Strawberry Sponge Cake with Mascarpone Cream Frosting

Fresh strawberry is abundant and ample before and during summer. Strawberry and all the berries are relatively cheap during these season.I likes to use fresh strawberry to make fruit smoothies,cake and pie.Instead of cream cheese, I used mascarpone cheese as frosting for this strawberry cake.The cake is creamy,soft,light and easy to eat.

Ingredients For Sponge Cake:
(A)
5 eggs
150 gm sugar
(B)
120 gm flour
(C)
100 ml melted butter
1 tsp vanilla

Filling:
1 pound fresh strawberry
1 tube mascarpone cheese
1/2 gallon whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
sprinkle and

Method:

1:Preheat oven to 350 F or 180C.Prepare a 9" round baking pan with grease and parchment paper.
2:Combine ingredients(A) in an electric mixer ,beat until fluffy and light.Fold in ingredients(B) mix till well blended.
3:Stir in (C) and mix until well incorporated. Pour batter into a 9" round pan.Bake for 30 minutes.Remove cake from the pan immediately once baked.Cool completely before use.
4:Cut the sponge cake into 2 horizontal layers.Wash and cut strawberry in thin slices.
Combine sugar ,whipping cream and mascarpone in mixing bowl,whip at high speed until stiff peak.
5:Spread each layer or sponge cake with mascarpone and whipping cream frosting.Coat side cake with slices strawberry.Use pipping bag filled with cream to decorate the cake.Sprinkle some color sprinkle on top and place some slices strawberry on top too..

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Fried Butterfly Shrimp in White Zinfandel

Fried butterfly shrimp is one of my family favorite snack.The best way to enjoy butterfly shrimp is when the shrimp was fried hot from fryer to table.The butterfly shrimp must be crisp and juicy.I used some leftover white zinfandel to infused in the shrimp for extra zest flavor!!

Ingredients:
15 extra-large shrimp,peeled,cleaned and butterfly(deviened)
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Seasoning:
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp seasalt
1 tsp sugar
3-4 tbsp white zinfandel
1 egg


Coating:
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 panko(plain bread crumb)

Tartar sauce on side

Method:

1:To prepare your shrimp, first make sure that they have been peeled. This includes ensuring that their head and legs have been removed, but not the tail. You should also remove the veins in the shrimp.Once you have prepped your shrimp, take your paring knife or your kitchen shears and place them at the top of the shrimp, at the head region. Insert the blade into the shrimp, about ¾ of the way through (careful not to go all the way through. You will want to carefully cut down the center of the shrimp’s back to the tail. Once you have done this, use your fingers to open up the flesh of the shrimp until the meat is flat. At this time removing the central vein is easier than if you try to do it before opening up the shrimp. All you have to do now is thoroughly wash the shrimp in cold water (being careful to not let the shrimp meat collapse or fall apart.

2:Prepare all the seasoning in a large bowl,mix well.Toss shrimp in the seasoning ,marinated for 1 hour or longer.

3:Prepare fryer with oil at medium high heat for 350 F.Hold shrimp tail and coated with flour,then dip again in the marinate before coat again in bread crumb,lightly press the bread crumb on the shrimp,shake well then place in the hot oil.

4:Fry breaded shrimp until golden brown.Removed fried shrimp from hot oil on the paper towel to absorb the excess oil.Serve warm with tartar sauce or your favorite.

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Lemon Madeleines with Sugar Powder

I have 2 Madeleine pans but  only used it once.It's been sitting in my storage for years.I think it's time for me to bake some Madeleine again..This recipe is really simple than I thought..I realize the cakes from silicon Madeleine pan was easy to remove but the cake texture was quite rough.In the other hand the cakes from aluminum pan was stick to the pan even thought I spray quite a large amount of butter but the cake texture is smooth and fine..Well,you go figure out!! Hubby love this French cake very much..He ate most of the cakes.

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks)butter, plus more for the molds for use butter spray

4 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1 fresh lemon,zest all skin

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the molds(sifted)

1 teaspoon baking powder(sifted)

1/2 cup sugar powder (sifted) as topping

Method:

1: Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat,cool and set aside

2:Beat the eggs with the sugar in a bowl until pale, about 5 minutes. Add the lemon zest and vanilla. Stir in the flour and baking powder,mix well and then the melted butter.

3:Butter and flour two 12-cookie Madeleine molds.(make sure to spray lots of butter on the aluminum pan to prevent from sticking)Pour  or scoop the batter into the molds, filling them three-quarters of the way.

4:Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

5:Bake the Madeleines for 5 minutes, then turn down the oven temperature to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and bake until golden brown and puffed in the center, about 20 minutes or more.

6:Remove Madeleines from pan to wire rack to cool completely. Sprinkle some sugar powder on the cake.Serve with tea or coffee.

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Fried Chicken Drumstick with White Zinfandel Wine

I have some leftover white zinfandel wine been sitting around in the kitchen for a week.Of course,the open wine is not suitable to drink after been open for a week but it's still alright to use a cooking ingredients.I think using wine to marinate chicken drumstick is ideal since white zinfandel have all the cooking wine ingredients. If you have open wine or leftover wine  don't discard,try to use this fruity liquor in any of your favorite cooking.To infused this fruity flavor into the chicken meat is really interesting.On top of that I also mixed rice flour with all purpose flour together to created the crispness of the outer layer.Try it!! you won't regret!!

