Peach upside down cake

I found this recipe online but modified it a little (made it a tad more healthier =p). I used FRESH peaches because we had a lot =) fresh fruit is always best!! but i'm sure you can use canned peaches for this recipe. ALSO you can substitute the peaches for any kind of fruit e.g. apples, pears, apricots, plums.. the list goes on :D

PEACH UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

Ingredients

Topping
2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 fresh peaches, peeled and sliced

Base - French yoghurt cake
1 cup plain flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup natural yoghurt (or cream... haven't tried milk but I'm sure that would work out as well)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup flavourless oil (only use if the batter seems too dry)

For the topping:
1. Place saucepan over medium heat and melt the butter and sugar.
2. Mix well, keep stirring until mixture starts bubbling and caramelises a bit
3. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Once cooled, pour into lined cake tin and arrange peach slices on top.

For the base:
1. Preheat oven to 175oC.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk sugar, eggs, yoghurt and vanilla extract with electric beater until well blended.
4. Still whisking, add dry ingredients bit by bit until well combined.
5. Pour oil into the batter and carefully fold in.
6. Pour cake batter on top of peach slices. Bake for ~30 minutes (depends on your oven) or until skewer comes out clean.
7. Take out of oven, cool on rack then carefully invert onto serving plate.


Make sure you arrange the peach slices neatly :)

 

The top which becomes the bottom = UPSIDE DOWN ^^

Nice moist cake (almost tastes spongy ^^) with sweet and juicy topping :) mmm MMm MMMmmmmm

Berry and banana muffins!

Another muffin recipe =) I found it online.. i'm guessing you guys probably won't be making this anytime soon as it involves Bananas (they are really expensive atm!!!) but I shall share anyways :)

BERRY and BANANA MUFFINS

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground cinnamon

pinch of salt

2 ripe bananas, mashed

150g fresh or frozen blueberries (or you can use a variety of berries)

3 tbsp honey

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large egg

3/4 cup milk

1/3 cup caster sugar (the original recipe didn't have this but if you are a sweet tooth like me.. you'll need some sugar in this recipe because the honey isn't enough =p)

1. Preheat oven to 180oC.

2. Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and a pinch of salt into a bowl. Add the sugar, banana and blueberries and lightly toss the fruit through the flour (you don't want the berries to break up too much otherwise your muffin mix will be blue!!!)

3. Whisk the honey, vegetable oil, egg and milk together in a small bowl. Add this to the dry ingredients and lightly combine.

4. Spoon batter into a lined muffin tin and bake for 20 minutes or until cooked inside.

Nice and golden brown :) i used mixed frozen berries~

The inside :)

All about chocolate!!

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't posted in a while! i actually got sick last week >___< and i even lost my appetite :O :O! it was so weird!! not feeling like eating anything.. no cravings for chocolate or icecream.. or mango sago! but thank God I am feeling much better now =D and i have my appetite back! hooray! So I thought I would blog about CHOCOLATE!!! (because who doesn't love chocolate :P)


Just two simple ways you can use chocolate! Chocolate Muffins and Chocolate cupcakes!
Heaps of people ask me what the difference is between muffins and cupcakes. I would say its the method of baking and the texture of the cakes. Muffins are a one bowl and mix kind of method while cupcakes take a bit more time and involve creaming the butter and sugar. The text of muffins are a bit denser than cupcakes, which are more light and fluffy.

So let's start off with the easy one first: CHOCOLATE MUFFINS

Ingredients
80g unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly beaten
300ml milk
2 1/2 cups plain flour (sifted)
2tsp baking powder
150g caster sugar
40g cocoa poweder
200g Chocolate chips (or chocolate chopped)


1. Pre-heat the oven to 180oC.
2. Put melted butter, eggs, milk, flour, baking powder, sugar and cocoa in a bowl. Mix together lightly. Fold in the chocolate.
3. Place spoonfuls into muffin cases (until 3/4 full) and bake in oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden brown.

 These were quite chocolately (because we put A LOT of chocolate) but you can put as much or little as you like :)


Mmmm chocolately ^^



CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

Ingredients
45 g unsalted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
20 g ground almonds
1/2 cup self-raising flour, sifted
1 tsp cocoa powder
30g cooking chocolate

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180oC
2. Cream the butter and sugar, slowly add the egg, followed by the ground almonds, flour and cocoa powder.
3. Melt the chocolate over a water bath and add to mixture. Mix together.
4. Spoon mixture into muffin cases (3/4 full) and bake for 20 minutes or till cooked inside.

We iced ours with chocolate buttercream icing. Note the bear in the bottom right hand side =p

So go and satisfy those chocolate cravings ^^

Blueberry muffins - for first time bakers

I reckon muffins are one of the easiest things to bake! it just requires one bowl.. ingredients.. mix mix mix.. then into the oven :) so i'm sure anyone who says "I can't bake" or.. "I've never baked before" .. should try and bake muffins and then see if u still say that =p you can have ANY flavour u like.. be CREATIVE!! last time i think i shared Banana and walnut muffins.. this time it will be Blueberry Muffins =D

Ingredients

2 cups Self-raising flour

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tub of yoghurt

1/2 cup milk

1 tspn cinnamon

150g blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Slivered almonds for topping

1. Sift flour into a bowl and mix with sugar, cinnamon, eggs, yoghurt.

2. Add the milk bit by bit until you get a nice consistency (you may need to add more or not add it all~)

3. mix in the blueberrie

*TIP* for frozen berries, be gentle when mixing in.. coz it might turn ur batter blue xP

4. Spoon into muffin moulds and bake at 180oC for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown

so give it a try =D!!!

