Baking Library

Welcome 2012!

2011-12-31T14:40:00.001+08:00

A year has passed and it is time to usher in a brand new year. Goodbye 2011 and Welcome 2012! With the birth of a new year, I guess it is a habit for many of us to set new year resolutions. I am not someone who would obediently follow the resolutions that have been set. Hence, my resolutions shall be kept to a minimum and as simplistic as possible. All I wish for in 2012 would be to continue my explorations in baking and continue penning my thoughts here. Even if there would be lesser entries, it will at least keep the blog going and remind me of my love for baking, and not to forget the sharing of this satisfying therapeutic activity.

Since mid-2011, there has been a change of priority in my life. Life became busier with work involvement and social activities, making baking a luxury activity to indulge in whenever I have the spare energy and time. Hence, that explains why my frequency of blogging dwindled for the past few months. On the other hand, I am not quite sure if age is another factor for the diminishing energy level. Sometimes, I feel like lazing and sitting in front of the TV lying on my comfortable sofa, switching from channel to channel, watching any programs that arouse my attention. Well, maybe its just plain old lazy me, trying to make excuses for myself.

On New Year's Day, I was browsing and reading my past entries. It has been a good three years since I started baking and blogging. As I was looking at the bakes I have made over the years, the nostalgia reminded me I have came quite a way (not very long it might be), starting from scratch. Thanks to the constant encouragement and affirmation from my family, friends, colleagues, fellow bakers and readers, I am able to sustain this passion and keep it going.

Looking back into 2011, the following is a roundup of some of the bakes:

Clockwise, starting from top left: Bear and Chick Cupcakes, Cream Cheese Marble Brownies, Devil's Food Cake, Rich Brownies

Clockwise, starting from top left: Chocolate Mud Cupcakes, Yam Fudge Cake, Cookies and Cream Layer, Chocolate Lava Pudding

Clockwise, starting from top left: Mini Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes, New York Cheesecake, Chocolate Mud Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream, Hotdog Buns

From left to right: Mini Raspberry Swirl Cheesecakes, Mango Mousse Log Cake

Baking, to me, is my comfort zone. It is also a sense of assurance, motivation and self confidence. I have always enjoyed the process of reading recipes and trying out bakes of all kinds - cakes, cookies, tarts, just to name but a few. It is especially gratifying when the bakes turn out great. That would mean I have treats to savour on afterwards.

As of now, I have not exactly tried out that many things. There are still tons of recipes out there beckoning to me, especially those from the bake books sitting on my book shelf. These recipes alone would suffice to last for a decade or two if I were to bake one recipe a day! Therefore for this 2012, I will continue on my journey for improvement, explore more bakes and strive to be a better baker.

Before I end off with my first post of the year, I would like to share another of my Xmas bake of 2011, a Cookies and Cream Log Cake.

Spreading the cookies and cream filling onto the chiffon sheet.

The rolled up Swiss roll, a log cake in its "naked" state.

Cross section of the log cake, before frosting. Needs more practice on my rolling skills

The final product after frosting. Homemade cookies and cream log cake for all occasion, with no snow man or any Xmas decorations.

Although it is only the second week of the year, the Chinese New Year is fast approaching already. Hopefully, my "CNY factory" will be faithfully churning out some goodies over the weekend in preparation for the festivities. Peanut cookies, Pineapple tarts, Sugee Cookies, Almond cookies, Kueh Lapis..... I am coming for you!

(recipe for log cake to be posted on a later date)

Merry Xmas 2011 and a Mango Mousse Log Cake

2011-12-27T03:13:00.002+08:00

Merry Xmas to all of you out there! (I am still bathing in the mood of the Xmas as I am posting this. Hope it is not too late for greetings.) Christmas is one festive holiday in the year which I always look forward to. Somehow, the joy factor rises to an all-time-high and everyone seems to be pretty much hyped up and all ready for the arrival of this great festive season.

When it comes to the month of Dec, my mind would be preoccupied with festive shopping for gifts and not to forget, Xmas bakes! I had a couple of ideas for Xmas bakes this year - brownie cupcakes with chocolate peppermint patty center, mint chocolate cookies, Christmas tree cupcakes; but I decided not to make it an tiring affair. Instead, I made some orange cranberry shortbread and a mango mousse log cake since R2E2 mangoes are in season.

While I was doing grocery shopping for a Xmas potluck, R2E2 mangoes were going on sale (2 for S$6.55). Unable to resist the urge, I picked up two of these cheery-summery looking stone fruits and the idea of making a mango log cake was waving at me.

These days, I am more inclined towards eating mangoes that are plump and have reddish-orange skins. Such mangoes tend to be sweeter and more fragrant than the usual yellow coloured varieties like the Thai honey mangoes, which are a little lacking in fragrance.

It might prove to be tricky for some people when it comes to removing the skin from the flesh, but this can be easily done with some clever manoeuvre of the knife and a spoon. First, slice the mango following the curve of the stone on one side, sticking as close as possible to the stone. Repeat the same for the other side. You will end up with 3 sliced portions of mango, as shown in the first picture above. To remove the skin from the two portions without the stone with ease, simply use a spoon and dig as closely to the skin as possible starting from one end, until a whole chunk of mango is released from the skin. This chunk can then be used for diced easily for use in cooking or baking. I remember watching a chef preparing mangoes and have been using this method ever since.

Compared to layer cakes, log cakes are much easier to prepare. They are in fact Swiss rolls disguised with an exterior of cream frosting. While I was doing the rolling, it reminded me of a failed attempt of a black forest log cake the year before. Previously, the filling was too runny and it made the rolling difficult to execute, causing the end product to be a mess.

The same thing happened a second time. The mango mousse filling was a little runny and after rolling the sheet cake, some of the filling were 'pushed out' of the Swiss roll. Luckily, it didn't turn out a big mess and was decent enough to be frosted into a log cake. Next time, I would do the following:

Slope the filling towards the side to be rolled so that there is less filling on the ending side and the mango mousse would not be pushed out after rolling.
Omit the last row of diced mango and mango puree.
Chill the mango mousse with the sheet cake and toppings so that it would be much easier to roll and the filling would not be so runny.

Since the idea of doing the log cake was a last minute gut-feeling affair, I was unable to grab hold of Christmas log cake toy decorations. I had to borrow a stash of it from my baking buddy. Guess what? I returned her the toy decorations, but on top of the mango log cake.

I made some observations when frosting the log cake with dairy whipping cream. All along, I have been faithfully using diary cream. When whipped and frosted, the appearance always look somewhat clumpy and un-smooth, unlike the smoothly frosted log cakes/cakes found in bakeries. I have been told that log cakes in bakeries are frosted with fresh cream. However, the so called 'fresh cream' from these cakes taste more like a cross between buttercream and dairy whipped cream, which puzzles me.

All this while, I have never used non-dairy cream or whip-topping cream which are non-dairy in nature, but my experience tells me that dairy whipping cream taste nothing like buttercream and whipped fresh cream is no where as smooth as buttercream. Hence, I cannot help but suspect that the cream used for giving cakes that smooth appearance is actually non-dairy cream or whip topping cream and nothing like fresh cream as what some bakeries have claimed. Perhaps my dear fellow bakers can share your experience with use of whip topping cream and non-dairy whipping cream.

Mango Mousse Swiss Roll/Log Cake (Sponge recipe adapted from 孟老师的美味蛋糕卷)

Serving size:10-12 slices
Taste and texture: Cake base is soft, moist and fluffy. Mango mousse filling is fruity, smooth and light.
Equipment and materials:

12 x 12 inch pan or 10 x 14 inch pan
Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater
Spatula
Wire whisk/balloon whisk
Mixing bowls
Wire rack
Flour sieve
Parchment/baking paper
Brush for oiling pan
Weighing scale

Separated-egg Sponge Cake Ingredients:

40g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
80g egg yolks, at room temperature
25g caster sugar
170g egg whites, at room temperature
75g caster sugar
60g cake flour, sifted

Mango Mousse filling:

180g fresh mango puree (Use a good variety of mango for best results)

180ml dairy whipping cream

70g mango, diced

50g fresh mango puree

Whipped Cream Frosting:

250ml whipping cream (dairy or non-dairy)

Making the separated-egg sponge:
Prepare Oven and line pan - Preheat oven to 190 degrees C and line tin with baking/parchment paper.

Preparing the egg yolk mixture - In a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and 25g castor sugar. Whisk the egg yolks with a beater on high speed until the yolks have increased in volume, are paler looking in colour and thickened.

Beating egg whites - In a metal bowl, beat eggs whites starting with low speed. When the egg whites turn frothy, slowly increase the speed to high and beat until egg whites are soft peaks (egg whites form peak that is drooping). Add the sugar (75g) slowly at this point and continue beating until egg whites are nearly stiff but still moist and not dry. This is when the bowl is overturned, the egg whites would not budge. Egg whites will form shiny and creamy upright peaks when beater is withdrawn. Take care not to overbeat the egg whites as they will become dry or may water out.

Folding egg whites into egg yolk mixture - Fold one third of beaten egg whites with a balloon whisk into egg yolk mixture to lighten and mix well. Incorporate another one third of the whites. Lastly, add the rest of the egg whites and fold gently to obtain a smooth uniformly coloured foamy batter. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl with a spatula to ensure batter is well mixed.

Adding flour and butter - Fold flour gently into the whites-yolk mixture in 3 batches with a balloon whisk, turning the bowl as you fold. Ensure that there are no visible traces of flour before adding the next batch.

Once the flour has been incorporated, scoop a portion of the mixture into a small mixing bowl and combine with the melted butter. Fold this mixture back with the bulk of the flour-white-yolk batter to obtain the final batter.

Baking the cake - Pour batter into a 12 x 12 inch tin or 10 x 14 inch lined swiss roll tin. Level the batter and bake for about 12 minutes. Start checking for done-ness at 9 mins. Cake is done when inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow sheet cake to cool.

Preparing Mango Mousse:

Whip180ml of dairy cream until is reaches mousse state, about 70% stiff (before soft peak stage). Fold the whipped cream into 180g of mango puree until well combined. Set mango mousse aside.

Preparing whipped cream frosting:
Before whipping the cream, chill the mixing bowl and beaters. In a chilled mixing bowl, whip 250ml of whipping cream on medium speed until it becomes mousse-like. Turn the speed to low and beat until it produce soft peaks. Do not beat it too stiff as the whipped cream will turn grainy when frosted.

Assembly:
Turning the cake out - Carefully turn the cooled sheet cake onto a piece of baking/parchment paper. Slowly peel off the attached baking/parchment paper from the cake. Place a new piece of baking/parchment paper over the sponge. Invert the sponge again, carefully. Now, peel of the top piece of baking/parchment paper. The skin would be stuck to the baking/parchment paper and would be removed.

Applying the filling - Dab a layer of mango mousse onto the cooled sponge sheet. Ensure the starting end has a thicker layer of mousse and the ending side has a thinner layer of mousse.

Place a row of diced mango onto the mousse layer near the starting end and another row in the middle.

Using a spoon, scoop the mango puree and form a stream of puree between the two rows diced mangoes. Add another stream of mango puree further down the second row of diced mangoes. It will look something similar to that as shown in the 6th picture above, without a 3rd row of diced mango and 3rd stream of mango puree.

Rolling the cake - With the shorter side/breadth facing you (if using 10 x 14 inch pan), roll the cake up tightly to form a swiss roll. Allow swiss roll to chill in the refrigerator until mousse filling is set.

Frosting the log cake: Place swiss roll on a 10 x 10 inch square cake board. Slice one-fifth of the log and position this sliced portion at the side of the main roll. This is to give the log cake a branched shape. Chuck rectangular slips of baking paper under the log cake.

Apply a thin layer of whipped cream over the swiss roll, ensuring all sides are covered with cream. Use the tines of a fork to scratch along the surface of the whipped cream frosting to create a 'tree bark' effect. For a snowy effect, dust with snow powder/icing sugar and decorate as desired. Carefully remove the rectangular slips of paper.

Notes:

Serve log cake chilled. Mango mousse filling would not hold its shape well at warm room temperature for long.
Dairy or non-dairy cream may be used.
Whipped cream will continue to firm up when frosted, hence take care not to whip the cream too stiff. A softly whipped cream, slightly flowy with soft peaks (about 70% stiff) is ideal.

Savoury for a Change - Chicken Pies

2011-12-16T23:24:00.002+08:00

It is time for a change! As sweet-toothed as I may be, I cannot be relying on my sweet bakes to fill my stomach or replace my daily meals. With some inspiration from Masterchef series and suggestions from H, I decided to do a savoury bake, and chicken pies shall be on the menu.

Since the preparation of the filling involved cooking, there is no hard and fast rule with regard to the ingredients used. Instead of using frozen mixed vegetables, freshly diced carrots were used instead. I also made a couple of tweaks to the pie crust recipe and the chicken pie filling proportion.

For a first attempt on chicken pies, I am rather comforted by the flakiness of the pie crust. Despite the moist filling and an absence of a blind-baked pie dough, the pie base had not turned soggy at all. Perhaps the baking of the pies on a preheated baking tray placed in the lower rack of the oven might have helped, a tip I picked up from my stash of baking books.

Even though I am now into my third year of baking, every baking session is still like a new lesson to me. Recently, I have learnt how to make better use of the oven rack position to my advantage. In the past, I have always baked all my goods in the middle rack. It works well for cakes most of the time. However, that is not quite the case for tarts in my case. To get a nice finish for my tarts, it is necessary to bake them nearer to the top heating element of my oven so that they can brown nicely within a much shorter time. Else, the tart crusts would turn out to be creamy white and hardly brown, like the ones in my nutella cream cheese tarts.

To me, most pie dough recipes look all quite the same, be it the ingredients used or the proportion of ingredients. However, the handling of the pie dough makes so much difference when it comes to determining the pie crust texture. Unlike cakes where it is often necessary to ensure that ingredients are evenly dispersed within the batter, there is no need for even dispersion of ingredients in pie dough. The uneven dispersion of different sized butter pebbles in the pie dough allows for a flaky texture, when the butter turns into steam in the process of baking.

Chicken Pies (recipe adapted from Baking Mum)
Serving size: 9 three-inch pies
Taste and texture: Flaky buttery pie dough with moist chicken pie filling
Equipment and materials:

Flour sieve
Balloon whisk
Measuring spoon set
Mixing bowl
Wire rack
Fork
Pastry blender (optional) or two sharp knives
Clingfilm
3-inch individual tart tins

Flaky pie dough pastry:

250g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
170g chilled unsalted butter, cubed
1 egg yolk, chilled
4 tbs plain yogurt or sour cream, chilled
1 egg, lightly beaten for egg wash

Chicken Pie Filling:

150g potato, peeled and cubed
50g carrot, peeled and cubed
1 large yellow onion, peeled and cubed
260g chicken breast meat, cubed
110g canned (drain water solution away) or fresh mushrooms, thinly sliced
120ml homemade or store-bought chicken stock
1 tbs cornflour mixed with 2 tbs water to form a solution
salt and pepper, to taste

Making chicken pie filling:

Oil a pan with some cooking oil. Place the cubed potato and fry over medium heat for 3 minutes. Add cubed carrots and frying the mixture for another two minutes. Set carrots and potatoes aside.

Next, sauteed the onions until soft and fragrant. Add in chicken breast and mushrooms. Cook the mixture for about 2 minutes.

Lastly, add in the cooked potato and carrot. Pour 120ml of chicken stock and allow the mixture to simmer on low heat for 4 minutes, without covering. Allow the liquid to reduce. When most of the of liquid has reduced, add the corn flour solution to the thicken the mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste. The chicken pie filling should be a mixture of ingredients coated with a thick sauce.

Making the flaky pie dough pastry:

Mixing dry ingredients - In a mixing bowl, sift in flour. Add in salt. Whisk with a balloon whisk to distribute the ingredients evenly.

Forming the pastry - Cut chilled cubed butter into flour with a pastry blender until there is a mixture of different sized flour-coated butter 'pebbles' and fine flour-coated butter 'crumbs'. Alternatively, rub the cubed butter into the flour with your clean hands. Mix the egg yolk with the yoghurt/ sour cream. Drizzle in the yolk + yogurt/sour cream mixture use a fork to moisten the flour-coated butter 'crumbs'.

Gently gather the crumbs and knead briefly so that the crumbs come together to form a dough. Wrap dough with clingfilm and chill dough for at least 30 minutes. To save time, freeze dough until it is firm enough to handle.

Making the chicken pies - Divide dough into 9 portions. Pinch about 2/3 of one portion of dough to roughly form a ball using both palms. Place the dough ball on one palm and use the other to flatten it evenly, big enough to fit into a three-inch tart tin. Place the flattened dough over the tart tin and press it in place, ensuring thickness is even throughout.

Spoon and compact cooled chicken pie filling onto pie dough base. With the remaining 1/3 of one portion of dough, roll it into a rough shaped ball and flatten it until it is big enough to cover the fillings. Cover fillings with pie dough and press down to seal the edges. Repeat for the remaining 8 portions of pie dough. Chilled ready-to-bake chicken pies for 20 minutes.

Baking the tart crusts - While chilling ready-to-bake chicken pies, preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Brush egg wash onto the chicken pies. Using a fork, prick over the top of each chicken pie, allowing air to escape and ensure pie dough do not rise much.

Place chicken pies onto a preheated baking tray and bake for about 30-35 minutes in the middle rack or until tart crusts are golden brown. If pie dough do not brown after 20 minutes into baking, transfer to upper rack and bake a further 10-15 minutes to achieve a golden brown appearance. Allow chicken pies to cool slightly in tart tins before removing them from the tart tins to cool completely on a wire rack. Serve chicken pies warm.

Notes:

For better flavour, marinate chicken breast or add some herbs when cooking the filling.
Increase the proportion of chicken breast used if a more meaty filling is desired.

Cupcakes with a twist - Mini Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes & Raspberry Swirl Cheesecakes

2011-12-11T23:30:00.001+08:00

Lately, I have been rather addicted to TV programs featuring food and cooking, namely the US Masterchef and the Australia Junior Masterchef series. Although gluing myself in front of my television set has made me somewhat a couch potato at times, watching these programs allow me to be exposed to the food culture of other national boundaries.

It is no easy feat taking part in these culinary competitions. Imagine the immense pressure faced by the contestants given the allocated time, not forgetting that there are judges breathing down their neck and monitoring their every progress as they prepare their food. What amazes me is that these participants are left on their own to mastermind their culinary creations, without the availability of recipes to refer to. I can hardly imagine myself baking a cake or making a dessert without any recipes to refer to. My mind will just be a total blank. It just didn't come across to me as something quite possible, especially when there is a hundred and one things to learn and so many precise measurements when it comes to desserts.

Since I do not cook often, I very much hoped that most of the challenges will come in the form of desserts or bakes. Watching these participants toil their hearts out in the kitchen, I have my utmost admiration towards their passion and love for everything food.

I am glad that being a couch potato has helped me re-ignite my love for food and the process of creating them, which are usually in the form of bakes. However, remaining a couch potato will not help me improve my baking skills in anyway. There is a need to practice. A whole of it it in fact.

Practicing means finding more opportunities to try out recipes. Since the cupcake mood is still ongoing, I figured I would try out even more recipes from my Martha Stewart Cupcakes. Instead of the usual cupcakes, it will be with a twist - cupped cheesecakes.

