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.
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 Taturacream 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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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 =]
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
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/sbeat 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.
She walked into my life in year 2000. Back then, I was having my December holidays and was waiting for my admission to Junior College. This girl spotted short black hair and she had the most vibrant smile that even the sun pales in comparision. It was love at first sight... Ten years have passed and she still holds a very special place in my heart. She loves music. In fact, she makes music. Her name is Stefanie Sun, an extraodinary girl who made a difference in my life and many others.
It has been a long wait and it is nearly 4 years since her last album. These 4 years seem like eternity... Now, she is finally back, with a upcoming brand new album which I am eagerly anticipating and I am sure that goes for her other fans out too. When her first hit single made its maiden debut on our local radio station, I could feel the nostalgia. It was a sense of familiarity. How I missed the times back then, when I would rush down to record stores to check if her albums has hit the shelves on the very first day of album release.
She is a good company and a great role model throughout all these years. I love her unpretentious attitude, her thoughtfulness, her kind-heartedness and her strength. Needless to say, I am infatuated with her music, her songs, and just everything about her. Thanks to her, I met a bunch of worthy, loyal and supportive friends over the years. We had our share of joy and sorrow, and shared memories we would foolishly laugh at upon recollection.
The bunch of us gathered for our usual Chinese New Year steamboat at J's place. I am not quite a fan of steamboat generally, but this dinner is one which I always look forward to, filled with endless dose of fun and laughter. I've been offically named 'Grandpa' among the bunch this year, adding another nickname along to my baking persona 'Bakertan'. For the occasion,I baked a chocolate layer cake with orange cream cheese frosting which was meant as a backup cake.
Originally, I had intended for a tiramisu layer cake. It fell short of expectations as the texture seemed grainy due to the gelatine solution setting prematurely causings lumps to form. Due to a lack of time, I decided to work on a layer cake which involved much less work and I think would at least turn out to be presentable. Hence, the chocolate layer cake with orange cream cheese frosting was born. Nevertheless, I brought both cakes along. This has to be the first time ever that I am doing 2 birthday cakes on the same day for the same person.
The chocolate layer cake with cream cheese frosting worked out great. If I were to fault it, it would be the height of the chocolate layers, for they are too short for the amount of frosting. With thicker layers, the chocolate cake would be perfect. Thankfully, the tiramisu didn't fare too badly and it wasn't noticeablely grainy.
I will be making this chocolate layer cake again with taller layers, hence I shall only be sharing the orange cream cheese frosting recipe, which is ridiculously simply and fuss free to put together but yields great results nonetheless. The best part about this frosting is that it has a lot less sugar compared to most frostings.
Orange Cream Cheese Frosting ( recipe adapted from Chocolate Ephipany from Francois Payard)
Serving size: enough to frost one 3 layer cake
Taste and texture: citrusy and creamy
Equipment and materials:
1) Handheld/stand mixer
2) Mixing bowl
3) Measuring scale
Ingredients:
440g cream cheese, softened
140g unsalted butter, softened
100g icing sugar
3 tbs orange juice (one tbs at a time)
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 (by the tablespoon to your desired consistency) and orange zest and continue beating until mixture is well combined.
Notes:
1) Cream cheese frosting holds its shape well unrefrigerated.
2) Flavour can be varied using lemon, calamansi, grapefruit or yuzu instead of orange.
3) Grate the zest over the frosting to allow the orange oil to seep into the frosting.
4) Do not omit zest as it is imparts a great deal of citrus flavour.
5) When using it for any cake, let the frosted cake sit at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours if you have the time, the cake will become really moist. That's what happened to my chocolate cake when I let it sit for a few hours.
6) Add more icing sugar if required.
These days, most fellow bloggers seem to be busy with baking cookies for the coming Chinese New Year. In Singapore, you can find most Chinese households stocking up on tubs of cookies and goodies - cashew cookies, green pea cookies, almond cookies, sugee cookies, pineapple tarts etc. Among these goodies, pineapple tarts have to be the most popular. With all these goodies around and the usual Chinese New Year feastings, it is hard to prevent ending up gaining some extra pounds.
