Huat Kueh or Fatt Koh (发糕)

Huat Kueh or Fatt Koh (发糕) are mostly made for altar offerings and Chinese New Year. This recipe doesn't require yeast or eggs. Try making this for Chinese New Year this year. It's fairly simple but remember to follow to recipe precisely!

Three important things to remember when making Huat Kueh (发糕).

1. Fill batter up to the brim of your mould or else it won't "smile".

2. Make sure you have enough water in the steamer so you don't need to add water mid way.

3. Do not open your steamer lid until it's done steaming. Make sure you have ample room in your steamer for the Huat Kueh (发糕) to rise or "smile".

INGREDIENTS:

360g self rising flour
150g sugar
350ml water
1 teaspoon baking soda
Some food coloring (Red & Yellow)

Mix dry ingredients thoroughly and then add water. Mix until batter is smooth. Divide a small portion of the dough. Add food coloring to both portions of the dough. I used yellow for the larger portion and red for the smaller portion. You can do vice versa.

Fill moulds with yellow batter. Make sure you fill it up to the top. Add a small portion of colored dough in the middle.

Steam in high heat for 25 mins.

Elderflower Lemon Loaf Cake

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Royal Wedding has brought the Elderflower Lemon Cake craze out of everyone's recipe box and into their social media posts. I myself will be making an Elderflower Lemon Loaf Cake for my Royal Wedding viewing party (population 1).

This is a recipe adapted from The Kitchn but instead of whipped cream, our Elderflower Lemon Loaf Cake will have a lemon sugar glaze. Elderflower Cordial are available year round in most British import stores. My favorite is from Belvoir Fruit Farms. Juice your lemons after you have zested them and save the juice for the syrup and glaze.

NOTE: You can follow the directions to make a Vegan Victoria Sponge using this recipe, and soak the cake with the elderflower and lemon syrup. If your cake got too dry, you can make additional syrup to drizzle on your cake.

For the cake:
8 ounces unsalted butter (room temperature)
8 ounces sugar
4 large eggs
Zests from 3 lemons (chop zests finely)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

For the syrup:
1/4 cup elderflower cordial
2 tablespoon lemon juice (juice from lemons you have zested)

For the lemon sugar glaze:

1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

4 tablespoon lemon juice (juice from lemons you have zested)

For decorations (optional):
Gum paste flowers
Lemon zest

Preheat oven at 325°F. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan and line with parchment paper. Set aside.
Combine elderflower cordial and lemon juice. Set aside the syrup for later.

Cream butter and sugar on medium speed in an electric mixer until they are light yellow and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Add in the lemon zest and mix well.

Beat eggs in a bowl and gradually add a small amount of the eggs into the butter and sugar mixture. Beat the mixture thoroughly every time you have added the egg into the mixture.

Mix flour, salt, and baking powder. Sift a quarter of the flour mixture into the butter mixture and fold gently with spatula. Repeat until all the flour is incorporated into the mixture.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake in the oven for about 60 to 70 minutes (when the toothpick or knife comes out clean when poked). Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, poke holes all over the cake with a skewer. Drizzle the elderflower and lemon syrup over the cake so that it seeps into the holes. Cool cake completely and then remove from the pan.

Mix confectioner's sugar and lemon juice to form glaze. Add more or less lemon juice until desired consistency is achieved. Pour glaze on top of cooled cake. Decorate with gum paste flowers and lemon zest. Slice and serve.

Matzo Icebox Cake

Here's tasty way of using matzo to celebrate Passover. Turn it into a dessert! This icebox cake is easy to make and almost hassle free. This recipe is inspired by Living Sweet Moments but I have tweaked it a little bit.

The cake is quite sweet so you can also opt to using 1/2 cup sugar instead of 1 cup. Or consider using bittersweet chocolate instead of semi sweet. Consider using sprinkles or chopped nuts to decorate the cake if you want.

Happy Passover. Chag Pesach Sameach!

INGREDIENTS

For Chocolate Cream
2 Sticks Butter (8 oz), softened in room temperature
1 Cup Sugar
2 Eggs
6 oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
2 Teaspoon Milk
1 Teaspoon Instant Coffee

For "Cake"
1 Box Matzos (plain)
1/2 Cup Kosher Wine (I can only find Kedem but you can use Manischewitz etc.)

To make chocolate cream:

Whisk butter, sugar and eggs until creamy, for about 5 minutes.

Melt chocolate with milk and coffee in a double boiler.

Pour chocolate mixture into the butter mixture and whisk until smooth.

To assemble the cake:

Use a cookie sheet fitted with a baking rack to catch any drippings.
Place matzo on the cookie sheet and brush with wine. (I realized that I only probably need 1/2 cup of wine instead of 2 cups. But that's wine, I drank the rest of it :P )

Let it sit for about a minute before spreading a little of the chocolate cream on top of it. 

Be aware that if matzo is still wet from the wine, the cream will not stick to the matzo but that's fine.

Continue building your cake with the remaining matzos, wine, and chocolate cream.

Top with the rest of the chocolate cream and cover the sides.

Place in the fridge overnight for cake the set.

Slice and serve! Maybe with the remaining wine, he he.

