Raspberry Vanilla Ice-Cream Cake

This is dessert at its very best. It is so simple, you could whip it with a blindfold on. Seriously, why use your oven during this unbearable hot days. Try this and you'll agree with me. 

You could switch raspberry to strawberry, or any other berries, if you want. Frozen raspberries are so scarce we don't even have one at our local store here. I was looking for them since last Dec. But thankfully, the fresh ones seem to be breeding in the shopping rack again. The cheapest I could get is at 5.99 dollar a punnet. Isk.

Anyway, this dessert definitely has a winning taste. It's unbelievably less sweet than I thought it would be. The raspberry's tangy flavour has acted brilliantly. Love, love, love it. 

I can't help it...it's a perfect dessert..  :) 

Raspberry Vanilla Ice-Cream Cake

(Resource: Martha Stewart)

Ingredients

1 loaf pound cake, sliced horizontally into thirds- I sliced them thinly. 

1 1/2 cups raspberries (6 ounces)-

1 pint vanilla ice cream, softened

Confectioners' sugar, for serving

Directions

1. Place bottom layer of cake on a large piece of foil or in a loaf pan of equal size. Sprinkle half the raspberries over cake, spread evenly with half the ice cream, and top with another cake layer. Repeat with remaining raspberries, ice cream, and cake.

2. Wrap with foil and freeze at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove cake from freezer about 30 minutes before serving. Serve dusted with confectioners' sugar.

RC Note: It's important to bring the cake out of freezer half an hour before you serve it. Or you gonna end up like my cake in above pics. See how messy it was. It takes some times for it to soften enough to cut. Trust me, it's definitely well worth the wait. ;)

Happy voting to all Malaysian! :) 

The Soup Story

Have you read this book, "For One More Day"? It is one of Mitch Albom's best sellers. I bought it several years ago and I read it again this week coz... I felt like it. Don't ask me why, but I love to reread some books again and again. Go read this book if you fancy some good old weep. 

Anyway, a few lines caught my attention and it went like this. 

"It was as delicious as it was familiar. I don't know what it is about food your mother makes for you, especially when it's something that anyone can make-pancake, meat loaf, and tuna salad-but it carries a certain taste of memory."

How true is that. 

I remember my mom used to cook this soup a lot when I was in primary years. The fish was quite smaller than the one I had today, which is a little trickier for my sister and I, at that age, to eat. Thus, she'd make sure she sit right next to us so nobody is choking on the fishbones. She never asked how my school stuff was going that day, but it didn't bothered me that much coz I have my father for that. Our conversations were always around the same talks; the neighbours, her side-income business, my father's office-politic issues, with some extra nagging in between. My mom is quite a talkative person and she really loves to talk. I'm totally the opposite though. I would only listen and reply to her, necessarily. Up to the point where I learned to pretend 'listening' to her. Idiot old self. Anyway, she always scooped us more rice, add some kuah to our plates and offer us more fish whenever our plates were nearly empty. Once done, she would asked us to help her clear the table and made sure we eat our dessert. Oh yes, dessert always comes in fruit form. No fancy wancy dessert back then. 

And that was yesterday.

The lunch-'talk'-routine stopped once the boarding school life took over at 13. I didn't realised how much I missed it until yesterday. After I read that small excerpt. Which brought me to the soup. And the soup dragged my thoughts to her. On how she cares for me. Nobody cares about me like she did. Nobody has ever been so close to me like her. I should have been more grateful. I should have been ashamed on how I treat her in certain way, and how I'd turned my back on her a certain point of life. 

Eating the soup made me fell back into being her daughter again. The same daughter who sat next to her during lunch decades ago. A matured one tho. I miss her. I can't want to go home next week and hug her. :)

*****

“You have one family, Charley. For good or bad. You have one family. You can’t trade them in. You can’t lie to them. You can’t run two at once, substituting back and forth.

“Sticking with your family is what makes it a family.”

