Retire from Bentoing Christmas Buns Bento Woof Woof Bun Bento Piggy Family Hotdog Buns Sleeping Doggie Hotdog Buns Oreo Buns with Oreo Fillings Pikachu Custard Bun Bento Butter Rolls Bento Trick or Treat Bento Happy Mid Autumn Festival Bentos

January 9, 2013

Retire from Bentoing

December 11, 2012

Christmas Buns Bento

November 28, 2012

Woof Woof Bun Bento

November 22, 2012

Piggy Family Hotdog Buns

November 19, 2012

Sleeping Doggie Hotdog Buns

November 13, 2012

Oreo Buns with Oreo Fillings

November 8, 2012

Pikachu Custard Bun Bento

November 6, 2012

Butter Rolls Bento

October 30, 2012

Trick or Treat Bento

Newest

Pink Heart Swiss Roll

My gal requested me to make her a pink Swiss roll and thus it’s time to follow the instruction of Junko’s book. :) My Thai friend just told me yesterday that it’s translated in Thai now, so do check it out at major book stores in Thailand if you are interested.

As usual, this type of Swiss roll is quite time consuming. The book is always a great reference though so you can’t fail making a pretty Swiss roll as long as you follow the instructions well.

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Pink Heart Swiss Roll.

 
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My gal wanted more cream on her cake.

 
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And she added a cupcake canny and sprinkles too!

Happy Bread

I stumbled upon this pretty bread called Happy Bread in Pinterest, but too bad the link was not working, and thus I couldn’t check out the tutorial. However, I searched and managed to find this blog post written in Belgium, and it’s the same bread! I didn’t follow the bread recipe but used the recipe for Hokkaido milk bread instead.

Ingredients: (I used half of the portion for happy bread)

  • 540 gm bread flour
  • 86 gm caster sugar
  • 8 gm salt
  • 9 gm full cream milk power or natural milk essence
  • 11 gm instant dried yeast
  • 86 gm whisked egg
  • 59 gm whipping cream
  • 54 gm milk
  • 184 gm tangzhong
  • 49 gm unsalted butter, melted
  • Prepare 50gm of melted butter too (to be used while shaping)

 

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Complete the kneading process with a bread maker and let it proof until double in size.

 
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Take out the dough and deflate it. Divide it into 8 equal portions.

 
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Form them into ball shape and let them proof in room temperature for 15 minutes.

 
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Flatten the dough with a rolling pin to form a thin (3 – 5 mm) layer of rectangular sheet. Repeat the same process for another dough.

 
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Spread melted butter on the sheets.

 
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Stack the sheet on one another with the butter part facing up. The melted butter is used to prevent the sheets from sticking up.

 
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Roll the sheet from the size…

 
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…to form a roll.

 
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Repeat the same process to get a total of 4 rolls.

 
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Cut the ends of each roll.

 
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Place the end rolls in the middle of the baking tray. These will be baked as rose-shaped buns

 
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Cut the remaining rolls into triangular dough.

 
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Form a ring around the ‘roses’ with these triangular dough. Let the dough proof for another 40 minutes, apply egg wash and bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 25 minutes.

 
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Once baked, take out the bread and let it cool down on a wire rack.

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And here’s the pretty happy bread

Pandan Custard Buns (Overnight Dough Method)

I stumbled upon this blog for searching for pandan (screwpine) bread recipe since I had some pandan juice extract in the fridge. I was reserving it for another pandan chiffon but then again, I felt like punching some bread dough that night, after days of stress at work!

I usually buy the pandan leaves from the wet market, and a big bunch only costs about THB10. It’s very cheap! I’ll wash and cut off the end and tip of the screwpine leaves before using them.

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Prepare the leaves and a blender or a food processor

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Cut the leaves into smaller pieces. Add about 50 – 80ml of water, depending on the amount of leaves being blended at a time.

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Blend the leaves

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Strain and refrigerate the pandanus juice or use it immediately

I prefer to refrigerate the juices for 2 – 3 days before using it. By then, there will be a thicker layer of green extract left at the bottom of the juice, and it’s great for pandan chiffon.

Here’s the recipe for custard pandan buns:

Overnight dough:
150g bread flour
150ml pandan juice
8g instant yeast

Mix the three ingredients well and leave it in room temperature for an hour. Then, seal and refrigerate the mixture for at least 16 hours.

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Here’s how the overnight dough looks like.

On the next night, I proceeded the preparing the bread.

Ingredients:
350g bread flour
100g castor sugar
5g salt
2 tsp of instant yeasts
1 egg
75ml pandan juice
The whole portion of overnight dough
75g unsalted butter

Method:

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I added all the wet ingredients (including overnight dough) in the bread maker, and followed by dry ingredients. Set the bread maker to knead the dough until well mixed. Then add in butter and knead until a smooth dough is formed. Let then dough proof for about 40 minutes (first proofing)

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After the first proofing, bring out the dough and place it on a baking map. Deflate the dough and cut it into equal 9 portions for the buns and a bigger portion for a loaf (it’s optional).

