Christmas Chocolate Cupcakes

Christmas is about family, friends, fun and great food. But it is often the food and gift that form the stress part of this approaching holiday season. So why not whip-up something simple and yet special from your very own kitchen, gift-wrapped it into a heart-warming and gorgeous Christmas gift for your friends and relatives..........

Usually around mid of November onwards, you will be to find all kind of Christmas Goodies on sale at most pastry shop and shopping mall. Eg. Christmas Logcake, Gingerbread man/house, Minced Pie and etc...... Since now is the festive baking season, Rey and I have come up with these quick and easy Christmas Chocolate Cupcakes. After which we gave them a make-over, packed them in gift-bags and ready to distribute out.

The Main ingredients for this Chocolate Cupcakes are Dark Chocolate, Egg, Sugar and Butter. You may also wish to get your kids to be involved in the stirring, mixing as well as the decoration of Christmas Ornaments on the end products. Since afterall, Christmas is a family festive season where everyone is encourage to be involved in the preparation. These cupcakes are so rich and simple to make that you won't hesitate to make another batch in anytime of the week.

Ingredients: (makes 6)
150g 70% Dark Chocolate, chop into small cubes
150g Unsalted Butter, cut into small cubes
3 Medium Size Egg
60g Caster Sugar
100g Self Raising Flour
1 Teaspoon Dutch-process Cocoa Powder
1 Teaspoon Snow Powder/Icing Sugar, for dusting
Extra 1 Teaspoon Dutch-Process Cocoa Powder, for dusting

Method:
1. Set a medium glass bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter together(refer to the picture above, 2nd row, 1st picture), stir well till everything is completely melted then set a side to cool a little.
2. Sieves the self-raising flour and 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder together and set aside.
3. Beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until pale and thick, fold in the flour mixture into the egg mixture till combined.
4. Next slowly add in the melted chocolate mixture and stir till well blended.
5. Preheat the oven to 160 degree, scoop the mixture into the prepared cup cases and bake for 20 minutes (depend on the size of cupcake case, baking time will range from 15 – 20 minutes which you can test by inserting a toothpick to test if it is cooked through)
6. The cupcakes will be soft and gooey in texture and appearance.
7. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes, dusted with extra cocoa powder and icing sugar to create the snow effect.
8. Lastly decorate it with some store bought Christmas Ornaments for that extra festive outlook.

Note:-
1) The cupcake case that is used in this recipe yield 150ml of mixture per case at 3/4 full.
2) If you prefer not to have that gooey texture cake, you can baked for another further 2 - 3 minutes for dryer texture.


After the baking, dusting of icing sugar, placing of Christmas decoration, it is time for gift wrapping. You can get some fancy wrapping bags and ribbons from Daiso or any leading Baking Accessories shop like Phoon Huat (Singapore) and Bake It Yourself.

I am sure anyone will feel great and heart-warming to receive such a wonderful homemade gift. So if you can bake any simple cookies or cupcakes, why not grab some nice wrapping bag and start making your very own Christmas goodies for your love one, colleagues or relatives. I believed they will be surprised and delighted by your special thoughts and bakes.

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Bak Kuet Teh

Bak Kuet Teh is one of the popular Chinese soup that can be found in Asia countries, such as Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and etc. In Singapore there are mainly 3 different types of Bak Kuet Teh where the most common type comes from Teochew style, which is light in color but uses more pepper in the soup. Whereas, Hokkien who prefer saltier food will use more soy sauce which results in a darker soup. But Cantonese on the other hand will add extra Chinese herbs to create a stronger flavoured soup.

No matter which version you prefer, there is sure a great varieties to select from the local hawker stall to high class restaurant. But instead of eating out, you might want to try out this quick and easy version which yield a more healthier result. For those Singaporean who works or station overseas for a long time, I believed this is what you are craving for. I used to crave for this while I was away from Singapore to Australia for almost 2 years. So from that time, I have tried different method to achieve a close version of this soup. And I believed at a glance on the ingredients, you will have guess that I actually combined the Teochew and Cantonese version of adding extra Peppercorns and Chinese Herbs to enhance the flavour.

