Cake with Love ( Hidden heart Cake )

Is another fruitful year for me and my love . 7 year of knowing each other. Today , 7 years ago , we first met at UQ sport centre. Who will know that meeting is not a one off but is for a life time. Wow too romantic for a true !!! Ya sort of , at time we still can not believe such thing will happen in us. Being both very practical person in life , we do not believe love at first sight, indeed our love story does not happen at the first sight. Each year when we celebrate the day we met each other , our heart is just full of thanks giving. Is GOD has brought us and bind us in HIS love.

From last year  onwards I promise will start to bake for ourselves in our special day and special moment. We were quite sick the past few days. Just could not shake off the stupid flu cause by the unpredictable weather in this winter. Praise GOD finally with a few night of great rest and lots of water, we have much improve plan to go out for a good celebration within this week.

I have come across this cake few months ago , it was the blogger 9th year anniversary celebration that she bake this cake for her special occasion. Love the idea and the surprise in the cake . Therefore , I decide this will be the cake for my 7th year of knowing each other celebration.

The original cake recipe is for pound cake ->小小米桶的写实厨房。 However I have adapt another recipe for the outer cake ->The Little Teochew. Hence below is the cake from my own adaptation.

HeartShape Chocolate Pound cake

Ingredients :

70g Cake flour
30g Dutch Proceed Cocoa Powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
100g butter (in room temperature)
225g condense milk
100g eggs ( about 2 eggs)

Method :

1. Preheat oven to 170C degree
2. Mix the cake flour, cocoa powder , baking powder together. Sieve it twice to ensure it combine well.
3. Used a hand held mixer beat the butter till fluffy.Pour in the condense milk slowly in the mixture and beat in combine well.
4.Mix the egg in portionly and beat well to the mixture.
5.Fold the flour into the mixture . Pour the cake mixture into a rectangle (20cm x 10cm x 6cm) mold.
6.Bake for 30-35min in 170C degree or when skewer insert come out clear.
7.Unmold the cake after cool down. Used a heartshape cutter to cut the cake into heartshape.
8. Make sure you have enough heartshape to line in the mould

Keep all the heartshape cake in fridge till we need to use

I totally forget to take picture while baking and the cutting. I guess when one is unwell, our strength can only focus at one task instead of multitask.

For the outer layer cake I used another recipe which I think will give a different taste and I was thinking to do some frosting in decorate this cake for my special occasion ^^. After finished the baking I guess it does not need anything extra for the night. Perhaps next time I will try something different .

Orange Butter cake ( I used for cupcake baking)


Ingredient

195g Cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder ( I used 1 1/4 tsp as I do not want it to rise too tall)
1/2 tsp salt
170g butter, softened
120g sugar (original recipe is 225g)
2 whole eggs ( original recipe is 1 large egg, plus one large egg yolk)
1 1/2 tbsp orange zest
6Tbsp milk + 6 Tbsp orange juice ( if you do not want too orange taste can used 12Tbsp milk).

Method :

1. Preheat the oven to 165 C degree
2. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together.
3. Used a hand held mixer on medium speed, cream butter and sugar till fluffy .
4. Beat in orange zest follow by egg into the mixture.
5. On low speed, add flour mixture in 3 portion alternate with orange milk.
6  On mixer to medium and beat for 10 - 15 sc, just until batter mix well and is thick creamy.
7. Pour 1/4 batter into the prepared pan (I used the same as per above ) , line the heartshape chocolate pound cake in a row. ( please follow the link I forget to take pic , Aghhh )
8. Make sure the heartshape cake fit tight one after another in the tin. Pour the rest of the batter on top of the cake to cover it well.
9. Cover till 80% of the pan so it will not overflow. Bake the cake in low shelf of the oven with 160C degree 30min.Or till skewer come out clean.
10. Once cake is done , unmould it and let it cool before serve or ready for frosting.

I did not pour all the orange butter cake to bake ,I thought it might rise too tall , turn out I should actually pour all in , I make a few small cupcake size cake since I have extra heartshape cake. Well they both taste yum and love the fragrant of orange in the cake.

Well this might be something you would love to try out for your special one on the special day. Is really quite easy and the effect is SURPRISE !

May GOD continue to grow us in loving each other more as we continue our journey with HIM.

It always warm my heart to think back those moment we be together before we tie the knots. Thank GOD for you my love.

Lychee Lime Yogurt Mousse Cake

I would say this cake is so beautiful and delicious , however is really a very girlish kind of dessert. Lychee with lime , the sweet and sourish will be love by all girls.Sorry to say that I make this cake for a guy on his birthday and it happened in May ( I am way behind a lot of my blogging ..sigh..). No mean to insult him or anything of that sort. It just me..

