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...

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...

Weng Hoak, Nancy

I ate lunch at this place almost everyday. I don't eat breakfast, so when the clock strikes one, I'll be rushing to Weng Hoak for some comfort food. Great thing about this place is that it is clean, the food is presentable, the people are great. It is like dining in a restaurant, yet the service is fast (it is cafeteria style). I will try to take the picture of the place in the future. But for the moment, I only have some shots of what Shafeez and I ate last Saturday (easter weekend).

This is Vermicelles Sautés (Fried clear noodles), and black chinese mushroom with prawn as the side dish. The prawns used in this dish are small and sweet. The mushrooms are delight.. It looks mushy but it's not.


This is one of the many entrées that you can get at Weng Hoak. These are set of 3 beignets de crevette (Prawn fritters). Very nice, and crispy (of course)


This one is fried rice with prawn in spicy sauce. The prawns used here are different from the one above. These prawns are meatier and as you can see.. bigger.

Weekend cooking

One good thing about having all the necessities in the kitchen is that you can start cooking when you want to. But living smack in the middle of the town, I usually buy things to be cooked on the same day. Anyhow.. somethings cannot be finished, like the bag of squids that I bought from the cold storage.
I always like squid.. mmm.. and I can cook a mean deep-fry crispy squid (hehehe).


I'm not a big fan of chicken.. but once in a blue moon, I will try to cook chicken, just for the sake of eating a chicken. Hmm.. doesn't make any sense, does it? Anyhooo.. I bought chicken leg and after it's been marinated with whatever I can find in the kitchen, I just popped it into the oven..


Few months back, my mom send me packets of instant spices. They are very handy if I want to eat Malaysian food without having to chop and ground 100 different spices. Few weekends ago, I used Brahim's Masak Lemak (Coconut spicy sauce) with the perut/babat. This weekend, I don't feel like to eat any saucy dish. So as I browse over the packets of instant spices, I saw the small packet of Seri Aji Nasi Goreng Ikan Bilis. I'm not a fan of Nasi Goreng. I think mostly because when people make Nasi Goreng, they are usually spicy.. and I don't like that, and also I'm a big fan of white rice. Yup. I can eat white rice just like that.. I mean without any condiments, or any side dish. But, this weekend, I had the urge to try it, and not wasting the instant packet that my mom sent.
Verdict: I'm surprised that it's not spicy at all. It's ok, but again I'm not a fan of Nasi Goreng.

Easter weekend!

Easter for me is food and chocolates!!!
We had an Easter lunch at Annick and Michel's [temporary] house.

This is the centerpiece... yummmyyy...



For entree, we had Tartines of Tuna Mayo with eggs. These are delicious!!! Mmmmm...



Upon my request, we had Goulash as the main course... The reason I asked for this is because I like to eat it but I don't know how to make it hehehe...



Cute mini tomatoes and heart of artichokes. They came with white asparagus also, but none left there.



Of course the masterpiece has been broken and more chocolates inside it! Yum yum.

Of Strawberries, Banana and Kiwi

When I buy fruits, they are usually either fruits of the season or when they are on promotions. Currently, at my usual market fruit vendors, they started to have strawberries, and promotion on kiwis. Well, bananas are pretty much cheap and available all year round. The fruit vendors know me very well. They could say, this girl will buy all kiwis and strawberries until we change the promotion or the fruits at our stall. Last month was about mangoes. They have this promotion on mangoes and I bought mangoes and mangoes almost everyday, until they stop selling them (I think I bought all their mangoes stocks). The kiwis are 3 for 2 euros and for the strawberries, they comes in either barquette or plateau. Barquette is the plastic container, while plateau is the wooden tray.
I'm in the mood of eating kiwi + banana salad at the mo. The combination is just right. Try it, you might like it. While for strawberries, I like to eat them with some sugar (read: lotsa sugar).
I spied that rock melons (cantaloupe) start to emerge. I think next month, would be melon month hehehe...