An open letter to my hero + waffles

A Father's day breakfast a week over due.. Sorry Dad! I thought we'd be fully stuffed after a dinner at the China Bar buffet.

These waffles take no time to make, and with the convenience of it leaving overnight in the fridge, and just pouring it into the waffle maker the next morning? Perfect and prepared! This is my favourite yeasted waffles, as it produces crispy and light waffles.

But here's a post dedicated to Dad. He's my all time hero and inspiration, who never fails to make me laugh.

The stereotypical strict 'Tiger' dad; he is a math genius (I wish I caught the math gene from him) who is constantly helping me with maths; (and also not to mention, attempted to get me excited about physics), and has given me years worth of wisdom & knowledge to take on, that I can hopefully pass on to my own kids when I'm older. I've learnt the true value of hard work and always going back to your roots.

'Blood is thicker than water' ; I would not be who I am today, without my dad and family's guidance. I love you Dad! I really do hope that one day, I'll make you real proud.

What did you do during Father's day?

Vanilla bean overnight waffles
*Makes sixteen 4 inch waffles

Ingredients:
2 and 1/4 cups all purpose flour (or a mix of your favourite flours)
2 tbsp sugar *
1 package (2 and 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 and 3/4 cups milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup cooking oil or butter, melted *

*I used 1 tbsp of honey instead of sugar
*I used 1/3 cup of sunflower oil

Method
1. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar (if using), yeast, vanilla and salt. Add the milk, eggs and oil.
2. Beat with an electric mixer or with a wooden spoon until thoroughly combined.
3. Cover batter loosely and chill overnight or up to 24 hours.
4. The next day, stir the batter. Pour the batter onto your greased and preheated waffle maker.
5. Bake according to waffle maker directions. When finished, use a fork to lift waffle off grid. Repeat with remaining batter.

Adapted from Better homes and gardens

Cookie monster

I'm a bit of a cookie monster. Are you?

 Symptoms of a cookie monster: 
1. Constantly thinking "Me want cookie!"
2. Eating multiple cookies like there's no tomorrow. In other words, puts off planned diet for cookies.
3. Asks their mother to buy chocolate chips or some form of chocolate from the supermarket like all the time.
4. Risking your health to eat a bit of raw cookie dough on the way.

M & M cookies always attract kids. I know it caught my attention, as a 2nd grader. Something as simple as chewy rainbow M & M cookies from the grocery bakery was something enough to satisfy my appetite. And after all, doesn't colour attract everyone?

Even the smell coming from the oven of freshly baked cookies, always hits me each time; bringing back nostalgia. I think somebody ought to get me a cookie-scented candle perhaps?

Don't be shy to load this cookie with M & Ms. I decided to put one cup AND in addition, pressed some outside to give it a nicer look.

Dunking a warm cookie with cold milk is a true favourite. A true classic favourite of a cookie monster.

M&M cookies
Ingredients:
2 cups + 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cornstarch
3/4 cup (1 and 1/2 sticks or 170 g) salted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup mini M&Ms (+ more if you want to press more before you bake them)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 F (I just did 180 C).
2. Mix flour, baking soda and cornstarch in a bowl.
3. With an electric mixer (or by hand), cream the butter and sugars together. Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and mix well.
4. Gradually add flour mixture until the dough forms. Fold in the mini M&Ms.
5. Chill dough for at least 30 minutes (or up to 5 days, covered) in the fridge. Drop by tablespoonfuls or roll into balls on parchment paper. Press a few more M&Ms on top for more decorations. Bake for about 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are slightly browned (My oven took a bit longer, about 15 minutes, yet it was still soft and chewy!)

Adapted from Sally's Baking addiction

Hyper-inflated lung with emphysema

For the past few weekends, I've had full baking sessions at home. I've been taking in orders, to raise funds for a charity. I will update more on that later this year, once I make my total count of my earnings and when I send it off! I've been so overwhelmed with the support I've had from many friends. It's been really tiring though, frosting dozens of cupcakes, cutting brownies and rolling cookie dough. Cheesecake brownies and red velvet cupcakes were the best selling. I myself would buy them too :)  So, I apologise for not updating regularly!

This week has been science week at my school. I don't really think anyone knows how much I love science. Biology is definitely one of my favourite subjects, because I love the content and it can also be applicable to real life. We are learning about hormones and the nervous system, which is my favourite topic out of everything so far, besides the circulatory system! In other words, I'm fascinated by the human body particularly, and also other aspects of science. Oh.. Except I detest physics (sorry dad!). Anyway, my friend Aruni and I decided to enter the annual science cake baking competition. There are many students out there that bring insane-looking science cakes each year (e.g Isaac Newton's apple incident cake had chocolate branches and fondant...). We made a 'hyper-inflated lung with emphysema' (credits to her for coming up with the name). It was so much fun to make, and I have to say, it looks quite realistic. It's cool yet creepy at the same time. Let me know what your thoughts are!

