Experimental bake: kiwi & coconut muffins!

Normally when I bake, I stick to the recipe to the tee because I don't want anything to go wrong. But this time I felt like being a little experimental (just like science ^^) and creative. We had quite a few kiwi fruits at home that were going a bit soft so I thought.. Hmmm.. what can I bake with them? Most kiwi recipes just involve the kiwi raw e.g. tarts, decorating on top of cakes; and not actually being baked itself. So after googling a few recipes, I decided to try and make some muffins - you can't really go wrong with muffins and fruit XD


As I was making these, I felt like a real cook XD... adding a pinch of this.. pinch of that.. if the consistency wasn't right.. add a bit more liquid ^____^" They actually turned out quite nice. The kiwi fruit's citrus characteristics added tartness to muffins and the passionfruit seeds gave it an extra crunch along with the coconut (HAHA! sounds like a Masterchef description =p).






Kiwi and coconut muffins (makes ~16)


Ingredients
2 cups self-raising flour
3/4 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup dessicated coconut
1 egg

Nice and golden brown ^^

175g passionfruit yoghurt (you can use any other flavoured yoghurt but I like the crunchiness of the passionfruit ^^)
1/2 cup milk
2 kiwi fruit, diced


To decorate:
1 kiwi fruit, sliced and quartered
Dessicated coconut


1. Preheat oven to 180oC and line muffin pan.
2. Place flour, sugar and coconut in large bowl.
3. In a small bowl, whisk egg, yoghurt and milk with a fork till combined.
4. Place wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix to combine.
5. Place spoonfuls of mix in muffin holes (~3/4 full).
6. Decorate with kiwi fruit and sprinkle with coconut.
7. Bake in oven for 12-15 minutes or till golden brown.

Finished product =D fresh from the oven :)

I've got to say the muffins taste the best when fresh from the oven because they had a slight crunchiness to the outside ^__^ Because when I brought them to work the next day they were a bit soft..

anyways... BE INVENTIVE =D you never know what recipes you might discover :D

Waffling on about Waffles!!!

I'm not sure when my love of waffles started... it may have been when I went to Brisbane and had a baking/cooking day at a friends house where my friend brought her WAFFLE MACHINE! I think the only waffles I had previously were at Max Brenner (Chocolate dessert place). 

Belgium waffles from Max Brenner

My favourite waffles are of the Belgium kind. They are thick and crispy, yet warm and fluffy on the inside. There is this place in Melbourne, just near Flinders St station that sells REALLY YUMMY BELGIUM WAFFLES!! It's called Waffle On, Degraves St. So for anyone living in Melbourne or dropping by for a holiday.. definitely a place to go!

Shop 9, Degraves St MELBOURNE =D

I think plain is the best!! =) just a dusting of icing sugar~

Anyways my dear friend realised I loved her waffle machine so much that when she visited me, she bought me one as a 'thank-you' gift! Aww thanks!! we had many waffle parties after that.. I even brought it to work xD but recently it has just been sitting there.. alone of the shelf. So one Saturday night, I had a craving for waffles and decided to revive the machine. This recipe came with the manual for the waffle machine (Breville). There are SOOO many different recipes provided e.g Crispy, golden, butter, italian style...

Awesome waffle machine =D

I chose the Golden waffles =D

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
2 tbs caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups cream
1 1/2 tbs melted butter

1. Sift flour, sugar and salt into a bowl.
2. Beat egg yolks until thick, add cream and mix lightly.
3. Combine egg yolk mixture and dry ingredients, stir until smooth.
4. Mix in melted butter. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into the batter.
5. Use 1/2 cup batter for each waffle.

Top with whatever toppings you like! Chocolate, fruit, ice cream, jam... OR be creative and make SAVOURY waffles! just add spring onion and ham :)

My brother's invention of savoury waffles! actually tasted REALLY nice :)

My sister's chocolate ganache and vanilla ice cream waffle! mmm

February Birthdays~~

I like baking for others... especially birthday cakes =) Although my cakes aren't super fancy like the ones in the shop.. they are baked with love =p haha!

lighting the candle~~

My dad's birthday falls on the same day as my colleague so had the opportunity to bake 2 cakes!!

