No-Frills Recipes ... cooking, baking & excerpts on travel

For a change I made these Mixed Fruit Cupcakes as a substitute for X'mas fruit cake.   These cuppies will be appropriate especially for a family get together or pot-luck and I believe they will be a hit with the kids. Mixed fruit cupcake  ~   杂果纸杯蛋糕 Ingredients 125 gm butter 80 gm caster sugar 2 eggs 250 gm self-raising flour 1 tsp vanilla 2/3 cup milk 150 gm dried fruits (sultanas, figs, cranberries) 1.1/2 to 2 Tbsp Rum a pinch of salt Icing sugar for dusting (optional) Method Soak the dried fruits with Rum for a few hours or overnight. Sift the self-raising flour with salt, set aside. Sprinkle some flour from the above onto the mixed dried fruits.  Mix well. Beat the butter with sugar till light, creamy and pale.  Add in eggs one at a time, mix thoroughly.  Add in vanilla. Fold in sifted flour alternating with the milk.  Add in the mixed fruits, mix well. Spoon the batter onto the cupcake lined muffin pan, three-quarters full.

A light and refreshing sponge cake which I decorated with icing sugar and sugar shards to depict a Christmas atmosphere! Pumpkin sponge cake ~   南瓜海绵蛋糕 Ingredients  (adapted from  'here'  ) Ingredients (A) 4 egg yolks 30 gm caster sugar 20 ml coconut milk 1/4 tsp salt 50 ml oil 1/2 tsp vanilla 70 gm mashed pumpkin (Steam the pumpkin and mash it up) 105 gm plain flour 10 gm rice flour 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda (B)  4 egg whites        1/4 tsp cream of tartar        50 gm caster sugar Method Line the base of an ungreased 8 inch round springform cake pan with parchment paper. Sift plain flour, rice flour and bicarbonate of soda, twice.  Set aside. Mix coconut milk with salt, set aside. Using a handheld mixer, beat egg yolks and sugar till pale.  Beat in oil, coconut milk and vanilla.  Add in mashed pumpkin and stir to combine. Add in sifted flour, set aside. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites till frothy, add in cream of tartar and beat

Almost everyone enjoys receiving yummy food gifts during the holidays and I believe that these fruity and citrusy aromatic Passion fruit cookies will make a wonderful gift for family and friends.  You can place these cookies in glassine bags or wrap them up in wax paper and secure  with a colourful ribbon.  Another way is to fill them in inexpensive cookie jars, or containers, seal tightly and tie a bow.  Have fun!            Passion fruit cookies ~  百香果曲奇 (adapted from 'here' with adjustments) Ingredients 185 gm butter 190 gm self-raising flour 95 gm cornflour 140 gm icing sugar 3 passion fruits 1 tsp lemon zest Method Sift self-raising flour and cornflour, set aside. Cream butter, icing sugar, lemon zest till light and fluffy. Add passion fruit pulp and mix well. Fold in sifted flours, mix well. Cover with cling wrap and let chill in the fridge for an hour or so. Roll into balls, place on a parchment lined baking tray. Press with a fork t

This is a simple light sponge cake, moist and soft, full of fruity aroma.  I baked them in a mini loaf pan, drizzled on some fresh passion fruit and finished off with a dust of icing sugar.  I added some pulp and seeds in the batter to give it more crunch and the result was a 'Yum'  .......definitely a keeper recipe for sure! Passion Fruit Cake  ~  百香果蛋糕   Ingredients 3 passion fruits 100 gm caster sugar 100 ml canola oil 2 eggs 50 ml plain yoghurt 150 gm self-raising flour 1 tsp  baking powder 40 gm almond meal 2 Tbsp seeds Zest from a lemon Seeds and icing sugar to decorate  (optional) Method Press passion fruit pulp through a sieve, retain the juice and seeds. In a mixing bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, eggs, yoghurt and passion fruit juice till well combined. Sift flour and baking powder into the batter, mix on low speed.  Mix with a spatula and add in the lemon zest and almond meal. Add in 2 Tablspoons of seeds, mix till all ingredie

I tweaked the Marble Butter Cake recipe to make these delicious cupcakes for breakfast and there were some leftovers for tea as well.  I managed to get 17 cupcakes from the recipe and was very pleased that there were no cracks on them after being baked.   My family members were equally pleased as the cupcakes weren't overly sweet as I had reduced the amount of sugar from the recipe. Chocolate chip and raisin butter cupcake  ~  巧克力葡萄干牛油蛋糕   Ingredients 230 gm unsalted butter 160 gm caster sugar (reduced from 200 gm) 4 eggs 200 gm self-raising flour 60 ml milk 50 gm choc chips 50 gm raisins Zest from 1 orange 1 tsp vanilla a pinch of salt Method Sift the self-raising flour and salt, set aside. Beat the butter, sugar and orange zest till light and creamy. Add in the eggs one @ a time, mix well.  Add in vanilla. On low speed, fold in the flour, alternating with the milk.  Mix till well incorporated. Add in the chocolate chips and raisins.   Mix till