The lung without the ribs is supposed to look damaged. One of the lungs is made out of rainbow vanilla cake and the other one as well as the heart, is made out of chocolate cake. It's all buttercream icing (not my favourite, but it's the easiest to work with). The ribs are made out of CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES. Pretty tasty.

We actually WON the competition, tying first place with another student. We won a junior Masterchef apron each; something I can wear in the kitchen now. So proud of our hard work. Definitely entering again next year :)

High school politicians and cheesecake brownies

So I came back from the UN Than Evatt competition (similar to the UN model comp in many countries) on Friday... I will just say that I was completely astounded by how intellectual all these year 11s and 12s sound (I felt so little... yet I'm 'tall') communicated with each other, and actually could just think on the spot after some kind of ambiguous or long winded question?! The whole debate was at a pretty fast pace and since it was my first time though, I was quite intimidated at first! But the candidates were really nice, I also had a supportive partner and even though I didn't get to speak much, it was a good experience! I would love to do it again next year.

Anyway, sorry I have a bit of a bad habit to ramble in my food posts..I know some of you are like "WILL YOU JUST GET STRAIGHT TO THE POINT?"

I created these cream cheese brownies, however I decided to do shake the recipe up a bit. I just basically doubled the batter for a bigger pan instead of an 8 by 8 inch pan (so extra thick chocolate brownie baby!) with lots of cream cheese swirled and swirled and please dear God, do not over-bake it. I literally just cannot tolerate over-baked brownies that are dry and cakey. What kind of brownie is that?

Without a doubt, this will make a crowd pleaser. It's far too easy to make, and it looks great; it's hard to 'over-swirl'. Who doesn't like huge chunks of cream cheese? My eldest sister also exclaimed "It's the best thing you've ever made!" I should probably get the recipe along with the Baked brownie recipe framed...

Of course, if you don't want such a gigantic, brownie square, you can just opt out and cut the recipe in half. Eat this straight from the fridge, which is fudgey and the classic cheesecake taste or at room temperature. However, you can also warm it up which are both my sisters' favourite ways to eat it. Don't be put off by the sound of 'warm' cheesecake.. It's a hybrid okay! Cheesecake brownies are awesome warm, with a scoop of ice cream. Period.

What's your favourite kind of cheesecake to eat? Mine is oreo cheesecake!

Cheesecake brownies
*Yields 16 huge squares: 5 cm x 5 cm squares or 2 inch x 2 inch.
Brownie batter
2 sticks (226 g or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
170 g (6 ounces) dark chocolate
1 and 1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 and 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

Cheesecake batter
340 g (12 ounces) cream cheese, well softened *
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yolk (use 2 if the batter is too thick)

*There is supposed to be 16 ounces in the batter if the recipe is doubled, but I felt that there would be too much!

Plus:
1/2 cup chocolate chips to put on top *optional

Brownie batter method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C and butter a 9 x 13 inch pan (22 x 20 cm) pan or line it with parchment paper.
2. Heat butter and chocolate over a double boiler,although you could probably do it in the microwave as well. Whisk occasionally, until melted.
3. Remove from heat and whisk in sugar, eggs, vanilla and a pinch of salt until well combined. Whisk in flour until just combined and spread in baking pan.

Cheesecake batter method:
1. Whisk cheesecake batter ingredients together until smooth . Dollop over brownie batter and swirl with a knife or spatula.
2. Bake brownies for about 32 minutes, until the centre is just set. Do not over bake it!

* Smitten Kitchen's tip: Chill brownies until almost frozen before cutting them. This makes it easier to get a clean slice.

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Random musings

Sorry for the hiatus! I've been really quite busy (year 10 has become a killer!) even though I've only been back at school for about two weeks. I have lots of things coming up: piano theory exam, UN Evatt public speaking competition (exciting!), biology camp etc. I've had a few mishaps this week, and I'm more than happy for the week to end. I tripped on the way to science class, and my elbow has been hurting for the past few days. Today a bit of my fingernail got ripped during P.E.. I'll spare you the details.

I also just came back from my last debate of the year. My team has been an absolute pleasure to work with, and we've won every debate (we won today's!) except for one. It's like the situation last year, my team won all debates EXCEPT for one, and we would've been through to semi-finals. Oh well!

Enough about school though..

Is this madness or what? Plethora of baked goods that's what... I'm raising funds for an organisation, later on that in a few months time :)

I've also never told my love for Kina Grannis. She's one of my favourite artists (along with T Swift of course!), and she's half Jap (I think Eurasians are super cool) and her cover on the 'cups' song is very awesome.

