The Majestic Hotel, Melaka - March 2013

Oh dear me, this is such a belated post, late for 3 months!!

For my birthday this year, we decided to do a short 2D1N road trip to Melaka. Initially was thinking of staying at Casa Del Rio which is located just next to Jonker Street. We stayed there previously and loved the convenience, overall furnishing of the hotel, moreover dear son loved the oversized bathtub.

But I wanted to try The Majestic which is a YTL property (we've been to 2 other YTL properties - Tanjong Jara Resort and Cameron Highlands Resort and were quite impressed by the service and overall ambiene and furnishing. Even though the location is rather inconvenient, I was keen to check it off my to-stay list in Melaka and more importantly, try the Spa Village. Have had heavenly experience at Spa Village Cameron Highlands and Tanjong Jara before, so Spa Village is a must-try for me! Well, take it as a birthday pampering treat :)

The entrance to the car park is located at a different road from the actual hotel entrance, and easy to miss but luckily I spotted it just in time. And I also spotted the coffee shop that we wanted to try, just at the entrance to the car park.

The boutique hotel consists of 2 buildings, the main building where the reception and restaurant are, is originally a Peranakan mansion dated back in 1920s. The new building is an addition, houses 54 rooms and suites, and mirrors the original architecture of the old building.

Gonna love the cream and teal exterior of the main building.

The moment we entered the main lobby, we were greeted warmly by 2 friendly doorman/concierge and instantly fell in love with the furnishing, which has such an old world charm.

The staircase next to the reception leads to the restaurant.

The bar area. I love those pendant lamps.

Comfy sofas around the lobby area, for guests to relax. Afternoon tea is served here as well.

After the check-in procedures, we were led to our deluxe room.

The four poster bed looks so inviting, the first thing dear son did was to jump onto it. Luckily I stopped him just in time for a quick snap.

The lounge sofa overlooks part of the river, I love lazing about there.

The bathroom is an open-concept, with sliding doors that we could open all the way to sort of adjourn the bathroom and the bedroom. Good thing about this, we could monitor dear son while he plays in the tub. The over-sized bathtub is a favourite for dear son, it looks very much like ceramic but surprisingly is plastic!

We were served welcome Chinese tea by the staff.

As for facilities, there's a dip pool, about 1.2m deep, and a small gym.

The dining room known as The Mansion, serves breakfast and dinner. We only had our breakfast there the next morning. For dinner, we wanted to try the Chinese stall, Restoran Lee at the nearby coffee shop which is supposedly very good.

Breakfast is included in the room rate. It's semi buffet style, tea, coffee and juices are served at the table, bakery items and some hot food items like nasi lemak and fried noodles, as well as fruits and yogurt are served at the buffet table. In addition, we could order eggs, omelette, French toast, waffles etc. which would be cooked by the chef.

Modest selection of bread and bakery items.

Assorted cereal, milk and yogurt.

Nasi Lemak with curry chicken and condiments.

Fried noodles.

Assorted tropical fruits.

My order, 2 sunny side-up with hashbrown, sausage, bacon and grilled tomato. The eggs were mostly eaten by dear son.

The nasi lemak and fried noodles were not bad.

But honestly, we didn't have such a good impression of breakfast. Thought that as a YTL property, they could do better, as in we had better experience at Cameron Highlands Resort and Tanjong Jara Resort. Firstly, there weren't enough baby chairs, good thing they provided cushions for dear son to sit on. Breakfast service was slow, the orders took a while to arrive and the kitchen delivered wrong order for hubby (he wanted soft boil egg and they served hard boil). Buffet items were limited with slow refills.

Restoran Lee which is recommended by C, and also received good reviews on tripadvisor.

Stir fried sweet potato leaves, very tender.

Fried egg with prawn for dear son. The eggs were very fluffy, surprisingly good for such a simple dish.

Stir fried deer meat with spring onion and ginger. The meat was tender and the sauce very tasty, goes well with rice!

