Green Tea Strawberry Swiss Roll

My 1st Swiss Roll attempt. I have heard is an easy to make cake, and the taste is fantastic. I am quite daunting to make Swiss Roll , and why ? Am not sure do I know how to roll the cake nicely and will it break. Will it be firm as a roll or it will just turn out flat. As the cake is bake in a flat rectangle pan , overbake will break the cake and can not roll it at all. Hence this is a brave move for myself in my baking journey.

Thank GOD it turn out well and err I didnt roll the cake myself. I have my beloved to roll this cake , as he is good in rolling sushi and often his hand is firmer than mine. Sometime when it come to baking we have to be confident, even in the movement . It need to be done in one roll without pausing. So here is the 1st attempt of our swissroll.

I used the recipe from one of the lady who bake a lot and her swissroll seem easy to follow
 - > Happy Flour Green Tea Swissroll.

 I did not use red bean as filling , as my belove does not like red bean at all.  Strawberry is in season so is nice to whip up the cream and diced some strawberry and here we have a lovely filling with the green tea swiss roll


Ingredients
3 egg
60g caster sugar
1/4tsp salt
65g cake flour
1/4tsp baking powder
1tsp green tea powder
1tbsp hot milk
35g veg. oil
few drop of green food colouring ( I didnt use this the green tea powder is good enough)


150g whipping cream (whipped)
100g Strawberry diced

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Dissolve green tea powder with hot milk, add in few drops of green food colouring and leave it aside.
3. Use a cake mixer to whisk the eggs, salt and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Shift the cake flour and baking powder into the cake batter in 3 portions and fold in.
5. Mix milk mixture and oil together and fold in lightly into the batter until well combined.
7. Spread batter in a lined and greased 10" x 13" tray.
8. Bake in a preheated oven for 10mins.
9. Remove cake from tray immediately and cool on a rack.

Assemble the cake:
1. Carefully transfer the cake onto a greaseproof paper with the skin facing up.
2. Spread whipped cream on the cake and sprinkle diced strawberry .
3. Gently roll the cake by using the paper to lift the cake and guide roll.
4. Rest the roll in the fridge to stabilize it shape.
5. Remove, slice and serve.

I would say the green tea powder I used suppose to be good quality however the result is not as what I expected. The cake is nice and moist but lack of green tea favour. The taste of the strawberry cream , beloved simply love it. Another thing to take note is , leave the cake to cold is easy to fold and the cream will not melt . I love this swiss roll and how easy it turn out, I did a few of it will share some of the recipe next round.

We finished the cake within 2 days and share with friends who come and visit us. Yes all my cake has to be share with friends. Is just my way of saying I appreciate them and wanted to show them my thought in my baking.

Strawberry Mirror Cake

Voila.. Is winter in Australia now. Is strawberry session. How can I not take the opportunity to bake up something with strawberry.

Strawberry is in season it mean the price is cheaper and the fruit is big and juicy.Strawbeey is good at eating  fresh , coat with choclate and best for cake too. I has been "studying" this recipe for awhile. Was planning to bake this cake for one of the friend as a birthday cake . Thinking it might impress her and make her day. It seem a bit of work in making this cake so to avoid any fail , I plan to have a pre run before the actual day. So this is the result of my baking .

Yup the top is not really mirror effect. Sigh ! Sigh! How can I call a mirror cake when is clouded on the top! Arghh I really scream out loud when I saw what I did. Ok , I guess I did not wait long for the cream to set and pour in the syrup so it get melted and floating  in the jelly . Sigh... tsk tsk..

Ok enough of whinging . here is the recipe I used from my favourite blogger ->Table for 2 or more

Recipe sharing as below :

The sponge:-
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
100gm sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 egg whites
1 pinch cream of tartar
1 tbsp sugar
50gm sifted cake flour


Moisting syrup:- mix and cool down.
50ml hot water
1 tsbp sugar


Strawberry Bavarian Cream:-
1 ½ tbsp unflavored gelatin
150 gm fresh strawberries + strained strawberries from preparing the mirror.(pureed)
2 egg yolks
70gm sugar
180 ml milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
200ml whipping cream

Strawberry Mirror:-
250 gm fresh strawberries
150 gm sugar
180ml water
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp unflavored gelatin


Method:

Assembling the cake.
1. Prepare cake. Place trimmed cake onto a 10 x 10 jelly roll pan. Put in the freezer.
2. Prepare strawberry juice.
3. Prepare bavarian cream.
4. Moisten cake with moisting sugar syrup and pour bavarian cream onto cake. Level the cream. Put in the fridge to set.
5. Prepare strawberry mirror and when mirror mixture has turned syrupy pour onto the bavarian cream layer. Place cake in the fridge to set.

