Heavenly Golden Apple-licious Upside-down Cake

Since my last fateful encounter with Golden Delicious Apples, I have not had any chance to see these precious gems in the supermarket. Do not confuse these apples with the Red Delicious variety. While the name may be similar, the taste and texture are vastly different. Golden Delicious Apples have a semi-crisp bite and are juicy sweet with a very slight hint of tartness. On the other hand, Red Delicious Apples are my least favourite variety, and its been so long since I ate one that I have forgotten the taste of it.

While I was keeping a lookout for Golden Delicious Apples at Jurong Point Ntuc Extra, I was pleasantly surprised to see two batches of green apples lying in the same area. Immediately, I recognized the familiar yellow-green colour of the Golden Delicious Apples. Elated with my find, I grabbed close to a dozen apples and made my way to the counter for payment. 

With my newly bought apples, a few baked goods came to mind - an apple upside-down cake and an french apple tart. Few weeks earlier, I baked an apple upside-down cake using one of my favourite cakebook: Rose's Heavenly Cakes. Sadly, I did not have my camera on hand then and hence missed the opportunity to blog about it. After that incident, I swear that I will bake this cake again soon, simply because this cake is too heavenly for me to get it off my mind.

When I first prepared the caramel, the sugar burnt due to the high heat. On the second attempt, I made sure the flame was kept to a minimum. Thankfully, the caramel turned out smoothly. I did not wait for the caramel to turn deep amber and poured it into the lined cake tin.

After the caramel cooled, arranging the apples was much less worrying. I arranged the apples in a circular fashion in the middle of the tin and left a small uncovered circular patch. The arrangement continued to the outer perimeter until the whole tin was filled. Finally, the left over few pieces were used to cover the circular bald patch in the center.

The last time I baked this cake, I substituted a whole egg for an egg yolk and used the conventional butter creaming method. The resultant cake ended up with giant holes. This time round, I followed the recipe exactly, except omitting the walnuts. While the cake was rising, I noticed big bubbles in the batter just like the last time. Notice the bumps on the surface of the cake? These were caused by the big bubbles. When the cake was done, it deflated slightly. Most butter cakes I baked do not experience this.

My analytical mind tells me that the cause of the big bubbles is probably due to the baking soda. There might be too much leavening, causing big bubbles to form when the batter is rising in the oven. When there is too much big bubbles, the bubbles collide into one another and may cause the cake to collapse.

The recipe asked for 1/4 tsp of baking soda which is almost equivalent to 1 tsp baking powder ( This is according to Shirley O Corriher in Bakewise. From what I recall, she mentioned that baking soda has aboout 4 times the leavening power of baking powder). Another 3/4 tsp baking powder is required and that would make an equivalent of  1 & 3/4 tsp baking powder, which is quite alot for the amount of batter in my humble opinion. Based on observations, a smaller amount of leavening agent would be sufficient.  

Luckily, there are no big holes present this time. The cake is so tender and moist that it gives the impression that the cake crumbs are melting in the mouth. The combination of butter, sourcream and vanilla hits off harmiously to give a rich dairy buttery flavour, something that would not be achieved without the addition of sourcream. As the cake is overly tender, it is rather challenging to slice it neatly without causing the cake to fall apart.

   

Nutella Cream Layer Cake

After reading Jess's post on her red pitaya yoghurt mousse cake from My Birthday Cake by Kevin Chai, I decided that I will be using the same book soon to make a layered cake. Since I have bought the book, I would have to make an effort to use it. The recipe that came to mind was the hazelnut cream cake.

Since there were leftover cream from my recent truffles making, I thought I would put it to good use. Afterall, heavy cream does not store very well and has to be consumed quickly once the pack is opened. All that is left is the hazelnut chocolate spread. Naturally, Nutella was the wise pick here. When it comes to cream frosting, I do not like plain whipped cream. At the very least, I would prefer cream chantilly - vanilla flavoured whipped cream with icing sugar added. In this case, Nutella would lend a rich chocolatey taste to the otherwise plain dairy whipped cream.  

I took out my Wilton cake leveller and my plastic turntable, both obtained from Phoon Huat. These are the baking toys that will come into good use for any layered cakes.

