Fruit Cake

Merry Christmas everyone! We meet again after a long break! How are you doing? Here come the Christmas season, time to spread your love and happiness to your loved ones! Apart from presents, food is the main key of spreading joy and sharing love. Cake has become the attraction of Christmas every year and also a sweet treat to friends and family. It is a way to symbolize our sincere wishes during this festive season! Thus, our kitchen will be fills with the fragrant of cakes once again!


My family hearts fruit cake so much especially during Christmas season. Fruit cake is a must-have list in the menu for Christmas. For the past seasons, we will buy some fruit cakes from the bakery shop and the taste wasn't satisfying. Thus, this year, I was enthusiastic to experiment in making fruit cake at home again. Thankfully, I stumbled upon this recipe from Annabel Karmel - Christmas cake recipe! This recipe is indeed very easy to follow and thus far Annabel Karmel's recipes never fail me.


When talking about making fruit cake, many of us would think it is going to be a tough job including myself. Let me ensure you this is a trusted recipe and easy to follow. The best is to make fruit cake one month in advance and season it until Christmas. From my observation, the main key of making fruit cake is by selecting premium quality ingredients and follow the recipe closely. Hence, you will have a hearty fruit cake for Christmas. Fruit cake needs to bake at lower temperature and longer hours with slow cooking to get the best result of it.

I have modified some of the ingredients according to my family preference. This fruit cake is simply the kind of fruit cake we heart even without the brandy as one of the main ingredients. I have substituted brandy with concentrated orange juice because it will be serves to the whole family including small children. I have also omitted the nuts in this recipe as my family preference pure fruity texture of fruit cake. The original recipe uses dark muscovado sugar which gives a darker tone to the cake, but unfortunately I am unable to find it. Thus, I substituted it with the mixture of brown sugar and molasses sugar. The fragrant smell and gentle sweetness of the molasses sugar is simply awesome. Even with all the modifications I have made to this recipe, this fruit cake came out perfectly and need not to say, delicious!

Till then, I would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas! May this Christmas be bright and cheerful and may the New Year begin on a prosperous note! Have a joyful holiday till we meet again in 2012!

This recipe was adapted and modified from Annabel Karmel Christmas Cake Recipe Ingredients: 1 kg Mixed fruits (800g Pre-mixed fruits, 100g mixed peel + 100g glazed green/red cherry, chopped) 4 tbsp Brandy/Orange juice (I used Sunquick Concentrated Orange Juice) 250g Butter, softened (I used S.C.S butter) 250g Dark muscovado sugar (I used 200g Soft brown sugar + 50g Molasses sugar) 6 eggs 350g Plain flour (I used Superfine flour) 1 tsp Baking powder pinch of salt 1 tsp Mixed spice 1 tsp Cinnamon powder 1 tsp grated lemon rind 100 - 200g whole almond for garnishing Method: 1. Soak all the mixed fruits in a big mixing bowl with 4 tbsp of orange juice, cover with aluminum foil. Leave it in the fridge overnight. 2. The next day, remove the mixed fruits from fridge and leave it to room temperature. 3. Line a 23 cm (9') square tin with double layer of baking paper, make sure the paper is 1.5" higher than the cake tin. Wrap the bottom & outside tin with aluminum foil. (see note 1). Pre-heat the oven to 150ºC/300ºF/Gas 2. 4. Beat the butter and sugar with electric cake mixer until fluffy. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in another mixing bowl. 5. Beat each egg in a small bowl (see note 2) before adding in the batter, fold in some flour mixture with each egg. Fold in the remaining flour and scrape down all the batter at the side of the mixer bowl to make sure all the ingredients are well mixed. 6. Remove the mixer bowl from the electric mixer, add mixed spice, cinnamon and lemon rind. Then, add in the mixed fruits and mix well with a spatula. 7. Spoon the batter into the tin and level it. Arrange the whole almond on top of the batter according to your preference. 8. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 2 and a half hours. After 1 hour, cover the cake with a piece of aluminum foil/baking paper. (see note 3) 9. Then, bake until the cake is firm to the touch and a skewer in the centre comes out clean. 10. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for about 30 mins, turn out on to a wire rack and cool. Then, wrap in aluminum foil and store in the fridge. 11. Remove from the fridge and leave to room temperature before serving (see note 8) Note: 1. You may tie a double thickness of brown paper around the outside of the tin with 1.5 in higher than the cake tin. I used aluminum foil to wrap the outside tin because I don't have brown paper in hand. If you use brown paper, you just have to line the inside of the tin with baking paper according to the height of the tin. " ... wrapping the cake tin, as standing the cake tin on a double layer of newspaper/brown paper protects the bottom and sides of the cake and prevents it cooking too quickly and more importantly, burning during the long slow cooking ..." (reference from here). 2. Beat each egg in a separate bowl before adding it to the batter is to prevent any spoilt egg. 3. Cover the cake after 1 hour of baking with a piece of aluminum foil/baking paper to prevent the top getting burn. 4. Since I am unable to find dark muscovado sugar in the shop, I substituted with 200g soft brown sugar + 50g molasses sugar to make the cake darker in colour. Nevertheless, I still find the cake is not dark enough, it will definitely better if you can use dark muscovado sugar or dark brown sugar to make the cake darker. (some recipe called for black treacle to have a darker colour) "muscovado sugar = dark brown sugar (reference from here)" 5. I have omitted the nuts in the original recipe because my family preferred only rich mixed fruits cake. If you are a nuts lover, you may add in the nuts according to the original recipe! 6. I used orange juice as this cake is serves to children. 7. Season the cake one month in advance to enhance the taste, pouring 1 - 2 tbsp of brandy on top of the cake each week to make the cake richer and tastier. 8. Chill the cake in the fridge for at least 1 hour before cutting to avoid breaking up and to have a nice cut.

