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.

Honey Castella ( Kasutera) Green Tea Layer Cake

 
Castella or Kasutera Cake has been a quite popular cake in Asia for a long while. I guess when I first have this cake I have no idea what is so special about this cake. It seem to be a spongy cake with hint of honey. The top always seem sticky and brownish. The cake texture is soft and even if leave outside it still remain it softness.


When I first started to bake, I heard about this cake. My friend make one for me when I was back home visit few yeas ago. My the Castella cake she make is so delicate and soft, moist and is very beautiful . Too bad I did not take picture. Well, you can go to her website and look at it ->Eelmsthebaker


After much research , I knew this cake required to bake in a wooden mold and the cake is baking sponge cake in low heat and not over beat the cake . Not suppose to crack, should raise evenly . The bigger mistakes one can make is incorporate too much of air while beating the eggs and mixing with the flour. The flour need to be bread flour which is high gluten.  So required to beat the egg on a bath of warm water this will help make the texture of the cake fluffy .


I come across this recipe by ->Kitchen Tigress. To me this is more like a chiffon cake method with egg white beat separately and mix the egg yolk in slowly.


I like her details and the you tube link to help understand how to make this cake. Which does make me feel more confident of it.


Below is the recipe adapt from the link above :


Ingredients:
( I double this portion , one is pure honey favour , another one is green tea favour. I added 15g green tea powder and melt in the milk)


85g Egg Whites
60g Castor Sugar
60g Egg Yolks
20g Honey
60g Bread Flour
20g Full cream milk


Method :


1. Preheat oven to 160C.
2. Beat (with hand held electric mixer in low speed ) egg whites till bubbles started to form and gradually add in castor sugar and continue beating.
3.Beat till the egg white is firm peak stage, reduce speed to remove big air bubbles and prevent over whisking. ( I did a z whisking method to break down the bubble)
4.Add in yolks to the white egg mixture , one by one till evenly mixed after each addition.( I used hand held whisker from now onwards)
5.Add honey and repeat the whisking.
6. Sift half of the bread flour into the batter, mix with whisk till almost even. Sift in the remaining flour . Mix till just even.
7. Drizzle the milk in the mixture , whisk skimming just top part of the batter , till no milk is seen.
8. Scrape down and fold the mixture with spatula, banging the bowl against worktop from time to time, till everything is well combine. Let batter rest 10sc or so in midway, then bang the bowl against worktop.
9. Pour batter into line cake pan, slowly and from about 30cm high so that the air bubble burst as they flow out of the bowl.
As I am doing the Green Tea layer, so what I did was, one scoop of pure honey batter, one scoop of green tea batter. Repeat till all the batter is finished.
10. Tap pan against the workshop 3-4 time .
11. Place the pan in the lower bottom of the oven and bake for 35min.


As mention above this cake was baked in a special wooden mould. Is such impossible task to find one in Australia. Even if I manage to get one from Asia , to bring in a WOOD product to Australia, might cost another AUD200- 300 to treat it before you can bring a wood item in this country.


I do consider to did what Kitchen Tigress did , using cardboard. However I can not find any cardboard to modify. At the end of the day , I found something in Daiso which is a rectangle paper baking mould. I am going to bake this cake is some rectangle small tin , it just fit in nicely in the paper baking mould.

Voila !!! So this is how I bake this cake. Another important note, once remove the pan from the oven. Remove the tin from the paper baking mould. Drop the cake tin from about 30cm high , 2-3times. Wait a few moment when the top of the cake start to wrinkle slightly, invert cake tin onto wooden chopping board. Wait till top of the cake is flat and smooth , about 30sc. Re-invert the cake tin and leave it to cool on wire rack. Unmould, trim edges , cut and serve.


I did not eat the cake immediately so I wrap it with baking paper and put in a Ziploc bag and place in the fridge . The cake is moist and soft , I might have pour in too much batter, so that is a slight crack in the cake. Is it actually ok to put some to a cupcake paper to bake it as cupcake to enjoy. I will do it next time so not to over fill in the cake tin.

