as usual, It's been ages since i've last updated anything. this time i'm going to share an alteration of a classic sponge recipe that (so far) has always worked for me.


The sponge recipe- i got it off a friend who (i think) got it off an alex goh recipe.

120g caster sugar
10g ovallete
4 medium sized eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence or any flavour
120g flour (low protien@cake flour@super fine flour)
20mls water
20mls melted butter @ corn oil

method:

1. beat caster sugar, ovallete and eggs until light and fluffy. this may take around 5 minutes or more even when using an electric stand mixer with a whisk attachment.
2. mix in the vanilla essence @ desired flavour.
3. sift the flour and add it in small batches to egg and sugar mix, alternating with small amounts of the water. do not over mix, mix only enough to combine ingredients- alternately you can fold in the flour in water with a spatula to prevent overmixing.
4. lastly fold in the oil or melted butter.
5. to create the rainbow layers, divide the mixture into as many colours that you want to. I did four because i didn't want the layers to be to thin - it would make handling the cake harder.
6. mix in the desired colours, try not to overmix.
7. if baking the whole sponge, i would usually leave it for about 40 min - 50 min in a 180C oven (no fan) or 160 with fan.
8. for baking layers, i'd leave it for about 15-20 mins, same temperature.
9. once baked, remove from tin and cool. cooled layers can then be iced.

ideas for icing the cake

• fresh whipped cream - sweetened with icing sugar or not, which ever you prefer
• cream cheese icing
• butter cream
• choc ganache

i like to leave the rainbow layers exposed on the outside, so you can see the layers without cutting the cake.

My latest project - sewing, has been keeping me out of the kitchen. No longer am I flipping through the recipe book repeatedly day after day, no longer is my oven being turned on for hours day after day. And if any baking has been taking place, it's certainly not a new recipe that i can share; or the other possibility of my cooking not turning out well enough to share with others.

But every once and a while, my taste buds tingle for some sweet or savoury bakes- hence i hit the kitchen once again. this time, my tummy brings me to bake a batch of brownies. If you have every watched a show called 'Baking Made Easy' on BBC (i think), it gives good cooking tips, and this time, i found the tips on making brownies rather useful.

• good brownies should be crispy on the outside and goey chewy on the inside
• try to keep the egg whites as fluffy as possible by gently folding in choc mixture
• line tin with extras hanging over the side- makes removing the brownie from tin much easier

ingredients:

100g butter, plus extra for greasing
150g plain chocolate
1 tsp strong instant coffee
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g ground almonds
175g caster sugar
4 eggs seperated
icing sugar for dusting

method:

1. preheat oven to 180C/gas mark 4. grease and line the base of a 20cm/8inch square tin.
2. place the butter ans chocolate in a bowl and stir over a low heat until melted.
3. leave to cool slightly, then stir in coffee and vanilla. add the almonds and sugar and mi until combined.
4. place the egg yolk in a separate bowl and beat together lightly, then stir into the chocolate miture.
5. whisk the egg whites in a separate large owl until soft peaks form.
6. gently fold a large spoonful of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold in the remaining until fully incorporated (according to the show i mentioned earlier- you can pour the choc mixture slowly into the side of the egg white bowl to avoid pushing air out of the beaten egg whites.)- spoon into greased tin.
7. bake in the preheated oven for 35-40min. leave to cool in tin, then turn out, remove lining paper and cut into squares.
8. dust with sifted icing sugar before serving.

yumyum... bite sized treats. another recipe from the 1001 series. had to make good use of the piping bags and nozzles I had put so much effort into getting.
however, i didn't use the correct measurements for the choc sauce, so mine ended up slightly thick. maybe someone else who tries it can try the correct recipe and tell me if it was meant to be thick or slightly runny.


Ingredients:
choux pastry:
70 g butter - plus extra for greasing
200ml water
100 g plain flour
3 eggs, lightly beaten

cream filling:
300ml double cream
3 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

choc sauce:
125 g plain chocolate, broken into small pieces
35 g butter
6 tbsp water


baked profiteroles

method:

1. preheat the oven to 200C/ gas mark 6. grease a large baking sheet. sift the flour.
2. place butter and water into a pan and heat gently until butter is all melted. bring to a boil, then remove from the heat and immediately add in the flour, beating well until the mixture leaves the sides of the saucepan and forms a ball.
3. leave to cool slightly. beat in enough of the eggs to give the mixture a soft dropping consistency.
4. transfer the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a 1 cm plain nozzle and pipe small balls onto the baking tray.
5. bake in a preheated oven for 25 min. remove from the oven and pierce each ball to release steam.

for the filling:

1. place the cream, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and whip together.
2. cut the pastry balls almost half way and fill with the cream.

to make the sauce:

1. place the choc, butter and water in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water (double-boiler) and heat until smooth.

assemble:

1. pile the profiteroles into individual serving dishes or into a pyramid on a raised cake stand.
2. pour the sauce over and serve.

