Cake Project 3 - Chocolate Buttercream Cake for Elder Brother's Birthday

The nutella cream cake I made on 2 occasions previously was supposed to be my third cake project. Somehow that slipped my mind. Hence, cake project 3 is replaced by this chocolate buttercream layer cake I made for my elder brother's birthday last week.

Using the same chocolate sponge recipe, I decided to use swiss meringue chocolate buttercream to replace the nutella cream. Frosting the cake was a lot easier as compared to using nutella cream. The chocolate buttercream is sturdy even at warm room temperature, making it a brilliant choice of frosting for the tropical climate we experience here all year round.  

The magic of the buttercream does not only lie in the stability at room temperature. It is smooth, chocolatey, buttery and creamy in terms of taste and texture. There is absolutely no gritty feel as compared to icing sugar buttercream. I churned out about 840g of chocolate buttercream and it uses merely 220g of sugar (about 1 cup) as compared to as many as 7 cups of icing sugar for some frosting recipes.

This cake project marks an important milestone in my baking journey. For this baking lesson, I feel that I have achieved several goals. It is my first time doing a complete frosting of an entire cake with buttercream and piped decorations using a cake turntable. While there is still room for more improvement, I am rather pleased with the outcome. The making of this chocolate buttercream layer cake reflects the progress and results of my self-learning process which is akin to studying for a exam paper and receiving the exam results.

I observed something while I was beating the egg whites. The timing at which the sugar is added makes a lot of difference to the resulting texture/ appearance. If the sugar is all added right from the start, the resulting whipped egg whites are likely to be clumpy. However, if the sugar is added when the egg whites have reached soft peaks, the resulting beaten whites will be smooth and glossy, achieving the same effect as when cream of tartar is added. I think this is one reason why when cream of tartar is not used, the instruction usually states that the sugar should only be added when the egg whites are at soft peaks.

Chocolate Buttecream Cake ( Chocolate Sponge Cake recipe adapted from 超人气香港蛋糕56款, chocolate buttercream recipe adapted from Chocolate Ephiphany by Francois Payard)

Serving size: 10 to 12 slices

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

Chocolate Sponge Cake (3 layers):
70g egg yolks, room temperature 
50g caster sugar
4 tbs vegetable oil
4 tbs water
80g cake flour
15g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
145g egg whites, room temperature
50g caster sugar

Swiss Meringue Chocolate Buttercream: (about 840g)
195g egg whites
220g granulated sugar
385g unsalted butter, softened but still cold
100g cocoa powder (I used Valrhona, it has a very intense chocolate flavour compared to most brands. Add more if desired.)

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

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

Making the egg yolk batter: Place egg yolks, 50g 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 chocolatey 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 50g 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 8 x 3 inch round pan and bake at 160 degrees C for 25 -35 minutes. Test doneness using a skewer or toothpick. The highest part of the cake should rise up to 4/5 or nearly the full height of the tin. When the cake is done, the inserted skewer will come out clean. Cake will shrink from edges on cooling. Unmould sponge cake and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Preparing the Swiss Meringue Chocolate Buttercream:
Dissolve sugar in egg whites: Place 195 egg whites and 220g 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).

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 cocoa: Beat in 385g 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, the buttercream thickens up). Lastly, sift in 100g cocoa powder and continue beating to obtain a smooth chocolate buttercream.

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

Preparing the layers: Using the removable base of a round tart tin or a round cake board, slide the tart in base or cake board under a sponge layer and carefully transport the sponge layer onto a 9 inch round cake board placed. This is to prevent the sponge layer from breaking.

Dab some buttercream evenly onto the first layer to seal the crumbs. This is know as a crumb coat. Frost the first layer evenly with 200g of buttercream using a palette knife or spatula. Place a second sponge layer carefully over the frosted 1st layer and align it properly with the 1st layer. Repeat the process of crumb coating and frosting for the 2nd sponge layer.

