German Chocolate Cake Bars #It'sAmerican

Earlier this year, as I mentioned in my previous posts, I went to good ol' U S of A and I have cooked and baked QUITE a bit. Mostly, I ate a HELL lot more. Hahaha. I am so funny. Nope. Never mind.

Wheeee fireworksssss

For 4th of July, my sister's fiance had this barbeque celebration at his parents' place. I have no idea where it was but there was a lot of corn and cows. You would think after a 2 hour flight and reaching at 11 PM, my sister would have taken pity on me and let me go to sleep when I reached her place. Did she? No. She made me help her marinate the meats for the next day! When you are born the youngest, you are automatically classified as a slave. Trust me. 

Anyway, I wanted to bake something for the bbq and prior to the trip, I did some research on a couple of recipes so that my sister could buy the ingredients before I reached. After a lot of research on recipes and a few Ellen videos, I went with German Chocolate Cake Bars (taken from Six Sisters' Stuff).

Yes yes, "GERMAN chocolate cake? On 4TH OF JULY?! BLASPHEMY!" Well, looks like it is time for me to teach you something. German chocolate cake did NOT originate from Germany. The cake is actually named after Sam German, an AMERICAN chocolate maker who specialised in making dark baking chocolate. So ha! It's totally an American dessert.

This recipe is pretty simple to be honest. Any fool can bake this - I mean I did it! I think the tough thing about baking this in Singapore would be the cost of ingredients and finding them. I mean it is not impossible or anything but being a cheapskate (and you can verify this with anyone in my family), I am not going to pay $7 dollars for a bag of chocolate chips when it is like $2 from Wegmans in 'Murica. But I might spend that $7 because this dessert was effin' amazing.

Ah - the good ol' ingredients picture.

To make this, you would have to first bake the base. It does not have to be thoroughly baked - just for 7 minutes because you are going to bake this again with the filling.

Because I am all about that base..about that base.. (geddit? geddit?)

Then, you pour in the filling after the base has cooled down. The filling was amazing. Condensed milk, for the win *fist pump*. This is probably the first time I added sweetened dessicated coconut into a dessert and good god, it was amazing.

My dear sister looked at the baking dish and saw the pathetic number of chocolate chips so she did this:

Finish the bag of chocolate chips!

When are we going to use dessicated coconut again? Just finish this bag too.

Then, the dish was popped into the oven. After it was done, took it out and cooled it down and poured caramel sauce all over it. 

Please take your time and stare at this

Everyone loved the dessert. Trust me. I know when people are lying when they tell me one of my dishes are good when it actually sucks but I still give it to them because (1) I don't want to eat it, (2) I need a boost in my self-esteem and (3) I want to get rid of them.

Getting into the holiday spirit!

At the end of day, it was a really fun filled day. Being that it is my first time celebrating 4th of July, it was pretty....awesome. We also sat around a campfire and talked about our feelings. No, we didn't. Maybe I did but no one listened. I don't know. Let's not get emotional.

CAMPFIRE! CLICHE MUCH? UH HUH. LOVED IT.

Alright, I am going to stop rambling. 

Toodles!

(P.S: I MADE/GENERATED ALL THESE GIFS!!!)

Uzbekistan - WHY YOU NO LIKE ME?

Why hello there....person!

It has been a long time...my friend.

You can blame school. Yes, that is the excuse I am going to go with at least.

I cooked so much this year! When I mean 'this year', I mean like when I was away from my family in Atlanta, GA and I had to feed myself. It still counts.

BUT (let me just start the sentence with this, k?) I am going to document a recipe that went terribly wrong!

It all started with this article from Buzzfeed: 16 Delicious Uzbek Dishes You Need To Try Immediately. Please pause here and take a look at the amazing list of dishes.

Have you seen it? You have? Okay, please proceed.

OMG ISN'T IT AMAZING?!!! I MEAN DON'T YOU WANT TO JUST EAT ALLL OF IT??? I mean I have not heard much about Uzbekistan. Honestly, I thought it was somewhere near Pakistan because it ended with "-istan" (Yes, insert: #ignorant). It's not.

I present to you Exhibit A:

Well, I was not THAT far off..its's sort of near Pakistan. The red arrow says so!

Okay - I am not going to turn this into a 10 Things You Did Not Know About Uzbekistan so don't worry.

Anyway, getting back to Uzbekistan food - a particular recipe caught my eye: the Dimlama. Damn son, meat and veggies getting it on in a pot?! Ooooh yeaahhh.

I followed this recipe: http://globaltableadventure.com/2013/09/19/recipe-uzbek-layered-stew-dimlama/ and honestly, I think what went wrong with this was  (1) the wrong pot (2) I forgot the existence of salt.