Sponge cake:-
1. Preheat oven to 180/200C. Line a 10 X10 inch jelly roll pan. -> I used a square 8" pan
2. Beat eggs whites until foamy, then add in cream of tartar. Beat until soft peaks, then add in 1 tbsp of sugar and beat until stiff and glossy.
3. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, egg yolks, and sugar until creamy, pale and light. Beat in vanilla.
4. Sift cake flour. Fold into egg yolk mixture.
5. Stir in 1/3 of beaten egg whites into egg yolk mixture. Then fold in the rest of the egg whites.
6. Spread batter evenly in pan. Bake for 12-15 minutes.
7. When cake has cooled, remove baking paper, trim cake so that cake will have an even surface and remove the brown upper skin. Cover and place in freezer.


Bavarian Cream:-
1. Puree strawberries and sprinkle in gelatine powder. Stir it until the gelatine is well blended in well with the puree.
2. Whip egg yolks and sugar until pale and light.
3. Bring milk to a boil and pour in 1/4 of the milk into the egg yolk mixture while still beating with a mixer. Pour in the rest of the milk slowly. Mix well.
4. Return this mixture to the fire and cook with a low fire, stirring constantly, until your finger leaves a clear trail in sauce when drawn across the back of the spoon.(Do not boil or mixture will curdle.)
5. Immediately remove from heat and stir in strawberry mixture.
6. Pour into a stainless steel bowl and place over a bowl of ice water. Stir in lemon juice. Stir once a while to prevent the sides from solidifying.
7. While waiting for the strawberry custard mixture to cool down, whip whipping cream to soft peaks. Do not overbeat!!
8. When strawberry gelatin mixture has cooled and thickened to the consistency of softly whipped cream, fold whipped cream into strawberry custard mixture.


Strawberry Mirror:-
**I prepare strawberry juice(step 1-3) in advance because I `recycle' the strained strawberry pulp from the juice into the bavarian cream.
1. Chop strawberries into large chunks.
2. Place strawberries, sugar and water into a saucepan. Lightly press the strawberries to release juice. Bring to a boil.
3. Strain the juice with a strainer and don't press the fruits at this point.
** this step to be done only after bavarian cream has set on the cake.
4. Bring the strawberry juice that was prepared earlier to a boil. Remove from fire. Sprinkle in gelatine powder and stir to ensure the gelatine has melted.
5. Put in lemon juice. Stir. Wait for it to cool down and turn syrupy.


Note : The list is long but it does not take that long to do it , I did that at night. Probably not good for myself. After a long day work , I felt tire and it really take out the patience of me.

I did this another time by doing it in a cupcake form with another type of cake ( will post the recipe soon ) , is very successful . I gave it to my friends they all love it !

However this will not be cake I bake for the birthday gal . Why ? Because it seem fail ?? No.. is because she want something else. Ha quite difficult to please when you start to give people a choice. Maybe next time should not ask just bring whatever cake that turn out well. NowI need to search for that cake recipe and hope it turn out well ..

Blueberry Creamcheese Orange Sponge Cake

This is another birthday cake for a beautiful new mom . She gave birth to a beautiful baby gal early this year. I think all woman especially mom deserve all special treat in their special day.

Am wondering what to bake for her . When it come to cake is always individual preference. Some love a soft moist cake , some love dense mud cake style. To me is always the soft moist cake I yield for .I knew she love blueberry , yet I do not want to bake a blueberry muffin ( as it seem the easiest for me to follow) for her as a birthday cake. So searching through recipe , I have to adapt some recipe and come out with this ->Blueberry CreamCheese Cake .

The recipe was modify and adapt from ->Table for 2 or more.

Orange Sponge Cake

Yolk batter
5 egg yolks
15gm sugar
35gm vegetable oil
35gm orange juice
1 Tbsp orange zest
70gm cake flour
1/4 tsp baking powder

Meringue
5 egg whites
35gm sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Preheat oven at 160(fan)/180C. Prepare an 7 inch square pan. Line the base only.
2. Prepare yolk batter. Combine all the wet ingredients + sugar + lemon zest. Sift cake flour + baking powder together and combine with everything until a smooth batter forms.
3. Prepare meringue. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peaks and beat in sugar gradually until stiff peaks form (hooked peak).
4. Prepare final batter. Fold ¼ of meringue into yolk batter until well combined. Repeat with another ¼. Pour the yolk batter into remaining meringue and fold until well combined (Fold not stir and it should look very foamy). Pour batter into prepared pan.
5. Bake the cake for 40-45 minutes or until done. Remove from oven and let the cake totally cool before removing cake from pan. (If it’s a springform pan, you can skip lining the base and then invert the pan to cool for better volume)
6. Slice cake into 3 slices and fill with blueberry creamcheese(recipe below) and chilled at least 2 hour before serve


Note :For this cake I only used 2 layer ,I freeze 1 layer and used it for other cake .