Making cheesecakes in cupcake form is definitely a clever idea. Whoever thought of it is a genius. It is so much easier to do these mini cheesecakes in a water bath and there is no need to spend more than 2 hours to bake a thick and dense 8 inch or 9 inch round cheesecake in a springform tin. Each batch will probably take at most 30 minutes and the chilling time is subsequently reduced due to the significant reduction in size compared to a full-size cheesecake. Furthermore, these dainty looking cheesecakes look perfect for parties and gatherings or as giveaways.

Not all was a success though. The Oreo mini cheesecakes turned out thick, dense and creamy with a slight vanilla flavoured tang, indicative of a good cheesecake. Although the raspberry swirl cheesecakes were a nice sight to look at, the tart berry flavour did not quite come through. With a little nip and tuck on the recipe, the results should be promising.

Mini Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes ( recipe adapted from Martha Stewart Cupcakes)
Serving size: Makes 13 standard size cupped cheesecakes
Taste and texture: Dense, thick and creamy with a slight tang.
Equipment and Materials:

Standard size muffin tin
Cupcake liners to fit
Measuring scale
Measuring Jug
Flexible spatula
Handheld beater/ stand beater
Mixing bowls
Large baking tin/tray used for water bath

Mini Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

13 whole Oreo cookies and 7 Oreo cookies coarsely chopped (with filling removed)
500g Philadelphia brand cream cheese, room temperature
110g sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs (55-60g with shell), lighten beaten
140ml sour cream

Making the cheesecakes

Prepare oven and muffin tin - Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Line muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Mixing cream cheese, sugar and vanilla - Place cream cheese in a mixing bowl. Beat cream cheese until fluffy on medium-high speed. Gradually add in the sugar and beat until combined. Add vanilla and mix well. Scrap sides and bottom of bowl with a flexible spatula to incorporate stray ingredients.

Adding eggs and sour cream - Add the eggs in four parts and beat until batter is evenly mixed. Lastly, mix in sour cream on low speed and beat until combined. Scrap sides and bottom of bowl.

Removing air bubbles from batter - Using a spatula, push the batter against the wall of the mixing bowl, attempting to flatten the batter and remove air bubbles. Repeat to get rid of most of the air bubbles. This will prevent air bubbles from rising to the surface and bursting while baking, creating little craters.

Adding chopped Oreos - Fold in coarsely chopped Oreo cookies and ensure they are evenly dispersed.

Diving the batter - Place a whole Oreo in each muffin liner. This will act as the cheesecake base. Divide the batter into 13 muffin liners.

Baking the cheesecakes - Place muffin tin filled with cheesecake batter over a large baking tin. Pour hot water into the baking tin. This is known as a water bath, ensuring that the oven maintains a moist environment during baking and helps to churn out smooth cheesecakes.

Bake mini cheesecakes in the water bath for 22-25 minutes at 160 degrees C or until cheesecake filling is fully set and not jiggly.

Once cheesecakes are done. Allow them to cool in the muffin tin completely before chilling them for 2-4 hours to allow the texture to firm up. For best results, chill overnight.

Notes:

Since I only have a single 6-hole muffin tin, I baked the rest of the cheesecakes in souffle cup liners placed on mini tart tins (prevent souffle cups from becoming wet due to direct contact with water bath) which are placed in the water bath.

In the mood for Cupcakes - Red Velvet and Chocolate Mud Cupcakes

2011-12-09T22:12:00.001+08:00

After two bake-less weeks, it is time to ride on the baking mood. Somehow, I am very much into the making of cupcakes this week. It might come across as a little late for Aspiring Bakers, but I am enjoying myself to the brim nevertheless. So far the count is three, and I have a good feeling the number will be on the rise.

Once again, I have been tasked to help with cupcake making. Due to my friend's relentless nagging for Red Velvet Cupcakes, I finally threw in the towel and decided to embark on this activity that somewhat spells 'Radioactivity', due to the awkwardly deep red colour of these cupped treats. The colour of my cupcakes did not turn out as truly red as I only had 'Xmas red' Wilton gel colour on hand.

Using the recipe from my newly arrived Martha Stewart Cupcakes from Amazon, the texture turned out to be amazingly fluffy even though there is no creaming of butter involved in the entire mixing process. Texture wise, it is definitely a yes from me. Taste-wise, I wished it had been richer or more vibrant. Then again, I have not had much encounters with Red Velvet cakes hence little room for comparison to know what is considered to be a good one. Perhaps the cream cheese frosting will give it a more rounded flavour on the whole.

For the cream cheese frosting, I confirmed my hypothesis that Tatura cream cheese (from Phoon Huat) is indeed not a good brand for use in frostings. It created a messy lump when I tried to do peanut butter cream cheese frosting and the cream cheese frosting for the red velvet cupcakes looked kind of lumpy/ somewhat curdled/ loose (a little dough like) and did not pipe out as ideally as I would like it to be, compared to when I was using Elle & Vire cream cheese. However, when doing cheesecakes using Tatura cream cheese, the results are not too shabby.

I made a astounding discovery relating to these red velvet cupcakes. When eaten straight from the fridge chilled, the cupcakes remained tender and fluffy like they just came out of the oven. Because of the chilling, the cream cheese frosting has a nice firm texture, almost like a cheesecake layer which makes the cupcake even more so enticing.

Besides acceding to my friend's request for red velvet, I managed to convince him that these Chocolate Mud Cupcakes are truly to die for. The texture is moist, fudgy and it resembles a cross between a fluffy cupcake and a souffle, due to its flour-less nature and the incorporation of beaten egg whites. To go along with the chocolate cupcakes, I piped 'piles of chocolate dung' and spooned spiked piles (for a simple homemade look) onto them, which are actually Dark Chocolate Frosting from Martha Stewart Cupcakes.

Comparing this Dark Chocolate Frosting with the Bittersweet Chocolate Frosting, the former is a dark chocolate buttercream that holds its shape well when piped while the latter (much higher chocolate content) is a fudge-like chocolate goodness that spells awfully chocolate.

Hmm.. After taking a bite into one of the chocolate mud cupcakes, I realised the frosting layer is too thick and it overshadowed the richness of the chocolate mud cupcakes. The frosting by itself is actually not too shabby. However, the morale of the story - keep these chocolate mud cupcakes unfrosted and frost other less rich cupcakes instead. Lesson learnt. Apparently, stacking one rich flavour onto another rich flavour doesn't quite work out!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting ( recipe adapted from Martha Stewart Cupcakes)
Serving size: Makes 9 standard size cupcakes
Taste and texture: Fluffy and moist cake texture.
Equipment and Materials:

Standard size muffin tin
Cupcake liners to fit
Flexible spatula
Handheld beater/ stand beater
Wire rack
Wooden skewer/ toothpick/ cake tester
Flour sieve
Piping bag
Large round piping tip
Mixing bowls

Red Velvet Cupcakes

150g cake flour
1 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
150g caster sugar
180 ml vegetable oil
1 egg, at room temperature (55g to 60g with shell)
1/4 tsp red colour (gel)
1/2 tsp vanilla
125ml buttermilk
1/2 tsp + 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp distilled white vinegar

Cream Cheese Frosting

120g unsalted butter, softened
240g cream cheese, straight from the fridge
100g - 200g icing sugar (or add more if desired to obtain firmer but sweeter frosting)
1/2 tsp + 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Making the cupcakes

Prepare oven and muffin tin - Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Prepare flour mixture - Sift cake flour, cocoa powder and salt into a large bowl. Using a balloon whisk, whisk to combine and allow the dry ingredients to be evenly distributed.

Mixing oil, sugar and egg- In a mixing bowl, beat oil and sugar until combined on med-high speed. Add in the egg and continue beating until mixture is smooth, for about 1 minute. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl well with a flexible spatula.

Alternating flour mixture and buttermilk - Turning the mixer to low speed, add 1/3 portion of the flour mixture to the oil-sugar-egg mixture and beat until well combined. Next add in half the buttermilk and mix well. Continue the alternating addition of flour (3 additions) and buttermilk (2 additions), starting and ending with flour mixture. Batter should be well combined and smooth. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl well with a flexible spatula during the mixing process to incorporate loose ingredients.

Adding baking soda and vinegar mixture - In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar. The mixture will foam. Add it to the batter and mix for 20 seconds on medium speed.

Baking the cupcakes - Spoon batter into cupcake liners until 4/5 filled. Bake the cupcakes for 25 minutes at 180 degrees C or until an inserted cake tester comes out clean.

Preparing Cream Cheese Frosting

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy and smooth on medium speed. Turn to low speed and add in 100g of icing sugar. Mix to obtain a smooth frosting. To obtain a firmer frosting, add more icing sugar to desired firmness at the expense of sweetness. Add in vanilla and mix well. Frost red velvet cupcakes as desired.

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Chocolate Mud Cupcakes (recipe adapted from Tempt: Cupcakes to Excite by Betty Saw)
Taste and Texture: Tender, gooey with tiny bits of almonds.
Serving size: 9 standard size cupcakes
Recipe: Refer to Chocolate Mud Cupcakes

Dark Chocolate Frosting ( recipe adapted from Martha Stewart Cupcakes)

Quantity: Makes enough to frost 16 cupcakes

Taste and texture: Chocolatey and buttercream-like.

Ingredients:

30g unsweetened cocoa powder
80ml boiling water
300g unsalted butter, softened
70g icing sugar
pinch of salt
450g dark chocolate (50-60% cocoa mass), melted and cooled

Making the dark chocolate frosting:

In a small bowl, mix together the cocoa powder and boiling water to obtained a smooth cocoa liquid. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and icing sugar on medium-high speed until butter mixture is pale and fluffy. Turning to low speed, add the cooled melted chocolate and mix to obtain a smooth mixture. Lastly, add in cocoa mixture and beat well. Frost cupcakes as desired.

Notes:

Red velvet cupcakes frosted with cream cheese frosting need to be kept refrigerated.
Leftover/unused cream cheese frosting and dark chocolate frosting should be kept refrigerated in freezer bags/ piping bags/ ziplock bags.
Serve red velvet cupcakes chilled. The cream cheese frosting will be firm and the cake will remain moist, soft and fluffy. However, allow the chocolate mud cupcakes to rest at room temperature for some time to allow it to soften before serving.
Chocolate Mud Cupcakes will shrink in size when cooled, creating a sunken crater. This is perfectly normal.

Carrot Cupcakes

2011-12-08T01:07:00.001+08:00

A friend of mine had asked me for a favour. He needed to do a cake for his friend's birthday. After some discussion, I recommended that we do a batch of carrot cupcakes, using my trusty Rachel Allen's Carrot Cake recipe which never fails to yield the most tender, fluffy and flavourful cupcakes.

According to him, these carrot cupcakes were sweeter and not as spicy as compared to the ones found in Cedele. From my recent maiden experience with Cedele's carrot cake, I found that Cedele's carrot cake is actually less spicy in taste, making me wonder if there is actually something wrong with his tastebuds or if the problem lies with mine. I could only sense a faint hint of cinnamon in Cedele's version. For Rachel Allens's carrot cake, it uses ground nutmeg and mixed spice in addition to cinnamon. I also believe that Cedele's carrot cakes are baked using white sugar whereas these carrot cupcakes are baked using brown sugar, hence the colour disparity between the two.

Frosting wise, Cedele's cream cheese frosting is purely vanilla flavoured and has a firm cheesecake-like texture. On the other hand, Rachel Allen's cream cheese frosting has a vibrant character due to the marriage of flavours attributed by vanilla and orange zest and the texture is smooth and less firm (because I cut down on icing sugar).

While doing the cream cheese frosting, I noticed that different brands of cream cheese do play a part in determining the texture. Using Elle & Vire cream cheese, the frosting turned out to be fluffier, softer, smoother and it was a breeze piping swirls with it on the cupcakes. Phoon Huat's cream cheese seemed to produce a firmer frosting frosting which is less smooth and did not look like it will pipe well into swirls.

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting ( recipe adapted from Bake by Rachel Allen)
Taste and Texture: Moderately-spicy, moist, fluffy and chunky with moist plump raisins and crunchy walnuts.
Serving size: about 10 cupcakes

Making the carrot cupcakes:

Baking the cupcakes - Follow the recipe and directions in Carrot Cake. Instead of baking the batter in a loaf tin, spoon the batter into a standard muffin tin lined with cupcake liners. Bake the cupcakes at 180 degrees C for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted.

Decorating the cupakes - Spoon cream cheese frosting into a piping bag attached with a large star tip. Pipe swirls of cream cheese frosting onto the cupcakes in a circular fashion to create rosettes.

Officially "Desserted"

2011-11-11T15:54:00.001+08:00

It has been quite a long while since I blogged anything about my bakes. My busy days are over and I am finally able to take a breather... whew! All these while, I have not stopped baking completely. The only thing that is stopping me from coming to this sanctuary are the finer details in life that I am occupied with, other than work.

I am so looking forward to the end of November and the entire December. This coming lull period means that I can bake wholeheartedly for all I want. Sounds like a buffet? Just that this is one in which I help myself to my bake-books, recipes and a great deal of kitchen trials.

Since it has been a good 3 months of non-blogging, it is time to get back my momentum. For a 'warm-up', I will be sharing my dessert hunts. I have been craving for some mouth-watering, exquisite desserts ever since I was exposed to some reputable patisseries by friends through word of mouth and the internet.

On last Thursday afternoon, me and my best bud K decided to head down to Duxton Hill where a homely looking cafe - Flor patisserie, is quietly tucked in. The cafe maintained a simplistic look, with only a couple of small tables and chairs, ideal for a quiet afternoon chat.

For a start, we chose 3 of their gorgeous looking dessert showpieces at the counter - Fromage Blanc, Strawberry Napolean and Mango Pie.

The Fromage Blanc consists of a cream cheese mousse layer topped onto a cakey pie pastry base. I was rather intrigued by the texture of the pie base - buttery, cakey yet crumbly. It was distinctly cake-like in the middle and towards the edges it was firm and crumbly like a shortcrust pastry. I am definitely curious to know what this pastry is termed. For the cream cheese mousse, the tartness of the cream cheese shone through with a smooth mouth-feel.

K greatly recommended the Mango Pie, exclaiming how it wowed him on his last visit. From my first encounter with this very mango pie, one thought sprang to my mind: "This dessert does not resemble a pie at all, let alone a mango pie". Despite the unusual appearance, the taste and texture took me by surprise. The pie base (somewhat similar to that of the Fromage Blanc) worked brilliantly with the topping (I couldn't recall if it was pastry cream or whipped cream) and the vibrance of the firm, sweet mangoes which was accompanied with a slight tartness.

When I was browsing through the dainty little cakes at the display counter, this Strawberry Napolean grabbed hold of my attention. Looking somewhat similar to a Japanese Strawberry Shortcake, this pastry cake comprise of buttery-crisp puff pastry layers, melt-in-the-mouth sponge cake layer, fresh cream, strawberries and strawberry gelee. The puff pastries remained crisp and non-soggy even though they were filled with fresh cream, a feat that requires skills and the understanding of the technicality required to assemble this cake. Be warned though, it can be a messy affair indulging in this cake, for the cake will break apart when a fork is dug into it.

Craving for more desserts to satisfy my sweet-toothed palate, I ordered an additional Wakakusayama that looked like a slice of a matcha log cake. The cake seemed dense but it was soft and nicely-moist. I have expected the green tea flavour to come across as being grassy, but the cake was nothing like that at all. The adzuki beans that were incoporated into the cream were too firm for my liking and it would have been better if they had added more red bean fillings, similar to that in texure of the red bean topping sitting on the matcha whipped cream.

With a satisfyingly sweet experience at Flor, I will be back for more pastries when I happen to drop by the Duxton Hill area, to re-visit the memorable Mango Pie and Strawerry Napolean and at the same time try out their other offerings.

August Pig Out Party

2011-08-30T22:09:00.004+08:00

It's my favourite potluck party time again! Once again, it is a gathering with fellow food bloggers, most of whom I have met up with from previous bloggers meetups.

This August POP (Pig Out Party) was initiated by Eelin and Jane. Food-wise, there seemed to be more sweet goods this time round. As with any potluck party, a must bring along item would be extra food containers, for there would always be excess food leftover from the the party.

Deciding to venture out of my comfort zone, I volunteered to bring a savoury item along in addition to a Devil's Food Cake. This savoury item is none other than salsa, which is foolproof enough to be prepared by anyone without much culinary experience. Simply dice the require ingredients and flavour with a bit of salt and pepper. Voila! The dish is complete. Because of the tangy nature of the salsa, it helps to boost one's appetite and is an ideal choice for parties and potluck.

Without much further adieu, lets take a look at the gorgeous spread of mouth-watering food. Pardon me if some pictures are badly taken. I was in a hurry to get my mouth working on the food than be concentrating on taking good photos, hence some pictures are not well-focused.

Red velvet cakes by Cathy from Cathy's Joy

Portugese egg tarts by Jane from Passionate about Baking

Durian puffs by Jane from Passionate about Baking

Green tea almond blondies by Doris from Tested and Tasted

Pizza by Bee Bee from Honey Bee Sweets

Fried fritters by Josephine from Sugar & Everything Nice

Madeleines by Jess from Jess Kitchen

Chocolate friands by Jess Jess Kitchen

Chocolate meringue cake by Doris from Tested and Tasted

Tau suan by Esther from Baking on Cloud 9

Salsa (to go along with chips) prepared by me.

Devil's Food Cake prepared by me. The frosting did not turn out smooth as I has overbeaten the frosting since I was making it in a rush.

The food items above are incomplete, as I have missed out on some of them, namely:

Chwee Kueh by Edith from Precious Moments,
Bread pudding with vanilla sauce by Eelin from The Batter Baker
Baileys ice cream, chocolate ice cream and tuna potato patties by Grace from Kitchen Corner.

I can never have enough of potlucks like this. Am looking forward to the next one already,which I do so after every potluck. Hopefully, it need not be a long wait till the next one comes along.

Salsa (recipe adapted from the internet)

Serving size: 7-8 persons

Taste and texture : Tangy, slightly spicy and refreshing due to presence of mint.

Equipment and materials:

Knife
Fork

Ingredients:

1 can 14.5 ounce diced tomatoes.
2 jalapenos, seeds removed and finely diced. (I used pickled jalapenos)
1/2 green onion, finely diced
4-5 sprigs mint, coarsely shredded using hands
1 tbs lemon juice
a bit of salt to taste
a bit of black pepper to taste
1/2 clove garlic, finely diced

Making the Salsa:

Preparing tomatoes - Drain the tomatoes well and reserve some of the liquid. (I squeezed the tomatoes lightly to remove the juices). Dice the tomatoes finely.

Mix all ingredients together - In a medium bowl, mix diced tomatoes, jalapenos, green onion, mint, garlic and lemon juice. Mix well with a fork. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add a little of the drained liquid if desired to moisten the mixture. Chill salsa before serving.

Getting busy....

2011-08-18T22:44:00.005+08:00

This post is taking me what seems like forever to get it up....

These days, life have been rather hectic, so much that I am sparing less attention to blogging and baking. As much as I love to, I feel like having a good rest or catching up with friends on my off days. At the moment, I am trying to find a balance between work and play. All work and no play makes Bakertan a dull boy. I need to live my life properly and do the things I want to do and enjoy doing. Having said that, time management is important, which I a subject I am need to work hard on.

