Cheesy chicken fettucine with Alfredo sauce

One of my favorite and easiest recipes of chicken. I've shared the recipe on this blog before but somehow I like it so much and I think I need to stress how easy and quick it is to prepare and how tasty it is in case you haven't tried it yet. It only takes 15mins to prepare and cook. Perfect to eat with fettucine with Alfredo sauce. This time instead of a having a proper recipe with the amount of each ingredient, I want to share my lazy way of cooking it (i never measure ingredients haha) and show you the ingredients I used.

First, butterfly one skinless chicken breast and cut into two pieces (serves 2 people). Season the chicken breasts with a dash of hot piri piri seasoning. If you don't have it, you can simply marinate the chicken with some salt and pepper. Leave it marinated for about half an hour.

Then, put a generous amount of Kewpie mayonnaise in a bowl. This is my favorite mayonnaise and I absolutely love it. The amount you use doesn't really matter. The idea is to have enough to cover the top side of the chicken.

Then, add a few tablespoons of shredded parmesan cheese into the bowl with mayonnaise and mix it together. Again the amount you use doesn't matter. If you're a big fan of cheese, feel free to use more. The key is to have a moist mixing and then spread it on the top of the chicken breasts.

Lastly, sprinkle some bread crumbs on top of the chicken breasts. Don't worry about the amount! Just trust your gut feelings :)

That's it for the preparation. Easy, isnt it? Then put a foil paper or baking paper on the tray in a pre-heated oven at 220C. Put the chicken breasts in the oven and cook for 10 minutes. While you're waiting for it to cook, boil some fettucine in a hot pot of water. Heat up some Alfredo sauce in a pan. Then add the cooked fettucine in the Alfredo sauce and mix it well. 

Done! Sprinkle some extra parmesan cheese and parsley on the fettucine if you like. Serve the beautifully cooked chicken on top of some veggies drizzled with some fresh lemon juice.

I cooked this for my sister tonite and she absolutely loved it. She said it tasted so good like a restaurant dish and finished everything on her plate except the yellow bell peppers coz she doesn't like pepper. This recipe is just perfect for lazy people like me :D A tasty dish without too much effort!

James Bond cupcakes

Normally I make plans for baking cupcakes at least a few days ahead so I can think about the recipe and decoration. But today I just suddenly wanted to bake some coffee cupcakes. I also wanted to bake some James Bond themed cupcakes for our movie night with friends watching Skyfall. I was wondering how to combine coffee cupcakes with James Bond. Then an idea just popped up. I created the stencil by printing out some bond images on card then used a cutter pen to cut out the parts I wanted to display on the cupcakes. The lines are very fine so it was quite difficult to cut. I was worrying it might not work after all these efforts but OMG! It worked just as what I expected. I just put the stencil on top of the icing, then sprinkled some cocoa powder. When the stencil was removed, Bond was on the cakes haha.

It was a bit messy and ugly with cocoa powder everywhere but I thought the cupcakes looked quite cool.

The cake toppers even have Bond's catch phrase printed :) We ate the cupcakes while watching Skyfall. The movie was just awesome! I know hubby must be secretly hoping he is Bond haha.

Mocha cupcakes with espresso buttercream frosting. I only made half a dozen with Bond and the rest piped with frosting. I think this is the best frosting I've ever done. Consistency was perfect to pipe, firm enough to stand but also soft enough to eat. The cupcakes were quite soft and moist. You can definitely taste coffee in the cupcakes. 

Mocha Cupcakes

Yield: 12 cupcakes (I got 12 overflowing cupcakes and some extra batter for one more)

1-1/3 all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup whole milk
½ cup strong brewed coffee (I just bought a cup of brewed coffee at Starbucks)
1½ teaspoons espresso powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
120g unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
1 egg, at room temperature

1. Mix the espresso powder into the brewed coffee until dissolved; set aside to cool to room temperature.

2. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a standard-size muffin tin with paper liners.

3. Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

4. Beat the butter and both sugars together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and beat until combined. In a measuring cup, combine the milk, brewed coffee mixture and vanilla. Slowly add the flour mixture, alternating with the coffee mixture, ending with the flour mixture.

5. Divide the batter evenly between the 12 liners. Baking for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting cupcakes.

