5 desserts you can make with puff pastry

I.have.cheated.

If my explosive declaration above has not caught your eye, at least, I trust that the title of this post did.

Banana Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Sometimes, the itch to bake comes suddenly and the battle between the mind and body begins. My psychically tired and lazy body refuses to do move but my mind is working overtime with the numerous recipes I want to try.

This recipe was born out of my mind-body conflict. All you need is a big bowl and a sturdy spoon/spatula/whisk. Mix, bake, and wash – all completed in an hour flat. Out of sheer laziness, I used Skippy chocolate peanut butter but you can always use a combination of peanut butter and cocoa powder or melted chocolate. If you like, throw in a dash of chocolate chips for some bite.

Brownie Cream Cheese Butter Cake Recipe

Can't decide whether you want a brownie, butter cake or cheese cake? Try this Brownie cream cheese butter cake. A mouthful isn't it but this combination is surprisingly good.

Apple Cream Cheese Cupcake Recipe

It's one of those lazy days where I didn't have a particular recipe I wanted to try out and neither was I craving for something specific. But I do know I have an odd block of cream cheese lying around in my fridge and basic cake ingredients on hand so...

Spicy Chilli Dip Recipe

I remember when I was younger, my mother used to make spicy foods to build up my tolerance for chilli. My brother and I would be given small ice cubes to suck on whenever the food gets too hot. It was like a pseudo-ice cream treat and today, I am proud to say I am a chilli lover.

If you are a chilli lover too, chances are you would agree with me that most things go well with chilli. It doesn't have to be overwhelmingly spicy - sometimes all you need is that touch of spice and to balance out the flavours.

Soft baked Chewy Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate Cookies Recipe

Ever since I discovered soft baked cookies, I never looked back. I remember trying them when I was younger and was bemused by their texture. My mother used to say that those were "lau-hong" biscuits aka crispy biscuits left out for too long that they lose their bite.

Carbonara Recipe

I have a special fondness for carbs, especially noodles but pasta in Singapore restaurants are often a tad pricey for my liking - the portions are either too small/not filling or the sauce is too sour/creamy for my liking. The best part of replicating your fav pasta dishes at home is that you can adjust the flavour to your taste.

The Carbonara recipe I am sharing may not be the most authentic but the mix of the following ingredients resulted in a lovely dish which was happily devoured in minutes by the family. It is simple and good.

Cornflakes Cranberry Cookies Recipe

One of these days you may be looking to clear out your pantry. If you have some lingering cornflakes and dried fruit, be it cranberry, raisins, etc., mix them together and create delicious cookies using this easy recipe. Once you tried these, you probably won't ever have a chance of these "leftovers" idling around any more...

Cookie Dough Frosting Recipe

Want to have cookies but in a non-traditional form? How about having it as a frosting?

B&J's half-baked/cookie dough ice cream is the inspiration for this recipe. This is a raw frosting consisting of only butter, milk, brown sugar.

Special post: Happy Valentine's Day

The biggest day for companies to bank on is coming...Valentine's Day! Pardon my sarcasm, but despite the fact that it is a highly commercialised occasion, I do believe that we should celebrate it in one way or another and spend some quality time with our loved ones - family or your other halves.

The big V-day can be made extra-special with a personal touch through d-i-y gifts, and what better way to express your love than through homemade sweets. Here's a round-up of some desserts which you can easily replicate at own home, at a fraction of the cost you need to pay outside.

For the laz- erm I mean time-sapped people. Difficulty level: Novice

Cream Puff (Basic Choux Pastry) Recipe

Choux pastry is a light pastry dough used to make cream puffs, éclairs, etc. Its main ingredients are butter, sugar, salt, water, flour, and eggs. No raising or leavening agents are used - the dough is cooked and has high moisture content which creates steam during cooking to "puff" the pastry.

Easy Apple Crumble Dessert Recipe

Too lazy to bake something fancy? Opt this fuss-free dessert - easy apple crumble.

Hazelnut Cookies Recipe

Common pastries for CNY are Pineapple tarts, almond cookies, peanut cookies, etc. But let's break free from that and attempt a non-traditional bake - Hazelnut cookies.

Almond Cookies Recipe

A few more days to CNY and the frantic baking starts... Ok not really, this recipe is so easy that you can yield lovely cookies in an 1h flat.

Pineapple Tarts Recipe

*cue festive music, the most traditional of them all...

Dong dong dong chiang, dong dong dong chiang, dong dong dong chiang dong chiang dong chiang

Now that I have set the scene, you probably realise that this is a post related to Chinese New Year. And yes, it is coming and to be more exact, there are 8 more days to go.

To me CNY is all about the food. This is the only time in the year where I forget my waist-line and just eat (and eat and eat and eat). There is your traditional steamboat, Pen Cai (盆菜)... and definitely plenty of baked treats. Pineapple tarts, almond biscuits, peanut biscuits, etc.

The festive cheer is here and as an avid baker, I should be elated, excited, over the moon! Well, truth is, not quite...

Banana Cupcakes Recipe

There are some recipes which you would constantly to refine to achieve a better taste or one that is to your liking. This is one of them - banana cake recipe.

Strawberry Custard Tarts Recipe

Going in for the quick-win, I present you strawberry custard tarts. These are great for parties, afternoon tea and best of all, easy-peasy to make. All you have to do is to make basic tart shells, fill them up with custard and top it off with a sliced strawberry!

Sweet Potato Latte (Goguma Latte) Recipe

In my trip to Korea early last year, I chanced upon Sweet Potato Latte (Goguma Latte) at Hollys. It is the company’s signature drink, a 445-kcal hot drink made with milk, sweet potatoes and almonds. The weather was still chilly then and the tasty drink made me all warm and fuzzy.

I miss Hollys, I miss my goguma latte and I want a Hollys franchise! Or someone else bring Hollys to Singapore. But since I don't know when that might be and with my craving chewing me inside out, the only way left is to recreate the drink.

Matcha Azuki (Green Tea Red Bean) Chiffon Cake Recipe

First post of 2014! Ok, not exactly as this post has been on backlog for about a month. I haven't been that busy, especially towards the end of 2013 - I am merely a procrastinator. If you check out my Instagram account, (@themoodkitchen or #themoodkitchen) and you will see I am still diligently baking and cooking away. Fret not, the recipes will come! (soon enough... :P)

Before I launch into the post proper, I would like to wish all readers a very happy 2014!

A new year, bringing forth not necessarily new beginnings, but a continuation of never-ending challenges. May we all surmount each and every one of them with great courage and success.