Never fail Sweet - Creme Caramel

Was quite relax till this month work started and all get a little bit of crazy. Still remember those good old days when I only have to wake up and think of what to cook and enjoy the afternoon breeze with GOD , look forward for the return of hubby after work at night.

Often when I think of sweet simply dessert at night. Creme Caramel is the one will never fail and easy to prepare. It can be a warm sweet dessert at winter night or it can be a chill sweet at summer night. I have this sweet prepare the other night before my work life started again and I have no such relax mood to do dessert or bake almost every forth nightly. It is quite scary to keep baking and eat so much of sweet at night. Thank GOD before me and hubby turn into a "fat" happy couple my work get me back to the track. Still baking but not as often as I should not :p.

The recipe for this Creme Caramel is as below , I used Donna Hay recipe from one of her cookbook - Modern Classic book 2 is an easy follow recipe and again the result is fabulous ..

Ingredients :

2/3 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup water

Custard
2/3 cup milk
3/4 single or pouring cream
2 egg
4 egg yolks extra
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 tps vanilla extract

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 150 C degree. Place the 2/3 cup sugar and the water in a saucepan over low heat and stir untill the sugar is dissolved. Brush the side of the pan with a little water to remove any eat sugar crystals.
2. Increase the heat and boil for 8-10 min until the syrup is in a deep golden colour. Pour into 4 x 3/4 cup capacity ramekins, Set aside for 5 min allow the caramel to set.
3. Prepare custard by placing the milk and cream in a saucepan over  low heat and heat until warm.
4. Place the egg, extra egg yolks, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and whisk until well combined. Slowly pour over the milk mixture while whisking well to combine.
5. Strain and pour the custard over the caramel ramekins.Place the ramekins in a baking tray fill with hot water that is about three quarter of the way up the sides of ramekins.
6. Bake for 35 minutes or until the custard is set. Remove from the tray and refrigerate until cold.

7. To serve dip the base of each ramekin into hot water for 10sc , invert the creme caramel onto a plate and serve immediately. If you like it warm simply heat it up in mircowave for 10-20sc. Enjoy !

Note :
To have different favour of Creme Caramel -

• Orange creme caramel , Omit the vanilla extract and add 1tbsp orange liqueur such as Grand Marnier to the custard mixture in step 4
• Espresso creme caramel - Omit the vanilla extract and add 2 tbsp strong expresso coffee liguid or 1tbsp instant coffee granules or powder dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water to the custard mixture in step 4 above.

I am submitting this post to ->Aspiring Bakers #24 (October 2012) : Jellies & Puddings hosted by Charmaine of MiMi Bakery House 
 

Malaysia HoneyComb Cake or Ant's Nest Cake

We were invited by a newly wed couple to their place for dinner last Monday. It was such a pleasant to see these young couple come together in marriage after overcoming all the hurdle in their relationship journey.
The husband is a Malaysia who are so blessed to marry a beautiful Korean lady. She often curious about my cooking and would ask me is this Malaysia cuisine or is Chinese . When they invited us over for dinner I promise to bring a dessert , I started to wonder what can I bring that will have Malaysia identity in it. As I have make a Pandan Chiffon cake for her before I wanted to try out something totally different.

I almost forget about this cake and as a matter of fact I do not know what this cake was call. It take me awhile to google it and find out the recipe I would love to try on. Not many recipes seem to be the right one I am looking for , however after spending some time of searching I found one that I think should be the right one and get started to bake this cake. Yup I bake the cake, I knew originally this cake was more likely a steam cake. So I modify my baking method and steam bake this cake. The result was fabulous. The cake remind the "chewy" texture yet more moist and soft .

So if you remember this cake and would like to give it a try here is the recipe link ->HoneyComb - Kueh Sarang Semut. Just be caution when adding water to the hot caramel sugar. The recipe is by far the most safer one I would say. The result is great and not only the Korean love it , it also rekindle my hubby memory of this cake as well .

