Two Easters ago, I baked a feast. I went so crazy there were cakes, muffins and cookies everywhere: on the tabletops, in the bedroom, in the freezer, in the fridge. It was gloriously nightmarish. A thoroughly obsessively psychotically sick affair.

Last Easter, I believe things were a little more toned down. Moderation was key.

This year, we went for a nice balance of things. Don’t they say good things come in pairs? Two’s a nice number. Well-rounded and more acceptable. In that case, this Easter, we’ve got cookies and cakes. No more than that. No more, no less. I thought we were quite clever.

On Tuesday, we had a nice little wander through the Oxford Covered Market. There’s a cake shop in there which I’ll blog a little later on about. Truly inspiring cakes and sugarcraft. And they make personalized easter eggs made to order too! In fact, H and I had our Easter eggs from there last year. They were yum. And almost too pretty to eat. It’s shops like that that make you feel like you’ve gotta bake. You leave wanting to make something of your very own, to get creative and start challenging yourself in the kitchen. I don’t suppose we really did challenge ourselves but we sure had good fun in the kitchen that day.

Little fairy cakes topped with dolly mixture (we’ve so gotta love these sweets…so mildly flavoured and pretty to look at) for Easter cakes and a twist on the usual oatmeal raisin cookie which gives you something to talk about as well if you’ve got guests coming round for tea. I haven’t posted a recipe for the Fairy Cakes as H actually remembers this basic recipe by heart. It’s simply margarine, vanilla, flour, eggs, sugar all skillfully beaten by hand then baked at 175d Celsius until ready. Cooled, then frosted with a mix of icing sugar and water. Voila. Top them with sweets or decoration of choice. Cute as a button.

When it comes to eating cookies, dunking in a glass of cold milk is second nature. Or sometimes just eating it sans milk is pretty okay too. Dunking in hot coffee or tea seems unthinkable to me. I’ve seen my mum do it and it leaves rings of buttery-surfaced coffee in the cup. I’ve seen my mates do it and it just all looks a little drippy, a little messy. This time I tried it with this oatmeal cookie and I have a strange feeling my cookie-eating ways have been forever altered. Or at least, when it comes to oatmeal cookies. You’ve gotta dunk them in something warm. Leave the cold milk for the chocolate chip cousin. Oatmeal cookies have so gotta be dipped in a hot coffee or tea. A momentary experience of sweet bliss, as comforting as a spoonful of warm honey-laced porridge. So good.

Happy Easter everyone! Hoping the Easter bunny sends out much sugary love to all. Will post up some of my little Oxford visit here soon.

Oatmeal Cherry & Walnut Cookies
Ingredients

115g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup plain flour, sifted
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup/225g dark brown sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup glace cherries, chopped
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 175d Celsius.

Cream butter and sugar til light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, then beat.

In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon. Add oats to this and mix. Add to wet mixture of creamed butter and sugar. Mix until it is just incorporated.

Fold in cherries and walnuts. Do not overmix.

Form into 1-2 tbs balls or simply drop onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15-18mins or until just golden brown.

Cooking it for longer gets these cookies a darker shade and they turn into nice crunchy cookies when kept. Cooking for 15mins leaves it nice and chewy in the middle so cook according to your preference. Leave to cool on sheets for a minute before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

It’s Shrove Tuesday, ie. Pancake Day! Well it’s not like I need an excuse to have pancakes. It sorta is like a Sunday brekkie thing to have but pancakes when it’s not even mid-week is so much more indulgent and delicious. Knowing that just about the rest of England is having pancakes too (albeit the English crepe-like ones) – savoury or sweet – helps with feeling all fat and happy, and a lot less like the lone greedy chubster.

I spied some gorgeous rhubarb pancakes over at Nic’s Cherrapeno and I couldn’t help getting some rhubarb as well. I think it’s gotta be one of the prettiest pink edible things and I simply love it in a trifle or yoghurt. Thanks Nic for a lovely pancake idea. I’m really glad I made this as I love all things tart. Although the rhubarb sauce wasn’t as tart as I wanted it to be (didn’t wanna tart-out my flatmate), I thought it was a very delicious variation of the usual plain pancakes or the same old blueberry pancakes I find myself having every time.

I’d love to stay on here longer, but I gotta hit the books again. Yes I am a geek, don’t judge me. And yes the work’s starting to pile up. Third yes, I’ve turned into a granny who fights the cold with hot soups, cups of tea and blankets about my knees. Well, grannies are so in right now. You can’t fault that. Off I go, leaving you the recipe.

This recipe’s given me the fluffiest, softest pancakes ever. But it didn’t rise enough to my liking and it may have needed some rising agent like baking powder. I might have to experiment and compare with other recipes in the future. Nevertheless, they were good. Like little fluffy clouds.

