Baked Tapioca Cake

Baked Tapioca Cake or Bingka Ubi Kayu is a traditional snack dessert which I'm preferred it to be called kuih.

If you love this dessert cake or kuih, and like to make it often , it is good to invest an electrical grater or food chopper, else you be like me having a sore arms the next day. Or if you can find store bought frozen grated tapioca or cassava at the frozen section (that would be life saver to you! )

I have made this Tapioca Cake back in year 2011 using the same recipe / Table for 2...or more

Baked Tapioca Cake / Bingka Ubi Kayu

Ingredients
1.2kg Tapioca  (after peeled and grated, it weigh about 900gm more or less)
200gm sugar
200ml coconut cream
200ml water
2 eggs
40gm butter

Method
Peel and grate the tapioca. Set aside.

Slightly beat the eggs in a bowl and  mix in the coconut cream together. Set aside.

In a small sauce pan, boil the 200ml water and sugar till dissolved and melt in the butter.
Immediately pour this hot solution into the grated tapioca and stir to combine. It should thicken slightly.

Pour the coconut milk/eggs mixture  into grated tapioca mixture and stir well to combine.

Pour batter into a lined grease proof paper into a 7" or 8" inch square baking pan and bake in a preheated oven at 170/180C for 1 hour or  until golden brown.

                          Golden brown 

The Best Sambal Belacan Dipping Sauce

Sambal is a popular condiment in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.  

It is usually made from chillies, spices, herbs and belacan (shrimp paste).  Sambal belacan is made either for frying process or dipping sauce.

Today I would like to share with you my new found love, my best sambal belacan dipping sauce.  If you like chilli dipping sauce which is sweet and tangy taste, you really got to try this. 

Best Sambal Belacan Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

5-6 fresh chilli

10 green bird's eye chilli

4 medium size onions (cut to halves)

2 clove garlic

1" belacan (shrimp paste)

10 limes (squeeze out juice)

 (save 3-4 lime skins to blend in later)

3 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp brown sugar

2 tsp salt

2 tbsp vinegar

Method

Place the onions and belacan in a frying pan. Toast the belacan till fragrant and the onions till lightly char.

In a blender, add in the lightly char onions, garlic, toasted belacan, sugar, brown sugar, salt, lime juice and vinegar. 

Blend about 15 seconds; then add in all the chillies and lime skins. Continue to blend till to the paste texture you like.

(You may grate more lime skins in if you like).

Store the chilli paste sauce in a glass container.

* This sambal chilli sauce will taste much better the longer it is kept.

Store in the fridge up to 2 weeks.

This dipping sauce is good to go with any fried fish, fish cakes or slice some cucumber and dip in it. Yum .... drooling 🤤🤤

Basque Burnt Cheesecake

If you have not heard of Basque Burnt Cheesecake before, at a glance at my post you might have thought I have a disaster baking day and burnt my cake!!

The first time when I came across this burnt cheesecake on the social media,  my instinct  looking at it is "that cake is over burnt on top and yet they still want to post it out!" 😂😂😂.

But most of those who have baked it or tasted this burnt cheesecake, they only  obsessively raving how delicious this cheesecake is!

Basque Burnt Cheesecake

Recipe reference from PhongHong Bakes

Ingredients 

500g cream cheese (at room temperature)

170g caster sugar

250 ml double cream or whipping cream

3 large eggs

18g flour

Method

Line an 8" round springform pan with baking paper ensuring that the paper extends about 2 inches above the rim of the pan (the cake will rise above the rim in the oven).

With your stand mixer, add the cream cheese and sugar into the bowl and beat until smooth and creamy.

Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well  (about 15 seconds on each egg and scraping down the sides of the bowl on each addition).

Pour in double cream and beat until well incorporated. 

Turn the mixer off and sift in the flour over cream cheese mixture. Beat on low speed until incorporated, about 15 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl and continue to beat until batter is very smooth, homogenous, and silky

Pour batter into prepared pan, tap a few times to release air bubbles.

Baked the cheesecake at 200°C (please adjust according to your oven) for 60 - 65 minutes) till deep dark brown top but still jiggly in the center.

Let the cheesecake cool slightly (about 10 - 15 minutes.)  The cheesecake will "collapse" slightly and then unmould the springform.
Let it cool completely and thereafter carefully peel the parchment away.  Cut into wedges and serve 

Unfinished cheesecakes can be store in an airtight container and keep in the fridge.

Dried Agar Agar Candy

Today post is my first post for 2019 😊😊.
How sweet could it be posting my first post is sweet jelly candies. Hopefully for the rest of the year my life would be sweet sweet.

Dried Agar Agar candies .... I once tasted this dried agar agar is when Im a teenager time going visiting a Malay friend during Hari Raya. My first bite of this candy and Im absolutely love it. When I asked my friend how it was made, she told me that the agar agar had to be sundried for days.  What??? For days?? Oh not me, Im not going to do this ridiculous hardwork to sundried these candies for days before I can eat it!!

And after 30 over years, here I am making this sweet candies to enjoy 😁😁.

Dried Agar Agar Candy
Recipe adapted from Table for 2 .... or more

Ingredients

100gm agar-agar strips (you can use scissor to snip it shorter)

3 litre water (12 cups)

800gm rock sugar

600gm caster sugar

2 tsp of rose flavouring & few drop of red or pink colouring

2 tsp lychee flavour (no colouring required)

2 tsp apple flavouring & few drops of green colouring

2 tsp orange flavouring (no colouring required)

Method 

In a heavy based big pot, put the agar agar strips and pour the 3 litres water in. 

Bring to a boil and turn to low heat, boil until all agar strips have dissolved; stirring occasionally.

Prepare 4 square or rectangle baking pans.  Add in the flavourings and colourings into each of the pan. Set aside.

Add in the rock sugar and caster sugar.  Cook till everything dissolves. The texture should be thick once the sugar and agar agar has dissolved.

Pour the agar agar mixture evenly into the four pans and stir to mix the flavouring and colouring.

Once the agar agar has turned solidified, cut out  with serrated knife. (do cut out into small pieces).

Arrange the cut pieces, serrated side down on a large tray lined with non stick baking paper.

Sun dry until a whitish crunchy crust appears. Turn jelly pieces every other day for proper exposure to the sun. 

After cutting the agar agar and lay out nicely on the trays only I realise it is a little too big in size. I have to take it out again to cut it half each of every piece.  Well, being a first timer 😄

Smaller sizes can cut short the drying time.

Will I make this again? Bringing in and out these trays of gems for 3 to 4 days to sundry and depending on the weather? Yes, definitely will make this again but I think I will get a food dehydrator to do the drying for me 😆. 

(I have to keep a watchful eyes on it in case bird's dropping ... or flies landed on my gems).

In the beginning when I was going through reading the recipe, the amount of rock sugar and sugar used in it really scares me off. 

But believe me, it is really not that overly sweet in taste. I find it just perfect !! 

 
Here I would like to wish all my Chinese readers Happy Chinese New Year in advance!

Gong Xi Fa Cai and have a prosperous year ahead !