Van Houten Chocolate cake, anyone? If you are looking for a tried and tested recipe for chocolate cake, you might want to try this out. This chocolate cake recipe is actually modified from the scroll cake recipe. Medium moist, light and buttery, it makes you want to have another piece once you’ve eaten one. Van Houten Cocoa Powder is used in this recipe. If you can’t find it, you might also want to try the Tudor brand. As for butter, we use Golden Churn brand. SCS butter is also a good substitute.

To prevent sticking, ensure that the baking pan is well greased with butter followed by dusting with flour. Cool the cake over a rack before storing.

Oh, in case you were wondering, the Van Houten Chocolate Cake is on the foreground. The other pieces of cakes are the famous Sarawak Layer Cake (Kuih Lapis Sarawak). Looks good, don’t they?

But for now, let me share with you the recipe for Van Houten Chocolate Cake :-

Ingredients

• 10 oz. Butter
• 10 oz. Castor Sugar
• 7 ½ oz. Flour
• 1 oz. Cocoa Powder
• 8 Eggs (separate egg yolks from egg whites)
• 2 ¼ teaspoon Baking Powder

Method

Beat butter and sugar for 8 minutes (or until white).

Add egg yolks one by one and continue beating for another 10 minutes.

Fold in flour sifted with cocoa powder and baking powder (sifted 2 to 3 times).

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff and add it to the butter mixture.

Pour mixture onto a baking tray (8″ inch, square tin)

Bake in a 300°F (or 150°C) oven for about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

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Van Houten Chocolate Cake

Christmas is just around the corner and I finally roasted it! I’ve always wanted to roast a lamb roll, boneless lamb shoulder roll to be exact, and last Sunday was the perfect opportunity for me to try this out. The boneless lamb shoulder roll was lying in the freezer and begging for a change in temperature from the freezing compartment to the oven which was just sitting across the kitchen.

It was an easy roast and I complimented the meal with baked potatoes and carrots. On the table were fresh garden salad, 3 varieties of pasta, mushroom pasta sauce and juicy jumbo sausages. Dessert came in the form of ice kacang and chocolate marble cheesecake. There were 9 adults and we were literally stuffed that night.

But the highlight for me that night was the lamb. It was my maiden roast and it turned out all right. Ingredients are simple and this is definitely something which a novice can try. I won’t say it’s an original recipe of mine as I got some ideas here and there and there are thousands of such recipes on the net. But it is definitely a tried, tested and given the thumbs-up recipe. Surprise your family and friends with this easy roast this Christmas!

This is the recipe for Roasted Boneless Lamb Shoulder Roll

Ingredients

• 1 boneless lamb shoulder roll (1.5kg)

Marinate

• 1 bulb garlic (smashed)
• a few sprigs of rosemary
• a few sprigs of thyme
• salt
• crushed black pepper

Sauce

• Fat dripping (see below)
• 30 to 50 grammes of butter
• 2 to 3 tablespoons of plain flour
• 2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce
• Salt
• Crushed black pepper
• Liquid (Water / stock / red wine)

Method

Pat dry the lamb roll. Rub the marinate all over the lamb and leave overnight in the fridge. Ensure that lamb is brought to room temperature prior to roasting.

Pre-heat oven to 180° Celcius. Place lamb on rack in the middle of the oven with a tray to collect the dripping fat. Roast for 90 minutes or 30 minutes for every 500 grammes of lamb.

Remove from oven and cover with foil for 20 minutes before carving.

To make Sauce, slowly melt butter in sauce pan before adding flour. Stir briskly until flour becomes a rough sandy texture. Add fat dripping and liquid till the sauce turns to the consistency that you like (runny / thick). Add worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper to taste.

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Roasted Boneless Lamb Shoulder Roll

It’s another Saturday and I was fortunate enough to be able to go to the market this morning. Seeing some fresh medium sized brinjals on sale, I couldn’t resist getting my hands into 5 of them, no longer than 8 inches each. So, shall it be sweet and spicy brinjals or another one of the tried and tested brinjal recipes I have attempted so far? Considering that my wife was baking a cake, the oven would have been set up just nicely for a brinjal roast!

