Just having some fun

No, I didn't bake this,



and I certainly don't have the skills to produce this ;)



I am sure you by now you would have guessed what these are...yes, they are erasers! Don't you think they look cute? I got them from Daiso recently...and meet the full spread here:



If you are interested, you can visit the manufacturer's site for the full range of erasers available. Since I don't use erasers, even if I do, I won't want to use them, I will probably turn them into fridge magnets instead :)



I also bought this set of cookie cutters...hmmm, mainly for the bear-shape cutter...as I already own the star and heart-shape cutters.


Another cheap and good deal from Daiso...a set of egg moulds! I am gonna stuff the kids with hard-boil eggs real soon ;D

Rice Cooker ~ Claypot Chicken Rice

This was our dinner tonight...Claypot Mushroom Chicken Rice.


Since the start of the week, I have been involved in some "odd jobs" and will still be busy right till next week, I could hardly find time to do any baking :(

This is a super simple, fuss-free, one-pot dish which I have improvised over the past 1.5 years. It is one of the first few simple meals which I could handle ever since I became the full-time COO of my house (aka housewife) ;)

This is so simple, even the taste is so simple (nothing fabulous) that I didn't even thought of posting it. Whenever I am short of time, or, pure lazy, I will make this dish.

All you need to do is to marinate the chicken pieces (I used half a chicken) beforehand with some seasonings such as: black soya sauce, salt, pepper, sesame seed oil and a few slices of ginger. The chicken will taste better if you can marinate it overnight.

Just before you are ready to cook the dish, cut mushrooms such as fresh button mushrooms, dried or fresh shiitake mushrooms into slices, wash the rice and place everything (rice, mushrooms, marinated chicken) into the rice cooker pot. Add in the amount of water required to cook the rice (eg 2 cups rice will need 2 cups of water). Stir the ingredients to mix well. Cook using the rice cooker. Give it a stir in between the cooking cycle. Once the cooking cycle is completed, fluff the rice a little and the dish is ready to be served!

I am not able to provide details on how much salt, soya sauce to add...as I usually cook by "feeling"...I simple add the amount which I "think" is right. As a result, sometimes the chicken rice could be more saltish while other times the taste was just right! Occasionally the rice could be a little too hard as I didn't add enough water. Since my dear ones are not picky eaters, so far they have not made any complaints. hehe!

I used to stir-fry the chicken and mushrooms a little before I cook them in the rice cooker. Ever since I tried putting everything raw into the rice cooker to cook, I have omitted this step completely. So, there's really not much cleaning and washing up to be done :)


A closed-up of tonight's dinner, the rice appeared oily, but it was not. I took this picture right under a lamp, the reflections made the whole dish looked so oily! As you can see, the rice was a bit too soft and sticky...I must have added too much water, oops!

Milo Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

It has been some time since I last baked muffins. At one time I was crazy over muffins before the bread making craze took over. I still like baking muffins since they are much easier and straight forward to make as compared to cakes or bread. They are also very versatile as you can always experiment it with different ingredients.

Inspired by a friend's triple chocolate muffins, I made a batch of Milo flavoured chocolate chip muffins for the kids and my niece.


I adapted the recipe from a cookbook, Williams Sonoma's Muffins, and replaced some of the flour with Milo. This is the first time I've used Milo in my bakes. I grew up drinking Milo everyday...my breakfast (as far back as I could remember) was always a cup of hot Milo with a slice of bread. It was not until I stepped into the working world that I changed my daily beverage to coffee. Even then, I still drink Milo on a very regular basis. Nowadays, it has almost become a comfort drink for me, especially when I am not feeling well. I remembered those winter holidays I spent at my sis place in the states, I would not go to bed before drinking a cup of hot Milo. It really warms up the whole body in those cold, freezing nites.


Although I have already tried several muffin recipes, this is the first recipe that I have used which adopts the "rubbing-in" method. Most of the muffins I have tried used either the creaming method (cream butter with sugar) or the standard muffin method where the wet ingredients (where butter is melted) are mixed with the dry ingredients. For this recipe, the butter is rub-in with the self-rising flour, before the wet ingredients are added to form the batter. I have also used both the dark chocolate chips and white ones...simply because I need to use up the white chocolate chips before they expire ;p

I was very surprised at the texture of the muffins. It was super soft and moist. These are one of the best muffins I have baked. The kids love the sweetness and the added chocolate chips. I could even distinguish the familiar Milo smell when my kitchen was 'engulfed' with the sweet aroma from the freshly baked muffins.


Ingredients:
(makes 9 big muffins)

270g self-rising flour
30g Milo
1 teaspoon baking powder
55g butter
80g sugar
150g milk or semisweet chocolate chips
2 eggs, lightly beaten
225ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200 deg C. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan or line with paper muffin cups.


2. Mix the flour, Milo and baking powder in a large bowl.


3. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.


4. Stir in sugar and chocolate chips.


5. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and vanilla extract. Pour the mixture all at once into the dry ingredients. Mix quickly until just blended. Do not over mix.


6. Spoon batter evenly into the prepared muffin pan and bake for 20mins or until golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.


7. Cool in the pan for 10mins then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Hazelnut Bread

When I first came across this bread recipe that uses chocolate chips and hazelnuts, I almost wanted to try it out immediately. It was put on hold as I didn't have any chocolate chips or hazelnuts left. However, this recipe has been at the back of my mind all the while...I finally got a pack of chocolate chips and hazelnuts when I dropped by Phoon Huat recently. Since it was a few weeks before I last read the recipe, I got the wrong type of hazelnuts! The recipe calls for chopped hazelnuts, but I bought home a pack of grounded hazelnuts :'( I went ahead with it, thinking that there shouldn't be much difference between chopped and grounded hazelnuts.