Once the frosting is done for the first two sponge layers, add the 3rd sponge layer and align it well with the first two layers. For the 3rd sponge layer, do the crumb coat on the surface as well as for the sides of the cake. 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 leftover buttercream for piping.

Piping Patterns: Fill a piping bag fitted with a star tip (or any other tip you desire) and pipe rosettes or shells as desired.

Notes:
1) Allow chilled cake to soften at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before serving.
2) Keep cake in an air-tight container after slicing to prevent the cake from drying out.
3) Reduce the amount of buttercream frosting to your liking/preference. Personally, I find the buttercream layers to be slightly thick. Any thicker and there would have been an overdose of frosting.
4) According to Sem (a reader) and Wendy, the addition of sugar to the egg whites at the beginning will result in lower volume of whipped whites as compared to when the sugar is added when the egg whites are at soft peaks.
5) According to Wendy, the addition of cream of tartar or something acidic prevents the egg whites from separating due to overbeating.

Bakertan Makes Snowskin Mooncakes

When I was still a kid, I enjoyed eating snowskin mooncakes. I love the idea of how this sweet pastry is snowy white and chewy in texture. The best part about eating them is they are served chilled. Apart from having a sweet tooth, another eating habit of mine is taking drinks and desserts served well-chilled whenever possible. This applies to drinks or desserts that are usually served warm, for instance: coffee and red bean soup.

These days, there is a myriad of flavour combinations for these chilled pastries. Snowskin mooncakes are no longer limited to their snow or green coloured skins with plain lotus paste fillings. Among these emerging flavours, you can find craneberry, matcha, red wine, chocolate and ice cream (haagen daaz and swensons) snowskin mooncakes.

With some leftover white lotus paste and an unused packet of green tea lotus paste from Phoon Huat, the options were obvious - white lotus snowskin and matcha snowskin mooncakes. The white lotus paste has a smooth texture and it isn't coyingly sweet nor oily, all thanks to my fellow blogger friend - Shirley for her wonderful recommendation.

Previously, when me and my mooncake kakis had our first mooncake making session, one of my them tried making the snowskin pastry. Sadly, it failed terribly on the first attempt. There were too much icing sugar and too little flour. On the second try, the pastry worked but the taste of the overcooked flour was overpowering. My kaki had cooked the flour in a pan over a flame and it turned biege in colour, giving off a strong burnt smell that quickly filled the kitchen and living room.

Armed with some experience amassed from our last mooncake session, we were ready for snowskin mooncakes. This time round, we spreaded the flour evenly on a baking sheet and cooked it at 180 degrees C in the oven for 30 minutes. No more unpleasant burnt smell or undesirable biege colour. So, the making of white lotus snowskin mooncakes went smoothly as planned.

Next was the matcha snowskin mooncakes. Based on my intuition, I added 2 teaspoons of matcha powder to the recipe to give the pastry skin a pale greenish colour and a light matcha taste. The effect turned out well and the skin contrasted very nicely with the dark forest green matcha lotus paste filling.

For both the recipes, the ratio of icing sugar to flour used is about 1 : 1, which is quite a common ratio amongst many recipes I come cross. After tasting the mooncakes, I felt that the skin tasted a bit floury and is not as soft and chewy. My kakis and family members agreed on this too. Wonder if any fellow bakers out there have the same issue regarding the floury taste (I used glutinous rice flour). I will need to work on improving the texture and reduce the floury taste of the snowskin pastry in future.

After fiddling with my sony P&S camera for some time, I finally got an inkling of how to create a lens blur effect with it. Am pretty excited about it and at the same time amazed that a P&S camera is capable of pulling off such a trick. Well, it definitely cannot be compared to the more poweful DSLR camera though where the lens blur effect is more pronounced.

In the morning on the very same day, I embarked on another cake project - birthday cake for my elder brother, a chocolate buttercream cake. Stay tuned for updates on the coming post...

