Pink Butter Cake with Pomegranate Glaze

Today is Mel Bel's last day at work, so last night I made a cake to bid her farewell. I decided to make butter cake because it has been a long time since I made a simple cake. Butter cake reminds me of home and Chinese New Year as my mom would make it every year. If made properly, the cake is moist, soft and extremely delicious. I colored the cake pink to make it more interesting, plus the pomegranate icing would give it a nice tangy flavour.

Recipe for Pink Butter Cake:
- 350g butter, soft
- 250g caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 5 eggs
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 250g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- a few drops of pink color

1. Grease and line a 20cm (8 inch) cake tin. Preheat oven to 180deg.
2. Whisk butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy
3. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating through after each addition
4. Stir in vanilla extract
5. Fold in sifted flour and baking powder, and mix until well blended
6. Add pink color and mix well until color is well blended
7. Spread batter into lined tin, up to 1/2 full
8. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until cooked
9. Remove from oven and cool before glazing

Recipe for Pomegranate Glaze:

- 200g icing sugar, sifted

- 1/2 cup of pomegranate liqueur (I use PAMA) ; you can substitute with orange juice or lemon juice

- few drops of pink color

1. Warm pomegranate liqueur in the microwave

2. Mix icing sugar with  pomegranate liqueur until the mixture becomes a slurry

3. Add pink color and mix until well blended

4. Pour glaze over cake

This cake is really easy to make, tastes good and looks pretty. Hope you like it as much as I do.

Cheers.

Chilli Crabs @ Home

I love seafood. Crab, lobster, abalone, oyster, prawns, fish, octopus, bugs and I could go on and on and on. "Ling Ling" sent me a photo of her sweet chilli mud crab last nite which she cooked at home and instantly I knew I had to have some. This afternoon, I went to my local seafood shop to buy some mud crabs but could only find 1. So I topped up with additional 2 blue swimmers. Happy, 3 crabs and a big smile on my face.

Here's what they looked like before they went into my nice round tummy :)

It's really quite simple to make. Here's what you need to make this beautiful Malaysian style chilli crab:

• 3-4 Crabs, washed and cut into halves - mud crabs or blue swimmers or in my case both
• 1 green capsicum, finely diced
• 2 carrots, finely diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• small piece of ginger, finely chopped (or use 1 tsp of ginger powder)
• 10 small red chillies 
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 cup of tomato sauce (about 250g) 
• 3 eggs
• 3 tbs fish sauce
• 1.5 tbs corn flour, dilute with some water
• 2 tbs white vinegar (or lemon/lime juice)
• 2-3 tbs sugar
• 3 cups of water
• salt to taste
• garnish with fresh coriander (optional)

Now, how to cook the crabs?

1. Heat the wok with oil
2. Add chopped capsicum, carrots, chillies, ginger and garlic
3. Saute for a few minutes
4. Then add the canned diced tomatoes and 1 cup of tomato sauce
5. Allow to simmer for a few minutes
6. Add white vinegar, fish sauce, salt, sugar and water
7. Then add crabs and allow to simmer for about 5-10 mins (or until cooked - the crab meat will change from translucent when raw to white when cooked). Use the wok cover to cover the wok.
8. Add the corn flour mixture into the sauce and mix well to thicken the sauce
9. Once thickened, add the eggs and stir gently to create strings of eggs in the gravy
10. Remove from heat and serve (optional: garnish with fresh coriander)

You can serve the chilli crabs on its own or with toast (yes, toasted bread) that you can dunk into the super awesome gravy and soak it up for a delicious mouthful! Alternatively, serve with roti prata which you can get from the local Asian grocery (in the frozen section).

Hope you enjoy this recipe! It's surely finger lickin' good! :)

Cheers.