All-in-one Lemon Cake!

After several attempts of baking cookies, i decided i shld go back to try to learn how to bake a cake! Been craving for potato salad, wanted to make them but hse dun have potatos and i was lazy to buy. Heez! SOmehow, baking has now become a way for me to reassure myself that i am making good use of my time while attempting to try my luck in the workforce soon! Okok..i will try to send out resume soon ok?

Dug out another old magazine. Forgot to take a pic of it and at this hour, i am jus to lazy to take, transfer and upload it. I am sorry if this post sounds a bit dull. Kinda dead. I started baking at 9 because i was so bored and there was nothing to watch on tv. I cant believe i actually have an urge to bake. heez!

This is suppose to be an easy cake recipe because like its name suggest...you jus throw in everything at 1 go and mix...bake it and there u go! a Cake! :)! Steps are as follows:


Here are the required ingredients:

1. 175g of self-raising flour
2. 5ml baking powder
3. 175g of caster sugar
4. 175g of soft magarine ( I used butter)
5. 3 medium-sized eggs
6. 1 large lemon

Got to grate the zest of the lemon. The grater hole too small. I got to grate so long but like come out so miserable amt of zest. Love the fragrance!


Sift the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl.


Throw in everything! Literally! Ok...throw in the lemon zest, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, the 3 medium eggs and the soften magarine. Kinda look like a big mess to me...:P!


Now u gonna beat everything until glossy and light. Before and After photos to let u visualise the contrast the initial and final mixture. I am getting strong! I must learn to beat with my left hand, its really good exercise for the arms! Cant jus let the right hand benefit from it all, right?


Now the mixture is ready, grease and line yr cake tin(18 cm deep round). Its really easy to line the tin. First put the baking sheet on top of the base of the cake tin. Try to cut a slightly larger circle than the base. Line the sides first, using the butter to stick it to the tin. Then add the base that u have cutted out. There u have it! Pour in yr mixture!


Now that mixture is all in the cake tin, bang the tin a few times on the table. I learn this on tv! It is suppose to make sure mixture is compact on the tin and prevent air bubbles. I oso shake the tin a bit while banging, jus thot it will be more even.


Cake in the oven! Bake it in a heated oven at 170 deg celcuis for 1 1/4- 1 1/2 hour until its cooked!

So wat i do in that hour?
Clean up all the mess lo! SO meesy! I hate cleaning up! Watched a bit of "Da chang jing" with mummy, quite exciting the show manz! ANd took a bath. Its a warm nite! Perspiring all over!
Even after all that, still have loads of time left! So long! Make sure u bake this only when u have loads of time okie?

FInally....the oven alarm rang! After 1 1/4 hour!


Went to take a satay stick to check if my cake was cooked! Its easy to check! Jus take the stick and poke the centre of the cake and if the stick is clean, it means yr cake is cooked! yeah! dun have to wait longer!


My cake! *beams* Look a bit char ta at the the top hor? Still dun exactly noe how to control the oven. Let it rest for 3 mins before transferring to the cooking rack! Be careful! Use glove! Its hot!


Easiest way to cool the cake. Put the rack on top of the cake and turn both over and remove the tray and tadah! the base of yr cake facing u le! hehe! Remove the baking sheet!


Look at the nice base of my cake! U cannot cut hor! Must wait for it to cool! Until the centre cool! Cannot b anxious to eat! Else it will crumble alot and it isnt good for yr throat. Completely cool ok my frn? else it be a bit soft and wet!


Mum teased me that she was waiting to see how my cake will turn out to be when i cut it. SHe was scaring me that it will have many holes ( air bubbles...unsuccessful). Wahaha! Look at the pic! She was impressed! haha! I am her dotter! i cant be that bad right? It looks sanely like a cake!!!

Tips on storage: make sure yr cake is completely cool before storing them in a dry tupperware else it will end up soggy and spoil easily. Advice (more like nagging) from mummy! hehehe!

