Bee’s Kitchen

Adding fibre into the diet has many benefits, and its supposed to be great for a healthy body. These are pretty good to have with a cup of tea or coffee for afternoon tea. I’ll be bringing this batch to work tomorrow, lets see how they go.

Preparation Time – 15 minutes
Cooking Time – 20 minutes

Makes – 30

Ingredients

1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup bran
1 cup plain flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup desiccated coconut
80g butter, chopped
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 tbsp hot water

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 140 degrees C.
2. Combine the oats, bran, sifted flour, sugar and coconut in a large bowl. Combine the butter and golden syrup in a microwave safe measuring jug and heat for 30 seconds or until the butter is melted.
3. Combine the bicarbonate soda and warm water, add to the butter mixture. Then stir into the dry ingredients.
4. Scoop one teaspoon for mixture for each biscuit, using another spoon to push the dough onto the tray; or you can roll one teaspoon of dough into ball; repeat with remaining mixture, placing them about 4cm apart on greased oven trays.
5. Flatten balls slightly and bake in a slow oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking rack and store in air tight container for up to a week.

Had yum cha today and they didn’t have one of my favourites, banana crepe parcels, they only had mango ones today.

So for dessert tonight i decided to make my own. I started with a basic crepe batter then added the yummy banana and cream filling.

2 eggs
1 cup plain flour
1 1/2 cup full cream milk
1 tbsp butter (melted)
2 tbsp caster sugar
Pinch salt

Filling
1 banana (warmed)
1/2 cup thickened cream
2 tbsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Lightly beat eggs, combine with sifted flour, sugar and salt, adding gradually till combined, like a gooey dough, then whisk in milk and butter. Stir till smooth, if lumpy use a strainer, pour batter through to produce a lump free batter. The batter is pretty easy to pour and not thick at all, so don’t worry if it appears really watery

Heat small non stick frying pan, use a 1/4 cup batter for each crepe. Tilt the pan around to spread evenly across. One the top of crepe looks dry, flip the crepe and lightly brown the other side. Repeat with remaining crepes.

Beat thickened cream till it thickens, adding in sugar and vanilla, continue beating till stiff peaks form.

For each crepe fill with banana slices and whipped cream in the centre, fold in sides, then roll up the crepe. These are terrific served as is or topped with ice cream.

While grocery shopping I came across the magazine isle, and had a quick flick through the different cook books available. Woman’s Weekly Cakes , Biscuits & Slices caught my eye, the lemon meringue slice recipe inside looked easy and pretty straight forward, I had all the ingredients already at home so quickly went to the checkout to pay for my purchases.

I forgot my darling new camera at work today, so had to settle with my old one, already i found it awkward taking photo’s, it’s so out with the old in with the new.

Preparation Time – 20 minutes
Cooking Time – 1 hour

Makes – 16

Ingredients

90g butter, softened
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 egg
1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup apricot jam
Lemon topping
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup caster sugar
300ml cream
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Meringue
3 egg whites
3/4 cup caster sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to moderately hot (200 degrees C/180 degrees C fan-forced). Grease base of 19cm by 29cm slice pan, line base and two long sides with baking paper, extending paper 2cm over long sides.
2. Beat butter, sugar and egg in small bowl with electric mixer until pale in colour, stir in sifted flour, in two batches. Press dough over base of pan, prick several times with fork. Bake about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 20 minutes then spread base with jam.
3. Reduce oven temp to 170 degrees C (150 degrees C fan-forced).
4. Place lemon topping ingredients in medium bowl, whisk until combined. Pour lemon topping over base. Bake about 35 minutes or until set, then cool 20 minutes. Roughen surface of topping with a fork.
5. Increase oven temp to 220 degrees C (200 degrees C fan-forced).
6. To make meringue, beat egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form, gradually add sugar, beating until dissolved between additions.
7. Spread meringue evenly over topping, bake about three minutes or until browned lightly. Cool in pan 20 minutes before cutting.
8. The only thing with making lemon meringue slice is that it is very time consuming in that the base needs to be cooked then cooled, same with the lemon filling, luckily the meringue only takes a few minutes! Make sure the slice is cooled in the pan before you start cutting into it, this ensures everything stays together and sets.

I bought some banana’s while grocery shopping tonight, and used one for dessert and saving the rest to make banana bread! I used my regular recipe and mashed up one banana into the mixture.

While at work the other day i was emailing with ET, and she was telling me about her super duper Paper Wrapped Sponge Cakes that she will be making with her mum tonight. The thought of eating one of those delicious parcels of soft soft goodness was all too much for me. So i do what comes naturally and asked to borrow her recipe. Ahhh, Asians are Asians, working with feel rather then recipes!!florences-paper-lined-sponge-cake

That wouldn’t do for me, so onto google i went and did a search, it was pretty challenging too i was typing things in like paper wrapped sponge cakes, cakes wrapped in paper, little bucket shaped cakes in paper, chinese cupcakes, Zee Bao Darn Gao, paper wrapped chinese cupcakes and the list went on, finally i came across a recipe from Florence’s site. She’s my type of gal, on her site she says “I love to bake and cook snacks”, which i’m also a big fan of doing.

Like a lot of people that commented on the post for Paper Lined Sponge Cake on Florence’s site, i too grew up munching on these little parcels of goodness when my parents went to Chinatown or the local Chinese Bakery. For detailed recipe of this yummy cake go visit Florence’s Do What I Like blog.

