October 2, 2013

Apple Crumble Bars and a Charity Bake Sale

Apple Crumble Bars | Delicacious Just last week, I participated in my very first Charity Bake Sale. My office was raising funds for the President’s Star Charity through an annual charity bazaar and my branch decided to sell homemade goodies. I have never participated in such bazaars and had no idea what to bake or sell. I figured that the goodies needed to 1) be able to withstand the heat (there was no air-condition at the bazaar) 2) be able to be packaged individually and 3) simple to make. Cupcakes with delicious frosting would probably wither in the heat so those were out.

Three days before the bake sale, I decided on bars. But what bars? Apples were relatively cheap and easy to obtain, so I thought, why not make apple crumble bars? And that night, I saw a post on G+ on Apple Pie Crumble Bars. Definitely an answered prayer.

Apple Crumble Bars

Continue Reading

Filed Under: Desserts and Sweet Bakes, Vegetables and Fruit Tagged With: , , 11 Comments
September 26, 2013

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Honey Muffins

chocolate chip zucchini muffins

I recently discovered that zucchini can be used in sweet baked goods.  Even though many have been doing that for ages, I never knew that zucchini could be used in breads, muffins, cakes or cookies! When I saw a couple of blog posts on such recipes, I did a little research and found that zucchini, when used in sweet baked goods, increases the moistness of the product while its taste remains pretty concealed. Sounds great isn’t it?

So I bought a couple of zucchini and decided to try baking something. My husband was less than thrilled at the thought of a zucchini muffin. “Zucchini muffin?! That’s so weird!!” was his reaction. Maybe yours too…. but hang on there. He changed his mind after tasting the muffin and I believe you would too.

chocolate chip zucchini muffins

Continue Reading

Filed Under: Breads, Muffins and Scones, Breakfast, Desserts and Sweet Bakes, Food for Tots, Vegetables and Fruit Tagged With: , , , 2 Comments
September 9, 2013

Healthy Whole Wheat Honey Berry Muffins

whole wheat honey berry muffins | Delicacious

I opened one of my kitchen cabinets about a week ago and found a hidden stash of honey tucked away in a corner. I didn’t even remember that I had put honey there! Or maybe someone rearranged the things inside the cabinet and… oh well, have you ever found things in the kitchen that you never knew were there? Finding honey was a good problem though. It meant that I could add honey instead of sugar to some of my baked goods, starting from these muffins.

These are healthy muffins, make no mistake about it. They are made with 100% whole wheat flour and contain no sugar and butter. They are wholesome and full of fruity goodness. Perfect for breakfast, and perhaps, an afternoon snack. Who says whole wheat baked stuff can’t taste delicious? I made these with a mix of blueberries and strawberries, and I really liked the result. They taste more complex and flavourful compared to my usual blueberry muffins; the strawberries add texture and moistness to the muffins. If you don’t like/have strawberries, you can replace the strawberries with more blueberries.Continue Reading

Filed Under: Breads, Muffins and Scones, Breakfast, Desserts and Sweet Bakes, Food for Tots, Vegetables and Fruit Tagged With: , , , , , , 6 Comments
August 24, 2013

Pasta salad with creamy avocado dressing

Pasta salad with creamy avocado dressing | Delicacious

Are you a fan of avocado? I sure am. I love them plain, on toast with a dash of salt and pepper, in sandwiches and the list goes on. This time, I decided to use them to dress up a simple pasta salad. Originally, I just wanted to slice the avocado up and toss the pieces into the pasta salad. Then I thought, why not make it into a dressing? And maybe dress it up a little with some lemon and cilantro? Yes you read right. Cilantro. Cilantro goes really well with lemon and/or lime, and I was sure it would add some kick to the dressing. It did – it made the dressing taste really REALLY good.

The best part? This pasta salad is so easy to whip up and you can throw in practically any ingredient you fancy. I threw in some ham, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms because I had those things in my fridge but you can mix and match to your creativity. My husband and toddler loved this  chilled pasta salad and I am sure you would too. If you end up with too much dressing, use it as a dip. In fact, I am considering whipping up another batch of dressing just to eat it with chipsContinue Reading

Filed Under: Food for Tots, Rice, Noodles and Pasta, Vegetables and Fruit Tagged With: , , , , , , 4 Comments
July 14, 2013

Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

Wholewheat blueberry muffins

I have not been blogging very judiciously since starting a new job and my toddler starting a new school. The poor girl has been sick for more than a week and now my poor husband has gotten the flu bug too. Oh flu bug shoo! Don’t you hate it when the flu bug passes from one family member to another? Time to dose up on Vitamin C.Continue Reading

Filed Under: Breads, Muffins and Scones, Breakfast, Desserts and Sweet Bakes, Food for Tots, Vegetables and Fruit Tagged With: , , , 8 Comments
June 6, 2013

Almost healthy blueberry crumb cake

blueberry crumb cake

I am a terrible blogger. I discovered how terrible I was recently when I got myself onto Google+ and found out there was so much more to food blogging than I ever knew. Planning a blog post? You mean people plan blog posts and not just post whenever they fancy. Ah… but the knowledge is good. Now to start becoming more organised.