Mango Yoghurt Mousse Cake

 This is birthday I created by adopting from a Mango Mousse Cake ->Bisousatoi-mango-mousse-cake.
When I am searching for recipe, this recipe attract me with the beautiful picture and the cotton cake in it.


I am looking for a cake base that is not easily shrink and give me a light texture so I decided to give this cake a trial with some tweeting in the mousse. The reason I would like to incorporate yoghurt in the mousse is to bring a different favour to the cake compare to the normal mousse cake. Another more realistic reason will be , I cannot  find some good mango in the market . Gosh, just when I thought is the mango season, it just seem goes pass too fast . Well is not this always the case, when you want something, you can not find it. When you do not want it , is always flashing in your eyes.



So here is the Mango Yoghurt Mousse Cake recipe :


Cotton Cake


Ingredients :


145g Cake Flour
15g Corn Flour
1 Egg
5 Egg yolks , lightly whish with fork ( if the egg is large should use 4 eggs instead)
150g Unsalted butter
65g Fresh Milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence


5 Egg whites
80g Castor Sugar ( origin recipe is 100g)
1/4 tsp salt


Method : (for a 7" square tin)


1.Preheat oven 150C. Line the square tine with baking paper and wrap bottom of the pan with aluminium foil.
2.Combine butter and milk in a small sauce pan , heat up till warm and do not boil it. Take away from the heat and sifted all the flours in and mix well until combine without any lumps
3.Transfer to a bigger mixing bowl and add in the eggs ,egg yolks and vanilla essence. Continue to mix till smooth
4.In another mixing bowl, beat the egg while till frothy add in salt and sugar in 3 addition. Continue to beat till soft peak
5.Fold 1/3 of the egg white gently into the egg mixture till combine well. Continue to fold 1/3 of the egg white into the egg mixture till all finished and well incorporate .
6.Pour batter in the baking tin and tap out the air bubble on the bench tap before baking.
7.Bake the cake in a bath of hot water for about 45min.
8. Once the cake is baked, let it cool and slice horizontally into 2 slices and trim them into 6"x 6" square.


Mango Yoghurt Mousse


Ingredients :


2 Tbsp of Gelatine powder
4 Tbsp of water
300g whipping cream
3 Tbsp icing sugar
200g Mango yoghurt
200g Mango puree
140g slice Mango ( I prefer to slice the mango thin instead of dice , as the mango yoghurt has dice mango in it)


Method :
1. In a metal mixing bowl, whip the cream with icing sugar till soft peak and refrigerate to chill.
2. In a small bowl , pour in the water and sprinkle gelatine powder, let it bloom. Sit the bowl on a bigger bowl of hot water to dissolved it.
3.Mixed the mango yoghurt and mango puree together and pour in the dissolved gelatine
4.Add the mango yoghurt mixture well with the whipping cream till well combine.



Assemble the cake :


1. Place one of the cotton cake in the tin, pour half the mango yoghurt mousse in it.
2. Level the surface and make sure the side is cover well.
3. Layer the slice mango on top of the mousse and place another cake slice on top.
4. Pour in the reminding yoghurt mousse to the cake and smooth the surface.
5. Chilled in the fridge for about 2 hour before pouring the mango jelly/glaze.



Mango Jelly/Glaze

Ingredients :


100g Mango Puree
1 Tsp Gelatine powder
1 Tbsp Water
100g of slice Mango


Method :

1. In a bowl place the water and sprinkle the gelatine powder to let it bloom. Place the bowl onto a bigger bowl with hot water to dissolved the gelatine
2.Pour the dissolved gelatine into the mango puree . ( I do add some mango juice as the puree seem too thick to pour on the cake )


Take the chilled cake out from the fridge, layer with some slice mango and pour the mango jelly on top.


Refrigerate the cake for another 3-4 hours before serving.


The cotton cake is not as light as sponge cake. The texture is more dense then I expected. The original recipe does not put any vanilla essence, I find the cake is too eggy without the essence. The texture of the cake is more firm and it does not shirk. The method of the cake is like a chiffon cake yet using butter instead of cooking oil . Is like a sponge cake method yet not beating the egg yolk to fluffy and is bake in steam bake method.