The star of the meal, fried crab cooked in milk. It's not really like butter crabs, it tasted rich and milky, yet spicy but not too overwhelming on the palate. And toast is served together (to dip the sauce in). Very unique indeed! We like! The meal however was not cheap (can't remember the price now), I guess coz of the crab. Well, it beats eating at the Portuguese settlement (which we didn't have a good experience previously).

After the hearty dinner, we decided to walk to Jonker Street to help in digestion, but it was quite a long walk, took about 30 mins. As usual the night market area was too crowded and we just walked for a while, ate a bowl of iced chendol and took a cab back to the hotel to rest for the night.

Up next, my experience at Spa Village Malacca. Stay tuned!

Rose Petal Shortbread

I seemed to be baking a lot of cookies these days. I find that I'm constantly looking for something crunchy or crispy whether savoury or sweet to munch on, so I guess cookies satisfy the cravings other than chips :p

Saw this recipe on the May 2013 issue of Food & Travel and decided to give it a try since I do have a bottle of Nissey Massay Rose Extract sitting in the fridge from a previous cupcake bake.

For the rose petals, initially I bought a pack of dried rose buds from a chinese herbal provision shop but I find the aroma a little weird. Those found in Chinese herbal shops is typically used for soups. In the end, I bought a bottle of gourmet dried edible rose petals which is very costly. It's only much later that I manage to find rose petal tea at a much affordable price.

The baking process was fairly straightforward, the dough was a little wet so it was essential to first roll the dough into individual logs and then freeze the logs for ease of cutting. That said, the cookie will still spread a little during baking. The aroma of the rose was intoxicating and my entire house was filled with the lovely scent. Texture of the cookie was light and brittle, like that of shortbread and I love the distinct taste of rose.

The dough keeps well in the freezer so it's possible to make a big batch and freeze the dough for smaller batch baking. And the cookies keep quite well in airtight container. I have a tub (reduced to a few pieces) for almost 2 weeks now and they are still good.

Rose Petal Shortbread

(Recipe from food&travel magazine May 2013 issue - Allan Bakes Really Good Treats)

Makes 30-40 cookies, about 4cm diameter

• 185g plain flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 75g icing sugar
• 1/2 lemon, zest
• 1 tbsp dried edible rose petals, tear into tiny pieces
• 175g unsalted butter, slightly softened but still cold, cut into cubes
• 1 tsp rose extract

1. Preheat oven to 170 degree Celsius. Line baking tray with baking paper or Silpat.
2. Sift flour and baking powder together 2 times. Then sift in the icing sugar and mix well.
3. Add lemon zest and rose petals. Mix well.
4. Add butter cubes and rub into flour mixture (using hands or spatula). Add rose extract and mix till dough forms. The dough will be malleable and slightly wet texture.
5.  Divide the dough into 3 portions. Place each portion on a freezer bag, roll into 3-cm diameter logs, wrap around using the freezer bag and freeze for minimum 30 mins.
6. Unwrap chilled logs and cut into 0.5cm slices. Arrange on lined baking tray and place 2 cm apart as the dough will spread a little.
7. Bake for 10-12 mins, or until shortbread is browned. Watch closely from the 10th minute onwards.
8. Leave shortbread to cool completely before keeping in airtight container.

Optional
60 coarse sugar
1 tbsp dried rose buds
100ml boiling water

There's an optional step in the recipe. Place dried rose buds in boiling water and seep for 30 mins, let cool completely before using. Discard rose buds. After cutting the dough into discs and before sending to bake, dip each disc into the rose water, and sprinkle some coarse sugar onto the cookie surface.

I tried making a few cookies with the optional step and found it to be redundant. The rose water didn't make much difference as the cookie was already very fragrant (probably coz I used rose extract). The coarse sugar made the cookie top crunchy but it also made the sugar much sweeter which I didn't want.

 

 

I'm selling these cookies, whether in box or small packaging. Pls email me at dreamersloft@gmail.com if interested!

M&M Cookies - comparison of 2 recipes

Hosted a gathering for my Uni/Hall friends and their families today, with a baking session for the kids and it was a blast! This was the second time I hosted a kids baking session, the last one was a month ago for my Sec/JC friends. Really had a fun time baking with the kids, maybe this is my calling?? Well, sometime for me to ponder in the long run...

