Monday 19 August 2013

Angel Food Cake for 1st Blogiversary!


Angel Food Cake
(adapted from Taste)

6 egg whites
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon vanilla essence (I use imitation vanilla)
220g (1 cup) caster sugar
100g (2/3 cup) plain flour, sifted

1. Bake oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Line base of 20cm cake pan with baking paper. (Note: the cake pan should be no non-stick material)

2. In a large bowl, beat egg whites until foamy and then add in salt, cream of tartar and vanilla and beat on medium speed until soft peaks form, about 3 minutes. Gradually add in the sugar at about 2 tablespoons at a time. Raise speed to high and beat until peaks are stiff and glossy (but not dry), for approx. 2 minutes.


3. Sift the flour over the egg white mixture in 3-4 parts and gently fold in each addition with a spatula.

4. Gently pour batter into the cake pan. Run a knife through the batter to release any air bubbles, and smooth the top with spoon or offset spatula. Bake the cake for approx 30 minutes, until the cake is golden brown and springs back gently when touched.

5. Invert the pan on a wire rack and let the cake cool for about 1 hr. Carefully run a knife around the side of the cake to loosen, then unmould onto the wire rack. Serve with whipped cream and strawberries if desired.


Tuesday 2 July 2013

Sticky Date Cheesecake with Caramel Fudge Sauce

If you love cheesecake and sticky date pudding, this is a cake that you must try!

This recipe caught me by the eye the first time when I curiously laid my eyes at the packaging of a cream cheese at my local supermarket. Within my heart, I knew from then on that I would definitely bake it one day. This sticky date cheesecake is super delicious. If you have a sweet tooth, this is definitely the cake for you. However, I tend to see a bipolar response from friends and family with regards to the caramel fudge sauce. Ones who love it can literally drink the sauce by itself ( I do mean it literally!) and ones who don't like their desserts being too sweet will draw back and ascend the white flag. I personally like to have a slice with some drizzles of caramel fudge sauce on top, as illustrated in the photos. If your family is not a big caramel fan to begin with (like mine) then I recommend you to halve the amount as suggested. I made three-quarters of the amount and it was still too much that it had to go to waste in the end. On the contrary, I had wished that if only this recipe was able to give me a bigger cake instead of a loaf-sized one instead. But nonetheless, I know this would not be the last time that I'll be baking it.

Sticky Date Cheesecake

(adapted from Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese)

100g butternut snap biscuits, crushed (I used 150g arrowroot biscuits instead...I like my crust thick)
20g unsalted butter melted (I used 50g instead)
375g Original Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
2 teaspoons plain flour
5 (125g) fresh dates, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/140°C fan-forced. Grease a 9cm x 20cm loaf tin and line with baking paper.

2. Make the crust first by combining crushed biscuits and melted butter in a bowl. Press into the base of lined cake tin. Chill in refrigerator until the cheesecake mixture is ready.

3. Beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in the egg until well incorporated, then stir in the flour and dates with a spatula.

4. Pour the cheesecake mixture on top of the crust and bake for 25 minutes or until just set. Cool in the oven with the door ajar for at least 30 minutes and then transfer into the refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Caramel Fudge Sauce
(Make this on the day when serving)

1 cup of brown sugar, firmly packed
80g butter, chopped
1/3 cup cream
Optional: Cream, extra to serve.

In a small saucepan, combine the brown sugar, butter and cream and stir over low heat for 5 minutes until mixture has thickened. Serve immediately with a slice of cheesecake.


Disclaimer: This blog post is based on my personal and honest opinion about this recipe published with permission but has no relation to Mondelez Australia.

Sunday 2 June 2013

Coconut Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

I like my coconut in chocolate and cakes. Moist, fluffy, soft, tangy and not overbearingly sweet are the words to describe this cake. It's simply delicious. I knew something was missing after I finished frosting the cake as it looked a bit too plain. Luckily I had some flaked almonds and coconut shreds to give me a beautiful mess on top of the cake.

Coconut Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

(adapted from Raspberri Cupcakes)

250g butter, softened
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
1 teaspoon coconut essence (I didn't use this)
4 eggs
1 cup (80g) dessicated coconut
3 cups self raising flour
250g sour cream
1 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease and flour two 18cm round cake tins.

2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in coconut essence and beat until incorporated then add in eggs one at a time.

3. Add half of the dry ingredients (flour and coconut) followed by wet ingredients (sour cream and milk) and mix until just combined. Add the remaining dry and wet ingredients. Make sure to not overmix.

4. Separate the batter evenly into the two greased tins and bake for 45-50 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Cool the cake in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

250g cream cheese
25g butter, softened
1 cup icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 cup thickened cream

Beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the lemon zest then gradually add in the icing sugar and beat until incorporated. Using clean beaters, beat the cream until stiff peaks form then add to the cream cheese mixture and mix until smooth. Sandwich icing between the two cake layers and crumb coat the cake with icing. Use the remaining icing to cover the cake completely.