Despite the busy schedule, I managed to bake a New York Cheesecake for a potluck party (about a month back). Talking about potlucks, they never fail to excite me. Potlucks are great opportunities for one to turn to their trusty recipes. Alternatively, if one is feeling adventurous, he/she could try whipping up a dish that is different from the norm.

This particular cheesecake recipe hails from the baking goddess Dorie Greenspan. The result is a dense but slightly airy cheesecake (I baked mine about 40 minutes longer than recommended). I like my cheesecakes to be really dense and thick, hence it is a habit of mine to extend the baking time by another 30 minutes or so each time I bake a cheesecake. Flavour-wise, it is addictive to the palate with the highly successful combination of cream cheese, sour cream and vanilla.

New York Cheesecake

Serving size: 12 slices

Taste and texture: Dense, creamy but slightly airy.

recipe can be found here

The Noob Bread Maker - Hotdog Buns

2011-07-08T22:19:00.005+08:00

There is one thing I am good at which I am not at all proud of; I procrastinate. As much as I have the urge to bake bread sometimes, the idea is often shelved. As a result, my progress in bread making is far lagging behind as compared to other aspects of baking. One possible accomplice to my procrastination could be the undesirable outcome in my experience with sweet buns so far; they tend to become a little dense when left for sometime, which I deduced was either due to the direct bread method employed or the nature of the recipe itself.

Finally, the day came when I tasted sweet victory in my battle with bread. I could not contain my excitement when I witnessed my hotdog buns coming out fresh from the oven. Despite the less-than-perfect appearance, the buns were amazingly fluffy, thanks to the water roux method. Even after leaving the buns overnight, they maintained their softness and fluffiness. Now that I have discovered the goodness of the water roux method, I am going to use it faithfully for most of my breads in future.

hotdog bun with dijonaise mustard

Handling the dough was a tricky process. The resulting dough was very sticky and using my instincts, I turned to flouring my hands to resolve the situation, which helped a great deal. I have to admit that I am quite a noob when it comes to bread making. I tried rolling a portion of the dough into a long strip, after which I wrapped it round a hotdog, hoping to achieve a spiral-shaped bun. I reckon I do need more practice to get the hang of shaping bread dough. For the remaining dough, I shaped them into ovals, which I later sliced lengthwise to place the hotdog topped with dijonaise mustard.

As one can see from the picture above, the cross section is airy instead of being densely knitted together like some of the bread that can be obtained from neighbourhood bakeries.

Hotdog Buns

Serving size: 7 buns

Taste and texture: Soft and fluffy buns.

Ingredients:

water roux dough - recipe from Kitchen Corner

7 hotdogs, boiled.

Making the buns:

Prepare water roux buns - Make water roux dough according to the directions stated in link above and allow dough to proof for the first time. Punched the dough when it is fully proofed. Test proofing of dough by gently pressing a finger into dough. Dough should spring back slowly.

Shaping the dough - Flour hands lightly when handling dough to prevent dough from sticking. Portion out dough weighing about 65g each. Roll pieces of dough into long strips before winding them around a piece of boiled hotdog to get spiral shaped buns. Alternatively, shaped the portions into ovals.

Second proofing - Place shaped dough on baking trays lined with baking paper, allow some space between doughs. Proof shaped doughs for about 30 to 40 mins.

Baking the buns - Brush eggwash evenly over each proofed dough. Dough may be slightly depressed. Allow dough to rest for 10-15 minutes before baking at 180 degrees C for 12-15 minutes.

Yam (Taro) Fudge Cake for Mum's Birthday

2011-06-17T23:20:00.004+08:00

Lately, I seem to be losing my inspiration for writing. I do have things that I want to pen down but somehow there is a barrier when it comes to translating these thoughts into words. Maybe I am suffering from a writer's block, even though I am hardly a writer myself. Nevertheless, I am still determined to blog my baking adventures down for my own reference.

Originally, I wanted to make fondant cupakes for my mum's birthday, thinking that it would be a good opportunity to practice on fondant making. Due to time constraint, I switched to making a yam fudge cake instead.

Instead of piping the usual rosettes around the borders, I tried doing shells this time round. Prior to this, I had a few opportunities to practice piping shells on baking paper. This could be done with you have leftover cream and have no idea how to use them. Individually, the shells did not turn out neat but the overall effect looked not too shabby.

Normally, I do not have much ideas on how I want to decorate my cakes. The idea of using fruits for decoration struck my mind and I used strawberries and sliced canned peaches to fill the centre of the cake. Even though it meant spending a bit more just for the sake of decorating, the outcome is much better than I had anticipated and I do think the additional expenditure is well justified for the occasion.

Yam Fudge Cake (Recipe adapted from Delicious Cakes by Amy Heng)
Serving size: Makes one 9 inch round cake.
Taste and texture: Yam and coconut fudge with soft chiffon sponge layers.

Equipment and Materials:

9 x 3 inch round tin
10 inch round cake board
Cake leveller or long serrated knife
9 inch round cake ring
Balloon whisk/ wire whisk
Rubber spatula
Handheld beater/ stand beater
Baking paper
Wire rack
Wooden skewer
Flour sieve
Star piping tip (Wilton # 22)
Piping bag
Coupler for piping
Mixing bowls

Chiffon Sponge:

70g egg yolks
60g castor sugar
80ml water
100ml corn oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
120g cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
160g egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
65g castor sugar

Making the chiffon sponge:

Prepare Oven - Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.

Prepare flour mixture - Sift cake flour, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. Whisk to combine and allow the dry ingredients to be evenly distributed.

Making the egg yolk batter - Place egg yolks and 60g caster sugar in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Add in oil, water and vanilla. Mix well with a wire whisk. Add in the flour mixture and mix to obtain a smooth batter.

Beating egg whites - In a clean metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar on low speed. Increase speed slowly to medium-high and beat untill egg whites are at soft peaks. Add 65g of sugar gradually and beat untill egg whites are stiff and still moist. This is when the beaters are lifted, the egg whites will form peaks that are upright and not drooping. Egg whites will resemble whipped cream. The entire bowl of whites will not drop out when the bowl is overturned. Do not over-beat or the egg whites will become dry and clumpy.

Folding in egg whites - Using a balloon whisk, fold one third of beaten egg whites into egg yolk batter gently to lighten and combine. Fold in the rest of the beaten whites to combine. Final batter should be foamy and uniform in colour with no streaks of egg white present. Folding egg whites gently using a balloon whisk will prevent egg whites from deflating too much.

Baking the sponge cake - Pour batter into a greased and lined 9 x 3 inch round pan and bake at 160 degrees C for 30 -40 minutes. Test doneness using a skewer or toothpick. When the cake is done, the inserted skewer will come out clean. Cake will shrink from edges and in height on cooling. Unmould sponge cake and leave to cool upright on a wire rack.

Yam Fudge:

410g yam (taro), steamed/boiled and mashed
A little purple colouring
1 tbs + 1 tsp agar agar powder (1 pack of cap swallow globe agar agar powder)
80g green bean flour
850ml coconut milk (from 1 litre pack) mixed with 150ml water
75g sugar

Making the yam fudge:

Place yam, purple colouring, agar agar powder, green bean flour, coconut milk mixture and sugar in a blender. Whizz the ingredients until it becomes a smooth mixture. Pour the mixture in a saucepan and heat it over medium low flame until the mixture thickens, stirring the mixture constantly. Remove saucepan from heat. Set aside for use. Mixture will thicken further on cooling.

Assembly:

Slicing sponge cake - Slice sponge cake into 3 even layers using a cake leveller or long serrated/palette knife. Slice off the part that has domed.

Preparing the layers - Using the removable base of a round tart tin or a round cake board, slide the tart tin base or cake board under a sponge layer and carefully transport it onto a 10 inch round cake board. This method of transferring is to prevent the sponge layer from breaking. Place a 9 inch round cake ring over the sponge layer. There should a gap between the perimeter of the cake and the tin.

Pour 1/3 of the prepared yam fudge (still hot) over the first sponge layer. Allow the yam fudge to fill the gap and level the fudge as evenly as possible.

Place the second sponge layer over the first yam fudge layer, similarly using a cake board or tart tin base to help with the transfer. Pour another 1/3 of the yam fudge over the second sponge layer and level the fudge.

Lastly, place the final sponge layer over the second yam fudge layer. Pour the remaining 1/3 of the yam fudge over the third sponge layer and level the fudge as evenly as possible. Transfer cake ring supported by cake board to a cake box and bring it to the refrigerator to chill. Allow a chilling time of 4 hours or longer until yam fudge sets.

Unmoulding finished cake: To unmould the cake, wrap a warm kitchen towel around the cake ring or use a hairdryer to briefly heat up the exterior of the cake ring. Take care not to apply too much heat using the hairdryer. Remove cake ring slowly (upwards) and steadily. Bring un-moulded cake back to the refrigerator to firm up before decorating and cutting.

Decorations: Decorate with whipped cream and sliced fruits as desired. If you are using canned peaches, ensure the peaches are well drained.

Irish Cream Chocolate Cake

2011-06-11T00:44:00.003+08:00

To date, I have tried out numerous chocolate cake recipes. Most of them are similar in one aspect - they usually turn out to be crumbly. This was something I had not expected when I made an Irish Cream Chocolate Cake just a few weeks back.

Whenever I decide on any recipes to try out, I will take some time to read the brief write-up to learn more about the cake (if there is any), followed by scrutinizing the list of ingredients. What brought my attention to this particular pound cake is the use of Irish Cream, a generous amount of it compared to just a mere few tablespoons.

The author had described this particular cake to be dense yet velvety in texture. It does sounds contradicting that the cake can be dense yet velvety at the same time. However, I can attest to the fact that these two qualities are not mutually exclusive. I could understand perfectly what she meant after having tasted the cake. There is hardly any crumbs falling when I took a bite into a slice of it, as opposed to the conventional chocolate cake which is ever-so-crumbly. Flavour-wise, there is a decent caramel hint of Irish Cream minus the alcoholic aftertaste that which some might not welcome.

Irish Cream Chocolate Cake (recipe adapted from 300 Best Chocolate Recipes by Julie Hasson)

Taste and texture: Dense yet velvety, has a decent hint of Irish Cream.

Serving size: 8-10 slices, makes one 9 x 5 inch cake

Equipment and materials:

9 x 5 inch loaf
Mixing bowls
Measuring spoon set
Measuring jar
Handheld mixer/ Stand beater
Baking paper
Flour sieve
Rubber spatula

Ingredients:

185g cake flour
45g cocoa powder
a pinch of salt
225g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
200g castor sugar
200g whole eggs, at room temperature
150ml Baileys Irish Cream

Making the cake:

Preparing loaf tin and oven - Line and grease a 9 x 5 loaf tin with baking paper. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Preparing dry ingredients - In a large mixing bowl, sift in cake flour, cocoa powder and salt. Use a wire whisk to disperse the dry ingredients evenly.

Creaming the butter - Place softened butter and castor sugar in a mixing bowl. Cream the butter as mentioned in how to cream butter.

Adding eggs to creamed butter - Add eggs to creamed butter in 4 additions, beating the mixture for 2 minutes on medium low speed after each addition is added. As eggs are added, the mixture tends to curdle. With continuous beating, the mixture becomes smooth and firms up.

Alternating dry ingredients and Irish Cream - Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the egg-butter mixture. Beat on low speed until dry ingredients disappears and batter is smooth. Next, add in half of the Irish cream and continue to beat on low speed until Irish Cream is incorporated and batter is smooth. Repeat the alternating of dry ingredients and Irish Cream until all ingredients are used up and batter is smooth. Scrape down sides and bottom of mixing bowl with a spatula to blend in stray ingredients. The process should be as follows

Add first 1/3 addition of dry ingredients.
First 1/2 addition of Irish Cream.
Second 1/3 addition of dry ingredients.
Remaining 1/2 of Irish Cream.
Remaining 1/3 dry ingredients.

Baking the cake - Pour batter in lined loaf tin and bake at 180 degrees C for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10mins. Allow cake to cool for 10 minutes in the tin before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

Carrot Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

2011-06-06T01:14:00.004+08:00

The American Carrot Cake is one cake that I hardly have any encounters with. One reason could be that it is not a staple cake in conventional bakeries and it is more commonly found in western style coffee chains like Starbucks or Coffee Bean. Once, I had a serving of it at a hotel buffet and I was immediately drawn to its spicy taste accompanied with cream cream frosting that is signature of carrot cakes.

Flipping through and comparing my recipes, I decided that the carrot cake by Rachel Allen is the more authentic one, using a combination of mixed spice, nutmeg and cinnamon. My other recipes had cinnamon as the sole spice ingredient.

While I was reading and following the instructions, one particular matter caught my attention. The method of mixing is in fact the conventional mix-dry-wet ingredients muffin method. Being cautious, I made sure not to over-mix the ingredients, ensuring that the mixing stops once the dry ingredients were moistened. Apart from the tedious process of grating the carrots, this is one very simple cake to make. To my amazement, the outcome was a fluffy, moist and pleasantly spiced cake with moist plump raisins and chunky walnuts, topped with a refreshing citrusy orange cream cheese frosting. The cream cheese frosting is one delightful icing on the cake, with vanilla added to accentuate the orange flavour.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe adapted from Bake from Rachel Allen)

Taste and Texture: Mild-spicy, moist, fluffy and chunky with moist plump raisins and crunchy walnuts.
Serving size: 8-10 slices, Makes a 9 x 5 inch loaf
Equipment and Materials:

9 x 5 inch loaf tin
Baking paper
Grater
Mixing bowls
Wire whisk
Handheld beater/ stand beater

Ingredients:

110g whole eggs, lightly beaten and at room temperature
150ml vegetable oil
185g brown sugar
280g carrot, finely grated
90g raisins
90g walnuts, chopped
190g self-raising flour
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon, ground
1 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated (I omitted this)
1 tsp mixed spice

Making the carrot cake:

Prepare loaf tin and oven - Line a loaf tin with baking paper and preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Mixing dry ingredients - Sift flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and mixed spice into a large mixing bowl. Use a wire whisk to whisk the mixture until it is evenly distributed.

Preparing wet mixture - In a mixing bowl, add in the eggs, oil, sugar, grated carrot, raisins and chopped walnuts and mix well with a large spoon.

Adding dry ingredients to wet mixture - Add dry ingredients to wet mixture and very gently stir the mixture with a spoon until dry ingredients are moistened (the last bit of dry ingredients disappear). Batter will be very watery.

Baking the cake - Pour prepared batter into prepared loaf tin and bake for 1 hour at 180degrees C, or until a cake tester/ wooden skewer comes out clean when inserted in the middle. Allow cake to cool in the loaf tin for 15 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

Orange cream cheese frosting:

250g cream cheese, softened
50g unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g icing sugar ( add more if desired)
Finely grated zest of 1 orange

Making cream cheese frosting:

In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter to combine. Beat in icing sugar until it is incorporated and mixture is smooth. Lastly, add in the vanilla extract and orange zest beat well to obtain a smooth frosting. Spread cream cheese frosting over the top of the carrot cake.

Notes:

Add more icing sugar to stiffen the frosting or add some milk/orange juice to thin out the frosting according to desired consistency.
You can omit the raisins and use chopped pecans instead for a nutty carrot cake.

Chocolate Lava Cake - Pudding or Cake?

2011-05-30T00:00:00.005+08:00

The air seems rather quiet in the regional blogosphere lately. Most blogs which I frequent seem to be taking breaks. I have been taking short breaks myself, doing blog-hopping less frequently and not leaving comments as often. In the meanwhile, I am still baking and trying out recipes as usual and the inspiration for baking never cease to end. For the month of may, I seem to be going on a chocolate streak or rather a chocolate rampage to satisfy the chocoholic in me.

Now that I have been baking for a while, I have clear vision on the direction I am heading for. The impression of fondant cakes has been stubbornly stuck in my mind recently and I cannot help but want to think of opportunities to get my hands working on them. With that in mind, I will be planning fondant cupcake projects fortnightly or once every month so as to gain some practice and experience. Since my mum's birthday is around the corner, it would be a great theme to kick start the cupcake project. I am excited just at the thought of it. Great man!

When it comes to desserts, I am not a big fan of desserts that are served warm. There are some exceptions though, one of them being the Chocolate Lava Cake or Chocolate Fondant Cake. Even though the name suggests that it is a cake, it is more like a rich chocolate pudding instead. To get the best experience out of your chocolate lava cake, do serve it warm and top it with a generous scoop of vanilla ice-cream. The coldness and the velvet texture of the ice-cream helps to contrasts the warm-rich-gooey pudding and adds colour to your gastronomic experience.

With a hint of coffee aroma, this chocolate lava cake is a potent dessert, maybe even too rich for the palate when one asks for additional servings, which is most possibly attributed to the additional 4 egg yolks. Death by Chocolate Lava Cake would serve as a suitable name for this dessert.

I am submitting this entry to Aspiring Bakers #7 - Chocolate Delights May 2011, hosted by DG from Tested and Tasted.

Chocolate Lava Cake (recipe adapted from Cooking for Beginners by John Burton Race and Angela Hartnett)

Taste and Texture: Rich and thick-gooey.

Serving size: 4-6

Equipment and Materials:

Heatproof bowl
Mixing bowls
Ramekins or 3.5 inch round tart tins (1.5 inch deep)
Saucepan
Wire whisk

Ingredients:

185g dark chocolate buttons/callets/pistoles (I used 63%)
180g unsalted butter, cut into chunks
200g whole eggs + 45g egg yolks
2 tbs instant coffee powder (I used Nescafe)
85g caster sugar
80g plain flour

Making the pudding:

Melting chocolate and butter - Place chocolate and butter chunks in a heatproof bowl. Sit the heatproof bowl over a saucepan filled with simmering water placed over low flame, without the base of the heatproof bowl touching the water. This is known as a double-boiler. Allow the chocolate and butter to melt, stirring the mixture frequently.

Adding egg yolks to melted chocolate mixture - When the chocolate and butter have fully melted and results in a smooth mixture, remove the heatproof bowl from the heat. Whisk in the egg yolks into the chocolate-butter mixture until well combined. Set aside to allow the mixture to cool.

Combining whole eggs and rest of ingredients - In a mixing bowl, combine whole eggs, coffee powder, sugar and flour to obtain a smooth mixture.

Obtaining final batter - Fold the cooled chocolate-butter-yolk mixture into the whole egg mixture and mix well.

Chilling the batter - Spoon batter equally into prepared ramekins (greased and floured) or tart tins and chill for at least 30 mins.

Baking the chocolate lava cake - Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Bake batter for 8-10 mins. Serve warm in ramekins/ tart tins or allow the pudding to cool and set for a while before running a small knife round the perimeter and turning them out onto serving plates. Serve with vanilla ice-cream.

Notes:

Flour the ramekins/tart tins well if you are intending to turn the puddings out. There is less chance of the pudding sticking to the tins/ramekins if they are greased and floured.
Bake one pudding to test the timing. The middle should be molten and the sides are set. If overbaked, there will not lava gushing out when a spoon is dugged into the middle.
Do not skip the part on chilling. It helps the pudding achieve its fudgey-gooey-ness.

Chocolate Mud Cupcakes - Chocolate Fever

2011-05-25T01:08:00.006+08:00

As I am writing this post, I am impatiently waiting for my Google Chrome browser to be allowed access to my blog. It turns out that I have to rely on my backup browser, Mozilla Firefox, to sign in to my blog.

