Stephanie's Birthday Cake

When I knew Stephanie's birthday (my  baking buddy) was approaching, I offered to bake her a cake. After knowing that the cake-cutting will be done at her home, I decided to bake a Strawberry Yoghurt Mousse Cake. If she had decided to have the cake elsewhere, I would not have chosen a mousse cake since mousse cakes do not hold their shapes well and can pose as a serious headache during transportation. There was once I transported this very same mousse cake in its cake ring to a chalet, fearing that the cake will collapse without warming from lack of refrigeration throughout the journey.

Since this was my 3rd attempt on the Strawberry Yoghurt Mousse Cake, I was confident of the outcome, be it the taste and texture. The cake is very light in texture and on the palate as opposed to rich cakes. I remember eating slice after slice of it and almost polished off almost 80% of the cake on the same day when I first baked it. Now you know my verocious appetite for cakes.

When baking layer cakes, the task that always leave me clueless is the decoration. I had no idea on how to proceed with the creaming for this cake. Somehow, my mind was prompted to pipe mini rosettes all around the perimeter and strawberry halves were placed in a circular fashion resting on the rosettes. It is a fuss-free solution and it yields good results.

I am glad that the cake was well received by Stephanie, her friends and her family. Happy Birthday Stephanie! It is always a rewarding experience baking birthday cakes for friends and family members.  


Instagram link: http://instagram.com/bakertanbakes

Cake Project 5: Summer Passion Cake and Bee Happy!

Its another cake project! October is a busy month for me, when most of my close friends are having their birthdays. This is the second birthday cake I baked in the same month and its a rather elaborate one, which means lots of work involved. Tiring.... whew!

Since the cake is meant for my friend's 21st birthday, I wanted to make a layer cake that is really memorable for her. It would have to be both aesthetically appealing and pleasing to the tastebuds. After discussing and exchanging ideas with another friend, Aud, we had some good ideas coming in. Here's the blueprint:

• Sponge Layers: Using my trusty chiffon cake sponge recipe in most of my layer cakes. Its great as a cake base. Moist, fluffy and tender crumbed.
• Homemade Strawberry jam: Get fresh rosy red strawberries and churn them into a nice sweet-tart jam to be spreaded onto the sponge cake layers. Recipe is adapted from Happy Homebaking's Double Berry Confiture.
• Passionfruit Buttercream Frosting and Filling: Flavour a basic swiss meringue buttercream with passionfruit flavour using fresh passionfruits. The passionfruit buttercream will be filled onto the jam layer and the entire cake will be frosted with the passionfruit buttercream. (I flavoured with passionfruit juice with a little lemon juice to heighten the flavour)
• Shape of Cake and Decorations: 9 inch square cake with piped stars around the border. A picture of a pink coloured bee will be drawn in the middle using piping gel/jelly. I derived the insipration from neighbourhood confectionaries as most of the birthday cakes they offer use a lot of piping gel for decoration in the form of cartoon characters like SpongBob etc. Thanks to Wendy, I confirmed that the material used for all these cake graphics is piping gel/ jelly.

The reason why we thought of the bee picture is because the birthday girl is named Bee, and pinkbee is her nickname (reminds me of a blogger friend Bee Bee who has a similar name). Now, that sounds like an enormous challenge to me. It was my first at attempt making homemade jam and drawing using piping gel. I get the jitters sometimes when I attempt something new. Its the worry of coping with the unfamiliar. Things may or may not turn out as planned. This time, I felt a somewhat adventurous spirit in me. My limited drawing ability would not deter me from completing the bee picture. ( I did thought of chickening out initially due to a lack of confidence, but I carried out the task anyway since I had bought the piping gel and thanks to encouragement given by Pei-Lin)

I was glad to have Aud helping me out with part of the caking making, namely the buttercream and baking the sponge cake. If not for her, I would have taken a much longer time to complete the entire cake, with all the measuring of ingredients and washing up of pans and bowls, some of which needed to be reused.