Verdict: Yes! my first successful cake! Taste sanely like a cake! But i was disappointed that there wasnt much lemon taste to it! I guess the zest wasnt enuff (must use a different grater enxt time) and put more lemon juice! Suppose to be a cake with icing but i omit that step. Firstly its tedious and second, its so yesterday! Taste like butter cake! Not bad! U guys shld attempt it as your first cake! It kinda boost my morale for more cake baking in future.

Fork Chocolate Biscuit.

Did some baking after dinner today. Wanted to bake in the afternoon but i had to go fetch mum so was kinda worried that i wun have enuff time to complete. After the good recipe i discovered the last time, i decided to browse thru the other magazines again hoping to chance upon another easy and good recipe.


Found it in this magazine. Got to take a pic of it so i noe which magazine to refer to when i wanna bake this again. There are jus so many of them. I am gonna bake Fork Chocolate Biscuit as u can see from the pic on the right. You shld have figure out by now y there is a 'Fork' in the name of the biscuits (the fork imprints on it..duh!)


WHat made me choose this recipe? The simplicity in its ingredients and steps! I am a beginner! Of cos i look out for simple recipes! *grins*
The ingredients for today (as seen in the pic):

1. 100g of sugar
2. 100g of butter
3. 150g self-raising flour
4. pinch of salt
5. 2 1/2 tablespoon of cocoa powder

Does sound like its gonna be easy, doesnt it?

My 150g of flour on the weighing machine plus the cocoa powder and the pinch of salt. These have to be sifted. I am lazy...i sift it jus before i mix it into the mixture.


Put the butter and sugar in a big bowl. Cream both of them together till they are light and fluffy as seen on the pic on the right.
Surprisely, it didnt take as much effort as it did previously! I have become stronger?! good stuffs! 1 hand muscle! Yikes!
Tip: cutting the butter into smaller cubes makes it easier to cream them together


Now, Blend in the sifted flour into your light and fluffy mixuture!


Here how it looks after adding all the sifted flour,cocoa and salt. It seems kinda dry. Was suppose to blend them well till the mixture sticks together.
If u have any stopid comments of the way it looks, keep it to yrself please. It looks so dry...got me worried.


I decided to use my hands in the end after several attempts with fork and spoon to make the mixture stick together. Mixture feels really dry and it crumples...manage to make a dough out of it in the end. Hands are good! Some advice though...cut yr nails before u do things like that! :)


Now we are ready to bake. Form the mixture into balls of walnut size and put them on prepared tray. I mafe them quite small because i was afraid it will expand like previous biscuits i have made. Then use a fork and flatten each little ball slightly. Nice patterns the fork made right?


After flattening several balls of mixture, i finally discovered how to flatten them without the fork sticking to the ball. I feel smart! But i think every1 will think its simply common sense. First, flatten the ball as seen in the pic and then slowly turn the fork outwards as seen in the second pic! U get yr pattern and yr fork wun get stuck to the mixture! (for those who dun understand i was trying to sae, i am sorry...i have a problem expressing....heehee)


See how pretty the biscuit turn out to be jus by using a fork?!


My biscuits! Piping hot out off the oven! Yes! they are smallie in size! i got cheated! haiz!Heaven is making a sport out of me. Never mind...consider them as bite size cookies then! hehe! small and cute~~ Oh...almost forgot...bake them for 8 mins in a heated oven at 190 deg celcuis!


I wet my pants!!! :'( ...while washing up lah...didnt pee in them! I am useless....wash dishes oso can make myself wet all over! haha! My shorts really looks like those ah pei boxers shorts! I love it! its comfy and pretty! and its 2 bucks! haha!

okie..time for the verdict of the cookies: taste like the chocolate cookie i made previously. Nothing special. I think the first batch wasnt really done coz a little soft in the centre. Tasted sane to me though. The second batch tasted jus right. Wonder y...both 8 mins. Perhaps i took so long to blend the mixture that the oven kinda cooled down before the first batch was put into it.

1 thing bad about baking cookies: They make pple fat! I am so not eating them! I will eat a few to taste how my products turn out to be. Gorging on them is a big No-No! I am fat already! Gwee is complaining! Told mum to bring to office for her colleagues! Else the four of us will end up like fat pigs trying to finish all that i baked.

Devil Curry!

