Raisin butter rice with cashew nuts

This is a simple rice tasty flavour and cooked over a stove in my pan.

http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/25247/rice-with-almonds-and-raisins

I followed the recipe above and changed the almonds to cashew nuts

Ingredients to use 

1 tbsp butter

1/3 cup finely chopped onions

1 cup uncooked rice ( I rinsed)

2 tablespoon raisins ( I used a mix of raisins)

1 n 1/2 cup chicken broth

Salt n pepper to taste 

1/4 cup of almonds ( I replaced with about 1 cup of cashew nuts - toasted)

Method

Melt the butter in the saucepan.

Sauté the onions n then add the rice, chicken broth, salt, pepper all at once.

When the broth boils, lower the heat to low and cover.

Observe for about 5 minutes n stir the rice a little and cover again.

Do it again in closer intervals.

This way the rice will not get burnt.

It only takes about 15 minutes to cook.

When all the liquid is absorbed your rice should be cooked. 

Stir in the cashew nuts.

Serve with a meat side dish if you prefer.

Water starts to bubble 

Dinner is served!

I did another bowl with almond flakes this time round.

Honey Cake

This light textured as spongy honey cake recipe is from Pooh's Yummy Cookbook.

It is a simple recipe using 5 ingredients.

Well, 6 if you include some butter to grease the cake tin.

Recipe

3 eggs

80 gm sugar ( I used caster sugar)

90 gm self raising flour

6 teaspoons of honey 

1 pinch of salt 

Method 

Prepare 2 mixing bowls

Separate the egg yolks from the whites into the bowls.

Add the sugar and honey into the yolks n use an electric beater n beat well 

Mix in the flour spoon by spoon - I beat in with the electric mixer

Wash clean your beaters n dry them

Add a pinch of salt into the egg whites and whisk until stiff

Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture

Preheat the oven to 180 deg celcius ( I used 170)

Grease a loaf tin or a round tin 

Pour into the cake tin and bake for 30 minutes 

I tented the cake with aluminum foil halfway at 15 minutes.

Remove and cook on wire rack.

Cut into 1 inch thickness n serve

Ingredients 

Egg yolk batter 

My girl helping to beat the egg whites until stiff

The yolks n the stiff white 

Before bake 

After bake 

Yummy honey cake!! You can't stop at one slice!

Dried Apricot Walnut Cake (eggless)

This is very fragrant and not so sweet. It is also eggless. I will not reduce any ingredients further as it will result in a very flat cake, I believe.I adapted this recipe from allrecipes Easy Raisin Cake. I have replaced with dried apricots n added milk. I used a smaller cake pan.

Recipe

Ingredients

3/4 cup of dried apricots - cut up

It is actually one packet of Harvest Fields dried apricot ( original 1 cup raisins)

1 & 1/2 cups water

90gm unsalted butter

1 & 3/4 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking soda 

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg 

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup caster sugar (original is 1 cup)

In addition I used 1/2 cup milk

Method

Put the apricot n water in pot. On the heat and let it boil 10 minutes.

Off the fire and add in the butter.

Stir till the butter melts and coats the  apricot.Let mixture cool 5 minutes.

Grease a 7 x 7 inch square pan.

Preheat oven to 175 deg celcius.

Now add all the rest of ingredients into the pot. Stir all together.

You may find it increasingly difficult towards the end.

After all the flour incorporated, spoon the mixture into the pan and level it.

Bake for about 25 minutes. 

When you smell the cake, use  a aluminum foil and tent the cake in case it browned too much.

After baking , let stand in pan 2-3 minutes and then remove and cool completely on a rack . 

Dried apricot

Added butter

Before bake

After bake 

The underside of the cake

Nice square cake

Ready to serve!

Chocolate Cookies

Crunchy chocolate cookies... Looks good right?

I even made 2 cookies and piped my children's names for them. They have eaten them up once the chocolate set.

I bought this recipe book from Popular bookshop yesterday and it contains 365 recipes by renowned chefs in the region. 

The cookies I just did is from a recipe inside the book by Patsie Cheong. Her cookies are covered fully with melted chocolate whereas I did mine differently.

