Almond Cranberry Bundt Cake

A very fragrant butter cake with the addition of roasted ground almond. The sweet and sour cranberry bits complement the slightly springy texture of the cake well. To me, un-moulding a bundt cake with perfect edge is always a challenge to me. Happy that I got this bundt cake out quite perfectly 😊

Yield: one round bundt cake
Pan size: using Nordic Ware 0.7L or 3 cups size pan*
Baking temperature: 150℃ for 30 minutes, increase to 170℃ for 10 minutes.

* I bought the small bundt pan from Tott at Century Square

Ingredients: 

All ingredients in room temperature
using 55g omega 3&6 eggs

75g unsalted butter, softened
65g caster sugar
pinch of salt

2 eggs

60g top/cake flour
1g baking powder

15g ground almond

15g plain Greek yogurt
10g golden syrup/honey/condensed milk
1/2 tps vanilla extract

15g dried cranberries

Directions: 

1. Coat the bundt pan with butter and dust with top flour. Set aside.

2. Roast ground almond in a preheated toaster oven at 150℃ for about 5~8 minutes till golden. Keep a close eye to prevent over-burning the ingredient.

3. Cut dried cranberries into small bits. Set aside.

4. Combine Greek yogurt, golden syrup and vanilla extract in a small container. Set aside.

5. Beat eggs, using the balloon whisk of a hand blender, till foamy. Set aside.

6. Cream softened butter with salt and caster sugar till pale and fluffy.

7. Blend beaten egg to whipped butter till well combined.

8. Sieve and mix in the top flour and baking powder.

Add the roasted ground almond to the batter.

Mix in the yogurt mixture from Step 4.

Finally, fold in the dried cranberries.

9. Pour the cake batter to the prepared bundt pan.

Bang the pan a few times to level and to get rid of trapped air bubbles.

10. Bake at middle rack of a preheated oven at 150℃ for 30 minutes, or till an inserted cake tester draws out clean.

Increase the oven temperature to 170℃ for about 5 to 10 minutes to brown the crust till golden.

11. Transfer the cake pan to a cooling rack to cool down for about 15 to 20 minutes.
Do not let the cake cool down completely before un-moulding as the solidified sugar would stick to the mould making un-moulding difficult.

Invert out the cake after about 15 to 20 minutes.

This step is optional.
Cover with a cling wrap to keep the moisture in while cooling down further.

12. Cut and enjoy 😋

Jackfruit Salad 菠萝蜜沙拉

Jackfruit is similar to durian, you either like it or hate it. It has a relatively strong and unique smell like durian. To me, it smells a little like fermented fish sauce, but less intense. The fruit is usually sweet and crunchy. I use the jackfruit to combine with Japanese cucumber, red chilli, lime juice and ground roasted peanut, to make into a salad that tasted like rojak despite shrimp paste was not part of the ingredients. It may not smell nice, but taste fantastic in your mouth 😋😍

Servings: 3~4 persons

Ingredients

All the quantities are just a guide, you can adjust according to your preference.

3 seeds jackfruits
1 Japanese cucumber/kyuri
1/2 red chilli

juice from 1/2 a lime
1 tbsp ground roasted peanut
chinese coriander for garnshing

Salt and sugar to taste

Directions: 

1. Rinse and de-seed the Japanese cucumber. Cut into thin strips with skin.

Rub about 1/4 tsp of low-sodium fine salt to the cucumber strips. Set aside for about 15 minutes.

Drain away the cucumber juice.

2. Wash and de-seed the jackfruit seeds.

Shred the jackfruit fresh into thin strips.

De-seed red chilli and cut into thin strips.

3. Add shredded Japanese cucumber, jackfruit and red chilli into a bowl. Squeeze fresh lime juice over the fruits.

Add some raw sugar,

and a teaspoon of ground roasted peanut powder,

or MORE ground roasted peanut over the mixture.

