Sour Cream Coffee Cake June 1, 2008

Here is the story, I wanted to bake something different from cupcakes and had excess sour cream sitting in my fridge so I decided to bake a Sour Cream Cake and searched on tastespotting for a recipe. I found this. It looked easy and all the ingredients were just sitting in my kitchen. So today, with high hopes I baked it. First of all to begin with, looking at the recipe closely, it said coffee but there is no coffee anywhere under the ingredients list which puzzled me big time. I even went to the website of the originial recipe and sure enough no coffee! So why is it called a Sour Cream Coffee Cake? Second I did not have one of those tube pans and had no wish to go out to the shops to purchase one just so I could make use of my sour cream. I should have known. Using a normal springform pan, it took a long time to cook. 15 more minutes to be exact. And the result, extremely moist, densed and sponged-like. It wasn’t very sweet and the streusel on top of the cake made a very nice crust. I didn’t like the cake itself though. I thought it was too bland. I have never tried a Sour Cream (Coffee) Cake in my life but is this what is supposed to be like?

Anyhow recipe and more pictures after the jump.

Guess What I Baked Today? May 30, 2008

Its a cupcake and it is red…. Red Velvet Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting!

Warning. Many photos of my little creation after the jump.

Mussels baby! April 6, 2008

I was shopping in a supermarket, Waitrose, when I spotted their fresh Scottish mussels going on sale. US$2 for a kg. It used to be US$4. So I happily bought a kilo and brought it home to cook. Using a very simple recipe of garlic, tomato puree, fresh tomatoes and lemon juice, I made this:

A close up shot

The best part was the sauce at the bottom of the pot right at the end. Slurping it all up only justified the goodness of life.

A plate of empty shells taken by a very satisfied girl (me, y’all!)

Pink Sweetheart March 19, 2008

I made Chocolate Cupcakes with a Raspberry frosting yesterday. Best of all, they were low carbohydrates! These were different from the muffins I made earlier as they required a lot more whisking, fluffing and messiness. Still they turned out to be ok. My housemate, J, liked it though she said the frostings reminded her of Kids Panadol. She also liked that the cupcake itself was not overly sweet. I, on the other hand, preferred it to be much sweeter. The frostings were fun to make. They seemed a bit liquid at first but after a while they started to thicken and I tried the Magnolia cupcakes method of spreading. It was so much fun! Recipe after the break.

Hummus (An Analysis on the Process) March 16, 2008

For the past few weeks I changed my eating habits in the morning and replaced wholegrain toasts (because I was eating 8 at one shot and getting fat) with tomatoes and supermarket-bought hummus. The next thing I knew, the digits on the weighing scale were decreasing fairly rapidly so I was really happy. Then it got me thinking about making my own hummus. I mean, how tough could it be? It was just chickpeas, tahini paste, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and water. Did not sound like Rocket Science to me. So I gamely dared myself to make Hummus, without a recipe (not a bright idea by the way). This Hummus turned out to be difficult, so much so that I might actually refrain from eating hummus again. Although I did learn a couple of things so keep reading if you are interested to know more…