orange semolina cupcake with orange glaze

This was done to be brought over to a friend's place when we went there for dinner awhile ago. I purposely chose something with glaze since it's less common in Singapore. I made it using recipe from my own archive in Jan 2012 - citrusy semolina cake

Reviews from fellow dinners were mixed, some liked it saying that it is moist and at the same time light and fluffy, some didn't like it thinking that it feels under baked with too much moisture.

Well, good thing is everyone thinks they are full of flavours :) .

coffee swirl yogurt cake

I love coffee ... and sometimes, crave for coffee tasting treats. I have been searching the net for coffee cake recipes for quite awhile but, to my surprise (well, I may be uninformed), coffee cake mostly refers to cake that goes well with coffee, not coffee tasting cake.

But... I am looking for coffee tasting cake recipes. Choices are really limited. So when I finally stumbled across this coffee swirl yogurt cake, I just went ahead and tried.

I made twice, first with fresh expresso coffee from my Nepresso machine & olive oil, then with Ipoh White Coffee 3-in-1 powder & butter.

This is the one done with fresh expresso and olive oil.

This is the one done with Ipoh White Coffee and butter.

Both of them couldn't be more different in outlook and taste. The one with Ipoh White Coffee & butter definitely tastes better and with stronger coffee taste; the one with real expresso coffee has really limited trace of coffee but the olive oil makes it looks so much prettier, with a sheen of dark brown crust.

From this 2 trials, I realised coffee tasting cake may be limited simply bcoz it's not easy to bring out the coffee taste in cake.

And I did learn a valuable lesson, ingredients play such a HUGE role in baking result.

Lastly, I think it's such fun to experiment with simple recipe... provided, the result turns out ok and there are enough people in the household to help you finish it :).

Oh... and my search for coffee tasting cake recipe continues...

citrusy yogurt semolina cake

Chinese New Year came and is almost over soon, but I hardly had the time to fully soak in the atmosphere. It was so hectic..... I was busy preparing to get back to my hometown and hubby's hometown with baby for the 1st time, worrying about him adapting to all strangers (relatives actually) and preparing him for infant care starting tomorrow, as well as worrying about him adapting to more strangers (teachers at the centre).

With all that going on and more (my iPhone 3 almost blacked out on me), I was actually surprised that I managed to bake 2 cakes within the time frame of 2 weeks, despite the fact that they are both yogurt semolina cakes.

A pack of semolina flour had been sitting inside my cabinet since after Chinese New Year last year, when hubby suddenly felt like making sugee cake. But he didn't get to make any at all. And this year, I suddenly felt like making semolina cake before Chinese New Year, and using that pack of flour, I made not only 1 but 2 cakes :) .

I experimented with fresh orange for the 1st trial and fresh lemon & almond for the 2nd. My personal preference is orange flavour as it is less tangy and has a more robust taste. I also find that the almond bits (I used 1/4 cup) do not add much flavour to the cake, in fact they kind of dilute the clean fresh fruity taste. I think this recipe is so versatile that it will turn out great regardless of what type citrusy fruit you choose to use.

Citrusy Yogurt Semolina Cake

1 & 1/2 cup semolina flour

2 cup plain yogurt (low fat if you like)

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 sugar (increase to 1 cup if you have really sweet tooth)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp lemon zest (or zest of whatever citrusy fruit you like)

a pinch of salt

for the syrup

1/4 cup water

1/4 fresh lemon juice (or juice of whatever citrusy fruit you like)

1/2 cup sugar

1. Beat yogurt and sugar until the sugar dissolves

2. Add oil, zest, baking soda and salt.

3. Once the wet ingredients are mixed well, add the semolina flour.

4. Mix and let stand for at least 2 hours (according to achefsmelody, this enables the semolina to soften and the cake to turn out fluffy)

5. Pour the batter into a greased tray and bake in oven preheated at 175 degree C for 25-30 mins or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool for 15 mins.

6. In the mean time, prepare the syrup, heat the water and sugar until the sugar dissolve.

7. Turn off heat and pour in lemon juice.

8. Pour the warm syrup on the warm cake evenly.

9. Let the cake rest for half an hour to fully soak up the syrup.

Recipe adapted from achefsmelody.

This is how the cake looks like fresh out of oven.

This is with all the syrup poured on. Don't worry about it not being absorbed immediately.

This is how moist the cake looks like after all the goodness of the syrup has gone into the cake.

