Recipes: Gudetama (ぐでたま) Lemon Cookies

Good news! I am now officially a person with an oven! All the bakers say "heiyo" *heiyo*. Woots woots.

In case you can't tell, I am already up in the air thinking about all of the cakes and cookies I am going to be baking in the future. There are tons, and I do mean TONS of recipes that I have been dying to try, and words can't even describe how exciting I am right now. 

So, as a 'grand opening' of my lovely oven (ps: thanks mommy and daddy who probably got me the oven purely because I was getting too annoying with my whining *wink*), I have decided to make these adorable Gudetama lemon cookies!

Before we move on to the recipe itself, here's a brief introduction on this adorable egg. Gudetama (ぐでたま) , literally translated as Lazy Egg, is a Sanrio character introduced in 2013. It is lazy, has no energy, non motivated, and thinks that there is no point of having a positive attitude as he believes that someday he is going to be eaten. I find it ultra adorable, and super snugly (we are still talking about an egg, believe me). Here's a short clip of it in action. 

Isn't he the cutest?!

Okay, without further ado, check out the recipe after the photos!

Egg yolk in the making.

Hot in the oven.

"We just want to sleep" ah ~~~

Cutest cookies ever

"Just eat us already, why bother?" ~~

Here is a short clip of us cutting the poor thing in half:

Gudetama Lemon Cookies

Recipe adapted from the ever so talented 스윗더미 . Sweet The MI (with a few personal twist)

Learn how to make the cutest and laziest cookies alive!

Prep time: 1 hour
Cook time: 15 minutes
Total time: 3 hours (plus cooling and decorating time)

Ingredients:

Egg Yolk Cookies

• 120g Butter (softened)
• 100g Icing sugar
• Zest of 1 whole lemon
• 1 tablespoon Lemon juice
• 1 Egg
• 1 drop Almond extract
• 300g Cake flour (soft flour)
• A few drops Yellow colouring (optional)

Egg whites and decoration

• 3 squares Dark/milk chocolate
• 1 cup White chocolate

Cooking Directions:

1. Whisk the butter in a bowl until soft.
2. Add in the sifted icing sugar, whisk until creamy
3. Add in the egg and whisk again. (save egg shell if want to make a white chocolate egg shell)
4. Add in lemon zest, lemon juice, and almond extract, mix until all well combined.
5. Add in sifted flour, use a spatula to fold the flour into the mixture. Keep folding until the mixture turns doughy.
6. Add in the yellow colouring (you can opt this step out but I used it to make the egg yolk looking extra yellow). Fold again until the colouring is well incorporated to the dough.
7. Wrap the dough with a plastic wrap, let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
8. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
9. After 30 minutes, take out the dough and start sculpting your Gudetama.
10. Place the sculpted dough on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
11. Once done, set the cookies aside and let it cool completely.
12. Meanwhile, melt the dark chocolate with a double boiler and pour the melted chocolate into a small piping bag.
13. Once the cookies are cooled, draw the face feature with the melted dark chocolate. Set aside for 10 minutes to dry.
14. Melt the white chocolate with a double boiler, and use a spoon to spread the white chocolate on a non-stick baking sheet to form the egg whites. (one egg white would need approximately 1 1/2 tablespoon of chocolate).
15. Place the egg yolk cookie on top of the white chocolate before it dries.
16. Once done, keep the cookies in the freezer for half an hour until the white chocolate hardens.
17. Take tons of photos and enjoy!

Extra:

If you would like to take things up a notch by making a hollow white chocolate egg shell, simply crack the top of the egg carefully, pour its content out and clean its inside, pour in melted white chocolate and swirl the chocolate around until it completely covers the surface and let it cool in the freezer for half an hour, if you want thicker shells, coat the inside again and let it cool. Once cooled, peel the egg shell carefully, and voila! you have a white chocolate egg shell!

Love, 

Ashley

Rice Cooker Cake Recipes: Pink Velvet Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting!

