House of Annie

Irresistible

Now, most recipes that I’ve seen out there call for just a little butter and a small quantity of ripe bananas. But I just can’t resist adding more butter and really upping the quantity of ripe bananas. Maybe that’s why my banana bread turns out to have a more cake-like texture. Whatever it is, I have found that upping these ingredients don’t seem to affect the bread too much and it’s still wonderfully moist and delicious. The extra bananas seem to help to perfume the bread with that heady banana fragrance that makes you want to snatch it out of the oven as it is baking up!

The one key thing to any banana recipe (except banana cream pie where you want the bananas nice and pretty looking) is that you really, really need to wait till your bananas are overripe. Being in Malaysia, this happens more quickly than you think. I find that after just two days, my fresh bananas have become super ripe so I’ve been baking banana bread more often than I’d like. Thankfully, I have friends and neighbors to share this with. If you haven’t gotten a banana bread from me, never fear, you probably will in no time at all (as long as you live close by).

If you find yourself overrun with ripe bananas and cannot keep up, another trick is to peel the bananas, stick them in a freezer bag and freeze them. Then the next time you feel like baking banana bread, you won’t have to wait for your bananas to ripen. Just thaw the bag and mash the bananas and you’re good to go.

Alright, so here is my recipe for banana bread. Do give it a try the next time you have loads of overripe bananas sitting on your kitchen counter! Or if you just love banana bread, buy some bananas and let them get ripe on the counter (or try bargaining with your grocery store manager for the bananas that are already overripe in the store!).

Banana Nut Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C).
2. Cream sugar and butter till well mixed.
3. Add eggs and bananas. Blend well.

4. Add milk and vanilla essence and mix till well incorporated.
5. Stir in nuts and dry ingredients (you can sift the dry ingredients if you want but I normally don’t bother) and mix well.

6. Pour into loaf pan and bake for about 60-70 minutes till tester comes out clean. One trick I do is to use two slightly smaller loaf pans and bake up thinner loaves when I’m in a hurry (ie. can’t wait to take a bite into the warm, yummy bread). This way, the baking time will only be about 30-40 minutes.

Enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

This post was entered into the January edition of Sugar High Fridays, created by Jennifer, the Domestic Goddess and hosted by A Merrier World.

Hungry for more baked banana goodness? Click below:

Aunty Marlene's Banana Muffins Recipe

Recipe for Banana Cream Pie

Banana Nut Muffins Recipe on Rasa Malaysia

Ultimate Banana Bread Recipe Collection on Not Quite Nigella

An Eventful Year

We got to go to the Fabulous Food Festival and also participated in online blog events such as Grow Your Own and Weekend Herb Blogging. But our biggest, most fun foodie events were throwing the Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 parties at our house.  Starting off with the Chinese New Year Cioppino, followed by the Ultimate Rib Showdown, and then the Ultimate Backyard Lu’au, we were excited to not just cook for ourselves but organize larger and larger parties for our friends.

But we hit the brakes when we found out in April that we had to move to Malaysia .  It really put a damper on our blogging activities while we prepared for the move. But it also got us excited over the possibilities of blogging from Annie’s homeland.

We arrived in Kuching, Sarawak in August and almost immediately began making friends.  We got to know about local foods, local ingredients, and local markets. We even got to do another Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 post, this time focusing on a local delicacy of Sarawak Layer Cakes. And once our kitchen supplies arrived, we started up cooking and baking again!

I really want to thank all you loyal readers who have stuck with us through the ups and downs.  And welcome to all the new readers who have joined us this year.  Special thanks to those of you who comment regularly – you really bring a smile to our faces by letting us know we’re not just posting into a vacuum but building a virtual community.

There is so much more that we want to do with the House of Annie.  More baking, more cooking, more events, more giveaways.  There is still the matter of migrating over to our own domain. Let’s see what the next year will bring!

Aloha,  Nate

Click below for more

Two-Year Bloggerversary Week

2008 Year in Review

Thanks and Thanks Again, PLUS a Seven Things Meme

Plum Nectarine Grape Fruit Pastry

The recipe is so simple and uses the basic creaming method for the cake. And it uses up whatever excess fruit you may have handy. If you don’t have any fresh fruit handy, just use canned—they work too! I’ve used a combination of different fruit—strawberries, plums, peaches, blueberries, and mandarin oranges. Just don’t press down on the fruit when you lay it down on top of the cake batter. It will sink into the cake all on its own while baking.