I saw this post in nasilemaklover and have been wanting to try it out. I love lychee and knew surely is a good combination to go with lime. To avoid contributing the weight on my love one, I usually do not make fancy cake in the weekday unless we have special occasion to celebrate. Birthday is always one of the great reason to have sweet and fancy cake on the table after the celebration. So despite is a birthday man celebration I still choose to do what I want to do then to do something the birthday man might like :) I often told my friends, sorry is about you in the celebration but is not about you in the cake . Hahahaha I guess most of the man do not mind. At time they do not even mind any birthday celebration. Is just another reason to eat and that is good enough.

So here is the recipe, I half the portion as not many of us in the celebration and I just do not want to overeat . Trust me, we always seem to eat more than we should.

This recipe make a 6' square cake

Sponge Cake - Adapt from swissroll recipe

Ingredients :

80g Cake Flour
1tbsp Corn Flour
25g unsalted butter
35g milk
200g eggs
20g egg yolk
60g caster sugar
1 tsp of lime zest

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 in 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 lime zest into the cake mixture and mix until well incorporate.
9. Pour the cake mixture into a greased 6" square mold. Bake for 20min in the preheat oven or until the stick come out clean
10. When done baking , let the cake cool in the mold and take it out set aside for later use.


Lychee Lime Yogurt Mousse ( follow the recipe from the above link and half the portion)

Ingredients :

1.5 Canned lychee  (to leave aside few piece of lychees for decoration I choose 6)

20g sugar (original recipe is 60g , I do think not necessary as the canned lychee is quite sweet)
100g whipping cream

60g plain natural yogurt
1.5Tbsp gelatine powder
3Tbsp water
1 key limes zest , 1tsp lime juices

Method:
1.Put 3 Tbsp of water in a bowl sprinkle the gelatine powder on it and let it bloom. Put in a bowl of hot water to have it melt and set aside.

2.Open lychee can and leave aside 6 pieces of lychees for decoration ( or any of your choice).
3.Weight the rest of lychees plus syrup to 350g . I take the advise from the recipe to have more lychee then the syrup. Process them in a food processor, strain lychee puree, weight lychee puree 150g for jelly topping and set aside for later use.
4.Blend the lychee bits again after the puree have been strained with a blender until fine. Add back to the balance lychee puree weight 200g for mousse making.

5.Add sugar into 200g lychee puree, mix well to dissolve. Put in the key limes zest, lime juices and yogurt in the mixing bowl combine well and set aside.

6.Beat whipping cream with hand held mixer til soft peak
7.Fold the whipping cream into lychee yogurt mixture add in gelatine at last and mix well to combine.
8. Pour the mixer onto the cake in the cake pan and refrigerate at least for 2 hours or till the mousse set.

Jelly Topping
Ingredients
150g of above strained lychee puree  
10g caster sugar (original recipe is 30g you can adjust according to your sweet tooth) 1tsp gelatine powder
1Tbsp water
Pink rose colouring (I use Wilton Rose)

Method:

1.Sprinkle gelatin onto the water in a bowl. Place this bowl in a bowl of hot water to melt the gelatine. Leave to cool.
2.Mix sugar with lychee puree, stir to dissolved. Add in gelatine and pink coloring. Pour on top of lychee mousse layer.

Have the cake refrigerate for another 3hours or overnight. Remove mousse cake from cake pan by wrap the side of the pan using hot tea towel. I decorate with lychee and kiwi. I reckon the green go well with the red color.   

The cake is refreshing in term of taste and a slice of it is simply not enough. It does not make you felt guilty if you have a big piece. Possibly because the light texture of the cake you do not mind to have a bigger slice . Everyone love it and what more satisfied is the dinner end well with a good dessert.

I will make this cake in a bigger size next round and perhaps with another layer of sponge cake in between to add the volume to this cake. I am sure this is a good dessert in a summer night.

Mexican Bun ( Aka ROTI PAPA)

Mexican Bun ( Aka Roti Papa) has once become a fad in Asian. Last 2 years it has come to Brisbane. It does not really create a huge fan kind of thing in Brissie . However we do see more of the Roti Papa shop set up in few more suburban.

When it first started to take it 1st step in Brisbane, the shop was given out free bun for a day. One of a close bro of us , went to grab some for me and my love one. I have no idea the bun has coffee in it and happily take a bite. There gone the sleep of my night. 2nd time when he grab another one for me ( simply can not resist the fragrance of the bun) , I thought it will be smart to have this in the morning so it will not affect my sleep. Well it turns out I have a hyper heart beat for the whole day and it make me feel nausea . The powder of caffine!!