Recipe yields 8 pancakes
Rhubarb Pancakes
Ingredients

1 cup self-raising flour
2 tbs melted butter
3/4 cup milk
1 tbs sugar
1 egg yolk
3 egg whites, whisked to form stiff peaks
pinch of salt
about 1/2 cup rhubarb sauce

In a dry medium bowl, whisk egg whites to form stiff peaks.

In a separate large bowl, sift flour, sugar and salt. Make a well in the centre.

Beat lightly together the egg yolk, melted butter and milk. Pour into the well and mix gently to form a lumpy batter. Fold in egg whites, leaving some touches of egg whites intact.

In a small frying pan, heat some butter, add a ladle of batter and fry until bubbles start forming on the surface. Flip and allow the other side to cook for another minute or so. Repeat until all the batter is used up. Keep the other pancakes in a warm oven or let the hungry buggers you live with gobble them up whilst you work hard at the stove!

Rhubarb Sauce
Recipe can be found here, which I used for a ganache. You can use this in the pancake batter and to serve over them.

In the last post, I made it clear that I wasn’t a fan of Valentine’s Day (other than the fact that feasting for moi-self is allowed) and the most ironic thing was, the couples I knew weren’t even doing anything to celebrate it. It is totally agreed upon that the whole (I won’t even call it a festival) ‘event’ is simply a construction of contrived social imagination. As much as I dislike the fuss and the hype, the commercial exploitation of it all, I do love the fact that it’s a day where I can eat pretty things (like the cupcakes aforementioned) and not feel guilty about it at all.

Chocolates are so clichéd. At least for Valentine’s day.

But when would I ever make chocolates anyway? Might as well just put all my whining in a bag and throw it away, enjoy myself making them instead, no? And if I was envious of anybody about anything, it wouldn’t over my dead body be the fact that these smug couples were coupled up at all. Really,the issue lies in what they were cooking and eating to celebrate the day. So here, I messed about to make these chocolates for myself, friends and colleagues. Not beautiful. Not perfect. But you don’t gotta be with someone to be able to feast! And eat chocolates. And if you’re single, you don’t have to settle for a giant Cadbury’s bar that’s selling for a quid from Tesco. Honestly, I’m quite glad I attempted chocolates and de-virgined my new silicone chocolate mould.

I had fun making these, with a couple of heart attacks from failed samples and broken chocolates. Whilst photographing this in a hurry before rushing to work, I dropped my chocolates and broke quite a few of the good ones. Scared the daylights out of me, got depressed about the ones that died on the kitchen floor but very pleased that the ones which made it into the mouths of friends were finely appreciated.

The last time I made chocolates, I was a kid. My elder sis A and I had been given little plastic moulds, brushes and edible paints one Christmas I think. Our chocolates were pretty crude and garishly painted but we were so proud of them. Thinking back on those proud chocolates, I wish my sis and I (this time with C my younger sis) will make chocolates soon together some time. Hopefully when I’m a little more skilled and have completely mastered the art of chocolate-making (she says. pffft).

I had quite a few failures. Having 5 researches going on at once, CNY dim sum lunch planned, work at AA and this dumb romance drama I was all worked up about really had my head going full speed at all directions. Confused and totally not with it was moi this weekend. That really showed up in my chocolates. I also needed a brush to paint the chocolate mould, about 2 layers after setting each in the freezer for a minute or two to get the chocolate casing even but all my paint brushes (used to paint back in the days) were at home. I was slightly unprepared but made do with my MAC lipbrush. Probably the funniest thing I’ve done all week but it sorta worked. In addition to that, I had a bit of a problem with my chocolate candy melts solidifying too quick in my icy cold kitchen. So some came out with uneven surfaces, air pockets, cracked surfaces which were too thinly painted. But soon realized that a 10 sec microwave blast of my candy melts before each use made for a smooth, glossy and easy-to-work-with chocolate candy.

Gotta say these may not look like much, but they tasted pretty good. I’d probably swap milk chocolate candy melt for dark chocolate in the future. I’m just not that big a fan of milk chocolate and I’d probably have my rhubarb ganache a little more tart since I love sour flavours. But that’s just me. The taste testers thought the ganache was just right and luckily enough, they only got to see the good chocolates. You guys unfortunately get to see the rough ones that didn’t make it into the pretty box photographed in a hurry before rushing to work. Oops. Nevertheless, hope the weekend went by beautifully for everyone! More feasting on its way as it’s still Chinese lunar new year for another 14 days and Shrove’s Tuesday tomorrow. Hip hip hurray.

How to make these chocolates:
Ingredients

milk chocolate candy melts
chocolate mould
paintbrush
filling of choice

Depending on how many chocolates you’ll be making, the amount of candy melts needed will differ. I purchased a 300g bag of candy melts and found I used about 1/3 for 20 chocolates.