Links I love (Idea inspired by Cupcakes and Cashmere)

TEDx talks from teens - It's so inspiring to see my own generation changing the world. I had no idea that the founder of Rookie magazine IS MY OWN AGE! I also find the other teens who have found research links with cancer etc are so fascinating. I wish I could be capable of that :(

Twix cheesecake bars - Insanely delicious, yet calorific!

Why you should deactivate your Facebook account - Brilliantly written, and totally relatable.

Chocolate raspberry layer cake - Raspberri Cupcakes is one of my favourite cake blogs, she comes up with such creative baking ideas.

Flashback food Thursday (is this a thing?)

Truth to be told; the best opera cake I've ever eaten. This was in Sydney about 7 years ago and was pure decadence.

I'm glad it's Thursday.

*UPDATE LOL I wanted to add my article about travelling, and why I think it's important. Check over here!

Work experience at a hospital

Only the most fashionable footwear for scrubbing in a surgery.

I know that some people are quite surprised when they hear I want to become a doctor. Why not become a baker/chef? Train at Cordon Bleu, become some kind of macaron-ier? Don't get me wrong, but, as much as I love baking and cooking, I don't think that's my life ambition. I love to do it as a de-stresser, and it's really more of a hobby. I don't look at it the way pastry chefs look at it, I don't want to go down that path professionally. Besides, I'm a terrible cake decorator with little creativity. And another note: I don't want to continue growing side ways. 

So , I did my work experience at a hospital. Work experience is part of the curriculum in year 10, and you choose somewhere (and depending on acceptance, availability) to work for one week.

I loved working at the hospital because 

1. The people who I worked with, were incredibly nice to me! I learnt so much within 5 days, they were so willing to teach me, and explained a case thoroughly or why this is so and so on. 

2. I enjoyed interacting with patients. I felt really good talking to patients, and really made me think that I would love this aspect of interaction in the future, which is one of the main reasons why I want to become a doctor. I'm a people-person really.

I received a minimum wage of $5 a day, and you know what, while that's laughable, I really do not care about the pay at all. And I'm saying this genuinely. My friends were telling me that I should be getting paid more, this ladela nonsense, but really I'M DOING THIS FOR THE EXPERIENCE. I'm so grateful I even got this placement at one of Melbourne's best hospitals. When I received my acceptance letter,I was literally squealing, because it was unexpected (knowing that hospitals have limited places). And heck, I would've even done it for free. For a hospital to allow a student like me, to observe surgeries and interact with patients? I don't think there's a price tag on that. 

Yep, I know it's not going to be an easy road for the next few years, but I'll just work my butt off and hope for the best that I can get into med school! If I can't, well that's too bad. I just really want to do something medical or science related. 

You can go and read my article on the Huffington Post! Btw, there is a slight mistake because it says that I did it 'a week ago', but I had submitted the post to the editor after a week.

Hope you enjoy. 

Baked parmesan zucchini chips

Baking vegetables are often one of my favourite way to get the flavours to shine ; capsicum, sweet potato, zucchini, pumpkin; I could honestly go on and on and on!

So baked vegetable chips sound pretty good hey? Depending on your taste preference, you can use other vegetables if you don't like the taste of zucchini. These chips are so cute and easy to make!

Head over to the Huffington Post to see the recipe!

Food food food

I tagged along with my two older sisters and my second sister's boyfriend in the city for dinner. I love dining out in the city because it's so lively and Melbourne is Australia's food capital. I miss work experience at the hospital, partly because I don't get to dine out in the city as often.. lol (I'm a high school student).. But in all honesty though, I really do miss it! Which sounds really crazy, but right now, I would love to be talking to patients and observing surgeries. And YES mum, the post about my work experience will be coming out soon.

Anyway, we went for ramen at Kokoro Ramen and dessert at Passionflower last week! This ramen place is seriously too cool. There are SO many options, I haven't seen so many options for ramen. You can't go wrong with picking any of them. There are different types of broth you can choose from (read the 'flavour notes' in the menu). I chose the Hakodate  shio ramen, which has a slice of pork belly and the broth is chicken and seafood. They also hand-make the noodles too. Quite authentic, and relatively cheap for a meal in Melbourne!

I really liked mine, except I regretted not picking the pork belly option which has 2 more slices of pork belly. The pork belly is soft-cooked and long-marinated, quite delicious! One slice was not enough.

It's a sticky date.. pudding

Dear winter, all you ever do is give people a hard time.

For starters, you make a person have an instinct to always state out loud "It's so cold!" And when you don't have those extra layers of fleece, you freeze to death. And all you want to do is stay as close to the heater.

Second of all, the weather is always so gloomy, and there is no sight of a ray of sunshine. It affects my mood, and makes me want to stay indoors all day.

Third of all, because of the second reason as stated above, and the fact that it rains so much, I can't work out. I end up being a lazy cat, or the dreaded couch potato. Also, what really sucks is that winter in Australia does not have snow, unlike many places in the northern hemisphere (and conveniently, have winter DURING Christmas time, rather than having summer during that period of time. So yes, basically Australia has Christmas in the sand.. Le monde (world) is tres weird.)