Wednesday 15 May 2013

A Tiramisu hybrid: Tiramisu Chiffon Cake and Macarons

How can I ever get sick of tiramisu? Maybe never. It's quite a challenge yet refreshing to bake something different to the original version. I had this cake envisioned in my mind for about a month now and had finally put it altogether for Mother's Day. It's a day to celebrate everything that a mother can give, the unconditional love, the wise advice, the shoulders that spread like wings for us to lean on. She's the pillar of the family that keeps everything in harmony and she's the definition of blissful happiness even though she doesn't appear to be perfect to others. I just wanted to say Happy Mother's Day to my beautiful Mother as well as to all the amazing mum's out there.
Personally, I had cravings for a chiffon cake which then sort've replaced the idea of using a sponge cake instead which would've fitted the tiramisu hybrid theme better. The day was quite a disaster. The chiffon cake dried up overnight since I didn't wrap it in cling film to keep it moist. But luckily it was saved in the end when it got covered by the mascarpone topping. I should've made double the amount of coffee creme patissiere to spread between the layers since I was struggling to have it evenly spread across the cake and a lot of my macarons cracked to my disappointment. It seems like disasters befall whenever I want to deliver the best. Fortunately, everything still tasted good and that was what matters. The coffee crème patissiere wasn't too sweet and the cocoa powder sifted on top gave this cake a good balance in regards to the sweet scale.
There are a few variations that could've been made I guess. You could soak the cake in coffee syrup to maintain it's moisture to have it more like a tiramisu-styled cake. A coffee flavoured chiffon cake or even a sponge cake would suffice. Crème patissiere is hard to spread so you could defrost it first then spread it out or replace with a coffee cream or frosting you like. Whatever you wish to do, have fun and enjoy the cake!
 

Tiramisu Chiffon Cake and Macarons

Coffee Macarons
(adapted from Bravetart)
 
115g almond meal
230g icing sugar
144g egg whites, room temperature (You can zap fresh egg whites from the fridge in the microwave on defrost for 10 seconds)
72g caster sugar
1 teaspoon water
1 teaspoon coffee powder
1. Sift the almond meal and icing sugar together in a medium bowl and set them aside.

2. Mix the water and coffee powder together in a small bowl. Using an electric mixer in a medium bowl, beat the egg whites together with the caster sugar and coffee mixture at medium speed for 3 minutes (4 on a Kitchenaid).

3. Increase the speed to medium-high (7 on a Kitchenaid) and whip for another 3 minutes, then increase to highest speed (8 on a Kitchenaid) and beat for another 3 minutes. You should have a very stiff, dry meringue, if not beat for another minute or until it does so. When you remove the whisk attachment, there will be a clump of meringue in the centre, just knock the whisk against the bowl to free it.

5. Dump in the sifted dry ingredients all at once and fold them with a rubber spatula. Use both a folding motion (to incorporate dry ingredients) and a rubbing/smearing motion to deflate the meringue against the side of the bowl. Take care not to overmix, the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after 30 seconds to a minute. Approximately around 30 strokes/folds of the batter will be just enough.

6. Place in a piping bag and pipe rounds of about 3cm diameter on lined baking sheets or silicon baking mats. Hold onto the baking sheet and tap them hard against your bench top to remove any extra bubbles from your piped shells. Sift some cocoa powder on top if desired. Preheat the oven to 150° C/130°C fan-forced. Leave shells on bench to dry for about 30 minutes to an hour, or until a shell forms around the piped macaron (I generally leave them for 20-30 minutes).

7. Bake for about 18 minutes, or until you can clearly peel the parchment paper away from a macaron. Cool thoroughly on the pans before peeling the cooled macarons from the parchment. Use a spatula or plastic scrape if necessary.

8. Pipe the mascarpone frosting (recipe below) on a macaron shell, then sandwich it with another macaron shell. Refrigerate overnight. Can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for several days.
 
Chiffon Cake
(adapted from Inspired Nest)
 
Part I
6 large egg yolks
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I use vanillin)
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup plain flour
 
Part II
6 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 cup caster sugar
 
1. Preheat the oven to 175°C/155°C fan-forced. Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.
 
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat egg yolks, water, oil, vanilla and sugar together until combined. At low speed, add in the flour mixture and beat until the batter is smooth.
 
3. In another large mixing bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar at high speed for approximately 1 minute. Reduce to medium speed and gradually add in the sugar. Continue beating until very stiff and shiny. Be careful not to overbeat the egg whites. Do the overturn test where the egg white mixture shouldn't fall out from the bowl.
 
