Spinach Noodles with Angry Bird and Cheese Chicken Cocktails

Recently there had been an ANGRY BIRD fishcakes craze. I had saw Peng's Kitchen making these angry birds fishcakes for her kids, and I wanted to get them as well, and I had even asked Peng to buy it for me as I have yet to see these fishcakes in the market. These angry birds fishcakes were so cute & adorable. So finally my hubby saw them from Sheng Siong Supermarket 2 weeks ago.

 Hmmm, Nat & Mimi weren't so keen on these fishcakes though. Only Nic likes them... So I guess this big pack of angry bird fishcakes will be lying in my freezer for awhile before they were being eaten... hahahaha....

I had bought some handmade spinach noodles from my trip to Malacca. They had lots of flavour like pumpkin, soya wheat, brown rice... So I decided to try them out. Well, it wasn't that bad, the noodles were rather smooth, and each small little bundle noodles were a just-nice portion for each girl. I think I should buy these noodles when I get back to Malacca next time???

 And here is my MiMi, enjoying her noodles now:))

Spinach Soup with Minced Meat Balls

Today is my home alone with my 2 girls. Hubby's off to work today, Nic had went off to stay with her grandma, my helper had gone out for her off day... So we had a lazy day at home. The weather is so hot...and we stayed in our air-conditioned room...so cool & nice. I had to cook dinner for my 2 girls... Wondering what's best, quick & easy to whip up at 5pm... So what I had left was spinach, and I had bought some minced meat from the market this morning.

I had minced the meat with some prawns, made them into meat balls. Adding some dried clams, wolfberries, red dates and an egg will make a very sweet spinach soup.

 There, dinner's ready for the gals:))

Spinach Soup with Minced Meat Balls

(This soup ingredients will be on my own cooking method.)

Good for 2-3 pax

1 bag of spinach

100-150g of minced meat

4-5 prawns, minced together with the minced meat

some red dates

some wolfberries

10 dried clams

1 egg

1.5L of water

pinch of salt

Method:

 Boil the pot of water. Put in the dried ingredients, boil for about 15mins. Add in the minced meat balls, followed by the spinach. When the soup is about to be ready, crack in the egg and stir. Continue to cook for another 15-30minutes for the sweetness.

Mango Jelly CheeseCake

These Mango Jelly Cakes are very refreshing... I had made a Strawberry Jelly Hearts Cheesecake a couple of weeks ago, and I thought maybe I can try a mango one this time. This mango cheesecake had been a to-bake-list since last year, but I guess there were just simply too many bakes to be tested and to be tried out... So finally I have here, the Mango Jelly Cheesecake:))

Using the same recipe I had from the Strawberry Jelly Hearts Cheesecake, I had replaced everything else to mangoes.

Dice mangoes are mixed into the cheese mixture, topped with diced mangoes followed by the mango jelly.

  I had made the mango cheesecake into a 6" size plus 10 little cupcake sizes.

As for the mango jelly, I had used Hollyfarms Brand. This jelly is very soft and it goes very well with this cheesecake, and it sets off very well too.

Those cheesecakes in the cupcake cases were very good as they were more easily consumed and of course very convenient. No fuss no mess:))

My hubby and my housemate had ate these cupcakes, and both totally agreed that these cheesecakes were fantastic. Topped with lemon rinds, had given the cheesecake a very refreshing taste.

For those cheesecake & mangoes lovers, you might wanna give this a try?

You can find the recipe by CLICKING HERE

Mocha-Cappuccino Marbled Cake

I finally found a way to load up my pictures using my office PC... plus blogging in the office is a huge challenge for me as the blogger did not seem to function "well" in some areas... Not too sure if it was the security settings from office or...??? Kekekeke... Anyway, here I am with my cake & posting...:))

Time really passed very quickly, I had actually "prepared" myself for this cake since last week and I thought I do still have some time left before the "due" date... I baked this cake last night, not remembering that today is the date to submit our post until I saw Lena's, Joyce, Anuja's, Mich's & Emily's postings...

THB - The Home Bakers , a bakers group created by Joyce. And we will be baking all the recipes from a chosen book on every 3 weeks. For this time, they had chosen "Coffee Cakes" by Lou Seibert Pappas.

Each member from the group will be selecting one recipe from the book and only the host for the selected recipe will be allowed to post the recipe, while the rest will try to bake it and link on the host's page. Giving tips and advices on the bake, will allow everyone to learn something new.

For those of you whom like to join us in this fun bake, please do contact Joyce from THB.

This time, Lena, from Frozen Wings was the chosen one, and she had selected this Mocha-Cappuccino Marbled Cake. It was indeed a great choice as this cake was absolutely soft and moist. Not too a fussy cake to handle, everything was quickly whipped up and off it went to the oven for about 1 hour.

