Almond Chocolate Chip Chiffon Cake

This is the 2nd bake for this Chiffon Cake . The first one was bake with cutting off chocolate chip from a chuck of chocolate. On this 2nd bake I am using chocolate chips. I found that using chocolate chip in chiffon cake , the chocolate chips seem to sink into the bottom of the cake and not inside the cake itself. However using cut fine chocolate , it will give a lighter and better effect of having chocolate in the cake itself.

I'm joining Best Recipes for Everyone April 2015 Event Theme: Fun with Almonds by Fion of XuanHom's Mom and co-host by Doreen of My Favourite Little DIY


Using almond meal in the recipe has create a chiffon cake full of almond fragrance and the cake texture is a lot softer and not spongy.

The recipe is adapt from a Japanes translate to chinese cakebook - 自已作职人配方戚风蛋糕。

For 20"(6 Eggs) or 23" (7 Eggs) Chiffon Cake Mold

Ingredients :

7  Egg Yolks
90ml  Vegetable Oil
100ml Warm Milk
140g Almond Meal
70g Chocolate Chip
7 Egg White
100g Caster Sugar

Method :

1. Preheat oven to 165C
2. Place the egg yolks in the mixing bowls, pour in vegetable oil and warm milk . Mix till combine.
3. Shift the almond meal into the egg yolks mixture. Whisk till all well combine.
4. Whisk the egg whites to foamy and add in caster sugar gradually and beat till stiff peak.
5. Gently fold in egg white mixture into egg yolk batter in 3 seperate additions until well combined.
6. Sprinkle the chocolate chop into the cake mixture and lightly stir in the cake.
7. Pour the batter into the chiffon cake mold. Bake in the preheated oven for 40-45min.
8.When the cake is out from the oven , invert pan immediately to cool completely before unmold.


The cake is very soft and I love the fragrance of almond in the cake. This is definitely a very healthy chiffon cake beside the chocolate chip. You can replace the chocolate chip with 40g roasted almond chip to have a total almond chiffon cake .


Hope you can give this recipe a try .

Magic Custard Cake

During my pregnancy, I can not take any sweet , as my taste bud just does not like sweet at all.  I was always tire and can not do much baking. At time I can not even look at any dessert picture. It will make me want to puke. However by chance I come across this recipe -> AncooJournal Magic Custard Cake. What attract me is the 3 different texture in one cake. I wonder how it will taste when you have 3 texture - cake, custard and the bottom chewy dough .

Interesting part of pregnancy is , once you give birth . Whatever was weird then , will get back to the normal self. When I finally found the time and got my "normal" taste bud back , I can not help but to try on baking this cake.

Recipe as below :

Ingredients :

113 g Butter
480ml Milk
4 Eggs , separated egg white from egg yolks ( 70g each egg including shell)
1 Tbsp of caster sugar
115g Plain Flour
150g Icing Sugar ( I used 120g)
1 Tbsp Water
1 Tbsp of Orange Zest
1 tsp of Vanilla Extract

Method :

1. Preheat oven to 160 C fan . Line a 8"x8 " (20cmx20cm)  Square cake pan all sides up . I used a removable square pan .
2. Melt the butter and set aside for slight cool. Warm the milk to lukewarm and set aside.
3. Whisk egg yolks with icing sugar using hand held mixer until light and fluffy. Mix in the melted butter and 1 Tbsp of water until evenly incorporated ( about 2 min).
4. Mix in the flour until evenly incorporated. Slowly beat in the lukewarm milk and vanilla extract until everything is well mixed.
5. Whisk the egg whites to foamy and add 1 Tbsp of caster sugar into it, whisk till stiff peak.
6. Fold in 1/3 of the egg white into the flour mixture in step # 4 with spatula. Repeat until all the egg whites are folded in. The mixture will seem cuddled is normal.
7.Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 50-60min ( my oven is 50min) or until the surface is golden.
8. Once bake , take the cake out from pan let it cool and chilled in fridge before serve.