Beef Kuay Teow

This was supposed to be a Char Kuay Teow, but I had no shrimps in hands. I used beef instead, hence it becomes a Beef Kuay Teow. I basically threw everything from what I had in the fridge in it. Rojak. Recipe is loosely from my previous char kuay teow recipe here. 

My first Rainbow Cake and etc.

Ya, pinggan hijau tu sumbing sket. Dah ambik gambar baru perasan. Kih kih :P

The recipe is based on the original Hummingbird Bakery's Vanilla cupcake, where the recipe said that it would yield 12 cupcakes, but in my case it gave me enough batter to make 2 layers (8x8 pan) of the rainbow cake-Yerp, I made a squarish rainbow cake. I had to re-double the recipe to get the cake done. 

I believed this is the best vanilla cake I've ever made, so far. The intensity of the vanilla is unbelievably amazing, texture-wise-moist and fluffy. Everything is perfect but I think the frosting could use a little less sugar and orange zest than the recipe calls for. The zesty taste is covering the whole vanilla taste, what's the point kan? 

It took me 2 days to finish the whole cake- I'm still in packing, labelling, and throwing mode, remember? Husband is currently away for another business trip and I'm doing all the packing. Yeay, I got to throw his old stuffs. Karang guni betul. And just an hour to assemble the layers and turn it into a beautiful rainbow cake. I can't believe my dream of making this cake have finally come true...

okay, I better get back to my boxes..they are screaming for me..argh.

PS: . We're going to be so busy next couple of month, with renovation works, blah2..so I think this would probably be my last post for this year. La Kitchen will be continued as usual on January. Apologize for that. No internet connection, while mobile blogging is so not me. Tak best. 

....and I'm taking order for this rainbow cake too.. sms/whatsapp me at 965-818-69 :D

The Rainbow Cake 

(based on HUmmingbird Bakery's Vanilla cupcake recipe via here)
19/6/2014: I have update the original recipe by doubling it. You don't have to double it coz below recipe is enough to make a 7" rainbow cake. This is the easiest cake ever!

All you need is:

5- 7"x7" baking pan (don't worry if yo only have two pans, you can bake the first two layer, then continue doing so until the batter finish)

2 cup all-purpose flour

11/2 cup sugar (I reduced it to 11/4cup)

3 tsp baking powder (I had to double the original recipe and end with that number)

1/4 pinch salt

6 tbsp butter

1 cup milk

2 egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a mixing bowl and beat on slow speed until everything is combined and you have a crumb mixture with a sandy consistency. Gradually pour in half the milk and beat just until the milk is incorporated.

Whisk together the remaining milk, egg and vanilla. Pour into the flour mixture and beat until all ingredients are just incorporated. Beat for another 30 seconds until batter is smooth. Do not overmix.

Divide batter into 5 cups, or 7 (I've done it before), and put your desired food colouring in each bowl. 

Divide batter amongst 5 7"x7" baking pans and bake at 325F (163 C) for about 15 to 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out mostly clean. Cool before frosting.

Creamy Cream Cheese Frosting
I love this recipe for frosting. It never failed me. It's creamy, not too sweet and a bit salty :D 

250g salted butter -I used SCS
225g unsalted butter- "
1/4 fine sugar
2 blocks of Philadelphia Cream Cheese
1/4 confectioners sugar
1 tsp of milk

Beat butter and sugar until it doubles its size and creamy.
Cut the cheese into small cubes and add them one by one the butter mixture while beating them in medium speed.
Add the confectioners sugar and milk. Mix well. Taste. Add more confectioners sugar if you like it sweeter. :)

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Hello. I'm so sorry for the prolonged absence, but here I am now, with a bowl of mushroom soup for you :) Honestly, it was Instagram..Yep, apparently, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ are not enough for me T_T. Plus, the season of all sickness was here as well, fever and the gang, stomach flu, followed by episodes of throwing up..phew~ but we are okay now.. 

