Sticky-date Pudding

I think I first tried sticky date pudding back in Melbourne, Australia when dear Aunty Thina made some really lovely ones over her christmas lunch. I LOVED IT! I still remember how awesome it tasted with her home made toffee sauce, it just melts in your mouth.... This is a version I found online...rather than the overly sweet toffee sauce, I prefer it with vanilla ice cream=)
A little different from Aunty Thina's, certainly not nearly as good as her version, but good enough me thinks ;) it's 'momsfillibaba'.....

Here's what you'll need:
2 cups of roughly diced pitted dates (I bought mine from a regular middle eastern grocer, they are delish!)
125g butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1.5 cups boiling water
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
Self raising flour mixture (I used 2 cups wheat flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 0.5 tsp salt)
3 eggs

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven at 180 degrees celcius.
   
2. Roughly dice the pitted dates and place it in a bowl. Add in bicarbonate soda and then the boiling water. Let mixture sit for about 30 minutes (this would allow dates to soften, and turn into almost paste-like consistency)
3. In a cake mixer, beat butter and sugar until thoroughly mixed and then add in vanilla essence and the eggs one by one.
4. Slowly fold in the flour mixture and continue mixing until smooth. Then gradually fold in the dates from (1) and mix well.
   
5. Prepare a 20 or 25'' baking pan. Lightly grease with butter on the base and sides, then dust a little and shake off access flour.
   
6. With a ladle, transfer pudding mixture from (4) into the baking pan. Place pan into oven and bake for about 40-45 minutes (or check with a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake to test if it's cook or not. If it comes out clean then your pudding is ready to serve)

I love mine served warm and topped with a medium scoop of vanilla ice cream...YUMMERss..

Prep time: 1.5 hours

Difficulty: Moderate

EggTarts Recipe

I love eggtarts, but I never knew how to make them. Matter of fact, I am terrible at seldom do Baking. But this recipe is EXTREMELY easy. CREDITS to a dear Singaporean friend who's an amazing cook, her blog is inspiring! (source: http://singlishswenglish.blogspot.com/)

Here's all you'll need:

premade frozen butter pastries
eggs
whipped cream
sugar
vanilla essence
tart mold - foil
THAT's IT!

Instructions:

1. Use rolling pin to slightly roll-out defrosted pastry sheets. Then roll the (rectangle) sheets (lenght-side) into a long tube-like shape (see picture). Cute pastry into ~1 inch long cylinders.
2. Whilst pastry 'cylinders' facing upright, flatten with palm (you should see the swirl-pattern on the pastry) and roll out pastry until approx 3 inch in diameter (or enough to cover base of tart mold). Do the same for all the other pieces, and place pastry sheets firmly and neatly onto the molds.
3. Next to make the eggtart filling : add 3-4 eggs into a bowl + 2.5 dl cream + 0.5 -0.75 g sugar + 2 drops vanilla essence. Mixwell until sugar fully dissolves.
4. Pour mixture into pastry, and then bake in (preheated) oven at 180 degrees for approx 25-35 minutes. Voila!

Difficulty Level : Easy