In fact, this is my 3rd time using my 10" bundt pan as I dislike using it. Due to the "stick" of the cake or burnt outcome, I had never fancy using it. So this time, I took my chance, greased it with butter and lightly floured, it worked like MAGIC... and I was rather pleased with the outcome for the bundt cake:-p

My 1st every nicely baked bundt cake from this bundt pan:))

Getting a nicely browned outer coat for my cake I would say... Don't you think so too??

While the cake was baking in the oven, the aroma of the coffee lingers around the house.... Absolutely not a coffee lover at all, it was a temptation... I kept checking on the cake to see if it was ready to be EATEN!!! The cake was almost done by 45mins, but I let it continued baking for another 15mins to make sure it was fully baked.

Coffee wise, I had used as indicated, reduced the amount of sugar and replacing sour cream with low-fat yoghurt.

Results of the cake was good. Hubby actually came back to the kitchen to ask for another slice... And Nat liked this Mocha-Cappuccino Cake as well. As for me, I thought it was a little bland...??? Maybe my sore throat has caused me lost my taste buds for the time being...:-p

Do try this if you are a coffee lover:)

Coca-Cola Chocolate Cake

How about having Coca-Cola inside your Chocolate Cake???

Hubby tried the cake, and he asked me, " Are you sure there is Coca-Cola taste in this cake??? Are you pretty sure???"

I wasn't that sure if Coca-Cola was "present" in the chocolate cake... hahahaha... Hubby said it tasted more like normal chocolate cake instead...:-p

I hadn't been baking since last Wednesday as I had been sick through the week. Kids gotten the flu virus as well... Quite a hectic week after all... Hadn't had much energy to do any baking but the mind n hands are itching to do so.... I was "talking" to Joyce yesterday and asking her for her opinions for some baking books from Donna Hay and Okashi. So I found from Joyce that Donna Hay did have her website loaded with plenty of recipes. I will try them out soon.... There are simply so many of them that we had wanted to own and seriously these baking/cookery books ain't cheap at all. We will go slow... hehehehe....

Back to my cake... I realised that I had  threw my Cake Keeper Cake book aside for a while, so last week, I took it out and I came across this interesting bake, Coca-Cola Chocolate Cake. Hmmm, well, I thought, why not, lets try this cake... Maybe the kids will like it very much since there is Coca-Cola inside...???

This cake might not seem as pretty nor appetizing as it looks, probably due to the dark color, it looks kind of a "muddy" feeling:-p The ingredients were rather basics, and plus the fact that, you can just use a whisk and a wooden spoon to mix up all the batter. Quick, simple & easy...:))

But surprisingly, texture of this cake wasn't too bad... It was rather soft and moist as you can see... Hmmm, Coca-Cola wasn't detected in the cake... hehehehe, really more like a moist chocolate cake instead:-p

This batter was enough for a 8" springform round pan. And I had brought almost the whole cake to the office and the cakes were gone by the early morning of the day... So, I guess, this cake was good after all.
Another thumbs up to Cake Keeper Cakes Book:)

Recipe as adapted from Cake Keeper Cakes

Ingredients:

 (with slight modifications, using a 8" round springform pan+ a small rectangular pan)

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour (220g cake flour)

1 cup granulated sugar (100g)

1 cup packed light brown sugar (100g)

3/4 cup unsweetended Dutch process cocoa powder (85g)

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1 cup sour cream (200g)

1/2 cup oil (100ml)

1 cup Coca-Cola (235ml)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Confectioner's sugar for dusting (omitted)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Grease the inside of a 9" round springform pan.

2. Whisk flour, sugar, light brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda & salt in a large mixing bowl.

Whisk together the eggs, sour cream, oil, Coca-Cola, and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl.

3. With a wooden spoon, stir the Coca-Cola mixture into the flour mixture until just combined. Do not overmix.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean, 55mins to 1 hr.

5. Set the pan on the wire rack and let cool for 5mins. Run a paring knife around the perimeter of the pan to loosen the cake from the pan sides, and release the sides. Using a large spatula to slide the cake from the pan bottom to a wire rack. Let it cool completely. Dust heavily with confectioner's sugar, cut into wedges, and serve.

6. Store uneaten cake in a cake keeper or wrap in plasctic & store at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Tuna Baked Potato Skin

This also one of a quick and easy side dish to make, using can tuna flakes, mozarella/cheddar cheese & potatoes.

Ham Baked Potato Skin

Tuna Baked Potato Skin

Ingredients:

Can of tuna flakes

Potatoes

Mozarella cheese

pinch of salt

Method:

Boil whole potatoes in a saucepan for about 25-30 mins. Cut into half and scoop out the centre of the potatoes. Mash it and mixed with desired ingredients & a pinch of salt. Mix well, scoop the mixture baked into the potatoes, sprinkle the top with mozarella cheese and baked at 180C for about 10 mins.

