Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Glaze for Father's Day!

I want to wish all the dads a "Happy Father's Day" especially my dad.  Dad, I love you and may you have a wonderful time on Father's Day.

We are going to celebrate Father's Day with a bunch of friends (dads) tonight so I made this simple and yet yummy cake to bring along.  I made this cake before on Edda's first birthday and really liked how soft the cake was.  Instead of cream or frosting, I chose glaze instead since in my mind it was healthier.  :-P

 

This recipe made two round pans cake.  My girls wanted to put sprinkles on the cake and I obliged, I thought it would make the cake more colorful.  Instead of chopped walnuts, I used peanuts instead.  My girls loved this cake as they couldn't wait to taste one of the cakes and requested I make this on their birthday for them.

Ingredients:

Adapted from Pusiva's Moist Chocolate Cake with minor changes.

1 1/4 cup cake flour

1/4 cup specially dark cocoa powder

3/4 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. baking soda

2 Tbsp. hot water

1 tsp. instant coffee granules

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup butter

2 large eggs

1 tsp. Irish cream liqueur

3/4 cup water

Method:

1.  Sift together flour cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl, set aside.

2.  Dissolved coffee granules in hot water, set aside.

3.  Beat butter and sugar with an electric beater until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time.  Beat well.  Add in coffee and Irish cream liqueur, beat well.  With a spatula, gently fold in the flour mixture alternating with water.  Start and end with the flour mixture.

4.  Pour and divided the batter into two greased and flour round pans.  Bake in preheated 350'F oven for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

5.  Cool completely on wire rack.  Spread with chocolate glaze and top with chopped nuts, sprinkles, chocolate chips if desired.

Chocolate Glaze 

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

3 Tbsp. butter

1 Tbsp. honey

1 tsp. Irish cream liqueur

Add all ingredients in a microwave safe Pyrex bowl and microwave for 45 seconds, stir and mix well until spreading consistency.  If needed, add 15 seconds intervals until spreading consistency.  Spread on cooled cake.  Spread on slightly warm cake is okay too.

Newtons Fruit Thins

Mmmm...mmmm....yum.....yum.....

What was my little Edda eating that was so delicious?  It was Newtons newest product!!  Newtons Fruit Thins is made with real fruit and packed into a thin and crispy whole grain cookie.  It has 8g of whole grain per serving (three cookies) to strike the perfect balance between sweet treat and wholesome snack.  My girls liked to enjoy it plain and as for me, I liked it with a cup of coffee.  :-)  This cookie definitely has the thumb up from me except it was sort of pricy, so I would buy it when it goes on sales or when there is a $1 off coupon (which was recently in the smartsource coupon in the mail).

As a tastemaker of Foodbuzz, I received the Cranberry Citrus Oat Newtons Fruit Thins to sample.  We could taste pieces of real dried cranberry in each cookie with a great citrus taste.  What's best for me was it has zero gram of trans fat and no high fructose corn syrup and made with real fruit. It came in three other flavors as well such as Chocolate Raspberry, Blueberry Brown Sugar and Fig & Honey.  I am eager to try them all.  Have you tried it?  Do you like it?

Stir Fried Long Bean with Minced Pork

I created this recipe with the Malaysian side in me.  Have you ever seen such a dark color vegetable dish before?  Haha...  First I wanted a dark color dish, then I tried to match it with a sauce that will guarantee it to be delicious.  And this dish was created!  Besides long bean, you can use green bean or french bean as well.

If you are too busy to cook, this dish makes a great one dish meal as well because it has meat and vegetable in one.  So, you get a balance meal in a bowl, of course for me, it is best to pair it with brown rice that was cooked with minced garlic and ginger.  You can read more about garlic rice here, these days I only cook brown rice and also added minced ginger as well.  Since both are super food so why not right?

Ingredients:

Long beans, washed and cut into 2 inch length, about a bowl

1/4 lb of minced pork, marinated with rice wine, hoisin sauce, white pepper and fish sauce

2 gloves of garlic, minced

1 or 2 Thai bird-eye chili, cut (depending on how spicy you want)

2 Tbsp. oyster sauce

1 tsp. dark soy sauce

1/2 tsp. sugar

Method:

1.  Heat up a wok, when heated, add in some cooking oil.  When the oil is hot, add in the cut long beans and stir-fry until the long beans are cooked.  Dish out and set aside.

2.  In the same wok, add in more oil if needed.  Add in garlic and chili and stir-fry until fragrant (careful not to burn the garlic), add in minced pork.  Stir-fry until pork is no longer pink, add in long beans.

3.  Flavor with oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and sugar.  Mix well and serve.

Stir Fried Zucchini with Dried Small Shrimps (炒西葫芦和虾皮)

This is another way to enjoy the dried small shrimps or 虾皮.  If you want to learn more about 虾皮, click here.   This is a delicious stir-fried zucchini dish that even my picky hubby and Evy turned out liking.  They don't like to eat zucchini, but if I sliced it thinly like this and stir-fry it, they turned out liking it.  With the garlic, dried small shrimps, this dish was really flavorful with just a touch of salt and sugar.

If you tried this dish, remember to feedback to me ya!  As I really loved this dish and hope you all will like it too.