Sometimes, I wonder. Have we become slaves to technology? Access to the internet and the use of cell phones have officially become our next basic needs after water, food and air. Sadly, I am guilty of being enslaved to technology myself. When my internet lines are down, I feel helpless without access to my Windows Messenger, Hotmail and Blogger. Luckily, I am not much of an addict to Twitter and Facebook yet. Perhaps one reason would be that I am at present not an owner of a smart phone. I have to admit that I am slow in catching onto the technology train, for I am still using a Sony Ericsson non touch-screen flip phone.

Now that my cell phone is sending me hints of retirement having served a two-year term, I am evaluating my needs and the functionality of various smart phone models available on the market. Apart from the search for a new phone, I am also toying with the idea of getting a new camera.

My point and shoot digital camera (Sony DSC-T2) has been serving its purpose well when it comes to food photography. There is little need to adjust the manual settings and all I have to bear in mind is the minimizing of camera shake which will cause pictures to lose focus. What caught my attention initially is the touch screen capability which makes navigation throughout the interface a breeze. However, there seem to be a limit to the level of sharpness. Even with the aid of digital enhancement (I do simple edits in Photoshop), some pictures still look a little blurry.

As mentioned previously, I am in quite a chocolate mood these days since May is a month of Chocolate Delights, the theme for Aspiring Bakers May 2011. My idea of an ideal chocolate treat is one that is moist and fudgey/gooey. This Chocolate Mud Cupcake fits the description aptly, with its light moist gooey texture. When eaten warm, it is particularly comforting and even more so when accompanied with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream.

I am submitting this entry to Aspiring Bakers #7 - Chocolate Delights May 2011, hosted by DG from Tested and Tasted.

Chocolate Mud Cupcakes (recipe adapted from Tempt: Cupcakes to Excite by Betty Saw)

Taste and Texture: Tender, gooey with tiny bits of almonds.

Serving size: 10 medium sized cupcakes

Equipment and materials:

Cupcake liners
Medium size muffin tin
Electric beater
Spatula
Mixing bowls
Measuring scale
Wire whisk

Ingredients:

30g cocoa powder
120ml boiling hot water
110g dark chocolate, melted and cooled (I used 63%)
110g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
165g brown sugar
100g ground almond
80g egg yolks
120g egg whites

Making the Cupcakes:

Preparing muffin tin - Line muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Preparing egg-yolk batter - In a large mixing bowl, combine the hot water and the cocoa powder. Stir well to remove the lumps and ensure cocoa is well dissolved. Next, add in melted chocolate, melted butter, brown sugar and ground almonds. Stir to obtain an evenly mixed mixture.

Using an electric beater, beat in egg yolks on medium low speed, one at a time, ensuring each egg yolk is well combined before adding the next.

Beating egg whites - In a separate clean metal bowl, beat egg whites on low speed until it turns foamy. Gradually increase the speed to medium high when the volume increases. The egg whites should stiffen in the process and the volume will increase about 6 times. Continue to beat the egg whites until they form medium-firm peaks. This is when the beaters are lifted from the egg whites, snowy egg white peaks are formed and they are slightly wobbly when the bowl is shaken.

Folding egg whites into egg-yolk batter - Fold one third of beaten egg whites gently into egg-yolk batter to lighten. Incorporate the remaining egg whites and fold gently to obtain a smooth, watery-foamy batter. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl to ensure even mixing.

Baking the cupcakes - Spoon batter into cupcake liners until they are nearly filled. The batter will not rise much. Bake cupcakes at 175 degrees C for about 30 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cupcakes will sink noticeably in the middle when cooled.

Notes:

There is no gluten in this recipe. Hence, it might be one factor why the cupcakes tend to sink and shrink.

Homemade Subway Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-05-20T01:44:00.009+08:00

When Jean posted her chewy chocolate chip cookies, my instincts told me that these are the cookies that I have been searching high and low for. I have always looked forward to chocolate chip cookies that promise a signature subway chew, firm yet almost crisp-free. So far, the chewy cookies that I have tried are too tender for my liking, so much that they are more appropriately described as cakey.

Most cookie recipes that are categorized as "chewy" usually consist of a large amount of brown sugar. While it imparts a nice caramel undertone to the cookies, it does not necessary result in cookies that are chewy to the bite. Grasping the baking time for these so-called chewy cookies can be tricky; a short baking time will result in overly tender cookies while over-baking the the cookies would mean that they will become crispy.

What caught my attention were the ingredients called for, more specifically melted butter and bread flour. The use of bread flour seems to promise a firmer mouth-feel and there was something alluring about using melted butter, a method of making cookies that is somewhat foreign to me. Perhaps it is this unfamiliarity that draws my curiosity and attention to this particular recipe, hoping that it would churn out results the way I was expecting.

My expectations were put to the test. The first batch turned out tender in the middle with crisp edges, but they were noticeably firmer compared to cookies I have baked in the past. Great, I am one step closer to my aim.

Moving on, I checked the results on subsequent batches, extending the baking times. Baking the cookies longer would meant they would turn out crispier on the whole. Making use of the high humidity levels to my advantage, I allowed the cookies to rest in the open for some time for the sake of softening them. It worked, and it work brilliantly indeed!

The process of firming the cookies up adequately and softening them to offset the crisp churned out cookies that had a firm chew 70% similar to that of Subway cookies. Flavour-wise, they were extremely good since the whole lot was loaded with an abundance of chocolate chips and there was a nice caramel fragrance. What else more could I have possibly asked for?

Since the type of fat used is said to determine the texture of cookies, I have always suspected that the type of fat used for subway cookies is something else other than butter, possibly shortening. Now that melted butter works well, I shall not be toying with the idea of experimenting with shortening, margarine or even a combination two fats.

Some thoughts on cookies I would like to consolidate and share:

All cookies will firm up when the baking time is extended. However, it does not necessary means that all cookies will becomes crispy when baked for a longer time.
Freshly baked cookies have the best crisp. After being subjected to humidity, they lose their crunch/crisp. Simply re-bake the cookies and allow them to cool. The crunch/crisp will return.
To keep crunchy/crispy cookies well, store them in air-tight containers when they are completely cool.
Not all cookies are created equal. Their texture differ from chewy, sandy, crunchy/crispy, melt-in-the-mouth, crumbly, fudgy to cakey.
The type of sugars used affect the taste and texture of cookies. Icing sugar are used more for melt-in-the mouth cookies. Plain sugar is said to impart crunch while brown sugar is imparts a chewy characteristic.
The type of fat used affects the flavour and spread of cookies. Butter cookies spread the most, compared to cookies containing shortening or oil. Personally, I feel that butter imparts the best flavour.
The amount of chilling time and presence of nuts and chunky ingredients also affect the spread of cookies. Chunky cookies loaded with nuts and chocolate chips do not spread as much as plain cookies. Well chilled cookie dough do not spread as much as cookies that are unchilled. Vary the chilling time to get thick or flat cookies as desired.
When cookies melt into an oily pool after baking, it means there is insufficient flour. Usually, the weight of butter will not exceed the weight of flour.

I am submitting this entry to Aspiring Bakers # 7 - Chocolate Delights (May 2011) hosted by DG from Tested and Tasted.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (recipe from Good Eats by Alton Brown)

Texture and taste: Chewy and firm. Has a distinct caramel flavour and is loaded with chocolate chips

For the recipe, refer to :

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

My adaptation:

sugar cut down to 30g
brown sugar cut down to 230g
increased vanilla to 2 1/2 tsp
Mixed melted butter while it was warm instead of letting it cool completely
Bake 3 tbs sized cookies for 17 mins (or firm enough) at 190 degrees C and allowing them to cool and soften.
Makes about 20 jumbo sized cookies.

Note:

When overbaked, the cookies turn crisp crunchy. Quite a versatile recipe that yields either firm chewy cookies or firm crunchy cookies.

Double the Chocolate Goodness

2011-05-16T17:50:00.009+08:00

What is the best thing to do when you have a sweet tooth? The answer is - learn to bake. And that was what I did exactly. Now that I have been baking for some time, I can satisfy my sweet cravings whenever I feel like it, customized the way I want it to be.

Now that this month's Aspiring Bakers theme is chocolate, I have a list of chocolate bakes making their way to my to-do-list. I am so going to abuse my chocolate books for this period of time, one particularly worth mentioning being Chocolate Chocolate by Lisa Yockelson. The book promises a myriad of lip-smacking chocolate treats, and one treat that caught my eye was a Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Cookie recipe.

Previously when I made similar double-dosed chocolate cookies, they turned out supremely fudgy,gooey and slightly on the sweet side, very much like brownies in the form of cookies. In contrast, these Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Cookies from Lisa Yockelson turned out to be firm and sandy (I usually like my cookies to be firmer). There were little pockets of 'molten lava' enveloped amidst the crumbs, thanks to the use of chocolate chunks (I used chocolate callets/pistoles) instead of the conventional chocolate chips. If chocolate chips were used, they would melt to a paste-like consistency instead.

On the whole, most recipes from this chocolate compendium by Lisa Yockelson look very promising. However, there tend to be many similar recipes, for example, several recipes on flourless/ near flourless chocolate cakes with little explanation on how the texture and taste would vary. Readers from certain parts of the world might also be short-changed since different varieties of chocolate sweets (Snickers, Reese Buttercups, Heath etc) are often used, but some of them may not be easily available.

Even though the recipes I have tried all work out really well, I must say she has a tendency to produce extremely sweet chocolate frostings, some of which require 4-7 cups ( 1cup icing sugar is 100g) of icing sugar. These are the recipes I am never going to try out.

I am submitting this entry to Aspiring Bakers #7 - Chocolate Delight (May 2011) hosted by DG from Tested and Tasted

Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Cookies (recipe adapted from Chocolate Chocolate by Lisa Yockelson)

Serving size: 40 cookies

Taste and texture: Crunchy, sandy, bittersweet chocolatey with pockets of molten chocolate.

Equipment and Materials:

Stand beater/ handheld mixer or wooden spoon
Flour sieve
Measuring spoon set
Spatula
Mixing bowls
Wire rack
Baking trays/ cookie sheets
Baking/ parchment paper

Ingredients:

220g plain flour
1 tbs cocoa powder
a pinch of salt
165g unsalted butter, softened
135g castor sugar
60g brown sugar
50g egg, beaten and mixed with 2 tsp vanilla or 1 tbs Baileys
60g unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
230g coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate, or bittersweet chocolate in pistole/callet form (around 60%)

Making the cookies:

Mixing dry ingredients - Sift the plain flour, cocoa powder and salt into a large mixing bowl. Whisk with a balloon/wire whisk to ensure even distribution.

Cream butter - Cream butter on medium low speed until fluffy. Add in castor sugar and continue to beat for 2 minutes. Add in the brown sugar and beat for 1 minute. The creamed butter should be sandy and fluffy.

Making the cookie dough - With the mixer on medium low speed, add the beaten egg mixture in two additions, ensuring each addition is incorporated before adding the next. Add in melted unsweetened chocolate and beat until combined, scraping sides and bottom of bowl of ensure even mixing.

Next, add in the flour and mix on low speed until the flour just disappears. Lastly, fold in the chocolate chunks and ensure that they are evenly distributed. Chill prepared dough for 30 minutes.

Baking the cookies - Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Scoop levelled tablespoons of dough onto baking trays lined with baking paper, spacing each dough apart to allow space for spreading. Bake cookie dough for 16-20 minutes at 180 degrees. Cookies will be slightly firm to the touch when done and will firm up further upon cooling. Allow cookies to firm up for a bout a minute or two on their baking trays before transferring them to cool on wire rack. Ensure cookies cool completely on wire rack before storing in air tight containers.

Notes:

Do a test batch (3 or 4 cookie dough) to determine your ideal baking time and texture. It might not be the same as mine since every oven is different. My cookies usually take 20 minutes to bake. Do note that a longer baking time would result in a firmer cookie and a shorter baking time produces softer cookies.
The 30 minute chilling time prevents the cookies from overspreading. To get nice thick cookies that do not spread much, freeze the dough for 5 minutes after they are shaped.
Unsweetened chocolate is not the same as cocoa powder.
You might want to add more bittersweet chocolate. I will be doing that for my next round.
To re-crisp the cookies, return the cookies to the oven and bake at 180 degrees for about 7 minutes. Allow to cool completely. The crunch will return.

Rising temperatures and a Cheddar Cheese Loaf

2011-05-12T00:17:00.003+08:00

General election is officially over. The election heat might be slowly subsiding but the heat from the warm weather these days is getting unbearable. Very often, I have to rely on my fix of iced drinks and my air-conditioner to keep myself cool. I don't usually turn on my air-conditioner when I sleep but I am quite dependable on it now to get a cool, comfortable night of sleep.

Even though I am a cake lover, I have not made much butter cakes to date. I was looking forward to make a simple butter cake and this particular cheddar cheese loaf struck my mind. It struck my mind that I had the same book too and it would be a good opportunity to give the recipe a try.

Instead of using ready shredded cheddar, I diced a few slices of Cowhead processed cheddar cheese since I had it on hand. I am not sure if it would make any difference using ready shredded cheddar cheese. From my observations, the diced processed cheddar cheese was chewy and did not really melt when the butter cake was baked. The addition added a nice savoury touch and I think it would be good to increase the amount of cheddar used in future.

Texture wise, the cake is midway between fluffy and dense. The crumbs are moderately fine and the amount of moisture was at the right level, making the cake neither moist nor dry. As I have mentioned before, it is imperative to use a good brand of butter since it is the key ingredient here and it would determine the characteristic of the cake. Some brands I would recommend are Golden Churn tinned butter, Elle & Vire unsalted butter (very strong, rich dairy taste in bakes) and SCS unsalted butter. Sometimes, I even find Elle & Vire butter to be too rich for my taste buds.

Fearing that the amount of batter was too much for my tin to handle, I scooped part of it into cupcake liners to prevent the loaf tin from overflowing. Previously, I was plagued with shrinking cupcakes. What happened then was that the top deflated and sunk while the cupcakes pulled quite noticeable away from the sides. This time round, the top shrank a little, retaining the dome and the sides did not pull away from the cupcake liners. Comparing the two scenarios and base on experience, I observed that :

Cupcakes tend to shrink noticeably upon cooling. I noticed that most cakes tend to shrink when cooled.
Cupcakes tend to shrink more (deflate and pull away from the sides) when they are slightly under-baked.
The shrinking starts shortly after the oven door is opened and the cupcakes are checked for doneness.

Cheddar Cheese Loaf (recipe adapted from Creative Making of Cakes by Alex Goh)
Serving size: 9 x 5 inch loaf + 6 medium sized cupcakes
Taste and texture: Buttery and savoury. Neither moist nor dry and midway between fluffy and dense.
Equipment and Materials:

9 x 5 inch loaf tin
Balloon/wire whisk
Spatula
Handheld/ Stand mixer
Baking paper
Wire rack
Wooden skewer/ cake tester
Flour sieve
Measuring spoon set
Mixing bowls

Ingredients:

240g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
230g castor sugar
200g eggs, lightly beaten at room temperature
150g shredded cheddar or 8 slices of processed cheddar cheese
120 ml milk, at room temperature
270g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

Making the cake:

Preheat Oven and preparing baking tin - Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line a 9 x 5 loaf tin with baking paper.

Mixing dry ingredients - In a large bowl, sift in flour and baking powder. Whisk the mixture to ensure even distribution.

Creaming the butter - In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy (as mentioned in how to cream butter).

Adding eggs to creamed butter - Add beaten eggs to creamed butter in 4 additions and mix on low speed, ensuring each addition is well incorporated before adding the next addition. The batter will become wet as more eggs is added but will slowly firm up when the last portion of eggs are mixed in.

Adding flour mixture and milk - Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the egg-butter mixture. Mix on low speed until the last bit of flour is absorbed. Next, add in half the milk and continue mixing until the milk is incorporated. Repeat the mixing process by adding the next 1/3 flour mixture, followed by the remaining half of the milk, lastly followed by the remaining 1/3 of the flour mixture. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula to incorporate loose ingredients.

Adding shredded cheddar - Fold in the shredded/diced cheddar gently into the batter with a spatula, ensuring it is evenly distributed.

Baking the cake - Pour batter into lined 9 x 5 loaf tin and 6 medium sized cupcake liners. Bake at loaf tin for 45-60 mins and cupcakes for 20-25mins at 180 degrees C. Remove cake from loaf tin and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

Notes:

I baked the loaf cake first before baking the cupcakes.
The butter egg mixture may curdle if the butter is not well-creamed, eggs are cold or eggs are added too fast to creamed butter.

Notice:

If you wish to post the recipe and instructions online, please give due credit (including original contributor) and do re-phrase the instructions. Thank you.

Majulah Singapore, Award and a Banana Hazelnut Cake

2011-05-07T03:46:00.004+08:00

Yesterday was Cooling-Off Day. You might think that the temperatures here in Singapore are climbing to an all-time high and yesterday was a day specially designated for Singaporeans to cool off. Nope. That is not the purpose. Instead, it is the election heat that has been going on for some time. Cooling-Off Day is a day (first time in history) where no campaigning is allowed and voters have this whole day to exercise their thoughts and think of the greater picture for the future of Singapore.

This year, 2011, is a year that marks the turning point in Singapore politics. With the advent of online social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, political awareness spreads like wildfire these days with the uploading of rally videos and speeches. Instead of the latest celebritity gossips about who's in and who's out, the General Election has became the hottest topic in coffee-shop talks.

What marks the difference between this election and previous elections is that Singaporeans are becoming increasing aware of government policies, affairs of state and the importance of this General Election. This is one phenomenon which I gladly welcome. After all, we need to be more concerned about the well-being of our country as a whole instead of remaining politically apathetic.

It is the responsibility of every voter to vote wisely. After all, it is our votes that determines the direction that Singapore will head in. As a Singaporean, do you want new amenities for your constituency or would you be more concerned with the bigger issues at hand? These are questions we need to consider thoroughly. Utimately, it is up to individuals to think and decide.

This was meant to be posted up in my previous posts but it somehow slipped my mind. I would like to thank Angel from Cook.Bake.Love for presenting this award to me. Thanks a lot for the encouragement, Angel.

Now, back to my baking escapades. I was first introduced to this Banana Hazelnut Cake when Edith brought it along for a bloggers meetup. After savouring a slice of the cake, I was impressed and was full of praises for it. When I have a craving for banana cakes these days, this recipe would come to my mind.

This is the second time I have made this cake. Previously, the cake turned out fluffy but it was slightly underdone. After turning it out of the cake tin, the cake collapsed on one side. I should have baked it longer and let it cool for at least 15 minutes in the tin to allow the structure to firm up a little before turning it out.

To avoid the same mishap, I used a loaf tin lined with baking paper and ensured that the cake was fully baked before it was turned out. After the cake was done, I could easily lift the cake out without the need for the cake to cool in the tin and to allow for the structure to firm up.

There is a noticeable difference in texture this time round as the crumbs are more tightly packed. Nevertheless it was tender due to the addition of sour cream. I had followed the original directions and mixed the ground hazelnuts with the creamed butter. Previously, the ground hazelnuts was mixed with the flour and other dry ingredients. I also observed that I performed more folding of ingredients by hand previously but relied more on the mixer when it comes to incorporating ingredients this time round. That could have affected the crumbs.

