Farm Birthday Cake

This is actually a very late post. I made this cake for my son's third birthday 3 months ago.

The story began when I made a plan to make a small party to celebrate my son's 3rd birthday party. This is the first time I and my husband were going to invite some friends to come over for this party. Because this kind of event had to be prepared, I started to make a design for his birthday cake about 1 month before. My son is crazy in love with alphabet. He loves to sing ABC song and play with any kind of alphabet toys. So, I planned to make an ABC train birthday cake.

I've come up with a lot of ideas but it seemed none of them were good and easy enough to make. I just didn't get the feeling for it. I knew if I didn't get the feeling then the cake won't be good enough and I won't be satisfied with it. Of course I wanted to make a good impression.

Seeing me struggling with it for weeks while the clock is ticking, my husband suggested me to check another theme for the cake. He thought that farm cake with a lot of animal on it would be great and cute enough for my son. He would still love it even though it is not an alphabet. Beside, I won't need a lot of  carving and because I still had a lot of other things to prepare for the party.

He's right. So, farm cake it is.

1 week before the party, I started to make the animal fondant toppers for the cake. I had a lot of fun making some ducks, chicken, some cute little piggies, a cow, a horse (only its head actually), and a lot of carrots and corns. You can see how messy it was. ^^

I also made a barn, a sign board, a cart, and a lot of hay.

This time I was not using vanilla, or chocolate or red velvet any kind of common cake that I usually used. For this farm cake, I was using lapis Surabaya or Surabaya layered cake. Lapis Surabaya is a classic Indonesian sponge cake. It is very popular and common to be used as a basis cake for any kind of birthday cake in Indonesia.  I have no idea why it's named after capital city of East Java, which is Surabaya. Maybe it was made for the first time in Surabaya. 

This cake is made from 3 layers of 2 layers of vanilla sponge cake and 1 layer of chocolate sponge cake and glued together with strawberry jam in between. Sponge cake? Before you ask, I can tell you that this is not like regular sponge cake. This kind of sponge cake has a very rich taste because the original recipe requires about 10-15 egg yolk for each layer.

I didn't want to use too much egg for my cake. So, I made the cake based on Wu Lan's Kitchen recipe with a little bit adjustment. Because my cake pan is bigger than the original recipe, the result of my cake was thinner than it should be. So, I added 1 more layer of sponge cake to make the cake higher. Forgive me because I totally forgot to take a picture of my lapis surabaya. I made it late at night in the middle of chaotic preparation for the party. 

Ingredients : 

For  vanilla layer 

• 6 egg yolks
• 3 egg whites
• 70 gr white granulated sugar
• 40 gr all purpose flour
• 15 gr corn starch
• 1 1/2 tbs milk
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 65 gr butter melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp ovallete

(make it double for the second layer)

For the chocolate layer

• 6 egg yolks
• 3 egg whites
• 80 gr white granulated sugar
• 30 gr all purpose flour
• 15 gr corn starch
• 10 gr cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp instant coffee powder
• 1 1/2 tbs milk
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 65 gr butter melted
• 1 tsp ovallete

(make it double for the second layer)

Preparation : (for each layer)

1. Preheat oven for 170 C (338F) 
2. Prepare a baking tray (I'm using 26x26x7 cm baking tray) and line it with baking paper. set aside.
3. In a big bowl beat together eggs, egg yolk, sugar, and ovallete with hand mixer until thickened.
4. In another bowl, mix together flour, corn starch, and baking powder ( add cocoa powder and instant coffee powder) and sift all those dry ingredient mixture
5. Add sifted dry ingredients and milk into egg mixture and beat them again on high speed until the batter become pale, soft, and there's a ribbon tail formed when the mixer is removed from the batter.
6. Add half of the melted butter and vanilla extract into the batter.
7. Using a rubber spatula, mix the butter by folding the batter until the melted butter are mixed well.
8. Add the rest of the melted butter, fold it again until well mixed and no more trace of melted butter on the cake batter. 
9. Pour the batter into the baking tray and even the surface with spatula. 
10. Bang the tray on the table few time to remove the bubbles.
11. Put the tray into the oven and bake it for about  20 minutes. 
12. Remove the tray from the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes. 
13. Repeat all the process for all the layers
14. Once all the cake are ready, stack all the layer together with using strawberry jam between each layer as a glue. (Tip : you can always use buttercream instead of strawberry jam)

Once my cake is done, I covered them with pandan flavored buttercream frosting. Well, it is just an regular vanilla buttercream with some pandan paste and green food coloring. Now, here comes the fun part. It's time to put all those little tiny creatures on the top of the cake.

First, I place the barn on the top of the cake. After that, I made a small pond for the ducks using blue buttercream, and some fondant.

And I made a muddy puddle for the piggies using mixture of vanilla buttercream, cocoa powder, and nutella. The taste was quite good actually. 

I place the cow and some hay, carrots, and corns around the barn and the cake started to look good. 

Look! There's a chicken on the top of the barn. My daughter said it's kind of weird because it supposed to be a bird nest. But I think a chicken and its nest can do just well. ^^

And there's a cart with hay as well.

I made this board using fondant as well, wrote my son's name using melted chocolate, and stick it into buttercream covered cup cake. The story was I needed a place to stick the board but it seemed that I couldn't find a perfect spot for it. Lucky me, I just happened to have one left store bought cup cake on my fridge. I decided to cut the top, turn it upside down, trim the edge, and covered it with green buttercream. Now, I had a good place to stick the board.

After that, the finishing touch was easy. I made a fence from pretzels stick glued with chocolate and stick them to the edge of the cake. I threw some fondant flowers, grass, and stones and it's done. I LOVE it and satisfied with the results. When i heard my son started to sing "E-I-E-I-Ooooo.." when he saw the cake, I knew he loved it as well.

Now, the cake is ready to be cut ^^ Happy third birthday, my lovely son.