This is sure to be a simple and yet delicious soup to prepare for busy working mum or those Singaporean who station overseas. All you required is a packet of this pre-packed Bak Kuet Teh spices from "Seah's Spices" which you can get from most leading supermarket in Singapore or maybe some of the overseas Asian Grocery department. The adding of small onion is to make the soup fragrance and sweet while the white peppercorns add some extra hotness to the soup to warm up the stomach during cold and raining season.

Ingredient: (serves 4)
1 Packet of Seah's Bak Kuet Teh Spices
1kg of Spare Ribs/Pork Ribs
1 Cluster of Garlic
3 Small Onion, cut into wedges
1 Tablespoon of White Peppercorns
1 Tablespoon of Wolfberries
5g of Yuzhu(玉竹)
1 Litre of Water

Method:
1. Wash, trim and blanched the spare ribs in boiling water for about 3 - 5 minutes, removed and rinse well. Set aside.
2. Preheat a pot with 1 teaspoon of oil, saute the garlic and onion till fragrant, add in the blanched spare ribs and give it a quick stir and cover for 30 seconds.
3. Next add in 1 litre of water and bring the mixture to boil, then drop in the pre-packed seah's spices, white peppercorns bag and yuzhu.
4. When the soup boils, let it simmer for about 5 minutes, transfer the soup to a slow cooker and cook on HIGH for 1 hours, add in the wolfberries and continue to cook for another 30 minutes or so. (give the soup a stir once or twice in between the cooking time to evenly distribute the taste of the spices)
5. If you are cooking this soup on the stove, simmer on medium-low heat for about 45 minutes.
6. Serve with steam rice and cut chilli with dark soy sauce.

Note:-
1. Place the peppercorns inside a soup bag, rinse it in water, and crushed lightly with the back of the knife or a mug.


To go with the above soup, I also prepared something light and green for a healthy combination. Some restaurant or food stall usually stir-fry this Baby Kailan with oyster sauce, but I choose to stir-fry this with some olive oil and minced garlic then topped with some crunchy white baits.

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Baked Prawn With Lemon & Cheese

These baked Lemon & Cheese Prawns are from the Fresh Live Prawn that we caught during our Prawning Trip last weekend at Bottle Tree Park. It is indeed an enjoyable experience on the prawning trip and most of thrilling part is I get to use these prawns for my new dish.

This is a very simple dish that most of you will be able to grab the ingredients right from your fridge at any moment. All you need are some butter, 1 lemon, 2 slices of sandwich cheese if you are run out of shredded cheese. Don't worry if you don't have Fresh live prawn, you can always get any type of prawns from the supermarket or you can even replace it with fish fillet like salmon or any white fish.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
8 Medium Size Prawn
2 Slices of Sandwich Cheese, cut into thin strips
1 Lemon, cut into thin slices
10g of Butter
2 Tablespoon of RUM or Brandy, optional

Method:
1. Wash, trim and slit the back of the prawn into half, becareful not to cut too deep or else the prawn will break into halves.
2. Cut the butter into small cubes and stuff it into cuts of the prawn.
3. Arrange some lemon slices in a baking dish (or you can use disposal foil baking tray), place the stuffs prawn on top of the lemon.
4. Top the shredded cheese on top of the prawns, drizzle the liquor evenly on top of the prawn.
5. If you want that extra citric fragrance on the baked prawn, you can top with some extra strips of lemon rind.
6. Bake in the toaster oven for about 10 - 15 minutes or until the prawn is cook through.
6. You can serve this dish directly from the baking tray or you can re-arrange them in serving plate and serve as finger food for party.


Note:
~ Above is the sample photo of the toaster oven which you might have it in kitchen, it is usually used to reheat bread, pizza or small items.

The gravy of this dish is so fragrance and sweet due to the sweetness that comes from the fresh prawn. Look at the prawns, some of it still comes with prawn roes. The combination of Lemon, Cheese, Prawn and Liquor will definitely stimulate your tastebuds to another level of food tasting.

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Double-Boiled Huai Shan Chicken Soup

A bowl of warm and hearty soup is always a great comfort food for rainy season like these few weeks. After a long day at work, having a bowl of homecook soup is always such a blessing in life. For me, I am very particular about soup and I must have soup at least thrice a week. I believed a bowl of homecook soup consists of all kind of nourtition and will helps strengthen our body and prevent diseases as well as common sickness.