Dragon fruit aka Pitaya is a gorgeous fruit with a magnificient colour to behold.  This sorbet only requires four ingredients and is a light and refreshing treat with all natural goodness. Dragon Fruit Sorbet ~  火龙果冰糕 Ingredients 2 dragon fruits 3/4 cup ice cold water 1 Tbsp lemon juice 3 Tbsp caster sugar Method Cut the dragon fruits into halves, scoop out the pulp.  Reserve the skins and freeze for later use. Blend the pulp, sugar, water and lemon juice till smooth. Pour mixture into a bowl, cover with cling wrap and let chill for 2 hours or more. Transfer the mixture into the freezer bowl of your ice cream maker, churn for 15 to 20 mins. or as per instructions of your ice cream maker. Pour this into a container and freeze before serving. Serve in the freezed dragon fruit 'shells' or in a bowl. Note :  If the sorbet is not sweet enough to your liking, drizzle with some honey before serving.

I made this chiffon cake with Lotus Biscoff cookies which is Europe's favourite cookie served with coffee.  These cookies have a unique taste and refined flavour which stems from the sugar's caramelization during the baking process with a hint of spices.  This is not a sponsored post but I just  feel that these cookies will work just as good as Oreo cookies in this recipe and I'm not disappointed at all! Biscoff Chiffon Cake   (adapted from  'here'   ) Ingredients (A) 5 egg yolks 58 gm sugar 75 ml oil 1/4 tsp salt 129 gm plain flour 1 tsp baking powder 92 ml milk 1/2 tsp vanilla 50 gm Biscoff cookies (crushed coarsely) (B) 5 egg whites 1/2 tsp cream of tartar 58 gm sugar Method Sift flour with baking powder, salt, set aside. Using a handheld mixer, beat egg yolks and sugar, then add in oil, milk, vanilla and beat till well incorporated. Add in sifted flour, mix well.  Add in the crushed Biscoff cookies, mix well and set asid

This is a very appetising dish and goes very well with plain white rice or even on its own.   If you like mustard leaves cooked this way like I do, you can add more.   This dish tastes much better the next day when it has 'matured' and the meat and mustard leaves have been infused with the semi sweet, sour and salty sauce........ Dig in! Mustard greens braised pig trotters aka Kai choy chee sau ~    芥菜猪手  Ingredients 1.3 kg pig trotter, deboned and chopped 800 gm kai choy/mustard leaves 9 to 10 dried chillies, soaked in hot water, drained 3 to 4 pcs of tamarind peel or more dark soya sauce sugar and salt to taste Method Blanch the chopped pig trotter in a wok of boiling water for about 5 mins., dish out and rinse in running water.  Drain and set aside. Chop up the mustard leaves, and blanch them in a wok of boiling water.  Dish out, drain off water and set aside. Place the pig trotter in a wok, add in water, dried chillies, tamarind peel,

This is a very simple easy to cook dish and the slightly soupy gravy goes very well with plain white rice.  Other than spinach,  苋菜 Amaranth leaves which is 'yin choy' in Cantonese or even  枸杞 'gou qi' or Wolfberry leaves will also give equally good result. Spinach in Egg sauce  ~  蛋花菠菜 Ingredients 250 gm spinach 100 gm prawns, peeled and deveined (optional) 1 egg + 1/2 cup water or more 1/2 teaspoon cornflour + 3 tsp water 2 pips of garlic, chopped Shaoxing wine Sesame oil Salt to taste Method Season the prawns with some salt, sugar and pepper.  Set aside. Blanch the spinach in boiling water for about 3 mins.  Place in a colander and drain thoroughly.  Arrange the vegetables on a serving plate. In a wok, heat up some oil, saute the chopped garlic till fragrant, add in the seasoned prawns, stir-fry. Whisk an egg, add in some water and add into the prawns, followed by the cornflour mixture. Stir to mix everything together, fine tune

Instead of a normal sized cake, I chose to bake these cupcakes for a close family member's birthday.   Not good into frosting, I only drizzled orange glaze icing onto the cuppies to give them a facelift.   The icing was a bit translucent but nonetheless the birthday boy was very happy with the 'small' surprise! Cranberry Orange Cupcake  ~   蔓越莓香橙杯子蛋糕 Ingredients 180 gm plain flour 100 gm caster sugar 2 large eggs 113 gm butter 1.1/2 tsp  baking powder 3/4 cup milk zest from 1 orange 60 gm dried cranberries 1 tsp vanilla a pinch of salt Orange glaze   -  50 gm icing sugar + 1 Tbsp orange juice.  Mix well to a dripping consistency. Method Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt, set aside. Beat the butter with sugar till light and creamy. On low speed, add in the eggs one at a time.  Mix well.  Add in vanilla. Gently fold in the sifted flour alternating with the milk.  (Can also be done by hand with a spatula). Add in the cranberri