Budapest Roll ~ Budapestrulle

I tried baking dacquoise once. It came out so beautiful, and so I let it cool down for a few hours, thinking to attend to it, later. But it sweated and melted in the humidity. Sigh!

I didn't realise that the cake base for this, is actually almost a dacquoise, yes just almost, or maybe it is still considered as one. It is baked much quicker, only 15 minutes rather than 1 hour. It was only after I ate it, I realised what type of cake did I bake. Hahahah.

Calamansi Muffins - AFF Philippines Merienda Cakes #2

1st recipe

Calamansi muffins is famous in the beautiful island of Boracay, Philippines. Just do a google search and you will know.

I am crazy! I made this muffin 4 times!

First time I used a mixer to do it, whacking it too much causing the muffin to be so fluffy! Not right! According to Swee San, it's supposed to be dense and moist, with a cake like texture. It wasn't as tangy as I will like it, kind of bland in terms of zing. And it had that fine texture that sticks to parts of your mouth and will need some effort to swallow, you know what I mean?

It's this type of texture, the main reason, I don't enjoy certain cafe muffins. Shenny, my reader friend will vouch with me on this.

Mango Sago with Pomelo 杨枝甘露 - AFF HK Macau Desserts #1

Mango Sago Pomelo is a popular dessert from Hong Kong.

It is a dessert that is made of mango, tapioca or sago pearls, pomelo arils, coconut milk and evaporated milk or cream.

And usually, pomelos are one of the quintessential fruits for Chinese New Year because the name sound prosperous. Besides eating it fresh, you can turn it into this dessert. It'll be a good way to serve this fruit during this hot hot weather, or maybe for next year's celebration :)

Orange Cream Cake - Orange #3

This recipe is from one of my cookbooks that I have to use with caution.
I like the idea of this cake and wondering how will the taste be like... with that amount of cornstarch.

Actually I used a combination of meyer lemons and orange for this cake. The meyer lemons had been with me for a very very long time and I am soooo sorry Alan, LOL. I finally used them up in this cake. I do find meyer lemons to taste similar to a sourish orange, that's why I combined them. The original recipe used orange only.

Blood Orange Almond Cake - Orange Week #2

Alan gave me some Moro blood oranges some time ago.

Lately in current years, we do get blood oranges here, but mostly of the Cara-cara variety. Moro is hard to get unless you go to Indulgence,Ipoh where they sell it for RM6/100gm. It's a cut throat price.

I decided to turn some of  them into a visually appealing bake to make full use of the vibrant colour that is sooooooo pretty.

Orange Pound Cake - Orange Week #1

This is a very old recipe that I learnt from school's home science class.
Looking back.. it's been 20 years  since I last made this.

Memory of the wonderful smell emitting from the kitchen drawing the boys to peek into our  kitchen whenever they go to pee was funny, as the male students' toilet was not far from where we were.
When we got back to class, the boys even tried to snatch some of our cakes, but we all protected them well.

Pistachio Lime Cheesecake - No Bake Cheesecakes #1

This cake was a feat!

I got to know that my BIL’s birthday was on the day itself at 1.30pm. I asked him whether he wants a cake, and he said yeah, cheesecake but egg free please. Then I searched for some cheesecake series and passed the phone to him, asking him to select the one he wants. He chose a lime and strawberry cheesecake.

I had no strawberries on hand but I happened to have some homegrown limes from my brother’s neighbor. That’s perfect! I don’t have limes at home usually and he’s one lucky man! And I also bought a good sum dairy products in baking the day before, so, making a cheesecake will not be too hard. A baked one will take too long as I had to get the cake ready that day itself and ah-ha, since he wanted it egg free, let’s just make a no bake cheesecake, a lime flavoured one.

Homemade Yee Sang Sauce - Kumquat #3 自造鱼生酱

My family never eats out during Chinese New Year, due to the heavily inflated price that is often called as crazy. Hence, I never ate 'yee sang' until I was 16, and I went out with friends for dinner during this festive period. I felt it was delicious, but chickened at eating raw fish, that was long ago..... now I eat sashimi like a shark.

For those who have no idea what is 'yee sang', it's a festive Chinese Salad that is made up of raw fish (shashimi) tossed with fine strips of vegetables and crisps in a sweet and sourish dressing. It's a popular Chinese New Year dish in both Malaysia and Singapore. During the tossing, one should say all the nice things, wishing everybody prosperity and everything that is good. The higher you toss, the better it is. So, it can get kinda messy if you have friends like mine, who likes to say non sensical things during the tossing and hence the laughing and subsequent mess. LOL.

Kumquat Roasted Pork Belly - Kumquats #2

My son, my 19M son, saw the belly coming out from the oven. He then rubbed his belly and said yum yum yum. Througout dinner, he kept on pointing to this dish and ate quite a few pieces.
Reuben loves it!

I roasted this when he was napping but before I was done, he was awake! Was so worried when I was transporting it to and from the table to baste and oven to roast.

I didn't use Chinese wine to marinate this, instead I went with Rum. I like the smell of rum and how it mingles well with fruits... seriously smelling good while baking. The rum was a nice change.

Red Cooked Duck with Kumquats - Kumquat #1

I'm doing another kumquat series this year. I love kumquats :)
Whenever I see kumquats, I think of Chinese New Year

But I'm not going to do desserts but more towards dishes.
This dish shall be my first.

