The best and worst bakes of 2012

Above: Brownies, one of the last treats made in 2012!

I've never baked so much in my life before. The six months past saw me baking, baking, and baking... I never really set out to bake so much either, just that it got pretty addictive once I got started again - after having a kitchen of my own :)

And since this is the last day of 2012, I thought it would be timely to do a brief recap of some baking highlights of my little baking journey. So I present to you in this blog post - the best and worst bakes of 2012.

Good and bad news @ the veggie plot

When I first blogged about my veggie plot, my lady fingers were doing quite well, I had one resilient bak choy; and my kangkong were just 3-days old :) I also showed a photo of my tallest sunflower (out of three planted). They are doing generally well - but there were two tragedies, one survivor and one new addition to the garden.

Good news first. This - is the new addition to my garden. I bet you've not seen a lady finger flower before? This is what it looks like. Doesn't it look lovely? :)

Xmas "Baking" 3 - Raw Cashew Dreamcake

I tried making a raw cheesecake for the first time on Friday. A raw cheesecake is a no-bake cheesecake; not only that it doesn't have any cheese in it either. Because it's really a cheesecake-lookalike comprising ground almonds/ dates (for the base) and largely ground cashews, honey and coconut oil for the filling - cashew only for the bottom and blended with fresh raspberries for the top layer.

When deciding to make this (see recipe/ original food blog post), I was drawn by raw foodists' claim that eating raw food is generally healthier (being unprocessed and uncooked- uncooked defined as not heating it above 48C, raw rood retains more nutrients and natural enzymes). I mean, why ingest useless calories when your food can taste good and do good to your body?

But though this is supposedly a much healthier cake, this recipe turned out very coconuty - as the coconut oil used in the filling totally overpowered the cashew (which is pretty tasteless) and even the raspberry. So while it looks relatively appetising, this probably isn't a cake I'd make to try to convince people that healthy cakes can taste as good as the traditionally sinful ones. But I'd keep looking!

Xmas Baking 2 - Chocolate Pecan Pie

We had some friends over yesterday and today - and since it's Christmas season I decided to try out slightlier festive baked treats - one of which was chocolate pecan pie, recipe from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food. It looked pretty straightforward, aside from having to make the pie crust - I have a slight aversion towards making pie crust (the pie-crust making procedure just seems like a make or break task, and my food processor happens to be a rather basic one not that great for pulsing large quantities of butter and flour etc)

Xmas Baking 1 - Christmas cookies

Last week the same ex-colleague (Mr P) whom I sold my first cake to SMSed me to ask if I make 'classic fruit cake'. I honestly told him I've never tried - and we came to a mutual agreement that it's perhaps best not to risk it. However, Mr P seemed to be baking up a storm for his various christmas parties and continued to try his luck. Do I make cookies? Well, I've not tried making any cookie that requires the use of a cookie cutter, but decided to take up the challenge.

And since I was already making cookies for Mr P, D decided to ride on the cookie order and asked me to by the way also help make some for his staff/ bosses too. And that is how I ended up making some 120 cookies in 2 days. Pretty tiring, though it got easier for me towards the end. I think I've had enough of making cookies for a while and would probably not eat or make any of such cookies anytime soon!

Make your own nut milk!

I've been reading up a bit more on healthy living/ healthy eating, and recently discovered the benefits of drinking nut milk. Nut milk is available on the market (perhaps less easily found in Singapore though), but some claim that commercially available nut milk contain dubious additives, and so health-conscious foodies/ moms have began making their own!

Chia seed chocolate mud cake

I baked another chocolate cake yesterday, but paired it with a superfood this time round. Chia seeds. 

It's my first time trying to bake with chia seeds - interestingly, they swell up quite quickly when soaked in water, so each tiny seed becomes enveloped by a layer of gel. The recipe incorporates about half a cup of chia seeds - introducing a pretty interesting texture to the cake (but making this an expensive cake too). The gel gives the dark chocolate a nice fudgy texture, while the seeds create bits of crunchiness with every bite. 

I almost dropped the cake when taking it out of the oven and unfortunately smashed the nicely crusted top. Oh well, in the end the smashed up top crust created a great "unfinished" texture for photo-taking!

Healthier red velvet cake

I made red velvet cupcakes once a couple of years back - with red food dye. Honestly I was pretty hesitant to put all the food dye in my cupcake mix then - goodness knows how much toxins/ chemicals I would ingest! But for a first try I still went ahead with the food dye, though with a much reduced portion. My red velvet cupcakes turned out deep red, but in the end I felt a little squeamish eating too much of it. Unfortunately, most cafes/ bakeries/ cupcake places just add red food dye to their red velvet as it easily and quickly creates a nice and consistent vibrant red colour.