But, again, most of the blame goes to Instagram. It has that on the go thing, which is more convenient than blogging. I don't have to set up my tripod and camera, and spent hours doing the clicking, editing and writing. 

But naah...don't get me wrong, I love spending hours doing all the said jobs, it's just that time is not on my side..and I always have more important jobs to tend to. i.e. laundry, cooking, 'drama class' with Adam and other endless domestic tasks that doesn't deserved any highlight. Nyah kau.

We are starting to get busy with our house renovation and everything needs to be finalized by this month. Lots of stuff to be boxed, labeled, and thrown away... yikes Honestly, I haven't start on anything yet except throwing out some unwanted old make up stuffs from my dresser...he he Well, that's a good start, right... 

The renovation will starts as soon as Husband takes off for Germany next month. Another business trip for him. We are supposed to follow, but the trip had to be postpone until next summer :( It's the renovation works. I need to be here to supervise them.

The other main reason is the weather. The last time we went to Europe was 2 year ago, and it was super cold. The predicted temps for Germany and Paris are about +/-5 degrees C. November in Paris is going to be rainy and chilly. Did you remember our Korea trip last year? The one where Adam refused to wear his coldwear. Scary kalau dia buat hal macam tu lagi. T_T So with that, I think it's better for us to postpone it to next summer. 6-7 months away je pun. :P 

Okay, let's move on to the soup. This is the best mushroom soup I've ever made. Period. The soup is a perfect balance of velvety creamy and intensely mushroomy taste, with subtle hint of herbs at the end. Everybody in the house digged it. I paired it with garlic bread and it was epic! The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen's Balthazar's Cream of Mushroom Soup. So here's my version of it.

Cream of Mushroom

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

What you'll need:

30 g of dried mushroom -I used dried premium shiitake

3 cups of hot water

1/4 cup of olive oil

Instead of using fresh herb, I chose to use a teaspoon of Tuscan dried herbs (consists of rosemary and parsley)

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

500g of fresh shiitake, sliced or diced.

2 cups of chicken stock + 1 cup of hot water + knorr chicken cube

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoon butter

Salt and ground pepper to taste

Way of doing it: 

Soak the dry mushrooms in 3 cup of warm water for 20 to 30 minutes, until plump. Strain the soaking liquid through a coffee filter to remove grit and reserve, along with the reconstituted mushrooms, until needed.

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over a medium flame. When the oil is hot, add the onion, garlic, salt and pepper and cook for 5 minutes, until the onion is soft and translucent but not brown. then add in the dried herbs.

Turn the flame to high and add shiitakes Cook for 10 minutes, during which the mushrooms will give off their liquid (which should evaporate quickly due to the high heat) and deflate significantly. Stir occasionally.

Add the chicken stock and the dried mushrooms along with the soaking water.Simmer for 30 minutes. Then add the cream and butter. Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender until smooth. Return to the pot and keep at a very low simmer until ready to serve.

Oh btw, I'm in the mid of renovating this blog as well.. and as you can see, the disqus comment area is invisible right now, due to its font color. I'm trying to fix it right now. You can leave comment as usual. :) 

Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir Batin and Pineapple "Tulip" Tart Tutorial ;P

Last year, I told myself I wasn't going to make any Eid cookies this year. Read here why. It's hard, I thought. But I've got to be firm with my decision.. I managed to keep my hands off the oven for the first two weeks. Then, somewhere in the middle of Ramadhan, my mom told me that she rather have me baking her cookies than spending $$ on tunjuk2 cookies. Yeay! I got the chance to bake like everyone else. :D

Well, I dont't have trouble making my mom's order despite the time I had in my hand during that last week huhu I managed to find time and made 5 types of cookies and 3 layer cakes for my mom and my relatives here (not to mention the baking orders). Most of the cookies are simple, i.e. cornflakes cookies and that freezer cookies, so no supermom or superbaker badge for that..The only cookies that took a lot of my time was the Pineapple Tulip Tart. 