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Shape the dough into balls and place them in a baking pan. Let the dough proof for another 40 minutes until they have doubled in size.

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Mean while, split the leftover dough into 2 portion and shape them as balls. Let them proof for 15 minutes before shaping them into loaves and let them proof for another 40 minutes.

While waiting for the dough to complete the proofing process, I prepared pandan custard.

Ingredients:
1 egg
20g castor sugar
130ml milk
15ml pandan juice
10g cake flour
5g unsalted butter

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Whisk egg and sugar until well mixed.

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Add cake flour into milk and mix well.

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Mix milk and pandan juice into egg mixtures until well incorporated.

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Cook the mixture in low heat and keep stirring until it thickens. Let the mixture cool down and keep it refrigerated until used.

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When the dough is well proof, spread some egg  wash on the buns.

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Fill the custard into piping bag and pipe it between the buns and form a cross on each of them.

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Bake the buns at 180C for 20 minutes. For the loaf, cover the tin and bake it at 180C for 30 minutes.

The buns were yummylicious and I couldn’t helped myself for not having some as supper. :P

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By the next morning, we only had these buns left.

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From the loaf, you can see how fluffy soft the bread is.

I guess I will bake more with overnight dough, as well as tangzhong method.

Lychee Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes

I have just realized that I have forgotten to post the recipe of longan chiffon cake, which I baked some time ago. Mmm….I wonder why… It must have slipped off my mind during a busy week!

Anyway, I adapted the recipe and replaced longan with lychee for these cupcakes. You may bake it with a normal 16cm chiffon tin instead of cupcakes. Just change the baking setting to 160C for 35 minutes for chiffon tin, as comparing to 160C for 20 minutes for cupcakes.

Here’s the recipe:

2 egg whites

30 g caster sugar

80g lychee + 20ml lychee syrup (both  blended)

60g sifted cake flour

1 tbsp of baking powder

 

2 egg yolk

40 g caster sugar

1/4 tsp of cream of tar tar

 

For filling:

200g of whipping cream

20g of caster sugar

1.4 tsp of vanilla essence

2 tsp of custard powder

 

Prepare the batter just like normal chiffon cake and bake the cupcakes at 160C for 20 minutes. While waiting for the cakes to cool down, whisk whipping cream with sugar until stiff peak. Then add in vanilla essence and custard powder and mix well. Pump the cream into the cupcakes and keep them refrigerated for at least an hour before serving. You may top the cakes with fruits and sprinkle some icing sugar as decoration.

 

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Decorated lychee Hokkaido Chiffon cupcake

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For this recipe, I only managed to get this amount of cupcakes. I left 3 out without filling as they were reserved for our dog.

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Actually, it’s my kids who asked me to bake the cupcakes as our dog turned 1 today, and they wanted to give him a treat.

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He was obviously delighted by today’s special treat. Happy birthday Coffee!

Piano

Before we got our boy a piano, he practiced with his electronic keyboard for almost a year. It was when he started playing Fur Elise that he told us the keyboard didn’t have enough keys for the piece! LOL!

I’m glad that we delayed in getting him a piano as we were not sure if he’s serious about learning it. We tried not to push our kids and let them decide if they really want to learn something. Besides that, I don’t believe in over indulging kids with extra activities. I am too lazy to shuffle around too. :P

I’m very proud of my boy as he plays quite well for his age, considering that he’s only been learning for 2 years.

Moist Banana Cake

I love banana cake but my kids are not a big fan of it. Nevertheless, I baked one last week to satisfy my craving and to finish off some over ripe bananas. I referred to the recipe by Wen, and it was originated from Richard Goh.

Ingredients:
2.5-3 Eggs (Room temp – Approx 150g)
130g Sugar (Reduced, original-150g)
200g Banana (Ripe & cut into small pcs, but I blended mine)
150g Top Flour (or plain flour/superlite flour/cake flour)
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Baking soda
100g Corn oil (or any vegetable oil except olive oil, if prefer richer flavor replace with melted butter but it may cover the banana fragrant)
1/8 tsp Banana essence (optional)

Method:Preheat oven to 160 degree C.
Grease & line a 8″ round tin with paper. (I used an 8″ square cake mold, so my cake was rather flat.)
1. Sieve flour, baking powder & soda together. Sieve twice & set aside.
2. Whisk eggs, sugar & banana at max. speed till stiff/ribbon stage.
3. Fold in flour & mix well. (Can use spatula or hand to mix)
4. Add in oil & mix well till batter is shiny & flowing.
5. Bake for 40 – 45mins.

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My 8″ square cake mold is obviously too big for the recipe. :P

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They tasted wonderful with a cup of coffee. 

This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Juggling

Time flies and we have only less than a month left of summer holiday. My kids had completed their summer sports camp and thus they are with me at work most days of the week. It’s not easy handling 2 noisy kids at my small office, but without a nanny, I have to juggle both kids and work at the same time. How I wish they can go to work with their daddy!