Making the strawberry jam was a breeze. First, wash and slice the strawberries into small chunks. Add sugar and mix well with the strawberry chunks and allow to sit for some time. This will draw out the juice. Bring the mixture to a boil and it will thicken nicely. Tada! There you have, a nice homemade strawberry jam. I followed Happy Homebaker's advice and added some lemon juice, which is supposed to help the jam gel together. It also adds a nice tartness to the jam. The steps were easy to follow and yielded a promising result; one of the best strawberry jam I had! Would not hestitate to attempt making jam again when the occasion arises.

We had intended the cake to be a 9 inch square. After trimming the sides, it shrank to an 8 inch square. I gathered all the cake trimmings and sampled them with the remaining jam. Yummy~! It has a summery fruity sweet taste with a pleasant tang. Since the fruits used were kind of summer related, I decided to name the cake as Summer Passion Cake. The first name that came to mind was Whispers of Summer, but that was'nt original as it is the name of a fruit juice drink I like from Ceres. I could'nt stop sampling and all the cake trimmings were gone in two days. (there is quite abit of cake trimmings). Oops! I actually ate the cake even before before the cake cutting. (*feels a little guilty, well maybe not, haha)

As you can see, the above are my drawing tools. No palette and paint brushes used. No artist hat and drawing stand either. Just my chef hat and my apron. Haha, just kidding =].  My piping bags are home-improvised using freezer bags. Sometimes, I would use ziplop bags. These work pretty well and can be used for various purposes like storing buttercream and frostings etc. The bottle on the right is the piping gel/jelly used, obtained from Phoon Huat.

You might be wondering why there are toothpicks lying around. These are my 'pencils', used for sketching the bee picture. Firstly, I googled and selected the bee picture I had in mind. I then copied it down on paper as I do not own a printer. With the original bee picture beside me on paper and the cake in front of me, I began to do the initial outlining using a toothpick. If the sketching is out of porportion, simply wipe it away using a spatula. It will smooth the buttercream surface and act as an eraser.

After the initial sketching is done, pipe black coloured piping gel (mix some black colouring into a portion of the gel) onto the outline.The piping gel has the consistency of jam and is rather easy to control. So no worries about it overflowing and messing up the surface. Once the black outlining is done, fill up the necessary places with the desired colouring and you have a nice picture with a glossy stain glass effect. I mixed a little jam into the gel as I did not have any red colouring on hand. Just realised that I used more jam than I should and it turned out red instead of pink only after the picture was done.

The making of the Summer Passion Cake was a great success and I had loads of fun! Imagine me going on a baking adventure likened to a roller-coaster ride. Too bad Aud missed out on all the fun part, especially the drawing of the bee. I'm going to think of more opportunities to work with piping gel in future. I think I found my niche in baking and its going to be cakes and the likes of it; cupcakes, layer cakes, swiss rolls and cheesecakes; since its the area I am more proficient in and enjoy the most. Not into fondant making at the moment yet. I might get too addicted if I start making them.

Erm... looks like I am getting long-winded these days, even more so when I typed my recipe and instructions. Maybe due to influence from a certain friend, haha...

Summer Passion Cake ( Sponge Cake recipe adapted from 超人气香港蛋糕56款)

Serving size: 12 - 14 slices
Taste and texture: Cake base is soft, moist and fluffy. Passionfruit lemon buttercream is smooth,creamy, buttery and fruity.
Equipment and materials:
1) 9 x 9 inch sqaure pan
2) 10 inch square cake board
3) Cake leveller or palette/serrated knife longer than 9 inches
4) Balloon/wire whisk
5) Rubber spatula
6) Handheld beater/Stand beater
7) Baking paper
8) Wire rack
9) Toothpicks/wooden skewer
10) Flour sieve
11) Mixing bowls
12) Cake turntable (optional)
13) Piping tip/s
14) Piping bag/s, ziplock bags, freezer bags
15) Coupler for piping

Chiffon Sponge Cake (3 layers):
6 egg yolks, room temperature (55-60g eggs)
65g caster sugar
75g vegetable oil
75g water
130g cake flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
6 egg whites, room temperature (55-60g eggs)
65g caster sugar