Mum cooked Devil Curry for me today! I love it! Dad and sis dun like it. SInce they wun b home for dinner today, mum decide to take this opportunity to cook for me.

From what i have gathered from watching tv, Devil Curry is a common christmas dish for the Eurasianz community in like singapore and malaysia. It is a spicy dish that has like vinegar, mustard and loads of chilli and spices. It is usually cooked with leftover meats from christmas day so it has like turkey, sausages and even roast pork! The roast pork taste surprisely good in the curry too! Basically...u can throw any meat inside. It has also cabbages, carrot and potatoe in it. I love to eat cabbages in the curry because it absorbs the sourish and spicy taste of the curry! Yummy yum! It is kinda watery...not "lemak" like the usual curry chicken we eat ( because no coconut milk ma!.. means its healthier? hehe).

Mum's curry today is cooked with fresh chicken (alternative for leftover turkey meat? hehe), roast pork and bacon!

She was eager to try it out when we watched a festive food documentary on ch 8 couple of years ago. We never tried it before but it seems to be quite a popular dish! After browsing thru several eurasian cookbook, she decided to try it out! I love the taste the moment i tried it. Always pestering her to cook. Stopid dad dun really enjoy it as much so i dun get to eat it often.


The Devil Curry!! Yum!


A closer view!!

I shld start learning all the yummy dishes from mummy! I love mummy and her cooking! hurhur!

Burnt Butter Biscuit! (a different style)

Please note before reading this entry (note added on 4 JULY) : did a little mistake on the flour measurement. But the steps are still right and the other measurements is fine. Confirm! no worries! :)! For the correct look on the look of Burnt Butter Biscuit, please refer to here

Yeapz! That's wat i baked today! Burnt Butter Biscuit!! Nono...if u are thinking that i was trying to bake butter biscuit and accidentally burnt it and hence the name, you are wrong! Please give me more credit ok? That was the name of the recipe..i jus followed accordingly. No idea why the name though.


Found the recipe in 1 of the weekly magazine that mum used to buy! Its a really old book manz!
She have like piles of them stacked up in the cupboard. Inside the magazine, they have like detailed step-by-step instructions with pictures as guidance and the recipes are relatively simple! Was kinda flipping thru like 10 over of the magazine ydae, saw recipes of ice-cream, yogurt, cheese and other meat dishes which i dun think i will attempt at the moment. Finally found a magazine on biscuits! haha! Baking here i come!!!


Found a real simple recipe! so simple that i was shocked! haha! Gif me the spur to bake once more! This is how the biscuit is suppose to look like according to the pic! After baking, i wonder how are they able to make the biscuit of such a nice shape?! They used a mould? Anyway, the pic showed an almond in the middle. Nope...i dun have almond in my cupboard..honestly, who will? so too bad! haha! My biscuits are gonna be almondless!!


It's a real simple recipe! All you need is:

1. 100g butter
2. 100g self-raising flour (the correct measurement of flour is 175g!!!)
3. 100g sugar
4. 1 large egg

...... so little ingredients! :)


First... melt the butter in the saucepan. LOW HEAT!!! Please dun BURN your butteR! hehe! wait really end up "Burnt Butter" Biscuit! wahaha!


Heat the butter till it turns pale golden! Err... this part got me stumped! ( this recipe has no step by step picture guided instructions! :( ) Melted butter looks golden to me! Got a feeling the more i boil it...the darker it will get..so how am i gonna get my pale golden? So i kinda stopped once it was boiling vigourously.


Remove the butter from the heat! Pour in the sugar! Stir!


I thot the sugar was gonna melt in the boiling butter. Apparently not! I ended up with a pale yellow paste like thing swimming in yellow butter. made me worried for a moment.Anyway we will add like flour in the end, it will be ok. Leave it to cool.


My nicely beaten egg to be beaten into the sugar-butter mixture.


I jus poured the egg into the mixture after i was done with it! haha! i forgot i was suppose to be letting it cool. Once i poured it in, i was like "shit"! will i end up with cooked bits of eggs in my mixture? haha! luckily it didnt! I think the mixture was more or less cool after stirring in the sugar! This is how the mixture looked like when the beaten egg was beated into the mixture.


