Steamed Chicken Bao

Trying to do something to keep my mind away from all the trouble I had been encountering at work.  Decided to make some steamed chicken bao so that that Hb and lil ones can have some snack during tea time. 

After rising the dough, I noticed that the dough is still very sticky which shouldn't be the case. =(  I must be still thinking about work while kneading .....  sigh!

See my super woper ugly bao!! (compared to the 莲蓉包 I did last yr)

dough recipe can be found here.

Orange Pound Cake

My kids told me at the very last minute that my SIL and her boys will be coming over in the late afternoon as they want to play soccer.  As my nephews like to eat cake, I "quick hand quick leg" gather all the ingredients I could find in my cupboard and came out with an orange butter pound cake.

Despite being done in a hurry and a burned cake top *red face* (cos I lost track of the timing) this cake still tasted wonderfully good. (^.^) The orange juice and zest gave the pound cake a nice smell and it very moist. :) 

Recipe for pound cake:-
250g butter
100g sugar (I reduced the sugar to 70g, but still too sweet for me)
250g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder4 large eggs
1/3 cup orange juice1 tsp orange zest

1. Whisk butter, sugar, cake flour & baking powder @ med speed for 1 min.
2. Add in eggs gradually, 1 at a time and whisk at med speed for 5 mins till smooth.
3. Add orange juice and blend well at slow speed
4. Add orange zest and mix well.
5. Pour batter into a baking pan.
6. Bake in a preheated oven of 170C for 40 mins. (need to watch as the top may get burned)

Zebra Sponge Cake

I came across a zebra cake the other day and I must say that I was fascinated by the beautiful stripes of the zebra cake. Since I have some cake flour left, I went ahead to bake this zebra sponge cake instead of the usual zebra butter cake.  Hb tasted and gave his thumb up but he did mention that it could be sweeter. :P

Ingredients:

5 eggs
250g cake flour
50g ice water
50g corn or veg oil

Cocoa mixture
2 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp chocolate emulco

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven at 170c.
2. Put all ingredients (except oil) into a mixing bowl and whisk at high speed for about 10 mins till the mixture is thick and smooth.
3. Add the oil and whisk at low speed till well mixed.
4. Divide the batter into 2 equal portion and fold in cocoa powder & chocolate emulco into one of the portion
5. Using a tablespoon, scoop 2 tbsp of plain batter into the centre of the cake pan. Then scoop 2 tbsp of chocolate batter onto the plain batter in the cake pan, you will need to reduce the scoop to 1 tbsp or lesser when you reach the end so that the circle pattern will get smaller.
6. Repeat until you have finished all the batter.
7. Bake at 170c for 25 – 30 mins