The Great Chef

I have made this Pandan Layer Cake few times already and even posted twice in my blog here.  I made this cake the other day for my dear friend Crystal as I have promise her to bake some cakes for her.  I have asked her what cake she would like, and she just gave me the answer, any cakes I made, she sure like. I thought of giving this Pandan Layer Cake a miss to post this again in my blog, but  Little Thumbs Up September month event is Pandan which is hosted by Joceline of Butter, Flour & Me , so I just made my submission to participate the event. Pandan Layer Cake Adapted from Agnes Chang - I Can Bake cookbook with slight changes Ingredients for the cake : 250 gm. Optima flour or sponge cake mix flour 4 eggs 3 Tbsp. Pandan juice a little green pandan paste or green colouring  (I omit this) 3 Tbsp. Thick coconut milk (I omit this and replace with water) 1 1/2 Tbsp. cornoil Ingredients for Pandan Kaya : 600 ml. Coconut milk 300ml pandan juice 9 Tbsp. Hoen kwee flour / green

I have been craving for cheesecake for weeks;  trying to look for which cheesecake shall I bake and finally when I bookmark one, off I go to supermarket to look for sour cream ~ going in an out to almost 3 to 4 supermarkets in town, I can't believe it myself that there is no sour cream on their shelves!!  And I have the shelf out the idea to bake a cheesecake till now. I chosen Fern's recipe o f this light and creamy cheesecake.  I know I will never be able to bake as beautiful as hers even though I keep my fingers crossed while keeping a close watch as the cake risen.  Well, as the clock ticking minute by minute, I can see that the side of the cake is slowly cracking away and my heart felt the disappointment already.  I did tent the top with foil but still can't help much to prevent the crack.   Light and Creamy Cheesecake Recipe fully adapted from To Food With Love Ingredients Crust: 3/4 cup (about 100g) finely crushed Digestive biscuits (or other sweet biscuits) 3 tbs

With the left over of red bean paste from making the mooncakes, I have made this Red Bean Glutinous Rice Cake and Steamed Buns for the past few days for morning breakfast!  Red Bean Glutinous Rice Cake (豆沙烧餅) Red Bean Glutinous Rice Cakes Ingredients 170g glutinous rice flour 50g caster sugar 80g water 60g coconut milk 150g red bean paste 2 tsp vegetable oil Procedures Pour glutinous rice flour into a big bowl. Bring caster sugar, water, coconut milk and vegetable oil to a boil in a small saucepan.  Pour hot liquid into the glutinous rice flour.  Use silicone spatula to swiftly mix well to form smooth dough that does not stick to hands.  Let cool and divide into small portions. Wrap red bean paste with dough.  Roll into round balls.  Flatten dough balls. Heat a little oil in non stick pan.  Pan fry glutinous rice cakes over low heat until both sides turn golden brown and fragrant and have rise a little. Next.....Steamed Buns with Red Bean Paste (豆沙包) Steamed Buns with Red Bean Paste R

Ha....it is my turn to make Piggy Mooncakes this time.  Well, I am sure you have come across many bloggers have made this Piggy Mooncakes, right?  They are so cute and adorable and it is suitable to give this to children. My piggies were not in good shape as I fold and shape, my hands got all sticky; and losing my patience in shaping it at the end.  So trying to finish this up in a haste as I am late in cooking my dinner......duh! This Piggy Mooncakes was first introduced to all us and should give full credit and thanks to Ann of Anncoo Journal when she posted her Piggy Mooncakes back in 2011.   And lately, Jessie of CookingMoments made it, and many thanks to Sonia of NasiLemakLover of her tutorial pictures on how to make this piggy mooncakes. Piggy Mooncakes (Original Recipe from: Ann@AnncooJournal ) Makes 5   Dough Ingredients: 150g Plain Flour 90g Golden Syrup 3g Alkaline Water 38g Vegetable Oil or Peanut Oil   Fillings:   5 x 60g Red Bean Paste, store bought – Roll into balls  

I am sure you have noticed the past few weeks or days many food bloggers have been marathon baking mooncakes as our mid Autumn Festival falls on 19th September this year. I have never bake traditional mooncakes before nor have I made the snow skin types too.  I am not a fan of mooncakes as they are usually very sweet if buy from the shops.  So I seldom buy it unless someone gave this for me.  I can't remember when was the last time I had mooncakes.  Well, seeing so many bloggers made so beautiful mooncakes on the blog it has inspired and motivated me to do so this year. I have been going through from one blog to another and another, reading the steps again and again trying to make this mooncakes .  Until I really can't decide which one to follow.....and still so indecisive so I used Jessie of CookingMoments   on her Taro Mooncakes recipe as well as using Anncoo Journal recipe on her Traditional Mooncake as reference. TRADITIONAL MOONCAKES Recipe reference source from Jessie-C

This is my second attempt to make this "Xi Pan.  The first time my Xi Pan after steaming it is more like a kuih or you may called it plain angku kuih instead...lol.  Probably that time it didn't proofed well enough because of the cold weather in NZ that time.  Or probably I've been using the expired yeast...I don't know. And now back home here, I try again.  I made a small batch instead, but I made this using the overnight sponge. XI PAN 喜粄   Recipe sourced from  Wendy of Table for 2...or more Ingredients for sponge dough: (A) 1 tsp. yeast 150 gm. plain flour 125 ml. water Ingredients: (B) 150 gm. Plain flour 150 gm. glutinous rice flour 125 gm. sugar 150 gm. water a few drops of pink colouring Banana leaves - grease with oil (I used greased proof paper) Method: (1) Mix all the ingredients for sponge dough, cover and keep overnight. (2) Mix all the ingredients (A) and (B) together into a soft dough and proof for another 4 hours. (3) Divide soft dough into 50 gm. eac