Espresso Buttercream Frosting

Makes enough to frost 12 cupcakes

200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1½ teaspoons espresso powder

1. Mix the espresso powder into the vanilla until dissolved; set aside.

2. Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, stopping once to scrape the sides of the bowl. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the powdered sugar a little at a time, waiting until it is mostly incorporated before adding more. Once all of the powdered sugar has been added, scrape the sides of the bowl and increase the speed to medium-high and whip until fluffy, about a minute or two. Add the espresso and vanilla mixture and continue to mix at medium-high until it is completely incorporated, scraping the sides as necessary.

*Note: To make the swirls on the cupcakes, I used a 1M decorating tip.

Recipe adapted from http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2010/08/13/mocha-cupcakes-with-espresso-buttercream-frosting/

Dexter cupcakes

I normally like to make beautiful looking cupcakes but for Halloween, I want to make them look a bit spooky and creepy. As a big fan of Dexter, it comes naturally that my halloween cupcakes have to be Dexter themed. His collection of blood slides inspire me to make cupcakes with broken glass and blood. Of course they are both edible haha. For broken glass, I used sugar and corn syrup to make some sugar glass. For blood, I made some raspberry coulis and added a tiny bit of cocoa powder to make it more real. The tartness of raspberry is great to cut the sweetness of the white chocolate. To make the cupcakes more halloweeny, I designed some pumkin cupcake wrappers and bat shaped cards to put on the cuppies.

So many disasters happened to my halloween cupcakes. First, I went to two different supermarkets to buy raspberries but they don't have it. I had to go all the way to Harbour City to get them. Fine.
Second disaster was melting the white chocolate. I read a few recipes but one recipe just said melt the white chocolate without adding any cream in it. It seized and looked gross. I tried to save it by adding some cream in it. Not working. I put it in microwave hoping to melt it and of course it failed brutally. It's actually funny coz the white chocolate turned so hard that I couldn't even scrap it out of the bowl so I had to discard the white chocolate with the bowl!! I melted a new batch with hot cream and it turned out fine. Then the next disaster was I happened to set aside 1/4 cup of cream for melting the white chocolate but I didn't use it for my first batch. So I thought it was the melted white chocolate and accidentally poured it all in the cream cheese batter... The batter turned out very runny... I quickly improvised and added 1 more tablespoon of flour hoping to make it set a bit. The cheesecakes actually turned out ok. Thank god!

Here comes the worst nightmare. I was petrified of getting burned while I cooked the sugar coz it has to reach a temperature of 150C!! haha I even wore long sleeves and gloves to avoid getting burned. Fortunately I didn't get burned. The sugar cooked fine until it got to 140C. It started to caramelize and got brown. But it hasn't got to the target temperature yet and it was only 35mins after cooking so I let it cook a bit more. When it got close to 148C, I turned off the fire and added some blue coloring. I added way too much and the sugar turned really dark! My heart just sank. But I'm very happy that I tried something new and hopefully next year I will get it perfect.

This is what I hoped to achieve.

And this is what it turned out ... brown glass!! But oh well, halloween is supposed to be bloody and ugly.

Some pretty ones with raspberry swirls.

Dexter cupcakes for our halloween party. This year I'm dressing up as Lady Gaga. haha

Yield 16 cupcakes

Ingredients
For the crust
10 chocolate digestive biscuits
40g unsalted butter, melted

For the filling
450g cream cheese
1 tbsp all-purpose flour, sieved
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup heavy cream

Sugar glass
2 cups water
1 cups corn syrup
3 1/2 cups white sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Raspberry coulis (yield 1 cup)
1/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp water
1 box fresh raspberries
1/2 tbsp lemon juice

Directions

For raspberry coulis

1. Heat the sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring from time to time, until the sugar dissolves completely, about 5 mins.
2. Put the raspberries, lemon juice and sugar syrup in a blender and puree.
3. Strain through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds.
4. Transfer bowl of puree to fridge and let it cool.

For cheesecake

1. Preheat the oven to 160C. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.
2. Crush the digestive biscuits in a food processor (or put in a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin). In a small bowl, combine the crumbs and melted butter. Stir together with a fork until well blended and all the dry ingredients are moistened. Put 1 1/2 tbsp of the mixture into the bottom of each cupcake liner and evenly press the crumbs down by the bottom of a glass. Chill and let it set.
3. Melt the white chocolate and cream in a small bowl over simmering water. Set aside to cool slightly.
4. To make the cheesecake, beat the cream cheese on low speed in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy. Blend in sugar, flour and vanilla until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Beat in the melted chocolate.
5. Pour the batter over the crust. Add 3 drops of raspberry coulis on each cupcake and use a knife to swirl through batter to create marbled effect. 
6. Bake for about 20 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature. Transfer to refrigerator and let chill for at least 4 hours before serving.

