ayonecan-cook

A designer apron was just what I needed to give me  a renewed vigour to  cook something-worth-blogging-about.  Buycuteaprons.com is an online store from the UK that sells a range of designer aprons.  Kirsteen , owner of buycuteaprons.com had been kind enough to send me this elegant vintage inspired Ulster Weaver's apron which I had chosen. Although the red was less vibrant than I expected it did look very pretty once I had put it on. Very Audrey Hepburn-ish. Very vintage. Very hostess with the mostest-ish.  Buycuteaprons.com is stocked with all the top UK and American apron designs. With new styles being added regularly. Mostly feminine, some of them being vintage inspired, some retro, some sexy and some just plain cute-adorable. Designer brands include Cupcake Provocateur, Jessie Steele, Sugar Baby Aprons, Ulster Weavers and many more. They also have cute aprons for children and manly ones for men.  But what took me by surprise was that  Jessie St...

First of all I wish all my friends from blog land and the real world and my dear blog visitors who celebrate Christmas a Merry Christmas .  This cake was made for N's birthday today and as always most times I end up making a chocolate cake. This is a steamed chocolate cake that I got from  San's Blessed Moments. Chocolate has always been a favourite in this house with everyone and also because ~  " Every time I hear that dirty word exercise I wash my mouth out with chocolate."  Unknown This was a moist and chocolatey cake with the perfect amount of sweetness ...meaning not too sweet at all. I covered it with fresh whipped cream because ... I had taken out the butter from the fridge, looked at it then put it back in. Since we had only cut the cake this evening I could not take a photo of a sliced piece. I hope to take a picture tomorrow. Do take note of the word "hope" though.  The recipe... 200 gm sugar 200 ml evaporated milk 180 gm butter 2 eggs 100 gm plai...

I have tried very hard to like strawberries because they are such pretty little things but I can't. T hat's why you will find few recipes with strawberries on this blog. I always find them tart and not at all sweet. Having said that, they were at the least ..juicy. I bought strawberries with the original intention of making financiers with sliced strawberries on the top like here. I thought they would look very pretty. But that didn't happen. This did. Because I did not want the strawberries to go to rot.  I used the same recipe as Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls but added dried cranberries and fresh strawberries instead. Then I placed the dough into cupcake liners and 3 mini loaf liners, scattered flaked almonds and sugar nibs that Sarah from Siliconemoulds had given me sometime ago on the tops. I made buns. They were very moist because of the sweet potatoes and fruity because of the cranberries and strawberries. Strawberries out.... next time.  The recipe is here . Just a...

Angry Birds. I know not what they are all about. But there I was taking an Angry Bird Cupcake class by invitation from  Cake Connection.  After a pleasant email from Shyamala  and Nancy , the co-owners of Cake Connection , six other food bloggers and I came together for a long morning to afternoon session of sculpting 6 angry sugar paste figurines. We had so much fun, a little bit of pain and most definitely laughs. Nancy was the perfect instructor.... extremely patient, kind, generous and forthcoming and Shyamala was very welcoming. This is what the Cake Connection looks like as you enter. I have come here several times to get my sugar paste supplies. Cool, cozy and inviting. Sonia of Nasi Lemak Lover , Veron of Quay Po Cooks , Jocelyn of Petite Nyonya, Ivy of My Story, Chris of Pure Glutton and Tomoko of Caramel Factory   were there......my fellow bloggers.  In the workshop.... t he tools of the trade and the materials like fondant, cupcakes and buttercre...

  Forgive me for the long silence. Things have been a little hectic. But I'm back and there is no better way to start off a-blogging than with these moist, scrummy and fudgy brownies. These are the most delicious brownies ever! They're chocolatey, fudgy, slightly chewy, with that shiny crackly skin on the top. They are addictive. You can't stop at one. Swear to god. They are even better cold straight from the fridge and I've even had them half frozen from the freezer. I had kept them in the freezer so we would not gorge on them in one sitting but apparently frozen brownies were even more engaging to eat. I don't think these brownies would ever get dry. They were born from a small home business run by a young man who is an engineer by day and brownie baker by night. How more intriguing could that get? And they have crossed the seas to Singapore, Sri Lanka and Brunei. They are baked in a 10 inch by 10 inch tray. Yum!

S eeing that I have only one one rack in my oven a Dobos Torte was not something I was keen to attempt. But I did it. In 4 hours. The sponge layers took only 5 minutes to bake but must be watched and baking those thin layers should never be paired with accidental naps in between. The chocolate frosting made me falter and I almost went for another recipe because 3 raw egg yolks could mean salmonella attacks, hospitalization and doctor's bills en masse. I decided to be brave and went ahead. We are all well, alive and hungering for more Dobos Torte. Thanks be to God. I had cut the last piece of sponge layer into 8 wedges and seperated them a little before pouring the amber caramel over. One thing I learnt was that you only need to cut through the caramel when the caramel has hardened. With a very sharp knife. It is much easier than having sticky caramel globbing up your knife and gooey caramel threads stretching between your fingers endlessly. A Dobos Torte looks much harder to make t...

Sometimes when you dig deep enough you will uncover little jewels in unexpected places ~ like blogresepi and this beautifully simple Finnish pancake that I spied on her blog. It was so smooth and so creamy and buttery. I paired it with slices of orange segments in an orange juice reduction and it became even more refreshing with bursts of orange globules in my mouth. Imagine ~ I did not need to stand in front of a stove turning pancake after pancake. After pancake........  ~after pancake ~ The batter is poured into a lined rectangular baking pan, sprinkled with sugar and left to bake for about 20- 25 minutes in a hot oven until it puffed up and became hideously glorious, browned on the top in places (in this case only one place) and looked likely to burst along the edges. Whoa-waaa... PS: As you can see I need a new oven .. . .....this present one has hot spots like the punctures in our planet's ozone layer :(~ Then I cut it up into squares, dusted it with some cinnamon powder ...

It's at Daiso where my little insignificant, pointless, niggling and  piddling dreams come true. Thus these tartlets were born. We all know that there are mama melon ballers but dare we dream that there baby melon ballers? I did. And my melon baller dream came true. Now....dare you tell me that that baby isn't cute! Because fresh fruit tartlets are prettiest when topped with small dainty fruits like berries (in my book), but which are ridiculously priced if you're living right smack on the equator, I have never bothered to make fresh fruit tartlets. Until I found this baby melon baller. Now I can make my own tropical 'berries' for tartlets anytime. From baby mango balls , baby bright red water melons balls to baby jade honey dew melon balls.  Angie from Angie's recipe had this Fresh Fruit Tartlets recipe that had a filling of a ground hazelnuts-butter-sugar paste instead of custard. I thought the moist, rich, nutty paste was a brilliant change from the usua...

I blog in spurts. I keep telling myself that I will never blog in spurts again. It's bad. As bad as gorging on chocolate cream filled chocolatey biscuits when you're trying to be healthy. Or trying to walk in a straight line. Sorry for the an unplanned absence. I have been uninspired and distracted. For many reasons. The heat, mega sales, the heat, friends, the heat and family. And mainly mega sales. And the heat. Nevertheless, these English chocolate cream filled chocolate biscuits are reminiscent of the chocolate bourbons from Marks and Spencer that I gorged on thirty years ago. So busy was I that I got yelled at by a man with a heavy load on his shoulders. I almost walked into him. I jumped out of his way in the nick of time. I'm sure he would have hit me on my head if he could. Thank god Mary Berry had a recipe for it. Thank god I bought her Fast Cakes recipe book thirty years ago. And thank god they taste just like my memory of it. The biscuits I mean. These a...