3D House Cake

A child laughter is always a happy song singing to our ears . You will not get bored or annoy by it. Therefore hanging around with children make you felt younger and indeed help you stay energetic.

It is my god daughter 1 year old celebration. Kid just grow faster than we can imagine. It is always honor  to celebrate birthday together as a family :)

I want to bring something special for her party. Got the permission from the parents to bring a cake for this special occasion.( Just in case they would like to order something special for their precious baby)

I do not dare to promise anything. Though I know this is the cake I would like to make - House Cake.I saw this cake last year from the blog. Have been looking for an occasion I can make this cake and not to eat it by myself ( it is not wise to eat a whole house of cake ^^) . However not knowing how well I will success in making this cake. I just told them hopefully it will be a surprise.

I follow the link ->Cook.Bake.Love and appreciate the blogger of sharing what they have learn and how to improve the cake decoration . She is good in doing the decoration , I hope I can have such skill :)


So here is how to build the house ..

Ingredient :

1 piece of  8" butter cake with 2" height.
( I used NGSK butter cake ->Zebra Butter Cake)

1 piece of 10" pandan sponge cake 1.5" height
(I used one of the swissroll chiffon cake base ->Yam Taro Paste Swissroll)

Cream frosting :

For frosting the house in between the layer

Blueberry Cream

100g Blueberry ( I used can blueberry as I need to juice )
250g Pouring Cream ( Whip to stiff peak)

Method :
1. Puree the blueberry and press through the sift .
2. Mixed the fine puree with the whipping cream.

For outter layer of  the house

Strawberry yoghurt cream

Ingredient

300g Strawberry Yoghurt
300g Pouring Cream ( Whip to stiff peak)
2Tbsp Gelatin
4Tbsp Water

Method :

1. Put the water in a bowl and sprinkle gelatin in it. Mix well and place in a bowl of hot water to have it melt.
2. Whip pouring cream till stiff peak.
3. Pour the melted gelatin into the strawberry yoghurt and mixed well.
4. Fold the whipping cream into the strawberry yoghurt mixture.


Chocolate cream ( for the house ground)

Melt 10g of dark chocolate ( double boil)
Mix with 100g whipping cream

To make the grass - Desicated coconut mix with some pandan ecessene.
Candies , green grapes , raspberry , biscuits , anything you think your kids will like.

Housing making step :

1. Level bthe butter cake and cut into precisely half.
2.Spread the blueberry cream ont he half of the butter cake and place it on top of the other buttercake.
3.Divide this cake into 3 equal portion. , cut out 1/3 ( be precise as you can )
4.Lift up the 1/3 portion of the cake to standing position , cut diagonally into 2 triangles.
5.Place the 2 triangle together to form a roof and join them with the blueberry cream.
6.Place the roof on top of the remaining 2/3 of the cake. Joint together with blueberry cream. Now the house has been form ^^.
7. Spread the chocolate cream on the sponge cake, place the house on top and position as your preference.
8. Spread strawberry cream to cover the house and cream as smooth as possible and start to decorate the house to your liking or the liking of the litte one.

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I love to have fruit on my cake and try not to put too much of candies. So I build the house with green grapes as path leading to the door and have a bush of raspberry as roses and green grass. I have little princess & horses candies. Afterall is still a little girl cake.

Beside making a ginger bread house this year, maybe can try to do a house cake as a beautiful dessert. If you have the little one I am sure they will love to decorate the cake with you.

Hopefully this cake will bring a surprise on the christmas dinner. Wish you all a merry christmas and blessed new year 2014 ^^

 

Ladybug Steam Cupcake

Well is the time of year , where everyone is rushing to get pressie, prepare food , arrange for holidays .  To want to end the year more foodfull , and have the celebration mood to journey forward to New Year.

Staying in western country, Christmas is a big event for everyone. In US the celebration kick start from thanksgiving in November till the new year. I used to fantasy on how Christmas will be celebrated in western country. The movie seem to project such romantic event with the love one and snowing whole days, nights and months.  Well, sorry Australia is summer during Christmas . How people celebrate Christmas in this country is not romantic at all. Is very family , we tend to have BBQ at the back yard and beers and hot hot weather.  So maybe should a white Christmas will make some different ? Not sure has yet to experience it.

I try not to get too involve on getting present and eating ourselves silly as years goes by. Honestly that is lot of time the present we give or get might not be the one people like. All the people I knew of, are very blessed and have house full of things . This should be a season to bless those who really in need. So I want my Christmas to be one that is give to the needy not to top up others store room .