Banana Chiffon Cake - Revisited

Posting another post-dated bake before I head off to Malacca this afternoon for a short getaway. Anyone knows whereabouts in Malacca can I find any baking shops??

Don't ask me why it's bananas again... I buy bananas every week, so usually we will have one or two bananas left, super overripe...!!! But these bananas are super duper good for making cakes as they are very sweet and they will give you a very sweet smelling banana fragrant.

My previous attempt to try this Banana Chiffon Cake from Small Small Baker, but it didn't turn out so well. I guess it was probably the banana wasn't that ripe, hence, there wasn't any banana smell nor taste in the chiffon.

So this time, my banana is super ripe!!! So I told this chance to re-bake this chiffon...

Results.....???

Excellent...!!!

 That where the sweet banana smell & the taste of bananas, both were presence..:))

Getting the soft & fluffy texture of the chiffon this time round.

 And of course, using the other chiffon tin I had, this had given me a very lovely brown texture...hehehe...

Do click here for the BANANA CHIFFON CAKE recipe & ingredients.

Have fun!!!

Pizza Using Wraps as Base

This is definitely a very lazy method...

But it is a very quick method to prepare & make pizzas for the kids whenever they feel like having one... Well, now we don't really have to "ordered" for one, as this quick & easy method suits us very well... Lazy me as usual.... kekekekeke...

And I have Nat here, very enthuastic in helping out to prepare the pizza...

And here we have, our quick method of pizza, all ready within 15mins:)

For those of you like me whom like to prepare a quick pizza:

Wraps

Tomato paste or Sparghetti sauce

Ham

Mozerella cheese

other ingredients as desired

Method:

Spread sauce over the wrap, topped with ham followed by mozerella cheese.

Bake at 200C for about 15mins.

Bake-Along #28 - Coconut Checkerboard Brownies

Time to bake again with our 3 host from Bake-Along, Joyce, Lena & Zoe.

This time, a Coconut Checkerboard Brownies had been choosen. I do quite like brownies very much as they were rather a "chewy" texture. But for this bake, it was rather a challenge for me as it was a "checkerboard". hehehehe.....

In fact, I had make quite a mess on this bake attempt... I don't quite really understand the steps as I find it quite confusing... Probably it was just me...

And also, coconut flakes wasn't sold widely in SG and I had managed to found them from Bake King shop. Not sure how much coconut flakes was needed, I bought just 1 pack of 100g, only realizing that I needed more for a full recipe. Thus I had halved my ingredients, and that's when the "MESS" arrived!!!!

I do not have a food processor, so I had used my hand-held blender to blend the coconut flakes to fine flakes, trying very hard though, LOL, and OK, I did managed to blend them into smaller flakes... :-p

I had prepared the coconut batter, and they were supposed to "harden" after refrigeration, but mine didn't... Thinking very hard of what had I done wrong or what had I missed... I was pondering if I should continued to prepare the chcocolate batter if this coconut batter was done wrongly... After giving some thoughts, I decided to gave it a shot. It probably wasn't what I should be expecting. As you can see, my coconut batter was in a "watery" state... Cross my toes & let's see what happening during the baking process....

Still pondering what had went wrong with my coconut batter through the waiting period.... Finally, I had realized that I had added a whole egg instead of half egg, as I had halved the portion for this bake... Feeling a bit disappointed with this little mistake I made, ended up "spoiled" the image of this lovely brownie...

The difference between the original brownie baked & my own version... Hahaha...

Texture wise....

It wasn't too bad after all, though the coconut batter was too runny... But I did find it abit too sweet for me even though I had cut down the sugar amount.

Not a frequent brownie that I would bake and I personally will preferred an original brownie:)

Topped it up with ice-cream, eat it up while it is still warm, makes it all up... After all, it was still a great yummy treat for the day.

Some of us loved it, some of us disliked it... Have fun trying out this recipe:)

This time, I will not be posting up my modification due to the messy bake, recipe as adapted from "Bon Appetit Desserts" will be shown below. :-D

Coconut Checkerboard Brownies

(as adapted from "Bon Appetit Desserts, by Barbara Fairchild)

Coconut Batter: 7-ounce sweetened flaked coconut

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup canned sweetened cream of coconut (such as Coco Real or Coco Lopez)

2 ounces Philadelphia-brand cream cheese, cut into 1-inch cubes, room temperature

1 extra-large egg

1/8 teaspoon almond extract

1/8 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

pinch of salt

Method : Measure 1/3 cup flaked cocount; cover and set aside. Place remaining coconut and sugar in processor, finely chop. Add cream of coconut and cream cheese to processor and blend well. Add egg, almond extract, lemon juice, and salt and blend well, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of bowl. Transfer to bowl. Cover and refrigerate until very firm, about 3 hours.