4. Using a spatula fold in the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture until well combined.  
 
5. Bake in a 9-10 inch no non-stick cake tin for 55-65 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly touched.
 
6. Invert and cool in cake tin over a wire rack. When cool, loosen edges with a knife and remove from the cake tin.
 
Notes:
- I used 2 no non-stick cake tins (25cm in diameter and 5cm in height).
- Don't fill cake batter more than 1/3 full of the cake tin or else there'll be an overflow.
- The remainder of my cake batter was put into cupcake moulds and baked for approximately 30 mins
- Be gentle when removing the cake from the tin, because it sticks to the base the cake can rip easily.

 
Coffee Crème Pâtissière
(Note: I would double the amounts below to use for the entire cake)
3 egg yolks
60g caster sugar
25g cornflour
1 teaspoon instant coffee powder
1/2 vanilla pod (I substituted with 1/2 teaspoon vanillin)
250ml whole milk
15g unsalted butter, cubed

1. In a large saucepan boil milk and vanilla over low-medium heat. In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks, sugar, cornflour and green tea powder together.

2. Slowly add boiled milk to the egg mixture whilst whisking. Return mixture to the stove over low-medium heat and continue whisking until it gets thick in texture.

3. Add in the butter and whisk until melted and crème is smooth. Put a cling film over and leave to cool in the fridge for 30-60 minutes. It can also be left overnight.
 
 
Mascarpone Frosting
(adapted from Martha Stewart)
 
250g mascarpone cheese
400g thickened cream
1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted
 
Using an electric mixer at medium speed, beat the cream until stiff peaks form. Be careful not to overbeat. In another bowl, beat the mascarpone cheese and icing sugar until smooth. Gently fold the whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture until fully incorporated. Use immediately.
 
 
Assembly
1. Spread the coffee crème patissiere as evenly across a layer of cake with a metal spatula running under hot water. Place the second layer of cake on top.
 
2. Crumb coat cake with a thin layer of the mascarpone frosting around the cake then spread the remainder afterwards. Dust cocoa powder on top if desired.
 
3. Place the tiramisu macarons on top of the cake when serving, or else it'll become soggy.
 

Sunday 28 April 2013

Apple Crumble Cake



Apple Crumble Cake

(adapted from Raspberri Cupcakes)

Cake:
230g self raising flour
pinch of salt
120g butter, softened
120g sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used vanillin)
2 tablespoons milk
2 small Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced thinly (I just used 1 big apple)
ground cinnamon

Crumble:
125g self raising flour
90g sugar
45g butter, diced
1 1/2 tablespoon water for mixing
ground cinnamon

Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C. Grease a 19cm square/round cake tin.

2. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add in eggs and vanilla and beat until just combined. Add in flour, milk and salt and beat until combined. Don't overbeat the batter.

3. Spread mixture evenly over the base of the tin and evenly distribute the apple slices on top to cover the whole surface. Sprinkle ground cinnamon over the apples.

Crumble:
4. In a clean bowl, put flour, sugar and butter in a bowl and rub mixture between your fingers to combine them together. Add in 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon then gradually add in 1/2 teaspoon of water at a time whilst combining mixture with your fingers. Continue rubbing the mixture until it starts to form fairly big clumps of 0.5cm.

5. Spread crumble over mixture over the top of the apples and pat it down slightly.

6. Bake for 45 minutes until the crumble is golden brown. Allow cake to cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Sunday 21 April 2013

Green Tea Layered Crème Pâtissière Chiffon Cake

I love green tea cake. I can still remember the bursting green tea flavour and cottony soft texture of the first time I tried a green tea sponge roll cake with a thin layer of cream and red bean paste. Ever since then I told myself that I must bake it some day.
Last week one of my supervisors turned 70 and knowing that he likes drinking green tea, there is no better choice than to bake him a green tea cake. But then, he has put me to the test of what type of cake I should bake and design for him. He prefers savoury and avoids sweets. The cakes I usually bake are sweet and usually have a big slab of cream on top. Although green tea cakes aren't sweet by itself but I was not going to settle down with a plain looking cake without any decoration.   
I searched high and low over the world wide web looking for the most suitable green tea cake. I even observed the designs of green tea cakes in shops but they were all packed with cream so it wasn't all that helpful. Somehow, my eyes were laid on the green tea chiffon cake. I've never made chiffon cake before and it got me worried because sponge cakes have never worked properly for me. I was literally able to predict that the percentage of success would be leaning towards a fail and on my first try, I got 2 flat pancake layers of chiffon cake. I started to panic because I only had one more day left to bake the actual cake and if this fails, I don't know what else I could do (borderline crying). I went online and did more research on troubleshooting issues with chiffon cakes here and here where on my second try I succeeded. Although the cake succeeded, I didn't add enough green tea powder. I would recommend double the amount of green tea powder instead of the 2 teaspoons that I've added. I also recommend going on Youtube to see how to fold egg whites properly in a chiffon cake if you're unsure how to do it properly as that is one of the very crucial steps.
Now to talk about the green tea crème patissiere which is the best part of the cake. Full of strong bitter-sweetness and made up for the inadequacy of green tea flavour in the chiffon cake. I can literally just scoop out the crème patissiere and eat it by itself as it is so good. The crème patissiere can be made a day in advance but it would be pretty cumbersome during the layering process once it is set. I had to defrost it in the microwave for 30 seconds or more and then run the spatula in boiling water before spreading it across the cake. Crème patissiere definitely does not look as clean when it comes to decorating cakes and so I covered the clumpy texture with extra green tea powder, tada!