Follow directions for melting the chocolate (normally a 1 minute full power blast, followed by a quick mix with small whisk or fork. Then series of 10 second blasts followed by mixing until completely melted and smooth).

Wash and clean chocolate mould. Ensure the mould is completely dry and dust-free before using. Some recommend cleaning it til glossy to get the professional smooth finish. I was too lazy to and so suffered the consequences!

Fill 1/4 of each mould with melted chocolates and working quickly, paint the sides up with chocolate. Place in freezer for about a minute or two to set. Then paint one more time thinly with chocolate so the insides are smoothly covered. Some of mine weren’t properly coated which meant ganache filling oozing out in strange places. Place in fridge to set the 2nd wet layer.

Remove from fridge. Add ganache to fill about 3/4 of the way and then pour melted chocolate over to seal the chocolate completely. Ensure that the sides are sealed and wipe off any excess that spills over onto the mould surface. Leave in fridge to set for 30mins or more.

If using a silicone mould, gently press out the formed chocolates. Successful ones should have no cracks, oozing ganache filling and visible air pockets on candy surface.

White Chocolate & Rhubarb Ganache
Ingredients

255g white couverture
1/2 cup extra thick double cream
1/2 cup rhubarb sauce (see below for recipe)

Break up white chocolate in bowl.

In a small saucepan or milkpan, heat the cream until small bubbles begin to form. Remove from heat and pour over broken chocolate. Leave for 5 mins then mix with a rubber spatula until melted. Add the rhubarb sauce and gently fold in.

Leave in refrigerator for about 1-2 hours until well set. Remove, mix again before using.

Rhubarb Sauce
Ingredients

1 package fresh rhubarb, washed and chopped
2 tbs butter
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of ground ginger
2-3 tbs caster sugar, or to taste

In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter then add the rhubarb to sauté. Once it softens, add the sugar and spices. Mix with wooden spoon and lower heat to simmer until it attains a sauce-like consistency.

If sauce is still too tart, sweeten to taste. Serve with pancakes, in pancake batter, with toast, etc. There are so many ways to serve this. Reserve sauce can be stored in jam jars in the fridge for about a week.

A delicious chocolate cupcake sponge made using creamy Toblerone chocolate and bursting with chewy honey-almond nougat pieces, this latest creation from LOLA’s is finished with a heavenly white chocolate ganache and topped with a generous chunk of Toblerone chocolate.

It is getting colder by the day and when the sun sets at half 4 in the afternoon, I can’t help but think: alright, time to put on my lounging socks, pull on a woolly hat and watch Friends whilst enjoying a mug of hot chocolate. Give a few weeks, and I’ll start feeling Christmas which makes me think of the Christmas of 3 years ago when I sat in my bestie’s sitting room as we ate our weight in Toblerone chocolates in front of the telly. It was true style. True indulgence. And ultimate satisfaction – honey-flavoured chocolate with chewy crispy nougat bits. Dip it in a steaming cuppa tea and let it melt into an even milkier deliciousness? It simply borders on perfection.

It might be too early to be chatting Christmas but I’ve been thinking Toblerone a lot lately. Don’t you tell me my chocolate cravings stem from a lack of protein or some other scientific nutritionist crap. Christmas has just always made me wish for chocolate. Cold wintry nights make me want to indulge myself more. And I couldn’t be happier when I realized that LOLA’s Flavour of the Month for November was just that – TOBLERONE! The cupcakes were speaking to me again. After all that red velvet indulgence, you’d think I’d be on a cupcake sabbatical. Nah-ah. It wasn’t happening. Not bloody likely.

If you’ve been following, you’d know I recently posted about cupcakes in LOLA’s Cupcakes: Return of the Red Velvet. LOLA’s produces one of the loveliest and most chic cupcakes and it’s great how I can get them so easily now being in London. But if you don’t, panicky not as you can order them online too, customized or not, which is great for any sort of party or special occasion you are planning. They’re baked fresh daily at LOLA’s Primrose Hill bakery and I hear they’re baked throughout the day so you can be sure that the cupcake you’re holding onto is at its peak and ready to be consumed (asap). It’s recommended that you consume it within the day but you’d be happy to know that they wither none too quickly. I kept mine in a fridge for 2 days and on the 3rd day, the icing was as good as it was on day 1 and the cake soft and fluffy, if not a little drier.

LOLA’s take pride in using the best ingredients possible like Madagascar vanilla, Guittard chocolate, Philadelphia cream cheese, South African “Marie Biscuits”, and real butter, eggs and milk from local dairies. Getting the good stuff from all over the world and combining that with local produce makes these cupcakes very cosmopolitan, very London and very appealing to a globe-trotter like me.

