Eid's Cakes - Walnut Orange Baked Cheese Cake and Hummingbird

Walnut Orange Baked Cheese Cake - With Apricot Glaze, Cut-out Orange Slices, Shaved Chocolate
and Maraschino Cherry




Hummingbird Cake -With Cream Cheese Frosting, Topped With Roasted Pecans, Sugar Flowers and Fresh Cherry



I will just do a quick entry in this blog. Ramadhan is going to end real soon, and here I am baking two cakes as requested by a friend. I have accepted the order two weeks ago, and even if I am short of time to do Eid's preparations, I have to keep to my promise. Ms A had requested a Hummingbird, and was unsure on what to order for the second one. Therefore, I have suggested a baked cheese cake, and she agreed . This was my second time baking this cheese cake, the first one was for another friend. I got the recipe from my 13 year- old baking book, which I bought when I was a student in the UK.

   My friend, Ms EL was asking for a cheese cake, and I had searched low and below for a reliable recipe in the net- and finally looking up to the pages of my trusted old book. The next thing I knew, I was baking this recipe. However, I could not share the recipe today as I ran out of time. I need to bake my cakes before officially packing up to head up to my hometown. Probably, I would share this cheese cake recipe after Eid, if time permits.



Life is even sweeter with cheese cakes around ;)

Meanwhile, I would like to wish readers and friends "Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri" and "Maaf  Zahir Batin". May you enjoy your time with loved ones during this festive season. Have a Happy Eid, indeed...

 

Salam Syawal- Maaf Zahir Batin
(Happy Eid-ul-Fitr)

Eid Biscuit 2012- Jumbled Oat Cornflakes Cookies




Jumbled Oat Cornflakes Cookies- cooled on the rack

 



Nothing beats home-made cookies

 





Eid is just around the corner- and I only started baking today ;(

   

    Phew, time does fly. Now, we are nearing the end of Ramadhan. It's already August. And I have only started baking Eid biscuits today.  Yes, today. It's one week before Eid and my preparations are actually zero. Too much on postponing things and I nearly didn't want to bake at all. Again, I lost the mood to bake. Probably because of the weather or I was just tired or plain lazy.. (oops). However, since I never fail in baking Eid biscuits each year, I am forcing myself today to bake and share this recipe in my blog. Just to get into the mood of celebrations.

 Back to this recipe, I have bookmarked it for two years. I could not even have the guts to bake these cookies, simply because I have postponing it again and again. Every year, I try to bake different types of Eid biscuits, just to be different as I get bored easily. This recipe comes from the "Cookies Year Round" book by Rosemary Black. As usual I have tweaked and adapted the recipe, as I found the original one tend to be sweet. So, here I am sharing this recipe. I hope that everyone will give it a try. Here goes;

What you need:

#Butter for the baking sheets

  Parchment paper for the baking sheets

Ingredients

1 3/4  to 2 cups of all- purpose/ plain flour
(sifted 2 times- you will have a better texture for the biscuit)
1 tbs of vegetable shortening (Crisco)

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup ( 2 sticks) unsalted butter ( I used SCS) - room temperature

1/2 cup caster/ granulated sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar ( I used soft brown sugar)

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup rolled oats ( not quick-cooking oatmeal, not the instant oatmeal)

2 1/2 cups corn flakes, coarsely crushed (I used Kellog's)

1 cup sweetened coconut flakes (Hawaiian coconut)

1 tsp of freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 tsp grated lemon
Glazed cherries-for decorations (cut into small pieces)

1)Preheat the oven to 120C for 7-8 mins ( I used electric conventional oven. If the temperature is too high, the cookies will get brown easily, the key idea is to be patient, while waiting for the cookies to be baked thoroughly). Lightly butter two baking sheets. Place parchment paper (baking paper) on the baking sheets.

2) Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder.

3) Using an electric hand mixer, set on a medium speed, beat the butter and sugars evenly.

4) Add in the eggs, one by one. Add in vanilla essence.

5) Sift in the flour mixture and beat until combined.

