Bakes of Life

I baked Apple muffins last night! Recipe taken from Happy Homebaker. I expected the muffins to be light and spongy, however, mine turned out to be dense like cake. I guess I might have over mix the batter towards the end when I was folding in the chopped apples. Really have to be careful, I suggest not to fold in the apples but pop them in when pouring the batter into the muffin tin instead. It allows for better control of the amount of apples in each muffin too. I realised towards the end, my muffins were apple-less!

Tastewise... not as fragrant as I wanted, even with cinnimon. The taste of apples were also not strong, thus I felt the muffins were on the bland side. Should try finding out what type of apples are best for baking, just like delmonte bananas. Or maybe, applesauce?

It's weird how when I don't really like the muffins, mummy would say it's not bad. Bland taste goes well with her. haha.

Anyways, just some drooling pictures to share!

I made 2 batches of 6 muffins. This was the 1st batch, where I had to watch closely to see if the oven temp and filling of the cups were right. It did not rise to a dome shape, and when the outsides were browning quickly, the middle especially the bottom were still soggy.. but i still managed to get it out right after playing with the temp and baking time.

--> Where are the apples?

This 2nd batch was much better, in taste and appearance. I managed to get the dome shape I wanted! :) After trying out the 1st batch, I found the muffins to be on the bland side so I added a little more vanilla essence and some cinnimon powder. The fragrance was there but still the taste wise was lacking. Also, the apples were missing!

After 3 hours of baking into the twilight hours, I couldn't help but take a selca:P

"Yay, apples muffin misson accomplished...time to bathe!"

By the way, during the time I was waiting for my muffins to bake, I managed to prepare a choc chip cookie batter from the same recipe source! It's waiting in the fridge for me to bake it anytime...maybe later!

Realised my baking blog has been idile for the past year! I did bake quite a few times during this long break, just that I was too lazy to post. But after coming across quite a few baking blogs, which were really interesting and useful, I've decided to re-live my blog too:)

Do expect to see frequent updates and a much nicer looking blog soon!
For now, just let the pictures do the talking. These are the end products of my successful bakes...

Random gingerbread man looking products.. The one with tie is made by my coursemates using pound cake batter! I decided to make one using leftover cookie dough:) Which one looks nicer?

An attempt at baking white chocolate cake. Can't really see though, it seems like a very normal looking sponge cake...and it did taste like one too.

Choc-mint marble cake. Looks okay, just that the swirl wasn't done nicely. I tried to salvage it by cutting it into layers and adding banana in between, followed by covering the top with choc ganache. I made it for my friend as a (quite) belated cake..but still the tastewise...heh. Sorry Ruth! A better cake next time:X

This was supposed to be mac white chip cookies, but I self-modified the recipe with mix nuts and dried fruits. It was very sweet and hard, machaam eating rock sugar. o.0 Not to my liking.

The banana cake from previous post. I remembered it tasted nice, one of my more successful first attempts ;)

Oreo mint cheesecake we (with eve, and preeti) baked, for Preeti's 20th birthday. So she baked her own cake in the end...haha. And the cake turned out much better than I expected because while it was having the water bath, water leaked in through the bottom...better not use springform next time. Looks and taste great considering our 1st try! Maybe it's the power of teamwork. LOL.

I'm itching to bake already!

Labels: pictures

Just tried out a new recipe from a book i borrowed from my sch library. Banana bread! but i made it in a cake pan instead, so it's probably banana cake. LOL.
I was quite amazed that i could finish the whole cake, with preparation of ingredients and all in an hour! Normally i'd take ages 'cos i will be doing it at my own sweet pace. But i just thought that i should set a time limit for myself this time. (part of my culinary elective that i'm taking is to complete the tasks within a given time). I think it does help me to be more organised and prepared, so i'm going to time myself with all my future baking adventures! haha.