When these Toblerone babies were first launched, they were sold out by mid-day. Thus, I went home empty-handed, well almost. I did pick meself up a red velvet. But you can imagine how disappointed I was! No Toblerone cupcakes to taste? Gutted! And then deadlines got in the way and readings got a little crazy. Soon after, LOLA’s went poof! in my head and I admit, I did just forget about cupcakes for a while. And then the dastard cravings set in and Emma from LOLA’s sent me a little message asking after me and if I liked the new flavour.

Bang. Toblerone cupcake note scribbled into my diary. I even went the extra way to plan my whole day around the visit to the Selfridges cupcake bar. Dedicated huh? Yes, I am a proud Cupcake Trooper so of course I make the effort.

So anyway, enough beating around the bush. How were these cupcakes then?! Bloody good. I bought a box of them (£2.25/cupcake or £2 online) for the flatmate and neighbours and really had to safeguard these babies on the tube home. Seriously, manic crowd on the Central line. Sya, a No.1 fan of LOLA’s, commented it was the best she’d tasted from their whole selection. The flatmate thought it was just delicious. I couldn’t agree more. The cupcake is supposedly made with Toblerone chocolate and I did get a very strong milk chocolate flavour and bits of nougat I, for some strange reason, thought were chocolate chips at first. They crisped up when baked and gave a little crunch which was lovely. Kind of like chocolate chip cupcake but better. I was expecting the cake to taste just chocolate. Plain boring chocolate. But I do believe LOLA’s held up to the Toblerone flavour as there was just a slight edge to this. A little honey-ish, a little hot chocolate-ish.

The icing, a white chocolate ganache, was superb. I was more impressed with that actually and coming from me, I think that means something (not that I’m a great food critic) – it’s just I DON’T LIKE WHITE CHOCOLATE. But I do love ganache so I was totally willing to eat it anyway. A ganache, used as a filling or topping, is simply cream and chocolate mixed together in a 2:1 ratio or not, depending on how it’s used – light or heavy. This ganache was whipped beautifully such that it was quite voluminous and impressive on the cupcake but very airy light to eat. Try to get a little bit on your fingertip and it just glides off the cupcake – smooth, creamy, soft and sublime. I might have gotten it wrong but I thought the white chocolate had a nice tinge of vanilla? Or probably just that the cream was really good and it sent me reeling a little. Very very very good ganache! The cake was impressive but not as impressive as the topping. And happy chappy me saved the triangle chunk of Toblerone for last. Yum.

Want a better look at the ganache? Here. I’d eat that ganache out of a pot if someone put that in front of me. I thought I’d never say it, that I’d eat a cupcake without icing, but I’d be happy to leave the cake behind and just lick the icing off a spoon. Oh no. What has LOLA’s done to me?

And it’s not just the taste of these cupcakes that’s so good, the recently opened cupcake bar in Selfridges is tops – service and interior. Beautifully designed, you sorta feel like you’re in a fairytale café/perfect back garden of a Stepford wife. I was met with smiles from the sales lady behind the counter and she was a joy to chat with. Totally made my day after a stressful session at uni. We chatted about the new flavour, about summer and about looking pasty in the winter. There! Instant connection and me, a satisfied customer and I hadn’t even eaten anything yet! I love it when the sales staff actually bother to connect with you and make you feel special. I know it can be hard, since I’ve had a few years of retail experience, especially in the cake business. But stressful or not, a smile or asking after the customer can really make one’s day and LOLA’s got that x-factor in customer service.

I was starving having had no lunch. I was pretty knackered as well and badly needed a sitdown so I got myself a regular Apple Cinnamon Muffin (£2.30). This was one out of 3 flavours, the other two being Quattro (4 cheeses) and the other something I can’t recall. I’m in love with the muffin. It’s a good size so enough for a hungry ghost like me. It was very moist and bouncy, fluffy but pretty solid to eat. I define a good muffin one that has the perfect balance between moistness and baked bounce, so it’s not gooey and dense but has air-ed enough during the baking process to give you that light bounce without being too dry. A very generous helping of raisins and apple pieces in the muffin. The apple bits are like that in apple pie with its sweet gooey melting flesh. Loads of cinnamon and so flavourful! I loved its rustic look and that awesome crispy sugar crust top. One of the BEST muffins I’ve eaten in a while and I have had quite a bit in these couple of weeks and they were all either too soft, or too crumbly, or too wet and gooey, or just a little bland. LOLA’s again impressed me and didn’t let me down one bit.

So I’m a very happy person today. Might be the sugar that’s gone to my head but my 2nd affair with LOLA’s has proved a lot better than the 1st, not that the 1st encounter with the Red Velvet wasn’t good. There’s love at first sight, and then there’s love at first sight. And if every visit just keeps getting better and better, I am just at a lost for words. Too thrilled for words I suppose. Next flavour I want – Lemon!

