Mini sizes and cupcake sizes.I love kuih bahulu (or as my mom called it kuih bahlu) and always wanted to make it but just didn't have enough push to really do it. Then, I saw this mini egg sponge cakes recipe from Hut of Cranberry's blog and according to her, it tasted just like kuih bahulu, so I guess that did it. All I needed was her pictures to convince me to get baking! So, I made it! I followed her sugar amount 80g and it turned out just nice, not too sweet and Evy ate 1.5 cupcake sizes and a few mini ones at one go.
Mini sizes.I guess this little cupcakes is healthier since no butter or oil is used in the recipe. Or is it an illusion to seduce my mind to eat more? Especially when I baked it in the mini cupcake sizes, one is nothing at all, can't even get the satisfaction out of it. Need at least a handful, perhaps that's why Evy ate so much? 
Soft and nice, not to say fragrant too!So, if you like egg sponge cakes or kuih bahulu, do give this recipe a try! Just remember to beat your egg mixture until pale and thicker in consistency or when you write an 8 on the batter it will be visible for 10-15 seconds before adding in the flour. Notice that I used paper cups? Either this or grease your pan well. :)
Daifuku is a Japanese sweet consisting of a small round glutinous rice cake/mochi stuffed with sweet filling. Most Daifuku are covered in a fine layer of corn or taro starch to prevent them from sticking to each other, believe me this is one sticky dessert without the flour. I adapted my Green Tea Daifuku from Hugbear aka LeeLee and used the basic red bean paste as filling. I have tried it plain with toasted ground peanuts before and it was yummy as well.
A good friend of ours came by on Saturday and I decided to make him a treat. I made this Chinese rice bowl pudding that looks like chwee kuih but actually it's a wah kuih. First time trying this and glad that it turned out well and my guest said it's very good. :)
I used Gina's Wah Kuih recipe. The differences I noticed between wah kuih and chwee kuih are for the pudding, wah kuih has wheat starch in it and thus making it more chewy/bouncy in texture as opposed to soft. Also, wah kuih has more ingredients in filling as opposed to just chai por. Before this, I have not heard of wah kuih.
As for my filling, I added dark soy sauce and sugar when stir-frying. Also drizzled some Sriracha hot sauce for extra spiciness. I didn't bother to steam the filling with the rice pudding together (lazy me as you know!), therefore it might look more like a chwee kuih.Stay tuned for what I did with the extra rice cake. ;) Or you would love a guess?
My first huat kuih and I cheated by using Redman Huat Kueh Mix.
I added Pandan extract to one. Yellow coloring plus banana essence to the other and lastly just red coloring. "Swee bor?" (pretty or not?) :)
This is how the package looks like. It comes in this multi-colors one and the other is brown sugar only. Ingredients stated in the package are flour, sugar, baking powder and vanillin. All I need to add is water or coconut milk. Very easy! One package yields 12 small huat kuih.I got one easy recipe for you to try. It's FenYing's Xiao Fa Gao recipe. Since all the ingredients can be found at home, why pay so much for a premix? I bought it earlier because I didn't know it's so easy to make. :P Edit to add 02/27:My conclusion: Use Gula Melaka for extra fragrant. If you want to make this colorful ones (more appealing to kids), use essence in addition to coloring (it tasted so much nicer). I thought of this while laying in bed: ~White color, add Coconut, Lychee or Almond essence.~Green color, use Pandan extract or green tea powder.
~Yellow coloring, add Banana or Mango essence.~Red coloring, add Strawberry, Raspberry or Rose essence~Orange coloring, add orange essence.
Made this cassava kuih (kuih bingka ubi) using adapted Agnes Chang's recipe.
This recipe has the rough texture and thus you can taste the cassava in it. I used the frozen grated cassava easily available in the frozen section at asian grocery stores. I have changed this recipe into cups measurement.
I just love nian gao, either baked or steamed. Of course if I have to make it myself, I would prefer an easy recipe. Got this nian gao recipe from Lin, courtesy of her co-worker. But no clue why mine looks so different from her. I did omit the red bean paste, perhaps that's why my nian gao is so flat.
I also added Gula Melaka into the brown sugar and baked it in my new convection oven. Since my convection oven automatically lower the temperature to 325'F, it also took longer to bake. I ended out baking mine for 65 mins. The top is crusty brown and inside is soft and a little chewy. The sweetness is just nice and overall I like it. See that big slice on top, I ate two of those!!
Haven't pan-fry it with egg batter yet. Will see how long it keeps and whether the texture will be different as the days go by.
Oh, next time I would probably use 2 smaller pans to achieve the height that I want.
I made Gina's yam kuih yesterday. You can get the recipe at Kitchencapers under Asian steamed kuih.
After it was pan-fried in the morning.
Verdict: It was a bit dry and hard to me. Thus I pan-fried it in the morning. Definitely tasted better as the oil gave it some moisture. Good with chilli sauce.
Ahhh...finally made some angku kuih just now using the leftover mung bean paste. I used Amy Beh's recipe and it was all right. I just had the trouble to imprint the word in the middle of the angku. I'm going to put it in the refrigerator and pan-fry it tomorrow. Oh, I didn't put enough red coloring as well, as mine turned out to be orange angku. Also the skin texture is a bit too hard at the bottom, like not fully cooked. Don't know what's wrong with that. *sigh*