Ingredients:

1 Italian zucchini, thinly sliced like above picture

1 organic carrot, thinly sliced

1/8 cup of dried small shrimps, rinsed and set aside to dry

2 gloves of garlic, thinly sliced

Salt to taste

A touch of sugar or chicken powder

Method:

1.  In a heated wok, add in some cooking oil.  When hot, add in the dried small shrimps, stir-fry until slightly brown, add in the garlic, stir-fry until slightly brown.  

2.  Add in the zucchini and carrot, stir-fry until cooked.  Season to taste with salt and sugar/ chicken powder.  Serve hot.

Dried Mussels with Chicken and Mushrooms

Another dried mussels recipe from me!  The one packet of dried mussels can actually make with few dishes, I still have half a packet left.  I had tried it with Lotus Root Soup and Chap Chai and now tried it with chicken and mushrooms.  But I would probably say it would taste better with pork belly or drumsticks.  But if you are health conscious, then just use skinless chicken breasts like me.   Perhaps I will use the dried mussels in a vegetable soup next.

Ingredients:

2 boneless and skinless chicken breasts, sliced and marinated with soy sauce, white pepper, rice wine, garlic powder and cornstarch (or you can use pork belly)

8-10 dried mussels, soften in warm water, drain

8 dried flower mushrooms, soften in warm water, drain

Few pieces of sliced gingers

1 star anise

1 cinnamon sticks

8 cloves

6-8 small white rock sugar

1/4 cup Chinese rice wine

Soy sauce to taste

1 Tbsp. dark soy sauce

Method:

1.  In a medium saucepan, add in a little oil.  When hot, add in ginger slices and stir-fry until fragrant.  Add in the spices and stir-fry well.  Add in chicken and dried mussels, stir-fry until chicken is almost cooked.

2.  Add in water to cover.  Add in mushrooms, stir well.  Add in the seasonings and let it simmer for an hour.

3.  Season to taste if needed.  Serve with rice.

Stir Fried Konnyaku Slice (炒半边腰花)

I went to my Asian market when they were having a cooking demonstration day.  I discovered this Konnyaku slice or 半边腰花 at the Lee Kum Kee's cooking booth.  Frankly it was my first time seeing this vegetarian thingy but it reminded me of the kidney that my mom used to make soup.  I got a sample and really loved the texture of this springy Konnyaku slices.  I loved it so much that I bought a packet of this and the LKK sauce that went with it.  I will show you the picture of the packet and the LKK sauce in the next page.  It was my first time trying this sauce as well and really loved it.  The store manager told me they used this sauce to pour on their steamed fish.  Now I know what sauce the restaurant used for their fishes.  Hehehe...

I pan-fried some cut firm tofu and then stir-fried with these Konnyaku slices with the LKK sauce.  Very easy to make and the sauce went well with rice.  The Konnyaku slice can be found at the frozen section of the market.  Just thaw it in the refrigerator a day before use or take some out and soak in water to thaw.

This is a picture of the thawed Konnyaku slice, I bought it for $4+, forgot the exact price.

Ingredients:

1/2 or 1 packet of Konnyaku Slice

1/2 firm tofu, cut into one inch slices, pat dry with paper towel

Lee Kum Kee's seasoned soy sauce for seafood to taste

Method:

1.  In a heated wok with oil, pan-fry the sliced firm tofu until golden brown on both sides.  Dish out and set aside.

2.  In the same wok, add in the konnyaku slices and stir-fry for a while.  Then add in the fried tofu slices and season with some LKK seasoned soy sauce for seafood (about 2 Tbsp.), add a little water if you want.  Serve hot!

(This sauce is salty and sweet)

Erythritol Whole Wheat Buns

I was contacted by Emerald Forest Xylitol to sample Erythritol and create a baking recipe for their Website.  For those who doesn't know, Erythritol is a natural sugarless sweetener that comes from corn.  It is 70% as sweet as sugar, but has 0 calories.  Erythritol is well known within the diabetic community as the Glycemic index is a 0, whereas sugar is 100 and anything below 55 is considered "low glycemic" and is therefore safe for diabetics.  I think this natural sweetener is ideal for the borderline diabetics as well.  Please avoid all the artificial sweeteners and consider this natural sugar free sweetener instead.  Please go to their Website as I believe there is a special going on right now (if you are interested).

I used Erythritol to replace sugar in this recipe and the outcome was identical to the original recipe I created.  I didn't bother to increase the sugar amount and we didn't miss it.  Couldn't tell the difference actually and the bread turned out soft and yummy as well.

I am also submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers # 8 and this month theme is "Bread Seduction" hosted by Sweetylicious.

Before baking but after the 2nd proof

After baking, just out of the oven

Ingredients:

200ml milk

1 Tbsp. butter

2 tsp. Erythritol

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup bread flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. instant yeast

Method:

1.  In your bread maker, put ingredients as listed except instant yeast.

2.  Lastly, make an indentation at one corner and add in the instant yeast.

3.  Turn your bread maker to Dough function and turn it on.  When your bread machine is spinning, check to see if there is any wet dough at the bottom, if yes, add a little whole wheat flour.

4.  After it's done, take the dough out and give it a few kneads.  Separate into 9 sections and roll into balls.  Spray a 9-inch pie pan with cooking spray with butter and place the dough balls in and let it proof until double in size, about an hour.  I proof mine in my oven with light on and two bowls of hot water underneath for one hour.

5.  Preheat oven to 375'F and bake for 10-11 minutes.  Cool on wire rack completely before storage.