Bakertan's Food Hunt: Fat Boys and Make-It-Yourself Burgers

Before I started baking, I have always been fascinated by food. I feel thrilled whenever I come across a food outlet (mainly cafes, eateries, hawker centres and sometimes restaurants) serving great tasting food at decent prices. Once in a while, me and my buddies would go on food hunts for affordable treats across this little island.

menu in the form of a large coaster

Last Sunday, me and my boardgame kakis hopped over to Fat Boys for dinner. The interior decor of this food establishment is sort of punk and street-art inspired, with black as the main element. Cosy and dimly-lit, the eatery makes an ideal place to chill out and have a nice chat. They do offer a limited range of alcoholic beverages but the main highlight would still be their in-house special - burgers. Fats Boys is afterall, a burger joint.

For the starters, we ordered a chili-cheese fries and deep fried calamari. The heat and spices were nicely balanced in the chili cheese sauce and it was'nt overly cheesy on the palate. I found the batter for the calamari to be too thick; the exterior of the batter was crisp but towards the interior, it was soggy and mushy. The calamari was nicely cooked though, soft and chewy to the bite. Accompanying the calamari was a wasabi mayo dip. The wasabi mayo was a little watery and appeared harmless on the first taste, but a brief moderate sharpness gushed up the nose afterwards.

Instead of choosing from the range of ready-assembled burgers available from the menu, four of us decided that we would assemble our burgers the way we liked it.

My make-your-own burger consist of a soft and fluffy homemade honey oat bun, juicy grilled chicken, flame grilled bananas and emmenthal cheese (the holey kind that mice love)  topped with curry remoulade. The curry remoulade surprised me quite a bit. It was neither reminiscent of chinese, japanese, malay nor indian style curry. It tasted more of a mixture of herbs and spices instead. Not exactly my favourite but it was'nt horrid either. 

V ordered a burger made out of Honey oat bun, beef patty (medium for all beef patties), fried egg, grilled banana and pineapples topped with honey mustard suace. The honey mustard sauce is similar to that of Subway's, nothing surprising out of it and it did'nt really bring out a different dimension of the burger. Adding the fried egg was a good choice but going with the pineapples did not make much of a difference.

Honey oat bun, beef patty, portobello mushroom with guacamole.

White sesame bun with grilled chicken. I can't recall the toppings and sauce.  

The burgers gave a decent run for their bucks but the fish and chips was at best average in taste. The fillet lacked a firm flaky bite and could have done better with a fuller flavour.

Overall, each main course would cost about 14 -16 SGD. Gst and service charge is not applicable here, if I did not recall wrongly. Not a shabby place for some decent burgers when you are craving for it.

Location: 187 Upper Thomson Road

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.

Feed and Cook With Love - My 2nd Bloggers Meetup

 

 

After the last Bloggers' Meetup in August, Edith suggested that we bloggers come together, pool our strength, cook and prepare food for a good cause. The good cause? Cooking for elderly folks. And so, the plan was drawn. Edith liaised with an old folks centre (Peace Connect) near her home and we bloggers would sponsor a meal for them, a lunch for 80 pax. Wow, that's quite alot of people to feed and we would have to recruit all the manpower we can.

Next up was deciding the menu. There were some criteria to consider, for example: low salt, low sugar, less oil content etc. Finally, we decided on the menu as:

1) Fried Bee Hoon, recipe by Jane
2) Taukwa with bean sprouts, recipe by Edith
3) Braised Mushroom with Meat Sauce, recipe by Shirley
4) Stir Fried Mixed Vegetables, recipe by Jo
5) Red Bean Soup, recipe by me

Once the menu was decided and the details ironed out, we started inviting volunteers by word of mouth. The response was warm and we had a total of around 19 volunteers; bloggers and non bloggers alike joined in for the event which we named as Cook and Feed With Love.

We split the cooking tasks among 5 teams, one team for each dish led by a total of 5 team leaders: Shirley, Edith, Jane, Jo and me. The team leader would coordinate with her/his team members on the amount of food each member would be preparing.

In the morning on 16th October, the volunteers gathered at Peace Connect, lugging along trays and containers of food that were prepared for the event. We set up a simple 'buffet' serving counter where we dished out the food to the elderly folks. These elderly folks reside in single room flats located in neighbouring blocks around Peace Connect and they would come down for their daily meals; breakfast, lunch and dinner. Simple fare is served to them for their meals and these include; biscuits, bread, confectionaries etc; all sponsored by various organizations.

