Light Fruit Cake

Fruit Cakes, unlike any other typical cakes, require abit more time, effort and patience. With the careful attention, you can be assured of the special feeling of fulfilment when lifting a freshly baked fruit cake out of the oven. Especially when Christmas is round the corner.

In preparing a fruit cake, make sure you do the extra step of lining the tin in double layers as well as wrapping layers of newspaper around the outside of the tin due to the long cooking time. Lastly sit the tin on layers of newspaper in the oven.

I had a request for a fruit cake from a colleague of mine for her mother as her mother loves fruit cake. I promised her I will do it one day for tasting when I have abit more time and when the baking mood is back. I managed to get it done one day and here's the recipe I wish to share that differs from the one I used to make. However the appearance of my cake differs greatly from the picture in my cook book (Baking: A commonsense Guide). I wish I could reach that standard one day : ( My cake turned out very crumbly.. and broke into pieces once I cut it.

Preparation time: 40 min
Total cooking time: 3 hrs

185g unsalted butter, softened
115g caster sugar
3 eggs
160g sultanas
100g currants
60g chopped glace apricots
45g chopped glace figs
250g chopped glace cherries
80g macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped
185g plain flour
60g self raising flour
125ml milk
1tbsp sweet sherry

For all the dried fruits, I simply bought a packet of mixed fruits from the supermarket to ease the hassle of buying individual packs and weighing them all.
That comes to about 605g in total. And as I couldn't find sherry nor rum, I replaced it with orange juice and I also replaced macadamia nuts to walnuts and almonds both chopped.

1. Preheat oven to 160 deg C and grease and line a deep 20cm round or 18cm square cake tin.

2. Cream butter and sugar together until well combined. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.

3. Stir in the fruits and nuts.

4. Sift in half the flours and half the milk, stir to combine then continue with the rest of the flour and milk followed by sherry (my juice)

5. Spoon the mixture onto the tin and tap the tin to remove any air bubbles.

6. Wrap the outside of the tin and layer the rack with newspapers. Bake for 1 3/4 hours. Remove from oven and wrap tin in a tea towel until cool. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

(note: top of the tin may need to be covered during baking if it colours too much)

Pls spread the word for the festive season and visit my fellow blogger's blog :)

www.passionbaker.blogspot.com/2010/11/aspiring-bakers-2-christmas-dec-2010.html

MERRY XMAS EVERYONE!

Hakka Abacus

Also known as yam coins, abacus is typically a Hakka dish (a dialect in Singapore for those foreign friends reading this blog). It is a dish of yam fried with minced pork, Chinese mushrooms and dried shrimps. The yam is boiled till soft and mashed before rolled into small round shapes that look like coins. The Hakkas believe that eating abacus siginifies more wealth and prosperity.

A plate of delicious Abacus

My mom is a Hakka and she grew up with this dish since young. As I like the abacus she cooks at home, I want to try to master this cuisine so it doesn't get lost in my next generation.

After much nudging and chasing, I finally managed to get hands on with it today. My domestic helper has mastered this dish so well that I'm now learning from her, not my mom! I stood by her in the kitchen for an hour or so and finally managed to get my hands on it. As recipes at home are mostly trial and errors, the quantity and weight of items are purely based on guestimations. But I try to be accurate as far as possible. However, individual taste buds and preferences vary so feel free to add or alter any portions.

Abacus is a dish that is savoury and rich in flavour due to the dried shrimps and mushrooms. It takes time and much dedication to get the texture, taste and colours right. And the proportion of yam to tapioca starch is important so it doesn't taste like it has too much flour. That's the difference of home made abacus.

Total time of preparation: about 45min

Total cooking time: about 30-45min in total

(A) Yam

150g yam (cut into small cubes)

Tapioca starch 50g

Water approx 1 1/2 cup
Dash of salt

Pepper

1 pot of water

1 bowl of tap water

1. Pour water (1 1/2 cup) and yam into a pot and bring it to boil till all water is dried (water must be enough to just cover all the cubes but not too much water that it gets too soggy)

2. Stir yam while boiling to ensure water is thoroughly absorbed.

3. When all the water is absorbed, mash the yam and add some salt and dash of pepper.

4. Add in tapioca starch to bind the yam together.

5. Using hands, knead the dough finely to ensure all mixture is incorporated together nicely.

6. Prepare dough in long thin strips then pinch off the end to roll into a small ball.

7. Roll each ball then indent the centre with your thumb to resemble an abacus.

8. Bring the pot of water to boil. When boiling, put all the yam inside and cover.

9. When the yam balls are cooked, they float. Transfer the yam balls to the bowl of tap water so they do not stick.

10. After couple of minutes, sieve them out to prepare for next stage.

Top: Mashed yam

Below: Well kneaded yam with tapioca starch

Neatly rolled yam balls

(B) Minced Pork
Dried shrimps approx 1 tbsp (washed and soaked in water)
Small onions (chopped)
Chinese mushrooms about 10-15 pcs, approx 15g (washed and soaked in water till soft. Cut into strips and keep the water aside)
Some carrots also cut into strips
Minced pork 50g