Plum Blueberry Mandarin Fruit Pastry

The key to this cake is in the tangy ingredients—the sour cream and lemon/orange zest makes the cake come alive and is what makes you keep coming back for more. I always zest my lemons and oranges whenever I use them and put the zest in a ziplock and stick them in my freezer. That way, whenever I have a recipe that calls for only the zest, I already have some handy to use. My friend, Vi, suggests that instead of freezing, just put the zest into a jar with some sugar and that will keep it from spoiling and is great to be added as flavoring to any of your baked goods.

Plum Blueberry Mandarin Fruit Pastry

Vi’s Fruit Pastry Recipe

Ingredients:
200g sugar
3/4 stick (100g) butter
50g sour cream
3 eggs
210g all-purpose flour (I’ve substituted 1/3 with whole wheat without any issues)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp lemon/orange zest
500g fruit tossed with 2 Tbsp sugar (I find that 500g is sometimes too much so I slice up as much fruit as I think I will need and if I use canned fruit, I omit the sugar)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Cream butter and sour cream and sugar till light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs one at a time and beat till incorporated in batter.
4. Add vanilla essence and zest.
5. Stir in flour and baking powder and mix till smooth.
6. Butter and flour a 9” round pan. Pour batter into pan and even out top with a spatula.
7. Place fruit on top. Don’t press the fruit down into the batter. Decorate the fruit as you please.
8. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until tester comes out clean when inserted into the cake.
9. Cool and then remove from pan. If you want to pretty it up some more, you can dust the cake with some powdered sugar but it is really good as is too.

Plum Blueberry Mandarin Fruit Pastry Slice

You might even want to double the batch just so you can share with friends. Enjoy this cake and let me know if you are as addicted to this as I am (I love it so much that I’m now afraid to bake it as I am very capable of wolfing down half the cake myself!).

Cheers, Annie

This cake was entered into the “High Tea Treats” Monthly Mingle, created by Meeta and hosted by My Diverse Kitchen.

Hungry for more cakes? Click below:

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Our Favorite Layer Cake Recipe

Marble Cake Recipe

Malaysian Honeycomb Cake

Third Aunt’s Butter Cake

Getting to Know All About You

I first discovered Sarawakian Layer Cakes back in my University Malaya days when my classmate, who hails from Kuching, would bring back these cakes after going home for the semester breaks. I was amazed by how tasty they were and also how beautiful. I’ve always thought that if I had a chance to visit Kuching, I would love to get more of these cakes and, if I happened to live here long-term, I would want to take classes to learn how to make them.

Well, it just happens that here we are, living in Kuching and we have been quite enthralled by a lot of the things that Kuching has to offer. When we visited the Satok market a month ago, we found some vendors selling these Sarawakian layer cakes. I was very excited and bought one to try at home. It was decent but not as good as the ones I remembered from back in college.

So it was a nice coincidence that one day when we were looking for a place to eat out, we ended up at a restaurant that happened to be next door to this Sarawak Layer Cake shop.

My Sara Sarawak Layer Cake Shop, Kuching

While waiting for dinner to be served, I ended up walking next door into the store and was greeted by a friendly staff who showed me a catalogue of all the different Sarawak layer cakes that they made. They had numerous cakes all stacked up in their chiller ready to go. But because it was the Hari Raya season (this was about two weeks before the end of the Ramadhan fasting month), ALL the cakes in the chiller were already reserved. Not only that, they weren’t taking any more orders until Raya was over.

Getting to Like You

Being one who never takes no for an answer, I asked if they had any samples at all that I could at least try. Off he went to the back of the shop and came back with not just a small sample, but large strips of discarded end pieces for me to try. With one bite, I could tell that these were no ordinary cakes. They were delicious—moist and buttery and with just the right amount of sweetness.

Lapis Masam Manis - “Sour-Sweet” Layer Cake

I hurried back to dinner next door and told Nate that he absolutely had to try these cakes. After tasting the sample, he too agreed that it blew the first cake we had bought out of the water. We ended up going to the shop after dinner because I wanted Nate to have a look at the store himself.

The staff member (who was actually the nephew of the owner) let us into the back of the store and showed us how they were baking the cakes. We told him we were food bloggers, and asked if we could come back next time with a camera to document the process. Astonishingly, he was more than happy to welcome us back. We got the number of the owner and promised we would return.