But, what I love, is cozying up to this warm sticky date pudding, drenched with caramel sauce. It gives you comfort, after you've had a long day, or it'll just force you to say "I'll start my diet tomorrow."

The sauce is addictive, and hard to resist from eating a spoonful of it. This is best when it's served warm (you can make the sauce, and re-heat it later), and the sticky date pudding itself is a winner. I would say that this is a bit lighter than the traditional sticky date pudding, it's not as dense but it's still so good.

P.s, I've been updating the new layout and everything, any opinions? I don't know if it's too much or too little, not exactly good with design (clearly, I wasn't born to be artistic)

Sticky date pudding with caramel sauce
Serves 8
Pudding:
250 g (9 oz) pitted dates, chopped
1 tsp baking soda
1 and 1/2 boiling water
125 g (4 oz) butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 and 3/4 cups self-raising flour, sifted (or plain flour + 1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder)

Caramel sauce
1 cup brown sugar
300 ml (10 oz) thickened cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
60 g (2 oz) butter

Method:
For the pudding:
1. Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F. Grease and line the base of a cake pan (7 cm deep, 22 cm base), muffin tins or ramekins.
2. Place dates and baking soda into a bowl. Pour over boiling water, and allow to stand for 20 minutes.
3. Using an electric mixer, or by hand, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well. Fold in through the date mixture and flour, until well combined.
4. Pour mixture into prepared cake pan, ramekins or muffin liners. Bake for 35-40 minutes for a cake pan, 20 minutes for the muffins and the time depends on how big your ramekin is. Bake until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

For the caramel sauce:
1. Combine the butter and sugar over medium heat in a saucepan.
2. Add the cream and vanilla extract, and stir frequently until the sauce comes to the boil.
3. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
4. To serve, pour over some of the sauce over the pudding and let it stand for 5-10 minutes. Then, serve the rest with the remaining sauce.

Adapted from Taste

Another lovely tea cake: blueberry and apple crumble cake

I just love baking tea cakes. Maybe perhaps, I'm bringing out my inner girly-side, but there's just something so pretty and elegant about tea cakes. The apple tea cake was sure a favourite! Tea cakes are incredibly easy to whip up, and can impress your guests.

Cakes and muffins, topped off with streusel/crumb topping are the best part in my opinion. I have been thoroughly enjoying my holidays, and on the day I made this cake, I was sitting on the couch, watching a movie. In my hand, I had a plate with a thick slice of the apple and blueberry crumble cake, with moist crumbs falling off with each bite, and munching on the crumble... Mmm! My ideal day always revolves around eating cakes and brownies.

The topping is one of the best crumbles I've had. The quantity it made was quite a bit, and I used all of it up, so there was a thick coating of crumble.. Even my second sister loved the cake because of the crunchy top (and the moist butter cake with blueberries and apples itself). The cake barely lasted 2 days in the house! Okay.. Partially to me eating a lot of it when it first came out of the oven, but I didn't continue to eat the cake the next day!! WHATEVER, all my family members always accuse me of eating the most of something like ice cream or chocolate. It's what you get for being the youngest.. The youngest is always the easiest to bully and blame on. If you're the youngest of the family, you'll know what I'm talking about.

What's your favourite kind of fruit cake/ tea cake?

Apple and blueberry crumble cake
Serves 6-8
Crumble:
50 g unsalted butter, cold and diced
50 g all purpose flour
60 g sugar
2 tbsp rolled oats
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Cake:
1 large green apple, peeled and cored
Juice of 1/2 lemon
150 g unsalted butter, softened
75 g sugar
75 g brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
85 g all purpose flour
1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
100 g almond meal
120 g blueberries (fresh or frozen, unthawed)

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F. Lightly butter a 22.5 x 12.5 cm (9 x 5 inch) loaf pan, and line it with baking paper, leaving an overhang on the two opposite sides and butter the paper as well.
2. Make the crumble by rubbing the butter and flour together with the mixture, until it resembles coarse bread crumbs. I actually used a food processor, which does the job much quicker. Stir in the sugar, oats and cinnamon and refrigerate if needed.
3. For the cake, thinly slice the apple and place into a bowl. Drizzle with lemon juice to stop the apple slices from turning brown.
4. In a large bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy.Add the eggs, and beat one at a time. Beat in vanilla, then sift the flour, baking powder and salt over the mixture and fold in. Fold in the almond meal.
5. Pour into the prepared pan and smooth the surface. I put some of the batter in first, then pressed in some blueberries, then layered it with the rest of the batter. Not necessary, But I liked it better that way. Arrange the apple slices and blueberries on top of the batter, and push some of the fruit down onto the batter.
6. Sprinkle with the crumble, and bake for about 1 hour or until golden and a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake, comes out slightly moist.
7. Cool completely in the pan over a wire rack.
Adapted from Technicolor kitchen

Chocolate banana pancakes and the Huffington Post

So, some pretty cool news! I'm now a blogger contributor to the Huffington post, one of my favourite news sites to read, especially the opinion articles.