Bakertan's Maiden Mooncake Baking Lesson

Sorry folks, I have been rather tied up with project work lately. Hence, I will be blogging and baking at a slower pace. This post comes as a rather late one, especially when the Mid-Autumn Festival has passed by for more than a week.

This is my maiden attempt at making mooncakes. A few weeks before the Mid-Autumn Festival, I saw mooncake books lying around in Popular bookstore. The book covers caught my attention and the idea of making mooncakes immediately glued to my mind. Initially, I was all hyped up with enthusiasm. Little did I know that there were many underlying challenges behind the making of mooncakes. I shall share my mooncake making experience with greater details.

My pineapple tart kakis gathered at my place the day before Mid Autumn. We had planned to make both the traditional and snowskin mooncakes on the same day. Well, I guess we were too ambitious and things certainly did not turn out as planned.

Making the traditional mooncake pastry was pretty straight forward. But when it came to wrapping the dough over the fillings and moulding the mooncakes, we were in for some serious challenges. The recipe (from one of the mooncake books I caught hold from Popular) asked for 30g mooncake pastry skin and 140g lotus paste filling. The proportion of pastry was far too little to wrap around the fillings. We increased the amount to about 45g and it worked out to be much better. However, it takes a lot of skills to ensure the skin is evenly distributed around the filling. As shown in the picture above, some parts of the pastry skin were too thin and the lotus filling can be seen.

The first attempt to mould the mooncakes ended up in total disaster with a mooncake being stucked in the mould. I had to scrape the unbaked mooncake out but there were still lotus paste stuck in the carvings. As a result, I had to use a hose and spray at high pressure. Learning from this little nasty episode, we ensured that the mould and mooncakes were dusted generously with flour before we did the unmoulding. Thankfully, subsequent unmoulding of mooncakes turned out smoothly. We even found a way to get the unmould mooncakes without banging the wooden mould. Simply overturn the mould and start flicking the mooncake/s out. The air pressure will slowly release the mooncake/s.

As compared to the first few batches of mooncakes, the final batch browned to a nice golden colour (see picture above). However, it is still a far cry from the desired colour of a traditional mooncakes, which is that of a deep-brown tone (my mooncakes were quite pale).

Where traditional mooncakes are concerned, the type of golden syrup used is important. I used Lyle's golden syrup ( golden amber in colour) here instead of homemade golden syrup. When homemade golden syrup ages, it darkens to deep amber. Using aged homemade syrup would give mooncakes a much deeper brown skin tone. One would require advance planning when making homemade syrup as it takes a least 6 months for the syrup to age to a desirable colour. Another crucial element in getting the desirable skin tone would be the egg wash which contributes to a certain degree of browning of the mooncake skin.

mooncake with durian paste

Overall,  I felt it was more of a mooncake baking lesson which I have attended at home. There is still lots of room for improvement when it comes to me making mooncakes. After visiting blogs of fellow bake bloggers, I learnt that baked mooncakes should be left to sit for 3 days before consumption, something unheard of prior to this baking lesson. Allowing the mooncakes to sit for 3 days would allow the oil to seep out and the mooncakes will darken to a deeper shade of brown. Apart from that, the other advantage of letting the mooncakes sit over the 3-day period is to allow the skin to soften.

After making the traditional mooncakes, there were still some storebought lotus paste left. I will be attempting to make snowskin mooncakes with the rest of the paste. Wish me lots of luck on that...

Learning points for Bakertan in future mooncake making lessons:

1) Find a good balance between the ratio of the skin and filling.

2) Ensure that mooncake skin is uniform in thickness.

3) Dust mould genorously with flour when unmoulding mooncakes.

4) Prepare homemade golden syrup and allow sufficient time for it to age.

5) Add sugar/syrup to egg wash.

6) Allow mooncakes to sit for 3 days before consuming.