When Foodbuzz sent out the call for proposals for this months 24, 24, 24 blog event, I immediately thought that this would make a great event. These Sarawak layer cakes are truly beautiful and labor intensive. The opportunity to learn more about how they were made in a small family-run business was too good to miss out on. We were so excited when they accepted our proposal! We called the owner and arranged to meet him in his store on Saturday afternoon.

Getting to Hope You Like Me

Idris Ibrahim, Owner of My Sara Sarawak Layer Cakes shop

Idris Ibrahim and his wife Hamsiah own My Sara Enterprise. They have been baking Sarawak layer cakes for over 15 years. The storefront, which is located across from the Four Points Sheraton near the airport in South Kuching, is actually only 3 months old. Prior to that, all their baking was done out of their home.

His wife first learned how to make the Sarawak layer cakes from his sister, who teaches baking and other home skills at classes out in the rural communities of Sarawak. After observing her sister-in-law from a distance, she decided that she could do it herself. Without much training of any sort, she took it upon herself to make these cakes and found that she had a knack for doing it. Soon, people started ordering her cakes. Thanks to word-of-mouth advertising, business took off. Last year, they did 700-800 cakes during the Hari Raya season alone.

Idris works only part-time at the store, as he still has his full-time job as a site supervisor for a construction company. One of his best customers and enthusiastic supporters encouraged him to open the store in town to be closer to his customers. At first, he didn’t want to do it because, as he put it, “you don’t have to pay rent if you’re working out of your house.” But the move paid off – this year, they doubled their production with the new store.

In fact, they are so successful, that they were fully booked for the whole month leading up to Hari Raya. In the last few days, he and his staff worked from 7 am in the morning to 4 am the next morning to fulfill all the orders. It was grueling work, but they filled every order. They even managed to make a few extra for last minute customers.

Their layer cakes are famous throughout Sarawak. They are sold to the Sheraton across the street, served to visiting Sultans, sent to stores in Kuala Lumpur, and even shipped to Switzerland.

What is the secret to their success?

Putting it My Way

In a word, QUALITY. They do not cut corners on the ingredients. “Many layer cake makers use vegetable oil or margarine instead of butter. With margarine, the cakes come out drier. We use butter, but not just any butter. We have found that our cakes come out best with Golden Churn brand.” They also use only Grade A eggs and real chocolate flavoring.

Interestingly, it doesn’t take an expensive oven to turn out the best layer cakes. They use inexpensive, gas-fired ovens from Indonesia to make their cakes. Furthermore, they only use the bottom section of the oven. The reason this is that you are not really baking a whole cake – you are actually grilling (broiling) each layer with top heat very briefly. If you tried to bake the cake in a conventional oven, you would end up with a dry, overcooked cake.

Gas-Fired Oven for Baking Sarawak Layer Cakes

When Idris bought his wife an expensive, industrial electric oven for the store recently, he was scolded by the wife. She told him that the electric oven would not produce cakes that were as moist and delicious. With an electric oven, the heat circulates over the whole oven, thereby drying out the layers that are already done. In the gas ovens, the cakes remain tender and moist. This expensive oven now sits in his office unused as they continue to use the gas ovens.

But Nicely

When we arrived on Saturday afternoon, Idris told us that they had gotten a rush order, so his wife and their remaining staff who were not on holiday were back at the home, making cakes. But he stayed behind because he knew we were coming. He even started baking a layer cake for us, so he could demonstrate the process of building a Sarawak layer cake to us. How nice is that?!

A normal layer cake has between 12-20 parallel layers of cake. This particular Sarawak layer cake design has 5 parallel layers on the bottom, a fanciful design section in the middle, and 5 more layers on the top. For each layer, a small amount of batter is measured out, ladled on, and spread evenly in the pan. Then the pan is put in the oven for about five minutes before it is taken out and tamped down flat with a special tool before the next layer of batter is spread on.

Spreading Batter on Sarawak Layer Cake

The middle design will take strips of different colored layer cakes, cut into either square or triangular face.

Green Square Strips for Sarawak Layer Cake Design

Yellow Triangular Strips for Sarawak Layer Cake Design

You Are Precisely

Idris demonstrated how to get a triangular slice by holding a square slice between two, right-angle brackets and cutting between the brackets with a utility knife. The utility knife makes a very clean cut with no ragged edges.

