Quest for Matcha Chiffon Cake

Chiffon cakes are pretty nice tea time snacks, not too unhealthy, just a bit of sugar :) I'm on a quest to find a nice matcha chiffon cake right now. I'm thinking this is will be a perfect not-too-sweet, great to eat cake.

Will be updating this blog with some photos of my quest until I find the right recipe :)

Here is Take #1:

Buttermilk Pancakes

I think pancakes fIor breakfast, fresh and fluffy are the best starts to a day. Big Grin :) I've tried making pancakes before but it either turned out dense or tough so I decided to go out looking for ways to make those super cafe-style fluffy pancakes.

For those that want a great recipe and tips for pancakes, I recommend Martha Stewart's Buttermilk Pancakes recommended on Smitten Kitchen. I only used half of her ingredients and it was just enough for two, bare in mind we're big pancake eaters so it was like three pancakes each.

I think its important to sift the dry ingredients first - makes it easier to mix together and I think sifting incorporates a bit more air into the batter. It's really easy to just get the ingredients ready, put the oven at 80 degrees Celcius to keep warm the pancakes and start rolling them out.

Leave the eggs and the buttermilk out for a while so it is not so cold, I find if its too cold, the melted butter hardens when you mix the wet ingredients together.

So here is the recipe for these perfect pancakes (this is enough for 2 people):

1. Mix the Dry Ingredients first

• 1 Cup Flour
• 1 1/2 TBS Sugar
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4 tsp Salt

2. Mix the Wet Ingredients

• 1 Large Egg
• 1 Cup Buttermilk
• 2 TBS Butter (melted in microwave)
• 1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract

3. Whisk the dry and wet ingredients together (only briefly)

• There should be small and medium lumps
• Be careful of over-mixing because this will give you horrible dense pancakes

4. Heat a pan up on medium-high heat

• Test it with some water drops, it should spatter
• Pour in your batter
• Lower the heat to low-medium, this will give you nicely brown coloured pancakes
• Cook one side for about 2-3 minutes depending on the size of your pancake - then flip to the other for 1 minute. 
• Put it in baking paper in your oven to keep warm

Getting excited about Peru!

We'll be heading over to Peru next year - it's still a long way away, but I can't wait. So I'm going to keep track of the list of things I have to try and make sure I don't miss any ! We'll also be visiting La Paz in Bolivia.So I'm on the hunt for some good info. Found a really good Peruvian blog (Canela and Comino) and some info on La Paz (see here) right now for my trip plan. There is a Peru Food Magazine called Diva Kozina and also a fast chain burger joint called Bembos!




I'll be posting more things up soon...


For now, I think I definitely have to try a traditional Peru Ceviche. Its a dish with citrus marinated fresh fish with accompaniments added. There is also Peruvian-Chinese fried rice.