Durian Chocolate Chiffon Cake

This is 2nd Chiffon Cake recipe that I experiment and tested. I used the combination of Cocoa Powder + 70% Dark Chocolate + fresh DURIAN as main ingredients. So you can imagine having a bite on this slice of cake with such combination where you can actually smell and taste the baked durian in a rich cocoa content. Since this is a chiffon cake, you will find the texture of the cake to be light, spongy and fluffy rather than that greasy and dense compare to cake.

Chocolate Overload

Talk about Chocolate both Reyon and me can't resists it. We have all kind of chocolate stuffs in the kitchen pantry and fridge, ranging from cookies to ice-cream and cakes.....So when I come across this recipe, I told myself that this is a must try list on our baking list. I show Rey the picture of this Chocolate muffin and at once he told me that he wants to make for me, Grandma and Grandaunt on Mother's Day.

So immediately after the washing up from our Salmon Bento lunch. We started our Mother's Day baking project. I help Reyon to measure all the ingredients and put them into separate bowl while he will follow my instructions to make the muffins. This as usual is suitable to be handle by kids as it require only, WHISK, STIR, POUR and BAKE. So do give your kids a chance to whisk up this simple and yet irresistible chocolate muffin.

Dual Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Although I love to eat brownies but then I don't really make it at home because I knew that it's not really easy to make a good, moist and chewy brownies using home ingredients. But after hearing my friend Tracy mentioning about her homemade chocolate brownies being wipe off the tray by all her family memebers, I decided to try out the recipe that she gave me. Everything went on perfectly except that because I am using the rectangle brownies tin and maybe due to my oven temperature(mine is fan forced oven) the interior part of the brownies is too dry and crumbs like you see from the above picture.

But this does not affect the overall taste of the brownies as it is still very fragrant and full of chocolate taste. From the recipe that Tracy given to me, I use Grand Marnier instead of Vanilla Essence and I also add in grated orange rinds from one orange. The combination of chocolate and orange really makes the brownies extra fragrant and tastier.

Reyon and I love this little treats and he insists to try it out after it had being cool from the oven tray while we are preparing for tomorrow bento ingredients. Thank you tracy for sharing this wonderful recipe with us dispite that I had made some error on the baking time....... :)

Ingredients:
250g Butter, melted
1 1/4 Cup Sugar
1 Teaspoon Grand Marnier
4 Eggs
1 1/3 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Cocoa Powder
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt
1 Grated Orange Rinds
125g Dark Chocolate, roughly chopped
100g White chocolate, for topping(optional)

Methods:
1. Put the butter in a microwave safe bowl and melt it on high 2 minutes, pause to stir after each minute.
2. Sift all the flour ingedients and salt together and set aside.
3. Next add in the sugar to the melted butter and stir till the sugar almost melted and gluey.
4. When the sugar mixture is cool off, add in the egg one by one and whisk until well combine.
5. Next stir in the flour mixture into the egg mixture till well combine.
6. Add in the orange rinds and chopped dark chocolate and stir till combine then pour into a square or rectangle brownie tin.
7. Bake in a preheat 180 degree oven and bake for about 20 - 30 minutes depend on the tin size.
8. The brownie will pull away from the sides of the pan and when test with a skewer, it will be a bit moist inside.
9. Cool. Cut into bars.

Notes:
a) I used 1 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup castor sugar
b) If using those black coated baking tin, you have to reduce baking time by 5 - 10 minutes.

Chocolate Fudge Brownie With Assorted Nuts

Try making this Chocolate Fudge Brownie With Assorted Nuts using Betty Crocker® Ultimate Fudge Brownies pre-mixed packet. This is recommend by one of my blog pal Evan. The texture of the Brownie is very moist and chewy and I really love the taste and texture compare to some store bought brownie.

For this recipe, I add in an extra 50g mixture of Walnut and Macadamia nuts to make it a combination of crunchy and chewy texture. But I guess I had slightly over baked the brownie as the bottom layer is slightly drier than the upper portion. But overall I love this pre-mixed pack and I will want to give their other flavour a try too.

Double Chocolate Chips Cookies With Nestum

This is Reyon's favourite Chocolate Chips cookies that had a mixture of Black and White Mini Chocolate Chips together with Nestum. The texture of this cookie is very crunchy due to the adding of the Nestum. You use any kind of chocolate chips, chopped dark chocolate or even with some extra nuts to create different favour and texture.


The recipe is introduce to me by my best blog pal Tracy, but I had used only half of the original recipes to make and add in some extra RUM for some extra fragrant.