Instead of using the sponge cake recipe as stated, I used a chocolate sponge recipe from another book, similar to the sponge used in my strawberry yoghurt mousse cake, since I did not have any chocolate sponge mix on hand.

Cutting the sponge cake is quite straightforward when using the cake leveller. Simple hold the handle, adjust the height of the cutting wire and cut through the cake in a smooth sawing motion.

 

Notice the grooves on the sides of the cake leveller. The height of the cutting wire can be adjusted by moving the ring attaching the wire up and down and resting on the grooves. The cutting wire may look thin but it is actually taut and strong.

Using the cake leveller to cut sponge layers will result in uniformly sliced layers with smooth flat tops.

Due to the warm humid weather (as always), I had to firm up the cake (with the cream frosting) in the refrigerator so that it will be easier to smoothen the hazelnut cream icing. If the cream is too soft, It will slide down the sides easily.With the help of the plastic turntable, it was so much easier to smoothen the hazelnut chocolate cream. I recall watching a pastry chef working with a turntable at Jurong Point. Back then, I stood aside and watched carefully how the cream frosting was spreaded around the cake, learning some nifty tips and techniques which I applied to my own cream cake.

Overall, I feel that I could have done better with the layering and coating with cream. I should have sliced off the slightly domed top of the sponge and ensured the layers are of equal height. The cream layer is abit too thin to be noticeable towards the edges. Perhaps I will increase the amount of cream next time. I also forgot to do the crumb coat first, resulting in some stray crumbs making their way to the frosting. Nevertheless, it served as a good practice for preparing a layered cake. Since I regarded this as a practice, I did not decorate the top and sides. I will probable use chocolate love letters (wafer sticks) to surround the sides and top the cake with some unskinned hazelnuts next time as suggested.

Tastewise, I like the richness of the hazelnut chocolate cream. It reminds me of melted chocolate ice cream! The sponge is soft and moist but much more springy compared to the one used in the strawberry yoghurt mousse cake even though the recipes are very similar. Maybe this is due to the addition of cocoa powder.  

The Highly Anticipated Food Bloggers' Meetup - My Very 1st

Sunday, 8th August 2010 is a very special day for me. Nope, it isn't National Day Eve (Singapore's National Day falls on the 9th of August, marking our anniversary of independance). It is the day I met up with like-minded bloggers from all walks of life holding a passion for the culinary arts, be it baking or cooking.

The meeting took place at Edith's lovely and spacious home. It was really kind of her to welcome us with an open heart, considering that some of us are meeting her for the first time in person. All along, I got to know about these fellow bloggers through their blogs. Through reading their blog posts and exchanging comments, I learnt about little tidbits regarding their family, profession and other interesting details about their daily life. However, that was only the blogging persona. It is hard to imagine the looks of the talents behind these food blogs.  

Among the fellow bloggers, I got to know Youfei and Pei-Lin the earliest. Back then, I was still a noob at baking and blogging and that was before I went on my year-long hiatus (I'm still noobish in some aspects, for instance bread making, lol). Slowly, I discovered more lovely blogs on the bloggosphere by other creative food directors whom I met at Edith's place for the very first time.  

Fellow talented bloggers and creative directors at the meetup:

Pei-Lin from Dodol & Mochi

Jane from Passionate about Baking

Grace from Kitchen Corner

Edith from Precious Moments

Josephine from Sugar and Everything Nice

Bee Bee from Honey Bee Sweets

Aimei from Baking Cottage

Youfei from Loving Baking

Jess from Bakericious

Shirley from Kokken 69

Yan Ee from Sweeter Side of Life

The entire meetup lasted for 6 whooping hours! At 12 noon, the bloggers started flowing in. When everyone arrived, it was time for a sumptuous buffet spread of home prepared food seasoned with lots of effort and spiced with tender loving care. I could swear that the buffet spread is one of the best that I have eaten in my entire life. Sorry to the five-star hotels and reknowned restaurants. Most of them would not even come close to the standard of food served at the meetup. I was grinning from ear to ear and could hear my mind exclaiming with delight when I helped myself to the food.