For sugar glass

1. Mix water, corn syrup, sugar and cream of tartar in a pot and heat them slowly on low heat. If you heat it too rapidly, it will caramelize (become yellow & burnt). 
2. Use a candy thermometer to bring the mixture up to the hard crack stage, around 290-300 F, which should take at least an hour to reach. (optional: Mix in food coloring to create a stained-glass appearance.) If you don't have candy thermometer, you can use cold water method by dropping a spoon of syrup in cold water. It's done when the sugar forms brittle and crack if you try to mold it.
3. Cover the sheet pan with tin foil and spray it with non-stick cooking spray.
4. Pour the mixture into the pan quickly and evenly as it will start to set as soon as it is removed from the heat. Be careful and avoid being burned.
5. Shake the pan to get even coverage and to level the mixture. Wait an hour for the candy mixture to cool completely. Refrigerate the sugar glass until ready to use. Smash it to serve.

Cheesecake recipe barely adapted from raspberry swirl cheesecake cupcakes
Raspberry coulis recipe adapted from raspberry coulis

Spaghetti bolongese

It's just a simple and classic dish but it tasted so good coz hubby cooked for me. It's a massive plate but I ate it all. Thanks love!

Pork loin with caramelized onion gravy

I was such a good housewife yesterday and cooked 3 proper meals! Mayonnaise parmesan chicken for lunch, lemon cheesecake for dessert and pork loin with caramelized onion gravy for dinner. My dad used to cook this dish when I was a child and I always loved to eat the rice with the delicious onion sauce. The aroma of the caramelized onion was divine while cooking. I think I should add a bit less flour next time and maybe even sieve the flour coz there were small lumps of flour in the gravy. This is a nostalgic dish to me but hubby said he never had this dish before! It tasted a bit different from the Chinese style onion gravy but it was still yummy.

Ingredients:
Onion Gravy
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1.5 cups chicken broth
1/2 tablespoon tomato paste
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Heat butter in a large sauté pan. Add onions and cook over medium-high heat, until onions start to brown, stirring occasionally. 
2. When onions are slightly softened and turning a deep honey brown, add 1/4 cup broth. Reduce heat, cover and continue cooking, adding more broth as needed to prevent caramelized bits at the bottom of the pan from burning. It should take at least 25 to 30 minutes to properly caramelize onions. 
3. Stir in flour and cook for about 2 minutes. Stir in remaining chicken broth and tomato paste. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to low and keep warm.

Onion gravy adapted from http://oneperfectbite.blogspot.hk/2010/11/salisbury-steak-with-caramelized-onion.html

Lemon blueberry cheesecake cupcakes

I suddenly have a craving for lemon today so I decided to make some cheesecake cupcakes with them. Can't believe the first and the last time I made cheesecake was already 5 months ago! Since my first cheesecake didn't look that nice, I hoped they would turn out nicely this time after several months of baking practice.

I was so excited when I thought of using blueberry puree to make some beautiful dark purple marbling on the cheesecakes. But the puree was more like reddish brown color which was far from what I expected! I saw people's blueberry puree was quite purple. Wonder why mine wasn't purple at all. I tried to rectify it by adding some lilac food coloring and hopefully they would turn out beautifully like how I wanted but it still stayed ugly brownish. So instead of putting the puree on top of the cheesecakes, I just hide them sadly in the cream cheese batter. I would recommend to skip the blueberry puree step and just use fresh blueberries to garnish.

I should have filled the cupcake liners to almost full as I knew cheesecakes won't rise much but the recipe said fill it to 3/4 full. That makes my cupcakes look so small. I filled the second batch to almost full and baked for 20 minutes. They came out a bit too soft. Need to bake for probably 3 more minutes with more batter in it.

Apart from all those negatives, the cheesecakes this time do not break or sink and are much smoother and creamier compared to my first attempt. I'm not sure whether it's because I beat the batter as little as possible, added cream in the batter, hit the cupcake pan hard on table to get rid of extra air bubbles, use a hot water bath to increase the moisture in the oven or a combination of all of the above. Overall, hubby and I loved the cakes very much. The clean lemony flavor was impeccable with the creamy cheesecakes!