Taste-wise, it is also different from the first attempt since I am using a different brand of sour cream, butter and a different variety of banana. In terms of appearance, I like how the cake bakes to a nice golden-brown hue and the black streaks that are signature to any mouth-watering banana cake.

Banana Hazelnut Cake (recipe adapted from Precious Moments)
Serving size: 10.5 x 6 inch loaf or 9 x 3 inch round cake. Yields 15 - 20 slices
Taste and texture: Dense or fluffy depending on method of mixing. Carries a rich banana fragrance with a faint nutty note.
Equipment and materials:

10.5 x 6 inch loaf tin or 9 x 3 inch round tin
Balloon/wire whisk
Spatula
Handheld/Stand beater
Baking paper
Wire rack
Toothpick/wooden skewer
Flour sieve
Measuring spoon set
Mixing bowls

Ingredients:

240g over-riped bananas, mashed
225g unsalted butter, softened
220g caster sugar
75g ground hazelnut
150g eggs, lightly beaten and at room temperature
265g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
200g sour cream, at room temperature

Making the cake:

Preheat Oven - Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.

Mixing dry ingredients - Sift plain flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder into a large bowl. Add in the ground hazelnuts. Whisk the mixture with a wire whisk to loosen the mixture and to allow the ingredients to be evenly distributed.

Cream butter - In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy (as mentioned in how to cream butter).

Adding eggs to creamed butter - Add eggs to creamed butter in 3 additions, making sure each addition is well incorporated before adding the next. The mixture should be smooth. At this point in time the batter should be wet and creamy due to the addition of eggs.

Alternating flour mixture and sour cream - Add in 1/3 of the dry ingredients to egg + creamed butter mixture. Fold with a wire whisk or use a beater to mix on medium low speed until dry ingredients are incorporated. Scrap sides and bottom of bowl with a spatula and mix in the stray ingredients. Next add 1/2 of the sour cream and fold with whisk/beat with mixer to combine.Scrap sides and bottom of bowl with a spatula and mix in the stray ingredients.

Repeat the process of mixing the dry and wet ingredients alternately, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. It should be as follows:

Firstly, add 1/3 of dry ingredients
Add 1/2 of sour cream
Add 1/3 of dry ingredients
Add remaining 1/2 of sour cream
Lastly, add remaining 1/3 dry ingredients

Folding in mashed bananas - For the final part, mix in the mashed bananas with a spatula or wire whisk, ensuring mashed bananas are well distributed.

Baking the cake - Bake the cake at 170 degrees C for 1 hr -1 hr 15 minutes. Check done-ness by inserting a wooden skewer into the centre of the cake. When done, the skewer should come out clean. Bake the cake for a further 5 minutes just to 'play safe' since banana cakes tend to be very moist and have weak structures.

Once the cake is baked. Lift out the cake and remove the baking paper. Allow cake to cool completely on a wire rack.

Notes:

Use over-riped bananas for best results.
If butter is not well creamed, it may curdle when eggs are added. Butter egg mixture may also curdle if eggs are cold or added too fast to creamed butter.
Relying on manual folding using a wire whisk might yield a fluffier cake.

Notice:

If you wish to post the recipe and instructions online, please give due credit (to me and the original contributor) and do re-phrase the instructions. I have taken quite a bit of effort to construct, edit and type them out. Thank you =]

Two Bakers and a Cookies and Cream Layer Cake

2011-05-02T21:06:00.046+08:00

Last Saturday was a day which I very much looked forward to. Me and Jean had arranged to meet up and do a couple of bakes. The bakes on our list are a cookies and cream layer cake and a chocolate banana swiss roll.

Unfortunately as I was down with Sinus and my nose was like a running tap, the plan for the chocolate banana swiss roll had to be called off. I was not able to focus well while baking. Had Jean not reminded me, I would have carelessly left out the cocoa powder for the chiffon sponge.

Combining our efforts, both of us assembled the cake from scratch. Jean layered the cake while I did the frosting. Compared to my previous cookies and cream cake (pictures were lost when my com crashed recently), the frosting was not very well executed. You can see some parts of the cake only had a thin layer of frosting which could barely cover the chocolate sponge in the interior. I was not really in the mood to bother myself with a cleanly frosted cake.

When it comes to frosted cakes, I am not quite a cream person. On the other hand, Jean loves fresh cream. For me, if it has to be a cream cake, the fillings and flavours that accompany the cream are crucial. I was kind of skeptical at how the cake would turn out to be initially and I am glad that it turned out great. The chunky Oreo cookie bits softened in the cream filling to a texture similar to that of a cookies and cream ice cream. To enhance the flavour, I added in a bit of icing sugar and vanilla extract. If you are a cookies and cream lover, this is the cake for you.

I am definitely glad to have Jean at my place for a nice Saturday afternoon of baking and sharing session. Look forward to our upcoming baking sessions and executing many more bakes. When you have company, you can expect to be more ambitious.

I am submitting this entry to Aspiring Bakers #7 - Chocolate Delight (May 2011) hosted by DG from Tested and Tasted

Cookies and Cream Cake ( Chocolate Sponge Cake recipe adapted from 超人气香港蛋糕56款, Cream filling adapted from My Birthday Cake by Kevin Chai)

Serving size: Makes a 8 inch round cake. Serves 10 slices.

Taste and texture: Cake base is soft and moist. Cookies and cream filling is similar to cookies and cream ice cream.

Equipment and materials:

8 x 3 inch round pan

9 inch round cake board

Cake leveller or palette/serrated knife longer than 8 inches

Balloon/wire whisk

Rubber spatula

Handheld beater/Stand beater

Baking paper

Wire rack

Toothpick/wooden skewer

Flour sieve

Mixing bowls

Cake turntable (optional)

Star Piping tip (Wilton # 22)

Piping bag

Coupler

Chocolate Sponge Cake (3 layers):

- 70g egg yolks, room temperature

Making the Chocolate Sponge Cake:

Prepare Oven - Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.

Prepare flour mixture - Sift flour, cocoa powder and baking powder in a large bowl. Whisk to combine and allow the dry ingredients to be evenly distributed.

Making the egg yolk batter - Place egg yolks, 50g caster sugar in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Add in oil and water. Mix well with a wire whisk. Add in the flour mixture and mix to obtain a smooth and thick chocolate batter.

Beating egg whites - In a clean metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites on low speed. Increase speed slowly to medium-high and beat untill egg whites are at soft peaks. Add 50g of sugar gradually and beat untill egg whites are almost stiff and still moist. This is when the beaters are lifted, the egg whites will form peaks that are upright and not drooping slightly. Egg whites will resemble whipped cream.The entire bowl of whites will not drop out when the bowl is overturned. Do not beat until the egg whites are dry and clumpy.

Baking the sponge cake - Pour batter into a greased and lined 8 x 3 inch round pan and bake at 160 degrees C for 25 -30 minutes. Test doneness using a skewer or toothpick. The highest part of the cake should rise up to 4/5 of the height of the tin. When the cake is done, the inserted skewer will come out clean. Cake will shrink from edges and in height on cooling. Unmould sponge cake and leave to cool upright on a wire rack.

Cookies and Cream Filling:

250 ml chilled whipping cream (diary)
160g coarsely crushed Oreo cookies, cream filling removed
1 tbs icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Whipped Cream Frosting and Decorations:

300ml chilled whipping cream (diary)
10 pcs mini Oreo cookies (with cream filling)
some finely crushed Oreo cookies
9-10 pcs Oreo cookies to decorate perimeter (cream filling removed)

Preparing Cookies and Cream Filling:

Whipping the cream - Place 250 ml chilled whipping cream in a mixing bowl. Beat the cream on high speed until it reaches mousse state. Add 1 tbs icing sugar and continue beating the cream on low speed to dissolve the sugar. Add vanilla extract and continue beating, stopping and checking the consistency every 5 seconds. Beat the cream until it reaches soft peak (80% stiff). Fold in coarsely crushed Oreo cookies into the whipped cream to obtain cookies and cream filling. Set prepared fillings aside for use.

Preparing Whipped Cream Frosting:

Whipping the cream - Place 300 ml chilled whipping cream in a mixing bowl. Beat the cream on high speed until it reaches mousse state. At this point change the speed to low and continue beating the cream, stopping and checking the consistency every 5 seconds. Beat the cream until it reaches soft peak (80% stiff). Set prepared whipped cream aside for frosting and piping rosettes.

Assembly:

Slicing sponge cake - Slice sponge cake into 3 even layers using cake leveller or long serrated/palette knife. Slice off the part that has domed.

Preparing the layers - Using the removable base of a round tart tin or a round cake board, slide the tart tin base or cake board under a sponge layer and carefully transport one sponge layer onto a 9 inch round cake board placed on a cake turntable (optional). This method of transferring is to prevent the sponge layer from breaking.

Dab half of the cookies and cream filling and spread it evenly onto the first sponge layer using a palette knife or spatula.

Place a second sponge layer (using the tart tin base or cake board to transport) carefully over the first sponge layer and align it properly with the first layer. Dab the remaining half of the cookies and cream filling and spread it evenly onto the second sponge layer using a palette knife or spatula.

Add the 3rd sponge layer (using the tart tin base or cake board to transport) and align it well with the first two layers. Apply a thin layer of whipped cream frosting on the surface and the sides (perimeter) of the cake to seal the crumbs first (crumb coating). Once the crumb coat is done, add enough whipped cream to the surface and sides of the cake and smooth the whipped cream using a palette knife. Set aside remaining whipped cream frosting for piping rosettes.

Decorations:

Piping rosettes and placing mini Oreos - Fill a piping bag fitted with a Wilton #22 star tip with the remaining whipped cream frosting (or any other tip you desire). Hold the piping at 45 degrees to the cake surface and gently squeeze out the whipping cream, applying constant pressure and moving your hands in a circular motion to pipe a rosette. Release pressure and pull the tip away to complete the rosette. Pipe 10 rosettes and place a mini Oreo cookie resting against a piped rosette in a circular fashion (see pictures above).

Placing Oreo cookies around perimeter and scattering finely crushed Oreos - Place Oreo cookies evenly spaced apart around the perimeter of the cake see pics above). Scatter finely crushed Oreos in the middle of the cake.

Notes:

Whipped cream is not stablized and would not hold its shape for too long at warm room temperature
Try practice piping rosettes on a strip of baking paper 1st before piping on the cake surface.
Cream whipped to 70-80% stiff is ideal for piping, filling and frosting. If it is too stiffly whipped, the cream will not be smooth when piped or may separate when it is frosted (if cream is too vigourously handled).
Use about 1/2 tsp cream of tartar to stabilize the beaten egg whites if required. It will make folding of egg whites easier.

Notice:

If you wish to post the recipe and instructions online, please give due credit and do re-phrase the instructions. I have taken quite a bit of effort to construct, edit and type them out. Thank you =].

Lose Some, Gain Some and Muesli Cookies

2011-04-27T18:01:00.009+08:00

Its must have been a long while since I exercised regularly. For the past two weeks while I was away for Reservist training, I found it to be especially physically exhausting. Perhaps age is fast catching up on me too. Whichever it is, it just signifies that it is time for me to hit the running track and go for laps in the pool.

When I got back home after training was over, I got a rude shock. My laptop went down. What a nice timing it had to be.... My baking pics were all gone, including pics for two backlogs - raisin oatmeal cookies and a cookies and cream cake, along with other files that were in my hard disk. My windows vista even got downgraded to windows XP as the recovery disk was one for windows XP.

On a positive note, my friend got me a stand mixer at a real steal - a 1150W 5L capacity beater (lesser known brand), all for only 50 bucks. Well, I guess sometimes you lose some but you gain some in return. I am going to use it for bread making and big-batch baking. The two extra mixing bowls could come in handy too.

I missed baking a great deal now that I have endured two bake-less weeks. For a start, I tweaked the raisin oatmeal recipe and used raisins + Dorset Cereals (low sugar content, with natural sweetness from dried fruits) instead to churn out a batch of Muesli Cookies. The great thing about using Dorset Cereals is that they offer a wide variety of dried fruits and nuts all mixed together. And how did it turned out? Chunky, oaty-nutty-fruity cookies which were cereals-ly good!

Muesli Cookies (recipe adapted from the Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet)
Serving size: 40 cookies
Taste and texture: Chunky, nutty, fruity.
Equipment and materials:

Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater or wooden spoon
Flour sieve
Measuring spoon set
Spatula
Mixing bowls
Wire rack
Baking trays/ cookie sheets
Baking / parchment paper

Ingredients:

120g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

80g brown sugar

35g castor sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten (60g with shell)

150g plain flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

190g muesli (I used Dorset Cereals)

75g raisins

Making the Cookies:

Mixing dry ingredients - Sift plain flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large mixing bowl. Whisk with a balloon whisk to distribute them evenly.

Cream butter - Beat the butter and both sugars on medium speed for 2 minutes until butter mixture is fluffy. The butter need not be as well-creamed as that for making cakes.

Making the cookie dough - Stir in the egg into the creamed butter and mix on medium low speed until combined. Next, stir in flour mixture and beat on low speed to combine butter-egg mixture and flour briefly. Stop once the dough starts to comes together. Scrape and fold in any stray flour with a spatula. Lastly, fold in the muesli and raisins.

Baking the cookies - Scoop leveled tablespoons of dough onto baking trays/sheets lined with baking paper, leaving 1.5 inch between each cookie dough. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and bake for 12-18 minutes. Once done, the cookies should be firm to the touch and will firm up further upon cooling. Leave cookies to cool completely on a wire rack before storing in air-tight containers.

Notes:

Bake cookies for 12 minutes for softer cookies or 18 minutes for firmer cookies.
cookies do not spread much since there is a great amount of oats, nuts and dried fruits.
Use 140g rolled oats and 100g raisins for raisin oatmeal cookies.

Notice:

If you wish to post the recipe and instructions online, please give due credit and do re-phrase the instructions. I have taken quite a bit of effort to construct, edit and type them out. Thank you =]

Bears and Chicks Cupcakes and a Devil's Chocolate Cake

2011-04-11T22:43:00.013+08:00

(picture courtesy of R's friend)

50 decorated cupcakes; a Devil's Chocolate Cake; one week of planning; 7 batches of cake batter; several kilograms of baking ingredients; a few specially selected trusty recipes and countless hours of warring in the kitchen with my Philips handheld beater and my 26L Tefal tabletop oven. All these were part and parcel of a cake order for R's 21st birthday party.

This has to be the biggest cake order I have recieved to date. When I take orders, they are in the form of a favour for cherished friends or people who are close to me. The last thing on my mind would be any monetary returns in the form of profits. If there would be any form of gratification, it would be the smiles and 'Thank Yous' in return, not to mention the sense of satisfaction that I derive. Afterall, I am doing something that I enjoy the most.

I have to admit it is indeed a big challenge to cater to 100 pax as it is a huge order. First of all, my oven can only handle a single batch of batter at a time. Secondly, the main cake would be one that is able to feed around 50 people and the maximum pan size my oven can hold is a 12 x 12 inch square pan. Thirdly, I have not made any elaborately decorated cupcakes and I am not sure if I am up to the task. Lastly, the cake order is meant for R's 21st Birthday and I do know how important a 21st birthday party can be. Therefore, I have to ensure that the cakes are visually presentable as well as pleasant to the palate.

(picture courtesy of R's friend)

After discussiung with R on his preferences and having done some brainstorming, I had this grand plan forming in my mind:

1) The 50 cupcakes would be vanilla and chocolate flavoured. I was deliberating on the vanilla cupcake recipe to use. In the end, I decided on Rose's Yellow Butter Cupcakes. Made two batches of them and ate one to QC (quality control). The texture is velvety and it gives a very rich creamy aroma, thanks to the combination of butter, vanilla and yoghurt.

For the chocolate cucpakes, I used the recipe here and tweaked it a little by omitting the rum and raisins, adding more sugar and milk. The texture is moist, slightly fudgy and lighter than a typical dense chocolate cake.

(picture courtesy of R's friend)

2) For the choice of colours, it would be a blue and white theme for the cupcakes. All the cupcakes are to be frosted with Swiss meringue buttercream in an alternate blue and white fashion. 26 of them would contain letterings and there will be one letter per cupcake.

(picture courtesy of R's friend)

3) The cupcake letterings are to be either cut-out from fondant or piped with buttercream. I tried searching around for alphabet cookie cutters but could not seem to find a suitable one. Hence, I settled for buttercream instead. Used a small Wilton round tip to pipe and connect dots to form the letterings. It wasn't exactly difficult or tedious to do. All it takes is some practice.

Bear prototype 1 with reference to these teddy bear cupcakes. The original ones are done using cookie cutters. I moulded mine by hand, hence the great disparity.

Bear prototype 2

Fat baby chick protoype and bear prototype 2 with off-focus eyes

4) R requested for 12 fondant bears and 12 fondant chicks. To make the fondant animal figurines, I borrowed a couple of books on fondant cakes and did some browsing on the ever-so-reliable internet. This is the first time I am making bears and chicks with fondant but I figured that I should be able to mould some simple bears and chicks with close reference to youtube videos and pictures on Flickr or Google. So, after some trial and practice, I came up with two different bear protypes and a fat baby chick prototype. Making the prototypes took me a quite. I showed R the prototypes and he preferred the 2nd bear prototype. As for the chick, he laughed that it was a fat one. Afterall, it is a fat baby chick.

5) The main cake would be an 12 inch big square chocolate cake. The frosting would be either whipped ganache or bittersweet dark chocolate frosting aka Devil's Chocolate Frosting. Settled for Devil's chocolate frosting as it is easier to do (since I have prior experience of making it) and it yields good results. To contrast the thick fudgy heavy frosting, the choice of cake layers would be chocolate chiffon sponge.

In all, I used 2.5 x recipe of Devil's Chocolate Frosting (weighs almost close to 2kg!) and 3 batches of chocolate chiffon sponge, each batch baked in a 12 inch square pan one at a time to yield a total of 3 layers. After assembling, frosting and trimming the sides of the cake, it was about 11 inch square in size and about 3 inches tall. This Devil's chocolate cake is different from the Devil's Food Cake I have made earlier. Both cakes use the same frosting but the cake layers are different.

(picture courtesy of R's friend)

Since the cake order is for an important occasion, it would be a shame to scrimp on the ingredients. Here are the quality ingredients (really good stuffs!) I used to maximize the performance of the recipes, giving the cakes an extra oopmh in flavour and texture:

Nielsen Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla for the yellow butter cupcakes and vanilla buttercream (swiss meringue)
Several slabs of Elle &Vire French butter for the cupcakes and most of the vanilla buttercream until I ran out of the butter.
SIS castor sugar (extra fine sugar) for finer texture in cakes.
Prima cake flour and Self Raising flour. I have been using Prima flour for all my bakes and it works really good. The plain flour itself is as fine as cake flours from other brands as it has consistently low protein content, according to observations from Stephanie which I definitely agree with. It is a very trustworthy brand. Will be sticking to Prima flour for as long as I bake.
1 kg of Callebaut Belgium Chocolate for the devil's chocolate frosting. One of the better chocolate brands for baking.
About 200g of Valrhona cocoa powder for the chocolate chiffon sponge and devil's chocolate frosting. Definitely the best cocoa powder you can find in SG. It's one ingredient I always stock up in my pantry.
9 tbs of Baileys (with a hint of caramel) for the devil's chocolate frosting to accentuate the chocolate factor. I don't suppose anyone got drunk eating the cake.

fondant bears without painted eyes

S came over my place and offered to help out with the devil's chocolate cake. Throughout the entire process, he almost annoyed the hell out of me like a menace! He even 'threatened to wreck havoc' on the delicate chocolate chiffon sponge layers by not adhering to my instructions, as if I was'nt busy enough already. S even claimed that cakes are not difficult to make and he do not see what could possibly go wrong. He definitely over-simplified the process and underestimated the science of cake making.