Ingredients:
10 drumstick,removed all feathers,slit and cleaned


Seasoning:

1 cup white Zinfandel wine
2 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp ground pepper
1 egg


Coating:
1/2 cup rice flour or corn flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 dash chili powder

1 1/2 cup canola oil for frying

Method:

1:Removed extra feathers and use a paring knife to slits the middle drumstick about 3 inches long.(inner part cook well,not bloody)

2:Combine all the seasoning in a large bowl ,mix well then marinate cleaned drumstick with the seasoning for overnight.

3:Prepare both flour in a medium large pan ,mix well.Heat oil in fryer or stock pot to 325 F.Coat marinated drumstick with flour mixture well,shake excess flour before place into fryer.Do not overlap drumstick.Fry for 20 minutes or until golden light brown.

4:Remove drumstick from fryer and place on a paper towel to dry the excess oil.Serve warm with your favorite dressing.

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Baby Spinach with Grapefruit and Sunburst Tomato Salad

These days making your own salad at home is as easy as ABC.For your convenience ,you can get ready cleaned and washed lettuce,tomato or your favorite fruits at any supermarket counter.Just toss everything in your plate and drizzle with your favorite dressing and you can have a priceless salad in less in 10 minutes!! Viola!!

 Ingredients:

1 pack of baby spinach(8 oz)
1 punnet of Sunburst tomato,washed and cut 1/2
1 large grapefruit,removed skin and cut small
1 cup 3 shredded cheese

Dressing:
apple cider vinegar
lemon
salt and pepper

3 portion salad

Method:

1:Wash and cut everything in a large salad bowl.Divided the salad to 3 salad plates.Sprinkle some shredded cheese on op before drizzle your favorite dressing on your salad.

2:Serve chill immediately.

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Strawberry and Banana Ice Cream Smoothies

It's Spring season now.We can see Spring flowers blooms everywhere..It's also time for fruity drink since our weather are going crazy from warm to cold and warm again.l bought fresh strawberry from BJ's wholesale almost weekly.Each box of strawberry is 3 pounds,quite lot just for Mishu.These type of fresh strawberry must consume ASAP before it's going bad.So before it's going bad I will toss all the fruits and berries in the blender and make a delicious smoothie!! Viola!! what a delicious creamy fruity smoothies to drink!!

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 Ingredients;

1 pound fresh strawberry,washed ,drained and removed the stem
1 ripe large banana
1 cup vanilla ice cream
1 cup 2 % milk or more
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups ice cubes

Method:

1:Combine all the ingredients in a blender,use smoothie button to blend for 30 seconds or until all ingredients will mix well.

2:Remove smoothies from blender and serve  chill.

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Blue Pea Flower Chiffon Cake (Bunga Telang)

Blue pea flower or bunga telang is a perennial herbaceous plant. Its leaves are elliptic and obtuse. It grows as a vine or creeper, doing well in moist neutral soil. The most striking feature about this plant are its vivid deep blue flowers. They are solitary, with light yellow markings. They are about 4 cm long by 3 cm wide. There are some varieties that yield white flowers. In Southeast Asia the flowers are used to colour food. In Malay cooking, an aqueous extract is used to color glutinous rice for kuih ketan (also known as pulut tai tai in Peranakan/Nyonya cooking) ,nasi kerabu and in nonya zhang.

Last summer, I planted some blue pea flower plants but my plants doesn't produces much flowers.I guess our summer is too short or our weather is not humid and hot enough.Anyway I still have plenty of dried blue pea flower given by my mom..This is my 1st time experiment making cake with blue pea flowers.My mistake was ,I added too much water when soaking the flowers.The blue flower color look so light,that why I added a drop of food blue color.This time I used cake flour instead of all purpose flour.This chiffon cake is really soft and fluffy..

Ingredients:
(A)
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup cake flour,sifted
1 tsp baking powder,sifted

(B)

6 large egg yolks
3/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup vegetable or corn oil


20 blue pea flower,soaked in 5-8 tbsp water and discard the flowers later
1 drop blue food color *optional*

(C)
6 large egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

 blue pea flower (bunga telang)


Method:

1:Pre-heat oven to 350 degree F .(adjust the heat accordingly to your own oven temperature.I used to set to 350F but now my new oven is slightly hotter then old oven)
2: Sieve(A) both flour ,baking powder and salt except sugar ,oil and coconut milk in a mixing bowl,set aside.
3: Combine ingredients (B) egg yolk and oil in another mixer or mixing bowl,beat until well blended Add in coconut milk before add in ingredients (A) ,beat until smooth.
4: Beat ingredients (C) in mixer on high speed until stiff peak and glossy. It should not fall out when you turn the mixing bowl over. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the egg yolks mixture and continue to do so until egg whites is finish. Remember to fold in gently until well mixed.(Do not beat or mix,just fold!!)
4: Divided the batter into 2 portion.Pour blue pea flower juice and a drop of blue food color in the batter,mix well.Prepare an un-greased 10" tube pan.Pour the plain batter into the tube pan,then pour the blue pea batter on top.Use knife to zig-zag the batter to make marble effect..
5:Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour or used a bamboo skewer to test the cake. Just insert the skewer into the center of the cake and it should comes out clean.
6: Invert cake and let it cool complete in the pan. When is cool, loosen the edge of the pan with knife and remove cake.
7: Cut the cake to 12 pieces or your desire size and serve with tea or coffee

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