Easy-Peasy Cinnamon Rolls

I picked the calender from the tabletop. I read the calender. I counted the days. I panicked!

Why??

Because there are only 2 weeks left to 2011! And there are still alot of important things that i need to settle before the year ends!

*Faint*

Mid December is always my least favourite time of the year, hands down.

And to overcome this matter, i decided to... knead some dough. Which, we all know, is completely irrelevant.

No wonder i'm always behind time.

There are many great Cinnamon Roll recipes out there, and to me this recipe is best suited for novice bakers who have yet to gain confidence in working with yeast. I've to admit that working with yeast can be such an intimidating experience sometimes. Even my husband vowed not to make breads anymore, and it's all thanks to the bad guy, Mr Yeast.

But i can assure you that this recipe is totally foolproof, and quite forgiving, i must say. The first time i made this, i didn't read the recipe properly and end up pouring cold milk instead of lukewarm milk into the dough batter. And the dough still rose beautifully, much to my amazement.

BUT, to be safe, just read the recipe properly.

These cinnamon rolls are really soft, with satisfyingly sweet butter-cinnamon-sugar mixture filling that gives a soft crunch if you put lots of it into the dough. Marry the rolls with the cream cheese icing (or whatever icing or syrup of your choice), sink your teeth into it, and you can just bid your sorrows goodbye... errr, at least for a while.

My rating: 7.5/10

Recipe
(Adapted from Myresipi, a Malay community recipe-sharing website)

Make 10 rolls

Bread rolls
300g bread flour
50g butter
1 egg
50g fine sugar
100ml fresh milk (lukewarm)
8g active dry yeast (in my case, i use instant yeast, which still works like a charm :))
1 tsp salt

Filling
2-3 tsp cinnamon powder
60g brown sugar
20g butter - room temperature

Cream cheese icing
50g cream cheese - room temperature
20g butter - room temperature
100g icing sugar
A pinch of salt
A few drops of vanilla essence

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C

In a mixing bowl, rub the butter with flour until it resembles small crumbs

Add in sugar and dry yeast. Mix with a spoon until well-combined.

Add in salt, egg and milk. Knead the dough until smooth or until the dough does not stick to your fingers. (I knead around 5-10 minutes.)

Wrap the dough with a damp cloth or clingwrap film and let it rest until it is 1.5 times bigger (approx. 40 mins  - 1 hr.). After it has rised, re-shape it into a ball and let it rest again for 10 mins.

Divide the dough into two portions. Take one portion and roll it out into a 25cm X 20cm rectangular shape. Sprinkle the filling evenly over the rolled out dough. (For the filling, i spread the butter over the dough with a butter knife first before sprinkling the cinnamon and brown sugar over it.).

Roll the dough into a log. Pinch the seam to the roll to seal it. Slice the log/roll into 4 equal-sized pieces (approx. 4cm long each).

Repeat these steps to another portion of dough.

Place the rolls into muffin cups and let them rise again to 1.5 times bigger. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes or till light brown in colour.

Meanwhile, make the cream cheese icing: put all the ingredients together in the mixing bowl and beat until creamy. Do not overbeat.

Drizzle 1 1/2 tablespoon of cream cheese icing onto each baked cinnamon rolls.

My First Wedding Cake Project!

When i first accepted the order to make wedding cupcakes + one fondant cake for my cousin 6 months ago, some people (and even myself) thought that i was crazy. Because (a) my baking skill's still in need of major improvement and (b) i had no idea how to cover a cake with fondant. I didn't attend any fondant cake courses before. So it's only fair that some people thought that i was abit cuckoo on the head, and feared that the end result would be a total crap sitting on the wedding cake stand instead.

But now i'm so glad that this pink & white wedding cupcake + fondant cake project turned out to be quite a success!

Okay, I've to admit that the cupcakes and the cake weren't 100% perfect. As you can see closely at the pictures, the swirly icings on the cupcakes weren't that pretty, and the fondant cake was quite slanted to the right. This is what you get if you hire an amateur to do your wedding cake =P. But i was relieved that my cousin wasn't such a fussy bride, in other words, a BRIDEZILLA. She was actually very satisfied with it, after i kept asking for her opinion for countless of times. Phew, thank god for that. :D

The best part of the project was the rose! I have to thank YouTube for this. I had no skill whatsoever in making fondant rose before, and i had been searching for tutorials on YouTube and had been practicing for days. And i was so glad that they turned out nice on the fondant cake!

