Sweet Potato Bread & Pandan Coconut Bread

I have always shunned away from baking bread coz I have had a few failures previously... And unlike baking cakes, I find it more tedious to bake bread... and worse still, failing after all the sweat and tears (nah,not really tears lah)... just alot of time wasted...

I have always wondered why the products baked during baking lessons always turn out yummy... and when I do it at home... following exactly the same recipe... it always turn out to be yucky... Not sure when I started to bake the first batch of bread after a long time since the last failure... but it turned out nice... And the more successes and encouragements, the more motivated I got... I started buying a book on bread... and followed the recipe inside... then it became 2 books... and now, I have 3 books sitting on my table...

'nuff said, these were the bread I baked in the past few days... tried sweet potato bread... the recipe was actually for pumpkin bread... Since I did not have pumpkin at home, I decided to use one of the sweet potatoes meant for my baby's porridge... haha... I should say this bread was considered a success on the day it was baked... It was nice, soft and fluffy... but not sweet enough... but by the next day, it was slightly dry... my 'tasters' finished it though...

Today, I decided to try pandan coconut bun... I had a 1kg pack of dessicated coconut sitting in my pantry for months... It was intended to be used for a 'snowman' cake that was never baked.. hahaha... and I had better use it before this poor ingredient expires and get thrown away... well, you can see from the picture... there were successes and failures... I had a total of 3 trays of dough waiting to be baked... 1st one was baked nicely... light brown... and fragrant... 2nd try... sighz... my baby was crying and I was a little distracted... I did not even realised that i had turned the temperature to 230deg... which was waaaaay toooooo high... just 5 mins into baking... the surface has already turn black... Eeeew... took it out and baked the 3rd tray, making sure I did not make the same mistake again... Well... this batch of baking made my heart do a "roller-coaster"... Just have to see the reviews from my 'tasters' tomorrow... *fingers crossed*...

Bread

My cousin was on leave and suggested bringing our kids to the pool for some fun.... I brought along some bread that I baked on the same day... As usual, I made some ham bun and sausage bun... I decided to deviate away from my usual fare and did some kaya bun as well as nutella bun... Lastly, I opened a can of chilli tuna and made it into tuna bun... But it was abit disastrous... I did not think that the chilli oil would seep through the dough.. and it ended up gooey and difficult to handle... threw away the 1st piece as it was a mess... subsequently, I tried as much as possible to exclude the oil... Although the buns were edible... But it was a little dry once it has cooled down... abit disappointing to me...

I came across a Pumpkin bread recipe... Since I do not have pumpkin at home, I decided to use sweet potato.... Added more water and some oil to the recipe... The bun is still soft after a few hours... I just hope it will remain soft tomorrow... hohoho...

Mixed Fruit Cake

I had completed a cake order yesterday and was left with a mango and 2 kiwis... So I decided to do something for my dearest mummy... I went to buy a box of strawberries and some mangoes... tadaa... This is my little creation for her... with lotsa fruits...

Brave attempt - banana cake & marble cake

As usual, I had some over-ripe bananas sitting on the counter top... too much to eat... too wasted to throw... so decided to try banana cake again... I remembered the 1st attempt was ok.. subsequent ones were not really nice...

Well, this one was a scare... it took longer than usual to bake... after 45mins... the top was brownish but under it, the batter was still wet.... and i was all prepared to just throw it away... Luckily I persevered... 25mins later, I used the pin to poke into the cake... it came out clean but was still soft... (I have always thought banana cakes should be firm)... but my clever maid told me banana cakes should be soft... So I left it in the oven for another 10mins... took it out and left it on the table for 10mins.... After turning it out of the tin... I left it to cool for 30mins... I cut it into half and what I saw surprised me... the cake was soft and moist... yet not "sticky"... I could still see the cake crumbs... What a pleasant surprise... The cake was tooooooo sweet though... :-P have already cut 50g of sugar from the original recipe... I believe I've gotta use only 1/3 of the sugar stated in the recipe... Trying to bake a banana cake again now... Hope it's better...

My best friend ordered a marble cake from me after trying it the other day... and I had wanted to create a "tiger stripe" pattern as shown in my recipe book... who knows... it turned out like that (pictured)... haha... well, not too bad lah... Just gotta be proud of my cake... And I'm glad April and her mum likes it... Hope they like this cake too...

Marble Cake

I am so eager to try my new Bundt tin, I baked the 1st recipe that I came across in my cake baking book... Marble Cake... Well, the recipe asked that we alternate spoonful of plain batter and chocolate batter... Hmm... I did just that... But seems that the design is bit weird...I was afraid of overmixing it... therefore I only use a pin to swirl it through the batter before putting it into the oven... Guess I 'under-did' it... the design wasn't really as nice as it should be... But the cake turned out well... The outer layer was crispy... But inside was soft and moist... and the chocolate part was good... albeit a little too sweet for me... as choc chips were added as well... oh well, it was a good try anyway...

Will bake raisin bread for grandma tomorrow...

More bread...

I was out on a boring shopping trip yesterday when I chanced upon Kinokuniya... I had wanted to go in to see if the new edition of the comic that my hubby usually read is out... End up, I came out with 2 baking books on cake and bread... I always console myself that purchasing these books is to "reward" myself... But well, these are just excuses I guess :-P But I realised that looking through all the beautiful pictures of bread and cakes really makes my day! Yippee... Ok anyway to cut the story short, I decided to bake some bread today... Using the recipes from my new book 'Magic Bread by Alex Goh'... The steps are really clear... there are step-by-step pictures... but the ingredients are slightly longer... and usual 'waiting time' for the 1st part of the dough takes about 12hrs... Gosh... Being the impatient person that I am, I was taken aback by the long waiting time... But I think good things are worth waiting for... The 'tasters' like it... And that's what matters most!

Mum likes the Almond Raisin Bread (above). Everyone else love the Ham Bun and Pork Floss Bun...

No chance to keep the bread till tomorrow, to see if it is still soft or not (coz all the bread I have done previously were hard by the next day... sighz)...

As at the time of posting, I have made another batch of dough.... let's countdown 12hrs... :-D