Sharing with other lemon and cheesecake lovers.

Make 10 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the crust

7 digestive biscuits

30g unsalted butter, melted

1 tbsp sugar

For blueberry puree

100g blueberry

some extra blueberries for garnish

For filling

335g cream cheese, at room temperature

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest

1 tbsp lemon juice

12 lemon slices for garnish

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160C. Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
2. Crush the digestive biscuits in a food processor (or put in a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin). In a small bowl, combine the crumbs, melted butter and sugar. Stir together with a fork until well blended and all the dry ingredients are moistened. Put 1 1/2 tbsp of the mixture into the bottom of each cupcake liner and evenly press the crumbs down by the bottom of a glass. Bake until just set, 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack.
3. To make the blueberry puree, blend it in food processor and pour through fine mesh sieve.
4. To make the cheesecake, beat the cream cheese, heavy cream and sugar on low speed in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy (do not overbeat it).
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla extract, lemon juice and lemon zest, mixing well after each addition.
6. Rap the mixer bowl hard on your counter to knock out the air bubbles trapped inside the filling.
7. Spoon the mixture over the crust bases to almost full. Dot a 1/2 tsp of the blueberry puree in a few dots over the cheesecake filling. Use a toothpick to lightly swirl and create marbling effect.
8. Put the cupcake pan in a hot water bath about halfway up (use a larger pan containing boiling water in which to place the smaller cupcake pan) and bake for 20 minutes.
9. Let cool for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature. Transfer to refrigerator and let chill for at least 4 hours before serving.
10. Serve with lemon slice on top.

Recipe barely adapted from lemon cheesecake cupcakes

Tips of baking cheesecake to avoid cracking and sinking

http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/bakingtips.cheesecakes/Cheesecakes.cfm

chocoholic pistachio cupcakes

These cupcakes are specially baked for my chocoholic friend, Momo's birthday. I originally planned to surprise her with my homemade chocolate cupcakes on her birthday dinner, but she must be reading my mind and asked me to make her cupcakes!! To make it super chocolatey, indulgent and delicious, I tried to use as much chocolate elements as possible in the recipe. So I come up with the idea of chocolate cakes x chocolate chips x chocolate ganache x chocolate fudge frosting x chocolate sprinkles and some pistachios to add texture and color. To avoid overly sweet, some of the cakes have chocolate ganache and the others have chocolate fudge icing. You can also have a little bit of both on the cakes.

To make her cupcakes look even prettier, I designed some personalized cupcake wrappers and lollipop sticks with her name on it.

Then I just found out it is also my other friend, Andy's birthday! So I made some extra lollipop sticks with his photos. This is the first time I baked two dozen cupcakes! But you can never have enough chocolate cupcakes haha.

Yield 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

Chocolate cupcakes
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Van Houten cocoa powder)

• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 90g butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar, plus 2 tbsp
• 1 egg, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup milk, at room temperature
• 85g cream cheese, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp mini semisweet chocolate chips (I used Hershey's)

Chocolate ganache  

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup heavy cream

OR

Chocolate fudge frosting

100 g dark chocolate (70%)
150 g butter, softened
4/5 cup icing sugar, sifted
3 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Place rack at the bottom of oven and preheat to 180C. Line cupcake baking pan with 12 cupcake liners.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt, set aside.
3. Using a mixer, cream the butter and 3/4 cup sugar until pale yellow, about 1 minute. Add the egg and stir until just combined. Gently add half of the flour mixture and stir until just incorporated. Mix in the milk. Add the remaining flour mixture and stir until combined. Set aside.
4. In a small bowl, mix together the cream cheese, 2 tablespoons sugar, and vanilla. Stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Fill prepared cupcake liners with enough chocolate batter to just cover the bottom. Add a dollop of the cream cheese filling to each, then top with remaining chocolate batter (cream cheese filling should not be visible).
6. Bake for 20minutes. Let cupcakes stand in the pan for 3 minutes and then remove and allow to cool completely on a rack.
7. For chocolate ganache, place a heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water, and whisk together the chocolate and heavy cream. Continue whisking until chocolate is melted and the mixture is thick, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes.
8. Dip each cupcake into the ganache, forming an even layer of frosting.
9. For chocolate fudge frosting, place a heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water to melt the chocolate and let it cool. In a separate bowl, beat the butter until light and creamy. Add the vanilla extract, icing sugar and cocoa powder and mix until smooth. Add the melted chocolate and beat until creamy. Pipe onto cupcakes.
10. Add chocolate sprinkles and chopped pistachios to decorate.