Every year my church will have an event for the children to know the true meaning of Christmas->Christmas for Kids ( C4K). This event has run for 10 years and we really want to bring the love of GOD to community that has struggle or needs in life.

So I participate in baking Cupcake for the little one. I found this recipe from the website , which I knew the children surely will love the print on this cake . I hope by enjoying the cupcake it will bring some joys to this special day for them .

The recipe I used and modify  is from ->My Little Favourite DIY

Ingredients :

3 Cold Eggs
275g Plain Flour
3 tsp baking powder
150ml Fresh milk
1 tsp ovallette ( I cant find this in Aus, I replace with 1/2 baking soda)
220g Castor Sugar ( can be reduced)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1-2 piece of dark chocolate ( melted by double boiling )

Method :

1) Place the egg and sugar in a mixing bowl , beat till fluffy and creamy , reach ribbon stage
2) Mix in 1/3 of the flour in the egg mixture till combine, pour in 1/2 the milk portion. Follow by another 1/3 of flour then 1/2 milk portion and finally pour in the reminding 1/3 flour in the mixture and combine well.
3)Take 1 Tbsp plain mixture and put into a piping bag
4)Take 3 Tbsp plain mixture , mix with dark melted chocolate and put into pipping bag .
5) Colour the rest of the mixing with bright red and put into a piping bag
6) Pump the red color mixture into the cup about 80% full .
7) Draw a cross with the chocolate mixture and do dots on both sides. Color the upper half of the cross with chocolate mixture.
8) Make 2 plain dots as eye and filled 2 small dots in the plain mixture as eye balls.
9)Steam with medium high heat for 10-12 min. Remember to cover the steamer lids with tea towel. You do not want the water condense to drop onto the cake.

As I do not know how should the texture and the taste of the cake with ovallette inside. Is hard for me to know what I did is successful or the cake should be more moist then this.

I do a pre run batch before the actual baking events. And put some strawberry jam in the cake as fillings. However the jam melted and leak out from the bottom of the cake and make it wet . Where I omit the jam but instead filled with some chocolate chip instead..

The cake is moist and is not as chewy as I thought it will be . The texture of the cake is sort of like chinese fa kueh. Thank GOD the texture is not like the chinese style steam cake.

What is the let down when I did that for the big batch. The cup cake liner I used seem to be bigger which I do not notice it. Until I start steaming the cake it takes longer than my pre run. The cake folor fade and some of the print fade as well.



Lesson learnt - Do not fill it too full , as the longer the heat to steam it will cause the color fade and the cake will surely crack! Is a hard lesson , but I will be more careful next time when it come to cake steaming.

ANG KU KUEH ( Purple Sweet potato)

I love all type of Nyonya Kueh . Is not from my heritage. However staying in Asia we do have different mixed of cultural group staying harmony together. Peranakan is another cultural group with full of strong favour taste of food and snack.

Ang Ku Kueh is one of the snack that is our tea moment snack. It has many version and filling. For this snack I love the peanut fillings. Some recipe will iincorporate coconut milk in it. Which will really enhance the fragrance of this kueh and trust me everything that has coconut in it taste the best.

There are so many Ang Ku Kueh recipe in the internet and for this recipe I follow this link -> HoneyBeeSweets.


Purple Sweet potatoes Kueh

Ingredients

100g Purple Sweet potatoes
150g Glutinous Rice Flour
1/2 Tbsp Rice Flour
1 Tbsp Sugar
1.5 Tbsp cooking Oil
100ml Water or Coconut milk ( I used coconut milk)

Method :

1. Place all ingredient expect coconut milk in a large mixing bowl.
2. Slowly add in the coconut milk to the form a soft dough ( not wet). Cover it with cling wrap and rest for 10min.
3. Divide the dough into small portion and gentle press it flat on your palm.
4. Scoop the filling in the center and seal it. Roll it into a ball shape.
5. Press the dough with filling into the mold grease with oil.
6. Knock the kueh out from the mold and place it on top of a banana leafs.
7. Preapare a steamer and steam the kueh for 6-8min. Depend on the size of the kueh.
8. When the color of the kueh turn lighter it indicate the kueh is cooked.
9. Take it out from the steamer and cool it .

Peanut Fillings

Ingredients

350g Peanut ( The peanut I bought is without skin)
60g Caster sugar

Method :

1. Roast the peanut in oven for about 20min in 180C .( You can slowly pan fired the peanut till roasted)
2. Blend the peanut with the caster sugar.
3. Let it cool down before used for fillings.

As I grease the mold with oil , I did not brush oil before steaming the kueh. You can brush the kueh with oil before steaming it will prevent the kueh from sticking together and make the surface look glossy.