You see..I sort of promised some of you guys that I would put up a step by step entry on how to do this Tulip Tart- I received few emails for that only. I wanted to upload this entry sooner, but you know me..hihi I'm the biggest procrastinator in the WWWeb :P So I managed to squeezed some time {finally} and make this step by step for those who asking. 

First and foremost, let me remind you that this is my way of doing it. I'm not sure whether there are any right tools/ shorter ways of doing it. This method of mine is time-consuming and it needs lot of patience and U-tube movies-so you can save yourself from boredom while doing it. It took me 4 hours to shape the tart ONLY and I ONLY get 100 pieces out of that 4 hours-I layan 3 idiots (movie) :P So think twice before you want to embark on this Tulip Tart journey. I did this once before(here) and this year I made some for my mom and SIL. This year's wasnt pretty as the last 2 years since I somehow running out of time :P So here it is. 

Note: I used Kak Fida's Cream Cheese Pineapple Tart as dough.Nyum!

Psst..sorry for the low quality photos..taken with my iPhone coz I really don't have much time to set up my camera that day.. huhu 

Red Velvet Swirl Cheesecake Brownies

Last 2 weeks were a bit of emotional roller coaster ride for me. We had been receiving a lot of highs, and I guess it's time for us to hit the sudden lows. I did a lil bit of crying, yes, call me a crybaby, but that's one h*ll of a way to let my frustration out. Things had happened..nasi dah jadi bubur..There's no point crying over split milk..blah blah blah... That's why I decided to go under the radar for a while. 

But things are O-K for now, even though there are still nitty gritty bit and pieces that need to be sort out. I'm slowly accepting reality of the new order and digesting it bit by bit. All thanks to Ramadhan treats-spiritually said and those sweet nyum nyum desserts (gulp).

Alhamdulilah.. I'm glad it happened during Ramadhan- so no "shaitonirajim" to complex the already complicated situation huhu. I just hope that everything that we planned will go smoothly and the big bomb that just hit us is a blessing in disguise. Amiin.

So back to the food world..Who's up for some red velvet cheesecake brownies? FYI, this is one of my most repeatable recipes ever. I've made them 5 times before and am loving it. The cake was ordered by Adam's school teacher and she ordered two of them! The bottom part is a red velvet bar covered with slab of creamy cheese on top and decorated with red swirls. Yummy! 

So, as you can see, I'm starting to take orders now. Drop me an email if you feel like to order this Red Velvet Swirl cheesecake Brownies(For your Raya open house perhaps?) I won't be around next week tho, so any order must be placed after 27th Aug 2007. Apart from that, I also received THE Ginger-Citrus Carrot Cake order. Take a look at it here :)

Raya cookies will be update on my next entry huhu  

Recipe is taken from here.

Sigh

Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first. ~Ernestine Ulmer 

Strawberry White Chocolate Mousse with Pocky Chocolate Cage and that Gotye song...

By now, I know that most of you are probably familiar with the haunted Gotye's song, Somebody that I've Used to Know. If you haven't heard of it yet, click here. The other day, when I played the song in the car, Adam immediately turned to me and said, "Baa Baa Black Sheep". Huh. His Daddy instantly agreed with him.

You see, I hate to admit it but I'm tone deaf. It's a bit hard for me to notice similarities between those 2 songs. I had to put that song on repeat, and finally..yes, the melody does sound like the nursery rhyme. It's sort of "Baa Baa Black Sheep" parody or something ha ha So much of Luiz Bonfá-inspired eh :P

Anyway, this is our Iftar dessert for today. Strawberry White Chocolate mousse. I added some Pocky sticks to make it looks like my previous Pocky Chocolate Cage dessert. However, the outcome is too sweet for my liking. Perhaps I should add a layer of dark chocolate to balance out the sweetness next time. BTW, I halved the recipe and got 4 small glasses out of it. 