Bakertan Botches Things Up - Nutella Cream Cake No.2

(pic taken by my friend's iphone)

If you have'nt realised, I am very much a cake person. Give me any cake and I would not say No. No is never an option, at least to me. The cakeboy in me was whining for a cake making session, and so I whipped up a Nutella Cream Cake for a friend's birthday just a couple of days ago. This was my second attempt on it and was eager to improve on it  further this time round. You can take a look at my first attempt over here - nutella cream cake.

Unfortunately at the very critical moment, Bakertan botches it all up. Arghhh!!! How unlucky could it get? Notice in the picture that the cream frosting is grainy? I will explain what happen exactly.

After I frosted the cake for the first time, I chucked it all into the freezer as the nutella cream was melting away fast, just like chocolate ice cream melting away on a hot sunny day. Well, I thought freezing it for 10 minutes or so would'nt hurt, and it would firm up the cream fast enough so that I can do some touchup to it. I probably forgotten all about my frosted nutella cream cake and I recieved a rude shock when I tried to smoothen the frosting when I retrieved my cake about 20 minutes later. The freezing must have 'shocked' the cream such that it went grainy. ( If the temperature in the refrigerator is too cold, plain whipping cream will separate when stored)

For a moment, I was disgusted and felt like dumping the whole mess into the bin. Ok, that is a sillly thought I admit. Anyway, I went ahead and tried to cover up the messy cake a little by coating the perimeter with chocolate rice. The cream was melting furiously as I was doing the coating, so I quickly wrapped up everything and chucked the cake into a cake box and off it went for refrigeration.

  

Despite the imperfection, the taste and texture of the cream was'nt compromised. It was still smooth and creamy. The cake layers were soft, moist and fluffy, all thanks to the recipe. This time round, I doubled the amount of nutella cream, hence the layers were more obvious. I felt sorry for the birthday boy though (being a little perfectionistic in baking, maybe I am a little too harsh on myself). Thankfully, he did not mind a bit and am glad he liked it.

When the cake cutting was over, I sat down to think and review the entire episode. Two ideas struck me. It would be a much better idea doing the frosting in a cake ring, since the cream melts easily. I will probably settle for the second idea which is a safer bet; frost the cake with chocolate buttercream instead and have no worries about it softening or melting at warm room temperature. If things goes well, I can even do practice with my piping. I shall get down to working on the chocolate buttercream cake (using the same chocolate sponge) some time soon. Wish me good luck...

Tips from nice, friendly and helpful fellow baker bloggers:

1) According to NEL from The Batter Baker, the water in the cream frosting frozed into ice crystals, hence separating from the fat/cream. Me and NEL think that gelatin would help stabilize the nutella cream and prevent it from melting as fast.  

2) Jess from Bakericious suggested chilling the cream every now and then when doing the frosting. (I was lazy to do that hence I committed the mistake of freezing the cream)

Bakertan Cooks Dessert - Red Bean Soup

In Chinese context, desserts are usually served as wam soups, custards or pastes. The cantonese especially, loves to prepare what is known as Sweet Soups or Tong Sui (糖水). An example of a cantonese sweet soup is the Red Bean Soup.

As the name suggests, red bean soup uses adzuki beans which is commonly known as red beans to the chinese. The preparation of this sweet dessert soup is rather simple and does not require much effort, which suits newbie cooks like me perfectly.

The preparation process starts off with rinsing the dried adzuki beans in water and soaking them in water for 2 hours or overnight to soften them. After soaking, the beans will swell up. Next, simply add these beans into a pot filled with water. Drop in some chopped dried orange peel and a knot of pandan leaves (screwpine) and bring the mixture to a simmer. The orange peel will impart a nice citrusy flavour whereas the pandan leaves will bring out the aroma of the sweet soup. When the beans have softened and the soup becomes murky, add in rock sugar to taste and the sweet soup is ready to be served. Voila! (Some people like their red beans to be all mushy and sandy, where the red bean skin has separated from the interior. I like mine to be softened yet retain its bean form, as can be seen in the pictures.)