Green Tea Layered Crème Pâtissière Chiffon Cake

Green Tea Chiffon Cake
(recipe adapted from Inspired Nest)
Part I
6 large egg yolks
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I use vanillin)
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup plain flour
4 teaspoons green tea powder
Part II
6 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 cup caster sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 175°C/155°C fan-forced. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and green tea powder in a bowl and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat egg yolks, water, oil, vanilla and sugar together until combined. At low speed, add in the flour mixture and beat until the batter is smooth.
3. In another large mixing bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar at high speed for approximately 1 minute. Reduce to medium speed and gradually add in the sugar. Continue beating until very stiff and shiny. Be careful not to overbeat the egg whites. Do the overturn test where the egg white mixture shouldn't fall out from the bowl.
4. Using a spatula fold in the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture until well combined.  
5. Bake in a 9-10 inch no non-stick cake tin for 55-65 minutes or until the cake springs back when lightly touched.
6. Invert and cool in cake tin over a wire rack. When cool, loosen edges with a knife and remove from the cake tin.
Notes:
- I used 2 different sized no non-stick cake tins (25 and 29cm in diameter and 5cm in height).
- Don't fill cake batter more than 1/3 full of the cake tin or else there'll be an overflow.
- Be gentle when removing the cake from the tin, because it sticks to the base the cake can rip easily.
Green Tea Crème Pâtissière
3 egg yolks
60g caster sugar
25g cornflour
1 teaspoon green tea powder
1/2 vanilla pod (I substituted with 1/2 teaspoon vanillin)
250ml whole milk
15g unsalted butter, cubed
1. In a large saucepan boil milk and vanilla over low-medium heat. In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks, sugar, cornflour and green tea powder together.
2. Slowly add boiled milk to the egg mixture whilst whisking. Return mixture to the stove over low-medium heat and continue whisking until it gets thick in texture.
3. Add in the butter and whisk until melted and crème is smooth. Put a cling film over and leave to cool in the fridge for 30-60 minutes. It can also be left overnight.
Note: This amount was enough for the rectangular cake I cut out from the round layers. My cake was approximately 10cm x 20cm. So you might want to double the amount if you want to fill the entire cake.
Assembly
1. Spread a layer of crème patissiere on top of the first layer of cake. Put slices of strawberries on top.
2. Top with the second layer of cake and add the remaining crème patissiere on top. Sprinkle with extra green tea powder on top (optional) and decorate with halved strawberries.

Sunday 14 April 2013

Moist Butter Cake

I hate being sick. It's the most annoying time to have a coughing fit with bundles of snot especially when you're running out of time to finish things before the deadline.

What makes everything depressing is that I've been on a restraining order from consuming my favourites: chocolate, cookies, peanut butter etc. So then the loop hole around this was perhaps I can have a plain cake that wouldn't be a burden on my coughs.
This was a very good opportunity for me to travel back in time to one of my fondest childhood memories. I still remember very clearly from my childhood , the first time when I ate the Golden Butter Cake my papa had baked for the whole family. I pointed to a cake mix on the supermarket shelf and told him that I wanted to eat this cake. Without much hesitation, he agreed to buy and bake it for me. 
For numerous times I ran back and forth to the kitchen to peek over my papa's baking. When the kitchen was filled with the buttery aroma I got very impatient. I couldn't wait to eat the cake. The cake tasted splendid. I went from one slice to another.
I decided to give Ju's Butter Cake a try. It's moist and full of buttery goodness but is still rather different from the Golden Butter Cake from my memories. The texture and appearance is not quite the same. Not to say the butter cake is no good, it just hasn't pushed the buttons in my memory as there is a special place in my heart for this particular cake. However, with this butter cake I still can still go from one slice to another and won't get sick of it.  