I made these to bring to work today for afternoon tea, by the end of the day they were all gone, so i guess that’s a good sign.

My number one fan and critic believes these tart’s can not be classified as tarts as they don’t contain enough custard, and should be called fruity biscuits!

I like to recipe, but i need to improve it though, by rolling out the tart shell thinner and getting mini flan tin’s so more custard can be contained in each case.

Dough
1 1/4 cups plain flour (sifted)
2 tbsp icing sugar (sifted)
125g butter (cubed)
3 tbsp water

Filling
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 c caster sugar
1 1/4 cups milk

Preheat the oven for 200 degrees C.

Combine flour, icing sugar and butter together until fine crumbs form. Add water till a soft dough forms. Roll into ball and divide into 12 portions.

Roll our each portion to 3 mm, using a muffin tin, shape to fit the mould. Then line the cases with baking paper and fill with rice. Baking for 15 minutes, remove rice and paper then bake for further 15 minutes. Remove from oven and reduce oven temperature to 180 degrees C.

Combine the eggs, vanilla essence, caster sugar and milk in saucepan, heat on low, till sugar melts. Pour into moulds and bake for 20 minutes or until set.
Once cooled, arrange fruit as desired.

I wanted to know if it made a difference or not by having the tart shells cooked in the oven with rice on top as weight, and yes it does, i tried one without and it just expanded in the middle and turned out over cooked.

Anyways they turned out edible and looked pretty good when topped with fruit.

I’ve modified the recipe a bit more, i noticed my old pikelet recipe was just a touch too runny! Pretty happy with the batter now.

Makes around 12

Ingredients

1 cup self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
1/4 tsp bi-carb soda
1/3 cup white sugar
1 beaten egg
2/3 cup fresh milk
6 tbsp melted butter

Method

Sift dry ingredients into a medium sized bowl stir together. Make a well in the centre.In a separate bowl combine the egg, milk and butter.

Then add to the flour mixture and stir till dry ingredients are moist but still lumpy.

Heat and grease a frypan to medium heat, drop 2 rounded teaspoons of the batter onto pan.

Cook until bubbly on top, slightly dry edges and light brown underneath. Turn and cook other side, until both sides are golden brown.

Repeat with remaining batter. And serve hot.

Happy Birthday Mr H, hope you enjoy the cake i made you!

After receiving such a awesome present, i couldn’t wait but try it out! I got home about 11pm last night and got to work baking a basic chocolate cake using my mixer. It’s perfect for what i need, but my mum’s kenwood seems more powerful, even though it’s over 20 years old, but it’s also heaps heavier too, not something i could carry myself and pack away easily. I LOVE MY NEW TOY!! Thanks again to my lovely Big Bro, Little Bro & Little Sis

Preheat oven to 180oc. Beat butter and sugar until creamy, beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in cooled dark chocolate. Fold in sifted flour and cocoa powder alternately with milk.

Spoon mixture into lined 20cm, spring release round cake tin. Bake 45-50 minutes until cooked. Remove from tin, cool on wire rack.

Melt and cool 50g of the extra dark chocolate, combine with half cup cream, beat until thick.

Cut cake in half, sandwich cake with chocolate cream.

Melt together remaining dark cooking chocolate and cream; allow to cool, refrigerate until of spreading consistency, spread over cake.

With the great success of Billy’s Vanilla Cupcakes, i wanted to try my hand at the chocolate version, they turned out well as i expected, but the Vanilla Cupcakes are still my favourite by far.

There is a cool 4.35 minute video of when Billy Reece appeared on MSNBC that shows him making these cupcakes. Gosh he can sure churn them out!!!

But thanks to the Cupcake Queen from 52 Cupcakes as that’s where i found the recipe first before hunting around for more things to do with Billy Reece.

What is a stick of butter ??

To all Aussies out there, the American’s love to use ‘Sticks of Butter’ 2 sticks of butter is equivalent to 250 grams (1 cup)….which is a standard block of butter that you buy from the supermarket.

Make Your Own Cake Flour?!?

For 1 cup of cake flour all you need to do is combine plain flour and corn flour together. I like to use White Wings Cornflour.

3/4 cup plain flour (sifted)
2 tbsps corn flour (sifted)

Chocolate Cupcakes

Billy Reece
Yields 24 to 27 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS
2 sticks unsalted butter (8 ounces) [250 grams]
1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces) [white sugar]
1 cup light brown sugar (7-3/4 ounces)
4 large eggs (one at a time)
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate[3/4 cup]
2 cups cake flour (9-1/4 ounces)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk (room temperature)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Cream:
2 sticks unsalted butter (8 ounces)
1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)
1 cup light brown sugar (7-3/4 ounces)

Add:
4 large eggs (one at a time)
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate (chocolate should be melted, then cooled for approximately 15 minutes before being added).

Add and alternate:
2 cups cake flour (9-1/4 ounces)
1 teaspoon baking soda

With:
1 cup buttermilk (room temperature)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Place cupcake paper into each cup of 2 muffin pans (each pan yielding 12 muffins). Then fill each cup with 1 leveled off scoop of an ice cream scooper.

Bake at 350 degrees in regular oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until tester comes out clean.