According to the recipe, I should be stewing this for 2 1/2 hours which I did except I burnt all the good meat below. It was like the goat died twice when I made this dish. Thus, you NEED to use like a cast iron pan or just a pot with a heavy base so it does not burn the meat immediately. I guess an alternative would be to either you put the flame very low and to keep checking. I asked my mum to take a look at it and left for school - pshh I ain't got 2 1/2 hours to look at a pot. Actually, I did but I didn't (life - am I right?? Never mind.).

Mmmm...uncooked vegetables...who doesn't like this? (Me)

Another point when making this dish which was also my second mistake: salt every layer.

After you cook the onion and mutton/beef or whatever meat you use as your base with salt and pepper, you have to switch it off and start layering the vegetables. Yes - the recipe did state to salt EVERY layer, but did I? No. Like I said, I am just ignorant!!

The final step is layering is the cabbage which is sort of used like a lid to seal the heat in for the layered vegetables below. You could say that this dish is like cooking 'dum briyani'. In other words, you do NOT stir the layers. Once the cabbage is on top, you close the lid and just let it cook for 2 1/2 hours. After one hour my mother kept saying "I think it's cooked - are you sure you want to leave it for another hour?" and I was like "Mother - if the Uzbekis left it for 2 1/2 hours - I am going to leave it for 2 1/2 hours - DO NOT QUESTION THEM!!".

If there is one thing I learnt, listen to your mother - especially when it comes to cooking. (Maybe just cooking.)

You see this was my expectation:

Taken from Global Table Adventure

But in reality...

This was BEFORE I pooped this out.

You can understand my mother's frustration when she realised she had to make dinner after stewing this for 2 1/2 hours. It's ALL part of the learning process. That's what I tell myself, at least.

I think I would try this recipe again but without my mother knowing. I do not think she likes Uzbekis any more because of this experience. Or maybe she just doesn't like me. Who knows! The dish itself is good - it has that homely feel to it, if you do it right, of course :)

Well I am done with my food rant - hopefully I will post a successful cooking/baking attempt the next time! Or not!

Till next time - toodles!

It's been like 8 months? ONLY?? (Quickie)

Whoa. 8 MONTHS.

OMG.

Alright - a lot of things happened in these 8 months!! I went to Atlanta, GA for 10 weeks and had a blast over there. Had to do A LOT of cooking.

So...will definitely update soon!

Here's my favourite comic strip to entertain you guys meanwhile:

(http://thedoghousediaries.com/5875)

See y'all soon!

Mango Cheesecake - Yay or Nay?

Let's face it. I am not good in keeping this blog up to date so much but I am trying my best to - sort of. It's not like I even have fans or something. Then again, I live in my own world so...sorry fans.

Well, the other day I attempted to make a mango cheesecake for a friend's Christmas party. The last time I attempted a cheesecake which involved baking turned out to be cheese cake. In other words, I managed to screw up the science involved in baking and made into a cheese flavoured cake. The texture, taste and everything was off with the cake. Since then, I decided to stick with no-bake because the texture is more spot on for me. Not everyone has the stroke of luck with cheesecake like my sister (aka the Baking Goddess) but I still try. I must say, cheesecake might be my next red velvet project but the one thing that is pulling me from doing this, is the cost of a cream cheese block. IT'S INSANE. $5-$6 for 250g of Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Yes yes, I know I can get the alternative but they are definitely not close to Philadelphia's.

Anyway, moving onto the recipe. This was inspired by: http://www.everyrecipe.com.au/click/index/5153430/?site=i-lostinausten.blogspot.com

Before I review this recipe, I have not had mango cheesecake before and if the taste is suppose to be as such, I am not a fan. I guess if I had topped a good ol' New York cheesecake with some mango couli, it might have tasted better. Who knows?

Back to the recipe, I followed everything to its precise measurements. I used a 9 inch spring form pan for this recipe. Here are the pictures:

Le Ingreidents

Made another one to taste for my family

Pureed some mangoes - I have no idea the name of the mangoes. Thai? Indian? I don't know I used the ones that were growing on my aunt's trees.

My Mess

Mango Cream Cheese mixture

Here is the cross section of the cheesecake that I made for my family. Puny,eh?

After I baked it for 25 minutes, I left the cheesecake in the oven for 3 hours (didn't sleep till  3 AM) and then I put it into the fridge

Added some mango couli as a topping onto the mango cheesecake. 

A mistake I made was to add the couli then bring it over to my friend's place. When I reached his place, I opened the cheesecake box and only half of the cheesecake had the couli on. Talk about a smooth cheesecake surface. I should have just brought the couli over to his place and poured it over then. Well, people said they liked it but I can never trust people's opinions. I guess you could score it 5/10. Passable. Certainly not the best - but at least I got the texture right which I am proud of.