Ingredients: (make about 30 - 35, 3cm cookies)
90g Light Brown Sugar
90g Unsalted Butter, cubes
95g Plain Flour
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
50g Nestum(instant cereal)
50g Mini Chocolate Chips
1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence
Pinch Of Salt
1/2 Egg, Light Beaten

Methods:
1. Sift together flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl and set aside for later use.
2. Cream butter and sugar till pale, beat in egg, vanilla essence and RUM(if using) until well combined about 1 minute on medium speed.
3. Fold the flour mixture into the ready butter mixture.
4. Next stir in Nestum and Chocolate Chips with wooden spoon or spatula.
5. Drop teaspoonful of dough onto baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for 15 - 20 minutes at a preheated 180 degree oven till slightly browned at the edge.



Notes:
a) I added about 1/2 Teaspoon Of RUM liquor to give the cookies an extra fragrant.
b) Nestle Nestum can be found in most local supermarket under the cereal or coffee/tea session.

Durian Cheesecake With Chocolate Fudge

My family had always being a Durian Lover. Especially my brother and my aunty's family. So I decided to come up with this special durian cheesecake using a basic non-bake cheesecake recipe.

Em... maybe you will ask me or wonder how does the taste like when you have a mixture of dark chocolate fudge with creamy durian cheese filling? I can tell you, it's a very special combination. As if you can have 3 different taste and texture within a cake itself. The crunch of the Oreo Biscuit, the smooth and creamy Durian Cheese Filling and lastly top with chewy Dark Chocolate Fudge. It's really heavenly match....


Although you need a few more ingredients and steps to make this Non-Bake cheesecake but it's really worth it and you can interchange the main ingredients with other fruits like: Mango, Strawberry, Blueberry or etc instead of Durian.

Ingredients For Crust:
225g - 250g Chocolate Oreo Biscuit, finely crushed
150g Unsalted Butter, melted and cooled

Methods:
1. Use a large sheet of aluminum foil to wrap the base of a 7" x 7" square cake ring.
2. Slowly drizzle in the melted butter into the biscuit cumbs then stir till the mixture it's almost combined(you might not need to add in all the melted butter) and press into cake ring and chill in the fridge until firm. (about 20 mins - 30 mins).

Ingredients For Durian Fillings:
250g Cream Cheese
70g Caster Sugar
250g Durian Flesh
1 Tablespoon Gelatine Powder
50ml Warm Water
125g Plain Yogurt
200g Non-Dairy Whipping Cream

Methods:
1. Double boil or microwave the gelatine powder with 50ml warm water until dissolved and set aside.
2. Beat the cream cheese and sugar until creamy and light, then add in the durian flesh and continue to beat until well combined.
3. Next pour in the melted gelatine mixture and yogurt then stir till combined.
4. Lastly pour in the whipping cream and slowly stir till the mixture is creamy and well mixed.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared biscuit base tin and chill for at least 3 hours or overnight then proceed to the chocolate fudge.

Ingredients For Chocolate Fudge:
150g Semi Bitter Dark Chocolate
100ml Whipping Cream
30g Unsalted Butter

Methods:
1. Put all the ingredients in a pan/glass bowl over boiling water(or use double boiler).
2. Whisk the ingredients for 5 minutes or so until the fudge is smooth and glossy.
3. Let the warm fudge cool down to room temperature before pouring into the firm cheesecake top and tap the cake a few times to release any air bubbles.
4. Put it back into the fridge and let the chocolate fudge set for about an hour or so before cutting into slices and served.

Notes:
a) When making this cheesecake, try to make it in square tin so that the layer will not be too tall or else you will end up with a thick layer of durian cream cheese filling.
b) I suggest a 7" x 7" square tin or 8" round tin will do a great job.

Chocolate Lava Cake

First of all, I must thanks Suyin(one of my blogger's pal) who generously shared her "Secret Recipe"(click link for more details) for this chocolate cupcake batter. The ingredients are very straight forward and the method is so easy that even my son can do some help up. This is a very wonderful after dinner dessert that suits those chocolate lover like us.

The aroma of the cake is so wonderful as it fills up the whole kitchen while baking. But the actual excitement begins when you see those melted chocolate floating out from the middle of these little sweetie. For my case, I used "Dark Chocolate" for the filling as to compromise the sweetness of the cake so that it will taste a bit sweet and bitter. Or you can use "White Chocolate" for a better colour effect.