Besides that, some of my old stuffs left and I’m in the mid of training the new one. You can’t imagine my stress level at the moment. :(

I’m glad that I can release some stress by baking, instead of work and no play always. It’s not easy running a biz, and I don’t sell anything online like http://www.reidsupply.com. I’m depending a lot of sales personnel and telemarketing still.

When school starts next month, I shall sit down, clear my mind and think of some marketing strategies.

Rose Swirl Rainbow Cake

As usual, my gal was in doubt when I told her that I would bake her a birthday cake this year, for the every first time. It’s my second decorated cake, thus it’s going to be another trial and error baking  experience. :P

Her birthday fell on a weekday when I would be too busy for baking. Hence, I baked this cake last Sunday, and kept it refrigerated. I googled and found this step by step tutorial by Baking Biatch and my cake was a big success, despite the lousy piping skill again. LOL! The recipe requires an 6″ cake mold but I used 7″ cake mold instead.

Ingredients for the cake:

150 g butter, unsalted at room temperature
284g castor sugar
4 egg whites (I used small eggs)
2 tsp vanilla paste
285g plain flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt
235ml of milk, room temperature
Wilton Gel colouring (6 colours: purple, blue, green, orange, yellow and red)

Frosting: ( I used whipped cream instead of buttercream)

800ml whipped cream
70g castor sugar
Wilton gel in pink and blue

Here’s the pics I took in the making process:

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Weigh and prepare the ingredients. Line the cake molds with parchment papers.

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Beat butter and sugar until creamy

 
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Add in egg white one at a time and mix until well incorporated.

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Add vanilla essence and mix well.

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Add in 1/3 of the sifted flour and mix well.

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Add in 1/3 of milk and mix well. Proceed with 1/3 of sifted flour and 1/3 milk until both ingredients are used up.

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Split the batter into 6 equal portions.

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Add 1/8 tsp of food color in each batter and mix well.

Pour the batter in cake mold, lightly drop it on the kitchen top to release the air bubbles. Then, bake the batter in preheated oven at 170C for 15 minutes. Once baked, take it out, remove the parchment paper and let it cool down on wire rack. During the baking process, I prepared the frosting by whipping the cream with sugar until stiff peak. Keep it refrigerated until it’s time to be used.

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Here’s the 6 layers of rainbow cake.

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Place purple cake layer at the bottom of the cake stand and swipe some frosting on it. Then stack with the blue layer. Proceed the same for each layer of cake.

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All 6 layers of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

Due to the crazy hot weather, my cream was melting. So I refrigerated the cake for an hour before proceeding to decorating it.

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An hour later, I spread the coating for the cake. Then I refrigerated it again.

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In the mean time, I mixed some red and blue into the remaining frosting and prepared the piping bags.

Then I piped rose swirl patterns on the cake and judging from the look of it, you can easily tell that it’s my first attempt, without any practice! LOL! Oh man, I was bold.

 

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Rose Swirl Rainbow Cake

My gal was in awe with her cake! She said it’s beautiful. *phew, relieve*

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Bon appetit and Happy Birthday Gal!

Coffee drinker

I love coffee, and I can’t live without it. On normal days, I will take 2 – 3 cups, and preferably latte. When I couldn’t take coffee regularly during pregnancies and breastfeeding, I felt like I was a walking zombie and I was sooooo sleepy everyday.

I’m glad that I can take free wholesale coffee from FIL who has a coffee biz and that’s what we have at home. I still haven’t bought a coffee maker even if I’ve been drooling all over Nespresso and the new red model from Nescafe. I can’t remember the name but it’s a sleek model coffee maker and it’s in red!

Let me make big bucks and buy a bigger house with a bigger kitchen first. I’m running out of space to storage my kitchen gadgets!

Cranberry Yogurt Bread (Straight Dough Method)

I found this cranberry yogurt bread recipe from a Facebook group and it’s seems to good to be missed. Most of the time, I use tangzhong (water roux method) for my bread but this time I wanted to try straight dough method). I have some leftover cranberries from this chiffon cake, and I just want to use them all. :P If it’s good, I shall stock up some dry cranberries for more baking.

Ingredients:

  • Bread flour: 280g
  • Castor sugar: 20g
  • Salt: 3g
  • Instant yeast: 4g
  • Egg: 37g
  • Condensed milk: 30g
  • Milk: 100g
  • Strawberry yogurt: 50g
  • Unsalted butter: 28g
  • Dried cranberries: 90g

I placed all the wet ingredient in the bread maker, then follow by the dry ingredient (except butter). Make a small well and add in yeast the last and set the bread maker into dough mode. After the ingredients have come together in a dough, add butter and let it knead well. I took out the dough after first proofing for 40 minutes.

Deflate the dough and divide it into 8 equal portions. Make them into round dough and let it proof for 15 minutes in room temperature, covered with a cling wrap. Then I proceeded into shaping the bread and let it proof for 40 minutes before egg wash and baking at 180 C for 15 minutes.

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Cranberry yogurt bread.

The kids and I shared 2 small buns last night and they love it! So, I guess I will be using this recipe more often.

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It’s good to be eaten on it’s own.

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