Good morning 😊☀

No Frill Chocolate Molten Cake.

I can’t remember the last time I posted something. I figured no one will miss me anyway. I have commitment issue when it comes to consistently baking, cooking and blogging it. This is the only avenue for me to slack off, so I’m cutting myself some slacks. 

Anyway.. Just made this chocolate molten cake. It’s divine, try it. It’ll only take about half an hour or so.

Ingredients

3 eggs
4 tbsp butter, at room temperature plus more for ramekins
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar plus more for ramekins
8 ounces chocolate, melted

Method

Preheat oven to 200 degree Celsius. Butter 5 small ramekins and dust with sugar; tap out excess sugar.

In a bowl, cream butter and sugar until the color turns pale yellow. Add egg, one at a time. Sieve in the flour and beat at low speed. Slowly beat in chocolate. The texture will be quite runny than normal cake batter.

Place ramekins onto baking sheet, bake for 8 minutes until the top no longer jiggles. Remove from oven and let stand for about 10 minutes.

To serve, use a butter knife or small spatula to remove the cake from the ramekin. Gently tip it out, upside down into a plate. If desired, dust with icing sugar or vanilla ice cream. Cut few pieces of strawberry to make it more “posh”.

If you want, you can make this recipe a day in advance. Place the batter in a fridge. Let it stand at room temperature for about 10 minutes, slowly beat it with a spatula to make sure the batter is not lumpy before baking it. Add extra 2 minutes to the baking time. 

10 Minute Chocolate Cake.

The best thing ever if you feel like having a quick fix. I cannot stress more on how easy this recipe is. The texture is in between spongy and fudgy with melted chocolate in the middle. 

Ingredients

4 tbsp flour
4 tbsp cocoa powder or Milo
4 tbsp sugar
1 egg
3 tbsp milk
3 tbsp melted butter
1/3 cup chocolate buttons (optional)

Method

Brush the inside on a ramekins (or microwave-able mug). Mix everything except for chocolate buttons in a bowl using a fork, mix well. Pour the batter half way up the ramekins, fill it with generous amount of chocolate buttons and top it off with the batter until it reaches just below the top of the ramekins. Microwave it on high for 3 minutes. Let cool, transfer it onto a plate. If you want, dust it with icing sugar, serve it with jam of your choice or with vanilla ice cream.

Note: You can keep the cake in the fridge up to 3 days. Reheat in the microwave on high for 1.5 minutes.

Ngap. Salty pretzel and sweet Belgian chocolate is irresistible. @DylansCandyBar #food #candy #nightsnack #guiltypleasure

Not your ordinary pie crimper.

That pie crimper is made out of whale tooth back in the 19th century.

Why would anyone carve a pie crimper out of a whale tooth? 

And who would actually purchase this?

Oh I forgot, rich and eccentric food enthusiast. If you’re not eccentric, you’re not rich enough.

thosepaperscut:

THIS.

THIS.

THIS.

Romantic feelings also fall under this category, which helps explain my complete failure in that department.

Oh my. How right she is.

Brownie Cupcake With Peanut Butter Frosting.

I was in the mood to bake and I want to eat chocolate and peanut butter. So I made this. No story behind it, not sure what triggered the craving too. Maybe Resse’s Peanut Butter Cups. Very dense and chocolaty with a hint of saltiness from the peanut butter, just the way I like it.

Ingredients

Brownie

1/3 cup butter
1 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate buttons
85 g unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Frosting

1 1/2 cup icing sugar
250 g cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup smooth peanut butter, room temperature
1/2 chopped salted peanuts, optional

Method

Preheat oven to 175 degree Celsius. Line 10 medium size cupcake tin with cupcake liners. Sieve flour, set aside. Combine butter, 1/2 cup chocolate buttons and unsweetened chocolate in a heat-proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water (or double boiler if you have one). Stir until mixture melts smoothly. 

Remove from heat, transfer it onto a large mixing bowl. Whisk in brown and caster sugar into the mixture, then whisk in 1 egg at a time while whisking. Mix vanilla essence, flour, salt and remaining chocolate buttons.

Divide batter among prepared cupcake cups. Fill about 3/4 of the cup. Bake cupcakes about 30 minutes or until the toothpick inserted come out with moist crumbs attached. Transfer cupcakes onto rack and let cool completely.