Snap! Snap! Photo-taking time... Typical of us food bloggers, lol.  First thing we did was dish out our cameras to take pictures. No pictures, no blogging...

Edith's open concept kitchen. Buffet time!

Mee Rebus prepared by Shirley. Thick and flavourful gravy.

Bandung drink prepared by Edith. Great beverage to go along with all the mouth-watering food.

Bakewell tarts prepared by Grace. Soft-cakey yet crumbly. 

Sandwiches prepared by Yan Ee with nice eggy filling which I enjoyed.

Sweet and savoury porkfloss seaweed swiss rolls. I never had such swiss rolls. Really special. Kind of reminds me of sushi.

Wonderful pork and beef burgers prepared by Grace. The buns were homemade too. Nice and soft. This burger beats all the fast food burgers hands down anytime!

Chicken curry prepared by Josephine. I like the thick consistency of the gravvy. Not overly spicy. Sedap =]

Wholemeal cookies by Yan Ee. Full of nutty goodness. 

Chocolate truffles by me..

Chocolate cookies with fleur de sel. I like the sandy crumbly texture of the cookies. Very different from the chocolate cookies I had so far.

Lavendar and plain shortbread cookies by Aimei. Cute packaging obtained from Daiso.

Olive oil spiced assorted nuts by Jane. I liked the aroma of herbs and spices here, fragrant but not overwhelming. Each blogger was given a tub to bring home.

Durian tarts by Pei-Lin. My favourite flavour of all time. I took back some tarts for my friends to try the next day. Everyone unanimously replied it was really good!

We forgot to take group pictures after eating and chatting. Jess helping herself to the mee rebus and Edith busy snapping away..

The lovely ladies: Josphine, Jess, Bee Bee, Edith (concealed) Aimei and Yan Ee (concealed)

I missed out some pictures on the food. Bee Bee brought along Mang Guang Kueh (Similar to Soon Kueh). The skin was soft and chewy, not hard and dry even though it was cold.

Some of my friends who knew that I going to the meetup jokingly asked if I could bring them along for a good feasting. They would have been in for a superb treat had they attended the meetup with me, lol.

Bakertan's Chocolate Factory - Part II

2 boxes of  rum and raisins dark chocolate truffles. The size of these truffles were smaller compared to the white chocolate matcha truffles.

Rustic, homemade look

I tried to 'temper' the chocolates using the seeding method without a candy thermometer and it did work for a short moment. The chocolate coating was glossy but when it set, it turned dull, probably due to rapid change in temperatures. 

Notice the inconsistency in the colour of the chocolate coating. This is due to the chocolate undergoing extreme change in temperature. The chocolate coating has developed a chocolate bloom.

Plain dark chocolate truffles with dark chocolate ganache centers. These chocolates were made using a simple inexpensive chocolate mould.

Rum and Raisins Truffles / Plain Dark Chocolate Truffles - see notes below (recipe adapted from Chocolate: 70 of the best recipes from Hamlyn)

Serving size: 15 -20 pieces
Equipment and materials:
1) 2 Heatproof bowls
2) Spoon
3) 2 Fork
4) 3/4 inch or 1 inch Melon baller (optional)
5) Measuring spoon set
6) Baking/parchement paper
7) Foil/paper mini cupcake liners
8) Saucer
9) Clingfilm
10) Baking trays
11) Diposable food gloves
12) Knife for chopping chocolate

Ingredients:
50 ml heavy cream (whipping cream)
85g bittersweet (60% cocao) dark chocolate, finely chopped (use the best quality you can afford)
35g raisins finely chopped and soaked in 2 tbsp dark rum for 1 hour, covered  (I used Meyer's dark rum)
1-3 tsp dark rum
120g - 150g dark chocolate pistoles or finely chopped

Method:

Making the Chocolate Ganache: Place 85g of finely chopped bittersweet dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl.  Place heavy cream in a saucer and heat it untill 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 overstir or the mixture may become grainy. The smooth cream and dark chocolate mixture is known as a dark chocolate ganache.

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 overstir or the mixture may become grainy.