Anyways, when I started planning for this session, I couldn't decide which recipes to choose. The previous session I had blueberry yogurt muffins and Danish Butter Cookies, which were quite well received by the kids (about 5-6 kids). But this time round, there were 13-14 kids! Since there's equipment constraints due to the large number, I had to select something easy to manage and engaging for the kids.

Decided to stick to blueberry yogurt muffins as the recipe is easy to handle, without the need for electric mixer, and is quite a healthy recipe. As for the cookies, decide to go for M&M cookies! Well, all kids love M&M, don't they? Searched the internet for recipes and came across 2 recipes - one by Small Small Baker, and another by Joy of Baking. The 2 recipes use slightly different base ingredients; most noticeable is Small Small Baker uses Cake Flour and baking powder, whereas Joy of Baking uses Plain Flour (All Purpose Flour) and baking soda. I'm quite curious because usually plain flour is used for cookies instead of cake flour, same goes for baking powder vs baking soda.

Naturally I have to test bake both recipes to find out how the end product would turn out. In the end, I prefer the recipe by Joy of Baking even though the recipe by Small Small Baker is simpler with fewer ingredients. (No offence to both bakers for the comparison).

Comparison of ingredients:
Joy of Baking - more complex with more fat and sugar. Uses plain flour, baking soda, salt, unsalted butter, caster sugar and light brown sugar, 1 egg and 1 egg yolk, vanilla extract.
Small Small Baker - very simple, less fat and sugar. Uses cake flour, baking powder, unsalted butter, caster sugar, 2 full eggs.

Comparison of texture and taste:
Joy of Baking - Dough wetter, spreads when baking. More crispy and light/refine texture. Taste richer, more fragrant (due to light brown sugar).
Small Small Baker - dough dryer, doesn't spread much when baking. More crunchy and rough texture. Taste flatter, less fragrant.

M&M Cookies I

(recipe from Small Small Baker)

Ingredients

• 200g cake flour
• 4g baking powder
• 110g unsalted butter
• 70g caster sugar
• 1 large egg (about 60g with shell)
• M&M chocolate

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.
2. Sift cake flour and baking powder and set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy (in an electric mixer or hand mixer).
4. Add the egg and mix well.
5. Add the flour and baking powder mixture gradually until just mixed.
6. Fold the batter to form a dough. Transfer dough to fridge to chill for about 30 mins.
7. Using a spoon, scoop a small ball of dough, roll into ball shape and place on parchment/baking paper.
8. Flatten the ball slightly and press in the M&Ms.
9. Bake at 180 degree celsius for 12-15 minutes (depending on size of dough).
10. When ready, let the cookies cool completely on a wire rack before transferring to airtight container.

M&M Cookies II
(recipe from Joy of Baking)

Ingredients

• 260g plain flour
• 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 170g unsalted butter
• 50g caster sugar (original 130g)
• 70g light brown sugar (original 140g)
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• M&M Cookies

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.
2. Sift plain flour, baking powder and salt, and set aside.
3. Cream butter and both sugars till light and fluffy (in an electric mixer or hand mixer).
4. Add the eggs and mix well.
5. Add the dry ingredients gradually until just mixed.
6. Fold the batter to form a dough. Transfer dough to fridge to chill for about 30 mins.
7. Using a spoon, scoop a small ball of dough, roll into ball shape and place on parchment/baking paper.
8. Flatten the ball slightly and press in the M&Ms.
9. Bake at 180 degree celsius for 12-15 minutes (depending on size of dough).
10. When ready, let the cookies cool completely on a wire rack before transferring to airtight container.

Sakura Matcha Chiffon

Finally I baked my Sakura Matcha Chiffon! Been wanting to bake this since last month, after my return from Nagoya, where I bought a packet of early spring green tea powder and pickled sakura flower.

The recipe is from Junko Fukuda's Chiffon Cake Book 福田淳子, 好吃戚风蛋糕轻松上手. Many home bakers seem to have this book and everyone raved about how good the chiffon recipes are, in their blogs, so I also bought a copy recently :)

The book has separate recipes for Sakura Chiffon and Matcha Chiffon. Since I didn't have Sakura leaf powder, I just use the Matcha Chiffon recipe top with some pickled sakura, like what Cuisine Paradise did.

