My Blog is 1 year old and I am having hell of a rolling time.

Before I share with you my disappoinment, let me share with you my joy! My blog is one year old yesterday. I am amazed myself for being able to sustain one year blogging because I could not imagine I will have readers to want to read my posts. Like I have said before, I don't write good English nor I have any writing style, but I know I will always write from my heart. I am not shy to share my joy and my disappointments with you and be sincere in what I share. I am sure Quay Po Cooks is still here today because of all the encouraging words from you all.  Each and every comment and visit means a lot to me. I know many visited me but did not comment but I know you are there. Thanks for dropping by. I appreciate the love and support from all of you.  THANK YOU, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!  HUGZZ and LOVE to you all. 


My disappointment is self inflicted. It is the result of being stubborn not wanting to use the sponge cake recipe to make swiss roll. 

I had a lot of egg whites in my fridge and also some berries which I wanted to use up. I thought I could use them to make the swiss roll.  So, I found this meringue swill roll recipe and give it a try. The meringue sheet came out nice but then, the moment I roll it, it breaks.  Yes, another failure and I ended up with a wrapped meringue cake instead of swiss roll. My Quay Lo did not like the taste of this cake because he said it is too “eggy” for him and it is too heart"achy" for me because I failed again! My maid likes it and said it tasted good so I gave the whole cake to her after I photographed it. 

I am running out of time to send in my entry for the Apsiring Baker #9.  Tomorrow, I will give one more try and this time I HAVE to use the sponge cake recipe and keep all my fingers crossed! Looks like I am having hell of a rolling time this July trying to roll out a REAL swiss roll. Quay Po, don't give up, read this quote:

"You must do the things you think you cannot do."

by Eleanor Roosevelt

Meringue wrapped cake

Adapted from taste.com.au with modification

Ingredients:

5 egg whites, at room temperature

2/3 cup caster sugar

3 teaspoons cornflour

150g fresh blue berries

150g fresh strawberries

2/3 cup mascarpone cheese

2/3 cup thickened cream

Method:

Preheat oven to 190°C. Grease a 2cm-deep, 25cm x 38cm (base) baking tray. Line with baking paper, allowing a 2cm overhang at both long ends. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites in a large bowl until soft peaks form. Add 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating after each addition until dissolved. Sift corn flour over egg mixture. Using a large metal spoon or spatula, fold corn flour into egg mixture to combine. Spread meringue over prepared tray. Bake for 12 minutes or until just firm and pale golden. Meanwhile, place a 40cm piece of baking paper on workbench. Sprinkle with remaining sugar. Carefully turn meringue onto paper. Remove lining from meringue. Allow meringue to cool.Place one-third of the berries in a bowl. Using a fork, roughly mash. Set aside. Whisk mascarpone and cream in a bowl until soft peaks form. Add mashed berries. Gently swirl through cream mixture. Spread berry mixture over meringue, leaving a 1cm border on all sides. Wrap the berry mixture with the meringue. Wrap baking paper around the cake and place, seam side down, on a tray. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until well chilled. Remove baking paper from cake. Torch the top of cake and top with berries. Slice and serve.

Spend money to save money? HUH??

Are you surprise when you hear this:  “spend money to save money”?  

Talking about this, I remembered one of my ex-bosses told me many years ago that I have to learn to spend money first as a motivation to make more money.  What do you think? I think there is some truth in it because if you do not know how to spend money, there is no need to make more money, right?

However, from many articles that I read, it is true that most Executives in big organization are very particular about how money is being spent.  They based very much importance on ROI (return-on-investment) to maximize their budget.  They are more than willing to spend money now to save money in the long run.  If the indication shows that the payback is high, they will spend as quickly as possible to realize the economic returns. They seemed to subscribe to this theory of spend money to save money.