I make 2 of this cake , one for a birthday celebration another one is for a customer order. The feedback from customer was the cake is dense and firm . They prefer the light fluffy sponge cake texture compare to this.


I personally think the same as well. Maybe it will be some people liking if they prefer a dense cake then expect something that is light.

Raspberry Jelly Chocolate Mousse Cake

Another year of Valentine Day celebration . We did not do much , not super fancy dinner, no gift exchange . We went to a restaurant few day earlier then Valentine day and playing bowling with a group of friends . Finally have a home cooked roast and beautiful cake for our celebration at home in the weekend.

I love the simple celebration , to have the close one doing normal daily stuffs . That is the dream I always wish before married , so there is no complain ^^.

To make our dinner special , it got to end with a special sweet. I come by this food blogger ->Dailydelicious. The entrement she made is simply beautiful . From the element she used, you can imagine is simply delicious, rich ,sweet. The picture itself is already so appealing !! Everytime when I see the picture on internet food blogger, my this year wish is to improve in my baking & picture skill .

So here is the cake I have bake for this year Valentine night celebration . I used the recipe above but did not do exactly as her creation.

This recipe make 4 of 6cm small cake

1 piece of Chocolate Spongec cake ( 6" round cake)
Cut into 4 pieces of 6cm small cake using the cake ring

Raspberry Jelly

Ingredients :

70g  Raspberry Puree
11g  Caster Sugar
1tsp Lemon Juice
1.5tsp Gelatin
1Tbsp water

Method :

1. Pour water in a bowl, sprinkle gelatin on it and let it bloom. Set in a bath of hot water and melt the gelatin,
2. Bring raspberry puree, sugar and lemon juice to boil.
3. Mix in the gelatine till disolve.
4. Pour the mixture evenly in 4 silicone molds. Freeze it overnight .

Chocoalte Mousse


Ingredient 

70g  Dark Chocolate , chopped
32g  Egg Yolks
12g  Caster Sugar
75g  Milk
85g  Whipping Cream
1tsp Gelatin
1Tbsp Water

Method :

1.Place the water in a bowl sprinkle gelatin on it let it bloom. Place the bowl in a hot water and let it melt.
2.Beat the yolks with sugar until combine, boil the milk and pour the hot milk over the yolk mixture and whisking it all time.
3.When the milk combine well into the yolk, bring this mixture heat over low heat till 80C.
4. Take the pan away from the heat and add in the gelatin till disolved.
5. Place a sieve over the bowl of chocolate, slowly pour in the egg mixture through the sieve and wait for 1 minutes.
6.Stir untill all the chocolate melt, let the mixture cool to room temperature.
7.Beat the whipping cream till soft peak, put 1/3 of the whipping cream into the chocolate mixture mix well.
8. Pour the whole chocolate mixture to the reminding whipping cream, combine well.

I do not have the cake ring,  I used my cheesecake mold which the base can be push up when dislocate the cake. Slo here is how I assemble my cake :

1. Take the raspberry jelly out from the freezer
2. Place one piece of chocolate cake at the bottom of the mold.
3. Pour in 2 tablespoon of the chocolate  mousse, place the raspberry jelly in.
4. Pour in 2 tablespoon of the chocolate mousse to cover the raspberry jelly.
5. Place the cake in the freezer over night or at least 6hrs.

Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients :

44g  Milk
20g  Golden Syrup
30g  Whipping Cream
20g  Sugar
100g Milk Chocolate
34g  Dark Chocolate

Method :

1. Bring to boil all the ingredienst expect both chocolate.
2. Pour it over the chocolate and stir till well combine.

Unmold the cake and slowly pour the ganache over the cake.  Decorate with fruit and chocolate slice before serving.

It does take time to prepare this cake,it is not difficult just need patience. Time for raspberry jelly to freeze, time for chocolate mousse to set, to freeze up. Result ? Is worth it !!

The mousse is smooth and the raspberry bring refresh to this cake and rhe chocolate coating is not too sweet. As a non chocolate fan , I do enjoy and love the taste of this cake.

