Chocolate Chip Cookies Taste Test - Momofuku vs Baking is Science

First off, whilst we are still in the month of January, let me take this opportunity to wish all a very Happy New Year! 

If you're looking for a good chocolate chip cookie recipe, I say look no further because they are readily available for free on the internet! I cannot believe how delicious these cookies are! 

First up is the Cornflakes Chocolate Chip Cookies by Momofuku Milk Bar. You will be pleased to know that not only is the chocolate chip cookies recipe available but many other recipes of their signature cakes and they are all for FREE! After trying several recipes, including the chocolate chip cookies recipe here, all of which taste phenomenal, I was convinced to buy their book. It is worth every penny even though some of the recipes can be found on their website. Crunchy on the edges and chewy in the center, the cookies have a caramel like sweetness from the melted marshmallows and each bite is buttery, crunchy and chewy. 

Next, is a soft chocolate chip cookie from Baking is a Science, a fun and insightful blog by a home baker on the chemistry of baking. There are interesting posts on the writer's baking experiments where the writer provides useful explanations of how different ingredients react differently and why they would produce different outcome in a recipe. According to the writer, the secret in achieving soft and chewy cookies is to use bread flour instead of regular all-purpose flour. The writer experimented with different flour in her chocolate chip cookies and she liked the cookies with bread flour the best as it was crunchy on the edges and moist and chewy in the center. Unfortunately, the blog is down when I tried to access it today. 

Both cookies were good but there was a clear winner between the two since most of my tasters and I included liked one more than the other.

Strawberry White Chocolate Muffins (Excellent Recipe!)

Being a lover of white chocolate and strawberries, I wanted to come up with not just a good, but a great white chocolate and strawberry muffin recipe. I won't say I'm there yet but this muffin recipe which is adapted from Bouchon Bakery blueberry muffins is definitely a keeper.

If you have not tried making Bouchon blueberry muffins, you absolutely must try this weekend. It is the best muffin recipe. This recipe is perfect if you prefer your cake light and fluffy compared to denser fine crumbed cakes. If you want a different flavour, try my version which uses the same basic cake recipe but with strawberries and white chocolate.

Secret Recipe Chocolate Indulgence (no spring form pan needed)

If you have tried making mousse with whipping cream and your mousse ends up lumpy and watery, fret not as I have the solution in making easy and fail-proof mousse for cakes. 

The secret to making the mousse without having to wait for the cake to set in the spring form pan is to use whipped topping. Whipped topping is non-diary whipping cream and is sturdier and fluffier than diary whipping cream. Though many have their reservations on non-diary whipping cream, I still feel it's better to use whipped topping because it's easier to handle and getting it wrong too many times is just discouraging. 

With this recipe, you can make Secret Recipe's signature cake from your own home.

Chocolate Blackforest Cake (My Birthday Cake)

This year I baked myself a blackforest cake. Last year my mum baked me a regular blackforest cake but this year I'm doing a chocolate version.

This is another recipe from Y3K Delicious Cake book. I think I'm hooked on the cake recipes here. They are so good for celebrations!

Coconut Chocolate Butter Cake (by Nasi Lemak Lover)

First off, lest I be accused of stealing, let me make it clear that this recipe is not mine. I'm merely following a fellow blogger's recipe. If you're interested in the original material please visit Nasi Lemak Lover's blog. I've said this before and I'll say it again, her blog is super awesome! There are tons of recipes there and you'll most likely find something you like to bake or cook on her blog. She updates her blog frequently and her recipes never fail to inspire.

Today we are baking a simple coconut chocolate butter cake. Experienced bakers can literally do this with one eye closed. It's like making marble cake but the vanilla goes on top and chocolate on the bottom instead of having swirls of chocolate in the vanilla.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love munching on small snacks just before starting my workout. I know it's bad but it's a good energy (and mood) booster after a long day at work. I don't believe in totally banishing junk food from my diet because the more you resist, the worse your craving gets. Just remember moderation is key.

Since I ate all the Horlicks Spring Roll crisps that my mum made (I shall make that one day and post the recipe here), I decided to bake some chocolate chip cookies to munch on.

This chocolate chip cookies recipe, also known as Toll House Cookies, is a recipe which my mum learnt from a baking class by Chef Goh. I'm not too sure whether this Chef Goh is the famous Alex Goh, but I get the feeling that he's the person.

In case you're wondering why is it called Toll House cookies, the recipe was named after Toll House Inn in Massachusetts after the owner of the inn came up with the chocolate chip cookie recipe in 1936. Thanks Wikipedia!

This chocolate chip cookie recipe is downright delicious and my four year old nephew who's a big fan of chocolate chip cookies practically ate the whole bottle of cookies himself in three days. At least, I did have some over the three days and I happily took this as a compliment.

Read on for the recipe!

Mini Nutella Wholemeal Croissant

What a hot day today! I feel like I'm being baked rather than doing the baking.

Since the chicken mushroom pie was so good, I was so pumped up to bake another puff pastry treat.

Went to the supermarket but they only had this wholemeal pastry sheet. The packaging says its suitable for, among others, wraps, pizzas, and there was this picture of cute little fruit tartlets too. Should be ok to make sweet desserts with this?

Watched some videos on how to make croissants just to learn the rolling process for the mini croissant.

I was feeling a bit lazy so this easy peasy Nutella mini croissant was the perfect recipe. All you need is store bought puff pastry, or in my case, wholemeal pastry sheet and a jar of Nutella. 