After baking and tamping down flat the bottom layers, he laid down the triangular strips in parallel rows.

Laying Down the First Layer of Triangular Strips

Oh, I forgot to mention that Idris uses condensed milk as the “glue” to hold the Sarawak layer cake design section together. Other cake makers will use jam to hold the layers together but then the cakes don’t last as long.

Drizzling on Condensed Milk Glue for Sarawak Layer Cake

Next, he laid down the square green layer cake strips in the grooves created by the triangular trips.

Laying Down the Green Strips Layer

Another application of condensed milk “glue” and another layer. This time, it’s yellow square strips in the grooves of the green strips.

Laying Down Next Layer of Yellow Strips

And green strips again…

Followed by a last layer of yellow triangle shaped strips, which he then presses down so it is even and parallel to the bottom of the pan.

Pressing Down the Sarawak Layer Cake Design Section

With the design section done, he can continue baking on the top layers.

Spreading Batter for Top Layers of Sarawak Layer Cake

The final layer is the most crucial one. As each layer is baked on, the cake gets higher and the layers get closer to the gas flame. If you are not paying close attention, you will burn the top layer. If that happens, the cake cannot be salvaged and you must start over.

Tamping Down Top Layer of Sarawak Layer Cake

Once the cake is done baking, he cools it to room temperature before putting it in the chiller.

The process of building a Sarawak layer cake is so laborious and time-consuming. Here is a slideshow I put together of the entire process.

Slideshow of Sarawak Layer Cake Making Process

We stayed a full two and a half hours to watch him make one cake (and even then, he had already prepared some of the other layers ahead of time). I can only say that, after having the privilege of watching him make this cake, I am in awe of the people who bake these cakes. I certainly have changed my mind about baking it myself. Even if I knew how to do it, I don’t know if I have the patience to bake something that takes so long and yet is so quickly devoured!

For all the work he put in to making his Sarawak layer cake, his prices are so reasonable. He only charges $25 for a small 2”x2”x8” cake and $100 for a full 2”x8”x8” cake. Thanks to Foodbuzz and the 24, 24, 24 event stipend, we could afford to take home 8 cakes that day.

Before heading off, we walked across the street to the Four Points Sheraton. We went in to see the buffet at the Eatery Restaurant. There we found My Sara’s Sarawak layer cakes, neatly sliced and displayed on the dessert table

My Sara's Sarawak Layer Cakes at Four Points Sheraton Eatery

My Cup of Tea

After dinner, we called up our food blogger friend Mike to let him know we were coming over to his house with some Sarawak layer cakes to taste. Mike set up his special photo lighting stand in his kitchen so I could take pictures of some of the cakes.

Sarawak Layer Cake Medley

After all the photos were taken, we sat down to enjoy the cakes over cups of tea and conversation. Mike and his wife both agreed, these were top quality cakes. Each individual cake had its own delightful character and flavor.

We’re so glad that we found the My Sara Sarawak Layer Cake shop by chance. We were totally amazed by Idris’ warmth, humility, and willingness to share by allowing us into his store to document his cake-making process. And we are very thankful to Foodbuzz for allowing us to share this experience with you, dear readers!

Cheers and Aloha, Annie and Nate

My Sara Sarawak Layer Cake Shop is located at:

Lot 9957, Aras Lantai, RH Plaza
Jalan Lapangan Terbang, Kuching
Tel: 082-459842

It's near the Kuching airport, just across the street from the Four Points Sheraton, next door to the Bella Italia restaurant.

During the Raya season, you can also find their cakes in West Malaysia, at the Shazzen Sarawak Layer Cake outlets in Jaya Jusco, various locations, KL.

We have so much more to learn and share about the foods of our new home in Kuching. Don’t miss a thing! Subscribe now to receive our latest posts to your RSS reader or to your Inbox.

It’s All About the Ingredients

I’ve baked this marble cake so many times lately (3 times in a week) that I can tell you that it’s a very easy recipe (also super fattening so thankfully, I baked it for others all those times). It doesn’t take too much effort for such a delicious cake. The trick is to use good butter and also good chocolate. For those who are die-hard chocolate fans, stick to the good stuff. But even with Nestle chocolate chips, I’ve found it’s still good.

