Eve’s and Wazir’s lil blog space

Anyone used to getting recipes from Internet, cook books, etc will be faced with various unit measures.  Be it in cup, grams, ounces, pounds, etc. etc.  Here are a couple of conversion measures which I find useful:

Butter

1 cup = 2 sticks = 8 ounces = half pound = 227 gram

Tips: Most butter is sold in 250 gram pack.  If you need 227 gram pack, buy Anchor butter. 

Flour

1 cup = 100 gram

Your cake has a bulge in the middle and it could even spot a nasty crack? Hmm.. cake with a stretch mark ;o)

The answer lies in the raising agent used. Baking powder will no longer be active when the temperature hits 90 degrees. As the outer circle of the cake gets hotter faster, it will stop raising first. The middle will continue to rise and cause it to bulge.

How to stop this? Few things you can do:

1. Ensure that the oven is at the right temperature before placing the mixture in.
2. Use a shallow pan where the heat will be evenly spread.
3. Use combination of soda bicarbonate, yeast and baking powder as each of these ingredients will continue to work up to different temperatures.
4. Place an aluminium foil over the mixture and cover the top of the foil with green beans. This will allow even heat distribution on the top of the cake.
5. Place a small bowl of hot water in the oven as cracking could also be caused by dryness. The steam created by the hot water will keep the surface moist. This is especially true for cheese cakes.

Not all of us have time to shop and cook daily. A piece of cabbage may be resting for a month in the fridge before being cooked. But after a couple of weeks you will find that once fresh cabbage is now covered in black mold or worst, all squishy … yuck!

How to keep the vegetable fresher longer? Simply store them in aluminium bags.

Where to get them you say? Well, just recycle your old aluminium wrapping bags from snacks like Nachos, Cheezels, Twisties or ground nuts. Any of these aluminium bags would do. Just place your vegetable in these bags and tie them up. Your vegetables and fruits will stay fresher longer.

125g self raising flour
125g wholemeal flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup natural yogurt
1 tbsp honey

Glaze mix:
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 210 degrees. Grease baking trays with melted butter. Combine milk yogurt and honey in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until well combined.

Sift flour, wholemeal flour and salt into a mixing bowl, returning flour husk to the bowl. Add yogurt, milk and honey into flour mixture and mix lightly with a flat-bladed knife, to form a soft dough.

Add more milk if necessary. Knead dough briefly on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Press out dough to 2cm thickness.

Cut dough into rounds using a floured 5cm cutter or cut into squares using a floured knife. Place scones on prepared trays. Brush scones with honey glaze. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until lightly golden.

To prepare glaze: Gently warm the milk and honey in a small saucepan, stirring gently until well combined.

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my verdict: its a bit too dry and hard for my liking… maybe its because its got no butter in this recipe… overall in taste… its like a crunchy crust wholemeal bread… taste and smell good… my maid walloped 6 pcs…. so i guess it was nice guaaaa…

Got that lovely fruit cake recipe but when you try making it, the fruits or nuts just sink to the bottom? A couple of tips to ensure that your fruit cake has its fruits in all the right places:

1. Egg white - separate the egg white from the mixture. Beat the egg white until they are light and fluffy and pour it back into the mixture just before you place it in the oven. Fold the egg white slowly ensuring that you don’t over do it or the egg white may turn into liquid again. It is alright to have some foam at the top of the mixture. The egg white will act as “floats” for the fruits and stop them from sinking; or
2. ENO (fruit salt) - mix two teaspoon of Natural flavoured ENO (blue pack) into the dry flour. As you mix the flour into the wet mixture, the Eno will start to bubble and the trapped air bubble under the fruits will stop them from sinking during baking. Make sure you don’t leave the mixture standing too long outside the oven or the effect will be minimized.

To ensure greater success to your baking story, ensure that the oven is at the right temperature before placing the mixture in. The mixture should also not be too watery as it will then be easier for the fruits to sink. Good luck!

* Picture of ENO extracted from GlaxoSmithKline website.