      
I bake this cake twice. The first time I bake it was for our church life group gathering. The response was so good, I only manage to get one piece to try out. So the week after that, I bake another one for me and my beloved. Ok we did indulge ourselve with sweet now and then. At time it can be tire in adjusting our new role as parent.  We need to pamper ourselve.

I did not manage to take a good picture of the cake. The layer does not seem to obvious in the picture. I love the texture of the cake , it has the soft cake in 1st layer, soft custard cream on 2nd layer and the chewy part at the bottom. I enjoy soft cake and my beloved love any creamy cake. So this cake suit both of our taste. 

Give it a try if you want something different in one cake.

Stamped ShortBread

Time goes past fast even as a home mom . There will be days , my schedule is about cooking,eating, feeding, coaxing the little one to sleep , rest and cooking etc repeat itself from days to weeks. Well, am not complaining at all. In fact I thank GOD , my princess is a good baby. By 2nd months, she sleep through the night from 9pm - 6am. She is a happy baby most of the days. As I am not into carry baby all day and times, she kind of knew it and able to adapt well . Praise GOD , prayer works and I now find time to bake and hopefully can update my blog as much as I can .

We are back to church and most of the activities we family used to do . This shortbread was baked for the ministry I am serving. Our church has a small cafe operate on Sunday to let people have some munch and coffee before service started each Sunday. Of course those who serve in the cafe are all volunteers . We do need more volunteers to help out. So we have the Ministry Fair Sunday to encourage people to serve in different ministry.

I come across this shortbread recipe from one of my favourite blogger ->Dailydelicious. As I need some cookie that I can stamp some wording on it, I have to make sure the dough of the cookies is firm and will not be out of shape once bake. Her recipe is just perfect. So here is the recipe I have used to make my Book Cafe Short Bread.

In total I make 47pic with heart shape and round shape mould. I double the portion from the original recipe and add orange zest in it to give a hint of orange in the cookies.

Ingredients :

200g  Butter ( cold and cut into pieces)
1/8tsp Salt  ( as I used salted butter, so I omitted the used of salt)
60g  Icing Sugar ( original recipe is 80g)
240g  Cake Flour
90g  Rice Flour
1 Tbsp of Orange Zest.


Method :

1. Cut the butter into small cube and put in a mixing bowl.
2. Sift cake flour, rice flour, icing sugar and orange zest , pour over into the butter.
3. Use your fingers to mix the dry ingredient into the butter. Mix it till looks like small bits of bread crumb.
4. Knead the crumbs till stick together and smooth.
5. Wrap with the plastic and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
6. Take the dough out from the fridge, roll the dough to 5mm thick and cut it to different desire shape.
7. Preheat oven to 160C, and line the tray with baking sheet.
8. Place the cut cookies on the tray with baking sheet and press the wording you desire on the cookies.
9. Bake the cookies for 15-20min until the light golden.
10.Take the cookies out from the oven and cool on tray. Keep the cookies in airtight container.

The cookies is soft but firm, it will not easily break into pieces and it hold the shape after baking. Though the cookies look "plain", the taste is simple delicious.If you want to send a message in a cookies , this might be a good choice too.

Soon Kueh - May this be a smooth sailing year with our little one

The pregnancy happen on last year, does take up a lot of my time and energy in the whole process. Add on to it, we were moving during my pregnancy. Moving to a new home , is a whole entire full on project for a pregnant lady. Packing and unpacking is insane. Thank GOD all is over and we have welcome our new born in Nov 2014. Now I am a homemaker aka mommy and also a feeding cow to my little one. As all mom said, is tiring, is stressing at time but all is WORTH it. I hope to get back to baking and more cooking as my little one grow older.

So here is a long outstanding blog . However is good to start my 2015 with this kueh I love most - Soon Kueh. Hopefully this will be a smooth sailing and soon soon year for our whole family .This is one of the kueh I sort of crave during my pregnancy. As I can not get any here I have to make it myself. I follow the recipe from this link ->atkokken-soon-kueh-turnip-dumpling

The skin for this recipe is easy to follow and I simply love the result , the skin is transparent and chewy soft . Is just the right texture for me.I hope you will like it as well.

