Cupcake Craze

Made a batch of the fairy cakes (featured earlier) and covered them in chocolate icing. Good responses so far. Tada!

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Ice ice baby.

Ice kacang is officially my comfort food. One slurp of the sinfully sweet icy syrup and I’m on a high.

The one pictured below’s from the hillside hawker centre. The stall’s easy to find, what with its multicoloured lights hanging around the sign. It’s also the only stall selling ice kacang there. I used to go there since I was a kid, but I still don’t get tired returning to the same stall every time. Other places just don’t cut it. Not even close.

Their cendol’s not bad too. That’s my mom’s comfort food. Heh.

Choc Orange Cupcakes

Mom tried this recipe a few days ago and turned out to be a hit. Disclaimer : The size of the cakes become pretty small though, as the hazelnut weighs down the mixture and shrinks them in the process.

Ingredients
60g semi sweet milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 tsp orange rind, finely grated
2/3 cup orange juice
90g butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup self-raising flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/3 cup almond meal/hazelnut meal
1. Preheat oven 175°C.
2. Place chocolate, orange rind and juice in small saucepan.
3. Stir till melted and smooth.
4. Beat butter, sugar and eggs in mixer bowl till light and fluffy.
5. Sift flour and cocoa into butter mix. Add almond meal and chocolate mix.
6. Mix well till just combined. Fill cases till 1/2 full.
7. Bake for 25 mins.
Makes 12 cakes

Karaikudi

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Is it me or do I have an unusual craving for Indian food every weekend? Good thing this place was open as Thaipusam was just yesterday.

Located at the Tg Bungah area, Karaikudi has always been one of my favourite Indian restaurants.  It’s nearby, reasonably priced and of course, there’s great food.

I had my all time fave, the onion rawa thosai. As always, the thosai came hot and crisp to the very last bite, with tons of garlic, onion and carrot bits hidden within.  Mom and sis had their favourite, the roti canai. I shall just quote my mom, “this is the best roti canai I’ve ever had'”.

And I’m telling you, for someone who can’t resist roti canai, when my mom says something like that, she means it.

For our veggie fix, we ordered their specialty, the Vegetable Jalfrize (pronounced Jal-frai-z) (we being dungu ordering it for the first time pronounced it wrongly :P) Good stuff. Almost like Aloo Gobi but much better as it has so many other vegetables in there, like capsicums, long beans, brinjal and carrots.

If you love Indian food or think you might like Indian food but have yet to try it, Karaikudi’s definitely the place for you.

Rating: 4.8/5
Official website

Out and About.

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Above: Winter Warmers at Gurney. Had the afternoon tea set, complete with your very own choice of tea (mine was jasmine). Affordable and quite worth it, considering you get scones, sandwiches, cakes plus ohsolovely cookies! All looking pretty on a three tiered tray. Tastewise, it’s not that bad, if you’re not that fussy an eater. 3/5

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Clockwise from left: Salad with chicken breast strips,orange slices and lemon/orangey dressing (light and tangy, not as ‘jelak’ as the caesar), fettucine with salmon in cream sauce (loved this one), chicken sandwich (bread was a little hard, though no complaints about the tender chicken).

Above: TGIF at Queensbay. Braved the infamous weekend jam to get here, though I must say the long drive was worth it. Great meal, with wonderful service to boot (thanks JM!) The food’s your typical american fare, with ginormous portions, so I highly recommend sharing if you’re not a big eater. The best for me was definitely the fettucine. Salmon + fettucine = One happy girl. 4/5

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Above: Crepe Cottage along Gurney Drive. A quaint little cottage (literally, it’s not just the name) in the midst of the very busy Gurney area which offers the french delicacy. Who would’ve known? Taking your pick would take a while, as the menu offers a wide variety of crepes, both savoury and sweet. The only drawback was that it took a darn long time for the food to arrive. You could’ve seen the hearts above our heads disappearing ala Diner Dash. That aside, all of us agreed that the food was good, making up for the long wait. 3.5/5

Sardine Rolls

One thing I dislike – puff pastry. Don’t you find it so darn troublesome to eat it while keeping the stuff from falling apart into a million flakes? It is so unnecessary, not when you have the choice of having the rich, solid pastry like I had with these rolls.

Ingredients
Pastry
250 g butter
500 g flour
pinch of salt
cold water
1. Fold all ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Bind with cold water.
2. Leave in fridge for a while.
Filling
1 can sardine (do not use all the liquid)
chopped onions
chopped chilli
1 squeeze of lemon juice
pinch of salt
1. Roll out dough thinly. Cut into rectangles.
2. Place filling on dough and roll. Make little cuts on rolls before brushing them with egg yolk.
3. Bake for 40 mins at 175°C.

Iced Fairy Cakes

Tried this recipe a few days ago to satisfy our cupcake cravings. Not difficult, should be pretty easy for experienced bakers (unlike myself).  Turned out surprisingly good. Very buttery (just the way I like it) with an incredibly moist texture. Not at all oily. Plus, we got to unleash our inner artists and decorate the cakes ourselves. You just gotta love cupcakes.

(not actual results)

Ingredients

115 g/4oz unsalted butter

115 g/4oz caster sugar

2 eggs, beaten

115 g/4oz self-raising flour

Icing and decoration

200 g/7oz icing sugar

about tbsp warm water

a few drops of food colouring (optional)

sugar flowers, hundreds and thousands, glace cherries, and/or chocolate strands, to decorate.

1. Preheat oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas mark 5. Place 16 paper bun cases into a shallow bun tin.

2. Place butter and caster sugar in a large bowl and cream together with a wooden spoon or electric mixer until pale and fluffy.

3. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Fold in the flour lightly and evenly using a metal spoon.

4. Divide the mixture evenly between the bun cases and bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

5. For the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and stir in just enough water to mix to a smooth paste that is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Stir in a few drops on food colouring, if using, then spread the icing over the fairy cakes and decorate as desired. (for the last batch, I got adventurous and added some coffee powder into the mixture for a coffee-flavoured icing)

Makes 16.