The book also provides proportions of ingredients for both 17cm chiffon pan and 20 cm chiffon pan; I opted for the latter.

But I found the batter quantity too much for a 20cm pan. Usually I will fill the batter to about 2/3 full, otherwise the cake will rise too high and then have massive cracks (this situation happened to me a few times when I tried to fill the pan to 3/4). So for the remaining batter, I used a petite chiffon pan and 3 square paper cups.

Another intriguing thing is the recipe does not call for Cream of Tartar which is typically used to stabilise beaten egg whites. So I wonder if the chiffon would turn out as fluffy and tender as expected?

 This is the early spring green tea (first pick green tea) and pickled cherry blossom.

Strictly speaking, this is not really matcha since the green tea is not finely grinded into powder. This is just extra fine tea leaves? The taste is pretty raw, like grass actually, and I thought it might be interesting to use this for the chiffon instead of pure matcha.

Indeed, the chiffon didn't turn out to be deep homogenous green like the typical Matcha Chiffon. Mine is more like speckled greens all around. LOL. But the fragrance of the green tea is prominent and that is the key.

And even though there's no egg white stabilising agent, the chiffon still turned out very tender, moist and most importantly cottony soft! The pickled sakura added a tinge of saltiness to the otherwise sweet cake and I thought it was quite a nice touch.

 This is the petite matcha chiffon without the sakura.

The matcha chiffon cupcake.

All in all, Junko's recipe is indeed very good and I'm all for trying out the rest of her recipes!

Sakura Matcha Chiffon Cake
Recipe from  Junko Fukuda's Chiffon Cake Book 福田淳子, 好吃戚风蛋糕轻松上手
Makes 1 x 20cm chiffon pan, 1 x 10cm chiffon pan and 3 cupcakes

• 130g cake flour (I use Japanese Nissen Violet flour)
• 15g matcha powder (I use early spring green tea powder)
• 5 egg yolks
• 80g oil (neutral tasting like canola or grapeseed, don't use olive oil)
• 95g water
• 130g caster sugar (I use Japanese sugar)
• 7 egg whites
• Some pickled sakura

1. Preheat oven at 180 degree Celsius, conventional mode.
2. Soak some pickled sakura in water for 30 mins. Pat dry and lay at bottom of chiffon pan. Set aside.
3. Sift the cake flour and green tea powder twice, and set aside.
4. Mix together egg yolks, oil, water and 1/3 caster sugar, until well-blended.
5. Gradually stir in the sifted flour mixture and fold gently until blended. Set aside.
6. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites till foamy. Gradually add in the remaining sugar and beat on high speed till stiff peak.
7. Fold 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the batter (3) until just blended. Next, fold in half of the remaining egg white mixture until just blended. Finally pour the batter back into the mixing bowl containing the remaining 1/3 of the egg white mixture. Fold gently till just blended.
8. Pour the batter into the chiffon pan, and bake at 180 degree Celsius for 40 mins.
9. After 40 mins, turn the pan upside down and let completely cool before removing the cake from the pan.

* For the 10-cm pan and cupcakes, bake for about 20-25 mins.

Update:

I made this green tea chiffon for a dear friend's birthday. To make it look prettier and more presentable as a birthday cake, I frost the chiffon with some pink tinted whipped cream and decorate with the pickled sakura on top of the frosting.

2 more rainbow cakes!

Wow, it seems as if I've been baking lots of Rainbow Cake recently? Well, not a lot lah, just 2 orders. One for E's son's 2nd birthday and another for E's friend's daughter's 11th birthday. Ok, what a mouthful.

Anyway, practice makes perfect and making Rainbow Cake doesn't seem as intimidating and daunting as when I first made it early this year for dear son's birthday.