Soups can be made in different ways such as double-steamed(double-boiled), slow boiled and quick boiled. In this modern society, most of the households are equipped with more advance availability of alternative cooking utensils that can shorten the cooking process but yet retain its natural flavour.

Like I have used to share in most of my "Soup Posts", Red Dates and Wolfberries are some very common Chinese Herbs ingredients that can be added to our daily soup as part of the ingredients for flavouring. Today's main ingredient is "Huai Shan - 淮山" or sometime which is also refer to as "Shan Yao - 山药". Fresh Huai Shan is mostly sold in supermarkets or wet markets which you might not recognise the fresh Huai Shan as the appearance looks very different from the dried type that are thinly slices and harden before packing. The fresh one will be found in long stick-like root form with skin intact. After peeling the outer skin, you will find it wet and excessively slimy. But don't worry, the sticky substances will disappear once it is boiled in water.

Fresh Huai Shan is nature and sweet in taste that is similar to sweet potato or potato texture when used as a soup ingredient. It benefits the Spleen, Lungs and the Kidneys and strength the health.

Ingredients: (serves 2 - 3)
2 Chicken Drumstick, with thigh attached
300g Fresh Huai Shan(淮山)
8 - 10 Big Red Dates(红枣)
1/2 Tablespoon Wolfberries(枸杞子)
1 Honey Date (金丝蜜枣), optional
1 Litre of water

Method:
1. Wash, trim and blanched the chicken in boiling water for about 3 - 5 minutes, rinse with tap water and set aside.
2. Rinse the fresh huai shan to remove any dirt, peel the outer skin and cut the fresh into thick chunks. (fresh huai shan might feel sticky after removing the outer skin, just rinse with water and cook as per normal)
3. Bring the pot of water to boil, add in all the ingredients, except the wolfberries, when the water come to boil again, let the mixture simmer for about 5 minutes on low heat.
4. Transfer the mixture to a slow cooker and cook on AUTO for about 2 hour. Add in the wolfberries on the last 30 minutes of cooking time. (or you can simmer the soup mixture over low heat on the stove for about 45 minutes to 1 hour)
5. Season with salt and serve with rice or you can use it as a soup base for noodles.

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Winner For The Foodie Blogroll Contests

I was so shock and thrill to receive an email from Food Blogroll last Sunday, 14 November 09 informing me that my blog was selected as this week's winners for the Foodie Blogroll "Adaptable Feast Cookbook" giveaway!

You can get to read more about this contest at this LINK here. Now I am looking forward to receive my prize soon and that will give me the chance to share more about this book with you soon..... Once again, thank you Foodie Blogroll for this wonder Gift........

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Orange Cocoa Macaron

I must sincerely apologise to all my readers and visitors from this Cuisine Paradise - Tea time blog. It had being a while since my last entry on baking or making a new items. Guess I don't really spent enough time on this "Tea-time" area. This afternoon upon my little baking pal request, I decided to bake his favour Chocolate Macaron...........

It has being really a long long time since my last baking on Macaron. I remember during year 2007, when Macaron started to be a "HOT" items on most leading cafe, a lot of food blogger or bakers started to experience on baking these "little gems". I was also one of those home baker who venture out into different flavour of Macarons (click HERE to read more) baking.

Today's flavour is a combination of Chocolate and Orange. Since my little darling requested for a Cocoa Shell, I used the Dutch Process Cocoa Powder which I got it from "Shermay Cooking School" from one of my friend who is working there. And since she wanted to make some Macaron and ask me for an easy recipe to follow, I decided to try my luck on making this "Gem" again after the years. And Thank God, this recipe still works well and the end products is still as lovely as before.

I was still quite nervous during the process of whisking the egg white and mixing of flour mixture. When the piped batter is ready to go into the oven, I was even more excited and I standby near the oven door to look at the "Feet" raising up slowly which really makes me so happy about it. I guess the process of making Macaron is to make sure that they have a nice "Feet" and most important the shell does not crack or sink. So overall I am very satisfy with this "Orange Cocoa Macaron" which sandwich with Orange scented Chocolate Ganache.