Butter Cake

(recipe adapted from The Little Teochew)
195g (approx. 3/4 cup) plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
170g butter, softened
225g sugar
1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I use Imitation Vanilla)
120ml (12 tablespoons) milk
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan-forced. Grease and flour a 9 inch cake tin.
2. Sift together the plain flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Using an electric mixer at medium speed, cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
4. Beat in egg, egg yolk and vanilla until well-combined.
5. At low speed, add in the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with milk.
6. Switch mixer to medium speed and beat for 10-15 seconds, just until the batter appears uniform.
7. Pour batter into the cake tin and smooth top with spatula or knife.
8. Bake for approximately 40 minutes, or until it reaches a dark golden colour and when the inserted skewer comes out clean.
9. Allow the cake to cool for 5 minutes before transferring the cake onto a cake stand or platter.

Tuesday 9 April 2013

Tiramisu

It's been quite a while since I've had this fabulous Italian dessert. For months I had sponge fingers readily bought sitting in my cupboard, ready to be unleashed. What kept me at bay was that I was determined to make my own mascarpone cheese.
I love mascarpone cheese. Such a smooth and light texture that's suitable for any dessert. One of the downsides is that it's expensive. A small standard tub in the supermarket costs approximately $5.50 down in Melbourne. I couldn't afford to have it all the time at my expense. I was astonished to find that mascarpone cheese is cheap and quite easy to make yourself. So, never again will I let the supermarket take me for a ride in ripping me off.  
I got a bit hasty in the process in making the mascarpone cheese that I only ended up with a 50% yield in the end. Half of the poor cream was wasted but luckily it was just enough for me to make the tiramisu.
Tiramisu is such a common dessert in the western countries but my parents were only exposed to it last year. They had no clue about this well-known dessert to my utter surprise. My jaw dropped when my sisters were also quite clueless about it. I think I got a bit enthusiastic and even told them the romantic love story behind this lovely dessert. There's so much sentimental value in this dessert. No one is a coffee fan in my family but we've all embraced the love for tiramisu. 

Tiramisu

(recipe adapted from tiramisu pots of VideojugFoodandDrink)
 3 egg yolks
100g caster sugar
250g mascarpone cheese
400g thickened cream, whipped
500ml strong espresso or 6 teaspoons instant coffee in 500ml water 
20 sponge fingers (lady fingers)
unsweetened cocoa powder for sprinkling on top
1. Using an electric mixer, beat the cream at high speed until stiff peaks form. Leave it aside until ready to use.
2. Using a heatproof bowl, place egg yolks and sugar over a saucepan of simmering water. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until it's slightly cooked, with a smooth and runny consistency. Remove bowl from the saucepan and allow it to cool.
3. Add the mascarpone cheese to the egg mixture and whisk until the cheese is fully incorporated and lump free.
4. Add in the readily whipped cream and combine well with the whisk.
5. Build the tiramisu. Dip the sponge fingers into the coffee and place horizontally on a 20cm square cake tin. Spoon over half the creamy cheese mixture in and spread evenly. Sift cocoa powder across the whole layer. Place the rest of the dipped sponge fingers vertically down the tin and add in the remaining mixture. Spread evenly and dust with cocoa powder on top.
6. Allow it to set in the fridge for a few hours before eating it.

Friday 29 March 2013

Happy Easter everyone!



Today, we celebrated the fruits of my dad's labour in the backyard with a large bitter gourd. Bitter gourd is the least of my favourite vegetables although it's meant to be good for you but as it's name suggests...it's BITTER! But for some reason we were all excited and enthusiastic with our cameras to snap away at our very first harvest of 2013. It also turned out that the bitterness was acceptable to my tastebuds this time. But I guess that's all due to my dad's wonderful cooking of the bitter gourd. It's definitely a Good Friday for our family today.
Last week, I actually baked this flourless orange cake but still wanted to share it with you all. I was scavenging for the ingredients that I already have in the kitchen to come up with something good to eat. I realised I still had oranges left and immediately craved for the flourless orange cake once again. Although this is my second time making it, I ended up boiling an extra orange by not reading the recipe carefully. What do I do with the extra orange? Make orange syrup for the cake. Oh em gee, the cake was divine and delicately moist with that extra ooze of syrup drizzled on top. Such a beautiful mistake :)


Flourless Orange Cake with Orange Syrup

(cake recipe adapted from Citrus and Candy and you can get the orange syrup recipe from here)

2 medium oranges, seedless
6 eggs
1 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cup almond meal

1. Wash and scrub the outside of the oranges and place the whole orange (skin and all) in a pot. Fill with cold water to cover. Place over medium-high heat and bring to boil.

2. Once it's boiled, allow it to simmer for approx. 20mins and replace with cold water and bring it to boil again. Repeat this process once again.