Not just plain brownies ... but BUTTERSCOTCH brownies!!

Who doesn't love brownies? And what better than those of the Butterscotch kind =D WITH marble topping!


I also tasted this is Brisbane (yes.. Brissy if full of inspiration =p) and the recipe is courtesy of Anne! Thanks Anne!! She was looking for an easy recipe that kids can help cook! so this is perfect!!

Ingredients

175g plain flour
1 tspn baking powder
1/4 tspn salt
150g unsalted butter, softened
250g light brown sugar
1 tspn vanilla essence
2 large eggs
85g chocolate, melted


1. Preheat oven to 180oC
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.
3. Cream butter, brown sugar and vanilla essence till smooth with electric mixer
4. Mix in the eggs then theh flour mixture
5. Spread mixture into 9 inch square tin and drizzle melted chocolate over the top. Run a knife throught the chocolate to create a marbled effect.
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin and SERVE :)

The best part is the CRUNCHY topping =D - my version

Brissy version~~

These are sooooo yum =) its supposed to make 16 brownies.. but depends how big you cut the slices hey? =p I made this for dessert on Australia Day (yes i know.. was a long time ago xD.. i've been outbaking my blog xP). 

P.s. Do you like my new title?? ^^ thanks to my designer KATHLEEN :D hehe thanks!!

Profiteroles/Choux pastry with Creme Patissiere

Ever since I ate like 5 custard profiteroles at the BBQ in Brissy (thanks Aunty Lily ^_^) .. i've really wanted to make them! So on a Baking Day with Baking Tray... we did =) Found this recipe in one of the many baking books we have! ^^

This recipe is from the top one called "bake it"

Choux Pastry

*Only 4 ingredients XD XD*

100g unsalted butter
1 tspn caster sugar
140g plain flour
3 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 200oC.
2. Put 250ml water, butter and sugar in small saucepan and heat till butter has melted and mixture has just come to the boil.
3. Add flour and stir over medium heat with a wooden spoon until mixture comes away from the side of the saucepan forming a ball.
4. Plate mixture into bowl and allow to cool slightly. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each till it becomes thick and glossy~~
TIP: *wait till egg is incorporated before adding next one* you can use a wooden spoon to mix the egg in
5. Pipe or spoon mixture onto baking tray and bake for 20 min. Reduce heat to 160oC and bake for further 20 min (we didn't actually need to do this coz we have a SUPER OVEN ^^)

we just placed spoonfuls onto the tray ^^

TA DA! nice and golden brown :)

 To make Adriano Zumbo's Creme patissiere (yes! his official recipe from Masterchef Cookbook Volume one =p) - we divided everything by 6 coz his recipe makes 1.5 litres!!!! But i think we needed more! neways i'll just give u his original recipe and u can make as much or less as u want :)


1.3 litres milk
2 vanilla beans, split (or just use vanilla essence)
18 egg yolks (now u know why we divided by 6 xP)
330g caster sugar
130g corn flour
130g butter


1. Stir the milk and vanilla beans in saucepan over medium heat until almost boiling
2. Whisk yolks, sugar and cornflour in bowl until thick and pale. 
3. Gradually whisk in hot milk into egg mixture. Return to saucepan and whisk over medium heat will custard boils and thickens.
4. Spread over tray to cool rapidly. Cover surgare with cling wrap to prevent skin forming. When the mixture has cooled to 55oC (HAHHA so exact xD) transfter to bowl and stir through butter... and its ready to pipe into the profiteroles =D


THEY TASTED SO GOOD! we ate so many before we even piped the custard!
they look hard to make but they are really easy.. SO TRY IT =D =D

Baking Day with Baking Tray =)

~ how much do you reckon I could sell these for? =p

Mochi madness!!

One night my sister and I decided to make MOCHI!! We were taught the special recipe by Uncle Steven Liu ^^ during a special cooking lesson in Brissy back in Feb 2010.

WARNING: may get all over your hands >< haha

Unfortunately.... I couldn't find the recipe =( I'm pretty sure I wrote it down somewhere... so we half made it u/used random internet recipes.../what we could remember.. and maybe that is why it kinda failed =\

Anyways special thanks to Terie for the real recipe :)

Ingredients: (just remember 3-2-1)

• 3 cups glutinous rice flour (make sure u use the right one!!)
• 2 cups of water
• 1 cup white sugar

Method:

1) Mix ingredients well in a microwave proof container

2) Put some oil in the the container. Mix well.

3) Cover container with lid and microwave for 5 minutes.

4) Mix well and microwave again for 1 minute until the mochi touches the lid (watch him grow!!)

5) Using the stick end of a wooden spoon, "hit" the mochi until the mochi does not stick to the container's wall (HAHHA! this is how we were taught xD)

6) Oil the surface of te mochi and let it cool down until you can touch it

7) Cut each mochi piece into the size you want

8) Place filling in the middle and coat with either nuts, coconut, glutinous rice flour.. the choices are endless!!

We put palm sugar, nuts and coconut :)

Possible fillings: Red Bean, palm sugar, peanut butter.. etc.

On a side note, I watch Julie and Julia last night!! i really like that movie!! its all about FOOD! (which i love).. and cooking food (which i also love) and BLOGGING! (which inspired me to keep the blogging)!! so if you love all those things! go watch it!! ^^