The texture of the kueh is soft and the coconut milk add frangance and it taste yum. I simply love the nature purple from the sweet potatoes. It make this kueh more appealing and just good for an afternoon snack .

Curry Chicken Bun

Another bread moment. I am looking at recipe that is easy and with great result. Baking bread is really time consuming. The time used for proofing and roll and wait for another round of proofing. I am a carb person I must admit. I love rice and really learning to cut down as much as I can . And learn to eat healthy grain .

So this time am looking for an easy and healthy bread recipe I come by this one of the food blogger of my favourite is ->SiewHwei's Kitchen.The recipe has portion the time to proof and interestingly it has a proof dough which was proof in the fridge overnight and added in the main dough on the next day. Well it might be a method some of you had known it for awhile, but again as an ametuer this is the first time I baking bread using this method.

Here are the recipe I have followed :

Ingredients :

Overnight dough (中种）

214g Bread Flour
128g Cold Milk
2g Instant Yeast


Method :

1. Mixed all the ingredient till combine and leave in room temperature to proof for 4-5hours OR
    Leave in a bowl cling wrap it refrigerate 14-16 hrs.

I have this prepare overnight and let the dough sit in the fridge for that long .

Main Dough

Ingredients :

42g Bread Flour
50g Wheat Flour
25g  Milk
30g Whole Egg
3g   Instant Yeast
5g   Salt
35g Brown Sugar
12g Milk Powder
30g Unsalted Butter

Method :

1. Tear the overnight dough into pieces and mixed with all the ingredient in main dough except unsalted butter.
2.  Combine all the ingredient well with mixer using bread hook. Add in butter continue to beat till well mixed and the soft dough has formed. ( Pass through window pane test)
3. Let the dough rest for 10 min. Cut the dough into small portion weighing 40g each portion, roll in ball shape and rest for another 10min
4. Flatted the dough, spoon a tablespoon of curry chicken filling in it. Seal up the dough and roll into ball shape.
5. Line the baking tray and have the bread place in the tray and let it proof for another 60min.
6. Preheat oven 170C.
7. Once proofing is done , brush the bread with egg wash and bake the bread for 10-15min.

As for the curry chicken filling please refer to my -> chicken curry puff.

The bread is soft, however it does stick on my teeth , I wonder is it baking time too short , or this texture will make the bread soft. I guess is healthy to use some wheat flour in the bread. I am looking for wholemeal bread recipe so to have a more healthy version of bread I love to consume.


Give this a try and if you visit the original website for this recipe, you will see she do it all in small batch as tea and snack for her son.

Happy breading again :)

Orange Creamcheese Cake

I make this cake by order. A friend of mine celebrating a beautiful young lady birthday. As I do not have full set of cake to display and for them to choose what cake they can order. Always they will allow me to do my own research and have a theme for me to create/make something that will surprise them .

So the order is simple yet can be tricky. She love cheesecake and orange is her favourite fruit. :) Well I do have one cake that I would love to try out and bake in this theme. I am happy to take up this order and have this cake make for their special occasion.

I have been reading this young lady blog for awhile. I find her really talented. I guess she must have some sort of experience in western pasteries café. The picture and the cake she make was so stunning and above normal standard. The plating was just like fine dining desserts.

This is one of her cake I would love to make. There is a couple of it , I would love to try out in future. I do not have confident to deco the cake like some of hers. It really take time and patience to create cake as such . She is now lodging her first Icook book in Ipad. I have downloaded and it is really great and easy to follow.

Do drop by her blog and the recipe I used for this cake is here ->Yue's Handicrafts

It has few step for each layer. Though the recipe might looks long, however is not difficult to follow. Is quite an easy attempt for cheesecake .I have modify the recipe according to what I can do :)

Make for a 8" round cake ( serve 10-12 pax)

Sponge Cake ( using my Lychee Lime Yogurt Mousse Cake sponge cake )
Half the portion as I only need one layer.

 Ingredients :

40g Cake Flour
1/2 tbsp Corn Flour
13g unsalted butter
18gmilk
100g eggs ( 2 large eggs)
10g egg yolk
30g caster sugar
1 tsp of orange zest (option as this cake should be full of orange smell)

Method :

 1. Preheat oven to 170C degree
2. Place unsalted butter and milk together in a bowl using double boiling method to melt the butter and combine well with the milk.
3.Combine egg and egg yolks with caster sugar in a mixing bowl . Place the mixing bowl on top of a pot of steaming water, avoid the base touch the warm water. Beat the egg mixture with the hand held mixer
4.Continuing beating the egg mixture and be careful not to cook the egg mixture, used your finger to test the temperature of the egg mixture, when is warm take the mixture away from the steaming water.
5. Beat the egg mixture till pale and thick in volume. If you can draw a line with the mixer and the line will not disappear then is done.
6.Fold the flour into the the egg mixture with spatula in 3 separate portions.
7.Take a small portion of the above mixture mix well with the butter milk
8. Pour in the well mixed butter milk and the orange zest into the cake mixture and combine until well incorporate.
9. Pour the cake mixture into a greased 7" round mould. Bake for 15-18min in the preheat oven or until the stick come out clean
10. When done baking , let the cake cool in the mould and take it out, set aside for later use.