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Star Pastry Snack

Looking for an easy last minutes snack for a party? Or a simple Christmas treats idea? I have a good recipe for you. Star pastry snack. It is cute, simple, easy to make, and delicious. As long as you have ready to use puff pastry, egg, and sugar, you can make it anytime you want.

I got this idea about few days before my son's Christmas party at school. It's very common in here that the children will have a Christmas dinner together at school to celebrate Christmas every year. Basically, every children will gather together and have dinner together at school along with the teacher and their classmate. They get to use a nice clothing, such as a dress or suit, and sit around the nicely decorated table. There will be a candles and cute set of cutlery (of course it's plastic) as well. The party itself is a potluck. Each (parents of the) children have to bring one kind of food (preferable finger food). For a smaller children, they do not have dinner but they will have Christmas breakfast.

My son is still 2.5 years old and he's still in peuterspeelzaal (playgroup). He was going to have a Christmas breakfast at his school and I could bring some snack for the children. Hmm... Making a snack for 2-4 y.o children is not as easy as making snack for 8-9 y.o children. They're more picky and can not accept all kind of food. I suddenly remember couple months ago when I made pastry snack using some leftover puff pastry from making custard cream horns. There were a lot of small slices and cut puff pastry that could not be used to make custard horns. Instead of threw them away into garbage bin, I brushed them all with egg wash, sprinkle some crystal sugar on the top, and baked them by following the instruction as the usual. Based on the same method, I think I could make a good snack for his Christmas party at school. Beside, I know my son likes it.

I made about 30 stars, put them in a plastic bag and wrap it nicely complete with a ribbon. It could be a good idea for Christmas gift as well. Just stick a small Christmas card on it, and it's ready to cheers up someone else's day. Merry Christmas everybody ^^

Ingredients : (for making 20 stars)

• 5 sheets ready to use puff pastry (I'm using 20x20 cm ready to use puff pastry)
• 1 egg, beaten
• about 150 grams white granulated sugar 

Preparation :

1. Thaw the puff pastry for about 10 minutes to make it easier to cut
2. Meanwhile, preheat oven for 200 C (392 F)
3. Prepare a baking sheet and line it up with baking paper. Set aside.
4. Using a star cookie cutter, cut 1 sheet the puff pastry into 4 stars
5. Place them on the prepared baking sheet.
6. Repeat the process for all those puff pastry sheet. 
7. Brush all the surface of the cut puff pastry with egg wash.
8. Sprinkle granulated sugar on top generously.
9. Put the pastry inside the preheated oven and bake it for 10-12 minutes or until they become golden brown. (Tip : take the pastry out of the oven once they become golden brown. the smaller the pastry cut, the shorter baking time that needed. It's really depend on the size of you pastry. But it is important to make sure that all the pastry have roughly the same size)
10. Take the pastry out an let them cool completely. 

Tip : This snack is not meant to be stored for a long time. They could get soggy fast if it's not stored properly inside airtight container or not be eaten as soon as possible. If it's happening, put the pastry on the baking sheet and pop it into preheated 180 C oven for about 10 minutes. 

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Homemade Cheesy Almond Crispy

It has been months after my last post. I've been busy since my last summer holiday (or lazy. Only God knows the truth ^^). I had a great summer holiday in Indonesia. It was amazing. I met all my family, my parents, my lovely sister, and all those people who I've never seen for years during my stay in Netherlands. The weather was amazing (including the heavy tropical rain,  but I still hate the mosquitoes and the flood), the foods were amazing too. I really miss the original taste of Indonesian food.

Speaking about food, when I was in Bandung, my sister in law got a box of snack named Almond crispy cheese. I think it's a new brand of snack because I never found it years ago. After one bite, I have to say that those thing is good. It was delicious and I would love to have another box. But too bad this snack was not available in Bandung because her friend bought from another city.

After the holiday end and I back to the Netherlands, I tried to find the recipe. I was not hoping I would find it but it turned out there are some people who already made and share the basic recipe. And  it is surprisingly easy to made.

From one recipe I could bake two times full of my baking sheets, but only half of them survived and could get inside my container. My daughter loved it. She ate most of the crackers by herself even before I took them off from the baking sheet.


Ingredients :

• 75 grams egg white  (Tip : 1 large egg contain about 30 grams egg white. So you will need 2-3 eggs to get 75 grams egg white.)
• 60 grams white granulated sugar
• 50 grams cake flour (or All purpose flour)
• 70 grams almond flakes
• 70 grams grated cheddar cheese
• 25 grams butter, melted
• some grated cheddar cheese for sprinkle

Preparation :

1. In a bowl, with a wire whisk, beat together egg white and sugar until bubbly. (Tip : For making this almond crispy, you don't need to beat the egg white until soft peak formed. There're no even a peak. Only bubbles)
2. Add flour and melted butter into the bowl and mix them together with bubbly egg whites.
3. Add almond flakes and grated cheese into the mixture and mix again.
4. Scrap the side of the bowl to prevent sticky egg white mixture on it.
5. Wrap the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest for about 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
6. Meanwhile, preheat the oven for 150 C (300 F) and layer a baking sheet with baking paper. 
7. Take the almond mixture out from the fridge and fold and stir it once more with a spoon or spatula.
8. Take about 1 tbs of mixture and put it on the prepared baking sheet. Spread it very very thinly and evenly. (Tip :  You can make it round, or rectangle, or unshaped, or anything, but the most important thing is spread it thinly (2-3 mm thin) and as even as possible to make it evenly cooked and crispy.)
9. Repeat it with all the batter left. 
10. Sprinkle on top with some of grated cheddar cheese.
11. Put the baking sheet into preheated oven and bake it for about 10 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet and bake it again for another 5-6 minutes.
12. Take it out from the oven and let it cool completely before removing all the almond crispy from the baking paper.
13. Store it in a air tight container. Be careful not to press it too hard. 

