Cat Tongues ("Langues De Chat")

It has been a while since i baked. Been busy ever since Gwee came back from aussie! Did manage to bake for him some "burnt butter biscuits" for him to try some days back. Guess he isnt a cookie person. Took so long to finish so miserable number of cookies.

We actually had some popiah party on sat with his frns. We did most of the preparation on our own. He did the cooking. I made potato salad too! The popiah tasted not bad! only 60% of my mum's standard though. Wanted to do a blog entry on it but we were superdly busy that we forgot to take pics. I was glad that my potato salad was liked too! maybe every1 was hungry from waiting for our popiahs.

Wanted to do "rub-in" cookies. Those kind of cookies that u have to use cookie cutter all. Decided not to in the end. Dunno y i got a cut on my thumb. Painful. N i dun think any1 wants extra ingredients in their cookies.

Here's my poor thumb!

Anyway, here's wat i attempted to bake today. Must supply original pics so can compare the end product done by me!

Its the cookies at the sides! The ends of the cookies are dipped in chocolate. Looks damn pretty! if i master it, it be a great gift for pple!


I whipped out the nozzle thingy i bought at Daiso at IMM on monday! 2 bucks! woohoo! Daiso is good! I definitely need to nozzle to achieve the shape of the cookie! Recipe stated it too!

The ingredients are:

1. 50g plain flour
2. 50g caster sugar
3. 50g butter
4. 2 large egg whites
5. few drops of vanilla essence
6. 75 plain dark chocolate ( i subtitute it with cadbury milk chocolate...hehe)

The first step of the recipe was to cream the butter. When soft, beat in the sugar. Cream until fluffy. Then whisk the egg white till it stand in soft peaks.

Itchy fart me thot it be better for me to do the egg white first. WHisking egg white is a hard chore! will take super long! I was afraid of the butter melting by the time i got the egg white done.


Here i go seperating the egg white and the yolks.


Here's my egg white! i dunno wat the hell is stand on soft peaks! So i jus attempt to make some peaks of the egg whites and if it doesnt sinks...its ready!


Here i proceed to cream my butter and sugar! Use a smaller bowl pls. Its really very little butter and sugar. Hard to cream with a big mixing bowl! By the time i finish, i realised my egg white sinked! and i was unable to whisk it again! in order not to spoil the recipe, i threw away the old egg white and whisk 2 new egg whiteS! I am pooped manz! Steps are ordered for a reason!!


Now, alternately mix in the plain flour and and the white egg in to the cream mixture. This is how the final mixture looked liked.


Scooping the cream into the nozzle thingy, suppose to squeeze out the mixture of 5 cm length onto the baking tray. I simply estimate! hehe! super different proportion!


Baking in the oven...expanding...shaping nicely on its own. (oven was heated - 190 deg)


In my negligence, my first batch was burnt! :(! threw away like 3 of the biscuits!) prepared the second batch and let it bake in the oven. Was able to control the nozzle better and the second batch looked much better.


Suppose to melk chocolate in hot water. I think too troublesome. I went to put the chocolate 15 secs in the microwave. Left: Before. Right: After. Like no difference right? Normal pple will go on heating up! dun! its melted already.


Jus use yr fork and stir....See! Melted! :) Du put too long in the microwave! will burn 1!!


Dipped the eggs in chocolate! so pretty!! DOne! Must wait for the chocolate to set before storing!!

Verdict: First batch sux! It was burnt and soft! taste like "lao hong" biscuit! mum went yucks! i was sad! then mum sae must control temperature. so i went to reduce the temp to 180! my second batch was saved! it was golden brown and crunchy! mum's the best! else i b so sad! thot it was another failure! Second batch was good! :) If i can control the nozzle better, the biscuits will b prettier! :)

Burnt Butter Biscuit (as it shld be!)

Before i proceed with this post, i wanna do a public apology to mellie! The flour measurement i gave her for this recipe was wrong! I used the wrong flour measurement for myself too! I think my eyes need to see a doctor! No wonder i was wondering y the cookies looks so different! But the precious flat cookie was jus as yummy! My sister jus commented she prefer the flat 1. hehe!

For the steps, please refer back to the old post here .

Correct measurements are as follows:

1. 175g of self raising flour
2. 100g of sugar
3. 100g of butter
4. 1 large egg
5. almond flakes (finally got some almonds!)

This is how the dough really looks like! Not watery like the previous 1! Oppz!


Here you see it nicely rising in the oven and then the nicely brown final product! The smell of freshly baked biscuits is delicious!


Hehe! 3-D biscuits! The previous 1 i did was like totally flat! There are a few variation that i made to the biscuits. Some i jus lay some almond flakes on top for decorative purpose, some plain and the rest i mix more almond flakes in the dough. The almond flakes really makes the biscuits yummier! I definitely preferred those that have loads of almond flakes!

Though i made a mistake previously, it made me chance upon a delicious kind of biscuits too (mum term them as "cat's tongue"). Maybe i shld give the mistake another go and see how i can perfect it. This biscuit is nice too. I think i shld leave it in for 15 mins instead of 12 to make it more crispier.