This is how they look like.

Recipe

Ingredients A

125gm unsalted butter I used SCS

100 gm icing sugar

1 egg yolk

Ingredients B sifted

200 gm plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp cocoa powder - I used Hershey's

Ingredient C

100 gm cooking chocolate double boil till melted 

Decorations - can be m & ms, sugar grains, coloured sprinkles etc

Method

1. Put ingredients A into a mixing bowl n beat till creamy. Then add in the B mix n use a spatula to slowly stir into a dough.

2. Weigh it. I weighed my dough n is 440 gm. I divided it into 20 gm portions.

You can divide into smaller portions if you want yours to look like the original.

3. Line baking trays with baking paper or grease.

4. Form sticks with dough n place spaced apart on the tray as they will expand slightly.

5. Preheat oven to 180 deg celcius and bake for15 minutes.

6. I also made heart shape cookies with a cookie cutter.

7. Let the cookies cool before piping with melted chocolate. Use a piping bag.

8. Decorate as desired . I popped the tray into the fridge to let the chocolate harden. 

9. Take note for the chocolate to harden completely, you need I think at least 1-2 hours chilling.

To store the cookies I lined the box n layered with baking paper between the cookies. 

Ingredients used

The dough - easy to hold but when you press into shape do it on baking paper 

Each dough 20 gm

Stick shapes

Heart shapes

After baking 

I used Van Houten baking chocolate

Weigh 100 gm

Melted chocolate in piping bag and m & ms

Heart shape cookies 

Stick cookies

Enjoy them with your tea or milk. Happy baking!

Butter Cake with Nuttella Swirls

This is my first attempt making butter cake n adding Nutella on top to swirl. The cake tastes really good only the appearance could be better.

The butter cake recipe is taken from rasamalaysia.com who adapted it from Food-4tots

Recipe 

Ingredients

250 gm unsalted butter at room temperature

200 gm of plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 eggs I used room temperature

200 gm of caster sugar

1/2 tablespoon salt

4 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Nutella spread - use about 1 - 1 1/2 tablespoon 

Method 

I used a 8 inch round pan

Grease the pan with a little butter

Sift the plain flour n baking powder together 

Add in salt n mix well.

Place the butter n sugar in a bowl n use an electronic beater to mix till well combined or pale yellow

Add in the eggs one at a time mix well. I scraped down after every addition.

Add in vanilla essence n mix well.

Fold in the flour with spatula.

Fold in the milk with spatula.

Pour into the greased pan and shake slightly to even out mixture.

Preheat oven to 180 deg celcius . Bake for 40 minutes.

Check doneness with your stick.

Remove from oven n turn out cake to wore rack n cool completely before cutting.

Use a tablespoon n create 2 circles in the batter.

Use a tooth pick n create designs with the circles.

Height of cake very even

The underside so nice 

Enjoy!!

Razzle Dazzle U Picnic 2014 organized by NTUC

Yesterday was the first U picnic we participated in. We were at The Grand Lawn located at a West Coast Park. The event was from 5 pm to 9pm. Although shuttle rides were provided, we had to drive there . There were 5 of us including our stools, table n picnic basket n a water cooler!

Parking was full n we had to park at a hdb block even though we reached at 4.20 pm!

I waited at the registration counter to collect a picnic hamper. It was worth the wait- look at the contents!

There were foldable nylon frisbees and LED discs to play with n even a bubbly drink for us.

There fringe events like game stalls n a mini ferris ride. There were many performers entertaining the crowd.

Juggling

Blowing bubbles

Balancing plate

Mini ferris ride - I forgot to take photo in day time!

Pop corn n candy floss 

Game stall

After Hours performance

Children dancers

Katy Perry singer 

We brought our instant noodles!

And a bottle to drink 

No we are not advertising for Myojo! Haha

Neon light suit

Glowing in the dark 

Guess the price of hampers contest 

Mr Lim Swee Say graced the event

Fire works ending

It has been a good experience n bonding time for our family. We can see so many families enjoying together with grandparents too n babies. 

Thanks Ntuc for organising. I hope to join again for next year's picnic!