So happy it worked :)

The first cake was made together with my mum... Pandan chiffon cake. When my mum was separating the egg whites and egg yolks, a yolk accidentally fell in the whites >___< My mum fished it out with a spoon but I was a bit doubtful to whether it would still work out.... but it DID =D hehe.. the cream of tartar and caster sugar probably help stabilise the egg whites.. so SUCCESS!! You can find the recipe here. It's the same recipe as the green tea chiffon cake but instead of green tea powder, I added half a teaspoon of pandan essence. Of course the flavour would be improved it I was using pandan leaves.

slice for u~~~~

The second cake was a Sachertorte! I think it semi failed though because I didn't beat the egg whites to soft peaks ><" so the cake didn't rise properly. However for a nice, dense and chocolatey cake.. it was a success =P it was fun icing at well! (I used a chopstick because i STILL don't own PIPING BAGS T_T).

Sachertorte recipe


Ingredients
85g plain flour
4 tbsp cocoa powder
110g butter
200g caster sugar
4 eggs, separated


To decorate
2 tbsp apricot jam
200g dark chocolate, chopped
175ml cream


1. Preheat oven to 180oC and line cake tin.
2. Sift flour and cocoa together.
3. In a small saucepan, heat the butter till melted and then remove from heat. Stir in sugar until well mixed.
4. Beat in egg yolks the pour mix into dry ingredients and still until well combined.
5. Whisk egg whites with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Fold into chocolate mixture, one third at a time.
6. Pour batter into cake tin and bake for 40 minutes.
7. Warm jam and spread over cake. Melt chocolate and cream over a double boiler and ice cooled cake.

Iced and decorated with a chopstick xP

Although not every bake can be a success... It's the thought that counts :) I'm sure they'll appreciate it ;P

Australia Day Bake~

I am so happy that Australia Day is a public holiday!! (and especially a University holiday!) So since I had a day off I thought I would bake a cake! I went with my dad to the markets in the morning and found some cheap strawberries and blueberries!!! Fresh summer fruits! yum! I saw this recipe from Happy Home Baker for Fruit Pastry Cake and I've always wanted to try it!

happy australia day!

I love this recipe because it's so simple and easy and you can use whatever fruits available!!

Fruit Pastry Cake

Ingredients
100g butter, softened
180g caster sugar
50g yoghurt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
210g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
500g fruits (I used strawberries, blueberries and peaches)

1. Preheat oven to 180oC and grease, line 9 inch round cake tin.
2. Cream butter, sugar and yoghurt with electric mixer till light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs gradually and bieat till incorporated in the batter. Add vanilla essence and mix to combine.
4. Sift over flour and baking poweder and mix till smooth using wooden spoon or spatula.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan and smoopth the top with a spatula.
6. Arrange fruits on top WITHOUT pressing down.
7. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until skewere comes out clean when inserted. Cover the top with foil in the last 15 minuts to prevent the top from burning.
8. Leave the cake to cool in pan and transfer to wire rack.

lots of fresh summer fruits! Yummy ^^

First bake of 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!!! =D

Wow! its 2012~ Thank God for 2011! It was a pretty good year for me :) Thank God it went smoothly~~ hehe!

So... the last thing I baked was at the end of 2011.. I baked 2 big batches of macarons for friends from interstate and overseas :) Hope they liked them! I've been meaning to bake something for the new year but didn't seem to have the time... until today ^_^" Since tomorrow is Australia Day, I could bake something at night!

I'm calling this recipe Chuck-in Choc chip cookies! haha XD Because you randomly "chuck-in" any chocolate you can find. We chucked in chopped up hershey kisses and chocolate orange pieces. This recipe is great for any leftover chocolate that doesn't seem to taste that nice by itself because when in the cookie, it becomes all warm, melty and oozy! Mmm.. :P

The recipe is from HHB's "drop cookies" here!

Chuck-in Chocolate chip cookies

Ingredients
115g butter/margarine
115g caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
175g plain flour, sifted
175g chopped up chocolate

1. Cream butter and sugar in a bowl till light and fluffy.
2. Add in egg and mix well. Add vanilla essence and mix.
3. Fold in flour until combined. Add chopped chocolate and mix well.
4. Place tablespoonfuls of cookie mix on baking tray (remember to allow room for cookies to spread!) and bake in preheated oven at 180oC for 12-15 minutes.

They expanded!!! :P

Mmm.. soft chocolately goodness!!

I actually found some other photos from a bake last year!!! I tried to make BBB's Colourful choc chip cookies on stick (without the stick because I couldn't find any ><").. I tried to make smiley faces but.. kinda failed =p I made them for my RE students :) using the same recipe as this but used MnM's!

