mardi, mai 15, 2007

Steamed caramel cupcake + Strawberry Chiffon Cake

The last time I did steamed cupcake was the Apam Kukus Pondan, made from a ready-made flour.
This time I made an attempt to make cakes from scratch! I bought some incredible things such as soda bicarbonate, cream of tartar and strawberry essence. Hehehehe..
So I braved myself last Sunday to make not one but TWO types of cakes. One is a steamed-type and another is a oven-baking-type.

Steamed caramel cupcake (Apam Gula Hangus - literally translated: Burnt Sugar Steamed Cupcake)
I started off with this one, because just need to add everything (caramelized sugar, eggs, among other things) and then put the liquid into the paper cupcakes, as seen below.



As my bamboo steamer is medium size, so I need to do them 4 by 4.
Here is the result.... hehehe...





Strawberry Chiffon Cake
While the first batch of steam cupcake is steaming, I started the mixing of chiffon cake. OK this is a very difficult cake to do for first timer. Unless you've made this with someone who is experienced in chiffon cake, do not dream that the chiffon cake will be perfect. However, that didn't deter me from making it hehehee.
For chiffon cake, I need to do 2 different mixing, one mixing is with the egg yolks, flour, etc. And another mixing (in a separate bowl), I need to whip the egg whites to become foam with pointy soft peak, and with the help of cream of tartar.
I didn't take the pictures of the-making-of because I was so psyched about making this cake.
Mind you, I whipped all my cakes by hand.. No machine used!!

I know that somewhere along the way I might have done something un-chiffon. But heck! I need to try this hehehe.. Another un-chiffon thing I did was I didn't use tube pan.. hahahaha.. The reason is that I don't want to waste money on tube pan. I bought aluminium rectangle cake pan.
So here is the result:







Kissing cakes... mmmmm...



The taste is yummy, it has the strawberry taste. I like. It also has the spongy texture, but it should be double the height and has more air inside it.
To give you an idea, this is what the chiffon cake should look like (kekekke)

Rendang, Ketupat and Mini Nasi Impit

Look what I found in my collection of Malaysian foods!
I have all what it takes to make a nice Hari Raya dish hehehe...
I asked my mom to send Nasi Impit instant because for once I like to eat nasi impit without having to impit (packed) the rice in the tupperware.
So my mom sent them to me, and in addition, it is the mini nasi impit!
(note: Nasi means rice, Impit/Himpit means packed)
I never had Mini nasi impit before.
It is like 6 times smaller than the normal Nasi Impit instant.
So here is what the Mini Nasi Impit looks like when it's out from boiling water and the rice is cooked. It took about 60-90 minutes to cook them.



Nasi Impit with the classic side dishes: Beef Rendang, and Serunding Daging (beef floss)


This is what my hubby had. Poissons panés avec des petites boules...

dimanche, mai 06, 2007

Bolu Kukus Pondan

Don't judge the book by it's cover.. kekekekeke
Weekend is here again... Time to look inside the closet and find what are the things that have been there all these years and at the point of expiring. I found a box of flour for Bolu Kukus. I bought this flour long long time ago at Sanglee in Eindhoven. Finally I found the force to make it. One reason is that I don't know how much this box will make. I'm scared that I will end up with 20 cups of bolu.
A bit about Bolu Kukus:
- this is more of Indonesian cake than Malaysian cake. We do have this kind of cake but I think the name is Apam Kukus.
- Although different nationalities, it has a common name - "kukus". "Kukus" means steam.
- Hence, this is a steamed cake.

These are the ingredients needed. Look! I found some colorings in the closet too! Cool...


I divided the mixture to 3 parts, where I gave them green and red colors. One part is left natural.
Here are the results!!!
Although the taste is good, and the consistent is OK. But the bolu should be fluffier. And the top should opens up (refer the picture on the flour box above). This is a normal failure for an amateur of apam/bolu making. I think it's because I didn't beat the mixture long enough.



This is as much as I get from 1 box. 7 cups of bolu. In the picture there are only 6, coz 1 is in my stomach already hihihihi...