26 May 20 (Tue) - Marble Butter Cupcakes (2nd attempt)

Attempted this recipe the second time with the suggestions received previously. The cakes didn't crack this round but they still sink and created wrinkles. Oh well... at least some improvements from the first round. Shall attempt it again to try and get cakes with smooth top.

11 May 20 (Mon) - Mini Chocolate Croissants

There have been many posts on using frozen prata for a lot of pastries on the Facebook group "Home-cooked Delights 家常便饭" page. Since there are some frozen prata sitting in the freezer, decided to also jump onto the bandwagon.

Experimented by making mini chocolate croissants. The result was rather good.

10 May 20 (Sun) - Honeydew Sago

There were a lot of soy milk in the fridge and the honeydew bought recently wasn't sweet. So what to do to finish all these items? Honeydew Sago dessert! Googled for a recipe to use as a base to follow and found this recipe by Roti & Rice.

Improvised to suit my needs and the result was a refreshing dessert just nice for a hot, hot day.

01 May 20 (Fri - Labour Day) - No-mixer Double Chocolate Banana Cake

There were three very ripe bananas at home so put them to use by baking a banana cake. Googled for easy recipe and found this no-mixer double chocolate banana cake recipe by Foodie Baker. The top of the cake was rather hard but fortunately the inside of the cake was moist and soft. Probably need to reduce the temperature and bake longer instead.

I reduced the amount of cocoa powder and it was a good thing I did because otherwise the cake would be rather bitter. Overall, it was quite good except that I will need to reduce the amount of cocoa powder some more the next time or omit it totally since the recipe already called for chocolate chips/chunks.

22 Apr 20 (Wed) - Marble Butter Cupcake

My sis found this marble butter cupcake recipe by Kimiya Lim and told me to give it a try. The steps seem simple enough to follow so gave it a try.

Don't know why my bakes always rose and crack in the oven then sink after cool. Posted on the Facebook group "Home-cooked Delights 家常便饭" page to ask for advice and some members told me to try to lower the temperature and bake longer as well as to only fill 2/3 of the baking cup.

Shall give this recipe another try with the suggestions given.

20 Apr 20 (Mon) - Easy Jam Doughnut Muffin

Have been craving for doughnuts for a while now so googled for a simple recipe to try to satisfy my craving. Found this easy jam doughnut muffin recipe by Baking TaiTai and gave it a try. Didn't have any jam around but I have some chocolate chips so improvised as I go along.

Taste-wise, I should have increased the sugar level by a little given the lack of jam. Fortunately, I added chocolate chips, at least not too bland. The doughnut muffins are very crispy though. Hee...

10 Apr 20 (Fri) - Cotton Cheesecake

More time at home due to the circuit breaker so decided to use the time to try and do more baking to improve my skill. Found this cotton cheesecake recipe by Josephine's Recipes and gave it a try. Don't know why the top crack. Wonder if it was because the oven temperature was too high.

Fortunately, the cake still tasted good and soft. Happy!

28 Mar 20 (Sat) - Huat Kuih (发糕) and Dalgon Coffee

Saw someone posted her Huat Kuih photos on the Facebook group "Home-cooked Delights 家常便饭" page. Her Huat Kuihs looked very pretty in yellow and pink. The kind lady shared her recipe in her post and I decided to try it out myself this weekend since I just bought a pack of self-rising flour. Then saw many other people posting their Dalgon Coffee photos in the same group page and found it to be very interesting. Googled about Dalgon Coffee and realized that it is a current trend in Korea with very simple ingredients and steps to do. Just need instant coffee, white sugar and hot water at a ratio of 1:1:1, whipped till thick and foamy then pour over milk. So decided to try it out this weekend too. It was a crazy first quarter and I really need some cooking therapy to keep myself sane and happy.

Went to the market to get breakfast and finally I broke away from my usual routine of yong tau foo bee hoon mee dry and went for the pig intestines porridge which I haven't eaten for a long, long time. Felt very happy and took my own sweet time to savour the porridge.