Overall it was such a great experience, even though there were times i felt like giving up. But i am grateful to have my family members and friend to help me out. =)

And i'm still glowing from all the compliments that i'd received from the guests. =)))

Before i end this post, i'll give you more details about the wedding cupcakes + cake:

(a) Cupcake stand: Made of silver cake boards and cake dummies (styrofoam)

(b) No of cupcakes baked: 90

(c) Cupcakes (and Cake) flavour: Strawberry yogurt. (from: Sugar Everything Nice Blog)

(d) Cupcakes icing: Wilton Buttercream (from: Wilton.com)

(e) Cupcakes Icing (and Cake fondant) color: Americolor Electric Pink Gel Food Colour

(f) Cupcakes topper and deco: Hearts made of royal icing. And Wilton Sugar Pearl Sprinkles

(g) Cake fondant: Store-bought - Wilton Ready-To-Use White Rolled fondant 



Hope you have a blissful marriage life, cuzzie!

Anyway i'm not in the picture. :D

I just loveee the deco colours! I should have taken these colours for my wedding last year! Mine was gold and cream.

P/S: My friend has requested for wedding cupcakes for her wedding next year! Should i accept it??

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Dear 'Best Dad Ever', I hope that you have a wonderful birthday today.

And i hope that you like the Chocolate Chip Cheesecake that i'd baked for you as your birthday cake. 

Never mind that you have another two birthday cakes sitting in the fridge. That's one of the advantages of having a pastry chef as a friend. Maybe i should find myself one too and get him/her to stuff all kinds off confections in my fridge. Yep.

***

I still remember my first experience with cheesecake.

Two words: Bloody Disaster. Literally. I accidentally cut my fingers really deep when trying to cut the lime into two with a semi-blunt knife. Totally epic fail.

I thought that the process of making a cheesecake would almost be the same as making a normal butter/sponge cake. I didn't consider the techniques that are needed to bake a perfect cheesecake which are:

1) To include the bain-marie (water bath),

2) To cover the cheesecake witth a foil when the top has browned when it's only halfway baked,

3) To let it cool down slowly in the oven for an hour or more.

As a result:

ARGHH!! Run for your life!

Undeniably the ugliest cheesecake in history.

But i've been practicing, and as you can see, i'm improving a little :D.

This Chocolate-Chip Cheesecake is perfect for those who love the combination taste of cheese and chocolate. It's creamy, tangy and chocolatey. A very delightful dessert indeed! I would be happy to eat this for breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper for like... a week. And get myself really sick.

I chose Chipsmore chocolate-chip cookies as the bottom crust of the cheesecake. This cookie brand has been my favourite ever since i was little! You can choose your own favourite brand for the crust.

The one thing that i need improving is the leveling of the crust. Some areas have higher crust then the others. Any tips to share? 

One very useful tip that i've learnt from a food blogger: Beat the cream cheese with a mixer until it's creamy/soft only (DO NOT over beat the cream cheese). Then beat the rest of the ingredients using only a wooden spoon to avoid overbeating.

Follow this tip and you won't regret it. Promise.

I'd folded in the chocolate chips into the batter but in the end they sank to the bottom and became part of the bottom crust. Which is not really a bad thing actually.

You can go crazy and sprinkle the top of the batter with lots and lots of chocolate chips. I'd decided to be graceful and only sprinkle a little bit. =D

In the end it did have a small crack but i'd covered it up by drizzling hershey chocolate syrup all over! And TADAA!

My Rating: 8/10

Recipe
(Adapted from Baking Blonde's Blog and a few amendments made)

Bottom Crust:
2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs
3 TBS butter, melted

Cheesecake batter/filling:

3 pkgs. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
1 can (14 oz.)  Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 TBS flour
3 large eggs
1 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chip, or more if desired

Optional:
Chocolate syrup as garnish

Method:

Preheat oven to 300° F. Grease 9-inch springform pan.

Fill an oven safe cake pan (I use a 9×9) 3/4 full with warm water. Set on bottom oven rack while oven is preheating.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine cookie crumbs and butter, stir to combine.  Press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Remove and increase oven temperature to 350.

