider vinegar to it to up the tang. The modified recipe is shared here.

 

 

I'm submitting this post to  Little Thumbs Up organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen of My Little Favourite DIY and hosted by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House.

 

10-grain oatmeal with rye

 

Made a hearty breakfast oatmeal for both myself and the lil' fella. This is a ten-grain oatmeal with rye flakes. I shared about the nutritional benefits of rye a few posts back, and gonna repeat them here..

 

Rye is a cereal grain that looks like wheat. It is generally available in its whole  or as flour or flakes that look similar to old-fashioned oats. Because it is difficult to separate the germ and bran from the endosperm of rye, rye flour usually retains a large quantity of nutrients, in contrast to refined wheat flour. Rye has a handful of benefits that cannot be compared by those made with white flour or even wholemeal flour, here are some listed by whfoods.com:

 

• Promotes weight loss
• Prevents gallstones
• Substantially lowers type-2 diabetes risk
• Promotes gastrointestinal health
• Significant cardiovascular benefits with postmenopausal women

The list actually goes on.

 

This is a simple recipe yet it's very filling. It would keep you full for the whole morning due to its high fiber content.

 

Recipe serves two

• 3tbsp rolled oat, organic
• 2tbsp rye flakes, organic
• 1sachet 10-grain powder (about 3tbsp)
• 1glass (about 250g) warm water  

Instructions

 

1. Dissolves 10-grain powder in 1 glass of warm water.
2. In a small pot on a stove, heat up the 10-grain drink, stir in rolled oat and rye flakes.
3. Simmer for about 3-5min or until oatmeal becomes thick and creamy. 

Marble cake

Last night, I was blog-hopping for breakfast ideas with ipad on our bed. The lil' fella wasn't asleep and was still fooling around when I did that. He saw this pic of Wen's delight's butter cake on the ipad screen and shouted out 'mom mom!!' (which meant food).. so I asked him, do you want to have this for breakfast tomorrow?? He just continued saying 'mom mom'.. I guess that's his way of saying yes. So I decided on this recipe. According to Wen, this is one of her all time favorite, shouldn't go much wrong with this, plus this involves the yolk and white separation technique, it should yield a soft cake.

 

 

Recipe adapted from Cooking Crave via Wen's Delight.

 

Ingredients (I halved the original recipe, thus the very short looking marble cake :p)

 

120g butter, chopped

2tbsp brown sugar

pinch of salt

2 egg yolks

100g cake flour

1/2 tsp Baking powder

2 egg whites

1tbsp brown sugar

 

Optional for marble effect:

1/2 tbsp. cocoa powder

1.5 tbsp. hot water

 

*I have also reduced the amount of sugar from the original recipe

 

 

 

Instructions

 

1. Preheat oven at 170C. Line a loaf tin.
2. Cream butter, sugar, salt until light and fluffy.
3. Add in egg yolks, one at a time, and beat until fluffy.
4. Sift in flour and baking powder and mix well. Set aside.
5. Beat egg white and sugar till soft peak in another bowl.
6. Fold 1/3 of egg white meringue into yolk batter. Mix well and fold in the rest.
7. In a small bowl, combine cocoa powder and hot water until there is no cocoa powder lumps. Mix into 1-2tbsp egg yolk batter in another bowl.
8. Pour yellow batter into lined tin, followed by cocoa batter.  
9. Bake for 25-30min or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Rye bread with black sesame and dried apricot

Want to maintain your slender figure but you love bread? Try rye bread instead. Rye fiber is richly endowed with noncellulose polysaccharides, which have exceptionally high water-binding capacity and quickly give a feeling a fullness and satiety, making rye bread a real help for anyone trying to lose weight.

 

I've been baking with rye a lot lately. Rye is a cereal grain that looks like wheat. It is generally available in its whole  or as flour or flakes that look similar to old-fashioned oats. Because it is difficult to separate the germ and bran from the endosperm of rye, rye flour usually retains a large quantity of nutrients, in contrast to refined wheat flour. Rye has a handful of benefits that cannot be compared by those made with white flour or even wholemeal flour, here are some listed by whfoods.com:

 

• Promotes weight loss
• Prevents gallstones
• Substantially lowers type-2 diabetes risk
• Promotes gastrointestinal health
• Significant cardiovascular benefits with postmenopausal women

The list actually goes on.