To make the frosting, whisk all the ingredients except chopped peanuts using an electric mixer. You can either use a frosting bag to create effects or just slather it on with a spoon or knife and smooth the edges. Drizzle chopped peanuts onto cupcakes.

Walnut Pesto.

I bought a bunch of basil leaves during one of my groceries trip some time ago. I needed to use just a little bit but they don’t sell it in small packet. So I stashed the rest into the freezer. It was 3 weeks ago.

Too lazy to think of what I can do with it, might as well make pesto. Didn’t have pine nut so I used walnut instead.

Ingredients

1 clove garlic
A handful of basil
1/4 cup walnut
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
A squeeze of lemon juice
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Method

In a food processor, blitz garlic and basil. Add walnuts and half of the cheese. Drizzle in olive oil while blitzing the mixture. Add a bit more cheese and olive oil until it reaches the consistency you want. Season with lemon juice, salt and pepper.

A friend suggested to add in some coriander leaves. You might want to make a separate batch and try it out.

Pumpkin Cake with Golden Syrup Frosting.

My (tiny) obsession with pumpkin continues. 

This has got the be, by far, the ugliest photo of sliced cake in the world. I made a mistake of putting the frosting when the cake was not cooled completely. Complete idiot. And it doesn’t help that it was such a humid day. And I didn’t get the sun I wanted for this picture. Oh whatever!

If you’re not turned off by the sight of this picture, here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

Cake

1/2 cup butter
2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tablespoon nutmeg
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup fine sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree

Golden Syrup Frosting

1/2 cup butter, soft
250g reduced-fat cream cheese, soft
1/4 cup golden syrup

Method

Preheat oven to 125 degree Celsius. Butter a 9-inch round springform pan.

In a bowl, sieve and whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. In another bowl, cream sugar and butter until pale. Whisk in egg and pumpkin puree until combined. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and mix gently until all smooth and combined.

Place the batter into the pan. Bake up to 45 minutes until toothpick inserted in center of cake come out clean. As the cake batter is a bit wet, you might need to cook it slightly longer, but maintain a low heat up to another 15 minutes.

Cool cake in a pan for 1/2 hour, then remove the springform pan and place on wire rack, right side up.

To make the golden syrup frosting, whisk butter, cream cheese and syrup until smooth. Spread on top of the completely cooled cake.

thehealthyfoodie:

It’s a Blogiversary! Let’s celebrate with some Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

These cheesecake bars are crazy healthy yet insanely delicious! Sounds too good to be true? Check out the recipe and see for yourself!

Mmmmmm.

Pumpkin Puree.

Where I come from, canned pumpkin puree is almost unheard of because it’s uncommon. So we make our own. Which I don’t mind because it really doesn’t take that much effort.

I noticed a lot of the recipe calls for the pumpkin to be roasted. I prefer to steam it instead. So here’s what you need to do:

Get a large sharp knife. Cut the pumpkin into quarters or more, depending on the size. Put it in the steamer for half hour or until soft (you should be able to scrap with a spoon effortlessly). Scrap the pumpkin off it’s skin and puree it in the food processor. Or you can use the masher.

(Smashing) Pumpkin Soup.

Traditionally, cooking soup requires you to include heavy cream. Why? Because it’s more delicious that way, duh. But I decided that we can make do without the cream and I opt to use low fat milk instead. And I think it taste rather good. I use it for almost all my soup recipes but here’s one pumpkin soup in commemoration of Halloween.

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
2 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
3 garlic clove, peeled and roughly chopped
2 tsp ground cumin
3 cups pumpkin puree
2 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 1/2 cups low fat milk
Few dollops low fat plain yoghurt or sour cream
Croutons

Method

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Cook onion and garlic until aromatic and lightly browned. Add cumin and stir for 1 minute over medium heat.

Add 1 cup of chicken stock. Simmer for 5 minutes. Set aside to let cool slightly. Use a stick blender or food processor to blend until smooth. Transfer it back into the saucepan, add the remaining chicken stock. Add the pumpkin puree, stir for few minutes. Add the milk and stir gently until everything combines, for about 10 minutes.

To serve, ladle soup into serving bowls. Top with a dollop of yoghurt or sour cream. Sprinkle some croutons and drizzle olive oil before serving.

Serves 6.