Sesame Cookies

I love these cookies because they’re quick and easy to make. You don’t even need a mixer to do this as you can just mix it by hand. It is lightly sweeten but you can add more sugar to it. The sesame seeds gave these cookies a very nice nutty flavor to it and it goes really well with a cup of tea.

Ingredients:

1 stick/1/2 cup unsalted butter – room temperature
½ cup of sugar
1 cup + 3 tbsp of flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup of sesame seeds, lightly toasted

Prune and Walnut Butter Cake

It has been awhile since I post a recipe for cakes. I baked this cake a few months ago to take it with me to a gathering. The brown sugar and chopped prunes gave this cake a very nice caramel fragrant.

It goes really well with a cup of coffee or tea.

Cherry Blossom/Sakura Cookies

I’ve seen many people making dessert with the preserved sakura for the past few years and they were so pretty. I found them online but there were not cheap so I waited until Diana went back to Japan and she bought some for me. My two good friends Linda and Maria got me some too when they were holidaying there. So I’ve been using it to make moon cakes, macarons and now these cookies. Diana is in Japan again now so hopefully she is able to find more for me.

I made these cookies for a birthday tea party for a very good friend last week. Turns out really pretty and everyone goes oooh and ahhh over it and said they look too pretty to eat. I got the recipe from Daily Delicious with a tiny change. I added some almond powder to it and increased the flour by 20 gram as I find to dough too wet to handle. I think it might be the size of the egg yolk I used.

Taiwanese Pineapple Cake/Cookies

I always like this cake. I am not sure why they called it cake as it tasted more like cookies. I bought it a few times from the Asian supermarket and also once at Hong Kong airport but they were not good. The pastry was so dried and the filling doesn’t taste like pineapple at all. I found out that they added winter melon to the filling….mmmmm no wonder it is not good. Anyway, I always wanted to try making these and finally did it a few months ago after buying more moulds from eBay. My friend Alan gave me some too. It cost me quite a bit of money and in order to justify spending so much I should make it more often :)

I used only pineapple for the filling instead of adding winter melon to it. I coarsely grated the pineapple so that I can still feel the bite of the filling. I tasted one once it cools down but the pastry was more on the crunchy and dry side so I let it sit for a day and the pastry turns out soft, rich and very buttery. It was really good. I think it tasted much better than the one I bought. As CNY is just around the corner, maybe you can making this instead of the usual pineapple tarts.

Meyer Lemon Bars

Lemon lemon. I just love them. I have a huge lemon tree at my backyard but the lemon is not that juicy as for my little meyer lemon plant, it’s not producing any fruits this year. Not sure why. My good friend Maria gave me some Meyer Lemons from her backyard and she told me she love lemon bars. So lemon bars it is. So I made some to share it with her and Linda. I prefer meyer lemons as they are more juicy and less tart. Hopefully my meyer plant will give me some fruits next year but if not I can always get some from Maria.

I used Ina Garter recipe but the next time I make this again I will cut down a bit of the flour for the filling as I like the filling to be softer. For the sugar I cut it down to 2 cups as meyer lemons are not that tangy so needed less sugar.

Lemon Blueberry Butter Cake

Someone at home is complaining that I hardly bake anything for him anymore. Poor guy I actually do bake but mostly for sale. I hardly bake anything for our own consumptions. My take on this is I don’t bake I don’t eat as this way I can control myself. Anyway, I gave in and bake this blueberry cake when Zue came for visit few weeks ago. We also can have it for tea and breakfast. Blueberry is in season now so I bought quite a bit of it for freezing and used some in our juice and baking.

Almond Cinnamon Stick Cookies

I love the smell of cinnamon in baked pies and cookies and I don’t think I use it enough in my baking. So I decided to add some cinnamon to these cookies. This cookie dough a more pastry like rather than cookie as I wanted a sturdier cookie. It actually turns out pretty well, they were crunchy, not overly sweet and it goes really with a cup of tea or coffee. Do try it out.

Caramel Agar Agar/Agar Agar Caramel

This eggless caramel pudding tastes very much like flan but it is much lighter. I think I like this version better but Carlos prefer the egg version. I can’t blame him as he grew up eating that with Dulce De Leche.

Persimmon and Banana Muffins

I am a big fan of persimmon and the last season my backyard persimmon tree gave me quite a few fruits compare to the previous year. Carlos is not a fan of it and I’ve been eating it a lot and giving some away too. The persimmon is the Fuyu kind which is round and crisp and I like eating it as it is but there were a few sitting on the kitchen counter and they were getting soft and over-ripe. I decided to dice them up and used it in the muffins and since I have a couple of blacken bananas I decided to add them into the mix as well. By the way, persimmons are wonderfully good for you. They are full of fiber, vitamins A, C, antioxidants and iron. So next time if you see these nice orange fruits at the farmers market or supermarket do pick up a few.

Lime Cake

Carlos has been away for business every week, so I have some time on my hand and so I decided to do some cleaning and organizing our computer room. I have so many cookery books from Tesco lying around the shelves and table. It took me nearly 3 hours to arrange them accordingly so it will be easier for me if I need to look at certain recipe. So happen, I found a hand written notebook in a pile and while flipping through it, I found a cake recipe using lime. I have a lot of limes in my fridge given by Nini's and decided to try it out. It turns out really good, soft and moist and with fine crumbs. This cake goes really well with a cup of tea or coffee.