Ingredients for fillings:

500g Turnips
3 tbsp  Oil
1 tbsp  Minced garlic
1 tsp    Oyster sauce
1 tsp    Salt
1/2 cupChicken stock
55g      Dried shrimps
Sprinkle of white pepper

Method:

1. Peel turnip and cut into matchstick and soak in water. Drain and set aside.
2. Add oil to a heated wok. Fry garlic until fragrant and brown.
3. Add dried shrimps stired fry till aroma come out add in turnip stir fry to combine well
4. Add in the chicken stock ,oyst,r sauce,salt and fry for a 3 mins.
5. Cooked till the water reduce and turnip turn transparent and soft. Dash some white pepper on it
6. Let the filling cool down before wrap it .

Note: I have some leftover carrot, I just put in together to enhance the sweetness.

 Ingredients for the skin wrapping :

375 g Wheat Starch ( Tang Mien)
180g  Tapioca Flour
450 ml Boiling water ( I add a little bit more, this can varies as to see how the texture to be)
3 tbsp  Vegetable oil ( original recipe suggest either shortening or oil )
Oil for greasing

Method :

1. Place all flour ( Wheat starch & tapioca flour) in a mixing bowl. Pour in boiling water and mix quickly with ladle ( I used wood ladle). Leave aside with cover for 15 min
2. Add in oil and knead into a pliable dough. Be careful it can be real hot.
3. Roll out in a cylinder , cut with a sharp knife into 2cm slices. Dab some oil on both side and roll out gently into thin round shapes.
4. Place 1 Tbsp of the filling in the center of the each dough and fold in half . Seal the edges by pressing it.

I used a curry puff mould to help me in this. As I just want to make sure the size of the kueh is consistant. I am not good in making any pleat at the edge. Cover the dough with warm tea towel during the process to avoid it dry up and keep moist.

Oil the steaming tray with some vegetable oil and place all the kueh in it and steam in high heat for 15-20mins. Once the kueh is cooked , brush some vegetable oil on it while is hot so the kueh will not stick to one another when take out.

Serve with chilli sauce or you might want to top with some deep fried shallot and dark soya sauce.
I even pan fired one of the soon kueh to test the texture. The texture is soft yet will not easy broke. I will keep this recipe as is what I like :)

FootBall Cake

I can only say I have my months past really fast with all the sleeping and eating in this period of my life. I am journey into my 6th month of pregnancy. I still felt drain and tire after work and can not stay awake after dinner.  Most of the time I will be sitting and doze off infront of the TV till my love gentle nudge me and ask me to get into bed. Gosh I hope I will have more energy as time past.


Not be able to have this post on July I hope I will not miss it in Aug14. Time flies just too fast for me to realise it. I have make this Football Cake early this year. This cake is for a little boy 1 year old celebration, his party theme is Football as he love balls. This is the present I gave to him for his 1 year old celebration . Really love this cute little boy, he is one of the babies in church that who does not scare of my love. :p


Instead of baking the round cake in oven, I actually used a steam cake recipe. As I do not want to buy a Football mould cake tin. However I do have some metal bowl to do some steaming . So here is the recipe I follow ->Blessed Homemaker


Steam Moist Chocolate Cake


Ingredients :
185g Unsalted Butter or cooking oil. ( I used butter)
180g Castor Sugar
200ml Evaporated Milk
2 Eggs lightly beaten
110g Cake Flour
45g Dark Cocoa Powder ( I used up to 60g and good quality cocoa powder)
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract


Method :


1. Heat up the steamer. I used my normal wok to steam
2. Line the bottom of the round metal bowl and spray oil around the bowl.
3. Put castor sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla extract and butter in a saucepan, stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved and butter melted. Off fire and leave to cool.
4. Add the beaten egg into the above mixture and still till well combine.
5. Sift the flour , cocoa power , baking powder and baking soda into a large mixing bowl.
6. Pour the eggs mixture over the flour and stir still combine. The batter should be runny.( If the chocolate mixture is not dark to the color of your liking , put a drop of red velvet essence )
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan , cover top of the pan with a piece of aluminium foil.
8. Steam over medium heat for 45min.
9. Cool the cake in the pan before turning our for further decoration .