Sounds simple eh? It is as simple as it sounds! I have prepared this several times and brought a pot of it to a potluck on one ocassion. After sampling it, my friends gave the thumbs up.   

In the pictures, my red bean soup looks very watery. This is because I ladled out a portion of it into a smaller pot. Towards the bottom of the pot, the consistency becomes thicker and paste-like. Be sure to give your red bean soup a good stir become you ladle it out into a bowl. I am quite a fan of red beans and love to have my red bean soup served chilled.



Red Bean Soup (recipe adapted from Delicious Nyonya Kueh & Desserts by Patricia Lee)

Serving size: 10 - 12 bowls

Texture and taste: Soupy and murky with the goodness of adzuki beans with a hint of citrus.

Equipment and materials:

1) A large pot

2) Ladle

Ingredients:

500g dried adzuki/red beans (1 packet)

8g dried orange peel, finely chopped (obtain from chinese medicinal halls)

7-8 pandan leaves (screwpine leaves), washed and tied into a knot

2.3 litres of water

200 - 240g rock sugar to taste

Cooking the red bean soup:

Soak the beans: Rinse the dried beans well. Soak them in water for 2 hours or overnight. Discard the water.

Boiling the soup: Place the beans with the chopped orange peel and pandan leaves in a pot filled with 2.3 litres of water. Bring the water to a simmer and cover 3/4 of the surface of the pot with a lid. Let the mixture simmer until the beans are softened. Start checking on the softness of the beans after 45 minutes and every 20 minutes afterwards (It takes a very long time to soften the beans. I did'nt really take note of the time. 45 minutes is probably not enough but will be a good time to start checking). It can take up to 2 hours or even longer to reach the desired softness, depending on the strength of the boil.

After boiling the mixture for some time, a portion of the water would have evaporated. Add in water to bring it to the original level.

Adding sugar: When the beans have softened to your liking, add in the rock sugar to taste, stirring until they have dissolved. turn off the flame and serve the dessert warm. Remove and discard the pandan leaves.

Notes:

1) Lily buds and lotus seeds go along quite with this dessert, as suggested by my friend Pei-Lin.

2) I prefer to use rock sugar for red bean soup as it brings a different kind of sweetness to it.

Crumbly and Chewy - Craneberry bites

Even though I have not baked anything this week, I had the pleasure of savouring these little mouth-size craneberry bites, all thanks to my baking friend Stephanie =]

As you can see, the cookies were very nicely cut out, something I dread doing when it comes to making cookies. Cookies certainly are easy to bake as compared to other baked goods. But when it comes to shaping them, it can be a headache sometimes, especially when the dough is too soft to handle.

In this sunny island where I reside in, it is summer all year round and the daily temperature hovers between 23 to 32 degrees C. The solution? Repeat the chilling process of the cookie dough each time shapes are cut out and the scraps are gathered.

In total, there were not one, not two, but three different lovely cookie shapes - stars, bears (look like bears to me) and flowers.   

A quick bite into these fascinating treats will reveal an unmistakenable crumbly yet chewy texture. Hmmm.... crumbly and chewy at the same time? Yes, these cookies are chewy too. Chewy simple because of the dried craneberry, offering a contrast in texture and a breakaway from the monotony of the buttery fragrance.   

The cookies did not have a chance to lie around for long. Before I knew it, the cookie jar was empty. My younger brother sure hows to appreciate his cookies.



Once again, thank you Stephanie, for these wonderful treats!

I will be making my mooncakes over the weekends. Stay tuned for updates on them....

The Truth about Scones and Biscuits

Cream Scones have constantly been on my never ending to-bake-list. My first encounter with scones was when I was working part-time as a waiter at a local hotel located at Boat Quay. There were leftover scones after a morning seminar and I took a bite into one, curious to know what scones taste like; something I have never heard of prior to that.