Have you ever had that sudden urge to bake a cake in the middle of the day, and you actually made it ever so randomly? I know I have, and this cake was the perfect example of it. To be fair, I have been looking for an opportunity (or excuse, you might say) to try baking a pink velvet cake using only a rice cooker, and what occasion could be more appropriate than Valentines day itself, right? Even though I did not technically have any 'special someone' to spend the day with, I have decided to make the cake and enjoy it with the love of my life, my ever wonderful family. The cake turned out really well and I had so much fun making it. 

Pink and fluffy cake with soft and creamy lemon frosting

Since I did not have any buttermilk in hand, I had to make it myself. To make your own buttermilk, just add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice into 1 cup of milk, wait for it to do its magic for 10 minutes, and voila! you have buttermilk.

This recipe was adapted from the ever lovely Abeer from cakewhiz.com, but instead of her delicious strawberry frosting, I have decided to go with my very own lemon cream cheese frosting, just as a personal twist. Also, rather than using 1 cup of butter for the cake, I have put in my own twist by cutting down the butter to 1/2 cup and replace it with 1/2 cup of coconut oil. 

Overall, I really like this recipe and I am so glad that my family loved it too. Hope you had a great Valentines day and maybe next year you can make this cake for your special someone!

Here is the recipe!

Pink Velvet Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Recipe by Ashley Ooi (adapted from cakewhiz with a few personal twist)

Learn how to make a pink velvet cake, with a rice cooker!

Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 50 minutes
Total time: 2 hours 15 minutes (including cooling and decorating time)
Ingredients

The Cake

• 2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
• 1 1/4 cups Sugar
• 1/2 cup Unsalted Butter (softened)
• 1/2 cup Coconut Oil
• 1 cup Buttermilk
• 3 Eggs
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/8 tsp Salt
• A few drops Rose Pink Gel Colouring

The Frosting

• 2 (8 ounce) packages Cream Cheese (softened)
• 1/2 cup Butter (softened)
• 2 cups Icing Sugar
• 2 tbsp Lemon Juice
• 1 tsp Lemon Zests
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Cooking Directions

The Cake

1. In a bowl, cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
2. Add in eggs one by one and mix well.
3. Add in coconut oil and mix again.
4. In another bowl, add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, mix well.
5. Add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture by batch, alternate by adding buttermilk in between. Mix well after each addition until the batter is smooth and silky.
6. Add in the colouring and adjust the shade according to your preference.
7. Slightly oil the rice cooker and pour the batter in.
8. Smooth the surface and lightly tap the pot to remove air bubbles from the batter.
9. Set the rice cooker to cake function and press the start button.
10. Once the cake is done, wait for it to cool down.
11. Carefully cut the cake into half horizontally.
12. Spread frosting on the cake and put the other layer on top. Frost the cake to your preference. Decorate with sprinkles.
13. Chill the cake in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before eating.

The Frosting

1. Cream the cream cheese with an electric mixer.
2. Add in butter and mix until soft and fluffy.
3. Add in the lemon juice and zest and mix again.
4. Add in sugar and vanilla extract, mix well.
5. Once everything are well incorporated, turn the mixer to the highest speed and mix the frosting for 10 seconds to get a light and fluffy frosting.

Love, 

Ashley

Recipe: Chinese Turnip Cake (a.k.a Lo bak gou/ 萝卜糕)

Having spent my last two Chinese New Years in the UK, to say that I've missed the CNY food would be an understatement. I miss the cookies, the cakes, bakkwa (chinese version of meat jerky), reunion dinner, mandarin and most importantly, Chinese turnip cake. Now that I have some spare time in hand, I have decided to make some for my family to get everyone into the Chinese New Year mood.

Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, I was really happy with the end product. My tip for this recipe is to put some salt on the shredded turnip to release the water so as to get rid of the bitterness of the turnip. As for frying, you could pan fry it straight without the powder, but I prefer coating it with some rice flour just to make it extra crispy.

On with the recipe!

