Lemon Cupcakes

This is our house specialty. It is a zesty lemon based butter cupcake with moist lemon cream in the middle & lastly a piece of lemon slice. For those who enjoy the lemon tart flavor, this is definitely delicious.

For more inquiries, please contact us @ 012- 3813896.

We have another option of the lemon cupcakes- with meringue on top.
These lemon meringue cupcakes will add an elegant touch to the dessert when serving it to your guest. It is a combination of zesty lemon butter cupcake, moist lemon cream in between & meringue on top.

This is one of my top 5 personal favorite cupcakes.

Lemon meringue cupcakes in gift boxes.

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Gyoza or Dumplings

Asian loves dumplings.

• We have Chinese dumpling; do you know that Northern part of China (e.g. Beijing) celebrate the important Chinese New Year with dumpling in soup, mainly due to the cool weather?
  
• We have Japanese Gyoza
• We have Korean/Kimchi Gyoza
• We have Nepali Mo-Mo

We have different version of dumpling which is actually quite similar across the Asia regions.
Once you get hold of the basic, it is really easy.

Recipes for the dumpling skins:

1. Mix 150g 60'C warm water & 100g room temperature water into 500g all purpose flour.
2. We can use a bread machine to knead it or knead it with hand for about 10-15 mins until the dough surface become smooth.
3. Let it sit for about 15 mins
   
4. You may need to adjust the water due to the flour absorption. Pls do not add too much water unnecessary.
5. Then, divide the dough into small portion (you can make big dumpling or small dumpling depends on your personal liking.)
6. Use a rolling pin to roll it into a round shape. You can even use your finger to make it round.
   
7. After filling the dumpling, cook a big pot of hot water, throw the dumpling it. When it float on the surface, it is done.
8. If you like pan fried dumpling, you can use a little vegetable oil to fry the cooked dumpling in a non-stick pan. Then, it will have the crispy skin texture.
   

Put the mince meat mixture on the dumpling skins & wrap it accordingly.


When I make the dumpling filling, I normally make a big bowl to stuff into other vegetable as well (e.g. bitter gourd & fried tofu).

Recipes for the fillings:
The below recipes is for making 100g dough dumpling. Pls double or triple it.
50g leek
100 minced meat (any poultry)
15g minced ginger
10g sesame oil
8g salt
3g white pepper powder
1 tsp of water with 1/4tsp corn starch (optional, I find adding this is more easy to handle)

MIX until well combined.

A closer look at the wrapped dumplings.

Personally, I prefer pan fried dumplings.

Yum Yum.........

You can also use the filling with store bought wanton wrapper.
Attentions!! Do not over fried the wanton skin ...hehehe...........

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Tom Yam & Chawanmushi (Japanese Egg Custard)

My confession, I use short cut in my cooking especially when I need it ASAP like yesterday. For a modern working mummy with kid, ready made sauces is always handy e.g. you need to ready the dinner in 30 mins. With these 'tools', I mean the ready made sauces, you can do it. To me, it is just another version of Asia comfort food. There is nothing wrong to cook like Nigella Lawson.

Choose your favorite brand - Tom Yam Sauces.
Tom Yam is my favorite Thai cuisine.

Just prepare some fresh big prawn + squid & tomato. Cook according to the instruction. That's it.
To make it more presentable especially if you have guests. Add in some vegetable like tomato, big red chili & peppermint for decoration. You can add some lime juices for more sourish tom yam. Tom Yam is good when serve with fragrant jasmine rice.

My kid always like the surprise on the dining table. She enjoyed everything, but still need more training to take spicier food.

The below is an authentic recipes for Japanese Egg Custard:
85g chicken breast (no skin)
4 big prawn (peeled, deveined)
4 button mushrooms

Stock:
450ml dashi (see recipes in Japanese style soup -Dashi soup)
0.5tsp salt
1tbsp mirin
1tbsp shoyu
3 eggs beaten

Mix the stock ingredients together, let the stocks settle down a little. The mixture shouldn't has any bubble or foam so that the egg custard is smooth.

Divide the prawn, chicken, mushrooms or even crab sticks into 4 bowls. Pour in the custard mixture & steam for low heat for 25 min. Cover the bowls with foil while steaming.



It is best serve hot.

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Japanese Style Soup - Dashi Soup

I would like to start my new blog in 2011 with something light & refreshing. Japanese food is always very light & nourishing. It is very easy to make. To make delicious food, you need to make sure all the raw material is fresh & good.

Dashi Clear Soup:
10 cm of dried konbu (kelp)
40g hana katsuo (dried bonito flakes)

Method:
Wipe the kelp clean with damp cloth. Soak the konbu in the saucepan with 3 cups of water for 1 hour. Heat it uncover for about 10 mins. Remove the konbu & add in the dried bonito flakes to boil for a few minutes. Do not stir. Let it stand for a few min until the dried bonito flakes settle down to the bottom of the pan. Then, drain.