As requested by some of the readers who wants to try making their own macarons, you can refer to this link HERE. The blog author, Tartelette has a wide range of macarons recipes with great explanation on how to make the shell as well as the filling. I am sure those who are interested in this will be able to find some inspiration and help on making these beautiful gems.

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Parents World Nov - Dec 2009 Issue

Finally got my copy of Nov - Dec issue of Parents World. A few weeks ago, I heard from Daniel (the editor) that Angelina Jolie will be on the cover page and some fabulous updates will incorporate in this upcoming issue. So I was really very excited and eagerly looking forward to get my copy. If you are a Fan of Angelina Jolie, then you sure will want to grab a copy of this to read more about her and her family life :)

In this issue, they share a lot of interesting and useful information i.e. Best of the Best Enrichment & Learning Schools for busy mum like us. It actually gives us some guidelines on what each enrichment school provides and help us to make the right choice for our child to attend their classes during coming school holiday. There about 20 over pages on the top enrichment schools in town and some discount vouchers will be given to Parents World Readers too..... :)

Other than choosing the best enrichment school for your kids, you can also read about the WILD & WET land at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. Tips on taking charge of your child's health and what are the area to look for. You can also find some interesting read up on "Household Tips - Clean well with toothpaste", "Planned & Unplanned C-Section" and etc......

Lastly, you can also take a glimpse on some of my recipes contribution at "Dish Up Your Own" page. From stir-fry, oven bake to steaming dish...... these are some of the easy to whip-up recipes that can satisfy you and your family tastebuds.

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Double-Boiled LingZhi Soup

It has being a long time since the last time I made this "Ling Zhi - 灵芝" Soup. We used to have this at least once a month which is recommend by the Chinese physician. You can even make this soup in different version by manipulate with the ingredients as per your preference.

Lingzhi (Ganoderma lucidum) is a woody mushroom highly regarded in traditional medicine and is widely consumed in the belief that it promotes health and longevity, lowers the risk of cancer and heart disease and boosts the immune system. So in the double-boiled version of mine, I used the above ingredients such as Red Dates, Dried Longan, Wolfberries, Honey Dates, Hard-boiled Egg and Ling Zhi Slices.

Red Date (红枣): It is a blood tonic, that can be widely used with other ingredients to nourish the body.

Dried Longan (桂圆肉): It influences the heart and spleen channels. Calms the spirit, nourishes the blood and strengthens the spleen. Commonly used to treat heart palpitations, insomnia, forgetfulness, worrisome tendencies and overwork.

Wolfberries (枸杞子): It strengthens body and bones, supplements kidneys and energy, nurses liver and clarifies eyes. It also cultivates energy and aids yang bodies moistness lungs and stops coughing. Other than use it as a soup ingredient, it can be used as a condiment in frying dishes or used to make tea. Choose Qizi which are full and with bright colour.

Ingredients: (Serves 2)
5g Ling Zhi Slices
10g Dried Longan
5g Wolfberries
8 - 10 Big Red Dates
Honey Dates (金丝蜜枣)
2 Hard-boiled Egg, removed shell
800ml Water
1 Knot of Pandan Leave, optional

Method:
1. Place the uncooked eggs in a small saucepan and bring to boil, then simmer for about 5 -7 minutes, remove from pan, rinse and peel off the shell then set aside.
2. Rinse all the herbs ingredients then place them (except the wolfberries) in the pot of boiling water (800ml) and simmer together with the pandan leave for about 3 minutes.
3. Add in the eggs and bring to boil again then transfer the mixture to a ceramic pot.
4. As usual, I always place the ceramic pot into the slow-cooker and cook on Auto for about 2 hours. (you can take a look a the sample HERE)
3. Add in the wolfberries at the very last 30 minutes of cooking time.

Note:
~ You can replace the hard-boiled eggs to a few quail eggs if you prefer a small portion.
~ If you find the taste a bit too bitter for your linking, you can add some rock sugar to sweet it.


Nothing is more heartwarming then a bowl of homemade soup after a long day of work. And during this flu bugs season, it good that you can whip up something simple and yet good for your healthy. You can consume this soup either before bedtime or in the morning and serve it as breakfast. The nature of this soup will taste a bit bitter due to the adding of Ling Zhi so do not overdose it in the ingredients portion. The adding of the hard-boiled egg also add extra protein to this soup.

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