These 2 cakes are both 7" round with 7 layers of colour - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Pink. Decided to stick to Whisk Kid's recipe since my test bake produced very good results; managed to adjust the recipe and buttercream frosting to fit this 7" configuration nicely. Had also adjusted the amount of ingredients so that the cake is much more tender than before, and the buttercream frosting less sweet so as to balance the sweetness of the cake.

For deco, I tried using M&Ms. Although it looked very pretty initially, the M&M would fade after a while due to condensation (initial storage in fridge) and the humidity :( Still have not found a way to manage this problem. So I guess I won't suggest using M&Ms for decoration in future unless I find a solution.

For packaging, as the cake is slightly taller than most cake boxes (commercial cake box is 5" tall, and the cake is about 5.5-6"), I improvised and used 2 boxes to make a taller box. Carrier is not a problem, since I've some nice plastic bags for cakes from Tokyo previously.

 

The layers turned out quite pretty and I was really pleased how the colours turned out. But the M&Ms, *sigh*.

For those of you who are keen, please email me for order enquiry at dreamersloft@gmail.com :)

"Sambuca" Kisses by Nigella Lawson

I watched an episode of Nigellissima on board an SQ flight recently and was immensely curious and attracted to this particular snack that Nigella made. It looked so easy, with only a few ingredients - egg, ricotta, plain flour, baking powder, sugar, orange zest and Sambuca. I couldn't really imagine how it would taste like, so I was determined to give it a try.

Apart from her very sexy voice, the way she lyrically described the snack was particularly intriguing, almost poetic-like. How could one not be intoxicated when she used phases like,

"... they are like doughnuts made not of batter, but of sweet air... it is like the lightest, most flattering caress in the mouth..."

" ... they are so light they make frying feel celestial..."

 

I must confess, while I know that she's a celebrity chef and all, I have never watched any of her programmes or read any of her recipe books. I think I'm a convert for now. It's somewhat comforting to hear her talk and watch her cook, and she made it look so effortless.

Anyways, back to the Sambuca Kisses. Immediately after I alighted from the plane, I googled for the recipe. Initially I had no idea what Sambuca was, I only know it's some kind of liquer. Thankfully for the internet, I managed to find the recipe, as well as the video. Sambuca is an Italian anise-flavoured liquer; not sure where I could get it here. After reading through the Q&As posted in her website, I learnt that the Sambuca could be replaced by vanilla extract. Although it's a pity not to have the intriguing taste of "anise-flavoured" liquer, I guess some good quality Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract could be a fine replacement.

So there, I'm prepared to make my very own "Sambuca" Kisses without the Sambuca. And like Nigella said, no challenges at all.

 

Sambuca KissesBy Nigella Lawson
From Nigellisima

 

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 100g ricotta
• 40g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (original 2 tsp sambuca)
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp orange zest
• Vegetable oil for frying
• 1-2 tsp icing sugar, to serve

Steps

1. Put the egg and ricotta into a bowl and beat together until smooth.
2. Add the flour, baking powder, sambuca/vanilla extract, sugar and grated orange zest. Beat the mixture again to make a smooth batter.
3. Pour about 2cm/1in oil into a frying pan, and heat until a small piece of bread sizzles when you drop it into the pan and browns in about 40 seconds (the temperature should be at about 180C/350F). And keep your eye on the pan at all times.
4. Oil a teaspoon measure and gently drop rounded teaspoons of the ricotta batter into the pan, about four at a time is manageable.
5. The little kisses will puff up slightly and turn golden underneath, so flip them over carefully with an implement, to colour the other side. Watch out that the oil doesn’t get too hot, turning the heat down if they are browning too quickly.
6. Once they are golden all over, lift them out with a slotted spoon and place them on a plate lined with one or two sheets of kitchen roll, to get rid of any excess oil.
7. Carry on cooking until all the mixture is used up, then turn off the heat under the oil. Once the kisses have cooled a bit, push the icing sugar through a small sieve to dust them thickly.
8. If you are not eating them straightaway, pop the pre-sugared cooked kisses on a rack over a tin in a 150C/Gas 2 oven, and keep them warm for up to one hour.
9. Serve with an espresso, with one teaspoon of sambuca added, for each person.
 