Prawn in dashi soup:
Prawns
Take amount of the dashi soup you need (depends on the servings).
1tsp of shoyu (soy sauces)
3 tsp sake (optional)
Salt ...adjust it by tasting
Spring onion

Just add the prawn into the dashi soup+ shoyu+ sake +salt & quickly boil it. Last in some spring onion. Simple & tasty.

Remarks: Always keep the shrimp skin intact for better flavoring. You can remove it later when serving. That's was what I did.

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My Christmas Roast Chicken

I would like to post this article "My Christmas Roast Chicken" as the last blog in year 2010. My family love this roast chicken so much & we had a wonderful Christmas celebration. I managed to take leave from work on the Christmas eve. It belongs to the family.

As this is the 1st time I am roasting a chicken, it is actually quite easy. In fact, if you are busy, you should roast a chicken. Just simply marinate the chicken & put it in side the oven for 1-1.5 hours. The oven will get the job done. You just need to serve it.


Simple Ingredients:
1-1.2kg Chicken
50g unsalted butter (melted)
1 ea orange
2 big clove of garlic (keep skin intact)
2 cup of water or beer
Salt & pepper

Onion, carrot, celery, potato
- cut all these into big chunk , oil it & salt + pepper it

Method:
1) Heat oven 180'C
2) Marinate the chicken inside salt & pepper
3) Rub the butter on the chicken skin outside. Premium butter will bring great taste.
4) Stuff slices of orange inside the chicken & not forgetting some garlic.
5) Lay all the big chunks vegetable on the tray, then lay the chicken on top of the big chunk vegetables.
6) Pour 2 cups of water inside the roasting pant & start roasting @180'C for 80 mins
7) You can also use beer instead of water. It taste even better. This is to keep the roast chicken moist. You can add the water again if the water is dried up during the roasting process.
8) To make the brown sauces, it is easy. Just put a knob of butter into the roasting pan together with all the juices (from the chicken), 2 tablespoon of flour. Then, cook all these on the stove, scrapping the roasting pan clean. Salt & pepper it.



Finally, we end our meal with these outrages caramel peanut cupcakes. What a fatty meal ;).
It is OKAY to indulge sometimes.

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Jaffa Cupcake

Delicious Jaffa Cupcakes :
Chocolate cake base with homemade orange cream (made with fresh orange juices)

I have been receiving quite a number of inquiries on Jaffa cupcakes.
We can guarantee that you will love these cupcakes as we do. It is so delicious.

We received orders for these Jaffa cupcakes.
We are so pleased that people love our cupcakes.
The most satisfying thing for a baker is to see people enjoy eating your cakes.

For more inquiries, please contact us @ 012- 3813896.

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Product Goes Public

On the 19th Dec, I had the opportunity of setting up a booth in Plaza Month Kiara morning market. It was a day filled with fun and excitement, it is the first time that my stuff have direct and open interaction with the live market.

The morning market started at 10 am, and ended at 5 pm. Being overly excited, needless to say, the booth was set up at 10 am. And here is the booth, (some of you might be really curious about the booth)

(Apologies for the not so clear picture, believe it or not, I felt so excited that I left out the camera and had to use my handphone.)

And now you probably be asking what was sold, and here they are,



Here is the Kimchi Fougasse (pronounced as fooGAHc), it is quite a hit, we had 2 French customer who bought this without hesitation, my guess is that, they already knew what is a fougasse.

Next, we have,...

... Pain Brie, another bread of Normandy origin, we could have made the usual French loaf, but this is one of my favourite. I had a French gentleman who was genuinely interested to buy it after tasting it, the funny thing is that, I forgot to bring along a bread knife and a chopping board,... my bad.


The next item is an Italian flavor, Focacia with rosemary, cherry tomato and fennel seed. It smelled great, in fact this is the first that got sold (to a non friend customer), I suppose the fine gentleman who bought it was in a rush and needed a quick fix.

The next goodie was
... Jaffa cupcakes, for the uninitiated, Jaffa is a common term to describe, orange + chocolate flavor. Since we are using our secret recipe chocolate cupcake with our special blend of orange cream, naturally, we have to call it Jaffa. At RM 2.00 each (promotion pack), it was a major hit. (If you may ask why the simple decoration?, it was baked the night before at 8 pm, and you could have guessed it, too tired for it, afterall, too much sugar is bad for your teeth LOL).

Finally, something for the kids,
... a king size chocolate cookie. I remember clearly, one mummy bought 1 for her toddler son, where the cookie was almost as big as his face.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience and we made many new friends, and we had so many encouraging feedbacks and suggestions. Rest assure, I am somewhat addicted to the idea of bringing my products to the public,.... orders anyone?

Part II
Our 2nd bazaar day at Plaza Mont Klara: 26th Dec 2010 (Boxing Day)
The stall outlook is slightly different compared to the 1st time.

Breads offered:

Jaffa & Lemon butter cupcakes were sold out.


Thinking back, we created a lot of nice memory. My daughter helped me on the drawing & the daddy  design the pricing tag for all the baked goods. It was really fun.

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