6) Stir in the oats, coconut and corn flakes. Add in vegetable shortening. Then, add in lemon juice and freshly grated lemon.

7) Using a teaspoon, drop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets. Decorate with glazed cherries.

10) Bake 15-20 mins,  or until golden brown. (By this time, you could reduce the temperature to 100C.  I baked my cookies for about 30 minutes with the temperature of 100C- I only baked one baking sheet  at one time ).

11) Transfer the cookies to the cooling rack.

12) Store your cookies in an air-tight container.

Notes:

1) This recipe yields 5 dozen of cookies.You could always double the recipe, and easily  get  two containers of cookies.

2) You can fry the flour beforehead, in Malay we call this process  as "sangai", this means you  fry the flour in a wok (do not add anything), heated slowly (for about 7-8 minutes). Or you could  just dry the flour using the oven, with a temperature between 70-80C ( 7-8 minutes).

Traditionally old Malay  ladies would dry the flour (in a big "dulang" or aluminium tray )outside, in the direct sunlight-  this is to release the moisture from the flour. I have  discovered this method from old Malay  cook books and found it very useful. In fact, cookies would last longer  and smells better.

3) Always put a little bit of sugar before placing a cut-out parchment paper (doily)and arrange  your cookies accordingly. Place paper in each layer of cookies that you have arranged. The paper will  dry out the fats (oil) from the cookies. Eventually your cookies will stay fresh and crunchy at all times.
4) You can add in the flour up to 2 cups of just stick to 1 3/4 cups...
5) This is the updated version of the recipe posted on 9 September 2012.

 




Rolled Oats, Hawaiian Coconut, grated lemon and Corn flakes- all these will make a baker happy...

  




Now, these are what we call "heaven

  

On another note, who ever thought that oats and cornflakes could make  scrumptious and crunchy cookies.... Happy days ahead every one ;)

Welcoming Ramadhan Al-Mubarak



Ramadhan is the light for the wandering soul  ( Hotel Equatorial, Malacca)




And we see life in a natural phase  (Bagan Lalang,Sepang, Selangor)




As night withdraws its curtain ( Malacca)





We finally come back to our creator, and seek solace for all the difficulties in life...
 (Masjid Sultan, Arab Street, Singapore)

 

I am here again. I have not updated this blog for about two months. Again, work has been the main culprit for my disappearance, not to mention that I have troubles of transferring pictures from my memory card to the pc. Well, excuses once more. As a matter of fact, this year has not been utterly kind to me- I lost the mood to bake due to heavy work schedules, and I simply lack of time to do any baking. Then, suddenly Ramadhan (the fasting month for Muslims) is finally here. Phew, how time flies. I wish that I have more time to spare, how I wish.

  This year, I aim to bake more types of Eid cookies i.e biscuits and share their recipes here. I would like to make up for the lost time last year, when I have only managed to bake one type of biscuit. It was very dissappointing indeed. Well, hoping for the best Ramadhan this year, despite all the challenges and short-comings in life. On a final note, I would like to wish all Muslim readers and friends a Happy Ramadhan, may all your doa and prayers would be fulfilled.God Willing i.e. Insya Allah ....




 

I baked these raspberry cupcakes topped with cream cheese frosting and swirled with frozen raspberries

 (specially done for a dear friend who was craving last June)

  

May life treat you well and have a blessed month, indeed .........

Love Is ......



A cupcake baked by a student, hand-delivered to yours truly. I was touched....





