S&SB: White Chocolate and Orange Cookies

Sweet and Simple Bakes has chosen white chocolate & orange cookies. The light, orangey and chocolate flavor is so delicious. I cannot help eating them the minute I cooled the cookies of the cooling rack! Thumbs up for the cookies... I am sure to make them again...

White Chocolate & Orange Cookies

Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients

115g unsalted butter, softened

200g caster sugar (superfine)

1 egg

Grated zest of 1 orange (2 to 3 tsp)

1 tsp vanilla extract

200g plain flour

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

¼ baking powder

¼ tsp salt

225g white chocolate chips (milk or dark chocolate)

Preheat the oven to 190oC/170oC fan oven/375oF/Gas mark 5.

Beat the butter and sugar. Add the egg, orange zest and vanilla extract.Sift together the dry ingredients.

Stir the dry ingredients and chocolate chips into the butter mixture and combine.

Roll into balls. Use your fingers to flatten onto a non-stick baking sheet 5cm/2in apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool for five minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.

When cool, store in an airtight container for up to four to five days.

S&SB : St. Clement's Drizzle Cake

St. Clement's Drizzle Cake was indeed a delicious cake!!! This quick cake was really light and moist! I took 2nd servings for this cake.. hehe... yummy!! :)

When I found out that S&SB's challenge for September is a cake, I thought why not "kill 2 bird with 1 stone"... make this quick cake as a birthday cake for my hubby too (September is his birthday month).

The other day, I was reading the previous S&SB bakes, I noticed that my chocolate St. Clement's Drizzle Cake is almost similar to S&SB June's challenge; Chocolate Orange Drizzle Loaf Cake. I was really busy and sadly couldn't partake in those few months... hehe...

Anyway, here is the picture of the birthday cake. Its really simple and my decorating skills, I think are terrible!!! Need to practice more.... :|

For recipe click here. Also check out S&SB website for the rest of the bakes... Looking forward to read all my fellow members' blog for this bake.... :)

xoxo

S&SB: Jammy Doughnut Muffins

I love doughnuts, specially those fresh ones.. hmm.. yummy! This time, SSB is going a little healthier.. No frying doughnuts. Tested and tried...these Jammy Doughnut Muffins were fabulous!! I even put custard in some of my doughnuts. They turned out great!

Any flavoured jam would be equally as delicious to use in this bake as opposed to strawberry and raspberry. You may have some delectable homemade jam(s) you wish to use or what about the sublime Dulce de Leche, (“toffee sauce”) even a thick vanilla custard or stewed apples. The amount of baking powder is correct in this recipe, I know it seems a vast amount but it does work.

Makes 12
Ingredients
275g (10 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
3 tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
100g (4 oz) caster (superfine) sugar
2 eggs
200ml (7 fl oz) milk
75g (3 oz) unsalted (sweet) butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract
12 tsp strawberry or raspberry jam

For The Toping
100g (4 oz) unsalted (sweet) butter
150g (5 oz) granulated sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon (optional)

You will need 12 hole muffin tin lined with paper cases.

Method
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas mark 5.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl, and stir through the sugar. In large jug, lightly beat the eggs then add the milk, cooled butter and vanilla extract and beat together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients stir gently until just combined. (Do not over mix, its fine to have a few lumps in the mixture.) Spoon half the muffin mixture into the base of each paper case. Top each muffin with a teaspoon of jam. Now equally between each paper case, top with the remaining muffin mixture. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 – 20 minutes until well risen, golden and firm to the touch.

For The Topping: melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat. Spread the granulated sugar in a wide, shallow bowl with the cinnamon if using. When the muffins are baked, leave in the tin for 5 minutes. Dip the tops of the muffins in the melted butter and then roll in the sugar. You can serve these muffins warm or cold; however, I do prefer to eat them whilst warm.

I'm looking forward to see the other entries for this bake.. Thanks Rosie and Maria for the great bake. :) Check out Sweet and Simple Bakes.

S&SB : Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I haven't been participating in Sweet and Simple Bakes for a long time.. I am so sorry Rosie and Maria. I really felt bad for not able to join the past months... I missed so many great bakes. My bad! I got to know about this bake 3 days ago. Luckily, I have most of the ingredients except for the cream cheese.. that is easy to get.. So I quickly made it so that I can post on the required posting date. :)

Actually I never had carrot cake before... I just never like the idea of carrot and spices in my cake.. But after one bite of my own baked carrot cake, hmm... yummy!!! Even my hubby rated A+. hehe.. I was very pleased with the carrot cake but wasn't too pleased with my frosting.. This is my 2nd time!!! Its not in the right consistency. I am not sure what when wrong?? I used powdered sugar and all the ingredients required but still not right.. :( I will keep trying until its right! I didn't put the picture of the whole cake because I thought the presentation of the cake is not attractive enough so you'll see only parts of it.. hehe...