Few months back I picked some kumquats from my tree and cooked pork ribs with it and it was delicious. And when I saw this recipe, it was a must try for me!

Lime Watermelon Charlotte with Mint Basil Glaze - Mousse Cake #1

I came home from the competition and made another one.... to take proper pics for the blog...and also for my hubby's birthday.

My girls were crazy for this cake. We blew candles that night and had a slice each and then scoot them off to bed. The next day, when I picked them up from kindergarden, the first thing they said to me was, "Mom, let's go home and eat cake". My hubby called them monsters because they ate half the cake in less than 24 hours. Hahahaha, my husband rarely calls them this, but usually it's me calling them names, hahahah. We are a family of humour. I never thought Lyanne will love a fruit flavoured cake this much. But Lydia, yes, I know she will.

Raymond Blanc’s 'bare' Gâteau au Citron - Lemons #3

I made this cake because Alan told me to. LOL.
He didn't like this cake, but it was otherwise for me.
His poison is my meat.

Lemon Curd - Lemon #2

Whenever I make buttercream, I tend to have yolks left. This is a good option to clear off the yolks.

My hubby's relatives from Australia brought us some homegrown lemons, and so, they are organic and wax free. So happy!!! So, with the extra yolks that I have, what am I waiting for, hehehe, make lemon curd!!

Lemon Steamed Sponge Cake - Lemon #1

I have this phobia about steamed cakes. I think I am not the only one.
I am ok with small steamed cakes, but my legs will be shivering at the thought of large ones.

The fear of collapsing is not unreal, it is very deep in me. I don't fear failure, I fear wastage.
I fear of having to eat the failure and forcing myself to do it rather than discarding.

Chocolate Orange Pancakes with Honey Cream - Pancakes #2

This recipe is a twist off the first recipe featured this week.

My girls love chocolate and I thought if I were to pair it with fruits, as least it won't be too heaty for them.

Apricot Lemon Jam - Let's Jam # 3

The type of apricots we get here varies in quality. Some are sooour but fragrant after baking. Some are sweet but lose out on fragrance. Some are total flops, bland and dull.

This batch that I've got are total flops. Brings no sensation to the tongue and nose. Baking with them will not enhance them, eating raw is torturing. Making them into jam will be the perfect solution. With some help from the lemon, the jam becomes a pleasure to eat.

My MIL took one jar and my FIL enjoyed it a lot. He asked my MIL to check with me and asked her to get the same brand that I did. My MIL told him, it's Wendy brand. LOL.

Apricot Lemon Jam

Recipe source; WendyinKK

500gm apricot (flesh weight, skin on)
350gm sugar (just use granulated sugar, it’s cheaper!)
1 lemon, zested and juiced

1. Mix everything together and let it sit for 30 minutes or until the sugar melts and the apricots soften.
2. Place a ceramic saucer/plate into the freezer.
3. Bring to a boil on medium heat and reduce heat to medium low or low. (the jam should be still be bubbly)
4. Cook until the apricots turn mushy.
5. Place a drop of the jam on the frozen saucer and put it back into the freezer. Check the drop of jam after 2 minutes. If it forms soft wrinkles when pushed, the jam is ready. (I usually don’t wait for 2 minutes to push for wrinkles, but when I feel the jam is gel like enough and feels cushiony, I stop cooking. I know it’ll further set when totally cooled.)

Refer to this post on how to remove the stone

Actually I do have more jams or spreads in my collection.... let's wait for the next round  :)

Sweet Orange Marmalade - Let's Jam # 1

I love the smell of oranges and all things citrus. But I hate it when it’s bitter. Store bought marmalade are always bitter, unless you buy orange jam.

Err.. orange jam and marmalade . Aren’t they the same stuff?

Well, marmalade is JAM with fruit peel in it. And it’s the peel that causes it to be bitter, which is why you can hardly get non bitter marmalade, except for Smuckers or some other brand that I don’t know of. Maybe they have something to remove the limonin from the peel. I wonder if rubbing the peel with salt do the trick of removing the bitter compounds(limonin)? I’m wondering. Wait, I’ll try that next time. : )

Scary Mandarin and Annoying Orange - Random Sunday

When I was a kid, every Chinese New Year, we wil buy a box of TeoChew Mandarins. Grandaunt will ask us to keep all the peels and she will dry them in the sun. The sundried peels will be kept in old Milo tins. Grandaunt uses the dried peels in sweet soups and some dishes. But whatever we dry is more than we ever need.

Sesame Orange Shrimp - Prawns Week # 2

For this year's Chinese New Year, my FIL went all the way to the coastal areas to get seafood.
He bought few large fishes, 2 kg of prawns, crabmeat and lots of other stuff. We took one kg of the prawns and used it to prepare a dish for the reunion dinner. We found that the prawns to be.... not very fresh.

Kumquat Almond Tea Cakes - Kumquat # 3

The moment I ate the first piece, regret hit me hard!

This cake is so delicious that I really regretted making half portion. I made half because I was lazy to butter too many tins. Hahahaha. I know I could’ve just lined it to save work, but I also wanted them to look pretty, hence, I made them bare on tins to show off all the pretty scalloped edges. This is a blogger's issue. Next time around, when I don’t need to blog about these, I’ll make them in lined tins, hahah!