Blueberry Creamcheese

Blueberry compote

100g Bluberries
1Tbsp Water
2 Tbsp Lemom Juice

Prepare the blueberry compote. Cook blueberries with water and sugar until they bleed. Lightly mash it with a fork. Let it cool down to warm and press the blueberries through a sieve to remove the skin. Mix the sieved compote with lemon juice, it will turn reddish. Discard the skins in the sieve.

6g Gelatin
35ml Water
250g Cream Cheese
50g Sugar
300g Pouring Cream 150g Blueberrie ( for topping on each layer of the cake)


1. Freeze a mixing bowl in a freezer
2. Pour water into a heatproof bowl and sprinkle gelatin over.
3. Let it sit for awhile so that the gelatin granules will bloom. Heat bowl over hot pan of water let it dissolve.
4. Remove bowl from freezer, beat cream until soft peak . Transfer cream to a bowl and set aside in fridge.
5.With the same bowl beat cream cheese add bluerries compose a tbsp at a time until all combine & cream cheese till is smooth
6. Fold the whipped cream into cheese mixture.
7. With melted gelatin on your left and the cream chesse mixture on your right , sprinkle the gelatin into the cream cheese mixture and mix well.

Assembly the cake

1. Spread the cream chesse on each layer of the cake.
2. Top with blueberries on each layer of the cream
2. After spreading equally cream cheese on each layer of the cake , the reminding cream cheese spread even on the cake surface. Decorate cake to your liking.

 

I must admit I didnt do the decorate smoothly, however the combination of Orange Sponge and the Blueberry Cream Cheese is so yummy. All the friends love it and of course so is the birthday gal. I might do this cake again when an opportunity come by. 

Japanese Strawberry Shortcake

July is a month full of celebration :) I get to know my beloved husband during my holidays in Australia back in 2006. Honestly when you met some new friends you probably won't purposely remember when was the date or time you know each other. We can remember this special date is because I was on holidays and now this has become another special day to celebrate .

We met one another through a friend during my trip in Australia. Yes, our story is kind of romantic which not only happen in movie. Occassionaly I do believe movie does reflect real life story. As a believer of Christ we do not think this is by co-incident rather GOD has HIS way in our life.

To celebrate our 6th year annivesary of knowing one another , I got this heart shape mould to want to bake something special for ourself. Often I will bake for other people special moments and not so for myself . I have decided from now onwards I am going to do it for my family too .

Is winter time and strawberry is in season. It has been my thought to want to know how is a Japanses Strawberry Shortcake taste like. Looking through recipe from the net, and search from the my favourite blogger  -> Table for 2 or more so here is the recipe adapt from her site :

Cake:

120 gm. cake flour

1/4 tsp. baking powder

50 gm. sugar

50 gm. melted butter

50 gm. cornoil

4 egg yolks

1/2 tsp. vanilla essence

4 egg whites

65 gm. castor sugar

Decoration:

300 gm. whipped cream

10 strawberries (diced)

10 strawberries - thinly sliced

1 Tbsp. instant strawberry jelly + 2 Tbsp. boiling water - for glazing fruit ( I did not have strawberry jelly and substitute with 1Tbsp of sugar disolve in 1 Tbsp of hot water)

Method:

(1) For cake: Sieve cake flour, baking powder and 50 gm. of sugar into a bowl and mix thoroughly.

(2) Mix egg yolk, butter and cornoil together and then pour into flour mixture and stir till smooth.

(3) Whisk egg white till slightly frothy, then pour in 65 gm. sugar gradually and whisk till medium peak.

(4) Fold egg white with egg yolk mixture and then pour into a 8" Square tray and bake in preheated oven at 175C for about 45 mins. or till cooked.

(5) Leave cake to cool on wire rack and then slice cake into 3 slices.