Cooling and flavouring ganache: Remove heatproof bowl from the heat and allow ganache to cool. Add rum soaked raisins to the cooled ganache. Next, add in 1-3 tsp of dark rum to taste. Place a piece of clingfilm over the bowl and press onto the surface of the ganache. Refrigerate ganache untill firm.

Shaping chocolate ganache balls: When ganache is firm, use a 3/4 inch melon baller to scoop out rounded (slightly heaped) portions onto a tray lined with baking paper. Refrigerate these portions for 10 minutes or untill firm. Using the disposable food gloves, roll the chilled portions into round balls. Refrigerate these round balls for another 10 minutes or till firm. Melt remaining 120g dark chocolate in another heatproof bowl using the double boiler method on low heat.

Coating ganache balls with dark chocolate: Using the tines of 2 fork, dipped the round ganache balls into the melted dark chocolate to coat. Lift the dipped ganache ball away from the melted dark chocolate. Rotate and transfer the coated balls at the same time between the 2 fork to ensure ganache balls are well coated all around. Transfer coated ganache balls to a tray lined with baking paper. Allow the dark chocolate coating to set at cool room temperature. Alternatively, refirgerate coated ganache balls untill firm.

Storing chocolate truffles: Line truffles with mini cupcake papers and store truffles in a single layer in the refrigerator for several days. Serve truffles at room temperature, not chilled and directly from the refrigerator.

 
Notes:

1) For Plain Dark Chocolate Truffles, omit the raisins and rum. Follow the above method as stated.

2) For Liqueur Truffles, omit the raisins and rum. Add 1-3 tsp of desired liqueur to taste. (Bailey's is a

good choice)  

3) Chocolate truffles are best eaten at room temperature. When eaten chilled, the chocolate flavour is 'trapped'.

4) It takes some practice to melt dark chocolate. Dark chocolate is easier to melt as compared to white chocolate. The best is to use low heat. If the water in the double boiler comes to a strong boil, the heat may cause the dark chocolate to burn. Burnt dark chocolate is dry and cannot be melted anymore.

5) Do not allow even a drop of water to come into contact with the melted dark chocolate. The dark chocolate will seize and will be unusable. If this happens and you still want to salvage the dark chocolate, add in more water instead and stir constantly. The melted dark chocolate will become smooth but end up being watery, affecting the taste and texture. Use it as a chocolate sauce instead.

Bakertan's Chocolate Factory: Part 1

Tomorrow will be the Blogger's meetup initiated by Pei-Lin. At the thought of meeting up with other fellow food bloggers, I feel kind of excited. Afterall, this is my first meetup and I always thought it would be great to meet up like-minded people sharing the same passion for food and its preparation.  

Each of us is supposed to bring along one homemade food item for the potluck. I have long decided that I would be doing chocolate truffles. Since everyone knows how to bake and is pretty proficient at it, I decided not to do any baked goods. Cooking is out of the option as I only have that few kitchen tricks up my sleeves, hardly worthy to be brought along for the potluck. Furthermore, a potluck would signify an excess of food. Chocolate truffles are hardly filling and hence would be a good idea for an after-meal dessert.  

The first time I made chocolate truffles was ages ago, dating back to about one and a half years back. Back then, my best friend was leaving Singapore for China on an overseas exchange. Hence, I made some Bailey's chocolate truffles for his farewell. My maiden attempt turned out well. Making Chocolate truffles seems like an easy affair with few ingredients to handle. However, it is time consuming having to chopped chocolates finely, melt the chocolates, make the ganache, refrigerate the ganache, scoop the truffle centers and coat them with chocolate. The weather is definitely not on my side since Singapore is humid and warm all year round. We only have one season here and that is Summer.

In total, I made 3 different flavoured chocolate truffles to bring along to the meetup: green tea white chocolate truffles, rum and raisins truffles and lastly plain dark chocolate truffles. Out of these, the green tea truffles took the longest time to prepare. I started with the green tea truffles first and gained some practice. Making the rum and raisins truffles became much easier afterwards. For the plain chocolate truffles, I used a simple chocolate mould to differentiate them from the rum and raisin truffles, since both are covered with dark chocolate.