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Serves 12

Ingredients
180g (6½ oz) self-raising (self-rising) flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
Pinch of salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
½ tsp mixed spice (Pumpkin pie spice)
2 eggs
150 ml (5 fl oz) vegetable or sunflower oil
200g (7 oz) soft light or dark brown sugar
300g (11 oz) grated carrots
100g (4 oz) sultanas
75g (3 oz) walnuts, chopped (optional)
Cream Cheese Icing
75g (3 oz) cream cheese
75g (3 oz) softened butter
125g (4½ oz) icing sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
For Decoration
Sprinkles or walnut halves - optional

You will need a 13cm x 23cm (5 in x 9 in) loaf tin, oil and line the loaf tin with greaseproof paper.

Method

Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas mark 2. Sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl and leave aside. Beat the eggs in a large bowl, now add the oil, brown sugar, grated carrot, sultanas and chopped walnuts. Stir in all sifted dry ingredients and bring the mixture together with a wooden spoon. Turn into the prepared tin, smooth the top of the mixture and bake in the oven for 1 – 1¼ hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely.

To make The Cream Cheese Frosting: Beat the cream cheese and butter together in a bowl until combined. Add the vanilla extract, icing sugar and mix to combine. Using a palette knife, spread the frosting evenly over the top of the cooled cake. Add the sprinkles or walnut halves if desired. Served cut into slices.

Notes:

1. You can play around with the dried fruits and nuts and use, raisins in place of sultanas and pecans in place of walnuts for alternatives.

2. I would advise you to store this cake in a cool place due to the cream cheese icing.

3. If using plain (all-purpose) flour - The rule of thumb is that for every 100g (4oz) of flour you will need to add 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

I just thought of taking the picture below because it was my first time using the Foodbuzz s apron. You see, Foodbuzz sent me this apron late last year but I didn't get a chance to use it.. Not only that, I get my namecards too. hehe.. cool ah! Well today's blog is all about my first time.. heheh.. well.. there's always first time for everything, right... And thank you Foodbuzz for the lovely apron and the namecards. :)

Dun forget to check out Sweet and Simple Bakes for the bakes from SS members. Thanks Rosie and Maria for this wonderful bake. xoxo
Have a great weekends everyone! :)

Sweet & Simple Bakes (December): Christmas Muffins

This time, the challenge was very interesting. Both Rosie and Maria made a polling system for S&S Bakers to choose their favorite. The following showed the choices and the number of votes:

Christmas muffin - 20 votes
Trifle - 7 votes
Minced Pies - 5 votes
Gingerbread People - 16 votes
Stained Glass Window Cookies - 19 votes

I voted for the gingerbread people, unfortunately, the votes were not high enough. No biggie.. I enjoyed making the Christmas muffin on Christmas eve morning. It was good. Well, I am not really a big fan for muffins but I would say these muffins were good. Moist and doesn't break into pieces. I'm looking forward to bake gingerbread people and stained glass window cookies in the future.

This recipe is sourced and adapted from Nigella Christmas cookbook. A very beautiful book by, The Domestic Goddess’s herself and it definitely is worth purchasing for all the magnificent festive recipes inside.

Christmas Morning Muffins ~ adapted from Nigella Christmas Book
Makes 12

Ingredients
250g (9 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
2½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g (4 oz) caster (super fine) sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Good grating of fresh nutmeg (or ¼ tsp ground nutmeg)
2 Clementine’s or Satsuma’s *see notes*
Approx 125ml (4 fl oz) full-fat milk
75g (3 oz) vegetable oil (or melted butter, left to cool slightly)
1 egg
175g (6 oz) dried cranberries

For The Topping
3 tsp Demerara sugar *see notes*

Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan oven 180°C/400°F/Gas mark 6.
Line a 12-bun muffin tin with muffin paper cases.
Measure the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, caster sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg into a large bowl; grate the zest of the Clementine’s/Satsuma’s over and combine.
Squeeze the juice of the Clementine’s/Satsuma’s into a measuring jug, and pour in the milk until it comes up to the 200ml (7 fl oz) mark.
Add the oil (or slightly cooled, melted butter) and egg, and lightly beat until just combined.
Pour this liquid mixture into the bowl of dried ingredients and stir until everything is more or less combined, remembering that a well-beaten mixture makes for heavy muffins; a lumpy batter is a good here.
Fold in the cranberries, then spoon the batter into the muffin cases and sprinkle the Demerara sugar on top.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
The muffins are ready to eat now either plain or broken up and smeared with butter and marmalade.

* Notes**

Cranberries could also be replaced with another dried fruit of choice**

Clementine’s/Satsuma’s*If you’re unable to source Clementine’s or Satsuma’s, 1 orange of zest and juice would be adequate.

* Demerara Sugar is*: Large crystals, golden in colour, which also adds a crunch to baked goods.

*Question*:
I can’t purchase Demerara sugar - what could I use instead?
Granulated Sugar: This is a pure, naturally white, crystalline sugar.
Sugar Cubes: Brown/white, would be a lovely addition instead of Demerara sugar; crunched up and sprinkled over the top of each muffin before baking.