Chocolate cupcakes and ganache recipe from chocolate cream cheese cupcakes with ganache frosting
Chocolate fudge recipe from chai cupcakes

Crispy cheesy chicken tender

Tonight, I tried another chicken recipe and it was as good as it looks in the recipe. The chicken was baked into golden brown with crispy cornflakes and melted cheese. The crunchy and gooey texture are a good match. Very easy to cook and it only took 10mins to prepare. Will definitely cook it again. Next time I'm gonna spice it up with some cayenne pepper.

Serves 2

Ingredients
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast
Pinch of salt, pepper and parsley
1/4 cup milk
3/4 cup cheese, grated (I used cheddar and mozzarella)
3/4 cup cornflakes, crushed
1/2 can cream of chicken soup

Directions

1. Cut each chicken breast into 3 large chunks. Season with salt, pepper and parsley.
2. In a small food processor, grind up the cornflakes. If you don't have a food processor, you can simply crush them with a spoon.
3. Pour the milk, cheese and cornflakes into 3 separate plates. Dip each piece of chicken into the milk, then the cheese. Press the cheese into the chicken with your fingers. Then press the cheesy chicken into cornflakes and press it in. Try to cover the whole chicken piece but it's ok if some cornflakes fall off. Once the cheese melts in the oven, it will adhere nicely to the cornflakes.
4. Put baking paper on the oven pan and lay the chicken inside the pan. Cover the pan with tin foil and bake at 180 degree for 10 minutes. Remove the tin foil, bake at 200 degree for an additional 5-10 minutes, or until the cornflakes are golden brown and crispy.
5. Into a sauce pan, combine the cream of chicken soup with 1/4 cup water. Stir it over medium heat until the sauce is nice and hot. Serve over the chicken.

Recipe adapted from crispy cheddar chicken

Bailey's Irish Cream cupcakes

Bailey's on the rocks is used to be one of my favorite drinks in the bar. Being a Bailey's lover, it makes me smile when I found this cupcake recipe.

I modified the recipe by substituting some all purpose flour with cake flour to hopefully get a lighter texture. Also, I couldn't find any baking powder so I used baking soda and added 2 parts of cream tartar with 1 part of baking soda. Some cakes turned out a bit ugly on the first batch but the second batch looked all fine. Wondering if it had anything to do with the chemical reaction with the leavening of the batter.

The cake definitely smells and tastes of baileys but the sweetness of the icing sugar was overpowering the baileys flavor. But with more icing sugar, the icing is a bit harder so it looks prettier after piping. Not sure how to get the perfect balance between presentation and taste. I added some pink coloring on the icing and not completely mixed it so the roses look more natural on the cuppies.

This one is just to practice piping one of my favorite piping styles.

Makes 12 cupcakes

For the Bailey's cupcakes
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup granulated sugar
85g butter, at room temperature
1 whole egg + 1 egg white, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup Bailey's Irish Cream

For the Bailey's buttercream
115g butter
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
1 1/2 tbsp Bailey's Irish Cream

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 175C. Line muffin tins with 12 cupcake liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
3. In another bowl, use electric mixer to cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
4. Add egg and egg white one at a time, beating on low between each addition. Add vanilla.
5. Add flour mixture slowly in 3 additions, alternating with Bailey's, starting and ending with flour.
6. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake 15-17 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. For the frosting, beat butter in an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add icing sugar 1/2 cup at a time, until completely mixed. Add the Bailey's and beat until well combined.
8. Poke holes in the tops of the cupcakes and brush some Bailey's on each before frosting.
9. Load frosting into a piping bag and decorate as desired.

Adapted from http://www.ericasweettooth.com/2011/03/baileys-irish-cream-cupcakes.html#uds-search-results

Piri Piri chicken

With my last success on the tasty sticky chicken drumlets, I was tempted to cook that again. This time I made a similar marinade but went a bit heavy handed with the piri piri seasoning to spice it up and added some shallots to increase the nice aroma. Oh wow! It's hot and very tasty. Looks like it will become one of my regular dishes then.