My frn yixian baked more biscuits today again! i think she is hooked. She experimented new ways for her biscuits. She tried cashew and also adding chopped pistachio.... she saes the 1 with chopped pistachio is really good! So its really up to you to modify the recipes as to suit yr taste. I hope more pple will try them out too

Chocolate Banana Walnut Cake

Attempted a new cake today! Cooking is all about experimenting! So experimenting i shall be! After 2 successful attempts at cakes, i decided i shld venture further of my cake variation! I decided to bake a chocolate banana walnut cake by modifying the all-in-one recipe by just adding banana and walnut and cocoa into the cake mixture!

Here it goes!
For the detailed steps, refer to the recipe here!
My previous attempt on Chocolate Cake wasnt chocolately enuff. So this time, i added 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder instead!


My glossy and light mixture after mixing 3 eggs, sifted self-raising flour and baking powder, Cocoa powder and sugar. Add a pinch of salt in the mixture too! According to mum, a pinch of salt is able to bring out the sweetness of a chocolate cake! I guess she cant b wrong... Lana cakes have a slight salty taste in them too! wahaha! comparing my cake to Lana cake! So ambitious!


Diced some banana and chopped walnuts! U can get ready to eat walnuts in the baking section in supermarkets! Mum sae if u get those raw walnuts, roast them in the oven... not too long! jus enuff to bring out the fragrant of the walnut! a little brown! this is because the walnut will still continue to cook when the cake is baked! Dunno the exact amout of banana and walnut that i added.... think a handfull will be enuff. U dun wanna overwhelm the cake with too much ingredients


I simply jus used a spoon to gently mix in the banana and walnut in the mixture. I scared of overmixing the mixture...scared my cake will spoil!


FInally! in the oven! have 1 hour to go bathe and stuffs again! That's the advantage of baking cakes over cookies! Disadvantage? Cakes takes jus as long to cool too!!!! ARGHZ!


Yeah! the final product! See its kinda peaks in the middle and has cracks? Mum told me the reason is because i forgot that i added more ingredients this time. This tin isnt big enuff! The cakes has no space to rise and thus it cracked! At least i line my tin better this time! :)

Remember to let it cool completely my frn!

Verdict? The cake is nice and moist. I still feel it isnt chocolatelty enuff! issit jus me? Anyway, the cake has more bite now coz with each mouthful, there is yummy banana bits and crunchy walnuts. The walnut i bought aint that tasty. I think i shld get mum to buy those raw walnut next time instead. For more bite, jus add more banana bits and walnuts as u wish. Mum brought haf the cake to her office for her colleagues! I hope they will like it! It will surely be a boost to my confidence.

Mum jus got back to me. She said her colleague loves the cake! Her advice to me for improvement. Use mashed banana instead for more taste. Add a drop of vanilla essence for fragrance. Use melted chocolate instead of cocoa for more chocolately taste! To b a good cook, u must always b open to suggestions!

Mum's attempt at Roast Pork

Mummy attempted to do roast pork today! It's so pretty!! But it was only crispy at the sides. The rest of the skin was kinda hard! Other than that, the meat was really tasty! But all the fatty meat got me full pretty fast! So sinful! The meat really shrank alot! it was quite a big slab of meat that my mum marinated! Then mummy commented that now she noes y roast pork is so expensive!

Burnt Butter Biscuits (Yixian's attempt!)

Yixian had her go on Burnt Butter Biscuits after copying down the recipe at my place on friday! Seems like when u start baking you cant seem to stop it! Look at her biscuits! It's really pretty! Looks exactly as it did in the recipe book! She is good! Haha...this adorable gal didnt had almond nut and substitute with pistachio! Anyway, she loves her biscuits! She saes its yummy!!! Bravo yixian!! U made Juncong a very proud man! wahahaha~~~

Enjoy the pics......

All-in-one Chocolate Cake

After baking the lemon butter cake successful previously, i decided i shld try baking cake 1 more time! maybe modify it a bit! i decided to change the recipe a bit and bake a chocolate cake instead! haha...i am trying to finish my big bottle of cocoa powder!

So basically, the recipe is still the same jus that instead of lemon zest and juice, i added 2 tablespoon of cocoa powder.

Look who came to visit....

Its YX! yeap...those skinny hands sifting the flour isnt me! hehe! She is here with me to attempt baking a chocolate cake!

Errr...we kinda spend more time toking instead of taking pics! hehe! For steps: it is exactly like the previous recipe.


Here is our successful choc cake rising in the oven after haf an hour! I did try to lower the temp after 1 hour of baking to make sure it doesnt get burnt on the top like it did previously. It worked! Nice looking cake!


Here's our nice cake cooling down on the cooling rack! It doesnt look chocolately enuff right? Actually, it was stated in the recipe book that if u wan your chocolate cake to have a darker colour, u can substitute caster sugar with soft brown sugar. If u think my cake looks kinda dry and its cracking, it isnt! i line the tin wrongly this time! too busy toking! The mixture had kinda seeped in betweens the baking sheets and so when i removed the baking sheets, it sorta cracks the side of the cake... heartache!

Verdict: din actually manage to eat more of the cake. Too tired. It takes damn long to cool manz! It smelt really good because of the cocoa. We did manage to pinch abit of the cake because of the cracks by the baking sheets. I think it needs a bit more cocoa powder..i love chocolaty stuffs! YX love the butter taste of the cake. hehe! Hope her parents will like the cake!

Baking is definitely more fun with frns! YX wanna try the burnt butter biscuit the next time! She copied down recipes she liked! haha! we are greedy gals! cooking because we like to eat!hehe!