Blueberries Marble cake

Who can resist a cake like this? Just the name is enough to make some of us mouth watering! Well... me for sure! :D So I decided to baked it, and I'll tell ya, it is soooo delicious! Especially if you have it with a cup of nice coffee. :D

Here is the recipe:

Blueberries Marbled cake

Ingredient:

- 2 eggs

- 125g(4 oz) butter

- 1 1/3 cups(165g or 5 1/2oz) self-raising flour, sifted

- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

- 1/2 cup (125g or 4 oz)caster sugar

- 2 tablespons soft brown sugar (not too pack)Preparing your Blueberries

- 1 tablespoon sugar

- 1 1/4 cups (195g or 6 1/2 oz) fresh blueberries, plus extra for decoration

Decoration:

- Icing sugar (to dust)

- Cream- Blueberries

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 180C or 350F. Lightly grease a 20cm (8 inch) round springform tin and line the base and side with baking paper. Place the sugar and 1/2 of the blueberries in a small saucepan. Stir together gently over medium heat for 1-2 mins until the juices begin to run then remove from the head. Stir in the remaining blueberries, and allow the mixture to cool.

Beat the eggs in a small mixing bowl, add the vanilla essence and butter, mix well. Combine the flour and sugar in a mixing bowl. Make a well int eh centre, using a metal spoon or knife stir in the egg mixture until smooth.

Take out 3/4 cup of the cake mixture and stir into blueberries. Place spoonfuls of both mixtures randomly into the prepared tin. Swirl the mixture with a knift of skewer to produce a marbled effect. Do not overmix as we want to keep the marbled look. Springle the brown sugar over the top. Bake for 45-50mins or until the skewer comes out clean. Stand the cake in its tin on a wire rack to cool down for 5 mins before removing the cake from the tin and let completly cool down.

For decoration and serving, you can dust the icing sugar over the cake or with extra berries and cream. Alternative if the blueberries is out of season, you can use Rasberries instead. :D

Chocolate Rainbow Cake

Not long ago is my little boy birthday, normally we would have a little party to go with it, but just before his irthday, he came down with a bad cough and fever, so we give him his usual little party, but instead we have a family "party" with grandmother invited. I suprise him with this cake and he is thrill with it. After all, which little 9 years old boy don't like chocolate and marshmallows?

Ingredients:

(makes one 9" cake)

- 1 1/2 cup (161g) all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup (61g) natural cocoa powder
- 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 2/3 cups (332g) granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup (80ml) safflower or other neutral vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup (80ml) whole milk (I used low fat milk)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup (240ml) boiling water



Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325 degF. Grease bottom and sides of a 9 x 3 inches round cake pan. Dust the pan with flour and set aside. (I lined the bottom with baking paper.)

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer. Add in sugar and mix at low speed until blended. Add in the oil and mix a few seconds until the dry ingredients are crumbly. (You can also used a spatula to mix in the sugar and oil).

In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs until blended. Whisk in the milk and vanilla extract until blended. With mixer at low speed, add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix until blended, scraping down the sides of the bowl necessary. (I used a manual whisk to do the mixing. The batter will be very thick at this stage).

Add in the boiling water gradually and mix just until blended and smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. (The mixture will become very thin and watery.) Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 to 55 mins until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 20mins before unmoulding. Let cool completely.


To assemble this 20cm rainbow chocolate cake:

- Place pouring cream (I used one tin of Nestle's pouring cream) and 150g dark chocolate in a saucepan over low heat. Stir until melted and smooth. Set aside for 10mins before frosting the cake. (here I used both White chocolate and dark chocolate)

- Slice two large bananas, lengthwise into halves. Squeeze some lemon juice over. (according to the cookbook, but I used Peach slice from the can and without lemon juice instead)

- Slice chocolate cake into 2 layers. Spread one layer with the white chocolate frosting, arrange the sliced bananas (cut side down) on the cake layer to form 2 concentric rings. Cut the bananas as necessary in order to form the two rings.

- Spread the other cake layer with white chocolate frosting, flip over and layer it over the banana (peach)slices.

- Coat the top and sides of the cake surface with the dark chocolate frosting (here I only apply very thin layer). Decorate with colourful cereals or chocolate/lollies and marshmallows as desired.

**Recipe adapted from The Cake Book, by Tish Boyle**

Well... this is all of it, it sound like a lot of work, but it wasn't... it is pretty easy to make, and so delicious... :D Because I didn't apply too much of the dark and white chocolate layer, so it wasn't sickening sweet, but of cos if you like to have thick chocolate, then you can apply a thicker layer then what I did here.

My Seafood Chowder

You know what's good to cook during winter night for dinner? A bowl of Seafood Chowder, one of our favorite dish, I know a lot of my friends take a look at the ingredients they just shake their head and said, wow.. that's too much to do and prepare, but honestly, not really. Especially the end result is going to be so yummmmm. so here it go,

Ingredients:

- 4 oz Crab meat, cooked

- 8 oz Snapper Fillets

- 8 oz Tiger Prawns

- 7 oz Scallops, chopped

- 7 oz Mussels

- 1 medium Onion, minced

- 2 stalks of Celery, chopped

- 1 Tbsp Butter- 1 1/2 tsp Thyme

- 1 big Potatoes, peeled, cooked and diced

- 1 1/4 tsp Celery Salt

- 2 cups double Cream

- 1 1/4 cups Milk

- 1 tsp Salt

- 1/2 tsp Pepper

- Paprika and Parsley

Precook:

- Potatoes and dice

- Mussels

Preparation:

Sauté onion in the butter until transparent. Add the thyme and celery salt, then remove from heat. In another saucepan, pour the double cream over the snapper fillets. Cover and bring to a boil. Simmer slowly for 10 minutes or till the fish flakes easily. Remove the snapper, then break into small pieces and remove any bones. Add the onion mixture and the scallops to the snapper poaching liquid. Bring to barely a boil, then simmer for about 1 minute or till the scallops are opaque. Now add the snapper, crab meat, mussels, prawns, potatoes and milk. Heat through, but do not allow to boil. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve chowder in large soup bowls. Sprinkle each bowl with paprika and a small sprig of parsley in the centre. Serve seafood chowder immediately with your favourite soup crackers or bread. Enjoy!

p.s: I find that you can used whatever seafood you like, not necessary to follow the recipe, anything will do. :D As what I have done here too...