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Strawberry Popsicles

Homemade popsicle is one of the healthy treat for kids, because it is made from fresh and natural ingredients without the added artificial colouring and flavoring like those selling in the stores. I was inspired by my good friend cherry yogurt popsicles and it gave me a great idea to make some for my son as he often drooling over those popsicles in the store. Making the popsicle at home gives me the freedom to choose the flavour from fresh ingredients like kiwi, strawberry, blueberry, orange & etc. This recipe is so versatile, you can make some tweaks to the recipe by choosing your favourite seasonal fruits, your favourite yogurt and honey too.


I saw some big and red strawberries from US in the grocery store and it makes a good choice for the popsicle. Moreover, strawberry is one of my son’s favourite. Thus, I made it into strawberry yogurt popsicle. Having Greek-Style yogurt in this recipe makes the popsicle creamier and tastier but unfortunately I didn’t manage to find them in the store. Well, save it for the next time and more to come. I have omitted the lemon juice as it is too sourish for our liking. By using the organic raw honey, it gives the popsicle a natural sweetness and a healthier choice compare to syrup or sugar water.


My son just couldn’t wait for the popsicles to set in the freezer and pop them into his mouth. He indeed participated in the making of this popsicles, happily pouring the puree and yogurt in the moulds and started stirring with a skewer. It was a great time spent with him and sharing the popsicles together the next day.

If you would like something cooling, fresh and melt in the mouth for this summer, make some popsicles at home and enjoy the goodness!

