Feeling Hot & Cross today???

I never thought that I can bake bread again as I was never quite successful with them. I was pretty wrong and this time, my bread was soft and fluffy and it lasted for 3 days. Yummy indeed!!!

I came across this Hot Cross Buns from the Prima Flour website. Over there, they have some good recipes for different types of flour.
And of course, with their recipes, I was finally able to bake a soft and fluffy bread.

The dough was let to proof for about 1 hour, and it doubled up in size

After which they were divided into 50g each, and left to proof for another 1 hour.

Egg wash them and pipe the crossing.

And here we have, the "Hot Cross Buns".
Well, for mine, it's probably the PLAIN Hot Cross Buns as I had omitted the raisins, sultanas and lemon peel for fear that the girls will not eat them. Hmmm, but I guessed these buns ain't their favourite as they did not touch any of them. Whereas, for my friend and I, were couldn't wait to try them after they were taken out from the oven... Boy do I love the aroma of the freshly baked buns...:))

Recipe as adapted from Prima Flour

Ingredients:

(yields about 8 buns)

HOT CROSS BUNSPart (A)
200 g PrimaFlour Bread Flour
135 ml Milk
30 g Sugar
25 g Margarine
8 g Intant Yeast
¾ tsp Cinnamon Powder
½ tsp Salt

Part (B)
40 g Raisins
20 g Sultanas
10 g Lemon Peel

Method:

Using a dough hook, mix (A) at low speed for 2 mins, then at medium speed for 12-15 mins until dough is developed. Add (B) and mix at low speed for 1 min. Knead and leave to ferment for 1 hour at room temperature. Divide dough into 8 pieces (about 60g each) and shape into balls. Place onto lightly greased baking pan. Cover with plastic and leave at room temperature for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 200°. Egg wash and pipe a cross on each bun just before baking. Bake for 13-15 mins.

Crossing100 g PrimaFlour Plain Flour
165 g Margarine
65 g Sugar

1. Soften margarine and mix with sugar for 5 mins at low speed.
   
2. Add PrimaFlour Plain Flour and mix well.

Let's go vegetarian today.... Apple Raisins Cake

Let's go vegetarian today...!!!

This Apple Raisins Cake was a great treat... 

Reason being it was healthy, dairy-free & eggless...

Instead of using margarine, I had replaced it with canola oil.

Though it was eggless, no dairy, this cake turned out very well. It was so soft and crumbly. I had also reduced a small amount of the sugar and I think it was still a little sweet, probably because of the sweetness from the apples and the raisins. I had also topped the cake with some chocolate chips... Yummy!!!

This cake was getting a great responses from family and friends and they liked it as much as I did♡

♧So are you ready to go on vegetarian for this cake too?♧

Recipe as adapted from Eggless Cakes & Cookies by Jamie Jong,

Eggless Cranberry Walnut Cake

Ingredients:

(with slight modifications)

250g margarine(250ml canola oil)

180g sugar(150g)

180ml water

340g self raising flour

100g dried cranberries(150g diced apples)

100g chopped walnuts(100g raisins)

Method:

1. Cream margarine and sugar till light and creamy. Add in water gradually, beat well.

2. Fold in sieved flour, cranberries and chopped walnuts, mix well.

3. Pour mixture into a greased and lined 7" cake mould.

4. Baked in a preheated oven of 160C for 1 1/4 hr.

(As I had replaced with margarine with oil, I had mixed the sugar, water and oil. Mix well. Add in the sieved flour into the liquid mixture, mix well until well blended.

Sprinkle the diced apples and raisins with some flour to prevent them from sinking to tje bottom of the cake. Mix into the batter and mix well.

Bake in a preheated oven of 180C for about 60mins or until a skewer stick comes out clean.)

Have fun! Happy Vegan Day♡

Durian Cupcake 榴莲杯纸蛋糕

Again, my friend Eileen had given me another recipe to try. This time she say these durian cupcakes were delicious and I must try them. It was really so tempting... Durian.... Nat loves durian as well, so she was up for this recipe, and so did hubby. We had went to the market to buy some durian, but thinking the durian are made for baking, I did not buy those top quality ones. Perhaps the quality of the durian will somehow affect the taste of the durian cupcakes. I had previously baked a Durian Cake last year, this will be my 2nd attempt. This recipe came from Wokking Mum, and I made some modifications to the ingredients.

The durian cupcakes had given a very nice fragrant while they are in the midst of baking. Cupcakes rosed very well, had a nice browning top. I had added more of the durian as I will prefer a heavy taste. Texture of the cupcakes were excellent, soft & fluffy, except that I find them abit dry and too dense at the bottom, probably I hadn't mashed the durian properly:-p I will think to add some milk to soften the texture in my next attempt. Let's see how it goes.

Ingredients:

(I have used half of the recipe, using 200g durian flesh, margarine, 2 eggs, self-raising flour)

250g Mashed Durian Flesh (original was using 170g)

250g Butter

150g Castor Sugar (original was using 180g)

5 Eggs

240g Flour, sifted (Plain/All purpose)

2 teaspoon Baking Powder, sifted

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar til light fluffy.
2. Add one egg at a time and continue beating.
3. Add in durian gradually and beat for 2 1/2 minutes.
4. Add in flour and baking powder.
5. Mix well.
6. Pour batter into a greased and lined 25cm X 25cam baking tray. ( I baked in 6' rectangle tin and muffin cups)
7. Bake at 180C for 40 to 50 minutes or till cake is done (check using toothpick).