 

The "Sambuca" Kisses were indeed a delightful snack, very light although it was fried. Very crisp on the outside yet very soft and tender inside. It looks like doughnut balls but not exactly. Taste-wise, very subtle hint of cheese only; icing sugar is definitely needed to accentuate the overall taste of these treats. Finally, I satisfied my curiosity.

Rainbow Cake once more

Recently, I received an order for a Rainbow Cake from a friend E, who is celebrating his son's upcoming birthday.

Was considering whether to use the previous recipe attempted for dear son's birthday or try the other recipe by Whisk Kid that I was interested in. As it was also the hubby's birthday recently, I took the opportunity to test-bake Whisk Kid's recipe.

I decided to go for 7" round cake as my friend's cake is supposed to be for 10 pax. I reckoned the cake would be too tall if it were 6". But since it's only a test-bake, I just did a 4-layer cake instead of actual 7-layer one. As such, I halved Whisk Kid's recipe. For the buttercream, I also used Whisk Kid's Lemony Swiss Meringue Buttercream, and adjusted the ratio accordingly, enough to crumb coat and frost the cake.

The cake turned out beautifully, and in fact the texture was slightly more tender than the previous recipe, which was curious because Whisk Kid's recipe uses lesser sugar and butter comparatively. Or could it be the eggs? Whisk Kid uses only egg whites and lululu uses full eggs? I have no idea. But the cake's texture is still not as tender as I like. Probably I would use cake flour for the actual cake.

As for the lemony buttercream, I thought that the lemon extract was too sharp for my liking. Hubby had the same though as well. But the lemon taste did provide a slightly refreshing change to the otherwise vanilla base cake. Probably I will add lemon juice instead of extract, or explore other lemon buttercream recipe.

Rainbow Cake
(7", 4 layer, recipe from Whisk Kid)

Ingredients

• 213g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 113g unsalted butter, slightly softened
• 213g caster sugar
• 3 egg whites (I use 2 x 60g eggs and 1x 50g egg), room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 180g fresh milk, room temperature
• Red, green, yellow, blue gel colouring

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degree celsius. Grease 4 x 7" cake pans and line with parchment paper. (Alternatively, grease the cake pans and dust generously with flour, then tap away excess flour). Set aside.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl. Mix well and set aside.
3. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add the egg whites gradually, then add the vanilla extract and mix until incorporated.
5. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk, until just blended. Stop to scrap down sides of the bowl with spatula as necessary.
6. Total weight of batter is about 830g. Divide into 4 portions (each about 205g - 208g).
7. Add food colouring to each portion using toothpick, bit by bit to desired colour tone. Mix thoroughly to ensure all the colouring is well blended with the batter.
8. Pour batter into cake pans and smooth the surface. Bake for about 13 to 15 mins.
9. Place the cake pans on a wire rack to cool for 15 mins. Invert the cakes onto rack and let cool completely. If not frosting immediately, wrap each layer individually with clingwrap.

Lemony Swiss Meringue Buttercream
(with some excess)

• 8 egg whites
• 320g caster sugar
• 360g unsalted butter, softened
• 1.5 tsp lemon extract

Steps

1. Place egg whites and sugar in a mixing bowl over a pot of simmering water. Using a hand whisk, beat continuously until sugar has completely dissolved. The egg whites should feel hot to touch. Remove from heat.
2. Transfer mixing bowl to electric stand mixer and beat at high speed using whisk attachment till meringue is thick, glossy and cool down to room temperature.
3. Reduce speed to medium and add softened cubes of butter gradually. Continue mixing until the meringue turns into a silky smooth texture of buttercream. *It may seem like a long time, but the switch in texture can happen quite sudden, be sure to watch closely.
4. Add the lemon extract and mix till well-incorporated.
5. To assemble the cake, place one cake layer on a serving plate/tray and spread some buttercream evenly. Repeat this process until all cake layers are stacked.
6. Crumb-coat the top and sides of the cake, and place the cake into the fridge to chill for 30 mins.
7. Frost the cake and garnish as desired.
8. Chill the cake to set the frosting. Leave in room temperature for at least 1 hour before serving.