For my nieces 3rd birthday, I decided to try my hand at baking and decorating cupcakes. The recipe is real simple: basicly similar to a victoria sandwich.



cupcake recipe:
225g butter, softened
22g caster sugar
4 eggs
225g self-raising flour

method:

1. preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. line 2 x 12-hole bun tins with 24 paper baking cases.
2. place the butter, dugar, eggs and flour in a large bowl and beat together until just smooth.
3. spoon mixture into paper cases. (make sure you only fill half full so they dont rise to high- it helps when decorating them)
4. bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 min or until well risen, golden brown and firm to the touch.
5. transfer to a wire rack to cool

once the cupcakes are cool, you can start to decorate them.

to make the icing:

175g butter, softened
350g icing sugar

place the butter in a bowl and beat ntil fluffy. sift in the icing sgar and beat together until smooth and creamy.
A tip: if you don't have a splatter cover for your mixer, wrap a tea towel arond it while it mixes the icing sugar, so it doesn't fly all over the place.

to decorate:
spread the icing on top of each cake and decorate as you like with edible sugared flowers, sweets, choclate shapes, dried fruits, sugar strands, cake decorating sprinkles, hundreds and thousands, coloured writing icing, candles and candleholders.

A few days ago, I braved through the snowy day, up a hill, pushing a stroller all the way to a hardware store. Don't ask why I choose the snowy day of all days, but you may ask why. It's because I wanted to buy a pastry pipping nozzle.. I looked all over the city, but could not find the few that I wanted. So because i've been promising myself i'd make eclairs one fine day for over a month, I finally woke up that snowy morning and said.. why not make eclairs on a not so fine day!


It's simple enough but it pretty tedious, and I guess it needs a lot of practise or a very delicate hand to make it presentable. As usual, my food may not look it's best, but hopefully the recipes I share with you here are good ones- those that turned out for me.


Ingredients
Choux Pastry
70 g butter, diced plus extra for greasing
150mls water
100 g plain flour
2 eggs

Pastry Cream
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 tbsp caster sugar
2 tbsp cornflour
300ml milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Icing
25 g butter
1 tbsp milk
1 tbsp cocoa powder
55g icing sugar

Method:
for the choux pastry:

1. preheat the oven to 200C/ gas mark 6. grease a baking sheet. sift the flour.
2. place the water and butter into sace pan and heat gently until the butter has melted.
3. bring to boil and remove from the heat. immediately add in the flour, beating well ntil the mixture leaves the sides of the saucepan and forms a ball.
4. leave to cool slightly, then gradually beat in the eggs to form a smooth, glossy mixture.
5. spoon into a piping bag fittes with a 1cm/1/2 inch plain nozzle. sprinkle the baking sheet with bit of water and pipe eclairs 7.5cm long, spaced well apart. (i made mine shorter so i got more)
6. bake in a preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or ntil crisp and golden. make a small slit at the side to allow steam to escape, and leave to cool on a cooling rack.

while the pastry is baking, make the pastry cream

1. place the sugar and eggs in a large bowl and beat until creamy and thick. fold in the cornflour.
2. heat the milk in a pan until boiling. remove from heat and pour into egg mixture while whisking.
3. return to the pan and continue to heat until thick and glossy. add the vanilla extract and mix. allow to cool completely.

for the icing:

1. melt the butter in a seperate pan and mix in milk
2. remove from the heat and stir in cocoa powder and icing sugar.

to assemble:
split the eclairs lenghtways and pipr in the pastry cream. spread the icing over the top of the eclair. leave to set.



p/s: it may look sweet and toothaching, but honestly it's not. all in all, there's very little sugar used in comparison to other desserts, none at all the pastry.

Mee rojak, or loosely translated as mixed noodles is a common dish back home. it is synonymous with the rojak truck parked by the road side, with long lines around lunch or tea time and is almost always is sold next to the ABC truck.