 

So now you know why I've insisted to add in rye flour to my baking lately.

 

Using the soft and fluffy recipe that I've always been baking bread with, it doesn't affect the texture to a great extent. It's still soft and I love seeing the little rye grains that appear on the bread. Looks very rustic and healthy indeed.

 

 

 



I have always baked my bread using an adapted and modified scalded dough method by Alex Goh which yield very soft and fluffy bread without adding any softener. It is easy and straight forward. You'll just need to scald 100g of bread flour with 70g of hot water, simply mix it with a spoon or folk, cover up, leave in chiller while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. When all the other ingredients are well combined and kneaded, add in the pre-prepared scalded flour and knead till evenly combined. The results are very worth the extra step taken. I have tried all sorts of method that claims to yield soft fluffy bread. This method, too, can produce bread with the same kind of fluffiness.

 

Here's the recipe for my rye bread with black sesame and dried apricot

 

First, prepare the scalded dough

• 100g rye flour
• 70g hot water

Combine both with a folk or spoon. There is no need to knead. Just combine and leave in a container in refrigerator while you prepare the rest of the ingredients (about 15-20min). You can prepare this ahead and keep in the fridge for up to 24hours.

 

The main dough

*The ingredients are listed in the order they are added into my breadmaker

 

• 40g (about 3tbsp) rice bran oil
• 250g water
• 2tbsp brown sugar
• pinch of salt
• 3tbsp black sesame powder
• 300g high protein flour
• 100g all purpose flour
• 1tsp baker's yeast (instant active dry)

• 5 dried black apricots, chopped (added in after 25min of kneading time in the breadmaker)

1. I have kneaded the dough using the 'DOUGH' mode with my breadmaker.
2. When all the ingredients has combined together, I add the scalded dough in pieces.
3. After about 25min of kneading, I add in the chopped dried apricot.
4. The breadmaker would finish kneading and go through a proving phase (about an hour).
5. Once it finishes its DOUGH mode, remove the dough from the breadmaker and punch it to remove trapped air.
6. To make loaf, divide the dough into 3 equal portions, roll into swiss roll form and place in loaf pan. Let the dough proof for another 45min or until the dough doubles its original size. Alternatively, you may also make buns by dividing the dough into 5-6 equal portions. Similar, the bun dough needs to be proven for another 45min. **I have always done this second proof in an oven (without turning it on).
7. Brush top of loaf or buns with water and sprinkle with black and white sesame seeds.
8. Once the loaf or buns are ready to be baked, preheat the oven to 165deg C, bake for about 20min (for buns) or about 45min for loaf.

 

Seafood kimchi hotpot (kimchi jjigae)

Kimchi jjigae is a spicy Korean stew or hotpot dish made from either seafood or pork with kimchi, tofu and soybean and red hot pepper pastes (some food ingredients I lugged back from my recent trip to Seoul). I made this twice in a week. The first time, I made it using pork soup stock. The second time, which is for this recipe, I stewed it with prawns and scallops. Both yummy! It can be used as a soup base for steamboat or served with ramen. Even though it looks complicated, but it's actually super easy to prepare!

 

 

 

Ingredients:

• a pack of kimchi (about 200g) together with its juice
• about 5 cups of water or stock
• 2tbsp red hot pepper paste
• 2tbsp soybean paste
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 Chinese cabbage, cleaned and cut into chunks
• 1/2 medium size carrot, sliced
• 1 potato, sliced
• 3-5 soft white tofu
• seafood eg prawns / scallops / octopus *I use a little amount of these to prepare the soup base in order to sweeten up the soup. The rest are only added in near the end of cooking time to ensure that they don't overcook.

Instructions:

1. In a pot or larger pan, stir fry garlic and onion till fragrant with vegetable oil.
2. Stir in prawns and scallop, followed by kimchi, carrot, potato and Chinese cabbage. Cover up for about 2-5min.
3. Add in water or stock, with soybean paste and red hot pepper paste.
4. Stew for about 30min to an hour. Last 10min before serving, add in the tofu, followed by the seafood.

