Cake Indulgence at China House

The silver lining about moving to a new town is every outing is a new experience, and being in Penang, every outing for a meal is like a vacation. There are so many choices here. You want street food, food court, fine dining and franchise (although I do hold some grudge for them having only one McDonald's outlet in Seberang Jaya, and then there is no Burger King around here).

In conclusion, you want to eat, you have it. No questions asked!

Like a few months ago, Mr Hubby visited this cafe that served impressive array of menu, with thousand types of cakes. When he gloated to me about it, I thought to myself it is virtually impossible. And then he goes on and on how it takes from the front part through the back alley right into the row at the back. Again I was thinking, is Penang even that big to have something that sounds so well spread? And then I was told it is actually is a cafe, bar, wine bar, art gallery, has live bands, and like 101 other things.

Curiosity killed the cat, so although I ain't no cat, we had to visit the place right the next weekend, like pronto!

My, oh my! Was I in for a surprise, shock, amazement, whatever you call it, it is not enough to explain the feelings, especially when you love everything cakes. Yes, cake'S'. Here's how:

This is one section, another chilled section on the left, not in pic. And get this, they keep topping up the different cakes and goodies. It's like diabetes galore, diabetes that I want to embrace.

If that this point you are not amazed enough, feel free to leave this space. 

Ok no, please wait, the fun does not stop here.

Their best cake is the tiramisu, and you have the option to take alcoholic and non alcoholic. No prize for guessing which one I jumped upon. It is absolutely a must try! Soft cheesy layer in between soft spongy cakes, topped with icing and what tastes like granola.  

Second best is the espresso walnut cake, the square shaped on the right.

Then there's moist buttermilk chocolate cake, again yummy!

On the top right corner is the salted caramel cheesecake. Too salty for my taste. On the top left is the gourmet hotdog with fries. Things we do to satisfy kids.

Some close ups, from top to bottom is salted caramel cheesecake, espresso walnut and moist buttermilk chocolate cake.

Hope you did not expect me to list out all their cakes, because no I am not doing it, but just mentioning my favourites. As we all are quick to jump onto our food when it arrives, you will notice I have very few candid shots. The more artistic ones are by My Hubby who takes pride in the Iphone6 skills.

Also thanks to my non-photographic skills, the accounts and photos here are actually compiled from our multiple visits there. 

If you noticed, our table came with square white papers, sophisticatedly known as 'mahjong papers', and every table is equipped with good amount of crayons. Basically they tap into your creativity as you see heaven in every bite of their God-sent cakes.

Thanks to our gastronomically superior experiences we've produced quite a few masterpieces while indulging, especially the kids, and oh, notice the red velvet cake as you immerse yourself into the art.

Tiramisu, chocolate decadent and red velvet cakes, at your service!

Art too.

See how all the hands get into producing art.

And the best art award has to go to the portrait My Hubby created, full credits to him, Iphone only took the picture. So that's me, as conceived by Mr Hubby.

The selected artworks will be displayed at their cafe and also the art gallery, and seeing the collection they have there, people are pretty creative and arty after their cakexperiences. The last time we went there I tried to spot my portrait but couldn't find it. Looks like we need another trip to China House to indulge and submit another artwork!

Here's Mr Hubby pulling more Iphone6 tricks, an ariel view from the art gallery on the second floor. I am sitting on one side and there are cakes on the other side.

Taking a walk from the front to the back is really an interesting experience because the deco, the setting, and the graffiti brings you into different moods, ambience, and that vintage feel that you forget for a short while that you are in the 21st century.

And here's some of our pics. My Hubby was doing the beard trend, till the cakes got into them. Not bad if you want to have some cakes to-go!

The boys and me, right before we leave the place. I can't tell if my eyes are opened or not, regardless, awesome cakes, I was probably high on cakes!

So now you know, if you are in Penang where are the best cakes. In fact, once you've had China House cakes, everything else just pales in comparison. One might feel the pricing in on the higher side, but the pieces are oh-my-big-enough-to-drown.

China House is addictive like that. Try it, if you dare!

Salmon Potato Cakes

It is always fun to learn making something new. And even more fun to add in my own additions to make it more nutritious or perhaps just simpler. My quest is always just two. One, trying new dishes for the kids and hubby. And two, hiding nutritious ingredients in the meal for the three kids (yes, hubby included, because he is the one to avoid his vegetables).