Then went on to start my cooking of the day: Huat Kuih. Followed the steps closely and towards the last few steps where I had to mix the colouring, my mobile phone rang and I got a shock. I ended up with a big splash of red colouring in my batter. Continued to fill the cake cases with the batter while cursing. Finally put them into the steamer to steam for 15 minutes on high. My pot has a glass cover so I was able to see the Huat Kuih rose and split at the top. So happy!

After the Huat Kuih was done and left on a rack to cool. I went on to make the Dalgon Coffee using those sachets of instant coffee that I had collected during my last trip. Only managed to get 1 tablespoonful and 1 teaspoonful. Added them to a bowl, measured the same amount of sugar and poured in. Lastly, heated up the black coffee that I had set aside earlier in the morning, measured the same amount and poured into the bowl. Used the mini electric hand mixer which I had gotten from Daiso few years back to mix the ingredients.

Mixed them for quite a long time and still didn't manage to get the thick, foamy consistency. I almost wanted to give up, yet I was too stubborn to give up. So continued to mix in a slightly different way hoping that it will thicken and foam up faster. Finally my patience was rewarded. Poured some soy milk into a glass and topped it with the whipped coffee. Overestimated the amount of whipped coffee I had and thus underestimated the amount of soy milk poured in. In the end, the overall presentation wasn't as nice as I had imagined. Next round I shall try the matcha version.

Nevertheless, I managed to succeed in doing what I had planned to do for cooking to day and that's a win for me already.

15 Mar 20 (Sun) - Tteokbokki and Mini Oreo Cheesecake

Craved for tteobokki and I had rice cakes and sauce in the pantry. So went to get some flat fishcakes and wongbok to cook. Threw everything into the pot and let it boiled then simmered for another 10 minutes. Yummy!

Saw someone posted this Mini Oreo Cheesecake recipe in the Facebook group "Home-cooked Delights 家常便饭" recently. Watched the video and it seemed simple enough to follow. So went to get the cream cheese and cake cases.

As usual, I played around with the recipe. Instead of using the full 250g of cream cheese, I used 225g and topped up the balance 25g with greek yogurt. Had some blueberries in the fridge, so popped a couple of blueberries in each cake case.

Baked them in the pre-heated oven of 160 degree Celsius for 16 minutes. Took them out to check and popped them back in for another 1.5 minutes. Took them out and left to cool on the rack. Should have keep the duration as 16 minutes, by adding 1.5 minutes, the top of the some of the cheesecakes started to crack. Took one to check and taste. Noticed that it was a bit damp on the bottom, there was condensation. Should have removed them from the silicon cases before letting them cool on the rack.

Should have keep it at 16 minutes.	Just out from the oven.
After removing from the silicon cases.	After removing the cake case.

The cheesecake tasted great and easy to do, so the recipe is a keeper.

14 Mar 20 (Sat) - Baked Korean Spicy Chicken and Black Glutinous Rice [Bubur Pulut Hitam] Kueh (黑糯米糕)

Bought a bottle of spicy hot sauce from my trip to Busan last year and decided to try it out. Not very sure how to use it so just experimented with the usual chicken wings. Marinated the mid-joint wings overnight with some salt and sauce then baked at 200 degree Celsius for 25 minutes.

Not sure if it was because I was using it in the wrong method or cooking the chicken wings in the wrong method, the taste wasn't great. Just very spicy. Maybe next round, I will try cooking something else with the sauce.

Found a pack of coconut cream which was expiring soon. So had been googling the Internet for easy recipe to use. In the end, I decided to try modify some of the kueh recipes I found online. First, I used the bottom layer recipe from this Seri Muka recipe by Rasa Malaysia. For the top, I adapted the Steamed Coconut Custard recipe from Steam & Bake because I didn't have all-purpose flour to create the top layer from Rasa Malaysia's recipe.

The result was... I also don't know how to describe. The bottom layer was ok, the top not so much. Partly because it was very soft and also I was using the wrong baking tin to steam. When I tried to remove the kueh, the top layer was stuck to the side of the tin. The baking tin was the extendable type so when I extend the sides, the top layer broke.

Taste-wise, I guess I should have used the egg whites instead of the yolk, the yolk taste was a bit overpowering. Found some gula melaka in the fridge, so poured some over the kueh, turned out the taste improved when everything was mixed together.

Will I try again, I guess not.