After 11am, the old folks started streaming in and in a brief moment, the whole place was bustling with activity. The old folks tucked into their lunch with joy and even had a karaoke session where they sang songs like '我问天', a hokkien number which is the theme song of  '爱', a taiwanese soap opera that has high viewership in Singapore. When lunch was over, the old folks started to leave and we helped clear the place.  

  

It was a meaningful yet fun-filled saturday morning spent at Peace Connect. With the success of this Cook and Feed With Love event, we are looking forward to upcoming similar community projects. Thanks to all the volunteers for making this event a success. It definitely was a great pleasure meeting up with them.

Volunteers (Bloggers):

Edith from http://preciousmoments66.blogspot.com/

Shirley from http://kokken69.blogspot.com/

Josephine from http://sugareverythingnice.blogspot.com/

Jane from http://passionbaker.blogspot.com/

Jess from http://bakericious.blogspot.com/

Eelin from http://thebatterbaker.blogspot.com/
Wendy from http://wensdelight.blogspot.com/
Doris from http://testedandtasted.blogspot.com/
Winnie from http://www.winniebakerz.com/
Judy from http://busygran.blogspot.com/
Christine from http://yummykoh.blogspot.com/
Esther from http://bakingoncloud9.blogspot.com/
Sheryl from http://sweetandhappyending.blogspot.com/

Volunteers (Non Bloggers):
Adeline
Chervon
Jie Sian
Sharon
Ping

Cake Project 4: Mission Tiramisu and a special day of a lifetime, 20/10/2010

You might be wondering whats with the date 20/10/2010. It marks my 26th birthday and the date conincidentally forms a unique number sequence, 20102010, which is rare to come by. For this very special occasion, I promised to treat myself to a luscious layer cake. Hmm.. sounds a bit weird huh? Poor Bakertan has to resort to baking his very own birthday cake. Well, I would prefer a home-made birthday cake anytime. Firstly, I get to customize the texture and flavour to my liking and secondly, its going to be another enjoyable experimental layer cake session/lesson/therapy at home.   

I scratched my head pretty hard trying to decide the flavour. Was wondering whether I should make a blackforest cake, a tiramisu or a durian mousse cake. After some considerations, I opted for the tiramisu. It has been quite a while since I helped myself to one and I was certainly looking forward to a nice turnout.

So last friday, I stepped forth and tried my hands at making tiramisu for the first time. Instead of using saviordi fingers (lady fingers), I decided to make it a tiramisu torte by using coffee sponge cake layers. The first attempt on making the tiramisu mousse was a complete disaster. The steps were tedious and there were plenty of room for errors.

The recipe had asked for warmed egg yolks (leave to cool) and beaten egg whites. I might have overwarmed the egg yolks slightly, scrambling it a little (straining it might help, which I didn't) and the beaten egg whites turned out dry and clumpy (I used Swiss meringue method instead of the Italian meringue method). After mixing the yolks, beaten whites, mascarporne cheese and whipped cream, the mixtue curdled real badly. It taste good though but it was not going to do the job for sure.

You can imagine my morale and spirits dipping to an all-time low at that instance. I almost fell into despair thinking that I will be going cakeless the next day when my family will be celebrating for me in advance. At the same time, I hated the fact that I wasted my precious mascarporne cheese, a good 300g of it. Arghh!

At that moment, I was faced with a tough decision. Should I carry on or abandon the mission? My coffee sponge layers were sitting aside and drying out with every minute that passed by. Thanks to the encouraging words from my mum, I decided to re-attempt the mousse a second time using a different recipe and my remaining 200g of mascarporne cheese, minus the yolks and whites which were way too troublesome for me to handle.

Thankfully, the second attempt was a successful one. I made some coffee syrup and brushed it over the sponge layers to moisten them. Making the mousse the second time round was a familiar sight to me. The mousse consists of gelatin solution, whipped cream, mascarporne cheese, a little of the coffee syrup and a small amount of kahlua. Gently folded these components and they came together to form a nice smooth mousse. With the help of my cake/mousse ring, I managed to get my desired tiramisu torte cake with ease. Now that I learnt my lesson the hard way, there will be no more tiramisu mousse containing eggs in future! I actually brought trouble to myself trying to figure out how to make the eggs as safe for consumption as possible in the first attempt.

