There are many banana bread recipes out there and a lot of them claim to produce the best loaf. But just like a brownie (cakey/ chewy/ fudgy), the banana bread has its own 'texture spectrum'. On one end is a more fluffy cake like, tender crumbed banana bread; on the other is a banana bread that is much denser, reminiscent of an Asian kueh, which is why perfection is subjective.
Over the course of a few weeks, I've baked countless banana breads, made various adjustments to the weights and have settled on a winner. This recipe is a personal favourite — a nice middle ground between fluffy and dense, with the added depth of flavour from the use of coffee and brown sugar. Having said that, personal preferences may defer from person to person. I'll also include a couple of adjustments at the end to help you achieve the banana bread texture you so desire.
Read MoreJust the thought of boozy tiramisu cream (heavenly combination of Marsala, Kahlua and mascarpone) nestled between 20 layers of thin crêpes drove me absolutely insane. And when I finally turned it into reality, the actual thing tasted so good that it has found its way to the top as my all time favourite cake to make... and eat. This tiramisu mille crêpe was certainly worth all the time and effort.
Read MoreSpring has arrived and rhubarb is finally in season! I've never tasted raw rhubarb before so out of curiosity I bit into one and it wasn't a pleasant experience. On its own, rhubarb is very sharp and tangy but when transformed (into a compote or pie etc.), it's surprisingly delicious.
Something as sharp as the rhubarb deserves to be paired up with something sweet - white chocolate. A white chocolate ganache tart can be sickeningly sweet, but the sharpness of the rhubarb from the puree in the ganache and the compote on the side helps to balance the flavours. And as an added bonus, the gorgeous natural pink from the rhubarb makes the tart aesthetically pleasing.
Read MorePancake day last year: I made American pancakes with bananas, bacon and maple syrup for a picnic with friends, and constructed the stack out in the park just outside school. Things get a little unpredictable when you're photographing outdoors, so as I was pouring the maple syrup from a height, the winter/spring wind blew the lovely stream of maple syrup right into Yeewon's (my pancake model) beautiful long hair.
Pancake day this year: I thought I would make something different and swap out the milk for buttermilk. As a result, the buttermilk pancakes turned out slightly fluffier than the American pancakes. Since I had enough to make two stacks, I dressed up one with layers of peaches and whipped cream, topped with more cream and a peach "rose", then drowned in homemade vanilla bean bourbon caramel sauce.
Read MoreI had left over dough from the coconut passionfruit thumbprint cookies so I just rolled them into little balls and baked them without the jam. These bite sized cookies are buttery, crumbly and much firmer as the jam tends to make the thumbprints a lot softer.
What I like about this cookie is that it's extremely versatile. With the same base dough, you could make various types for all sorts of occasions: fun thumbprint cookies filled with any jam or ganache you may fancy, simple round cookies flavoured with coconut for Chinese New Year, or decorated spritz cookies for Christmas.
Read MoreTrips to the Selfridges Food Hall always result in me bringing home a jar or two of interesting flavoured jams, the stuff you can't find in your regular supermarkets. There's one flavour in particular I can never resist - passionfruit - and if you put it in cakes/ tea/ yoghurt etc, I'll be like "HERE, TAKE MY MONEY". That was basically what happened when I first laid eyes on a jar of Nicolas Vahe's passion coconut jam. Since then, I've finished two jars because the jam is that good. And I don't think I say this often enough, but I'm absolutely in love with Nicolas Vahe's range of jams and everyone should go out and get one now.
Putting my huge jam collection to good use, I've selected three different fillings for these coconut thumbprint cookies: Nicolas Vahe's passionfruit and coconut jam, Awani Bali's pink guava jam, and Fortnum & Mason's lemon curd. You can pretty much use whatever jam you want. The flavour pairing possibilities are endless.
Read MoreThe guys over at SortedFood were on a quest to find the ultimate burger and in order to do that, they encouraged people to share their burger ideas and recipes. This was my take on what a burger should be like:
Read MoreCaramel is such a simple yet versatile thing of beauty. With a basic dry caramel, you could pretty much add any flavour and it'll work wonderfully like mango caramel, chocolate caramel and the ever so popular salted caramel. Miso caramel is somewhat like salted caramel, whereby the saltiness of the miso is perfectly balanced out by the sweetness of the caramel. You can make jars of this stuff and keep them for use on cakes, pancakes, waffles, brioche, icecream... the possibilities are endless.
Read MoreSomehow along the way I've discovered my love and passion for baking, and as an amateur baker I used to bake occasionally for the fun of it. But it was towards the end of my accounting and finance undergraduate degree when I started to seriously consider a career as a pastry chef instead of crunching numbers at a desk. This fall, I started the Patisserie Diploma intensive course at the Le Cordon Bleu to master pastry techniques, and to learn the art of chocolate and sugar. Time flies by really quickly when I have a busy school schedule (I started in September and I'm almost half way through the second term :O) and there isn't time or energy left in me to formulate, test recipes and update the site as frequently as I would have liked.
