Death by Chocolate Cake

Lisa is one of my childhood friends cum neighbour.
Basically we grew up together.
Now both of us are on different sides of the world
And I stilll remember fondly our kitchen experience.
Cooking maggi mee at her house and 'curi' telur from my house.LoL


Anyway last month I saw her Death by Chocolate Cake in her Facebook album, and immediately I ask for the recipe.
Bake it a month late because I was busy looking for Golden syrup.
Can't find it any of the hypermarkets here.From Carefour to Giant.In the end I ask for her opinion.
Well she said I can substitute it with honey.


Anyway here is the recipe.
I just cut and paste it from my email.
And lisa,thanks for the great recipe.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups sugar (blended sugar)
• 2 cups flour
3 eggs (big size)
1 cup coco powder
1 cup of milk
1 cup of refine cooking oil (sunflower, soya bean oil will do)
1 cup of hot water
1 tsp soda bikarbonat 
1 tsp baking powder 
1 tsp esen vanila 
**For the Ganache**
2 cups of  non dairy whipping cream
500g cooking chocolate
1/8 cup of golden syrup
##For whipped cream
1 cup non dairy whipping cream

Instructions 

1. Mix flour +koko powder+soda bikarbonat+baking powder (mix together and sieve it)
Beat the blended sugar with eggs and then add the vanilla essence
Add the milk and oil into the mixture and mix well
2. mix well all the flour+coco powder+baking powder+soda bikarbonat into the mixture above

Then add hot water and mix again
Bake it in the oven for 45 minutes on 175-189 for about 45 mins 
**For ganache**
Boil whipping cream on the stove
Once its boil, switch it off and add the cooking chocolate. stir until it melt
Add golden syrup and mix well
Take out 1 cup of Ganache and keep the rest in a fridge 
##For whipped cream..Beat 1 cup of whipping cream untill soft peak, then add 1 cup of Ganache (the one u took out from step no. 11)
3. Once the cake is done, let it cool down then slice the cake into 2  layers. Add the whipped cream that u prepared on step no. 12 in between the cake and all over the cake) keep the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes
After 30 mins, take out the cake from the fridge and take out rest of the ganache (the one u kept in the fridge on step no.11) Pour it all over the cake and again keep it in the fridge for few hours before serving to 'set' it,.. and ready to eat.
Ready to eat!!! this cake is nice to be eaten as it is without the cream and Ganache,.. or u can serve it with vanilla ice cream too,,.. depends how much u loveeee chocolate,.. if u loveeeeee chocolate, u can make the Ganeche,.. the taste is soooooo soooooo sooooo rich in chocolate!!!

* I only use 200g of cooking chocolate as I wrongly saw the label but anyway it comes out fine.I guess it would be less 'chocolaty' and I use honey instead of Golden Syrup.*

*drools*

Beggar's chicken, my kitchen version.

Mr snuggles and leo was like "what the heck is beggar's chicken?" when I told them I'm going to attempt to cook one.

And I was like 'you guys don't know what is it?its like the best chicken dish in whole world.lol.'

The name might be funny but don't be fool.In chinese restaurants it could be an expensive dish.Its not easy and take long time to cook.

I still remember eating the beggars chicken for the first time.

Its so mouth watering..*oh drools*

So here is my story in attempting to cook one.

Please take note that this is my first attempt in cooking beggars chicken.

I modify the recipe here and there.

The original recipe comes from Amy Beh and Videojug

My version doesn't taste the same like I used to eat in the restaurants *its still yummy k* but then that is experimenting is all about.

I add and delete some of the ingredients.

Kind of hard to look for some the ingredients here.

Definitely you can't find wine here.

So I omit that out.

Also goes to lotus leaves.

If you can find it would be great to wrap the chicken instead of using aluminium foil.

Ingredients:

Stuff everything inside.

1 medium size whole chicken, marinate it with salt and some sesame oil.Put in the ref for an hour or two.

For Stuffing:

Carrot dice

Mushroom sliced.I guess shitake mushroom would taste better but then I use button mushroom.

Ginger shredded 

Minced chicken or just cut it into small cube size.

Kneading was tough.I was like having a workout in the kitchen.

Sauce:

1 teaspoon Sesame oil

1 teaspoon cooking oil.

1 teaspoon light soya sauce

1 teaspoon dark soya sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

For the dough covering:

Flour and water.

Mix and knead the dough till its soft.*This is tricky for me because I never knead dough before.It look so simple when seeing other people doing it*

Preheat the oven at 200 celcius.

Cook the carrot and mushroom and chicken on the saucepan and mix in the sauce.