Steamed Chocolate Cupcakes

Yes, Steam Cakes are indeed in trend this month in my home... And I am enjoying it very much. I had given alot of steamed cakes to my friend, and her hubby mentioned that I seemed to be enjoying doing so... So I told my friend, this month onwards my daughter will be starting her school vacations, plus my boss is not in SG, so taking all these time available to bake again...

I had bought this "Steamed Cakes" recipe book when I was in Penang last October, but I had never tried any of the recipes since I bought it till today.

From this book, I had selected the Steamed Chocolate Cupcakes as the ingredients were rather basic. Some of the other recipes required evaporated milk and condensed milk, which I wasn't too keen in them.

A full ingredients could actually fetch quite a number of cupcakes, depending on the size of your paper cups.

*Note: It is better to use those "paper" cupcake cases as compared to the other cupcake cases as the paper cups will "opened" up during steaming.

These steamed chocolate cupcakes were not too bad. I had modified some of the ingredients. Cutting down a huge amount of the icing sugar, using margarine instead of butter, and replacing the hot water with milk too. The cupcakes did turned out well, soft and moist, but a little not so sweet.. So perhaps I should increase a little more sugar...hehehehe...
The gals loved these cupcakes too. I was glad that they liked it. Mimi had 2 of them and she said it was yummy. My friend who tried the cupcakes said they were delicious as well.

Would you like to try one as well?

Recipe as adapted from the Steamed Cakes by Mdm Zubaidah Bte Chepa

Ingredients:

Yields about 16 medium size cups & 16 mini size cups

250g superfine flour (I use self raising flour)

1 tsp baking soda (omitted)

75g cocoa powder

350g icing sugar (I used 200g)

250g butter (I used margarine)

3 eggs

1 bowl of hot water (I used 250ml cold milk)

Method:

1. Beat butter & sugar until smooth.

2. Add in the egg one at a time, mix well at each addition.

3. Add in the flour+cocoa powder, alternating with the milk. Mix until well blended.

4. Pour batter into the paper cup cases and steam over high heat for about 10mins.

(If you are using my ingredients, you can fill the batter till full as the cupcakes will shrink a little after removing from heat)

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #25 – Steaming Hot Cakes (November 2012) hosted by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well in Flanders

Eggless Passionfruit Cupcakes无蛋百香果蒸蛋糕

 Actually I am having so much fun with Aspiring Bakers theme this month. This "steaming" theme had made me digged for my recipes, of which some are "fun with colors", while the rest are healthy versions.

I had bought the recipe book in JB last weekend, and this book caught my attention, Eggless Cakes & Cookies,  无蛋糕饼, by Chef Jamie Jong. I flipped through the pages and found the recipes quite interesting... So "it" came back home with me...

 Sharing this wonderful recipe I had found inside, it was actually a Green Tea Steamed Cupcake, but I do not have green tea powder at the moment. So I had subsituted with Passionfruit and added a tsp of vanilla essence to enhance the cupcakes flavor.

 These steamed Passionfruit Cupcakes were excellent. No eggs used, plus margarine, it made these cupcakes so healthy... The cupcakes texture was very soft and spongey. Some of the top "huated" part almost dropped out when I was taking them out of the steamer... hehehehe...

 If you could see the fluffiness in this picture...

We all liked it very much.. mostly importantly, it is a healthy cupcake:-D

Recipe as adapted by Jamie Jong, 无蛋糕饼.

Ingredients:

320g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder (can be omitted)

150g sugar

160ml water

130g margarine

1 passionfruit pulp, about 50g-100g

(1 tsp vanilla essence optional)

Method:

1. Combine sugar, water & margarine in a sauce pan, stir over simmering water till smooth. Set aside and let it cool.

2. Make a well in the centre of the sieved flour+baking powder, pour the liquid mixture slowly and mix till well blended.

3. Pour mixture into paper cups about 80%, steam for 12-15mins.

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #25 – Steaming Hot Cakes (November 2012) hosted by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well in Flanders. 

Eggless Peach Cake ( Vegetarian)

I came across this eggless cake recipe yesterday, and I thought, this is quite interesting...

No eggs... And I thought, perhaps I can also change the butter to margarine instead. Making this cake, an eggless one, no cholestrol, and low-fat... How about that? A healthier choice for now???

I have used a 20cm cake tin to bake this cake. The texture of the cake while it was being baked, does not seems to be that pleasant. I was wondering, how would this cake turned out, since it's eggless plus using margarine...

Well, in fact, my worries are rather uncalled for, as this cake was suprisingly delicious!!!

Despite being eggless, the cake texture was quite good, you can get the crumbly cake texture, sweetness was just nice. And Mimi had a slice herself. She said it was yummy:-D

Here is the recipe as adapted from Alex Goh:

Ingredients:

(A)

200g butter

160g sugar (150g)

(B)

200g milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

(C)

240g plain flour

1 3/4 tsp baking powder

Method:

1. Cream (A) until light.

2. Add in (B) in graduation, whip till light and smooth.

3. Add in (C), mix well until well-blend.

4. Pour it into 20cm round mould.

5. Bake at 180C for 50 mins. Set aside to cool. (I use 200C)

Decorate as desired:)

Have fun!!!