I haven't quite started on any Chinese New Year baking yet and it is rather late to say, since Chinese New Year is approaching in less than 2 weeks time. There are so many goodies that I am itching to try out but I feel that I do not have the energy (or maybe because I am lazy..) to go on a baking spree. As each day pass, I remain clueless as to what goodies to churn out for the coming Chinese New Year. Maybe I will just keep it simple and take things a step at a time. If I do manage to bake anything, I will be participating in Aspiring Bakers Challenge #3.
I am glad to say that my momentum is coming back! Whew.. Time to get the momentum into swing and kick some ass in the kitchen, lol... Two days back, I made some cream cheese marble brownies. Baking brownies is a simple affair as compared to other bakes out there. There was once I made 3 different dark chocolate brownies consecutively in a week. An idea came to mind a few days back. These sweet treats will be great for Valentine's day as an alternative to chocolates.
I passed some of these brownies to my buddy K and my baking buddy Stephanie. Both gave postive feedbacks. K commented that its nice and not too sweet. Stephanie feels that its chocolatey followed by cream cheesey and its not sweet too. It was a bit soft for her though. For me, I thought that the cream cheese taste came first followed by the chocolate instead. It was quite an obvious layered taste, where one taste came right after the other. The only part that I feel could be improved was the height of the brownies (only about 1 cm tall!). They seemed a little short. Looking at the amount of batter, a smaller pan would be more appropriate.
Overall, the recipe is not too shabby, yielding tender not too rich brownies that were neither fudgy nor cakey nor dry. The firmness could be altered by controlling the baking time, adding more flour or chilling according to one's preference.
Cream Cheese Marble Brownies (recipe adapted from Biscuit Code by Florence Tan)
Chocolate Batter:
120g finely chopped dark chocolate (about 60%)
85g unsalted butter
95g castor sugar
100g whole eggs, at room temperature
85g plain flour
pinch of salt
1 tbs Kahlua/ Bailey's (optional)
Cheese mixture:
60g unsalted butter, soften at room temperature
180g cream cheese, softened at room temperature
55g castor sugar
50g whole egg, at room temperature
2 tbs flour
1 tsp vanilla
Ingredients: Preheat Oven - Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Melt chocolate and butter - Sit a heatproof bowl over pan filled with water. The base of the bowl should not be touching the water. Place dark chocolate and 85g butter in the heatproof bowl. Bring water in the pan to a low simmer to melt the chocolate and butter douber-boiler). Stir gently to combine. After chocolate and butter have melted, remove bowl from heat and allow it to cool.
Making chocolate batter - In a mixing bowl, whisk sugar and eggs with a wire whisk briefly to dissolve the sugar. Stir in flour and salt to combine. Next, add in the cooled chocolate butter mixture and Kahlua/Bailey's. Mix well to combine. Scrap sides and bottom of mixing bowl to incoporate stray flour and ingredients.
Making cream cheese batter - In a separate mixing bowl, beat butter, cream cheese and sugar until smooth and fluffy. Add in egg and beat well to combine, scraping sides and bottom of bowl when necessary.
Baking the brownies - Pour half of chocolate batter into a lined 8 x 8 inch square tin and level the surface. Spread cream cheese batter over the layer of chocolate batter. Scoop teaspoons of remaining chocolate batter randomly over the cream cheese layer. Use a toothpick or knife and swirl to create a marbling effect. Take carew not to over-swirl.
Bake for 30 minutes at 180 degrees C. The top should be crusty and dull. When lightly pressed on the surface, the underneath feels semi-firm. Cool baked brownie in tin for 45mins before removing to cool completely on wire rack. Serve chilled or at room temperature as desired.
Notes:
1) Chill to get a firm brownie or eat at room temperature if a soft brownie is desired
Earlier, my apple-upside down cheesecake vanished without a trace. This time round, I made sure that the same thing would not happen again.
I baked a cookies and cream cheesecake meant for my friend's birthday. To me, cookies and cream cheesecakes are no different from Oreo cheesecakes. If it has to be a chocolate sandwich cookie, the choice would be none other than Oreo.
Unlike the previous attempt, I decided to tweak the filling a little and simply added some finely ground Oreo cookies to the filling, hoping to achieve a texture similiar to that of cookies and cream ice cream, cream coloured with tiny flecks of Oreo. I ended up being too generous with the addition and the cheesecake filling turned out to a greyish-brown hue.