As usual, when it comes to these kinds of food, I don't have a proper recipe, but I did try my best to get the measurement as accurate as possible. I don't have one single source for this recipe but rather put together a little bit from one place, and a little bit from another.

The good thing about mee rojak is that you don't need a lot of one thing to make it work. A little bit of everything is fine, which is an extremely good thing when food stocks are running low in the kitchen- and you get so much in the end!

Almost anything can be used to put this rojak together- it's almost like a salad, only half the ingredients are fried, and only the other half are fresh.

Some of the common things used include:

• egg noodles (i obviously used spaggetti!)
• boiled eggs
• blanched spinach
• roughly cut cucumber
• roughly cut radish (of sengkuang if you can find it)
• fried potato wedges
• fried tauhu
• fried tempe
• fried crispy dough balls (jemput2 ranggup)
• fish crackers? - keropok ikan
  

The sweet and spicy peanut sauce is the key element in binding everything together to make a rojak.

For the sweet and spicy peanut sauce, i tried to make it as simple as possible:
3 tbsp chili boh
1 1/2 cup ground peanuts
4-6 tbsp dark brown sugar (originally- unrefined cane sugar/ gula melaka)
400mls water
salt to taste

method:

1. heat 3 tbsp oil in a pan. fry the chili boh for about 2-3 minutes. add in the peanuts.
2. add the water and leave to boil.
3. gradually add in salt and sugar, tasting at intervals. it is meant to be slightly sweet.
4. if too thick, slowly add more water. leave to boil for 5 minutes.

tip: you can go through the trouble of roasting peanuts, removing the skin and grinding them, or... you can use one of my favorite cheats- use roasted salted peanuts straight from the bag- although you might want to boil them in water first then blending them till they resemble ground peanuts soaked in water. also, lessen salt as the peanuts are already salted.



For the crispy dough balls (jemput2 ranggup)
200gm plain flour
1 tsp yeast
salt to taste
1 tsp sugar
warm water- add gradually just enough to bind mixture into a thick paste

method:

1. add all into a bowl and cover with cling film.
2. allow to rise for 1 hour- don't mix as this will push all the air out
3. fry spoonfuls of the dough in hot oil until golden brown and cut in half or quaters (bite sizes)

For my husbands birthday, I made two different cakes. The first was a Chocolate Chiffon Cake (which I'm still trying to make work - will update with results once I really succeed!) because he has long asked for a light spongy kind of cake. The second was a cake I wanted to make so I could decorate it with icing.



So this is the second cake I made. A Victoria Sandwich with Lemon Buttercream Icing and a strawberry jam filling. I know the filling and icing don't really go together, but I had limited ingredients so whatever's there will have to work.



Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
175g butter, at room temp
175g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
175g self-raising flour
pinch of salt

Method:

1. preheat oven to 180C/gas mark 4
2. grease two 8inch sponge tins and line with grease proof paper
3. cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until pale, light and fluffy
4. add egg a little at a time, beating well after each addition
5. sift the flour and salt and carefully add to the mixture, folding in with spatula
6. divide the mixture between tins and smooth over with spatula
7. place on the same shelf in center of oven and bake for 25-30min until well risen, golden brown and beginning to shrink from sides of tin
8. remove from oven and allow to stand for 1 min
9. loosen the cakes from around the edge of the tins using a palette knife. turn the cakes out on a tea towel, remove paper and invert them onto a wire rack - avoids wire rack line on top of cake
10. when completely cool, sandwich together with jam.

review:
traditionally the sandwich is decorated by sprinkling icing sugar over the cake
for the filling, other options are buttercream icing (but a bit sweet) are whipped cream sweetened slightly with a bit sugar.
for the topping, you can use buttercream icing or even melted chocolate

I'll add the recipe for basic buttercream icing

225g butter, softened
1 tbsp cream or milk
350g icing sugar

1. beat butter and cream
2. gradually sift in icing sugar
3. beat until smooth

I replaced the cream/milk with 1tbsp lemon juice and added a few drops of yellow colouring to make a lemon buttercream icing.

We hardly ever buy biscuits anymore. Mostly because we have decided to reduce snacking! And guess what? We didn't really miss it!

But sometimes, when the snacking pang hits (especially when i'm hungy and looking through the cook book with beautiful pictures), it's nice to have some biscuits or cookies laying around. So I decided, on this occasion that I would make my own "beautiful" biscuits.