The original recipe calls for breadcrumbs to absorb moisture but I decided to cut the breadcrumb preparation instead grinded some instant oats for the same purpose. It does work for meatloaf and I was pretty sure it will work here too.

Below are the ingredients for the salmon potato cakes:

Steamed Salmon fish, deboned - about 500gms
Broccoli - steamed
Boiled & mashed potatoes  - about 4 large ones
1 onion - chopped
4 garlic - grated
some dried parsley (fresh better)
some spring onion - chopped fine
half cup of instant oats - grinded fine
2 tbsp tomato pasta sauce
1 egg
half cup of grated cheddar cheese

Simply mash and mix the above ingredients. Shape into patties. You can be creative and use large cookie cutters to get cool shapes. I sprinkled some cheddar cheese on top of each patty. I even made one batch more special by filling it with cheese. You can shallow fry them on the pan but since I (unexpectedly) made such a large batch, I just baked them in the oven. Plus the cheese sprinkle works better when baked. It is too tiresome to do it one by one. I was worried it might not turn out as good, but it did indeed come out firm to the hold.

I totally love my stockpot, that allows me to boil and steam at the same time. I did cut down a lot of cooking time with it, yet I was a tired mummy at the end of it. And since it was a large batch I was able to freeze some for the kids.

For every action there is a reaction. The reward for being good boys eating their fish and vegetables, I baked some chocolate chip muffins. Special one in the ramekins for the BIG boy with Cadbury chocolate inside for some molten-like effect. Recipe from joyofbaking.

And later I did a Anna Olsen style switch up with the leftover salmon potato cakes. Made a simple pasta sauce with tomatoes, milk and ground almonds. 

Spread the salmon potato cakes at the bottom. One layer of pasta sauce. Then some cheese. And then one layer of pasta. Topped with another layer of pasta sauce and cheese, and voila!

As usual my picture was taken slightly later, once the kids started eating.

I hope you enjoy making it as much as I did! Happy trying!

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

When life gave me lemons I made lemon poppy seed muffins out of it! 

 

Well in reality its quite the opposite. Mom has this magical spice that she adds into almost all her Indian cooking, and you know how sometimes even if the thing is right under your nose you can hardly spot it. It is called 'kas kas' in Hindi and I had no idea what is it called in English. I happened to see it once by chance together with the translation and I got ecstatic to know that it is indeed poppy seeds!

I remembered how lemon poppy seed cakes are a favourite in most baking websites. That is how I got to buying lemons next. And searching the internet for the perfect recipe. Most recipes called for yogurt or buttermilk, which I did not have at this moment, so I settled for this recipe from food network (also my favourite channel!).

This is definitely one of the many firsts. Also the first time I made muffins from scratch without any premix, apart from the first time lemon and poppy seed use. And gosh I never knew lemon zest can be so refreshing! Don't beat me for it, we are all in the learning curve after all.

This is also the first time ever I learnt to fold in the dry ingredients properly into the matter without over mixing it. Oh yeah, it does make ALL the difference!

I added some zing into it by giving it a lemon and honey glaze right when it is hot from the oven because it allows the muffin to soak up all the glaze. Just mix a teaspoon of lemon juice with 1 tablespoon of honey, or until you get your desired taste. Little did I know that juice from one lemon takes a lot of honey to bring the sour taste down. Well, well, another first here. All the better to have it more lemony, because as they say, lemon cuts down the fat, right? Right??! Thankfully my sourish glaze added the perfect amount of zing to it!

I feel my muffins look a little naked because I baked them directly inside the muffin trays, I suppose I should add muffin cups into my next shopping list.

I have been having throat inflammation for the last week, so I am hoping this lemon and honey combination will work just fine. Okay, I am just being hopeful and guilt-free here. I am still curious as to how would it taste if I used yogurt or buttermilk, I hope I will have the patience to try this again with yogurt next.

The end product is lovely, and the sweetness is just nice for us health conscious people. And the lemon taste will keep you refreshed the whole day! I can see why this can be a quick breakfast favourite. Suddenly 12 muffins seemed to little in real munching numbers that it disappeared so fast!