This bread recipe is for a bread machine...as such it is quite a simple and straight forward loaf to bake. I only got a little worried just after I added in the grounded hazelnuts and chocolate chips. The dough didn't seem to be able to blend in the nuts and chips well. Fortunately, after the second kneading cycle was completed, all the chips and nuts were fully incorporated into the dough. In fact, most of the chips were already melted into the dough.

It was only when the bread was almost baked, I then realised that I didn't set the loaf size and crust setting! As the crust was almost dark browned, I stopped the machine 5 mins earlier. I wasn't sure whether it was the wrong setting, or it was meant to be, the crust was a little hard and crisp...just like the crust texture of a country loaf.

Too bad with the use of a wrong type of hazelnuts, I couldn't taste the grounded hazelnuts in the loaf at all...and the bread wasn't really sweet as what I expected. Nevertheless, the bread tasted marvellous when served as a toast with jam :P

Ingredients

200ml semi-skimmed milk (I used low fat fresh milk)
3 tablespoon melted butter, cooled
1 large egg, beaten
1 1/2 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
450g bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoon instant or fast acting dried yeast
75g chocolate chips
50g chopped toasted hazelnuts

Method:

1. Pour milk into the pan of the bread machine, followed by melted butter and egg. Add sugar and salt. Cover with the flour and sprinkle the yeast over.
2. Fit the pan into the bread machine and set to BASIC white programme. Select 1 lb or 1.5lb loaf size and set to light or medium crust setting (depend on your preference).
3. Add the chocolate chips and nuts when the machine beeps.
4. Once baked, remove the loaf from the pan and let cool on a wire rack for at least an hour before slicing.

Recipe Source: The Breadmaker Bible by Karen Saunder

Peach Layered Sponge Cake

We decided to make a cake for my husband to celebrate Father's Day. Although I've learned how to bake a sponge cake, I am always lost when come to cake decorating. The boys and I spent some time discussing before we decided that I could make a Darth Vader chocolate transfer and use it for to decorate the cake. My hubby is a fan of star wars...and he likes using various Darth Vader icons in his PC. So, with the help of a Darth Vader's mask, I drew up a template to make the chocolate transfer. I melted some chocolate and piped the outline of Darth Vader over the template. I was quite satisfied with the result and kept the chocolate transfer in the freezer before baking the sponge cake.

I use the same sponge cake recipe which I did earlier but reduced the sugar amount by half, and simply filled the layers with whipped cream and canned peach slices. When I was ready to transfer the chocolate Darth Vader template over to the the cake top...it started to melt and broke into pieces :'( This was despite that I used a metal spatula to transfer the chocolate, I didn't even use my bare hand as I knew the warm from my hand would melt the chocolate. Guess, I can forget about using chocolate transfers in cake decoration unless I have a cold-room in my house!

Since I didn't want to have a plain-looking cake, I tried piping wordings on the cake. Then, I piped a supposedly caricature of my hubby...but it didn't turn out as expected...urrrgh! the decoration really cannot make it.

Was quite upset over it, but when my hubby saw it, he just smiled and assured me it's the thots that count. To proof his gratitude, he finished up three slices at a go ;p




I do like the texture of the sponge cake though...it was light, soft and a little moist. Over all the cake tasted sweet and refreshing with the peach slices and whipping cream.



Ingredients:
(make a 20cm round cake)

4 eggs, bring to room temperature
100g caster sugar
4g salt
140g cake flour
30g salad oil**
30g fresh milk

filling & frosting:
1 cup non-dairy whipping cream
1 can peach slices

Method:

1. Sift cake flour, set aside. Grease and line a 20cm round pan, set aside. Pre-heat oven to 180degC. Position rack at the lower bottom of the oven.
2. With an electric mixer, whisk eggs and sugar & salt on HIGH speed for about 5 to 7mins, until the batter double in volume and is ribbon-like (the batter should leave a ribbon-like texture when the beater is lifted up). Turn to LOW speed and whisk for another 1 to 2 mins. Whisking at low speed helps to stabilise the air bubbles in the batter.
3. Add sifted cake flour into the batter. With a spatula, gently fold in the flour until well blended.
4. With a spatula, mix about 1/3 of the batter with the salad oil in a separate bowl. Fold in this mixture into the remaining batter. This method will help to ensure the oil will be fully blended and at the same time will not deflate the batter.
5. Add in fresh milk and fold in gently with spatula.
6. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 35 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Unmold and cool completely.

Assemble the cake

1. With an electric mixer, whip the whipping cream still stiff.
2. Slice the cake horizontally into 3 layers. Place one of the cake layers cut-side down on a cake plate.
3. Spread the whipped cream over the layer. Arrange rings of peach slices to cover the whole layer. Fill with some more whipped cream. Top with the second cake layer, cut-side up.
4. Repeat step 3 for the second cake layer. Top with the third layer.
5. Spread the whipped cream over the top and side of the cake. Decorate as desired.
   

(**Note: Salad oil is a term which I have translated from the Chinese recipe. It refers to vegetable oil. You can use sunflower oil, canola oil, olive oil, as long as the type of oil you use doesn't give a strong smell.)