flourless peanut butter cookie.

Actually, this recipe is very easy to make. I got the recupe from allrecipes.com You don't need lots of ingredients too, just these:

• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup sugar (or mix 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar)
• 1 egg

Mix all of the ingredients altogether and bake for 8 minutes to 10 minutes. BUT. I've never made a flourless cookies before, so i didn't know whether the cookies are done or not (after 8 minutes). And so i add 5 more minutes for to cookie to baked in the overn and the result was... the bottoms were slightly overbaked. Despite the overbaked cookie bottoms, they taste quite good. Oh and another thing, it's best for you to always keep in mind: when baking,  make sure you're in a good, relaxing mood, and the result will be just fine. Do not bake when you're in a rush or in a bad mood. Cheers!

butter cookies.

I made this last month for my babyshower. Just add icing with a few colors from food colorings and then you're done. This recipe suits for a small celebration and doesn't cause you too much effort. Have fun!

All you need:

• 1 cup butter (at room temperature)
• 1 cup white sugar (make it 1/2 cup, or else it'll be too sweet)
• 1 egg
• 2 2/3 cups plain flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Cover dough, and chill for at least one hour. Chill cookie sheets.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Press dough out onto ungreased, chilled cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly golden at the edges. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks. 
4. Decorate cookies with icing and colorful sprinkles.  

tiramisu.

I always thought that making tiramisu is a difficult task to do. But when i did a little research on how to make it, turns out it's the easiest thing to do. I got the recipe from Nicko's Kitchen. He's an Australian who's got a cooking channel on youtuhbe, you might want to check it out.


All you need:

20 sponge fingers (lady fingers)
1 cup sugar (make it 1/2 or it'll taste too sweet)
4 eggs (separated)
2 cups espresso
1 1/2 cups mascarpone cheese
2 tbsp rum or Kahlua

Directions:

1. Separate egg yolk and egg whites into 2 bowls
2. Cream together egg yolks with mascarpone cheese and sugar
3. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until it forms a soft peak and a bit firm
4. Fold together egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. Slowly fold them with your spatula. It's best not to use electric beater, because it tends to make your mixture too liquidy. Leave the mixture for a while while you are preparing the lady fingers.
5. Make 2 cups of coffee or espresso, and mix it with rum or Kahlua.
6. Dip the sides of lady fingers and arrange them in a dish.
7. Pour half of the mixture on top of the pre-arranged lady fingers until fully covered. And then prinkle with chocolate powder.
8. Repeat the same method
9. Chill in refrigerator for 2 hours or more, for the best result.

Libby's pumpkin pie.

 A while ago, when i was strolling down the aisles of a supermarket, i found a can of Libby's Pumpkin Puree, and i thought i could make something out of it. It turns out that Libby's has a famous pumpkin pie recipe that i finally try to make last weekend. I' was too lazy to make my own pie crust, so i devoted my baking session to Keebler's Ready Crust, since it always taste so good, you wouldn't want to stop eating the whole pie.

Here are what you need to make this scrumptious pumpkin pie:

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground clove
• 2 large eggs
• 1 can (15 oz.) Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 1 can (12 fl. oz) evaporated milk
• 1 Keebler's Ready Crust pie shell
• Whipped cream (not optional, it's a must!)

Directions:

1. Mix sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in small bowl.
2. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.
3. Pour mixture into the pie shell.
4. Bake in preheated 425° F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours.
5. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Top with whipped cream before serving (give a generous amount of it to please everyone).
   

french toast.

The easiest and quickest way to serve breakfast to your loved ones (not including my husband, because he hates bread to the bone). Got the recipe from here.

What you need:

• 4 eggs
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 8 slices of bread
• Butter
• Maple syrup or Nutella or palm sugar

How to:

1. Beat together the eggs, milk, and cinnamon. Whisk until well blended.
2. Dip each slice of bread into the egg mixture, allowing the bread to soak up some of the mixture.
3. Melt some butter over a pan on medium heat. Fry bread until brown in both sides.
4. Serve them warm with anything. Maple syrup, vanilla ice cream, palm sugar, jam or nutella.

whoopie pies.

I've been meaning to make Whoopie Pies since i don't know when. Couple of days ago a friend of mine asked me to make this, and this is it! I got the recipe from the whoopie pie recipes collection at www.taste.com.au 

What you need:

• 125 g butter (1 stick), softened
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1/3 cup baking cocoa
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (substitute it with plain yoghurt)

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C
2. Line 4 trays with baking paper
3. Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time.
4. Meanwhile, sift flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda, and baking powder into a bowl. 
5. Add half the flour mixture to butter mixture, stir to combine. Add hal of the buttermilk and stir to combine. Repeat with the remaining flour mixture and buttermilk until just combined.
6. Drop level tablespoons of misture pntro prepared trays, 5 cm apart. Bake 1 tray at a time for 8 to 10 minutes, or until puffed and cooked through.
7. I'm using green tea frosting and cheese cream frosting remainings from the cupcakes i made. After the doughs are cooked through, sandwich level tablespoons (or you can just pipe the frosting) between cakes to make at least 20 whoopie pies.
8. There you go, easy and very delicious!

cornflakes chocolate chip cookies.