Top: Soaking dried shrimps in water
Below: Soaking Chinese mushrooms in water

Top: Carrots and mushrooms in strips
Below: Chopped onions

Seasoning

Corn starch 1/2 tbsp

Pepper

Oyster sauce 1/2 tbsp

Sesame oil 1/2 tbsp

Some oil for frying

1. Mix minced pork with the above seasoning.
2. Fry onions till brown and fragrant.
3. Add in shrimps and continue frying for few minutes.
4. Add in minced pork and stir followed by carrots and mushrooms.
5. Add in the water used to soak the mushrooms to give extra flavour.
6. Add in another 1/2 tbsp of oyster sauce.
7. Cover pan and let it simmer.
8. Finally add in the cooled and drained abacus and continue frying for another few minutes till well mixed. Add pepper if desired.

Serve and garnish with some coriander.

caution: you can't stop at one

Orange Cake - to chase away your blues..

My entries are usually fuss free and express. I don't have the luxury of time to bake cakes that require hours in the kitchen and spending every minute to decorate and dress it nicely anymore. As I hold a full time job my weekends are very precious to me along with other commitments, I can only afford to do fuss free cakes. Here's another one from me.

A cake that you can bake on a weekday night and it takes only 20min to prepare. Baking time is about 30min and before you know it, you have freshly baked orange sponge cake right in your kitchen.. Something sweet to help you chase away your Monday blues...




Plain Flour - 110g (sifted)
Melted butter - 70g
Eggs - 4
Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
Caster sugar - 100g
Some orange zest
Orange juice - 1/2 tsp


1. Whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla essence till pale and creamy (approx 4 min on medium speed)
2. Pour in orange zest and juice and mix
3. Fold in flour and incorporate well
4. Pour in melted butter and mix well
5. Bake in a 20cm pan at 180deg C for 30 min

Can you smell it?

Specialty Prawns

I have no name thought for this dish of mine so it's simply called Specialty Prawns. I created this, with an easy mix of Sea Salt with Rosemary & Lemon, Smoked Chilli and Garlic Mill, some salt and basil. These were the herbs and seasonings bought from Marks & Spencer, London.



After shelling the prawns and rinsing them, I made a small slit on top to remove the veins and created a nice small 'opening'. I rubbed a little salt in the prawns and added a dash of pepper to it. Add the seasoning and mix well.


Heat a pan of olive oil and get throw in some chopped garlic. Stir fry till slightly brown then throw in the prawns. Fry till thoroughly cooked. The aroma of the seasoning will fill your kitchen instantly. Sprinkle some chopped parsley before serving.




Enjoy. :)

Tuna Sandwich

I know this is a no brainer and a cheater's recipe.. but sometimes a simple tuna sandwich is all I want for lunch.

All I gathered were just gardenia foccacia bread, some lettuce, sliced tomatoes and a can of tuna! For the tuna mix, I add some pepper and low fat mayonnaise (which I know is totally lost in this picture here..) I added a bit of broccoli that is cut into small pieces and mixed into the tuna. You can add some olive oil as an alternative to mayonnaise.

If you wish you can toast the bread lightly for the crispiness.
The end product is wholesome and yummy! and I love sandwiches :)

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Thanks everyone for continuing to view my blog and I will continue to have new exciting bakes! (though much slower now)

I recently tried my hand on pineapple upside down cake. It was surprisingly easy and I'm sure everyone can do it in no time.

Here's how to do it.

A
20g unsalted butter, melted
Some soft brown sugar
6 slices of pineapples (canned)

B
90g unsalted butter, softened
125g caster sugar

C
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence/extract

D
125g self raising flour, sifted

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C
2. Pour melted butter into a 20cm pan (brush both the base and sides of pan with butter) and sprinkle with brown sugar evenly
3. Cut pineapples into half and place them nicely on the base of the tin
4. Beat the extra butter and sugar with electric beaters till light and creamy then add eggs gradually, beating well after each addition
5. Add the vanilla extract and beat until well combined
6. Fold in the flour alternatively with 70g of pineapple juice
7. Spoon the mixture evenly over the pineapple and bake for 40 min
8. Leave cake in tin for 10 min before turning out to a wire rack to cool

Enjoy.

Other priorities

I have been rather inactive in my food blog, to the disappointment of my followers.

Apologies as I have many other priorities and commitments now. However I will still endeavour to keep my blog going. Slow but surely more stuff coming up..