The cake is really moist and very flavourful. It is best eaten on the day it is made, served warm just after the syrup has been absorbed fully by the cake. If you have leftover to keep for the next day, remember to wrap it with cling film to preserve the moisture. I didn't do that for the lemon cake and the top become slightly dry the next day.

peach yogurt muffin

Hubby and I went for dinner at an Italian restaurant near Tanjong Pagar MRT a couple of weeks ago and the restaurant manager there had been so kind to give us a jar of Italian preserved peach after the dinner to bring home. That jar of preserved peach is softer than the standard off-the-shelf preserved peach in a tin and they go really well with plain yogurt or vanilla ice cream.

Last weekend, I was contemplating what to bake for snacks when I saw the jar with half finished peaches in the fridge. I immediately thought that the peaches would be lovely if used in place of the blueberry in the blueberry yogurt muffin 1 recipe.

Again, the muffin came out moist, soft and tasty. And oh, I like the slightly caramelised look of the peach on top of the muffin, makes them look extra attractive, I think.

blueberry yogurt muffin 2

I was flipping through a recipe book titled The Delicious Cookbook by Matthew Drennan given to me by one of my colleague/friend and discovered a dog-earred page with raspberry muffins recipe. I must have intended to try out the recipe in the past.

I was immediately attracted to the recipe when I saw that for a total portion that will make 12 muffins, the recipe uses only 2 tablespoon of oil! Better still, the recipe also uses yogurt, which I like.

With 2 punnets of blueberries left in the fridge, I tried adapting the recipe to make blueberry muffin instead. This time round, I got slightly bolder and tried replacing some of the flour with wholemeal flour and since I am not exactly a very stick to the rules baker, I converted the metric (gram) in the original recipe into 'cup' in the recipe below that I used for these muffins.

Blueberry Yogurt Muffin

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1/2 cup wholemeal flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp oil

3/4 cup natural yogurt

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp honey (I added this bcoz the particular brand of yogurt I bought is very sour)

1 cup blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree C. Line muffin tray with paper cups.

2. Sift all dry ingredients in a bowl, then make a well in the middle.

3. Put all wet ingredients in another bowl and whisk until mixed, pour into the well in the flour mixture. Mix together working from the center, blending the flour into the egg mixture a little at a time. Mix well.

4. Fold in the blueberries and mix lightly.

5. Bake in the oven for 20 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

The muffins came out beautifully. They were tasty, totally not oily and bcoz of the wholemeal flour, has a different texture from the blueberry yogurt muffin 1 (BYM1) that I tried few days ago. Surprising, with so little oil used, these muffins were actually quite moist, though not as moist as BYM1. BYM 1 has a very fluffy texture and is slightly more delicate in taste compared to BYM 2.

Which one do I prefer? If I have to choose, I think maybe BYM2 for breakfast and as regular bake since the recipe is definitely much more healthy and maybe BYM1 when I need a 'pamper myself' moments :).

blueberry yogurt muffin 1

I bought 3 punnets of blueberries last Friday (way too many, I got carried away), getting ready to try out this blueberry muffin recipe I found on Gourmet Girl1's blog during the weekend. I was attracted to the simple steps and the low oil to flour ratio of the recipe.

I was keen too to try out the lovely small muffin paper cups I bought from Daiso recently. Surprisingly, the new relocated Daiso store at Plaza Singapura carries quite a range of baking materials.

Blueberry Yogurt Muffin (made 18 standard muffins)

3 cups cake flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1 cup yogurt

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 cups blueberries

1. Preheat oven at 175 degree C.

2. Sift all dry ingredients and set aside. Toss blueberries with 1 tbsp of flour an set aside.

3. Whisk all wet ingredients and mix well.

4. Add wet ingredients to the flour mixture and mix til just barely combined. Add blueberries and mix lightly. Do not over mix.

5. Top with baking sugar and bake for 20 mins.

I used 2/3 of the portion stated since it was my first try and I also cut the sugar down to 1/2 cup for the 2/3 portion. I skipped the sprinklering of sugar on top as well since I just wanted something basic for the muffin.

The muffins turned out to be really moist, soft and delicious. Both hubby and I found the sweetness just nice for our taste bud, so the reduction of sugar worked for us. And because the paper cups I used were smaller than standard size, I yielded many more small muffins. I brought about a third for my cousin's twin daughters when I met them later that day.

I love these blueberry muffins and I think I will definitely be making them again in near future.