3. On the third round, once the oranges are boiled, let it simmer for about an hour and then drain the oranges. Set them aside to cool.

4. When the oranges have cooled, roughly chop them to pieces and remove any seeds and white pith. Place them in a blender or food processor (skin and all) and blend until you get a fine puree. Measure out 1 1/4 cups of puree and store the rest in a container (if any) for next use.

5. Preheat oven to 175°C/155°C fan-forced. Grease and flour a 23-25cm cake tin. Alternatively, you may line the base with baking paper.

6. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs, sugar and baking powder until thickened and pale in colour. Add in almond meal and mix well.

7. On low speed, gradually add in the orange puree in 2-3 batches. Beat for at least 20sec after each addition.

8. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 50min ~ 1hr or until when the skewer comes out clean from the cake.

9. Allow the cake to cool for 10min before transferring it to a cooling rack.
Time to dig into the deliciously moist cake!

Friday 22 March 2013

Classic Baked Cheesecake with Blueberry Sauce

Hold back your salivas ladies and gentlemen! Here comes a drool-worthy cheesecake drizzled over with some amazing blueberry sauce. I actually cannot believe that I haven't made a post on this yet.

This is the cake that changed my life.
The one that made me believe that I can actually bake as I previously had little faith in myself.
The one that made me fall in love with baking.
The one that is so simple to bake.
The one that is revered deeply in my heart.
And the one that has become my 'signature' cake that friends and family remember me for.
 
Recently, our household accommodated a lovely couple from overseas. The uncle and aunty were such a cute pair together. Since it was auntie's first time in Australia, I thought why not welcome her with my 'signature' cheesecake...and oh gosh, she loved it. Love to the point that she proactively seeked for the recipe and got me to explain in detail of how to bake it. For the first time, I had to translate a recipe in chinese for someone... and that part was a little bit daunting for me since my vocabulary is quite limited.
The blueberry sauce definitely deserves a mention as well. It's so good that it's not just an accessory to the cheesecake but a wedded partner. It's got the naturally berry sweetness with a bit of tangy flavour from the lemons. Beautiful combination. Now I'm craving pancakes just as an excuse to have more of that blueberry sauce.

Classic Baked Cheesecake with Blueberry Sauce

(cheesecake recipe adapted from Arnotts)

Biscuit base
250g plain biscuits, finely crushed (Marie, Nice, Arrowroot etc)
125g unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)

Cheesecake
500g cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence (I used Vanillin)
3 eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C/130°C fan-forced. Lightly grease a 20cm springform tin or line the cake tin with baking paper (if you don't have a springform tin).

2. In a bowl, combine crushed biscuits, cinnamon and melted butter. Press firmly onto base and 3/4 of the way up the sides of the cake tin. Refridgerate for 30mins or until the cheesecake batter is ready.

3. Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth.

4. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until combined. Pour into biscuit base. Bake for 50 minutes.

5. Once baked, turn off the oven. Leave cheesecake in the oven with the door ajar for 1 hour.

6. Chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight.

Homemade Blueberry Sauce

(recipe adapted from My Baking Addiction)

2 cups (250g) fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp cornstarch, mixed with 2 tbsp cold water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I used Vanillin)
Zest of 1 lemon (approx. 1 tbsp)

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine blueberries, 1/2 cup water, sugar and lemon juice. Stir frequently and bring to low boil.

2. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch with cold water. Slowly stir the cornstarch into the blueberries, taking care not to crush the blueberries. Stir until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon, about 5 minutes.

3. Remove from heat and gently stir in the vanilla and zest. If the sauce is too thick for you, slowly add in water until you've reached desired consistency.

Monday 25 February 2013

Devil's Food Raspberry Cupcakes


I had chocolate cravings over the blazing hot weekend. I missed having cake, especially David Lebovit's Devil's Food Cake. This is probably the third time that I've made it and still love the overall texture of the cake. And I always get nice compliments about them.

Devil's Food Raspberry Cupcakes
(adapted from David Lebovitz's Devil's Food Cake Recipe)

9 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ cups cake flour (It's not self-raising flour! I used plain flour)
½ tsp salt
1 tsp bicarb soda
¼ tsp baking powder
112.5g (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups caster sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
½ cup strong coffee (or water)
½ cup whole or low-fat milk

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease and flour two 20cm cake pans; line bottoms with circles of baking paper.

2. Sift together the cocoa powder, flour, salt, bicarb soda, and baking powder in a bowl. Using an electric mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar about 5 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time until it's fully incorporated.

3. Mix together the coffee and milk. Stir half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, then add the coffee and milk. Finally stir in the other half of the dry ingredients.

4. Divide the batter into the two prepared cake pans and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

Makes approximately 30 cupcakes. Store in an airtight container.