But I’m floating now. Feeling a little chubby but great nonetheless. I might have to go on a detox after all the feasting I’ve been doing of late. Pah! Not till after the BBC Good Food Show this Saturday though where I shall be meeting the lovely Sunita from Sunita’s World for the first time, among other awesome foodbloggers. I’m excited and a little nervous. I’m sure the show’s gonna be great and there’s much to see and much to eat and buy! Choi Time teas will also be at the show so I’ll definitely be stopping over to stock up on my usual. Whey.

Enough. I’m happy. I’m really full. And I believe you’ve just about had enough of my chatter. So goodnight y’all. Go getchaself some cupcake and nom-nom away. LOLA’s comes in the regular sized cupcakes and the mini ones. Both are cute. And both are très delightful.

LOLA’s Cupcake Bar
Selfridges
Foodhall, 400 Oxford Street, W1C 2BU
mon-sat 9.30am-9pm | sun 11.30am – 6pm

Tel.: 0207 483 3394 (LOLA’s order line)
Web: http://www.lolas-kitchen.co.uk

The pear is a particularly humble fruit often forgotten in my house or outshone by the more appealing apple,the milkshake-worthy banana, the stunning golden kiwi or the refreshing watermelon. If it were a game of ball, the pear would be the last to be picked onto the team. It may be its delicate flavour, subtle sweetness and generally modest but spotty complexion that causes it to be overlooked, to fade into the background of other more colourful, juicy, sweet and tangy fruit. Nevertheless, I have a special fondness for this bottom-heavy fruit, especially the conference and packham variety; I love them on its own, in salads or poached and served with cream or custard. They’re quite the versatile fruit and cooking them releases its delicate honeyed flavour all the more.

The last upside-down cake I made (years ago, geez) was a recipe from Bill Granger and I remember using heckloads of maple syrup in it. I’d used bananas in the base and so the cake was pretty rich and intensely sweet. Mindblowingly so in fact. I believe the post-cake sugar high lasted for bout half an hour or so, which isn’t quite a good thing for sugar-maniacs like me. But this recipe – Bill Granger’s Banana Maple Upside Down Cake from Bill’s Open Kitchen – is still gorgeous if you aren’t too calorie or sugar-conscious. Instead of using this same Granger recipe, however, I wanted a recipe that wouldn’t have too many flavours working in the syrupy base so as not to overpower the pears. I found one from Ottolenghi and was really excited to give it a go since many have raved about Ottolenghi. Because I have yet to taste their gorgeous food for myself, I simply cannot wait to be in London next year to taste Ottolenghi amongst other equally, if not more, amazing restaurants like Maze, Nobu and dans le noir?. Reckon I should start organizing a list of restaurants to visit with my future flatmate (if she’s nice and amiable!). Someone pass me my diary please…Diva’s got an important restaurant visit-list to note down! Figures I’ll have to work doubly hard to earn a wage that’ll support my shopping, my desire for shoes and that insatiable hunger for yum yummy food.

I’m really pleased with this recipe. I admit it’s a lot of work since you’ve got to poach the pears, make the caramel topping from scratch and basically make sure nothing burns and that you don’t burn yourself, but the results were fantastic. The recipe uses cranberries which I thought would be quite a wonderful marriage with pears, giving it a sweetness boost and a light touch of tanginess. The cake batter incorporates lemon and orange zest amidst spices like ground star anise, cinnamon and nutmeg. The ground almonds also gave it a lovely fluffy texture. Any recipe that uses ground almonds I love. Something about ground almonds that gives all baked goods a special x-factor. So anyway, this is sort of an autumnal cake which I found delightful especially since September is finally here and we’ve gotta say goodbye to summer. I might add a little more cinnamon and nutmeg to the batter in the future as I quite like a bit more spice in cakes like these. The pears which were poached in lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar and spices tasted wonderful with the caramel topping and cranberries soaked in the pear poaching water. Together with the cake, served warm, it was lush! I loved the lemoniness and laces of orange together with the cinnamon-sweetness of the pears and cranberries. I’m not that great at describing how good food tastes to me but honestly, this was good. Moist, very tasty and not overly sweet such that you couldn’t even taste the pear.

Gorgeous.

One problem I had with the recipe, aside from all my kitchen accidents which I’ll get to in a bit, was the baking time. The recipe states that you bake it for 35 mins but I had to bake mine in the oven for nearly 50 mins. I’m not too sure why that was and I have a nagging suspicion that my oven wasn’t preheated long enough to get to the right temperature for baking the cake and thus, required a longer cooking time than advised in the recipe. Any ideas?

I chose not to glaze the cake with jam a little watered down in a saucepan as I felt the caramel topping was sufficient and the cake moist and pretty enough. Like I’d mentioned before, I wanted to keep the recipe simple so I’d stay true to the pears. Any other jam, apricot, strawberry or marmalade would just be unhelpful.  