Having said those words, he accidentally sifted cocoa powder onto the sugar meant for egg whites, which might eventually result in the egg whites failing to whip properly. That was not all the 'trouble' he caused. After I explained that things could go awfully wrong and I did not want to waste precious ingredients and time re-doing cake batters, he told me it was alright if I could not deliver the cake on time. How very helpful and sensitive of him (yeah sarcasm meant here)....

The fatigue and stress levels in me was already building up to dangerous levels. I would have given him a good piece of my mind if he was'nt a good buddy of mine, but I told myself to focus on churning the sponge layers out and calmed myself down to prevent the dormant-turned-active volcano in me from erupting. I can tolerate with his nonsense anytime but not when it comes to making cakes for an important occasion! To set the record straight, I didn't plan hard for things to fail or turn awry. Afterall, I have the responsibility on my shoulders and if anything turns out for the worst, how am I supposed to answer to R? The morale of the story - don't mess me when I am seriously baking cakes...

On the contrary, S was a great help though when I was making the fondant chicks, helping to portion out doughs for the chicks' body parts. Looks like his presence served a useful purpose afterall...

12 blue fondant bears and 12 white chicks

To tell the truth, I was casting doubts on myself while I was doing the cakes batches after batches, sometimes even wondering why I volunteered to take the order. Maybe I overstimated my abilities or am too ambitious. I must thank R for placing his faith and trust in me that I will complete the task to his expectations. Thankfully, everything managed to come together in one piece. There was a flaw though - my 2nd batch of buttercream turned out yellowish due to the Goldtree butter which has a deep yellow tone, compared to the off-white colour of Elle &Vire butter. Hence, you can see most of the piped wordings turned out yellowish instead of being off-white, something which I did not anticipate.

R smsed me to thank and inform me that his guests were impressed with the cupcakes and especially the chocolate cake, which they found to be really chocolatey. Nothing beats more than a reward like this to know that the cakes are well received.

Actually, I didn't get to witness how the cupcakes would look like when fully arranged on a table as I was unable to attend the party. I packed the cupcakes in 3 boxes and the fondant figurines in a separate box which are to be assembled on site, as I wanted to be doubly sure that the fondant figurines would not soften/melt or leak colour to the buttercream. Even though I had a mental picture of how the overall outcome would look like, I wished I had been there to assemble and arrange the cupcakes myself. It wasn't until when S sent me a picture did I realise how the final arrangement would turn out to be like.

Swiss Meringue Vanilla Buttercream
180g egg whites
120g granulated sugar
375g unsalted butter, softened but still cold
3 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preparing the Vanilla Buttercream:

Dissolve sugar in egg whites - Place 180 egg whites and 120g granulated sugar in a heatproof bowl. Sit the heatproof bowl on a saucepan filled with water. The base of the bowl should not be in contact with the water. Bring the water in the saucepan to a slight simmer. Use a balloon whisk and stir the egg whites and sugar constantly until the sugar has fully dissolved (egg white mixture should not feel gritty) and the mixture is warm to the touch (test by inserting a finger).

Beating egg whites - Remove the heatproof bowl and beat the warm egg white mixture on medium high speed to obtain stiff peaks using an electric beater. At stiff peaks, the beaten egg whites will not budge when bowl is overturned. When the beaters are lifted from the beaten egg whites, the surface of the egg whites should form stiff upright peaks (not drooping peaks). The beaten egg whites should be cool to the touch (room temperature), not warm like when it was removed from the saucepan.

Adding butter and vanilla - Beat in 375g butter into the beaten egg whites in 3 batches, ensuring each batch is incoporated before adding the next. The mixture might turn watery/curdle when butter is added. Continue beating and the buttercream will firm up. Beat until the mixture is firm, creamy and fluffy. Lastly, add in 3 1/2 tsp vanilla and continue beating to obtain a smooth vanilla buttercream.

Note:
1) Compared to my other buttercream recipes, this one uses much less sugar as there is no cocoa powder(bitter) or tart citrus juices (lemon) present.
2) Yields enough to frost about 20 medium cupcakes.

Orange Cranberry Scones and Awards

2011-04-07T18:35:00.006+08:00

These scones were meant for last month's aspiring bakers but somehow I forgot about it. I realised my past few posts were all about cakes. Time to break the monotony before I get back to cakes again.

This was my second time baking scones. Compared to my previous cream scones, these orange craneberry scones are less rich and they need a little jam to boost the flavour, despite the fact that I used good quality butter. Perhaps it was due to the absence of salt, which I was lazy to include as I have to open a new pack.

Once again, I am honoured to recieve this lovely blog award from two fellow bloggers, Alice from I Love. I Cook. I Bake and Bake for a Queen. Thank you ladies =]

Here are rules to abide for accepting this award:

Post linking back to the person that gave you the award.
Share 7 random things about yourself.
Award 15 recently discovered blogs.
Drop them a note and tell them about it.

Ok, here's 7 random things about myself:

1) I used to have a pet Maltese named Ashley staying with me. He's a male! Most people would associate the name with a female. He's now staying with my brother's family.

2) My favourite colour is green. Green used to be the colour theme for my blog when I firsted started blogging. It was a little dull and hence I changed it to the current blue theme which matches my blog layout. I might change it back to Green if I can find a nice green colour.

3) Of all bakes, I enjoy eating cakes the most, followed by cookies and bread. I'm quite a bread person but I always tend to procrastinate when it comes to bread making. Hence I am very stagnant in this aspect.

4) My favourite baking related show is called Cake Boss ( TLC channel) starring Buddy Valastro, his family and his bakery. He's a really talented cake artist and the show is humorous and entertaining. Wish I could make cakes like him one day. The fondant cakes he make are awesome! Imagine a safari theme cake, a 3D standing dog cake and a moving robot cake. Neat!

5) I am quite a bakecook fanatic. Currently I have around 60 titles. The bulk of it are chocolate, cake and cookie titles. Most of the titles are by asian authors. I even have a long wishlist of about 50 books which I would want to have, all of which are by western authors.

6) I think I am addicted to fondant making. I am not quite fond of eating fondant though. Will be adding fondant books to my bakebook wishlist.

7) When the time comes, I would want to go for professional courses to further my baking skills. At the moment, I can only rely on books, blogs, videos and internet articles.

I will be passing the award to the following bloggers:

Eelin from The Batter Baker
Allie from Sweets and Loves
Sheryl from Life is too Short, Eat Desserts!
Shirley from Kokken 69
Fatmum from FatmumBaking
Aimei from My Baking Cottage
Josephine from Sugar & Everything Nice
Blessed Homemaker from Blessed Homemaker
Wendy from Wen's Delight
Jess from J3ss Kitch3n
Jesslyn from Bakericious
Pei-Lin from Dodol & Mochi
Swee San from The Sweet Spot
Wendy from Wendyinkk

Orange Cranberry Scones ( recipe adapted from The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet)

Serving size: about 12 scones
Texture: Crisp and crumbly on the oustide; fluffy and cake light, moist in the interior.
Equipment and Materials:

Measuring spoon set
Flour sift
1.5 inch round cookie cutter
Mixing bowl
Parchment/baking paper
Wire rack
Weighing scale
Wire whisk
Flexible spatula

Dough:
185g plain flour
30g castor sugar
zest of 1 orange
1 tsp + 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt
80g unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
60g dried cranberries
homemade buttermilk => 120ml milk + 1/2tbs lemon juice, (leave to stand for 10 mins)

Making the scones:

Combine dry ingredients - Sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda into a large mixing bowl. Add in the sugar, zests and salt. Use a wire whisk to aerate and disperse the mixture evenly.

Blend in butter - Tip in the cubed butter into the flour mixture. Use your hands and rub the chilled butter into the dry ingredients. The result should be that of fine and coarse flour-coated butter crumbs. Work fast to prevent the butter from melting.

Alternatively, use a pastry cutter or 2 knifes to cut the butter. If using 2 knifes, cut the butter into the flour mixture in a criss cross manner.

A food processor can also be used if you have one. If using a food processor, whisk the dry ingredients together for about 15 seconds. Add in the cubed butter and pulse a few times with 1 second intervals until fine and coarse flour-coated butter crumbs are obtained.

Adding the cream and cranberries - Add in cranberries to the coarse flour-coated butter crumbs and stir to distribute the berries evenly. Pour in the homemade buttermilk into the flour-coated butter crumbs. Use a fork and stir to obtain a moist sticky mixture.

Shaping and chilling dough - Lightly flour a work surface. Turn out the moist sticky mixture onto the work surface and gently gather the mixture together, pressing in stray dry ingredients into the main dough. There is no need to knead the dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and flatten it to obtain a disk 1 inch in height. Chill in the refrigerator or freeze till it is very firm. Dough must be very firm else it will be difficult to work with.

Prepraring the oven - Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 210 degrees C (recipe asked for 220 degrees C).

Cutting out rounds - Once dough is chilled, turn the flattened disk out onto a floured work surface and cut out rounds using a round cookie cutter dusted with flour. Arrange the cut out rounds 1 inch apart on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Gather the remaining scraps, flatten them into a disk 1 inch in height and repeat the chilling process. Repeat the cutting of rounds for a second time.

Gather the remaining scraps after the 2nd cutting and flatten them into a round disk 1 inch in height, for a final time. Cut the disk into wedges.

Chill all the cut-out rounds and wedges for another 20minutes or give them a quick freeze to firm them up. If the dough is too soft, it will lose its shape in the oven.

Baking the scones: Bake the scones for 14 -16 minutes or untill the surface is golden brown. Remove to cool on a wire rack.

Notes:

These Scones taste best when served warm.
Dough can be prepared beforehand and chilled overnight (one night maximum) or frozen for weeks. The dough may not rise as much as when it is freshly made on the same day.
Store remaining scones in an airtight container. Warm them in a toaster or oven before serving.

Modelling with Edible Playdough - My 1st Fondant Cake

2011-04-02T21:50:00.081+08:00

assembled layers, waiting to be frosted

For the past week, I was planning for a major cake project for an event on friday. It was meant for someone special. In my mind, I was envisaging how it would turn out to be. There are endless unknown factors, since it is my maiden attempt at doing a fondant cake. Due to a turn of events, the final outcome deviated from the original plan. Here is how the cake was supposed to turn out orginally:

Chocolate cake layers frosted with orange cream cheese frosting
Rolled white fondant icing to cover the frosted cake
Base of cake surrounded with fondant roses and green leaves
Cake to be adorned with butterflies, bees and ladybirds
Female figurine seated in front of a grand piano

crumb coated layers

Levelling the cake layers and frosting them was something that I had always enjoyed doing. Witnessing the cake layers stack up gradually into a tall and glorious cake gives me a sense of satisfaction. This could possibly be the tallest layer cake I have made to date, comprising of four chocolate cake layers. It would have been even taller if the domed part wasn't sliced off.

1st attempt at covering the cake

This was the first attempt at covering the cake. The fondant rolled out smooth but somewhat thin. While smoothing the sides and top, some parts of the fondant broke. What came as a bigger rude shock was the unusually warm weather had caused the seemingly stable cream cheese frosting to melt/separate when I covered the cake with fondant icing. Perhaps it was also due to heat from my palms since I used my palms to smooth the sides before using a bench scraper. Some frosting even leaked out from the base.

As a result, I peeled off the fondant, scraped off the frosting and re-worked the covering. The second attempt was in no way better. The surface was wrinked although it did not break. I suspect the icing could have been too stiff/dry and the wrinkles were caused by stretching when the fondant was lifted. To cover the flaws, I covered the sides with rainbow coloured stripes and the surface with black fondant with the help of my friends. Of course, it meant a lot more extra work.

The worst disaster that could strike a fondant cake is that fondant tends to 'sweat'. Moisture is a sworn enemy to fondant icing and it could threaten the appearance/strucure of fondant decorations. With the tropical all year round summer temperatures in Singapore, chilled fondant cakes will tend to condense immediate after they are retreived from the refrigerator (huge difference in room temperature and temperature in refrigerator ). I have seen how my fondant cake 'sweat' profusely. It is traumatic experience that bakers wouldn't want to go through.

Even though there were several tough obstacles to clear, I'm glad the cake was assembled in one piece. There are several lessons to take home and many aspects to improve on from this fondant cake experience:

Take care not to roll fondant too thinly when covering the cake.
Make sure fondant is not too stiff/dry when rolling it out to cover the cake.
Fondant tends to sweat alot when condensation takes place. Need to find solutions to solve this. One method would be to store the cake in an air-conditioned room instead.
Perhaps omit the frosting and do a thin layer of crumb coat instead to prevent frosting (buttercream, cream cheese frosting etc) from melting due to warm temperatures or do not use bare hands to smooth sides at all to prevent frosting from melting.
Make sure sides are straight when stacking the cake layers.

Despite that this cake turned out amateurish, I am glad I accomplished a few tasks related to fondant:

Managed to practice covering frosted cake with fondant icing
Learnt how to colour fondant
Learnt how to make use of materials such as toothpicks and drinking straws as support structures for fondant decorations
Learnt to do fondant roses (by watching youtube video)
Managed to do a grand piano. The difficult part about making the grand piano is setting up the support and getting the main body to be dry and stiff.
Managed to do hair for a human figurine. This part is very time consuming. Doing the hair component looks a lot more difficult than it seems. Need to improve on the facial features and the body proportions in future.

Overall, the fondant cake was done with a minimalist approach in terms of tools and materials. Most of them are inexpensive except for the colouring which cost a lot more. The following are the items used:

Bench scraper to act as a fondant smoother
Cocktail sticks/ toothpicks for suppport and to colour fondant
Drinking straws to act as legs for grand piano
Cardboard covered with fondant to do the piano lid. (note that fondant cannot be rolled too thinly for supporting structures)
A small paring knife to cut out letterings/alphabets
Assorted Wilton colours (paste)
Butterfly cookie cutter which I have on hand
Rolling pin

I don't think I will be attempting a fondant cake anytime soon as it is too time consuming but I will be practicing with some modelling in the meantime.

The following video demonstrates on how to cover a frosted cake with fondant. Hope it is helpful.

Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting ( recipe adapted from Chocolate Ephipany by Francois Payard)

Serving size: Makes a 8 inch round layer cake. Serves 10 to 12 slices

Taste and texture: Cake base is dense, moist and a little fudgy (brownie-like). Cream cheese frosting is citrusy and creamy.
Equipment and materials:

Two 8 x 3 inch round pans
9 inch round cake board
Cake leveller or palette/serrated knife longer than 8 inches
Rubber spatula
Handheld beater/Stand beater
Baking paper
Wire rack
Toothpick/wooden skewer
Flour sieve
Mixing bowls
Cake turntable (optional)

Chocolate Cake (I did 2 x recipe, in two batches, for two 8x3 inch round pans. One recipe portion yields 2 layers):

55g cocoa powder (use valrhona for best results)
250ml water
130g unsalted butter, at room temperature
220g castor sugar
55g egg yolks, at room temperature
165g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

Making the Chocolate Cake:

Prepare Oven and baking pan - Preheat oven to 170 degrees C. Line and grease two 8 x 3 inch round pans with baking paper.

Dissolving cocoa - Place 250ml water and the cocoa in a pan and heat the mixture on medium heat. Stir the mixture to ensure cocoa powder dissolves fully. Remove pan from heat and set aside to cool completely.

Prepare flour mixture - Sift flour and baking powder in a large bowl. Whisk to combine and allow the dry ingredients to be evenly distributed.

Creaming the butter - In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until colour turns pale and mixture is fluffy. The volume of the mixture will increase as air is beaten in. Refer to how-to-cream-butter.

Making the batter - Beat in egg yolks in three additions on low speed. Ensure each addition is well combined before adding the next. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula to incoporate loose ingredients.

Add in all the flour and beat on low speed until the last bit of flour is absorbed (just combined). Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula to incoporate loose ingredients and mix the batter gently with the spatula.

Lastly, pour in the cocoa liquid. Beat the mixture on low speed to obtain a smooth, well combined batter. Do not overbeat. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula to incoporate loose ingredients.

Baking the cake - Pour batter into lined 8 x 3 inch round pan and bake for 35- 45 minutes, or until skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow cake to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out to cool upright on a wire rack. (I made the chocolate cake twice, in two batches, to yield two cakes.).

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting:

440g cream cheese, softened
140g unsalted butter, softened
100g icing sugar (add more if needed, to achieve desired consistency)
5 tbs orange juice (one tbs at a time, to desired consistency)
zest from 2 oranges

Making the Frosting:

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and butter on medium high speed until it is no longer lumpy. Add in sugar and continue to beat until sugar is combined and mixture is light and fluffy. Next, add in orange juice one tablespoon at a time until it reaches your desired consistency. Add in orange zests and continue beating until mixture is well combined.

Cake Assembly:

Slicing chocolate cake - Slice the two chocolate cakes (two cakes baked in two round pans) into two even layers each using cake leveller or long serrated/palette knife. Slice off the parts that has domed. There will be a total of four layers.

Preparing the layers - Using the removable base of a round tart tin or a round cake board, slide the tart tin base or cake board under a chocolate cake layer and carefully transport one cake layer onto a 9 inch round cake board placed on a cake turntable (optional). This method of transferring is to prevent the sponge layer from breaking.

Place 4 to five strips of 2 inch wide baking paper underneath the first cake layer and surrounding the cake (see first picture). This is to prevent the frosting from making a mess on the cake board.

Dab 1/5 of the cream cheese frosting and spread it evenly onto the first cake layer using a palette knife or spatula. Place a second cake layer (using the tart tin base or cake board to transport) carefully over the first cake layer and align it properly with the first layer. Dab 1/5 of the cream cheese frosting and spread it evenly onto the second cake layer using a palette knife or spatula.

Add the 3rd cake layer (using the tart tin base or cake board to transport) and align it well with the first two layers. Dab 1/5 of the cream cheese frosting and spread it evenly onto the second cake layer using a palette knife or spatula.

Lastly, add the 4th and final cake layer (using the tart tin base or cake board to transport) and align it well with the first three layers. Apply a thin layer of cream cheese frosting on the surface and the sides (perimeter) of the cake to seal the crumbs first (crumb coating). Once the crumb coat is done, apply all the remaining cream cheese frosting to the surface and sides of the cake and smooth the frosting using a palette knife. Remove the strips of baking paper carefully.

Notes:

Cream cheese frosting holds its shape well unrefrigerated.
Flavour for cream cheese frosting can be varied using lemon, calamansi, grapefruti or yuzu zests instead of orange.
Grate the zest over the frosting to allow the orange oil to seep into the frosting.
Do not omit the zests as it is imparts a great deal of citrus flavour.
Let the frosted chocolate cake sit at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours if you have the time before serving, the cake will become really moist as it absorbs moisture from the frosting.
Do 1.5 x recipe portion of the chocolate cake in one batch and 4/5 recipe portion of the cream cheese frosting to get a 3 layer cake instead.
One recipe portion will yield a rather short cake which is only enough for a two cake layers.
Add more icing sugar to firm up the consistency of the frosting

It's Time for Blackforest!