The other important ingredient is plain yogurt. That is what makes the whole cake so hard to resist! Somehow, it just complements the buttery flavors and kicks up the vanilla/chocolate tastes.

I find that a marble cake is best when the chocolate part doesn’t overwhelm the vanilla bit so unless you love your chocolate immensely, make sure to take out a bit more than half of the vanilla portion before mixing the chocolate to the rest of the batter.

For the chocolate part of this marble cake, I normally just eyeball the chocolate (so I decided to measure at the last bake and it’s roughly about 100g of chocolate) and put it in a microwave safe bowl and nuke it at 30-second intervals, stirring between intervals, till the chocolate is all melted. Also, do make sure that your bowl is completely dry as any water will cause the chocolate to seize up and never come together in a smooth paste. I have also sometimes added a tablespoon of cocoa powder (Dutch process cocoa powder or natural, doesn’t quite matter) to the chocolate portion along with the melted chocolate. And when I’m feeling naughty, I’ll sometimes add some Grand Marnier to it too!

This recipe does give you a really big cake and I’ve found that when I’m baking it in my fancy bundt pan (Nordic Ware Star bundt pan which has a 10-cup capacity), it will overflow. It works very well to put them into two loaf pans or use a bigger bundt (I have a cheaper, 12-cup one that works really well) so do plan accordingly.

Marble Cake Recipe

Ingredients
3 sticks (12 oz) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature (I’ve cheated by sticking it in the microwave and nuking at 10 second intervals when I had forgotten to take my butter out of the freezer)
scant 2 cups sugar (I’ve gotten away with as little as 1 3/4 cups)
6 extra-large (large will work too) eggs, at room temperature (but if you’ve forgotten to take it out of the fridge ahead of time, it’s ok, this recipe is pretty forgiving)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 cups (15 oz) bleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup plain yogurt (if you can use full fat, do so)
scant 1/2 cup milk (whole is better—I know, this is not a fat-free cake ok?)
100g (3.5oz) semi-sweet chocolate (morsels are fine, but if you can use really good dark chocolate, do so—the chocolate flavor will be more pronounced)
1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (optional)
1 Tbsp Grand Marnier (optional)

Method
1. Preheat oven to 325 F.
2. Put chocolate in a dry, clean bowl and melt in microwave oven in 30-second intervals, stirring till you get a smooth paste. Remove and let cool a little.

Smooth, Melted Chocolate

3. In a stand mixer, or a hand mixer, cream together butter and sugar till mixture is fluffy and sugar has been cut in well. I normally use 5-6 speed on my Kitchen Aid for about 3-5 minutes.
4. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat on med-high speed for about 20 seconds after each egg, and scrape down before adding the next one.
5. Add the vanilla and mix to combine.

Creamed Cake Batter

6. Add dry ingredients (I normally add all the baking soda, baking powder and salt in the first go along with the first larger third portion of flour) in three portions, interspersing with the yogurt and milk and stir gently (use stir setting on Kitchen Aid or stir with a spatula). So basically, this means 1/3 dry ingredients, yogurt, 1/3 dry ingredients, milk, final third dry ingredient. Stir till all traces of flour is gone.
7. Take out half (or a bit more) of the vanilla cake batter and drop it around the bundt pan (I’m being lazy, you can just put it into another bowl and wait till the chocolate is done to put them together into the bundt to get a really nice even mix).

Vanilla Cake Batter in the Bundt

8. Add the melted chocolate and cocoa powder and Grand Marnier (if using) to the remaining batter and stir it in till there are no more streaks of white (or as much as possible, a few streaks will not hurt too much).
9. Interspersing globs of vanilla batter with chocolate batter, drop batter into bundt. In my case, I normally unevenly mound the vanilla in three spots around the bundt, then follow that up by placing the chocolate batter in between the vanilla.
10. Using your spatula, twirl the batter together using a figure-eight motion to mix the batter up to get that nice pretty marble design. Don’t overmix lest you get a light brown cake. The more practice you get doing this, the better your marble cakes begin to look. The flavor won’t be affected even if you don’t get it too right so don’t worry about it too much.

Swirling Chocolate and Vanilla Cake Batter in the Bundt

11. Smooth out the top of your bundt/loaf pan and put cake in oven to bake. If you’re using loaf pans, start to test the cake after about 40 minutes. If using your bundt, it will need about 1 hour (test after 55 minutes). Cake tester should come out clean when it’s done. I always know when it’s almost ready—the house will smell heavenly!

