Category: Dessert

The awesome healthy(ier) sticky date pudding.

I want to write something funny and engaging to accompany this recipe but sorry, I can’t.

I am currently in a situation of what you would call, “being in a rut”, where I self-loath and watch a lot of America’s Next Top Model, subsequently hating myself even more due to the inability to stop myself from watching such a pointless, vapid show.

Tyra Banks in a white leotard speaking in robot voice to welcome her new recruits. Yeap.

Anyway, this is a recipe for a sort of healthy sticky date pudding. I say “sort of”, because while there’s no cream there are still loads of sugar involved and hence the puddings are ridiculously tasty.

# – The awesome healthy(ier) sticky date pudding.

The black treacle and yogurt give the pudding a depth of flavour that you can’t find in ordinary sticky date puddings.

Here’s the recipe!

For the pudding:

  • 200g pitted whole dates
  • 175ml of boiling water
  • 75ml of cooking oil (plus some for oiling ramekins)
  • 175g of flour, plus some for dusting
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon of black treacle
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
  • 100g of brown sugar
  • 100g of plain yogurt



    • For the toffee sauce:

  • 100g of brown sugar
  • 25g of butter, cut into pieces
  • 1.5 teaspoon of black treacle
  • 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
  • 100g of plain yogurt

    • # – First pour 175ml of boiling water over the chopped pitted dates. Leave to cool for 30 minutes.

    # – In the meantime, oil the ramekins with a paper towel and dust with flour.

    # – When the dates have cooled down, add vanilla extract. Followed by black treacle. Mash with a fork to form a rough puree.

    # – In a bowl, mix brown sugar and oil together with a wooden spoon.

    # – Add beaten eggs to the mixture and stir to combine.

    # – In a different bowl, add the bicarb soda to the flour and mix with a spoon.

    # – Pour 1/2 the flour into the sugar mixture and stir lightly to combine.

    # – Followed by 100 grams of plain yogurt. Also stir to combine.

    # – Next, tip the rest of the flour into the mixture and fold until combined. Don’t overmix!

    # – Now, pour in the date puree into the mixture and stir until combined.

    # – Divide the mixture into 6 oiled/floured ramekins.

    # – Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees celcius for 20-25 minutes.

    # – While waiting for the puddings to bake, get on with making the toffee sauce. First, heat up the brown sugar and butter in a saucepan over medium heat, constantly stirring.

    # – When the sugar has completely melted, add vanilla essence. Followed by black treacle. Stir to combine.

    # – Remove the saucepan from heat. Then, stir in the yogurt. Toffee sauce is now done :)

    # – Remove puddings from the oven.

    # – Serve in a bowl with the toffee sauce drizzled all over.

    # – Awesome healthy(ier) sticky date pudding, DONE!

    The pudding tasted absolutely sticky, luxurious and delicious. It’s also much lighter than it looks.

    They freeze well too! When you have a craving, just pop it back into a ramekin, cover with clingfilm (but making sure pudding doesn’t touch the clingfilm) and nuke for 3 minutes at Medium High.

    # – So glad I have a box of pitted dates right now in my fridge cause I need to make more!!!

    Alexis inspired Tiramisu Cake recipe

    Gawd this is the longest gawddamn recipe I’ve ever written here. It took me literally weeks just to get my arse around to sort the pictures out.

    One of my most favourite cakes in the world is the tiramisu cake from Alexis. Being an avid home baker, of course it’s only a matter of time before I try to recreate it. After studying and dissecting the cake (involving many trips to Alexis to eat more cakes), I concluded that it’s made up of a soft, fluffy coffee-ish cake, creamy tiramisu filling, chopped chocolates and nut pralines.

    I spent several hours researching for recipes that made each element but ended up taking the easy way and adopted a recipe from FatBoyBakes. Thank you man! I wish I could bake half as good as you one day!

    Also, sorry that I don’t have better taken pictures of the end result because I only made the cake once for a friend’s dinner party and another time for a friend’s birthday.

    Also didn’t help my cause that the dining table, where I normally take pictures of my food is currently swamped by dozens of empty boxes & stuff I haven’t gotten around to throw.

    Anyway, on to the recipe….

    First of all, you might be shocked at some of the liberties I took in this recipe.

    While many swear on using mascarpone exclusively for tiramisu, I rebelliously used cream cheese instead. Why not? It is MUCH cheaper and taste less sweet. It gets beaten into a soft silky mess anyway in the end.