Ingredients: (make 4 - 5 medium muffins size)
60g Butter
60g Dark Chocolate(Cadbury Old Gold)
1 Large Egg or 1 1/2 Medium Size Egg
25g Caster Sugar
25g Plain Flour
1 Tablespoon Cocoa Powder
50g Of Extra Chocolate Pieces, abit soften

Methods:
1. Preheat oven to 200 degree, line the muffin tray with paper cups.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a microwave safe bowl for about 30 sec high, stir and another 20 sec high and stir till well combine.(this steps will depend on the wattage of your microwave, the timing might be more or less)
3. Sift the plain flour and cocoa powder together in a bowl and set aside.
4. Beat egg and sugar in a separate bowl till pale and fluffy.
5. Stir in the chocolate mixture till combine, then fold in the sifted flour mixtures.
6. Stir mixture till well combine, but becareful not to over stir it.
7. Spoon mixture to prepared muffin tin about slight more than 1/2 fill, then stuffed 1 1/2 pieces of the Chocolate into the centre as fillings.
8. Bake in the preheat oven for 15 - 20 minutes, the cake will look puffed up and set on the surface, but the center should still be moist.

Notes:
I used TOBLERONE(Dark Chocolate with Honey & Almond Nougat) for the filling, you can used any type of chocolate that you prefer.
You had to eat this while still hot or warm or else the chocolate filling inside will dried up instead.

Chocolate Cornflake Treats

Corn flake is a crisp, flaky, commercially prepared cold cereal made from coarse cornmeal. If you or your kids are going to eat sweets and treats sometimes, (sure you are!) try to make sure at least some are of nutritional value.

For this simple treats, you only required 2 main ingredients which is the corn flakes and dark chocolate. And you can decorate it with some almond flakes, or colourful sprinkler.

Eating more Dark Chocolate can help lower blood pressure -- if you've reached a certain age and have mild high blood pressure, say the researchers. But you have to balance the extra calories by eating less of other things. Dark chocolate may have better anti-oxidant properties than milk chocolate. So a little bits of this sinful treat once in a while is exceptional for all family members.

Ingredients:
100g Plain Corn Flakes
120g Dark Chocolate
10g Toasted Almond Flake/Colourful Chocolate Bits

Methods:
1. Put corn flake in a zip lock bag and use a rolling-pin to lightly crash it.(do not crush the corn flake till too mashy)
2. Double-boil the dark chocolate over a pot of simmering hot until melted or you can put in the microwave on high for 30 second stir and repeat the process until the chocolate is fully melted.
3. Add the corn flake into the melted chocolate and stir well using a spatula.
4. Spoon the coated corn flake into paper cups or ring mould then flatten the top with a spoon.
5. Decorate it with some almond fake or colourful chocolate bits, refridge for at last 20 minutes to harden before removing them from mould and serve.

Chocolate Chips Almond Cookies

Very tempting to try out this "so call" Famous Amos Cookies from M4M website. Thanks to one of the members who shared his recipe with clear steps on making this wonder cookies. The ingredients are rather straight forward and you need some grated Gula Melaka which one of the key ingredients. Besides that I replace chocolate chip and nuts with 1 whole block of Cadbury Almond Chocolate as I have run out of chocolate chip and I can't find Macadamia nuts around.

American Chocolate Cake

Yesterday I finally had some spare time to try out  this tempting American Chocolate Cake recipe that I put on list. Perhaps due to the Chocolate Ganache Cream the tase of the cake is quite similar to MUD CAKE with a slight dense texture. But overall it still rated good for us with its chocolatey after taste. Thanks for the recipe from one of the Mummy from Mum's Website.



Ingredients for Cake: 
125g Unsalted Butter
175g Brown Sugar
½ Teaspoon Vanilla essence
2 Eggs
35g Cocoa Powder
130ml Warm Water
140g Self-Raising Flour

Ingredients for Chocolate Ganache:
100ml Dairy Whipping Cream
125g Dark Chocolate

Methods on Cake: 
1. Mix in cocoa powder and water. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add in eggs, one at a time. Add in vanilla essence, beating well after each addition until well combine.
3. Then add in a bit of cocoa mixture and flour slowly until finish.
4. Spoon batter into a 10”x14”x1” cake tin. Bake in preheated oven at 180 degree for 15-20 minutes.

Methods for Chocolate Ganache:
1. Heat whipping cream until it comes to just under the boil, remove from heat and add in dark chocolate and mix well.
2. Slice cake into 3 layers. Spread ganache over first layer, cover with another layer. Repeat twice. Cover the top with ganache.