Finished Marble Bundt Cake

A note about using a bundt pan—do invest in a good quality, non-stick one. I really do like the Nordic Ware Pro versions, they are sturdy and work well (a little costly but if you look around, there are deals to be found—I got mine at Costco around Christmas time for under $20) AND they come in all these cool shapes and sizes.

It’s the most awful thing when your bundt pan fails on you and you have cake that doesn’t come out in one piece. Another good trick is to use a non-stick spray to ensure that the cake will come out well. Also, please don’t let the cake sit in the pan for too long (cool it for about 10 minutes and then invert). If you do, it will be much harder to take out.

Enjoy! And please don’t blame me for the hit it’ll take on your hips…I’ve been there myself and have to now restrain myself to baking it for other people and stealing a slice if I happen to be around to share in it (or sometimes, I save a little bit of the batter and bake a cupcake or two to save for myself).

Cheers, Annie

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Hungry for more cakes? Click below:

Strawberry Shortcake Recipe

Marble Cream Cheese Cake Recipe

Malaysian Honeycomb Cake Recipe

Easy Green Tea Tiramisu Recipe

Third Aunt's Butter Cake

There’s Nothing Better

I will share those other recipes with you in another post but for this one, I need to give the shortcakes their due. There is nothing better than a fresh strawberry shortcake. And with a few pantry staples, you could whip this up pretty quickly to impress your friends with a wonderful dessert! And any leftovers that you have of the shortcakes are great to eat the next day with jam and tea (almost like a plain scone).

This recipe also works very well as a cobbler topping. In a month or two, peaches and plums are going to be in season and this is the recipe to put on top of your fruit cobblers. Add some premium vanilla ice cream and you’ll swoon with every bite!

One other thing, even though the picture that Nate took of the shortcake shows the whipped cream and strawberries wedged between the biscuit, I prefer to split my shortcake and lay both down on the plate. Then I go hog wild with the whipped cream and strawberries and drizzle some of the juices from the strawberries on both halves and just dig in. Yum! Yum! Yum!

Please excuse me while I go make another batch right now…

Strawberries Night and Day

Ok, I’m back (don’t you just love blog time?). I did have to make a comment about the strawberries. Last time I made this, I didn’t buy enough from the farmer’s market, and had to buy another basket from the store—and you know what? It was like night and day! The store bought ones tasted like water, and the farmer market ones made my senses pop with sweet berry sensation. Get thee to your farmer’s market and pay a little extra. It is totally worth it!

So anyway, I had some pretty tasteless strawberries right? That’s when I thank God for the Muscat wine I had. Just soak those tasteless babies up in that sweet wine and you have yourself some ambrosia! Or if you don’t have Muscat handy, use any fruity liqueur you have and add some sugar. Of course, if your strawberries are from the farmer’s market, forget all the above and just cut them up and use fresh (or toss in some lemon juice to extract some berry juices to drizzle on shortcake).

Strawberries Soaking in Muscat Wine

Multi-Purpose Baking Mix Recipe

adapted from Fine Cooking, no. 45

Ingredients:
13 1/2 oz (3 cups) all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
6 oz (12 Tbsp) cold unsalted butter, cut in small pieces

Method:
1. In a large bowl, stir the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. Cut the butter into the flour with a fork, pastry cutter or your fingers (I normally use my fingers) until mixture looks like cornmeal and the biggest pieces of butter are the size of large peas. Be sure not to overmix.
3. Proceed with the shortcake/cobbler (scone and biscuit recipe will be given in future post) recipe or refrigerate or freeze the mixture until ready to use.

Strawberry shortcake biscuit or cobbler topping

yields enough dough to top a 9x13 inch cobbler or makes 9-12 shortcake biscuits.