Mixed Berry Muffins

I really like to try new muffins every now and then, especially when different fruits is in season. Well.. even if its not, what I have here is mixed berry muffins, mixed berry from frozen section of the supermarket. :D









Ingredient:

- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/3 cups fresh berries (such as blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, huckleberries or sliced strawberries, or a combination, as berries is not in season at the moment, I am using frozen pack)



Preparation:


- Position a rack in the centre of the oven and preheat to 400°F.

- Lightly butter twelve 2 1/2-inch muffin cups or place paper muffin cups in the muffin tin.

- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt to combine and make a well in the centre.

- In another medium bowl, whisk the milk, oil and eggs.

- Mix well and pour into the well.

- Stir just until blended.

- Fold in the berries.

- Spoon equal amounts of the batter into the muffin cups, filling them about three-fourths full.

- Bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes.

- Cool in the pan for 5 minutes.

- Remove the muffins and serve warm or cool on a wire rack.



(Recipe by Gingerbear)30 min, 10 min prep, SERVES 12

Orange Choc-chip muffins

One of my husband favorite, Orange Choc-chip... well, he like Orange and chocolate, but I turn them into muffins! :D It taste yummy too!

Ingredients:

- 2 egg

- 4 tbsp. salad oil

- 1/2 cup orange juice (preferable freshly squeezed)

- 1 tbsp of orange rind

- 1 1/2 cup self raising flour

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 1/4 cup brown sugar

- 1/4 tsp. salt

- 75g chocolate chips

Preparation:

Add oil and orange juice and rind one at a time with eggs, mixed them well. In separate bowl combine flour, sugar, brown sugar and salt, drill a well, add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until flour is moistened. Batter should be lumpy. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown at 400 degrees.

Banana Choc-chip Muffins

This batch I have prepare it for my son's class friends... they have this share lunch thing at school, so I have to make something yummy for the kids. :D

Party size (made 24 medium size and 24 mini size of muffins)

Ingredients:

- 490 grams

- All purpose flour

- 200 grams granulated white sugar

- 100 grams light brown sugar

- 2 teaspoons baking powder

- 1 teaspoon baking soda

- 1/4 teaspoon salt

- 130 grams white chocolate, cut into small pieces

- 4 large eggs, lightly beaten

- 16 tablespoons (226 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

- 6 very ripe large bananas (approximately 1 pound or 908 grams), mashed well

- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preparation and baking:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place the oven rack in the middle of the oven. Butter or spray a 12 - 1/2 cup muffin pan and small cupcake muffins tin (you will have to do this 2 rounds unless you have more then one muffin's tin)

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and white chocolate. Set aside.

In a another bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla. With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, lightly fold the wet ingredients (banana mixture) into the dry ingredients until just combined and batter is thick and chunky. (The important thing is not to over mix the batter. You do not want it smooth. Over mixing the batter will yield tough, rubbery muffins.) Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins and place a slice of banana on top of each muffin for garnish. Bake about 20 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool for five minutes and then remove muffins from pan. Serve warm or at room temperature and you can always serve it with ice-cream.

Note: To mash bananas I have found the easiest way is to just use my fingers, a fork or a potato masher.

Combination Fried noodle

Every now and then I love to fried some noodle, I love it, my little boy love it too.. they just taste so nice. :D

Combination fried noodle

Ingredients:

- 450 g Yellow egg noodles
- 110 g Cabbage
- 50 g Round beans
- 75 g Shrimps, peeled and deveined
- 50 g Pork fillet, sliced
- 50 g Stir fry Beef strips
- 50 g Squid, prepared and sliced
- 2 cloves Garlic, chopped
- 2 stalks Spring onion, cut into short lengths
- 2 pieces Red chilies, seeded and finely sliced (I didn't put it here as the chilli I bought is too spicy, my boy can't take it)
- 3 tbsp Cooking oil
- 3 tbsp Soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Sesame oil
- Salt and ground black pepper

Preparation:

- Cook yellow egg noodles in a large pan of boiling water until just tender and drain well. (Unless you bought those freshly made then you can skip this)

- Heat oil in a wok and fry garlic and spring onions for about 30 seconds. - Add pork fillet, shrimps, beef strips and squids and stir-fry over high heat for approx. 2 mins.

- Add cabbage, round beans and chilies then continue to stir

-fry for another 3 minutes or until pork is well cooked.

- Add the noodles, stirring constantly but gently, (I find it easy to use chopstick to do this part, as it won't break up the noodle) add the soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste, if not enough salty, addin another tabel spoon of soy sauce.

- Cook until noodles are thoroughly heated through, then stir in the sesame oil, mix well and serve immediately.

- Alternative you can always leave the fresh chilli and serve on side. Also you can use chicken, mushroom, mussels instead of what I prepare here.

Enjoy and have fun. :D