I have seen roasted vegetables in cook shows though roasted brinjals are kinda rare. Meanwhile, spicy brinjals are quite common here but I thought I would take it one step further by roasting the brinjals instead. It’s my maiden attempt and I am glad to report that it received favourable reviews from my wife and my sister-in-law. Though the brinjals were roasted, it was still packed with moisture and juicy to bite. The combination of dried prawns, buah keras and other ingredients which made the topping was nicely roasted to a fragrant aroma and delivered a riot of taste with each bite. For those who are not used to eating hot food, you can choose to ease off with the chilli but for those who prefer it sizzling hot, just add more chilli.

I believe the Roasted Spicy Brinjals would be suitable eaten with porridge (I actually had them with plain porridge) or steamed rice and would look incredibly appetising in any parties. Give it a try and be amazed by how delicious such a simple dish could be.

This is my recipe for Roasted Spicy Brinjals

Ingredients

• 5 medium sized brinjals (cut into half lengthwise)
• 50 grammes dried prawns (lightly soaked and drained)
• 5 buah keras (candlenuts)
• 2 cm belacan
• 3 red chillis (chopped as finely as you can)
• 8 shallots
• 5 cloves garlic
• 3 tablespoons cooking oil
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• spring onion for garnishing

Seasoning

• Salt
• Castor sugar

Method

Pound dried prawns, buah keras, belacan, shallots and garlic until well combined. Set aside.

Heat wok and add oil. Saute the combination ingredients above until aromatic and the paste begins to brown. Add chilli and mix well. Turn off the heat and allow to cool.

Heat up oven to 180°  celcius. Meanwhile, oil a baking tray with olive oil.

Sprinkle salt and sugar lightly on fleshy part of brinjal and then coat the flesh with combination ingredients. Lay brinjals (skin side down) on baking tray. Roast for 20 minutes.

Serve hot.

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Roasted Spicy Brinjals

When I was an undergraduate studying in the UK, you will always find me buying chicken wings almost on a weekly basis because it’s one of the cheapest chicken parts available. Apparently, for non-Asians, chicken wings are mainly for the grill rather than stir-fries. So, it has lesser demand compared to the chicken breast or drumstick.

Here in Kuala Lumpur, and probably other parts of Malaysia, grilled chicken wings are commonly found in Chinese coffeeshop eateries. Amongst the most famous is Wong Ah Wah Grilled Chicken Wings located at Jalan Alor Peel. But today’s post is not about Wong Ah Wah’s Grilled Chicken Wings. Today’s post is about how I finally started to use my brand new oven to cook something for myself whilst looking forward to sharing the same with all of you.

As always, I prefer something  simple and doable. So, this oven-grilled chicken wings recipe only requires ingredients which you can easily find and are likely to be sitting in your kitchen and fridge right now.  Feel free to experiment with the marinade as each person’s taste buds vary. Cooking time needs to be adjusted depending on the size of the chicken wings used and the portions to be cooked. A peek into the oven every 10 minutes to check for doneness would be recommended.

This is my recipe for Oven-Grilled Chicken Wings

Ingredients

• 5 chicken wings (medium size, cleaned and pat dry)
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

Marinate

• 1 – 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
• 3 tablespoons of ginger juice
• 1 teaspoon light soya sauce
• 1 teaspoon cornflour

Method

Place chicken wings in a bowl and mix well with marinating ingredients. Cover and allow to marinade in the fridge for at least 5 hours or overnight.

Heat oven to 150 degrees celcius.

Drizzle baking pan with olive oil before placing chicken wings on the pan. Sprinkle some black pepper powder over the chicken wings (optional).

Bake the chicken wings for 30 minutes or till cooked. To check whether the chicken wings are thoroughly cooked, take a sharp knife / chopstick and pierce through the most fleshy part of the wings till it reaches the bone. If clear juice runs out, it is cooked. If not, cook further.

Once chicken wings are cooked, remove juice from pan. Change oven setting to top grille at 200 degrees celcius and grille chicken wings till desired brownness.

Serve hot.

If desired, the juice which has been removed from the pan can be reduced in a cooking pan with a little cornflour.

Browse through more recipes of mine at the All Recipes page.

Oven-Grilled Chicken Wings