I have this cake decorate by using Vanila Buttercream and Melted Chocolate. To make the football filed, it is the simple pandan chiiffon swissroll base. 

I would not say this is a good decorate football cake. Anyway is the 1st attempt of making a football cake. I do hope to improve my skill in near future. The steam chocolate cake is kind of dense however as it is a steam cake so the moist still keep well in the cake. I do hope the parents and the boy has enjoy this cake.

Pandan Checkerboard Cake with Coconut Cream

Gosh it has been awhile that I did not update my blog. There was a saying , if a blogger suddenly sort of disappear , it might mean either get back to work ( normal work life) or adding another family member in the life.


^__^ by the kindness of GOD, I am currently pregnant with the bundle of joys . Never do I know pregnancy can make so much difference in my life. I was mostly tire and sleeping super early most of the nights. By 8pm , I am totally gone. If I still able to stay awake is just because I might be eating or trying hard to keep awake till another half hour to be knocked off again . Having to work and body changes is no something I used to cope. Well, I shall not "complain" is another phrase of life , me and my hubby are journey towards.


This cake has been make in April to celebrate the birthday of a group of guys !! Ya ! in total we have about 5 people born in the month of April . We notice those we born in the month of April seem to be talented in art , most of them are musician in our midst.


I thought of making a checkerboard cake but instead of doing what I have done before ( the not very successful attempt ->orange-chocolate-checkerboard-cake) I decided to have the flavour change to what we all love, pandan checkerboard.


So here is the recipe I used from -> NasiLemakLover Basis Sponge Cake. I love the texture of this sponge cake and have been using this for most of my cake.


Pandan Sponge Cake ( 1 7" round pan cake )


Ingredients :


4 Egg ( large) - Separate the egg yolks and egg white in different bowl
20 Caster Sugar
50g Corn Oil
60g Milk
1/2 tsp Pandan Escense
90g Cake Flour


1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
60g Caster Sugar
( I did not reduce the sugar in this recipe , as I find the sweetness is just right)


Method :


1. Preheat oven at 140C .
2. Place egg yolk and sugar (20g) in a mixing combine , lightly whisk till combine
3. Add in corn oil , milk and pandan essence stir to combine
4. Add in cake flour mix well and set aside.
5. In a clean mixing bowl , combine egg white with cream of tartar , beat with electric mixer.
6. Add in the caster sugar ( 60g) gradually , beat till stiff peaks but not dry .
7. Mix 1/3 of the egg white mixture using hand whish with the egg yolk mixture till light.
8. Fold in the balance of the egg white in 2 portion into the egg yolk mixture until well combine.
9. Pour the batter into the pan and bake at 140C for 25min at the lower rack . Increase to 160C and bake another 30min. Till insert the cake tester is all clean .


Note:
1.The oven I am using is pretty hot so the temperature I used is according to my oven .
2.The cake pan used should not be non stick pan and I only line the bottom of the cake pan. The reason not using the non stick pan is for the even rising of this cake.
3.For even tone of baking and rising , this cake should be cake in low temperature at first then increase it heat. At lower rack.
4.If you follow the step , the cake will not crack at all. That is why I said this recipe is a winner among all the sponge cake I have tried.
5. To make a vanilla sponge cake just have the pandan essence replace with vanilla extract.


To make this checkerboard cake , I make 2 sponge cake , once is pandan sponge cake another one is vanilla sponge cake.


Each cake need to be slice into 2 layer. I did not take pictures on how to assemble the cake. I am sure if you google the checkerboard that is heaps to follow. Or you can jump back to the above post follow Wendy instruction .

For the coating I used Coconut Milk with white chocolate cream. As this is a 3 layer cake , hereby is the measurement for this 8" round cake.

