Exchange Life: No Bakes

It is almost a need to bake or make something sweet, at least once a month. But given that I can't get my hands on an oven here, I had to be creative. What I've made over these 3 plus months:

Steamed matcha cake, with a rice cooker!

Coconut kaya on an induction cooker. 2.5 hours stirring the mixture non-stop. But the results were well worth it. For those that are yet to be enlightened on the beauty of kaya, it is a coconut spread found in SEA! We use it as a bread spread.

White chocolate peanut butter bars <3 They were Abby's and my contribution to the Christmas potluck at IBC and they were gone by midway of the potluck. Loving those swirls that glams up the entire look, plus they are so easy to make!

Parfait pie. Made them today and it basically just involved melting, mixing and processing. Easy peasy.

Now for the recipes!

Steamed Matcha Cake (Adapted largely from here)

2 cups AP flour

6 tablespoons matcha powder

4 teaspoons baking powder

4 eggs, lightly beaten

18 tablespoons milk

8 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons canola oil

Grease rice cooker pot with a little oil.

In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients with a fork, till the mixture is evenly green.

In another bowl, combine the wet ingredients well.

Add the wet mixture into the dry one slowly, gradually mixing till smooth.

Pour mixture into rice cooker pot to steam. Depending on the model, it should be around 2 cycles. 

Check if it is done by inserting a skewer. It should come out clean.

Coconut Kaya (From Malaysian friend KH, translated from Chinese)

500g egg (about 9 eggs)

400ml coconut milk

300g sugar (using brown sugar will give the nice brown colour)

Mix the coconut milk and sugar together. Beat the eggs slightly.

Combine these 2 mixtures.

Now the tedious part: In a water bath over low heat, heat the mixture. Stir often to prevent clumping. This will take about 2.5 hours. 

Don't worry too much if white bits start to appear; just beat into the mixture or use a sieve to remove when the kaya is done. 

White Chocolate PB Bars (Adapted from here)

Basically didn't change anything except use white chocolate and peanut butter with no sugar so as to offset the sweetness. Note that white chocolate becomes brittle when it is hardened. You can make candy shards with it. 

Parfait Pie (Adapted from here)

1 package cream cheese (8 oz)

1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)

1 carton vanilla custard (21 oz)

1 bar of chocolate (6 oz)

14 oz graham crackers/digestive biscuits/Kellogg's All-bran

1.5 oz butter (more in case the crust is not firm enough)

You can either use 2 6-inch round pans with a deep base or jelly cups.

Process/crush the biscuits till they are crumbs. Melt butter. Mix together to form a crumbly mixture that feels firm when pressed down into the bowl. 

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and condensed milk till smooth. Mix in the vanilla custard.

Melt the chocolate.

Add the parfait layer by pouring slowly into the pans/jelly cups. 

For the chocolate marble effect, add dollops of chocolate onto the parfait layer. Use a skewer to run through the mixture to create patterns. Have fun!