To improve, next time I would have to push the raspberry puree through a seive to remove the seed . I wanted to deco the cake with cherry but this does not bring out the color of the cake. At the end, mango still suit well.

Give this a try and you might surprise yourself and your love one.

Mini Blueberry Cheesecake

This is simple yet delicious cheesecake, is easy to make and the review will be great. I bought this mini cheesecake pan for quite awhile , have been wanted to make something beautiful from it. Before I attain to this recipe, I use this recipe to make tweak it to Orange Cheesecake , the result is equally yum .

The recipe I used is the easy and no fail from ->Christine Recipe , she is my all time favourite food blogger , love the way she present her food and the step by step picture. It just make the baking easy and is no fail at all.


So here is the recipe for my own record :


Cheesecake


Ingredients :

1 packet of Oreo Cookies ( 150gm) remove the cream fillings
50g melted butter
250g cream cheese block
50g caster sugar
1 large egg
100ml thicken cream ( pouring cream)
20ml lemon juice ( if you are making orange flavour, replace this with orange juice)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract ( I used 1Tbsp of lemon zest instead of this extract)

Method :

1. Preheat oven to 170C

2. Pulse the Oreo biscuit to fine crumb using food processor and add the melted butter to combine well.

3. Divide the Oreo mixture evenly to 12 mini cheesecake pan. Is about 2 tablespoon for each small hole. Using the flat end of the rolling pin, lightly press the mixture and even the surface.

4.Combine the cream cheese and sugar in a mixing bowl. Use electric mixer to beat till smooth. Scrape down the side of the bowl to ensure even beating of the cream.

5. Add the egg in the cream mixture, beat well and follow by thicken cream , lemon juice and lemon zest. Beat till the mixture is smooth and well combined.

6.Spoon the cream cheese mixture over each Oreo biscuits evenly and bake in the preheated oven for 20min.

7. Once is bake well , take it out and cool at the wire rack . Carefully remove from the pan and chilled in the fridge.

Blueberry compote

Ingredients :


100g Blueberries
20g  caster sugar
2tsp lemon juice
2tsp cornflour + 1Tbsp water ( combine well)

Method :

1. Cook the blueberry with sugar and lemon juice in a small saucer pan with medium low heat.
2. When the blueberry started to turn soft , break it down and pour the cornflour water in bit by bit , stir  well to combine till you get the right consistency.
3. Remove the compote from the heat and let it cool down and chilled in the fridge if you not serving immediately.




Serving :


Spoon the blueberry compote onto the cheesecake , it should have a small curve in the cake to let this compote sit well.
Decorate with blueberry . I choose Cherry , it looks good on it and the taste yum .


This mini cheesecake can be bake in cupcake as well.Top with any fruit you like or change the flavour according to your liking, it can be as surprise as a Valentine Treat.

This is one of the dessert I brought to a Christmas party ^^.

Coconut Egg Rolls ( Kuih Kapit ) Aka Love Letter

 
Just cant have enough of all the Chinese New Year goodies. Please understand here in Australia we do able to grab everything ( almost everything) from our home country. But talking about home made vs machine mass production . I do prefer home made with love and knowing what is the ingredient put in the food we ate.

Ok, to fulfill my own satisfication of having all the CNY goodies I love , I got to be the one who home made the goodies I love. One of it , is this traditional goodies we all love in Malaysia and often store in Milo tin. If you are part of the family , your will have a milo tin as a token as CNY goodies from family member who make it that year.

I knew the traditional way of making this , sitting infront of a roll of  charcoal using a metal mold and have to look after each plate you put on the charcoal . If it get burnt, well you will get a scolded from the elder. I dont really have an experience on that. So I probably will not know how to do it. With the technology now, it is a pleasant experience to make this.

Here are the recipe I follow from this link ->Cheryl Marie Cordeiro.