 It's long weekend once again. For family gathering, i'm making coffee cupcakes and cornflakes chocolate chip cookies. It's very easy to make. I'm not sure where i got the recipe, i think it was from random channels on youtube. 

Ingredients:

• 125 g butter (at room temperature)
• 1 1/3 self-raising flour
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chocolate chip
• 1/2 cup cornflakes (crushed)
• 2 eggs
• vanilla extract

rainbow butter cookies.

Since rainbow cakes are totally overrated and i've already got the chance making it, i would like to try something new, that is to make rainbow butter cookies. The recipe i'm using is the most simple butter cookie recipe. It's very easy, but you got to be patient to do this.

All you need:

• 1 cup butter (at room temperature)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, mix together butter and sugar until light and fluffy
2. Beat in the egg, and stir in vanila
3. Combine the flour ans salt, and then stir into the butter sugar mixture
4. Divide in 6 or 7 sections, color them each in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.
5. Cover doughs with plastic wrap, and pop into the fridge for at least one hour
6. Roll the purple dough until round and long, followed by rolling the blue dough and make it into a sheet. And then wrap the purple dough into the blue dough.
7. Do the same with green, yellow, orange, and finally red dough. At this points, you want to have a quite big red dough with other colors inside
8. Pop in the refrigerator again to prevent the dough becoming soft
9. After that, cut the dough into thin pieces and then cut in half. You want to have a half circle shape that looks like rainbow.
10. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C, assemble the cookie dough pieces on to a cooking tray
11. This is optional, you can sprinkle sugar on top of the cookies before you pop them into the oven.
12. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden at the edges. Remove cookie from the tray and put them in the wire racks.

crepes.

This morning i made a super-easy crepes recipe that i got from AllRecipe.com. It's the quickest and the easiest way to prepare your breakfast. Go try!

All you need:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
  
• you can add 1 tbsp sugar if you like

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and the eggs. Gradually add in the milk and water, stirring to combine. Add the salt, butter, and sugar; beat until smooth.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.
3. Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side. Serve hot.
4. For the filling, you can use anything from nutella (or other brand of chocolate spread, hazelnut i'd prefer), peanut butter, strawberry jam, or whatever. Or you could simply sprinkle confectioner sugar over the folded crepes and you are ready to go. Have fun!
   
   
   
   

super-fluffy wholemeal pancakes.

Happy Sunday morning!

Since this is a long weekend, i'm having so much fun at home with my nephew and niece and get the chance to cook something again. This time i want to try a super-fluffy wholemeal pancakes recipe from Best Recipes.

All you need:

• 3/4 cup wholemeal flour
• 1 tbsp soft brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs

Method:

1. Mix together dry ingredients in a bowl
2. Make a well in the centre, add eggs and buttermilk
3. Whisk until smooth
4. Pour a quarter cup of mixture into a non-stick frying pan brushed with a little bit of oil
5. When bubbles appearand the edges start to dry, flip over and cook on the other side
6. Serve warm with you choice of toppings. This time i use powdered sugar, butter, honey, and bananas.

Enjoy your lovely breakfast!

spaghetti meatballs.

Another weekend recipe to make at home. Easy, delicious, but not quite healthy, haha. I made this for approximately 3 to 4 people.

All you need:

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 pack already made spaghetti sauce (yeah, too lazy)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 2 cups beef stock
• 1/2 package angel hair spaghetti pasta
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp oregano
• salt and pepper

How to make:

1. Heat olive oil in a large pan. Add garlic and onion and cook until lightly browned.
2. Stir in spaghetti sauce, sugar, oregano, bay leaf, and add beef stock. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer while preparing meatballs.
   
3. In a bowl, mix ground beef with thyme, salt, and pepper. Roll into 1 inch balls and then drop them into the sauce.
4. Cook meatballs for 20-30 minutes in the sauce.
5. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil and stir in the spaghetti. Cook 8 to 10 minutes and then drain.
6. Serve the meatballs and sauce over the cooked angel hair spaghetti.
   

honey baked chicken wings.

February 29th, 2012.

You may got bored already because i haven't posted anything besides cupcakes all this time. That's because i've got so many people ordering my home-made cupcakes, so i haven't tried another cake recipe ever since. Well, maybe because i haven't got much time to try new cake recipes. But since i have to prepare meals for my husband, i think from now on to a couple months forward, i will try out some of savoury recipes. Last Wednesday i've successfully made this honey baked chicken wings recipe that i got from cooks.com. Here goes :)

What you need:

• Chicken wings (i only use 6, cut in half so you have 12 pieces)
• 2 tbsp olive or vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 tbsp ketchup (this one i didn't use)
• 1 cup honey
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
2. Season chicken wings with salt and pepper to taste
3. Mix together with remaining ingredients until well blended. Place chicken wings in baking dish, top with the sauce and cover. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours.
4. Remove wings from sauce and set aside.
5. Pour the remaining sauce to a small saucepan and then simmer for 15-20 minutes on loe heat. This sauce we're gonna use for basting.
6. Bake chicken wings in the pre-heated oven for 1 hour, or until wings are well browned. Baste frequently with reserved sauce.

thai prawn salad.

