Mandarin Orange Cranberry Muffins

I have a can of mandarin orange sitting in my kitchen cabinet. It has been there for so long. Mum was asking me to bake something out of mandarin orange as she loves them to bits..Hehe. They are so juicy.Yum! Thus to delight mum, I bake for her Mandarin Orange Cranberry Muffin for her breakfast. Mum breakfast kakis give this muffin a thumb up! I'm not a sweet-tooth person and thus I find the sweetness for this muffin is just right for me. Give this recipe a try and let me know what you think about it !

Ingredients

Unsalted butter - 130g
Sugar - 110g ( Use light muscovado sugar or brown sugar if possible as it really enhance the taste)
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Milk - 100g ( You can use orange juice too!)
Egg - 2
Flour - 220g (I use 110g cake flour and 110g wholemeal flour)
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Cinnamon - 0.5 tsp (I use 1 tsp as I like cinnamon taste alot)
Vanilla Essence -  1 tsp
Orange Essence - 1 tsp 
Mandarin Orange - 1 small can 
** Optional- You can open another can and use it for topping
Cranberry - 70g 
**Optional- You can use 50g and mix it with the batter and 20g as topping

** Just follow the guideline and you will be fine. Be creative! Baking should be fun! Do whatever that float your boat!

The 2 main ingredients which I love alot:

Juicy Mandarin Orange

Dried Cranberry

Method:

• Preheat oven to 190 degrees.
• Sieve salt, flour, baking power and cinnamon powder together in a bowl and leave aside.
• Cut mandarin orange into half. (I open another can of mandarin orange and use some as topping and eat the balance with mum. LoL)
• Cream butter and sugar together.
• Add eggs ,vanilla and orange essence slowly into the batter and whisk till combine.
• Alternately add flour and milk and fold till no flour is visible. (Flour-->Milk-->Flour--> Milk etc)
• Finally add cranberry and mandarin orange into batter and give it 2 to 3 fold to incorporate everything well. 
• Bake it at 170 degrees for 23 min (My oven temperature)
• Do a skewer test and check whether is the muffin bake.
• If yes, take it out and cool on a cooling rack.
• Enjoy it with a cup of hot beverage.

Look at the plump and juicy mandarin orange before baking below .

Happy to see my muffins rising slowly in the oven.

Have a good day everyone!

Recipe to make delicious Dim Sum Sponge Cake- Ma Lai Gou (马来糕）

This is a backdated post for steam cakes. Omg I love all sort of steam cakes.  I still remember before I bought an oven, I love to steam different types of cakes for breakfast. I will then passed it to my family for them to eat in the office. Muahaha.. My mum will always be my No 1 fan be it success or failure.  
Today I would like to share with you one of my favourite steam cake recipe -Ma Lai Gou which you will traditionally see it in Dim Sum restaurants. 

Ingredients (Make one 6 inch cake)
(Recipe adapted and modified from Wantanmein)

2 eggs
100g brown sugar (I reduce the sugar from 120g)
10g=1.5 tbsp custard powder
100g cake flour / plain flour
50ml milk (UHT)
3 tsp baking powder (Double Action)
4 tsp soda water
0.5 tsp vanilla extract
50g melted butter

*This recipe sweetness is just nice for me as it is not very sweet. Please try this recipe first. If it is sweet for you then reduce the sugar level from here.

**Timing given is just a guideline. Please always check 5 min beforehand.

** If your not using steaming basket 蒸笼 always remember to use a cloth and cover the wok /pot lid to prevent water droplets disfiguring your cake.

Method

• Sieve custard powder and flour  together.
• Whisk egg and sugar together.
• Add flour mixture into egg mixture slowly in 3 portion and fold till no flour is visible.
• Add milk and combine well.
• Using a cling wrap, cover it for 2hrs for it to ferment.
• When 2hr is almost up, start to boil water to steam the cake.
• In a bowl, add soda water and baking powder and mix well.
• Pour into batter and fold 6-7 times to combine well.
• Add vanilla extract and melted butter into batter and mix well.
• Use a steaming basket and steam 30min on med to med -high heat.

I steam Ma Lai Gou a number of times before.

And finally there was 1 evening I was so addicted to eating steam cake that I make Ji Dan Gao first then 2hrs later, I went to steam Ma Lai Gou. Haha!