These biscuits are called Double Heart Cookies. The dark heart is chocolate and the lighter heart is coffee flavour. The original recipe called for instant latte, but I only had instant mocha, so the colour turned out slightly darker than the original recipe.


Ingredients:
1 packet instant latte
1 1/2 tsp hot water
225g butter
140g caster sugar
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
250g plain flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp cocoa powder
pinch of salt

Method:

1. Mix latte and hot water to form paste.
2. Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolk.
3. Divide mixture into half.
4. Beat in the latte paste into one half. Sift 140g of the flour with salt into mixture and stir until combined. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and chill in fridge for 30-60 min.
5. Beat the vanilla extract into the other half, then sift together the remaining flour, cocoa powderand salt into the mixture. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30-60min.
6. Preheat the oven to 190C/ Gas mark 5, and line 2 baking sheets with baking paper.
7. Unwrap both doughs and roll out between 2 sheets of baking paper.
8. Cut out heart shapes and lay on baking tray. Cut out 2 smaller heart shapes and switch the colours (imagine from the photos!)
9. Bake in a preheated oven for 10-15min, leave to cool for 5-10min on baking sheet, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Review:

• Try to make the cookies slightly thinner, it tastes so good when it's crispy.
• I used mocha instead of latte, taste good anyhow.
• It's kind of a hassle but look at them, they're just so pretty!
• Do cool them on a wire rack to make sure they crisp up instead of turn soggy on cooling.
• they keep well in an air tight jar for a few days.. that is if they last with out being eaten first!
• these cookies are actually HUGE but I also used a huge mug, hence they ended up looking normal sized.
• a 7 inch heart shaped cutter can get you approx 30 biscuits.
  

The original recipe is actually called Rum & Raisin Muffins. I decided to change it around a bit after watching a kiddy cooking show makin tea and raisin loaf. So instead of soaking the raisins in rum, I soaked them in hot plain tea.

This is the second time i've made this, mostly because the ingredients are almost always available at home.. just oil, milk, raisins... as opposed to some of the other recipes using sour cream, double cream etc2. It makes baking possible even when your food stores are running low.



Ingredients:

200g raisins
3 tbsp hot tea
6 tbsp sunflower oil
280 g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt
115g soft dark brown sugar
2 eggs
200ml milk

Method:

1. Dry bowl: sift flour, baking powder, soda bicarbonate, salt. Mix in sugar.
   
2. Wet bowl: mix together lightly beaten eggs, milk and oil.
   
3. mix wet and dry bowl contents. add raisins and stir gently, mixing only until just combined.
4. spoon mixture into muffin tin and bake in a preheated oven (200C/gas mark 6) for 2o mins. (10 mins for mini muffins)
   
5. leave to cool for 5 min in tin and serve warm.
   

Review:

• Like I mentioned before, I repleced rum with tea. I can't compare the taste, but it still tastes good.
• Don't add any sugar to the tea as it raisins are usually sweet enough.
• I also added a handful of walnuts, just to give the muffin more substance as I only had half the amont of raisins. (also because I was finishing up all the little bits left over)
• I made half of the mixture into MINI MUFFINS (as in the pics) and the other half into normal sized muffins, and because of that, I cut up most of the raisins, just so the mini muffins wouldn't be to full of raisins.

When you mention muffins, quite often people will assume it's something sweet. When I came over this recipe, I was excited. Mostly because at this stage of the 'muffin binge' I was tired of sweet muffins.

Usually the closest thing you get with savoury bakes are savoury scones and buns. So when I found this recipe, I really wanted to try it out as sort of a breakfast muffin.



Ingredients:
6 tbsp sunflower oil (vege oil is fine too)
280g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp soda bicarbonate
pinch of salt
freshly ground pepper
2 eggs
150mls natural yoghurt
150g full-fat soft cheese, flavoured with garlic and herbs

Method:

1. Dry bowl: sift flour, baking powder, soda bicarbonate, salt. Add enough pepper to taste.
   
2. Wet bowl: mix together lightly beaten eggs, yoghurt, oil and soft cheese until smooth.
3. mix wet and dry bowl contents and stir gently, mixing only until just combined.
4. spoon mixture into muffin tin and bake in a preheated oven (200C/gas mark 6) for 2o mins.
5. leave to cool for 5 min in tin and serve warm.
   