(6) Whip up the whipping cream and then spread whipped cream onto each layer and sprinkle diced strawberries on top. Repeat till the last layer of sponge cake. Spread the cake on top with whipped cream. Arrange sliced strawberries on top overlapping one another.

(7) Mix instant strawberry jelly with boiling water then brush it over the sliced strawberries.

(8) Chill before slicing and serve.

 

Note : The mould I am using is 2 small heart shape mould, I actually used another square mould to bake the reminder of the cake mixture  for other baking 

 

 

 

The cake is soft and I love the combination of cream and strawberry. My hubby love it so much he ate it slowly just to enjoy it . The original plan was to get a bigger heart shape mould , well isnt it always happen in such a way when you look for it you cant find it but when you do not need it , it will always right infront of you. I am happy with the small cake so we can finished it at one serve and not overeating.

Tiramisu

When I first started baking, one of the cake catches my eyes I would like to try is Tiramisu cake. Afterall is quite a fancy cake in cafe. Going through the recipes to get the right one, I realised this cake can be made without baking and some actually put in a glass to consume as a sweet dessert not totally a cake.

So I knew Tiramisu cake is can be present in different way, however the main ingredients for this cake is not only cheese but coffee and raw egg. Well I am not a coffee person at all. As coffee just make me way too happy and my heart will pump a lot usual than I would enjoy it ( too excited is not a good thing at time ).I pretty much told myself nah this is not a cake for me. Since I cant eat it  I wont think I will make it.

However , this is the cake I have make. So never said never and one really cant tell her own future right :)


Yup was my friend Elva birthday on end of June. She is a coffee lover, coffee bring live and smile to her. If she has not has her first coffee in the day , you probably will not want to talk to her. As she will be completely in her world and cant hear you. It was a suprise birthday party for her. We celebrate the rice dumpling festival together and at the end of the meal , light was off and cake was presented with loud birthday song sang. The look on her face worth all the effort in preparing this cake and bring smile to me each time I think of it

So here is the recipe link I adapt the recipe from ->Table for 2 or more. I used a normal square mould for the sponge cake and did not used piping to shape the cake in her way. As this is my first time I would say I would go for the simple way I know and slice the cake in half to assemble the layer of it.

I would have the recipe type here for future easy access :

Sponge
5 egg yolks
50gm sugar
5 egg whites
Pinch of cream of tartar
80 gm sugar
165gm all purpose flour

1. Prepare 2 pans (10X10 inch). Line with paper.
2. Preheat oven to 200(fan)/220C
3. Beat egg yolks with 50gm sugar until thick and pale. Set aside.
4. Wash beaters and beat egg whites until frothy. Add in cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks. Add in sugar gradually and beat until medium stiff peaks.
5. Pour beaten egg yolk into whites and sift half the flour over both type of eggs. Fold.
6. Sift remaining flour over batter and fold.
7. Put batter into piping bag with a 1cm round tip. Pipe lines of batter onto both pans.
8. Bake for 6-8 minutes.
9. Leave cake to cool totally before use.


Coffee Solution
1.5 Tbsp Nescafe gold
150ml boiling water
2 tbsp kahlua or more (optional, other other suitable liquors)

Combine both and set aside to cool down. It’ll taste pretty bitter. Mix with liquor.

Cheese Filling
6gm gelatin
30ml water
250gm cream cheese, room temp
3 pasteurized egg yolks, room temp
50gm sugar
300gm whipping cream(dairy), whipped to soft peaks
3 pasteurized egg whites, room temp
¾ tsp cream of tartar
80gm sugar
Cocoa powder for sprinkling

1. Place water into a heatproof bowl and sprinkle gelatin over. Let it sit for a while so that the gelatin granules will bloom. Heat bowl over hot pan of water or in the microwave to melt the gelatin. Refer to this post. Set aside to cool. Freeze a mixing bowl at this point for the cream
2. Beat egg whites in a clean bowl on high (hand mixer) for 1 minute. Put in cream of tartar and beat for another 4-5 minutes. It should have taken on form. Put in 80gm sugar gradually and beat for another 3 minutes. It should form peaks when beaters are lifted. Put in fridge while you do the next step. Take note that pasteurized egg whites needs more acid and more time to beat it up, and it yields lesser than regular egg whites.
3. Rinse the beaters and remove bowl from freezer. With that bowl, beat whipping cream until soft peaks. Transfer cream to a bowl and set aside in fridge.
4. With the same bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth, it’ll take only a minute. Put in 50gm sugar and beat for 1 minute. Put in egg yolks gradually and beat until smooth.
5. Fold the whipped cream into cheese mixture.
6. With your melted cooled gelatin in your left hand (if you’re right handed) and your hand mixer on your right, run the mixer on speed 1 or 2 (if 1 is too slow for ur machine). Drizzle in the gelatin as the mixer is on. Make sure the mixer mixes the gelatin evenly.
7. Pour cheese mixture into egg whites and fold. Use immediately to fill cake.

