Ginger & Stout Beer Cake

This recipe is adapted from the New York Times' Ginger & Stout Cake. It's perfect with coffee and has a strong, full bodied taste. Not for the timid. I've baked this a few times, but it was my first time to use a new, cast iron bundt pan in a beautiful swirl pattern, given by my daughter M.

Three Berry Baked Lemon Cheesecake

Yesterday was the last day to vote for the 2014 Singapore blog awards, where MySuit&Apron is competing in two categories: Best Cooking Blog and Best New Blog. Thanks so much to all of you who voted! Regardless of the outcome of the contest, I really feel honored to be selected as one of the finalists. This blog started out (and continues to be) a personal hobby which I thought of doing on New Year's Eve. It is only 8 months old, so whether it wins or not, I'm happy and proud enough as it is. :)

Actually, this week, I am on vacation somewhere in Europe--loving the food, culture and the warm but windy weather, a welcome respite from humid Singapore!  But wherever I find myself every Friday, I always make it a point to release this week's blog recipe, culled from my arsenal of draft posts. :)

This week, it's cake! I have a confession to make: I don't really like making nor eating very sweet desserts, like cakes. I normally bake cakes only if there's a party in my house, or if I have a potluck party to bring it to. Dessert is often just fruit in our household, but whenever I have to make a dessert, this one is one of my "go to" recipes.

I like desserts that have a touch of sourness and that's why I use berries a lot. This cheesecake is light and is baked, and topped with a homemade berry compote, fresh berries and lemon rind. It's delicious and not as sinful as your normal sweet cake, and it looks so impressive too!

Green Tea Banana & Granola Cupcakes

A lot of times, I tweak a recipe to utilise  certain ingredients I have in my pantry. I don't like wasting food, so I always watch out for stuff that needs to be used before they expire. Last weekend, I whipped up a batch of cupcakes from some soon to be unwanted ingredients from my pantry. The cupcakes are made from mashed, overripe bananas (the best for any kind of banana cakes or cupcakes!), breakfast granola, soy milk (a leftover when my husband made tofu; that's another recipe altogether), green tea powder and some chocolates a friend gave us for Christmas. So I made this:

Plus I wanted to use these very cute, girly Hello Kitty silicon cupcake holders which I bought at a recent vacation at Bangkok.

Sooooo cute, right? :)