This time round, I attempted a healthier version of red velvet cake, dyeing them naturally using beets. Beets naturally add a bit of a veggie taste to the cake - but personally I think it's a small trade off for something friendlier to our bodies! I suppose I'm also biased as I don't mind the taste of beets that much. Nonetheless, this cake drew mixed reviews from my tasters, and so it requires a bit more work and experimentation, before I can say that I'm truly proud of this healthier version of the red velvet cake.

Chin Mee Chin Confectionery

Chin mee chin confectionery along East Coast Road is probably one of the last authentically-old coffee shops left in Singapore. It's famous for its kaya/ kaya bread and D claims that they do the best soft-boiled eggs ever. I'm not a fan of gooey half cooked stuff so I cannot quite attest to the egg claim; but the kaya bread (which came with generous slices of butter) made for quite a simple but satisfying Sunday breakfast! 

Chocolate hazelnut buckwheat cake

I baked this gluten-free rich and nutty chocolate hazelnut cake yesterday evening - icing sugar styling my own :) Used organic buckwheat flour for this - aside from being gluten-free buckwheat is apparently a high-fibre and good source of protein!

D & I finished almost 4 slices of this for supper/ breakfast this morning - a rich but nonetheless relatively healthy start to the week!

DIY Christmas Angel

Are you looking for Christmas decor ideas that won't break the bank? Don't know what to do with old christmas baubles that you've accumulated over the years but can't bear to donate them to the karang guni? Recycle them by turning them into adorable little Christmas angels - here's how!

Moist chocolate beetroot cake

Am on the quest for a good chocolate cake recipe, and this was my first serious attempt at chocolate cake. Yes I know a chocolate beetroot cake sounds pretty dubious, but based on relatively trustworthy food bloggers who've baked this the beetroot is barely detectable and chocolate cake really good. And so I decided to give this a try :)

My veggie plot

I've never had green fingers; and slacked off in tending to the plants and spices at our 'new' house after the initial euphoria.

Take our sometimes-neglected spice garden for example - it was once brimming with mint, lemongrass, rosemary, curry/laksa leaves, pandan, dill, aloe vera and sweet/ Thai basil (when the landscaper first planted everything for us in June). But 5 months on, the spices aren't exactly as happy as before - the first to go was the dill. We suspected they didn't have enough sunlight. Next came a pretty vicious pest attack on our healthy basil - and a few shrubs became somewhat shrivelled. Then 50% of my lemongrass died a sudden death a few weeks ago for unexplainable reasons. We recently tried to salvage our overgrown mint by exterminating the over-extended ones and transplanting - luckily our efforts seem to be paying off and the new mint community is up again (the mint is a very resilient plant)!

After returning from my Taiwan WOOOFing stint in October, I developed a little more confidence to grow my own veggies and decided to put more effort into gardening. So in late October, armed with nuggets of raw-but-nonetheless-applicable knowledge on how to seed and transplant seedlings, I decided to try planting some of my own organic veggies. That they can eventually be used in my kitchen motivated me a little too :)

The landscaper didn't seem very confident that they will survive the snails and pests, but I thought, no harm trying right? If I never get started, I'd never know. And if I don't get started soon (with some remnant organic farming stint enthusiasm still alive) I probably never will in the months to come. And so I did - by planting some lady fingers (the choice of lady fingers was due to my witnessing some very pretty lady finger flowers in Hualien)

To my pleasant surprise, I was lucky to have all my lady finger seeds germinate - 10 out of 10; and they are relatively healthy even after 4 weeks. This is what they looked like at 1-week and 2-weeks old!

3 simple ideas for toast breakfast

Some weeks ago when I was feeling pretty enthusiastic about cooking and waking up early to make breakfast for D, I tried out various simple and wholesome ideas to make toast. One was inspired by a Martha Stewart Everyday Food article; one was a replication of a photo I saw on Pinterest; and the last one is a modification of what my mum once made for me :)

So here goes - 3 simple ideas for that 2 slices of Gardenia wholemeal toast:

1) One Egg Toast

This was suggested by Everyday Food as something kids could try or help to make. It looks relatively pretty impressive/ delicious, and is relatively simple and fun to make.  

Fabulous Baker Boy

Since I'm always on a lookout for good cakes in Singapore, we decided to check out Fabulous Baker Boy last Sunday after hearing quite a bit about them recently. They are located at the Foothills along River Valley Road (at the foot of Fort Canning Park and opposite Liang Court). We were pretty much their first customers at around 10.15am (they open at 10am), so I managed to snap a few uncluttered shots of the store as well :) The cake display area was very nicely done up, and it made me feel like ordering and trying every single one.  

Sweet potato, Yogurt & Hazelnut cake

The recipe for this cake has a very interesting combination of wholesome ingredients - sweet potato, yogurt and hazelnut cake; and the lovely photos on Cannelle et Vanille's blog made me really tempted to make this. I tried it out last week - but ended up veering away from the recipe. I thought I had sufficient sweet potato for the cake and so helped myself to a generous portion of the roasted sweet potatoes when they came out hot and delicious from the oven. In the end I accidentally snacked too much and ended up with insufficient sweet potato (about 100g short) for the actual cake!

