Apple Pound Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

For the apple compote
350g apples, peeled and chopped into 1cm cubes
25g brown sugar
1 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
25g butter

For the cake
200g unsalted butter
175g castor sugar
4 eggs
75g almomd meal
200g cake flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp salt
50ml milk
25ml rum

Method:

To make the apple compote:
1) Put all ingredients except butter in a heavy saucepan. Cook on medium heat until sugar is dissolved.
2) Lower the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the apples are very tender and the mixture thickens.
3) Stir in butter. Set aside to cool.

To make the cake:
1) Preheat the oven to 170 deg C.
2) Line a 17X8cm and a 25X8cm cake pan with parchment paper.
3) Sift cake flour, baking powder and salt.
4) With an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
5) Add the eggs, one at a time. With each addition, mix until well combined.
6) Mix in almond meal.
7) Add half of flour mixture (Step 3), stir just until the flour disappear.
8) Mix in apple compote, milk and rum.
9) Add the remaining flour mixture. Using a rubber spatula, fold the mixture until no sign of any flour.
10) Pour the batter into the cake pans. Bake in preheated oven for 55 minutes.

Healthy Kinako and Seaweed Flakes Cookies Recipe

Ingredients:

100g cake flour
50g whole wheat flour
10g cornstarch
60g castor sugar
28g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 tsp aluminium-free baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tbs kinako powder (roasted soy bean powder)
2-3 tbs seaweed flakes

Method:

1) In a mixing bowl, whisk together cake flour, wheat flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt.
2) Lightly whisk the egg, stir in butter, follow by sugar.
3) Pour the egg mixture into flour mixture. Using a spatula, stir until combined.
4) Divide the dough into two portions, add kinako powder and seaweed flakes.
5) Wrap the two pieces of dough with cling wrap, rest in the fridge for 1 hour.
6) Preheat the oven to 180 deg C. Cut out the dough with cookies cutter.
7) Bake in preheated oven for 10-14 minutes.

Daffodil Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
Recipe taken from here

Ingredients:

For the cake:
12 egg yolks
1.5 cups castor sugar
0.5 cup boiling water
1.5 cups sifted cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
0.5 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon orange zest

For the frosting:
113g cream cheese
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
2 cups (or less) icing sugar

Method:

For the cake:
1) Preheat oven to 180 deg C.
2) Using an electric mixer, beat egg yolks and sugar until thick and lemon coloured. Add boiling water and beat for 30 seconds.
3) Sift all dry ingredients over the mixture in (2), mix in gradually. Add orange zest, beat until well combined.
4) Pour the batter into a ungreased 20cm chiffon pan, bake for 1 hour. Cool upside down.

For the frosting:
1) Beat cream cheese, orange juice, orange zest until smooth and creamy.
2) Beat in 2 cups of icing sugar until smooth.
3) Spread the frosting over the cake, serve.

Frosted Marmalade Cake
Recipe taken from here

Ingredients:

For the sponge:
175g butter
175g golden, unrefined caster sugar
a large orange
3 large eggs
75g orange marmalade
175g self-raising flour

For the frosting:
100g icing sugar
2 tbsps orange juice

1) Preheat the oven to 180 deg C. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
2) With an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3) Add the eggs, one at a time. With each addition, mix until well combined.
4) Grate the orange. Add the zest and marmalade into the batter in (3). Mix until well combined.
5) Sift the flour over the batter. Using a rubber spatula, fold the mixture until no sign of any flour.
6) Stir in the juice of half the orange.
7) Pour the batter into the pan. Bake in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes.
8) Let the cake cool on a wire rack.
9) Sift the icing sugar, mix with orange juice until it's smooth and has a runny consistency. Drizzle on the cake.