You see, I seldom plan what to bake/cook these days. It is usually a case of “oh the kid slept early today, now what can I bake?” or “I think these blueberries have been lying around the fridge for a little too long, I should do something about them”. So it happens when those two statements fall on the same night, I bake blueberry crumb cake.

Now read crumb cake and you know that it has a streusel topping. I love streusel topping though it is probably way too sweet for my good and so I usually compensate by reducing the sugar in the cake. This time round, I attempted to ease my conscience by substituting half of the flour with whole wheat flour.

I brought this to work and colleagues loved it. Serve it with coffee or tea if you like. I was happy to eat it on its own.

Almost healthy blueberry crumb cake
 
Print
Ingredients
Streusel topping
  • 2.5 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • ¼ cup caster sugar
  • ¼ cup light brown sugar
  • ⅓ cup whole wheat flour
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ½ cup chopped walnuts
Cake
  • 2 cups fresh blueberries
  • 1 cup plus 2 tsp plain flour
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ cup light brown sugar
  • grated zest of 1 lemon
  • 3 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 2 eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • ½ cup milk
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 175°C and place a rack in the centre of the oven.
  2. Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with non-stick spray.
  3. Using a fork, combine the ingredients for the streusel topping (except the walnuts) together.
  4. Stir in the walnuts and keep covered with cling wrap and refrigerated until required.
  5. Toss blueberries with 2 teaspoons of plain flour.
  6. In a large bowl, sift remaining plain flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Whisk to combine.
  7. In the bowl of a standing mixer, rub sugar and zest together with fingertips until sugar is moist and fragrant.
  8. With the paddle attachment, cream sugar with butter at medium speed till light.
  9. Add eggs one by one, beating for about a minute after each addition.
  10. Beat in the vanilla extract.
  11. Reduce mixer speed to low and add in the flour mixture and milk alternately, starting and ending with the flour mixture.
  12. The batter will be thick. Stir in the blueberries with a rubber spatula.
  13. Pour batter into the prepared pan and smoothen out the top.
  14. Break refrigerated streusel topping into pieces and scatter over the top of the cake.
  15. Bake for about 60 minutes, until the top is golden brown.
  16. Transfer cake to a rack to cool.
  17. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
Recipe adapted from "Baking, from my home to yours"

This post is shared at Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm and Simple Living and Eating and Freedom Fridays.

Filed Under: Baking and Cooking, Breakfast, Cakes, Vegetables and Fruit Tagged With: , 5 Comments
May 18, 2013

Apple walnut bundt cake

apple bundt 1

Not so long ago there was this fruit sale at my office (yeah, to encourage us to eat healthy). My friend was in-charge of the sale and she was asking me to buy the apples. So I told her jokingly, “Buy them for me and I will bake you something.” WRONG MOVE. An hour later, I had 5 apples sitting on my table and I had to make good my word. I went home and lo and behold, my mom had bought another 4 apples. So I had 9 apples, and I better make something with it, fast.

So I flipped through my books for a simple recipe of something that required a lot of apples. I didn’t want to make a tart because it seemed like too much work for a late night baking session. When I came across this apple cake recipe that required 6 apples, I knew it was the one.

apple bundt 2

Enters apple bundt cake. The original recipe called for the cake to be baked in a tube pan. I didn’t have a tube pan, but I have several bundt pans and figured that they would do the job too. Bundt pans typically do an excellent job in getting the cake evenly baked while keeping it moist. Sounds like the perfect pan to use for this cake. I also like bundt cakes because they typically feed a crowd, and are so easy to cut up and serve (just follow the markings on the cake and you have a perfectly divided cake). They also look pretty and the cake hardly needs any decoration, though a dusting of powdered sugar would perhaps complete the look.

The cake was every bit what it promised to be – fully apple-ly and fully cake. Apples and cinnamon. Add walnuts and you will never go wrong. The walnuts add texture to the already flavourful cake and the bundt pan kept the cake oh so moist. Colleagues raved about it and I am sure you would too, if you try it.

Apple bundt cake
 
Print
An excellent apple bundt cake that's filled with apples, accentuated with walnuts and the flavour of cinnamon.
Recipe type: Cake
Serves: 12-16
Ingredients
  • 6 apples, peeled and cut into ½ inch chunks
  • 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
  • 1½ cup plus 5 tbsp sugar
  • 2¾ cups plain flour
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup canola/vegetable oil
  • ¼ cup orange juice
  • 2½ tsp vanilla extract
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup walnuts, chopped
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 175°C.
  2. Butter and flour a 10-12 cup large bundt pan or use non-stick spray.
  3. Toss chopped apples with 5 tbsp sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
  4. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl.
  5. In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine oil, orange juice, remaining sugar, vanilla extract and eggs.
  6. Add in flour mixture in 2 parts with mixer on low. Scrape bowl to ensure even incorporation. Stir in walnuts.
  7. Pour half of the batter into the pan. Spread half the apple chunks.
  8. Top up pan with remaining batter and spread evenly.
  9. Arrange remaining apple on top.
  10. Bake for 1½ hours, or until a tester comes out clean.
  11. Allow to cool completely in pan before turning it out onto a serving plate.
Notes
Recipe is adapted from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

Filed Under: Cakes, Vegetables and Fruit Tagged With: , , , 2 Comments
« Previous Page
Next Page »