Ingredients :

400 ml of canned coconut milk
5 eggs
150 g caster sugar
150 g rice flour
90 g plain flour

Method :

1.Beat the egg with sugar till sugar resolve .
2.Pour in the coconut milk , combine well .
3. Sift in the flour and mixed well.
4. Heat up the machine as per mannual
5. Place 1 table soup ( western soup) of batter in the machine and press it hard if you prefer a thin layer.
6. When is done , either roll it as a roll or fold it as a triangle shape.

I simple love the coconut milk fragrant in this biscuit and it did bring back all my good childhood memory. My cousin used to make this and we always got a tin from my auntie. Bear in mind , my cousin was a boy then, I admire his patience. I guess this is how Asian family show love and appreciate to one another. We seldom express love verbally often we show love in giving things that we make from home . So we do love to share food during all festival.

This season for all those who celebrate this festival , I wish you Prosperous Lunar New Year, good health and dreams come true in this Horse year.

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #39: CNY Rock and Roll! (Jan 2014) hosted by Food Playground .



Pineapple Tarts

After welcoming 2014 , is time to prepare for another big festival of the Chinese . Lunar new year will soon be coming . This year it seem earlier than the usual date , the Chinese New Year( CNY) will fall on 31/01/2014. Most of my friends has planned to go back home for celebration . As the new year fall close with Australian Day ( 26/01/2014) is good to take some holidays and have a public holidays in between. Well, I hope is not a too lonely year for us who are "left behind".

This year I want to be more prepared than last year. So I have decided to start my baking of CNY cookies earlier and plan to sell it for a good start of my year 2014.

A lot of the friends has express their interest in this lovely goodies - Pineapple Tarts. This is my no 1 top love of the CNY cookies. We used to place order and from the best famous Malacca style pineapple tart. Only after making it myself I understand why this cookies is always the most expensive and at time one tarts can reach the price of $1.50 each. Not only is time consuming and the delicate of handling it require patience and again time .

I have make a batch of 81 pieces with the following recipe and would like to let my friends try out and see do they love this version and taste.

The recipe I used is from ->Table for 2 or more

I follow the pineapple jam recipe from hers as well ->Homemade-pineapple-jam

Yes I make everything from original and would love to provide the best natural ingredients in all I bake.

The recipe of Pineapple tarts dough is as below:

Ingredients :

250g Unsalted Butter
170g Cream ( Pouring Cream/Whipping cream)
50g   Cream Cheese
3 egg yolks
400g Cake Flour
30g Corn Flour

1 large egg yolk + 1 tablespoon of milk for egg wash.

Method :

1. Cream butter, cream cheese and sugar in a mixer. Till well combine
2. Pour in the cream and continue to mix in medium speed, scrap down the side from time to time. It might look lumpy at the beginning it will all combine well together as you continue your beat.
3. Beat in egg yolks for 1 minutes.
4. Sift the flour together and pour in half to the above mixture and continue to beat till combine and pour in the reminding flour and make sure is combine well but not over mix.
5. Let the dough sit for 10 min before handling it and wrap with the pineapple jam that has been roll in ball.
6. Gentle wrap the pineapple tart in this dough and brush with egg yolk wash .
7. Preheat oven to 165C , and bake the pineapple tarts for about 20min till golden brown.

Pineapple Jam

Ingredients :

1kg pineapple flesh
1 1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 small piece of cinnamon stick

Method :

1. Blend the pineapple flesh till fine ( is good to leave some fiber in )
As mention in Table for 2 or more recipe, include the core of the pineapple does make it more juicy and add fibre in the jam texture.
2. Pour all the blend pineapple in a deep base wok/pot and start to cook in medium heat.
3. When the pineapple started to dry up and like thick oatmeal, gentle pour in half of sugar and continue to cook in low heat.
4. Stir occasionally and make sure no burning of jam in the bottom.
5. When the water reduce to 80% pour in the reminding sugar, and stir every 8 min.
6. When the pineapple jam is cooked to your liking consistency , off the fire and let it cool down .

Is easy to handle the jam after chilled  in a fridge.

The post written by Wendyikk is very helpful and details. Do used her blog for more details information.

Happy baking and I do hope this will be well received by my friends or customers :)

Rainbow Cake

December is a month full of celebration . My birthday fall in the month of December. But this is not the only celebration we do in end of the year. Follow by Christmas and jumping into new year. Is always a month have lots of celebration .