For ingredients, you will need: 

• 400g Chinese turnip/ Daikon radish (grated)
• 300g Rice flour
• 30g Tapioca flour
• 2 tablespoons Dried shrimps (soaked, dried and chopped)
• 5-6 Chinese mushrooms (soaked, and chopped)
• 1 Chinese sausage
• 7-8 Dried anchovy (ikan bilis)
• 800ml Water
• 1 tbsp Garlic (diced)
• 2 tbsp Red onion (diced)
• 3 tbsp Oil
• 2 tbsp Salt
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 1 tbsp Soy sauce
• 1 tsp White pepper
• 1 tsp Sesame Oil

Wash the anchovies and boil with water in low heat for 15 minutes to make a stock. Set aside to cool. Grate the Chinese turnip, mix with 1 tbsp of salt. Let it rest until liquid comes out. Remove the turnip from the liquid and lightly dry it with a paper towel.

 Dice up the mushrooms, garlic, red onion, sausage, and dried shrimps.

Mix the rice flour, tapioca flour, a pinch of salt, 1 tsp soy sauce, 1/2 white pepper together. Pour in half of the stock and mix well into a batter.

Heat your pan over medium heat and add 1 tbsp of cooking oil, add in the garlic and red onion, stir fry for 2 minutes.

Add in mushrooms, sausage, and dried shrimps into the pan, stir fry for 5 minutes.

Add in the turnip and the other half of the stock, season with soy sauce, salt, pepper, sugar and sesame oil, cook for another 2 minutes.

Turn your pan to low heat, pour the batter into the pan. Keep on stirring with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens.

Pour the mixture into a oiled loaf pan, steam over high heat for 1 hour.

Remove pan from steamer and let it cool for 30 minutes.Gently loosen the sides and turn the cake out onto a chopping board.

Cut it into even pieces, lightly coat each cake with a thin layer of rice flour.

Add 1 tbsp of oil and pan fried both side of the turnip cake in medium-low heat until golden brown.

Serve with Thai chilli sauce, sriracha or Oyster sauce.

Enjoy and Happy Chinese New Year in advance!

Turnip cake (Lo bak gou/ 萝卜糕)

Recipe by Ashley Ooi

Delicious Chinese turnip cake.

Prep time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Total time: 2 hours 30 minutes

Yield: 5 servings

Ingredients

• 400g Chinese turnip/ Daikon radish (grated)
• 300g Rice flour
• 30g Tapioca flour
• 2 tablespoons Dried shrimps (soaked, dried and chopped)
• 5-6 Chinese mushrooms (soaked, and chopped)
• 1 Chinese sausage
• 7-8 Dried anchovy (ikan bilis)
• 800ml Water
• 1 tbsp Garlic (diced)
• 2 tbsp Red onion (diced)
• 3 tbsp Oil
• 2 tbsp Salt
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 1 tbsp Soy sauce
• 1 tsp White pepper
• 1 tsp Sesame Oil

Cooking Directions

1. Wash the anchovies and boil with water in low heat for 15 minutes to make a stock. Set aside to cool.
2. Grate the Chinese turnip, mix with 1 tbsp of salt. Let it rest until liquid comes out. Remove the turnip from the liquid and lightly dry it.
3. Dice up the mushrooms, garlic, red onion, sausage, and dried shrimps.
4. Mix the rice flour, tapioca flour, a pinch of salt, 1 tsp soy sauce, 1/2 white pepper together. Pour in half of the stock and mix well into a batter.
5. Heat your pan over medium heat and add 1 tbsp of cooking oil, add in the garlic and red onion, stir fry for 2 minutes.
6. Add in mushrooms, sausage, and dried shrimps into the pan, stir fry for 5 minutes.
7. Add in the turnip and the other half of the stock, season with soy sauce, salt, pepper, sugar and sesame oil, cook for another 2 minutes.
8. Turn your pan to low heat, pour the batter into the pan. Keep on stirring with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens.
9. Pour the mixture into a oiled loaf pan, steam over high heat for 1 hour.
10. Remove pan from steamer and let it cool for 30 minutes.
11. Gently loosen the sides and turn the cake out onto a chopping board.
12. Cut it into even pieces, lightly coat each cake with a thin layer of rice flour.
13. Add 1 tbsp of oil and pan fried both side of the turnip cake in medium-low heat until golden brown.
14. Serve with Thai chilli sauce, sriracha or Oyster sauce.