Homemade Strawberry Jam:
500g strawberries
130g sugar
2 tbs lemon juice

Swiss Meringue Passionfruit lemon Buttercream:
195g egg whites
245g granulated sugar
420g unsalted butter, softened but still cold
100 - 125ml passionfruit juice + 2 tbs lemon juice ( juice from 18 passionfruits. strain the seeds. use passionfruit concentrate if possible, add a little 1 tbs at a time to taste) alternatively, omit the passionfruit juice and use 100 -125ml lemon juice instead.

Making the Chiffon Sponge Cake:
Prepare Oven: Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.

Prepare flour mixture: Whisk sifted flour and sifted baking powder in a large bowl to combine.

Making the egg yolk batter: Place egg yolks, 65g caster sugar, oil and water in a large bowl. Mix well with a wire whisk untill the mixture is evenly mixed. Add the flour mixture in and whisk to obtain a smooth and thick batter.

Beating egg whites: Next, whisk 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 just 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.

Folding in egg whites: Using a ballon 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 inch square pan and bake at 160 degrees C for 25 -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 on cooling. Unmould sponge cake and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Making the Strawberry Jam:
Wash and slice the strawberries: Wash the strawberries well. Drain the water and remove the leaves. Slice them into small chunks. The chunks will break up when cooked.

Mix strawberries with sugar: Mix the sliced strawberries with sugar and leave it to sit for 30 minutes. The juice will be drawn out.

Cooking the jam: Bring the strawberry mixture, together with the juice to boil in a stainless steel pot or saucepan (do not use aluminium, cast iron or copper pans) over medium heat. Stir the jam constantly. The jam will thicken and start to foam when it boils. Scoop off the excess foam and continue stirring.

Lower the flame and keep it at a medium simmer. Continue stirring and the jam should become thicker and transparent, no longer foamy. Add in the lemon juice slowly and continue to simmer for another 2minutes. Allow jam to cool before using.

Preparing the Swiss Meringue Passionfruit Lemon Buttercream:
Dissolve sugar in egg whites: Place 195 egg whites and 245g 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. This is known as a double boiler. 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 and the mixture is warm to the touch (test by inserting your finger). Take care not to scramble the egg whites.

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 passionfruit juice: Beat in 420g butter into the beaten egg whites in 3 batches, ensuring each batch is incoporated before adding the next. The egg whites will deflate furiously when butter is added. Continue beating until the mixture is creamy and fluffy (Initially when the butter is added, the mixture may become watery. As more butter is added and the mixture is continually beaten, the buttercream thickens up). Lastly, beat in the passionfruit juice to flavour.

Assembly, filling and frosting:
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 cake board, slide the tart tin base or cake board under a sponge layer and carefully transport the sponge layer onto a 9 inch square cake board. This is to prevent the sponge layer from breaking.

Spread a thin layer of jam evenly onto the first layer. Fill the first layer (on top of the jam layer) evenly with 230g of buttercream using a palette knife or spatula. Place a second sponge layer carefully over the filled 1st layer and align it properly with the 1st layer. Repeat the spreading of jam and filling of buttercream for the 2nd sponge layer.

Once the filling is done for the first two sponge layers, add the 3rd sponge layer and align it well with the first two layers. You may want to trim the four sides to get a nice even square. For the 3rd sponge layer, do the crumb coat on the surface as well as for the sides of the cake. This means spreading a little buttercream evenly over the cake surface to seal the crumbs. Once the crumb coat is done, add more buttercream to the surface and sides of the cake and smooth the buttercream using the palette knife. There should be some leftover buttercream for piping.

Piping Patterns: Fill a piping bag fitted with a star tip and pipe stars at the border. Add colouring to frosting if desired. I used wilton star tip no.4.

Drawing with Piping Gel/Jelly: Steps are mentioned above.