My next step! To gradually beat in the sifted flour into the mixture!


This is how the final mixture looks like after stirring in all the flour!! A thick consistency! It was really quick! like 20 mins and i am ready to head for the baking sheets!


As usual....the mess! Sugar and flour all over the table!


Teaspoon of mixture on the baking sheet! All ready for the heated oven (180 deg)


AHh!! Expanding in the oven again! i thot i dropped very small spoonfuls already!
Instructions: Bake for 12-15 mins in the oven until golden!


Out of the oven!!! SMells good!! It looks kinda thin though. Doesnt seem to be so from the picture. I was worried of another failure. More instructions: Allow to firm for 2 mins before transferring to cooling racks!


On the cooling rack! I was eager to try it out! Oh my! yummy yummy! with a piece of almond nut, it will taste like perfect!!! MMmm!!!


The 3rd batch colour looked kinda nice! so decided to take a pic! no no..i didnt burn my first few batch! it was suppose to be of that colour wat!

Mum gave me thumbs up for the biscuits today! SHe likes it! Dad nodded after i gave him a small piece! My sis jus went ahead and munch munch munch! haha! Its a wonderful feeling! esp since it was a relatively simple recipe! I will definitely do it again! haha! Mum already sae she will go and buy almond for me from the market! hehe! I think i gonna put almond flakes instead of half an almond! It's a good day! *grins*

Old books are good stuffs right?! I gonna go thru the old magazines more often! I only went thru a pile...there are like 2 more piles of them! :) ! Hope i dig out more yummy and simple recipes!

PS. i can blog direct thru photobucket now! more convenient!!

Learning to Cook Jap Curry

HEre goes.... My post on me cooking jap curry for my lunch! Mum did not complain anything! Means it wasnt bad~ MUm bought beef and sliced them for me ydae! haha! I think the next thing i need to learn to do is go marketing! or jus pick things up from supermarket! haha!


Bought this jap curry paste from NTUC few weeks ago!
I kinda like to eat Jap Curry.
Wings told me Jap curry is real easy to cook! Gif me the courage to try it out!


Following the instructions, I suppose to have onions too!
Sliced an onion...really sting my eye!! Sniff!!
Washed my hands immediatly after that!
Knowing me i prob rub my eyes with my onion hand and will die instantly!


Vegetables can be added as desired.
Went to peel 1 potatoe and cut it into cubes.
Cut and peel haf a carrot. Cut it to cubes too!
They look so pretty in the bowl!


The beef Mum got ready for me!
Planned to use 3/4 of it!


This is how the paste actually looks like.


Decided to cook half the packet of paste.
Cut it into little cubes so they can be dissolved easily later.


Jus as i was all ready to start, guess wat?
I read the instructions again and realise the onions are supposed to be choppeD!!
Taking the chopper...chop chop chop! My chopped onions!!


Cooking starts!!!
Put in my fav Garlic butter into the heated saucepan!!
Love the frangrant smell!! MMmmm!!


Throw in the chopped onions!
Stir-fry till the onions turns brown!


Throw in the beef!
As the beef supposed to be cubes instead of slice, i did a quick stirfry.


Once the beef turned slightly brown, the carrot and potatoes was thrown in.
Did a quick stirfry.


Poured in 1 cup odd of water!
Suppose to Simmer it for about 10 mins till the beef gets cooked.
Since my beef is sliced, i reckon it wun take long to cook!
I was more worried about my vegetables! haha!


Simmer Simmer Simmer!!


Take a well deserved drink while wating!
My new fav type of drink! Yougurt fruit drink!
Prefers Marigold's strawberry 1 though! YummieR!


Oh yeah! its done! Putting in the paste!!!


Stirring in the paste till it dissolves!!


Bringin the curry to the boil!!
Looks a lot like jap curry already right?!


Smells so good!
Ready to be served!!!


Serving suggestion: with noodles or rice!
So i decided to cook maggie noodles!
Rice takes too long!!


My cooked noodles!!!


Finally! FInal product!
Doesnt it look as good as that of a restaurent!
Verdict: Taste as yummy as it smells!!!