Stuff the stuffing into the chicken cavity.

Cover the chicken with aluminium foils.

And wrap the chicken again with dough.

Baked for like 3 hours.

Cracked open the dough.

and tada..beggar's chicken ready to be served.

*I only manage to bake for like 2 hours because I notice that the bottom part of the dough is wet.Some leakage, I guess from  the aluminium foil.The chicken is cook and the meat was soft but not till the level where the meat is easily fall off from the bones.*

One thing for sure,this would not be my last attempt to cook one.


On another note one my gerls had tried to make the mushroom soup and this is her version.

Mushroom soup *homemade*

Wasn't that hungry after returned from work but then, afraid that I would woke up in middle of the night.

typical me..

There's nothing much in the refrigerator, lots of vegetable which is definitely not my stock.

I know the soup don't look that appetizing but don't be fool by the look.

Found some mushroom so mushroom soup it would be.Also found ready made garlic bread.Great supper I say.

Can't remember where I got the recipe.I just learn it by heart.

Its very quick and easy to do.

All you need is:

Garlic 1 cloves

Red onion 1 large size

Button mushroom * I use 10-12 button mushroom since I'm the only one eating.if you want to use 1 pack go ahead*

butter

1 tablespoon of flour.

chicken stock either cube or homemade chicken stock.

bay leaf *optional*

chop red onion and garlic.

Slice thin the mushroom.It would be quicker to cook.

heat the butter in saucepan.I prefer lots of butter.

cook the garlic and red onion till its brown.

Add in the mushroom and stir for 3 minutes,constantly.

Add the flour.Mix well.

Pour in the chicken stock.

add in the bay leaf and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

Set aside to cool down for a while.remove the bay leaf.

Blend it till its smooth.

reheat again and salt and pepper to taste.

If its not thick you can add in corn flour.

yummy!!

Butter cake.

Decided to bake butter cake today for 'berbuka puasa'.Anyway its my housemate favourite cake.

Butter cake was the first cake I ever tried to bake and I still remember how my first cake looks like.
The top part was burnt.LOL.
Since then it was trial and error with the oven temperature.

And I have to say, I just love to bake butter cake because its so damn easy.

The original recipe comes from rasamalaysia.com

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups of multipurpose flour
1 1/4 cups of sugar * I only use 1 cup.Too much sugar is not good anyway but then if you have sweet tooth go ahead*
3/4 cups of fresh milk.
3/4 cup of butter,softened *I use 200 gm of butter*
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs.
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Preheat oven at 180 Celsius

Mix all the ingredients and beat till its fluffy and smooth.

Grease the loaf pan with butter.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake it for 50-60 minutes.
Use the fork as tester.Insert it into the center of the cake.If its clean its done if not try to bake for another few more minutes.

Serve with hot tea/coffee.

Chocolate lava cake.

Yesterday I was so disappointed that my lava cake was a failure..just because of 50gm of flour.
So today I keep on reminding myself don't forget to add the flour..don't forget the flour.

Anyway today I proudly to present you with my yummylicous lava cake..yum..yum..


So here's the recipe.
Serving for 2.
Got the recipe from videojug.com

100 gram of dark chocolate.Only dark chocolate.NO white chocolate.
100 gram of butter.
100 gram of sugar
50 gram of flour.
3 eggs.
cocoa powder.If not can substitute with Milo.Cocoa powder can be kinda pricey.And you would only using teeny weeny amount only.
Some butter to grease the aluminium ramekins or whatever container/cups you want to bake it with.Make sure oven proof.
Vanilla ice cream.

1.Set the oven to 200 celcius.

'Steaming' the chocolate

2.Cut into cubes the butter and chocolate.Place it over in a bowl  over  a saucepan with half or quarter full of water.ala-ala steaming the chocolate and butter.So it will melts together.Stir occasionally.

3.In another bowl mix the 3 eggs and sugar together.Beat it until the sugar dissolve.

4.While waiting for the butter and chocolate to melts,grease the cups with butter.Generously please..
After that take some cocoa powder and put inside the cups.Turn it around so it will coats the cups.

5.Pour the chocolate/butter mixture into the egg mixture.Mix together.Add in flour.
Do all of the steps quickly because the chocolate mix will start to cool down.

6.Pour into the cups.

7.Put it into the oven and bake around 6-8 minutes.
The edge should be cooked but centre should be soft.

Put into the plate.Be careful not to tap it too hard.if not the centre would break and the chocolate filling would leak out..*like mine*
Serve with ice cream.Yummy!!!