Right, so some of you might be wondering about those kitchen accidents and if you’ve kept up with me on Twitter, you’d have some idea of the silly things I’d done to myself. I guess today’s just one of those days where hand-eye coordination totally fails you. On days like that, I usually ruin everything and by the end of the day, I feel exhausted and emotionally drained. Ie., I feel like a failure. The upside down cake gave me hope but the process of making it was utterly chaotic. Whilst preparing the lemon zest, I’d grated my thumb into the zest as well. Quite a mess I created with the blood streaked across the white sink. Yes. My kitchen’s got a white, dark brown and silver theme to it. All the table tops are marble white and mum loves to keep it absolutely spotless. She’s anal. And I’m OCD-ed. Great. Picture me freaking out and washing away all the blood, picking out the bad zest and all – don’t worry. It didn’t really get onto the lemon but totally irked me out. 

So what happened next? Yes, there’s more. The caramel was a successful event. As I stirred the butter into the melted sugar, the itchy-fingered bit of me suddenly stuck a finger into the beautifully browning (and still, bubbling) mixture. Yep. I burnt my finger through and through. It’s now red, sore and still throbbing. To top it off with the cherry on the icing, I’ve got a bulbous white blister on the tip of my finger that really gets in the way of typing, washing my hair, etc. 

Wally brain in the kitchen. Stay away.

I’d like to stop here and end your pain. I mean, seriously, you can hurl me some verbal abuse and I wouldn’t mind. Haha. Getting my cake out of the oven was interesting as well. As I’d placed my cake tin on a cookie tray to prevent any accidental spillage, I had to get the cake out of the oven with oven mitts by grabbing the cookie tray and pulling it out. I gather my brain had executed complete shutdown or just decided a simple act like this didn’t require complex thinking – I turned 90 degrees to my left without moving my right arm away from the oven and seared the flesh of my upper right arm with the cookie tray. WOW. The skin’s kinda like welded down where I’ve burned it. A burn line of about 1.5 inches. If anyone asks, I’ll just say I was in a fight or something. My life’s way cooler than ‘Whoops. I burned myself with a cookie tray.’ Oh no. I can already imagine the looks on their faces when they find out the truth. Scarred for life I am, pun not intended.

Right. But the cake was good so I’m a happy chappy. Off to go reap the rewards of my efforts today. If you’re looking for that recipe, check it out over at Ottolenghi’s website. They’ve got loads of other cool recipes as well.

But. WHEY! Here it is. Another successful apple crumble. And flip. Isn’t it one of the easiest, no brainer, no-recipe things to make? How the heck did I go wrong ages ago? Well – and here I’d like to add one of the longest sighs in the world – strange things happen to me. I’m a strange person of wacky circumstances. I take pride in my quirkiness. I can carry out intelligent conversations, hold my own ground when it comes to cussing and dirty jokes with the boys of my crew. But sometimes I’m just totally not with it. And pardon moi, but if I’m stressed in the kitchen too, things get awful. If I’m in a daze, the food begins to look a little funny.

Today’s a public holiday, it being Singapore’s 44th National Day yesterday; and it’s wonderful to see families out strolling about, shopping, slurping up cones of melting ice cream, etc. It’s awesome. Loving the relaxed state of mind I’ve been in all day! To match this lazy, rainy day, Mum decided to prepare quite the autumn dish: takikomi gohan (mixed rice) with one of my favourites – pumpkin and shimeji miso soup! Honestly, I was looking forward to getting away with not helping. I’d just had ice cream for lunch and a pot of very lovely dragon pearl & rose oil tea. The body was telling me to jump back into bed and get sucked into the seductive land of sleep. Damn those ideas to the darkest corners of a rottin refrigerator!!

Mum gave me the dessert task. But I was lazy so all the fancy stuff when flying out the window and I stuck with the all-time favourite, rustic crumble pudding. And yes, no other fancy fruit to marry with the apple. Just apples, cinnamon and some granola because Mum was kicking up a fuss about pudding being well plain. Women!

Everytime I think apple crumble, I think of Hannah’s mother’s crumble. She honestly makes the best crumble: apple, rhubarb, plum. They’re all good. I don’t know how she does it but she’s a crumble goddess. There must be some sort of weird secret or trick of hand or it might be spiked. But whatever it is, it’s love at first sight with her crumble. I’d like to, however, stand up for my own cute crumbles (is there a plural to that?) and declare that my own mother loved it. And that says a lot because she’s not a pudding person and definitely not a pudding-made-by-own-daughter sorta person.

So, yay. Happy birthday Singapore. And cheers to finally getting the dessert-spoon thumbs-up from my own mother. Apple crumble, I love you.