2011-03-28T19:44:00.012+08:00

When I was young, I always wondered what a Black Forest Cake is. My impression back then was that Black Forest cakes are a staple in confectionaries and they always seemed to taste good. Now that I am a home baker, I learnt that a Black Forest Cake is basically a cream cake consisting of cherries and chocolate sponge. I have been wanting to make a Black Forest Cake ever since I started making layer cakes. Somehow, it never materialized. With a pack of opened dairy whipping cream lying in my fridge, it was a good excuse to work on this cake.

I don't quite fancy plain whipped cream cakes but this is one that agrees well with my palate, due to the presence of halved dark sweet cherries and thickened cherry syrup stuffed into the whipped cream layers. The cherry syrup, thickened with corn flour, resembles the consistency of canned blueberry pie filling.

I will be submitting this entry for this month's Aspring Bakers #5: Fruity March hosted by Jess of Bakericious.

Black Forest Cake ( Chocolate Sponge Cake recipe adapted from 超人气香港蛋糕56款, Cream filling adapted from Delicious cakes by Amy Heng)

Serving size: Makes a 9 inch round cake. Serves 10 to 12 slices

Taste and texture: Cake base is soft, moist and fluffy. Whipped cream is cherry-sweet, smooth and creamy.
Equipment and materials:

9 x 3 inch round pan
10 inch round cake board
Cake leveller or palette/serrated knife longer than 8 inches
Balloon/wire whisk
Rubber spatula
Handheld beater/Stand beater
Baking paper
Wire rack
Toothpick/wooden skewer
Flour sieve
Mixing bowls
Cake turntable (optional)
Star Piping tip (Wilton # 22)
Piping bag
Coupler for piping

Chocolate Sponge Cake (3 layers):

85g egg yolks, room temperature
65g caster sugar
5 tbs vegetable oil
5 tbs water
110g cake flour
20g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp + 1/8 tsp baking powder
200g egg whites, room temperature
65g caster sugar

Making the Chocolate Sponge Cake:

Prepare Oven - Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.

Prepare flour mixture - Sift flour, cocoa powder and baking powder in a large bowl. Whisk to combine and allow the dry ingredients to be evenly distributed.

Making the egg yolk batter - Place egg yolks, 65g caster sugar in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Add in oil and water. Mix well with a wire whisk. Add in the flour mixture and mix to obtain a smooth and thick chocolate batter.

Beating egg whites - In a clean metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites on low speed. Increase speed slowly to medium-high and beat untill egg whites are at soft peaks. Add 65g of sugar gradually and beat untill egg whites are almost stiff and still moist. This is when the beaters are lifted, the egg whites will form peaks that are upright and not drooping slightly. Egg whites will resemble whipped cream.The entire bowl of whites will not drop out when the bowl is overturned. Do not beat until the egg whites are dry and clumpy.

Baking the sponge cake - Pour batter into a greased and lined 9 x 3 inch round pan and bake at 160 degrees C for 30 -35 minutes. Test doneness using a skewer or toothpick. The highest part of the cake should rise up to 4/5 or nearly the full height of the tin. When the cake is done, the inserted skewer will come out clean. Cake will shrink from edges and in height on cooling. Unmould sponge cake and leave to cool upright on a wire rack.

Whipped Cream Filling and Frosting:

500ml chilled whipping cream (dairy)
2 1/2 tbs icing sugar
1 can (425g/15oz) dark sweet cherries
cherry liquid from can
1 tbs cornflour
1 1/2 tbs sugar

Decorations:

12 whole cherries from can, or 12 fresh cherries or 12 maraschinao cherries.
100ml chilled whipping cream for piping rosettes, (whipped to soft peaks)
Enough dark chocolate shavings/choc rice

Preparing whipped cream filling and frosting:

Whipping the cream - Place 500 ml chilled whipping cream in a mixing bowl. Beat the cream on high speed until it reaches mousse state. Add 2 1/2 tbs icing sugar and continue beating the cream on low speed, stopping and checking the consistency every 5 seconds. Beat the cream until it reaches soft peak (80% stiff)

Preparing cherries - Drain the cherries and reserve the cherry liquid. Reserve 12 whole cherries and half the rest. Squeeze halved cherries gently to remove some of the juice. Set aside halved cherries and 12 whole cherries.

Preparing cherry syrup - Place reserved cherry syrup, 1 tbs cornflour and 2 tbs sugar in a saucepan and stir until combined. Heat the mixture on low heat until it thickens slightly. Allow the cherry syrup to cool completely before use. It will thicken further on cooling.

Assembly:

Slicing sponge cake - Slice sponge cake into 3 even layers using cake leveller or long serrated/palette knife. Slice off the part that has domed.

Preparing the layers - Using the removable base of a round tart tin or a round cake board, slide the tart tin base or cake board under a sponge layer and carefully transport one sponge layer onto a 10 inch round cake board placed on a cake turntable (optional). This method of transferring is to prevent the sponge layer from breaking.

Dab 1/4 of the whipped cream and spread it evenly onto the first sponge layer using a palette knife or spatula. Drizzle half of the cherry syrup randomly over the whipped cream. Scatter half of the halved cherries over the whipped cream layer.

Place a second sponge layer (using the tart tin base or cake board to transport) carefully over the first sponge layer and align it properly with the first layer. Dab 1/4 of the whipped cream and spread it evenly onto the second sponge layer using a palette knife or spatula. Drizzle the remaining half of the cherry syrup randomly over the whipped cream and scatter the remaining halved cherries over the whipped cream layer.

Add the 3rd sponge layer (using the tart tin base or cake board to transport) and align it well with the first two layers. Apply a thin layer of whipped cream on the surface and the sides (perimeter) of the cake to seal the crumbs first (crumb coating). Once the crumb coat is done, add whipped cream to the surface and sides of the cake and smooth the whipped cream using a palette knife.

Decorations:

Piping rosettes and placing cherries - Fill a piping bag fitted with a Wilton #22 star tip (or any other tip you desire). Hold the piping at 45 degrees to the cake surface and gently squeeze out the whipping cream, applying constant pressure and moving your hands in a circular motion to pipe a rosette. Release pressure and pull the tip away to complete the rosette. Pipe 12 rosettes and place each whole cherry between two piped rosettes.

Coating cake with chocolate shavings/rice - Place an over-turned round tin over a large sheet of baking paper. Lift the assembled cake (with the cake board) and rest it on the over-turned round tin (9 or 10 inch would be good). Spoon chocolate shavings/rice onto the sides (perimeter) and the surface (middle) of the assembled cake. Resuse the clean chocolate shavings that fall onto the baking paper if needed.

Notes:

Whipped cream is not stablized and would not hold its shape for too long at warm room temperature
Soak cherries in cherry liquer for a fuller cherry experience.
Try practice piping rosettes on a strip of baking paper 1st before piping on the cake surface.
Cream whipped to 70-80% stiff is ideal for piping, filling and frosting. If it is too stiffly whipped, the cream will not be smooth when piped or may separate when it is frosted (if cream is too vigourously handled).
Use about 3/4 tsp cream of tartar to stabilize the beaten egg whites if required. It will make folding of egg whites easier.

Notice:

Practice with Fondant Icing - Fondant Rose

2011-03-26T18:49:00.005+08:00

I am comtemplating on a cake project in which I need to work with fondant icing. Fondant icing is one aspect of cake making which I am totally unfamiliar with. Hence, working on a fondant cake project means there is plenty of reading up and careful planning to be carried out, to minimize the chances of any mishaps that might happen.

For the cake project, one of my idea is to make fondant roses. After watching some videos on youtubes, I was tempted to try making my own fondant icing and start on a fondant modelling practice session.

The fondant recipe that I referred to worked quite well but somehow heat from my hands makes the fondant icing sticky. I had to dust the fondant and my hands with corn flour constantly to prevent the fondant from softening and sticking to my hands. After some three or four tries, I finally completed a fondant rose without the aid of any modelling tools!

Working with fondant sure brings a lot of fun. Think of it as modelling with play dough. You don't have to be a sculptor nor a baker to mould fondant icing. It might even get addictive. However, I wouldn't recommend any to taste these fondant decorations since its totally sugary-sweet.

Now that I have taken my first step into fondant making, I might want to explore around a little before I finalize on my cake project. In any case, the fondant roses would be great for adorning any birthday cakes that I will be making in future.

The following are youtube videos which I referred to for making of fondant rose. No tools are required. Have fun!

Making a fondant rose - part 1

Making a fondant rose - part 2

My First Blog Award and Not-Quite-Mango Mousse Cake

2011-03-23T18:07:00.017+08:00

I would like to thank Jean and Esther for passing this award to me. This is the first time I'm receiving an award related to blogging and I find it rather interesting. Usually, awards are given out to recipients to acknowledge their contribution in their respective fields. In this case, I think of this award as an encouragement, friendship and goodwill between two bloggers.

Now that mangoes are in season, it means time to buy and use them for baking. On my mind, I have been thinking of making either a mango-upside down cake or a mango mousse cake. After reading Allie's post, I decided to use Florence's mango mousse cake recipe for the 2nd time.

In the previous attempt, the mouse turned out horribly bland when I used Malaysian mangoes. This time round, I used Thai honey mangoes (my mangoes were over-riped) and it did turn out better, but still not up to my expectations. The recipe works perfectly well and I am sure the problem (taste-wise) lies with the variety of mangoes that I have used.

In local supermarts here, the varieties of mangoes available are quite limited. We have:

Malaysian mangoes (Chanakran mangoes, if I did not recall wrongly),
Thai honey mangoes
Thai rainbow mangoes
Thai ivory mangoes
Pakistan mangoes (pricey)
Taiwan mango king (pricey)

Out of these varieties, I find that malaysian mangoes are both bland in taste and lacking in sweetness while Thai honey mangoes are sweet but lacking in fragrance. I will probably not be using these two varieties of mangoes in any of my bakes again, using them for cake decorations at most. Maybe fellow bakers and readers out there might to want to share your experience with mangoes.

My other regret for this mango mousse cake is the appearance. I had been careful while filling up the perimeter of the cake (in the cake ring) with mango mousse, pushing the mousse down as best as I could but the cake still turns out with big gaps at the sides.

Mango Mousse Cake ( Sponge recipe adapted from 超人气香港蛋糕56款, Mango mousse recipe slightly modified from Do What I Like and Mango gelee layer recipe adapted from All that Matters)

Taste and Texture: Firm mango mousse layers with moist and light sponge, topped with soft mango jelly.
Serving Size: 10 slices
Equipment:
1) 8 inch round pan
2) 8 inch round cake ring
3) 9 inch round cake board
4) Cake leveller or palette/serrated knife longer than 8 inches
5) Balloon whisk
6) Rubber spatula
7) Handheld beater/Stand beater
8) Baking paper
9) Wire rack
10) Toothpick/wooden skewer
11) Flour sieve
12) Mixing bowls

Sponge cake ( Sponge recipe adapted from 超人气香港蛋糕56款)
70g egg yolks, room temperature
40g caster sugar
4tbs vegetable oil
3 tbs water
95g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
140g egg whites, room temperature
40g caster sugar

Making the sponge cake:
Prepare Oven - Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.

Prepare flour mixture - Sift cake flour and baking powder in a large bowl. Whisk to combine and distribute the ingredients evenly.

Making the egg yolk batter - Place egg yolks and 40g caster sugar in a large mixing bowl. Briefly whisk the egg yolk mixture until the sugar is dissolved. Add in oil and water and stir well.

Folding flour into egg yolk batter - Add the flour mixture to the yolks + oil + water mixture and mix well. Use a spatula to scoop sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure flour mixture is evenly incorporated.

Beating egg whites - Next, whisk egg whites on low speed. Increase speed slowly to medium and beat until egg whites are foamy. Gradually increase speed to high and add the remaining 40g of sugar gradually. Beat until egg whites are almost stiff but still moist. This is when the beaters are lifted, the egg whites will form peaks that are upright and not drooping slightly. Egg whites will resemble whipped cream.The entire bowl of whites will not drop out when the bowl is overturned.

Folding in egg whites - Using a balloon whisk, fold one third of beaten egg whites into egg yolk batter gently to lighten and combine. Fold in the rest of the beaten whites to combine. Final batter should be foamy and uniform in colour with no streaks of egg white present. Folding egg whites gently using balloon whisk will prevent egg whites from deflating too much.

Baking the sponge cake - Pour batter into a greased and lined 8 inch round pan and bake at 160 degrees C for 25 -30minutes. Test doneness using a skewer or toothpick. Cake will shrink from edges on cooling. Unmould sponge cake and leave to cool on a wire rack upright.

Mango Mousse layers: (recipe slightly modified from Do What I Like)

350g fresh mango puree, at room temperature
350ml whipping cream,
3 tbs icing sugar (vary to your liking and the sweetness of the mangoes)
17g gelatine powder soaked in 4 tbs water
about 180g mango, cubed (not too big)

Making mango mousse:
Whipping the cream - Whip cream until it is at mousse state (roughly 70% stiff). Add in icing sugar and whip on low speed to dissolve the sugar.

Making gelatine solution - Soak gelatine in water and allow it to bloom for 5 minutes. Heat the gelatine mixture over a double boiler untill gelatine dissolves completely. Leave to cool.

Making mango mousse - Combine gelatine mixture and mango puree. Fold in whipped cream to obtain a smooth pale-orange mango mousse.

Cake Assembly:
Slicing sponge cake - Slice sponge cake into 2 even layers using cake leveller or long serrated/palette knife. Slice off the part that has domed.

Preparing the sponge and mousse layers - Place one sponge layer into a 8 inch cake ring supported by a cake board below. There should some allowance surrounding the sponge layer. Spread 100g of cubed mango over the first sponge layer. Pour half of the mango mousse over the first sponge layer. I measured the mousse by weight and divided it evenly into 2 portions. Level the mousse as evenly as possible.

Place the second sponge layer over the mousse layer. Spread remaining 100g cubed mango over the second sponge layer. Pour the remaining mousse mixture over the second sponge layer and level the top as evenly as possible. Place cake ring in the refrigerator and allow a chilling time of 4 hours or until mousse is firm.

Mango Gelee layer (recipe adapted from All that Matters)
100g mango puree
2 tsp gelatin
3 tbs water
100g mango, cubed

Making mango gelee layer:
Making gelatine solution - Soak 2 tsp gelatine in 3tbs water and allow it to bloom for 5 minutes. Heat the gelatine mixture over a double boiler untill gelatine dissolves completely. Leave to cool.

Making the mango gelee - Combine cooled gelatine solution and mango puree. Pour it over the chilled and assembled mango mousse cake. Scatter 100g cubed mango over the mango gelee layer. Allow cake to chill until mango gelee layer is firm.

Unmoulding finished cake:
To unmould, wrap a warm kitchen towel around the ring or use a hairdryer to briefly heat up the exterior of the cake ring. Take care not to apply too much heat using the hairdryer. Remove cake ring slowly and steadily. Bring cake back to the refrigerator to firm up before decorating and cutting.

Notes:
1) There is a risk of the mousse oxidizing when exposed to air for some time.
2) Use good quality mangoes for this cake.
3) Do not omit diced mangoes for mousse layers.
4) I'll probably cut down a little on the gelatine for the mango mousse.
5) The mango mousse tends to 'stain' the sponge layers.

Saving a dry chocolate cake - Apricot Sacher Cake

2011-03-21T01:42:00.003+08:00

Very often, my chocolate cakes turn out to be dense, dry and crumbly as compared to other kinds of cakes. Perhaps it is the nature of cocoa that accounts for the sturdy structure and an absence of moisture, or it could be how well recipes work out. For me, I believe it is a combination of both factors.

To yield tender chocolate cakes, most recipes ask for a whooping amount of sugar. Having baked for some two and a half years, I am habitually cutting down on sugar on most recipes, as the Asian palate is not accustomed to the level of sweetness that the Americans are used to. This works well most of the time, without compensating much on the texture and moistness. However, it is not advisable to do so for chocolate bakes, since sugar helps to balance the bitterness and intensity of cocoa. Cut down on too much sugar and you will find your chocolate cakes or brownies to be on the bitter and dry side.

Sugar is not the sole tenderizer where baking is concerned. Other ingredients like butter, chemical leaveners, sour cream and yoghurt also help contribute to a tender-crumbed cake. On the other hand, flours and eggs are tougheners. Out of the four basic ingredients - flour, sugar, eggs, butter, we have two tenderizers (weakens structure) versus two tougheners (build structure).

In a basic pound cake recipe using only the four basic ingredients, there is equal parts of flour, sugar, eggs and butter in weight. The total weight of tenderizers (butter and sugar) is equal to that of the total weight of the tougheners (flour and eggs). Tweak the proportions appropriately and you will get a tender cake. Of course, the mathematics becomes complex when more ingredients come into the picture or when the amount of egg yolks and whites differ.

From experience, I like chocolate cake recipes that use a decent amount of liquid (sourcream, whipping cream, yoghurt, milk, buttermilk). When leavened with the help of beaten egg whites, the resulting texture is much lighter.

Earlier this week, I tried out a chocolate cake recipe and it turned out dissatisfactory being dry and dense, despite the fact that the cake batter was leavened with egg whites. Refusing to let my cake go to waste, I reluctantly followed the instructions and completed it as a Apricot Sacher Cake. The dense cake was sliced into three layers and each layer was brushed with warmed apricot jam. Finally, the three layers were assembled and glazed with chocolate ganache. It sure made a lot of difference with the thin apricot jam layers and the chocolate ganache, adding much depth and flavour to an otherwise dull and boring chocolate cake.

Dark Chocolate Ganache
Taste and texture: Intense, rich, smooth.
Yield: Enough to coat a 8 x 2 inch tall chocolate cake
Equipment and materials:
1) Heatproof bowl
2) Spoon
3) Knife
4) Measuring jug
5) Wire rack
6) Baking paper
7) Spatula

Ingredients:
120ml heavy cream (whipping cream)
120g semisweet (55% cocoa) dark chocolate, finely chopped (use the best quality you can afford)

Method:
Making the Chocolate Ganache - Place 120g finely chopped bittersweet dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Place heavy cream in a saucer and heat it until it is almost coming to a boil on medium heat. Turn off the flame and remove the saucer. Pour the cream over the finely chopped dark chocolate and allow chocolate to sit for a while in the heated cream. Stir gently to allow chocolate to melt and blend in with the cream. Do not over-stir or the mixture may become grainy. The smooth cream and dark chocolate mixture is known as a dark chocolate ganache. The chocolate should melt completely if this is properly done (if chocolate is finely chopped)

If dark chocolate is not completely melted - Place the heatproof bowl over a saucepan filled with water. The bowl should fit snugly onto the saucepan and the bottom of the bowl should not be in contact with the water in the saucepan. Bring the water in the saucepan to a low simmer on low heat. This is known as a double-boiler. Stir the chocolate cream mixture gently to obtain a smooth ganache. Do not over-stir or the mixture may become grainy.

Coating a cake with ganache:
Place cake on a wire rack over a large sheet of baking paper. Allow chocolate gananche to cool to a pouring consistency. Pour the ganache onto the centre of the cake and use a spatula to help spread the ganache evenly outwards. The ganache should coat the top and sides of the cake completely. Allow ganache to set. It may take several hours.

