楊枝甘露

Ingredients for 4-6 servings, depending on bowl size:
1 mango, diced
1 mango, puree in food processor
1 Chinese grapefruit, or sweet pink grapefruit
1 cup of tapioca pearls
1 can of coconut milk
1/2 cup of sugar
1 cup of whole milk or evaporated milk


1. Diced one mango and take the flesh out of the grapefruit, refrigerate 30 minutes1. 2. Cook tapioca pearls, rinse in cold running water
3. Puree one mango, add the coconut milk and whole milk, mix with spoon.
4. Assemble by putting the mango milk mixture in bowls, add in tapioca pearls, then spoon in mango cubes and grapefruit flesh.

Serve! We love this!!

Coconut Glutinous Rice Cake 椰汁糯米糕

This past winter, my in laws visited us, they brought along a couple of friends. Auntie Wu was one of them, she gave me this recipe, it was pretty good and since we love sweet rice stuff, this one is here to stay. However, I did modify, I skip the one stick of butter she used and replaced it with 1/4 cup of vegetable oil. Its still good, just doesn't have that rich buttery flavor which I don't really miss anyway.

Ingredients:
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar (1/2 cup more if you like sweet)
1 bag (16 ounces) glutinous rice flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
1 can (14 oz or so) of coconut cream
1/4 cup vegetable oil
I cup of milk

1. Preheat oven to 350. Beat eggs and sugar on medium for a few minutes until its smooth.
2. Add baking powder, coconut cream, milk and vegetable oil, beat on medium to combine, 1 minute or so.
3. Add in the glutinous rice flour and beat on low to combine.

Pour into a glass pan, or a metal one with baking paper lined, bake at 350 for one hour.

Paper Wrap Sponge Cake 紙包蛋糕

When I started driving a handful of years ago, I use to drive out to Los Angeles quite often. Each time I return, I would buy these paper wrap sponge cakes for my mom, it was one of her favorite snacks. I use to think they were impossible to make at home, How can a cake be baked in paper, how can it be so fluffy and moist... I can't even bake a bad cake, forget baking a good cake. Then in 2008, sometime in the early spring, I got a sponge cake recipe from a friend. My first attempt failed, I didn't know that egg whites were a matter of science when it comes to beating them. I had no idea what 'stiff peaks and soft peaks' meant, on top of that, I had not taken care in separating the yolks from the whites. Turns out if the whites have any bit of yolk or oil in it, it will not beat up right. After that first attempt, I started to search online to see how a cake is made. That is the start of my caking baking experience. Every once in a while, I would change something or another, but most the time the cakes were successful.

A few months ago, one of my best friends went to Guangzhou, China, she brought back some aluminium baking cups. I used them for the very first time yesterday. Its the basic chiffon cake, topped with almonds on top. I was able to get 14 cups filled. Recipe in earlier posting.