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.

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.

Fresh Strawberry Cream Cake

 The same strawberry cake again? Yes, I'm afraid so. I've been a pretty selfish baker these days where I've been baking the same things over and over again. The point of this blog is to push me to try something new each time but my selfish desires were stronger this time round. I crave for more strawberry cake and I thought I must let my friends try some of this cake before I move on. This is basically a cake version of the Christmas Hat Strawberry Cupcakes that I've made on my last post.

At the KK christmas party, my friends were a little bit fooled by the appearance of the cake when I told them that this was a strawberry cake. The assumption was mainly based on the strawberry on top of the cake and hence called strawberry cake. And also because the crust on the outside doesn't show its' natural pink hue and so they assumed it was a plain cake base. Well, surprise surprise...it's full of strawberry flavour. Strawberry bang all over. Apparently it's the best cake I've made that they've tasted to date. Selfish baking desires justified right here!

I had plans on making fresh strawberry frosting to accompany the cake but then decided to fall back on using whipped cream. I guess I didn't want to go overboard with the strawberries just in case some people in the group find it a bit too much.

Now you can see the pinkiness of the strawberry cake :)

This cake is quite dense, crumbly and moist. You can have up to four layers of cake from this recipe by dividing the cake batch into 2 to hasten the baking time. As you can only see two layers here and that's because I decorated each cake separately. I know not everyone is a cake monster like me, hehe.

Fresh Strawberry Cream Cake

(adapted from An Edible Mosaic)

2½ cups plain flour
2 ⅛ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
⅛ tsp bicarb soda
9 oz hulled fresh strawberries, coarsely chopped (about 2 cups chopped strawberries, lightly packed)
112.5g (½ cup/1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups caster sugar
2 large eggs
¼ cup milk (any kind)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp strawberry extract (if available)

1. Preheat oven to 180° C/160°C fan-forced. Grease 2 x 20cm cake tins; line base with baking paper.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl and set aside. Puree the strawberries in a blender or food processor (you will get about 1 1/4 cups of strawberry liquid); set aside.

3. Cream together butter and sugar, then cream in the eggs; mix in the milk, vanilla extract, strawberry extract, and pureed strawberries. Use a wooden spoon to stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients all at once, stirring just enough to combine and being careful not to over-mix.

4. Divide and pour the batter into the greased cake tins evenly and bake until a toothpick inserted inside comes out clean, approximately 35 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Christmas Hat Strawberry Cupcakes

Happy Christmas everyone! May everyone have an enjoyable time with their family and friends on this festive season. For Christmas, I've always dreamt of having a special feast with my family, hanging up stockings in my bedroom, having a massive tree in my house with presents underneath and dressed up warm and cosy, drinking hot chocolate around a fireplace. Unfortunately, that is never the case for me. First of all, Christmas down in the southern hemisphere is summer and therefore hot chocolate would be out of my list and I'd rather prefer to have a cool and refreshing dessert on my christmas menu like a strawberry cupcake. Secondly, christmas is never celebrated in my family although I very very much would like to celebrate it. It would never go according to plan unless I make it come true myself and I haven't been so motivated. I guess baking christmas desserts, being a little Miss Santa and singing some christmas carols with my sisters is as christmas I can get it to be.

I love this strawberry cupcake.The best cupcake I've ever tasted. It's pink, sweet and full of pure strawberry flavour. It can't get anymore organic than this. This recipe uses fresh strawberries in the batter giving out that fresh aroma of strawberries when you bite into it. Sweet and succulent where I ask for more after the first cupcake.

 As you may have noticed, I haven't blogged for a while now. December was just jam-packed with important events for me going from weddings to conferences to preparing for my 6 month candidature review of my PhD. I was especially nervous with my preparations since I haven't done public speaking for over a year now. My heart was beating fast, I couldn't stand in one spot for long and my hands were shaking which has never happened to me before. But at the very least, I'm glad that was over and done with.

But I guess the best thing that has happened during my absence from blogging was attending my family friend's wedding. As bizarre as it sounds, I've never been through an entire wedding ceremony although I'm already in my 20's. It was a very different experience compared to just showing up to a banquet. I was right behind the scenes where I first got to watch the bride and bridesmaids getting their make-up and hair done. It was also my first time helping out before the tea ceremony began with doing last touch-up's on the food to be served to family and guests and then to the fun part where the groom comes to pick up the bride. For Singaporeans like us, we definitely will not let the groom and groomsmen off so easily to see the bride. The bridesmaids came up with a specially brewed cocktail (diluted soy sauce with wasabi) to serve the guys for each answer the groom gets wrong about his dear bride. Surprisingly, the drink didn't affect the groom as he skulled it down as manly as he could but the groomsmen sure did have a hard time drinking it.

I had to say I cried during the wedding ceremony when the bride and groom were exchanging vows. For the first time, I witnessed such a magical moment. Deep down I felt really happy for them since the bride and I have grown up together. Now that she's stepping into the next chapter of her life, I wish her a blissful marriage and in the very near future, start her next chapter into motherhood.

Christmas Hat Strawberry Cupcakes

(adapted from An Edible Mosaic)
  
2½ cups plain flour
2 ⅛ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
⅛ tsp bicarb soda
9 oz hulled fresh strawberries, coarsely chopped (about 2 cups chopped strawberries, lightly packed)
112.5g (½ cup/1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups caster sugar
2 large eggs
¼ cup milk (any kind)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp strawberry extract (if available)

1. Preheat oven to 180° C/160°C fan-forced and line cupcake tins with paper liners.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl and set aside. Puree the strawberries in a blender or food processor (you will get about 1 1/4 cups of strawberry liquid); set aside.

3. Cream together butter and sugar, then cream in the eggs; mix in the milk, vanilla extract, strawberry extract, and pureed strawberries. Use a wooden spoon to stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients all at once, stirring just enough to combine and being careful not to over-mix.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared cupcake wells (filling each about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way full) and bake until a toothpick inserted inside comes out clean, about 20 to 24 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Yields about 24 to 28 cupcakes

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
(adapted from Citrus and Candy)

100g white chocolate (containing cocoa butter), chopped
170g cream cheese softened
25g unsalted butter
a spoonful of sour cream (approx. 2 tsps)

1. In a bowl over simmering water, melt the white chocolate. Remove and set aside to cool.

2. Beat the cream cheese, butter and sour cream until smooth. Scrape the sides down with a rubber spatula to incorporate everything. Add in the cooled white chocolate and beat until smooth. If the mixture is too soft, allow it to become firm in the fridge for 5-10mins before piping it onto the cake.