The cake earn its name - Ant's Nest cake by having hole on the texture and do not worry it is not as sweet as it is even the sugar contain is relatively high. The cake is best go with a cup of coffee or tea in the afternoon. I simply love the texture and the chewiness of it . Is a bliss to manage to get the right recipe and enjoy the result at a lazy afternoon :)

So just in case I lost the link one day I would love to share the recipe as below which is from the link ->

For the recipe: (make a 9" cake)

250g sugar
250 ml of water

100g butter
250g plain flour
160 - 180g condensed milk
6 large eggs (beaten)
1-1/2 tsp bicarb. or baking soda

Method:

1. Tin size: 9" or 23- 24 cm round tin. If you use a spring form or loose bottom tin, line the whole tin with paper, please refer to the slide show. Don't just line the bottom the mixture will leak. If you use a cake tin without a loose bottom you can line just the bottom with paper.
2. In a small saucepan, add in sugar and heat at medium heat till the sugar begin to melt. Stir once or twice with one single chopstick (don't use wooden spoon, too much area for the sugar to cool and crystallise), once the melted sugar has turned golden yellow, turn the heat to very low and continue heating till the sugar turns golden brown like dark tea, ( see slide show in the link). Heat off and let it cool for 30 seconds. Then add one tbsp of water at a time, stand back the hot sugar will spit. Continue adding water one tbsp at a time till it stops sizzle, then pour in the rest of water. Turn heat on for about 1 minute, stir and scrape the side to release any unmelted sugar. Heat off and add the butter stir till melted.
3. In a large mixing bowl add in the plain flour, pour in about 1/2 the liquid and mix with a electric beater till smooth, continue adding the liquid till all combine in. Let the mixture stand for about 10 - 15 minutes.
4. Add in the egg, condensed milk and sieve in the bicarb, mix till all combined.
5. Pour the mixture into the tin. Leave it to stand in the cold oven for about 30 - 40 minutes.
6. Turn the oven to 150 deg C and bake the cake from cold for 1 hour or till it is cooked by sticking a  stick in the centre and it comes out clean.

Hazelnut Chocolate Layered Cake

Is always good to bake for the birthday people and see a smile on their face. I baked this cake at end of February for all the February babes in our group.This is my first attempt on baking a square layered cake and decorating it. Err I would say nope not as professional as those who has bake for few years.For a 1st timer I would give myself a pat on my shoulder. The birthday gal love it so nobody should complain about it :)

The cake has 3 layered and I also make a Hazelnut chocolate ganache cream to combine the cake and a chocolate cream to pour on top. The taste is yum and the texture is soft which is why most of my friends love it. I used dark chocolate for this whole cake it just make the cake taste just nice and not too sweet.

As this is a recipe I got it from a magazine I can not link it to any website , I would just share the recipe as below :

Hazelnut Chocolate layer Cake 
Ingredients A:

5 eggs yolks
40g caster sugar( it can be reduced)
60ml milk
100g cake flour
20g ground almond ( I do not have ground almond I used ground hazelnut)
80g melted butter

Ingredients B :
5 egg white
70g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Method :
1. Combine ingredient A and mix well
2. Put ingredient B into a mixing bowl and whisk until still. Slowly add in mixture in step 1 and mix well. Pour the mixture into a lined 8" square mould.
3. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for 23-25 min till cooked. Remove from oven . Unmould the cake and leave to cool. Cut the cake into 3 layers

Hazelnut chocolate ganache :

100g cream cheese
50g ground hazelnuts
200g whipped cream (whipped pouring cream or any cream)
200g cooking chocolate melted ( melt on top of hot water)
1 tbsp rum ( optional)

Decoration :
80ml pouring cream
50g cooking chocolate , cut into small chunks

Method:
1. Combine cream cheese and ground hazelnuts mix until well . Slowly mix in whipped cream and lastly add in melted chocolate and rum . This is the cream to combine the layer of the cake.
2. Heat the pouring cream in a double boiler. Add in cooking chocolate and stir until melted. This can be prepared only when the cake has set and pour onto as chocolate cream.

To assemble :
1. Place a slice of cake onto the cake board. Apply hazelnut chocolate ganache onto the cake
2. Repeat the same way till the last layer is covered with the chocolate ganache .
3. Put in the fridge to allow it to set firm .

4. Lastly pour the chocolate mix over the cake for decoration. Chill in the fridge at least an hour before decorate and serving.

  

This is how the layer looks like :)

 

Maybe you would like to try out as well. It does require some time but it quite an easy step to follow and get the "impressive" result :)

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Been a bit of naughty lately. Nope still doing the baking. Just lazy in updating my blog. So today I find time to get this blog updated before February went by .

I can not be a Chiffon Cake lover if I have never make the original Pandan Chiffon Cake at all. I would say Pandan is a very Asian stuffs. I do not think any western will have any idea what is it. Is a tropical plant in the screwpine genus ->Pandan. It has a special fragrance and the green leave will enhance the color of the product produce from this plant.I do not think is easily acceptable by people not used to this plant , as I did make a pandan fudge cake last year for friend's birthday celebration . The response from the western is not so welcome.The things you grow up with is always delightful but if you are unfamiliar with it , it can be a put off.