In a large mixing bowl beat cream cheese until creamy. Add sweetened condensed milk and beat until smooth. Add sugar and flour, beat to combine. Add  eggs one at a time beating only to combine after each addition. When adding the third egg, also add the lime juice and vanilla extract; beat until combined.

Using a spatula, gently fold in the chocolate chips. Gently pour batter evenly into prebaked crust.
Then sprinkle as many chocolate chips as you desire at the top of the batter.

Bake in preheated oven for 50-65 minutes or until edge is set and center moves slightly. Watch carefully and do  not overbake.

Shut oven off and allow cheesecake to cool in oven for 1-4  hours. Run a warm knife around edge of cheesecake after 1 hour.

Place in fridge to cool completely. (Remove the pan of water)

Allow to chill at least 24 hours before serving for best flavor and texture.

Drizzle chocolate syrup all over if desired.

Choco-Chip Jaffa Muffins & A New Blogger Design!

OMG. OMG. OMG.

A new blogger design. LIKE, FINALLY.

Do you know how much i lurveeeee my new blogger design??

I can't stop staring at it like a weirdo!

It's all thanks to Jessica @ The Frilly Coconut! She's just so talented!

I wish i could give her all the muffins above as a token of appreciation. :D

If you wanna get a new pretty blogger/wordpress/twitter design at an affordable price, i HIGHLY RECOMMEND her service!!

***

Okay, back to the muffins.

These muffins turned out to be quite crusty on the outside (not sure whether it's supposed to be crusty originally. If not, YIKES!), and light and moist on the inside. They're surprisingly not too sweet either, which is good news for the diabetics, and bad news for people with sweet-tooth (i.e. yours truly). Boo.

I was also quite disappointed that the orange flavour wasn't strong enough. Fortunately the chocolate chips made the muffins taste a whole lot better. I wish i'd put the whole bag of choco-chips into the batter. Tsk.

The next time i make this, I'm gonna pour some orange juice into the batter. And add a little bit more sugar.

What i really love about buttermilk is that it can make your cake to be really moist!

Grating the orange zest was the best part of the process. The sweet and sour citric scent that filled the kitchen was the best natural air-freshener of all!

The batter must be lumpy. Or else you're fired.

The domes of the muffins were slightly higher than the ones shown in the recipe book. Yours truly over-filled the muffin pan holes.

My ratings: 5.5/10

However, all my family members commented that the muffins were scrumptious and that i should bake these more often. Their ratings are: 7/10

Until now i'm still wondering whether i've raised a very fussy tongue. Hmm.

Recipe

(Taken From The Australian Women's Weekly Easy Baking Book)

2 1/2 Cups (375g) Self-raising flour
100g Cold butter, chopped finely
1 Cup (220g) Caster Sugar
1 1/4 Cups (310ml) Buttermilk
1 Egg
3/4 Cup (135g) Dark Choc Bits
2 Teaspoons finely grated orange zest

Method:

Preheat oven to 200c/180c fan-forced. Grease 12-hole (1/3 cup/80ml) muffin pan.

Sift flour into large bowl; rub in butter. Stir in sugar, buttermilk and egg. Do not overmix; mixture should be lumpy. Stir in Choc Bits and zest.

Divide mixture into pan holes; bake about 20 minutes. Stand muffins in pan 5 minutes before turning, top-side up, onto wire rack to cool.

Raspberry & Blueberry Lime Drizzle Cake

(Hah. Again, fancy calling myself a Confectionery Queen, when i seldom update this blog.)

Nothing like a summery treat to cheer you up. Especially when your weekend is almost over, and all you can think of is how the hell you are going to clear off all the massive paperwork at your workplace without wanting to bang your head occasionally on the wall.

Yes. A nice summery treat is just what you need.

Everything about this cake is good. The recipe is straight forward, and it's really easy to make.

Except i didn't know that my juice squeezer had gone missing. So in the end i had to squeeze the hell out of 6 big Australian Tahtian Lime using only a small spoon.

And my fingers are sensitive to the acidity of the lime juice. So, imagine the stinging that i had to endure. Imagine the horrendous facial expressions i made when i was in pain. Just. Imagine.