Korean ginseng chicken (samgeytang) 삼계탕

I just got back from Seoul last week. Unlike my first few trips of spending like crazy on Korean skin care and masks, this time, I only splurge on food!! I lugged back some fresh fat wild Korean ginseng and some hot pepper and soy bean pastes. I'm pretty pleased with myself this time. At least I make good use of these food ingredients, unlike the skin care and masks. In fact, I still have quite an amount of masks left from my trips to Seoul two years ago :p

 

I have gotten these pretty looking Korean ginseng from Lotte supermarket in Myeongdong. It cost me KRW40,000 (equivalent to about RM125) for 500g (which has about 15 ginseng roots). I felt that this is quite a good price, not as pricey as the dried Korean ginseng, and these days, there are risks involved when buying dried ginseng, we aren't sure the stuffs we are buying are genuine or not. 

 

In Korea, fresh ginseng are usually used to make samgeytang (which literally translates as ginseng chicken soup) by boiling a whole young chicken stuffed with glutinous rice. In Korea, samgeytang is widely believed to both cure and prevent physical ailments.  The proteins and nutrients from the whole chicken mixed with the beneficial properties of the ingredients combined in the dish makes it a revered culinary item in South Korea. Samgeytang is a favorite dish consumed in Summer cos food with high nutrient content is eaten to regain the loss of stamina in the summer heat.

 

I cooked this for a few friends at my place at dinner time. I was worried that it would keep me awake all night since it's supposed to boost stamina and uplift energy. But surprisingly, I slept well (went into snooze-land upon touching my pillow) and woke up with good glow on my skin. Must be the Korean ginseng chicken or was it just psychologically? Hahaa.. Feedback from all my friends who had this soup for dinner, they all slept superbly well. Amazing, huh?

 

 

Recipe

For the soup

• 1 whole chicken
• 3-4 fresh Korean ginseng
• 4 red dates
• handful of yuk zhuk 玉竹and wai shan (Chinese yam) 淮山
• bunch of spring onion
• Pinch of salt
• 10 cups of water

For the stuffing

• 3-5 fresh gingko
• 1/2 cup of glutinous rice (I used a combination of black and white glutinous rice), soaked in water for at least 1hr
• 3 red dates
• 2 fresh Korean ginseng 
• 2-3 fresh Chinese chestnuts

Instructions

1. Wash the chicken thoroughly.
2. Stuff the inside of chicken with soaked glutinous rice, 3-5 red dates, 1-2 ginseng, all the gingko. Use the red dates or ginseng to block the opening so that the glutinous rice doesn't oozes out while cooking. Do not attempt to over-stuff the chicken, cos glutinous rice would expand when cooked.
3. Place the rest of the ingredients at the bottom of your soup pot. Place stuffed chicken on top. Pour in 10cups of water.
4. Boil for at least 2-3 hours.

Mini mushroom quiche

 

 

Sigh.. the amount of fraud calls I get these days are horrendous!! While I was doing my work, I got a call from this number 03 2167 3833, not anyone on my phone contact list, but it was an automated voice message that says, This is AmBank Credit Card centre. We have detected a pending transaction of RM3000 (3thousand something) in your account. Please press 1 to confirm transaction. Press 2 to talk to our customer service or press 9 to repeat.” I didn't doubt it was a fraud call at first, cos our company do have an AmBank account, personally, I don't, so I pressed 2 to talk to a customer service. The moment the customer service person spoke, 'Ah Hahhh!!', I thought, 'Fraud!!' Guess why? He spoke with a Chinese-y accent which is very very rare for Ambank or any call centre. After a few minute, without wanting to waste my time on this fraud call, I just said, it's fine, thank you and hung up the phone. Without further delay, I went onto google and try to find any similar case like this, and of course, as expected, this is a fraud call.

 

Anyway, back to my quiche.. I made these baby quiches for my boy's breakfast. Don't they look lovely? They are quite easy to prepare.

