Earl Grey Waffles

I officially turned older a few days ago..

& I am so thankful that one of the gift I received was a....(drum-rolls!)

waffle-maker (gasps!).

It is a Belgian Waffle Maker by L'equip, imported from Korea.

so once I got it, within hours, I searched for a waffle recipe & got my hands on this new baby!

In light of Valentine's Day which is only 4 days away....

this recipe is also for all the sweethearts out there. 

Pineapple Sun

Happy Chinese New Year !

it's the time of the year again..where people everywhere are baking pineapple tarts!

& i'm no exception..this 2013, my tiny little bakery attempted to infuse some tea flavour into the tarts!

the flavour of the tea (i used lipton's vanilla & strawberry black tea) was flat..but it added little black specks in the tarts & I love it..I think it looks cute. 

part of the tediousness of pineapple tarts would be the rolling of pineapple jam into little balls...but just keep going, the final bake would be worth it. 

 i love baking cut-out cookies best..rolling & cutting out the cookie dough could be one of the simplest & yet most fun thing-to-do. ever !

hello little suns of pineapple !

The Verdict

Earl Grey Kueh Lapis

Kueh Lapis is a traditional layered cake baked with egg yolks, butter and sugar.

It is extremely high in calories..

eating 1 thin slice (50g) of it is like swallowing 3 1/2 teaspoons of fats & you'd have to spend 30 minutes jogging off that 250 calories. 

& it is well-known for its tedious bake.

What inspired me? Last week, I had a friend who wanted to visit JB to get the famous Lavender kueh lapis. So the few of us drove to JB for the Kueh Lapis Hunt. It took us pretty long to find the bakery..& my friend bought several boxes (it's almost 2x cheaper there). 

So it was then & there I randomly decided to bake my very 1st kueh lapis. 

so here is is...with an earl grey twist:

Strawberry Madeira Cake

Madeira cakes are plain English cakes that are delicate in texture, they are named as such because they are usually served with Madeira wine.

This was an impulse bake, inspired by random thoughts of my punnet of frozen strawberries chucked in the freeze + my constant craving for tea-infused plain cakes.

a happy bake for the always-blue-Monday, ha.

Pink Poppy Chiffon Cake

this  cloud-like chiffon cake goes well with a cup of chamomile, 

perfect for a light sweet-treat-craving!

Banana & Chips Loaf

a good way to use up bananas that are too ripe..

instead of chocolate chips, you may replace it with nuts instead. 

New Foodie in Town - Breaking Fast

This is my friend, Teck Bun's blog.

It is pretty rare for a guy, especially in Singapore, to be so passionate about health & the kitchen works..but here we have one. His blog features breakfast recipes that look exquisite but are simple to whip up & surprisingly easy on your dollars! 

Check him out here @ Breaking Fast. 

Chocolate Oats Cuppycakes

it's my cousin, Lulu's birthday !

since i'm not quite up to baking anything fancy this week (experiencing the wisdom drama)...thought i'll make her a quick batch of birthday cuppycakes.

so i looked up my book collection, found a simple chocolate cupcake recipe, tweaked it to my liking...yes that means with added oats and reduced-sugar. 

adorned with vanilla buttercream & a spontaneous pretty pink piping..

here are lulu's birthday cuppycakes:

Green Tea Yogurt Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache

happy birthday daddyo !

my dad used to tease me with brutal honesty: 

"denise, your cakes are alright to be eaten at home...but they can't be sold, no one would buy them".

ouch.

that was in 2010 when he said that. since then every year I have been baking him a cake anyways - you can only get better right? - & he hasn't made any similar remarks anymore, which I guess is good news.

Blue Velvet Cuppy Cakes (with an oatsy twist)

in The Vow (2012), Paige & Leo would always agree to disagree on red velvet cake.

 that was so romantic & cute that it got me baking my 1st red velvet cuppycakes. 

if roses are red,

& violets are blue.

there are red cupcakes,

then how can there not be any blue, too?

so here it is...blue velvet cuppycakes with an oatsy twist.

Granola

there was quite a handful of dried fruits from making chocolate barks for x'mas..

so I decided that we shall have a go @ our very own granola.

it is very easy to do...cheaper than you'd get from the stores & you can control how much sugar & honey you wanna add.

so why not?

make your own granola today !

Betty Crocker's Chocolate Fudge Cake (experiment)

usually i don't bake with pre-mix, much less blog about it !

but i have friends who have been asking me why do their betty crocker's cake crack when baked.

i decided to use the pre-mix & experiment with the baking temperature + time to see how it goes, & since cakes i bake from scratch usually crack too (only that i use icing/cream/ganache to hide the cake flaws, ha), this recipe test would be good for me as well.

when a cake crack, there could be many reasons why..but top 2 reasons based on my past bakes:

1) overmixing

2) baking at a temperature that is too high

so here is my betty crocker's recipe test for Robin + his girlfriend & Alica Monroe:

Zesty Poppy Poms Tart

This is a citrus tart baked with poppy seeds in the crust 

with lots of lemon + orange zest & juice in the filling 

& sprinkled with pomegranate seeds. 

I was inspired by Edd Kimber's Lemon Tart..& had the itch to bake a lemon tart,

since it has been awhile that tarts were churned out of my bakery.

So I started searching for a simple recipe & found this by Rachel Allen. 

I tweaked it a little bit & here it is - zesty poppy poms tart:

Cranberry Orange Cookie

this was an inspired bake... by Marks & Spencer.

Lemony Oats Melts

oh well, here's something lemony-oatsy again.

i must say, lemon & oats do complement each other very well .

 this recipe was demonstrated during the World of Healthy Flavours Asia Conference, just a few weeks back by one of the chefs.

i attempted an oatsy-twist of it, so here we go:

Lemony Oats Muffins

It was a Sunday morning & there was some free time & the craving for something lemony, as well. 

2 lemons have been sitting in my crisper since last week...

& so, that was my cue to bake. 

Sea Salt Caramel Macaroons

X'mas Financiers

Vanilla Cream Chocolate Cake

A birthday cake using the frozen-&-thawed chocolate cake made a week ago from Bailey's Chocolate Cake.

Earl Grey Pound Cake

Pound Cakes are cakes that contain flour, eggs, sugar & butter with a ratio of
1:1:1:1. 

Pound cakes can be also known as sponge cakes & madeira cakes.

DTLB made a madeira cake once - check it out here!

This is a reduced-sugar pound cake with an Earl Grey twist.