Crust Base

Ingredients

140g digestive biscuit
60g unsalted butter ( melted)

Method :

1. Break the biscuit into fine crumb and mix well with the butter.
2. Press evenly into the 8" spring form round mould .
3. Refrigerate at least 30 mins.

Orange Jelly layer ( Top layer)

Ingredients

1.5Tbsp gelatine powder
8Tbsp water
600ml orange juice ( I used bottle orange juice that is pure)
60g sugar ( original recipe 75g)
3tsp of Cointreau ( I do not have so omitted)

Method :

1. Pour water in a bowl, sprinkle gelatine powder on it , let it bloom.  Place the bowl in a bowl of hot water allow the gelatine to melt.
2.Combine 200ml orange juice and sugar in a saucepan, bring it to boil.
3. Remove from the heat , pour in gelatine mixture , stir till smooth
4. Add in the remaining orange juice , stir well.
5. Set 400ml aside for the filling and 60ml for brushing the cake & the remaining for the top layer.

Orange Cream Cheese Filling

Ingredient

250g creamcheese
4tsp of Cointreau ( I do not have it so omitted)
400ml orange jelly , warm ( from the above step)
300ml Whipping Cream

Method :

1. In a chilled metal bowl, beat the whipping cream till soft peaks. Place in fridge for later mixing
2. In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese till smooth , add in orange jelly in small portion and continue to beat till smooth.
3. Fold the whipping cream into the cream cheese mixture. Till well combine

Assembly :

1. Put the sponge cake onto the prepared spring foam tin ( with the crust base in it)
2. Blush generous amount of orange juice on the sponge cake.
3.Pour in all the creamcheese filling.
4. Refrigerate to set. ( Allow 1hour setting)
5. Lastly carefully pour the orange jelly onto the creamcheese layer.
6. Refrigerate to set ( overnight)
7. Decorate the cake as your liking

When I attempt to make this cake, I was concern while waiting for the creamcheese to set the orange jelly might get solidify. However this will not happen, as the gelatine will not set so fast in the room temperature . If you worry, just stir the orange jelly mixture on off to prevent it to set.

The verdict is satisfied customers. They love the taste of the cake and the orange is strong to the birthday gal liking.

 

 

 

This cake is kind of simple though the step seem long. Give it a try you might impress those who love orange and cream cheese.

 

 

Pandan Coconut Milk Layer Crepe Cake

When I find out that is a pandan baking theme this month. It really excite me. I love anything to do with pandan, palm sugar and coconut milk. I always see this as a blessings from GOD to the SouthEast Asia regions. There is a lot of herbs around the world yet this 3 ingredients can produce varieties of desserts and savoury food . 

I planned to make Kuih Tako. However it seem to happen in such a way when you want something in shop you always can not find it , when you do not want it , it will just keep flashing in front you. I have saw and bough fresh pandan the past few months. When it come to this month, NO ! I just can not find any trace of pandan leave or even the frozen one. This is just upsetting! I have few frozen one in my freezer but is just not enough for me to make Kuih Tako .

So with the spirit of not giving up. I come by this recipe which seem interesting. So I decided to have this modify to Pandan version. The original recipe is from ->My little Favourite  ( which is one of the host for Pandan theme)

So here is my version of Pandan Coconut Crepe Cake.

Ingredients :

Pandan Coconut Milk Crepe
 
1 cup Plain Flour
1/3 cup Caster sugar
1 tsp Pandan essence or 1 1/2 Tbsp Pandan Juice
4 Eggs
350ml Milk
150ml Coconut Milk  ( you can varies to your liking)

Nob of butter for greasing the pan

Method :

1. Whisk eggs , milk and coconut milk in a jug . Combine the pandan juice well in it .
2. Sift the flour and sugar in a big bowl. Make a well in the centre , gradually pour in the egg, milk mixture in it.
3. Stirring gently with a whisk to combine ( do not beat) . As not to incorporate air in it.
4. Heat up a 20cm flat round pan. Grease with nob of butter.
5. Fill a 1/4 cup measure to about 2/3 full with batter. Pour into the centre of the pan and swirl the pan around to evenly cover the base. Cook in medium heat ( depend on your stove heat) about 1min. turn it to low and flip the crepe over to cook further 30 sec.
6. Place in the wire rack to cool once is done.
7. Repeat the process till all batter finished.
8. Stacking the crepe on top of each time nicely each time it has cool down on the rack .