Red Velvet Swirl Brownie from Sunny Anderson's Recipe

Of all the food network shows, Sunny Anderson's Cooking For Real has got to be my most favourite. Her cooking and baking style is so youthful yet sticks to classic aspects of her dishes. And it also helps that her shows come on at 3.30pm, right when the kids nap, and I can watch the show in peace with my cuppa hot ginger tea.

It is the time of the year again where hubby grows a year older, and to celebrate (older and wiser him) I was gonna bake him a surprise Red Velvet Swirl Brownie Sunny Anderson style! There is something so mystic about red velvet cakes. Despite having cocoa powder as ingredient, the taste somehow turns 180 degrees when you savour it in its bright red colour. Plus the cream cheese layer of it is so amazing!

Although it was meant to be a surprise, hubby somehow happened to be home when I was slogging hard baking it. Therefore this time I had a helper, not my usual house elves, but the master of the house itself. He helped me to beat the cream cheese layer so smooth. And later helped me to swirl the whole mixture so well and even got a nice heart shape design on it.

Somehow the top part browned a little too much. I followed the baking instructions but when checked with skewer it seemed like its not fully done, hence I baked it more and more till this happened. Note the number of holes my skewer test left.

How did my first ever red velvet cake turn out? Taste wise, easily the best red velvet ever! Hey, I may be biased, but why not, since I have my sweat and hardwork as the main ingredients. The colour is not as bright as I would want it to be, and it could have swirled more (hint hint!!). 

  

I am not so much of a cake baking person, especially when I have not baked much from scratch before. However, I dare say I am catching up now. Looking to try a different recipe next!

Walnut Coffee Cake Recipe

Presenting the recipe for the Walnut Coffee cake I made for my sister in law's birthday a few weeks ago, in Baking Sweet Baking Savoury.

The recipe was from a book I recently bought, but since it called for items like cream sherry and walnut liquer, I had to tweak it to suit the ingredients available here, and here is what I came up with.

You Need:

1 tsp vanilla essense
1 cup butter, softened
4 eggs
2/3 cup honey
2 cups all purpose flour (APF)
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp instant coffee powder
100g finely ground walnuts
100ml whipping cream.

For the icing
200g sweetened chocolate
some milk
some cream cheese

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line cake pan with parchment paper or prep with butter
2. Beat the butter and gradually beat in the eggs, honey and vanilla essence. Sift in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and coffee, add the walnuts and stir into the mixture. Stir in the whipping cream. Turn the batter into the prepared cake pan.
3. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until skewer comes out clean. Once done leave it to cool completely.
4. To make the icing, double boil the chocolate, beating it with milk and cream cheese to your desired taste. Leave it to cool slightly.
5. Spread the icing on the cake. Decorate with walnuts or almond flakes as desired.

I should have beaten the cheese cream with the chocolate longer because in my mixture you can see it slightly lumpy all over. The best thing about this cake is that it has nice caramel colour and the aroma of honey and cinnamon (I like!) despite being a coffee cake. Great for gatherings or just for tea. Happy Baking!

Baking Sweet Baking Savoury

We had a little gathering at our place for my sister in law's birthday, and as a money-can't-buy gift I baked, and baked and baked. Yeah so I baked two things, one sweet and one savoury.

Remember the house elves? Yes, my two superhero boys who never fail to surprise me with new antiques everyday. They were busy helping me beat the batter, turn the bowl for me, and even washing the dishes. The most important and favourite task of all, is cleaning the whisk (yet again), which used to be my duty but now I have graciously passed it on to my eldest son.

It is such a tough job. I kid you not. Because once the whisk is clean, you gotta lick and clean your fingers next.

 

Once the cake is in the oven, they are rewarded with vitagen drinks for their cooperation for keeping the level of mischief at a low level (I am just being realistic, because you can never achieve zero mischief)

I bet the cake batter washes down very well with the cultured drinks.

For now I shall keep you salivating with the pictures only, and shall share the recipes soonest possible (in kiddy household terms, it might take forever, hence your patience is greatly appreciated).

I present to you walnut coffee cake with chocolate cream cheese topping.

I changed the recipe a little bit as it asked for cream sherry and walnut liquer. If I had those items in the house I would be celebrating over a happy hour instead of baking.

The savoury bake is chicken pot pie, with lots of vegetables. The below picture is the filling and cooked view of the top pastry. Sorry about the shoddy work, I need more practice.

Both the bakes got good raves from everyone. Another feather on my SAHM hat!