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Blueberry Cake

Last week, when I was trying to find cake recipe on the internet, I stumble on a nice picture of a blue cake. That cake was soooo blue and looks awesome. After I read it further, it says that it's a blue velvet cake. I found that the cake was using some blue berry for its ingredients and quite a lot of blue dye. I really want to make it because it looks so blue and pretty. But I don't really want to use that much of blue dye. Well, I've made red velvet cake using raspberry concentrate. And it happened that I have a box of blueberry in my fridge. Maybe I could make a blue velvet cake with blueberry concentrate or something similar. Or maybe I could even throw in some blueberry inside the cake to increase the blueberry taste.

First, I made the blueberry jam. I had to admit that I let too much liquid evaporated but it doesn't matter. Meanwhile waiting for the jam become cool, I started to make the cake batter. After the batter was done, I pour all the jam into the batter and mix it manually. The result was not like I was expected because the batter turned out purple and not blue!! I added few drop of blue dye and hoping that the color would turn like the one on the internet. But after drops of blue dye, I couldn't get royal blue color like the picture. To be honest, I started to regret my decision to add some blue dye. Why didn't I add purple dye instead to make a purple cake instead of blue cake. Well, what's done is done. Can't be undone. I pour my blueish batter into the pan, and put it into the oven. 15 minutes inside the oven, I just realize that I made another mistake!! I totally forgot to add some fresh blueberry into the batter. Oh well...

After the cake was done and completely cool, I cover it with butter cream cheese frosting and decorate it with some fresh blueberry. (Forgive me for a bad and plain decoration. I was not in a mood to decorate a cake) Like as usual, I made a small round blueberry cake and few of mini cupcake. The cake taste good and even better with butter cream cheese frosting on it.

Ingredients :

• 192 grams (3/4 cup) AP flour
• 1/2 tsp cacao powder
• 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 30 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
• 92 grams white granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 120 ml (about 1/4 cup) milk
• 1/8 tsp salt
• Royal blue coloring agent
• For blueberry jam : 150 grams fresh blueberry + 30 grams white granulated sugar + 50 ml water

Preparation :
First, lets make the blueberry jam

1. In a pot, boil together blueberry, sugar and water until the blueberry start to break down.
2. Stir until almost all of the liquid are evaporated.
3. Transfer it into a bowl and let it cool completely.
   

Now, lets make the cake. 

1. Preheat oven for 180 C (350 F)
2. Prepare a cake pan, grease with butter, and line it with baking paper. Set aside. (Tip :  you can always use a muffin tin instead)
3. In a bowl, mix together flour, cacao powder, baking powder, and salt.
4. In another big bowl, with a electric or hand mixer, beat the butter until creamy.
5. Add granulated sugar into the creamy butter and beat again on high speed until light and fluffy.
6. Add egg and vanilla extract into the butter mixture and beat again.
7. Add about 1/3 of flour mixture alternately with about 1/3 of milk. Mix well before adding another 1/3 of flour mixture and milk.
8. Add blueberry jam into the batter and fold it manually with a spatula. 
9. At this point, once the blueberry jam is well mixed with the batter, you should get a purple batter.
10. Add few drop of blue coloring into the batter (if you want to make a blueish cake) and mix well.
11. Pour the batter into prepared cake pan or muffin tin.
12. Put it into preheated oven and bake for about 30-35 minutes or until skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
13. Take it out from the oven and let it cool completely before cutting or adding buttercream on it.

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Choco Almond Cookies

Choco chip cookies is one of the most famous cookies that ever existed. Who doesn't like this delicious cookies. It is crunchy outside and chewy inside with half melted chocolate chips on all around the cookies. I like it. It's perfect to be served with hot tea, coffee, or even ice cream. This chocolate chips cookies is originated from United States which was traditionally made from a dough contained butter, brown sugar, white sugar, and chocolate chips. Nowadays, this choco chip cookies have been improved and modified a lot. There are a lot of variants besides chocolate chips such as choco-macademia, choco-dried cranberry, white chocolate chips, or even M&M's. 

Few weeks ago, using a basic chocolate chip cookies that I have, I wanted to combine it with sliced almond. I still had some sliced almond left on my kitchen. I think it's a good combination.  For my cookies, i would not use any chocolate chips but I will use chopped chocolate easter eggs instead. I still have plenty of easter chocolate and no one eat it anymore. So, why don't make them useful.

It's very easy to make. Even my son  helped me to sprinkle some almond on the top of the cake. (Some of it disappeared on his mouth) When i put the dough into the oven my house smelled like a bakery. It smells so good. And when it's done, my kids could not wait to dig it in. They kept peeking into the oven to watch the dough slowly melted and spreading because of the heat during the baking process. Definitely would make this cookie again next time.

Ingredients :

• 225 grams All purpose flour
• 150 grams room temperature unsalted butter
• 70 grams brown sugar
• 60 grams white granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 120 grams chopped dark chocolate or chocolate chips
• 120 grams sliced almond
• 30 grams sliced almond for additional sprinkles (optional)

(Tip :  Feel free to increase the amount of chocolate chip up to 200 grams if you want to have cookies with a lot of chocolate on it. )

Preparation :

1. Preheat oven for 190 C (374 F)
2. Prepare a baking sheet and line it with baking paper. Set aside.
3. In a big bowl, mix together butter, brown sugar, and white sugar.
4. Beat them together until creamy.
5. Add egg and vanilla extract and beat them again.
6. Add flour, baking powder, and salt into the mixture and beat them together.
7. Add chocolate chip and sliced almond into the dough, and mix fold them with a spatula until all the chocolate and almond are evenly distributed.
8. Take about 1- 1 1/2 tsp of dough, with 2 spoon form it into a ball, and drop it on the prepared baking sheet. Leave enough space between each dough ball to allow the cookies spreading during the baking.
9. Sprinkle some more sliced almond on the top of the dough. 
10. Put the dough into the preheated oven and bake them for about 15 minutes or until the cookies become golden brown (Tip : increase the baking time about 3-5 minutes of you want to get more crispy and crunchy cookies).
11. Take the baking sheet out of the oven and transfer the cookies into the cooling rack.
12. Let them cool completely.

