september: kerri’s creamy peach sorbet

Phew, posting in the nick of time! Apologies for the delay. The past month has seen us move countries (to Singapore), find an apartment, start settling into our new home, and exploring and learning our way around a new city! Still a ways to go for home to feel like ‘home’ (like stocking up my pantry from scratch!), but we’re slowly getting there. I’m still working my way through the supermarkets – what’s available, how much things cost and what to get where. So, I needed to find something simple to make …and something kids would also love!

And what kid doesn’t like ice cream! Now living in such a hot country, cooking foods have been on my mind…alot! I’ve not been able to eat ice cream much at all since arriving, as I am pregnant and nearly every establishment and/or brand of ice cream sold in restaurants, cafes and shops contain egg! (Not cooked enough in an ice cream base for pregnant women to eat.) So once I found my ice cream maker, I decided to make my own!

So I went about finding a recipe that didn’t contain an egg base, which is all sorbets. But I wanted something creamy! I found a number of recipes that add cream to give it that creamy taste and texture. I decided on a peach sorbet using canned peaches (for easily availability) but you can use any fruit you want. You need to start this recipe a day ahead but don’t let that deter you – it is so easy, it’s not like cooking at all!

Enjoy!

You can find the recipe here.

september: lisa’s mooncake biscuits

It’s that time of year again – mid-Autumn festival time, aka mooncake festival! I always get excited when I walk into an Asian grocery store and see boxes and boxes of mooncakes for sale. Mmmm, I don’t mind admitting that I love mooncake. Not the new, fancy flavour mooncakes, just the traditional lotus paste mooncakes, either plain or with 1 egg. And please, no nuts, not added flavourings or variations.

Image credit – Swinging By (http://swingingby.blogspot.com.au)

I can’t remember a year without at least tasting some mooncake, but what I also remember as a kid, was the little mooncake biscuits that my parents used to get us. Perhaps when I was younger, I didn’t like the lotus paste, but I know that I loved the mooncake biscuits. They used to come in colourful little plastic baskets that we could carry around like handbags.

When mooncake festival time comes around, and I’m walking through the stalls and stalls of mooncake sellers in Chinatown, I’m always on the lookout for these old school mooncake biscuits. I’ve searched high and low for them, and am always disappointed not to find them. There are pig shaped ones with bean paste inside, but no plain ones at all.

So this year, I decided to make my own. Basically it’s just the dough leftover from making mooncakes, baked into a cookie shape. From memory, I recall fish shapes, but as I didn’t have an actual mooncake biscuit mould, I just used regular cookie cutters. I was given these cute Hello Kitty cutters a little while ago, so this was the perfect time to use them.

As I was researching, all recipies I found listed an ingredient called “lye” water. It is an alkaline water solution used to cure and tenderise foods. Another use is in making preserved “1000 year old” eggs. I’d never heard of it, and again, searched many different Asian grocery stores both near my house and in Chinatown in the city, and was not able to find it anywhere. The purpose of using it seemed to be neutralise the acid in the golden syrup, give the biscuits their golden brown colour, and to give the biscuits a little rise and fluffiness. So in the end, I made a substitute using baking soda and water. They still turned out ok – I was happy with the colour and taste, so am satisfied that this was a reasonable substitute.

When rolling out the dough, I found rolling onto plastic film made it really easy to peel the biscuits off the table and place onto the baking tray. As the dough is very soft and pliable, trying to scrape them off the table would ruin the shape. Of course, if you had a traditional mould, you could tap on the edge of the table straight onto your hand or onto the baking tray straight away.

I made these for a family brunch and they were enjoyed by young and old alike. The recipe is super easy, and bake in no time at all. For best results, bake at least a day in advance. They should not be stale, but eating on the day they are baked will have a slightly more crunchier texture than traditional mooncake biscuits have. Enjoy!

september: anna’s mini funfetti layer cakes

Funfetti Cake is another thing to add to the list of things I’d never heard of before moving to the States. It’s a boxed cake mix sold on supermarket shelves and made / eaten by kids around the country. The first time I came across it was in the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook, where Christina Tosi makes her own version from scratch. The presentation of the cake, in three dramatic layers, really caught my eye. I made it last year for a friend’s birthday, but I have to say that it did taste a little too “boxed” for me (which I guess is what she was going for). Even when I was a kid, I could definitely taste the difference between made-from-scratch cakes and those made from boxed mixes.

So I used my go-to Magnolia Bakery recipe for the cake and added a heaping scoop of sprinkles. I baked the cake in a sheet pan and when cooled, cut out little circles with a biscuit cutter to form the layers. I also used a cream cheese frosting instead of vanilla.

The result was these adorable little cakes.

The other great thing about this dish is the leftover cake scraps for breakfast the next day!

Kiddie treats was such a fun theme for this month. I have to say that I had a ball making this dessert! Multi-colored sprinkles mixed in cake batter…what’s not to love?!

Find the recipe here

september: jasmine’s vanilla confetti cupcakes with chocolate frosting

This month we celebrated little A’s first birthday! We had a small party with family and close friends. I didn’t know how much pressure there was to host a first birthday! Apparently, there are unspoken rules for: a home made birthday cake, lots of home made baked goods, served lunch, treat bags and the family should look polished and happy at the event (aka no cranky baby, spills, etc).

WELL…..I managed to pull off the first couple of points! We had a hot lunch buffet, I baked a 3 layer hummingbird cake with cream cheese frosting and toasted coconut for little A’s birthday cake and I baked lots of home made goodies and gave them to our guests in little purple chinese take out containers as treat bags.

The recipe I am sharing this month is for one of the treats I baked for our guests’ goodie bags. Vanilla confetti cupcakes with chocolate frosting. These were really pretty décor items for our centrepiece table before the party and our guests loved them! I packed each cupcake into separate take out containers and stuffed choc chip cookies and candy bars into the sides of the box to hold the cupcake in place so that the frosting would be in tact when our guests got home. :)

And the result of all of my effort…..K, little A and I were exhausted by the time the 3 hour party was over at 3p. Little A managed to keep her dress clean for most of the party and our guests had a good time.

I did complain a lot to K about the prep for the party, getting little A to nap in the morning and all the shopping and baking I had to do….but I secretly loved it ;p

#19 september: kiddie treats

Sometimes it is a challenge getting little ones to try new things. This month we are going to explore recipes for treats that are appealing to kids young and old.