Granola Apple Crumble
Ingredients

2 medium cooking apples, cut into chunks (you may peel them if you prefer)
1/2 cup granola
50g brown sugar
1 tbs plain flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon

For the crumble topping:

1 cup flour
1/4-1/2 cup granola
1/4-1/2 cup unrefined golden caster sugar (depending on your preference)
3 tbs unsalted butter, cold and cut into chunks

I served these in ramekins but you can use a square baking dish.
Grease ramekins and set aside.
Preheat oven to 180d Celsius.

To prepare the crumb topping, sift the flour into a large bowl. Add the butter and rub into the flour. Lift and toss the mixture as you rub until the mixture begins to resemble crumbs. Don’t over crumb it as I like to have big and small chunks of crumb rather than an evenly crumbly one. Stir in the sugar and granola.

In a small bowl, toss the apple chunks with 1 tbs flour.
Spoon 2 tbs of granola into the bottom of each ramekin and even it out. Then spoon in the apples and pour over them the brown sugar and cinnamon.

Now top with the crumb topping. Just pour it on without fussing too much with it. Placing the ramekins on a cookie tray, bake in the oven for 40-45mins til the crumb topping is golden brown.

Serve with custard, fresh cream or vanilla ice cream. Delish.

It feels like centuries since I had homemade cookies or been on the non-receiving side of these aforementioned cookies. I think the last one I had was consumed a little after Christmas, storebought, as good as Divine cookies get but didn’t quite ring the bell for me. The realization that there’s only another 24 hours and counting before the weekend vanishes once again made the need for cookies all the more intense. Felt kinda like being almost on the verge of a life-changing moment that would write itself down in history. Weekends for me, since I began baking, have always been Cookie Weekends. At the end of every week, my family would begin to get slightly queasy from having to face burnt, underbaked, queer-shaped cookies. Every baking attempt was a batch of oddly shaped masses of sweetened batter, to me at least. To the rest of the family, it was either sugar highs or experiences of unpleasant experimentation.

Getting up at about half 7 this morning – groggy and smelling of sleep, I trudged down in scruffies and knee-high woollen slippers – to bake, without first having breakfast or a cuppa coffee, really brought me back to those days. I haven’t felt this good on a Sunday for some time now. I mean, dissertations, seminar preparations and thoughts of the impending future always leave me Sundays a little empty, a little grey, kinda moribund. But a foodie pal once reminded me that baking is one of the best cures and I agree, although I put that a little after shopping. Eating comes next. I’m not anywhere near done with my dissertation, and I haven’t prepared nearly enough for my morning seminar tomorrow but I’m determined to spend my Sunday in a different way. Besides, I have a phone interview with Birkbeck University for my masters application in a little over 2 weeks. EEEK! I can’t afford to lose my life force right now, can I? Did someone say get psyched with cookies?

So cookies it is. And with one of my best-loved ingredients. I’m on Lent, and I’ve given up quite a lot this year – chocolate included. Therefore, nope it is not chocolate. But oats!

I have a real weakness for oats. I have oats at least twice a day – for breakfast, sometimes lunch in granola, muesli or flapjack form. And sometimes I can’t help sneaking a little as pudding after dinner. It’s just soo good. I love the crunch if they’re granola; love the smell of oat porridge with honey and bananas; and have a habit of nibbling each bit of oat very slowly, squirrel-style. Irresistible. I went in search for an oatmeal raisin cookie recipe because I don’t actually have one on me. When it comes to baking, I have a select few of foodblogs and food websites I go to for inspiration and very trusty recipes. Smitten Kitchen is a place I love to get recipes from because they’re always reliable and gosh, the pictures just drive you mental! I’m just a little gaga over this foodblog.

This recipe was very easy to follow and the ingredients uncomplicated. It was actually a half-recipe and I found it just right as I too didn’t want to be swimming in a cookie-filled kitchen. I like making just enough. Overdoing really isn’t necessary (so says the over-achiever, snort!). I’m definitely keeping this recipe for life – it’s just perfect. Crispy on the outer edges, and soft chewy on the inside. It’s got the right thickness. It looks like proper homemade cookies. I’m in love! I might, however, up the amount of salt and rolled oats in the future. I like my cookies a little salty and for this particular type, I love having a truckload of oats in these. Might possibly try this in the future with oats (the non-rolled type) for extra bite. I can so imagine myself going into shock aka oaty-heaven from just a bite of that. Bring on Cookie Sundays – that’ll definitely chase away any sort of impending Monday Blues.

(recipe link below)

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Recipe yields about 2 dozen regular cookies. Thank you Smitten Kitchen, these were great!!

*p/s. You might’ve noticed that the layout has changed. Please forgive any messy bits as I’m still in the process of editting the template and so forth. It’s about time The Sugar Bar upgraded and matured!

Update: Comments now working. Apologies for the delay in fixing the blog layout, etc. but it’s all up and running now (I hope) so do feel free to leave me a message!

