Quarantine Baking

At the start of lockdown, along with toilet paper, flour was running out. Quarantine unleashed a whole new wave of home bakers. I managed to spend a good portion of 2020 baking up a storm. I also discovered more and more healthy recipes as the year progressed and it's been fun to learn new healthier substitutes.

Here are some of the desserts, bread and cakes that I've been up to:

• At the start of lockdown, the dalgona coffee made its rounds on social media and I succumbed to the craze. It turned out to be so so delicious and also satisfying to look at!

• One of my more adventurous experiments in early lockdown. Macarons! Turned out not to be as daunting as I imagined. So fun! Too sweet for me though.

• An oldie but goodie - egg tarts!

• Y decided to try his hand out at some matcha tarts thanks to a FB recipe. :) (with his trusty 'right thumber' helper)

• Tried my hand out on souffle pancakes which turned out really fluffy. I still prefer waffles over pancakes but this was a fun experiment. 

• Made a number of different cupcakes!

• Made Aunty OL's vanilla berry butter cakes! They were so yums with lemon cream.

• My father-in-law's creation - sweet potato airfryer balls (C's favourite snack). I must have made like 10 batches of these at the start of lockdown. Such easy, tasty and healthy munchies.

• Anzac cookies. So good! I must have also made like 5 batches of these oat, coconut delights. So more-ish!

• It wouldn't be me baking if I didn't do a tonne of chocolate desserts. Chocolate is a basic and for inexperienced bakers like myself, it's less daunting to try new chocolate recipes. Here is the chocolate chip cake the husband requested for his birthday. 

Made another one soon after because the husband loved it so much.

 

• Another oldie but goodie - chocolate fondant and vanilla ice-cream. I make this every once in a while when I remember that I can make them! :D Also usually when I have leftover vanilla ice cream to spare.

• From there, I started making different chocolate cakes. This one was a chocolate beetroot orange cake. (My attempt to use up beetroot and oranges) The dark chocolate ganache was a little runny but the cake was oh so delicious.

Made another beetroot cake without the orange which was so good as well.

• I got more confident at making vegetable themed cakes. So this one was a zucchini and carrot cake with dates as sweetener and it turned out so so moist and yummy. I was so impressed at these vege cakes.

• Using up more leftovers. Upside down almond apple cake.

• The husband tried out his hand at making Ban Chang Kueh! It turned out pretty good!

• I tried my hand out at making Muar Chee which was just like my fav childhood one sold at Genting cafe. Thanks to my mother-in-law's easy recipe, fulfilling all my childhood memories.

• Made some COVID-inspired chocolate cinnamon cookies with C.

• For a few weeks during quarantine, we were on a purple rice phase. Thanks to our newly purchased pressure cooker, we made this so regularly. So irresistibly gloopy.

• Almond croissant. The topping and filling was delicious. Made with eggs and almond flour.

• This one was one of my favourite bakes! Blackberry almond crumble. So so good and summery. It disappears so quickly everytime.

• Made ping pei for the first time and it turned out superb! Y made red bean paste from scratch and it was so rich and good.

• Banana flourless cake! This began my series of flourless, eggless, sugarless healthy cakes filled with dates, cocoa powder, almond flour, coconut oil, seeds of every kind and more. 

• Revisited my old scone recipe on one of the rainy days which brought about a craving for proper afternoon tea. Added raisins and it was so delicious. Really great scones. Better than most we've had. Shame that we couldn't find clotted cream here. Y's homemade strawberry jam was amazing. He has since made apricot jam too. Talented jam-ster.