Review:

• Served warm and fresh out of the oven, with a generous spread of butter is the best way to be eaten.
• I would probably add quite a lot of pepper because I things a bit spicy. Also it's worth tasting before baking to make sure you have enough salt, as it is savoury, the last thing you want it for it to be tasteless.
• As a breakfast muffin, it would work wonderfully with some eggs (scrambled, fried, poached), grilled tomatoes and mushrooms.. the works. sort of like replacing toast!

Don’t you just love the smell of a fresh cup of coffee in the morning? It’s one of those smells that everybody can’t resist taking another sniff of, like freshly mowed grass after the rain or delicious foods baking in the oven. Speaking of baking and coffee, this recipe is the perfect idea for a teatime.. a perfect coffee and sugar fix.

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 tbsp sunflower oil
• 2 tbsp instant coffee granules
• 2 tbsp boiling water
• 280 g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 115 g soft dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 200mls double cream

TOPPING

• 300mls whipping cream
• cocoa powder for dusting

Method:

1. Dry bowl: sift flour, baking powder, salt. stir in sugar.
2. Wet bowl: mix together lightly beaten eggs, double cream, oil and dissolved coffee (mixing the instant coffee granules with the boiling water)
3. mix wet and dry bowl contents and stir gently, mixing only until just combined.
4. spoon mixture into muffin tin and bake in a preheated oven (200C/gas mark 5) for 2o mins.
5. leave to cool. just before serving, whip the cream and dollop on top of the muffins and dust with cocoa powder.

My daughter loves bananas. Who doesn't? It's especially handy when you have little kids and you want to go out. It's like an instant meal, no need to wash, no need to wrap.

As your kids get bigger, they still love bananas, but sometimes you just need to get a little more creative in the way you present them with their '5-a-day'.




For the full recipe, I'll re direct you to the original page that I got it from ... here or here

Review:

• absolutely yummy
• less sugar is more (the recipe's a bit sweet)
• the riper the banana the better
• sprinkle chocolate chips on top just before baking to give them the full-of-chocolate-chips-but-actually-none-inside effect
• I need more chocolate in mine as the marbled effect is not very evident. (me? not enough chocolate? huhu macam tak percaya)

Wanted to make muffins like the ones we always see in coffee shops.
Found this recipe and the picture in the recipe book looked absolutely delicious. Tried to make them too, but the pictures probably aren't as good.

Method:
preheat oven to 200C or gas mark 6.
line a 12-hole muffin tray
sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.
stir in sugar and white choc chips.
place eggs in a large jug and beat lightly, then beat in cream and oil.
make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the beaten liquid ingredients.
stir gently until just combined, DO NOT OVERMIX.
spoon the mixture into paper cases.
bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until well risen and firm to the touch.
Leave to cool in the tin for 5 min before removing.

I always loved the doughnuts sold in dublin but was always under the impression that doughnut are soooo tedious to make. I wasn't so wrong in my assumptions. they are tedious, and if you are a 'lazy' cook like me who enjoys the art of "chuck, chuck, chuck...done", you'll need a bit of patience. not only do you have to wait and hour for the 1st rise, you have to let it rise a second time for 45 mins. even then you're not done... you need to fry it in small batches until wonderfully golden brown, dust with sugar.. then only you're done. but on a good day, that you feel up to the task, and assisted with the power of the KMix, it is SO worth it.


Ingredients:
sunflower oil for greasing and cooking
450g strong white flour
55g butter cut into pieces
25g caster sugar, plus extra for dusting
1/2 tsp salt
7g sachet easy-blend dried yeast
1 egg
175 ml lukewarm milk
150g seedless raspberry jam (if doing filling)

method:
lightly grease a large bowl and 2 baking sheets. place the flour in a large bowl, add the butter and rub it until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Stir in the sugar, salt and yeast. Make a well in the center and add the egg and milk, then mix to form a soft pliable dough. knead well for 10 mins, then place to rise for 1 hr. (or chuck every thing into an electric mixer and knead for 5-10 min)

if making filled doughnuts:
Knead the dough on a floured work surface, then divide into 10 balls and place on baking sheet. cover in warm place and leave to double in size for 45 mins.
heat the oil and deep fry the doughnuts in 2-3 bacthes for 2-3 min on each side. drain and dust with sugar.
place the jam in a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle. insert a sharp knife into each doughnut and twist to make a hole. push the point of the nozzle into the hole and pipe in some jam.

or a simple option- ring doughnuts:
after the first rise, knock back the dough and knead again.
roll out the dough until it is 1cm thick. cut 8 cm circles and 2.5cm circles for the center. place on baking sheet to rise.
re-roll trimmings as necessary.
deep fry and dust with caster sugar mixed with ground cinnamon or spread the tops with glace icing.

see... "simple" :)
but very satisfying! this recipe so far is really soft, and stays soft well after being cooked. totally worth the effort.

made buah melaka for iftar last sunday.

apparently, 'green' natural food colouring is not 'GREEN'. it's a pretty apple green before being cooked, but turns more yellowish once boiled.

buah melaka is very simple and a good dessert or snack to make in a hurry.