Now, I have story to tell relating to this theory. I have a friend who told me few days ago that when his wife said this to him every time after she came back from her shopping spree, he is VERY SCARED.  She said, “Honey, do you know how much I paid for this COACH handbag?”  He said, "Of course dear, I know… must be $$$ with a DISCOUNT!!!  To him, his pocket went lighter by a few thousand $ but to her, she has saved some money for him.  When he grumbled about her spending so much money on shopping, she told him that he got to think outside the box.  She is helping him to save his money by spending it….. HOW BRILLIANT!!  So to all the married ladies, you may use this answer when your “LOW KUNG” (hubby) grumble about you spending too much of his money. If that does not work, perhaps baking him a nice dessert and serve it with an aromatic expresso in a pink smiley cup may pacify him.

BLUEBERRY APPLE CAKE

Adapted from Monet of anecdotes and apple cores

Granulated sugar, for pan

1 1/2 C all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 ts[ salt

6 tbs unsalted butter, melted, plus 1 ounce

(2 tbs) cut into pieces

3/4 C plus 2 tbs packed light brown sugar

1/2 C whole milk

2 large eggs

2  apples (a little under 1 pound), peeled, cored, and cut into slices

1 C  blue berries

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

whipped cream, for serving (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan, and dust with granulated sugar.

2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together melted butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, the milk, and eggs in another bowl. Whisk into flour mixture

3. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Arrange apple wedges over batter, and sprinkle with blackberries. Gently press fruit into batter.

4. Combine remaining 2 tablespoons brown sugar and the cinnamon, and sprinkle over fruit. Dot with remaining 2 tablespoons butter.

5. Bake until top is dark gold, apples are tender, and a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Let cool. Serve with whipped cream if desired. 

Blueberry cream cheese tart

The holidays were a blur of time this year, at least partially owing to the fact that we spent a lot of time in the kitchen where time seems to pass so quickly. So we are still catching up on posting some of the recipes that starred on our table this year. This post is for the blueberry and vanilla cream cheese tart that is very simple. I did not make this, Quay Lo did.

You will need two medium sized mixing bowls, measuring cups & spoons, a blending fork, a 12 inch tart pan or, optionally, 4-5 individual shallow ramekins, very lightly buttered.

Optional: A food processor and electric mixer

Ingredients

Crust: (note: your favorite graham crust will do very well here, while we prefer the following sweetened crust for this tart)

1/2 cup (63 g) powdered sugar 

1 1/2 cups (188 g) all-purpose flour 

3/4 cup (170 g) butter, softened 

Filling:

6 ounces (170 g) cream cheese, at room temperature 

1 cup (126 g) powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup (240 ml) heavy cream 

1/4 cup (56 g) castor sugar 

1 can blueberry pie filling

Directions

Crust:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)

Combine powdered sugar, flour, and butter in a food processor, or combine in a mixing bowl with a blending fork until mixture is crumbly and less than pea sized and can easily be pressed into a ball between your hands. Roll out dough for an un-greased 12-inch tart pan or, cut dough ball into 4 equal parts and simply press each piece into individual, shallow, five inch ramekins, slightly buttered. Take care to press into indentations.

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, or until lightly browned, using pie weights or dried beans to fill the crust, to prevent it from buckling. Allow to completely cool on a rack and remove the weights.

Filling:

In a large mixing bowl, mix the cream cheese with the powdered sugar using a fork or a mixer until thoroughly blended. Clean the mixer utensils for next step.

In a separate bowl, add the heavy cream and the caster sugar. Beat until soft peaks form.

Using a rubber spatula fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.

Spoon this mixture into the cooled pie shell and top it with blueberry pie filling or blueberry preserves. Refrigerate until well chilled and firmed. Serve with a sprig of mint leaf, thinly sliced strawberries if available, sliced maraschino cherries, or a dollop of whipped cream on top.

QPC Pink Princess Smoothies

When I was cleaning up my fridge yesterday, I saw some remainders of strawberries and blueberries.  There were not enough to make pies, tarts or cake so I decided to create a smoothies out of them.  I like my creation and I will name it Pink Princess Smoothies. Not bragging but it taste very refreshing! LOL!

Ingredients:

1 cup blueberries

8 whole strawberries

1 jigger of Campari

1 tb condensed milk

2 big scoops of vanilla ice cream
1 red cherry
2 slices of lime, remove the seeds

6 ice cube

Method:

Put all the above into a blender and blend till smooth!  SIMPLE!