Dark Chocolate Bark with Sea Salt, Macadamia Nuts and Dried Fruits

This bark is by far one of the easiest desserts to make. You can mix up a batch of it in 10 minutes before leaving it to set up. The best part of this bark is you can put your own spin of topping ingredients to it like nuts, dried fruits, toasted coconut, candied ginger etc.. The combinations are endless.

Macadamia White Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am never a fan of white chocolate because I find them way too sweet for my liking. I am not sure why I bought a bag of it and it has been sitting in my fridge for the longest time. I finally used some of it to make this batch of cookies. I added some macadamia nuts to it so that I don’t have to put too much of the white chocolate chips. I baked them a bit longer as I prefer crunchier cookies rather than chewy. But if you like chewy cookies just bake it to lightly brown.

On the side note I have not been very active in my blogging now. I am more into FB, Dayre and Instagram. You can follow me at Instagram user name Gertrudewan

Fruity Butter Cake

I booked marked this recipe from Ann’s blog a long time ago and finally try them out during summer when there were plenty of berries in my fridge. I baked them into cupcakes and gave them to two of my ex-colleagues. They like it a lot and told me that their family ate them all in no time. I am glad that they like it and thanks Ann for sharing the recipe.

Pumpkin Tartlets

Is autumn and there are pumpkins everywhere so it is time to make some dessert out of it. I made these cute little tartlets for our Zumba Halloween Party in October. Yes we do eat dessert but in moderation ha ha… After a year of exercising 5 days a week I notice some changes in my eating habits and also my clothing. I don’t over indulge and eat everything in moderation. I do reward myself with some dessert every now and then. I didn’t lose a lot of weight but in some inches all over my body. I intend to keep it that way. I work too hard and make sure I don’t go back to my old habits… oh one more thing; I cut down on eating out. Outside food do have a lot of oil, sodium and also sugar. I guess that helps too.

Now back to these tartlets. Aren’t they cute? I made it into little bit size pieces so that everyone can have 1 or 2 pieces of it rather than having a big slice. But if you want, you can make it into a pie. I know some of you are not a fan of pumpkin but do give this a try. You might like it.

Simple Apple Cake

Autumn is here and apples are on sale everywhere. It gets as low as $0.59 a pound and as usual I will load them up. I am not a huge fan of eating them as it is so I usually add it into my juice or bake with it. I will make tarts , add it into banana bread and make cake out of it. This is just a simple butter cake with the addition of apples in it. Great for afternoon tea or have it with or morning coffee.

Fresh Fig Yogurt Cake

This season my fig tree didn’t produce too many fruits and the squirrels got some of it too but it is still enough for me to eat it fresh and reserved some to make this cake. This moist cake is studded with fresh figs. The flavor and texture is similar to a pound cake: buttery, vanilla scented, and just a little dense. The plain yogurt adds a subtle tang to it and it is great to have it with a cup of strong coffee.

Sweet Blueberry Focaccia

When I was in Vancouver I tried out blueberry focaccia from one of the famous bakery and they were really good. They made it into small individual serving size but they were not cheap though. A piece with tax cost around $4.00. This bakery is also famous for their grape focaccia. Since it is summer and there are plenty of blueberries around I thought tried to replica this at home. Can you imagine the smell in the house when I was baking this?

Man, it turns out so good if I should say so myself. The focaccia was soft on the inside and with the crunchy sweet sugary topping, I was hooked. I gave a few away and my friends love it too. I am planning to bake this again but it will be with grapes. I think this would be perfect to serve for brunch, cocktail party with some cheese and wine or like me enjoyed it for breakfast with my morning coffee.

Traditional Cantonese Mooncakes

Is Mid Autumn Festival again and every year the festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month according to the Chinese calendar. This year Mid-Autumn festival falls on September 8th. I am feeling really homesick especially during the traditional festival where my family will get together to have dinner. Our family groups are getting smaller as most of my nieces are away from home either working or studying overseas. Anyway my heart will always be with my family even though we are thousands of miles apart.

I actually have no intention of making these mooncakes but after looking at the prices of mooncakes sold here I just can’t bring myself to buy any. The cheapest box of 4 pieces cost over $20.00 and they are mostly from China. The one from Hong Kong cost over $40.00 a box. I can’t bring myself to pay this kind of money for it. So I decided to make some myself this year.

Espresso Almond Butter Cake

I am one person who bakes on impulse. I don’t plan my baking and I just go with the mood of that particular day. This cake is the results of it. While checking on my fridge I saw some leftover sour cream and ground almond. I thought of making some macaroon but decided against it because of the warm weather as it is not good to dry out the macaroons. So I end up baking this cake. I don’t want the regular almond butter cake so I added some espresso powder to it and voila!! An Espresso Almond cake.

This cake is really moist, nutty and with great coffee flavor. It goes really well coffee or a tall glass of cold milk. I added a bit more sugar to this cake because of the bitterness of the espresso powder but you can adjust it to your liking.

Blueberry Streusel Scones

I always have a soft spot for scones. It reminds me of home Malaysia where I baked them so often when my two sisters come over to my apartment and we will have English high tea together. I will prepare a few types of finger sandwiches, cakes and scones. They love having English high tea especially Angela. The last time we had high tea together was in Ontario Canada. I miss them a lot.

Now I baked them to share it with very special friend Bonnie. She just loves scones. What special about these scones is the streusel topping. The cinnamon crunchy topping compliments the mild-sweetness from blueberries and it is so hard to resist over eating it. If you have no self control with bake goods, then I have a perfect solution for you. Send some to your family or friends like I did. They will love you for it.