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Honey Whole Wheat Banana Bread

Have some leftover overripe banana? And getting bored to use it for banana milkshake or fried bananas? Don't throw it away. Making banana bread is one of a great and easy idea to use leftover  overripe banana. ^^ I've been searching for a banana bread recipe and tried some of them but none of them really touch my tongue and my heart. Last week, I found this recipe from cookieandkate.com and tried it with a little bit modification. It was great!! This recipe didn't use any sugar on it and use a whole wheat flour instead of white flour. The taste of honey and nutty flavor from the whole wheat flour really gave difference on the banana bread it self. I like it.

When I made it, I tried to sprinkle some mixture of brown sugar and ground cinnamon on the top of the butter right before I put it into the oven. And I liked the result. The melted brown sugar made the top of the bread become crispy and sweet and it goes really well with the taste of the banana bread itself. Totally love it and definitely going to remake this recipe again next time.

Ingredients :

• 80 ml (1/3 cup) vegetable oil
• 120 ml (1/2 cup) honey 
• 178 grams (1 1/2 cup) whole wheat flour
• 32 grams (1/4 cup) All purpose flour
• 2 large eggs 
• 2-3 ( about 225 grams) bananas, mashed
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) milk
• 60 grams brown sugar + 1 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)

Preparation :

1. Preheat oven for 170 C.
2. Grease a loaf pan ( I was using 21x7x8 cm loaf pan) with butter. Set aside.
3. In a bowl, mix together whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and ground cinnamon. Set aside.
4. In a big bowl, whisk together honey and oil.
5. Add eggs, mashed banana, vanilla extract, and milk into the mixture and beat them all together until well combined.
6. Add all the dry ingredients mixture into wet mixture and stir them together just until they are combined.
7. Pour the batter into greased loaf pan.
8. Sprinkle some mixture of brown sugar and ground cinnamon on the top of the batter (optional)
9. Put the pan into the oven and bake it for 60 minutes (or until tooth pick test comes out clean).
10. Take it out from the oven and let it cool for about 20-30 minutes before slicing.

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Orange Cake

It has been three weeks after my last post. Oh my, after having such a busy week, finally I have a chance to update my blog. I want to share one of my favorite cake. Orange cake.

I've made this cake few times already including for my daughter's birthday cake. Actually, I got the recipe from here. Moroccan Orange Cake.  It's an easy recipe indeed. But in my opinion, it didn't have enough strong orange flavor. First, I wanted to increase the amount of orange juice. But if i do that, that's mean that I increase the volume of the liquid of my batter. My batter will be thinner than it's supposed to be and I worried that it will ruin my cake. That's why, I tried to concentrate the orange juice by boiling it before. For the first time, I was kind of afraid that the juice will taste bad and bitter after boiling process. But it was not. I added some sugar into the juice just to increase the sweetness of the orange juice itself.

This orange cake is really good with orange cream frosting or sugar glazing or even chocolate ganache.

Ingredients :

• 2 eggs
• 75 grams (3/4 cup) white granulated sugar
• 63 ml (1/4 cup) vegetable oil
• 128 grams (1 cup) AP flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 100 ml orange juice + 3 tbs white sugar
• orange zest from 1-2 orange
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• few drop orange coloring agent (optional)

Preparation :

1. In a small pot, boil mixture of orange juice and 3 tbs sugar.
2. Once it's boiled, reduce the heat and simmer it until you get about 65 ml juice left. Stir once more, set it aside and let it cool completely.
3. Preheat the oven to 180 C (356 F)
4. Prepare a baking pan and line it with baking paper (I was using 21x8 cm loaf pan. But you can always use 20 cm round pan). Set it aside.
5. In a big bowl, beat together eggs and sugar on high speed until it become thick and pale.
6. Reduce the speed and add vegetable oil gradually.
7. In another smaller bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
8. Stir in the flour mixture into the egg mixture.
9. Add orange juice, orange zest, and vanilla extract and stir the batter again until smooth. 
10. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and level the surface.
11. Put the baking pan into the oven and bake it for about 35-40 minutes.
12. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely.

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Lemon Fish Pie

Inspired by Annabel Langbein's recipe on TV, I was trying to remake her lemon fish pie recipe. It is a fish casserole dish made from white fish with lemony white sauce, covered with mashed potato, and baked for about 40 minutes.

First time i saw her cooking this fish pie, this dish immediately went into one of the top of my "must-to-try" list. Few weeks after that, I made that pie. It was delicious. Really really delicious. But I didn't use enough fish so basically it was only like white sauce with baked mash potato. But really. The taste was great. Few months after that, I tried to make another attempt but instead of using mash potato on the top, I used sliced potato and make it looked like a gratin dish. Hmph... Well.... not as good as before and the potato couldn't suck up all the sauce and spices because it was sliced not mashed. Definitely going back to mashed potato for the next attempt.

Well... few weeks ago there was a pangasius fillet sale on grocery store. It seems it's a good time to make this fish pie again. Yeah... At this time I prepared anything faster and smoother than before. I made the mashed potato  and boiled eggs in the morning and cover it with plastic wrap to prevent the surface become dry. It really made my job easier when it's time to prepare the fish, sauce, and assemble everything on my baking dish. It's easy and it's delicious.

Do you want to try to make it? Then, let's get started :-)
First, let's make the mashed potato.

Ingredients : 

• 700 grams potato, peeled, sliced
• 20 grams unsalted butter
• 100 ml milk
• salt and black pepper

Preparation :

1. (look at my mashed potato recipe )

Tip: You can make the mashed potato in the morning or hours before preparing the fish. But after your mashed potato is done, put it in a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap or put it in a airtight plastic container. This will prevent the surface of your mashed potato become dry and not soft anymore by the time you're ready to use it.