1 year since last update.

I'll just put up some pictures.


Made Popiah to bring to the neighbours for iftar.

made pizza again.. looked for a good and simple dough recipe. found one on 'all recipe' website.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pizza-Dough-III/Detail.aspx

dough recipe:

7g dry yeast (or one packet)
1 cup warm water
2 cups bread flour (or what ever flour you have)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons white sugar


directions:

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, combine 2 cups bread flour, olive oil, salt, white sugar and the yeast mixture; stir well to combine. Beat well until a stiff dough has formed. Cover and rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3. Turn dough out onto a well floured surface. Form dough into a round and roll out into a pizza crust shape. Cover with your favorite sauce and toppings and bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

simple enough... and it keeps soft even though it been in the fridge all night- unlike the last pizza i made.

topping idea:
-rendang pizza: just fry a bit of mince meat in instant rendang sauce, and base the pizza with a mix of chili sauce and tomato sauce instead if just tomato, for a malaysian twist to the pizza. top off with onions, tomatos, mushrooms, green red yellow peppers and generous amounts with grated cheddar and mozarella cheese.

i bet no one has ever walked past the biscuits, chocs and sweets isle without taking a glance at the yummy looking marshmallow bags.... i certainly have, and have always been disapointed to see that it always.. always contains gelatin. to be more specific: pork gelatin.

it might not be a prob for non-muslims, but us muslims take great care in what we consume, and anything from an animal source requires special attention.

also, having found that halal marshmallows cost a bundle (around 3 euros for 100gm bag?? i guess) i decided to make my own!!

found halal gelatin from back home- can be found in most baking stores and costs barely nothing when converted into euros.
i also couldn't find light corn syrup... after pacing up and down (at 7 and a half months pregnant mind you) rathmines road... so i substituted it for original golden syrup. the only thing is it adds just a little bit more 'syrup' taste then what corn syrup would give you- but it works.

i got the recipe off of this website:
http://bakingbites.com/2004/12/homemade-marshmallows/

certainly turned out well enough.. only thing is that it makes quite a lot of it, even though in the start it might seem like a little- so you might want to plan what you want to use the marshmallow for.
or you could just save it in the freezer for when ever you need it.

(pics later)

This was actually one of the first recipes from the internet that i tried when I came to dublin. at that time, everyone else was kind-of wanting to learn how to make apple pie but i just felt too lazy to be making crusts. I remembered a time when i was small in NZ, my sister Syarina had learnt how to make apple crumble at school, and made it for us at home. So i decided to make it. looked up the recipe online and gave it a shot. i dont remember what site it was anymore because it's so simple, no need for measurements.

Apple:
- granny smith apples, peeled and diced
- brown sugar
- white sugar
- cinnamon powder

crumble:
- flour
- brown sugar
- butter

mix all the 'apple' ingredients
mix all the crumble ingredients until you get a breadcrumb texture
lay the 'apple' into a dish
spread the 'crumble' over
bake until the juice of the 'apple' bubbles at the sides and the crumble is golden brown.

serve hot (or microwave before serving) with custard or whipped cream (optional)- just like apple pie, only simpler :)

mak always made lasagna almost-always-at-least-once when bangrin came home for the holidays. and we are so used to mak's delicious lasagna that any other kind of lasagna just wont do. I don't really like the lasagna people sell in shops mainly because it's so bland and boring.
mak's lasagna always had a kick, must have the malaysian taste (fry in some chili-boh with the onions to make it a bit spicy), and is always full of veges. I know some people like lasagna with only meat in the red sauce, but i prefer it with veges. usually I use carrots, cellery, cabbage and mushrooms but mak also usually uses spinach leaves. this way you can actually use less beef (hence making it cheaper), more filling and more healthy!!
Need the recipe? just ask...