Raspberry Buttercream
200g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup icing sugar
2 tsp milk
½ tsp vanilla extract (I used vanillin)
pinch of salt
15ml raspberry puree (push through fine mesh to remove seeds)
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter till pale and creamy. Add the remaining ingredients except the puree. Mix on low speed for 1 minute to incorporate everything then beat on medium speed for approximately 6 minutes. Add the puree and beat until incorporated.

Wednesday 13 February 2013

Chinese New Year Baking Project 2013!

White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes and Dark Chocolate and Cherry Brownie Tarts
Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Chinese New Year! May the year of the snake be a prosperous year where you'll be entwined with good fortune, good health and happiness. One other good news that I'd like to share with everyone is that I finally got myself a DSLR! I'm so happy with my upgrade from a 5 mega pixel digital camera (yes it's old!). I've always been envious of the high quality shots with the fine resolution and focus in the photos that people take, and now I can finally say that I've joined the pack. Exposing myself into the new world of photography is like learning a completely new language. My head gets confuzzled with all the jargon used in photography and therefore it'll definitely take me a while to try and configure everything. But otherwise, I'm filled with the excitement of becoming a pro shutterbug.
For weeks I have been brainstorming for ideas of what I should bake for chinese new year and in return that nearly made my head explode with the infinite choices that I can decide on. A lot of things did not go into plan on my new year's eve baking bonanza and most of it was due to my lack of organization and foresight. Cheesecakes were originally part of the plan but the refrigerator was jam-packed with groceries which will then be filled with food leftover from new year eve's dinner. Well, I'm not surprised here since history repeats itself every year. It was always a nightmare for me to feed on the same dishes for a whole week as my parents crazily cook more than our stomachs can handle. Luckily, the handbrake was pulled this year and we only have a reasonable amount to deal with.
I had to say that most of the things I baked were decided in a spur of a moment during the day as I was trying to work with what's already in the pantry and what nibbles would be suitable for guests who will come over to celebrate new year with us. My sister, S and I made a batch of honey joys where the majority were shamefully finished by us instead of the guests. The honey joys were nostalgic to have. It's one of those easy-to-make and simply delicious sweet treats that we had to learn to make back in the days of high school.

Cupcakes are always a must in my list to do's for chinese new year as it's simple to serve to guests and this year I decided on making white chocolate raspberry cupcakes. I love the combination of those two flavours together. The natural pinkish-red colour of the raspberry was one of the main reasons chosen as to fit in with the CNY theme. It's definitely no chinese new year treat unless you have some red colour in your desserts...at least in my opinion. These cupcakes are made by simply grabbing a trustworthy plain vanilla cupcake recipe that you have and then just add in white chocolate bits plus a cup of raspberries.
Disasters tend to befall when I'm not organised with anything and same goes with the dark chocolate and cherry brownie tarts. When I started cooking the butter and chocolate, I realised that I ran out of brown sugar. Panic, self-blames and cursing (oops no cursing on CNY) all took place in an instant. But then I decided to take a gamble and use caster sugar instead and luckily the brownies still worked out well. Appearance wise, I realised it probably wasn't the best decision to use cherries as the skin looked old and wrinkly after some harsh exposure in the oven. Otherwise, the texture was smooth and very delicious to eat.

Baking continued to go downhill when I overmixed my macaronage a little where the macarons turned out to be pink rather than red. In my mind I thought this batch had to be thrown away as they looked like flat pancakes when piped out. But these little babies rose to my surprise and actually had 'feet'.

Dark Chocolate and Cherry Brownie Tarts

(recipe adapted from Donna Hay's magazine 10th birthday collector's edition, Issue 59)

200g dark chocolate (70%), chopped
60g butter
½ cup (90g) brown sugar (I used caster sugar instead)
¼ cup (60ml) thickened cream
3 eggs
¼ cup plain flour
250g cherries, pitted and halved

1. Preheat oven to 150°C/130°C fan-forced. Lightly grease 4x10cm-round springform cake tins lined with non-stick baking paper (I used 2x10cm-round cake tins and a 20cm square springform cake tin).

2. Place the chocolate, butter, sugar and cream in a medium saucepan over low heat and stir until melted and smooth.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and flour until well combined. Whisk in the chocolate mixture until combined.

4. Pour mixture into the cake tins and top with the cherries. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean. Serve the tarts with chocolate ganache or fresh cherries.

Honey Joys

(recipe adapted from Kellogg's Cornflakes)

90g butter or margarine
⅓ cup sugar
1 tbsp honey
4 cups corn flakes

1. Preheat oven to 150°C. Line a patty pan with paper cases.

2. Melt butter, sugar and honey together in a saucepan until frothy.

3. Add in the corn flakes and mix well.

4. Working quickly, spoon mixture into the paper patty cases. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool before serving.
 