Now, let's prepare the fish.

Ingredients :

• 500-600 grams boneless white fish, cut into 4 cm chunks
• 4 hard boiled egg, sliced
• 70 grams butter
• 7 tbs flour
• 700-800 ml milk
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 4 tbs lemon juice
• pinch of ground cayenne pepper
• salt and black pepper

Preparation :

1. Preheat oven for 220 C.
2. Melt butter in a pan.
3. When the butter begins to foam, add flour.
4. Stir it for about 1 minutes until you get a white yellowish roux.
5. Add milk gradually into the roux to break it up and keep stirring to prevent a lump. 
6. Add ground nutmeg and cayenne pepper into the sauce, and stir again
7. Reduce the heat and add lemon juice.
8. Add salt and black pepper into the sauce for taste.
9. Stir and let it simmer for another 3 minutes.
10. Prepare your ramekins or baking dish.
11. Pour about 1 ladle of white sauce on the bottom of the dish.
12. Arrange the fish chunks on the top of the sauce in the dish
13. Pour another ladle on the top of the fish
14. Arrange the sliced boiled egg and pour the rest of the sauce
15. Cover it with mashed potato.
16. Put the dish into preheated oven and bake it for about 30 minutes

Tip : You can always add some chopped parsley, or green peas on your sauce.

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Chocolate cake

Do you still remember my first post on this blog? I wrote about my first 3D cake for my brother in law's birthday. I made a pirate boat cake at that time using chocolate and vanilla cake. It was a hit and everybody liked it. I usually do not really like chocolate cake but I had to admit that this chocolate cake was great. Not too sweet and it has a bittersweet taste from the chocolate powder itself. No using instant chocolate paste or something like that. This cake goes very well with mocha butter cream or chocolate ganache.

This time i need to make chocolate cake in order to make a cake pop (going to make a post about it later). my daughter wants it  for her birthday treats. So, lets get started :)

Ingredients :

• 128 grams (1 cup) all purpose flour
• 200 grams (1 cup) granulated white sugar
• 48 grams (1/4 + 1/8 cup) cacao powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 120 ml (1/2 ml) milk
• 95 ml (1/4 ml) vegetable oil
• 1 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup warm coffee 

Tip : for making warm coffee, dilute 1 tsp instant coffee powder into 1 cup hot water and let it cool for a bit before using it for making the cake.

Preparations :

1. Preheat oven for 180 C (350 F)
2. Prepare a pan (I'm using a rectangular 28x18 cm brownie pan) and line it with baking paper.
3. In a bowl, mix sugar, flour, cacao powder, baking powder, and salt.
4. Add milk, oil, egg, and vanilla extract into those dry ingredients mixture.
5. With a hand mixer, mix it together with medium speed until all the ingredients are mixed well.
6. Reduce the speed, and add warm coffee carefully.
7. Beat the batter again for another 1-2 minutes.
8. Pour the batter into prepared baking pan and level the surface of the batter.
9. Put it into preheated oven and bake it for about 30 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean. 

Tip : If you want to make 2 layer cake, double the recipe and divide the batter evenly into 2 pans.

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Appelflap (Apple Turnover)

Winter is coming. It's getting colder and colder. Like as usual, I can start to see a lot of winter sweets vendor everywhere. They sell oliebollen (doughnut balls), appelbeignets (fried apples), and so many things including appelflapen (apple turnovers). I love appelflap. It is a triangle pastry dish which is filled with apple cubes mixed with cinnamon and brown sugar. In America, it is common as apple turnover but in here, we call it appelflap.

In the past, I used to buy it every winter. But after i got my own oven, I learned how to make it and it turned out so easy to make. I only need ready to use puff pastry, some apples, ground cinnamon, brown and white sugar, raisins, and eggs. Just mix the apples, with raisins, ground cinnamon and brown sugar and use it as a filling for the pastry. Seam the edges, brush with egg wash, and bake.

Appelflap is perfect for afternoon snack or treats. I made this for my daughter's friend as well when she came to play few days ago. They love it and even said that mine was better than the one from the vendor. Interested to  make it?

Ingredients (for 8 appelflapen) :

• 1 1/2 - 2 Apples, peeled and cut into small cubes
• 60 grams granulated brown sugar
• 3-4 tbs golden raisins
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 8 layers ready to use puff pastry (size 20x20 cm)
• 1 egg, beaten
• about 5 tbs white granulated sugar

Preparation :

1. Preheat oven for 200 C (392 F)
2. Prepare a baking sheet and line it with baking paper. Set aside.
3. Thaw the puff pastries. If you are using a big size ready to use puff pastry, cut it into small square (about 20x20 cm).
4. Using a fork, make some holes on the puff pastry.
5. In a bowl, mix together apple cubes, ground cinnamon, raisins, and brown sugar.
6. Spoon about 1 tbs apple mixture and put it in the middle of each puff pastries.
   
7. Brush the edge of pastry with egg wash and fold it into triangle.
8. Seam the edges together with a fork.
9. Brush the top surfaces with egg wash and sprinkle about 1 tsp granulated white sugar on the top of each appelflap. 
   
10. Line the unbaked appelflapen on the baking sheet and bake them for about 20 minutes or until they become golden brown.
11. Remove it  from the oven and serve it warm.

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Amandelstaaf (Almond Pastry)

Sinterklaasje kom maar binnen met je knecht. Want we zitten allemaal even recht. Misschien heeft U nog even tijd voordat U weer naar Spanje rijdt. 

It is one of the most popular children song in Netherlands. When December comes, basically I can hear many songs like this everywhere. Yes!! We celebrate St. Nicholas day on December 5th every year. Or it is more popular as Sinterklaas day. It is a pretty big occasion in Netherlands. Sinterklaas is pictured as an elderly man with white and long hair and beard who wears a red cloak, red cape and brings a bishop's staff. He comes from Spain with his assistants, zwarte piet (black pete), and he will carry a big bag full of candy and toys for nice children. Don't ask how that tradition began. Too many story and history behind this tradition.