Coconut Milk Coating

Ingredients :

700ml Coconut Milk
300ml Cream
120g White Chocolate
3 Tbsp Gelatin
6 Tbsp of Water

Method :

1) Pour 6Tbsp of water in a bowl, sprinkle 3 Tbsp gelatin on top of it and let it bloom.
2) In a saucepan, combine the coconut milk and cream. Bring it to a boil and simmer for one minute.
3) Remove the pan from the heat and add the white chocolate and gelatin.
4) Stir the chocolate and gelatin until completely dissolved.

Assemble the cake :

1. Put the cake layer in the cake ringform mould. Slowly pour in the 1/4 cup of coconut milk cream.
2. Fridge for 10min for the cream to slightly set
3. Place the 2nd layer of cake on top of the 1st layer, slowly pour in 1/4 cup of coconut milk cream in.
4. Fridge for 10 min for the cream to set.
5. Place the last layer of the cake on top of the 2nd layer, slowly pour in 1/3 of the coconut milk cream in .
6. Allow the last year to set in fridge for 15 min and pour all the reminding cream to the cake.
7. Fridge overnight to set. 

The reason to let the cream set in each layer ,as this is more a liquid cream then a buttercream. If you pour too much at one time the cake will float in the mould. So it does take some time for each layer to set properly.

I think my 2nd attempt for this checkerboard cake is better than the previous one. Well I guess practise make perfect. :)

The taste is great. All the birthday boys love it. However, everyone can only have a slice of it. I think good thing sometime when is lesser it make the taste better.

Chocolate CreamChesse Layer Cake

 
Up to date, I have make this cake 3 times. It was a well received cake. I make the 1st one for a sister birthday . Make in a 8" square cake mold. Using the original recipe it turn out quite thin . I should have know it better when I saw the batter and the size of the tin. Well , it was the 1st attempt, I do allow some mistakes to improve.

When the cake was share in a lunch table, it was so yummy . Everyone was waiting to get a 2nd piece if there is any extra. It was a joy to see how everyone love the combination of chocolatere  and creamcheese. I must say the texture of the cake was so soft , it make one felt it is not a heavy cake. Indeed this cake , I would classified it as a healthy chocolate cake.

After the 1st attempt , I received 2 order for this cake. I manage to make to double the size for a customer order of 8" square cake and use the original measurement for a 7" round cake .

The recipe was from this blogger ->Eggplant10. It is a steam bake cake. 1st of my steam bake experience. The cake is soft and creamy yet is not heavy in term of taste .

Ingredients :

Part A - CreamChees layer

250g CreamCheese
50g Caster Sugar
1 Egg ( Extra Large)
1 Tbsp Water
1 Tbsp Flour ( I used Cake Flour)

Method :

1. Beat Creamcheese with sugar till combine.
2. Add in egg and beat till combine
3. Mix in water and flour . Leave aside for later used.

Part B - Chocolate Layer

2 Egg ( Extra Large)
1 cup of Caster Sugar ( I used brown sugar and did not top to full cup)
1 tsp of Vanilla Essence
1/2 cup Hot Water
1/2 cup Milk
1/2 cup Cooking Oil
1 Cup of Cake Flour 
3 Tbsp of Cocoa Powder ( I used good quality Cocoa Powder)
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Baking powder
( I  have all the powder pour in one bowl and sift and put aside)


Method :

1. Beat egg with sugar using electric mixer till fluffy and double in size.
2. Pour in vanilla essence, hot water, milk and cooking oil. Mix gently with hand held mixer.
3. Pour in all the sifted powder to the egg mixture. Combine well


Steam Baking the Cake :

1. Heat up water in the steamer, grease the cake mold.
2. Pour 2 ladle of chocolate mixture in the mold, steam for 15-20min
3. Pour 1 ladle of creamcheese mixture on top of the chocolate layer , steam for 15-20 min.
4. Continue with another layer of chocolate mixture then creamcheese layer. Till all mixture finished.
5. One complete steaming, take the cake out and demould when the cake has cold down.

I make the cake with few layer as it give some volume to the cake and I think it looks nice like a layer cake.

Is a simple recipe yet the result is fanstastic. Give it a try, I am sure you will have a great feedback from those you share the cake with.