I hate you but i love you, lime.

The hardship that i had to go through just to produce a few tablespoons of lime juice and lime zest... Tsk.

Will never wish the same fate to befall upon my enemies.

Wait. Maybe I would.

Ah, i just love how the batter looks like with the blueberries and raspberries folded in!

I added some flour to the berries so that it wouldn't sink to the bottom of the cake.

This cake turned out to be deliciously moist and fruity, and bursting with zesty/tangy flavour after the lime syrup had been poured onto the cake.

I liked it best when it's served warm.

My Rating: 7/10

Recipe

(Taken from BBC GoodFood Website)

For the cake

225g/8 oz softened butter, plus extra for greasing

225g/8 oz golden caster sugar

4 medium eggs

grated zest and juice of 2 limes

250g/9 oz self-raising flour, sifted with a pinch of salt, plus a little extra flour

25g/1 oz ground almonds

100g/4 oz each blueberries and raspberries

For the syrup

8 tbsp lime juice (about 4 limes)

Grated zest of 1 lime

140g/5 oz golden caster sugar

Method:

Line the base and sides of a 20cm/8 inch square cake tin, not loose based, with greaseproof paper and butter the paper. Pre heat oven to 180c/gas 4/fan oven 160c.

Cream the butter and the sugar together until light. Gradually beat in the eggs, adding a little flour towards the end to prevent curdling.

Beat in the lime zest, then fold in the flour and almonds. Fold in enough lime juice-about 3 tbsp- to give a good dropping consistency.

Fold in ¾ of the blueberries and raspberries and turn into the prepared tin. Smooth the surface, then scatter the remaining fruit on the top.

Bake for about 1 hour (cover with foil, if beginning to brown too much).

Meanwhile make the drizzle syrup: put the lime juice, zest and sugar in a small saucepan. Put over a gentle heat and stir, without allowing to bubble. The sugar should dissolve a little.

As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, prick all over with a skewer then spoon the syrup over it
To store, cool before wrapping in paper and/or foil.

Carefully remove the cake form the tin, discard the lining paper and cut into 12 portions to serve.

Serve with Chantilly cream. Whip a carton of double cream and add tbsp sifted icing sugar and tsp vanilla essence.

The Journey of the Confectionery Queen Begins...

HAH. Fancy calling myself a Confectionery Queen, when:

a) I'm not a confection-making extraordinaire,
b) Most of the time i fail at following recipes correctly,
c) I don't look like a confectionery goddess, like Nigella Lawson or... someone goddessy or queeny-like?

Well. When it comes to confections/desserts, I'm always the first one in line. My obsession for it makes others shake their heads, tsk-tsking everytime. Hence, the label Confectionery Queen. Hehhhh.

So. This is my first post for this blog. Yaay.

And today happens to be my Barf-day. Double Yaay.

Now i have two things to celebrate on the 13th of September every year. Triple Yaay.

Why i call it barfday and not birthday?

Because the thought of having to grow older but not wiser kinda makes me wanna barf.
Right now.

To cheer things up, i've made myself a birthday cake. No, not your typical birthday cake.

It's Yogurt Marmalade Cake from The Pioneer Woman!
Oh how i really love her. But not in a sick-ly way. She's such an inspiration!

Hugeass photo of it.

From the photo above, you can see that:

a) I need to buy pretty plates and more props. Yes, i'll do that. Don't worry.

b) My photography skill sucks like no other. Will do something about it too.

c) My cake didn't rise beautifully as Pioneer Woman's. Boo.

But the cake tasted good! I've always love zesty cake. And it's not too sweet either. 

I'm not a big fan of the orange glaze though. Quite sour to my liking. I will experiment it with different types of glaze in the future.

Or i would just pour chocolate syrup all over and stuff my face in it.

Yes. That's it.

Another note: It's best serve warm.

My Rating: 6/10

(Click here for the recipe)

***

This blog is still under construction actually. I'm gonna get a new blog design real soon, and the one that's gonna design it is none other than the talented Jessica from The Frilly Coconut. I'm so glad that i stumbled upon her website while doing some food blog-hopping. Look at her portfolio and see why she's so talented. I'm really very excited and can't wait to see mine!

Okay, that's it for now. Have a good day people!