    Another thing is, instead of using marsala wine or coffee liquer, I used plain old Absolut. Again, why not? All I wanted was a good, strong, boozy kick and vodka can give me that without overpowering any flavour of the cake. Besides, that’s all I had in the pantry :P

    So yeah, if you’re the type that resents culinary abominations like these, you may stop reading this blog post now. By the way, I even used raw eggs. GASP!!!

    Ingredients for coffee cake:


    Group 1

  • 4 egg yolks
  • 3 teaspoon of coffee powder
  • 115 ml of water
  • 85 ml of cooking oil
  • 3/4 cup of sugar
  • 1.5 cups of flour
  • 1 teaspoon of baking powder



    • Group 2

  • 4 egg whites
  • 1/2 cup of sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar



    • # – First of all, combine all ingredients in Group 1 in a bowl.

    # – Then, dump the contents of the bowl into a food processor/stand mixer and blend on medium till well-mixed. If you don’t have a food processor or stand mixer, a strong whisk & some elbow grease should work.

    # – In the meantime, lets get on with ingredients in Group 2. Beat the egg whites until fluffy & soft, then add the sugar & cream of tartar. Beat again till it’s glossy and doesn’t fall out when you tip the bowl like this.

    # – Slowly fold the egg whites into the Group 1 mixture in 3 batches. Don’t overmix as you don’t want to beat the air out of the egg whites.

    # – Then pour the mixture into a round 8″ baking tin, preferably spring form or at least with detachable base. Notice the mixture still has some faint whitish bit from the egg whites? Don’t fret cause you’re not supposed to overmix it. Can’t stress enough about not overmixing! Also, DO NOT grease the tin otherwise the cake will not rise! You may grease the base but not the sides at it needs rough surface to climb.

    # – Stick it into a preheated oven at 170 – 175 degrees celcius on the lower rack for 40 minutes.

    # – When cake is done, remove and let completely cool down while you continue with other tasks. Sorry about the ugly cracked dome, I think I got a bit heavy handed with the baking powder. Don’t worry if it happens to you as you could just shave the bits off and nobody will be able to tell in the end :D


    Ingredients for the creamy filling:

  • 500gm of cream cheese, softened in room temperature
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 1/2 cup castor sugar
  • 2 cups of whipping cream, whipped till thick
  • Vodka to taste
  • Optional: 2 tablespoons of powdered gelatine & 40ml of hot water



    • # – Beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale.

    # – Then add the softened cream cheese and vodka and beat again until smooth and sloppy. I used about 6 tablespoons of vodka, you can reduce or increase or omit to your taste, which brings us to the importance of tasting as you go!!! Too much vodka can make the mixture bitter one ya!

    # – Meanwhile, beat the whipping cream until thick and fluffy.

    # – Combine the cream cheese mixture and whipped cream together. At this point, if you’re hoping to transport the cake somewhere else or not eat it immediately, I think you should add in gelatine, coz cake will MELT without it! (Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of gelatine powder onto the surface of 40ml hot water. Let stand for a minute or two, then mix with your finger and then pour it in!)


    Ingredients for Coffee & Vodka Mixture:

  • 3 tablespoons of coffee powder
  • 3/4 cup of hot water
  • 5 tablespoons of vodka, omit, reduce or increase for your own taste



    • # – Just dissolve coffee powder in water and mix with vodka. This will be used to moisten the cake later. Allow to cool.


    Ingredients for nut praline:

  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 50gms butter
  • 1/2 cup of almonds
  • 1/2 cup of chopped hazelnuts
  • Option: you can just use 1 cup of either nuts if you fancied.



    • # – On medium heat, melt the butter and sugar in a saucepan. When turn golden and thick, add the nuts and stir quickly.

    # – Pour the mixture onto a non-stick baking sheet, try to spread them out flat as much as possible. You’re working with REALLY HOT mixture here so becareful not to burn yourself! Allow to cool, it will harden.

    # – When cooled, break the hardened sheet of candied nuts and throw them into a food processor. Pulse into roughly thumbnail size. Or use the end of a cleaver or pestle & mortar if you don’t have a food processor.

    By the way, do make extra to eat as homemade nut brittle. Just break it into smaller sheets rather then chopping it up. They are addictive!!!!

    To assemble the cake:

  • Coffee cake, cut horizontally into 2 layers. 3 if you’re a pro like that
  • Creamy filling
  • Coffee vodka mixture
  • Nut praline
  • 100 grams of dark chocolate, roughly chopped



    • # – By now you should have cut the cake made earlier into 2 layers. You can do 3 layers if you want. Spoon the coffee vodka mixture all over the cake slices to moisten them.

    # – Now put the moistened cake layer into the same spring form baking tin and spoon the creamy filling over until completely covered.