It was'nt all that bad after all. Despite the disaster with the mousse curdling at first, the silver lining was that the tiramisu turned out decent on the second attempt. What I liked best about the tiramisu was the sponge layers were moist due to the coffee syrup and the mousse firmed up well without being gelatinous. I will be adding more kahlua to give it a little more kick, increase the amount of mascarporne cheese and add more sugar in future. Will be posting the complete recipe in future when I am done with the fine-tuning.

I received a book from a friend today much to my pleasant surprise. Its a book I wanted to get but do not have much luck finding it =] Yay! This would make a nice addition to my mini-library of books.



Bakertan Cooks Pasta - Chili Tomato Spaghetti

I have always considered myself to be a homebaker and much less of a cook. Between the two fields of culinary arts, I would very much prefer to bake. The reason? Things are more within my control when it comes to baking. As for cooking, there are one thousand and one reasons why things can go wrong. Okay, maybe I am overly exaggerating. But yeah, you get my point.

So when it comes to cooking, my repertoire of dishes is limited. One of the few tricks I can conjure up my sleeves would be pasta, more specifically spaghetti, as it is the only pasta dish I have experience handling with. Tucked in my mini library of books is a cookbook - Complete Italian Cooking. I selected one of the pasta recipe and used spaghetti in place of the original intended penne.

When making pasta, I always make it a point to use fresh tomatoes instead of canned tomatoes. I love how the tomatoes emit that cheery orange glow when they are nicely riped. Always buy your tomatoes few days in advance to avoid any disappointment of being left with the choice of half-ripened tomatoes available at the supermarket.  

Among the few pasta recipes that I tried, I often notice that the amount of pasta stated is overestimated, resulting in insufficient tomato sauce for the pasta. Hence, I tend to use more tomatoes than is asked for. It is always better to have an abundance of pasta sauce rather than to discover that the pasta sauce is barely enough to coat.   

I made a blunder when preparing the ingredients. Notice that all my spices are finely chopped except for the onions? That was an oversight of mine. To give the pasta a meaty appeal, I added imitation crabsticks, shelled prawns and cheese & onion sausages. Chicken thigh would do a great job here but that slipped my mind.

I am rather particular when it comes to eating pasta. Basically, there are two thing I take note of. The flavour and the pasta texture. A good pasta must be flavourful even if very simple ingredients are used. It is a matter of grasping the balance among the commonly used spices and herbs, namely; onions, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper; and not forgetting the tomatoes. Texture wise, the pasta must be firm al dente, meaning 'firm to the bite'.

For this attempt, I am fairly satisfied with the flavour. It gives a natural sweetness coming from the caramelized onions and the stewed tomatoes. I would probably add more chopped chillies to bring out the heat next time and leave out the crabsticks.

Chili Tomato Spaghetti (recipe largely tweaked from Complete Italian Cooking by Hamlyn)

Serving size: 3-4 person

Ingredients:

250g dried spaghetti

900g tomatoes

2 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped

1 large onion, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1-2 tbs english parsley, finely chopped

300g prawns, shelled and diced

any kind of sausages, chopped into small chunks or 300g chicken thigh diced

2 tbs olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Preparing the tomotoes: Place tomatoes in a bowl of hot boiling water. Leave the tomatoes to stand until the skin is wrinkled. Remove tomatoes and peel of the skin. It should be easy to remove. Quarter each tomato and remove the seeds. Slice into small chunks, retain the juices.

Cooking the pasta: Fill a large pot with water and bring it to boil. Add the dried pasta, some salt and oil as indicated on the instructions on the pasta packaging. Cook the pasta until it is firm to bite. Drain and set aside. The pasta will continue to cook after draining. Do not rinse in iced water.

Sautee garlic and onions: Heat olive oil in a pan or skillet. Add the finely chopped onions and garlic and sautee them until they are lightly browned.

Making the pasta sauce: Add the tomatoes and the chillies to the sauteed garlic and onions. Simmer and reduce the sauce over medium-low heat. When it is about to reduce to your desired consistency, add the prawns and meat. Sprinkle the parsley and give the sauce a good stir. Simmer for a further 2-3 minutes until the meat is all cooked. 

Tossing the pasta: Bring the heat to low and  toss the cooked pasta into the sauce, ensuring the pasta is well coated with the sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste.  Pasta is ready to serve.

Notes: If pasta sauce turns dry when simmering or at any point, add a little of the pasta water.



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...