Okay, I'm out..London 2012 opening ceremony is starting any seconds now. Happy Weekend peeps!

Strawberry White Chocolate Mousse Recipe

Recipe adapted from SimplyRecipes
Deco inspired from my previous post, Pocky Chocolate Cage
Serves 6-8

Ingredients:
1 ½ pounds of strawberries
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice, divided
8 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped
1 ¼ teaspoon unflavored gelatin (about half a small envelope)
2 cups heavy cream
2 Tbsp powdered (confectioner's) sugar

Method

Clean and hull the strawberries. Starting with about halfof the strawberries (3/4 pound), quarter them and purée them in either a blender or food processor. Then press the purée mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl. You want to end up with 1 cup of purée. Stir in 1 Tbsp of the lemon juice and set aside. With the remaining 3/4 pound or so of berries, slice as many as to fill up 2 cups, and set aside.

Melt white chocolate in a double boiler, or a stainless steel bowl set over simmering water (make sure the simmering water doesn't actually touch the bottom of the bowl.) Stir until smooth, set aside.

Put ¼ cup of cool water into a small bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin powder over the water and let sit for 5 minutes.

Stir ¼ cup of the cream and the 2 Tbsp of powdered sugar in a small saucepan, bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add the gelatin mixture and stir until the gelatin has dissolved. Pour into the bowl of melted chocolate, and stir until smooth. Whisk in 3/4 cup of the strawberry purée. Reserve the remaining ¼ cup of purée.

Using an electric mixer, whip the remaining 1 3/4 cup of cream. (Note I usually use a blender to whip cream, but in this case an electric mixer or hand beater is preferred, you have better control over the amount of whipping.) Beat on medium-high speed until medium peaks form. Whisk one third of the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture. Using a large rubber spatula, gently fold the remaining whipped cream into the mixture. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Stir the remaining 1 Tbsp of lemon juice into the reserved sliced berries. Fold the sliced berries into the mousse. Spoon mousse into serving cups and refrigerate for at least another hour, preferably several hours, or even over night (cover with plastic wrap).

When you are read to serve the mousse, pour a dollop of the reserved strawberry purée onto each serving. Add a few slices of strawberries as garnish.

Tandoori Kebabs

I knew I had to share the recipe the second I had my first bite on it. And that second happened a year ago :P After several trays were out from my oven...after dozens of sticks were used...and after bottles of spices gone. Well, better late than never, right?

I normally use chicken parts, but this time I turned them into kebabs by using boneless chicken thighs. You can use chicken breasts if you want to. I find them tasteless and plain. huhu 

So here's recipe. It's totally a keeper.:) Psst..I sprinkled too much dried mint on the kebabs in the last photo. Thus the dry look. Trust me, it's not.

Chicken Tandoori

Based on recipe taken from Tina of My Domestic Bliss. The original recipe was translated from Mat Gebu blog, Dapur Tanpa Sempadan. 

Ingredient A

500 grams chicken pieces

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon tumeric powder

Ingredient B

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 1/4 teaspoon coriander powder

1/4 teaspoon cumin powder

1/2 teaspoon paprika

red colouring (optional)

Ingredient C

1 inch ginger

3 cloves garlic

1 red chillie

1/2 tablespoon cooking oil

slices of lime

Method:

RC Note: To make tandoori kebabs, cut boneless chicken thighs into medium small sizes and then follow the rest of the instruction below. 

In a large bowl, add lemon juice, salt and tumeric powder to chicken pieces. Marinate for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile pound Ingredient C with mortar and pestle and add them to a bowl filled with Ingredient B. Mix B and C together. Add B and C mixture to the bowl of chicken and marinate further for 30 minutes.

Put them on the oven grill and brush some cooking oil. Bake at 200C until done. 

Jump to Tina's blog for the mint sauce recipe.