Just last week, we went to see the new Underworld film – The Rise of the Lycans. The boys and I are avid fans of the film and of Kate Beckinsale. Violence, vampire action, good soundtrack and a fine woman – no one can resist that, now can they! Although she doesn’t appear in this one, the prequel, we were still pretty excited about it simply by association. I enjoyed this one thoroughly since I really liked the Lycan dude anyway, even in the previous film. The army of werewolves in the film, however, somehow brought ideas of creating an army of my very own. What did I think up?

Mating Anna’s black persian cat Mortie with my cocker spaniel Fifi. That sounds like the most horrid, sick thing to do. Please don’t be offended but Anna and I pissed ourselves chatting about this and decided a cat and a spaniel will create an army of, not Lycans, but Spatz! How cool does that sound? Someone’s gonna say ‘Maybe to a stoner’. Chances are, he’s right but man, do I think my little army of Spatz will be great fun to have around. Nonetheless, this really just stays in my head. I’m really not that into inter-breeding of animal species.

So anyway. Someone turned 21 yesterday (actually 3 people I know share the same birthday on 27th Jan) and Kid Diva did her duty and baked the birthday cake. The last time I made carrot cake for a friend’s birthday was years ago and it didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted it to. Melting in the summer heat, it was greasy, squishy and simply pathetic. This time, I truly believe I have outdone myself all thanks to Ina Garten’s recipe. This woman is a godsend! The cake was orgasmically good – dreamily moist and the flavours were fantastic. Considering I had hardly any of my bakeware from home, no sieve to sift the flour or icing sugar, ancient scruffy-looking cake tins and a shitty garbage of an oven, this cake turned out a hit. The birthday boy was grinning from ear to ear and it wasn’t strange to spot our party-goers dipping their fingers as discretely as possible into the cream cheese frosting between gulps of vodka.

The whole evening was as posh as student life can get. The recent credit crunch, however, prevented us from making a pleasant trip out into the country for a relaxed pub lunch as Sam would have wished it. Instead, we organized a nice little dinner, table cloths and all. Redecorated the kitchen, lit some candles, whacked on some posh jazz music and placed a green sign on the door that read ‘Bistro Gamper’. The whole thing was Anna’s brainchild and kudos to her. She did an amazing job preparing the pork, potatoes and vegetables, and a to-die-for redcurrant and cider gravy which I’ve already nicked the recipe of. I’ll never forget the taste of that gravy and I’m eager to give it a go myself. In fact, there’s some left in the fridge. I could possibly drink the whole bowl of it. It is that mindblowing!

Stuffed, about to pop, and feeling slightly woozy from too much food and champagne, we braved on towards pudding and the birthday song. My family’s quite the group of conservative eaters. At family meals, I’m always the only one gasping and moaning away if something tastes great. It takes quite a bit to stop me from banging on about how good it is. Last night, however, I am very pleased to say the whole table was gasping and moaning away to no end. What a fan-fucking-tastic experience that was! I am so relieved and glad that the cake was a success, thrilled that it tasted like sex and delighted that our dearest Sam is 21 and lovin’ it.

I have altered Ina Garten’s recipe just slightly – adding more spices and substituting half the amount of vegetable oil for applesauce. This was recommended by a lot people who had attempted the recipe and thought I might as well try it their way. Can honestly say this cake wasn’t greasy like the one I made years ago. It was wonderful – perfectly moist and the flavour was well balanced. I might’ve reduced the amount of icing sugar in the frosting as well. I rather enjoy tasting more butter and cream cheese then just sweetness. Come the summer, I will be making this again. It’s so beaten my infamous Guinness Chocolate Cake.

I’ve noticed a trend though. I happen to make the best cakes on days where I know I’m going to get absolutely battered that evening. I suppose alcohol doesn’t just give you a head rush huh?

Carrot Cake
Adapted from Ina Garten
Ingredients

For the cake:
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
3 extra-large free range eggs
2/3 cup Bramley applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2cups + 1 tbs flour, divided
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 pound carrots, grated
1/2 cup crushed pineapple

For the frosting:
300g cream cheese
1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup icing sugar, sifted

For the decoration:
anything you fancy really OR
strips of carrot, peeled with a peeler lengthwise
some red chard leaves

Preheat oven to 180d Celsius.
Butter and flour 2 8″ round cake pans.

Beat sugar, oil and eggs together until light yellow. Add vanilla. In another bowl, sift together 2 1/2 cups flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Toss the raisin and walnuts with 1 tbs flour. Fold in the carrots and pineapple. Add to the batter and mix well.

Divide the batter equally between the 2 pans. Bake for 55 – 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool completely in the pans set over a wire rack.

For the frosting:
Beat hte butter til light in colour. Add the cream cheese and beat. Add the vanilla. Beat till just incorporated. Add the icing sugar and mix til smooth.

Assemble cake and decorate as you like it!