Chocolate Batter: 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces

3-1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

2 extra-large eggs

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups (packed) golden brown sugar

3/4 cup sifted unbleached all purpose flour (sifted, then measured)

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

Chocolate Batter : Butter a 9x9x2-inch metal baking pan. Melt butter with chocolate in heavy small saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth. Pour into medium bowl. Cool to lukewarm. Whisk in eggs and vanilla. Whisk sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt in small bowl; sift over chocolate mixture. Mix until blended and smooth. Spread 1-1/4 cups chocolate batter in prepared pan (cover and refrigerate remaining batter). Cover pan tightly with aluminium foil. Refrigerate batter until very firm, about 3 hours.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 325F. Alternate 1 tablespoon remaining chocolate batter and 1 tablespoon coconut batter over chocolate layer, filling pan completely. Sprinkle reserved 1/3 cup flaked coconut over coconut mounds; press gently to adhere. Cover pan tightly with foil.
Bake 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake until tester inserted in center of 1 chocolate mound comes out almost clean, about 40 minutes. Cool brownies completely in pan on rack.

Cut into squares.

Here do hopped along with us to find out what the Bake-Along Hosts, Joyce, Lena, Zoe & the rest of the fellower baker friends had did for their brownies too:)

Pineapple Coconut Slice

Having a balance 3/4 can of pinapples, I came across this Pineapple Coconut Slice recipe from my Women's Weekly Baking Book.

These pineapple coconut slices were very delicious indeed. While it was baking in the oven, the smell of this cake was very tempting, and seriously, I can't wait for it to be ready so that I can try these slices.

Here we have, the slices are all ready!!! After cooling it for about 10 mins, I had quickly sliced a small little piece to try...:-p

Well, it was indeed very welcoming, with the nice fragrant of the dessicated coconut & pineapple, it had gave a very refreshing taste. Texture wise was soft & moist.

Hmm, they ain't the gals fav... as usual......hehehehe....

  I had brought the rest of the pineapple coconut slices to the office for my colleagues to try. They all said it was very yummy, soft & moist. Looks like this recipe had passed off well with the testers once again... hehehe....

 If you are a fan of pineapple & coconut, you might wanna try this recipe.:-D

Here is the recipe as adapted from the Women's Weekly Baking Book

(I had halved the ingredients and using a 8'x8" square pan instead)

Ingredients:

185g butter, softened

165g caster sugar

3 eggs

50g dessicated coconut

260g self-raising flour

270ml can coconut cream

440g can crushed pineapple, well drained

25g shredded coconut ( i use dessicated)

lime glace icing

240g icing sugar

20g butter, melted

2 tbsp lime juice

method:

sift icing sugar into small heatproof bowl, stir in butter & enough of the juice o make a soft paste. Stir over small saucepan of simmering water until icing is spreadable.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease 22cm x 32cm, rectangular cake pan; line base & sides with baking paper, extending paper over 5cm over edges.

2. Beat butter & sugar in a small bowl with electric mixer until light & fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Transfer mixture to a large bowl, stir in coconut, sifted flour, coconut cream & pineapple in 2 batches.

3. Spread mixture into pan & bake for 45 mins. Stand cake in pan 10 mins before turning top-side up onto the rack to cool.

4. Meanwhile make lime glace icing & spread over cake. Sprinkle with coconut

Banana Chocolate Chips Cake

Who doesn't love bananas???

 I have a colleague whom loves BANANAS very much!!! As long as it is with bananas, regardless cakes, dessert, kuehs, he'd like it very much... And also even though my cakes are horrible, he will still say it's yummy cos it is bananas... hehehehe...

This is another Banana Chocolate Chips Cake from one of my book collections.

 Cake texture for this banana choc chips is great, soft, dense & fluffy... Even my girls whom don't really banana cake, like this very much.

Ingredients:

(A)

150g margarine

150g caster sugar

3 eggs

100g milk

100g mashed bananas

(B) (mixed)

200g cake flour

30-50g chocolate rice

1/4 tsp baking soda

Topping (optional)

2 pieces banana (sliced)

Method:

1. Beat margarine & sugar till white & fluffy.

2. Add one egg at a time. Beat well.

3. Alternate flour mixture & milk, mix well.

4. Slowly add in mashed banana and mix well.

5. Pour mixture into a 8x3x3 inches baking pan.

6. Arrange sliced bananas on top.

7. Bake at 170C about 40mins or until a skewer comes out clean.