Ingredients:
1 recipe Multi-Purpose Baking Mix (see above)
1 large egg
1 1/4 cups heavy cream; more for brushing (I find 1 cup is usually enough)
1 Tbsp sugar, more for sprinkling
optional: add some almond extract if making apricot/plum cobbler, some chopped nuts for peach cobbler, more vanilla with strawberry shortcakes

Method:
1. Heat the oven to 375 F.
2. Put the Baking Mix in a bowl, add the extra Tbsp of sugar and stir to mix.
3. Add the egg to the cream and stir with a fork to combine.
4. Make a shallow well in the dry mix and pour in the wet ingredients. With as few strokes as possible, stir until the mixture is just combined. It should be loose, but if it doesn’t hold together at all, add more cream 1 Tbso at a time. I recommend drizzling the heavy cream mixture in slowly and combining till you get a shaggy dough. The extra cream mixture can be brushed on the top of the shortcakes or cobbler top.
5. Generously flour a counter and turn the dough out onto it; it will be shaggy and very soft. Scrape any bits in the bowl onto the mound of dough.
6. Flour your hands. Shape the mixture into a very loose rectangle with the short side nearest you. Using a bench knife, a pastry scraper or a spatula, fold the bottom third over the center third, and then the top third over the center, as if you’re folding a business letter. Pat down to shape another rectangle and repeat the folding. (If you need a visual of the steps, look at my other scones post for the technique).
7. Pat down again to about 1/2 inch thickness for a cobbler, and 3/4 inch thick for shortcakes.
8. For a cobbler—lay the dough on top of fruit that’s been tossed with some sugar and a bit of flour (and maybe patted with some butter) and spread in a 9x13 inch baking dish. It’s fine if the topping breaks into pieces’ just be sure most of the fruit is covered. Brush with cream and sprinkle with sugar. If you want, add some sliced almonds on top. Bake until the topping is golden brown, about 25-30 minutes.
For the shortcakes—cut the dough into the shapes you want—circles or squares—and set them on an ungreased baking sheet (or one lined with parchment). Brush with cream and sprinkle with sugar.

Shortcake Rounds Brushed With Cream

Bake until the tops have started to brown and the bottoms are golden, about 20-22 minutes. While the biscuits are slightly warm, split them, fill with your favorite fruit filling and top with whipped cream.

Strawberry Shortcake

So, another great summer dessert—buttery shortcake biscuits, sweet seasonal strawberries and fresh whipped heavy cream. What more could you ask for? This is easy, so, so easy to prepare! Seriously, if you keep a packet of the multi-purpose baking mix in your freezer, you could have this done in less than half an hour and have nice warm shortcakes to serve friends and family after dinner. Please try it out, you won’t regret it.

Cheers, Annie

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Hungry for more desserts? Click below:

Pavlova Recipe

Easy Green Tea Tiramisu Recipe

Sake Poached Pears

Peach and Plum Granitas

Honeydew Sago Dessert

Marble Cream Cheese Cake Recipe

Cake batter ingredients:
180 g butter
170 g castor sugar
3 eggs
20 g cocoa powder (sifted)
120 g self-raising flour (all purpose flour plus 1 ½ tsp baking powder and ½ tsp salt)
1 tsp. baking powder

Cream Cheese layer ingredients:
250 g cream cheese
60 g castor sugar
1 tsp. vanilla essence
1 egg

(Note: original recipe calls for 1/2 cup of water but I totally left it out because I found the cream cheese batter to be too watery. It may be because my eggs are extra large but if you find that your consistency is too thick, add just enough water to have a flowing consistency.)

Method:
1. Cream the butter and sugar till creamy.
2. Beat in eggs one at a time.
3. Fold in dry ingredients (cocoa powder, flour and baking powder) and mix thoroughly.
4. Divide mixture into half.
5. For cream cheese layer: mix all the ingredients together and beat well.
6. Pour half of the cake batter into a 7" round or square tin then pour cream cheese mixture on top.
7. Lastly, pour the remainder of the cake batter on top of the cream cheese mixture. If you like, you can swirl with a chopstick to get a marble effect or just leave it as it is. This part is a little tricky, the cake batter is very little and the marble layer is thick. It doesn’t matter if you find pockets of white cream cheese layer that isn’t covered by the top layer thoroughly—just do you best to cover it as well as you can.
8. Bake at 350 F (160 C) for about 60 mins. or till skewer comes out clean. 9. Remove from oven and leave it to cool completely before slicing.

Marble Cream Cheese Cake

Serve either warm or chilled. When it’s warm, the cream cheese layer is more muted and the flavor of the chocolate is more pronounced. When it’s cold, the cream cheese tanginess is more pronounced (if you like your cream cheese layer to be sweeter, you might want to taste it to see if you want to up the sugar).