Braised Chicken Wings with Umeboshi

Ingredients:
12-15 chicken wings

Gravy
4 umeboshi (Japanese salt-preserved plums)
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup vinegar
1/3 cup light soy sauce
1/3 cup cooking wine
2/3 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar

Method:

1) Blanch the chicken wings in a pot of boiling water. Dish up.
2) Put all gravy ingredients in a pot and turn on heat.
3) When the gravy is boiled, put chicken wings in it. Cooked for 20 minutes. Dish up and serve.

Potato and Mushroom Gratin

Ingredients:

2 potatoes
1 tablespoon butter
Salt & pepper, to taste
2 packs shimeji mushrooms
1/2 chopped onion
Olive oil
1/4 cup fresh cream
Shredded cheese
Bread crumb

Method:

1) Cooked potatoes in a pot of water until soft. Mashed the potatoes, add butter, fresh cream, salt and pepper, and stir until combined.
2) Heat up olive oil in a frying pan, add onion and stir fry until soft.
3) Add mushrooms, stir fry until soft, season with salt and pepper.
4) Preheat the oven to 220 deg C. Put the mushroom in a casserole dish, spread the mashed potato in an even layer, topped with cheese, follow by bread crumb.
5) Bake 15 minutes or until the top of the dish is golden brown.

It's been months since I last published a post in this blog, gasp! I guess I've mentioned this before but I'll say it again - writing has never been my forte. I often find myself staring in front of a blank page in Blogger, not knowing how to even start the first sentence! As a result, I've blogged less and less often and it finally came to a complete halt few months ago. This is sad as I've been trying to keep Piggy's Cooking Journal going since 2005.

I haven't stop cooking and baking though, and lately I've been posting my creations (cooking/crafts) in my Facebook instead. It is much easier to manage this way, with just a title and a picture, I do not have to worry that there is not enough words to fill up the whole page!

I do not know whether I will continue to update this blog, but if you are still interested to know what I've been up too, feel free to follow me on Instagram or Facebook!

The recipe chosen for TWD this week is baked yogurt tart. The tart consists of flaky pie crust, yogurt filling, fresh fruits and chopped almonds.

I prepared a full batch of crust and used a small portion to make two small baked yogurt tartlets. My oven has been acting a little weird lately and most of my pastries take longer than the projected baking time to bake and these tartlet crusts were no exception. I had to bake them for close to 1 hour before they turned golden brown. I guess I need to get an oven thermometer soon. Anyway, the yogurt filling is easy to prepare and when it was done, I used a combination of nectarine slices and blueberries to place on top of the tartlets.

The tartlets turned out beautiful but the crust was too salty! I used salted butter by mistake and I still added a full tablespoon of salt to the dough, as what the recipe calls for! Other than the small mishap, the tartlets are delicious!

If you want to give the recipe a try, please visit this site.

With the recent food scare in Taiwan, I started to review the food I'm having regularly. Apart from cooking at home more often rather than eating out, I've also decided to stay away from store bought junk food. However, I still crave for chips and candies from time to time and having alternatives like fruits or dried nuts just won't satisfy my cravings at all!

So imagine my excitement when I saw a recipe of sweet potato chips online! I knew that I have to give it a try and I immediately went to the market and got a few yellow and purple sweet potatoes. The chips taste great and I'm sure that it is healthier than store bought chips too! I won't post the recipe here as I followed the recipe to a "T". If you want to give the recipe a try, go over to Yelena's blog!

The month-long hiatus was totally unplanned for. The series of unfortunate events started with my laptop breaking down and when I finally got it back from the repair shop, my camera died. After I got my camera repaired, I thought I should be spared from any misfortune for the time being but unfortunately, I almost chopped off my finger when I was preparing dinner two days ago and I had to be rushed to the emergency room, duh...! With my finger still in pain, I wanted to give TWD a miss this week but the savarin recipe looks so interesting that I just had to give it a try!

I made a simplified version of savarin. Using a mini bundt pan, I made half a batch of the dough and I got four tiny savarins. The cakes were then brushed with syrup, decorated with whipped cream and raspberries. The savarin is not very sweet, just the way I like it and it tastes really good with cream and berries too!