Christmas Party

After the Christmas party we had in Yr 2007, we have decided to hold another Christmas Party this year at my place. This year's menu would be very simple to cook as it it only caters for like less than 20 people as some family members are away this Christmas season on a holiday. I am definitely looking forward to the party!

Raisin Pound Cake

This raisin cake is made from the same recipe as the fruit pound cake. However if you notice, this looks a bit dense. I suspect is because I used some left over brown sugar instead of castor sugar and my brown sugar was a bit damp. This could have contributed to the cake failing to rise. But I prefer this cake taste to the fruit cake as it has a brown sugar fragrance.

Fruit Pound Cake

I have used this pound cake recipe to make various versions with different fruits, nuts, etc. This recipe gives a light and fluffy butter cake texture and this is not the traditional type of fruit cake which you usually get on Christmas.

Ingredients

226g unsalted butter

100g shortening

300g castor sugar

350g flour

1tsp baking powder

5 eggs

1tbsp vanilla essence

1 cup milk

2 cups dried mix fruits/chopped walnuts/raisins/blueberry/etc

Method

Preheat oven at 180C.
1. Cream butter, shortening, sugar till light and fluffy.

2. Add eggs 1 at a time and cream well after each addition

3. Add vanilla essence.

4. Put 1 tbsp flour into mix fruits and mix well.

5. Sift flour with baking powder.

6. Use a spaluta and mix in flour and milk in 3 batches, starting with flour then milk.

7. Lastly add in mix fruits, pour into baking tin, bake for 1hr or till cooked.

Banana Cake

I made this banana cake from More Kitchen Secrets from Betty Saw. This cake uses a generous amount of bananas and makes use of the rub-in method instead of creaming method. Initially I was a bit suspicious if the cake would be soft but it turned out moist and soft as Betty has claimed.

Steamed Chocolate Cake

Made this Brownie Steamed Cake from a recipe I found from Reas Küche . This recipe proved to be a success. The cake was soft and nice. I put chocolate rice at the centre but it didn't taste like what I expected it to be. In future, I will steam it without the chocolate rice at the center and then top it up with chocolate ganache after it is cooked. I believe it will taste better that way.

Steamed Sponge Cake

This Steamed Sponge Cake was made from a ready mixed flour mixture that I bought from Seng Siong Supermarket. All you need to do is to put in milk and egg and beat it till mixed. It was suppose to open up like a flower, but then because I didn't oil the knife to make an 'X' for every cake, thus no flower appeared.

I thought the cake was rather dense as well. Maybe I should have added more milk to have a fluffier and lighter sponge. On the whole it tasted good. Nice eggy fragrance.

Nestum Cookies

Made this from a recipe that I found in the local food magazine - Food and Travel magazine. This cookie is simple to make and fabulous with the fragance of nestum with every bite of these cookies.

Chocolate Chip Muffin

These muffins were made using the rubbing in method. This means no need for a mixer to bake these muffins. Simple to make and very tasty. A colleague of mine recommended self raising flour from Prima. I must admit that she is right. Using Prima Self Raising flour definitely makes softer cakes.