 Note : I did not used Kahlua instead I used Bailey and the result is fantasic .
           I did not used pasteurized egg as I cant find any here in Australia. With normal egg is still good .I guess just cant keep this cake for long and  must consume on the day it was make .

Interesting way for her to cut the cake as she does not want her name to be "cut off" . As the result I cant take a clear picture on the slice of cake. Not too sure will I bake this cake again. Maybe if someone requested it I will give it another tried. I have a small slice of myself , is not my custome not to eat my own cake . The taste is creamy and rich , full of coffee favour yet not over powering. Verdict is everyone love it :)

Pandan PanCake

What for breakkie on a lovely weekend ?? Breakkie is a short form for breakfast. In this lovely country -Australia, a "cute" habit is to add " ie " at the end in some word to make it sound more neat :)

One of my friend who is a blog baker ->eelmsthebaker, has her pancake pic on FB one day, it attract my attention and would really love to give it a try. Of course as a follower of her blog , I will have an update each time that is any new blog uploaded, that give me the advantage to get the recipe when it happen :)

Pancake is a classic breakfast meal in western country, of course food should not have any boundary limit. And I believe food bring people together. If you ate something you love, you want to share it, if is something awful or disaster , I would say the more you would love to tell about it ,so others can avoid.

I make this lovely pancake on last 2 weekend. Of course being me, as a pandan lover. I modify the pancake by adding some pandan essence in the mixture and have this lovely Pandan PanCake as our lovely breakfast to start off our weekend. The texture is fluffy soft , crisppy and not too sweet. Is a healthy yet satisfiying meal to start off a weekend .

To have the original recipe do follow the link ->Clinton Street baking company pancake

I will have the recipe (with pandan flavour) as below as well :

Make 12 -3 inch size pancake

Ingredients :

128g All Purpose Flour ( 1cup)
1 tsp Baking  Powder
35g caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs ( seperate yolk and white)
180ml whole milk
43g unsalted butter (melted)
5g unmelted for the pan
1/2 tsp pandan essence

Method :




1. Mixed all purpose flour, baking powder together.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine sugar, salt , egg yolk , whole milk mix well.
3. Sift in the all purpose flour , pour in the melted butter and pandand essence.
4. Beat the egg white till soft peak, fold in the egg white to the all combine mixture.
5. Oil the pan with butter, scoop a laddle of pancake batter into the pan and cook till well.
6. Enjoy it with some cream or honey . I like mine plain with a cuppa :)

Voila!!

Green Tea Chiffon Cake

Another night of chiffon cake craving. I just not too sure what is going on in this winter season. It seem every night I just need some sweet with a cup of hot chocolate as a comfort before I being tuck in bed by my love one hahaha.

We do not want to have too big a cake and also would love to try out my 15cm chiffon cake mould so I bake this little Green Tea Chiffon Cake. As I can not really find a recipe that with such little ingredient to fit in the mould I come out with my own recipe and the result is just what I want . So happy to have this little cake for a night and enjoy the fragrant of tea with a cup of hot chocolate in a cold winter night.

So here is the recipe , you might want to try out if you looking for just a cake for a night ;

Ingredients

Part A:

2 Eggs yollks
35g Cake flour
15g Castor Sugar
40g hot milk
30g Oil
1/4 tsp of Baking powder
1 tsp of Green Tea powder
A pinch of salt

Part B :

2 Eggs White
25g Castor Sugar
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar

Method :
Preheat oven 165C
1. Mixed green tea powder in the hot milk and let it cool down slightly.
2. Mixed cake flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt well.
3. Add mixed flour into warm milk and stir well as it form a soft dough
4. Whisk the egg yolk and sugar until completely dissolved
5. Add in the egg yolk and oil to the flour mixture combine till well
6. Beat egg white with cream of tartar and gradually add in sugar till soft peak form.
7. Fold the egg white into the flour mixture as above.
8. Pour the mixture in the mould and baked in the oven for 30min or till cook
9. When the cake is cook, invert cake leave it cool

We enjoy the cake in 2 night. Well at least you do not feel guilt having a light chiffon cake before bed time. Is just so right for a cold winter night .