Brandy Butter

Brandy butter is a delicious brandy-infused icing, used to top yummy seasonal treats like mincemeat pies and plum puddings. You can whip a batch of these quickly and it keeps for over a week.

4 oz unsalted butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup icing sugar
2 tablespoon brandy

Beat butter and sugar in a mixer until fluffy. Add brandy and beat until incorporated.

If the mixture seizes up when you add the brandy in, add a little bit more sugar until the mixture becomes smooth again.

Chill in the fridge until ready to be served.

Marzipan Carrot

I made these marzipan carrot to decorate Vance's birthday cake. I made a carrot cake for his birthday. This is my first time handling marzipan. I quickly learned that marzipan can get quite sticky. Have some confectioners sugar on hand. You can roll sticky marzipan on confectioners sugar to make it less sticky.

1 tube marzipan

Orange food coloring (or mix yellow with red)

Parsley

Combine marzipan with food coloring until desired color is achieved. Shape into a carrot. Snip a small sprig of parsley (leaves and stem). Stick the stem on top of the marzipan carrot. Let the marzipan carrot chill inside the refrigerator until set.  

Fruitcake Balls

I forgot to line my pans with parchment paper when making fruitcakes this year. Needless to say, the whole cake was stuck into the pan and I had to scrape the whole cake out. Not wanting to waste it, I turned the now giant pile of crumbs into delicious balls that looks like sugar plums. Follow my fruitcake recipe (which makes 2 cakes) and crumble 1 cake into pieces. Recipe as follows:

1 fruitcake, crumbled into pieces
1/2 cup speculoos or smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup brandy or rum (you can add more if you want)
1 cup coarse sugar, for rolling

In an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, add fruitcake crumbs, speculoos and brandy. Mix the ingredients on low speed until crumbs start to stick together.

Shape into 1 inch balls. I used a measuring spoon (1 tablespoon) to make the amount and shape even. Roll balls in coarse sugar. Let chill inside refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Serve cold, or room temperature.

McVities Chocolate Biscuit Cake

All set to watch the wedding of the year? Throwing a viewing party? Perhaps a Royal-themed English breakfast? With William and Catherine walking out of Westminster Abbey this morning, it's time to let the new groom and bride have cake and eat it too! Catherine's wedding cake will be that of a traditional fruit cake while William's groom cake will be a Chocolate Biscuit Cake, a favorite of the prince. Be sure to use McVities Dark Chocolate digestive biscuits, though. Here is the recipe for Chocolate Biscuit Cake (which I deviated a little bit, see below) by Darren McGrady, a former Royal chef.

I've heard concerns about using raw egg in this recipe. Since this cake is not baked, there were concerns of salmonella from using the raw egg. So, instead, I've decided to tweak the recipe by tempering the egg with the melted chocolate. This heat from the melted chocolate will cook the egg slightly (and give a false sense of security that you won't get salmonella!).

A package of McVities Dark Chocolate digestive biscuits comes in a 300g roll (about 10 ounces). I just eyeballed it by taking 4 biscuits out (the remaining is probably around 8 ounces). Look mum ... no measuring!

For the cake:
4 ounces dark chocolate
4 ounces (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter (softened)
1 egg
8 ounces McVities Dark Chocolate digestive biscuits.

8 ounces dark chocolate (for coating)
1 ounce chocolate (for decoration, optional)
½ teaspoon butter for greasing.

Lightly grease a 6 inch by 2 ½ inch cake ring and place on a tray on a sheet of parchment paper. I use a silicone pan so no need to grease and line with paper.

Break each of the biscuits into almond size pieces by hand and set aside.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until the mixture is fluffy, about 5 minutes. Whisk egg in a small bowl and set aside.

Melt the 4 ounces of chocolate (using a double boiler).

Spoon a small spoonful of the melted chocolate into the egg and quickly whisk it. It will turn into a lumpy mixture but that's OK. We want to increase the temperature of the egg but we don't want to cook it. Slowly add the egg and chocolate mixture back to the melted chocolate and whisk constantly. Your melted chocolate mixture will be smooth and has a shiny sheen. Good job!

Add the chocolate mixture into the butter mixture. Mix with the electric mixer for another 5 minutes until mixture is fluffy (similar consistency to that of chocolate frosting).

Fold in the biscuit pieces until they are all coated with the chocolate mixture.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake ring. Try to fill all of the gaps on the bottom of the ring because this will be the top when it is un-molded. Chill the cake in the refrigerator for at least three hours.

Remove the cake from the refrigerator and let it stand while you melt the 8 ounces of chocolate.

Slide the ring off the cake and turn it upside down onto a cake wire. Pour the melted chocolate over the cake and smooth the top and sides using a palette knife (or an offset spatula). I mistakenly used a 9 inch cake pan ... the cake turned out to be more like a cookie!

Allow the chocolate to set at room temperature.Carefully run a knife around the bottom of the cake where the chocolate has stuck it to the cake wire and lift it onto a tea plate.

Melt the remaining 1 ounce of chocolate and use to decorate the top of the cake. I decorated my cake with sugared rose petals (Miss you, Diana!). Serve cake at room temperature.