Cream Cheese Butter Cake

I know a lot of people would prefer the old traditional plain butter cake. My MIL taught me to make a traditional butter cake when I first started to bake, that was 3 months ago.......time really flies! I was so happy that the first butter cake turned out smooth and buttery. After that, I find that just plain butter cake is too plain........and was forever trying to add something to it so that it comes out with something more unique, not that the traditional one is not special.......but to me, it's just too plain a butter cake :P
Then, I bought myself a "I Love Butter Cake" cookbook by Kevin Chai. I have tried his "Chocolate Cheese Butter Cake" and it was a hit, everyone ate that cake gave their thumbs up.....^-^  So, last night was one of those nights that as usual, the kids asked me to bake something for them to bring to school the next day........ and even though the clock shows 8.45pm, I agreed to bake for them......Initially , Ian asked for something that has coffee in it, but too bad......I ran out of coffee and Hubby haven't replenish the coffee bottle, so tough luck Ian.
So, there again, I stand there next to the bookshelf running my fingers through those cookbooks and......Butter Cake came to my mind, as I would thought that this would be the simplest cake and requires no 'hard to get' ingredients. I chose to bake this "Cream Cheese Butter Cake" instead of the plain one is because I'm also trying to get rid of the block of cream cheese sitting in my fridge for a week already.
So, measured up all the required ingredients and started. But, hey, to tell you the truth, this book is really worth investing, as I this is the second recipe I tried, and it too came out perfect, and even my MIL praised me for it , the cake was really smooth, moist and rich in both butter and cheese flavor......yummy!
Happy Cake Baking.....fellas!

CREAM CHEESE BUTTER CAKE

200gm Butter (I used 220gm , cos that's the last batch of butter in the fridge, so get rid of it, haha)

200gm Cream Cheese 

250gm castor sugar (I used only 150gm)

5 eggs

250gm Plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

3 tbsp strawberry jam ( I didn't because I was a bit lazy to decorate)

Method

1. Grease and line 20cm (8 -inch) baking pan. Preheat oven to 180~C.
2. Beat butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition.
4. Fold in sifted flour and baking powder, mix until well blended. Spread batter into prepared tin.
5. Spoon fruit jam into piping bag and pipe circle pattern over the top. Bake in oven for 35-40 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

Happy Baking!

Horlick Doggies Cookies

Doggies, doggies, and more doggies........that's the topic that is hot in the house recently since Preston (my new Lab puppy, for those of you who doesn't know) is here. The kids just can't stop talking about dogs, watching dogs related movies (like 'hotel for Dogs', 'Space Buddies', 'Beethoven II', 'Beverly Hills Chihuahuas' and gosh......countless) and hey, they even asked me to bake dog cookies too......LOL
It came as a coincident too that the other day when I was busy surfing the internet, I opened up a few tabs and browse around looking for something interesting among my few favourite food bloggers. Hey, something caught my eye and I browse back and saw this "Horlicks Doggies Cookies" made by Happy Home Baking. It looks so cute and adorable and I called Angelica to come and have a look, and she was beaming with joy, asking me to make these immediately.
OK, I promised her that i will if I can get all the required ingredients in the house.......well, God forbids, I do have everything. She told me she would help me out in the assembling of the ears and nose of the doggies. Ian came in and offered to help in assembling the eyes instead....so three pairs of hands are always better than one ^-^  So, my job is to roll out the dough into small balls for them to do the assembling. Hey, Mummies out there, if you would like to do some fun things with the kids, maybe you can try this cookie recipe and let your kids join in the fun.......some quality and fun bonding time ;)

                                  The doggies in the hot oven...

HORLICKS DOGGIE COOKIES

Ingredients 

(makes about 48-50 cookies)

180gm butter, soften at room temperature

80gm Horlicks (original flavour)

200gm flour

25gm cornflour

25gm milk powder

Filling
100gm Chocolate chips

For the Doggies

some chocolate chips for the nose

some chocolate rice for the eyes

some Coco Crunch  for the ears

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 140~C, line  1- 2 baking trays with baking paper/ parchment papers and set aside.
2. Sieve flour, cornflour and milk powder together, set aside.
3. Cream butter and Horlicks for about 3 minutes at low speed. Do not overbeat.
4. Put in flour, cornflour and milk powder and beat for about 1 minute to form a dough.
5. Divide the dough into 10gm each. Flatten each of the ball on your palm and wrap 3 chocolate chips into each of the dough and wrap it up and roll it back to a ball.
6. Insert 2 pieces of Coco Crunch to form the 'ears'; 2 pieces of chocolate rice for the 'eyes' and a chocolate chip (the tip of the chocolate chip is used to poke into the ball)  in the centre for the 'nose'.
7. Bake at 140~C for about 25- 30 minutes, depending on individual oven.
8. Leave the cookies on the tray to be cool on the wire rack before storing  them in an airtight container.

Tips: If the cookies becomes soggy after a few days, toss them back into the oven on a tray, bake at low heat (150-160~C)  for about 5-7 minutes to get them crunchy again ;)

Happy Doggie Cookies Baking !