White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

Standard plain cupcake recipe (that makes approx. 20-25 cupcakes)
100g white chocolate, roughly chopped
1 cup raspberries, fresh or frozen, roughly chopped (optional)

 

Macarons

Please refer to this post for the macaron recipe. Filling was just whipped cream topped with a raspberry. Sorry, I forgot to measure how much cream I've used here.

Friday 11 January 2013

Blueberry Cream Cheese Macarons

Macarons are a work of art in baking. Petit, delicate and simply sweet. Such a popular sweet that many people go crazy for, all thanks to a certain tv show. Even the two little twirps sisters at home can have FIVE  or more at one go. I do not have that crazy ability unfortunately...level down as a cake monster here, or should I say, sweets monster. As you can tell, the batch never lasts long in my household. There aren't many ingredients required to make this but mixing the macaronage to the right texture is such a fickle thing to do. Macarons have always been the bane of my existence due to many of my past failures. It really hurts each time a batch of macarons fail because of the costly almond meal and the amount of egg whites gone to waste. Previously, I never understood why macarons are so expensive but now I understand and appreciate the level of difficulty of getting everything just right to obtain the final product. It got to the point where I almost lost faith in myself with the potential to be able to produce pretty little macarons.

I've tried both the french and italian methods only to see them: flat as pancakes, cracked on top, do not 'feet'. There are numerous recipes and tips over the world wide web that you can read on, even video tutorials are available. I wished I did all of them earlier on to compensate for my numerous  mistakes. It all seems easy but then when it comes to baking it , it's a whole different story. But once you get it, you'll be jumping happily around like me and it'll appear to be more effortless, the more you bake them. A very good start to the new year for mastering picture-perfect macarons, 'Go me!'. I personally prefer the french method as I don't own a stand mixer and therefore I don't need to cope with having another person around helping to pour the sugar syrup in whilst beating the egg whites. French method is less complicated as well, which I like.
I've decided to bake a batch for Auntie L, who had selflessly helped me out a lot during the past 6 months. These little babies were happily boxed and wrapped up for her. Too bad, she didn't get them first hand when they were delivered to her house. Hope she's satisfied with what I put together for her.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Macarons

(recipe and tips adapted from Brave Tart)

Macarons
115g almond meal
230g icing sugar
144g egg whites, room temperature (You can zap fresh egg whites from the fridge in the microwave on defrost for 10 seconds)
72g caster sugar
½ tsp kosher salt (I didn't add this in)

1. Sift the almond meal and icing sugar together in a medium bowl and set them aside.

2. Using an electric mixer in a medium bowl, beat the egg whites together with the caster sugar and salt at medium speed for 3 minutes (4 on a Kitchenaid). They won't seem especially foamy at this point.

3. Increase the speed to medium-high (7 on a Kitchenaid) and whip for another 3 minutes, then increase to highest speed (8 on a Kitchenaid) and beat for another 3 minutes.

4. Turn off the mixer. Add in any colouring/flavour/extracts and whip for another 1 minute at highest speed. At the end of this minute, you should have a very stiff, dry meringue. When you remove the whisk attachment, there will be a clump of meringue in the centre, just knock the whisk against the bowl to free it. If the meringue has not become stiff enough to clump inside the whisk, continue beating for another minute, or until it does so.

5. Dump in the sifted dry ingredients all at once and fold them with a rubber spatula. Use both a folding motion (to incorporate dry ingredients) and a rubbing/smearing motion to deflate the meringue against the side of the bowl. Take care not to overmix, the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after 30 seconds to a minute. Approximately around 30 strokes/folds of the batter will be just enough.

6. Place in a piping bag and pipe rounds of about 3cm diameter on lined baking sheets or silicon baking mats. Hold onto the baking sheet and tap them hard against your bench top to remove any extra bubbles from your piped shells. Preheat the oven to 150° C/130°C fan-forced. Leave shells on bench to dry for about 30 minutes to an hour, or until a shell forms around the piped macaron (I generally leave them for 20 minutes).

7. Bake for about 18 minutes, or until you can clearly peel the parchment paper away from a macaron. Cool thoroughly on the pans before peeling the cooled macarons from the parchment. Use a spatula or plastic scrape if necessary.

8. Pipe the cream cheese filling (recipe below) on a macaron shell, then sandwich it with another macaron shell. Refrigerate overnight. Can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for several days.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Filling
(recipe adapted from ai love baking)

113g cream cheese, softened
25g icing sugar
25g blueberry jam or puree
50g unsalted butter, softened

1. Beat the cream cheese, butter and icing sugar until smooth.

2. Add blueberry jam or puree and mix until incorporated.  Chill to set.