Monthly round-up,  My favourite things

The Tummy Train Favourites of 2014

I feel odd wrapping up 2014. It has by far been the fastest year I’ve encountered yet, and I fervently hope that 2015 wouldn’t be as quick. Perhaps I would have to engage in very strict time management to avoid this phenomenon. We’ll see…

Anyway, before we talk about what will be in a few hours, let’s first take a look at what has been some of my favourite recipes and moments of 2014. Shall we?

Top 14 favourite recipes of 2014

The hardest part about this list is ranking the recipes because I do love them all very much, only there are certain recipes I love just a teeny tiny bit more because of my personal preferences for certain flavours and particular kinds of food. But this list pretty much sums up all the yummiest (at least in my opinion) things I made this year!

14. Nigella’s Almond Cake

Incredibly simple to make and such a gorgeous classic to have in your recipe archive. This cake smells incredible and are a perfect accompaniment for tea or coffee. And take a look at that gorgeous golden crumb!



13. Lemon Layer Cake with Chocolate Frosting

I made this for the birthday of Jason and myself and we loved the combination of lemon and chocolate! I wish it was more lemony though as that way it would have been just perfect. Maybe next time I’ll brush a good amount of lemon syrup on the cakes.



12. Chocolate Chilli Cookies

I love the combination of chocolate and chilli, so to have it in cookie form (another thing I love) was like a dream come true!



11. Braided Challah

Amazing bread. Beautiful bread. And the process of making it and braiding it was so much fun!



10. Spring Break Cupcakes

Fans of Two Broke Girls will probably recognize this cupcake. Indeed it is a copycat version of Max’s Beer-Batter Spring Bread Cupcakes with Maple-Bacon Frosting, What a mouthful!



9. Monay/Putok/Pinagong

This particular type of hard bread is one of my absolute favourite Filipino breads. It’s not hard per se but extremely firm, but the flavour is beautifully milky.



8. Chocolate Macaroons with Lemon Ice Cream

Another recipe I made for our birthday! The sweetness of the macaron shells were completely neutralized by the tangy sour lemon ice cream inside. Perfect combination if I ever did see one!



7. Bibingka with Rum Hot Chocolate

My “THE ONE” bibingka recipe with a cup of smoking hot cocoa? I’ll take a round of that with my vacation anytime! 



6. Basil & Honeyed Pine Nut Ice Cream

One of the most unique flavours I’ve tried, and one of the most expensive too thanks to the pine nuts! But it’s absolutely worth every penny. You’ll find yourself licking the ice cream container clean!



5. Spicy Peanut & Chicken Soba

Super easy recipe with all sorts of lively oriental flavours that will tickle the tastebuds! The spicy peanut sauce used for the soba is the bomb!



4. Nutella-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe was/is a reader favourite. It’s your favourite chocolate chip cookie levelled up with a belly of Nutella in the middle, sprinkled with sea salt to bring out the caramel taste of the cookies. 



3. Chicken Inasal

After making this, I was over the moon about how it turned out! It looked absolutely gorgeous, mouth-watering, and of course it was tasty. SO GOOD.



2. Homemade Puto-Pao

This was another reader favourite all year long because it was one of the more constant recipes that appeared on my Top Posts sidebar. And for good reason! These are wonderful! Plus, after getting to eat my favourite store-bought brand recently, I have to say these are much much better.



1. Lemon Poppyseed Bread

Ta-dah! It’s nothing earth-shattering, but I suppose you could say it has been quite a long time since I ate anything truly lip-puckeringly lemon with the popping combination of poppyseeds, so yes, this bread stuck with me for a long time even after every crumb of it was gone. 

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Most photogenic recipe of 2014

These Christmas Tree Cupcakes were the prettiest things I made all year, no doubt! I realise it’s a Christmas recipe but you can bookmark it for next year as early as now haha! It’s easier than it looks. 😉

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Most surprising finding of 2014

A couple of days after I wrote about this fantabulous Rum Raisin Ice Cream recipe, I came across an article about the weirdest ice cream flavours in the world. The list included this flavour and I found it absolutely strange. What’s so weird about Rum Ice Cream with flecks of orange-soaked raisins? 

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Best moment of 2014

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TyNiJq_tc0]

It should come as no surprise that my most memorable moment of 2014 was this trip to Bali that I took with my best friends. From the clips above, I think you can imagine it was a riot! This trip even spurred me to make a Balinese fried chicken recipe at home.

To see the other places we visited in the video, check out the posts in my Bali travel series:

  • Bali Day 1: Kicking off a first solo adventure abroad with the Bajra Sandhi Monument, Tanah Lot, and the lovely Uluwatu Temple
  • Bali Day 2: Some unusual temple experiences at the Kertha Gosa Pavilion, Pura Besakih, Temple of the Holy Water, and Pura Gunung Kawi
  • Bali Day 3: Discovering some of my favorite temples such as the Ulun Danu Temple, and the Goa Gaja Bedulu, as well as the Taman Ayun Temple

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I wanted to keep this brief as I am still quite groggy and jet-lagged and exhausted from my holiday trip, but I used quite a bit of brain cells trying to decide which recipes to include in this list. It’s quite hard! I hope you enjoyed this list though. 

Here’s to a lovely 2015! 🙂

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