It’s been a while since I’ve made this recipe (TWO YEARS! And can you tell how much our blog has evolved?!?) but now that some of you readers have asked about it, I will retest the recipe soon and if needed, make more adjustments. In the meantime, I hope this recipe will help you to try it out instead of just guesstimating the portions.

Cheers, Annie

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Luckily for Nate, I decided to bake some blueberry muffins. I mentioned after dinner that I was feeling very much like baking something and I said, “How about some blueberry muffins?” You should have seen his eyes gleam when I said that. He absolutely loves blueberry muffins and remembers how, before he met me, he used to make them from a box and devour them all. I, of course, have much higher standards than baking from a box!

Now, it’s been a really long time since I baked blueberry muffins and I don’t even recall where my last recipe was from. Thankfully, this is when cookbooks come in handy. I referred to two different trusted cookbooks—Beranbaum’s Bread Bible (I guess muffins are a quick bread) and The Best Recipe (Cook’s Illustrated’s cookbook). Both recipes sounded good with one ingredient that was different—one used sour cream, the other yogurt. As fate would have it, I actually had both handy that day. Decisions, decisions…

So ok, I’m partial to Beranbaum. Everything that I’ve tried from her cookbooks have turned out fabulous and never so sweet as to get my teeth grating. So I decided she won the coin toss this round. I baked up her blueberry muffins recipe. And it was delicious! Crusty on the outside and tender and soft on the inside. And bursting with blueberries with a slight lemon tang that perfectly accentuated the blueberries and sour cream.

Blueberry Muffin Bursting with Blueberries

Blueberry Muffins Recipe

adapted from “The Bread Bible” by Rose Levy Beranbaum

Makes 6 large muffins (unless you’re [and it’s “you’re” not “your”—the English teacher in me cringes at how often this is now common usage] like me and have to just bake up a dozen because you’re pake and since you have the oven on, you might as well utilize it as much as you can [and the English teacher in me is cringing at my super run-on sentence])

Ingredients
(at room temperature)
4 Tbsp (2 oz) unsalted butter
1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
zest of 2 large lemons (see our video “How to Zest a Lemon” on YouTube!)
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
about 1 cup (135 g) bleached all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp (2 g) baking soda
1/4 tsp (2 g) salt
1/3 cup (80 g) sour cream
3/4 cup (100 g) blueberries, frozen or fresh (I used frozen)

Topping (I omitted and still tasted excellent):
3/4 tsp sugar
grated nutmeg, for dusting

Method
1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar, and lemon zest until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla.

Butter and Sugar Ready to be Creamed

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Spoon half the flour mixture and half the sour cream into the batter/sugar mixture and fold in with a rubber spatula until flour has mostly disappeared. Repeat with the remaining flour and sour cream, folding in just until the flour disappears.
4. Fold in the blueberries gently.
5. Fill the muffin pan (or ramekins or custard cups) almost to the top. Batter will be somewhat stiff (especially if using frozen blueberries).

Blueberry Muffin Batter in Cups

6. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until the muffins spring back when pressed lightly in the center with a fingertip and a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Unmold muffins and cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Blueberry Muffins Cooling

When the timer went off and I asked Nate to check to make sure the blueberry muffins were done, he opened the oven and exclaimed, “Oh maaan! They look soooo good!” And they were. Nicely domed and perfectly golden. Nate could barely contain himself. I’m surprised he didn’t grab one right off the muffin pan when they came out. He actually had enough restraint to take some pictures before diving into one.

Blueberry Muffin Made from Scratch

Well, he polished off two blueberry muffins that very night! And my kids had one each for breakfast this morning. It is definitely a winner of a recipe. But I can’t help wondering if the other blueberry muffins recipe would have been better or just as good. After all, those people test all their recipes a gazillion times…surely it must be just as good (and yes, they did try sour cream and they still claimed that yogurt was better).

So I have to do a bake-off and try the other recipe. It shouldn’t be too hard to do since I have yogurt on hand and even though I doubled the recipe this time, I’m only left with three more blueberry muffins (I shared some with my neighbor). And yes, I do have more blueberries (I have a bag of frozen ones handy that my kids like to snack on, and it turns out they are great for baking muffins too!).

So stay tuned to my next “baking-for-no-other-reason-other-than-plain curiousity” and if you’re in my neighborhood, drop by for a taste! In the meantime, enjoy Beranbaum’s blueberry muffins recipe!

Cheers, Annie

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