I wasn't intending to make a tart but there was an empty tart case just sitting at home waiting to be filled (I made it in school as part of a skills test). So I settled on something easy to make - chocolate ganache. This particular tart is something for the adults, slightly bitter and alcoholic, and it wouldn't suit everyone's taste. That's why I've included a few variations on the ganache (no sugar added/ no alcohol).
Read MoreI love making strawberry roses because they're incredibly beautiful, edible (sugar flowers taste terrible) and really easy to make. This is a step by step picture tutorial for all those on instagram, who expressed their interest in making them. Give it a go and when you get the hang of it, try making a strawberry rose bouquet.
Read MoreIt's about time I made something a little healthier than my usual bakes and this recipe is dedicated to all my health conscious family and friends. Not only does it not have any butter and sugar, it also has tons of nutritious chia seeds. You can now eat (more) cake with less guilt!
Read MoreA friend needed help with an earl grey flavoured cake so I made a test cake to see how it'll turn out. Well it was supposed to be a test cake but somehow I ended up making a stacked 9 inch cake, which involved tripling the recipe (now that's a lot of cake batter and frosting).
Read MoreCupcakes sparked my love for baking when I made my very first batch for a friend's birthday, and I'm at my most relaxed state when I'm baking cupcakes because I've made them so many times in massive quantities for the baking society that I know the recipes by heart. But ever since the last society event, I've stopped making them and have focused on whole cakes and tarts so it's nice to get back to cupcakes.
The star of this recipe is Guido Gobino's gianduja (chocolate hazelnut) spread I got during my trip to Turin, Italy. The spread contains more than 35% hazelnuts while Nutella typically has only 13%. Besides the richer hazelnut flavour, the gianduja spread is thicker, smoother and more velvety, which makes the swiss meringue buttercream exceptionally delicious. I couldn't stop myself from "taste testing" a few spoonfuls. But if you can't get your hands on the gianduja spread (Venchi stocks their own spread), you could always use Nutella instead.
Read MoreBreakfast is usually a meal that I don't wake up in time for. My University lifestyle is such that I go straight for lunch, skipping breakfast completely. But now that I'm about to graduate (and with the arrival of my visiting family), my body clock has slowly readjusted back to the normal breakfast-lunch-dinner cycle.
My mom goes absolutely crazy for British berries, and that might be an understatement. She stocks my fridge with all sorts of berries (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries... you name it and I'll have it) every day so I took some for the breakfast muffins. These muffins are incredibly moist and tender crumbed and they never fail to brighten up my mornings.
Read MoreA few weeks back, my family came to visit me in London for the summer and I took them to Borough Market for Bread Ahead's doughnuts. While we were there, we came across a stall selling assorted chocolate truffles and my mom bought a box of strawberry balsamic flavoured ones. It was love at first taste and I set about recreating this wonderful combination of sweet and tangy to satisfy my cravings and also to use up the massive amounts of flour and sugar in the cupboard since I'll be moving out to my new place soon.
I used my favourite chewy brownie recipe here, but I ran out of dark chocolate so I substituted some of it for Guido Gobino's Giandujottino chocolates we bought from Turin (my mom was horrified and said it was a waste of expensive chocolate).
Read More#5 Vanessa My partner-in-crime and greatest supporter in life (apart from @nyoncat) likes: chocolate, coffee, my chocolate chip cookies, frozen cream and meringue. And if you put them all together, you get one sinfully decadent cake. Happy birthday Van, I'm naming this monster of a cake after you!
Read More#4 Tricia My housemate chanced upon a new greengrocer, Parkway Greens Greengrocers (Parkway Greens, 52 Parkway, Camden, London, NW1 7AH), near our place that opened early this year. I got to try some of the fruits that Trish bought and they were so much sweeter and fresher than the ones I usually get from the supermarket. Anyway, the main point of this post isn't about the greengrocer but the passion fruit she bought (this was pretty exciting news to me because I've never had an actual, whole passion fruit before) and since she couldn't finish it before her vacation, she asked me to make something with it.
Read More#3 Samantha I first met Sam when we were 13 and as desk mates at school, we drove each other crazy every day. It's been 9 years since our fateful meeting and even though we hardly see each other now, we've always shared a love for baking. Just last week, Sam came down to London for a few days while on exchange in Sweden and we arranged to bake together. She brought along a massive bottle of Baileys and I see myself either getting tipsy by drinking it neat or churning out Baileys related baked goods for the rest of the month. Thanks Sam! ^^
Read More#2 Crystalbel I made some s'mores cupcakes last week for the end of term get together and Crystalbel wanted more after demolishing her share. She offered to make Hainanese Chicken Rice in exchange for s'mores and who am I to say no. Chicken rice for cake - that's a good deal.
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