Source : http://surfersparadise.be

Along with this celebration, there are a lot of traditional Dutch sweets and treats that can be enjoyed for this celebration. There are chocolate letters, kruidnoten (taste like gingerbread cookies but it has small round shape), pepernoten, taaitaai, and amandelstaaf.  I like amandelstaaf. It is a pastry dish filled with almondpaste and shaped like a sinterklaas' staff. Most of the store sell it for sinterklaas celebration and they are quite cheap. But this year I want to try to make it by myself instead of buy it from grocery store because it seems easy to make. So why don't I give it a try.

It turned out not bad at all. But it seems i need to seam it better because after baking, the almond paste a little bit melt out from the pastry. But it doesn't matter. The taste is still good and I'm still satisfied with the result. 

Ingredients :

• 3 layers ready to use puff pastry (20x20 cm)
• 250 grams almondpaste
• 2 eggs
• 4 tbs powdered sugar
• a little bit of flour

Tip : you can adjust the amount of powdered sugar depend on the sweetness and the stickiness of your almond paste.

Preparation :

1. Preheat oven for 200 C (392 F)
2. Prepare a baking sheet and line it with a baking paper. Set aside.
3. Beat 1 egg in a small bowl for egg wash. Set aside.
4. In a bowl, mix together almond paste, powdered sugar, and 1 egg until they are well combined. Set aside.
5. Dust the worktop with a little bit of flour, stack 3 layers of puff pastry, and dust the pastry with more flour. 
6. Roll them together until the pastry become wide and thin (approximately 45x20 cm) 
   
7. Transfer the puff pastry on the baking sheet. 
8. Place the almond paste mixture lengthwise on the top of the pastry. Place it on the right side.
9. Brush the edge of the pastry with egg wash.
10. Fold in the short end to the middle and fold in the rest of the pastry to cover the almond mixture and seam the edge. Make sure that the seam is on the bottom.
11. Bend it carefully so you will get a staff shaped pastry.
    
12. Brush the top with egg wash. 
13. Place it into preheated oven and bake it for about 25 minutes or until the pastry become golden brown.
14. Remove it from the oven and let it cool before cut it into pieces.

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Macaroni Schotel

Macaroni schotel is actually macaroni casserole or baked macaroni dish. The name schotel is borrowing Dutch name because this dish is introducted by Dutch people during the colonisation era. The first time I taste this food is when I was still about 5 years old. I still remember I went to my aunt's house with my parents. Lucky me she just finished baking it and she gave me a slice of it. That was my first time i ate macaroni schotel and I love it!! Since then I always want to eat it especially when I went to her house. When I grew up and started to learn how to cook, I tried to find the recipe. Too bad my mom didn't have oven so the only macaroni schotel I could made was steamed one. It was good but didn't satisfied me. For me, baked one is still the best. Steamed macaroni schotel doesn't have crispy melted cheese like baked one. I tried to toast the schotel  using oven toaster after steam it, and it didn't work either.

Now, I have my own kitchen complete with an oven. Making macaroni schotel is not impossible anymore. Besides, actually it is not that hard to make. Last week I made it for dinner and everyone like it. I added some green peas during the process just because I had some leftover green peas in my refrigerator.

Like as usual, vegetable salad and sweet chilli sauce are perfect for its companion. Eet smakelijk! ^^

Ingredients :

• 250 elbow macaroni, boiled until al dente (look at the cooking direction on the package), and drain well
• 1 onion, minced
• 150 grams bacon strips
• 70 grams ground pork or beef 
• 3 tbs canned corned beef
• 50 grams green peas (optional)
• 4 beaten eggs
• 4 tbs flour
• 600 ml milk
• 2 - 2 1/2 cups (about 150 grams) grated cheese 
• 2 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• salt and black pepper
• 1 1/2 tbs white granulated sugar
• 3 tbs vegetable oil

Tip : If you do not eat pork, you can always use another kind of smoked meat such as smoked beef tongue, or smoked chicken. They will work as well.

Tip : For the cheese, you can use cheddar or parmezan cheese or mixture of old and young cheese like I did.

Preparation :

1. Preheat oven for 180 C (356 F)
2. Preheat vegetable oil in a pan
3. Saute the bacon for about 5 minutes or until they become golden brown and crisp. 
4. Remove the bacon from the pan and set aside.
5. In the same pan, put minced onion and ground beef or pork. Stir and saute them together until the onion become translucent and the ground meat become brown.
6. Remove them from the pan and set aside.
7. In a big bowl, mix together boiled macaroni, flour, corned beef, green peas, sauteed bacon, onion, and ground meat. 
8. Add beaten eggs, milk, ground nutmeg, sugar, and 1 cup of grated cheese. Mix them well.
9. Adjust the taste with salt and pepper.
10. Pour the macaroni mixture into an ovenproof dish.
11. Cover the top with grated cheese.
12. Put it into preheated oven and bake for about 45-50 minutes.

Tip : Cover the leftover with aluminium foil or place it in the airtight plastic container before store it in the refrigerator otherwise the edges will become dry and tough. You can always reheat it again with microwave or put it back into preheated oven 150 C for 15-20 minutes. 

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Fudgy Brownie

Out of nowhere, this morning, I suddenly really wanted to eat something sweet. Not only sweet but very sweet. I want to eat chocolate cake. So, I grabbed my recipe book and tried to find the recipe. Before I find the recipe that i wanted, I read my fudgy brownie recipe. I got this recipe from Laura in the kitchen channel in youtube few months ago. This brownies is great. It's rich, sticky, and taste very chocolate.

It seems this brownie is good enough to satisfied my mouth (and my mood) today. Forget about chocolate cake. I want to eat this brownie and do not want to wait any longer, let's get started!!