The more baking i do, the more i love it =) p.s. although not so much for the cleaning after that. my auntie does the job =x

I truly believe that baking lifts one spirits, be it the baker himself or the people that eats the yummy treats. For me, it is seeing people enjoy eating what i bake. Isn't that what all bakers hope to achieve?

I have come up with some plans on my baking journey! I would have my own handwritten recipe book, in which i will try out other recipes, and will keep and improve on those which i find really good/useful. I will also include pictures of the product, as well as comments from others, and a description of the taste. HOHO. Sounds interesting... can't wait to start on it =D

SUCCESSFUL first attempts!

Hey i'm back! Actually had a few attempts at baking choc mint cakes, as well as cupcakes. Suprisingly the first attempt alone turned out pretty well! And it was for Preeti's (the pig) birthday. haha. But had forgotten to take pic of it as well as the next few times i baked it. But well, it was really not bad. =P

I've just baked finish making a batch of choc chip muffins, and i would say it is not bad at all! =D

Although the appearance and taste can be improved, but at least i have succeeded on the first attempt. YAY IM IMPROVING. haha

Some pic of my freshly baked choc chip muffins:

Don't they look yummy? =P

HAHA i guess the next try, i will experiment with a few extra ingredients like oat, cornflakes, fruits, cheese... etc. the muffin is really good even on my first attempt. I believe it will taste better after more tries. This will definitely go into my recipe book. =) I will continue my search for even more recipes.

I have taken the recipe for this choc chip muffin from the following blog: http://auntyyochana.blogspot.com

I really do trust all the recipes the aunty yo have posted, and she even replies to any questions about the baking steps and methods. It is advisable to look through all the comments before starting on the recipe, it helps! Most of them are quite simple, yet the results are amazingly good. Definitely worth the try!

Another failed one =(

Considering that this cake is relatively easy to make, with only 4 ingredients, I think i'm really bad at making cakes. And i spent about $13 this time round! For the chocolate, i used Cadbury dark and milk, which was really yummy (before it went in the pan)

What went wrong during the preparation process was probably the egg and sugar step.

The steps mentioned that the egg should be heated warm enough above a suacepan of boiling water before i bring it away and mix real fast.

Then it was suposed to turn pale and fluffy. BUT IT DIDN'T. IT ROSE LIKE SOME BUBBLES OF FOAM.

That's when I knew my cake would turn out funny. Yeah, and it did anyways.

The cake looks really cooked from here, but that's just delusion.

The cake did not turn hard like i expected it to. It was even watery (melted choc). Only the top layer was SLIGHTLY crisp.

Oh well, now i really understand that procedures are as important as the ingredients. Simple as it might seem, u really have to follow the steps carefully. Or your cake won't turn out well. Like mine.

I guess my family and my aunty's 'gang' would have to slowly finish the mash of chocolate again. haha. It doesn't taste bad, afterall it's melted chocolate. Taste abit like moouse.

All in all, it's still considered a failed cake. I guess my next attempt will be cakes that require flour. Let's see then.

*sigh* Wanted to make a nice cake that i can share with everyone, but it turned out pretty bad. Not much of the sight, more of the taste really. And to me, that’s worse.

I wonder what went wrong with the cake, other than the fact that i had substituted the Baileys’ irish cream with the some strawberry puree =X. But the cheese itself was really... like cheese (you know those that go in between sandwiches) My goodness, i actually spent 15 bucks on all the ingredients =( Starting to feel a little regretful that I rushed into making this cake. It was meant for mother’s day which was like over 2 days ago. But my mother doesn’t really go for this kind of cakes... yeah, I think maybe i knew that but i thought that this cheesecake seemed easy to make and it looked great from the website that i had taken it from, so why not? Yes, i know i’m a lousy baker but i’m willing to learn.

I’m thinking of what to do with the cake now. Ugh. I really need to go for baking classes, i don’t seem to have the basics right. This cheesecake is actually non-bake, and i can still make a mess out of it. Quite demoralising, since my wish is to be a pastry chef. But i know that this is just the beginning of everything, i will not give up so easily!