Well, here's a belated Merry Christmas AND Happy New Year! I am not going to reflect about 2013 and be all nostalgic because I don't give a crap. 

Happy Holidays, everybody:)

Duncan Hines Red Velvet Mix #CheatBake

Soooo.... how are y'all doin'? 

Yeeeahhh...It has been a while. More like 3 months and 9 days but hey, who's counting? 

Well jokes aside, it was a very hectic semester. I usually bake at least once during the semester but did not get the time to. So, when exams were over, I just had to bake something. My aunt came down to Singapore about 2 months ago and I asked her to get me a red velvet cupcake mix. I don't know what it is about me and red velvet - I am just so keen to find out more about this not-that-mysterious-over-hyped cake. Yes, I know I can do it from scratch and it does taste better but I am lazy time to time (fine, all the time) and I want to make something with a bit of satisfaction and tiny bit of hard work thus I use cake mix. Don't judge.  

Duncan Hines - Apparently a stranger recommended it to my aunt in the store. Thank you stranger. 

This cake mix is different from many others I have used before. It includes frosting! Well, let me talk about the frosting later. 

Pastry Bag included! 

Okay - this cake mix is crazy bright red. I have made red velvet many times before and I have never been able to get the perfect red that this red velvet cupcake mix does. It's crazy! The moment I added in the water, it was like as if it was the Plague of Blood and Moses dipped his staff into the bowl and turned it into blood. Perhaps that comparison was a tad extreme, but you get my point: It was really red. 

Oil, Eggs and Water - Yup...alot of hardwork...

I thought I should be innovative and change up the recipe a bit. I added these Hershey's Chocolate buttons into the cupcake mix. I know...It's like as if I have learnt how to stop time. 

Pardon the blurriness, getting used to mah new Samsung Galaxy S4 !

Well here are the baked results:

                                    

I have learnt a very important lesson from this cake mix. Never use powdered frosting mix. The cake was not bad - I would say it was moist and fluffy. The frosting, however, was bad. I'd rather make my cream cheese frosting the next time when I am not lazy and have $6 to buy 227g of Philadelphia's Cream Cheese block. Regardless, I still piped the cream cheese frosting and also added some sprinkles for some. 

My dear cousin's 'artistic' piping skills

My other cousin's piping - well, she doesn't know when to let go, clearly. #poopcake

My piping. Sigh. Of course, the picture must turn out blurry. 

SPRINKLESSSS

This brings me to the end of this baking entry.

Apart from my baking entry, what can I say about my life? It has been good. Although I had a pretty hectic semester, it was not so bad (and people say I am not open about my life more! Ha!)

Well adios! Hopefully I will squeeze in a couple more baking/cooking entries before school starts in January 2014.

Good Night(:

Can I Marry This Muffin Man?

This is an overdue post!! Been such a long time...right..I mean..yeah...okay. 

This is a shoutout to my amazing internship buddies who passed me these amazing muffins on my last day.
They were super duper good. I will just let the pictures speak :                                    
           

I know...it just makes you want to cry. What a beauty.

                                     

With Chocolate Rice

Banana Walnut... AMAZE BALLS

Cheese...wait for it

Pumpkin...this should be the way vegetables should be served

Blueberries in NTUC: 6-7 SGD...In a muffin? $1.50ish WHAT UP MUFFIN MAN.

THIS IS THE BOMB OMGOMGOMGOMG EAT THIS OMG JUST EAT IT AHHH

Yeah...my mum asked me what I was doing. Told her "Foodography"..Get it? No? Okay. 

You can find these babies here:
Chocolat and Spice
1 Tanjong Pagar Plaza, Singapore 082001

Alright. I am done. School has started. Totally loving it...haha not. God knows when I will cook/bake next!

Till then, Good Night !

Red Velvet Cupcakes [Successful ones!!!]

Good evening dear ... online readers (is that what you guys are called? I have no idea.)

I am finishing up my very first internship this Thursday and decided to bake some cupcakes for my colleagues before I leave. Thus, I made Red Velvet Cupcakes.

Before I dive into the details about the recipe, let me just say that this is probably my 4th or 5th time baking red velvet cupcakes. Each time I tried to make these, they either came out super dry or super dense or flavorless and EACH failed attempt left me depressed and pensive about my life. That's right - I used the word "pensive" which goes to show the scars these cupcakes have left me. 

Howeverrrr, my cousin once made a red velvet cake and although she didn't have the right colouring, the cake turned out moist and wonderful. Therefore, I decided to take a leap of faith last week and tried that recipe to make 40 red velvet cupcakes for my office. 