If you wish to bake these muffins on Christmas morning for breakfast; you could measure out the dry ingredients the night before into a bowl and cover over, and also pop the muffin cases into the muffin tin. Then on the day, preheat the oven, add the grated zest to the dry ingredients and whisk up the wet ingredients. Mix the mixture together as above and scoop the mixture into the muffins cases and bake as above.

Check out the rest of the S&B Bakers here!

Enjoy!

Sweet & Simple Bakes (October) - Spooktacular - Halloween - Cupcakes

It's HALLOWEEN. I still remember when I was still working at Loof Bar last year, I had those artistic make up done by the expert. hehe..
Anyway for this month's challenge, it was Spooktacular - Halloween Cupcakes. My attempt to make this month's challenge, was good but not as spooky as what Rosie and Maria (Sweet and Simple Bakes) mentioned in the post. Well, by adding raisins and chocolate chip to the mixture, is that creative too?? Hmm.. I do not have the witch cookie cutter or pumpkin cookie cutter or the black color icing to decorate my cupcake. I used grapefruit icing and added orange color to it. The cut-outs were actually real cookie that I baked separately (unfortunately, they were slightly burnt because I forgot to turn the oven temperature down... lol). Besides using the normal cupcake cases, I used the mini paper cupcakes cases too because they look so cute.. mini.. ;)

Spooktacular - Halloween - Cupcakes!

Makes approximately 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
175g (6 oz / 1 &1/3 cups) self-raising flour
175g (6 oz /1 &1/2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
175g (6 oz / 1 cup) of caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 - 4 tbsp milk
Icing/frosting of your choice – go wild and make a statement
Decorations of your choice – the spookier the better :)

You will need a 12 hole-muffin tin and 12 cupcake paper cases

Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan180°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6. Line a 12 hole-muffin tin with cupcake paper cases.

Sieve the flour into a bowl and leave aside. In a large mixing bowl add the butter and sugar and beat until the mixture becomes light in colour and fluffy. Add one egg at a time beating well between each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and then gently fold in the flour until combined. Stir in the milk until you have a good dropping consistency. Spoon the mixture equally into the prepared muffin tin and place in the preheated oven. Bake for 20 -25 minutes or until risen and golden and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to completely cool.

Rosie’s notes:
1. Fill the cupcake paper cases no more than two-thirds full for the cupcakes to rise.
2. If the tops dome a little when completely cool, take a segregated knife and slice the domed tops off and discard, this enables flat tops for icing and decorations.
3. I have also measured my ingredients that I weighed out into cup measures as requested but please note if using, I cannot guarantee how accurate these measures are in cups.
4. If using plain flour because you cannot acquire self-raising flour add 1½ tsp of baking powder to the plain flour.

Though my cupcakes are not as spooky as they should be, but I tell you, they taste great!!! I am sure to make more of these cupcakes.. Thank you Rosie and Maria for this great recipe! :)
Check out the rest for the Spooktacular - Halloween - Cupcakes!!

Anyhoo, for the month of October, I was unable to complete one challenge from Cookie Carnival. But do check out for the October Round-Up here!

Have a good weekend everyone! :)

Sweet & Simple Bakes (September) - Vanilla Apple Cake

Maybe, I didnt do it right.... I don't know what happened???? I baked this simple vanilla apple cake. Unfortunately, my cake sunk in the middle and I didn't take a good picture. I was really disappointed with my vanilla apple cake. Here how it looked like.... 

From the picture, you can't really see it but it did... Kind of embarrass to be added in the round up together with the rest of the group.. They did a great job with the vanilla apple cake. You may like to check out here.

See ya!

Sweet & Simple Bakes (August) - Victoria Sandwich Cake

First of all, thank you, Rosie and Maria for this great and simple recipe. Sweet and Simple Bakes selected Victoria Sandwich Cake for August Bake. A classic cake which is so simple and easy to make. You can enjoy this cake while you having your afternoon tea or anytime of the day.

The ‘creaming’ method is used which means creaming fat & sugar together to incorporate air, and then adding the liquids slowly to avoid curdling the mixture and gently folding in the flour. This is no problem for me, since I used this kind of method before in the past.

Top Tip from Rosie, to have all ingredients at room temperature before you commence, should the mixture curdle when incorporating the eggs, add 1 tablespoon of flour and all will come together without any problems. In this recipe, it said to use 2 sandwich tins (cake pans) 2 x 20cm (8 in) with depth of at least 5cm (2 in) but I used 2 aluminum cake pans when I baked this cake so the cake does not look even on the sides. I did thought of just using one pan but I used two instead. Looks like I should have used one and cut into half.. But its all good because the cake turned out great. The cake finished fast as soon as I served. The whole family enjoyed this classic cake.

Recipe can be found here : Victoria Sandwich Cake

Check out for the rest of the entries too @ Sweet and Simple Bakes.