February 19th, 2012.

Hello! Just got back from a very amazing honeymoon trip to Phuket. All i can tell you is each and every Thai food i found there is super delicious. I love the tangy taste every food has, and the combination of sweet, sour, and spicy just blew me away. So when we got home, i miss eating Thai food and i want to learn how to cook Thai food. And here's my first attempt: Thai Prawn Salad.

I got the recipe from taste.com.au, here's the ingredients and how to make it:

• 1 stick lemon grass (trimmed, thinly sliced)
• 1/2 lime juice (you can use lemon juice, but it doesn't taste as good as lime juice)
• 2 tbsp peanut oil (you can use canola or sunflower oil)
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp palm or brown sugar
• 2 small red chillis (deseeded, thinly sliced)
• 1 kg green king prawns
• 2 Lebanese cucumber (peeled into long strips) - optional
• 2 green onions (thinly sliced diagonally)
• 1/2 cup coriander leaves
• 1/3 cup mint leaves
• 1/4 cup roasted peanuts (or cashew nuts, roughly chopped)

And then i added:

• 1/2 tomato (chopped)
• 1/2 red onion (thinly sliced)

Directions:

1. Place lemon grass, lime juice, oil, sugar, fish sauce, and chillies into a large bowl. Whisk until sugar dissolves. If it's to sour, you can always add sugar. Remember, it's all about balancing the taste.
2. Place prawns into a shallow ceramic dish. Reserve 1/4 cup lemon grass mixture. Pour remaining lemon grass mixture over prawns. Toss to coat. Refrigerate for one hour.
3. Heat barbecue plate (or simply use a pan) over high heat until hot. Lighly grease plate and cook prawns for 2 or 3 minutes until pink. Transfer to a plate, and then cover to keep warm.
4. Place cucumber, onions, coriander, and mint into a bowl. Pour over reserved lemon grass mixture, and then toss to combine. Arrange the salad on serving plate. Top with prawns and nuts. Serve.

i used the remaining onions and dressing to cook so-called Pad Thai fried rice and adding sweet sour sauce and Pad Thai sauce. Happy tummy!

green tea cheese cake.

I made this yesterday, knowing that there will be so many events held at my house and lots of people will come. I'm using the usual cheese cake recipe, and i add a couple teaspoons of green tea powder and a tiny drop of green food coloring. My advice is don't put too much food coloring if you don't want your green tea cheese cake to look cheap or not very appetizing. The cake is good, really delicious. But for me, personally i'd go for the original one or the Oreo cheese cake. Happy baking :)

5th order: Thai & elephant mini cupcakes.

I really don't have time to post anything, so here is my project which i did in November (or was it December?). It's for my friend's son's first birthday party. The theme was Thailand. So she wanted me to decorate the cupcakes with Thailand flags and elephants. She also wanted me to decorate the cupcakes with the letter "J" which stands for Jakeem, her son's name.

cinnnamon muffins.

January 21st, 2012.

What you need:

• 2 medium eggs
• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 5 tbsp butter (at room temperature)
• 5 tbsp shortening
• 3 tsp baking powder
  
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Topping:

• 1 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar, blended with 1 tsp cinnamon powder

Directions:

1. Grease 12 three-inch muffin pan cups
2. Cream together butter, shortening, and sugar
3. Beat in the eggs, salt, and baking powder
4. Stir in the flour and milk alternately until mixture is combined well
5. Fill muffin cupa to the top, bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes
6. Allow to cool for a few minutes
7. After cooled, with each muffin, dip in the melted butter
8. Roll each muffin in the cinnamon sugar blend
9. Serve. They smell really good :)

1. 

happy sunday :)

January 15th, 2012.

taking a break from all things gives you some kind of solitude. i should do this more. plus, i have a lot of time making these. happy Sunday, everyone :)

peanut butter muffin.

January 10th, 2012.

It's been raining since new year and i've been longing for a me-time in the kitchen to bake something new. I've been looking for a simple yet delicious muffin recipes and i stumbled upon this one that i decide to make tonight. I forgot the source, will try to trace it. Anyways, here's how to make it. Warning: the batter tastes soooo good, so be aware to prevent yourself from licking the bowl or spatula :D

Ingredients:

• 2 medium eggs, beten
• 2 cups sifted all purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 2 tbsp butter, at room tempreature
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
2. Add the peanut butter and mix throroughly
3. Combine the eggs and milk, and then pour into the mixture.
4. Add the butter and stir until the mixture is moistened.
5. Bake at pre-heated oven 200 degrees C (or 400 degrees F) for 25 minutes.
6. Serve them while still warm with a glass of milk or a cup of hot latte.