Serves 1

Ingredients

6 chicken drumlets

Half an onion

2 garlic cloves

1 shallot

Pinch of garlic salt

Pinch of fresh ground black pepper

Pinch of cayenne pepper

Copious amount of Sainsbury's hot piri piri seasoning

1 tbsp honey

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp light soy sauce

coriander, chopped for garnish

Directions

1. Mix everything except honey, soy sauce and olive oil in a bowl and marinate the chicken. Mix the honey, soy sauce and olive oil and drizzle half on the chicken and mix well. Keep in fridge over night or over 6 hours.
2. Fry the chicken drumlets in saucepan with medium high heat until both sides are browned. Add the rest of honey and soy sauce while cooking.
3. Put in preheated oven at 180C to cook through for about 5 minutes.
4. Serve with vegetables.

Homemade meatballs

Meatballs spaghetti is hubby's favorite. I tried his mum's meatballs spaghetti and it was really good! I kind of miss Sainsbury in UK coz they sell meatballs but here in HK, we have to make from scratch. It was fun to roll the sticky meatballs by yourself though. It tasted good but can't compare to the awesome ones my mum-in-law cooked.

Sticky chicken drumlets

This is a very simple but delicious recipe for chicken drumlets that I created after being inspired by a really tasty steak that I had at a friend's BBQ party. The steak was so good that I asked my friend for the marinade recipe but unfortunately it was a secret family recipe. With my memory of the taste of that marinade, I randomly made up this recipe. It actually tasted very similar to my friend's marinade and I was quite impressed with my palate. haha

I don't know exactly the amount of some seasoning I added but these are what I've used.

Serves 1

Ingredients
6 chicken drumlets
Half an onion
2 garlic cloves
Pinch of garlic salt
Pinch of fresh ground black pepper
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Pinch of Schwartz steak herb and steak blend
Pinch of Sainsbury's hot piri piri seasoning
1 1/2 tbsp honey
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp light soy sauce

Directions

1. Mix everything except honey, soy sauce and olive oil in a bowl and marinate the chicken. Mix the honey, soy sauce and olive oil and drizzle a little bit on the chicken and mix well. Keep in fridge over night.
2. Add the rest of honey and soy sauce before cooking. Fry the chicken drumlets in saucepan with medium high heat until both sides are browned.
3. Put in preheated oven at 180C to cook through for about 5 minutes.
4. Serve with vegetables.

Triple lemon cupcakes

I didn't realize my love for lemon until I started to learn cooking, specifically this dish chicken piccata. Lemon is so zesty, refreshing and tart that makes me think of a sunny breezy summer day, which unfortunately is not very common in Hong Kong. I asked hubby what cupcake he liked to try next and he said lemon cupcake. Cool! How come I never thought about it before? With autumn approaching real soon, I grab this chance to make these delicious lemon cupcakes with creamy lemon curd filling and pillowy lemon cream cheese frosting. 

First time I used a mix of plain flour and cake flour together. The cake came out much softer and fluffy, almost a bit too soft but it got denser after storing in fridge. For the lemon curd, it was very tangy and lemony but it was too thick and hard with the medium high heat cooking suggested in the recipe. Maybe I should try cooking it in a bowl on top of simmering water next time. Frosting is so velvety and smooth. The frosting didn't stand very well coz it was quite soft and the lemon zest blocked my nozzle when I piped. Overall, it was lovely and satisfied my crave for fresh lemony cake.

Make 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
¾ cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup cake flour
1½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. lemon juice
½ cup plus 2 tbsp. milk, at room temperature

For the lemon curd filling:
4 egg yolks
Zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
70g unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces

For the frosting: (half of the recipe should be enough to pipe 12 cupcakes coz i had so much leftover)
8 oz. cream cheese
70g unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
Zest of 1 large lemon
Additional fresh lemon slice, for garnish

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 175˚ C. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. 
2. In a medium bowl, sift the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder and salt; whisk together and set aside. 
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter, sugar and lemon zest. Beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and lemon juice.
4. With the mixer on low speed, mix in half of the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Blend in the milk. Mix in the remaining dry ingredients, beating just until incorporated.
5. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared liners, filling each about ¾ full. Bake 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pans 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. For the lemon curd, Combine everything but the butter in a sauce pan and whisk together. Cook over medium high heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, scraping the sides of the pan often until thick enough to coat the back of the spoon, about 8 - 10 minutes. 
7. Remove pan from heat and add butter, 1 piece at a time, stirring until incorporated. Strain through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the lemon curd and cover with a lid. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before using.
8. To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes. 
9. Mix in the lemon juice and lemon zest. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth.
10. Frost cooled cupcakes as desired. Garnish with fresh lemon slices.