I make this cake first for my own birthday. The interesting thing is , I have started my baking "business" ( cant really consider as full business but I bake by order from friends who want cake for any occasion ) . So my friends order a cake from me for my birthday . Wahahaha!! Reason given - " we cant find a cake that you will like. So we will pay you to bake a cake for your birthday party. "

Well I did not complain , afterall I got to experiment and get to pay for it. In Australia it does has a culture to bring your own cake to the office and celebrate with your colleague. ( Do not ask me why, I can not figure out the reason as well ). So I treat this as an honor and there was this cake I would always love to try out - Rainbow cake !!!!

I look for the recipe and mostly is all using coloring. NOPE this is not what I prefer my cake to be. So when I find this ->Peng's Kitchen. I am happy to use this recipe and adapt to the ingredients I can find in Australia.

Hereby this is the cake I have make and right after my birthday I have an order from a lovely husband who want a colourful cake for his lovely wife. So I did make the 2nd Rainbow cake and improve a lot from my plain decoration version.

My recipe as below :

Natural Colourings :

Ingredients

Red : 2 Tbsp of cherry puree + 1 little drop of red velvet color ( Is difficult to get the red )

Plain yellow : 1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp milk

Orange: 2 Tbsp of mango puree

Green : 2 Tbsp of pandan juice or 1 tsp of pandan essence

Blue : 2 Tbsp of blueberry puree + 1 tsp of lemon juice ( a tiny drop of blue color, as blueberry tend to become purple)

Purple : 2 Tbsp blackcurrant puree +2 tsp of lemon juice

Chocolate : 1 Tbsp of cocoa powder + 2 Tbsp of hot water ( Mix and dissolve)

White Velvet Cake ( I have added half portion of the original recipe)

660g Plain Flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

300g sugar ( original should be 375gm)

90g butter

2 tbsp oil

3 egg white

375ml milk

188ml natural yogurt

3 tsp vanilla paste

Method

1. Cream the butter with oil and sugar till white and fluffy. ( It take about 2min)

2. Add in the egg white and beat till well combine

3. Mixed the vanilla, milk and yogurt well in a bowl.

4. Sifted the flour with baking powder and baking soda.

5. Add in the liquid ( step 3)  and flour alternately in step 2 . Be careful not to over mix.

6. Preheat Oven at 160C

7. Divide the cake mixture into 7 portion by having  3/4 cup batter into separate bowls and mix in natural coloring into each bowl.

8. Pour the batter into a 7" round pan and bake for 15min or until the toothpick inserted come out clean.

9. Take out the cake leave it to cool (5min) and use a thin knife go arout and the cake pan and have the cake out and cool on rack.

I bake 2 cake at one time as I happen to have 2 mould. It help to shorten the time of the baking.

After finished all the baking , make sure the cake cool down before frosting.

I frost one of the cake with strawberry Italian Merigue Buttercream and anoather with blueberry Italian Merigue Buttercream. For Italian Merigue I am using the recipe from ->Cake Journal

Decorate the cake with your favourite fruit , I used cheeries & blueberry . Simply love the look of this cake and the height of it. The cake did bring a "wow" factor after one slice was being cut out. However the cake is not as moist and soft as I would love to. I will try other cake base and see what it will bring next time when I bake this again .

Rainbow always mean something speacial to my heart, as it remember GOD's promise for me and my dear one on our wedding. At time things get tough and life is not always easy , I bake this cake to remind myself GOD's goodness in this season and trust HIM will bring a more of HIM 2014 in our life again!

Happy New YEAR !!! May GOD blessings fall upon you and the love one in 2014 . You will be a great blessings to those around you .

I am submitting this post to Baby Sumo's Christmas Recipes Collection 2013 event which is hosted by Baby Sumo of Eat Your Heart Out.

Remember every cloud has silver lining and rainbow always come after storm !!

 

P/S : The picture in this blog is taken by a talented brother. Really love how it make the cake looks so like magazine picture.