Notes:
1) Store cake in airtight container in the refrigerator to prevent cake from drying out after slicing.
2) Buttercream recipe can be altered and flavoured acording to taste as desired. For example, strawberry, coffee, rum, Ribena and orange flavoured buttercream. Jam or cordials would work well as flavourings.
2) The buttercream will hold at most 150ml of liquid. Hence, jam, cordials and concentrates are best for flavouring. In this case, using passionfruit concentrate will produce a buttercream with a stronger flavour.

Cake project 2 - Puffy Strawberry Napolean Shortcake

My friend came over my place on 2 consecutive days this week to bake a cake for her mum's birthday.  She suggested baking a napolean cake. This is the first time I had heard of this cake.

The traditional Napolean cake is made of 3 layers of puff pastry sandwiched with layers of  pastry cream or sometimes whipped cream. However, that was not what we planned. She suggested including sponge cake layers along with the puff pastry. I felt confident doing the sponge layers but was unsure about working with puff pastry as it was something I have not tried working with. So, we decided to get ready made puff pastry.

So the grand plan was born. The idea is to construct a cake consisting of 3 layers of puffy pastry coupled with 2 sponge cake layers. In between the sponge cake layers and puff pastry layers will be vanilla whipped cream with fresh strawberries. 

On the first day, things went smoothly with the sponge cake. When it came to preparing the puff pastry, things seemed a little out place. It was difficult to roll the puff pastry to a uniform thickness and into a square. When the pastry was baked, it was a mix of flaky and doughy texture. As it was getting late, we had to carry on with the remaining tasks the next day. As for the baked puff pastry, I did not dump it into the bin but matched it with ice cream. The combination proved to be a good one - an ice-cream strudel, puffy and ice cold creamy.

The next day, we tried out a different brand of puff pastry. On the second attempt, the puff pastry is butter based as compared to the first which is made of margarine. The butter puff pastries were shaped nicely into squares of uniform thickness, saving us the time to roll them. After baking, the butter puff pastries turned out better in terms of texture and appearance - crispy and golden brown.

With the barrier overcame, assembling the cake was the final hurdle. First step of assembling involved trimming the 3 puff pastries layer to the same shape as the sponge cake. The sponge cake was evenly sliced into 2 layers with the aid of a wilton cake leveller,a trusty cake tool I keep around for assembling layered cakes. To make the vanilla cream, we simply added icing sugar and vanilla extract and whipped the cream till it peaked. Lastly, freshly bought dark red strawberries were sliced and set aside.

To complete the cake project, a layer of puff pastry was laid on the cake board. Strawberries were added and a layer of cream was spreaded evenly over the puff pastry. A sponge layer was adhered onto the layer of cream. Another layer of cream and strawberries was then added to the top of the sponge layer. The layering of cream and strawberries continued whenever a puff pastry layer or sponge layer was added. In total, the cake consists of 3 puff pastry layers, 2 sponge cake layers and 4 vanilla cream and strawberries layers.

I was pretty eager to know the verdict of the taste and texture of the cake. My friend commented that the puff pastry layer was not as crunchy as it was when we first baked it. Her mum enjoyed the cake though. Perhaps we were too generous with the cream, resulting in the puff pastry turning soggy. Looking at the pictures, the sponge layer looked somewhat a little thick. A shortcake that is nowhere short.

Puffy Strawberry Napolean Shortcake
Equipement: 8 inch square cake tin, cake leveller or large serrated knife longer than 8 inches, baking/cookie tray, 9 inch square cake board

Sponge Cake:
5 egg yolks
55g caster sugar
60g vegetable oil
60g water
110g cake flour
1/2 + 1/8 tsp baking powder
5 egg whites
55 sugar