For starters, I made chocolate banana pancakes. They are so, so addictive! Well after all, chocolate makes everything better right?

Head over to the Huffington Post to see the recipe!

Lazy, dead easy lunch: Quinoa fried rice

I'm on a three week break, and today is the first official day. I was feeling lazy for lunch, and thought of what I could find in the pantry. I'm sure everyone has those days; you just fish out whatever you can find in the fridge: leftovers, frozen fish, frozen veggies because you're just too lazy to whip up something that requires too much dish-washing and chopping. So, I decided to make a simple, yet nutritious lunch!

There's still the quinoa craze around, and I only discovered it last year. As a supergrain, it is full of amino acids that we need (we are what we eat!), it contains more fibre than most other grains which means = feeling fuller for longer = win win for over-eaters like me. And it's really easy and quick to cook. For every 1 cup of quinoa, cook it with 2 cups of water. Cook until it has absorbed all the water, roughly 15-20 minutes?

So, a simple quinoa meal that you can take to work, or eat lazily at home is quinoa fried rice.

A lot of people argue that it's really hard to eat healthily, as it is expected to only eat 'carrots and celery sticks'. I say, NO, eating healthily can be as creative and delicious as you want. Remember the oat banana bread that has absolutely no refined sugar, butter or oil I made? Although, it may seem sort of ironic that I'm raving about healthy food, because this is a blog that mainly focuses on desserts, (sometimes outrageously fattening like the Baked brownie. p.s I use too many parentheses), I believe that you can have a treat every now and then. One slice of cake does not make you fat. However, if you eat one whole chocolate cake like the boy in Mathilda in that infamous scene, or a huge slice everyday, you're harming your body and consequently put on more weight.

So just dig up any left overs like meat, vegetables etc and using frozen vegetables are really convenient too! 

Quinoa fried rice

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa

2 cups water 

2 eggs 

Small strips of bacon or ham

1 onion, diced into cubes 

1 red capsicum, sliced into small pieces

Bunch of mushrooms, sliced

Small handful of green beans, chopped 

Frozen vegetables (peas, corn etc. Doesn't have to be thawed, but it would be easier to cook faster)

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp fish sauce

Method

1. Thoroughly wash the quinoa before using, to get rid of the as the saponin covers the seeds, and needs to be rinsed to get rid of it. Otherwise, you will have bitter quinoa. Once thoroughly rinsed, put it in a pot and combine with 2 cups of water. Cook until all of the water has absorbed, about 10-20 minutes, depending on how high your heat is. 

2. Heat a large pan with about 2 tablespoons of oil (I used sunflower). Fry the 2 eggs, but don't over cook it. Once done, put the eggs aside on another plate and slice them into strips.

2. Add another tablespoon of oil, and cook the onions until slightly brown. Add the bacon or ham. 

3. Then add the red capsicum, mushrooms and the frozen vegetables. 

4. Add the quinoa and mix in the soy sauce and fish sauce. Stir to get an even coating of the sauce.

5. Add the eggs, and cook the fried rice for another minute or two. 

Classic blueberry muffins

Blueberry muffins are the best way to start a morning, especially after a long week of work experience! I worked at a hospital last week, and it was an amazing experience. But it had long hours, and I still can't comprehend how it's possible to
1. Wake up really early with barely any sleep.
2. Work for more than 10 hours.

I have even more admiration for surgeons, nurses etc who make a hospital work the way it does.

I'll be writing about my experience, because it was really interesting for me to see what a hospital environment is like.

Anyway, I've been a huge fan of those big, bakery style muffins. So huge and delicious, I could just gobble one up in no time. Quite frankly, my previous attempts at blueberry muffins were always mediocre. They weren't the blueberry muffins I had come to known, from a bakery. Soft, fluffy, jammed packed with bursting blueberries.  Now, that's my kind of blueberry muffin.
Jaclyn from Cooking Classy (her blog is amazing) created this blueberry muffin recipe, and even has the title "Finally, the blueberry muffin of my dreams" And that is the perfect description.

Soft like pillows, plentiful of bursting blueberries and a really nice crunchy top (my favourite part) and a lovely streusel. I've seen a lot of recipes where they use butter, but this one uses oil. I can tell you that the oil makes it very moist. I'm in love with the texture, and these are quite the breakfast or afternoon tea you can have.