Ingredients :

• 145 grams room temperature unsalted butter
• 180 grams pure dark chocolate, melted
• 200 grams white granulated sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbs cocoa powder
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tbs warm water
• 1/2 tsp instant espresso powder
• 85 grams all purpose flour

Tip : For the pan, you can use regular 20 cm (8 inches) square brownie pan. But because i don't have any small square pan, I use 20 cm round pan and it works perfectly.

Preparation :

1. Preheat oven for 180 C (350 F)
2. Prepare a brownie pan, grease it with butter and cover it with baking paper including the side of the pan because this brownie could be sticky and difficult to remove it from the pan.
3. In a small bowl, dilute instant coffee powder into the warm water. Set aside.
4. In a big bowl, mix together butter and granulated sugar until fluffy.
5. Add egg, vanilla extract, and coffee into the butter and mix them together until well combined.
6. Add melted chocolate into the mixture and  mix again. 
7. Add flour and cocoa powder into the mixture and mix again until they are incorporated and the texture become to look like a mousse. 
8. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and don't forget to level the surface.
9. Put it into preheated oven and bake it for about 40-45 minutes.
   
10. After it's done, remove it from the oven and let it cool for about 30 minutes before cut it into pieces to prevent the cake become crumbly . 

This is what it looks after I cut it into pieces. Enjoy! :-)

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Picnic Roll

Finally!! My first attempt making picnic roll. I've been wanting to make this for a very long time but I've never got the chance. This is one of my favorite pastry dish. I used to eat this in Indonesia. Well.. not often enough because it was considered not cheap and it usually because someone gave it to us as a gift or something like that. But sometime I miss it. Actually I can find a similar dish in here. Its name is saucijzenbroodje. Like picnic roll, it is a spiced ground beef wrapped in puff pastry. But the difference is it is a one person snack meanwhile, picnic roll is much bigger than saucijzenbroodje so it has to be sliced and served on slices.

Now, since I'm living in Netherlands, I can find ready to use puff pastry easily. I think I would like to try to make it by myself. I don't think it is a complicated dish. I only need ground beef and puff pastry. Lucky me there's a big sale of ground beef on nearby store. Why don't give it a try? I've been planning to make this dish for a very long time.

The size of my puff pastry is small. It's about 20 x 20 cm and it's not big enough to make big picnic roll. So, I pile up 3 layers of it and roll it together until i get one big and wide layer of puff pastry. I will use it for the bottom layer and for the top layer or for the cover i will use 2 layer of puff pastries and roll them together. To be honest I was not even sure it will work. But I was wrong. It turn out great. the taste is good as well. I'm so happy with the result.

Ingredients (for 2 picnic rolls):

• 10 layers (20x20 cm) ready to use puff pastry 
• 500 grams ground beef
• 2 eggs
• 2 medium onions, minced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 tbs milk
• 1 1/2 - 2 cups (about 60-80 grams) Japanese bread crumbs (panko bread crumbs)
• 1 tsp salt
• ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 4 hard boiled egg, cut into half.
• 4-5 slices cheddar cheese, cut it into about 4 cm wide.
• 1 beaten egg for egg wash

Preparation :

1. In a big bowl, put together ground beef, eggs, ground nutmeg, minced onion, minced shallot, milk, breadcrumbs, salt and generous amount of ground black pepper.
2. Using your hand, mix them together until all the spices is mixed well with the ground beef. Do not hesitate to squeeze it a little bit. If the mixture is too wet, feel free to add a few more breadcrumbs into the meat mixture just until the excess liquid is well absorb by the breadcrumbs.
3. After the meat mixture is done, set aside.
4. Preheat the oven into 200 C (392 F)
5. Prepare a baking sheet and like it with a baking paper. Set aside. 
6. For making the bottom layer, dust the work top with a flour. 
7. Stack 3 layers of puff pastry and dust the top with flour. 
8. Roll it using a roller until the pastry become thin and wide (approximately 35x17 cm).
9. Make another bottom layer by stacking another 3 layers puff pastry and roll it again.
10. Place the rolled puff pastries on the prepared baking sheet.
11. Divide the meat mixture into two.
12. Take one half of the meat, press it tightly, and put it lengthwise in the middle of the rolled puff pastry.
13. Place cheddar cheese slices on the top of the meat.
14. Put four half cut hard boiled egg on the top of the cheese.
    
15. Repeat the same process for the second puff pastry.
16. For making the cover, dust again the worktop with some flour.
17. Stack 2 layers of puff pastry, dust it with flour, and roll it again until it become thin and wide (approximately 30x15 cm).
18. Repeat this process to make the second cover. 
19. Brush the edge of the bottom layer with egg wash.
20. Place the pastry cover on the top of the eggs and meat.
21. Press the edge of the cover into the bottom pastry to seam it.
22. You can cut the edge of the bottom layer or roll the edge up. 
    
23. Make some small holes on the cover using a fork
24. Brush the surfaces of the cover with egg wash.
25. Put the baking sheet into the oven and bake it for about 25-30 minutes.
26. Once it's done, remove it from the oven and let the pastry cool for little bit before cut and serve it.

Tip : You can make 3 picnic roll using the same amount of meat. But of course the amount of the meat for each roll will be less than if you are making two picnic rolls.

Tip :  You can keep this on the refrigerator for days. Just pop it into the microwave and done. If you want to make warm the whole roll, put it into preheated 180 C oven and bake it for about 15 minutes. Picnic roll goes well with tomato or chili sauce as well. 

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Mini Green Coconut Cake

In Indonesia, there is a traditional cake named Putu Ayu. It is a steamed cake that's made using coconut as its main ingredients. Putu Ayu is very popular in East Java and it can be bought in almost everywhere especially in traditional markets. It is common to use this cake as part of the traditional feast or celebration or treats because it taste good, looks pretty, and not really hard to make.