Preparing Sponge cake:
1) Preheat oven to 160 degrees C
2) Place egg yolks, 55g caster sugar, oil and water in a large bowl. Beat with electric mixer on medium high speed until thickened and fluffy (ribbon stage), about 10 minutes. The batter should increase in volume about 4 times and when the beater is lifted, the falling batter will leave a visible trail on the rest of the batter. The falling batter will not level with the rest of the batter immediately.
3) Whisk flour and baking powder in a large bowl to combine. Sift the flour mixture into beaten egg yolks in 3 batches and fold each batch gently using a ballon whisk. The volume will decrease due to inflating of egg yolk batter. Be sure to fold gently to prevent excessive deflating. Use a spatula to scrape sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure flour mixture is evenly incorporated.
4) In a clean metal bowl, whisk egg whites on low speed. Increase speed slowly to medium and beat untill egg whites are foamy. Gradually increase speed to high and add the other 55g of sugar gradually. Beat untill egg whites are stiff but moist looking. 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.
5) Using a ballon 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 in another 2 batches. 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.
6) Pour batter into a greased and lined 8 inch square pan and bake at 160 degrees C for 30 - 35 minutes. Test doneness using a skewer or toothpick.
7) Unmould sponge cake and leave to cool on wire rack.
8) Slice of the part that has domed. Slice cake into 2 layers.

Puff pastry
3 square sheets of puff pastry larger than 8 x 8 inches
1 egg mixed with 1 tbs caster sugar

Preparing Puff Pastry:
1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees C
2) Brush egg wash over the surface of a puff pastry sheet.
3) Bake puff pastry on a lined cookie/baking tray for 15 -18 minutes until top is puffy and golden.
4) Remove puff pastry and allow to cool. The bottom will be oily and soggy
5) Flip the baked puff pastry and bake the bottom (now facing up) for another 15-18 minutes. Both sides should be crispy when properly baked. Leave to cool.
6) Repeat steps 2) to 5) for the other 2 puff pastries.
7) Place the 8 inch square baking tray on top of a puff pastry. Trim puff pastry to 8 x 8 inches following the outline of the tin using a sharp knife. Repeat for the other 2 puff pastry sheets.

Cream layer:
400ml chilled whipping cream (we used dairy whipping cream)
2 tbs icing sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
350g ripe strawberries

Preparing Cream Layer:
1) Place chilled whipping cream in a mixing bowl. Add the sugar and vanilla extract.
2) Beat on low speed to combine sugar, whipping cream and vanilla extract. Add more sugar and/or vanilla if desired.
3) Continue beating on medium high speed till creamy and stiff. The cream should hold its shape well and the cream will not budge much when bowl is overturned. Do not overbeat else the cream will separate into butter and water.
4) Wash and remove leaves and stems from strawberries. Cut 2/3 of the strawberries into thin slices. Set aside the rest for decorations.

Assembly:
1) Place a layer of square puff pastry on a 9 inch square cake board.
2) Arrange a layer of strawberry slices on top of the puff pastry, leaving a small border at the edges.
3) Apply a thin layer of cream evenly over the strawberries, enough to cover them and filling the entire square.
4) Place a sponge cake layer over the strawberries and cream.
5) Repeat steps 2) and 3) on the 1st sponge cake layer.
6) Next, place a 2nd  layer of puff pastry over the cream layer.
7) Repeat steps 2) and 3) on the 2nd puff pastry layer.
8) Next, place a 2nd sponge cake layer over the strawberries and cream.
9) Repeat steps 2) and 3) on the 2nd sponge cake layer.
10) Next, place a 3rd layer of puff pastry over the cream layer. Cake is fully assembled.
11) Dust top of assembled cake with icing sugar and decorate with remaining strawberries.

Instagram link: http://instagram.com/bakertanbakes

Strawberry Yoghurt Mousse Cake

My mum got me a cake book when she was in Taiwan - 超人气香港蛋糕56款. After browsing some of the cakebooks around, she decided that the cakes in this book look interesting and delicious. When I got hold of the book, I was fascinated at first sight~ However, it did not take more than mere minutes for disappointment to be written over my face. The book look promising with its recipes, but there were some major drawbacks that could potentially undermine the confidence of the reader.

