Vanilla cupcakes

I love cupcakes! They are small in size and dun feel guilty eating them. :P and they are cute looking too!!

Ingredients:
- 112g butter
- 70g caster sugar
- 112g self-raising flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla essence

Methods:
- Beat butter and caster sugar until creamy.
- Add eggs and beat.
- Add in self-raising flour slowly and continue mixing.
- Add in baking powder and vanilla essence.
- Spoon mixture into baking cases. (Less than 3/4 full as the cupcakes will rises.)
- Bake in preheated oven at 175C for 20 minutes.

Makes 9 cupcakes.

Results: Not too sweet and soft cakes!

Mee Hoon Kueh / Mien Fen Guo

Been eating too much fried food lately which accounts for my sore throat. I prepared this last nite for this morning breakfast. It is easy to make and no machine nor mixer is needed. Work with just your hands!

Making of the Mien Fen Guo

Ingredient:
- 75mL water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 320g plain flour (sieved)

Method:
- Add water and salt to eggs and beat gently.
- Pour egg mixture into plain flour gradually. Mix and knead till a smooth dough is formed.
- Cover dough with a wet cloth and leave at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Knead again and leave aside for another 2 hours and is ready to use.
- Store in fridge. (To maintain freshness, use within 2 days.)
- Tear dough into small pieces and stretch them until thin.
- To cook, put pieces into boiling soup one at a time.

I prepared soup stock using ikan bilis. When preparing the mee hoon kueh, boil the small pieces of dough in the stock and serve with minced meat and vege. Oh! Don forget the egg and some fried onion, shallot. Fried ikan bilis will be a bonus.

Dry mee hoon kueh can be done too. Simply boil the dough and mix in some chilli paste, dark soya sauce and shallot oil. Getting the right chilli paste is important here.

Fruit Tart

Short Crust Pastry

Ingredient A:
- 250g butter
- 50g icing sugar (sieve)

Ingredient B:
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Ingredient C: (sieve)
- 375g plain flour
- 25g custard powder
- 5g baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt

Ingredient D:
- chocolate chips (melt in a microwave. Trick is to melt at low power with stir frequently. It burnts really quickly.)

Methods (pastry):
- Beat butter and icing powder in the mixer using medium speed.
- Add Ingredient B gently and beat till creamy.
- Mix Ingredient C using low speed to form dough. (Take care not to over mix.)
- Chill dough in fridge for 30 minutes or longer.
- Roll dough to approximately 3mm thick on a floured board / tabletop.
- Cut pastry with round cutter and place into tart mould.
- Bake in preheated oven at 180C for approximately 25 minutes.
- Allow to cool.
- Brush Ingredient D on the tart shell.

Custard Cream

Ingredient A:
- 100g milk
- 1 egg
- 35g custard powder

Ingredient B:
- 200g milk
- 100g fresh cream
- 60g sugar

Ingredient C:
- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
- Mix Ingredient A evenly.
- Boil Ingredient B in a saucepan till sugar melt. (Boil from low heat and increase the heat as you go. Most imptly is to stir it constantly as sugar tends to crystallise and settle at the bottom and burnt easily.)
- Add Ingredient A gradually and stir constantly till the mixture is cooked.
- Allow to cool and add in Ingredient C. (Not too cool as when the custard harden, it will be difficult to stir in the vanilla essence.)
- Allow to cool further.

Preparation of the final TART:
- Fill the chocolate coated tart shell with custard.
- Decorate with fruits (Grapes, peaches, kiwi, strawberries, ........)
- All DOne! :)

It tastes better when chilled.
Enjoy! :)

Sambal Belchan

Ingredient:
- 10 red chillies
- 5 bird eye chilli
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 tsp belachan (grind and toasted)
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 clove of shallot (chopped and minced)
- oil

Method:
- Heat up oil and deep fried the shallot.
- Cut chilli and remove seeds.
- Blend chilli, garlic and belachan till fine.
- Add in salt and sugar to taste. (Add additional sugar if taste is too spicy.)
- Blend in fried shallot and shallot oil.

Store in air-tight container and keep refrigerated.

Zui Kuih

Zui Kuih - one of the few simple and famous dish Singapore hawker centre offers.
Still remember I used to have this for breakfast when I was young and was selling like 60cents for 5 pieces of zui kuih. Where to find 60cents food nowadays?

I learnt this dish from FenYing's blog.

Ingredient A:
- 150g rice flour
- 10g corn flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 200g water

Ingredient B:
- 400g boiled hot water

Ingredient C:
- 1.5 tbsp fried shallot oil

Filling:
- 1 shallot (minced)
- 1 clove garlic (minced)
- 150g chopped preserved raddish (washed and drained dry. Need to be wash if not will be too salty)
- 2 cup water (as a gauge only. Need to add more as you go.)
- 1.5 tbsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp dark soya sauce

Makes approximately 23 zui kuih.

Method:
1. Mixed Ingredient A in a mixing bowl.
2. Add Ingredient B and mixed quickly.
3. Add Ingredient C and mixed will.
4. Steam zui kuih mould till hot (abt 5 min).
5. Pour flour mixture into mould and steam over high heat for approximately 15min.
(As you pour, mix the mixture with a spoon to prevent the flour and water from separating.)
6. When zui kuih is cooked, allow to cool to set.

Filling:
1. Heat oil and fry shallot and garlic till fragrant.
2. Add chopped raddish and fry.
3. Add water, sugar, and dark soya sauce and fry.
4. Simmer over low heat till water is absorbed.

A very easy method. Reheat before serving.
Taste better with chilli! :)