Make: 6 - 8 sticks (depending on your popsicle moulds) Ingredients: For strawberry puree: 250g strawberries (leaves removed and cut into pieces) 1 tbsp honey (I used Organic Acacia Raw Honey) For yogurt mixture: 180g (3/4 cup) Plain Yogurt 1/8 cup fresh milk 1 tbsp honey Methods (for swirled pops): 1. Remove the leaves on the strawberries. Then, gently rinse the strawberries and cut into pieces. Place strawberries in a blender and puree. Pass through a fine sieve into a measuring cup. (You should have 3/4 cup puree). Stir in honey and adjust to taste. Set aside. 2. Pour the yogurt into a bowl. Stir in the milk a little at a time until the yogurt is thinned enough that it can be poured. Then, add in the honey and adjust to taste. Set aside. 3. Pour an inch of yogurt into the popsicle moulds, then an inch of strawberry puree, and repeat until the moulds are filled. Use a chopstick or skewer to gently swirl the liquids together. Then, insert the sticks and close tight. Freeze at least 8 hours or overnight, until the popsicles solidify. 4. When it is ready, take out the popsicles from the freezer. Run the moulds under tap/ warm water and wiggle gently the sticks to free the popsicles from the moulds. Note: • Adjust the amount of honey according to your taste. • Use Greek-style yogurt if you can find in your local hypermarket. The popsicles will be creamer and tastier. • Use large and red strawberries to produce more sweetness and juiciness. • Use Organic raw honey for better taste. • Passing strawberry puree through a fine sieve is to remove the seeds and also make the puree smoother. • You may use empty yogurt pots if you do not have popsicle moulds, insert the stick after 1 hour of freezing.

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Prawns with Lemon grass & Kaffir Leaves

While I was doing my usual grocery shopping, suddenly I craved for prawns with some fragrant herbs and my mind can't stop thinking of how delicious it will be. Moreover prawn is one of my all time favourite. Thus, I grabbed some aromatic lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves in the market and headed back home to whip up this scrumptious dish. Since lemon grass and kaffir leaves bring up the aromatic flavour to the prawns, it is just a perfect sumptuous combination.


If you do like prawns with aromatic herbs flavour, I bet you will love this dish to bits. I have also added some julienne red chilli to enhance the taste. We had this crunchy aromatic prawns with hot steamed rice for dinner. If you are searching for a rice recipe to go with this dish, try out Turmeric Butter Fragrant Rice. Besides serving with rice, you may also add this dish to curry noodles or laksa noodles. The next time you are craving for prawns with fragrant herbs, do drop by here and give this recipe a try!

Ingredients: 500g large-sized prawns, peeled-retain tails 1 stalk lemon grass (about 3 inches long), cut into small pieces 2 pieces kaffir lime leaves, cut into small pieces 1/2 red chilli, de-seed, julienne Marinade: Salt Sugar Method: 1. Rinse and peel prawns, retail tails. Soak prawns in iced cold water for 10 mins. Make sure the prawns are submerged in water (this is to make the prawns crunchy). 2. Drain, pat dry. Marinade with some salt & sugar for 10 mins. 3. Meanwhile, prepare lemon grass, kaffir leaves and red chilli. Put all in a mixing bowl and toss well. 4. Heat up frying pan with some oil, put in prawns and space out. Let them cook un-touch for 1 min. 5. Flip over to the other side, add in all the other ingredients. Stir fry lightly until prawns are cooked and fragrant. 6. Arrange some salad leaves on the plate, put prawns to the salad leaves. Serve immediately.

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A beach getaway!

Hi! I am back from a wonderful getaway at Awana Kijal Golf, Beach & Spa Resort, Terengganu. Terengganu is one of the state in Malaysia, situated at the East Coast of Peninsula Malaysia. It is well-known of its beautiful sea sides and beach attractions. Awana Kijal is one of my wish-to-visit resorts, after listening to many positive reviews from friends and online reviewers, we decided to pay this well recommended resort a visit last weekend. Awana Kijal is situated in Kemaman, one of the town in Terengganu. It was a 3 days 2 nights getaway from the busy urban city to a slow and relax town. This place is famous of the "turtle watching" activity at night. The resort is providing local trip packages to few attractions around the town, such as turtle watching (seasonal), durian trip, firefly watching, village tour and city tour. Thus, you can visit those places without any hassle.




After driving for about 5 hours from our home, we finally reached our destination. We were impressed by the architectural of the lobby and the top view from the highest floor of the hotel's room. Over seeing the golf course, the beautiful sea & the jungle, we were amazed and understood those good reviews from the previous guests. The resort has a huge & beautifully designed swimming pool, outdoor jacuzzi and also children pool with water slides, we definitely enjoyed the swimming pool especially my little boy. After the pool, I headed to the sauna room to get some refreshment which I longed for a long time. The following day, we headed to the sea for a dip and followed by our favourite beach sand castle building activity. The weather was beautiful during our stay there, it was just the right time to enjoy beach activities. So, we waited no more and rented 2 bicycles to ride along the beach and the resort.