 

For the pastry

• 200g plain flour
• 100g butter, chop into little cubes or grated
• 1/4tsp baking powder
• 1 beaten egg
• pinch of salt

1. Combine flour and butter until the mixture resembles texture of bread crumb.
2. Add in baking powder, salt and beaten egg. Combine into a dough.
3. Divide the dough to about 4-5 portions. Grease the ramekin dishes.
4. Roll the dough to thin round disk and lay in the individual ramekin dish. Keep in fridge for later use.

For the filling

• 2 clove garlic
• 1 large onion, minced
• 4-6 medium size brown mushrooms, fresh, sliced  
• 1/2 cup fresh milk
• 1/2 cup grated Cheddar
• 2 eggs, beaten

1. In a heated pan, stir fry the garlic and onion with a little oil until the onion turns translucent (about 3-4min). Stir in sliced mushrooms and cook till soft.
2. In bowl, combine fresh milk with beaten eggs.
3. Divide the garlic and mushroom mix in the ramekin dish lined with pastry. Top up with the egg-milk mix until about 80% full. Top with generous amount of grated Cheddar.
4. Preheat the oven to about 175degC. Bake the quiche for about 20-25min until the centre is no more wobbly.

I'm linking this post to Little Thumbs Up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Tze from Awayofmind Bakery House at this post.

Moist chocolate cake (steamed)

 

 

 

 

Arghhh... I've been MIA from my blog for sooo long. And I don't know what I've been occupied with. Geee.. But I've been steaming cakes lately, a lot. This recipe alone, I have done at last three times before I finally decided to blog about it. This is a great recipe, the cake or cupcake (I've decided to steam them in cupcake liner after my first one in a loaf tin, cos it takes shorter time in cupcake liner) turns out to be very very moist, just like the moist chocolate cakes sold in café out there. It's very easy to prepare, the ingredients are quite basic, and you don't even need an electric mixer to mix in all the ingredients.

 

I'm not sure who's the owner of this recipe. I have seen this recipe being shared a lot everywhere. The ones I have is posted by a mom in FB group Healthy Food For My Baby. Before looking clearly, the long list of ingredients kinda put me off, but after going through it properly, I realized it's actually very simple. It also has a recipe for a fudge topping, if you're making this as a birthday cake or gift as friend, but for me, I bake this as tea time or breakkie, so there's no need for the topping. It already taste perfect without the topping.

 

Ingredients:

*one full recipe makes one cake in an 8-inch round cake pan or 12 cupcakes

• 180g butter
• 150g brown sugar (this is a reduced amount, its original sugar content is 200g)
• 200g fresh milk (original ingredient is evaporated milk)
• 2 eggs, beaten with fork
• 100g plain flour or cake flour, either is fine
• 50g cocoa powder
• 1tsp baking powder (I omitted the baking soda in the ori recipe and topped up the b.powder)

 

Choc fudge topping (optional)

• 200g condensed milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 2tbsp veg oil
• 20g cocoa powder, sifted
• pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Combine sugar, milk and butter in a bowl over another pan of boiling water. Stir until sugar is dissolved and butter is melted. Remove from heat.
2. Add beaten eggs into the butter-milk mixture and stir to mix evenly.
3. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder into another mixing bowl, then pour in the egg batter and combine until evenly mixed (cake batter is runny).
4. Prep up the steamer and heat up the water till boiling.
5. Line and grease a round cake pan (I didn't have a round cake pan, I baked mine in a loaf tin). Pour the batter into the greased pan and cover the top of pan loosely with aluminum foil.
6. Steam over medium heat for 45min (or 15min in cupcake liner).
7. Cool the cake in pan before inverting out to serve.

To make the choc fudge topping:

1. Combine the sieved cocoa powder, condensed milk and oil in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until thicken.
2. Add in salt and vanilla essence.
3. Cool the choc fudge topping slightly before spreading on the cake. Refrigerate before serving.

Note:

• I have also added some chopped toasted almond and walnuts topping right before steaming.
• If you have extra that can't be finished, you can keep them in the fridge and steam them for another 2-5min before serving, they are as good as fresh.

I'm linking this post to Little Thumbs Up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Tze from Awayofmind Bakery House at this post.