I used frozen blueberries because blueberries aren't in season, and they're never cheap to buy. Just be careful when mixing in your blueberries, especially when it's frozen. You should do it at the very last minute because there will be blue marks everywhere and unless you want your muffin to look like a smurf, I highly suggest don't mix it in too early. Another important part is before adding the blueberries, do not over mix your batter! If you mix it too much, your muffin with be tough and leathery. That just sounds like the texture of crocodile meat. If you want soft, fluffy muffins the key is to NOT overmix!

What's your favourite type of muffin?

Blueberry muffins
Yields 14 muffins
Ingredients
1 and 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk (substitute: just put some vinegar or lemon juice into regular milk and let it stand)
7 tbsp  oil (or 1/2 cup then remove 1 tbsp) - I used sunflower oil
1 large egg
2 tbsp sour cream or Greek yoghurt (I used yoghurt since I didn't have sour cream)
1 and 1/2 cup fresh blueberries (I reduced this to about 1 cup of frozen blueberries)

Crumb topping
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 and 1/2 tbsp sugar
2 and 1/2 tbsp chilled butter, diced
1 and 1/2 tbsp raw sugar -DON'T skip this part please! Jaclyn says that it is the 'crowning jewel', couldn't agree any better.
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Method:
1. Prepare crumb topping by mixing 1/3 cup flour, 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, 1 and 1/2 tbsp sugar, 2 and 1/2 tbsp butter in a food processor. Pulse until it is combined, it should be very fluffy. Then pour the mixture into a small bowl and whisk in the 1 and 1/2 tbsp raw sugar.
2. In a mixing bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside. In a separate mixing bowl, using a whisk (not electric mixer), mix together 1 cup of sugar, buttermilk, oil, egg and sour cream or yoghurt for 1 minute. Gently whisk in dry mixture until combined, batter should be slightly lumpy. DO NOT OVER MIX! Fold in blueberries carefully (be extra careful if using frozen blueberries), and divide mixture evenly among 12-14 paper lined muffin tins. Allow muffins to rest at room temperature for about 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 F or 200 C.
3. After the muffins have rested, fluff crumb topping with a fork, and sprinkle each muffin evenly with 1 tbsp crumb topping mixture. Bake muffins for 19-23 minutes or until lightly golden and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
4. Allow to cool several minutes in the muffin pan before removing to wire rack to cool.

Adapted from Cooking Classy 

Japanese cheesecake cupcakes

The weather has been driving me absolutely nuts. Last week, the weather was so miserable, I could not go for a run. And when I'm too lazy to go for runs, that equals to = more laziness and eating. And now, I'm even more annoyed because the sun just started to shine, and I already ate lunch BECAUSE THE SKY WAS GREY. So my mood and my tummy are not too happy. People who live in Melbourne will understand my annoyance at the weather.

Anyway, what's not annoying are these cupcakes. They're kind of dreamy to me. Perhaps, like Dr. McDreamy to Grey's anatomy fans. But these are McCheesecake-dreamy (or should it be the other way around?). Like eating clouds or pillows? Get what I mean?

As a child, I would always love to peer outside the window (always loved the window seat) while flying because I was intrigued about clouds, since they looked like cotton balls to me. I had crazy thoughts, like any other 3 year old. "What if I could jump out of the plane and sleep on one of those clouds?" The original title of the recipe is "Cotton soft cheesecake". It is really like cotton-soft-cloud-cheesecake.

I was able to make 12 cheesecake cupcakes and 1 loaf! The batter is quite a bit, so I recommend halving the recipe if you're making cupcakes. I also put a green tea swirl, and stupidly enough I forgot to add some sugar. So it was a bit too bitter, so later I put some jam on top to try and balance it out. I also think a chocolate swirl would be really nice! Just use cocoa powder instead.

This is a different recipe to the one I used for my big Japanese cheesecake with the strawberries. I like both recipes, both easy! Although, I'll have to admit that I like the cornstarch added to it because I feel that it adds a bit more fluffiness, but nevertheless I still love Nami's recipe (the other one I used).

Japanese cheesecake
Ingredients
250 g (9 oz) cream cheese
140 g (5 oz) granulated sugar *
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50 g (2 oz) unsalted butter
100 ml (3.3 oz) fresh milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
60 g/2 oz cake flour / superfine flour (I didn't have cake flour, so I just one tbsp flour and added more cornstarch)
20 g/ 1 oz cornflour (cornstarch)
1/4 tsp salt
* I increased the sugar to 155 g because I know that Japanese cheesecake is not very sweet, and I like eating it plain but with just enough sweetness.

*swirl (if using) : mix 1 tbsp of green tea powder with 3-4 tbsp of hot water. Add a bit of sugar if desired (recommended).