This recipe yield for 20- 25 piece of crepe ( this is how much I have made with a few damage one in between)

Fillings ( I did a Coconut cream to go with the pandan crepe)

Ingredient

200ml Whipping Cream
2 Tbsp of sour cream
1 Tbsp of coconut milk
1 Tbsp of caster sugar

Method :

1. Use a cold metal bowl beat the whipping cream with sugar to soft peak.
2. Mix in Sour cream and beat to combine.
3. Pour in the coconut milk and fold to combine
4. Chilled in fridge before use

Assembly

1. Put a piece of crepe on the flat surface
2. Used the back of the spoon to gently coat the creamy filling in a thing layer over the crepe.
3. Place another crepe on top neatly, continue the process till all finished.
4. Chilled in the fridge in a container , till serving time cut into wedges and enjoy.

Do not chill too long as it will dry out the surface of the crepe cake. I guess I have spread too little cream in between the crepe cake. Next time if I make this again will spread it sparingly. Just thinking out loud maybe I can do a vanila crepe cake with durian cream. It will be a great combination too .

I am submitting this post to Little Thumbs Up September Pandan Hosted by Joceline@ Butter, Flour & Me, organised by Zoe@ Bake for Happy Kids and Mui Mui @ My Little Favourites DIY

Am excited to see so many pandan dishes and creation . Thanks for organising this ladies.

Hopefully you like what I have "created" . Have a great pandan experience.

Jelly MoonCake - Palm Sugar with Red Bean Paste

I really wanted to try make some Jelly mooncake this year. This is one of the mooncake we have in Malaysia , it started few years back and it has become a trend. Instead of getting the traditional mooncake , people are getting the colourful mooncake for the celebration. I can understand the reason of it, first, in hot weather , chilling stuff is always welcome. It is also something different from the traditional style and we can have more variety in jelly mooncake . The mooncake is pretty and is seem lighter to many as well.

I do not have the jelly mooncake mould. However I do want to have a try on this new style of mooncake for one of my Mid Autumn festival celebration dinner. So I use my other cake mould to have this cute little jelly mooncake in a more cartoon design.

Thanks for one of the friend , who went back to HK early the year and grab me this little cute mould . The effect is good and I am sure nobody has any objection in having some cartoon style mooncake :)

The recipe I used was in this blogger ->Frozen Wings

I mixed her 2 recipe to make my jelly mooncake. One for the skin and another one by the fillings (Red Bean)

Ingredients :

For the Fillings :

150g red beans paste ( cook the red bean and mashed/blend  it)
350ml water
80g caster sugar (original recipe 100g)
2tsps agar agar powder
1/2tsp instant jelly ( I do not have instant jelly so I omitted this)
1 blade pandan leaves (knotted)

100ml coconut milk
1tbsp cornflour, dash of salt
( have coconut milk with corn flour and salt mix together )

Method :
1. Combine all the ingredient except the coconut milk mixture together.
2. Bring the red bean mixture to a boil and add in coconut milk mixture.Let it come to another boil.
3. Turn heat to low, cook for further 2 mins. Turn off heat, remove pandan leaves.
4. Pour the jelly mixture into the  smaller moulds till almost full . Leave it cool and set , this can chilled in the fridge and prepare one day before.

Dislodge the fillings before proceed to make the skin.

For the Skin :

Palm Sugar mooncake skin  ( I choose this as the color is more towards traditional mooncake)

60g gula melaka ( chopped small )
20g caster sugar ( original recipe is 60g)
4tsps agar agar powder ( depend on the strength of the agar agar powder , I reckon read the instruction and adjust accordingly)
400ml water
250ml thick coconut milk

Method :

1. Put everything in the pot and bring it boil.

Assemble of Jelly Mooncake

1. Pour a little of the skin mixture in the mould and let it half set.
2. Put in the red bean fillings that have already set earlier
3.Pour balance of the skin mixture into the mould till the brim
4.Let it set and chill in fridge .

To unmould the mooncake, soak the mooncake in the mould with some warm water this make it easy to unmould.

I guess the contrast of my mooncake color is not that great as both filling and skin is both dark color. Next round I would definitely try other colourful Jelly mooncake. I hope I will have the right mould next year :)

Happy Moon Cake Festival.