Cake and frosting recipe adapted from lemon blueberry cupcakes

Lemon curd recipe from martha stewart

Squid ink linguine with seared scallops, sea urchin and salmon roe in cream uni sauce

This is a crazy luxurious dish, containing some of my favorite seafood!! I always love sea urchin on sushi but I have never cooked with it. I bought a box of sea urchin, using half of it to serve on pasta and the other half to make the uni cream sauce.  My sister is also a big fan of sea urchin and scallops so she was really happy that I cooked her this dish.

I was quite upset that the dish wasn't cooked to perfection though coz I forgot to dry the scallop before I pan-seared them. So it didn't get the beautiful caramelization. And for the uni cream sauce, I put a bit too much cream so the uni taste is very subtle. But that fresh sea urchin on top tasted like heaven!!

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 dozen or so large fresh sea scallops

pinch of salt and grounded black pepper

1 box of prepared uni

1 package of squid ink linguine (bought from CitiSuper)

1 cup whipping cream

1 box salmon roe

1 clove garlic, fine chopped

baby spinach for garnish

Directions

1. Put a pot of salted water on to boil. Cook the pasta in the boiling water until al dente.
2. While the pasta is cooking, warm the cream and add the garlic. Simmer gently for about 5 minutes.
3. Take the cream off the heat and add half a box of uni to the cream mixture. Use an immersion blender to blend the uni into the cream until large chucks of uni have dissolved into the dairy mixture. Set aside. Keep warm.
4. Make sure to pat dry the scallops before cooking and sprinkle on some salt and black pepper. In a hot pan with a bit of olive oil, sear the scallops until nicely browned, about 2-3 minutes per side. Remove the scallops from the pan, set aside.
5. Once the pasta is done, add it to the uni cream sauce.
6. Plate by scooping up some pasta and arranging it in the center of a plate, and then surrounding the dish with the seared scallops. Arrange the salmon roe and remaining uni on the pasta. Spoon some of the cream sauce around the plate. 
7. Sprinkle on some baby spinach.

Adapted from http://winterjade.com/WordPress/2011/09/16/scallop-uni-and-mentaiko-pasta/

Donna Hay's double chocolate cupcakes

This is bake for my friend, Ban's birthday. I'm very tempted to bake my favorite chocolate cupcake again but I decided to try Donna Hay's double chocolate cupcake recipe this time coz I like the way she cooks and who knows, maybe I will like this recipe even more?
The recipe is very easy to follow and perfect for novice baker like me coz it tells you exactly how long you have to whip the batter or buttercream for. I'm not sure whether it's because I sifted the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder two times, so the cake turned out too flaky and loose. So, I have to say I still prefer the other chocolate cupcake recipe I have. But I was so thrilled when I nailed the chocolate buttercream icing coz I had disasters when I tried to make icing before due to the wrong temperature of the butter. Blame the summer weather in Hong Kong! I used my new Wilton nozzle 1M to pipe this icing. It looks a bit different from what I expected but it still looks good.

The boys with the cupcakes haha

Make 15 cupcakes

Ingredients

125g salted butter, softened (oops I just used unsalted)

1 cup plain flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1.5tsp baking powder

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1tsp vanilla extract

150g dark chocolate, melted

Chocolate buttercream frosting

250g butter, softened

2 cups icing sugar, sifted

1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted

1/4 cup milk (I didn't use it all coz I want the icing to be less runny)

Directions

1. In a bowl, sift together plain flour, cocoa powder and baking powder
2. In another bowl, whisk together butter, sugar and vanilla extract for about 10-12 mins until pale and creamy. Add in eggs one at a time and beat until well combined.
3. Add in milk and flour mixture alternatively in 3 additions, mixing well in between each addition.
4. Fold in melted chocolate thoroughly.
5. Fill cake mixture in cupcake liners until about 2/3 full. Bake in a preheated oven of 160C for 20 mins or until a wooden skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool on wire rack.
6. To make the chocolate buttercream icing, whisk the butter in bowl for about 6-8 mins until pale and creamy.
7. Add the icing sugar, cocoa powder and milk and whisk for another 6 mins until fluffy and creamy. Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes.

Adapted from http://bossacafez.blogspot.hk/2010/04/donna-hays-double-chocolate-cupcakes.html