Method:
1. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture and then sift flour, cornflour, add the egg yolks, lemon juice and mix well.
2. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add sugar and whisk until soft peak forms.
3. Add the cheese mixture to egg white mixture and mix well. Pour into an 8 inch round cake pan or into desired pan.
4. Bake cheesecake in a water bath for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 160 C (325 F)
Adapted from Diana's desserts

Raspberry and walnut cocoa brownies

Yet another brownie post, I don't think I'll ever get sick of brownies. Melting butter and chocolate with a hint of espresso is honestly so fragrant, and whipping up brownies on a late night is perfect. Midnight brownies I'd say. Although, the flavour gets better the next day, as does with any cake or brownie. The next day, it has developed its texture and your tastebuds will be screaming "Oh my goodness how did it get this good?"

Truth to be told, I didn't really expect much from these brownies because they use cocoa. But I decided to give it a go anyway, because I was curious. But, I added some raspberries which are perfect. Kind of reminds me of the flourless chocolate cake I made, except this is a brownie and is more dense. Put it in the fridge, it becomes fudge like!

After I ate one, I stood there for a moment and pondered. "This is good. Wait no. This is really good." I like the slightly crunchy top, and the fact that it's not too sweet (I used 3/4 cup instead of 1 and 1/4) and with the crunch of walnuts? It spells a-d-d-i-c-t-i-v-e.  I also like it straight from the fridge! 

Raspberry and walnut cocoa brownies
Yields 16 large or 25 smaller brownies (I used a 8 x 8 pan)
Ingredients:
10 tbsp (140 g) unsalted butter
1 and 1/4 cup (250 g) sugar *although I reduced this to 3/4 cup
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp (65 g) unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Dutch-process)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, cold
1/2 cup (65 g) all purpose flour
2/3 cup (75 g) walnuts or pecans *optional
2/3 cup raspberries *optional

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 F (although I just used 180 C). Line the bottom and sides of a baking pan with parchment paper.
2. Combine butter, sugar, cocoa and salt in a medium heatproof bowl and set the bowl in a wide skillet of barely simmering water.
3. Stir from time to time until the butter is melted, and the mixture is smooth.
4. Remove the bowl and set aside until the mixture is warm, not hot.
5. Stir in vanilla and then add the eggs, one at a time.
6. Then, add the flour and stir until you cannot see it any longer.
7. Add the nuts and raspberries if you are using.
8. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre is slightly moist with batter, about 20 to 25 minutes (however I needed to bake it for 10 minutes longer). Let cool completely on a rack. Smitten Kitchen's tip is to freeze it for a while and then cut it with clean lines. I did so, and it is a really good tip to get really clean cuts!

Adapted from Alice Mendrich via Smitten Kitchen

Easy lemonade scones

This is the easiest scone recipe you will ever use. Thick and fluffy, perfect for an afternoon tea.

4 ingredients (though lemonade is made up of a few ingredients and there is egg yolk for glazing) and bam. Plus this doesn't use any butter or refined sugar, sooo I'm going to pretend like these are not too bad for you....

Lol jokes aside, my mum has been making these for years, and each time without fail, there's been one warm scone, sandwiched with a dollop of whipped cream and strawberry jam in my mouth.

I love the addition of raisins, and the texture is amazing. These will make people impressed (like my piano teacher), and would certainly be suitable if you're hosting a high tea party :) I haven't done that before believe it or not, but that is on my to-do list hehehe

I also made a video. It's my first time, so excuse my video techniques. Not quite sure what went wrong with the video quality (looks a bit pixelated). I just did this for fun and really enjoyed the process of it.

OH and the best feeling ever is that I'VE FINISHED MID YEAR EXAMS! Don't know why this year I binged a lot on junk, a lot more than usual during exam period. But I am trying to run off the excess weight :P
My mid year exams went quite well, although I don't want to say too much yet. You know how you want to say that it went great, but then you kind of just don't want to jinx it? Yeah. That's how I feel. But anyway, I have Monday off (Queen's birthday), so what a perfect long weekend! I have a Japanese cheesecake post coming up soon, so look out.

What is your favouite thing to eat for afternoon tea?

Lemonade scones
Ingredients:
325 g self-raising flour *
2/3 cup (170 ml) cold lemonade
2/3 cup (170 ml) thickened cream/heavy cream
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
* Egg yolks for the glaze (also optional, but I like to give it some colour )

* It may be possible to use plain flour and add some raising agents (baking powder etc), but I have not tried that before. I'm also not sure with the unit conversions for the U.S standard, so just convert it.

Method
1. Preheat oven to 225 degrees C/400 F (I preheated mine to 200 C)
2. Sift flour into a large bowl. Combine lemonade and cream in a cup.
3. Add the lemonade and cream into the sifted flour mixture, and gently fold ingredients.
4. Add raisins and combine together. Do not over mix, otherwise this will result in tough scones. The dough will be soft and sticky.
5. Place the dough on a lightly floured bench and spread dough and roll it out to about 3.5 cm thick (about 1.3 inch) and use a shaped cutter or a knife to cut the dough.
6. Place scones together close together on the tray so they are touching. Glaze with egg yolks on the top.
7. Bake for about 12-15 minutes (however I found that about 20 minutes was desirable otherwise I would've had under-cooked scones), or until pale golden and cooked through.
8. If you like scones to have a soft crust, cover them with a tea towel for a few minutes.
9. Serve hot or warm up in the microwave later.