Rolled green tea truffles centers

Notice that the truffle is sweating due to condensation.

Green tea truffle speckled with matcha powder. The idea is inspired by this website

Reminds me of mooncakes. Anyway Mid-Autumm will be coming soon..

Truffle centers actually look like pandan lotus paste

I chose 3 of the not so good looking ones and sampled them. Taste is not too shabby. Those who do not like white chocolate probably will not appreciate the sweet milky caramel taste.

Thats all for now regarding tomorrow's  preview. Will take more pictures on the remaining truffles soon....

Green Tea Truffles ( recipe adapted from Truffles: 50 Delicious Decadent Homemade Chocolate Treats by Dede Wilson)

Serving size: 11 pieces

Equipment and materials:

1) 2 Heatproof bowls
2) Spoon
3) 2 Fork
4) 3/4 inch or 1 inch Melon baller (optional)
5) Measuring spoon set
6) Baking/parchement paper
7) Foil/paper mini cupcake liners
8) Saucer
9) Clingfilm
10) Baking trays
11) Diposable food gloves
12) Knife for chopping chocolate

Ingredients:
50 ml heavy cream (whipping cream)
120g white chocolate, finely chopped (use the best quality you can afford)
1/2 to 1 & 1/2 tsp matcha powder
120g white chocolate pistoles or finely chopped
a little matcha powder to sprinkle on green tea truffles

Method:

Making the chocolate ganache: Place 120g of finely chopped white chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Place cream in a saucer and heat it till it is almost coming to a boil on medium heat. Off the flame and remove the saucer. Pour the cream over the finely chopped white 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. When chocolate is blended with cream, the resulting mixture will be cream coloured. The mixture cream chocolate mixture is known as a white chocolate ganache.

If white chocolate is not completely melted: Place heatproof bowl over a saucepan filled with water. The bowl should fit snugly onto the saucepan and the base 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 white chocolate and cream mixture until the white chocolate melts completely to obtain a smooth ganache.

Cooling and flavouring ganache: Remove heatproof bowl from the heat and allow ganache to cool. Add in 1/2 tsp of matcha powder to the cooled ganance. Mix evenly. Add more matcha powder to taste if required. White chocolate is very sweet so strike a balance between the green tea flavour and the milky sweetness of the white chocolate. Allow ganache to cool. Place a piece of clingfilm over the bowl and press onto the surface of the ganache. Refrigerate ganache till firm.

Shaping matcha white chocolate ganache balls: When ganache is firm, use a melon baller to scoop out rounded (slightly heaped) portions onto a tray lined with baking paper. Return to refrigerate these portions for 10 minutes or till firm. Using the disposable food gloves, roll the portions into round balls. Refrigerate for another 10 minutes or till firm.

Coating ganache balls with white chocolate: Melt remaining 120g white chocolate in another heatproof bowl using the double boiler method on low heat. Using the tines of 2 fork, dipped the round ganache balls into the melted white chocolate to coat. Lift the dipped ganache ball up from the melted white chocolate. Rotate and transfer the coated balls at the same time between the 2 fork to ensure ganache balls are well coated all around. Transfer coated ganache balls to a tray lined with baking paper. While chocolate coating is still soft, sprinkle a pinch of matcha powder randomly on top of each coated ganache ball. Allow the white chocolate coating to set at cool room temperature. Alternatively, refirgerate coated ganache balls untill firm.

Storing chocolate truffles: Line truffles with mini cupcake papers and store truffles at cool room temperature covered or in the refrigerator for several days. Serve truffles at room temperature, not chilled and directly from the refrigerator to enjoy the flavour.

Notes:

1) It takes some practice to melt white chocolate. White chocolate has to be melted using low heat over a double boiler and constantly stirred gently. If the water in the double boiler comes to a strong boil, the heat may cause the white chocolate to burn. Burnt white chocolate is dry and cannot be melted anymore. From experience, white chocolate is the hardest to melt among all chocolates.

2) As an alternative, roll the ganache balls onto matcha powder. It will work fine too.

3) Another alternative would be to roll the ganache balls onto grated white chocolate. This was the intention in the book by Dede Wilson