Notes:
1) If the chocolate do not melt completely and there is a need to use a double-boiler, there is a risk that the resulting ganache may be grainy if the heat is not well controlled.
2) Scale recipe up or down to glaze smaller/larger cakes.
3) The purpose of the baking paper below is to prevent a mess. If any part is uncoated, simply scoop and reuse some of the ganache that has dripped onto the baking paper.
4) When cake glazed with ganache is chilled, the ganache will become dull. Use a hair-dryer/blower to blow the surface of the ganache to return the shine.

Nutella Cream Cheese Tarts

2011-03-16T23:43:00.003+08:00

I was browsing baking books at Kinokuniya yesterday when I overheard two ladies discussing the instructions on a recipe. They were wondering why the author asked for the cupcake pan to be rotated halfway through the baking time. With the answer in mind, I explained to them the rationale for doing so.

After a brief chat with them, I got to know that they just started out baking. Out of goodwill, I recommended that they do some readup to prepare themselves well and referred them to baking sites such as baking911 and joy of baking. This incident reminded me of the time when I first started out as a self-taught baker. There was like tons of stuff to read up on and I wished I had a reliable source of help to turn to. Hope the two ladies will have lots of fun and joy embarking on their baking journey, perhaps even finding their passion in the midst of doing so.

Its been a while since I made any tarts (pineapple tarts excluded). I have been itching to try out recipes from one of my tart books. I love to munch on cream cheese tarts from bakeries and have always wanted to make them ever since I started baking. The chance came when I came across a recipe for blueberry cream cheese tarts. Tweaked the recipe a little and it came out nutella cream cheese tarts instead.

Originally, the recipe asked for milk powder. I didn't like the creamy taste of it and hence omitted them in the recipe below. Taste wise, they are not too shabby. I would have preferred the fillings to be firmer though, similar to cream cheese tarts from local bakeries.

Nutella Cream Cheese Tarts (recipe adapted from In the Mood for Pastries & Tarts by Alan Ooi)

Serving size: 12 3-inch tarts

Taste and texture: Creamy-cheesey with crumbly tart crust
Equipment and materials:
1) Flour sieve
2) Measuring spoon set
3) Mixing bowl/s
4) Wire rack
5) Fork
6) Pastry blender (optional)
7) Clingfilm
8) 3-inch individual tart tins

Sweet Short Crust Pastry:
210g plain flour
115g chilled unsalted butter, cubed
1/4 tsp salt
4 tbs icing sugar
2 1/2 tbs cold water

Cream Cheese Filling:
250g cream cheese
50g icing sugar
30g butter
50g whole eggs
about 4 tbs Nutella

Making the sweet short crust pastry:
Mixing dry ingredients - In a mixing bowl, sift in flour, icing sugar and salt. Whisk with a wire whisk to distribute ingredients evenly.

Forming the pastry - Cut butter into flour with a pastry blender until coarse flour coated crumbs are formed. Alternatively, rub the cubed butter into the flour with your clean hands to obtain coarse flour coated crumbs. Stir in cold water and mix with a fork to moisten the crumbs.

Gather the crumbs and knead briefly and gently enough so that crumbs come together to form a dough. Wrap dough with clingfilm and chill dough for at least 30 minutes.

Lining tart tins - Weigh the dough and divide it into 12 equal portions. Press each portion of dough evenly into individual 3-inch tart tins. Chilled dough-lined tart tins for 20 minutes.

Baking the tart crusts - Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Bake tart dough for about 15 -20 minutes or until tart crusts are lightly browned. Allow tarts to cool slightly in tart tins before removing them to cool completely on a wire rack.

Assembling the tarts:
Making the cream cheese filling - In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, icing sugar and butter until creamy and smooth. Add in egg/s beat well to combine.

Filling and baking tart crusts - Spoon cream cheese filling onto cooled tart crusts. Drop 1/2 tsp nutella onto the cream cheese filling of each tart and use a tooth pick to create swirls. Bake tarts for 15-20 minutes at 180 degrees C. Allow tarts to cool completely on a wire rack.

Notes:
1) The cream cheese filling is softly set after 15-20minutes of baking. For a firmer custard, either bake the tarts longer or chill the tarts.
2) My tart crusts are are pale creamy in colour as I did not bake long them enough, and probably due to the milk powder.
3) Use blueberry jam/ pie filling in place of nutella to make blueberry cream cheese tarts.
4) Tarts may shrink a little after baking.
5) Avoid over-kneading the dough of you may end up with tough crusts.

Bananas about Cookies

2011-03-13T21:28:00.001+08:00

It's a hit again. So far the score is 4-1, hits verus misses wise. I'm glad my copy of Martha Stewart's Cookies worked its charm with this banana walnut chocolate chip cookies. Other than using over-riped bananas solely for banana breads/cakes, there is a new option for me now.

There is something about this cookie. It isn't quite the usual cookie that one would expect. Most of the time, I'm expecting cookies to be either chewy, crunchy, sandy, crumbly or perhaps sometimes cakey. This cookie doesn't fit the bill and it is more like soft and moist bite-sized banana bread/muffin.

My younger brother isn't used to this kind of texture but Stephanie says its good, tasting like cookies from Pepperidge. For me, I would give the thumbs up! Glad I discovered a different kind of cookie.

I will be submitting this entry to this month's Aspiring Bakers # 5 - Fruity March.

Banana Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies (Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies)
Serving size: 36 - 40 cookies
Taste and texture: Mini, moist banana bread-like cookies with a oaty-nutty taste.
Equipment and materials:
1) Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater or wooden spoon
2) Flour sieve
3) Measuring spoon set
4) Spatula
5) Mixing bowls
6) Wire rack
7) Fork
8) Baking trays/ cookie sheets
9) Baking / parchment paper

Ingredients:
240g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
160g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
75g castor sugar
75g brown sugar
50g whole egg, lightly beatened
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
160g mashed, very ripe/over-riped bananas
85g rolled oats
175g chocolate chips or coarsely chopped semiweet chocolate
75g chopped walnuts, toasted

Making the Cookies:
Preheat oven - Preheat oven to 190 degrees C.

Toasting the walnuts - Toast walnuts at 190 degrees C for about 10 minutes to bring out its fragrance. Set walnuts aside to cool.

Mix dry ingredients - Sift flour, salt and baking soda into a mixing bowl. Stir with a balloon whisk to distribute them evenly.

Cream butter - Beat the butter with both sugars on medium speed for 2 minutes until butter mixture is fluffy. Volume of butter-sugar mixture should increase noticeably.

Making the cookie dough - Add in beaten egg and vanilla to creamed butter mixture. Beat until well combined. Next, stir in flour mixture and beat on low speed briefly until flour disappears. Scrape the sides and bottom of bowl well with a spatula.

Mash bananas using a fork. Fold in the mashed bananas to the flour-butter batter and mix well. Lastly, mix in the oats, chocolate chips and chopped walnuts with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Baking the cookies - Place heaped tablespoons of dough onto baking trays lined with baking/parchment paper, leaving some space (about 1.5 inch) between each cookie and bake for 12-13 minutes at 190 degrees C. Allow cookies to cool for about 3-5 minutes on tray before transferring to wire rack. When cookies have cooled completely, store them in air-tight containers.

Notes:
1) For a nuttier aroma, substitute 80g of plain flour with whole wheat flour.
2) Cookies are meant to be muffin/bread like. If baked slightly longer, the cookies will just turn out dry and would not be crunchy.

Nutella Goodness and Shrinking Cupcakes

2011-03-10T15:15:00.001+08:00

Something is bothering me recently. When I bake cupcakes these days, they shrink. And they do shrink quite a bit. I have noticed that cakes tend to shrink a little when they are cooling, be it chiffon cakes or butter cakes. For cupcakes, the shrinkage seems to be a lot more noticeable, especially when cupcakes are so tiny, compared to the majestic bundt or round cakes. It bothers me the most when my cupcakes shrink from the sides.

I felt embarrassed when my close friend asked why my cupcakes were not filled to the brim. The truth is, I did put enough batter to allow them to rise to the brim. Sadly, they shrank both from the sides and at the top upon cooling. If I had filled them with more batter, the cupcakes would have overflowed, something I totally dread and fear. The same shrinking issue popped up when I made cupcakes for a recent bloggers meetup. It seems that this problem surfaced recently after I tried out two new types of smaller size cupcake liners.

After googling on the internet, I am not the only one with shrinking cupcakes apparently. I think I need more time to adjust to my new cupcake liners. If all else fails, I will keep to my much more dependable larger-size cupcake liners.

Nutella Cupcakes (recipe adapted from I Can Bake by Agnes Chang)

Serving size: 13 cupcakes

Taste and texture: Cake is soft, moist and fluffy.
Equipment and materials:
1) Cupcake liners - 4.5cm from the base, 5cm in height
2) Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater
3) Spatula
4) Mixing bowls
5) Flour sieve
6) Weighing scale

Ingredients:
125g unsalted butter, softened
100g brown sugar
100g whole eggs, lightly beaten and at room temperature
150g self-raising flour
4 tbs sour cream or yoghurt, at room temperature
4-5 tbs Nutella

Making the cupcakes:
Preheat oven - Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Creaming the butter - In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar on medium-high speed until fluffy for about 3 minutes. Creamed butter should be noticeably larger in volume.

Adding eggs - Add in 1/3 of beaten eggs and beat until well combined. Repeat the process in 2 more additions with remaining eggs. If mixture curdles, beat in one tablespoon of flour and continue beating.

Incorporating flour and liquid - Sift in half the flour and beat to combine briefly on low speed until flour disappears and is evenly distributed. Add in all the sour cream or yoghurt and beat briefly to combine. Lastly, sift in the remaining flour and beat until mixture is well combined, about 2 minutes at most. Do not over-mix the batter.

Baking cupcakes - Spoon batter evenly onto cupcake liners. Cupcake liners should be halfway filled. Drop slightly less than half teaspoon of Nutella onto batter and use a toothpick to create swirls. Bake cupcakes for about 25 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Allow baked cupcakes to cool completely before storing them.

Notes:
1) Butter should be well creamed and eggs should not be cold to prevent curdling.
2) For bigger cupcake liners, fill up to two-thirds full with batter. For smaller cupcake liners, fill only up to one-third full.
3) Baking times will vary according to individual oven and size of cupcake liners.

Yammy Swiss Roll

2011-03-08T20:33:00.003+08:00

I think I have fallen in love with Swiss rolls these days, thanks to my friend for the trusty Swiss roll book that she has given me - 孟老师的美味蛋糕卷. It can be a challenge finding dependable baking books. Most books seem to scrimp on details when it comes to instructions and they would rather focus on quality styled food photography. This phenomenon seems to be more noticeable in asian bakebooks, where many a times I have spotted missing instructions, missing ingredients, blatantly wrong oven temperatures and the list goes on. Sometimes I wonder... Do the editors and authors ever bother to proof-read their work? There is no doubt that the recipes do work but I wished that more attention is paid to details.

In many aspects, this book puts many other authors to shame. The book starts off by informing the reader the conversions for the recipes when using different pan sizes. Subsequently, the author illustrates the making of 5 different kinds of sheet cakes with step-by-step photos. Next, she goes on to explain the preparation of different fillings, methods on rolling sheet cakes and introduces the required equipment and ingredients. The book comes with an instructional DVD which I have yet to use. Even without the guide of the DVD, I am able to follow her recipes and instructions with ease. If you are thinking of getting a book on Swiss rolls, you know which book to pick best.

This yam Swiss roll is the third recipe I am using from the same book. Previously, my yam Swiss roll broke while rolling as the sheet cake was too moist and it stuck to the baking paper. Hence, I have reduced the liquid contents this time. If you noticed, my swiss roll looks flat at the top. After I made my Swiss roll, I wrapped it up in baking paper and chilled it. I was unaware that my swiss roll was positioned upside-down, hence resulting in the flat top. I learnt something new again this time; remember to rest your Swiss roll upright.

Having tried two methods of cooking the yam - steaming and boiling, I find that it is more desirable to steam the yam as it produces a nicer flavour. When the yam is boiled, some of the flavour and nutrients are lost to the water. However, it takes nearly an hour or longer to steam the yam while it takes only 15-20 minutes to boil the yam till it is soft enough to mash.

*Yam is known as Taro in some countries and in America, sweet potatoes are known as yam.

Yam Swiss Roll (Recipe adapted from 孟老师的美味蛋糕卷)

Serving size: 8 to 10 slices
Taste and texture: Cake base is soft, moist and fluffy. Yam paste is smooth and carries a coconut fragrance.
Equipment and materials:
1) 12 x 12 inch pan or 10 x 14 inch pan
2) Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater
3) Spatula
4) Wire whisk/balloon whisk
5) Mixing bowls
6) Wire rack
7) Flour sieve
8) Parchment/baking paper
9) Brush for oiling pan
10) Weighing scale

Chiffon Cake Ingredients:
80g egg yolks, room temperature
25g castor sugar
2tbs + 1 tsp corn oil
2tbs + 1 tsp water or milk
75g cake flour
160g egg whites
60g castor sugar

Yam Paste:
275g yam
45g icing sugar
35g unsalted butter
3 tbs coconut milk

Making the yam paste:
Peel yam. Do not wash the yam. Cut the yam into small strips and steam on high heat for about 1 hour or until yam is very soft. Smash yam with two fork and mix well with icing sugar. Add in unsalted butter to combine. Lastly stir in the coconut milk and mix well. Yam paste should be smooth.

Making the chiffon sponge:
Prepare Oven and line pan - Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and line tin with baking/parchment paper.

Preparing the egg yolk mixture - In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, 25g castor sugar, vegetable oil and water until combined. Sift in cake flour to egg yolk mixture and mix until smooth and well combined.

Beating egg whites - In a metal bowl, beat eggs whites starting with low speed. When the egg whites turn frothy, slowly increase the speed to high and beat until egg whites are soft peaks (egg whites form peak that is drooping). Add the sugar (60g) slowly at this point and continue beating until egg whites are nearly stiff but still moist and not dry. This is when the bowl is overturned, the egg whites would not budge. Egg whites will form shiny and creamy upright peaks when beater is withdrawn. Take care not to overbeat the egg whites as they will become dry or may water out.

Folding egg whites into egg yolk mixture - Fold one third of beaten egg whites with a balloon whisk into egg yolk mixture to lighten and mix well. Incorporate another one third of the whites. Lastly, add the rest of the egg whites and fold gently to obtain a smooth uniformly coloured foamy batter. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl with a spatula to ensure batter is well mixed.

Baking the cake - Pour batter into a 12 x 12 inch tin or 10 x 14 inch lined swiss roll tin. Level the batter and bake for 8 - 11 minutes. Start checking for doneness at 8 mins. Cake is done when inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow sheet cake to cool.

Assembly:
Turning the cake out - Carefully turn the baked sheet cake onto a piece of baking/parchment paper. Slowly peel off the attached baking/parchment paper from the cake. Place a new piece of baking/parchment paper over the sponge. Invert the sponge again, carefully. Now, peel of the top piece of baking/parchment paper. The skin would be stuck to the baking/parchment paper and would be removed.

Rolling the cake - Make a few slits across the breadth of the cake at the side nearest to you with a knife. Apply yam paste evenly over the surface of the sheet cake. With the shorter side/breadth facing you (if using 10 x 14 inch pan), roll the cake up tightly to form a swiss roll. Trim both ends to get a presentable looking swiss roll.

Notes:
1) If sheet cake is too moist after baking and cooling, return it to the oven and bake it for a further 2-3 mins at 180 degrees C.
2) The icing sugar and butter is best combined with the yam when it is still hot.

Pandan Chiffon Cake II

2011-03-07T17:13:00.007+08:00

When I first started out baking, my first bake was a Pandan Chiffon Cake. Back then, I was browsing Bakingmum's blog and her bakes got me enticed. Without giving much thought, I plunged foolishly into making the highly temperamental chiffon cake. Needless to say, I ended up with five failures before I managed to get a decent chiffon cake. Had I known better, I would have started with simpler bakes.

It can be frustrating to bake chiffon cakes at times, especially when most recipes state the number of whites instead of the specific weight. Egg whites are the building blocks of a chiffon cake. How well a chiffon cake would turn out depends on the volume of egg whites and if they are whipped appropriately; almost stiff but still moist.

When whipping egg whites, a number of factors influence the resulting volume, such as: presence of fats (eg. traces of egg yolks) in the mixing bowl, on the beater or in the egg whites; temperature of whites; quality of eggs (my deduction); time when sugar is added to egg whites and most obviously the weight of egg whites used. Humidity might also play a part, since meringue is moisture sensitive. The amount of liquid is important too. If the cake is too moist, the weight of the cake may cause it to fall out of the tin when the tin is overturned to cool. Just my take on making of chiffon cakes.

For consistency, I will be baking chiffon cakes in future by weighing the egg whites, a cultivated practice/habit that is attributed to Rose's (Rose Levy Beranbaum) influence. After all, baking is an exact science where precise measurements are required for consistent results.

Pandan Chiffon Cake (Recipe slightly adapted from Bakingmum)

Serving size: 10-12 slices

Taste and texture: soft, light and fluffy.

Equipment and materials:
1) Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater
2) Measuring spoon set
3) Spatula
4) Mixing bowl
5) Metal bowl
5) Wire rack
6) 21 cm or 22cm chiffon tin (oil-free)
7) Balloon whisk

Ingredients:
1 tbs pandan juice (5 pandan leaves blended with 3 tbs water)
65g egg yolks
30g castor sugar
a pinch of salt
3 1/2 tbs corn oil
100ml coconut milk
3/4 tsp pandan paste
100g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
160g egg whites at room temperature
1/2 tsp cream of tartar (optional, I did not use this)
70g castor sugar

Method:
Preheat Oven - Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.

Mix dry ingredients - In a mixing bowl, sift cake flour and baking powder. Whisk using a balloon whisk to distribute the dry ingredients evenly.

Make pandan juice - Wash the pandan leaves and cut into thin strips. Blend with 3 tbs water. Add more water if needed. Pass the pandan puree through a sieve and set aside 1 tbs of the pandan juice.

Making the egg yolk batter - In a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, 30g sugar, salt, corn oil, coconut milk, pandan juice and pandan paste until smooth and combined. Stir in flour mixture into egg yolk mixture and mix until smooth and combined.

Beating egg whites - In a metal bowl, beat eggs whites on low speed until frothy. Add cream of tartar if using at this point. Continue beating and gradually increase speed to high until egg whites are at very soft peaks. Add remaining 70g sugar slowly and continue beating until egg whites are almost stiff but still moist. This is when the bowl is overturned, the egg whites would not budge. Egg whites form shiny and creamy upright peaks when beater is withdrawn.

Folding egg whites into egg yolk batter - Fold one third of beaten egg whites with a balloon whisk into egg yolk batter to lighten and mix well. Incorporate the rest of the egg whites and fold gently to obtain a smooth, uniformly coloured foamy batter. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl with a spatula to ensure batter is well mixed.

Baking the cake - Pour batter into chiffon cake tin carefully and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Invert chiffon cake tin to cool before unmoulding.

Notes:
1) Chiffon tin must be oil-free. Do not grease, line or flour the tin.
2) Metal bowl for beating whites and beater must be oil-free. Egg whites should be at room temperature. These are necessary to obtain maximum volume for beaten egg whites.
3) Batter should fill 2/3 of 21cm tin. My cake rose to almost the brim but deflated slightly upon cooling.
4) The batter should overflow if a 18cm chiffon tin is used.