Durian Chiffon Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

(A)

6 egg yolks

150 ml coconut milk

4 Tbsp Corn oil

150 gm Durian Puree

1/4 tsp durian essence

50 gm. caster sugar

140 gm Plain flour

(B)

6 egg white

1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar

100 gm Caster Sugar

Method:

(1) Mix (A) into a batter. Stir till smooth.

(2) Whisk egg whisk till slightly forthy then gradually spoon in the sugar till finish. Whisk at high speed until forthy adn stiff peak form.

(3) Fold beaten egg white into egg yolk batter.

(4) Pour batter into a 23 cm. chiffon cake pan. Bake at 175C for about 45 mins. or until cooked.

(5) Remove cake from oven and invert the pan onto a wire rack and leave it to cool completely.

(6) Remove cake from pan and serve.

White Chocolate Chip Cookies

White chocolate chip cookies made from white conventure but unfortunately I overbaked a tray of it and had to discard them. It has a milky taste from the white chocolate.

Orange Chiffon Cake

Ingredients:
(A)
4 egg yolks
75 ml Orange juice
40 ml water
85 ml corn oil
45 gm sugar
150 gm Cake flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Orange emulco

(B)
5 egg white
1/8 tsp Cream of Tartar
100 gm. sugar

Method:
(1) Mix all the ingredients (A) together and stir till smooth.
(2) Whisk egg white with cream of tartar for 1 min. then gradually pour in sugar and whisk till medium-stiff peak.
(3) Fold mixture (1) and (2) together and pour into a 23 cm. tube pan.
(4) Bake at 180c for about 1 hour or till cake is cooked through.
(5) Overturn cake (still in the pan) onto a wire rack and leave it to cool down completely.
(6) Remove cake from tube pan and slice.

Japan Trip 2008 (Part 2)

FOOD

Bento in the first picture was something we bought because it looked appetitizing but to my great disappointment, it tasted like eating food kept in the fridge overnight. And it was not cheap mind you - 1300Yen ~ SGD$18

The second picture was some potatoes that this shop near Asakusa was selling. Costs 1000Yen ~ $14 but was very sweet. There are many desserts in Japan that are very sweet. Guess this is what they like.

The third picture was taken in a food market. All cakes for sale were place in showcases, not only do each of them look beautiful, their price per slice is not cheap as well - 500Yen ~ $7 per slice. Taste wise was pretty good for some of them and I guess we had to pay a premium for them because they sat in pretty showcaese ;)

THINGS I BOUGHT

As you can see, I bought mainly fanciful cookie cutters/moulds of various cartoon characters and of course plenty of titbits.

Japan Trip 2008 (Part I)

ASAKUSA

This is one of the tourist attractions in Tokyo visited by many tourist and Japanese. Crowds can be seen even on weekdays. Before you reach the Sensoji temple, you will pass through a long shopping street - Nakamise where you get to buy plenty of titbits ranging from rice crackers to red bean pancakes to mochi of various sorts as well as other range of titbits. There is also ice-cream of numerous flavours, ranging from interesting flavours like sweet potato to Cherry Blossom.

AKIHABARA AND SHINJUKU

The first 2 pictures is an eatery in Akihabara serving tempura rice with nice udon. The tempura is nice and the udon is superb. To avoid the office crowd, best to visit it before 12pm. Worth while eating if you happen to be around that area. The eatery is along the main road near a building with a panda poster.

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts opposite Takashimaya in Shinjuku. Long queues can be seen oustide the store queueing up to get their hands on these soft doughnuts. While queueing, the waitress hands out a free sugar coated doughnut to each of the people in the queue. I found the sugar coated doughnut was tat too sweet for my liking and their other flavours such as chocolate had a sugar coating as well before topping with chocoate, making it even sweeter, so if you got a very sweet tooth, you may like this.


TOKYO DISNEYLAND

We went to Disneyland on its 25th Anniversary. It was so crowded even during the early hours of 7am, there was a long queue outside the gate even though it opens only at 8.30am. After we bought the tickets, we joined the queue at the enterance. A day at Disneyland is definitely not enough to completely see the whole place. Best would be to spend at least 2 days there. Didn't manage to stay till night where there will be fireworks before the closing of the place as my son was tired and we left at 4pm. We were lucky that we stayed at Keio Plaza in Shinjuku and they were one of the Disney partners and provided free transport for their guests.

Took a few of the rides there and my son enjoyed himself. Some popular rides had a waiting time of 40mins. There was a parade at 12pm and 3pm that day.

I bought many Pooh Bear items from the Pooh bear store there. And there was a stall selling Micky mouse face waffles which we had to give it a missed as we had to rush to catch the bus. I would definitely want to go Disneyland again as well as DisneySea if I visit Japan again!

Bubble rice and Walnut Cookies

Made these over the weekends as I had some left over rice bubbles at home.

Bubble rice and Walnut Cookies
Ingredients:
225g butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
100g castor sugar
230g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
100g rice bubbles
55g walnut ( coursely chopped)
100g chocolate chips

Method:

1. Lightly grease baking trays.
2. Cream butter, sugar and essence until creamy.
3. Stir in sifted dry ingredients, rice bubbles, walnuts and chocolate chips to mix into a dough.
4. Roll out dough into small sized balls and place onto prepared trays. Flaten slightly.
5. Bake in preheated oven at 180 degrees for 15 minutes or until lightly golden brown and cooked through.
6. Cool completely before storing in air tight containers.