Red Bean and Banana Sweet Bun

We had three huge bunches of bananas from our garden. What better way to use them than for baking. When it comes to bananas and baking, the first thing that comes to mind is banana cake. Sticking to tried and tested recipe is safe but at the same time being stuck in a rut will stifle creativity and progress. We’ve baked banana cake one to many times when it comes to finishing the bananas before they go bad. Each time we have excess bananas, it was banana cake so it’s about time we try other banana recipes.

I didn’t want to do any conventional banana dessert, so no bannofee pie or banana muffin either. After I discovered that I could churn out wonderful breads (ahem, not bragging), I wanted to do a bread recipe but absolutely not banana bread which, to me, is no different from banana cake.

This is a recipe by Agnes Chang. It’s a hybrid recipe because I’ve used her wholemeal loaf recipe to substitute the sweet bun dough for a healthier wholemeal bread. 

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!

White Loaf (Wu Pao Chun's Champion Toast)

Remember I said that every beginner baker should start by baking a basic butter cake? The other thing that a beginner baker should learn is a basic white loaf. 

When I first started baking, I was baking only cakes because I was so comfortable baking cakes that I could do it without thinking and I didn't want to fail at making other things like bread, pastry, kuih. Eventually I  learnt that one cannot survive on cakes. I wanted to have more simple things like bread, to have with jam or kaya or make a sandwich out of it. That was when I thought to myself, I should learn how to bake bread.

This recipe is also from Nasi Lemak Lover's blog. It's called Wu Pao Chun's Champion Toast. Wu Pao Chun is a famous chef from Taiwan who has won many awards in baking competitions so don't be afraid to try his recipe.

Japanese Condensed Milk Bread

The long weekend is upon us again! 2015 is the year of long weekends. What are your plans? For me, you know it, it's bake, bake, bake! Weekend is the time to hone my culinary skills.

I was looking for some quick inspiration for last week's baking project and I came across this interesting bread recipe from Nasi Lemak Lover's blog. She's such a good cook and baker and her recipes are awesome! I would highly recommend visiting her blog for some really good home cooking ideas.


You'll love this Japanese Condensed Milk Bread if you like sweet and milky bread. The portion of this recipe is not huge and it's good if you don't want to store bread too long in the fridge. It'll probably last a day or two for a family of four, depending on how many big eaters you have.

Chwee Kueh (Pickled Radish Rice Cakes)

Chwee Kueh is a Hokkien word and it literally means "water cake". This is a type of rice cake eaten with with stir-fried pickled radish.

I was in the mood for light and savory treat, so chwee kueh it was.

I remember whenever my mum brought my grandma to shop at Jusco, we used to buy  chwee kuehs back after shopping. I don't see them selling chwee kuehs anymore, now you see stuffs more popular with the younger crowds such as Mister Donut, takoyaki and seaweed popiah. Kuih bahulu seems to stand the test of time though since Jusco still sells them.

I don't know where you can buy chwee kueh but it's pretty easy to make.

Left: Mui Choi, Right: Chai Po

You can get packet pickled radish ("chai po") from 99 Mart. As for the preserved mustard green ("mui choi") you can get it from the market.

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

Coffee Muffins with Toffee Fudge Frosting

Last weekend's baking was impromptu because I didn't have the time to plan what to bake. We work so hard but yet are becoming poorer each day. A carton of Dutch Lady UHT milk used to cost RM4.50, now it's RM6.00! Johoreans earning SGD must be laughing all the way to the bank! Tough luck for the rest of us.

I was going through our cookery books collection to look for recipes to try out. I decided to try a coffee muffin recipe from Carol Pastor Best Ever Book of Cupcakes and Muffins since we have all the ingredients required. 

I got this book from Book Axcess quite sometime ago but only tried one recipe so far, I think it's the apricot yogurt muffins.

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.

Rose Levy Beranbaum Cream Cheese Butter Cake with Lemon Curd Buttercream

I just had this wonderful cheese butter marble cake which my mum baked from a recipe in The Star newspaper. I was browsing for baking books on Amazon and I came across Baking Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. They say that she's very pedantic with her recipes and you have to follow her recipes to the letter otherwise prepare to face failed cakes. 


I was browsing the free preview of her book and came across her cream cheese butter cake recipe. I thought of the yummy cheese butter cake my mum baked and wondered how Ms Beranbaum's recipe would match up.


Browsing further there's a photo of the cream cheese butter cake with lemon curd buttercream  in glorious yellow greeting you like beautiful morning sunshine.

See what I mean?


Apart from the wonderful combination of cream cheese and butter cake, I was also curious as to how cake would taste like with sour cream - which is the other reason why I was so inclined to this recipe. And lemon curd buttercream! Doesn't it sound so good, the whole combination itself, cream cheese, butter, sour cream and lemon curd buttercream. Certainly doesn't sound like just any other cake to me. 

Quick and Easy Chicken Mushroom Pie

Hearty pies make a great lunch box meal at school or work

I’ve been baking far too many cakes lately and it’s about time to bake more savoury treats that can double up as a main meal. I was thinking of something delicious that can conveniently be packed in our lunch boxes and chicken pie it was. 

Don’t worry if you don’t know how to make puff pastry because we don’t know either. Nothing’s wrong with using cheat puff pastry which you can easily find in the frozen section of the supermarket. The one we got is locally made, from Kawan Food. The pastry was fresh and good and you won’t be able to tell that it’s frozen.