My cake (topped with chopped hazelnuts and almond topping) turned out fine but had this slight doughy aftertaste to it :( Aside from slight underbaking - I suspect the doughiness-issue can also be attributed to my greediness..

Pomegranate meringues

 

When C first sent me the recipe for pomegranate meringues, I was doubtful if I could find nice, large pomegranates in Singapore. I actually have a pomegranate tree right outside my house (my Dad frequently calls the shrub/tree 红花 because of its vermillion-red flowers) - but have never tried harvesting the pomegranates from my tree as the species we grow in Singapore produces rather tiny pomegranates. 

From my experience - the pomegranate leaf seem to be more useful the fruit, as many Chinese seem to believe that they can be used to ward away bad luck after attending funerals. Since I was a child, the SOP after attending funerals was to sprinkle water droplets from a pomegranate branch on myself before entering the house. Anyway, I digress ;)

Chocolate Earl Grey Tartlets

These tartlets looked simple enough to make - with pie crust made from chocolate graham crackers and not from scratch :P And with the use of high quality, high cocoa dark chocolate and half the battle is won ;) They turned out relatively scrumptious, though the chocolate somewhat overpowered the faint earl grey infused cream.

Meringue Kisses

These were supposed to look really sweet, pastely and smart.

But they turned out pastely but kinda pudgy without the smart sharp ridges that give the meringue kiss its elegant form. As the batter could not quite hold its form upright in the end I made some into blobs/ swirls. I blame it on our humidity!

Am not entirely sure what went wrong - the humidity (especially at this time of the year!) probably played a part; but perhaps I also didn't beat my egg whites till they were sufficiently stiff.

So there - my maiden attempt to make meringue kisses... maybe it would be more apt to call them meringue blobs for now :P

Penny University - cool cafe in the East!

Not sure why it's called Penny University, but we're quite happy to have a cool cafe in the East so near us! :) D and I went there for a late Sun breakfast - but the place was so crowded the only seats left were the two quirky low chairs just by the door.

I saw a pop-up bakery KEK in the store selling several sweet treats that I might have considered baking/ selling too! I ordered a dense choc cake with whipped cream and blueberries - it tasted really rich and chocolatey but slightly 'jelat' too.

Penny University's FB page says they want to 'support local bakers in the East Coast'! Thus I guess the tie-up with various local boutique bakers etc. Perhaps when I feel more confident I can apply for a spot :P They also carry yummy-looking pies from Windowsill Pies. So many cool little bakers in SG popping up!

Rosette Cake

This is the finale cake from Day 2 of my Wilton Decorating Basics course with Artistiq Sugarcraft. I fell in love with the rosette cake and wanted to come up with one myself - so I showed my instructor a photo of it and asked her to teach me how to make it! I had some mini boos boos (like poor estimates here and there in terms of spacing out the rosettes) but otherwise my cake turned out lovely and made my day. The insides of my cake is ugly though as I just got store-bought butter cake from GIANT - it's just too tiring to bake 2 different cakes for 2 days of class.

Was really lucky that there were only 2 students in class - and with the guidance of our very patient instructor, I picked up some simple but very useful cake creaming/ piping skills :) Serious cake decorating is so time-consuming though.

A carrot cake marathon

I made 3 carrot cakes in 3 weeks. So much effort went into baking all these cakes I suppose it deserves a maiden-post status on this blog! 

Actually I'm still not sure I have really gotten it 'right'- but I think I had enough of carrot cake for a while ;) 

The first one was my maiden attempt at making carrot cake - a belated cake for D's birthday... and it took me 6+ HOURS. Pretty crazy. Part of the reason it took so long was because I was trying to adapt the recipe for a 3-layer instead of a 2-layer cake.. and there was quite a bit of cautious experimentation in terms of baking time and temperatures. Thankfully it turned out tasting decent; though the cake design was somewhat strange and cake creaming somewhat imperfect. The tiny bit of remaining batter was also turned into 2 simple cupcakes. 

The second time was to practise for my first "cake order" from an ex-colleague (the 3rd time I'd bake it) - one layer became a one-layer carrot cake while the other two became practice layers for my cake decorating class. So the second time churned out carrot cakes IIa and IIb!

The third time - everything went quite well except that my cream cheese frosting was a little too runny when I was trying to cream the cake... Also turned some of the batter into cupcakes as complimentary treats. 

So in total my 3 carrot cake bakes yielded 4 cakes and 2 small batches of cupcakes :P And though I picked up some fancier cake decor skills, I realised that my favourite cake design was still the minimalist one with thyme herbs and a plain top. 

You can find the recipe at the end of my flood of photos :P

Carrot cake I - with a rabbit topper for D

 Carrot cake cupcakes I