Hummingbird cake in The Coffee Bean cafe-spending time with my two kids



They say that love is unconditional. To me, it is not a symbol created for lovers specifically. It is more than that. Lovers can part their ways, but family will always stick together, through thick and thin. That is love to me. Today, I wish to write about things that make me happy in this entry, such as the time when my student hand-delivered a cupcake to me. Unexpected? Yes... simply because I have gone through the phase of expecting things from the others. Usually, I always loved the reaction when people receive gifts from me. So, when a student gave me a cupcake the other day (not that I don't receive any other gifts), I was taken aback. Yes, how true that the saying goes like this- "It's not the gift that counts, it's the thought". It's the effort that I really appreciate, well you see, (I was not up to myself these few weeks, that was why I have baked nothing), my work is taking a toll of my life- Again! Therefore, knowing there was a teenage girl making efforts to bake cupcakes for her teachers, was something that made me really touched. Impressed a bit, definitely.
   Sometimes,  when the thought of the things that make you unhappy comes across your mind, and then you discovered that there are people who have thought of you, it really made up your day. It changed your perspectives of love. Yes, like spending time with your kids in a local cafe and savouring the Hummingbird Cake, never mind that store-bought cakes never tasted as good as home-baked ones, but it's the time spent with loved ones that matters. I don't know when will I have the time to bake and update this blog again, but until now- I think this post is more than enough to keep this blog alive...
     In another note, let's celebrate love with a new definition- that is to think and thank those who have touched our lives... Adieu





A single red rose for me ;)

 

Macaroons in Serai, Empire Gallery



Multi-coloured macaroons and Lemongrass Tea in Serai, Empire Gallery, Subang...



I have yet to attempt any baking, but right now, I wish to update this blog and rave about macaroons. I have sampled these macaroons a few weeks ago in Serai, an up-scale Malay fusion restaurant in Empire Gallery Subang. Yes, they were too sweet to my liking, but I think they went well with this Lemongrass Tea. I still have reservations on doing macaroons but yet I keep buying books on macaroons-- the latest being the Pierre Herme' s Macarons. The book set me back for RM144.05 and I now I wish that I have the guts to do macaroons. You see, my work load is getting heavier this year and I couldn't simply have the time to do as much baking as I used to do.  Oh well, I must stop my ramblings now, I need to do some house and work- related chores, so that I could concentrate on baking after that...



This wonderful book, in English of course



Until then, have a nice weekend, every one...

Patience Is All That I Need Right Now

Patience is what I really need right now, as life is testing me in many different forms. Being dying to bake and update this blog, but at the present, I could not simply do that. There are just so many things to cater to, that I have lost the touch of baking. At the moment, let's hope for the bests and these challenges are here to make me a better ME....

What I really need now is patience.

Hang On .....



We wish to live longer

  

We learn to never give up on things that matter to us



Sometimes, when  you only have yourself to believe




You would think that life is a beach



And you learn to hang on even if things seemed to be difficult at times

When I was young, I used to think that growing up was difficult. I thought that being a teenager was a phase I needed to get rid of. I hated the imbalance of hormones, the merry-go- round moods and the unrequited crushes. I was eager to be an adult. I thought being an adult was easy, with a secure job and lots of cash. I even thought adulthood was the answer to my never ending questions in life. Life was confusing then and things were different. It was always school, friends and family. There was never really a big responsibility, but I learnt a lot through out my school days. Coming from an all-girls school, I learnt to be tough, to be a perfectionist or rather truthfully I learnt that life was not easy at all. I first learnt the word failures in school, picked up the pieces and stood up as if nothing had ever happened. That was a real lesson in life. You see, I learnt to be tough when the going gets tough. It was not an easy task to survive in an all girls' school-- as we learnt the word "competitive" from the beginning. Everybody would want to be the best. However, only those who had the tough spirits would survive.

     I wished I would have knew then what the future really looked like- for me. Sometimes, it is difficult just to stay afloat in a world full of misunderstandings and confusions. But what I learnt in my school days was  it was easy to give up rather than to stand back, it was easy to say good bye rather than to say hello. However, what I really learnt -in one of those incidents in school, (which I chose not to forget now), was to get up, walked and  ran. I chose to think positively out of difficult situations. I chose to believe in my own strengths and abilities. I chose to think that no matter what people think of me, God knew the truth back in those days. That was me then, that is me now. No matter how difficult things are, there will always be possibilities to be found and opportunities to be gained. Some people may misunderstood us, but there are some other people who would understand. But the most important thing in life is, hang on during difficult times, and never give up.... That is all that matters.