This is my all time favorite . I love the fragrance of the cake and the soft texture of it. Pandan goes well with coconut cream so another main ingredient in this cake is coconut cream. So whenever I bake this cake is so hard to stop at having only one piece. As the texture is so soft you just can not help it but to have it more than 2 in a time. Thank GOD is not a rich heavy cake so is good to indulge once in awhile for it.

I have recently found out another new method to make this cake more softer and moist. Which is a mehotd that has been apply in making bread. Is a "wet dough" method. (汤种法）.Is more like making the dough  semi cook before folding in the egg white. I have tried this method on this cake and it turn out fabulous !!!!Amazingly soft on the cake texture and when we slice the cake we can hear the sound of "shi shi" it shown how moist the cake is . So follow this link and give it a try. I am sure if you are a chiffon cake lover you will love this cake MUCH ! - >Happy Flour

 

Well , after posted this blog, I might bake this cake again. As it just simply rekindle my taste bud how good is it the taste. Hopefully you will like it too . Enjoy the baking :)

Gula Melaka Chiffon Cake ( Palm Sugar Chiffon Cake)

It was a really breezing and sunny Saturday where I have a sisterhood tea party at my humble place. A tea party would not complete without some nice cakes.

Indeed it is a blessings to have 12 ladies in my place for a nice lazy Saturday afternoon. It has been my heart to have the sisters be united and get close to another as we grow. I have knew this group of ladies since I came to Brissie to stay for good. We all came from different countries and have different like and hate at time. The idea of sisterhood come from HillSong Color Conference ->Coloursisterhood. It is an annually event in Hillsong Sydney during March.

So to celebrate this one love,one heart, one sisterhood we have a fun time on Saturday with tea, cakes and snacks and lots of fun sharing. I bake 2 cakes for this special moment one is my all time favourite Japanese Cheesecake , the other one is Gula Melaka Chiffon Cake( Palm Sugar Chiffon Cake). I got the recipe from this fantastic cake blogger , she really know how to chiffon cake in all sort of flavor. Chiffon cake is another of my love ( yup you probably started notice I am a fan of all soft cake ). I like Gula Melaka as it has certain fragrance and always remind me of where my hometown is. I got this recipes and try out the cake. My chiffon cake mould is a bit too big for the recipe so the cake turn out a bit "short" I will try to make this again another time and will modify the recipe so to get the height of the cake. The taste is nice just cant get good Palm Sugar is Brissie so I find the fragrance is not as strong as I hope for. However do check out this site she good in Chiffon cake baking ->Happy Flour

It can be improve better next round :)

Rich Chocolate Cake

Planning to bake a chocolate cake to be sold on Sunday church coffee corner.As being inspire by one of my friend chocolate cake baking lately.

Am not always a chocolate person. Ya you hear me right. A lot of my friends I knew is very into chocolate. I used to love chocolate when I was young , that was a time it is such a thrill to receive chocolate as a gift during Christmas . Now I would say Nah not really a fan of chocolate. Of course when the chocolate is really smooth and pure is still good to indulge in it.

Searching through chocolate cake recipes from some of my food blogger. Wanted to get one that is simple, easy to bake and with fantastic result. I finally found this seem to be easy for me to follow ( as is my first chocolate cake baking) -> Rasamalaysia. Well, as am not sure what cake mold to be used. As the baking in process I can see the cake nearly overflow from the pan. Hmm not impress at all . As what it turn out, I can not do any topping or coating. So it is like a "normal chocolate cake " thank GOD it is moist inside.

I share this cake with my friends on the night with some vanilla ice cream it taste good. I might try another recipe and the right mold on my next attempt. At this point I would say ..taste is good but the cake should have turn out better in shape.

Japanese Cheesecake !

Japanese Cheesecake

This is my 1st baking in Year 2012. I would say I am an amateur in baking world. Never really done baking all the time in my life till I came to Australia.

The 1st cake I bake in this year is Japaneses Cheesecake . This is my all time favourite. I love the soft texture and moisture the cake bring. Though is a cheesecake it just taste so light yet is full of cheese flavour. The cake just melt in your mouth and you just want to have it more and more.

I gave this cake half to my pastor as a gesture to wish her happy new year , I hope she enjoy it much. The remaining of the cake we just finished it in 2 days as we really try to enjoy it as slow as we can!

That is sort of silly, so I decided will bake it SOON !!! And might try something different next time I bake it and hopefully it still as good as it is.Will update once I bake it.

I have this recipes from one of my favourite food blogger,Christine's recipe. Is easy to follow and the result is heaven.  :)