Adapted from All recipes

Brown butter chocolate chip cookies - last post before exams

You've heard it before... 'The best ---- EVER' and so on, and please know that I really do try to avoid using that title in my posts... Because is there really such thing as the ultimate 'best'?

Chocolate cupcakes with oreo cream cheese frosting

These pictures reflect my mood lately about baking.

I apologise for the pictures, but I just had to share these cupcakes with the best oreo cream cheese frosting EVER. A few weeks ago, I baked a two layer chocolate cake, and smothered with oreo cream cheese frosting and decorated it for a friend's birthday. It was pure deliciousness. I had left over cream cheese frosting, and obviously I didn't want to let one of my best frostings to go to waste. So, I decided to bake some chocolate cupcakes to go along with it. 

I used to think that the combination oreo frosting and chocolate cupcakes was too sweet, but this chocolate cupcake is not too sweet, and works perfectly with the frosting. The frosting might look scarily black, as my mum commented, but that's the end result of many, many oreos. 

I also tried to frost the cupcakes with an off set spatula to create this kind of 'hollow' look like Magnolia's bakery, but failed miserably. It's your typical cupcakes you start out with as a beginner (or simply your 'too lazy to pipe it nicely' way). Pat on the frosting with a spatula or a knife, no fancy icing nozzles. Regardless of the apperance, these cupcakes were what I describe as 'amaze-balls', because you'll fall in love with the frosting. 

But yes, on to the pictures. The past 3 weeks, I've been sort of lazy with baking. Too lazy to even make a simple cake. Quite bizarre, because I always have the energy to bake, even if I'm down with the cold. However, I've been receiving a tremendous amount of the work the past few weeks, and quite literally haven't been able to squeeze in my usual baking sessions. I have mid year exams in less than 2 weeks, so I am frantically cramming with flash cards and practice exams. When it's all over, trust me.. You'll see a plethora of food recipes, and I'll especially be trying to master my cooking skills (because I am simply not as good at cooking than baking. I prefer creaming butter and sugar than sautéing mushrooms). 

For now, I am trying to survive for the next few weeks. lol. But hopefully I'll be in the mood to bake some Japanese cheesecake on the weekend. I neeeeeeed to make some cheesecake!

Chocolate cupcakes with oreo cream cheese frosting:

Chocolate cupcakes
Ingredients
3/4 cup (95 g) all purpose flour
3/4 (150 g) cup white sugar
1/4 cup (30 g) cup dark cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp corn starch
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup buttermilk (I used regular milk and put a tsp of white vinegar. You can also put lemon juice. Just let it stand for 5 minutes)
1/4 cup brewed coffee, or espresso, hot
3 tbsp oil (I used sunflower)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 and a 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F) and line a muffin/cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment (or by hand), sift flour, cornstarch and cocoa powder. Add the sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In another bowl or a cup, combine buttermilk, coffee, oil, egg and vanilla.
4. Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until combined. The batter will be quite liquid-y.
5. Divide batter evenly among the liners.
6. Bake for 15-17 minutes (although I had mine in for about 20 minutes), or until a toothpick or skewer comes out with a few crumbs. Do not over-bake.

Oreo cream cheese frosting
Ingredients
8 oz/250 g cream cheese (one block), at room temperature
56 g (4 tbsp or 2 oz)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup to 1 cup icing sugar (depending on preference)
30 oreo cookes, thoroughly crushed
Additional oreo cookies for decorating.

Method
1. Combine cream cheese, butter and vanilla extract in the bowl of a standing mixer. Beat on medium speed until thoroughly combined. Then, gradually add the icing sugar until fully incorporated, and then beat until very light and fluffy.
2. Add the crushed oreos. If you want the more 'cookies and cream' effect, gently fold them in using a rubber spatula.
3. When cupcakes have cooled completely, frost the cupcakes with the icing.

Chocolate cupcakes adapted from Sweetapolita and oreo cream cheese icing adapted from Foodess

Banana yeasted waffles

Once again, Mother's day comes!

Today, I prepared a lovely breakfast for my good-cook-mother. For one special day, honouring the woman of the house, the least I can do is to prepare a hearty and delicious breakfast.

So, on the breakfast menu: Banana yeasted waffles and freshly squeezed orange juice. I also just wanted to ask, does anyone squirm at the taste of bottled orange juice like me? It tastes completely different, bitter and with an off kind of taste. I've always hated drinking orange juice at  my school camps, and I just can't comprehend how people drink this daily. Freshly squeezed orange juice is the way to go!