Talking about Scones, I had an arguement with Pei-Lin over it. Well, to be exact, it was'nt really an arguement, it was more like an exchange of ideas. One thing for sure was, we did not fight tooth and nail over it. Afterall, it was just...... scones.

In the American context, Scones are often sweet and served with jam or butter. Biscuits,which are rather similar to scones, are often savoury and are served with gravvy. So, what exactly is the difference between Scones and Biscuits? From what I gathered, Biscuits are just unsweetened versions of Scones and savoury ingredients like cheddar cheese and chives are often added.

When it come to Scones and Biscuits, the rest of the world may not share the same perception as the Americans. In some countries, or according to some people, there is hardly any distinction between Scones and Biscuits. In fact, both of them are known collectively as Scones. Some books even state explicictly that Scones and Biscuits are the same thing. Many a times, I have came across scone recipes in books and other resources whereby the taste is savoury in nature. Strictly speaking, such recipes should be referred to as recipes for Biscuits.

For people who have never heard about Scones, Biscuits would mean a totally different thing. In some parts of the world, Cookies and Biscuits are used interchangeably. In fact, that is what I often associate Biscuits with - Cookies. 

I think thats enough of the discussion with regard to Scones and Biscuits. After going through an almost bakeless week, my library book - The Art & Soul of Baking, was beckoning to me. So there it goes, my first attempt on Scones - Cream Scones.

My scones are lightly browned as I omitted the egg wash (see notes). Initially, I was a little apprehensive about the amount of liquid. However, the recipe turned out really well, producing scones that are crisp and crumbly on the exterior, yet moist, buttery and fluffy on the inside, even though they did not rise much. That was probably due to the overnight chilling of the dough. They were so good that I could eat them on their own without any jam. I am really glad about my discovery of these cream scones.

Happy Homebaker has provided many useful tips on scone making and detailed instructions on her blog. So do drop by and take a look at her lovely scones.

Cream Scones ( recipe adapted from The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet)
Serving size: about 16-18 scones
Texture: Crisp and crumbly on the oustide; ultra light,fluffy (almost cake-like) and moist in the exterior, very much similar to the crumbs of a ultra light cake. Taste is buttery and mildly sweet.
Equipment and Materials:
1) Measuring spoon set
2) Flour sift
3) 1 1/12 inch round cookie cutter
4) Mixing bowl
5) Parchment/baking paper
6) Wire rack
7) Weighing scale
8) Wire whisk
9) Flexible spatula

Dough:
260g plain flour
55g castor sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
120g unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
230ml whipping cream, chilled

Making the scones:
Combine dry ingredients: Sift the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Add in the sugar and salt. Use a wire whisk to aerate and disperse the mixture evenly.

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

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

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

Adding the cream: Pour in the cream into the flour-coated butter crumbs. Use a fork and stir to obtain a moist sticky mixture.

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

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

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

Gather the final remaining scraps after the 2nd cutting and flatten them into a round disk 1 inch in height, for a final time. Cut the disk into 8 wedges.

Chill all the cut out rounds and wedges for another 20minutes. If the dough is too soft, it will lose its shape in the oven. (That happened to my 2nd batch of scones, they spreaded sideways slightly.)

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

Notes:
1) These Scones taste best when served warm.
2) The taste is rich and buttery that it can be eaten by itself.
3) Dough can be prepared beforehand and chilled overnight (one night maximum) or frozen for weeks. The dough may not rise as much as when it is freshly made on the same day.
4) Store remaining scones in an airtight container. Warm them in a toaster or oven before serving.
5) To make Biscuits, omit the sugar and proceed as mentioned above.
6) I omitted the egg wash as it took longer to brown the scones. If you like, brush some egg wash over the scones and sprinkle a little sugar over each scone. Bake until the top is golden brown. Alternatively, brush some cream or milk over the top of each scone and bake till brown.