One major letdown was the missing pan sizes. Pan sizes are important. They are the very basic information that the baker should have, along with the ingredient list and baking temperature. Does that mean that the reader has to trial and error or base on his own judgement what the requirement pan sizes are? Apart from that, there were missing instructions and the steps were too briefly written, kind of slipshod in a way. Good thing I could figure out what the required steps are base on my shallow experience.

As I have bought a pound of strawberries which were on sale recently, I decided that a strawberry mousse cake would put them to good use. That would use up whatever remaining cream I had left in the fridge too.

This is the second time attempting a recipe from this book. The first recipe I attempted was a mango mousse cake. It did not turn out to match my expectations. The genoise sponge for the mango mousse cake was dry and the mango mousse did not have much mango flavour. Learning the lessons from the previous attempt, I decided I would never use a genoise sponge cake as a base again. It is far too dry to be suitable for use in layer cakes. Some books recommend that genoise sponge layers be brushed with a layer of syrup but I have yet to try that out. 

After some careful considerations and planning, I used a sponge cake recipe which required the separation of eggs. The choice was a good one and the sponge layers turn out soft and moist.

Making the strawberry mousse was an enjoyable process. I was doing taste-testing while mixing the ingredients. When the mousse was done and the cake layering was carried out in the cake ring, I crossed my fingers and hoped that the strawberry mousse cake would hold its shape well after chilling. To my pleasant surprise, everything went very smoothly. The cake firmed up well and all I did was to top it with chopped strawberries to decorate. 

The success of this baking session boosted my confidence for the recipes in the book. I would surely refer back for ideas on tantalizing cakes.

Tastewise, this cake promises a very light mousse layer with natural strawberry yoghurt flavour and soft moist sponge layers.

Strawberry Yogurt Mousse Cake ( Recipe adapted from 超人气香港蛋糕56款)
Taste and Texture: Fruity strawberry mousse layers with moist and light sponge
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:

4 egg yolks, room temperature ( from eggs weighing 60g each with shells on)

40g caster sugar

4tbs vegetable oil

3 tbs water

95g cake flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

4 egg whites, room temperature (from eggs weighing 60g each with shells on)

40g caster sugar

Method:

Prepare Oven: Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.

Prepare flour mixture: Whisk flour and baking powder in a large bowl to combine

Making the egg yolk batter Place egg yolks, 40g caster sugar, oil and water in a large bowl. Beat with electric mixer until thickened and fluffy (ribbon stage), about 10 minutes. The batter should increase in volume about 4 times and when the beater is lifted, the falling batter will leave a visible trail on the rest of the batter. The falling batter will not level with the rest of the batter immediately.

Folding flour into egg yolk batter: Sift the flour mixture into beaten egg yolks in 3 batches and fold gently using a ballon whisk. The volume will decrease due to inflating. Be sure to fold gently to prevent excessive deflating. 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 untill egg whites are foamy. Gradually increase speed to high and add the rest of the sugar gradually. Beat untill egg whites are stiff. 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 ballon 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. Fold 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.

Stawberry Yoghurt Mousse:

140g strawberry yoghurt ( I used Meiji strawberry yoghurt, 1 small tub)

45g - 75g caster sugar

210g fresh stawberry puree

300g cream, whipped until stiff

10g gelatine powder soaked in 40g water

strawberries for decorating 

Method:

Preparing strawberry yoghurt mixture: Blend strawberry puree, sugar and yoghurt together. Use 45g sugar for a slightly tart taste. For a sweeter taste use 75g sugar.

Making gelatine solution: Soak gelatine and 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 strawberry yoghurt mousse: Combine gelatine mixture and strawberry yoghurt mixture. Lastly, fold in whipped cream to obtain a smooth pale pink mousse.

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 the cake ring supported by a cake board below. There should some allowance surrounding the sponge layer. Pour half of the mousse over the 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. 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 more until mousse 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.

Decorations: Decorate with whipped cream and sliced strawberries as desired.

Note:

1) The strawberry yoghurt is very soft and creamy, almost ungelatinous in texture. Do not leave the cake unchilled for long period of time. The cake may not hold its shape well.

Instagram link: http://instagram.com/bakertanbakes