[This recipe was inspired by Divas Can Cook: http://divascancook.com/2009/11/the-best-red-velvet-cake-recipe-easy-homemade-moist-with-southern-flair.html]

As usual, I always place my ingredients in the picture to make it look ... like I'm baking which may not need so much of proof, now that I think about it. Hmm. 

I have always found making red velvet cupcakes is sort of a chemistry experiment. This is probably because there is not much technique involved except for dumping and mixing in the ingredients AND (for those who didn't know) the red colour in this velvet cake is due to the chemical reaction between the vinegar and the buttermilk which brings out this reddish brown chemical compound called anthocyanin in cocoa powder.*exit nerd mode*

 Just a tip, I have read numerous recipes where if you use Dutch processed cocoa powder, the red colour is brighter. You could try that if you want but I didn't because I am broke. (Ain't no body got time for that !)

Just in case you didn't know how to weigh flour :D

Like I said, this recipe is like a chemistry experiment so I highly advise you to measure out all your ingredients before carrying out this recipe. Also - please, PLEASE stick closely to the recipe. I will tell you why in a while.

Don't worry. It's colouring. I know. You didn't care. I'm just pretending you did.

Someone get a plaster - STAT! Haha. Just kidding. It's not funny. I know. I just..well, never mind. Anyways, I have a small container of Wilton's Red Red gel colouring. This recipe required 1-2 fl.oz and gel colouring is really really concentrated so I mixed in about 1/8 tsp with 1-2 tbsp of water before adding it into the mix.

This is before adding the dry ingredients - it's so RED! (Batch #1)

After adding the dry ingredients ... it became brown :( 

After I added in the dry ingredients, the mix became a tad brown. I am kind of an obsessive freak so I added a bit more colouring but please keep in mind that if you add a lot, the taste of the colouring will be overpowering in the cake.

Before...(duh

After... 

Alright this is batch #1. I used olive oil, halved the salt amount, cane sugar and added a bit more colouring to this. The cupcakes came out flat. There was no normal tiny hill a cupcake usually gets. It was moist and flavourful but there was no hill. However, in batch 2...

Batch #2 - After the dry ingredients were added

As you can see from the picture above, it's a bit more brown. This is because I added lesser colouring, 1 tsp salt (just as the recipe mentioned), grape seed oil (ran out of olive oil) and caster sugar (ran out of cane sugar). I added 350 g of caster sugar in this as compared to 450 g of cane before. I googled and 1 cup of sugar is apparently 225 grams but I found the previous batter a tad too sweet so I reduced the amount of sugar in the next batch. I usually prefer to weigh my ingredients instead of measuring it out by cups. I think it's more accurate and accuracy is super duper important in baking. It's almost like chemistry except you can eat your result.

Batch #1 cupcakes are on the right and Batch #2 cupcakes are on the greyish black pans. There is a difference. Fo' sho'!

Both the cupcakes turned out really well but if I had to choose, I would go with Batch #1. I thought they were more moist and flavourful compared to Batch #2. It could be the oil and sugar ratio that causes the very moist texture. Who knows but my colleagues liked both so it's really up to you how you want your cupcakes to be like.

Of course, for every red velvet cake/cupcake, there has to be a cream cheese frosting. You can't make red velvet cupcakes without this sweet, fluffy frosting. I was pretty tired from baking the cupcakes so I didn't take much pictures of the frosting except for the one below.

Do note that there are 2 cream cheese frosting recipes you can find on Divas Can Cook website. Either is fine but I preferred the Light Cream Cheese Frosting (http://divascancook.com/2012/02/light-cream-cheese-frosting-recipe.html) because it wasn't too sweet and the frosting was quite aerated which I liked a lot.

So flufffyyyyyyy!!!!

I added about 1 - 1.5 cups of icing sugar. The reason was mainly because I hate sifting and was pretty tired so I just sifted that much of icing sugar. Later, I realised I should have added one more cup because I could still taste the sourness of the cream cheese. (Is there such a word...'sourness'? But you know what I mean)

You can see the piping bag appearance above!!

nom nom cupcakes. not so poopy this time. 

I must say piping is easier with the Wilton's decorative tips. I finished piping all 48 cupcakes (this is how many cupcakes I made after 2 batches) in about 15 minutes. Of course I know that the piping tool for cupcakes are normally 1M tip but I don't have it...yet. Till then, these piping bags with the decorative tips are lifesavers.

I know. It's sexy. 

Well that's all for my red velvet cupcakes. I hope people at my office enjoyed it! And I hope you guys try it out because it really is worth the shot. Remember, when you do - you can always give me your cupcake ;)
(sounds wrong.."your cupcake"..oh well)

Good night! до свидания! [Apparently I have readers from Russia - so that's for you guys;) ]