When the cheesecake was cooling down on a wire rack, the filling appeared to have totally set. From my previous experiences, baked cheesecakes were supposed to be softly set instead while cooling on the wire rack. It then ocurred to me that I have probably overestimated and overbaked the cheesecake. Pressing down on the surface of the cheesecake with my index finger, the surface was dry and would not give way under pressure. It seemed as though the cheesecake needed no further chilling in the refrigerator for the final firming up. Even though I had the hunch that the cheesecake would turn out rock hard after chilling, I chucked the cheesecake into the refrigerator as usual.
Decorating the cake was easy. It only involved placing Oreo sandwich cookies near the edges round the cheesecake. Some finely ground oreo crumbs were sprinkled in the middle for a final touch. After everything was in place, all I had to do was wait for the results.
Before the cutting of cake, I warned and apologized to my friend that I might have overbaked the cake. It turned out that my worries were unfounded. Whew! The Oreo cheesecake was desirably dense and smooth in the mouth. Nope, not dry at all as I had thought. I had been duped.
Cookies and Cream Cheesecake a.k.a Oreo Cheesecake:( Recipe adapted from Cheesecake Seduction by Catherine Lau)
Serving size: 12 slices Taste and texture: Dense and thick but not dry. Shorten baking time to get a less dense and creamier texture. Equipment and materials:
1) Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater
2) Food processor/ rolling pin
3) Measuring spoon set
4) Spatula
5) Mixing bowls
6) Wire rack
7) 9 inch springform tin
8) Baking tray larger than springform tin
9) Aluminium foil
Cheesecake filling: 500g cream cheese, softened
120g castor sugar
200ml whipping cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs, lightly beaten
10 g Oreo cookies, cream removed and finely ground (This is optional. I used 30g Oreo sandwich cookies with cream removed and the cheesecake filling turned out very dark as depicted in pictures)
9 oreo sandwich cookies with cream filling, coarsely chopped (use hands to break into coarse bits) or 90g coarsely chopped Oreo cookies with cream removed.
Toppings 9 Oreo sandwich cookies 1 Oreo sandwich cookie, cream removed and finely ground
Method: Making the base: Prepare biscuit base as mentioned in Preparing a Cheesecake Tin. Freeze prepared base for 10 minutes or until ready for use.
Preparing the oven: Preheat oven to 150 degrees C
Preparing cheesecake filling: Beat cream cheese and sugar untill creamy on medium speed. Add whipping cream and vanilla extract to cream cheese mixture on low speed. Beat until smooth and incorporated. Do not overbeat else the cream may separate (due to excessive beating), resulting in a grainy batter. Lastly, add the eggs and beat until combined on low speed.
Adding in cookies to cheesecake filling: Add in the finely ground cookie crumbs from 10g Oreo cookies (with cream removed) to the prepared cheesecake filling. Next, mix in the finely ground cookie crumbs a little at a time. Stop adding once you are satisfied with the colour. The objective is to obtain a texture similar to cookies and cream ice cream with tiny flecks of Oreo cookie. (This step is optional)
Lastly, fold in the coarsely chopped cookie bits, with or without cream filling as desired.
Baking the cheesecake: Pour filling onto biscuit base. Wrap top and sides of spring form tin with aluminium foil as mentioned in Preparing a Cheesecake Tin. Bake at 150 degrees C for 1 hour 15 minutes in a water bath. The filling should be set and will not jiggle much when pan is moved.
Cooling the cheesecake:When baked, allow cheesecake to cool in the oven with oven door ajar for 30 minutes. Remove the tin from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. Place cooled cheesecake tin in the refrigerator and chill for 4-6 hours. Dislodge chilled cheesecake from cheesecake tin.
Decorating the cheesecake: To decorate the cheesecake, place the 9 Oreo sandwich cookies near the edge and around the cake. Sprinkle with oreo cookie crumbs in the centre. Serve cheesecakes chilled.
Notes: 1) To slice cheesecake nicely, wipe the knife after each slice with kitchen towel/s. 2) To smooth the sides of the cheesecake, dip a knife in hot water. Wipe the knife dry and run it around the perimeter of the cheesecake. Repeat the step if necessary.
3) This recipe uses 3 to 4 tubular packs (150g per tube) of Oreo cookies.
4) I baked the cheesecake for 1 hour 45 minutes resulting in a very dense texture. Any longer and the cheesecake would dry out.