    # – Sprinkle the chopped chocolates all over. The picture of the chocolates looks finely chopped but I learnt later on that rougher chopped chocolates are better. The rougher chocolates have more weight to stay in the middle rather then being pushed to the edge when the upper layer presses down.

    # – Put the 2nd cake layer on top and spoon the creamy filling all over until covered. Stick in the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours. That’s why, I recommend not waiting till last minute to make this cake (speaking from experience).

    # After 4 hours, slowly unmould the cake with your friends around for the added pressure.

    # – SUCCESS!

    # – This is the time where you do the dancing with the friends.

    # – Sprinkle the nut pralines all over the cake, the top and the side.

    # – And at last, tiramisu cake, DONE!

    # – Yums! Thanks Suan for the pictures!

    # – Another one made for Horng‘s birthday.

    Soft, cottony coffee cake with soft, creamy cheese filling, chocolates and luscious nut pralines. Does the cake taste exactly like the tiramisu cake from Alexis? No, I don’t think so. But it’s close enough :)


    Here’s the final list of ALL ingredients needed to make this cake:

    Ingredients for coffee cake:


    Group 1

  • 4 egg yolks
  • 3 teaspoon of coffee powder
  • 115 ml of water
  • 85 ml of cooking oil
  • 3/4 cup of sugar
  • 1.5 cups of flour
  • 1 teaspoon of baking powder



    • Group 2

  • 4 egg whites
  • 1/2 cup of sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar



    • Ingredients for the creamy filling:

  • 500gm of cream cheese, softened in room temperature
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 1/2 cup castor sugar
  • 2 cups of whipping cream, whipped till thick
  • Vodka to taste
  • Optional: 2 tablespoons of powdered gelatine & 40ml of hot water



    • Ingredients for Coffee & Vodka Mixture:

  • 3 tablespoons of coffee powder
  • 3/4 cup of hot water
  • 5 tablespoons of vodka, omit, reduce or increase for your own taste



    • Ingredients for nut praline:

  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 50gms butter
  • 1/2 cup of almonds
  • 1/2 cup of chopped hazelnuts
  • Option: you can just use 1 cup of either nuts if you fancied.


    For layering:

  • 100gms of dark chocolates, roughly chopped




    • My man made scones! Here’s the recipe :)

    We had a sudden craving for cream tea last night. Okay, actually only the BF did, but he successfully performed “sconeception”.

    I was a little hesitant at first due to the sheer numbers of calories involved but when the man offered to make the scones from scratch, I was sold.

    # – Scones with jam and cream.

    Making scones may involve simple & basic ingredients, but if not careful might end up with hard lumps reminiscent of paper weights. Which is why I’m so impressed by the man for it’s his first time making scones and they were absolutely DELICIOUS!

    The ingredients:

  • 350g flour, plus more for dusting
  • 2 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 85g of salted butter , cut into cubes
  • 3 tablespoons of caster sugar
  • 175ml of milk
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
  • 1 egg, beaten (for glazing)

    • # – Before you start making the scones, first pop the milk into a microwave or warm it in a saucepan. The idea is to get it just warmed through, not boiling.

    # – Then, add a tablespoon of lemon juice to the milk.

    # – Followed by a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Set the milk aside while you work on making the scones.

    # – ALSO, remember to pop your empty baking tray into the oven at 220 degrees celcius to heat up.

    # – Now lets begin to make the scones. Pour the flour into a mixing bowl.

    # – Then, add the baking powder.

    # – Followed by the cubed butter.

    # – Using your fingers, rubs the butter and flour together until resemble bread crumbs.

    # – Now add the sugar and stir to combine.

    # – Pour the milk prepared earlier quickly into the mixture.

    # – With a knife or pastry cutter, quickly work the mixture until it forms a loose dough.

    # – Tip the dough into a floured surface.

    # – With your hands, gently knead the mixture, becareful not to overwork it. Then pat it down to flatten it, forming a sheet about 4 cm thick (or thicker if you like tall scones).

    # – With a round cutter (5-6cm), cut the dough and place onto the baking tray which has been heated. If you don’t have a round cutter, you can always improvise with a cup or something :)

    # – Brush the surface with beaten egg.

    # – Stick it in the oven at 220 degrees celcius for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

    # – Delicious scones, DONE!

    # – Cut scones into half and serve with good quality jam and cream (just beat whipping cream until stiff). Better to serve with clotted cream but it’s so expensive here! :(

    # – This is really what happened after the nicer pictures are taken. SCONE GORGEFEST!!!!!

    Easy to make and taste truly delicious. Crispy on the outside, light and soft in the middle. Just remember not to overwork the dough and you’ll be fine :D