I didn't take photos of the rolling process, but basically all you have to do is:

1. cut the pastry sheet into a small long triangles, 
2. add Nutella to the wider/ lower part of a triangle, 
3. brush egg wash to the sides of the triangle (to seal the ends)and 
4. roll the lower part to meet the peak of the triangle.
5. Repeat for each triangle.

You'll end up with these tiny crab-looking thing, uh, I meant mini croissants.

They were slightly on the hard and dry side. Doesn't taste so bad with the Nutella though. At least the wholemeal pastry is a good substitute if you're craving pain au chocolat whilst on a diet.

Happy baking skinny desserts! xx

Rum & Raisin Mousse Cake

First off, the mousse recipe which I used for this cake was not a mousse recipe for cake. It is meant to be eaten from a cup which is why the mousse looks a bit runny. The reason why I used this mousse recipe is because I wanted to finish the leftover egg whites from Ms Beranbaum's cream cheese butter cake. The mousse was kind of rough but it tastes good.

American Chocolate Cake (Ethan's Birthday Celebration)

I finally had the chance to bake a kid's birthday cake for my adorable nephew who turned two years old. Since I haven't baked chocolate cake in awhile, I looked up my mum's collection of recipes for chocolate cake. I came across several recipes for American Chocolate Cake. Not sure why is it called American Chocolate Cake, maybe because it is rich and sweet like how most Americans like their desserts?


On the topic of chocolate cake, I heard that Le Trianon chocolate cakes are to die for. I was at The Curve last week so I popped by their shop to buy a slice.


Le Trianon sells only two types of cakes and both are chocolate cakes - Trianon and Chocolate Heaven. I wanted to try Chocolate Heaven which looks more like cake but they only sell the whole cake so I ended up getting a slice of Trianon (a very petite and expensive slice I must say). 


Trianon has a thick layer of chocolate on top and the base is made of wafer biscuit. If you ask me, I say it tastes like Ferraro Rocher, but better with less hazelnut flavour. I don't think it's considered a cake because there's no cake in it, just chocolate and biscuit.

Time for a healthy treat - Chia Seed Blondies

Many may have heard of brownies before but have you come across its sister, blondie? 

A brownie is a cross between a soft cookie and cake and is always chocolate flavoured whilst a blondie is the non-chocolate version of brownie. According to a source, blondie contains butterscotch and butterscotch is basically the combination of melted butter and brown sugar used in the recipe.You can tell that both brownie and blondie got their names from their colour. 

There are three textures to brownies/ blondies , fudgy, chewy and cakey. Fudgy brownie is totally moist and dense whilst cakey tends to be light and crumbly. Chewy is somewhere in between fudgy and cakey. Out of the three, I'd go for chewy. A balance in everything would be good, don't you think?

Checkerboard Cookies

Strips of chocolate and vanilla cookie doughs are arranged alternately and cut into slices to form a checked design

Have you ever wondered how these checkerboard cookies are made? I've always wondered and finally found out when I made them myself. Surprisingly, it is not that difficult and they make a wonderful gift from the kitchen.

Easy Peasy Guilt-free Chocolate Peanut Butter Oat Balls

The best way to enjoy chocolate minus the guilt is to make a healthy chocolate dessert. I wanted to have chocolate but at the same time I want it to be something satisfying in a good portion and won’t leave me sluggish after, so I came up with the idea of a dessert with chocolate, oats and peanut butter all rolled up in one. This recipe is yummy and filling and is sure to satisfy any chocolate cravings minus the guilt.

A Childhood Favourite

To end 2013, I decided to bake a childhood favourite and my choice of a classic treat is the marble cake. There are many variations of marble cake recipes online and in the cook books but I wanted a simple recipe of the classic vanilla and chocolate cake. I felt like baking a marble cake after tasting the delicious marble cake from one of the oldest coffee shop (a.k.a kopitiam) in town, Yut Kee Restaurant.They say, never leave Yut Kee without trying their famous marble cake. I had one such opportunity without having to suffer the lunch time crowd and the traffic congestion in KL when one of the partners (very thoughtful of him) brought some to work one afternoon. The little things  people do can unknowingly inspire others.

Very chocolately ChocoBanana Cake

The finished product, though the chocolate ganache has not completely cool at this point in time.

It's been awhile since my last post. I had to go on a short hiatus because I was busy preparing for the wedding. Now that the wedding reception (all three) is over, Yes freeeedom! I can get back to baking and blogging again!

I shall put up a post on my wedding cakes, two of them, for the two dinner receptions I had for my wedding. That would be later. For now, this post is for the cake I baked last Sunday after my wedding weekend.

Moist Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache

I have been quite busy for the past few weeks with work and preparation for my wedding so I didn't have the time to blog about what I baked two weeks ago.

I didn't take a picture of the whole cake but here is a picture of a slice

My sister just gave birth to another baby boy and she has been craving for chocolate cake. Since Mum is too busy taking care of her (my sister's) babies she got me to bake chocolate cake for the household and particularly for my sister. 

Choco Coffee Cupcakes - adapted from Kevin Chai Beautiful Cupcakes

The finished product. Thankfully Mum has this convenient cupcake holders for me to carry the cupcakes to work.

A few weeks ago, after I told Mum that I wanted to try out some basic cupcake decorating she made an impromptu purchase of a cupcake recipe book at the newspapers agent near the place she goes for facial. The book, Beautiful Cupcakes, recipes by Kevin Chai is filled with photos of gorgeous cupcakes along with their respective recipes.