ramadhan baking: kek tapak kuda nutella (nutella horseshoe cake)

I am well aware that it has been slightly over a month since my last post, and thanks to the kind thoughts and concern by some of my readers and blog friends who dropped me a note (you know you are), I reckon a slight nudge was all it took to get me off my rear and resume sharing my bakes. You could call it a long writer-cum-baker’s block of sorts, I guess. Anyway, adhering to the mantra ‘better late than never’, here’s wishing all my Muslim readers a blessed and joyous month of Ramadhan! It has already been well into the second week of the holy fasting month now here in Singapore, and if my Twitter timeline is anything to go by, it seems that more people are keen on baking their own sweet treats for Eid, and have already begun their own oven experiments.

It appears to be the most opportune time then to kickstart this year’s edition of Ramadhan Baking, where I share some of my own ‘Eid-bakes’ experiments, as well as household favourites.

a quick fix for a long wait [recipe: chocolate madeleines]

‘Do you really have to turn everything into chocolate?’;– well, as a matter of fact, I don’t, but for all intents and purposes, I absolutely find it much too difficult to resist not to. Not that I had ever tried hard enough, I must accede. And having had worked on quite a bit of brownie orders over the past week (and not having any leftovers) certainly didn’t help with the chocolate craving, though it probably explains my bake-anything-chocolate-but-brownies specification. I wanted something with a deep chocolate flavour, yet light, and not overwhelmed by copious amount of chocolate filling or frosting. Most importantly, I wanted it fast.

And thus, my nifty and tiny 2-dollar madeleine pans (which I had purchased long ago, and completely forgotten about) came to the rescue that afternoon. Along with a recipe I had bookmarked even way before the madeleine pans came into the picture. Enthusiastic, yes?

putting a notion into action [recipe: chocolate malteser cake]

It has always been said, and is a proven fact, I do believe, that you are the company you keep, possibly pivoting on the simple notion of attracting people of similar energy as to that which you project into the universe. Now, if the Law of Attraction is anything to go by, then I must surely have had sent out chocoholic vibes incessantly, because ever since I  posted the left photo from the above diptych into my little Twitter universe, numerous chocoholics (loud-and-proud and closet ones alike) openly declared their support and pledged allegiance towards the same cocoa cause. Whilst I may be far from the journey to converting my household to like chocolate, let alone embrace chocolate addiction;– to be perfectly honest, I don’t even know why I bother, since it just spells a greater share for me;– it is most certainly reassuring to know I’m not the only one with a penchant for this dark beauty.

And since I pretty much decided to bake my own birthday cake this year, there was no doubt in my mind that it had to be somewhere along the lines of chocolate on chocolate with chocolate, plus more chocolate.