The resort is also providing plenty of water activities such as banana boat ride, water skiing, jet skiing, parasailing, fishing trip and boat ride. Nevertheless, these activities are depending on the season. Most of the water activities can't be carried out during monsoon season around end of the year. Apart from the water activities, they also have beach activities, such as beach soccer, sepak takraw, volleyball, basketball, sand castle building and kite flying. It will be fun if you are coming with a group of friends or family.


There are giant size snake & ladder game and chess game painted on the ground for adults and kids to spend some childhood games together. It is a fun way to gather friends and family together while enjoying this beautiful resort.


We thought it will be difficult to find Chinese restaurant in this town since this town has majority of Malays restaurants, we were surprised to find 2 Chinese restaurants and a KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) branch just beside the resort. Thus, we headed to one of the Chinese restaurants to try it out. They have a wide range of food and was as good as those restaurant's standard in KL. Moreover, their price is reasonable. We had our lunch and dinner there for 2 days and we still find the food was awesome!

Nevertheless, the resort's breakfast was good too. We got to taste their local famous nasi padang with tuna curry (a Malays traditional food) and lemang with beef rendang. (Lemang is a traditional Malay food made of glutinous rice and coconut milk and cooked in a hollowed bamboo stick lined with banana leaves in order to prevent the rice from sticking to the bamboo. Reference from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemang). Along the way, you can find plenty of hawker stalls by the roadsides selling fresh-warm lemang, grilled fish in banana leaves, deep fried chips (keropok), satay, curry noodles and many more. All of them are absolutely mouth-watering if you prefer spicy, rich and authentic Asian food, it gives you the taste of the authentic village food that will definitely boost your appetite!

We really had a great getaway this time according to our pace and choices. We will surely return to this resort again the next time.

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Lemon Yoghurt Cake

Recently I am up for baking cakes again which I have left behind for sometime. I chanced upon this recipe from one of the "Flavours Magazine" and it catches my attention as the recipe called for lemon and yogurt which are my favourite ingredients for cakes. As mentioned by the author, this cake wasn't a rich cake and it wasn't too sweet as well. It is some sort like those sourish cake with compact texture. Thus, it is best to serves with some fruit jam, fruit sauce, maple syrup or honey. In this way, the condiment compliments the cake with a touch of sweetness to the taste. I have tried both no sugar added and sweetened fruit jams, I would say the sweetened fruit jam makes this cake tastes better. If you prefer a sweeter cake, you may increase the sugar amount, reduce the lemon zest or use sweetened plain yogurt. As a personal preference, I like to savour this cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzle with strawberry sauce. Try whatever ways that suit your taste bud for something more exotic and delicious.


Since the baking mood is back again, I hope I can bake more cakes to share with all of you. Nevertheless, I still have a lot of to-do list pending in my folder. It is time for me to sort it out and carry on the baking experiment again! *LOL*. Till then, catch up with all of you again and have a nice weekend.

Ingredients: 400g plain flour (I used cake flour) 2 tsp baking powder 2 eggs, lightly beaten grated zest of 3 lemons 250g caster sugar 1/8 tsp salt 100g butter, melted 200g plain yoghurt To serve: Fruit jam or preserves Methods: 1. Preheat oven to 180ºC. Line a 20 cm round cake pan with greaseproof paper. 2. Sift together the flour and baking powder in a mixing bowl. 3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the eggs, lemon zest, sugar and salt. Mix with a whisk. Add the flour, butter and yoghurt; stir to combine. 4. Pour batter into the cake pan and bake in middle rack for 30ins, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. 5. Cool the cake and serve with jam or fruit preserves. Note: • You may reduce the amount of lemon zest if you prefer a less sourish cake. • You may increase the amount of sugar if you prefer a sweeter cake. • You may also use sweetened plain yoghurt to increase the sweetness of the cake. • Serve this cake with fruit jam, fruit sauce, maple syrup or honey.

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