Garnish with chinese coriander leaves. Ready to toss and enjoy the salad cold 😋

Pumpkin Soya Milk Bread

This is a similar recipe as Sweet Soya Milk Bread, but with added pumpkin powder 😋

Pan size: Jamie Oliver 1.5L bread pan, 21x13x10cm
Baking temperature: Bake in a preheated oven at lower rack, at 180℃ for 15 minutes, reduce to 170℃ for 20 minutes. Turn off the oven and let the bread sits in the oven for 5 minutes.

Ingredients:

235g bread flour
20g top flour
1g instant dry yeast
15g raw sugar
20g fine sugar
3g fine salt

50g active natural yeast/sourdough*

170g sweetened soya milk, cold

5g pumpkin powder
7g warm water

20g cold unsalted butter

*natural yeast can be replaced by 25g bread flour + 25g water + 1g instant dry yeast

Directions:

1. Mix pumpkin powder with 7g warm water into a smooth paste.

2. Mix all ingredients, except 20g of unsalted butter, together in a mixing bowl of a stand mixer. Knead into a smooth dough before adding cold unsalted butter. Let the content stands for 5 minutes before continue kneading till reaching window pane.

3. Keep the dough in a lightly oiled plastic bag, stand the dough in room temperature for about 30 minutes. Transfer to the fridge for overnight proofing, about 12 ~16 hours.

4. Let the dough stand in room temperature for about 1 hour.

5. Prepare and shape the dough.

6. Cover with a tea towel and let the dough proof in room temperature for about 90 minutes.

7. Dust the dough with bread flour and score it.

8. Bake in a preheated oven at lower rack, at 180℃ for 15 minutes, reduce to 170℃ for 20 minutes. Turn off the oven and let the bread sit in the oven for 5 minutes.

9. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool down completely before cutting 😊

Red Bean Dango in Matcha Tea 抹茶红豆白玉丸子

Smooth and springy glutinous rice balls sitting around a dollop of mildly sweetened red bean paste, in a shallow bowl of cold matcha tea 😋
I saw this yummy dessert in a TV program, and experimented it in my kitchen. I do not have a matcha bamboo whisk/brush, to I blended the matcha tea in a food blender to create the foamy top layer 😉

Serving: 2 persons

Sweet Red/Azuki Bean (125g)

Ingredients
50g Hokkaido Azuki/red bean*
water for boiling beans
25g raw sugar
2g rock sugar

* I bought the Hokkaido azuki beans from Don Don Donki at Orchard Central.

Directions
1. Rinse and soak red beans for about 2 to 3 hours. Pour away the water.

2. Add water and bring to a boil. Discard the water. The azuki beans I used did not foam during boiling. In contrast, the normal red beans usually would produce foam during boiling.

3. Add water and bring to a boil for about 10 minutes. Cover and keep in a thermal cooker to continue simmering for about 60 to 90 minutes.

4. Discard some of the red bean water, leaving about 1cm deep of water, or about the height of the beans. Bring to a boil.

When the beans has softened, add raw sugar and rock sugar. Stir till the sugar dissolved, and the beans have reached your desired softness.

6. Mash half of the beans and keep the other half as whole beans.

Stir to mix.

7. Transfer to a covered container and keep in the fridge till needed.

Glutinous Rice Ball

Ingredients

40g glutinous rice flour
2g caster sugar, optional
20g hot water
12~14g warm water, to be added slowly

Directions

1. Mix glutinous rice flour and caster sugar in a mixing bowl. Add 20g of hot water, without stirring, cover and rest for about 5~10 minutes.

2. Mix into rice crumbs, add the warm water in a few batches, until the crumbs come together to form into a pliable smooth dough.

3. Divide and shape the dough into 10 balls.

4. Cook the dough in boiling water till the dough balls float to the surface. Transfer the cooked rice balls to a bowl of icy water. Cover and set aside.

Matcha Tea

Ingredients
7~8g matcha powder, about 2 tsp
15~20g caster sugar, optional
10g hot water
140~160g cold water


Directions

1. Dissolve matcha powder, sugar in hot water in a blender cup.

2. Add cold water and blend till the matcha becomes foamy.

Serving

1. Pour cold matcha tea into a bowl. Arrange the cold glutinous rice balls in a star shape. Finally, scoop cold sweet azuki/red bean paste to the centre of the bowl. Ready to serve 😋😃