Few months ago, I found this recipe from J's Kitchen. Baked Putu Ayu. Well... its a twisted recipe from the original putu ayu recipe because originally putu ayu should be steamed and not baked. It's unique and I think it's creative because actually I never thought that this cake can be baked. I tried it and it was a hit. I recommended this recipe to my friend and she loved it as well. She even made it for her husband's colleagues. Because of her, last week, I decided to make it for my husband farewell party treat.

I twisted the recipe by mixing the grated coconut with the batter instead of press it into the tin separately like J's recipe. I mixed the grated coconut together with the batter, pour it into the muffin tin, and bake it. It's good. But I'm not sure if i could name it baked putu ayu anymore because I mixed the grated coconut so there's no more separate white part and green part as it supposed to be. That's why I prefer to name it coconut cake.

Ingredients  (for about 20 mini cake) :

• 100 grams AP Flour
• 75 grams white granulated sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 50 ml vegetable oil
• 100 ml coconut milk
• 2 egg whites
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp pandan paste
• 80 grams shredded coconut
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2-3 tbs (about 30-45 grams) melted butter for greasing the muffin tin

Preparation :

1. Preheat the oven for 180 C (356 F).
2. Prepare mini muffin tin and grease it with melted butter. Set aside.
3. In a big bowl put 2 egg whites and whisk it with hand mixer until soft peak forms.
4. In another bowl, using the same hand mixer, beat and mix together flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, vegetable oil, and coconut milk.
5. Add vanilla extract and pandan paste into the batter and mix again.
6. Add 1/3 of whipped egg whites into the batter and fold it up until the batter is lightened.
7. Fold another 1/3 of the whipped egg whites and continue it with the rest of the egg whites.
8. Add grated coconut into the batter and fold it until they are all mixed well.
9. Divide the batter into the greased muffin tin evenly.
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick test comes out clean.
11. Let it cool for a while before remove them out from the muffin tin.

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Roll Tart (Bolu Gulung)

Yaaay... After three failed attempts making roll cake, I finally made it. I'm so happy and couldn't stop smiling (and maybe staring on that cake). There are a lot of bakery in Indonesia who sell this roll cake. And because this cake looks pretty and taste great, it is very common to wrap it in a pretty box and use it as a gift in many occasions.

My husband likes roll cake and he asked me to make it. It was like 1 1/2 years ago when he asked me to make it. First attempt : big failed. I didn't use a proper baking tray and didn't beat the egg enough. So, during the baking process, the batter was spreading all around and the edges were burned. Second attempt : still failed. the cake shrinking, didn't rise properly and i failed to roll it. But the taste was better. Third attempt : The cake was cracking when I tried to roll it. But it tasted good, so I decided to eat it in pieces.

Finally few weeks ago I tried to make it again. I really want to make it to celebrate our 8th anniversary. And... yeah. Somehow it was a big success. The cake was pretty, soft, and delicious. I was using my husband's favorite strawberry jam for filling. But basically this cake can use any kind of filling such as buttercream, whip cream, even fruits.

For making this cake, i purposely use additional stabilizer named ovalette. Maybe it is not common in Europe but it is very common in Indonesia (So does in Malaysia and Singapore).  This ingredients can help to stabilize the cake during the baking process and make the texture of the cake softer. This ingredients can be bought in Asian grocery store.

Ingredients :

• 3 eggs 
• 3 egg yolks
• 80 grams white granulated sugar
• 50 grams all purpose flour
• 1 tbs corn starch
• 1 1/2 tbs milk
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ovalette
• 65 grams butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the filling : 

• 4 tbs strawberry jam

Preparation :

1. Preheat oven for 170 C (338F) 
2. Prepare a baking tray (I'm using 26x26x7 cm baking tray) and line it with baking paper. set aside.
3. In a big bowl, put together eggs, egg yolks, sugar, flour, corn starch, baking powder, milk, and ovalette.
4. Using a hand mixer, beat them together on high speed until all the ingredients are mixed and the batter become pale, soft, and there's a ribbon tail formed when the mixer is removed from the batter.
   
5. Add half of the melted butter and vanilla extract into the batter.
6. Using a rubber spatula, mix the butter by folding the batter until the melted butter are mixed well.
7. Add the rest of the melted butter, fold it again until well mixed and no more trace of melted butter on the cake batter. 
8. Pour the batter into the baking tray and even the surface with spatula. 
9. Bang the tray on the table few time to remove the bubbles.
10. Put the tray into the oven and bake it for 20 minutes. 
11. Remove the tray from the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes.
12. Make sure the edges of the cake are not stick into the tray by carefully releasing  it using a spatula or small knife. 
13. Place another baking paper on the top of the cake and a board (I'm using cardboard and cut it roughly the same size of the tray).
14. Hold the board and flip the cake over. 
15. Carefully remove the baking paper from the cake. Now, you will get a cake on the top of baking paper, and a cardboard.
    
16. Spread the filling all over surface of the cake.
17. Using the baking paper for help, carefully roll the cake. Hold the cake firmly but be careful not to break it. Do not hesitate to press it a little bit. 
18. Wrap the rolled cake with baking paper and let it sit for about 30-40 minutes.
19. Carefully remove the baking paper and transfer it to serving plate. with the seam downside. 

The recipe above is just a basic roll cake. But as you can see on the picture, you can make a simple decoration on the cake.  This is how its done :

1. Before pouring the batter into the baking tray, Take about 1/2 until 3/4 cup of the batter. Put it on separate bowl and color it with any color you want.
2. Put the colored batter into piping bag or zip lock bag.
3. Pour the rest of the batter into baking tray, level the surface and bang the tray to remove the bubbles. 
   
4. Make a small hole on the tip of the zip lock bag.
5. Draw a line horizontally on the surface of the batter in the baking tray using the colored batter from the zip lock bag. Repeat the line few times.
   
6. With a skewer or tooth pick draw a line vertically on the batter. Repeat this process few times.
   
7. Put it into the oven and bake it.

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