When I started my bun journey , I told myself why not give this a try, I can improvise the recipe and suit it to my liking and instead of making a full strength coffee version , I can do a mocha version ^^ . So here waw la is the recipe I adapt from HappyHomeBaking.

Make 12 buns

Ingredient

Tang Zhong (WaterRoux)

25g bread flour
125ml water ( I used 60ml of milk )

Bread Dough:

 210g bread flour
56g cake flour
20g milk powder ( I used 20g of milk instead of powder)
30g caster sugar ( original recipe is 42g)
1/2 tsp salt
6g instant yeast

30g egg, lightly beaten
85g water
84g tang zhong (water-roux)*

22g unsalted butter
5-8g of slice solid butter ( about 12 pieces)

Topping :

50g unsalted butter
30g caster sugar ( original recipe 50g)
50g egg, lightly beaten
50g cake flour
1 1/2 tsp instant coffee powder + 1Tbsp of coco powder ( original recipe is for coffee powder)
1/2 tsp bailey cream ( original recipe vanilla extract)
 1Tbsp warm water


Method:

Tang Zhong:

1. Put 25g bread flour in a saucepan, add 125ml water+milk , mix till smooth. Make sure there are no lumps of flour.
2.Cook over medium to low heat stirring constantly with a hand whisk to prevent it from burning. The mixture will start to thicken within 1 to 2 mins. It is ready when you see a visible line is form with each stir you make with the hand whisk. Another test will be , use the back of the spoon to touch the cook dough and draw a line , there will be a clear line and the dough will not flow back .
3.The 65degC tang zhong is ready. Immediately transfer the hot tang zhong into a bowl and cover it with a cling wrap, make sure the cling wrap sticks onto the surface of the mixture. This is to prevent a film from forming on the surface. Cool completely before using it.

I prepare the Tang Zhong overnight and put in the fridge , before using it take it out to cool it back to room temperature.


 For the topping:

 1. Mix instant coffee powder and coco powder well and dissolve with  warm water, mix in bailey cream and leave aside.
 2. Cream the butter with caster sugar, until light and fluffy. Add the beaten egg one tablespoon at a time, beat well after each addition , add in the coffee mixture gradually alternate with the beaten egg . Make sure each incorporation is well mix and no cuddle is form.
3.Sieve over the cake flour. Mix with a spatula until just combined. Spoon the topping into piping bag fixed with pipping nozzle (round tip). Let the topping chill in the fridge until later.
Have the topping out from fridge about 5~10mins earlier before use to allow the topping to soften a little.


Knead dough by Standing Mixer:

1.Place the wet ingredient egg, milk, tang zhong (84g) in the mixer follow by sugar, salt, bread flour, cake flour.
2. Make an indentation on the flour and add in the instant yeast. Beat with low speed to make sure all ingredient incorporate well about 5min (It depend how powerful your mixture is ). Increase speed to medium.
3.After about 10mins of kneading, add in the 22g of butter. Increase the machine to high speed and continue to knead another 20min . The dough should form be elastic dough and that passes the window pane test.
4. Remove dough from the mixer shape into a smooth round. Place dough in a lightly greased mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and let it proof for about one hour or until double the size.
I put a warm water in my oven and have the dough sit in there to proof.
5. Remove the dough from the bowl and give a few light kneading to press out the gas in the dough.
6. Divide the dough into 12equal portions (about 40g each). Used a rolling pin gently roll the dough out and place the 5-8g solid butter into the bread
7. Shape the bun into round shape let it rest on the lined baking tray. Space doughs two inches apart to allow them to expand.
7. Cover with cling wrap and leave doughs to proof for the second time in about 30~40mins, or until double in size.
8. Preheat the oven at 175C .
9. After the 2nd proofing is done,pipe the topping onto each bun , make sure it cover the entire surface of the bun
10. Bake in pre-heated oven at 175C for 15 mins or until golden brown. Remove from oven and transfer to wire track to let cool. It actually smell really good during baking and we did not leave it cool too long and have a bite while is warm.

The bun is soft and with the butter in it , is just not satisfied with one bun. The coffee contain is not high in this recipe therefore you have the coffee fragrance but not the taste of it.

I have make this bun quite small which is not a good thing, we just tend to take more than we should compare to a portion of normal bread .

As this bun is small and the version is more on chocolate then coffee , I told my love one I will name this Roti MeiMei ( sister) instead of papa ( Father) .

Of course sharing is caring , I share some to my close friends and the verdict - can we have a bigger bun and more than one for breakkie please next time  ^__^ . The heart of the chef melted at this point .