MnM cookies =D

The fail smiley faces! they look kinda creepy xD

Semi-fail bakes

2011 is coming to an end... so I thought to post a few of my "semi-fail" bakes. Yes.. BakingTray does fail!! I think it is all part of the learning process and all part of baking! You learn from the mistakes you make and you improve the recipe by changing it here and there. I haven't had time to improve these 2 recipes but I can give you the original if you want to try and improve =D

1) Peanut butter cookies (adapted from Bluebakeblog's Nutella cookies)

Ingredients
1 egg
2 tbs peanut butter
1 cup of self raising flour (a little less than 1 cup actually)~
2 tbs cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat the oven to 180oC
2. Beat egg and peanut butter together until a nice consistency.
3. Sift the self raising flour with cornflour mixture into the egg and peanut butter mixture and mix, add the salt too and further mix.
4. Roll into 24 evenly divided ball shapes. Then place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper and press them gently, to make them a little flatter so that they'll stay.
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes. 
6. Top cookies with chocolate ganache and a roasted peanut.

Problems: When rolling the cookies up they kept falling apart because they were too dry. The flavour was quite intense....

Improvements: These cookies were quite dry so maybe by adding more peanut butter or another egg would improve texture. OR.. just stick to nutella =p

It's hard to make these look pretty ><"

2) Mango cheesecake (adapted from Woolworths FRESH magazine, Issue 70, December 2011: Mixed Berry Cheesecake)


Ingredients
125g Milk Arrowroot biscuits (i used Marie biscuits), broken
75g butter, melted
2 eggs
1 tbs caster sugar
1  tsp cornflour
2/3 cup milk
1 1/2 tbs boiling water
1 tbs gelatine
250g cream cheese
2/3 cup sour cream (i used thickened cream)
1/3 cup caster sugar, extra
1 mango diced (original recipe was for mixed berry cheesecake so they used 1 punnet each strawberries, blurberries and raspberries)
1/4 cup raspberry jam 

1. Line base and sides of 20cm springform cake tin with baking paper.
2. Process biscuits in food processor until finely crushed. Add butter and process until well combined. Press firmly over base of tin and refrigerate.
3. Separate eggs and set whites aside. Beat egg yolks with caster sugar and cornflour until thick and pale.
4. Heat milk in small saucepan until almost boiling. Gradually whisk into egg mixture. Return mixture to pan and stir over medium heat until custard thickens. Remove from heat, cover and cool.
5. Place boiling water into a jug and sprinkle over gelatine. Stir until gelatine dissolves and stir into custard.
6. Beat cream cheese, sour cream and extra caster sugar until smooth. Fold custard mixture into cream cheese mixture.
7. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold lightly into mixture.
8. Stir through diced mango and spoon mixture over base. Refrigerate overnight.
9. Heat jam for 30 sec in microwave. Press through sieve to remove seeds. Spoon over the top of cheesecake and chill for 10 minutes.

Problems: After overnight refrigeration the cheesecake was SUPER soft! Also wasn't as sweet as I would like.

Improvements: I substituted sour cream with thickened cream but maybe I should have stuck to the original. I had to out the cheesecake into the freezer because it was too soft.. so when it came out it tasted like icecream :D or parfait! ^^"

I guess it kind of looks nice =p haha a bit icey though..

So those are a few of the semi-fail recipes I have tried! I hope you will all try these recipes and be more successful than me :) then share with me your tips and secrets so I can succeed too! hehe... till next year~~ KEEP UP THE BAKING =D

- BakingTray - 

Going BANANAS~~

I'm so happy because the price of bananas has FINALLY gone down! Now less than 2 dollars =D That means ...... more BANANAS! our fruitbowl is now whole again =) My craving of bananas was finally satisfied. This also means that all the banana recipes that I had kept could be used =D
So first up is BANANA cake! First time I have used this recipe. It's quite moist and dense but full of banana flavour!.. and don't forget! really simple~ 
Adapted from Exclusively Food.

Ingredients
125g butter, softened 
330g (1 1/2 cups) sugar - I used brown sugar
280g (1 very slightly rounded cup) very ripe, mashed banana - around 2 bananas
1 teaspoon natural vanilla essence
2 large eggs 
100ml milk
225g (1 1/2 cups) self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda


1. Preheat oven to 160oC. Grease cake tin and line with baking paper.
2.Place butter, sugar, banana, vanilla and eggs in a food processor (or large bowl and beat with electric mixer). Process for ~2 minutes. Add milk and pulse to combine.
3. Add sifted flour and bicarb soda and mix until combined.
4. Pour batter into cake tin and bake for around 50-60 minutes or until skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
5. Leave cake to cool on a wire rack. Once cool, spread cream cheese frosting and decorate with banana pieces.


So what are you waiting for?? GO BANANASSSS~~~ @_@ :D